Everyone in the escort team fell into deep thought. Their mission had almost certainly failed by this point — too many of their brothers had been lost, and among the refugees who had survived until now, only one person remained. Ever since their manpower had dwindled to merely a few dozen people, they had no longer dared to hope that they could complete the mission they had been assigned. After all, teams were being dispatched one after another; some were lucky enough to rescue dozens or even hundreds of people, while others returned empty-handed, or even sacrificed close comrades. In these chaotic times, that was simply an ordinary occurrence. For low-ranking soldiers like them, their only goal was to squeeze their way into higher-level squads in order to obtain more resources and strengthen themselves.
But at this moment, no one had the heart to think about those things anymore. Simply being able to stay alive and continue moving forward was already an extravagant luxury. Monsters were growing stronger and stronger, and with the need to guard against the prying eyes of other races as well, it could be said that low-level humans had to endure extremely brutal hardships just to survive.
-"Everyone, if you don't mind, could I join you as well?"
A sudden voice came from behind, startling everyone. The person who had spoken was none other than the sole survivor rescued a week ago.
-"Hey, everyone, are you listening to me? Can I join?"
-"Who are you, and why do you want to join? And what's with that look in your eyes?" Chen Luo had noticed long ago that something was unusual about the other person's gaze. If there had been other refugees around and everyone had not been gathered here, that abnormality in his eyes could easily have disappeared into the silence, and Chen Luo would never have noticed it.
-"Calm down, big brother. I don't mean any harm. If I did, I would have attacked the moment you found us." The person standing before Chen Luo shrugged innocently. Being suspected seemed to be something he was already accustomed to; judging by that calm reaction, it was obvious this had happened many times before. "Anyway, can I join you? I'm Anthony Hayate, and my profession is Marksman Assassin (Archer and Assassin). But I advise you to give your real names. You'd better stop using such clumsy aliases."
The soldiers froze. They had never expected that this group of young people had been using fake names to communicate with them all this time, yet their coordination and teamwork remained astonishingly high. Not only that, being exposed for such clumsy disguises right to their faces left the soldiers stunned. Strangely enough, despite being exposed so directly, Chen Luo showed no excessive reaction, making everyone feel as though they had just been played for a fool. However, using aliases in these times was nothing unusual; if they had easily revealed their true identities from the beginning, that would have been the strange thing.
-"I really didn't expect us to get exposed after all. How boring!" Aaron sighed in complaint. "Can't blame us, though. How could we possibly use these fake names as skillfully as Big Brother does?"
-"Indeed, we're still not very good at this game of hiding things. After all, we're more used to calling each other by our real names." Celes spoke with the helpless tone of an elder sister.
-"Then I won't hide it anymore either." Chen Luo raised both hands in a gesture of surrender. This time, he stopped concealing the truth and directly reintroduced himself and his companions: "This time, let me formally introduce myself. I'm Chen Luo, an Unclassed Wanderer. Little Wolf is Chris, a Semi-Professional Assassin. This kid is Aaron, a Beast Fighter. These two sisters are Celes and Mana — Celes is a Swordsman, while Mana is a Magic Swordsman. Finally..." Chen Luo pulled Alice over beside him: "...this is Alice, the Healer of the entire team."
After hearing Chen Luo's introduction, most of those present were startled. It was not because Alice was a Healer, nor because Chris was a Semi-Professional Assassin. What shocked them most was Chen Luo — he was actually an Unclassed Wanderer. The fact left everyone wide-eyed, especially Galahad. He understood all too well what the four words "Unclassed Wanderer" meant. Other than lunatics or people who had completely failed to awaken a profession, no one would voluntarily choose this profession.
The other children and Anthony also stared wide-eyed at Chen Luo. They could not believe that this extremely powerful Big Brother standing before them was actually an Unclassed Wanderer. They understood that although Chen Luo might be overwhelmingly powerful right now, his path of future development could be said to have been completely cut off.
