《The Roleplayer》 Authors Note Author''s note: Hey guys! Riley Petesgeralt here. I originally wrote this story together with a close friend of mine 8-9 years back. It all started when we were readingmangawhile playingDungeons and Dragons. "If we could have a supernatural power, what would it be?" And that got us thinking - What would that amazing power be? That''s when we dissected what madeanimeandmangaprotagonist so powerful. Was it magic? Was it teleportation? Was it superb strength? That''s when it dawned upon us. No. It isn''t magic or super strength, but thepotentialto get those abilities. What made ananimeprotagonist so strong was not their inherited abilities, but how fast they could grow. Facing an antagonist of a new arc you can barely even scratch? No problem! Just enter a time-skip training arc, andvoila!You''re now able to take on the antagonist easily; your one-month training trumps the years of dedications and hard work the antagonist had put in to his art. It''s as if... you''re a game character.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. That''s when we started writing this novel; a novel about an average boy who receives game-like abilities, where completing quests and practicing a single move over and over again helps him become stronger, stronger than an average human would be able to accomplish. We started chronicling our thoughts and imaginations, just what I would do normally for ourDungeons and Dragonsescapades. 40,000 words in, and we stopped. I''ve recently re-discovered our work, and honestly, I still think it''s impressive, given that it was written almost a decade ago. Nevertheless, I''ve decided to start posting these chapters once a week on Sundays (or more often, depending), to keep myself accountable to write more, especially during the COVID19 situation. If I stop writing, well, we''ll run dry by Chapter 20. So, this keeps me vigilant, and driven to continue writing without getting left behind. If you''ve ever fantasised about being in a game world, or you lovemangalikeSolo LevellingorThe Gamer,this story/novel will be right up your alley. Let me know what you think of it so that I can improve. Who knows? Maybe one of your suggestions may be added into the story! Chapter 0: The Awakening Prologue What is this? Where am I? Why is it so dark? I asked myself these questions continuously as my body floated in what seemed like outer space, except with a lack of stars. The absence of light was so intense that it almost felt better to shut my eyelids in a gesture of sleep. The unknown stretched out in front of me like the view of the ocean from a deserted island; daunting and daring me to try and challenge its depths. Attempting, in a single, pathetic endeavor to muster the courage to try and explore this seemingly empty void, I discovered that I couldn''t even feel my body, let alone control it. It was as if every single muscle in my body had stopped functioning. There I floated, in this black abyss, void of all matter, patiently waiting for a change. As I waited, I tried my best to study my surroundings. The human body is indeed an enigma that doctors, scientists, and even famed old magicians of its time have tried to decode; my human eye, which would normal adjust and adapt itself to darkness, have failed me. No matter how long I waited, no matter how hard I tried, it failed to adapt to the blank darkness, yet alone to allow me to decipher where I am.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. After a couple of minutes, I decided that I could derive no information from the area around me, simply that it could be likened to a vacuum, wherein it was impossible for light and sound to exist. The silence was eerily unnatural, like dusk without the noise of crickets or dawn devoid of the beautiful singing of birds. I''ve watched old Creepy Pastas, and learned how darkness and silence were used as torture devices by the Nazis, and wondered if that''s happening to me. Suddenly, light as bright as the sun exploded in front of me, likened to a solar blast. Immediately squeezing my eyes shut, I could feel control over my body slowly flooding back to me. The warm flow of blood surrounded me, combating the cold feeling radiating around me. As I cautiously opened my eyes, I could hear a loud voice saying, "Look into your heart, and show me your one true desire." This voice was one of authority and power, yet it was calm and soothing to the ear. It was the type of voice that could make you obey it, not forcefully, no, but willingly, comparable to the request of a loving mother. Hesitantly, but obediently, I closed my eyes and tried to "look into my heart". What is my desire? What do I yearn the most? While I was deep in thought, the light started to flicker, and a strange feeling started to envelope me. The feeling tingled with warmth, and was vaguely similar to a hug from a human being. While I was enjoying this feeling, the voice returned. "I have seen what your heart wills for the most, and I will grant it to you, in a manner different from what you have imagined. Behold your power! The Gift of the Roleplayer!" After that loud voice, the intensity of the light started increasing. All of a sudden it disappeared, and I was once again alone, left to float in the darkness of the void. Fin Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Riley! Riley! Time to get up! Don''t forget the promise you made to me yesterday!" Riley grunted in reply as he flipped over to his right. His mum''s yelling never failed to wake him up from his beloved sleep. He opened his eyes slowly and glanced at the alarm clock standing atop the shelf beside his bed. The red led light had the time: 9:47, clearly displayed on it. Riley groaned. He indeed remembered his promise to his mother, which was to finish his homework before lunch. Riley, because he had just woken up, tried his best to recall exactly what had transpired last night when he had made that promise. He vaguely remembered his last conversation with his mom last night before sleeping. His mom had barged into his room at 12:45am "Riley! Don¡¯t be busy playing games all the time, finish your homework!" Riley, who had his headsets on, replied, "Mum, I''m really busy right now! I''ll finish it, I promise!" Riley''s eyes were fixed on the computer''s screen. It was a Saturday night, and he was in his normal routine; he was having a boss raid together with his guild, ¡°The Alliance¡±. Riley first discovered the game World of Legends when it first came out 5 years ago, and he immediately fell in love with it. It had everything he¡¯d ever want from a game; a wonderful combat system, a diverse number of jobs and roles such as farming, woodcutting, and fishing, and a vast, ever-expanding world to explore. Best of all, it¡¯s fully free-to-play (f2p), and not a pay-to-win (p2w) game. Riley is obsessed with the game, spending hours at large grinding and exploring this multiplayer world, and mastering his in-game skills to stand above the others. His hardwork has indeed paid off; he¡¯s established himself as the top 50 players in the world, besting millions and millions of other players across the globe. It was common to do boss raids late at night, since his ¡°guildies¡±, as he liked to call them, were from different parts of the world, and the only time in which all of them could play together was a Saturday night. Riley wasn''t going to risk missing raid night, which rewards participants lots of Experience Points (EXP), in-game currencies, and also rare loot, and thus he ended up making the promise. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯ll remember?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I only need 5 more minutes!" He had made this empty promise, knowing that he would continue sleeping until at least 11 in the morning. Turning over back to his left side, he saw what looked to be a blue box floating above him, about half a meter from his face. Ignoring it due to his sleepiness, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Half a second later, the gears in his brain started turning. "Wait, what on earth was that?!" He rapidly opened his eyes, and before he could turn his head towards the ceiling, he could see it floating right in front of him. He stared carefully at the floating, 2-dimensional "box" in front of him. He felt a mix of both curiosity and surprise. He turned away towards his window, and the box followed his gaze. He turned his head to the opposite direction, and once again, the box followed, locking itself to the centre of his view. Trying to shrug away his astonishment, he mustered all the courage he could get and reached out for the box. The moment his fingers touched the surface of the box, he realized that it felt similar to water. It wasn''t a holographic projection; it was semi-solid and clearly existed. It was cold, and the gelatinous, matte texture of the box rippled with his touch. As he tried to push his hands further in, thinking that he could push his hands all the way through, he ended up pushing the box. He was quite surprised and continued playing around with it. He tried placing his fingers on its surface again, and slowly dragged his fingers around. The box followed his finger around, as if it was a computer "window". He finally dragged it closer to himself, so he could read the text more clearly. At the top, the box was a darker shade of blue, with the words "Quest" printed in the center.Stolen story; please report. Directly below were the words ¡°A promise to Mum" in bold print. There was some slightly smaller text below it, which stated, "You made a promise to your mum last night to finish your homework today. She took your word for it, and she hopes you will complete it early. Quest conditions: Finish your homework before 12 o''clock. Do not get caught playing games before finishing your homework. Quest rewards: 10 EXP, +1 Charisma, and your favorite burger as dinner. Failure: Your mum will nag you for the whole day and -1 Charisma." After these details were two buttons; on the left was "Accept" and on the right was ¡°Decline¡±. Scratching his head, he thought to himself: "This has to be a dream. I¡¯ve gamed to the extent that I¡¯m starting to think I¡¯m actually in some sort of RPG." He closed his eyes and pressed his eyelids together really hard before opening them again. The window was still there. Sighing, he pressed the "Accept" button, while he thought to himself, "Hmm, I have to finish my homework anyways, since tomorrow is a school day, so might as well enjoy some extra rewards." After clicking the button, the window disappeared and a new window popped out, with the words, "Quest accepted. Check Quest Log for quest details." At the top right was a cross. He clicked on it and this window disappeared. As he slowly walked down the stairs, Riley was still deep in thought. "Is this really a dream? Or could this¡­ actually be reality?" Riley pinched his cheeks, hoping that it would wake him up. The pain stung, and caused him to release his hands. A long rectangular bar popped up in front of him. It was red, and had 249/250 written on it. He dismissed it before he could get a good look, and it soon disappeared. ¡°Morning mum!¡± Riley called as he entered the kitchen. The moment he caught sight of his mother, he froze. To be specific, whatever was on top of his mother made him stop dead in his tracks. ¡°M-mum? What¡¯s that above you?¡± His mum had been busy cooking until she heard Riley¡¯s remark. She slowly peered upwards, then relaxed when she realized there was nothing above her. She sighed and said, ¡°Riley, enough with all your pranks. It¡¯s funny the first time, but if you continue doing this, I¡¯ll have to ground you, young man!¡± Riley replied immediately, saying, ¡°Haha, sorry mum. I promise I won¡¯t do it again.¡± He then proceeded to take a seat at the dining table. Riley then fell deep in thought. Above his mum was three lines: ¡°Sarah Petesgeralt, Housewife, Lvl 0¡± Below these words were two bars, one red and one blue. ¡°Hmm, it seems that only I can see those¡­ words above her head. Is this a new ability I¡¯ve gained? And why is her level zero? What if¡­¡± He picked up the shiny spoon to his right and looked into it. He could see his reflection and indeed, there were words on his head too, showing, ¡°Riley Petesgeralt, the Roleplayer, lvl 1¡±. Below it were the same red and blue bars. However, this time, it had numbers on the bars. On his red bar, the numbers ¡°249/250¡± were there. That must¡¯ve been when I pinched myself. However, on the blue bar, it showed only ¡°200/200¡±. As he continued staring at the spoon¡¯s reflection, his mum suddenly placed a plate in front of him, saying: ¡°Stop daydreaming! You have a lot of homework to complete!¡± After that, she returned to the kitchen to clean it up. Riley was still deep in thought. As he placed the spoon down, he picked his fork up and started poking at the egg omelet his mum cooked for him. He continued thinking about this mysterious ability of his. ¡°Through most of the games I¡¯ve played, I assume the red bar is my health (HP), and the blue bar is my mana (MP). Wait, if I have a mana bar, does that mean I can perform special skills and, maybe even¡­ magic?¡± Suddenly, a new window popped up, between his breakfast and him. ¡°Through thorough mental analysis, the skill ¡°Analyze¡± has been discovered.¡± A lower text below captioned, ¡°By performing ¡°Analyze¡± on something, you may gain varying information on the target, depending on the level of the skill.¡± The window disappeared after Riley read it. ¡°What was that? Did it just say I gained a skill? ¡­ That was weird.¡± Riley looked at the omelet again, then muttered the word ¡°Analyze¡±. A window appeared right in front of his omelet. Riley fixed his eyes on the window, like an eagle that had just spotted its dinner. The text on the window read: ¡°A nutritious omelet made by Sarah Petesgeralt. Tastes wonderful. Restores 50 Health after consumption.¡± Fin Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Riley¡¯s eyes were fixated on the window. He read it once, closed his eyes and shook his head violently. He opened them again, but nothing changed. The window was still there. It faded after a half a minute, and Riley was left staring at his omelet. He started eating it, while mulling things over. ¡°Ok, so somehow, my life has turned into a game, and I can ¡°Analyze¡± things like in games, huh? This is weird. Very, very weird.¡± After finishing his meal, he brought his plate into the kitchen, where his mum was still washing dishes. As he placed his plate in the sink, his mum said, ¡°No games until you finish your homework!