I stumbled backward, my hand still gripping the pendant around my neck. The thing was burning—no, not burning. Resonating. Like it had been asleep for years and finally woke up.
"What the—" I gasped, staring at my arms.
Black lines were spreading across my skin. Not ink. Not blood. Something deeper. The lines twisted and curled, forming shapes I recognized but couldn't name. Card shapes. Numbers appeared in the center of each one.
[SYSTEM]
Class Acquired: [Classless]
Rank: Noob Lv.1 → Noob Lv.2
Class Bonus: +3 Skill Slots
Tattoos Formed:
- Born Tattoo (1 slots) → Activated
- Class Tattoo (3 slots) → Activated
Skill Slots: 1/4
New Skill: [Multiskill Lv.Max] (Cheat Skill)
Passive Effect: Can learn ANY Common card (any tier) and ANY Tier 0 (Beyond) card regardless of restrictions
My legs gave out. I hit the cold stone floor hard, but I didn't feel it. Couldn't feel anything except the roaring in my skull.
Classless.
Multiskill.
The words kept echoing. I'd heard stories about Classless cards. Everyone had. They were myths. Legends. The kind of cards that supposedly didn't exist because the system itself rejected the concept of being classless.
And I had one.
And everyone out there was trying to kill me for it.
I forced myself to breathe. In. Out. The dungeon walls were cracking now, the whole structure shaking like it was dying with its core. I needed to move. Now.
But first—I looked at my arms again. The tattoos were still there, those black card-shapes etched into my flesh like they'd always been there. The Born Tattoo showed a single slot, empty. The Class Tattoo displayed three slots, also empty.
Three slots. Three skills I could learn right now.
The Multiskill passive let me learn anything from the Common pool. And Tier 0 skills too, if I could find them.
I laughed. It came out broken and疯狂. Tier 0 skills were beyond legendary. The kind of stuff that made emperors kneel. And I could theoretically learn any of them—if I could get my hands on the cards.
But right now, I had nothing. No skills. No weapons. Just three empty slots and a whole dungeon full of people who wanted me dead.
The shaking intensified. Dust fell from the ceiling in little showers.
Move, Dere. MOVE.
I pushed myself up, ignoring the trembling in my legs. The pendant was still warm against my chest, but the resonance had faded. Whatever my family had been hiding all these years—whatever they'd died protecting—it had just changed my entire existence.
I ran.
The corridors were empty now. Earlier, they'd been packed with players fighting each other, trading blows and spells and desperate desperate desperate attacks. Now? Ghost town. The dungeon was collapsing, its core destroyed, and everyone with half a brain had fled.
I wasn't sure which direction led out. The dungeon had shifted when I'd touched the core—twisted and reorganized like a living maze. So I just ran. Fast as I could. My stats were garbage—5 STR, 5 AGI, 5 VIT—but Adrenaline was doing weird things to my body.
I rounded a corner and almost crashed into a wall of muscle.
"Oh, fuck."
The man was huge. Not just big—huge. Like someone had taken a regular human and stretched him on a meat hook. His arms were thicker than my waist, and his face... there wasn't much of a face left. Just scars and teeth and cold, calculating eyes.
He was staring at me like I was a particularly tasty steak.
"The kid with the Classless card," he rumbled. His voice was like gravel scraping against bone. "Found you."
I backpedaled so fast I tripped over my own feet and crashed onto my ass.
"Listen," I stammered, "I don't even know how to use it yet. I'm just a Noob. Lv.1—well, Lv.2 now, but still! I don't even have any skills! You want the card so bad? Take it. I don't know how to give it to you, but take it—"
"Shut up."
He took a step forward. The floor cracked beneath his boot.
"Classless changes everything," he said. "You understand that? The system doesn't allow classless. Hasn't for a thousand years. And now there's a kid running around with it? The factions will tear this world apart trying to get you."
"Not my problem!" I scrambled backward, my heart slamming against my ribs. "I just wanted to get a card! I was supposed to get one card and go home!"
"You'll come with me. Quietly. Or I'll carry you. Either way—"
Something exploded behind him.
We both turned. The corridor we'd just run through was gone—collapsed into a mountain of rubble. But emerging from the dust and debris were figures. Dozens of them. Wearing different colors, different crests.
