I accompanied the receptionist to the office of the manager, and she stood at the door, beckoning me to enter without following me in.
I nodded and walked in, taking a seat in front of the manager. I noticed the gang who the bully always rolled with were already in the office but paid no attention to them.“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call the cops,” he said with a pronounced frown on his face.“I think that’s my line; an altercation was undergoing in your gym, and your officials thought it feasible to stand by and watch while I could’ve possibly been assaulted,” I snapped back.“That’s some bullshit!” shouted one of the guys, and the other guys raised their voices in agreement. The manager stared at them in annoyance as they quieted down.“Why don’t you fellas take your leave, eh? I’ll handle this,” said the manager. The men were reluctant at first but eventually obeyed.It seems they’d been working out at this gym for a long while and had caused situations like this in the past, as such they had some level of familiarity with the manager.“I’ll ask again, give me one good reason why I should throw your ass in jail right now!” he shouted.“Well, I don’t think I like your tone; I’d advise you to choose your words carefully as I ought to sue both the gym and the man who assaulted me to court, and it would very much be my word against yours, the security cameras have all the evidence I’d need. So I’ll ask the question now, anything else? I’d like to leave,” I said with a cold pale expression.The manager simply stared at me dumbfounded and shook his head in agreement, shocked by my assertiveness. “I look forward to my future workouts in your gym,” I said, standing up to take my leave.Getting to the door, I looked behind me once more and said, “Oh and he’s fine, by the way; he’s just unconscious, but I can assure you that he won’t be causing any more trouble in your gym. Have a lovely day.” I said as I exited the office, slamming the door behind me.The receptionist gave me a look of shock and when she saw me leave the room confident and unscathed.I ignored her, and she rushed in to see the manager. “What happened, sir?” she said, genuine concern written on her face. “N-nothing,” he replied, stammering a bit.“Let’s just forget that all this ever happened, as for the injured man, offer him some compensation, let’s say two months free, and if he refuses to take it, kick him out,” he said finally regaining his composure.“Alright, sir,” said the receptionist as she exited the office.While I stood outside the office, listening in on the conversation, I moved out of sight as I heard the receptionist leave, returning to get my gym bag and leave.This went down easier than I expected, and my foresight cooldown had recharged, meaning I once again had access to the skill.My stamina had gone down by 40 and was already starting to recharge, though I could feel the effect of its depletion on my body, I was very tired.‘I’d have to be more careful with how I consume my stamina from now on,’ I thought as I approached my gym bag.The unconscious man was awake now and was sitting on a bench, clutching the ice pack tightly to his head.I walked past him and noticed that the guys who I recognized to be his gang were gathered around where I dropped my bag.This would be tricky; how am I going to get past them without a fight? There were 4 guys; even if I used foresight, I wouldn’t get out unscathed as it was limited in usage and uptime. I guess I’d just grab my bag and make a break for it.As I approached, one of them beckoned the rest, and they all turned their attention to me.I stopped about two steps away and spoke, “how can I help you gentlemen?” I said confidently, a smile creeping up my face in attempts to mock them. I didn’t get a response, and they all just stared back at me coldly.“Well then, I’ll just grab this,” I said, slipping through them and lifting my bag over my shoulder, sharing glances with each of them. “Alright then, have a good one.” I said.I tried to leave, but one of the guys blocked my path while the others encircled me.I sighed, “Is this really how this is going to go?” I said, letting my frustration get the better of me.“You picked the wrong guys to mess with,” said the guy facing me directly.*NOTICE!* *NOTICE!* NOTICE!*~DING!~*NEW QUEST UNLOCKED*I bailed on martial arts classes for the day and decided to head home.This week had been so eventful already, and I barely had any time to speak to Logan about business.I took a shower as soon as I got inside, and in a few more moments, I was seated at my work desk with my phone in my hand.Before calling him, however, I decided to take a look at my updated status window.‘Display my status window,’ I thought.[Status Window]Name: Malcolm ShadeAge: 18 yearsOccupation: StudentCurrent Status: Healthy/UnemployedHP: 100/100 (Fully recovered)SP: 150Stamina: 100 (Recharged)Skills: Foresight (D+ Rank){Additional Information}Repeated use of foresight has caused it to undergo a slight upgrade. Continue using the skill to increase its rank.[End Of Information]I guess the constant use of skills leads to them being upgraded. And an increase in rank? Another loophole.‘System, explain the concept of skill ranking to me,’ I thought.*SKILL RANKING*Skills are grouped into various rank
The next day, I woke up, and my normal routine unfolded. I went to the gym, attended my martial arts classes, which I'd been really undisciplined about recently, and chastised myself for it. I got home and delved into my research.Things finally got eventful when I reached my cram school. Eager to maintain my early run, I arrived early once again. Not shocked to see that only a few people had arrived, including the girl I thought was staring at me.I walked past her and positioned myself at the back seat, my usual routine, and rested my head on the desk. This was the first time since my regression that I'd been bored.I jolted myself back to life as I realized I had things to do concerning the system. It was about two weeks to my university exam, and although I was confident in my abilities, I thought of purchasing a skill that could aid me and make things much easier."System, open my status window," I thought.[Status Window]Name: Malcolm ShadeAge: 18 yearsOccupation: StudentCur
