It was early dawn, yet the Neutral Zone's first-floor plaza was still packed with people. Ever since everyone’s classes had ‘awakened’, missions became that much more doable. Likewise, the survival rate had improved greatly as well.

Before the Awakening, not many dared to attempt 'Normal' difficulty missions. But now, as long as the party's composition was well thought out, such missions could be cleared without taking too much risk. One could even hear rumors floating around that a party had managed to successfully clear a 'Hard' mission.

There were three motivating factors that forced the survivors to become more proactive.

And those were 'succeed in more missions’, ‘earn more Survival points’, and then ‘purchase better abilities or equipment'. Everyone could see that they were visibly getting stronger through spending their SP, which led the survivors to be completely immersed in doing the missions.

One could say that this was like the famed Möbius strip; Cinzia had hit the bulls-eye on this one.

“Huaaam~.”

A man sitting inside the first floor's lounge area opened his mouth wide and yawned loudly. He licked his lips and surveyed his surroundings as if he was waiting for someone.

He lifted his head slightly when he heard the steady footsteps walking closer. His eyes grew a bit larger in anticipation as he looked up the staircase. But his curiosity lasted only for a brief second. He rested his chin on his elbow and disinterestedly studied the person who climbed down the staircase.

It was a young man holding a spear. Everyone knew who this guy was. The survivor sitting on the first spot, who also hogged all the spotlight after solo clearing a 'Hard' mission.

Of course, that was in the past. Two months had passed by since then, and now, people no longer thought of him as someone special.

The spear-wielding youth's actions barely made any sense. He didn't perform any real missions whatsoever. He only repeated the same basic training missions that yielded no rewards at all. It was only natural for everyone else to find his behavior rather odd.

Lots of rumor swirled around the youth and his unexplainable ways, but even that lasted only for a little while before dying down completely. As he wasn't getting in anyone's way, people lost interest. Add in the fact that he had plenty of Survival points to begin with, people understood that there was seemingly no reason for him to do anything.

The thoughts of the man in the lounge arrived here, and he withdrew his attention completely.

'What's so fun about running all the time, anyways? ….Huh?'

The man in the lounge suddenly realized there was a small change in the way the youth behaved today.

Normally, he'd rip the mission parchment...