"There is no need for that, Rin. I will always be there for him," Shota said with a straight emotionless face.
His countenance changed the very moment he realized Rin was from Norxus clan.
Why?
Nobody knew.
Erix was flabbergasted by their strong reaction. He did not expect his story to resonate with them so deeply.
"Fine guys, I can take care of myself. You don't have to worry about me," Erix said, trying to calm them down.
"If you ever get into a problem, and Shota isn't there, please do let me know. We are roommates now, or maybe friends if you don't mind," Rin said, wiping off invisible tears from his eyes.
In Erix's mind, he was thinking the word friends was a huge stretch. He would consider them as on the 'not gonna bite soon' list at most.
He'd yet to grasp if they were being truthful or not.
For now, he will try to stay on their good side and see how things play out, never letting his guard down a bit.
"I once said it, don't worry about him, I will always be there for him," Shota voiced out with resolve.
At this point, Rin began to learn what was going on. Shota doesn't seem to like him that much.
He found Shota's behavior quite weird.
He'd done nothing wrong to deserve such treatment from him.
'Did I sound too happy? Maybe that's why he didn't want me near Erix. I think he sees me as a psycho now. I guess I will soon be alone again.' Rin thought, feeling awful.
For some reason he was sad. He wishes to have a friend but it seems it isn't gonna work.
"How come the two of you know each other? I thought everyone got displaced from the people they previously knew?" Rin asked after he composed himself.
"We got to know each other during the entrance test," Erix answered. Shota was reluctant to answer the question so he had no choice.
Rin nodded. "Oh, I see."
After they finished their discussion, Rin came up with the idea of playing video games as a pastime and Erix gladly agreed.
He was very poor so never got the privilege to play video games.
Therefore, now that he's gotten an opportunity to play it, he didn't want to let it pass.
On the other hand, Shota declined the idea at first saying it was childish and wasn't his thing, but after seeing Erix's enthusiasm, he half-heartedly agreed to join them.
They played three different racing games. At first, Rin would win every single time while nearly overlapping both Shota and Erix.
Erix got used to the control really quickly. By the end of the play session, Erix was nearly able to take the win against Rin.
Erix's mind was completely invested in the game. He never thought he could have so much fun. He let go of his facade as he genuinely enjoyed himself and not just pretending.
Strange enough, even Shota who was hesitant to play the game at first suddenly started to enjoy it.
"What the hell! How come you're so good? Are you sure this is really your first time playing a video game?" Shota asked in disbelief.
"To be honest, the boy was pretty fast in catching things, unlike most people," Rin said, indirectly mocking Shota.
After, Erix realized he just let himself go unchecked for nearly three hours. He felt really stupid and ashamed of himself.
'So much for not letting my guard down.' He mentally sighed.
Erix took a few moments to reorganize his thoughts and soon went back to normal.
When they were tired of playing video games, the time was already 11 pm, so they decided to get some sleep to wake up refreshed enough for school tomorrow.
The day has been long, after all, and tomorrow would be a long day too since it would be the first day of school, so they needed to have a good sleep to regain their strength.
As Erix looked back at the time he had tonight, he would be lying if he said he didn't have fun.
Erix still does not possess a silver of trust in his roommate. But, even if they were just pretending, he could not help but feel a little thankful for them being nice.
'If really they are genuine about their feelings, then I see no point refusing to be friends with them. But that will be after I observe them a little longer and find out, they had no ulterior motive,' Erix thought, before abandoning consciousness and drifting to sleep
*****
After 7 hours of sleeping, Erix woke up feeling completely re-energized.
It was 6 am already.
It was quite early so Shota and Rin were still asleep. And since classes would only begin at 8 am, he didn't want to wake them up.
Since he had nothing else to do, he decided to do these daily quests.
[Daily optional quest]
- [Do five push-ups
Reward: 5 exp]
- [Do five sit-ups
Reward: 5 exp]
- [Drink 1½ Litre of water
Reward: 5 exp]
[2 attribute points]
Today he had one more exercise to do. And he was quite glad because that means he could be able to gain exp faster than he initially thought.
If he had these three quests every day, then he would be able to level up before weekends.
That thought only makes him squeal in joy.
'Like in video games, when a character gains exp and level up, they would be able to gain more skills and then increase their physical attributes. I hope the system works that way too.' His instinct told him.
He tried to do the quests quickly, but even with the little amount he needed to do, he took a while. His body wasn't made to do sports since he didn't have any muscles.
He was quite skinny, and it was hard to even lift his weight.
