Zarek stood in front of the Hub with narrowed eyes. He had been standing here for upwards of half a minute already, hardly moving for much other than to slice down another Turned that thought his flesh was a free buffet.
Honestly, he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing right now.
'Something is wrong.'
He could feel it in his gut.
First, he ran into the Violet Enchantress. Then he ran into the C-Class Temporary Godsfall Tear. Then he stumbled into a Cursed Talent. And now this.
Zarek had learned long ago that there was no such thing as luck in this world, and for one such event after another to happen in such quick succession, something was wrong.
'Someone is targeting me.'
The appearance of the Variant Mutant Turned, the Sextupling Blood Hound, flashed in his mind again.
Zarek's sensitivity to twists in the timeline was especially sharp. With a Talent like Harmonic Recall to display that ability to the outside world, he had only become more sensitive, not less.
'Who is it?'
His gaze shifted up, staring at the moon above. Was it the system? Or was it something else?
Being lucky sounded like a good thing. But the amount of twists you had to put into the stream of time to force things like this would bend everything else out of shape.
That would make the future more unpredictable, more troublesome to deal with.
There was a reason why Rebirthers didn't target one another before the Godsfall Apocalypse descended. They were pillars to the Godsfall Apocalypse. If they were targeted before Godsfall could stabilize the world, the twisting of the timeline would become so severe that the world would become unrecognizable.
Essentially, all Rebirthers had such a strong impact on the world without Godsfall present that even the laws of physics would twist themselves into pretzels to protect them from death.
It was only after Godsfall was introduced to the world that the influence of Rebirthers on the world itself became weaker, thus making them vulnerable enough to die.
But as true as this was, the reverse was also true. If a Rebirther's luck was sucked dry, or consumed too fast…
It would make it even easier for them to die.
These series of coincidences, lining up one after another seemingly in a bid to help him, were nothing short of trouble.
'A Challenge Hub…'
Gambling Hubs left things up to either skill or chance. But a Challenge Hub only needed one thing.
Strength.
This wheel in particular had nine segments to it. Rather than spinning, Zarek could choose from those nine different states.
These went from Warrior, to Master, to Elite. These were the first three, but there were six further…
Ascendant, Warlord, Champion, Mythic, Paragon, and finally Eclipse.
The first three obviously referred to the three stages of power in each Class, from F- to F+. However, the six following stages clearly referred to things that existed far beyond…
There was much speculation in other timelines about where these strength tiers came from, but it was widely accepted that the strongest they had ever seen had only ever reached Warlord level, and the number of Ascendants was probably only counted by the handful even on the scale of entire countries.
This particular Challenge Hub had five of the nine segments dimmed, leaving Warrior, Master, Elite, and Ascendant shimmering brightly.
All of this was less important than what a Challenge Hub represented, though…
A Challenge Hub didn't have a Class. That was because its strength would be dependent on the one that triggered it. Once the Challenge began, the region would be locked down and one would face off against a randomly generated champion of the Challenge Hub.
Failure meant death.
Success, however… that would come with what was known as a Core Reward.
A Core Reward would be anything the challenger needed most. It could be a Skill, a Talent—there were even some documented cases of a Role coming into play.
It was simply a massive opportunity, and Zarek was almost certain that he could clear the Ascendant challenge right now, though it would probably cost him limb, and almost life.
However, the weight of this Hub's appearance was like a weight on his soul.
He knew he couldn't take it.
If he took this here, his chances of getting the Talent he needed would plummet to zero. Someone was almost certainly using a unique method to throw him off course.
It sounded as though Zarek was making a mistake. If the Challenge Hub gave you exactly what you needed for success, then who was to say he wouldn't get a duplicate of the Talent he was looking for?
But Zarek knew that this wouldn't be what he would receive. He had gone out of his way to choose a completely unconventional path on purpose. No one would ever guess what his third Talent would be, and the Challenge Hub would certainly not think it to be a Talent he needed most.
Instead, he might receive something to boost his Strength Growth Potential back to S-Class, or maybe he would get an upgrade to the Talents he already had, or maybe he would get a Role to support his current Path.
"Ha… How fascinating."
Steamy breaths still came from his lips, his eyes still burning.
He didn't know who was trying to drain him dry of his Rebirther status like this, but they were most certainly doing a very good job. Making him choose between a carrot dangling right in front of him and inevitable failure, or delaying instant gratification for a small chance at success in the future.
The trouble was that he would almost never be able to tell which part of his luck was organic, and which part of it was manufactured to chop him down from the root.
The chuckle that came from Zarek was dark. He had been steeping in his own misery since this battle began, and every step forward he took was like walking through a quagmire of pain and hardship, reliving all of the angst, hurt, and inadequacy of several lives all at once.
For all of it to culminate like this, no one would blame him for suddenly collapsing on the spot.
He had only just started his journey, but he had already run into the roadblocks that were the Violent Enchantress and the oddities surrounding Malik, Jiade, and Suki, and now there was yet another party pulling strings from the background.
The difference was that at least the first two, he knew and understood intimately enough. This third figure, though… he didn't know who they were at all, and yet somehow they were able to find him so fast and target him so perfectly…
Right from under his nose without him noticing a single thing.
There was only one logical conclusion.
They knew.
They knew he was on his last life.
They knew how dangerous he was.
And they were coming for him with everything they had.
Zarek took another breath, heated plumes coming from the depths of his chest.
"Okay," he said lightly.
Now that he understood the gameboard he was on, they could play.
"You want to play? Let's play, then."
Zarek sheathed his machetes, turning his back to the Challenge Hub. A plan was slowly formulating in his head.
He was dangerous not just because of his strength, and certainly not because of his Talent… but because he knew how to think outside of the box.
He would make whoever was doing this regret it with every fiber of their being until the day he watched the life drain out of their eyes personally.