The SSS Talent That Wasn't Supposed to Exist

THE F-CLASS WHO SAVED THEM

Midday sunlight cut through the thin smoke rising from the ruins of Campus III. The sirens of ambulances and the Hunter Guild's tactical fleet wailed outside the perimeter, parting the tightly drawn yellow-and-black police tape. On the parking lot pavement, a dozen students sat limply on emergency folding cots, draped in silver heat-reflective foil blankets.

Arka stood near an ambulance, letting a paramedic dab alcohol onto a small scratch on his arm. The cold, stinging sensation from the wound was the only thing anchoring him to reality after the sudden mana fatigue that clouded his head.

Around him, the silence gave way to a turbulent wave of whispers. Student phone screens glowed brightly, displaying short, covertly recorded video clips taken from inside the hall during the incident. The video had already spread rapidly across the campus internal forum and local social media, with hashtags quickly trending toward the top.

"Did you see the video? Did that F-Class guy, Arka, really make the monster wander off?"

"Nah, it was probably just a coincidence. Insect-type monsters often lose focus when their mana waves suddenly drop anyway."

"But how come it happened right as he said that? Even Rendy, an S-Class Flame Sovereign, ran straight to the bunker."

"Pure luck. His Talent is still Storyteller, a trash F-Class. As if a storyteller Talent could beat a monster? The monster just happened to be blind, or its brain glitched."

Several combat-type Talent users standing nearby threw contemptuous glances toward Arka. Their wounded pride—from being saved by an F-Class—drove them to collectively rationalize the event as "sheer luck." To them, accepting that an F-Class had controlled the situation was far more painful than attributing the incident to a ridiculous coincidence.

Arka listened to all the ridicule without looking up from the tips of his shoes. He didn't reply, nor did he feel the need to defend himself. Their doubt and rejection were precisely the variables he needed right now: the more people viewed his Talent as harmless, the safer he was from the scrutiny of the Hunter authorities.

Yet, behind his calm face, a cold anxiety slowly crept into Arka's chest.

Secretly, Arka summoned his private interface.

Status.

A dull blue translucent panel floated into view. This time, however, the display was no longer smooth. Rows of static lines, like signal interference, continuously cut through the text on his screen.

[Name: Arka Pratama] [Talent: Storyteller (F-Class)] [Mana Core: ##ERR--DATA_LOST##] [Active Skill: Narrative Influence (Lvl. #ERROR#)] [System Memory: 0x000F4B2 -- Corrupted]

Arka furrowed his brow behind his glasses. Data lost?

Not only was his status glitched, but every time he used Storyteller to bend reality—like convincing Budi about the archive door or forcing over a dozen people to believe the monster was blind—the system seemed forced to operate beyond its core design capacity. It was as if the system attached to the human body was not designed to accommodate or process the algorithm of his Talent.

An F-Class Talent never corrupts system data structures, Arka thought sharply. This isn't just a weak F-Class. This is something forced into existence and labeled 'F-Class' because the system itself lacks a category to contain it.

"Arka."

The cold, clear voice interrupted his train of thought. Arka looked up to find Elena standing a few paces in front of him. The silver-haired student had cleaned the dust from her face, but her sharp eyes stared at Arka with unusual intensity. An invisible distance of hesitation lingered between them.

"Elena," Arka greeted flatly. "How are your injuries?"

"I'm fine," Elena cut in quickly. She stepped closer, stopping right before Arka. The air between them suddenly grew tense.

Elena looked straight into Arka's eyes. At this close range, her pupils slowly shifted into a pure, shimmering gold—a sign that her S-Class Talent, Truth Seeker, was fully activated.

Ever since the incident under the stairs, Elena's mind had found no peace. As the possessor of Truth Seeker, her life's duty was to dissect truth. She could see mana flows, read whether someone was lying, and even break down the basic stats of allies and enemies alike. Yet when that monster turned its head earlier, Elena had witnessed with her own eyes how reality was bent by Arka's words.

She had to know. She had to read Arka's status with her own eyes.

Truth Seeker: Target Inspection — Arka Pratama, Elena commanded in her mind.

In Elena's mind, a translucent golden window would normally open instantly, laying out every detail about the target—from mana capacity and Talent rank to hidden weaknesses.

However, in the very next second, Elena's pupils trembled violently.

The golden light in her eyes suddenly dimmed, fracturing into painful bursts of miniature flashes. In her vision, Arka's figure was no longer covered by transparent rows of data. Instead, a dense, void darkness stretched around him, and a dull red system window popped up with rigid text:

[Target Analysis Failed.] [Reason: Unable to Determine.] [Truth Seeker is Restricted from Accessing Subject's Core Narrative.]

Elena's eyes widened, and she took a step back from the recoil of her own mana shockwave. A drop of cold sweat beaded at her temple.

Since awakening Truth Seeker, she had tested its capability on top-tier professors, A-Rank Hunters, and ancient artifacts from dimensional rifts. Her system always provided an answer, no matter how small. Even if a target was vastly stronger than her, the system would at least display a 'Level Too High' message.

But this? Unable to Determine. Impossible to identify. It was as though Arka's existence lay outside the boundaries of the information laws dictated by the system itself.

Arka noticed the sudden pallor on Elena's face. He adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, hiding the sharp glint in his eyes behind the lens reflection.

"Is something wrong, Elena?" Arka asked softly, his tone relaxed as if nothing had happened.

Elena stared at the F-Class youth before her, her breath hitched. The mocking laughter of other Talent users around them still echoed faintly, ridiculing Arka as a useless guy who just got lucky. But Elena knew for a fact—they were all sleeping in the presence of a threat or mystery far more terrifying than any monster that had ever crawled out of a dimensional rift.