It took Axton just over half an in-game day to push through the sheer mess that was the information contained within the ‘booklet’. It would have taken him much less time had the entire thing not been written in lawyer-speak, but Axton was at least decently fluent in that fel tongue and thus had a reasonable ability to understand that which was contained within the pages. Sally had already dozed off in the seat next to him, but Axton was hard at work in his own mental space, actively processing the details of what he had read.

As he suspected, the four main Classes that people would be more likely to pick were just as powerful as one might be led to believe. They excelled in their unique role but failed miserably in any other. The Duelist had horrifically poor staying power, even when in a Super Heavy War Suit. All the armor in the world was just as potent as paper mache to a Duelist, and they would need extreme speed and high evasion if they wanted to last in the fray. Although, for a War Suit Duelist, this could be partially offset by having the user’s Infantry Class being something such as Bulwark.

This overspecialization was key for all Classes save for one. The Rounder Class was, on paper, the worst of the five total Classes. Not even worth being called a main Class, it was, at least at face value, just put in there to mock people. It was semi-decent in all categories yet shone in none of them. Once again, that was how it looked on paper. At face value, it was a waste of time to even bother picking, but by combing through the eldritch text in his hands, Axton picked up some rather interesting insights.

Each Class could only have additional stat points gained by Players and NPCs placed in certain areas, and all to boost the abilities of that one Class. An Infantry Duelist, for example, would only be able to increase their Avatar’s movement speed and evasion rate and would be locked into using certain types of armor and weaponry. Likewise, for a War Suit Bulwark, the Suits piloted by them would automatically lose speed and damage output but would gain a marked increase in staying power.

This detail was where the Rounder Class began to show that it was, quite possibly, the most broken of the five Classes. As it did not have a set specialty, Avatar stat points could be spent on any number of attributes, while the core features of other Classes could eventually be utilized if enough of an investment was made. In essence, through the Rounder Class, you could theoretically make a personal build that was both an exceptional Tank while also being a potent Assassin.

Axton now knew exactly why so many people on the web were so heavily critical of the Rounder Class. Yes, it was, at face value, the worst Class, but to those who knew how to game the system, it would, without a doubt, be the most powerful Class in the entire game. For those who knew nothing of how to read legalese and those who did not wish to spend time, effort, and potentially money on building something up from being weak to being overpowered, the Rounder was beyond trash.

But to a gamer like Axton? He was used to delaying gratification when playing games and he was indeed the kind of person who would gladly spend in-game days grinding for things. He had done so in the Beta, and he could do so now. He knew exactly which Class he would select for Infantry and War Suit play, and he entered the data on the document that he was supposed to turn in for processing.

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With that done, he slipped the sheet of paper into the slot that prevented people from going back on their choices and saw a pop-up appear before his eyes.

『Congratulations! Your Class change is successful! You are now a War Suit Rounder! You are now an Infantry Rounder! 』

With his choice made, it was time for him to spend some of the points that he had gained up till now. He would need a few more in-game minutes to decide on where he wanted to take his build, but he had more than enough time to make a detailed plan regarding such things. It was nearly time for him to finally get into the bulk of the game.

…

While Axton had been busy reading up on the Classes, someone else had been busy doing other things. Zone 5 on the planet was massive, even by typical VRMMO standards. For a starter zone, it was easily one of the larger ones, and because it was so massive it had more than one Class Selection facility. Thomas Rhodes had already selected his Classes, and unlike Axton, he had chosen two different ‘normal’ Classes.

Right now he was in the middle of a Quest that saw him defending a run-down orphanage from a series of attackers. It wasn’t a high-level quest, but it was a difficult one that had seen many before him fail to succeed. Thomas, however, was different. He watched people try their hand at the quest and fail due to one factor or another, and so he, being the smart cookie that he was, decided to try his luck at rigging the battle beforehand.

Despite not picking the Tactician Class for Infantry or War Suit use, Thomas had enough know-how to make some simple traps of his own. Being close to your bodyguards and actually treating those who help you like the valuable people that they were meant that they were far more likely to explain the intricacies of their job and hobbies to him, and that turned out to pay compounding dividends. As for why he was able to make traps while not a Tactician? Well, there was nothing about the game’s Class system that forbade other Classes from setting traps and impediments, it was just that Tacticians were better at it, and by a massive margin.

It was relatively simple to set up a few caltrops here and there, as they were easily purchased from vendors. Likewise, he bought a bit of incendiary goo that he spread out at some of the approaches and rigged a few simple tripwires to tip over a few open flames when crossed. Finally, he invested in two weapons, a semi-auto shotgun and a large, heavy and durable baseball bat-like club.

With those things prepared, he triggered the quest and stood in position in front of the only avenue of approach that wasn’t heavily booby trapped. With his shotgun at the ready, Thomas loosened up and prepared to blast the first goon that entered his sights. He could hear the traps being set off and the screams of the unfortunate fuckers who now were stuck in a flaming mess, and the HUD showed him that those who were behind the victims of those traps were now changing their course to take what they likely thought was the path of least resistance.

Waiting like a patient hunter, Thomas leveled his shotgun towards the entrance to the courtyard of the orphanage and started to slowly increase pressure on the trigger. It would only be a matter of time before the first mook came into his sights, and Thomas was itching to try his hand at overcoming the instinctual urge he had to avoid causing harm.

In his head, he repeated the mantra “They’re only lines of code” over and over, and this slowly built his resistance to the brutality that was about to transpire. Then the first three thugs popped out form around the corners and charge forward, and Thomas forced his eyes to stay open as he finished pulling the trigger. The thunderous roar of a gun echoed out from his position, and Thomas’ first three victims of the in-game day fell to the ground in a heap, slightly skidding across the concrete for a bit before stopping and lying deader than a doornail on the cold, hard ground.