“Gah!?” Zed shouted as he was flung to the dirt in the Training Field.

“Wow,” Alexx said, standing over him. “You are really bad at this.”

“Shut up.”

“I mean I knew I would be better at hand to hand, but this is almost silly.”

“I said SHUT UP!” Zed shouted, bouncing back to his feet. He then dashed forward to strike at Alex’s face.

Alexx chuckled as he dodged the attack with ease. Compared to his usual skill and ferocity with a spear, Zed’s unarmed attacks were seriously lacking.

‘Well, I guess he’s still furious,’ Alexx thought as Zed threw another wide, full-force punch.

Alexx and Zed had both learned to fight through direct combat rather than through traditional schooling, but while Zed had fought against ordinary gamers and NPCs, Alexx had fought against martial artists and fighting game professionals. That technically gave Zed more experience with video game logic and combat involving supernatural abilities, such as the use of AOE Skills, but there were currently no such Skills available to them outside of magic.

“Why did you want to do this anyway?” Alexx asked as he gently deflected another strike. “It’s not like using your spear is that much of an advantage against me.”

“Just….wanted….to change….things….UP!” Zed grunted between punches, finishing the combo with a low, sweeping kick.

“So…are you having fun yet?” Alexx didn’t even jump to evade the attack, instead simply stepping over the telegraphed strike.

“Just fuck off and die already!”

The two continued to exchange blows for several minutes, or rather Zed continued to throw punches and kicks that hit nothing but empty air, while Alexx calmly moved out of the way. Every now and then Alexx would point out a flaw in Zed’s stance or motions, but he did so by lightly pushing and pulling at his body in the worst possible locations, repeatedly knocking the unarmed spearfighter to the ground without ever performing an actual attack.

As their sparring continued Zed’s movements became even more sloppy and uncoordinated as he became more exhausted and frustrated.

‘I think that’s enough.’ As fun as it was watching Zed become so flustered, Alexx wasn’t the type to enjoy such a one-sided beatdown. Choosing a moment where Zed paused to catch his breath, Alexx quickly closed in and placed his closed fist just an inch away from his chest.

Zed’s eyes widened as he vaguely recognized what was about to happen. “Don’t you fucking da-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Alexx’s fist surged forward, carrying tremendous force despite the small motion as it struck Zed dead in the chest. The older player was sent flying back several feet, hitting the ground hard and gasping for breath.

“You good?” Alexx asked, barely holding back laughter.

“F-f-fuck, you did not j-just hit me with a f-fake one-inch punch?” Zed stuttered out.

“What made you think it was fake?” he asked as he offered a hand to his downed opponent.

“With your Strenght stat? A real punch probably would have ripped me in half,” he said, having caught his breath. He took Alexx’s hand and the brawler easily pulled him to his feet.

“That’s fair.” Although he had always thought the famous one-inch punch was interesting, the simple fact was that it was more of a party trick than a real combat technique. “Well, as fun as this was, I’m starting to get bored.”

“Oh? You seemed to be laughing a ton earlier.”

“Maybe, but that was then.” Alexx started walking toward the village. “Let’s go, I’m getting hungry.”

As the two made their way across the Training Field, they passed by a large crowd of players. They knew that this was the group that was fighting over the huts across the river, but they noticed that there was significantly less fighting going on compared to earlier. Many seemed to have simply left, but at least a dozen were standing off to the side and were talking excitedly about something.

“You think they’ve actually decided to talk it out?” Alexx asked.

“I doubt it,” he said dismissively. “I’ve got no idea what they could be talking about, but after everything we saw earlier, there’s no way they’ve calmed down that easily.”

It didn’t take long for Alexx and Zed to reach the Kitchen, each of them ordering a bowl of stew before making their way to The Pit. As the two entered the area they quickly noticed Yang and Loran sitting off to the side. Loran appeared to be focused on something in his menu, while Yang was lying in the grass with a vacant expression on her face.

“Have you found it yet?” Yang asked, lying in the grass as she waited for Loran to finish searching through his notifications.

