Chapter 12: Discern Friend from Foe
Inside the barn, Lee's and Clementine's breathing gradually slowed, deepened… and finally drifted into sleep.
Hanks, however, felt no trace of drowsiness.
Leaning back against a stack of hay, he focused inward and pulled up the system interface.
"Open panel."
[7 Days to Die A23 System]
Name: Hanks Adolf
Level: 4
EXP: 15 / 30
Attribute Points: 7
Attribute Value
Perception 1/10
Strength 1/10
Constitution 1/10
Agility 1/10
Intelligence 1/10
Specialization: Judge of Loyalty & Treachery (Locked)
(Unlock by raising any single core attribute to Level 7.)
His attention fixed on the specialization.
A police-exclusive skill. The ability to pierce through a person's intentions—to know loyalty from betrayal.
Discern Friend or Foe…
In a world where order had collapsed and morality eroded, humans were far more dangerous than walkers.
Trust had become a luxury—one wrong judgment could cost lives.
But if he could see who was sincere, who hid a knife behind their smile, who played both sides…
Then if he ever built a team—this ability would be broken-tier. A literal game-changer.
"I need to unlock this."
The decision was instant.
"Let's test the effect of increasing Agility by one level."
[Agility: 2/10]
A strange sensation surged through him—not pain, but a powerful feeling of metabolic acceleration.
His body warmed; his pulse quickened. Blood pumped faster, delivering a clarity almost like a potent stimulant—except without agitation.
His body felt activated, optimized.
Then—his stomach cramped sharply and growled, saliva flooding his mouth. A primal hunger crashed into his mind.
Of course. He understood the cost immediately.
Attributes didn't rise out of thin air—the boost consumed massive internal energy.
Without fuel, strengthening himself would leave him weaker, not stronger.
Hanks grabbed his backpack and devoured whatever food he had, gulping water afterward.
The cold food and water eased the hunger. A warm wave spread from his stomach through his limbs, restoring depleted energy.
The hollow weakness in his muscles faded.
The hyper-metabolic rush slowly calmed, but the lightness and heightened responsiveness remained.
Then he noticed the updated panel:
[Agility: 2/10]
New Passives Unlocked:
Speed: 1/5
(Your lower-body speed surpasses ordinary humans.)
Parkour: 1/5
(You are now 1/5 as agile as Jackie Chan.)
Stealth: 1/5
(You could scale a widow's wall without waking her husband.)
"Three passives from just one point?!"
His eyes lit up. Excitement flickered through him.
He stood, careful not to wake Lee or Clementine, and slipped out of the barn like a shadow.
Moonlight washed over the open field. Hanks took a deep breath, planted his feet, and sprinted.
Whoosh—!
Wind tore past his ears. The ground sped beneath him like a moving treadmill.
He had never felt this light, this powerful. His speed was easily double his old maximum.
Instinct kicked in—a quick sidestep.
He dodged a barely visible dip in the ground with fluid grace, like his body already knew the movement.
His balance, stride, and control had all skyrocketed.
"One point in Agility gives this much?"
His gaze shifted to stacked barrels beside a low wall. A thought sparked.
He backed up, sprinted again, and at the last second leapt—both feet tapping the barrel rim for lift—vaulting upward.
His hands caught the barn's roof edge nearly three meters high. One pull—smooth, effortless—and he was on top.
No hesitation. No clumsy motion.
It felt natural, like muscle memory he'd been born with.
Perched on the roof, the entire farm spread beneath him in silver moonlight.
A cool breeze carried faint rot from the distant woods.
"This… feels incredible."
He padded along the rooftop, steps light and controlled, silent as a hunting cat.
Thanks to the Stealth passive, his control over his breathing and footsteps had improved drastically.
After running a few tests, he had a general grasp of how much a single attribute point boosted him—roughly a 100% increase.
But the crash came quickly. The short burst of training had accelerated his metabolism again, and his stomach began to protest loudly.
"Looks like I can't just dump attribute points recklessly. I need enough food to support the upgrades."
Hanks rubbed his rumbling stomach, spotted a pile of soft hay below, and dropped down lightly.
He landed with a silent roll that absorbed all impact—barely a whisper of sound.
Brushing hay off himself, he sat down and pulled out more canned food to binge.
The process of leveling up was costly on the body—but the payoff felt ridiculously good afterwards.
So he ate and kept adding points.
[Agility: 3/10]
[Agility: 4/10]
[Passive skill level insufficient]
[Agility attribute upgrade failed]
[Remaining Attribute Points: 4]
"…Huh???"
Hanks froze mid-bite, leg trembling from the lingering rush—only for the system prompt to yank him out of the bliss.
He kept chewing while his brain worked at high speed.
It only took a moment to figure out the system's logic.
Core attribute levels and their passives had to grow together—a balanced evolution—to prevent unstable development.
"So that's it… body and ability need to evolve in sync."
A good design—but way too slow.
He gulped down a bottle of water in frustration.
He had four points left. Even if he raised all three Agility passives to level two, that would only push Agility to five.
If his guess was right, hitting Level 7—and unlocking Discern Friend or Foe—would require multiple rounds of passive leveling first.
And attribute points were getting harder and harder to earn.
Higher levels meant dozens of walker kills just to rank up once.
Way too slow.
In a world where danger lurked at every corner, time was life—he had to grow stronger faster.
Hanks stared at the remaining four attribute points.
A bold idea slid into his mind:
"What if… I start leveling the other attributes too?"