The words floated like ghosts across Tobias's vision:
<< BEGIN CLASS ASSIGNMENT >>
Analyzing Personal Data...
Analyzing Life Experience...
Analyzing Luck Factor...
Calculating...
Tobias sat in Tita Mercy's bakery, heart pounding with anticipation, surrounded by the hushed chaos of panicked survivors.
"Manifest it," he whispered to himself, fists clenched.
"Big money. Big gacha pull. C'mon, S-rank hero!"
Derek sat next to him, arms crossed tight, pale under the buzzing emergency lights.
He didn't look excited. He looked like someone preparing for his own funeral.
The final system chime echoed in Tobias's head.
<< Congratulations, Tobias Edgar Diaz! >>
Class: [Freelance Survivor]
Class Rarity: Unranked (???)
Starting Skill: [Improvise]
Special Trait Detected: High Luck (Class Hidden Effect Triggered)
Title Awarded: [Fate's Favorite] (Locked)
Tobias pumped his fist.
"Freelance Survivor! Sounds tactical. Adaptability, resilience — textbook greatness."
Derek leaned over, reading Tobias's screen with a grimace.
"Tobias... that sounds like a polite way of saying 'hobo.' "
"Bro," Tobias said, tapping his forehead dramatically, "Freelance means self-employed. Entrepreneur spirit. Think bigger."
Derek sighed and opened his own system window.
<< Congratulations, Derek Li! >>
Class: [Civilian Tier 1]
Class Rarity: Unranked
Starting Skill: [Run Away]
He stared at it for a long moment.
Then quietly muttered, "I'm going to die."
Tobias's Status Window
[Tobias Edgar Diaz]
Race: Human (System-Integrated)
Class: Freelance Survivor
Level: 1
Stats:
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 8
Vitality: 7
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 9
Charisma: 11
Luck: ??? (Hidden)
Skills:
[Improvise] (Passive): Randomly generates "solutions" to immediate survival threats.
[Freelance Hustle] (Passive): Minor bonuses to bartering, negotiation, and scavenging.
[Beginner's Instinct] (Passive): +10% dodge chance against surprise attacks.
Titles:
[Fate's Favorite] (Locked)
Tobias clicked his tongue, impressed.
"Solid stat spread. Plus, charisma OP. Born leader, right here."
Derek stared at him blankly.
"You have six Strength. You can't even lift a sandbag properly."
"That's what leadership is for," Tobias said confidently. "Delegation."
Derek pinched the bridge of his nose like he had a migraine coming.
Rumble
The ground outside trembled — softly at first, then hard enough to rattle the bakery windows.
From the heart of downtown, a thin purple crack opened in the sky like a wound.
A system announcement chimed:
<< Minor Dungeon Portal Spawned >>
Location: Gastown Sector 4B
Threat Level: F-Rank (Beginner)
Portal Stability: 92% (Warning: Stability Dropping)
Tobias's eyes lit up.
"F-Rank. Tutorial dungeon. We can farm that easy."
Derek grabbed his arm immediately.
"Tobias. No. We stay here. We find food, weapons. We wait for actual fighters to clear it. Logical survival."
Tobias shook him off with a grin.
"Bro. Opportunity knocks once. Early dungeon clears mean early loot. Early loot means faster growth."
"Early death, you mean!" Derek snapped, voice shaking. "You're not a superhero! You're a yogurt clerk with a college debt problem!"
Tobias shrugged.
"Details."
Before Derek could tackle him, Tobias was already jogging out into the street, hockey stick slung over his shoulder like a makeshift sword.
Derek cursed violently in three languages —
then grabbed a kitchen knife from the bakery and ran after him.
The streets were eerily empty.
Streetlights flickered. Abandoned cars smoked.
The purple portal high above shimmered like a pool of oil.
From a side alley, a warped raccoon — bigger than a dog, with too many teeth — burst out, hissing like a demon.
HISS~
Tobias grinned.
"Target acquired."
The raccoon lunged.
Tobias, in true tactical genius form, slipped on a wet newspaper, flailing wildly.
His hockey stick swung by accident, hooking a broken stop sign lying nearby.
The stop sign catapulted into the raccoon's face with a loud CLANG.
The creature dropped instantly, twitching.
[First Blood Achieved!]
+50 EXP
+Loot: [Warped Beast Claw] (Junk Item)
Tobias stumbled upright, blinking.
"Exactly as planned," he declared triumphantly.
From his hiding spot behind a rusted-out car, Derek just gawked.
"HOW?" he croaked.
"HOW does that even work?"
Overconfidence
Fresh off his "victory," Tobias did what any reasonable man would do:
He charged deeper toward the portal.
More creatures began spilling out — small ones, slimy ones, a few the size of wolves.
Derek scrambled after him, voice raw.
"TOBIAS, STOP! THESE AREN'T GACHA MOBS! THIS IS REAL!"
"Bro, I have dodge instincts and freelance hustle," Tobias said, dodging a mutated crow by pure accident as it dive-bombed into a lamppost.
"Farming efficiency: 10/10."
Derek skidded to a stop as Tobias leapt over a fallen mailbox and bopped another beast in the head with his hockey stick.
A few lucky hits.
A few miracle dodges.
The occasional tripping hazard saving his life.
It was working.
Sort of.
Then it happened.
Near an old parking garage, a second portal opened —
but this one was huge, crackling red and gold instead of purple.
The system screamed:
<< Major Dungeon Portal Spawned >>
Location: Gastown Sector 4B
Threat Level: D-Rank (Emergency!)
Portal Stability: 65% (Warning: Rapid Collapse Detected)
From its swirling depths, bigger creatures emerged:
hulking beasts covered in spiked armor, things with too many legs, and one massive, shadowy figure dragging an axe larger than a car.
Tobias skidded to a stop.
"Uh-oh."
Derek caught up, breathing hard.
His face went sheet-white.
"Tobias. That's not an F-Rank portal. That's a death sentence."
The shadowy figure lifted its axe, the portal's light casting a long, sharp silhouette across the broken streets.
The ground trembled under its steps.
Tobias licked his dry lips.
For the first time, even he knew:
This was bad.
The system chimed again, almost gleefully:
[Survive the Emergency Dungeon!]
Special Reward if Completed: [Class Evolution Triggered] (Locked)
Tobias's eye twitched.
"On the bright side..." he said weakly. "Bigger challenges mean bigger rewards, right?"
Derek didn't answer.
He just pulled him backward by the shirt collar and muttered a single, desperate prayer:
"Please, let the universe love idiots."
Overhead, the [Fate's Favorite] title pulsed faintly —
unseen by both of them.
Reality itself seemed to lean in Tobias's favor...
for now.