But still, he managed to do them, and when he was done, he was happy to see a new number displaying on his exp bar.
[Quest point: 5/100]
[exp: 25/100]
[+2 attribute points]
'Attribute point? What's that for?' Erix thought but got no answer.
'Pfff, I almost forgot this isn't human.' He mentally sighed.
However, as he was about to shut his system, another screen popped up before his eyes.
[General A.I guide installing..]
[A.I guide installed]
[A.I guide: Supplies host with the available information on any feature of the system]
[Attribute points: These are additional points given to host to increase physical attributes]
'Wow, I never thought the system had such features. I guess there are still more things uncovered in this system.'
In the end, before he closed the system, he finalized to assign the two free points in agility since he will be needing them if ever he gets into a fight. Not like he was confident he would win anyone in a fight.
His agility was now 12 instead of 10.
And since it was still early, he went to the bathroom to take a long shower.
Once he got to the bathroom mirror and put his clothes off, he was rather surprised.
"Is it I or my body that has changed from yesterday?"
It wasn't an assumption because it was truly the case.
It wasn't so apparent, but since Erix knew his body quite well because he got a lot of bruises every day, he noticed any changes that were affecting his body.
"Is it the system?" He said in a low voice since he didn't want to be heard by anyone.
"I have the impression that it has given me a healthy body. Before, my skin was a little whiter, whereas now it's darker," He observed.
"Well, if there are more benefits than drawbacks, then why should I complain?" He said as he entered the bathtub.
He could have stayed in the shower long if he wasn't gonna eat. He needed to eat, so he exited the bathroom around fifty minutes later. Since it was still 7.00, he still had enough time to eat and properly dress.
So, he put some clothes on him, that's to say, the military uniform.
Even though the uniform was from the military, it didn't have the usual brown and red color like Erix could see in old films that were taken before the war.
On the contrary, it was quite elegant.
It was composed of a dark green shirt and black pants.
The military selected that color because of its poor reflective nature. Like this, stains on it wouldn't be noticed at first glance.
Well, even though it stains, it wasn't really a problem since students have many uniforms in their closets.
Students from different years were differentiated by neck scarves.
First-year students make use of black scarves, while second-year students use purple neck scarves.
Like this, the military won't have a hard time distinguishing between both years.
The third-year students were free to use any scarf they liked provided that it was neither black nor purple.
After he dressed up completely, he decided to go get some food in the school canteen.
The school money system started today, that's to say that all students were bound to be receiving 40 points every day.
The money was to enable students to purchase anything they need besides feeding since the school already ran the expenses for it.
Sometime later, he heard yawning sounds coming from the boys, showing they were on the verge of waking. He quickly ran out of the room before they could fully wake.
He wasn't in the mood for talks, right now.
The canteen was a large hall that was quite plain. It was filled with large tables that could seat four people on each side. There was no set of seats in the canteen meaning students were free to sit wherever they liked. However, that doesn't mean the high-level wouldn't set their own rules. Erix noticed that low levels sat next to other low levels while the high levels sat with the high levels. School had barely resumed, yet the social norms appeared to have already been established, just like they had been in his old school. Erix stood at the back of the last person in the queue. However, while waiting patiently for his turn, a boy came late into the queue. He nonchalantly nudged Erix out of line, and smuggled himself into the line. Erix was surprised by that abrupt push, and because he wasn't expecting something like that, he lost his footing and butt-kissed the floor. If it wasn't for the 1 point he added to his agility, he would have smooched the ground entirely. "Oh,
Erix's eyes widened the moment he saw the quest on the green screen. He's never hurt a fly before, let alone a human. 'This must be a joke, right?' Erix said to himself. 'What do you mean I have to kill him? How on earth am I gonna do that?' He asked the system but it didn't answer him. The system didn't give him any further information besides the killing quest. To confirm he wasn't seeing things, he decided to review it again and it turned out to be the same. As much as he was dying to pay back Bones for all he did to him, he'd never thought of killing him. Erix was someone with no ability, unlike Bones who had a blink ability, so that made him worried. But if the system really instructed him to kill Bones, then it must have ways of enabling him with it, Erix thought. 'Since it's the system's quest, I must do my best to accomplish it?' He mentally resolved. "Are you afraid? Come on, it's just a little time together like buddies. Alright, could you at least pay me your w
