The assignment took three seconds. Marcus felt it the way you feel a key turning in a lock you didn't know you had — a small structural change, deep and irreversible, that rearranged nothing visible but somehow made everything slightly different.
[Class: Sovereign. Tier: Unranked. Abilities: Unlocked at Level 1.]
He blinked at the notification. Then he opened the Class description, expecting the usual — Warrior, Mage, something with a clear function — and instead found a paragraph of text that he read three times before his brain accepted it as real.
[Sovereign: A class that has never been assigned before. No prior records. No known ability ceiling. No faction affiliations. You are not part of any System category. This is noted.]
The last two words sat in his chest like a stone.
This is noted.
He closed the notification and looked around the subway car. People were beginning to understand their assignments. He could see it in their faces — the relief or disappointment, the immediate calculations about what their new Class meant for their family, their job, their survival odds. A Warrior rolling up her sleeves. A Healer already reaching for the woman who had fainted two seats over.
Nobody was looking at him yet.
He had learned enough, in twenty-three years, to understand that the window between unnoticed and noticed was very small and very valuable.
He stood up and walked toward the nearest exit.