A Certain Systemic Error

You hold in your hands something that is already starting to become an Urban Legend. Something... that if it is true might just be the answer to all your problems. Especially...

Well... Some of the older students that live in the same dorm as you like to talk to you about how Academy City does sometimes kick out Child Errors who never develop their Esper abilities, and how it's only a matter of time until...

Until you are sent back home. Back to him... back to her...

You try and shake the thoughts from you head, as trembling fingers slowly click your headphones into the MP3 player.

All you have to do is press the button and then... everything will change.


You flinch back from the harsh metal noise, but continue to listen as you gather the last of your things and head out. If there is any one thing to be thankful of... it is that the sound is so horrible and so painful to listen to that you are certainly awake now. You take one last look around to room that you haven't forgotten anything...

[ ][Judgement] Oh! Your armband for Judgement. You can't forget that... Even if you pretty much never get to actually go out and help people cause you are a Level Zero...
[ ][Judgement] No, there doesn't seem to be anything you've forgotten.

Having finished up your final check for anything that you might have forgotten or missed, you are quickly out the door, of course making a quick stop to lock up. While you might live in District 7, the particular neighborhood that your apartment is in isn't... it isn't the greatest. There are a lot of big, strong, and angry Level Zeros who live near here.

Skill-Out. Gangs of Level Zeros who are most well known for attacking and beating up low level espers. There is one Particular Skill-Out gang near where you live...

[ ][Skill-Out] Big Spider
- It's like a very, very angry Biker Gang.
[ ][Skill-Out] Crouching Tiger
- A group of martial artists and like Kung Fu fighters, in particular they pick on those who can't fight back and steal their money
[ ][Skill-Out] Thunder Fall
- ...You don't know a lot about this Skill-Out gang, but they seem a lot better off than most of the others. They all have more expensive clothes and carry laptops.
[ ][Skill-Out] Devil Brigade
- Loud. Very, very loud. The ones near your apartment talk about how they have a Level 4 as their 'Banjo' whatever that means.

Descending down the stairs from your apartment, you pause for a moment, as you spot a couple members of the gang, leaning against one of the apartment doors and talking... You carefully move away from the scary people, keeping your head down and trying not to draw their attention as you head to the bus stop.

Thankfully, the buses in Academy City run fast, and they run on time, so it isn't long at all before you hop on board and away from the gangsters. Zooming along, its only a few minutes before you reach your stop.

[ ][School] Minamikawa Middle School
[ ][School] Sakugawa Middle School

Hopping off the bus, you give another yawn, but you aren't the only one. People are slowly starting to arrive one by one, and many of them look just as exhausted as you are. Slowly, the gathering people make their way to the school's Gymnasium, which has already been sectioned off to set up for the day's testing.

You can already see that people are being sorted and spit into various groups. Electromasters go there, telekinetics over in that direction, teleports need to gather that way...

Everyone is separated and sorted not only by their powers, but also by their levels. Because there is no point in trying to get a teleporter to read a person's mind. No matter how hard you try, or how far you push yourself, whatever your Esper ability is is what it is. Espers only get the one power. It is impossible to have multiple powers.

That is just how it is for Espers.

Level Zeros like you however? No, you get all the tests.

For all that it frustrates you, having to sit through all of those many, many tests... You do kind of understand. What if you were actually a telekinetic, and they didn't do the tests for that? You are a Level Zero, no one knows what power you have hidden inside of you, so you have to go through everything you can to make it all the more likely for you to finally awaken.

There are already so many of your fellow Level Zeros who have gathered here... having woken in the early hours of the morning so that they can be weighed and measured by the doctors and scientists in their white lab coats.

System Scan days are the hardest days for you to try and keep up your hopes... Especially when you see the various scientists who are running the tests, and the coldly bored looks on their faces. The looks that ask 'Why are we here? We could be doing something actually important with our time' they all seem to say.

It's clear that they don't care, that they don't believe in any of the people here.

They don't think that any of you have the potential to raise out of what you are now... And that's just really sad.

One by one names are called. One by one the people step on the other side of the curtain. You don't know if it is intentional or not, but something about how all of this is set up just... Everyone around you seems hopeless.

Around a half dozen of the Level Zeros have had their names called, and already the two Level Fours at your school have come and gone, and even the Level 3s are nearly done.

Little by little the students start to disappear, after all it takes the same amount of time to test a Level Zero as it does to test four Electromasters, due to the differences in the tests.

Finally, after so long, "Hanako Mishima." One of the many scientists call out...

Here it is...

Time for your System Scan.
[ ][Stats] Plan format
You have 25 Points to spend on your Attributes
All Attributes begin allocation with a score of 1
Except Mana, which starts at 0
You cannot raise any stat higher than 8
Mana cannot be raised to higher than 5