[WHAT THE HELL! Why did my skill go from B Rank to D Rank???]
[-Bro, did you not read the posts about Relativity of Ranks?]
[-That’s normal. Well, sucks for you though, lol.]
[-Aren’t you the one who kept bragging about having a B-Rank skill?]
[-Holy shit. It happened to you too....]
Alex raised an eyebrow as he read through the replies. It seemed the drop in skills wasn’t unique to the poster, and everyone kept mentioning this Relativity of Ranks as if it explained everything. He scrolled down, hoping someone had posted the actual explanation.
The loading icon spun for several seconds before the page suddenly refreshed itself. Alex blinked at the screen, then realized the internet must have disconnected for a brief moment before reconnecting. He backed out to the main page, only for that to begin reloading as well.
"...Seriously?" he muttered.
With nothing else to do while waiting, Alex looked around the room. Mia was quietly eating from the neat bowl he had prepared for her earlier, while everyone else alternated between their food and their own phones. Every now and then, one of them stole a glance in his direction before pretending they hadn’t.
Alex wasn’t surprised. They were probably seeing the post of his Fire Bullet online, though after witnessing his stronger attacks in person, it wasn’t enough to leave them completely stunned.
He continued practicing Battle Instinct while eating, letting Blood Vitalization steadily restore the stamina he spent with each repetition. The new spell allowed him to train for longer duration.
Eventually, Tina looked at him across the table.
"So, how exactly is Hell Difficulty? And who are the people traveling with you?" Tina asked.
The others gradually stopped their conversations and turned their attention toward him.
Alex explained everything he had encountered since entering Hell Difficulty, describing the strong monsters, the constant danger, and the companions he had met along the way. However, he deliberately left out two things. One was just how many times he had nearly died, since there was no reason to make everyone worry more than they already were.
The second thing he hid was Emma.
There was absolutely no way he was telling them that he was traveling with the Emma Carter. His friends, like most people he knew, were huge fans of hers. Sophia, and Tina were her fanatics, in fact. His friends had even skipped sleep before the exam just to attend her concert last night.
If they found out she was with him, Alex already knew exactly how the rest of the conversation would go, and he had no interest in dealing with that right now. Ever since returning to Earth, he had naturally taken the lead because someone had to make decisions if they wanted to survive. At his core, though, he was still someone who preferred peace, quiet, and being left alone, so he wasn’t about to reveal Emma’s identity when it served no purpose.
Unfortunately, Tina was as sharp as ever. She narrowed her eyes slightly before asking,
"You went through your teammates pretty quickly. Is there someone you’re leaving out?" Tina asked.
Alex had barely opened his mouth when Dwitter finally finished loading, giving him the perfect excuse to avoid answering.
"Hold on. Something important just loaded. Let me check it before the internet decides to stop working again," he said, glancing at his phone.
Tina looked unconvinced, but she didn’t press the matter, allowing Alex to quietly escape the conversation.
Without wasting any time, Alex opened the first post that appeared on his feed. The connection was still unstable, so he wanted to read at least one useful post before the page refreshed again. Fortunately, the first thing that appeared seemed important enough to justify his excuse.
The post was written by [Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov], and its title immediately caught his attention.
[Beast Uprising, and Beast Monarchs]
Alex quickly began reading. According to the post, humans weren’t the only ones summoned to the Land of Origin by the System. Animals had also been taken there, and many of them had undergone changes, with their intelligence increasing to the level of humans or at least something close to it.
That meant some animals were now capable of planning, reasoning, and making decisions just like people. Combined with the instincts and physical abilities they already possessed, they would become far more dangerous than human ascendants.
The author of the post warned everyone to be extremely cautious because awakened animals would likely compete with humanity for resources in the apocalypse.
The next section speculated that intelligent beasts might even fight humans for ownership of Earth. Alex barely paid attention to that part because it wasn’t something he cared about right now. As long as his family had somewhere safe to live, it didn’t matter to him who technically owned the planet. Moreover, the entire goal of the apocalypse was to relocate to the Land of Origin, making ownership of the earth useless.
He continued reading until he reached the final section. According to the post, some animals had been specially chosen by the System as [Beast Monarchs], though almost nothing concrete was known about them yet.
The only thing people seemed certain of was that they were incredibly powerful and should be considered extremely dangerous.
Alex lowered his phone and looked toward Mia, who still had her face buried in the bowl while eating. Despite being a glutton, she somehow managed to eat with surprising elegance, barely spilling a single crumb. Sensing his gaze, the cat looked up at him for a brief moment before calmly returning to her meal.
’Did Mia also become a Pioneer?’ The thought surfaced in Alex’s mind almost immediately. Looking back, it did seem strange that Mia had been asleep on his back when he returned from the Land of Origin before falling off as soon as he sat up.
With how sharp her senses normally were, there was no way she should have slept through the chaos outside. The simplest explanation was that her consciousness had also been taken to the Land of Origin and had only returned moments after Alex did. He also couldn’t deny that Mia had become unusually intelligent for a cat.
..
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