The battle raged on for another half an hour before the ants were dead. Thanks to Natalya crushing the vast majority of ants in the A Terminal, the preparations Arthur had made worked exceptionally well against the older ants and they held out for long enough until she returned to destroy them.

The final results were astounding.

||Tutorial: Lesson 2||

||Wave cleared//29 waves remaining||

||Casualties: 7||

||Rewards: Rations (1 day); Dismantling (Skill book)||

||Special Rewards||

||Stronger Warrior Ants count as 2 for the special rewards||

||Natalya Wolskev: 113 – Rations (5 days); Bone Crusher||

||KyelPrajna: 22 – Rations (3 days); Leather Armor||

||Arthur Bell: 14 – Rations (2 days) ||

-Have you seen Seven? - Arthur asked Natalya awkwardly. From what he gathered, she was the one to have seen him last.

Natalya remained silent, looking at her new weapon, the Bone Crusher. It was a blood red-winged knuckle, with skulls engraved in the joints. From an artistic point of view, it was very beautiful and held some glister.

Just before Arthur left, she smiled for a moment and pointed a direction. He was confused at her behavior but thanked her nonetheless.

Once again, Seven ended up sleeping at the healthcare center that evening.

When he woke up, he immediately headed out to the library and continued writing from where he left off, but the place was considerably more crowded compared to the other day. Arthur caught him at the exit and greeted him.

-Hey, doing fine?

-I’m alright. What happened here?

-You’re quite unlucky, passing out whenever Ai gives out instructions.

-Ai?

-It’s the name of that robot or whatever that speaks to us. I asked her. But anyway, you should check your bag for the Dismantling Skill Book. Ai told us it is an important thing to learn and I believed it. We could use the ant carapaces to make some armor for everyone, and our weapons are quickly losing durability against the monsters, we could extract the mandibula and try out something later. By the way, do you want to join my group? We could use people like you.

-Thanks for the information, but I’ll have to refuse.

He was more interested in Natalya than Arthur, and she was a key to aid in his survival. In a world full of uncertainties, he should first focus on getting stronger as an individual, not as a group.

-It’s fine, see you around.

He gave a cursory glance at the pages of the Dismantling book, but most of the information he already knew from hunting books in real life. All he did was check the information regarding the species detailed in the book, which didn’t take more than an hour to digest.

||Skill: Dismantling has been learned ||

||Dismantling: level ???||

||Basic dismantling of carcasses and compound items are now possible. The skill level goes up as the practitioner gains more experience||

“...”

-Ai, can I ask you a few questions?

[You are free to ask, I will provide answers to the best of my abilities]

-Could you explain to me how to acquire skills, and how they are graded? Do they even have any effect on me?

[There is theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. Unless the nature of the skill is purely theoretical, the Human System will only acknowledge that you have obtained a skill once it is used. The methods do not matter, as long as you possess the knowledge, and once it is obtained it will be graded accordingly. However, if the knowledge is obtained through some shortcut and the skill is acquired, it will be impossible to grade it until the user provides more samples for the system to analyze. If an item possesses a relevant skill that can be learned by interacting with it, it will be labeled a skill book, even if it is not a book. This label does not override categories such as conventional weapons, usable items, among others. That is all the information I can provide]

-So there is more to it, but you don’t know or you can’t tell.

[That is so]

Seven had a suspicion that the user of the Human System and the Human System itself mutually changed each other. That implied that if a skill was learned, the Human System would recognize it, but even if such thing didn’t happen, if for some reason the Human System recognized it as a learned skill, sufficient knowledge would be provided for the person to cover for it.

“Just like changing a statement from false to true in binary code”

It was strange, however, that he never got the writing skill through writing, or martial arts skills through practicing a new martial art. From that, Seven also though that the System would only recognize “complete” actions. He never finished writing a book, nor did he have any clear accomplishments in mimicking Natalya. In a way, it was like he was creating a skill rather than learning it.

“It is easier to recognize a skill if someone is to read a book or learn it from others with the same skill. But if you are to do it from scratch, even if you already have the skill, it won’t be recognized so easily”

Why would there be a grading system? If things were just like a game, it would provide something to which players could compare with one another, and individually it turns into a measure of personal strength and accomplishments.

“But why grade something as ‘???’ when it cannot be graded? There are other ways to go around it if it’s simply about a lack of samples, as Ai mentioned”

If it was simply about recognizing actions, a system where recognizing skills became easier and specific actions would raise the proficiency would be much more effective. For instance, recognizing Seven’s writing skills sooner and raising the levels for each finished chapter.

However, it intentionally did not show a level.

“It’s not only when learning skills through shortcuts. When practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge levels are too far apart from each other, it cannot be graded. The reason... If the first was lacking, the System would negatively influence the user’s skills. If the second was lacking, the user would learn faster compared to the worth of his efforts”

Seven was even more sure of his theory.

-Ai, can skill levels be hidden on purpose?

[The option to change the type of grading from quantitative to qualitative is available, as well as the option to hide it.]

He could only hope that a sort of unspoken agreement between the user and the Human System was needed for there to be a sort of interference from the system. That way, so long as he didn’t see the level of the skill, he wouldn’t experience any shortcomings once his writing became graded – he didn’t want the system to affect it in any way.

“I don’t lose much, anyway...’

What he learned was that the system had flaws, but he would have to find out more later.

He became too engrossed in learning the dismantling skill and talking with Ai, he needed to write while the feeling from the last battle was still intact, the memory fresh.

