Worldwide Class Change: Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward!

Shen Rou nodded. She picked up her cup again and held it with both hands, her eyes meeting his, and in that moment, and her posture settled into when the agenda portion of a conversation had ended and what remained was something less structured. She looked at the window.

"The sect has changed the academy’s dynamic significantly," she said. "I’ve been observing the response from other sects over the past month."

"What have you observed?"

"Crimson Vanguard has accelerated their activity schedule. Heavenly Sword Sect changed their expedition groupings. Three smaller sects dissolved and reformed with different membership, which I think is a response to seeing what a small high-performing sect can accomplish." She paused. "And there’s been a consistent pattern of people watching you specifically."

"I know," Lin Yi said.

She looked at him. "Does it bother you?"

He thought about the question. "No," he said.

"It would bother most people," she said. "Being watched constantly. Being the reference point that everyone else calibrates against."

She then looked at him for a moment. Something moved through her expression that she didn’t manage with her usual precision, possibly because she wasn’t trying to.

"You don’t let the past define limitations," she said. "But you use it for perspective."

"Yes," Lin Yi said.

She was quiet for a moment. Outside, the academy was becoming audible as the morning progressed, distant footsteps, voices, the specific background frequency of an institution with several hundred students beginning their day. She looked at her cup.

"The coffee is slightly different today," she said. "I adjusted the ratio. Last week’s version was accurate but I thought the balance could be improved."

Lin Yi looked at his cup. "It is better," he said.

She looked at him quickly, and the look lasted approximately half a second before she looked back at her cup. The blush that had appeared at the edges of her face on the first day she met him made a brief return. She cleared her throat.

"I’ll note the adjusted ratio," she said.

Lin Yi nodded in acknowledgement, and the morning light had fully arrived now, filling the room with the clear, direct illumination of the early hour. She sat in the chair by the terminal the way she had been sitting for a month of mornings, her datapad on her knee, her cup in both hands, the glasses on her face that she had started wearing three weeks ago after two words that he hadn’t thought about beyond facts when he said them.

She had thought about them. He understood this without needing it stated.

He was considering whether to say something about that understanding when both of their player panels, produced a notification sound simultaneously.

Then his datapad.

Then, through the wall, the muffled sound of Wang Hao’s datapad from three doors down.

The player panel notification was formatted differently, the border of the display window gold instead of the standard blue, the text inside larger than normal system text.

He read it.

She read it at the same time, her eyes moving across the text with the speed of someone processing quickly. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

[WORLDWIDE SYSTEM NOTICE]

[Sub-Class Awakening Dungeon Event — Activated]

Then, they grabbed their datapad, his on the desk and hers on her knee, and they read the academy notification.

A phenomenon of unprecedented classification has manifested simultaneously across all registered dimensional rift zones worldwide. All awakened hunters are hereby notified that a Sub-Class Awakening Dungeon Event is now active globally. This event type has a historical precedent in the registered dungeon classification database. But Duration and parameters are still largely skewed against hunters. All hunters are advised to receive additional briefing from their registered hunter organizations before engagement.

This notice has been distributed simultaneously to all registered hunter accounts worldwide.

It wasn’t an academy sent message, Lin Yi thought. This is definitely from the Awakening Bureau, and I’m sure this will have a connection to that celestial emperor mystery that I’m yet to solve to now. This world, it has been exactly five months since I came here, and the mysteries are still pilling up.

Another dungeon event, but this is available in any Dimensional rift that has been opened, so unlike the celestial abode manor dungeon event, it’s not located in any specific location.

Sub-Class Awakening.... Back in Jianghe academy, it was thought that classes can’t be changed, so what is this about awakening another class? But still, if a sub class is what I’m thinking it is, then, it may still not be considered changing a class completely, at least that’s what I’m getting at.

Shen Rou looked at the notification. Then at Lin Yi. Her expression was doing the thing it did when information had arrived that exceeded her prepared analytical framework and she was building a new one in real time.

"Sub-Class Awakening," she said.

"Yes," Lin Yi said.

"That classification barely exists in any of the academy’s dungeon databases," she said. "I’ve read the full database."

"I know," Lin Yi said.

She looked at the notification again. "Worldwide simultaneous activation," she said. "Every registered dimensional rift zone. Globally." She paused. "That has never happened."

From three doors down, Wang Hao’s voice was audible through the wall, not the words, just the tone, which was the tone he used when something had happened that exceeded his normal register for reaction.

Shen Rou looked at Lin Yi. "What does Sub-Class Awakening mean?"

Lin Yi looked at the notification on his datapad. He thought about the Celestial Emperor Note in his inventory. He thought about the girl on the thirty-third floor of the Dragon God Tower, sitting on the throne with her legs swinging, saying we’ll meet again. Very soon. He thought about the feeling that had accompanied that note since the first day he found it, the presence that was calm and ancient and boundless and did not press down but simply existed.

"I don’t know yet," he said.

He closed the notification and stood up.

"But we’re about to find out."