The startled hunters scrambled back.

  “Are you… throwing that away?” one of them asked, his voice cracking.

  Shane understood why they were confused. To them, it probably looked like he was tossing a fortune on the floor.

  After all, even if he couldn’t equip high-rank items himself, he could still sell them for a decent price. The market value alone would be enough to set a lower-ranked hunter up for life.

  If they were real, anyway.

  These gear all had time limits on how long you could wield them, and since the event was finished, all the perks were useless now.

  He stepped over the pile of junk, picked up the empty chest, and shoved it into his inventory.

  Henry was the first to snap out of it, throwing an arm out to hold the other hunters back.

  “Uh… should we pick these up for you?”

  Shane stared at him. What?

  Unlike the rest of the group, Henry ignored the loot scattered on the floor. His eyes were locked on Shane.

  Wasn’t he trying to bait Josh Miller and the others into suspecting Shane’s humanity minutes ago? Why the sudden shift in attitude?

  Perhaps he thought Shane was giving out freebies and wanted to get on his good side.

  Well, too bad. The only way to unlock the real reward from this dungeon was to take the empty chest and leave everything else behind. If Shane took even one of the items or some sort of monster loot, the duplication glitch wouldn’t work.

  Henry was clearly getting the wrong idea about something.

  It wasn’t a big deal, so Shane let it go. He had zero intention of playing nice with the Wynn, anyway. Becoming tangled up with a major guild when he couldn’t even join them would only be a headache later.

  Josh subtly tried to slide into the conversation.

  “I’d really love to treat you to a meal sometime. Could you at least tell us your name? Your full name?”

  Shane could have simply ignored him, but experience taught him that silence, at times like this, only bred stupid nicknames behind his back. He placed one foot into the swirling blue of the exit portal before answering.

  “Shane Ashwell.”

  Then, he vanished.

  The second he materialized outside the dungeon, he spammed [Blink] to get the hell out of the area and put as much distance between himself and the portal as possible. Josh was probably furious that Shane bailed, but…

  He wouldn’t be able to find me anyway, so who cares?

  [Tutorial Quest]

  [Step 1: Obtain a weapon (Complete)]

  [New! Step 2: Register as a hunter]

  The System window updated.

  In this game, a hunter registration was basically the equivalent of a gun license. An Awakened with a [Human Appraisal] skill—usually a crafter that sold weapons—would measure the rank of an Awakened and issue a corresponding license. Without one, even entering a dungeon was illegal.

  The F-rank dungeon he’d cleared in the beginning had been poorly managed, allowing him to sneak in, but he couldn’t rely on loose security forever.

  The only problem was his stats.

  If he performed too well in raids, the Hunter’s Association would most likely flag him, since faking a rank was a felony in the game.

  He might be able to play it off as a ‘re-awakening’ or something, provided they didn’t try to re-appraise him. If that failed, he’d have to find a way to pull some strings from the inside.

  But that was a concern for another day. He wouldn’t have to worry about scrutiny until he broke into the top 100 rookie rankings.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  ***

  “Keep your eyes open. Don't blink,” the dealer grunted, leaning over the counter.

  Shane held perfectly still, while the [Appraisal] skill pried into his status.

  “All right, you're clear,” the dealer muttered, blinking the glow out of his pupils. “F- rank confirmed. That'll be three hundred dollars.”

  Shane handed over the money without a word.

  He’d been worried the man might try to [Appraise] his individual skills, since they were absurdly high for an F-rank. But the dealer’s own skill was evidently low-level, likely only reading the surface summary, so Shane got his hunter license with no problems.

  The dealer slid the plastic card across the counter, which Shane immediately shoved into his inventory. In the real world, physical cards were ancient history, so he didn’t feel comfortable carrying around what resembled a toy in his eyes.

  Not all Awakened were eligible for a hunter license, though. Some ranks were, what some people called, ‘trash-tier.’

  “Next!”

  Like the guy who’d been waiting in line behind Shane. A lanky man wearing cargo pants with too many pockets and a graphic t-shirt nervously stepped up.

  “I’m ready. Cash is right here.”

  The dealer didn't take the money. He squinted, his irises flashing a muddy blue. He stared at the customer's chest for three seconds, then snorted.

  “Is this a joke?” The dealer leaned back, the light fading from his gaze. “Get outta here.”

  “What? Why? I said I’ll pay.”

