The SSS Talent That Wasn't Supposed to Exist

THE FIRST MONSTER

Shattered window glass and concrete debris scattered as the ancient insect monster whipped its metallic spiked tail. A pungent stench of sulfur burned through the air. Amidst the thick smoke billowing in the main hall of Campus III, fear paralyzed all logic. The freshmen, who had only awakened their Talents a few hours ago, ran aimlessly, colliding with one another and screaming in hysteria.

"Attack! Use your magic!" a pale-faced youth screamed at his friend.

A student with a B-Class Talent summoned a fireball in his palm. However, his fingers trembled so violently that the mass of fire spiraled out of control, sparking wildly and only scorching the lecture hall curtains in front of him without touching the monster. In another corner, a defense-type Talent user tried to block a strike from the giant claws, but his mana wall cracked in a single hit, launching him backward into a concrete pillar.

They possessed power, but lacked battle experience. In a life-or-death situation, uncontrolled power was nothing more than a liability.

"Fall back! Stay out of its claw range!"

A clear, firm voice cut through the chaos. Elena—a silver-haired student holding the S-Class Talent Truth Seeker—stood at the front in a battle-ready stance. Faint golden light glowed in both of her pupils, indicating her ability was working at full capacity to dissect the structure of reality before her.

As the possessor of Truth Seeker, Elena could read lies, mana flows, and the weak points of any target. Yet, her temples were now drenched in cold sweat. Her breath came in ragged gasps.

"Impossible..." Elena whispered, her eyes widening as she stared at the monster. "Its weak point keeps shifting... Its mana flow is completely random! The system can't read the patterns of a creature from an unregistered rift!"

GROAAR!

The monster roared fiercely, releasing a sonic shockwave that shattered the remaining glass into dust. Its six pairs of red eyes quivered wildly, sweeping across the entire room. Its giant claws raised, ready to crush a group of students cornered under the stairs—including an exhausted Elena and Arka, who stood calmly behind the debris of a table.

Elena tried to summon her mana aura again, but her body was locked by the monster's intimidating pressure. "Run... quick!" she shouted hoarsely.

Yet, amidst the mass hysteria, Arka did not panic. His thin glasses reflected the monster's movements. From the start of the attack, his brilliant mind had recorded every tiny detail: how the creature's red eyes blinked not based on the direction of sound, but on every movement of an object passing in front of it. When a student ran, the monster's eyes locked on instantly. But when a flower vase fell with no one nearby, the creature didn't even turn its head.

Movement-based vision, Arka thought quickly. This creature's perception system works like a position-change radar.

A scenario immediately took shape in his mind. Arka stepped forward once from behind the table, standing directly in the monster's field of vision.

"The monster can't see people who remain still," Arka said in a decisive tone.

A moment of silence followed. The monster continued crawling forward, its metallic claws closing in on the group of students beneath the stairs.

There was no reaction from his Talent. The system panel in the corner of Arka's eye remained dormant.

Arka clicked his tongue softly. Failed. No one believes it. In the eyes of people scared out of their wits, the words of an F-Class student in the middle of a monster rampage were dismissed as nothing more than background noise or panicked nonsense.

Arka took a deep breath, strengthening his tone to sound like an indisputable, absolute scientific fact.

"Look at its eyes!" Arka shouted, pointing his index finger at the monster's head. "It has a compound eye structure without focal pupils! It doesn't respond to the sound of smoke bombs or your screams—it only chases targets that move! As long as you stop moving, its physical perception can't process your existence!"

That structured, logical analysis hit Elena's mind first. As the holder of Truth Seeker, her instincts automatically processed Arka's words. Her golden eyes blinked rapidly as she cross-referenced Arka's statement with her own visual memory.

His analysis... is 100% logical! Elena thought, stunned.

Elena froze on the spot, halting all body movement and holding her breath. "He's right! Stop moving! Now!" Elena screamed to the surrounding students before turning completely motionless like a statue.

One person believed: Elena.

A student next to Elena, seeing the S-Class user suddenly turn into a statue, held his breath as well and pressed his back against the wall.

Two people believed.

"R-really?" whispered a female student nearby, swayed by Elena's conviction. She too froze.

Three. Five. Ten.

Within seconds, the wave of belief spread rapidly like a mental infection. The belief that "remaining still means being invisible" crept in and dominated the minds of over a dozen students cornered under the stairs. The collective conviction peaked, condensing a single narrative into a new law within the room.

BZZZZT!

The system panel in the corner of Arka's eye exploded into a blinding golden radiance.

[Narrative Influence: Maximized] [Rule Imposed: Visual Blindness to Stationary Targets] [Rewriting Local Reality...]

Something terrifying and absurd occurred.

The giant insect monster suddenly halted its claws just inches away from Elena's head. Its six pairs of red eyes, which had been quivering viciously, suddenly spun around in confusion. The creature sniffed the air, shook its head left and right, and then... stepped backward.

In the monster's eyes, the dozens of humans filling the corner of the staircase had suddenly vanished into thin air from its reality, as though they had become part of the wall and the empty void.

All the frozen students held their breath, their eyes wide open. They witnessed with their own eyes how the cold-blooded killing monster walked right past them, as if traversing an empty room.

Elena slowly turned her head, staring at Arka, who stood a few meters away. Her golden glowing pupils trembled violently. Through her Truth Seeker ability, Elena didn't just see the monster turning blind... she saw golden threads of mana, like strings of fate, stretching from Arka's mouth, grasping and bending the perception of everyone in the room, including the monster itself.

"What..." Elena whispered in a trembling voice, her gaze locked onto the F-Class youth before her. "What did you just do, Arka?"

Arka stood rigid in place, staring at his own system panel, which flickered wildly and displayed lines of transparent error codes. He clenched his cold, trembling hands into fists.

Even he... had never imagined the impact of his Talent would be this terrifying.