MY SYSTEM LOADS 10 SECONDS LATE

Chapter 6: The weight of an A-Rank

Chapter 6: The Weight of an A-Rank

The air inside the colosseum chamber grew suffocatingly dense.

It wasn't the heat from the dead Calamity Beast's collapsed core that made the oxygen feel scarce—it was the raw, unadulterated mana radiating from Captain Robert, the leader of the Iron Vanguard's primary strike force. As an A-Rank Elite, Robert's presence was a physical weight. The ambient magical pressure caused the loose pebbles on the ground to vibrate, humming a low, threatening note.

Behind Robert, ten elite hunters stood in a flawless semi-circle, their weapons drawn but lowered, their eyes darting between the colossal, frozen corpse of the Level 120 Crypt Weaver and Jaxen Vane.

"Repeat that, Garret," Captain Robert said. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a deep resonance that echoed off the damp stone walls. He didn't look at his crippled subordinate. His sharp, amber eyes remained locked entirely on Jaxen. "You're saying an E-Rank scout—a non-combat utility hire—cleared an Abyssal mutated sub-boss?"

"I saw it with my own eyes, Captain!" Garret bellowed, his voice cracking with a mixture of pain and manic desperation. He was clutching his purple, bloated leg, kneeling on the rubble. "He didn't just clear it! He knew exactly where it would land. He knew the exact height of its sonic blade! He tricked me into stepping on the pressure plate earlier, and then he used Lana's magic like a puppet master to pierce the core! He's been playing us for fools, hiding his real rank to infiltrate our guild raids!"

In the modern world of hunter syndicates, hiding one's true power evaluation wasn't just frowned upon—it was considered a high-level criminal offense. Guilds operated like massive, multi-billion-dollar military corporations. A hidden variable inside a high-stakes dungeon was viewed as an assassination risk or an industrial spy.

Robert took a step forward, his golden runic boots clicking sharply against the stone. "Your status plate, kid. Hand it over."

Jaxen didn't move. His hand still rested casually on the hilt of the iron broadsword embedded deep in the spider's chest. Internally, however, his mind was operating at a speed he had never experienced before.

The 37 levels he had just gained weren't just abstract numbers; they were a physical revolution happening inside his biology. His heart beat with a slow, powerful rhythm, pumping highly refined mana through his newly expanded pathways. His vision had sharpened to a terrifying degree. He could see the micro-fluctuations of mana pooling around Robert's sun-blade. He could see the tension in the vanguard knights' shoulders.

Before he spoke, Jaxen glanced at the translucent, golden interface floating in his peripheral vision, invisible to everyone else.

```

[REGISTRATION COMPLETE: EX-Rank Chrono-Anomaly]

[Current Level: 42]

[Unallocated Stat Points: 185]

[Chrono-Store: Unlocked (100 Chrono-Shards Available)]

```

*One hundred and eighty-five unallocated points,* Jaxen thought, a surge of adrenaline washing through him. If he dumped all of those into his physical attributes right now, his body would visibly mutate and adapt in seconds, a dead giveaway to an A-Rank hunter. He had to play this incredibly smart.

"Captain Robert," Vice-Captain Lana interrupted, her voice shaking as she stepped between the elite squad and Jaxen. She was still pale, her midnight-blue robes covered in dust. "Garret is letting his incompetence cloud his judgment. Vance didn't hide his rank. His status plate is genuinely E-Rank. I monitored his mana output through the entire raid—he didn't display a single drop of high-tier combat mana until the very final strike."

Robert paused, his gaze shifting slightly to Lana. "Then how do you explain a Level 120 Calamity Beast lying dead at his feet, Lana? A standard S-Rank vanguard team should have been wiped out in seconds by a mutation of this scale."

"It was a chain of anomalies and absolute tactical genius," Lana argued, her analytical mind trying to rationalize the impossible events she had just witnessed. "Vance possesses an incredibly rare passive perception trait. He noticed a micro-vibration in the structural mana of the room before the ceiling collapsed. He predicted the boss's attack pattern based on pure environmental observation. He didn't overpower the beast, Captain. He used its own charging momentum against it, blinding its secondary eye and leaving a physical conduit for my *[Glacial Spike]* to pierce its internal defenses. The final blow was an implosion caused by grounding the core with a heavy iron blade. It was a one-in-a-million structural collapse."

Jaxen quietly let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. *Good,* he thought. *Let her rationalize it. Let her think I'm just a hyper-observant savant.* On W******l platforms, letting secondary characters explain away your miracles was the ultimate shield against premature exposure.

Robert looked back at Jaxen, the heavy pressure easing just a fraction. "A tactical savant? An E-Rank scout with a broken combat compass who can out-calculate a B-Rank raid squad?" He extended his gloved hand again. "I still need to see the plate, Vance. Guild protocol for a Level Mutated Event dictates an immediate audit of all surviving personnel."

Jaxen slowly reached into his leather vest and pulled out a small, rectangular silver token—his official Hunter's Association identification plate. He tossed it across the distance.

Robert caught it flawlessly, pressing his thumb against the embedded mana crystal. A faint blue projection flickered into the air between them.

```

[HUNTER ID: Jaxen Vane]

[Rank: E-Rank (Utility/Scout)]

[Class: Unawakened / Basic Scout]

[Mana Core Capacity: 120 (Standard Civilian Range)]

```

The projection was accurate because the world's standard System hadn't updated his profile yet. The golden Chrono-System that had overwritten his soul existed outside the jurisdiction of the global hunter database. To Robert's device, Jaxen was still just a bottom-tier nobody.