  “Because I see your loadout. Or the lack of it.” The dealer picked at his teeth, not even looking at the rejected man. “My eyes tell me you're sitting on two skills. Total. And neither is for killing.”

  “I... I am working on a third! I just need the license to enter the dungeon so I can unlock it!”

  “Yeah, and I can’t afford to lose my vendor permit when you get eaten by a slime five feet inside the gate.” The dealer jerked a thumb at the door. “Association rules are clear. Three skill slots filled, at least one offensive. Now go home, son. You’re holding up the line.”

  Shane watched the exchange impassively.

  Honestly, ‘trash-tier’ hardly seemed like a death sentence. It was arguably preferable to being an F-rank hunter drafted for every petty emergency.

  Also, even the weakest Awakened enjoyed stat perks that put them above normal humans. Why risk delving into dungeons?

  Of course, the guy being rejected probably didn’t see it that way.

  Curiosity getting the better of him, Shane glanced at the guy’s status window.

  [Age: 17]

  A minor?

  [Behavior Lock] clamped down on Shane’s expression before a scowl could form. He had strong opinions about child soldiers. Not that NPCs could count as one, but even seeing something similar in a reality simulation would make him uncomfortable.

  He checked the rest of the skills.

  An F-rank [Penance] skill that reduced his own stress by 10%. And an E-rank [Shield] skill that had a 5% chance to inflict a bleeding status effect on the person it was protecting.

  Yes, these were pretty useless.

  The kid probably didn’t want to be a real hunter anyway, just a porter who carried excess dungeon loot in their inventory for other hunters to make a living.

  However, the part that kept grating on Shane’s nerves was right at the top of the status screen.

  [Name: Henry Stone]

  Like the hunter from the Wynn Guild, the boy’s name was Henry Stone.

  Shane tried not to dwell on it. Maybe the game’s random generator for minor characters sometimes created duplicates.

  …He couldn’t be the character that betrayed humanity in the lore, though, could he?

  Racking his brain yielded nothing—clearly, he should’ve paid more attention to the backstories—so he made a mental note to at least check the wiki after logging out.

  The kid’s temper was obvious from how he slammed the door on his way out.

  Looked like he could use that [Penance] skill on himself right about now.

  [Congratulations, you have finished the tutorial for your transmigration!]

  A new pop-up appeared, announcing the end of the tutorial.

  [Quest Alert!]

  Defeat 100 of the assigned monster type daily.

  Time Remaining: 30 Days

  Daily Reward: Mana Stat +1

  Shane’s eyes lit up.

  The stat points he earned now would determine the difference between success and failure when the First Cataclysm hit.

  Perhaps he’d save his Daily Quest Skip Pass for later. If he grinded with monsters a bit, he might even be able unlock some of the achivements, too.

  He scrolled down to the target list.

  [Strange Stump (C-rank) x100]

  [Thorny Mushroom (B-rank) x100]

  [Blue Slime (B-rank) x100]

  [Evil Cyclops (B-rank) x100]

  …

  The list went on.

  Shane suddenly remembered all the forum threads filled with players raging about the random daily quests.

  He’d definitely gotten the bad roll this time.

  Aside from the Strange Stumps, all the monsters were a B-rank.

  He didn’t even have the heart to look further, but the scroll kept going down automatically. Shane suppressed a groan, his face remaining smooth by the [Behavior Lock].

  [Fire Spirit (A-rank) x100]

  [Android Alpha (A-rank) x100]

  [Inspectorbot (B-rank) x100]

  [Mithril Guardian (A-rank) x100]

  [Failed Test Subject (B-rank) x100]

  [Floating Menace (A-rank) x100]

  …

  The bottom of the list was even worse. He made the decision.

  “...Activate Daily Quest Skip Pass.”

  [Daily Quest Skip Pass activated.]

  [For 30 days, daily quests will be automatically completed every day.]

  [Daily reward: Mana stat +1]

  And now it was finally time to go home.

  He rolled his shoulders, craving his solitary bedroom and some actual sleep.

  As he walked back out onto the streets of New York, he passed steam rising from the manholes, which were illuminated by the neon signs of the busy avenue.

  He didn’t return to the studio apartment he’d rented. That place was only for when the avatar’s fatigue was low.

  The game world would freeze the moment he quit, so he could leave right here.

  He stepped off the sidewalk and leaned against a graffiti-covered brick wall just inside an alley so the NPCs wouldn’t bump into him while he brought up the menu.

  “Log out.”