A Yellow Tent

I awoke to the feeling of something weighing down on me. Opening my eyes revealed illuminated yellow polyester walls. I was inside a tent.

Tilting my head forward, I saw Charlotte's cute little face nestled up against my chest, inside my sleeping bag. The dirt and grime covering her face had an oddly distorted pattern below her eyes like tear-smeared mascara, and she inhaled tiny fretted gasps as she pressed up against my body for warmth.

I couldn't help it and popped a stiffy.

Tucking my erection under and squeezing my legs to hold it down, I let my head rest up against the backpack that she had kindly placed as a pseudo-pillow.

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[User: Henry Miller]

[Race: Juggernaut]

[Class: Survivor]

[Lv: 0]

[Xp: 0/100]

[Body: 13]

[Mental: 14]

[Senses: 10]

[Magic: 0]

[Skills: Racial ability (Uncanny Regeneration), Racial ability (Stomach Pocket-Dimension), Class ability (Fearless Resolve), Class ability (Survivor's Senses), Class ability (System Appraisal)]

[Traits: Racial trait (Starting attributes are unaffected by this race), Class trait (Attributes don't increase by leveling up), Class trait (Starting attributes are unaffected by this class), Class trait (Incapable of receiving attribute-related quest rewards)]

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My doubts were quelled when I read those words. My brand-new class: Survivor. The only reason I was able to achieve it was because of Uncanny Regeneration. If not for that ability, I would've died all five times, making me all the more curious as to how many other people had the Survivor class.

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[Help: There is 1 user (you) of the Survivor class]

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I silently snickered, "There I go thinking I'm special again."

It was undoubtedly quite rare to be the only one in the world at any one thing, but now I wondered whether I was the only one in the Spiteful Loser class as well.

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[Help: There were initially 563 users of the Spiteful Loser class, of which 2 users (including you) have class upgraded, and 265 users have died. Now there are 296 users of the Spiteful Loser Class.]

---

Losers we surely were. Almost half of us had already died within the first week, and only I and one other person had gotten a class upgrade.

How good my new class, anyway? And why did I still retain skills from my previous class?

---

[Help: The reason classes are categorized into tiers is because they are advancements rather than outright new ones. Therefore, every tier retains the abilities it had acquired from the tiers below it, as it is an upgrade of the last. | Survivor is a Tier-2 F-Class. It has a linear upgrade path which leads to 1 Tier-3 SSS-Class]

---

After reading the second section, I absent-mindedly blurted, "What the fuck!"

Charlotte spasmed as I startled her out of her nap. She looked around with a look of terror, anxiously questioning, "W-What? What's happening?"

Turning to look back at me, she noticed the situation, and her face flushed red. She hastily and awkwardly climbed out of sleeping bag, nervously stuttering, "I-I'm sorry. It's just. It's. I mean. I-I I'm sorry—"

I burst into laughter saying, "No, don't be. I was a little surprised, but honestly, it made me happy. I'm sorry for scaring you awake like that."

She was momentarily stunned, and then she let out a light sigh from the released tension.

I sat up and explained, "I don't know if you know about power-classing and all the tier stuff, but my class has just been upgraded to a Tier-2 class."

Falling to her knees, Charlotte clutched her chest while asking, "That's good, but is that why you freaked out?"

"Yes. No. Well… Kind of."

She looked at me hopelessly confused and with a hint of embarrassment induced agitation.

I continued, "My first class was F-Class, and so is my current."

She nodded her head, saying, "Oh, I see. And that made you upset, I'm guessing."

I shook my head, "No, actually."

Her head slumped forward, utterly lost in a sea of confusion.

With a beaming grin, I chuckled, "The next class I'll get is SSS-Class, which I'd assume is a step above S-Class."

She had a blank expression.

"And?"

I was caught off guard by her lack of enthusiasm, then stammering, "W-What do you mean?"

She sighed and reminded me, "I don't know anything about video games, so power-classing or whatever it was means nothing to me."

I scratched the back of my head, expounding, "I don't have a frame of reference to be sure of this, but I assume SSS-Classes are a one in a billion occurrence. I think it means I can become very powerful."

Charlotte crossed her arms, pouting, "What did I tell you about—"

"I know, I know. I didn't forget… I'm just excited, is all."

She turned her head away, moping while still sounding quite genuine as she pouted, "Well, I'm really happy for you."

I began to tear up while laughing, "Thanks, Charlotte. You really are the cutest."

Charlotte turned her head further away, huffing, "I was really worried about you, you know,"

I've wanted to hear someone tell me those words for so many long years. They were powerful enough to make me break down into tears of joy.

I gleefully smiled while crying, "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

Recognizing that I was crying, she turned back with a look of shocked sympathy, asking, "W-Why are you crying? D-Did I do something wrong?"

I wiped the snot dribbling from my quickly stuffed nose and responded with a wavering voice, "No, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm just… very happy that you said you were worried about me."

Her lip quivered as tears began to build in her eyes. She sat in complete silence, hiding her face with her hands.

Seeing this, I realized I must've overdid it a bit and ended up hurting her.

I looked away and remorsefully apologized, "S-Sorry—"

Suddenly Charlotte pounced on me, wrapping her arms around my waist while crying, "You idiot! I was… so… scared. I… thought… you would… die… for sure."

She burrowed her face into my stomach while vociferously crying and whaling. Meanwhile, my hands uncomfortably levitated above her, unsure how to react.

In speech broken up between sobs and sniffles, she continued, "Your… skull… was… split… open… and—"

"Hey-Hey. don't cry," I consoled her while also crying.

Wiping my eyes clear, I pulled her up from my waist and hugged her tightly, saying, "I can't die. After all, I still have to protect you.