As he brought up the pictures and attached them to the pages, he felt the excitement burning from deep inside. An apprentice, maybe just a side-character that would fade from the story, that was his role, he figured. Arthur also showed him a few of his capabilities, but Seven was much more interested in Natalya’s story than his. Regardless, he earned a spot as a lead.

Seven painted a world filled with visceral and bone-chilling descriptions, horrors that shattered the soul but urged the reader to keep moving forward, to discover to which point the main character could continue moving forward. That was probably the main point of his book, to find out the exact moment between many experiences of death and suffering, intercalated with joy and peace, in which the accumulation of all of these simply disappeared as humanity is lost.

What will you do? What can you do?

The question imbued in every single page painted with words, every second of duration of his fictional world.

He wrote the replies in the form of Natalya’s actions.

Each movement she demonstrated, the few expressions at the end of a trial, the slices of thoughts that defined her through the point of view of others, the own reader’s point of view. Her mysteries.

If anyone was to ever read his work, they would experience it firsthand what was like to be in the presence of the strongest, learning through her experiences.

Adapt.

Survive.

Become the absolute.

Seven finished the last two chapters of the book and, with time on his hands, refined the passages and drew the scenes. He was drunk in the excitement, the revival, and immortalization of these experiences, and he was both afraid of this feeling burning out and eager for it to fade – he didn’t want to let go, but otherwise, the story would never come to a close.

“There must be a logical conclusion. Whether or not I create it, it exists somewhere”

And did he want it to ever end? No... He certainly didn’t. But he also didn’t want to dilute the narrative or compress the meaning into a few words. Like a puzzle, every piece belonged somewhere.

Satisfied, but tired, he went to the dormitory for the first time and fell asleep for a few more hours. His continuous writing was taxing.

***

On the morning of the next day, the library wasn’t as crowded. People figured the books that qualified as skill books and found a place to be alone.

The gym had fewer people, but it was an ever small amount, to begin with.

-Morning, Seven – Arthur spoke. He had just finished a session on the running machine and picked a towel – never figured you for an athlete.

-I'm getting that a lot, lately – he replied non enthusiastically.

-Haha. Did you read the book?

-I did.

Arthur opened his eyes wide.

-Really? I’m not even halfway through it...

-I’ve read something similar before, so it didn’t take much time.

-Oh, I see... I’m not much of an avid reader, so it might take a while for me. To be honest, I think you’re the second person I know of that finished the book, if you don’t mind could you help us with dismantling the ants?

-That’s fine, but I want a few parts.

-Don’t worry about it, we have people to tailor it into protective gear, we can do something for you, too. I’ve got something else to do right now, so we’ll talk later. Good training for you.

-Thanks.

Seven went to the locker room and changed into his gym clothes.

“...”

“It does feel strange to lead a normal life in our situation.”

Natalya was practicing on the wooden dummies, like the other day. He finished with stretching and got closer to watch her.

“...”

“...”

“As I thought, she’s very different from yesterday. The changes are subtle, but meaningful”

Seven thought that soon enough, the wooden dummies wouldn’t provide good practice for Natalya. She needed more sophisticated enemies to perfect her technique, and there was nothing of the sort around here.

Except for the monsters.

Seven figured that one of the reasons for Natalya to go straight into the lion’s mouth every time was to grow up faster. It was a spartan way of training, but it provided amazing results for her.

If he hadn’t paid attention to her on the previous day, he wouldn’t be able to assimilate his theoretical knowledge of martial arts to her practices. After all, they generally thought of humans as their opponents, not unnamable monsters.

He picked up the pen and started drawing.

-Hey there, watcha doing?

Seven glanced sideways.

“Catherine”

-Watching her.

-Oh...

Her reply was dispirited, she sat down and watched Natalya alongside him, glancing at the drawings once in a while.

-She’s pretty amazing, but... I’m also scared of her.

-I understand you.

-You feel like that, too? - she asked, happily surprised.

-No.

-Then what?

“...”

“...”

How to explain that a person is main character material without sounding weird? He didn’t even know how to elaborate on that. If their life didn’t get fucked up like this, it was likely that he would be attracted to a different person. It just so happened that Natalya shone for him in those circumstances.

-Have you ever seen a person and imagined, he or she will accomplish great things in the future?

-Well... Uh... I guess?

-That kind of person, he can grow up to be a hero or a villain. Whatever it is, it will be something greater than we can think of. That person is a protagonist in this world.

He was good at writing, but when it came to speaking, he couldn’t convey his ideas very well. That was the limit for him.

-So, you want to see how the protagonist grows.

-Something like that.

-Isn’t everyone a protagonist in their own lives?

-Yes... But not a protagonist in the world. You’re talking about secondary-leads and side-characters.

-Fine, fair enough... But how do you know you’re not a protagonist in the world?

“...”

“...”

“...”

Seven rested his pen on the book.

He shook his head and looked away. He noticed that Nathan was watching them at a distance.

Once he saw him looking his way, Nathan waved with a smile that could only be defined as strange.

-Hey! Are you just gonna watch or are you gonna start pumping?

Seven smiled ironically.

“I don’t have a clue about this guy”

-Are you guys buddies, now?

-Is that what it looks like?

-It is!

It just so happened that Natalya was leaving early, so he needed to start his training, too.

He couldn’t ignore Nathan, either. He was always pestering, the only thing that changed is that he would actually help him a bit, it wasn’t a bad deal.

He went over and started to exercise.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

-Don’t forget to count! You’re starting with ten for each side!

One...

Two...

Three...

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Am I a protagonist?”