This is so annoying, I thought.

I had a comfortable life, as success was always easy for me. Whether it was the military, football or ladies, I had it all. Even if I had to use force or underhanded methods, everything was within my grasp.

I expected the same from the tutorial, yet that kid with the flames is proving to be an obstacle in my path.

My Class was only (Uncommon) compared to his, but I was special!

I only managed to rank sixth in the tutorial, which wasn’t up to my standard.

Why is the world being unfair out of nowhere? I thought.

Suddenly, a system notice appeared in front of me.

[?????????]

-Do you want power?

I didn’t know that the system could speak to people, or whoever it was that was trying to reach me.

‘Of course, I do,’ I tried to convey my thoughts ‘Who the hell are you? What do you want?’

[?????????]

-We can give you an opportunity. Whether you use it or not, however, is up to you.

-Crush your opponent in the second phase, and we’ll reward you handsomely outside of the tutorial.

-We’re sure you’ll like this chance, don’t miss it.

Who cares anyway, I thought. I’ll crush whoever I face. Other people are meant to be stepped on.

*

I took about an hour tinkering with my system screen, I even converted seven of the lesser mana stones that I had into [Shop] points. Each of them gave me ten points.

I was distracted by the voice of the fairy, whose name was Phillian.

“Alright! Attention please”, he said, clapping his small hands. “We’ll reveal the program of the duels in five seconds!”.

“You won’t be allowed to leave the safe room until it’s time for your battle.” Said Phaella.

After some time, a large system notice appeared on the wall to our left.

Battle One

Petra

vs

Taylor

Battle Two

Chris

vs

Jason

Battle Three

Rodrigo

vs

Leon

Battle Four

Xi Jiang

vs

Marla

Battle Five

Finn

vs

Zhou Ming

Huh? Why the hell am I fighting Chris instead of Marla?

I calmed down, since gathering information was my current plan. I tried to organize my thoughts to plan my next moves.

In my past life, I ranked last in points and I fought Marla. I won the fight without using my class and thus gained all of her points, she had more points back then because she participated in many dungeons’ runs with Chris.

The biggest change in my current life was the number of points that I obtained in the first phase. It could’ve been just the matchmaking algorithm which decided that I was too strong for Marla.

But that’s not how the world worked; my intuition was telling me that it was more than that.

I tried to think of the possible logic behind the matchmaking setup, but nothing came to mind. It was more like they tried to make them as unfair as possible, one of the fighters always had a considerable advantage.

Someone might’ve rigged the matchmaking process, that was a possible explanation. The fairies looked surprised when my class appeared out of nowhere, which was proof that this kind of occurrence was rare.

It was a (Legendary) class too, I thought.

I guessed that I caught someone’s attention. Either the fairies changed my opponent deliberately, or they had an order from a higher-up.

Both of these possibilities spelled trouble. If I decided to use my class in the fight, then there would be no difference between fighting Marla and Chris, as the result would be completely one-sided and I wouldn’t gain any tutorial points. However, Chris might destroy me if I go in without my class.

Whoever changed my opponent must be trying to hinder my growth, believing that I would be willing to fight anyone without my class in order to get the extra tutorial points.

Damn it, they knew me so well! I thought. A million tutorial points is nothing to scoff at!

Now that I knew about their intention of crushing me, I had to prepare for a dangerous possibility.

If the ones who orchestrated this whole thing contacted Chris already, then there was a decent chance of that scumbag going into the fight with his class.

Shit. . .

The chances of [Classless] Me winning against [Pugilist] Chris were close to zero.

That is, if I fought him fair-and-square.

I had to prepare some items, and make the plan carefully. I decided to let the matter rest for now, and observe the people around me for information, especially Chris.

The others were looking at their potential opponents sneakily, trying to gauge their intentions. Going into the fight without a class was the only way to profit. Facing a Class-ed person without a class was suicide.

I looked at Chris for a moment, only to find him staring at me with a disturbing facial expression.

He’s not surprised, I thought. He’s not afraid either.

I decided that preparing for the worst was going to be my best option for now, so I counted the funds that I had.

I had sixty lesser mana stones left and my current [Shop] points were 115, which weren’t enough to change the outcome of the battle on their own.

I need to confirm something, I thought. The system admin may have some information on this.

“I’d like to directly ask the system admin about something important.” I said in a low voice.

A system window appeared in front of me.

[System Admin]

Haha! Poor kid.

You’re in the middle of an ageless clash, and there is no one to blame except your petty existence.

You’re gonna have a bad time, I am thrilled to see how you handle this.

I don’t think I like this ‘system admin’, I thought. However, if they’re not lying, then it’s true that someone ordered the change of my opponent.

Now that my unknown enemies were playing dirty, I decided to stoop down to their level.

“Hey fairy-guy!” I said, “You said that using weapons was allowed, right?”

In fact, I knew the answer. Everyone was allowed to use weapons and consumable items, regardless of whether they fought using their class or not.

