His focus shifted even deeper into himself, and paradoxically, he found himself in a vast open space. The ground was an endless horizon made of pure white. He could feel it represented everything he was and everything he had amounted to date.

A blank page.

Formless.

Meaningless in the grand scale of things.

There were galaxies and stars in the sky. They felt close yet far, in reach yet distant. It was a breathtaking view, and they pressured him somehow as if he could feel the wonder of infinity coming from them.

Midway through on the horizon, the whiteness of himself and the blackness of space merged in a cacophony of colors. He and the boundless space above weren't supposed to coexist, and the clash of light and darkness birthed all colors in an awe-inspiring gradient.

Ricardo wasn't sure how long he just stared in amazement.

It felt like an instant.

It felt like an eternity.

Then from his heavy heart came a wave of vibration. It traveled through his entire body and expanded to the whiteness, like ripples on the water. Soon, everything was vibrating, everything was moving.

The movement hated stillness and couldn't accept the bleakness within himself. Filled with that hatred, his heart beat again, this time letting out the sound of a gong that filled and shook all the whiteness.

It brought change.

Light shot from the ground in front of him, erupting in a bright golden color. It turned into a beam coming thirty degrees from the ground, trying to reach the sky. But it fell short, stopping only a thousand feet in the air at most.

Once there, it solidified and enlarged into a thick and wide golden road.

Even hardened, the light still shone and seemed to move.

Before he could try to understand what that meant, he felt something else coming from his heart. A familiar sense of desolation and loneliness. It was much less powerful than the last time he had felt it, and it silently left his body.

From the ground far in front of him, below the road, a pillar rose from the ground at a fast speed, like a giant arrow going towards the golden structure. It was a round gray pillar one-sixth the width of the road and it hit the left side of it, becoming a support pillar. Considering where it was placed, it didn't look like it was supporting it very well, but he knew it was.

And then came stability.

It was a warmth from within his heart that spread throughout his entire body before leaving to the whiteness. Soon, a new pillar rose opposite to the first one, a metallic brown one that became another sustaining pillar of the road.

That was the road he had to travel.

A road of hope.

A road to the future.

It was still shining and beautiful, but it was made of mere solidified light and he instinctively felt it lacked substance. It couldn't exist like that for long, it needed something else to fully come into being. He realized he was seeing nothing more than a possibility, an illusion of what could be, which lacked the firmness of a truth set in stone.

So, he opened his eyes. He had an inkling the system would try to give him that lacking thing now. After all, either it did or all that would've been for naught.

As expected, new windows were begging for his attention.

Interactive Tutorial: Your First Class

Congratulations! You're about to choose your first class!

Classes define which aspects of your power will grow when you evolve your Power level.

The tutorial was wrong. Or maybe, incomplete.

The words ring true, but after what he had seen, he knew his Path was much more than technicalities limited by the numbers of his Power level. This meant his Class would be more than that too.

He knew, he just knew, that whatever set that light road in place would define his very self. His past and future. It would link him to all he could become.

Ignoring that message, he checked the next window.

Choose Your Class

Class Subsystem

You can now choose your class.

Your skills and past actions have affected the options presented to you.

Choose wisely.

Again, the Class Subsystem was much more direct than the Interactive Tutorial.

Choose Your Class

Class Subsystem

Choose one of the three groups to receive more information about it.

Choosing a group automatically makes it impossible to choose a class from any other group.

3 options come from mixing the Path of Movement with the Essence of Loneliness

1. Lone Warrior

2. Lone Wanderer

3. Runner

3 options come from mixing the Path of Movement with the Essence of Stability

4. Waves Guardian

5. Mind Paladin

6. Defender of Eons

3 options come from mixing the Path of Movement with both the Essence of Loneliness and the Essence of Stability

7. Mind Handler

8. Martial Artist

9. Hunter

He immediately crossed the first group from the list.

He didn't want any Class with only Loneliness and Movement defining it, with no Stability. One reason he had chosen his First Verse was that both Stability and Movement countered the overwhelming Loneliness.

None of the three options it gave him sounded great anyway. The Runner one was outright underwhelming.

Next came the options from the Path of Movement with the Essence of Stability, and they tempted him. They sounded interesting enough for him to become curious about what they did, especially the Defender of Eons Class.

They sounded powerful.

But his Path was also threaded with loneliness. It was of the supporting pillars of his future. He felt it would be a terrible idea to choose a first Class that didn't take into consideration all he was.

He would rather have a weaker and more lamely sounding Class that felt whole than feel incomplete.

'I choose the third group,' he thought.

Choose Your Class

Class Subsystem

Pick a class.

1. Mind Handler

There is a kind of movement only found in a battlefield with thousands of minions under your control; a kind of loneliness only found amid hundreds of linked minds; a kind of stability only found among tens of faithful followers willing to die for you.