¡± Riley replied affirmatively as he started walking towards the stairs. He made a promise, and he would fulfill it. Of course, one or two sidetracks along the way wouldn¡¯t hurt anyone¡­ Once he entered his room, he shut the door and went to his desk. His room was that of an ordinary teenager¡¯s. It had all the necessities: a bed, wardrobe, desk, bookshelf, computer and an ensuite bathroom; nothing more. Of course, though bare, that does not mean his room is ¡°ordinary¡±. His prize jewel, his computer, was where all the magic happened, at least, before today. Here, on his laptop, was where history was made. The slaying of the Great Lord Nashor, the Grand Exchange crash of ¡®09 - this is where Riley witnessed first hand, and participated, in the biggest achievements of the century. Since he also played baseball for his school¡¯s team, he had a ball and glove resting on his bookshelf and a bat below the shelf resting against the wall. He sat on his comfy cushion chair, turned his PC on, and pulled out his textbooks from the bag lying at the foot of the desk. As he flipped his notebook to a new page, he pulled out his pen and placed it on the desk. ¡°Now that I¡¯ve got my facade and cover ready, I should start experimenting.¡± Riley took a deep breath before uttering the word ¡°Skills¡±. A window appeared immediately. At the top of the window was the word ¡°Skills¡± and below it were 3 icons. The first was a picture of a console controller. The one under it showed a muscular arm flexing. The last icon depicted a picture of a magnifying glass. Without a moment of hesitation, Riley touched the controller. A new window popped out with the icon at the top left and the words [Roleplayer¡¯s Mind] as its title. Below, it was stated that it was a passive skill. To put it simply, passive skills function just like your involuntary actions such as breathing and digestion - they provide bonuses to your character or skills, without needing to be "toggled", or switched on. Unlike active skills, which require the player to activate it to show its effects, passive skills are, to put it simply, ¡°always on¡±. Its description was ¡°Just like a game character, no situation in the world throws you off. Simply because, well, it¡¯s a game¡­ right? You are now able to think logically under any circumstance. Reality as you know it has been converted into a video game¡± Riley smiled and thought, ¡°So that¡¯s why I¡¯ve been calm throughout this course of events.¡± After reading this, he closed the window and touched the bicep icon. The new window popped up, and he learnt the name of this skill, which was called [Virtual Body]. It was another passive skill, and its description was ¡°Grants the user a body which allows the user to live in the real world like a game. After sleeping in a bed, HP and MP are restored, and all status ailments are cured. The user will be able to sleep even if his body does not require it.¡± ¡°Does that mean sleeping allows me to completely recover from any injuries, exhaustion, or fatigue? That should allow me to train more in baseball, without risking any muscle or bone injuries.¡± Finally, he closed the [Virtual Body] window and proceeded to click on the last icon, the magnifying glass. Although Riley didn¡¯t know for sure, he could guess that it was the ¡°Analyze¡± skill he gained just ten minutes ago. Sure enough, he was right. Unlike the previous skills, was an active skill, and had a skill level. Active skills, unlike passive skills, are abilities used by characters in a game. These skills usually require the user to cast it, whether by clicking a button, or by enunciating the ¡°trigger word¡±, or incantation. Its description was ¡°Through continuous observation, a skill to observe objects and people was created that allows for swift information gathering. The higher the skill, the better the quality of data obtained.¡± Scratching his chin, Riley started thinking. ¡°Hmm¡­ if used correctly, this could turn out to be a very useful skill. Since it has a level, does it increase the more I use it?¡± Closing the window, Riley looked at his text book and said, . A window soon popped out. The window said, ¡°A history textbook owned by Riley Petesgeralt.¡± Riley read the window before closing it. Picking up his pen, he looked at it and performed on it. This time, two windows popped up. One of the windows said, ¡° has increased by one skill level.¡± Smiling to himself, Riley closed the window, before reading the next window. ¡°A pen owned by Riley Petesgeralt. Manufactured by Stabeeloh.¡± Riley closed the window. This time, he was impressed. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Okay, time to start using on everything I can fi-¡°. Before he could complete his sentence, a notification came up. The notification had the words ¡°1 hour and 30 minutes left before the quest ''A promise to Mum'' expires" written on it. Riley looked at his alarm clock. It was exactly 10:30. Riley realized that his assignment would definitely take a long time. Without a moment to lose, Riley began writing his essay. While writing and researching on his computer, Riley felt that he was able to remain calm. This helped Riley a lot, since he could easily focus. Normally, just working on his assignments stressed him out. Yet, even with the time ticking down, he was surprisingly calm for his predicament. Not only that, he was able to focus better. Thoughts flowed across his mind so smoothly - it was as if he¡¯d lived life with permanent writer¡¯s block until today. Homework had never been this easy! ¡°This [Roleplayer¡¯s Mind] ability is proving to be very beneficial.¡± Riley smiled as he continued his essay with ease. Using his browser and textbook as reference, he zoomed past his essay, as if the universe had aligned - his flow was uninterrupted. He was able to find resources and immediately transcribe them into his own words, understanding each concept with ease. Soon he had written enough to fulfill the essay¡¯s word count. As he was concluding the essay, an idea struck his mind. Grinning to himself, he said, ¡°Quest Log¡±. As soon as he said it, a window appeared. The window had the title ¡°Quest Log¡±. It had two tabs, ¡°Progressing¡± and ¡°Completed.¡± ¡°Completed¡± was empty, just as he thought. As for ¡°Progressing¡±, the only quest there was his current quest, ¡°A promise to Mum¡±. Closing the window, Riley fell deep in thought. ¡°Has my life really turned into a game? Only one way to find out. If it has really turned into a game¡­¡± Riley placed his mechanical pencil down and took a deep breath. He then uttered, ¡°Status¡±. A window appeared, with the title ¡°Status¡±. It had his picture, his name, his level, and his title. There were three bars: His health bar, his mana bar, and an empty bar, which was called EXP. His health had already regenerated the missing 1 point from the pinch he had inflicted on himself earlier. As for the empty bar labelled EXP, Riley knew exactly what it was. It is the experience bar, a bar that tracks his progress and growth. Normally, in games, repetitive action can help raise the level of a single skill. Just like in World of Legends, Riley spent 8 consecutive days just chopping trees down to reach level 99 in Woodcutting. However, by completing quests, or training, one would be able to level up their character when the bar hits full. Leveling up would increase his overall stats, making him stronger. Having a higher level will also allow the character to access equipment and skills reserved only to high-level characters. Below all these details, there was a box named ¡°Attributes¡±. These stats showed his prowess in an itemised list of his physical and mental characteristics, quantified for ease of comparison. The stats listed were: Strength: 25 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 28 Wisdom: 20 Charisma: 24 Luck: 20 His stats surprised him. ¡°Wow¡±, he thought, ¡°My Strength is pretty high. All that sports and exercise really paid off!¡± After seeing this window, any doubt in Riley¡¯s mind had been demystified. His life had really changed into a game. Biting on the end of his pen, he started thinking. ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened or how I got these powers, but since I already have them, I might as well use it to the best of my abilities to help me out in my daily life. I wonder what other secrets lie within this power that can help me out? What are some common abilities in every MMORP-¡± He suddenly shot up. Pointing his pen into the space in front of him, he grinned to himself and said, ¡°Inventory!¡± A new window appeared, with the title ¡°Inventory¡±. The window had multiple grids, presumably to store items. It was the standard blue, with the grids being dark grey. Right below the grids was a dollar sign with 0.00 next to it. There was a full body picture of Riley next to the grids, with boxes beside the limbs. There was one box for each hand and feet, one for his torso, one for his legs, one for his head, and four above his head. He assumed that the four empty grids above his head were for accessories. Unlike the rest of the empty boxes, the box on his right hand was filled. It had a picture of the pen he was holding in it. "I can¡¯t believe this power comes with an inventory space too! This must be one of the best parts of my ability, literally transcending into the realms of magic. Now, to see if it works like I think it does." Riley moved his right hand so that it would be right in front of the window and jabbed his pen into it. Upon coming in contact with the box, the pen soon phased through the screen, and slowly dissipated into nothing. After its sudden disappearance, one of the grids in the inventory box had the icon of the pen in it. "W-wow! It worked, just like magic! Having an inventory in the real world is life-changing! Now I can carry as many things as I want anywhere I want! No more limiting my clothing during camps! No more getting mugged!" He then clicked on the icon of his pen and his pen soon appeared into his hands again. This new window was what made him the happiest about his ability so far. He then fumbled in his drawers for his wallet. Pulling out the wallet, he took out $10 and pushed it into the window. The numbers beside the dollar sign changed from 0 to 10, and he knew the transfer was a success. He then clicked on the dollar sign to try and withdraw his money. A new, smaller window appeared. It had a number scroller, a button that said ¡°All¡±, and a button that said ¡°Ok¡±. Riley proceeded to click on the ¡°All¡± button. His ten-dollar note came out, and he rejoiced. As he continued stuffing his inventory with cash, a notification popped out. It was a notification from the Quest system. It was currently 11:45, and he had 15 minutes remaining before the quest ended. ¡°Okay, time to get back to work. No more fooling around!¡± Closing the inventory menu, he went back to his desk and continued with the conclusion of his essay. The second he wrote the final period for the last sentence of his conclusion, a notification popped up right before him. ¡°Congratulations, you¡¯ve completed the quest ¡°A promise to Mum!¡± A new window popped up after the initial one, with the texts: ¡°Quest Rewards: +10 EXP, +1 Charisma, Double Smash Burgers with Cheese with no pickle¡± Below the text was a short animation of his Experience Bar filling up a tenth of a way, and his Charisma skill point transitioning from its previous 24 to a 25. A smaller, rectangular window popped up, saying, ¡°Due to studying diligently, your intelligence went up by 1 point!¡± Just like the previous window, below the announcement was a smaller text showing his Intelligence¡¯s stat going up from 28 to 29. The amount of windows that popped up simultaneously brought with them a surge of information that overwhelmed Riley. Studying and completing homework could increase his stats too regardless of the quests? It seemed odd¡­ this was too easy and way too quick. ¡°Did my new ability also make improving and growing easier? I¡¯ve been diligently completing my homeworks every day for the past 16 years of my life, but my Intelligence is only 28. Just from this menial task of my daily routine, I¡¯ve essentially grown 5%? How does that even make sense?¡± ¡°Congratulations! Due to deep thinking and analysis on your newfound abilities, your Wisdom went up by 1 point by understanding the system better!¡± A new window popped up, showing that his Wisdom had increased once again. Riley felt a sarcastic smirk from the gods. ¡°Hah! It¡¯s as if my power, or the system, is alive. And has a sense of humor too, at that.¡± ¡°Congratulations! Due to identifying the livingness and humor of the system, your Wisdom went up by 1 point by understanding the system better!¡± ¡°LOL.¡± After this revelation, he knew the severity and impact of this power. The power was definitely supernatural, and that would make him now a supernatural too. His normal teenage life was over. His life, the world, as he knew it, had been flipped upside down. Standing up, he decided to take advantage of this gift he received - he decided to spend the rest of the day training his physical form - strength and dexterity. Being a baseball player, strength, stamina, and dexterity was very important to him. He changed into sportswear with a baseball cap. He picked up his baseball bat and left his room. As he walked down the stairs, his mum called out to him, ¡°Riley? Have you completed your homework?¡± Riley smiled and said, ¡°Yup! I¡¯ll be heading out for some baseball training.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t leave just yet! I¡¯ve prepared lunch! Guess what I made?¡± Riley smirked. ¡°Hmm, let me guess. Is it my favorite smashed burger?¡± Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Strength: 25 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 (+1) Wisdom: 22 (+2) Charisma: 25 (+1) Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 2) (+1) Chapter 3 Chapter 3 It was 12:32pm when Riley finished his lunch. Stepping out of the house and into his backyard, Riley breathed in the fresh air. ¡°Ah. What great weather today. Gotta love cloudy skies. Ideal for some training.¡± As he said this, he dropped his baseball beside a nearby tree, then started climbing it. After climbing for about five or so meters, he produced a ball of string from his pocket. It was an ordinary piece of string that he had tied to a rectangular piece of wood beforehand. He proceeded to tie one end of the string to the nearest branch, making sure it was secure before he slid down. After reaching the bottom, he picked up the ball. It was a standard baseball, with a tiny slit that had been pierced through one end and out the other. It was basically a rectangular hole with a width of around three millimetres. Riley took the piece of wood, then slid it through and out the other end of the hole. Letting go of the ball, he let it dangle in the air to test the firmness of the string. ¡°Alright, this should be good enough.