“For the seventh time, no, I haven’t found it,” Loran said calmly.

Yang groaned as she flopped her arm across her face.

“So what high-octane excitement is happening here?” Zed asked as he and Alexx sat down.

“I wanted to see if we could trick the system into giving us all Unique Skills,” Yang said, still covering her eyes. “Unfortunately I made the mistake of asking this fucker for help.”

“I’m looking for the exact wording from the System.”

“And you are taking FOREVER!”

“It hasn’t been that long.”

Yang sprang up. “It's been like an hour!”

“It has been twenty minutes at most.”

“If you didn’t keep saying that you’ve ‘almost found it’ I could be fighting for a hut right now!”

“Do you guys really think that you can trick the System?” Alexx asked.

“I doubt it,” Zed said confidently.

“Maybe, but there’s no reason not to try.” Loran smiled. “And here it is.”

“Finally!” Yang sat up. “So what does it say?”

“Let’s see…Abnormal behavior pattern…noticed by the Pioneer System…recognized your actions as worthy of a Unique Skill.”

Yang and Alexx stared at him, annoyed and unimpressed, while Zed just seemed unsurprised.

“So that’s it?” Yang asked. “We pretty much knew all of that already!”

“Yeah, but the wording is important.” Loran pointed at his menu. “It says here that the Pioneer System analyses your current situation and thoughts along with all your personal details when deciding if you’ve earned a Unique Skill.”

“So?” Alexx asked.

“So if the System knows that you’re trying to take advantage of it, wouldn’t it have the ability to deny you a Skill? That sounds pretty unworthy to me.”

“Shit, you’re probably right.” Yang’s brow furrowed. “Still, it takes a bunch of other things into account, so maybe it could balance out?

“What? Like how if homework only counts for 15% of your final grade you can ignore it and still pass by doing well on everything else?” Zed asked.

She shrugged. “Sure.”

“I suppose, but again that would depend on how important it considers player intent.”

“Like, you and Soze both got your Skills from really dangerous situations,” Yang said. “If I intentionally threw myself into tough fights to make it trigger couldn’t that still count as part of my personality?”

“Maybe? Lots of gamers are the type to research and take advantage of this kind of thing, and they would likely get walled off if it worked that way. It just wouldn’t be fair.”

“But would that psycho Zheng care about making it fair?” Yang frustratedly ran her fingers through her hair. “Okay, we’re not going to get anywhere arguing over this, so let’s just assume that trying to do this intentionally makes it harder, but not impossible.”

Loran thought about it for a moment before conceding the point. “Alright sure, then what exactly would trigger it? We apparently need to do something to get the System’s attention.”

“Yeah, and just throwing ourselves into dangerous fights isn’t enough,” Zed said.

“What makes you so sure?”

Zed shrugged and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the other three saying, “Just a hunch,” at the same time. Zed folded his arms. “It’s less fun if you guys say it for me.”

Loran was silent as Yang and Alexx chuckled at Zed’s annoyance. He thought back to the moments leading up to him receiving his Unique Skill. “Things were definitely chaotic for me in that fight, but honestly I would say that our fight against The Wise One was way worse. I still thought I could survive against the ants, it was just going to be difficult.”

“So we can cross ‘fighting against impossible odds’ off the list?” Yang asked.

“Probably.”

“But then what is it?!”

Loran shrugged and looked over at Alexx and Zed. “Any suggestions guys?”

Alexx paused his eating for a moment before clearing his throat. “Not really? Honestly, it seems like it might be better to just let things happen naturally.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily better, but I don’t think trying to trick the AI is going to work out,” Zed said. “People will get Unique Skills when they do something to grab the System’s attention.”

“But I don’t want to wait,” Yang wined.

“Well we probably have to,” Loran said. “Even if it is possible to force this, we need more than just two examples to figure out what the pattern is.”

“Ugh, fine.” Yang turned to Alexx and Zed. “So what have you two been up to?”

Alexx smiled excitedly, as Zed’s shoulders sagged.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But I do!” Alexx said cheerfully.