It's not all that much of a surprise really... [Cliffe]

TheDespaxas here!
Here's another branch from a new author Cliffe. He'll give us his own take on John's adventures. As always for any other branches, concepts, mechanisms and characters may vary from the original.
Good reading, have fun.

The actual journey out into the hallway was one that John had planned ahead for. It didn't take much planning really. The idea had been for him to go and take a clumsy 'step' in Vanessa's direction, bump into her a little bit, and use Theft to get some more goodies off of the rightly-dubbed 'bitch queen' of the Ashcroft Academy.

His plans shifted greatly the moment Frank appeared. Her boyfriend, as big as he was, wasted almost no time or energy when he stepped right up next to Vanessa, even when it meant that he had to go through John just to get there. A lazy shove and a hug later, the latter shared between Vanessa and Frank, and suddenly John was sitting on the ground next to the door of John's literature class. A loud grunt broke past John's lips as his back slammed against the nearest wall.

The two bullies turned and looked at him, their faces twisting up in sync into a pair of matching sneers. They were so strangely perfect for each other, John noted as he caught sight of pop-ups opening off to his side. Kind of like the kind of weird couple you see in a horror movie.

-4 hp

-2 hp

Theft successful.

He lost six health from a half-assed shove! John barely kept himself from crying out in pain and anger at Frank as, despite that he had already pushed John down, the jock turned his full attention onto the scrawnier man and opened his mouth to speak again. Unfortunately, John realized as the taller man looked down on him, it had been Frank who John had managed to steal from, not Vanessa. Not who he had been aiming for, but in the end, he supposed it was just as good. They both deserved it in John's eyes.

"Hey, faggot, didn't you offer to pay for my food today?" Frank asked from above him, holding his girlfriend close to his side with one arm around her shoulder as he spoke. John could see the mixture of boredom and contempt for him in Vanessa's eyes as she simply stood there, not even bothering to stop her boyfriend as he lifted up one of his feet, clearly expecting John's next statement.

"No. Why would I-" He paused as Frank's face burned a bright shade of red and scrunched up in anger as he stepped closer to John. Now that John was thinking about it though... Did he even really need some measly ten bucks? Sure it was good lunch money for him but... his powers hadn't gone away. It hadn't just turned out to be some kind of lucid dream so far. Hell, he wasn't even sure if he needed to eat yet, since there was no bar for it like there was for everything else.

John didn't get much time to think about it though as Frank abruptly lifted up one of his feet, and stomped down hard on one of John's hands just before he could try to push himself up off the floor.

-6 hp

"AH! Motherfu-!" John cried out in pain as Frank's heel dug into the back of his hand.

"I'm pretty sure that you said you were gonna pay for my food today..." He paused to press his foot harder into John's hand, who very nearly began shouting into the hallway as he felt the solid heel of Frank's boot grind into the bones of his hand. He could hear what seemed like a teacher approaching quickly, but that sound only made Frank press down even more to get the answer he wanted before someone tried to intervene. Not that anyone would do that with who Frank's and Vanessa's parents were.

-4 hp

New Skill: Physical Resistance, Level 1!
You can withstand more damage, and at this rate, you'll need it!
Physical damage reduction 1% per 3 skill levels.

"Remember?" Frank asked after another second, his spare hand lowering just far enough to beckon at John with two fingers, waving in a classic 'hand it over' kind of gesture.

Sure enough, without seeing any way to stop him without revealing his powers, John reached into his pocket with his free hand and surrendered the ten bucks he had taken from his mother's purse. A smug grin passed over the bully's lips just as Mrs. Flung reached the doorway to her classroom. Her mouth opened for a moment as if to say something before she saw Frank, simply standing there as he took the cash, and without saying anything, she turned and walked back into the classroom.

Achievement unlocked! "NEEEERRRRD!"
Congrats, you gave up all your money to the local asshole, even after you got powers! Now can you get it back?
+10 damage against anyone who has already beaten you in a fight.
+0.5" to Base Cock Size.

"Thank's man. That's really kind of you." The bully chuckled darkly, and finally lifted his foot up as he and Vanessa walked away.

John sat there for what felt like a minute, struggling, trying to himself to get past that encounter without letting his anger control him and uselessly trying to throw some kind of magical spell around before a familiar, nagging voice spoke up from beside him.

"You should go to the nurse, get that hand checked out." The dry, aged, and weary tone of his math teacher, Mrs. Flung, spoke up from the nearby doorway. A look crossed over her slightly wrinkled face, passing onto John the idea that she was full of pity and...sympathy? Perhaps. Whatever it was, she truly seemed to feel sorry for the young gamer, and he tried to use that to help him let go of his emotions.

She has a point. He thought and stood up, closing the tabs as he moved. His hand looked like something he would have seen in a cartoon at the moment, bruised to a sickly purple color... but surprisingly not all that sore. If not for Gamer's Body, he would have expected it to be broken and hideously swollen, but for now, it was just fine. If he was going to go to the nurse's office, he was going to have to hurry though, even with his low regen rate. Otherwise, it might just disappear by the time he got there.

Or he could just skip that part and go straight to class, the next one wasn't even that bad. It was an art class, and then he could at least distract himself by looking at the teacher most of the time. He just had to pick one. Either way, it was pretty clear to him that, even with the new damage increase he got from his achievements, he wasn't going to be picking a fight with Frank again anytime soon. He needed more experience and spells before something like that happened. He needed-

Achievement Unlocked! "Somebody hold his hand!"
For some reason, you apparently need more help than anyone thought you would. Maybe this gift will actually help you along?
+1 New Skill

New Skill Added: Gamer's Mind
Gamer's Mind: Your mind is reinforced to help you become as resilient as a video game character. Gamer's Mind will block or at least dampen the effects of events that would normally cause your emotional or mental state to permanently or break.

"I don't need someone to hold my hand!" he hissed at the pop-ups and waved them aside, and then winced when the pain in his hand spiked at the sudden movements. He did need someone to look at his hand, though. Even if he was thankful that he had a new ability, he didn't want someone coddling him through his every difficult encounter. He knew how to take a loss, he'd done it almost all his life. He'd also take the ability, happily, but the taunting achievement wasn't necessary. Before he could snap at the open air again and make himself look even more insane than he already did, the school bell rung and students all around him began to rush out to their next class.

He was out of time, and now he needed to make a decision.

((Editing notes. I know that some of the stuff in this first chapter may have changed for some of the readers recently, but due to certain plot holes that were created during editing done to previous parts of the story, some revising has been made necessary. Not much has been changed. Most of it was done right here at the end of the chapter, so now you know where to find it. If you're new to the branch, then this note won't even be important to you anyways. Enjoy.))