Oh no.
"Noob," the huge man growled, "how many people saw you touch the core?"
I couldn't answer. My throat had closed up.
Because there were armies coming down that corridor. And they were all looking at me.
I did the only thing I could think of.
I screamed and ran the other way.
Behind me, all hell broke loose. Shouts. Crashes. The thunder of dozens of people engaging in combat all at once. I didn't look back. Couldn't. I just ran, legs pumping, lungs burning, praying to whatever gods were listening that I wouldn't die in this shithole of a dungeon.
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The pendant was burning again. Hotter this time. Hot enough to leave a mark.
What the hell is this thing?
I rounded another corner—and stopped dead.
There was a door in front of me. A simple wooden door, completely out of place in a stone dungeon. It was slightly ajar, and light was streaming from the gap. Golden light. Warm and inviting.
I didn't believe in signs from the universe. But this... this felt like something.
I pushed the door open.
Inside was a small room. Empty except for a pedestal in the center. And on that pedestal...
A card.
It was black. Not dark gray or midnight blue—black, like the absence of light. And it had no suit. No number. Just a single word etched into its surface in silver script:
[DRAW]
I stared at it. My tattoo slots pulsed in response, all three of them aching like they were hungry.
The door slammed shut behind me.
"You have got to be kidding me," I whispered.
The card was cold when I touched it. Not unpleasant—just cold, like holding a piece of winter in my palm.
[SYSTEM]
Card Acquired: [Draw] (???)
Rarity: ??? | Tier: ???
Skill Slots Required: 1
Effect: ??? (Requires binding to determine)
I didn't know what the card did. I didn't know what tier it was, what rarity, what anything. But those three question marks were calling to me. Begging me to take the risk.
One slot, I thought. I have three. And Multiskill says I can learn ANY Common card, any tier. This might be my only chance.
I pressed the card against my Class Tattoo.
It dissolved into my skin.
[SYSTEM]
Card Bound: [Draw]
Slot Used: 1/3
New Skill Acquired: [Draw Lv.1]
[Draw Lv.1]: Open a spatial rift to randomly summon ONE card from any tier or rarity. Card quality increases with skill level.
Cooldown: 24 hours (decreases with level)
I felt it then. The power flooding through me. It wasn't like muscles or strength—it was potential. Infinite potential. Like I was holding a door to every card that had ever existed or would ever exist.
And then the ceiling collapsed.
I woke up coughing dust, covered in rubble, in a hole that used to be the dungeon.
The sky was visible above me—gray and overcast, but sky. I'd been thrown free when the whole structure exploded. My body hurt in places I didn't know could hurt. But I was alive.
I'm alive.
I looked at my arms. The tattoos were still there, burning with faint light. Two slots open. One skill active.
[Draw Lv.1.]
I could feel it, coiled like a snake in my chest. Ready to strike. Ready to summon.
The adrenaline was fading. Reality was crashing back. Somewhere out there, armies were fighting over who got to capture me. My family was dead, killed protecting this pendant. And I had no idea how to use any of this.
But I had power now.
I had options.
I pulled myself out of the rubble, stood on shaking legs, and looked toward the horizon. Somewhere out there were answers. Card shops. Libraries. People who knew about Classless and Tier 0 and whatever the hell [Draw] actually was.
I needed to get stronger. Fast.
My hand closed around the pendant. It was cool again, almost dormant. But I knew—knew—it was watching. Waiting. My family's legacy wasn't just this little thing around my neck.
It was me.
"Okay," I breathed. "Okay. First step: find somewhere safe. Learn what I can do. Then—"
I didn't get to finish.
Because the ground moved.
Not an earthquake. Not a tremor. Something beneath the earth, rising up. I stumbled back, watching in horror as a massive shape broke through the soil about fifty meters away.
It was a card.
The size of a building. Floating in the air, spinning slowly, radiating pressure that made my bones ache. It had no suit, no number—just a single symbol in the center.
A spade.
[SKULL CARD: ACTIVE]
What.
THE.
FUCK.
The giant card turned, its "face" pointing directly at me. And in that moment, I understood nothing about what was happening except one thing:
It wasn't over.
Not even close.