You think those Iron Vanguard guys are gonna be a problem?" Leon asked.
They were sitting by a fire outside the farmhouse. The night was quiet for once. No beasts. No distant screams from the city.
Just the fire.
"Yes." Arthur said.
"How much of a problem?"
"Enough that we need to be stronger before they notice us."
Leon poked the fire with a stick and watched the sparks rise.
"What's Callum Drake like?"
Arthur glanced at him.
"You know him?"
"I've heard the name. Before all this started, he was a PMC operator. Private military. He was in the news a few times for some shady contracts."
Arthur was silent for a moment.
'Of course Leon would know that.' He thought in his mind. 'Leon was always the most observant of them all. That was why losing him the first time around...'
He stopped that thought.
"Drake is smart and has money and resources behind him." Arthur said. "He recruits people who can fight and he isn't shy about using people up."
"And you want to avoid that?"
"For now."
Leon nodded.
They sat in silence for a bit.
"Hey." Leon spoke again. "You keep saying 'for now' about everything."
"Yeah."
"At some point I'd like a real answer, you know."
Arthur looked at Leon.
For a second the fire made his face look older than it was. The shadows caught his eyes in a way that made him look like a man who had already buried too many people.
"There's a point we're building towards." Arthur said slowly. "I know what it is. I know what we'll need to get there. But if I tell you everything now, you'll think I'm insane."
Leon stared at him.
"I already think you're insane."
"....more insane."
That made Leon laugh.
It was the first time Arthur had heard him laugh in days.
"Fair enough," Leon said. "I'll wait."
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Meanwhile,
In a skyscraper near downtown Delta City that had been converted into a command post, Callum Drake sat at the head of a long table.
Around him were twelve people. Each one handpicked. Each one lethal.
On the table was a map of the city and the surrounding areas.
"Confirmed sightings." One of his people pointed to three spots outside the city limits. "Something is systematically hunting grin frog packs and eliminating the pack leaders first."
Drake didn't react.
"Scouts report no survivors in the beast camps they've passed through." The voice continued. "Clean kills. No collateral."
"Professionals." Drake said.
"Has to be. The leaderboard confirms it. Heaven Destroyer Party."
Drake leaned back in his chair.
"Three people. Maybe four." He said quietly, almost to himself. "Working outside the city. Hitting high value targets first."
He tapped the table.
"They know what they're doing."
"Should we make contact?"
Drake was quiet for a long moment.
"Not yet." He said. "Let's watch them a little longer."
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
On the ninth day after Orlong's appearance, something changed.
Not the beasts.
Not the leaderboard.
The system.
[Ding!!
Global Notification:
The Class Selection Window is now open.
Duration: 72 hours.
All users must select a class before the window closes.
Unselected users will have a class assigned by the system.
]
Arthur had been waiting for this.
In his past life, he had chosen wrong the first time. He picked Warrior class because it was familiar, because it looked strong, because everyone around him was picking it.
He had been wrong.
The class system on Orlong wasn't like a game. It was a declaration of intent. The system read your decision and shaped your future growth around it.
Warrior was a fine class.
But it was not the right class for what Arthur needed to become.
He pulled up the selection window.
[Class Selection
Available Classes:
— Warrior
— Archer
— Mage
— Rogue
— Medic
— Artificer
— Warlord
— ...(Hidden Classes: ???)]
That last line.
Hidden classes.
In his past life, Arthur had never seen that line. He hadn't known to look for it.
But in the years that followed, he had heard stories. Whispers. People who had found that option and chosen something from it.
They were different.
Incomparably so.
(There must be a condition to reveal it.) He thought in his mind. (Something I did differently this time.)
He read down the list again, slowly.
Then he tried something.
He pressed on the question marks.
[Hidden Class Revealed:
Predator
A class born from early beast hunts of significant difficulty. The Predator does not overpower his enemies. He studies them, learns their weaknesses, and dismantles them completely.
Passive: Beast Knowledge — killing a beast grants partial insight into the next similar beast's behavior.
Passive: Bone Sense — can detect bone structure of enemies within 5 meters.
Active: Exploit — for 10 seconds, all attacks strike weak points automatically. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Note: Predator class has no upper limit on growth. Strength scales with depth of combat knowledge, not raw levels.]
Arthur read it twice.
Then he selected it.
[Ding!!
Class set: Predator
All future growth will now scale with Predator parameters.
Beast Knowledge passive activated.
Bone Sense passive activated.
Exploit active skill acquired.
]
He closed the window.
'This time.' He said in his mind.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
"What class did you pick?" Leon asked over breakfast.
"Predator." Arthur said.
Leon blinked.
"I've never seen that one."
"Hidden class."
"....hidden." Leon set down his food. "Of course you found a hidden class."
Jack grunted from across the table. He had picked Berserker, which was the expected choice for someone who fought the way he did. His passive gave him a boost to strength the lower his health dropped.
Leon had picked Ranger. Complemented his crossbow style and would eventually allow him to infuse shots with certain effects.
Both were solid choices.
Neither were Predator.
"What does it do?" Leon asked.
Arthur gave him the short version.
Leon was quiet after that.
Then, "The exploit skill. Ten seconds where you auto-hit weak points."
"Yes."
"Against a tough enemy—"
"Ten seconds is enough." Arthur said simply.
Leon went quiet again. He picked up his food and kept eating.
That was all that needed to be said.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,