¡± After a couple of warm-up exercises and practise swings, Riley took his stance. Taking a deep breath, he swung. Riley cursed under his breath as he saw the ball fly upwards. He had struck too low, and the ball had almost hit the tree branch it was tied to. He caught the ball as it came down, and then prepared for another try. This time, he smiled with satisfaction. The ball had flown at an almost perfect 35 degree angle. He nodded to himself as the string went taut, forcing the ball to bounce backwards slightly instead of flying away. ¡°Alright, just need to keep at it for a few more hours.¡± It wasn¡¯t until Riley had eight more ¡°homeruns¡± when it happened. As soon as he had struck the ball, two windows popped up in front of him. Startled, he dropped his bat. ¡°Rats. I was so absorbed in my training that I completely forgot about this.¡± The first window was a simple stat increase. "Due to diligent training, your strength has increased by 1 point." The second window was a notification which stated: ¡°Through thorough training, you have gained the skill [Blunt Weapon Proficiency].¡± After reading through, he clicked on the button that said ¡°Details.¡± The window disappeared, and a new one popped up. This one was the details of the skill from the ¡°Skills¡± window. The icon was an image of two staffs crossed together in the shape of an ¡°X¡±. The details of the skill were indicated below the icon: ¡°You deal 5% more damage.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°You gain 5% extra attack speed.¡± ¡°You lose 5% less energy per strike.¡± ¡°Your attacks are 5% more accurate.¡± ¡°Your weapon loses 5% less durability on hit.¡± ¡°Only applicable when a blunt weapon has been equipped¡± ¡°Awesome! Now my swinging and performance on the field will definitely improve!¡± Riley fist bumped the air and did a mini celebration dance. ¡°Alright! Now to practise more swings. I should be able to level up this skill a lot more in the next few hours.¡± After another hour, a window popped up. "Due to diligent training, your strength has increased by 1 point." Upon closing the window, another appeared. "Your passive stat gains are now at 5/5. The cap has been reached. Reset will happen at level 11." Riley scratched his head. "Huh? Does this mean I can only gain 5 bonus stats every 10 levels? I guess I''ll have to wait and see how many points I gain through leveling up¡­ Oh well! Back to practicing my swings." After practising his swings for another two hours, Riley had managed to level up [Blunt Weapon Proficiency] by two levels. Increasing by 1% per level, [Blunt Weapon Proficiency]¡¯s stats were at 7%. Feeling extremely satisfied and exhausted, Riley climbed the tree to retrieve his string, tucked both the string and the ball into his pockets, then dragged his body into the house. "Time to test out [Virtual Body]" After taking a brief shower, changing clothes, and setting his alarm clock for thirty minutes, Riley dropped onto his bed, dead to the world. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beep. Beep. Beep. Opening his eyes, Riley felt surprisingly refreshed. "This is incredible! Only thirty minutes of sleep and all my fatigue is gone. There¡¯s a few more hours to waste before dinner." Riley slumped into his chair and turned his computer on. He¡¯d just spent the whole day bewildered by his newfound powers. He knew that he had barely scratched the surface of his power¡¯s true potential. True, he¡¯d gained some new skills, leveled up his stats, and even tested out the miraculous healing potential of [Virtual Body], but he knew there had to be more to his new "power", if you could even call it that. Heck, what he¡¯d gone through had barely even scratched the surface of the tutorials of most role-playing games. Riley reflexively typed his password in, and launched World of Legends. ¡°Normally, tutorials in RPGs would cover more aspects than what I¡¯ve done today. I should really check out what World of Legend¡¯s tutorial covered.¡± Riley then typed his character¡¯s login information, and continued where he left off. His character had been left standing in the middle of a bustling street in Silverrune City, one of the largest cities in the world of World of Legends. First thing he did upon logging in was to check his inventory. Because of how tired he was after the previous night¡¯s guild raid, he hadn''t even had the chance to check for loot. Opening his inventory, he discovered that he had not received any new gear, except for a few extra zeros in his coin pouch. ¡°That¡¯s weird. Normally, a ¡®Legendary¡¯ guild raid will drop at least one ¡®Mythic¡¯ class weapon or armor for the Top 10 contributors. I know for a fact that I dealt the most damage. How is it that I, one of the top players in my guild and the main damage dealer, failed to receive ANY loot? Damn Rizzard.¡± Frustrated at the developers of the game, Riley had lost his mood to play. Instead, he thought about casually exploring the game¡¯s world to inspire himself to test the limits of his newfound abilities. ¡°Wait, why not just create a new character, and actually experience what a real tutorial is like?¡± Grinning to himself, he logged out of his current character, and went back to the title screen. After successfully navigating his way around the title screen, he clicked the "Create New Character" button. While selecting his race and class, Riley pulled out his notebook and mechanical pencil. ¡°Hah! Who would have thought there would come a day where I¡¯d do research in-game, for myself in real life?¡± Author¡¯s Note: Patch 3.0 (Hotfix) - Bonus chapter released due to unexpected views and ratings.
  • Patch 4.0 still due this Sunday
- Added stat and skill level increases to the end-of-chapter summary for ease of readers (and ourselves) Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Strength: 27 (+2) Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 2) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 3) (+2) Chapter 4: Bully

Chapter 4 Bully

¡°Sup dude!¡± Riley felt a thump on his back as his best friend greeted him with, what he felt, was too much enthusiasm this early in the morning. ¡°Morning to you too, Kyle.¡± Kyle was Riley¡¯s best friend. They had known each other since elementary school. He was athletic ¡ª the high school football star of Lincoln High, the high school they both attended. He was roughly 3 inches taller than Riley and, due to the nature of his sports, was built much more muscularly compared to him. If one did not watch them interact or was personally acquainted with them, they would never suspect that the two of them were best friends. Not only did their physiques differ greatly ¡ª Riley, who was much leaner than the incredibly buff Kyle ¡ª their personalities contrasted like night and day. Kyle was an extrovert, the popular kid, that guy who was friends with everyone in school. Just walking down the hall, Kyle would get greetings and ¡°high-fives¡± from everyone. Riley, on the other hand, was an introvert, who barely had any acquaintances, let alone close friends. Sure, he shared a sense of camaraderie with his baseball team, but out of school, his only close friend was Kyle. Unlike Kyle, Riley wasn¡¯t invited to any school parties, not that he would attend any of them; Riley would rather spend his time engrossed in video games. Though they were close, Riley was slightly jealous of Kyle. Riley had breathed a sigh of relief when he knew Kyle had joined the football team. If Kyle were to join the baseball team as he had, Riley¡¯s chance of making the team as the star batter would¡¯ve been close to zero. Above Kyle was the usual floating text, showing: ¡°Kyle Reginald, The Popular Kid, Lvl 25.¡± Riley wondered about this. The level of everyone he met so far was unknown to him ¡ª aside from his mum and Kyle. He had been looking around on his way to school for someone whose level was not unknown, but sadly, he had been rather unsuccessful. ¡°Let me guess, you spent the whole weekend playing games and forgot to finish your history homework.¡± Unlike Riley, Kyle had a "proper" life. He spent his free time exercising or working part-time at the local fast food chain. He was an outgoing and happy-go-lucky person, always cracking jokes among his classmates. Riley had been approached by many girls, not because they liked him, but because they wanted to get closer to Kyle. Riley sometimes wondered how he and Kyle were able to maintain such a close friendship when they were polar opposites. ¡°10 dollars says I did.¡± ¡°Oh? I¡¯m impressed. You actually finished your homework for once. It was probably your mum who nagged you continuously into doing it though, am I right? ¡°You got me there. I was in the middle of raid night when she told me to do it, so I promised her I would finish it yesterday.¡± ¡°Whoa, since when do you keep your promises?¡± ¡°Since¡­ yesterday.¡± Riley wasn¡¯t going to expose his new ability to anyone just yet; not even his closest friend. ¡°That¡¯s good to hear! Whatever she did to change you, she should continue!¡± ¡°That sounds kinda wrong, Kyle.¡± ¡°Well, it came out wrong. Anyways, here we are. I¡¯ll see you later in class. Sarah ¡ª you know Sarah, right? From the other class. Well, she wanted to meet up alone in the gym today; said she had something important to talk about.¡± ¡°Okay, see you.¡± Riley watched as Kyle jogged off in the direction of the gym. Riley sighed. Kyle was very popular, yet he could be such an airhead. He had been rejecting girls left and right, without even knowing it. Usually, the girls would confess, and he would reply with something like, ¡°Yea, I like you too! You¡¯re like the best pal I could ever have.¡± The bell started chiming loudly through the hallway. Riley, who had been retrieving a textbook from his locker, slammed the door shut and immediately started running to his class. Upon entering the classroom, he went to his desk and sat down. He was still early, and there was no sign of the teacher nor Kyle. He placed the book he was holding atop his desk and pulled out his pencil case. Soon Kyle came in, with his usual cheery and happy style and sat down next to Riley. It didn¡¯t take long for him to start rambling about his usual nonsense. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Soon after, Sarah entered the classroom. Her hair drooping down, she was looking exceptionally gloomy, as if she had just been rejected by her crush. Riley snickered. It was sorta amusing, watching so many girls crash and burn. The teacher came in, and their first period started. Finally, after a few long hours of school, with only fleeting breaks in-between periods, the bell rang. It was finally lunch time. As he was standing up, Kyle did the same, saying, ¡°Let¡¯s hurry to the cafeteria, before it gets too crowded.¡± Riley nodded and followed him out of the class. As they reached the cafeteria, they could see that it was already crowded. Kyle tapped Riley on the shoulder, and stuffed a few notes into his hand before grasping his stomach. ¡°Urgh, my stomach is hurting now. Must¡¯ve been my breakfast. Buy me a ham sandwich, thanks.¡± Before Riley could say anything, Kyle sped away. Riley sighed. ¡°Damn it, he¡¯s just too lazy to queue up.¡± Riley went to the end of the queue, and decided that Kyle wouldn''t get any change if he wasn''t going to line up. Riley decided to treat himself to an extra sandwich. After having lined up for a while, there were only five people left in front of Riley. Just then, a loud voice behind him boomed: ¡°Coming through!¡± Someone barged forward from the crowd behind him, and Riley knew exactly who it was. ¡°Jake Tristan, School Bully, Lvl ???¡±. He was the school¡¯s most notorious bully, going after anyone smaller than him. And due to his big size, that meant many, many people. If it weren¡¯t for his bad grades and terrible attitude, Jake would''ve made it into the football team. Soon, Jake was behind Riley. ¡°Piss off, dipshit!¡± Riley ignored him. He knew he had the right to stay where he was. Also, he doubted Jake would beat him up in front of the cafeteria staff and the massive lunch crowd. ¡°I¡¯m not moving from this spot. If you want food, the queue starts back there. Or did your parents never teach you how to line up?¡± His reply made the crowd snicker, but it stopped as Jake looked around, giving anyone who looked like they were enjoying themselves too much the stink eye. While this was going on, Riley had reached the front of the line. He ordered two sandwiches; one for him and one for Kyle. As he walked around looking for an empty table, he suddenly felt a hand grabbing the back of his collar. He was pushed into a nearby wall, his whole body slamming into it like a ragdoll. He dropped his tray, along with the sandwiches. A shadow loomed above him. He looked up and saw Jake standing over him. Jake squatted, smiled, and picked up one of the packets of the sandwiches that Riley had dropped. He stood back up and gave Riley a kick to the side. It was a strong kick, and he felt pain coursing through his abdomen. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his HP drop to 200/250 ¡°I¡¯m a nice guy, so I¡¯ll leave one for you.¡± Jake then proceeded to kick the remaining sandwich on the floor towards Riley, hitting him squarely in the gut. ¡°Goal!¡± He then walked away, proudly laughing to himself. A window popped up, saying: ¡°Through the perseverance of great pain, you have gained the skill [Physical Endurance].¡± Riley punched the window out of frustration, accidentally hitting ¡°Details¡±. The skill icon was a human body seemingly clad in metal. The details of the skill were indicated below the icon: ¡°Incoming physical damage reduced by 3% + (10% of Vitality).¡± Riley ignored it and tried standing up. Picking up the last sandwich, he limped his way through the gaze of the crowd ¡ª a mix of pity and "you should''ve moved out of the way" ¡ª to the nearest empty table. Soon, Kyle was making his way towards the table. Sitting down, he picked the sandwich packet off the table and unwrapped it. ¡°Thanks. You¡¯re not eating?¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯m still full from breakfast.