Chapter 53: Mr. Angel’s Dilemma
In all honesty, I felt ready. I had the mask, I had the job, and everything in my mind was aligned to walk into the evaluation center and get an astronaut gig on the spot. The Mr. Angel persona was perfect—serene, mysterious, and cool as hell. I even imagined the cameras would flash as I marched in, the world watching as I began my journey to the stars.
But something was off.
I reached for the list of skills in my system, ready to check if I had them, the skills I needed to soar into space. I browsed through it quickly, but my heart sank as I scrolled past the usual list from my Constructing Worker skills to my Firefighter skill to even my Detective skills... But there was nothing. No astronaut skills.
Nothing that resembled the kind of expertise needed to even sit in a spaceship, let alone navigate it through the vast void.
I was staring at a blank slate. No Astrophysics Understanding. No Space Navigation. No Celestial Mechanics. Hell, not even the basic knowledge of operating a spacecraft was listed.
I scrolled harder, desperately clicking through every folder and notification, expecting—no, demanding—something to show up. But nothing came. I wasn't even sure if my system was glitching. Maybe it was just some oversight.
I didn't think I was the only one with a gap like this, right? So I opened the database, searching for any other cases of individuals who hadn't received skills for their designated profession.
Nothing. It was like I was the only one.
What the hell was going on?
I went deeper. I started running through articles, skimming through forums. Surely someone else had experienced this before. But the more I read, the more my confusion grew. It was like being hit with a brick wall. No one, no one had gone through something like this. Everyone who got a job in any field whatsoever received skills. It was a guaranteed default. The sole exception was when I was an F-Rank Unskilled Laborer. I didn't have skills back then, but why did my C-Rank Astronaut job not have any?
The thought gnawed at me, and I rubbed my temples. But then, as I scanned a philosophical article about the nature of skills, one line caught my attention. It was a theory, something about people rejecting their skills. It was never proven because skills were supposed to come randomly or through task completion. But the article mentioned that it was possible—possible—to reject them. It was just so rare that no one really had the data on it.