As usual, the classes’ descriptions were too vague for my liking.

I tried to open the system shop to buy information on the classes that I got, but I wasn’t able to access it. All that appeared was a system screen saying that ‘Establishing Connection is impossible due to admin constraints’.

Huh? This is weird. I assume this means that a system admin prohibited me from accessing the shop for whatever reason, and I think I know who the culprit might be…

I took a look at the mysterious figure that was sitting on a chair and reading a novel. He didn’t have facial features, so I couldn’t get a read on his current mood.

Nonetheless, I called for him and asked him about the matter.

“Hey…Mister,” I said with a slightly stressed tone of voice, “I assume you’re a system admin, right?”

“THE system admin, yes. That’s an alias of mine,” he replied without raising his head or making any unnecessary motion, “Don’t worry about the shop, it’s going through mandatory maintenance or something like that I guess?”

“I was going to ask…Oh well, never mind,” I replied with a monotonous voice as his dry reply pissed me off somewhat, “Then, I hope you enjoy your book. I bet you’d like the happy ending…”

He waved his hand and told me to mind my own business for now. I went back to focus on the class options that were in front of me and started evaluating them one by one.

The first one made me feel sick in the stomach, as it gave off the vibes of a slightly ‘heroic’ class. It seemed like the host who used this class would be bound by some limitations on his powers, unless he used his skills to fulfill his duties as a punisher.

Besides, I didn’t want to live for a higher cause that had nothing to do with my personal beliefs, and I wasn’t okay with serving a calling that was imposed on me because of a class choice. There wasn’t much information on the skills that would be given if I chose this class, but I assumed that it would be focused on burning people, especially ‘bad’ ones.

No Bueno.

The second class instantly grabbed my attention, as it increased my fire affinity by thirty points. Affinity wasn’t something that could be increased using commonly found items, and even the system shop lacked anything that could increase it. People in my past life waged wars on one another just for information on ways to increase it.

The increase in affinity would strengthen my flames, but most importantly would tone down the pain that I felt when I set my body on fire.

Thus, this should exponentially increase my powers as a close-combat fighter. I’ll be able to burn myself with hotter flames than the current ones without feeling more pain!

The description also stated that this class would have great power against large groups, and that was something that I would appreciate. The class didn’t seem to have many conditions to be able to use it, and I liked it that way.

This might be the one unless the third choice is out of this world!

I checked the third class, and I was disappointed in all honesty. It seemed to be the strongest out of the three choices, but the price of such power was too much.

From what I understood, it made the person emotionally unstable. I already had a couple of abilities that fucked up my mental state, and I didn’t want more trouble on that front.

Furthermore, this class allowed me to burn my soul to increase my powers. The description stated that this action would decrease my lifespan, but I doubted that it would stop with that. Fiddling with the soul always brought catastrophic results, and it was one of the main reasons that Soul Magic was a forbidden practice in my past life.

Sometimes, the soul magician tears away a random portion of his test subject’s soul, only for the poor creature to become a vegetable instantly.

I made my final choice and was about to choose the class that I wanted when I remembered something.

What if the system interrupts my speech once more and chooses a different class for me?

I knew that vocalizing my command would dramatically decrease the chances of mishaps happening, but it wasn’t enough to eliminate the possibility of a ‘bug’ occurring.

I decided to ask the mysterious system admin, although I wasn’t keen on talking with him due to the way he reacted to my previous question.

“Hey, Mr. System Admin,” I said, “Since you know so much about me, I assume you understand that my system is somewhat ‘bugged’. I’d like to know if there is any way that could allow me to choose my desired class without the system misinterpreting my words.”

Suddenly, he closed his book shut and raised his head toward me. He put the novel on the ground and started walking toward me.

“I don’t like the nickname; find something else. Anyway, that’s a great question,” he said, “The reason why the bugs occurred is that the system conflicted with your latent ability. However, you do not need to worry about such a thing occurring here. This place is under my total control, and I can lighten your latent ability’s influence on the system. Besides, this issue will fade away once you’re taught how to control your latent ability.”

Conflict? Latent ability? What the hell is he talking about?

“I am sorry, but I don’t unders..” I replied, but he interrupted me.

“Oh, little Jason… Everything will be explained when the time is right,” He said, “You’ll be overwhelmed if you’re exposed to so much information in a small timeframe. Just trust me, I am the fucking system admin.”

He had a point, as I was already feeling somewhat tired and there was a faint headache due to the absurdity of our current situation.

Oh well, you only live once; there is no need to have so much fear as long as one does his best.

“I choose the class Pyrotechnical Incinerator of the Legendary grade as my next class”, I said.