¡± Kyle thought nothing of it and bit into the sandwich. "Is it just me or does this sandwich look off to you? Some of the fillings have split out, and the bread feels kinda squished. Did they replace Mrs. Hunter or something?" "Sorry, I dropped it by accident. That''s my bad." "Don''t worry about it dude. It''s wrapped and anyway, three-second rule, amirite? It wasn¡¯t until he noticed a small crowd staring at Riley that he started getting suspicious. He glanced at Riley. There were dirt marks clearly imprinted on Riley¡¯s shirt, and his hair was ruffled. Kyle knew Riley had been pushed around, and it wasn¡¯t hard to deduce by who: Jake. He wanted to ask Riley about it, but knowing him, he would pretend nothing was wrong, since he hated dragging people into his problems. Kyle stood up. He turned to Riley, face beaming. ¡°I almost forgot. I was supposed to meet up with Sarah again. She wanted to have lunch with me; I think she brought extras. You can have the rest. I¡¯ll head off to find her. See you in class, Ry!¡± He slapped Riley on the back and walked off. Riley took the sandwich and started munching into it, glad to have something to abate his hunger. The moment Kyle turned around, his face changed. If looks could kill, you had a bigger chance for survival in a staring contest with Medusa. He would find Jake and make him suffer. No one would get away with bullying his best friend. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After school, it didn¡¯t take long for Riley to walk home. ¡°Hey mum, I¡¯m home!¡± As he walked past the kitchen, his mum replied, ¡°Welcome home dear. I¡¯ll be going out soon with some friends. We¡¯re celebrating Julie¡¯s birthday, you remember Aunt Julie? She used to babysit you when you were a child. Dinner¡¯s in the fridge. Just heat it up in the microwave if you¡¯re hungry.¡± As he walked up the stairs, Riley replied, ¡°Ok mum.¡± Entering his room, he threw his bag on the floor and fell flat onto his bed. He was frustrated and angry that he had let himself get pushed around like that. He had gained such a useful ability, yet he was weaker than the average school bully. ¡°Status.¡± The window appeared, showing his current stats. His eyes locked onto one stat and one stat only: his strength. It was standing at a high 27, yet he had been floored in one hit by the school bully. He needed to take advantage of his new ability. He sat down at his desk and booted up his computer. After researching for a while, he finally found what he wanted and turned his computer off. Hearing his mum exit the house, he changed and went out the backdoor. As he walked, he started thinking. ¡°The way I¡¯m training isn¡¯t going to help protect me. If I were to use a baseball bat in a brawl, I would definitely get suspended, possibly even expelled. I need to be able to land effective hits and dodge blows at the same time." After walking for a while, he arrived at his destination: the bookstore. He walked in and started looking for the martial arts section. As he walked through the shelves of books, he caught sight of a misplaced fairy tale. He reached out for it, with the intention of putting it back on the correct shelf. The moment he picked it up, a window appeared. Before even reading it, he assumed, ¡°What? Is this some sort of foraging skill?¡± He then accidentally clicked on a button as he tried to pull it closer. The book disappeared into a mist of yellow light, and a window popped up. ¡°Skill successfully learnt!¡± Riley¡¯s eyes widened as he saw the book disappear. ¡°Wait, what?¡± Author¡¯s Note: Patch 4.0 - Regular weekly update - Physical Endurance gained Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Level: 1 HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 10/100 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 2) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 3) Physical Endurance (Level 1) Chapter 5 Tutorial: Skill books

Chapter 5 Tutorial: Skill books

He summoned the skill window, and immediately noticed a new icon, which was a high-heeled shoe made of glass. This caused him to facepalm. ¡®Oh. My. God.¡¯ Clicking on it, a window appeared. The skill was called . ¡°Mana cost: 50.¡± ¡°Cooldown: Once per day. Refreshes at Midnight Local Time.¡± ¡°Pre-requisites: A dropped shoe within a 4 meter radius of the target.¡± ¡°Description: Upon casting this spell on a target, the target will be forced to chase after the shoe¡¯s owner for one *sole* reason; to fit the shoe onto the user¡¯s leg. This spell will last until the target successfully fits a shoe onto the user or the user cancels it. With a strong will (Wisdom), the target can resist this spell. To cast, utter the words: It¡¯s already 12 O¡¯ Clock!¡± Riley closed this window, his palm still on his face. He realized his ability to absorb a skill from a book was similar to in-game methods of learning techniques. This method had completely slipped his mind. He had, in fact, been planning to actually read and train from the books he was looking for. He never would have guessed that all he needed to do was touch them to fully absorb all the knowledge. Riley headed off to the martial art section. The only way he could fight against Jake was using his fists. Bashing his face in with his bat would be much more satisfying, but it would also earn him an express ticket to the principal¡¯s office. As he looked through the martial art section, he found one of the books he was looking for. The moment he grabbed it, a window popped out. ¡°You have obtained the skill book {Art of Aikido}. Would you like to learn the skills?¡± This time, he made sure he looked at the screen properly before clicking ¡°Decline¡±. Smiling, he looked around before finding another book, {Basic Punching Techniques}. Picking this up, he declined the window and proceeded onwards. After a few minutes of searching, he finally found everything he was looking for. Books in hand, Riley went to the counter. As he was about to pay, he grabbed his wallet and realized he had deposited everything into his inventory. He whispered ¡°Inventory¡±. The inventory window appeared, and he dragged it near to his pocket to make it look like he was pulling the cash from his pocket. Before paying for the books, Riley felt a small tinge of guilt for stealing the fairy tale story book. However, this was quickly overwritten by the excitement of the prospect of learning new skills. After paying for the books, he exited the shop. As he walked through the street, he touched one of the books, and a window appeared, saying, ¡°You obtained a skill book {Art of Aikido}. Would you like to learn this skill?¡± This time, he smiled and clicked ¡°Accept¡±. A new window appeared, saying, ¡°Skill(s) successfully learnt!¡± Ignoring this, he summoned the skill window and found three new windows below the skill. The first icon showed a person in a matrix-dodging position, the second was a picture of a person flipping another person, and the third was a person performing a sweep with his leg. He clicked on the icon of the first skill, [Dodge Step]. ¡°Passive skill: This move allows the user to innately dodge attacks by stepping out of the way. 10% + (10% of Dexterity) chance to dodge incoming attacks. Does not go on cooldown if the user manually dodges. Cooldown: 5 seconds.¡± Closing this window, he clicked on the second skill, . ¡°Active skill: When attacked by an enemy, the user uses his momentum to flip him. Can use Strength to deal increased damage, increasing cooldown by 3x. Cooldown: 5 seconds.¡± ¡®Boring. What¡¯s next?¡¯ He clicked on the last icon. ¡° Active Skill: User rapidly moves his leg in a sweeping motion, tripping all enemies in a half-meter radius. Upon usage, the user is immobilised for 1 second. Can be dodged. Cooldown: 10 seconds.¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! " and seem pretty ordinary. [Dodge Step], however, should be pretty useful in combat." Leaving his skill window on, he touched the second book. A window appeared. ¡°You obtained a skill book {Basic Punching Techniques}. Would you like to learn the skill?¡± Clicking the ¡°Accept¡± Button, the ¡°Success¡± notification appeared. Looking at his skill window, he found a new skill, with the icon of a punch with a spiky bubble around it. Riley thought that it was vaguely similar to the bubbles that were used in comics to express sound effects. Clicking on it, he found out that it was called . It was his first active skill that required mana, other than the ¡°By concentrating your strength into a single punch, you boost its speed and damage. Increases damage by 50% + (100% Strength)% and speed by 50% + (100% Dexterity). Mana Cost: 15.¡± He smiled. ¡®Not bad. The calculations are pretty complicated, but they shouldn''t even see it coming.¡¯ Picking the last book from the bag, the window popped up. ¡°You obtained the skill book {100 tips to Increase your Reflexes}. Would you like to learn this skill?¡± Clicking affirmatively, he glanced at the skill window. There was a new icon, this time of a human sprinting, with multiple afterimage effects behind it. ¡° Toggle skill. When turned on, the user''s muscles and nerves are supercharged. User gains +100% body speed (Dexterity), and reacts 100% faster. Costs 40 mana per second.¡± ¡®Holy. This skill is seriously overpowered. Even if it only lasts 5 seconds right now.¡¯ Satisfied, Riley smiled slyly as he walked home. Jake would have to be ready if he planned to fight Riley tomorrow. ¡°Good Luck Have Fun, Jake.¡± ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The bell started ringing, signaling the start of the first period. Riley¡¯s head was slumped on his desk as the bell woke him up. Rubbing his eyes ¡ª and trying to shrug off his sleepiness ¡ª he felt a pat on his back. ¡°Been staying up late playing games again, huh?¡± Riley looked at Kyle, forcing a smile. ¡°Yea, haha... ¡° Riley was glad that he had such an easy bluff up his sleeve. He had actually been awake because he couldn¡¯t sleep. The new abilities that he gained had kept his mind active the entire time. He started fantasizing all the situations where his abilities would be useful in life. [Dodge Step] was definitely one. He could imagine himself winning the inter-school dodgeball tournament with [Dodge Step] alone. It would gain him fame, and at the same time, help him train the skill and his dexterity. Or, he could use [Extreme Agility] and stand a chance to beat his state, or even the national, record for the 100-meter sprint. Class went on as usual, though Riley wasn¡¯t paying attention at all. He couldn¡¯t wait for recess. If Jake was going to attack him, it would be then, and Riley decided he was going to have plenty of fun with him. Plus, there was baseball training after school, and Riley couldn¡¯t wait to show off his batting. The bell rang, and not a moment too soon. Kyle came over and patted him on the shoulder, saying, ¡°Hey, my mum made extra sandwiches, so let¡¯s go have lunch at our usual spot behind the school.¡± Riley smiled and said, ¡°Sure, I love your mum¡¯s sandwiches.¡± ¡®Damn it, guess I won¡¯t get to meet Jake today.¡¯ Riley followed Kyle as he led the way. As usual, there was no one around where they usually ate lunch. As they sat down on some stairs, Kyle passed him a packet of sandwiches wrapped in foil. Riley thanked him and started munching on them. While they were chatting and taking bites out of their food, a group of people turned the corner and headed in their direction. ¡®That¡¯s strange. No one usually comes here.¡¯ Riley couldn¡¯t see their faces, but his gut stirred ¡ª his carnal instincts overwhelming his human intelligence ¡ª He had a very bad feeling about this. A window appeared. ¡°Through intuition, the passive skill [Sense Danger] has been learnt!" ¡®This is not good¡­ This is not good at all¡­ I can¡¯t get Kyle involved in this.¡¯ Riley stood up, his gaze fixated at the group of students coming towards them. Kyle wondered why Riley stood up and asked: "What¡¯s up?" His question was answered; however, as he followed Riley''s gaze and saw them. "Well, well, well¡­ Who do we have here? Just the two bugs that we were looking for." The group scattered, showing about ten people, with Jake in the center, hands in his pockets, the world¡¯s biggest smirk painted on his face. "What are you doing here?! Didn''t I tell you not to show your face in front of me? Was yesterday''s lesson not enough?" Kyle squeezed his fists, anger showing on his face. Jake snapped his fingers, and four of his minions tackled Kyle to the ground. Jake lifted his shirt, exposing his right abdomen, revealing a large, purple bruise. "You''ll have lots of these by the time I''m done with you today." While Kyle was preoccupied, he shouted for Riley to run. "Get out of here Riley! Go get a teacher! I''ll hold these guys back!" With another snap of his fingers, a few of Jake''s minions fanned out around Riley. Jake approached him, his big figure towering over Riley. "Too late. You aren''t going anywhere, nerd." Author¡¯s Note: Patch 5.0 - Bonus chapter released due to unexpected views and ratings. - Patch 6.0 still due this Sunday - New skills gained! - gained! - [Dodge Step] gained! - gained! - gained! - gained! - gained! - [Sense Danger] gained! Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Level: 1 HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 10/100 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 2) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 3) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 1) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 1) Power Punch (Level 1) Extreme Agility (Level 1) Sense Danger (Level 1) Chapter 6 Double (But Its Actually Just One) Dragon

Chapter 6 Double (But It''s Actually Just One) Dragon

