"Well? How is it?"
Zarek strolled into Marx's office. He could already see the light in the latter's eyes, but he still asked the question with a casual flair.
It had been a day since they last saw one another. After waking up the night before last, Zarek went ahead and cleared the remaining Godsfall Tears in the region.
He knew that Marx would have figured it out by now, but he still let him sit with it for an extra day so he could really feel it.
"How did you know?"
Zarek smiled innocently. "Know what?"
"That it would be so useful to me? You couldn't possibly have known that."
"I couldn't? It's a Talent that's useful to anyone—if you know how to apply it properly. What separates the strong from the weak isn't their Skills or Talents, but their secondary and tertiary effects. This isn't a video game; it's the real world. You don't just have an ultimate you can spam that has one repeatable and predictable action and reaction every time you use it.
"The world can account for an infinite number of variables. It isn't restrained like the code of a video game is. Unless you can start grasping those variables, you'll never be able to take full advantage of your Talent."
Marx's eyes glowed as he looked at Zarek. He had been wondering all this time why Zarek was so powerful. Although this certainly wasn't the full picture, it was definitely a large piece of it.
When looking at Skills and Talents, he shouldn't just be considering what their description stated, but what foundational abilities it had to have in order to allow it to function the way it did.
As Zarek said, understanding these things would be the dividing line between the weak and the strong.
Marx stood from his desk, walking to Zarek and extending his hand. Zarek took it.
"I want to apologize on behalf of my brothers. We were a bit short-sighted this time. Although all of us haven't seen the benefits yet, we can all see the path forward. If it's convenient for you… I think we'd be willing to accept your help in this regard."
"Oh? How so?" Zarek raised an eyebrow.
He had only just asked the question when Marx's status screen appeared in front of him.
—
Name: [Marx Occam]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: F+] <B+>
>[Dexterity: E-] <A>
>[Intelligence: D-] <S->
>[Endurance: F+] <A->
>[Charisma: E-] <S+>
Talents:
>[Rolling Dynamics: E+] <SS->
[Abilities: Momentum]
[Your forward progress is continuous and ever-growing as long as you aren't interrupted. Accelerate forward in proportion to your Mastery of the Skill, and maintain momentum even when changing direction. Gather up momentum and use it to your benefit.]
>[Atom Link: F+]
>>[Abilities: Link]
[See the world on a frequency that others cannot. Waves make distance an irrelevant factor, hear their call and amplify your perception between the two.]
>[Empty]
Skills:
…
—
Zarek's eyes flashed.
He didn't expect to see Marx's stats like this, and he also didn't expect to see an SS- Class Talent either.
Rolling Dynamics…
Suddenly, Zarek understood why Marx was so excited. If he could apply this to a ranged ability, Marx would almost instantly become the best sniper in the world. In fact, the farther from his target he was, the more powerful his shot would be.
Normally, a Talent like Momentum would be limited by range. It would apply to Marx's body alone. But if he could Atom Link himself with a bullet… range wouldn't matter at all.
The Talent would continue indefinitely, or until Marx ran out of Godsfall. At that point, the only limiting factor—other than energy—would be Marx's accuracy.
If the distance was large enough, and the bullet was sturdy enough to withstand the G-forces, Marx could theoretically kill anyone.
No. Not just kill anyone.
One-shot anyone.
His Charisma Growth Potential is a decent chunk above his Intelligence. Why did his Charisma grow so much more slowly…? Interesting.
"Here. This is what I see your status screen as," Zarek said calmly.
Marx was confused for a moment before he saw the added descriptions to his Talents and Skills. Suddenly, he was enlightened to many things, and more puzzle pieces fell into place.
Taking a deep breath, Marx knew what had to be done.
"Please do this for my brothers too."
"Are you sure? Do you understand how much information you're giving me right now?"
"… I have a feeling that if you wanted to kill us, you could do it whenever you pleased. Holding back now would be for nothing more than my ego and a false sense of security. By comparison, I think that you doing this actually makes us more dangerous to you, no? So I'm willing to pay you for it.
"I'm sure you're wondering why my Intelligence Stat is so far beyond the others even though Charisma is my best, right? We found something on the first day of the apocalypse that would be very enticing to you."
"Is that so…" Zarek smiled. "… I told your brother two days ago that I would ally myself with you all. You do not need to do this. I will do it for free because that is what you do for allies."
Zarek looked down at their hands, still clasped in a handshake.
"I don't shake hands like this lightly."
Marx chuckled. "Alright. In that case, I will graciously accept your help. Then, after we are done, I will show you the true foundation of GFI."
Zarek nodded.
Soon, Zade and the other five entered the room.
Mitch. Snooz. Boop. Aidran. Daze.
None of these names were their real ones, but at this point, if Zarek wanted to ingratiate himself into the group properly, it would probably take using these names they had grown used to. He didn't think too much about it since this was how they had introduced themselves.
Slowly, he went through their status screens one by one, and a picture of what he had been missing came into view.