[Ariel’s POV]‘I’d been noticing this for a while now, I’d been noticing…him. He, he’d changed. He used to look so goofy and cute but now Malcolm, had something cold and sinister about him.He seemed scary and weirdly smarter, at first I thought it was just my imagination and that he’d be back to normal soon enough. But then when I saw him speak to the teacher that day, I knew within me that something had changed about him.I can’t believe he caught me staring at him the other day, Ugh I feel like such an idiot. He didn’t even smile or anything, he just…stared back, coldly.I shouldn’t be thinking about this.’ These were the thoughts that passed through my head when I was alone in class. I arrived particularly early and was bored out of my head.I scanned the class and saw some familiar yet unfamiliar characters, people whose faces I’d seen but didn’t speak to at all and I felt lonely.My friends hadn’t arrived and I thought of what I could do to pass time, then he walked in. I looked
I headed home in high spirits, it’d been a while since I’d felt my heart pound and I didn’t think it would be because of a girl.Backtracking to about an hour ago, I’d just left the restroom and was headed home when I was stopped by…Ariel.I had no intention of speaking to her as I made up my mind that girls weren’t my priority at that point, but when she grabbed my arm I felt the anxiety well up within me.‘Ugh I shouldn’t be thinking about this’ I thought. Yes, I’d only agreed to be her tutor on the spur of the moment. Once I got home I would email her how I didn’t have the time and be done with it, yes, that was the plan.I branched at a supermarket to get some groceries before heading home.When I got home I tried emailing her and finally realized my mistake “I gave her my email instead of getting hers! Argh ,how could I have been so stupid!” I shouted, placing my hands on my head as I lay face flat on my bed.Then again this wasn’t too bad, Ariel’s family were influential to an e
I got home that day with a lot of time to spare, contemplating what to do with my time, I decided to learn more about secret skills.“System, what can you tell me about secret skills?”“Huh, and what conditions caused me to acquire access to render?”Now I was confused. I unlocked the render skill because I’d been regressed? Did that mean I wasn’t the only one who had access to the system? I had to ask.“ System, am I the only one who has access to you?”There it went again talking about the code. “What is the code anyway?”‘I guess I’ll lay off for now’ I thought, whatever the code was I knew I would find out sooner or later.I still had a lot of free time and didn’t know what to do with it, I still hadn’t gotten an email from Ariel so that also wasn’t an option.I decided to contact Logan again, I felt weird as we’d spoken just about an hour ago, but having nothing else to do I decided to put my plan in motion.I sent him an email and our conversation went thus:*Logan, I think it’s
[Evelyn’s POV]‘Something is definitely wrong with Malcolm, first he speaks back to me and humiliates me in front of the whole class, then I ask him to run a simple errand for me and he declines.His whole demeanor has changed, I feel something is going on with him. Even when I threatened him by saying that I would have to report him to his father, he hardly even responded.He used to be gullible and timid, but now he answers questions in class flawlessly without even paying attention, I can understand if he’s studying a lot but that isn’t enough to give him this amount of growth.And the most surprising part of it all is was that in the pop quiz I organized, Malcolm was the only student who managed to get perfect scores.Something can’t be right, he has to be cheating or something, this amount of growth in such a short amount of time. I didn’t want to ever have to do this but I feel I have to call Mr. Shade.’These were the thoughts that passed through the head of Malcolm’s cram scho
I left my house that day sad and distraught. My father had sent a driver to pick me up and as I came up to my junction ,there he was, already waiting for me. I said nothing to him and waltzed into the back seat of the car after he opened the door for me.In a couple of more moments we were moving. My life hadn’t always been like this, when was it that I’d stopped being happy and hated myself, I think I was 4 years of age.My father and I loved my mother very much and she felt the same for us. She would often tell me that she loved me the most in the entire world and I would be overjoyed as a child.My mother, Mrs Gabrielle Shade, was a beautiful woman who had long brown hair and green eyes. She was of European descent, Spanish I think. I barely had any knowledge of her and could only remember what she looked like thanks to Render.She and my father met when my father was on vacation in Paris, in his mid twenties. My father inherited the Shade corporation at a very young age and had be
As we pulled up to the giant gates of the Shade mansion, I was once again taken aback by the large structure that was my home.‘To think that I would return here’ I thought. The large castle that was the Shade mansion could never get old to me. It was gently nestled atop a lush hillside and one would have to drive up to reach the large castle like gates.On the interior, it had exactly 50 parking spaces and the environment was lined with various exotic flowers that were tended to everyday by the best gardeners.The entire area contained 3 buildings with 3 floors each and 2 basements. With the central building being stationed at the middle of the three.The building on the right was set out for guests, parties, and official purposes and the one on the left were the workers quarters.It was truly a sight to behold and a sense of nostalgia hit me as we pulled up to the front of the central house.I got down from the car as the driver opened the door for me. My father had been informed of