Jake walked towards Riley, another big smirk on his face. "Hello! I would call you by name, but I¡¯m not in the habit of remembering the names of weaklings. Now''s a good chance for you to get revenge on me on your own. There''s no need for him to do it for you." As he was saying this, a window appeared, saying: ¡°You have received a quest called ¡°First Fight: Vengeance¡±. ¡°Quest Details: Make sure the School Bully never bothers you again. Neutralize all enemies, either by knocking them out or making them run away.¡± ¡°Quest rewards: 200 exp.¡± ¡°Bonus Objective: Steal the School Bully¡¯s lunch money by going through his pockets.¡° ¡°Bonus Reward: 10 exp.¡± This description was then followed by the two buttons, Accept and Decline. Riley clicked on the ¡°Accept¡± button. He wrinkled his forehead, his expression changing into one of vex. "Eh. Our friendly neighborhood dumbass needs ten people to take on two. This¡¯ll be a good one for the history books." Jake forced his face closer to Riley¡¯s, and cracked into a huge smile. ¡°Do I look like I care? Well, I¡¯m sorry to disappoint but I don¡¯t! Let¡¯s get this party started, guys!¡± As he watched two of Jake¡¯s minions step forward, he could feel his adrenaline pumping. He felt something within him change. Riley sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with quickly. I still have some food left and I don''t want to waste my entire lunch break dealing with you fools.¡± He observed as they charged him. He smiled to himself. ¡®Two attacks. Simple.¡¯ He dodged the first punch, then utilized the momentum of the second to . Gripping the minion¡¯s arm, he knew he had him right then and there. Using all his might, Riley performed the . The result was the minion hitting the floor with a massive ¡°thud!¡± and the loud sound of what-sounded-like a snapping bone. ¡°Arghhh! Shit! M-my arm! I think it¡¯s broken!¡± Jake glared at him. ¡°Shut up, wuss. Can¡¯t even win in a two versus one situation. You deserve to have your arm broken.¡± He pointed at the other minion. ¡°You. Get him.¡± The first minion who had missed his punch charged towards Riley, both arms up in an attempt to grab him. ¡°My god. That is a very ineffective way of grappling someone.¡± As the minion got close, Riley unleashed a full-strength uppercut aimed at his chin. The minion¡¯s momentum denied him any chance of slowing down and dodging, and he was knocked out in a single blow. ¡®Not bad. If my regular punches are this strong, I can¡¯t imagine what a would be like.¡¯ ¡°Surprise!¡± Riley turned his head, [Sense Danger] going off like an air-raid siren. [Dodge Step] enabled him to narrowly avoid a punch from Jake. ¡°Woah. Almost got me there. Good try Jake, A+ for effort!¡± Kyle snickered as Jake turned red with rage. ¡°Shut it, weakling.¡± He threw another punch. This time, Riley knew he wouldn¡¯t even need [Dodge Step] to avoid it. The time he used to draw his arm back gave him all the time in the world to formulate a plan. As the punch came flying towards his face, Riley stepped to the right. Drawing his arms back, he gave Jake an almighty two-handed shove. Jake flew backwards, and landed on the ground a few meters away. Shaking his head, he looked at his minions.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°What are you buffoons looking at, get him!¡± The three remaining minions that weren¡¯t preoccupied with Kyle turned towards Riley. Cracking his knuckles, he said. ¡°I would advise you to take me three on one. It wouldn¡¯t be fair otherwise. Wouldn¡¯t be fun either.¡± The minions looked at each other, then charged. Riley smiled. ¡°That¡¯s the spirit!¡± All it took was a , and Riley had all three on the floor. He kicked the one closest to him, getting some extra pain in, as he walked towards Jake. Facing off against Jake, he sneered. No one in the world would''ve thought that Riley the geek could''ve been able to leave Jake lying on the floor, let alone win against 5 of his minions too. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have gathered better fighters, Jake? I thought you were the Great School Bully? Able to hang even the heaviest of nerds on the school flagpole with their underwear? Is this the limit of your influence? I¡¯ll tell you right now, that¡¯s pathetic. ¡° ¡°No, you. You¡¯re pathetic.¡± Jake was slowly getting up, brushing the dirt off himself. He could see the panic in Jake¡¯s eyes, sweat rolling from his face. Riley walked right in front of Jake, his face a few inches away from Jake¡¯s. He grabbed Jake¡¯s collar and smiled, reeling his fist back. ¡°W-wait! Let¡¯s work this out! Cut a deal! I¡¯ll be your minion! I¡¯ll carry your bag for you! Force a hole through the cafeteria queue for you! Hell, I¡¯ll even do your homework for you! Just please! Don¡¯t hurt me!¡± Riley tutted, as he lowered his fist. ¡°What did I just say about being pathetic?¡± He smirked at Jake. ¡°Now, what should I do with you? You clearly need to be taught a big lesson. I know, maybe I''ll gather a huge crowd and show them how pathetic Jake the big bad bully actually is. Who knows, there might be some people who want a piece of the action. I''m sure you''ve no shortage of enemies." As he said so, he gave Jake a kick to the crotch. ¡°Ah fuck! Not cool!¡± ¡°Neither is bringing ten goons to fight two people.¡± Riley drew his arm back and Jake covered his face. ¡°Riley! Look out!¡± Before he could unleash his punch, he felt someone grab his arm and pull him back. He fell backwards, and caught a glimpse of the four people that had attacked him previously before he was dragged up and had both his arms locked. ¡°A Full Nelson hold eh? Not bad.¡± Jake smirked as he walked up towards Riley. ¡°Looks like the tables have turned. I¡¯ll be the one beating on you now. Now, how shall I take care of you? Oh, I know. I¡¯ll hit you ¡®till you pass out.¡± ¡°Oh really? Fifty says you can¡¯t touch me.¡± ¡°Hahaha. We¡¯ll see about that. First, we¡¯ll start off with the most painful punch to the face that you¡¯ll ever feel in your entire pathetic life.¡± Jake began swinging his arm to warm up the muscles. Riley smiled. After preparing, Jake threw his punch. Riley used all his strength to bend his body down. This brought the minion holding his arms over him. Unfortunately for the minion, his cranium was at the exact spot where Riley¡¯s head was a moment ago. A sickening ¡°crack¡± resounded through the area. Both Jake and the minion hit the ground; the minion because he had fainted instantly, and Jake because his knuckles were bleeding profusely. ¡°Shit! Why you little - Get him!¡± As the three remaining minions ran towards him, Riley hit them all with a . Activating , he punched each of them in the face to make sure they weren''t getting up. ¡°Hat Trick! Now then, where were we when we were so rudely interrupted? Oh yes, you were busy groveling for your life. Tell you what. I¡¯m bored now, so I¡¯ll give you a painless death.¡± Riley walked over to Jake and threw a . Jake tried to dodge but was too slow, and the punch hit him square in the stomach. "Is¡­ is that all you can do?" He spat on Riley''s shoes. Riley looked at Jake in disdain. "Wow. I would say I''m impressed that you withstood that, if I weren''t so utterly disgusted by you." He got ready to throw another punch when he noticed Jake¡¯s mouth frothing up. He waited a few seconds, and Jake¡¯s body collapsed on its own. ''I guess he wasn''t able to endure it after all.'' A window appeared. ¡°Through continuous taunting, the skill [Trash Talk] has been discovered.¡± ¡°Passive skill: When taunting enemies, the user has a (10% + (100% of Charisma))% chance of ¡®tilting¡¯ enemies. (Tilted: Status debuff. When tilted, the target''s Strength is increased by 20%, but suffers a 50% debuff in Wisdom and Intelligence). Does not stack. Chances of tilting are affected by the target''s Wisdom. Cooldown: 5 seconds.¡± ''Huh. I was always pretty good at trash talking, but this takes it to a whole new level.'' Closing the window, he turned his attention back to Jake, whose body was sprawled on the floor. Narrowing his eyes, Riley noticed something different about him. Jake''s level had changed from ¡°???¡± to ¡°25¡±. ''I see. I have to first see them in action to evaluate their skills before their level is revealed to me. That¡¯s interesting.'' He stooped down to rifle through Jake''s pockets. After "liberating" all the money he had ¡ª which amounted to exactly 50 dollars ¡ª Riley turned towards Kyle, and saw 3 minions on the ground. Using , he caught the last one off guard before Kyle or the minion could even react, then grabbed him by the collar. ¡°Kyle, heads up!¡± Riley pushed the minion with all his might towards Kyle, who proceeded to give him a clothesline, spinning him in the air once before his face landed squarely on the ground. ¡°I had him, man. Nice assist though¡± A few seconds later, a notification he had never seen before popped up: ¡°Battle ended. Experience gained: 90.¡± His EXP bar appeared, and he saw it fill up from a tenth of the way to full. Upon hitting 100%, the bar reset to zero, and a new window followed. ¡°Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 2.¡± This window disappeared, and was replaced by a new window saying, ¡°Quest Completed! Gained 210 experience!¡± His EXP bar reappeared, filling up to the brim before resetting, and continued filling the new bar to 90%, showing ¡°100/122¡±. ¡°Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 3.¡± ''Woo! About time. I guess it¡¯s the same as games, right? Sure, you can have fun from the side mission and grinding, but the fastest way to level up is still questing. Let¡¯s see what I get from levelling u-'' A hand patted Riley¡¯s shoulder, interrupting his train of thought. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author¡¯s Note: Patch 6.0 - Regular weekly update - New skill(s) unlocked! - [Trash Talk] gained! Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Level: 3 HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 100/122 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 2) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 3) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 1) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 1) Power Punch (Level 1) Extreme Agility (Level 1) Sense Danger (Level 1) Trash Talk (Level 1) Street Fighter ¡°Wow, good job, Riley! I never knew you were a good fighter!¡± Riley turned around to face Kyle, smiling as he did so. ¡°Well, I guess the reason why I never knew you were this strong is because I¡¯ve never seen you fight. To think that all this while I¡¯ve been trying to protect you from bullies. It just seems like I¡¯ve been protecting them from you!¡± Riley burst into laughter. He was extremely grateful to learn that Kyle had been protecting him the whole time they had been friends. The bell started ringing. ¡°Damn it, break¡¯s already over! We have to run while eating!¡± Kyle took his sandwich wrapper and started running off to class. Riley smiled and followed suit. ¡°By the way, you talked differently while fighting those dead-weights.¡± ¡°It was just the heat of the moment. And that¡¯s just how gamers talk. Got to release the saltiness somehow.¡± ¡°I see.¡± "Also, it was a lot of fun." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Riley spent the rest of school fantasizing about being the hero and saving the princess from the villain. As the bell rang, signaling the end of school, Kyle and Riley said goodbye and parted ways. Kyle headed home, whereas Riley eagerly headed to the baseball field for the session he had been looking forward to; baseball training. Entering the locker room, he greeted his teammates. After getting changed, he went to the field together with the rest of his team. He was confident that [Blunt Weapon Proficiency] would help a lot with his batting. After practicing a few shots with the pitcher, a window popped up. ¡°Due to the repetition of a certain action, the skill has been gained!¡± As soon as he saw the window, he called out to the pitcher and asked for a 5 minute break. As he grabbed his bottle, he opened the ¡°Skills¡± window to check out his new ability. ¡° Active skill. When used, this skill will allow the user to swing an object at an increased speed and power of (20 (+50% of Strength))%. Mana cost 20.¡± Riley smiled as he read the description. He was ready for more training, to level up both his [Blunt Weapon Proficiency] and his newly obtained . By the time training was over, he had managed to increase his [Blunt Weapon Proficiency] from level 3 to level 4, and his up to level 3. He had wanted to level up even more, but his mana regeneration was much too slow for that. After training, he stuffed his bat into his bag and started walking home. His body stiffly followed his usual path like an automaton. His mind was pondering the ways he could use his abilities to their maximum potential. As he was walking, he took a turn into an alley, which was his usual shortcut. As he was still pondering, he felt a weird, but oddly familiar feeling going through his gut. ''What¡¯s this feeling I¡¯m getting? It popped up many times during the fight.''If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Through continued application of [Sense Danger], [Sense Danger]¡¯s level went up by one!¡± ''I guess that answers the ques- Wait.'' The window pulled him back into reality, and he saw two men standing in front of him. ''Where did they come from? This doesn¡¯t bode well for me. I should escape befo-'' As he turned back, he noticed a third man behind him. He stopped dead in his tracks. Riley placed his hand on the handle of his bat ¡ª which was sticking out of his backpack ¡ª yanked it out, and stretched his hands out in front of him, with his bat pointed upwards at an angle. ¡°Through a specific action, the skill has been learnt.¡± He ignored this window and charged towards the sole thug in front of him. He would take on the other two later. In a fight where you were outnumbered, it was always best to strike first to try and even your odds. As soon as he was in range, he executed . The thug attempted to pull out a switchblade, but Riley proved to be faster. His attack was swift and powerful, instantly throwing the thug off his feet and into a conveniently-placed trash can. ''One down, Two to go!'' Without sparing another moment, he whipped his body around as fast as he could. He knew the other two would waste no time in attacking, considering he had a weapon. His suspicions proved to be correct. ''Two attacks again. Dejavu.'' He gripped his bat tightly, and waited for the perfect moment. The two remaining thugs were coming towards him at an incredible speed, one wielding a butterfly knife. Soon, after closing the gap to a mere meter, they split. The unarmed thug on his right went for his bat, while the other attempted to stab him with the knife. Just before they reached, Riley dropped his bat and dodged to the left. Thanks to [Dodge Step] he was able to avoid the knife. His bat, however, was in the hands of the thug, who was smirking. Without breaking a sweat, Riley made his move. The thug who had tried to stab him had his left side wide open and had no time to react. Riley ¡¯ed him square in the face. This sent the thug flying back into a wall. "Through continuous application, has increased to level 2!" Now he had to deal with the other one. The thug charged at Riley, and swung wildly from the left. Activating , he caught the bat halfway with his left hand. Gripping tight, he punched the thug in the throat before tugging his bat away from the thug''s grip. Gasping for breath, he could see the thug''s eyes widen with fear. Before he could turn tail and run, Riley swung. The thug tried to block with his arm, but upon impact, both parties heard a loud crack. "Fuck! You broke my arm!" Riley picked up the butterfly knife that was lying on the floor. "Your friend tried to stab me. Thanks for the knife by the way." He gave the other thug a kick in the side for good measure before sprinting out of the alley. He had to get away in case anybody saw the fight and called the police, or the thugs still had some fight in them. A window popped out, saying: ¡°Battle ended. Experience gained: 120 exp.