Chapter 3

Daniel Meadows

Age- 14

Relation- Self

Occupation- Student

More Details Y/N?

Dan sighed as he looked at the information that appeared before him. He wasn’t really sure what he’d been expecting…but honestly, he obviously knew all that information about himself already. Just like Syn, the powers were going to make him work to figure them out. Then again, it also, frustratingly made sense. In video games, movies, anime, stories…you never got to fully understand or comprehend the system right away. Not unless you had some prior understanding of it. Or a cheat or something. He focused on the More Details option and selected the Y.

Select from Below

Personal Traits

Physical Traits

Mental Traits

Special Traits

Relation Monitor

??? (Unlock at Rank 2)

??? (Unlock at Rank 3)

??? (Unlock at Rank 4)

??? (Unlock at Rank 5)

That was unexpected. Apparently, his power must have some way to level up. Then again, all of this was unexpected, and crazy, and strange. Hell, he wasn’t certain he wasn’t hallucinating. But he knew there really wasn’t anything freaking out would handle. Either all of this was some fever dream, and the next day it would be gone, or it wasn’t, and this was now a part of his life. And to be on the safe side, he figured he might as well get as accustomed to it as he could now, before he left the hospital. Especially if he was going to be able to see everyone’s names floating above them from now on, and gain information on them… He had no doubt that could get overwhelming otherwise. Though on the Brightside, now he probably wouldn’t ever have to worry about forgetting someone’s name. So…at least there was that, yeah? Sarcasm aside, he figured he would just start down the list.

Personal Traits

Sexual Orientation (current) - Straight

Happiness- 63/100

Self Esteem- 54/100

Ambition- 39/100

Compassion- 58/100

Charisma- 47/100

Well. That was shit. As Dan looked over his Personal Traits, he couldn’t help but feel a little perturbed. Seriously, why were his numbers so low? As he looked at them, his eyes going over them, he watched his happiness meter drop down another 3 points till it hit 60. Well… at least it was a sliding scale. And, considering everything that had happened to him that day, sure, maybe 60 wasn’t a bad place for it to sit.

The other traits, were a little more problematic. Mainly because, even though he wanted to be mad at them…he knew deep down they made sense. He really wasn’t all that ambitious. His Self Esteem wasn’t overly high either. Something that came from always moving constantly. Sure, he got good grades…but that didn’t account for all that much on the Self Esteem scale, if he didn’t really have any other examples to stand it on. Good grades, and he was a good runner. Oh yeah, a mid-50s on Self Esteem made sense.

The one that hurt him the most…was his Charisma. Seriously, he wasn’t even at 50 for Charisma? Generally, people treated Charisma as a dump stat in games. And, to be fair, if he’d been transported magically to another world, sure, he doubted it would need to be all that strong. But on Earth…in high school, Charisma had to be important. Meaning he needed to figure out how to increase that stat. Because he highly doubted he was going to survive Freshman Year at St. Arthurs with only a 47 Charisma. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to win Sophia with a 47. Those were rookie numbers. Resigned to what he saw on the Personal Traits portion, he closed it and selected the next one.

Physical Traits

Health- 70/100

Stamina- 90/100

Strength- 0/100

Dexterity- 0/100

Constitution- 0/100

What? Alright, that didn’t make any sense at all. Okay, to be fair, the health being under 100 did. He’d just been hit by a truck. Of course he’d lost some health there. Though, he had to wonder how the health points would act in the real world. Or at least, on Earth. How easy was it to lose and gain health points? And if they hit 0, what happened? Because if he lost points for every time he got hit, or stubbed his toe or something, and that resulted in him dropping to 0…he didn’t want to die because he stepped on a Lego by accident one night and lost his last hit point. That would suck. Also, was he at 100 before the truck hit him? Had that taken 30 hit points, or what had his health been at beforehand? All of this information really was going to drive him mad, the more he thought about it.

But Health aside, what really confused him, were all the basic stats being at 0. That didn’t make sense. The Personal traits had actually had stats. This…was

“Ah, before you have an aneurism.” Syn’s voice said quickly in his head. “Your physical and mental traits are taking your current level as the baseline, setting it at 0. Meaning, from here on out, as you gain experience in those stats, they will increase. In other words…right now you’re normal, but with your powers, you’ll be able to climb above whatever your previous human potential would have been. Cheers for you. Sorry about the Charisma though…that stat you gotta deal with on your own. Sure we gave you powers, but we aren’t miracle workers.” Dan was pretty sure he could hear a good amount of laughing going on in the background of wherever Syn was, as the voice faded away. Whoever Syn was, wherever he was, and whoever it was that was in the ‘office’ with him…they were definitely having fun at Dan’s expense.

