Fang rubbed at his temples. “So, you followed a death line into the Catacombs — which you thought were the tunnels the orcs used — and got to the door that, supposedly, no one has ever opened before,” Fang said, closing his eyes, as if the idea itself was too painful. “And then you met Camille and obtained your Calamity powers.”

Aren nodded. “Yeah.” It was at least half-true. Maybe a quarter-true. Aren did not mention Deucalion, or the fact that Camille was an AGMI. It was not so much that Aren lied, but intentionally omitted important details.

They were alone. Nissa and Damien were scouting the ruins to make sure they were alone, and also looking for a place to turn into a temporary base. Luckily, no one has come to challenge their claim over Rakab yet, but then again, it has only been a few days. The sooner they were ready, the better their chances would be. Although, their chances would never be great.

What Exalt needed was a source of power that was decisive enough to turn the tides, but inconspicuous enough to not raise too many questions. Even Aren understood that their greatest weapon, and their greatest weakness, was the fact that some thought Aren was a returning professional player.

Aren understood the theory behind this. It was because Cassandra, who in real life was older than them, still managed to look similar to their age group. When non-citizens obtained citizenship, many of the features of Singularity also unlocked for them, requiring a new character.

Generally, creating a new character was not possible. There were only two ways, as far as anyone knew, to obtain a new character. Becoming a citizen, or being vanquished as a Calamity.

In their minds, Aren was likely a non-citizen player who was at the professional level, but was not allowed to compete in official arenas. There were two types of professionals in Singularity. There was the Yan Li type, that competed in official events, and then there were the people who led Alliances and Guilds to glory in the world of Singularity itself.

Aren, theoretically, appeared as the second type. A gifted non-citizen player who potentially made a deal with a big Alliance to obtain citizenship and join their professional team. No one wanted to mess with an Alliance that had enough power and influence in the real world to turn a non-citizen into a citizen.

“And this is your Calamity power?” Fang asked, pointing at the window in front of him which had a private message from Aren with a link to [Arcane Predator].

Once again, Aren nodded. “Yeah.”

“So this room where you met Camille was not a treasury or another dungeon,” Fang said. “Maybe it was an old beta shard.”

Aren looked up, twitching at the sound of the word shard. “What do you mean?”

Fang sat down on the smooth remains of a crumbled wall and crossed his arms. “You said that from within the room, you couldn’t access Singularity,” Fang said. “Sure, it could be a dimensional prison of some sort, but why?”

Aren chuckled awkwardly. It was a forced chuckle. He didn’t feel like laughing. He narrowed his eyes, as if to transmit the idea into Fang’s mind to not pursue this line of questioning further.

“Camille joined the clan without an invitation,” Fang said. “That only makes me think of a Quest giver of some sort. And the reason no one ever managed to open the door was because it was an inaccessible place — from a time when the Singularity system itself didn’t exist.”

Aren pondered the words. “A beta shard?”

Fang nodded. “Like a test Mind-Construct,” Fang said. “You would generally make a small fragment of the finished thing to see what the whole thing would look like. Maybe that room was never intended to be seen.”

Aren sighed inwardly in relief, and then nodded, going along with the very wrong theory. “But because of Aurora’s Blessing…” Aren trailed off, letting the unspoken meaning linger in the air.

Fang snapped his fingers. “And Camille is likely a creature from those times as well. She probably doesn’t operate on interfaces and permissions. Did she mention a quest or why she joined?”

Aren sucked his lips between his teeth. She did, in a way. She wanted to help him find and rescue Priscilla. But Aren, after his blunder with the Lightning Blade skill set, kept this quest a secret from his group, and intended to do so for as long as it was feasible. It was the one thing he was not allowed to share with anyone.

“Doesn’t really matter,” Fang said after a moment. “I doubt we can complete a quest like that anyway. It is probably in another inaccessible place. As long as there is no failure condition, your blessing should be fine.”

Fang stood up from the broken wall and then said. “I want to share this with the clan, are you okay with that?”

Aren swallowed. “Is that really a good idea? They will know what I am.”

Fang chuckled. “Aren, everyone in the clan knows or suspects what you are,” he said. “We are not stupid.”

Aren chuckled awkwardly, again. Even Estella, who was with the group for the least amount of time, had already figured it out.

“Don’t feel bad,” Fang said. “You didn’t really do anything wrong or too obvious. You have a unique skill set, after all. But when you put it all together, it makes sense. It is as if the world is looking out for you, and generating events. Your blessings, the Lightning Riders, our interaction with the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Aren nodded. He understood what Fang meant. As a Calamity, Aren would generate events but this could also be interpreted as the LAGI of Singularity generating events for him. And because he was an Apocalyptic-class Calamity, these events would be very noticeable. One of his Calamity types was Overt, even. Meaning that he was never intended to secretly obtain power.

Considering Luna’s blessing, and the failure condition that Luna would reveal his status and location to the world, Aren could only come to one conclusion. His fate had already been decided. One day, the entire world of Singularity would likely hunt him.

Strategically speaking, Aren could not afford to hide his status from his allies or potential allies. Provided that this is what Overt meant. Maybe it was just a description that his powers themselves were overt and not his status.

Either way, Aren had to make allies. Alone, he would fall. Maybe he underestimated the power of AGMI — he surely did — but he wasn’t sure if he could survive alone even with Leviathan. Purely hypothetically speaking, if Luna revealed his status right now, top Alliances would probably appear within an hour — thousands of adventurers. Could Leviathan really find a way out of that situation? Despite feeling that this would be an impossible scenario, he still had a suspicion that Leviathan would somehow make it work. Then again, AGMI were god-like entities. If something like that did happen, would it really be against Leviathan's wishes or also a part of the grand strategy?