¡± His EXP bar appeared, filling up from 100/122 to full, before resetting and filling up to 98/135. ¡°Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 4.¡± ¡°Nice!¡± As he walked home, he summoned his stats and skill windows. He looked through his stats. He had nine skill points to spend. Neither his HP nor his MP had increased as of yet, remaining at 250 and 220 respectively. ''I probably have to increase my Vitality and Wisdom to increase my health and mana. Lame.'' Closing his stats window, he glanced at his skill window. He clicked on the second-latest icon, a head with buzz signs surrounding it; [Sense Danger]. It was a passive ability that would make him aware of people attacking him. The higher the skill level, the better he could detect malicious intent. Oh, so that¡¯s how I was able to notice attacks around me so easily. This ability, combined with [Dodge Step], makes for some serious awareness boosting. As he approached his house, he smiled and thought to himself: Time for some serious training! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author¡¯s Note: Patch 7.0 - Rare Event - New skill unlocked! - gained! Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Level: 4 (+1) HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 98/135 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 2) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4) (+1) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 1) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 1) Power Punch (Level 2) (+1) Extreme Agility (Level 1) Sense Danger (Level 2) Trash Talk (Level 1) Power Swing (Level 3) (+2) Quick Draw (Level 1) Vigilante Riley arrived home, and rushed up the stairs. Slamming his room door shut, he waltzed into his bathroom and took a quick shower to wash off the dirt and blood stains from both the bullies and the thugs. After scrubbing his body clean, he walked down to the basement and did the laundry. Riley was glad that it was a Tuesday; his mom was busy working the night shift at the grocery store today. If it was any other day where his mom worked the afternoon shift, Riley would have gotten into big trouble with his appearance. It might have also raised suspicion from his mother; and that the last thing that he needed right now. He threw his clothes into the washer, together with the other loads, and pressed ¡°Start¡±. Once he was done with his basic chores, Riley made his way back to his room. Pulling out a notebook from his desk, he flipped to the latest page, where he had made notes from his research. ''Alright, time to test the extent of my newfound powers.'' Riley had done some testing and written down quite a few notes from the tutorial of his new character in World of Legend, ¡°Qwerty1234¡±. ''First thing¡¯s first, let¡¯s see what checks out.'' He started marking similarities between what the game covered and his abilities, such as the skill menu, quest functionalities, level ups, and stats. ''Ok, time to test items!'' Walking down to the kitchen with his notebook and pen in hand, Riley opened his fridge. It was fully stocked as usual, courtesy to his doting mother. Riley scanned the fridge, and pulled out his favorite drink, Bepsi. ¡°Analyze!¡± ¡°A soft drink produced by the company Bepsico. Very sweet, and provides the user with a sugar rush. Restores 20 HP across 2 minutes after consumption. +1 Strength, and +2 Dexterity for 30 minutes. Does not stack.¡± ''Wow, that¡¯s a lot of stats for something so cheap. Let¡¯s try another one.'' Pulling out another popular soft drink, Doka-Cola, Riley used again. Two windows popped up this time. The first was a window indicating that his skill had levelled up. The other window showed the stats of the sugary drink. ¡°A soft drink produced by the company ¡® The Doka-Cola Company¡¯. Restores 20 HP across 7 seconds. +2 Dexterity for 30 minutes. Does not stack. Bought 3 days ago by Sarah Petesgeralt.¡± Riley smiled and summoned his Inventory, then proceeded to deposit both drinks. ''Well, that truly ends the debate. Bepsi is definitely better than Doke!'' Suddenly, he had a stroke of genius. He rushed to his room, and opened his wallet, pulling out a bunch of crumpled tenners. ¡®Right, I still have some money that I got from Jake. Might as well use it to fund my "research".¡¯ Riley then proceeded out of the house, and headed off to the convenience store. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On his way to the convenience store, Riley continued reading through his notebook. ''Alright, I¡¯ve tested items, let¡¯s see what else I got from the tutorial.'' His finger scanned through each row on his notebook before coming to a stop at the row just after ¡°Using Items"; "Leveling up and assigning points". His eyes lit up. ''Right! I levelled a bunch today; let¡¯s see what I got from that.'' Riley scratched his head, and muttered, ¡°Attributes.¡± His attribute window popped up, showing his stats. This time, however, he could see several "plus" signs next to his stats. Furthermore, there was an extra row below his stats. ¡°Unassigned skill points: 9¡± Riley thought hard, before closing the window. ''Okay, unlike games where there¡¯s skill resets, I don¡¯t know if there are similar items in the real world. I should think this through before allocating my points.'' Before he knew it, he was at the local bodega. As he opened the door, the bell hanging on the door chimed, followed by a familiar voice. ¡°Riley! Welcome! How can I help ya?¡± ¡°Hey Mr. Rodriguez! Just checking out some snacks!¡± Riley smiled at Mr. Rodriguez. He was the owner of the local mom-and-pop store in Riley¡¯s neighborhood. The 5''6 stubby middle-age man had an inspiring story; he had come from Mexico when he was only 24 and $12 to his name, but he had built up a sizable business within a span of two decades. Riley had known Mr. Rodriguez since childhood; from the smiling, diligent man who always sported a man bun and had given him lots of sweets when he was in elementary school, to the jolly, bald, and rotund man he was today. Riley gave Mr. Rodriguez a small hug, and engaged in some small talk before bidding farewell and making his way to the snack aisle. Cracking his knuckles, Riley was ready to grind. ¡°¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Potato Chips produced by the company ¡®BepsiCo¡¯. Can be bought for $4.¡± ¡°Fruit Snack Gummies produced by the company ¡®Meddleys¡¯. Temporarily increase Intelligence by 2 for 20 minutes. Does not stack. Can be bought for 50 cents a satchel.¡± ¡°A can of coffee produced by the company ¡®Messley¡¯. Great for helping a person wake up or focus. Temporarily increases Dexterity and Intelligence by 5 for 2 hours. Can be bought for $1.¡± ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After using for 15 minutes in the store, a new window popped up. ¡°Due to repetitive usage on a variety of objects, has increased by one level.¡± Excited to test his newly upgraded , Riley scanned around the shop for the right target. Looking at Mr. Rodriguez at the counter from a distance, he had his second stroke of genius. "!" ¡°Alejandro Rodriguez, Owner of Lucky Bagel Deli. Son of Miguel and Maria Rodriguez. Has two brothers and one sister. Married to Gabriella Rodriguez. Father of three children.¡± "Level ???" ¡°Strength: 20~30¡± ¡°Dexterity: 10~20¡± ¡°Vitality: 20~30¡± ¡°Intelligence: 20~30¡± ¡°Wisdom: Unknown¡± ¡°Charisma: 40~50¡± ¡°Luck: Unknown¡± Riley fell deep in thought. ''Hmm, my skill is slowly getting better. Now, I can gauge someone¡¯s stats, though it seems to be based on the culmination of my previous interactions, just like with Jake. Guess I¡¯ll need to level it up more before I can properly "analyze" their stats?'' Grabbing two cans of coffee, Riley made his way to the counter and checked out. As he proceed to pay, Mr. Rodriguez placed a wrapped bagel on the counter. ¡°Here¡¯s your favorite everything bagel on the house, as congratulations for your game last week!¡± ¡°Thanks Mr. Rodriguez!¡± As he walked out of the store, he opened his ¡°Inventory¡± and tossed both coffee cans and the bagel in. The once empty grid now showed an icon of the coffee, with a small number ¡°2¡± at the bottom indicating quantity, and the wrapped bagel. ''Alright, grabbed some useful items from the store, though that didn''t cost me much. I should probably use the rest of the cash from Jake on skill books.'' As he was walking to the bookstore, Riley heard a scream. ¡°Help! Thief!¡± As Riley turned towards the direction of the voice, he saw two masked figures hastily running away from the source of the disturbance ¡ª a young lady ¡ª with a purse in their hands. Immediately, a pop-up appeared. ¡°Quest: Neighborhood cleanup" "You¡¯ve recently gained powers that have made you stronger. However, with great power comes great responsibility.¡± ¡°Quest Prerequisites: Defeat (or help defeat) a total of 10 bullies or thugs. Have a random encounter of crime conducted by one of the following factions: [Bullies], [Thugs]. ¡°Quest conditions: Help the damsel in distress retrieve her bag before the thugs get away (Time limit: 5 minutes).¡± ¡°Quest rewards: Unlocks Class ¡®Vigilante¡¯, +1 ''Vigilante'' Class Point, Unlocks title, ¡®Crime Fighter¡¯.¡° ''Wait, a whole new class? Hell yea!'' Riley clicked ¡°Accept¡±, and started running towards the thugs. Though he was around 50 meters away from the masked figures, Riley knew he could catch up with ease. He toggled and sprinted towards his targets. Normally this would have been a match of stamina, as both Riley and the robbers would be running at similar speeds. However, using , which essentially doubled his speed, Riley was able to cover the difference without breaking a sweat. Within a matter of 5 seconds, Riley had already caught up to the two of them. He dived towards the thug holding the purse. ¡°Hey, what the fu-¡± Riley caught hold of the hem of his target''s t-shirt. The move was calculated, but man was he bad at math. Though he had managed to bring one of the thieves down, Riley himself was destined to taste concrete soon after. The momentum from his increased speed and sudden break prevented him from breaking his fall, especially when both of his hands had been preoccupied with grabbing the thief. Upon hearing his comrade fall, the other thug grinded to a halt, pulling out a knife. ¡°Hey kid, back off, or I¡¯ll carve you a new smile. No point getting hurt over a purse that ain''t yours.¡± Riley forced a smile as he slowly got up, retorting, ¡°No need for that when my smile looks this good. If it ain¡¯t broke, don¡¯t fix it.¡± As he was speaking, he quickly calculated his next move. ''Alright, one thug down. Before he recovers, I need to take out the guy with the knife. Should be easy with .'' Riley charged towards the thug, though he felt slower than usual. Riley then reeled his fist back and tried to use . However, before he could get into range, his [Sense Danger] triggered, and instinctively, Riley dodged to the right, narrowly dodging a stab. ¡°What the-¡± Before Riley could complete his sentence, a window popped up. ¡°Insufficient Mana.¡± Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that was toggled off. ''Ah crap. I forgot how mana exhaustive is. That explains why I was so sluggish. This might be tougher than usual, but I think I¡¯ll manage.'' Taking advantage of the thug¡¯s unstable balance from the missed stab, Riley squatted and performed a . Due to his already compromising stance, it took absolutely no effort for Riley to topple the thug. ¡°You know, you need to aim properly before swinging that stuff around, else you¡¯re gonna trip. Here, let me show you how to use it.¡± Riley squatted down, and rested one knee on the thug¡¯s back. He grabbed the arm wielding the knife and placed him in an arm lock. ¡°Wait, wait, stop, I give up!¡± Riley smiled as he continued applying pressure on the thug¡¯s arm. ¡°But you didn¡¯t stop when the lady told you to, though?¡± ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry! I quit, I quit!¡± The thug screamed and floundered as the pain intensified, releasing the knife from his grasp. Riley pocketed the knife. Pulling the thug up by the collar, Riley gave him a solid punch to the gut, before pushing him away into the nearest wall. Out cold, the thug collapsed onto the ground. "Oi." Riley jumped away from what he presumed was the other thug, [Sense Danger] buzzing in his head. Turning around, he saw that he had managed to avoid a chokehold. "You''ll pay for this, brat." The other thug had dropped the bag on the floor and now had his arms up in a pseudo-boxing stance. Riley smirked. "Your friend couldn''t fight me with a knife, what makes you think you can take me on barehanded?" Riley was trying to buy as much time as possible for his mana to regenerate. The bar had barely filled up to about around a tenth. With his mana bar depleted, he could see a small text at the right end of the bar, ¡°+0.22 per second¡±, recovering seemingly around 0.1% per second. The thug charged at him, right arm reeled back for a punch. Riley tutted. ''Why was I even worried? I won''t even need any mana for this.'' Riley dodged out of the way, caught the thug''s arm as it flew past his face, and used all his might to perform a . The thug hit the ground hard. As insurance, Riley gave him a hard kick to the torso. ''There''s no way he''s getting back up from that one.'' With his mana somewhat depleted, Riley had to ensure neither thug would be performing any sneak attacks when his back was turned. ¡°Battle ended. Experience gained: 40.¡± His EXP bar appeared, and he saw it fill up to full and resetted back to zero, filling up till it showed 3/149. ¡°Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 5.¡± ¡°Alright, time to return the purse to the damsel in distress.¡± ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author''s note: Patch 7.0 - Regular weekly update - Hidden class mission unlocked! Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Level: 5 (+1) HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 3/149 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 25 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 4) (+2) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 1) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 1) Power Punch (Level 2) Extreme Agility (Level 1) Sense Danger (Level 2) Trash Talk (Level 1) Power Swing (Level 3) Quick Draw (Level 1) Tutorial: Tutorial Riley proudly strode back to where the crime took place, and spotted the lady anxiously speaking to a police officer. Clearing his throat, Riley approached them. ¡°Hey! Sorry to interrupt, but I believe this belongs to her.