“Calm the hell down.” The guy next to him slapped him across the back of his head.

Zoey has never seen him before but if he was brave enough to smack Miles when he’s as pissed as that, he couldn’t be just anyone. Blonde spiky hair, nose piercing, broad shoulders, and a scary face. This guy was probably the delinquent of all delinquents. If he was a friend of Miles then she’ll probably have to beat him up too.

“But Dino! That’s the-” Miles tried to speak out but he was smacked once again. This time he shut up for good but didn’t forget to give her a pissed glare.

“So, you’re the famous Boxer Chick that’s been messing with my gang?” He asked her. She nodded in response.

“Give me a second, alright.” He took out his phone and started to make a call.

Zoey couldn’t hear the words of what he was saying but guessed he was calling his boys over. If he was, Zoey couldn’t be happier. That was exactly what she wanted today. Then tomorrow she could head back to the gym and set up another official match with the Coach. Everything seemed to be working out in her favor today! Except for that demon in the countryside, she wanted to fight him.

Dino put his smartphone in his pocket and smiled at Zoey. “Since you decided to be so heavy-handed with my boy, I'll do the same. Don’t expect to leave this part of the city without a trip to the hospital.” Zoey couldn’t be happier to hear such words. She really hoped he was bringing a whole group of boys. It surprised her that he wasn’t being soft with her because she was a girl. A third option that she expected was him trying to recruit her to his side. That would’ve been really funny to see Miles’s reaction.

“Okay.” Zoey spoke her first words since their meeting.

She took off her backpack and started putting on her boxing gloves in preparation of the fight. Zoey didn’t notice the shaking of her body as she imagined how many boys would be waiting for her outside. Her skills were going to raise like crazy and she couldn’t wait! It was like she was a little girl again at the amusement park with her parents and brother.

“You might want to leave.” She told Lip Ring.

“Me? Aren’t you the one shaking?” He pointed out.

“This is nothing.” She tried to reassure him.

“It doesn’t look like nothing to me. Listen Boxer Chick, if you’ve gotten in over your head, I can help you, you know?” He grinned.

“That’s okay. I don’t need any help.” Zoey decided to be honest with him.

“You’re weird as hell Boxer Chick. Your mouth is saying one thing but your body is saying something else. Listen, I'm gonna stay and watch you. If it looks like you’re in trouble or Dino pulls some shit, I'll come to help.”

“Why?” She asked.

‘Stay out of my fight you annoying handsome bastard. These guys are mine to fight. Go mind your own business, capeesh?’ Zoey was getting a little irritated with him.

“You’re interesting.” His eyes met hers.

“Hm.” She heard some noise outside and guessed that it was for her.

‘Fuck off, pretty boy. I already said I was here for something else, not to get dicked.’ Zoey wanted to roll her eyes.

“Don’t think that just because you’re Tears’s brother, I won’t lay a hand on you.” Dino threated with a glare.

“Haha. What do you mean? Why would you want to hurt an innocent face like this?” He held up his face.

“Rat bastard.” Miles insulted.

“I’ll be back.” Zoey said to them all once she saw all those boys outside.

Some held bats, pipes, bricks, but most of them were unarmed. Zoey realized that using mostly her defensive skills was going to be impossible with all these guys. A few of them will be punched out. Mostly those with the weapons as she couldn’t raise her blocking skill against those without getting hurt badly. She was sure that a few even brought knives like Miles did before. So, she would have to be on the lookout for those guys. Walking outside the building, Zoey waved hello to all the delinquents who came here on Dino’s orders.

“Is that the bitch?”

“Yep.”

“Isn’t it a little fucking embarrassing that we need this many people for one girl?”

“If Dino says to do something, I'm doing it. Not questioning why he has us doing something.”

“Yeah, you can go complain to Dino about feeling ashamed to beat up a girl. Tell us how that will work out for you.”

“Fine ya shitty bastards. I’ll do it but I still won’t like it.”

“Get her all at once. Don’t give her a chance to knock you bastards out. She’s dangerous.” They moved in together.

Zoey’s brain felt like a field of flowers were blooming inside her head once she saw them coming towards her. A guy with a bat came rushing at her with it raised over his head. Her eyes locked onto him as she readied herself to fight. She swayed her body to the right as the bat came crashing down towards the place where her skull used to be before landing a jaw-smashing punch on his face, using his forward momentum against him. Right after him, a weaponless guy tried grabbing her after seeing his friend go down.