Suddenly, a feeling of drowsiness and weakness hit me. I knew that the class evolution would render me unconscious, but I found the floor uncomfortable.

Suddenly, a small mattress appeared next to me. It had a length of two meters and a width of one meter, and it was in pristine condition. It seemed soft and cozy.

“Thank me later,” said the mysterious figure without raising his head toward me.

I crawled into the mattress and fell into a deep sleep as soon as I put my head on it.

.

.

.

I woke up after an undetermined amount of time and tried to remember if I had any dreams during the class evolution.

It was blank, and I couldn’t remember any meetings with the hooded figures or anything of that nature.

Either I didn’t meet them during this class evolution, or I did but ended up losing my memory of the event.

Two system screens appeared in front of me. One of them congratulated me on the class evolution, and the other gave an expanded description of the class.

[Congratulations, Host Jason Stubbs is the first human to evolve his class twice!]

[He’s the first human to reach the D rank!]

[Obtained Class: Pyrotechnical Incinerator (Legendary)]

Would you like to globally broadcast this system notice?

[Agree]

[Decline]

Hell yeah!

I agreed to broadcast the system notice, and I was about to check the class’s description when something interrupted me.

The mysterious man closed his book with a loud thud and asked me a question as he walked toward me.

“So did you meet the hooded figures once more?” he said.

“Uhh, I don’t think I did,” I replied, and added as soon as I realized the implications of his question, “What the hell man? Is there anything you don’t know about me?”

I was already suspicious of this guy and had a hard time trusting him due to how mysterious he was, but this revelation might’ve single-handedly made me paranoid of him.

“Relax kid! It’s not just you, I know nearly everything about everyone,” he said, “As a token of goodwill, I’ll tell you some stuff about them,”

He sighed, then resumed his speech.

“Those hooded figures are all Glitchers, but not all Glitchers can join their little gang. They’re born with Latent abilities, and they’re called Glitchers because their latent abilities cause bugs when the host uses the system,” he said, “One of the members must’ve established a connection with you during the tutorial using some kind of latent ability because they’re scouting for new members,”

I nodded, and he kept going.

“I am not sure about the reason why they’re trying to communicate with you,” he said, “I guess they’re trying to evaluate you, to see if you’re worthy of joining their organization,”

*

An old guy was sitting on a revolving chair, and the projection of a lady was in front of him. She had a slender figure, silver hair, and gray eyes.

He spoke with an air of superiority and confidence as if he was a sublime being. The lady answered his questions, and only asked questions of hers after raising her hand and making a polite request. She looked at the ground and didn’t keep eye contact with him.

Shame was apparent on her face, and her eyes were red.

“Don’t worry about it, Stella,” the old guy said, “He might be stronger than you individually, but there are three of you. Besides, he doesn’t have the backing of so many important figures like you! Take it easy, you’ll catch up to him when we deliver to you the resources that we promised.”

“Thank you, Almighty Holy One,” she replied as she bowed, “It’s just that I was used to speaking with the lesser deities of our Great Church, and I was surprised to find out that I was going to talk to you. This is the second time that you talked to me ever, so I thought you’d be mad at me and the other two. I am glad you’re so understanding.”

“My benevolence knows no bounds,” the old man replied as he gave the lady a radiant smile, “Take care of yourself and let Oleg and Igor know that I am proud of their progress.”

The lady smiled, and her projection disappeared.

The old guy stood motionless for around a minute before he spun his chair to the other side and started screaming.

“Fuck!” “FUCK FUCK!”, He walked around the hallway of his room, and he broke some beautiful vases as he kept cursing.

“Why the hell aren’t those three hosts performing better than a lowly Glitcher? He evolved his class once more, but they didn’t even clear the tutorial yet!” he spoke to himself loudly, “I handpicked them exactly when the system integration happened! I chose them out of eight candidates who had Legendary classes based on their personalities and their future potential, and I was sure that I picked the best three!”

He stopped walking and added.

“I even pulled some strings and paid a lot to the Queen of Fairies to have my candidates in the same tutorial group! Yet, they disappointed me!”

He inhaled and spoke once more, but his tone was much quieter this time.

“If I knew of the potential of that Jason guy, I would’ve picked him straight away! He’s on his own, but his performance is still better than those three clowns.”

He stopped speaking and contemplated about something that had been on his mind for a while.

Jason had a Legendary class, but he didn’t have any class when the tutorial started. He wasn’t among the humans who had Legendary classes when the system integration happened, so there was no way for me to convince him of joining my Great Church at that time.

Now, he’s protected by that weirdo, and I can’t touch him.

How the hell did he slip out of my grasp? Just, how did he hide his Legendary class?