¡± As he finished his sentence, Riley handed over the purse. He glanced at the cop. ¡°Before you arrest me, I retrieved it from the two purse snatchers. I immediately gave chase after hearing her scream for help.¡± ¡°Thank you so much!¡± ¡°That¡¯s brave of you to endanger yourself for a stranger''s belongings.¡± ¡°I''m sure anyone would¡¯ve done the same.¡± Riley smiled as the woman joyously clutched her purse in her arms. ¡°However, you should''ve left this matter to the police. From her testimony, it seems that the two thugs had weapons with them. They weren¡¯t any ordinary purse snatchers. You could''ve gotten seriously hurt.¡± Riley shrugged. ¡°My body just sorta moved on its own with the adrenaline rush. Don¡¯t worry, I managed to overpower them. If you¡¯re quick, you might still be able to catch them over there.¡± Riley pointed towards the direction he had come from. The policeman tipped his hat, and bid them farewell. ¡°If what you say is true, then I would be seriously impressed. I''ll head over there to investigate. Once again, thank you, young man.¡± The cop started walking towards where Riley pointed, speaking inaudibly into the radio attached to his left breast. The lady proceeded to thank Riley profusely . She even offered a reward, but Riley refused. After all, the system was offering a much better reward. ¡°Quest Completed! Gained +1 charisma, ¡®Vigilante¡¯ class, and ¡®Crime Fighter¡¯ title!¡± ¡°New class obtained! Check the class menu for more information.¡± ¡°New title obtained! Check the status screen to equip your new title!¡± ''Sweet! Time to check them out at home!'' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Heading home, Riley went into his room and slumped onto his chair. ''Alright, time to test out my new class.'' "But first. Menu!" Before his very eyes, a window he had never expected to see in real life, appeared. A system all-too familiar, yet it still took him by surprise. Something so common, yet astonishing at the same time. Riley couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. It was¡­ a system menu. ¡°What the heck?¡± It was a regular window, showing a two-by-four grid with icons and words within each grid. There were words such as Status, Skills, Inventory, Class, Achievements, Quests, Help and Options. Riley had already explored several of the menu options: Status, Skills, and Inventory ¡ª and from these options, he''d already felt that his powers were beyond extraordinary. Now, he realised that he had barely scratched the surface of his newfound abilities. Just like any PC gamer, Riley¡¯s first instinct was to enter the Options menu. He was welcomed with a variety of toggles, sliders, and checkboxes. There were many different tabs such as Sound, Video, Interface, and Gameplay. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He selected the "Sound" tab first. Here, he saw several minor settings, such as master volume, ambience, sound effects, music, and dialogue. There was a peculiar setting below these sliders, which was a checkbox: ¡°Play music according to the user¡¯s environment¡±. Riley ticked it, and clicked on ¡°Apply Changes¡±. Immediately, he started hearing a peaceful, somber music playing. It was a¡­ peculiar feeling. The sound felt like it wasn¡¯t coming from outside, but instead seemed to be playing from within his head. ¡®It sounds just like that background track from ¡°Undertale¡±, what was it called¡­. ¡°Home¡±, that''s it! The song that plays in Uriel¡¯s home. Does this mean the song changes according to the situation I¡¯m in? That¡¯s pretty dope!¡¯ Moving on to the next tab, ¡°Video¡±, he could see several options, though most of them were left unchecked. He could customise the things he saw in real life, ranging from battle effects, the coloring of his environment, and more. After testing some of the options, Riley decided it was best to leave them as is, as most of them felt really weird and trippy. Next was the Interface tab, where he could customise his Heads-Up Display (HUD), the windows that assisted him in understanding his stats. Not many settings were available, except for customising how he could summon his HUD, and the color or border type according to his preference. Finally, the last tab was Gameplay, where there were several buttons for his Control settings. He saw that one of the settings, Skills, was set to Tutorial mode. There were several other ways he could cast his skills, such as through gestures, or muttering the incantations needed, but after weighing the options, Riley thought the current "Tutorial" method was the best. Several other options were available, many of them notifications, which Riley deemed fine to leave on as they weren''t causing too much clutter in his HUD yet. One particular new setting Riley turned on was ¡°Show skill level increase after combat¡± to ensure he did not get distracted in the heat of battle. After exploring the Settings tab, Riley decided to go to the next Tab, called Help. ¡®Alright, time to read the guide I guess, since life doesn¡¯t start with a tutorial.¡¯ ¡°Welcome, he who wields the Gift of the Roleplayer. This guide is aimed to equip you with the knowledge to explore your abilities to its full extent. Please note that this ability is still in beta, and it may or may not expand depending on your experience, as deemed by the Developer.¡± The guide covered his abilities to an extent, and some skills that he already discovered. Nevertheless, Riley read on to better understand each ability, just in case he missed any aspect of it out. ¡°Although the ¡®Gift of the Roleplayer¡¯ may seem to be a gamer-like manifestation, the power boils down to one main advantage; the ability to grow and evolve faster than the average human. The ability provides the wielder several aspects to raise their attributes quickly, through repetitive action, leveling up, quests, and more. Using this strength, the Roleplayer will be able to increase their potential exponentially faster than the average human.¡± The first feature covered was his leveling system. Here, the guide detailed that normal humans leveled up differently; their attributes increased based on their experience in the real world, where an average human would level up once a year, and plateau once it reached the cap of 50. His experience, on the other hand, scale off a fixed formula of an incremental 10% increase, and rewarded him with 3 stat points per level. As for attributes, an average human¡¯s stats would average around 20-30 points. As the stat increased, improving it would slowly become harder and harder. That¡¯s where his abilities came in handy; they removed the traditional limit innate to humans, and allowed Riley to easily increase his stats through levelling up, or as a form of quest reward. An early nerf from the ¡°Developer¡± included placing a limit on gaining stat points from repetitive tasks at 5 points every 10 levels. That meant that he would have to reach level 10 before being able to gain stat points from repetitive actions again. The guide emphasised that this limit could be subject to future changes. ''That reminds me. I still have no idea what Luck does.'' Riley scrolled past the descriptions of stats he was already familiar with, and jumped straight to luck. ¡°Luck is an attribute that affects every aspect of your life, yet remains unnoticeable. Potential to land critical hits, dodge attacks, getting additional EXP ¡ª luck¡¯s reach are endless. Having high enough luck may potentially tilt the world to your favor; anything is possible.¡± Riley leaned back and fell deep in thought as he read it. His other attributes could be improved through repetitive action, but how would he even begin to train his Luck? Going to a casino? Luck as a stat was fairly rare, due to the vagueness associated with the concept of "luck". And even if it was implemented into a game, their effects wouldn''t be as extensive as this. Generally, Luck would provide either a higher critical hit or dodge chance. ¡®Should I try upgrading my luck then? The description makes it out to be the best stat, although it seems like a bad idea to rely on a stat that is inconsistent with its effects, compared to the other stats that have actual, quantifiable outputs. ¡®Then again, I really need to think about what sort of character I¡¯d like to create.¡± Riley figured that deciding what sort of character he would pursue was definitely going to be tough. Without a skill reset, how he distributed his stats completely defined who he was and how combat would play out going forward. In games, you could rely on other party members to complement your weaknesses, but in real life, he doubted that anyone else would have ¡°special¡± powers. Besides, in games, you could always make a new character as a last resort. After learning that he would only be able to gain 5 stat points from repetitive actions every 10 levels, he would have to think long and hard about what he wanted. ¡®Alright, time to check out the help guide for my class sys-''. Crash. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Patch 9.0 - Regular weekly update - New Class ¡®Vigilante¡¯ Unlocked! - New title ¡®Crime Fighter¡¯ Unlocked! Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Class: Vigilante Level: 5 HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 3/149 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 26 (+1) Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 4) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 1) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 1) Power Punch (Level 2) Extreme Agility (Level 1) Sense Danger (Level 2) Trash Talk (Level 1) Power Swing (Level 3) Quick Draw (Level 1) Postal Crash. Riley shot out of his chair. ''What the hell was that.'' A window popped up. "Quest received: Home Defense." "Quest Details: Defend your family and your home." "Quest Rewards: 300 exp." Immediately after, he heard the loud, shrieking scream of his mother. "AAHHH! Get out of my house! I''m calling the police!" Riley had all the information he needed to know. There was at least one unknown intruder ¡ª likely more ¡ª in the house, and his mom was in danger. ''If anyone hurts my mom there''ll be hell to pay.'' He grabbed his baseball bat and unhinged his window. He looked down at the one storey of distance separating him and the cold, hard floor. He had always wanted to try making that jump, but had been afraid of hurting himself. Plus, he had had no reason to actually attempt it other than dumb, childish rashness. Riley took a deep breath. He wasn''t worried about hurting himself; he could not afford to. The only thing he was worried about was making too much noise on impact. He aimed for the grass-covered backlawn, and jumped. Rustle. ''No noise. Perfect.'' Riley straightened up. He had to hurry; time was of the essence. Glancing through the kitchen window, there was no one to be seen. ''They must be near the front of the house. If I run around the side, I bet I can get the jump on them.'' Hurriedly, but still taking care not to make too much noise, Riley made his way around the house. Whoever it was, they didn''t seem to have stationed any guards outside ¡ª he soon managed to reach the front porch uncontested. He made his way to the front door. Peering in, he saw a scene that made his blood boil. His mom, sitting on a couch, whimpering. Her clothes were ragged and bloody, the result of multiple cuts and physical altercations. Two thugs were standing around, keeping an eye on her. They were both armed with a dagger. Riley saw red. He didn''t know who these people were, but they would pay dearly for treating his mother like that. He sprinted in. Before the thug closest to him could even react, Riley had struck him with , in the head, with his baseball bat. As the body crumpled onto the floor, Riley moved on to the second. By this time, the second thug had noticed him, and was charging at him with the knife. Aiming for his hands, Riley batted. The swing struck the thug square in the hand, causing the knife to fly away and embed itself into a nearby wall. "Wait! Sto-" Without giving him a chance to finish, Riley brought his bat down on the thug''s head. With a sickening "crack", the thug''s eyes rolled backwards and he crumpled onto the floor. With both men neutralized, Riley rushed over to his mom. "Mom! Are you okay?" His mom grabbed his arms. "Listen to me, Riley. There are three more. They went upstairs looking for you. They knew who you were." Riley''s eyes widened. "We need to get out of here Riley. We need to call the poli-" Her eyes rolled upwards as her body went limp. "No! Mom!" He felt her pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief. ¡®Phew, just knocked out.¡¯ He laid her down on the couch. ''Now time to find out who these guys are, and why they''re looking for me.