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 — 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 — Riley, who was much leaner than the incredibly buff Kyle — 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 — 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 — 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.

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 mix of pity and "you should've moved out of the way" — 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)