Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!

The morning arrived with the particular clarity that comes after a decision has been made and what remains is execution.

Lin Yi knocked on Wang Hao’s door at seven forty-five, earlier than Wang Hao typically appreciated being knocked on, and waited. There was movement inside, the specific sound of someone who had been awake for some time but had not yet committed to being fully functional, and then the door opened.

Wang Hao looked at him. He was holding a cup of water and wearing the expression of someone who had learned through experience that when Lin Yi appeared at his door before eight in the morning, something was about to be set in motion.

"Good morning," he said. "What’s happening."

"I registered a sect last night," Lin Yi said.

Wang Hao’s expression went through several things in quick succession. He landed on the one that was primarily excitement with a layer of I-knew-this-was-coming underneath it.

"Finally," he said.

"Are you joining?"

Wang Hao looked at him. "Brother Lin," he said. "You could have asked me that six weeks ago. The answer was yes six weeks ago. The answer is yes now." He stepped back from the door. "Come in. Tell me everything."

Lin Yi came in and sat at the desk while Wang Hao took the chair.

"Celestial Legion," Lin Yi said.

Wang Hao repeated the name quietly. "Celestial Legion." He looked at the ceiling for a moment. "That’s a good name. That’s a genuinely good name." He brought his gaze back down. "Current membership?"

"One. The registration hold expires tomorrow if I don’t complete minimum membership. I need two more."

Wang Hao put his cup down. "I’m exiting my current sect today. I’ll submit the application to Celestial Legion this morning." He paused. "You said two more. You only need me for one."

"I need you to find the third," Lin Yi said.

Wang Hao looked at him. "You want me to recruit."

"Yes."

"What are the criteria?"

Lin Yi looked at the window for a moment. "Someone who isn’t already committed elsewhere. Someone whose contribution to the sect is something other than what I can already do." He paused. "I don’t need more combat output at the founding stage. I need something that covers what I don’t have."

Wang Hao was quiet for a moment, thinking. "Academic performance," he said. "You’re strong in combat and your academics are good, but you’ve been working to close gaps in formation theory and dungeon mechanics specifically. Someone who covers theoretical knowledge at a level that fills those gaps." He looked at Lin Yi. "And not just as a support piece. Someone who actually understands the material."

"Yes," Lin Yi said.

"I might know someone," Wang Hao said. "Second year. She’s in the academic track, which at this academy means her written assessment scores are exceptional but her expedition clearance data is significantly lower than her ranking potential because she doesn’t have a combat class that produces strong solo output." He paused. "She’s not in a sect. I noticed that a few weeks ago when I was looking at the membership registry."

"Why isn’t she in one?"

"Because most sects at this level weight combat contribution heavily, and her class doesn’t produce the kind of expedition numbers that makes sect leaders prioritize her." Wang Hao tilted his head slightly. "Which is short-sighted. Her academic scores are high enough that she’d push any sect’s academic component rankings significantly. But most sect leaders here are combat-focused students who judge value by expedition clearance data first."

"What’s her name?"

"Shen Rou," Wang Hao said. "B-Rank Archivist class. Second year."

Lin Yi filed the name. B-Rank Archivist was a class he had seen in the academy’s class registry but not encountered in person. Archivists were rare because the class required a specific type of awakening that didn’t correlate with combat aptitude in the conventional way. What it produced instead was an almost photographic integration of studied material into applicable knowledge, the ability to recall and implement complex theoretical frameworks under field conditions at a speed that was genuinely unusual. In dungeon environments where formation mechanics and monster behavior analysis were relevant, an Archivist operating at high academic level was worth more than most hunters gave the class credit for.

"Talk to her," Lin Yi said. "Don’t tell her whose sect she’s joining until she’s agreed in principle."

Wang Hao raised an eyebrow. "You want to withhold that information?"

"I want to see if she’ll agree on the merit of the offer," Lin Yi said. "If she agrees because it’s my sect, that tells me one thing. If she agrees because the structure is sound, that tells me something more useful."

Wang Hao thought about it. "That’s a reasonable test," he said. "Though she’s going to find out immediately when she sees the registration."

"That’s fine," Lin Yi said. "The sequence matters, not the duration."

Wang Hao nodded slowly. "Okay. I’ll talk to her today. Where do I find her?"

"You said you noticed her on the membership registry. You know enough about her to know she’s unaffiliated. You’ve been here long enough to know the building’s daily patterns." Lin Yi looked at him. "You’ll find her."

Wang Hao grinned. "This is a recruitment mission," he said. "I’m actually excited about this." He picked his cup back up. "Leave it to me."

After that, Lin Yi submitted the sect registration update on his datapad, confirming that the founding member slot was held and that one pending member application was incoming. He spent the rest of the morning in his room reviewing the dungeon mechanics practical preparation materials that Instructor Fang had distributed the previous day.

By mid-afternoon, Wang Hao had sent him a message.

...

Wang Hao: Found her. Talked to her. She’s interested.

Wang Hao: I told her it was a new sect, first year founding, focused on building from the ground up with a long-term competitive structure. Told her we specifically wanted someone whose academic strength covered the theoretical gaps in the founding membership.

Wang Hao: She asked if the sect was serious about competing for top rank or just for participation credit

Wang Hao: I said completely serious

Wang Hao: She asked who the founding member was

Wang Hao: I said I couldn’t tell her yet but she’d know when she accepted

Wang Hao: She looked at me for about ten seconds and then said fine

Wang Hao: Bringing her to meet you now. 4th floor common room?

Lin Yi: Fine.

...

He closed his datapad and walked to the fourth-floor common room, which was a shared study and meeting space used by students across year levels, with enough natural light and enough tables to make it a functional location for a conversation that wasn’t a formal meeting but wasn’t casual either.

He arrived first. He chose a table near the window and sat down.

Wang Hao arrived four minutes later with a girl he had not seen before, which was an accurate description for approximately five seconds because he had seen her before, on the academic ranking display that had been posted after the expedition results.

Shen Rou. Second year. B-Rank Archivist.

She had appeared on the combined first and second-year academic ranking at a position that was notably high relative to her overall ranking, which confirmed what Wang Hao had described. Strong theoretical performance, weaker expedition output, the exact gap that a combat-heavy evaluation system would undervalue.

She was average height, and wore her second-year uniform with the small Archivist class designation pin that most students in non-combat classes downplayed but she had placed visibly, which was either confidence or defiance or both. She was carrying a datapad under her arm, which he suspected she carried everywhere.

She looked at Lin Yi when she entered the room and stopped walking.

Wang Hao, half a step behind her, watched her stop and then watched her expression and then developed the expression of someone who was trying very hard to remain neutral.

"You’re the founding member," she said.

"Yes," Lin Yi said.

She looked at Wang Hao. "You said you couldn’t tell me."

"I technically didn’t tell you," Wang Hao said. "You’re seeing for yourself." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

She looked back at Lin Yi. Several things moved across her expression in sequence. Recognition, because his face was associated with the first-place ranking that had been on every student’s datapad for the past several days. Recalibration, because the person she had been building an expectation of in the past four minutes of walking here was now being replaced by this specific reality. And then something else, briefer, that she managed before it settled completely, a blush that rose slightly at the edges of her face and was gone before it fully arrived.

She straightened her posture deliberately.

"Shen Rou," she said. "Second year. B-Rank Archivist."