Veyne walked into his dorm with a new headset that he had just bought with the last bit of his money.
It was kind of a waste to buy this when he already had a gaming pod in the office, but he wanted to avoid the office for a couple of days.
As he entered, he saw that all three of his roommates were already back, watching TV at a high volume.
He just nodded to them when the guy from his course said, "Dude, is everything okay? Jenny was asking about you."
Veyne paused when he heard his girlfriend's name. Yeah, how could he forget her? She went to the same college as him. Not thinking much of it, he just waved his hand. "Yeah, nothing to worry about."
The guy was about to ask more questions, but Veyne just walked to his room, acting like some heartbroken lover.
He loved talking to them about college, but he didn't have much time to waste.
He jumped onto his bed, put on the headset, and tapped the power button. It took a moment before a green light scanned his eyes.
[User registration confirmed. Logging in...]
[Welcome to the world of Apex Ascension.]
This time, he felt his body numbing, and everything blacked out.
The next second, he was inside the game, standing in one of the dark alleys of the city.
He dumped his equipment into his inventory and walked around the city, blending in with some of the mediocre new players.
Before the meeting, he started splitting all his resources into different NPC vaults, each with a unique method of access, while noting down all the methods onto multiple sheets.
These paper notes would be the ones he carried to the deal. It was kind of excessive, but it was an old habit he was used to.
After making all the arrangements, he walked to the meeting point and started waiting for the Kiyon guild member to show up.
While waiting, he thought about the earlier meeting.
It was kind of funny that the crystals he died for in his last life were nothing in Roonie's eyes.
It was pathetic. And what was even more pathetic was his current self.
He closed his eyes, and the scene of the meeting played in his mind.
Throughout the entire meeting, Roonie had never—not even once—called him by his name.
The whole time, Roonie had only referred to him as "guild master."
He must have looked like some new slave in those guys' eyes—a slave who walked toward them on their own.
Now that he thought about it, was there really any difference between him signing that slave contract in his last life and the deal he made today?
He kept replaying the meeting in his mind, and it hit him—he may have been reborn, but he was still acting the same as in his last life.
'Is this what they mean by once a slave, always a slave mentality?'
Veyne clenched his fist and stared at the artificial sky.
Out of everything, what he hated most about his past was the hiding.
It was the biggest regret of his past life.
Winning or losing was just part of the game, but he had always hidden his true self. All in the name of climbing higher. When in reality, he had sunk deeper and deeper.
He punched the nearby tree.
What was even more frustrating was that he had started on the same path as his past life.
'This won't do. I will not follow the same path. Not this time. I will not hide my true self-belief. This is the only thing I have left.'
"Fck it," Veyne screamed to the sky and started laughing. "Hahaha! I'm going to show this game who they're dealing with."
After everything, Veyne had already been on the verge of bursting out of his shell.
That meeting was just the trigger that started the process.
After the laughter came the tears, and then back to laughter.
He was no longer just a hopeful college student.
He was the silent madman who had already lived through his destruction—to the point of his death.
Why should he hide now?
Just to protect his current self?
"Fcking pathetic. Does it even matter if I go back to the sewers?"
There was a saying: the rats that used to live in the sewers never stayed inside homes for long. Nor did a man who had once lost everything fear losing things again.
The beast that had silently endured destruction had finally decided to come out.
Either he would destroy himself, or he would destroy the world around him.
But this time, it would all be on him.
Never—never again would he let others decide his fate.
Veyne opened his eyes.
Nothing had changed physically, but mentally, a new fire had been lit inside him.
…
Not long after all the realizations, he saw five people running in his direction, all wearing the silver bear Kiyon guild badge.
He just jumped down into the open, calmly waiting for them. No more hiding from the world.
Soon, the five of them arrived. One guy stepped forward and asked, "Limia Guild Master?"
Veyne took out his guild master vest and threw it at them. "Here."
All of them looked at the vest and then at each other. Not giving them much time to think, Veyne asked, "Where is Zack?"
One in the back smirked. "Guildmaster is busy, so he sent us."
Veyne tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Since when did that guy stop ignoring Roonie's commands?"
The moment they heard Roonie's name, all of them froze. They just kept looking at each other.
Veyne clicked his tongue. "Do you guys even have the stuff, or do I have to talk with Roonie again?"
Their leader panicked. "Wait, sir, we do have all the stuff."
Veyne just stared at them.
The real world was one thing, but inside the game, he wasn't even afraid of the entire Akinu guild, let alone these half-assed members.
Even in his current state, he could take all five of them with no problem.
He didn't care what Zack was planning since he never intended to entertain that guy. As for these guys, just the mention of his meeting with Roonie was enough to scare them.
Was he like them in his last life? Nah, he might have been worse.
He shook his head to clear his mind and waved to them. "Oh, give me the stuff."
The leader looked at the members for a second, and then all of them started taking out the minerals and crystals.
The amount was so massive that it took four members just to store them in their inventory, except for the leader, who was there to protect them.
Veyne picked out all the high-grade core crystals he needed to restore the parchment.
Just to be safe, he included a lot of minerals he didn't even need.
After filling his inventory to the brim with all the super high-grade crystals, there were still plenty of common and rare minerals left on the ground.
Not bothering with the leftovers, he took out the notes and tossed them to the team captain. "Here. Follow the instructions, and you can get everything."
The leader looked confused, but from the side, one member asked, "Ah, sir, what about those on the ground? Should we carry them for you?"
Veyne waved them off. "No need. Deal with them however you want."
All the Kiyon guild members' eyes sparkled at this, and they shouted, "Thank you, sir!"
He just looked back at the captain. "What about the guild badge?"
The captain took out a guild recruitment form with the silver bear badge.
Veyne read through the form and then signed it. It was a standard guild recruitment form.
The moment he signed, a notification popped up in front of him.
Ding!
[Player has become part of the Kiyon guild.]
The next moment, the guild badge disappeared from the team leader's hand and appeared inside his inventory.
Not wasting more time, he said, "Tell Zack I will join you guys in a week."
With that, he took an expensive teleportation tablet and crushed it.
Before the Kiyon members could react, he vanished, reappearing in a remote location on the opposite side of the city.
The only reason he used it was that his current wealth was going to disappear soon. There was no point in saving all this stuff.
Not bothering with those things anymore, he took the broken parchment and started placing one crystal after another on top of it.
In his last life, except for the few must-have crystals, he had used a lot of low-end crystals to fix this parchment.
But this time, he went with the best possible ones. Not sure if it would make a difference, but it was worth taking a chance.
He emptied his entire inventory until the parchment finally stopped absorbing the crystals.
The next moment, the parchment started glowing with a golden light, and a notification popped up in front of him.
Ding!
[The secret to an ancient being is discovered. A hidden class is detected. Do you want to change your class? (Yes/No)]
He wasted no time and tapped Yes.
Ding! Ding!
A red prompt appeared in front of him.
[Warning! Your current sword-wielding class does not align with the hidden class. To get the new class, you must start over. Do you want to continue? (Yes/No)]
Veyne took a deep breath. 'It is time to start over. ' He tapped yes with a sense of calmness.
The next moment, golden light engulfed him, blinding his vision.
But he could still hear the system's voice inside his head.
[Deleting current class… A new hidden class detected: Template Wilder. Character deletion in progress…]
He felt the familiar disintegration, and in the next second, he was floating in the dark space.
It took a moment before massive letters appeared in front of him.
[Welcome to the world of Apex Ascension.]