Either way, there was no reason for Aren not to do anything in his power to obtain his goal. Allies could be both a boon and a curse. Even so, what would he be if he didn't take risks? Would he really be deserving of reaching for unattainable ideals, if he could not allow himself to trust his own friends? He would rather die betrayed than mercilessly slaughtered, surrounded, and alone.

“Besides,” Fang said. “What do you think becoming an officer of a clan led by a Calamity looks like?”

“What do you mean?” Aren asked.

“Singularity straight up tells you that if you agree to make the clan official, that you become a special character with special mechanics,” Fang explained. He waved his hand. “Sure, you can think of it as being a special sort of fame, or accepting that you are now a sort of public figure, and potentially the target of pvp. But when you put it all together, it makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Aren nodded.

“But then, if you pull up information on what special means, it tells you that our fates are now intertwined,” Fang said. “To me, that is a dead giveaway. Basically, it means that if you die and lose your Calamity status, we would probably also suffer, and potentially lose our characters too.”

Aren blinked. “Really?”

Fang shrugged. “That is probably what it means. In theory, as long as we do not know what you are, we should be fine, but I think that ship has sailed. We have to help you now.”

Aren bit his lower lip. “I am sorry.”

Fang laughed. “What? It’s no big deal. No one knows how this really works. We just have to make it count. If you can reach Calamity Rank G, it will be more than worth it. The rewards should set us up for success when we roll up new characters.”

Aren raised his eyebrow. “Rank… G?”

Fang nodded. “You are Rank E, right?”

Aren smiled. “I am rank… I.”

A breeze blew through the area. The ivy on the walls swayed, and particles of crumbling stone and dust danced on the wind. For a long moment, Fang just stared thoroughly dumb-founded by what Aren had just said.

Tears welled up in Fang’s eyes. The scream Fang released before he jumped at Aren was not something a human could reproduce, or so Aren would’ve thought if he hadn’t heard it come from Fang.

The two toppled onto the ground, and Fang hugged Aren and rolled around, screaming with glee. Obviously, he was trying to vocalize words, but they came out as nothing more than screams of pure joy.

Nissa suddenly stormed into the area, trailing flickerings of arcane light. She had probably just returned from patrol when she heard Fang’s scream. She saw Fang and she must’ve thought that Fang was trying to shield Aren with his body. She prepared her bow and yelled, “Are we under attack?”

Fang finally stopped rolling and kissed Aren on the top of his head, then he laughed maniacally.

Nissa lowered her bow, staring at Fang, clearly confused by what was happening. Fang was usually stoic and did not show much emotion — unless one of his plans came to fruition in which case he would laugh in much the same way he was laughing now.

Fang put both hands on Aren’s head and shook him wildly, laughing as hard as he could. When Aren realized the eastern warrior might go for another kiss, the lightning blade began squirming away.

“What the… what is going on?” Nissa demanded, seeing the scene unfold before her eyes.

Fang finally relaxed and sighed, wiping tears from his eyes.

Aren laughed. He didn’t expect to wrestle a warrior class. “So, it is a good thing, right?” Aren asked, ignoring Nissa’s question for now.

Fang breathed heavily, having almost suffocated himself to death with how hard he laughed. He swayed, as if light-headed. “A good thing…?” Fang repeated. “You saved us. Everything we ever wanted…” he trailed off and sighed.

Nissa approached carefully. “Hey…” she whispered uncertainly. “What are you talking about? I want to know.”

Fang looked at Nissa and grinned monstrously from ear to ear. He pointed a finger at Aren. “This guy…” he said. “He is Calamity Rank I.”

Nissa’s bow clattered on the floor and soon after she herself fell to her knees, eyes wide open. “Rank… I?” She rubbed her cheek with the flat of her palm and blinked, as if unable to comprehend the words. “Oh fffffff-uck.”

Fang’s eyes glimmered, tears of joy catching a glimpse of the sun. “Oh fuck indeed!” he proclaimed.

Nissa lifted her eyes to the heavens and sighed. “Oh you beautiful devil,” she whispered and then focused her gaze on Aren. She went towards him, on all fours, and when she reached him she threw both arms around his neck and hugged him. “Oh you son of a… I love you. I would let you marry me,” she whispered into his ear.

“I am marrying him first,” Fang said and hugged both of them.

“Rank I!” Nissa gasped. “Sim Pods, flying transports, a trip to Eden-1,” she began listing things that such a high rank would possibly make available to them.

“Education,” Fang added. “Penthouse apartments.”

“Can we really get all that?” Aren asked, struggling to speak with how tightly the both of them were squeezing him in their hugs.

Nissa snorted. “Can we?” Then she laughed. “Forget Singularity, we could probably retire at sixteen.”

Fang chuckled. “Retiring is probably a bit too much,” he said.

Nissa stared at Fang, wide-eyed. “He was rank E a week ago! A week from now, he could be rank K at this rate.”

Fang’s jaw dropped and he stared at Aren with a drunken expression. “Rank K…” Fang ran a hand through his hair. “We have to get your rank higher, Aren!”

Nissa nodded vehemently. “If we share the rewards with everyone in the clan now, we could still probably come out ahead. But if we raise Aren’s rank…”

Aren licked his lips and smiled. “You guys want to see how far we can go in this world?”

Fang sat back down, next to Aren, and nodded. “We have nothing to worry about now,” he said, his tone distorted by happiness. “Forward is the only way we can go now.”

Nissa nodded. “Singularity will fear Exalt. We will become legends.”

Fang smiled and looked at the sky. “Our life — our fame — has just begun.”