-1 Self Esteem (53) crossed the lower part of his vision as he thought that. Great…if he wasn’t actively watching the stat, apparently he was going to get updates out of the corner of his eye. And Syn had just managed to drop his already low Self Esteem by a point. Great.

Dan shook his head furiously, closed out the Physical Traits, and moved on.

Mental Traits

Mental Health – 68/100

Intelligence – 0/100

Wisdom – 0/100

Aptitude – 0/100

Mental Fortitude- 0/100

Same thing he figured with the mental traits. Whatever his current level would have been at, had been set as the baseline. Which meant, at least…everything he gained would just allow him to move forward. Still, Dan couldn’t help but wonder what his stats had looked like, before he got these powers. That way, he could at least understand where he stood currently, besides his peers. Like…how was he supposed to compare himself to say Peter, if he didn’t know where his stats had been? Also, what would increasing these skills be like? How would he do it, and what would happen as he did? There was so much Dan wanted to understand about the system, and instead, he just got some snarky mysterious figure and his office buddies getting a kick watching him struggle. He resolved himself to figure out this system, and make it his own. He wasn’t going to just be their amusement.

+2 Self Esteem (55) +1 Ambition (40).

As both of those popped up in his vision, he saw his Mental health jump to 70. Additionally, a little progress bar appeared just under Mental Fortitude, which showed he had just gained 10 out of 100 experience towards the next level. While the constant pop ups were likely going to get rather annoying to him, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride. Already, he was making the right steps. Already, he was moving forward. And it seemed, for what it was worth, he could level some of these skills up quite quickly.

Special Traits

There was nothing under special traits. Absolutely nothing. It was just a blank screen. He stared at it for a moment before closing it frustrated. So apparently there was nothing special about him, was that it? What about his special power? How was that not special?

-1 Self Esteem (54). Yup, that was going to get old really quick.

Dan closed out of the pointless blank screen and looked at his final option. Relation Monitor. What was this tab going to be like? What would it have underneath it? At the very least, hopefully it would at least have a little more than the blank screen under special traits.

Relation Monitor (Nonexistent, Poor, Neutral, Good, Excellent)

Matthew Meadows- Excellent

Annabelle Rand- Neutral

??? (Syn)- Nonexistent

Self Esteem Changes x2 (+1 gain) (56) Happiness changes x3 (+1) (64) Ambition +1 (41)

Dan didn’t have to guess all that hard about what had triggered those changes. The self esteem had come likely at a negative with his nonexistent with Syn, but then gained because of his Excellent relation with his father. Happiness, same thing. And Ambition, came from him further realizing to Syn he was just an amusing show or experiment for the being to watch. And obviously, that had sparked within him another instance of growing his ambition. Because he was not about to let Syn just watch him like some lab rat. No way, no how.

He sighed and closed out the window, the words leaving his vision as he looked around the room. From what he could deduce so far, everything was set at a baseline. Meaning everything that happened now would be tracked by whatever strange power system had been given to him, and would affect him. His past, everything that had happened before he’d awoken after getting hit by a truck, hadn’t been taken into account it seemed. At least, that was his deduction, considering there were only three entries on his Relation Monitor screen, the only three people he’d interacted with since gaining his powers…his dad, the nurse, and Syn.

Which meant, he couldn’t try and see what Sophia thought about him, nor could he gauge how Peter really viewed him. All those things, would have to wait. For now, he found himself extremely hungry, and also strangely tired. He’d not done anything since waking up, but the combination of the encounter with Syn, exploring his powers, and just dealing with the fact he’d been hit by a truck…was leaving him a lot more exhausted than he’d expected.

As such, he leaned his head back against his pillow, deciding he would take a nap before his dad came back with dinner. Tomorrow, he knew, he would be discharged, and then the next day he would be heading back to school. Already he knew he didn’t have any broken bones, and though he’d been knocked unconscious, the nurse had said he would still be able to partake in light physical activity if he wanted. Just…he needed to avoid anything too strenuous, and of course, sprinting across the street was advised against. Meaning when he got back to school, he would still be able to start his lessons with Peter, and his new goal of trying to climb the ranks of Tennis, and win Sophia over.

+2 Ambition (43).