However, I needed a verbal confirmation, lest they went back on their word later on.

“Yes!” he replied, “It won’t change the result all that much, right?”

He was correct, if he assumed that I was talking about the items that one could buy from Vulpinus. They even banned us from going outside the safe room at this stage to prevent threats and blackmail.

But I had access to another shop, I thought.

I nodded and then went back to my usual spot. I opened the system shop and asked for the price of some items, I knew that my current funds should have been enough to buy them but I had to confirm.

Item

Cost

Khapta’s Hard-Brick (Common)

400 points

Bleeding Flask (Common)

100 points

Eye of the Hunter (Common)

180 points

[Khapta’s Hard-Brick]

(Common)

Khapta ruled the streets like an overlord, everyone feared him and his mysterious bricks!

This is a peculiar consumable item; it has no effects unless you hit the target using it to their head.

If the condition is satisfied, the target loses consciousness for ten minutes.

Warning: This item disappears after fulfilling its purpose.

[Bleeding Flask]

(Common)

A random alchemist stumbled upon this item’s recipe through sheer trial and error. He didn’t like his creation at first, but he liked the money that it brought him.

Sadly, he was one of the first victims of this potion. . .

This flask contains a potent brew, capable of causing its target the [Bleed] ailment.

It must be consumed orally.

[Eye of the Deprived Hunter]

(Common)

A certain hunter had it all; he could even steal other people’s kills without getting complaints from them.

However, he lost everything one day, except this incredible lens.

It looks like a regular lens, but it allows the user to have perfect aim on a single attack.

Warning: This item disappears after fulfilling its purpose.

The total cost of these items was 680 points. I had to convert fifty-eight of my lesser mana stones to points in order to be able to afford it.

Wasting most of my funds like this hurts a lot, I thought. But hoarding resources was a recipe for self-destruction.

I prepared all the items that I needed, and put them in the bag of holding. I decided to chat with Petra and the others for a while to pass time.

“Are you ready for your battle?” I asked Petra “I am sure your opponent won’t be easy to beat, if you went in without your class”.

She looked to be deep in thought when I started talking to her, but her facial expression changed a bit, she had an ugly smile now.

She seems to understand the meaning behind my words, I thought. I was trying to find out whether she’ll use her class or not.

In my past life, Petra was completely different. She almost never spoke to anyone, unless they approached her first. Her opponent in the second phase’s combat was Taylor, just like now. However, she gave up as soon as the battle started back then.

She didn’t even bother to convince Taylor to pay her for letting him win. As if she didn’t care about anything or anyone back then, she acted very cold. She even insisted on tackling the third phase of the tutorial alone, which caused her to respawn repeatedly. In the end, she became apathetic towards everything.

But now, she seems much more energetic.

She took some time before replying to my words “I don’t think winning without my class is possible at all, that’s why I’ll fight him using it.” She looked down before she added, “I think it’s better not to be greedy, and preserve my current tutorial points.”

She stared into my eyes, as if waiting for my input.

“That’s not a bad decision” I said. At least, it’s much better than giving up straight away.

I spent the rest of the time making small talk with the others, but none of them seemed enthusiastic.

It was about time for the battles to start when Phillian asked Petra and Taylor to get closer to him.

“You’re the first two combatants to fight” he said “Thus, I’ll explain some stuff. First of all, each one of you will be teleported to a random location in the surroundings. Second of all, the system will show you the current whereabouts of your opponent on a mini map.”

“The first part’s purpose is to give ranged classes an advantage, and the second one should prevent you from getting lost in the woods.” Added Phaella.

“You’ll get a system notice asking you about whether you’ll use your class or not, nod when you make your choice.” He told them.

Phillian waited for them to nod, before he touched each of their heads, which caused them to vanish from the room.

A large system screen suddenly appeared in front of us. It was separated into two sides, one showed Petra and the other showed Taylor. Each part of the screen had some information about the opponents themselves. Petra’s said that she used her class [Virtuoso], Whereas Taylor’ screen said that he didn’t use a class.

It should be an easy win for Petra, I thought. Even though she didn’t copy Finn’s skills yet, she still has the advantage of stats.

With the help of the maps, they found each other soon. Taylor brandished the basic sword that I bought him and rushed towards his opponent. She deflected the strike easily using a dagger, and then swiftly counter-attacked towards his chest. He seemed surprised for a moment, before he resigned himself to his fate.

He ended the fight by giving up, seemingly in fear of dying. He lost all of his tutorial points, yet she didn’t gain anything.

Soon, they returned alongside Phillian. I waved my hand at Petra and said, “Congratulations! A win is a win, no matter how you got it.”

“I kept my tutorial points, but that’s only because I used my class” she replied, then she looked at Taylor and added, “the classes are really powerful, a regular person is just too weak to face most classed people.”

I looked at him, his eyes were closed and his brows were furrowed. His friends kept some distance from him, apparently to help him deal with the loss.

The world really isn’t fair to unlucky people, I thought. I hope that fate has a different destiny for me.