Robert stared at the screen for a long moment, his brow furrowing. "The mana capacity reading is completely flat. There is no hidden core. There are no signs of illegal prosthetic amplification or restricted potion consumption." He closed the projection and looked up, his amber eyes narrowing. "Which means Lana is right. You didn't use power. You used an exploit in the dungeon's physics engine."

"I just wanted to live, Captain," Jaxen said, his voice perfectly steady, carrying a calm, cold edge that didn't match an E-Rank hunter's typical demeanor. "The Iron Vanguard team leader pushed me into a fatal trap corridor to clear a path. When I survived by sheer luck, he tried to use me as a human shield again when the boss dropped. I didn't exploit the dungeon. I exploited the fact that your vanguard team was too busy panicking to notice the monster's blind spots."

Robert's gaze snapped toward Garret, his expression instantly turning ice-cold. "Garret. Did you use an contracted utility hire as intentional trap bait?"

Garret's face drained of color, his sweat-soaked hair matting against his forehead. "Captain, it's standard procedure for high-risk zones! He's just an E-Rank! His contract explicitly states—"

"Our contract explicitly states that utility hires are for reconnaissance, not intentional sacrifice," Robert interrupted, his voice dropping into a dangerous octave. "The Iron Vanguard is a Tier-1 Subsidiary of the Dawn Horizon Corporation. If the Hunter's Association finds out we are burning through low-rank citizens to save a fraction of our frontline budget, our stock valuation drops, and our dungeon raiding licenses get audited. You're stripped of your vanguard leadership, Garret. You'll be lucky if the legal team doesn't feed you to the corporate penal mines."

"Captain! No! I—" Garret tried to crawl forward, but two of the elite white-armored knights stepped forward, unceremoniously grabbing him by his armored pauldrons and dragging him away toward the entrance. His screams of protest faded down the long stone corridor.

Jaxen watched the display with an inner coldness. This was the reality of the modern world. It wasn't just a fantasy setting; it was a hyper-capitalist corporate landscape where human lives were weighed against corporate stock portfolios and public relations campaigns.

Robert turned his attention back to Jaxen, his expression shifting into something calculating. "Vance. A man with your level of perception and situational calmness shouldn't be wasting away as a five-dollar-an-hour scout. The Dawn Horizon Corporation appreciates... unique assets."

*Here it comes,* Jaxen thought. *The recruitment hook.*

"We are currently preparing to launch an elite training initiative at the New York Hunter Academy's advanced tactical division," Robert continued, tapping his fingers against the pommel of his sun-blade. "An E-Rank with the ability to see through an Abyssal Boss's attack patterns is a marketing miracle. I can offer you a full corporate sponsorship. We will wipe away your sister's medical debts, provide you with top-tier training resources, and assign you to an elite corporate squad. In exchange, your exclusive raiding rights will belong to the Dawn Horizon Corporation for the next ten years."

A ten-year corporate contract. To any ordinary E-Rank hunter, this was the equivalent of winning the lottery. It meant safety, wealth, and a guaranteed future.

But Jaxen knew better. A ten-year contract meant his unique Chrono-System would eventually be discovered under their constant laboratory testing and behavioral monitoring. He would go from being an expendable scout to a heavily guarded corporate lab rat, forced to rewind time to maximize profit margins for billionaires.

"I appreciate the offer, Captain Robert," Jaxen said, slowly stepping away from the Crypt Weaver's corpse. "But I think I've had enough of corporate raid squads for one day. I'll take my standard completion payout and my leave."

The elite knights behind Robert instantly tensed, their hands twitching toward their weapons. No one rejected a Tier-1 corporate sponsorship to their face.

Robert raised a hand, signaling his men to stand down. A dangerous, amused smile played on his lips. "You have spine, kid. I'll give you that. But remember this: the dungeons are expanding. The world outside these gates is getting more brutal by the day. Without a corporate shield, an unawakened nobody with a high perception trait is just a juicy target for rival syndicates."

Robert tossed the silver status plate back to Jaxen. "Your completion payout will be wired to your account by midnight. Take your leave. But don't think this is the last time the Dawn Horizon Corporation will look for you."

Jaxen caught the plate, slid it into his vest, and gave a brief, polite nod. He didn't look back as he walked past the elite squad, his boots stepping over the rubble and out through the shattered colosseum doors.

As he walked down the long, dimly lit exit corridor of the S-Rank dungeon, the heavy stone gate slowly grinding open to reveal the bright, neon-lit skyline of the modern metropolis above, Jaxen finally let out a long breath.

The golden text of his system flickered to life before his eyes once more, answering his unspoken question.

```

[SYSTEM NOTICE: You have safely exited the Combat Zone.]

[Chrono-Store initialized. Current available categories:]

1. Stat Point Multipliers (Cost: 50 Shards)

2. Temporal Skill Books (Cost: 100 Shards)

3. Chrono-Guns & Armaments (Cost: 150 Shards)

[Warning: The Host's current physical vessel is too weak to sustain a Level 42 Mana Core long-term. Please allocate your 185 Stat Points within the next 30 minutes to prevent cellular degradation.]

```

Jaxen looked out at t

he towering skyscraper of the Dawn Horizon Corporation dominating the city skyline, its holographic advertisements flashing in the twilight air.

"Allocate the stats," Jaxen whispered to the empty air. "Let's see what an EX-Rank really feels like."