The Special Hidden Class

As far as I knew, reincarnating into an ordinary Material World meant direct communication with the Goddess was impossible. A handful of worlds had that function exceptionally well developed — places where a select few classes could speak with her face to face. The world I'd been sent to was not one of them.

To reach the Goddess here, she would have to personally descend into the living world. And yet, without descending at all, she had sent me a message like we were chatting. Must have been thanks to the Status Window unlocking.

"Heh... the Goddess adjusted my class to Special Hidden!"

"Not just Hidden — Special Hidden!!!"

People really ought to live decent lives. The Goddess had said as much herself — that the good karma I'd stacked up over the years was the justification for intervening in the Status Window system and bumping my rank. That was no empty talk.

The Goddess had been genuinely sorry about mistaking me for that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠psychopath Kim Taeshik. And one pillar of that apology was the fact that I'd lived a far more decent life than she'd expected.

I'm just a good guy who happens to love jerking off.

"I'd been going fuck this, fuck that over the zombie apocalypse kicking off at the wrong time, but if this is how it plays out... well, thank you... thank you, gorgeous Goddess..."

It had gone off early and I'd nearly been screwed, but I hadn't died. And on top of surviving, I'd landed a Special Hidden class — a blessing in disguise if there ever was one. The secret to a happy life is recognizing things fast and accepting them. I fired up the infinite-positivity circuit once again.

"First off, Nano Warrior still has 'Warrior' in the title... and looking at how similar the traits are to my previous Warrior Status Window, close-quarters combat seems to be the main gig?"

"Is the nano function a system that keeps supplying me with gear? That's what it looks like, given the Nano Awakened Steel Pipe showing up."

Both the ordinary class I'd gotten first and the Special Hidden class I'd gotten after were melee combat jobs. Just a guess, but awakening abilities seemed to have some correlation with the Awakener's personality. Mine wasn't the type that enjoyed variables or adventure. I was the type who found satisfaction in steadily stacking things up, routine by routine.

"Hmm... same melee type, sure, but being a Special Hidden class, there's a whole lot that's been added and improved."

Even without opening Ability Details, I'd had a pretty solid read on the ordinary Warrior. Nano Warrior, though — compared to a regular Warrior, there was a lot more to look at. I'd gained Inventory as a special ability, and a special weapon on top of that.

The first thing that jumped out was the line under Feature: Special Growth Enabled. A regular Warrior's Feature had listed Standard Growth Enabled. Standard growth had felt somewhat abstract. Nano Warrior's special growth, on the other hand, had a crystal-clear mechanism.

"So killing zombies converts into points, and you apply those points to your base stats to grow."

"There's Daily Training Points too, but looking at the numbers, the main event is still beating zombies to death."

I looked over the Daily Zombie Quota and Points fields sitting at the bottom of the Status Window, and noted the [ 0/5 ] slot format next to each stat. From that information, I could piece together Nano Warrior's growth mechanism.

Kill zombies. Level up. Stack stats.

There was also a Daily Training Points field as another method of collecting points. Judging by the name, you earned them by training. Of the two growth methods, the main one was clearly raising points by beating zombies to death — the amounts you could actually get made that obvious.

Zombie Points had a daily cap of 20. Training Points maxed out at 5 a day. And Zombie Points had F-Rank slapped right next to them, which meant the daily quota would keep rising as overall rank went up. Training Points, though, were locked at a total ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of 150, and the low-tier allotment was set at 5. Even accounting for the number climbing if it advanced to mid-tier or high-tier, they'd run dry within twenty days. Even if you couldn't max them out every single day, the structure would empty them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠within a month.

"If you thought of it as killing zombies in a game — before you'd actually experienced it — twenty a day might feel like nothing."

The F-Rank daily zombie quota was twenty. How that number felt now versus before was a completely different story. "Before" meaning before I'd actually killed a zombie.

Beating a writhing zombie to death right in front of you was no ordinary task. A normal human would have their sanity shredded just from beating a dog or a pig to death. The sensation in my hands from roughly two hours ago, when I'd smashed zombies on the outskirts of Taewang Metropolitan City, was still vivid.

The thing had definitely been a zombie. But the feel of caving in its skull — the way its brain matter burst and splattered under those heavy steel-pipe swings, that bone-chilling sensation of forcing a hole straight through a head — it felt like splitting open a human body, not a zombie. Especially at this stage, the zombies' bodies hadn't even started rotting. They still had firm, tough flesh. Identical to an uninfected human.

It was something you did to survive, but it wasn't something a person should be doing. Even professionals wouldn't be all that different. Trained soldiers came back from war with aftereffects, didn't they? That was what actually beating a zombie to death meant. It was a pretty filthy job. Which was why even five to seven zombies a day would be plenty brutal. For a human with ordinary mental fortitude, your psyche would get shredded and your stamina would drain away. Unless you were a psychopath steeped in madness, filling a quota of twenty a day was the kind of work that shaved years off your life. So at this point, hitting twenty a day just wasn't realistic.

"That's the dilemma with melee combat types, but if your specs are overwhelming enough..."

If your specs were so overwhelming that you didn't have to look at the ugly parts as much, that might be a different story.

"I wonder how high the base stats actually are. Everything I've estimated so far is based on my existing physical abilities, after all."

From here on, I'd have to grow by converting zombies into points. And given Nano Warrior's growth mechanism, the stats most affected by those points were the base stats. Especially since my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠class itself was built around melee combat, the weight those base stats carried was considerable.

Hoping the base stats I'd been granted were at a dramatic level, I pressed down.

Tap.

I hit Level Details.

My current overall rank was F-Rank. The points needed to climb to the next rank, E-Rank, were 25. The concept was that all 25 points had to be applied before overall rank went up one step.

"Oh... so the F-Rank stat values are already in effect."

If the notification was right, I was already running on F-Rank detailed stat values.

"If I apply 5 points here, that category becomes E-Rank."

In my current state, applying points to the Power, Agility, Durability, Stamina, or Mana slots would immediately raise that stat's actual ability by however many points I put in. And if a stat hit 5 points, that category became E-Rank. Apply 5 points to Power while it was F-Rank, and Power would become E-Rank regardless of overall rank — not just the rank display. I'd actually be able to output E-Rank strength.

But D-Rank, the next grade after E-Rank, was a different story. To get D-Rank detailed stat abilities, overall rank itself had to reach E-Rank. That was what the [ 0/5 ] allowance limit meant. In the end, it was just a matter of doing it sooner or later — once you entered a given rank bracket, you had to fill every individual stat point in that bracket to the same rank.

As expected of a Nano Warrior class, the base stats carried a lot of weight. And now the almighty Status Window was about to spell out those base stat values in concrete detail.