"What are you talking about, bro? Yours is way cooler. Spatial ability is very much impressive and I think it goes very well with combats at far range," Rin said as Shota went forward to finish off the last member that was still held prone by Rin's gravity. After a moment, the entire group was down, and people were now talking about what had happened a while ago. "Let's go check how Erix is," Shota said with a scrunched-up face. He was pissed at his recklessness. He blamed himself for what happened to Erix. Perhaps after seeing him hang out with Erix, the high levels got angry and wanted to prey on the poor level one. One thing was making friends with a low level and the other was protecting him to avoid getting intimidated by the boisterous high levels. Many hierarchy hassles came along with being friends with low levels. Though he promised he would protect him, he couldn't be there at all times. "Sure, but we should grab some burger for him because I doubt he had eaten much
Hearing what Erix said, Shota and Rin were kind of sad. They didn't expect this type of serious answer. And if what he said was true, then Erix must have suffered terribly during his childhood. Shota was sadder than Rin. He blamed himself for what happened to Erix. If he hadn't let him alone all by himself to the canteen, those bullies couldn't have done what they did to him.Shota decided to be more mindful of Erix. He had already once said something that wasn't appropriate, and even though Erix was always saying that it was nothing and that it was normal, in reality, it wasn't. For high-level people, it was a normal thing and a daily occurrence, but for the low levels, it wasn't something amusing. "Anyways," Erix said. "Can we go now? We have less than ten minutes left before classes begin." Shota and Rin nodded, and they headed to their classes. Rin also proposed a burger to Erix but the latter refused. Burgers contained plenty of vegetables so he didn't want to throw up like h
It wasn't that he didn't know what was awaiting him. No, on the contrary, he knew, since he had experienced the whole thing again and again. But today was different. He wanted to stand up for himself. Also, he was on a mission now so he planned to defend himself with all that he had, whereas before, he just got a beating, and didn't do anything. He didn't have any will to change before since he thought the military could resolve everything, but when he saw that he had just drowned in illusions this entire time, he chose to change. And this change could happen now, after punching this guy. Though he still has the kill quest to carry out tomorrow. 'But wait a sec, what the fuck is wrong with you, Erix? A few hours ago, you accepted a goddamn murder quest and now you're preparing to go head-on with a level three who could just kill you with only a swift of his ability. Just how many crazy things are you gonna do? Damn it! I should have realized this earlier, the system has its ways o
Erix was shocked but he was also pleased. The skill seems to work by just thinking of it. He read through the information that was given to him and was pleased to see that it gave information on someone else's ability. It told Erix what type of ability someone else had, which would be very useful in a fight. There was one piece of information the system gave that Erix found quite strange and that was the 'Blood type'. It was weird for the system to give him information about such a specific thing and Erix also wondered how on earth this would ever help him in the future. He decided to look at his stats. The system said his stats have increased after his level up so he wanted to see for himself how much it increased. [Status Screen] [Host: Erix Miller] [Race: F-Human] [Level: 2] [Experience points] -[Quest point: 6/100] -[exp: 0/200] [Health Attributes] -[Mana: 60/60] -[HP: 15/15] [Physical Attributes] -[Strength: 10] -[Agility: 12] -[Stamina: 10] -[Vitality: 10] [Men
"Anyway, you will need to choose one of these. Though you can still go around and take a few lessons with any class of your choice, you should know that you can't be in two places at a time. As for the exams in those classes, your future teachers will explain them to you in detail, but you should at least know that they won't happen on earth." Joe finally concluded. Once again, all the classes went into discussion and this time, Joe attempted not to stop them. It was about their future, anyway, so he let them discuss and decide with each other. And what they were taking was about the exams. If they weren't taking place in the earthly realm, it means they will be taking place in the savage realm since the two realms were the only ones in existence. And the possible outcomes on planets within the savage realm were the students fighting magical beasts. Though rumors once had it that there were other realms besides the earth and savage realm, because no one got to testify to it with evi
As soon as Erix heard the sound of the bell, he quickly stood up and sprinted out of the class. Everyone in the class, including Joe, was surprised at the sudden outburst. He had yet to formally announce the end of the class before this happened. The film ended the exact moment the dismissal bell went off, so he wanted to make one more announcement before finally ending the class. But he could, a student got up and ran out of his class. "What..the?!" The big guy yelled in anger and got up as well to trail along Erix, but he hadn't gone far from his seat when he heard the homeroom teacher saying. "The class hasn't ended. Please sit down," Joe said with an ominous look that was enough to make the boy stop. Without uttering any word, and with a grim face, he sat back in his seat.'Damn it! He fled again! That son of a bitch! I will f**king kill him if I get my hands on him!' The big guy grumbled angrily as he sat back down. He had planned to deal with Erix after school. But his p