Focus on: Mind and social skills

2. Martial Artist

Movement is death; a Martial Artist infuses qi in their movements to strengthen them. Loneliness is wisdom; a Martial Artist's path is free from the mortal coil. Stability is capability; a Martial Artist never falters.

Focus on: Martial arts and qi skills

3. Hunter

A Hunter only attacks when the time is right, for while movement is life, the wrong movement is death. A Hunter cares for his own, for while loneliness is stealth, and stealth is life, purposeless loneliness is death. A Hunter never allows an opportunity to pass, for while stability is life, too much stability is stagnation, and stagnation is death.

Focus on: Survival and hunting skills

The Mind Handler Class was incredibly interesting.

If he could mind-control the surrounding beasts to fight in his stead, he would be safe. He wasn't even that afflicted by the moral implications of it.

But how would he learn such Skills? Automatically, when he got the Class? Would mind Skills even work on beasts? More importantly, he didn't like the description of that loneliness; that sounded very much like the thing he would want to avoid.

The Martial Artist Class wasn't bad.

The system had an entire section in his Full Status Window dedicated to qi, so it was an important part of the Omniverse. A class with an emphasis on Qi Skills couldn't be a terrible choice.

But using his body to fight didn't sound safe, and he didn't even know if he could use martial arts while missing a hand. The description of loneliness in this Class worried him too. Getting "free from the mortal coil" sounded very much like giving up on his humanity, which he didn't want to do.

Still, would've picked the Martial Artist Class if it wasn't for the Hunter Class. The latter's definition and foci felt like a glove for his soul.

To begin with, it seemed much more balanced than the others. His Essences weren't forced into a single purpose, like the Martial Artist Class that said movement was death, but kept malleable and circumstantial, which felt right.

The loneliness he feared so much wasn't a consequence of the Class, like seemed to be with the Mind Handler; or a requirement to reach a higher goal, like with the Martial Artist; but a tool to be used for a purpose and put away when not needed.

The focus on Survival Skills was exactly what he wanted. Qi-infused martial arts in anime was awesome, but he wasn't looking for flashiness; controlling the mind of others was cool, but could he survive with that Class if he found himself with no one to control?

Survival had been his foremost goal all along. For him to accomplish anything, for him to save humanity, for him to hug his mother once more, he had to survive first. A Class that focused on it, while being so flexible and even sounding right for his situation — he had to hunt beasts, after all — was the right choice for him.

'I choose Hunter,' he thought.

Choose Your Class

Class Subsystem

You have chosen the Hunter class.

His vision shifted, and he found himself in the white space again.

The road was already fading away, but suddenly, the entire place trembled as a gray liquid rose from the ground surrounding the pillars, enveloping them like a serpent. A few instants after the liquid was left in place, it solidified. The pillars became ugly-ass concrete ones he could find in any road or bridge on Earth.

When the liquid hit the road, it changed into metal and asphalt. He recognized the bridge he had been living on. The road was larger, and it had arcs on the sides, but the familiarity was obvious. The liquid also created a lot of debris on the road, like what he could find in the city, and then disappeared.

The road trembled and cracked in a U on the left. Water emerged from the crack, quickly becoming a wide river on the road. It was swiftly surrounded by grass and a few brushes that grew from nothing while he looked.

Lightning came from the universe above and hit the middle of the road, the bright flash blinding Ricardo for a moment.

When his vision returned, he saw a man on the road. He was sitting on a sizeable chunk of concrete with his back to Ricardo, using a black leather jacket over a gray hoodie and jeans. A bonfire was in front of him.

"Hello?" said Ricardo but got no answer, so he approached.

As he got closer, he saw there was a barbecue grill on the bonfire, meat on it. There was no smell, but the mere sight of it made him salivate. He finally got to the man, who still hadn't moved.

Ricardo sat on the other side of him and tried to talk, to understand what was going on.

But when he still walking, he glanced inside the man's cloak, and he saw darkness.

A darkness that escaped the cloak and filled his vision. And then two giant orbs of light, two terrifying eyes, stared at him.

Movement, Loneliness, Stability; the words resonated with his soul.

Hunter, he demanded.

Movement, Loneliness, Stability; the feelings filled his mind.

Hunter, the universe agreed.

Movement, Loneliness, Stability; the meanings defined him.

Hunter, he turned into.

The words and feelings and meanings invaded his mind and soul, bringing him a piercing pain that threatened to make him go crazy. With them, new instincts were being placed inside himself, changing him. It wasn't knowledge, it wasn't skills, but it was the honed instincts a beginner Hunter might have a little after starting his craft.

Those instincts might not serve him well. He could ignore them or focus on them. He could notice them or not.

It all depended on himself.

A Hunter always depended on themselves.

As suddenly as it came, everything went away, and he found himself kneeling on his real bridge with his hand and stump on his head.

The headache immediately faded, and a wave of coldness washed all over himself, followed by one of warmth, and then a vibration. Loneliness, Stability, and Movement. There was a feeling of finality as the vibration ended, as if to tell him it was done.

He was now a Hunter.