Bus Ride

John stepped through the door of the bus. Like any other school day, it was already mostly full due to his house being close to the end of the route. Depending on traffic, it would generally take just another 20 minutes to pick up a few more students and then arrive at the academy.

Shoulders tight to look just a little smaller and head pointed at the floor to avoid eye contact with anyone, John walked through the cramped aisle between the two rows of bus seats. There were still several free spots, but his place in the pecking order had long since already been established. His seat was in the very back, so he would always have to walk past everyone else before he could sit down. It was usually when he got close to the far end that a coin would be flipped, around where one particular pair of students always sat.

First, there was Frank, the star jock of Ashcroft Acadamy’s football team and John’s main bully. If one were to imagine a tall and wide block of meat with a very punchable face, one would correctly picture Frank. As far as the Gamer was aware, an equivalent exchange had been performed for the jock’s intelligence to be inversely proportional to his physical gifts. Yet despite being dumb enough to make the meat block comparison even more appropriate, his grades had magically always seemed to stay just barely good enough to remain on the football team.

Second was Vanessa, the Bitch Queen as more than a few people called her behind her back. Both parts of that title were accurate, as Vanessa’s family had enough power to make even the teachers afraid of her, and she knew it. She came from money so old, John didn’t know much except for the fact that there was every possibility that she was the single richest student at Ashcroft. He didn’t know why she and Frank took the bus instead of a private limo or something, as either of their families could have easily afforded one.

When John passed by them, the two were engaged in what could be called a conversation. Although it was mostly just Vanessa on the phone in the aisle seat, where she occasionally looked toward Frank by the window who seemed bored. He knew the face of someone who was only just engaged enough to occasionally nod or express basic agreement when he saw it.

At least it’s not Frank sitting by the aisle today, he- John’s thoughts were cut off as a foot was suddenly stuck out to catch his back leg mid-motion. He had made the mistake of focusing too much on his top bullies and had let his guard down around the other jocks, cheerleaders, and other sycophants that usually hung directly around the power couple.

“Woah!” John exclaimed as he fell toward the bus’s floor. He barely managed to stick out his arms in time before he smacked into it face first.

-2 HP

The notification flashed in his vision as he landed with full **** onto his arms. John grunted as pain shot down his arms from the impact against the thin, sticky rubber that covered the hard floor of the bus. From all around him, multiple snickers could be heard.

Of fucking course, I just had to go and jinx it. John barely spared a glance at the jock that had tripped him. He simply got up and then continued on his way toward an empty seat. At this point, he had long since learned that making a big deal out of this sort of thing would just be more trouble than it was worth. It was just easier to take the punishment that was dealt out to let his bullies feel good about themselves and then forget about his existence for a short while.

When John sat down, it was with a heavy but solely internal sigh. As depressing as it was to admit, this was just the state of things. He wasn’t even sure why it’d happened, only that at some point, his reputation had hit the gutter. For no apparent reason that he could think of, the first few friends he’d made at Ashcroft had suddenly stopped associating with him.

Then fewer and fewer people had even wanted to become acquainted through just basic small talk. After that was when the bullying started. It was just minor things at first, like stuff being flicked at him during class or an “accidental” shoulder check in the hallway. At some point, however, John happened to overhear a couple of girls talking about him as what he realized were rumors being spread.

The rumors were about a variety of things. You had your almost cartoonishly dumb claims by jocks who said he had a micro dick from when they were all together in the changing room for sports. With how blatant that one was, John didn’t expect anyone to even believe it. Or… at least that’s what he told himself.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, were the rumors more damaging to his reputation. They followed a theme of him being a criminal pervert who stole the girls’ clothes when they changed, would try to peek at them, or even tried to set up cameras in the bathrooms. While it wasn’t bad enough for anyone to directly accuse him in a legal sense, he had noticed the escalation last semester. John had noticed how some looked at him when he walked anywhere near a girls’ bathroom between classes, as though they were just waiting for him to try something.

As he thought about it, John couldn’t help but let out a sigh, this time external. He stared out the window of the bus, his mind still in deep thought. His parents didn’t know what his school life was like, and he intended to keep it that way. But at the same time… John wasn’t sure for how much longer he could keep this up. If the bullying continued to get worse and worse through this semester, he wasn’t sure what else there was to do but drop out entirely. Now that he was a legal adult, that was probably something he could just do on his own, right?

John stared out at the scenery outside the bus, yet didn’t truly register any of it. Before he knew it, they had pulled through the security gate outside of the academy grounds. With a lurch, they soon came to a stop and the bus opened its door to let them out. As he stood up to exit, John mentally shook his head and tried to cheer himself up a bit.

Things are different now. For God’s sake, you woke up with video game superpowers! Just gotta use them to turn things around. Starting with finding a way to get Charisma up, that would have to help one way or another, right? Not sure how it functions yet, exactly, but still! If I get enough Experience to increase my Level, common sense says that will get me at least one Free Point to spend. Just need to see if I can somehow get more Quests, or find another way to earn Experience.

And as if the universe itself was listening, a notification then appeared before his eyes.

