Emotion Hunter: System Awakening.

[Riven's POV]

The announcement came at dawn through a crackling intercom that had seen better days.

"All provisional residents report to the main courtyard for work assignments. Be there in fifteen minutes or you'll be assigned to waste management."

Riven's eyes shut open...waste management??...what's that.

Riven rolled out of his narrow bunk, muscles still aching from sleeping on what felt like a wooden plank with a thin mattress thrown over it.

Around him, the other provisional residents moved with the practiced efficiency of people who'd learned that being late meant getting the worst jobs.

Lisa was already dressed, tying her boots with quick, precise movements.

"What's waste management like?" Riven asked, pulling on his clothes.

"Well, it's a duty about cleaning the latrines and hauling garbage to the incinerator," she replied without looking up. "Trust me, you don't want that assignment."

The main courtyard buzzed with organized chaos as settlement residents gathered for their daily work assignments.

Ahh shit...look what we have here

Riven noticed the clear hierarchy immediately....permanent residents stood in neat groups, chatting casually while waiting for their assignments.

Provisional residents clustered together separately, looking anxious and eager to please.

A burly man with graying hair and arms like tree trunks stood near a clipboard, calling out names and assignments.

"Lisa Park..medical support. Riven Duke....construction crew seven."

"Welp, that settles it...see you later Riven" Lisa said with a slight smirk. "And good luck on your first day" while heading of to another direction.

"Yeah, see you later" he said out loud.

Tch, I don't know anything about this place, let me just ask the man. Riven thought to himself while other people were finding their way to their respective work place.

Riven approached the man, who looked him up and down with the expression of someone evaluating livestock...shit, I might be cooked already.

"You're the new guy," the man said. It wasn't a question. "I'm Foreman Rodriguez. You'll be working on outer wall repairs. Hope you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty."

"No sir."

Rodriguez handed him a hard hat that had seen better years and a pair of work gloves. "Report to section twelve. Look for the crew with the concrete mixer....Try to keep up."

"Uhm sir, where could that be?" Riven asked as innocently as possible.

"Ugh, this Is why I hate dealing with newbies" Foreman said with a slight frown. "Just head towards that structure that looks like a bungalow" he said while pointing at a two story building that has a it's blue paint already worn off.

Section twelve turned out to be a damaged section of New Eden's outer defensive wall where a recent dimensional storm had cracked the reinforced concrete.

The repair crew was already hard at work when Riven arrived.

"You the new provisional?" called out a man operating the concrete mixer. He was maybe forty, with the kind of weathered face that came from years of outdoor work. "I'm Danny, crew chief. Hope you're tougher than you look."

The crew consisted of six people total. Danny ran the operation with the no-nonsense efficiency of someone who'd been doing this for years.

With two of the workers...both were permanent residents....but they barely acknowledged Riven's arrival, focusing instead on their tasks at hand.

One man, probably in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair, glanced over and nodded. "Jim," he said simply. "Been doing this longer than I care to admit. You ever work construction before?"

"Not really," Riven admitted.

"Figures." The voice came from a younger guy, maybe mid-twenties, who was hauling buckets of mixed concrete. "Another soft-hands who thinks he can figure it out as he goes."

"Cut him some slack, Torres," said a woman about Riven's age with calloused hands and a friendly smile. "We all started somewhere. I'm Devy, by the way. That grump is Miguel."

Miguel Torres just grunted and went back to his work.

"Alright, new guy," Danny called out. "Start by hauling those concrete blocks over here. You have to stack them neat...we're not building a pile of rocks."

"Yes sir" Riven answered

Never thought I would be doing this...I knew I might be flipping burgers at mcbucks...but manual labour?...never even thought about it ..since there's machines to use for it...Riven couldn't help but have thoughts on how his life changed so quickly within the span of a month.

And to make matters worse.

The blocks were heavier than they looked. By the third trip, Riven's shoulders were burning.

By the tenth,

I might be cooked...GG gang....he closed his eyes to rest them.... he was seriously questioning whether thirty days would be enough time to prove himself if this was day one.

"You're moving like you're made of glass," Danny observed after watching Riven struggle with a particularly heavy block. "This isn't some cushy office job where they hand you everything on a platter. Here, you earn your keep."

"I'm trying," Riven said, wiping sweat from his forehead.

"Trying doesn't fix walls," Danny replied. "Results fix walls."

Jim appeared beside him with a wheelbarrow. "Here, use this for the smaller blocks. It saves your back for the heavy lifting."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Just don't make me look bad for helping you."

The morning stretched on with Riven learning the basics of construction work the hard way.