¡¯This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. [Sense Danger] buzzed in his head. ''I guess that means they''re coming down the stairs. Considering there''s three of them, I should fight them on the stairs. They won''t be able to flank around me that way.'' Before rushing to the stairs, he slipped one of the fallen knives into his pocket. Just as he made it to the bottom of the stairs, a familiar face stepped off. Without even thinking, Riley swung his bat, striking the man in the face. As the man toppled to the ground, Riley recognized him. ''That''s one of the guys who tried to mug me in the alley! These god damn punks must be here for revenge.'' As he was thinking to himself, two more people stepped off the stairs, one of them with a cast on his left arm. Riley''s heart dropped to his stomach. He was holding a revolver in his right hand. Riley counted six chambers. "Well well well. Look what we have here. The little shit stain of a turd that broke my arm." "You guys tried to mug me. You would''ve done a lot worse to me if I had let you." Riley retorted, keeping one eye on the gun and another on the other thug, who was wielding a dagger like the others. Bang. Smoke poured out of the gun barrel as the thug fired a shot into the ceiling. "You don''t seem to understand who''s in charge here, brat. I could end your life in an instant." ''One shot. Five more to go.'' Riley''s eyes narrowed. "What do you guys want from me?", he asked. "What I want", said the thug, "is for you to put down that fuckin'' bat of yours, and get your hands up so that my friend over here can slice you up like filleted beef." "Fine." Riley slowly placed his bat on the floor. He had a plan, but everything hinged on the thug''s desire for revenge. If he was right, the thug wasn''t going to shoot him unless absolutely necessary. "There. It''s on the floor. Now your friend shanks me, right?" Broken Arm smirked. "Yes. And don''t be trying no funny business. This puppy right here will light you up if you even think about it." He gestured to his gun. "I wouldn''t dare." The other thug slowly advanced on him, clearly wary of him. Definitely a wise move, considering Riley had already beaten him once before. Just before the thug got into range, Riley activated , and quickly dodged to the left. As he had hoped, the maneuver placed Dagger Thug neatly between him and Broken Arm. ''Perfect.'' Grabbing the thug''s dagger-arm, he twisted with all his might, causing the dagger to fall onto the floor. Bang Bang. The sound of two gunshots rang out. Both struck Dagger Thug in the back. Propping his body up to use as a shield, Riley reached into his pocket and pulled out the dagger he had slipped inside earlier. ''I only have one shot at this. Please work.'' Gripping the blade of the knife between his thumb and index finger, he threw it with all his might at Broken Arm. Bang Bang. Two more shots rang out. Again, both were blocked by the now-limp body of Dagger Thug. Peering out, Riley could see that the dagger had embedded itself in Broken Arm''s left foot. ''God damn it.'' "Man, why won''t you fucking DIE already. You''re like a fuckin'' cockroach, you know that? Riley smiled. "Hey, it''s not my fault you''re a terrible shot. Maybe you should try using both hands? Oh, wait." Enraged, Broken Arm took aim. "Both hands this, asshole. There''s only so many times you can luck out." [Sense Danger] buzzed. Before Broken Arm had even pulled the trigger, Riley could feel his body moving out of instinct. Bang. Riley winced in pain. The bullet had grazed the side of his head. [Dodge Step] had saved his life. Tchk tchk tchk. "Son of a BITCH." Broken Arm threw the spent gun on the ground in frustration. Pulling out a knife with his good arm, he charged. Riley tutted. "Now you''re just desperate." Pushing Dagger Thug''s body aside, Riley tripped Broken Arm with a . Walking towards Broken Arm, he kicked the knife away. Riley straddled him. He pulled an arm back, fist ready. "Clench your teeth." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The sound of police sirens filled the air. Riley looked up. After dealing with the thugs, he had called emergency services and requested an ambulance for his mom. Naturally, after he had described everything that had happened, the dispatcher would''ve sent police to investigate the situation. Three uniformed officers walked in through the front door, guns ready. "Hands in the air!" Riley had been doing his best to stem his mother''s bleeding with towels. He stood up, hands stretched upwards. One of the officers proceeded to handcuff him while the other two swept the house. "Is that your mother?" Riley nodded. "Don''t worry son. The ambulance is on the way. She''s going to be ok." "I hope so." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Riley spent the next hour answering questions for the police at the hospital while waiting for news about his mother, who was in the ER. "Okay, that about wraps things up. Thanks for your time." Riley nodded at the officer. Giving Riley a smile, he patted him on the shoulder and walked away. Since he had time, he decided to check the after-battle log. He had been too busy tending to his mother earlier to remember. He had gained a total of 500 experience, bringing his level up to 8. Additionally, quite a few of his skills levelled up from the battle. levelled to 5, and [Dodge Step], , and all levelled to 2. As he was doing this, a nurse exited the ER. "Mr. Petesgeralt?" Riley stood up and rushed over to the nurse. "How is she? Is she going to be okay?" "Don''t worry, she''s going to be just fine. She just needs to spend a few more days in the hospital." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Patch 10.0 - Regular weekly update Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Class: Vigilante Level: 8 (+3) HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 9/200 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 26 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 5) (+1) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 2) (+1) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 2) (+1) Power Punch (Level 2) Extreme Agility (Level 2) (+1) Sense Danger (Level 2) Trash Talk (Level 1) Power Swing (Level 3) Quick Draw (Level 1) Responsibility Riley sighed in relief from hearing the nurse¡¯s good news. He thanked her profusely and stood up to follow the nurse as she led him to his mother¡¯s roo.m His mom was resting peacefully on the hospital bed, IV drips and bandages galore. Her skin had returned to a normal complexion, as opposed to the pale, white skin she had had just a few hours back. In a daze, Riley sat on a chair next to her bed, and leaned back as he stared into the ceiling. He covered his eyes with his right arm as he leaned his head back on the seat rest. He thought to himself, ''I endangered her because I thought I was hot shit with all these new powers. I thought I was invincible. Undefeatable. And she got hurt because of my irresponsibility. When will I ever grow up and take care of her?'' Riley was conflicted. He was both sad and angry. Sad because his reckless actions endangered the life of his sole family member, and angry because of the rampant crime happening in his neighborhood that exacerbated the situation to this tipping point. If Riley had to guess, the thugs would not stop at failure. He only had movies and games to fuel his knowledge, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption that there would be more attempts on his life after this. In fact, they would probably bring even more bodies the next time around. Remembering the namesake of his new class, whose purpose was to prevent crimes out of the police¡¯s power or knowledge, Riley pulled out his class system for the first time. Upon entering, Riley was greeted with a cut-scene in the menu box. "For as long as criminal activities have been rampant, heroes from every locale have aimed to master the art of battle and stealth to suppress such criminal organisations. Vigilantes combine strength and stealth to wreak havoc within the ranks of these criminal organisations by unraveling each of their activities, and starve the monstrous beast from within. Vigilantes are mostly solo-players, hence the need to be all-rounders in their field, yet having many diverse play-styles." "Class ''Vigilante'' Main Quests Unlocked" "Class ''Vigilante'' Side Quests Unlocked" "Class ''Vigilante'' Time-limited Quests Unlocked" "Class ''Vigilante'' Equipments Unlocked" "Class ''Vigilante'' Skills Unlocked" After the series of popups, Riley clicked on the first menu to redirect himself to his class quests. The quest menu showed a few types of quests: main, side, and time-limited quests. Just like in games, there were different categorisations of quests. Main quests are missions that move the storyline or plot of the game. Usually in RPG games, there are many different plotlines that the player can explore, but the main storyline is the centre of what the game is built upon, and tends to reward the player with unique equipment or skills. Side quests are similar to main quests, but on a smaller scale. Usually these side quests provide unique rewards from certain factions or characters. Think of it like this; though main quests provide more experience points and good equipment as rewards, and would further the main storyline, side quests would move forward a side story, and provide unique equipment to the faction it benefits. A main quest is akin to Cinderella meeting the prince in the ball; side quests would be Cinderella doing chores. Finally, there are time-limited quests. Time-limited quests are rarer than the aforementioned quests. Time-limited quests, as the namesake suggests, are time-sensitive. Unlike other quests that allow players to fail and repeat it again, time-sensitive quests have dire consequences; if you fail to complete it by the allotted time, it¡¯s gone for good. Usually time-sensitive quests appear all of a sudden, giving the player no time to prepare, unlike main and side quests. Currently, he has one main quest called, ¡°Neighborhood Cleanup¡±. Ignoring it for the moment, Riley opened the next window, ¡°Skills¡±. In the class skill section, Riley could see two new spells, one with the icon of a radar, and the other a masquerade mask. Riley clicked on the first one, called . ¡° Toggle Skill: Upon casting, a small minimap will popup within the view of the user. The minimap outlines the user¡¯s surroundings similar to a map in grid view. Through this minimap, the User will be able to pinpoint quest locations or quest targets.¡± ¡®Wow, a real life minimap skill? I should test it out now!¡¯ ¡°Minimap.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. A round window popped up in front of him. The window showed a satellite view of the city, but unlike Google Maps, it was in grid view and monochrome blue. The minimap depicted him in the middle as a blinking red dot, and spanned a 3-block radius. At the edge of the maps, there were several icons: an orange question mark, a yellow exclamation mark, and a blue exclamation mark. From his previous gaming experiences, especially in World of Legends, Riley knew exactly what those indicators meant. The orange question mark indicated a main quest, the yellow exclamation mark marked side quests, and the blue exclamation mark showed time-limited quests. From his minimap, he could see that each of these quests were quite some distance away, as they peaked at the border of the minimap window. Closing his minimap, Riley looked at the next class skill, which was an active called . ¡° Toggle Skill: Upon casting, the user immediately equips his **Disguise Equipment**. No cost. No duration limit.¡± ¡°Prerequisite: To activate , the user has to be completely unseen by people.¡± ¡°**Disguise Equipment**: Upon unlocking the ¡®Vigilante¡¯ class, the user is given access to a set of unlockable equipment specifically made to aid in completing Vigilante quests. To unlock the gear, complete the main story quests. In addition to this, the player is able to upgrade their Vigilante Disguise Equipments through ¡®Class points¡¯, which can be obtained via completion of class-specific time-limited and side quests.¡± ¡°Unlocked equipment: Mask¡± ¡®Class specific equipment? Upgradable gear? That¡¯s so cool!¡¯ Riley stood up from his chair and entered the ensuite washroom in the hospital ward. Locking the door, Riley faced the mirror as he muttered the words, ¡°Incognito¡±. As he said the words, a black Zoro-esque mask pixelated into existence on his face. The mask was simple; covering a significant portion of his upper face, specifically his eyes, stretching from ear to ear, and his upper nose. Though it didn''t really cover much of his face, Riley remembered he had had this exact argument with his friends. They were discussing how stupid civilians and journalists in superhero comic book worlds must be, not being able to identify superheroes who wear nothing but an eye mask even though it¡¯s really obvious. However, upon further research, they realised that they were underestimating how much the eyes and nose make up a person¡¯s face, and by simply concealing these features, you would be able to remain largely anonymous. The only reason why it was so obvious to them was because, to put it simply, the identities were made obvious to them! Pulling up his inventory window, Riley inspected his new equipment; the mask. ¡°Vigilante Mask¡± ¡°Class-specific equipment. Binded to Riley Petesgeralt¡± ¡°Helmet. Level ?¡± ¡°+2 Dexterity¡± ¡°UNIQUE Passive - Disguise: While equipped, the user¡¯s identity is fully concealed, unless the wearer explicitly reveals his identity.¡± ¡°Unlocked at Level 2 (1 Class Point): UNIQUE Passive - Night vision: While equipped, the user is able to see 50% better in the dark.¡± Riley closed the description and looked at himself through the mirror. This was the perfect skill for him to possess. He endangered his mum due to his brashful actions against the thugs, but with this, he would be able to help the police with their shortcomings, and rid his neighborhood of crime. Riley summoned his bag after remembering his quest rewards. Looking at his inventory, he saw several of the things he previously stashed, and noticed a new item in one of the grids, which looked like a silver coin. Before clicking on this new foreign object, Riley took a seat on the toilet and pulled out the bagel Mr. Rodriguez had given him, and unwrapped it. It was still warm, and smelled as fresh as ever. As he bit into the bagel, Riley clicked on the new alien object and ¡¯d it. ¡°Vigilante Class Points: Used to upgrade class-specific skills and equipment. Can be obtained via completion of class-specific time-limited and side quests. Current total: 1. Click here to see upgradable equipment and skills.¡± Riley folded his arms and fell into thought. ¡®Okay, so this is a lot to take in. Now, I can get quests to be just like Spiderman; fighting crimes in this city. I even have my own mask and minimap to find missions. Plus now, there''s equipment and skills I can upgrade from fighting crimes. Am I like a superhero now? Do I need a superhero name? How about GameBoy??¡¯ Deactivating he crumpled the bagel¡¯s wrapper and threw it into the bin before walking back out and giving his mother a kiss on the forehead before deciding to head home. He wanted to grab some of his mom¡¯s necessities such as toiletries and a new set of clothes. He also really needed a shower. As he was walking home, he had a thought. ''Oh, before I forget.'' Riley pulled up his ¡°Options¡± menu and turned off notifications during battle. After the last fight with the thugs, Riley realised that the notifications could distract him, and in such tense moments, his focus was crucial. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Patch 11.0 - Regular weekly update Name: Riley Petesgeralt Age: 16 Job: The Roleplayer Class: Vigilante Level: 8 HP: 250 MP: 220 EXP: 9/200 Strength: 27 Dexterity: 23 Vitality: 25 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 22 Charisma: 26 Luck: 20 Skills: Roleplayer¡¯s Mind Virtual Body Analyze (Level 5) Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4) Physical Endurance (Level 1) The Cinderella Effect (Level 1) Dodge Step (Level 2) Counter Flip (Level 1) Leg Sweep (Level 2) Power Punch (Level 2) Extreme Agility (Level 2) Sense Danger (Level 2) Trash Talk (Level 1) Power Swing (Level 3) Quick Draw (Level 1) Minimap (Level 1) Incognito (Level 1) Equipments: Vigilante Mask (Level 1/5)