*Whoosh!*
A sharp sound of something slicing through the air rang out. Chen Luo did not panic; his hand moved like lightning and firmly caught the incoming arrow, then immediately hurled it back along its original path. *Thud!* The arrow plunged straight into the head of a nearby skeleton monster, causing its skull to burst apart on the spot.
This move left Anthony dumbfounded. He recognized the technique — although it was not a skill granted by the system, it was an extremely difficult practical combat technique. It required astonishing reflexes, speed, and arm strength; otherwise, one could only block or catch an object, not hurl it back with enough force to inflict damage like this. The suspicion in Anthony's eyes completely disappeared, and he relaxed his body. It seemed he had bet on the right person this time.
-"System, open the status panel."
-"Command received. Opening status panel."
An interface filled with blue light appeared before Chen Luo, and detailed information quickly became clearly visible.
-------- Status Panel --------
Name: Chen Luo | Age: 17
Level: 21 (7364/37910 EXP)
Role: NPC | Faction: None | Title: Unequipped
Profession: Unclassed Wanderer (Permanently Locked)
Reputation Points: 300 | Prestige Points: 10
Core Stats:
Attack Damage (Physical Damage): 129
Magic Damage (Magic Damage): 66
HP (Health): 98.9
Mana (Energy): 1550
Crit Rate (Critical Hit Rate): 1.8%
Crit DMG (Critical Damage): 310%
Agility (Movement Technique / Movement Speed): 409
Piercing (Physical Penetration): 66 | 0%
Magic Piercing (Magic Penetration): 36 | 0%
Att Speed (Attack Speed): 5 (1%/200%)
Armor (Armor): 36
Magic Armor (Magic Resistance): 50
Effect Resistance (Effect Resistance): 0%
Cooldown (Cooldown Reduction): 0%
Lifesteal (Physical Lifesteal): 0 | 0.07%
Magic Lifesteal (Magic Lifesteal): 0 | 0.03%
Auto Regen HP (Automatic HP Recovery): 24.5/s
Auto Regen Mana (Automatic Mana Recovery): 5/s
Basic Attributes:
Strength (Strength): 50
Stamina (Constitution): 80
Intelligence (Intelligence): 25
Knowledge (Knowledge): 40
Brave (Courage): 15
Ingenious (Dexterity / Creativity): 51
Luck (Luck): 5
Resilience (Determination / Endurance): 47
Free Attribute Points: 200(+80)
Unallocated Random Attribute Points: 40
Skill Points: 25(+25)
Potential Points: 45
Looking at his current status panel, Chen Luo realized that it was time to distribute the attribute points he had accumulated for so long. If he continued hoarding them without increasing his actual strength, sooner or later he would pay a heavy price.
-"System, activate all random attributes."
-"Command received. All attribute points have been allocated. Since the points have been evenly distributed among multiple attributes, please check the status panel directly."
Looking over the changes on the stat panel, Chen Luo decided to go all in. If he had not misjudged his abilities earlier and ended up in a passive position, he would not have needed to rush into allocating points like this.
-"System, continue increasing them for me: 15 points of AD, 10 points of Agility, 10 points of Physical Penetration, 30 points of Armor, 15 points of Magic Resistance, 30 points of Intelligence, 30 points of Courage, and 10 points of Critical Hit Rate."
-"Command received. Allocating attributes... Allocation successful. Keep working hard, Host."
As soon as the allocation command was completed, Chen Luo's entire body suddenly erupted with a dazzling seven-colored radiance, causing everyone around him to cry out in astonishment.
Anthony's eyes were now filled with bitterness. He realized that he had completely underestimated the person before him. He had been proud of his powers of observation and calculation, yet he had failed to anticipate these variables that existed beyond the rules — for someone as arrogant as Anthony, this was nothing short of humiliation.
-"Good grief, you've hidden your cards pretty well, young man!"
Galahad stepped forward and slapped Chen Luo firmly on the shoulder, almost making him cough. But once Chen Luo regained his composure, all he saw was Galahad's brilliant smile and an exuberant voice that made him want to dodge a little:
-"Then, let's continue the journey together, li~ttle~ boy~~~"