His hands, soft from years of college life, blistered within the first hour.

His back ached from lifting and carrying.

Every muscle in his body reminded him that he'd never done serious physical labor before...even when battling.

"You're holding that wrong," devy said, watching him struggle with a trowel. "Here, let me show you."

She guided his hands, showing him the proper technique for spreading mortar.

Her instruction was patient and clear....

"Why are you helping me?" Riven asked during a brief water break.

Devy shrugged. "I was provisional once too. Took me three months to get permanent status. Someone helped me; now I help the next person."

"And Miguel?"

"Miguel's been here two years and still acts like every new person is taking food out of his mouth," she said with a grin. "Don't take it personally. He treats everyone like that until they prove themselves."

As if summoned by their conversation, Miguel appeared with another load of concrete blocks.

"Less talking, more working," he said, dumping the blocks with unnecessary force. "Some of us actually want to finish this job before winter."

The work continued through the afternoon. Riven's movements gradually became less clumsy, though he was still clearly the weak link in the crew.

Danny's criticism was constant but not cruel....professional frustration with someone who was slowing down the job.

"You're getting better," Jim said quietly during another break. "The first day's always the hardest."

"Does it show that much?" Riven asked with a slight smile.

"Kid, you look like someone took a baby and threw him into a construction site. Which, I'm guessing, isn't far from the truth."

Around four in the afternoon, disaster struck.

They were working on a section of wall where the concrete had been weakened by dimensional energy exposure.

The repair work required removing damaged sections before rebuilding, and the structural integrity was questionable at best.

Riven was hauling debris when he heard the crack.

"Get back!" Danny shouted, but it was too late.

A section of weakened wall, undermined by their repair work, gave way suddenly.

Miguel, who had been working directly underneath it, disappeared under a pile of concrete and rebar.

"Miguel!" Devy screamed.

Without thinking, Riven dropped his wheelbarrow and ran toward the collapse.

He could hear Miguel's muffled cries from under the debris....alive, but trapped.

The sight of someone in danger, someone who needed help regardless of how they'd treated him, crystallized Riven's focus into pure determination.

---

[Emotion Detected]

[Host: Determination detected]

[Targets: Fear, Anxiety]

[Loot emotion? Y/N]

---

Yes.

The familiar surge of enhanced precision kicked in as his emotion looting converted determination into laser-focused awareness.

Every movement became deliberate and calculated as he assessed the debris pile with newfound clarity.

Working with methodical efficiency, Riven began identifying which pieces of concrete and rebar could be safely removed without causing further collapse.

His enhanced focus let him see the structural relationships between the debris pieces, understanding instinctively which ones were load-bearing and which were simply dead weight.

"Careful!" Danny called out as the rest of the crew mobilized with crowbars and lifting equipment. "If you shift the wrong piece, the whole thing could collapse further."

But Riven's determination-fueled precision guided his every move.

He worked systematically, removing debris in exactly the right sequence to create a path to Miguel without destabilizing the pile.

"Here," he called to Jim and Devy. "Help me lift this beam. If we rotate it this way, it'll clear the path without shifting anything else."

Riven even said it with confident...which got the crew members confused.... where he got the confidence from??...but they listened since it's better than standing around.

Ten minutes later, they pulled Miguel free. Bruised, scraped, and probably concussed, but alive.

"J-jesus," Miguel gasped, looking up at Riven with something approaching respect. "I thought I was a goner.....How did you know which pieces to move first?"

"Just... made sense, I guess," Riven said, his enhancement fading as the immediate crisis passed.

Danny was staring at him with new interest. "That wasn't guesswork, kid. You've got a good head for structural problems."

As the medical team arrived to check Miguel over, Devy squeezed Riven's shoulder.

"Nice work," she said quietly. "Maybe you're smarter than you look after all."

Even the two indifferent permanent residents nodded approval as they packed up their tools for the day.

Miguel, being helped to his feet by the medics, caught Riven's eye. "Thanks," he said simply. "I owe you one."

Walking back to provisional housing that evening, Riven felt something he hadn't felt in a while : the satisfaction of useful work completed.

His hands were raw, his back ached, and every muscle screamed from the day's labor.

But he'd contributed something meaningful. He even helped save a man's life.

It wasn't enough to secure permanent status....one good day couldn't erase a morning of struggling with basic tasks. But it was a start.

Tomorrow he'd be back on the wall, hauling concrete and learning to use tools properly. Tomorrow he'd face Danny's criticism, though maybe with less skepticism than before.

But tonight, for the first time since escaping the Guild, Riven felt like he might actually belong somewhere.

Even if he still had twenty-nine days to prove it.