Embers of the Age: the Price Sequence

"Price Ability" Awakening: In a near future (about the middle of the 22nd century) where technology is highly developed but social structures are solidified and resource distribution is extremely uneven, an unknown global cosmic radiation event breaks out (known as the "Enlightenment Disaster"). Radiation causes about 30% of humans around the world (called "awakened ones") to randomly awaken various supernatural abilities (powers). But the key is that every time you use a power, you must pay a corresponding "price." The costs are astonishing: •Physiological costs: instant aging, organ failure, limb alienation, sensory loss, severe pain, and overdraft of vitality. •Mental cost: memory loss (specific or random), emotional detachment (becoming apathetic, loss of love/hate), mental contamination (hallucinations, hearing whispers), sanity decline (slide into madness). •Material/existential costs: loss of wealth, disappearance of random items, rupture of social relationships (forgotten by relatives and friends), decay of luck, and even direct deduction of life span. •The cost is "sequential" and "growth-oriented": the power itself can evolve with use and understanding (sequential promotion), but after each promotion, the cost of using the power will not disappear, but may be changed or superimposed. High-level superpowers are often a collection of walking costs, powerful and twisted.