Dealing with a grabber was difficult as few of her defensive skills could handle them. She couldn’t slip past his grab unless he was trying to reach for her face or head, blocking wasn’t an option, maybe she could parry his grab if he was trying to use only one hand, and she wasn’t sure if countering it counted after being grabbed. So, to play it safe, Zoey raised her right hand to block, baiting him into grabbing her arm. Which he did happily. Then after being grabbed, she used her left hand to pound his stomach in and dropped him. Zoey shook him off her arm and he fell to the ground.

Then after him, a pipe came swinging towards her face. She narrowly managed to move her head back in time. He came at her with another swing like a mad man. This time Zoey put a stop to his wild style with a quick dash into his space and a heavy left-handed hook to his waist. Seeing him drop like a stack of cards, she moved onto the next person coming after her.

Zoey fought with more than a dozen delinquents outside the pool hall. Just like she wanted, her defensive skills leveled up like crazy. With her Box, fighting experience, boxing skills, and proper positioning, Zoey lasted much longer than a person in her position should have. Since her back was to the pool hall, no one could sneak up behind her and attack. All the delinquents were forced into facing her from the front, leaving them little opportunity to surprise her with attacks from her blind side. This gave Zoey the freedom to tire them out all she wanted before putting them down.

The average delinquent couldn’t touch her even if they gave their everything. She slipped past their punches by bobbing her head, blocking punches that she knew wouldn’t hurt, parrying their slow and untrained punches, and countering those trying to fight her with weapons. Weapons that they had no idea on how to properly use, they just swung like cavemen. This made it easy for Zoey to read their movements.

Once Zoey saw her quickly her skills were rising while fighting, it actually felt like her body was being filled with energy. Her mind nearly blanked out as she lost herself in the pleasure of fighting. Was it better than sex? She didn’t know. She was kind of a fucking virgin after all. But she was confident enough to say that it had to be damn near close!

As the brawl went on, Zoey could feel herself improving. Her punching posture, footwork, defense, offense, all of it improved! Once Zoey dealt with more than half of the delinquents, their courage started to shake. That upset her. She wasn’t tired yet, she could still go further, she could keep fighting! So, she let a not-so-sneaky guy creep up on the side of her and land a nice punch on the back of her head.

She dropped to the ground to play up the act and that ignited everyone’s fighting spirit. The throbbing to the back of her head was real but her dropping to the ground from the punch wasn’t. Zoey quickly got back up and rushed towards the guy that hit her. How could she let him off so easily after hitting her like that? Apparently, once he saw the look in her eyes, he started running away as fast as possible.

‘I’m on the track team, you know? You can’t run from me!’ She snatched him by the back of his shirt and tossed him to the ground, landing on the back of his head.

Zoey would’ve smashed his face into the pavement with her fist if a guy didn’t grab her from behind.

“Hey, I got her! Get her!” He shouted before being elbowed in the side of the face.

Another elbow struck him in his face and his grip loosened before he fell to the ground barely conscious. After being snuck up on like this from behind, Zoey quickly made her way back to the front of the store. From time to time, she would play up the injury she got from that one guy to make sure that none of them started to run away. Looking injured would make them think that she wasn’t as tough as she was making herself out to be.

All of this was for the sole sake of leveling her skills! At least, that’s what she told herself at the start. But that wasn’t the only reason why Zoey was doing something this dangerous and stupid. Zoey liked fighting. She liked the high stakes where everything could come crashing down on top of her if she made one mistake. She liked the feeling of seeing herself visibly become better in real-time. She liked beating the hell out of people. She liked feeling strong! Fighting made her feel alive and actually normal!

And after all the delinquents were dealt with, she smiled. Zoey smiled a sick, twisted, and demented smile that she had no choice but to fully display. This was who she was now after getting the Status Box. But this didn’t mean that she could throw away the other parts of her. The Box might have become one of her main motivations to do anything but she couldn’t let it become her everything. She was still Zoey Winters. There was more to life than raising her skills... She refused to let herself forget this.

[Status]

[Name: Zoey]

[Sex: Female]

[Body: 2.1]

[Mental: 1.3]

[Magic: 0.3]

[Skills: 5]

[Boxing Lv1]

[Focus Lv4]

[Teaching Lv6]

[Abnormal Conditions Lv1]

[Endurance Lv1]