National Power-Class

"Yeah. This is the stuff."

The moment I got home, I tore into a piece of chicken gleaming gold. On any other day I would have gone with the regular order, but today was special — so I'd splurged on a full combo.

"Man, a beer would make this perfect."

Unfortunately, I didn't have an ID, so beer was off the table. Try buying alcohol looking like this, and I'd get an earful about some brat trying to sneak a drink. That much was guaranteed.

"I'm already full, though..."

Maybe it was because my body had gotten smaller. I hadn't even finished half, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I was already stuffed.

Might as well put it away.

I wiped the grease off my hands as best I could and stuffed the leftover chicken in the fridge.

"Time to see what people are saying."

I'd deliberately avoided checking anything on the way home. The whole world was going to be talking about me anyway — I wanted to let the reactions pile up and take them in all at once.

Heart pounding a little, I started with the news.

"Pretty much what I expected."

The world's first S+ rank, plus a brand-new Nightmare difficulty. Every headline in existence was plastered with stories about me. A little swell of pride rose in my chest — but I couldn't afford to get cocky. The second the truth came out, public opinion would flip in a heartbeat.

"Let's check the Gallery too."

I'd seen enough news. The Gallery chatter would probably run along the same lines, but I was more curious about that anyway. If the news had a slightly polished flavor, the Gallery was rawer. Unfiltered.

I opened the Hunter Gallery — the board with more hunter talk than anywhere else — and sure enough, posts about me were pouring in like they had something to prove. I started with the one that had the most upvotes and worked my way down.

What, is this person a prophet? How did they know I was eating chicken...

A little chill ran down my spine. A criminal, though. So that's the kind of misunderstanding you get when you don't come forward.

Not that I had any intention of announcing I was Vivi. The downsides outweighed the upsides by a mile.

At first, the commenters were right — the Association would throw support at me without holding anything back. But the moment I took it, I'd have to start raiding gates. And I'd wondered: would gate monsters show True Names too?

I'd looked up gate raid footage in the taxi on the way home, turning that question over. Unfortunately, gate monsters didn't display True Names at all. Meaning True Names existed only for the monsters inside the Tower.

Well. I could see their names, at least...

Right. The names were visible. But seeing a name was not the same as seeing a True Name. If that sounds like splitting hairs, it isn't — there were none of those bizarre pronunciations the Tower monsters had. I can understand and wield every language there is, so I knew exactly what that difference meant.

I couldn't issue commands to gate monsters the way I could to Tower ones. They didn't have True Names in the first place.

"Shame, honestly."

If I could command gate monsters too, I really could have been Nation-class — beyond S-rank, just like the Gallery said. And if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that were the case, I wouldn't be hiding my identity like this.

Or would I? It'd still be pretty dangerous, wouldn't it?

Monsters aren't the only threat hunters have to worry about. There are plenty of people who come out swinging with no regard for anyone, like China's Overlord. It's rare, but hunters do end up fighting each other — and when they do, it almost always happens inside a gate.

"What's the point of being invincible against monsters if I'm helpless against people?"

I could hunt monsters all day and it wouldn't matter. To someone like the Overlord, I'd be a one-punch job. No way I was going to show off and throw away the life I'd only just gotten.

"Yeah. I'll just stay hidden like this."

I'd seen enough of the Gallery. I was about to boot up a game when it hit me.

Oh, right. The random box.

I'd gotten one for clearing the first floor. And I still need to use the Skill Enhancement Ticket, too.

I'd turned that over a lot on the taxi ride home — where to spend it. Use it on Blessing of Health, and it felt like it'd lean toward poison immunity or mental resistance. Use it on Divine Eye, and the side effects might ease up, or the window of future-sight might stretch a little longer. Resonance of All Things, I couldn't even guess.

Maybe I just don't have enough imagination.

What was even left to improve? I could already wield every language and interpret every script. Talk to animals that can't speak? Sure, something like that could come out of it.

Lame.

Not worth burning the ticket on when I had other options. So I went with Blessing of Health. I wanted to push Divine Eye's performance a little further, I really did — but safety came first.

The moment the difficulty became Nightmare, strategy guides stopped meaning anything. The monsters that showed up were different from the start. What if the next stage opened with poison? I'd be dead before I could even call a True Name. Enhancing it was no guarantee I'd get poison immunity, of course. But if I built it up early, something in that neighborhood might come out of it.

I used the Skill Enhancement Ticket without hesitation.

The skill enhanced just fine. The problem was the direction it went.

"Huh?"

I'd upgraded it to keep my own body safe, and what I got was a skill for healing other people. Don't get me wrong — it's an incredibly good skill. It just wasn't what I'd wanted.

I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠planning to stay in my room. What was I supposed to do with a skill that cured other people's diseases?

Do I have to change careers to a doctor...?

Unlicensed hunter physician. Who is now extremely good at treating people. Yeah... that sounded like a great way to get arrested. A doctor who could cure every disease in existence.

I'm a decent person, but that didn't mean I was about to roll up my sleeves and go around healing the masses. I had enough trouble looking after myself. If someone sick was standing right in front of me, sure, I'd treat them. Gladly. But that was as far as it went.

Should've just used it on Divine Eye.

Spilled milk, though. I'd pick up more Skill Enhancement Tickets as I climbed, and if I kept using them, poison immunity or mental resistance would turn up eventually.

I set the disappointment aside and checked the random box.

"Synthesize?"

I'd been about to just open it when I noticed a synthesize function.

"Wait, if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that's how it works..."

Then I was synthesizing, no question. It was labeled low-grade — cracking it now wasn't going to spit out anything good. Better to keep combining them and open one higher-grade box instead.

If I save up and make a highest-grade box or something, whatever comes out of it would sell for a fortune.

Heh... I was already getting excited thinking about the money. Of course, if the item was too good to sell, I'd keep it for myself.

Which reminded me.

I need to sell the mana stones too.

The standard route was to register as a hunter and sell them to the Association, but I couldn't register, so that was off the table. I already had another path in mind, though.

Clearing the first floor had unlocked a Tower-exclusive community function. The so-called Tower Gallery — TowerGal for short. I'd known it existed for a while. Apparently it used to be an extremely secretive community, but there were so many hunters now that even the general public knew about it. And it had an auction house. That was how I planned to sell the mana stones.

I pulled up my status window and logged into the Tower Gallery.

The nickname had been set automatically to the name I'd taken in the Tower. I couldn't change it even if I wanted to.

"Alright. Let's sell some mana stones."

I was about to open the trade category when I noticed something in the corner of the screen — an absurd number of messages.

"Huh? What is this..."

I had never received this many messages in my life. This many had come in just while I was eating chicken?

I opened the inbox.

A flood of contact requests poured in.

Holy shit. These are all heavyweights.

The Windheaven Guild Master ran Korea's second-ranked guild. The Sword Emperor was America's number one hunter and the third-strongest in the world. I'd pushed him down to fourth by setting a new floor 1 record, but that was only a matter of records.

The Flame Emperor and the Overlord needed no introduction — Korea's number one and China's number one, respectively. And that wasn't even counting the rest. Messages had come in from the Director of Japan's Hunter Agency, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Hunters, the President of the Korea Hunter Association, and giants from every country besides.

The problem was this:

"Everyone's being friendly. Why is the Overlord the only one coming at me hostile?"

Having the world's strongest hunter take that tone was enough to make me a little nervous. Then another message arrived.

"Ah, shit! The read receipts vanish too?!"

Looks like I'd been marked by the strongest person in the world.