New Quest!
Quest: Gamer Basics 1
Objective: Upgrade Observe to Level 2.
Optional Objective: N/A
Reward: 1 Free Point

At that, the Gamer smiled just a little. Hey, now we’re talking! Let’s see, should just need to keep using it to upgrade it, right? Worth a shot at least, it’s not like I have anything to lose besides some MP.

The basic description of the Skill did say that it could be used on someone or something. So as John was still at the back of the bus and everyone else was getting off first, he might as well try it on them. To start things off, he used it on the closest person to him.

Name: Joey Smith
Class: N/A
Level: 6

What the… John looked at the resulting pop-up with a bit of surprise. He’s double my Level? How!?

He took another look at the man in question, but nothing stood out to him. As far as conventional standards went, Joey at least appeared to be a perfectly average guy. Though it wasn’t like the Gamer actually knew him at all, he hadn’t even known his name until just a couple of seconds ago. Something which then brought up an excellent question in itself.

Just how was a Level for someone even determined? What factors made it so that John started at Level 3, and with Experience almost halfway toward Level 4? The only thing that immediately came to mind as an answer was the combined value of his Stats. But was that really all there was to it, or was there more? To find out, he needed to expand his sample size. On that note, John’s gaze was quick to land on one person in particular he often compared himself with.

Name: Frank Dickinson Jr.
Class: Athlete
Level: 8

Fucking Hell! He’s nearly triple me! And he even has a Class too?! John’s eyes were widened now. It felt like a small ball of metal had just lodged itself inside his gut as he almost couldn’t believe what the screen said. With his heartbeat’s pace now kicked up a notch, the Gamer **** himself to use Observe on a different jock next.

Name: Tommy Kenneth
Class: Athlete
Level: 7

John then proceeded to use Observe on every other jock he saw as they exited the bus. Thankfully, they were all particularly slow to shuffle off the bus and get to the first day back to school. But after he used it on four more jocks, John was able to confirm that while also being Athletes, they were all either Level 6 or 7. A fact that made Frank a bit of an anomaly, but he was the star player of their school’s football team, so it did make sense from that perspective.

With that in mind, he used Observe on Vannesa next. She was also Level 6, though with no mention of a Class. And as the line to the door slowly and steadily crept forward with John at the very back, he continued to Observe away at everyone he saw. There were a couple dozen people on the bus, which made for plenty to get through.

Soon enough, John got to the last person. As he had begun to suspect fairly early on, he was indeed the one with the lowest Level. However, the degree to which he was behind wasn’t as bad as he had initially feared. It seemed that the people he’d chosen to Observe first were all above the average, as after them, most had been Level 4 with just a couple of Level 5s noted.

For better or worse, however, nobody else aside from the jocks had a listed Class. So as John was the last to step off the bus, it had given him quite a bit to think about. To the point where he had almost forgotten why he had started to spam the Skill in the first place. Almost.

With just a thought, he opened his Character Sheet. With so many Observes used in a row, now was probably a good time to see where his MP was currently at.

In fact… to simply keep his Character Sheet open at all times was probably something he should get used to. It wasn’t like it took up that much space, and as he glanced around the school’s courtyard, John noticed that it seemed to shrink toward the corner of his eye to be less invasive. Although the moment he paid attention to it again, it immediately went back to full side and moved to the center of his vision.

MP: 17.784/60

You’re really exact on that number, huh? Speaking of, my HP is probably just barely back to being above… what? John blinked as he looked at his listed health. At a regeneration rate of 0.265 per hour, it should have been a comically small fraction back above 43. And yet when he looked at it, a different story was told.

HP: 43/45

For a few seconds, John just looked at it with a bit of confusion. Did it actually round down? No, that couldn’t have been it. The bus ride from home to the academy was a bit over half an hour. Even if his health regen was slow, that should have been at least 0.13 gained back, and his MP already proved it didn’t mind that as a listed value. The Gamer continued to idly move toward the front doors of the school, still confused as he barely paid attention to his immediate surroundings.

A little bit later, however, something happened. While he had kept his Character Sheet open, John immediately noticed it. And in that moment, he gained a critical understanding of how this aspect of his powers functioned. He probably should have noticed it with the very first use of Observe he did on his boxers, but hadn’t paid close enough attention at the time.

MP: 20.676/60

His regeneration wasn’t an average of a rate that actually happened every second. It was a damn literal statement of how often it ticked. Which meant it would be another half hour or so until his HP went up even by just a tiny smidge.

As he walked through the front door into the school, John had a realization. Just to gain back the HP he had lost by getting tripped, it’d take until right around the end of the school day. With a fully refreshed sinking feeling in his stomach, he looked down the main hallway, currently packed with students. For the beginning of the day, it would be another ten minutes until the first class started.

When John turned a corner, he already knew what was going to happen next. He had hoped that on the first day back to class, the brute would be too sleepy to notice him. But, of course, John wouldn’t be so lucky. Because as he looked down the next hallway, he saw him. The person who might bring his HP to zero before its low regen even ticked once.

Frank was already waiting right in front of his locker.