Markus hated school. It was just like the social aspect of life and it never left you. Even as you got older and older, people would still treat you the same and keep calling you the same nicknames from over 10 years ago.

At least it was over fast.

Now the "school" part of school was not a bother. He did fairly well in each subject, enough that he could be recognized as a stereotypical Asian. He did try a little harder to remember what he was taught in school, in the event that he could use it in the game. After all, even though the game broke the rules sometimes due to mana, it was still generally consistent with the laws of the real world.

When he got home, he would head down to the basement. There he would take weights, like books and school bags, and lift them, straining his almost non-existent muscles. His parents were surprised at first but got used to it. They blamed it on hormones or that he was a growing boy, and didn't care as long as he did his school work.

After one pushup, he questioned his life decisions. After two pushups, he questioned why he wanted to go back into the game. And after three, he questioned why he was doing this.

What's the fucking point of doing this? It's not like it'll make a difference.

But then he thought about all the good people that he met, their kind and friendly faces. And then he thought about how they had all been killed. Burned to death, carved up, and eaten. Gutted on swords, made into slaves and druggies.

He would see their faces in his dreams. Calling out to him, asking for help. Asking why he couldn't help them as their bodies and faces rotted away, leaving behind the whites of their skeletons.

And about the others, the ones that did this. They didn't deserve to survive, to live to the end standing on top of mountains of corpses, all while saying that they had no choice, that they were in the right, that they deserved to live.

"It's their fault for not paying. If they had paid me before I wouldn't have had to do this."

"Trust me, it hurts to do this."

"I didn't do anything wrong. They were the ones that invited me into their house. It was self-defense."

So he kept going.

This was the end of week 1.

Week 2 went by similarly. He still looked the same as before, but he had lost around 1-2 pounds.

The dreams stopped being as vivid as before, but they were still there. He'd wake up sometimes in a cold sweat, breathing heavily and looking at the ceiling before closing his eyes again.

In the week, he went up from 20-30 to 30-40 reps and began to run around his neighborhood as well. He did get looks from his neighbors as well as other people walking around, but he ignored them. The air was usually cool outside, at one point freezing, but he kept running.

Week 3 was a little harder. The number of reps kept increasing, but he wasn't able to run around as much as before. One of his classes had issued a large project to do over the break, and he had to divert some of his time (but not all) to do it. After all, he was going to be in the game by the end of week 4, so why bother finishing it? He just had to do enough to convince his parents that he was working.

He also looked up on the internet some martial arts videos and began practicing. It would be helpful to get his body used to the moves ahead of time.

Week 4 was the home stretch. He went with 40-50 reps at a time and running 3-4 laps around his neighborhood. He went over his gameplan: he would have to unlock the status, then the attributes. For classes, he would choose fighter first, then go with either mage or warrior depending on his stats.

There was no way he could solo any of the demon bosses, so he would have to get familiars, and the only way to do so was either by taming monsters or by summoning them, with the summoner class.

Each week he checked his progress by standing in front of the mirror and by standing on the scale. He was a little less flabby than before because he exercised but did not change in diet.

He could feel the difference, however. His body could cooperate with basic fighting stances and moves and could lift 50-60 pounds at a time. His face wasn't pudgy anymore and was just normal. Plus, he had muscles now. While his only tactic for fighting before the game had basically just been sitting on the opponent, now his body could comply with his actions.

His standing at school had changed as well. After a month's worth of training, he just looked a little overweight, nowhere as large as he had at the beginning. People didn't whisper about how fat he was, they whispered about how he did it.

"I heard that he had to get surgery cause he was too fat"

"There's no way that's Markus. No fricken way that guy changed into that in like a month."

"I heard he went on a really strict diet where you can only drink this really weird Chinese medicine"

However, most people just ignored him now and would talk about the upcoming game, Moratulis.

It didn't matter to Markus. He would get his revenge in the game anyway. What happened in the game stayed in the game, or so he thought.

His parents would be getting him the game on Christmas (they had told him specifically as well) so he had only today to prepare before the start.

He went over the plan again. Unlock the status followed by most of the other attributes (some of them wouldn't be as needed as the others at the start), unlock the leaderboard (get to Lvl 10), reach the top 10 on the leaderboard, unlock the classes, shop, and his unique skill. There were other things that he would need but he could figure them out later. And last but not least, find a non demon settlement.

Due to him regressing to 1 month before the game started, he thought that his original set of skills should have changed, thanks to the work he did in this one month.

On Christmas day, his parents happily gave him the game. He thanked them, hugging them ferociously. He knew this might be the last time he would see them and while he hated humanity, he still loved his family. His parents were taken aback at first but hugged him back.

The game came in the form of a VR headset. According to the NPCs, if the user managed to logout, the player would come out in their game body, changing their current body if it had been damaged in any way.

All you had to do was put on the headset. The game would start automatically.

On the outside, it would appear as if the user was playing the game, but they could not be disturbed from the outside, with fatal consequences. For example, if the user owed a loan shark a great deal of money(as in a certain novel), and the loan shark broke into the user's home(as in a certain novel), if they attempted to remove the headset or did anything malicious, the game system would strike them with lightning, instantly killing them.

On the other hand, if the user's parents tried to disturb him, they would just receive a small electric shock, like touching a doorknob kind of shock.

The remaining inhabitants of the earth, as well as the players, would soon receive an announcement from the game itself. It would be then the people of Earth would learn about what the game was.

Markus went up to his room, turning on the headset. He got into a comfortable position before checking his progress on the project. He was close to finishing, which was good. At the max, the game would be over within 4 days.

A flash of light entered his eyes, causing him to close them as a reflex. When he reopened them, he was standing in a park, just as when he first started. Mystical trees grew around him, while the area he was standing in was mainly full of wild grasses and herbs. Looking down, he was wearing a plain white T-shirt, beige pants, and black sneakers.

In the distance, he could see apartment buildings, modern cities, and skyscrapers. From the big mana sign in the sky, the city was supposed to be New York City. There did not seem to be anyone/anything else in the vicinities, but now was not the time to worry about that.

First, he would stick to the plan. He ripped off a stick from a nearby stick before writing basic information about himself in the dirt.

My name is Markus Zhang. I am newly spawned, so I should be Lvl 1. My HP is more or less around 100 points. I am male, age 17, and slightly overweight.

After thinking about himself for about a minute, a blue box came up, rewarding him for his efforts.

Status has been unlocked!

Classes have been unlocked!

He quickly said status and the familiar boxes showed up in front of him.

Name: Markus Zhang

Lvl: 1

HP: 100/100

EXP: 0/100

Next up were the attributes. He tested the weight of the stick in his hand before bashing it against the tree at around half strength. The stick made a cracking sound but did not break. He hit the tree, again and again, increasing the power until the stick broke.

Strength has been unlocked!

Intelligence and wisdom would be harder to get, and were generally easier to get when fighting others. Constitution you had to hurt yourself and let the wound slowly heal. He scratched his arms with the broken stick, causing a couple of cuts but nothing too serious. They would heal slowly, perhaps in a day or two, and he could get the stat then.

For defense you had to block an attack, while DEX you had to practice accuracy. He broke the stick down into smaller pieces and sharpened them against the tree, before throwing them at the tree. He missed twice but hit the 3rd time.

Dexterity has been unlocked!

Skills have been unlocked!

Skills were actions that you could do. He knew that "Throw" had already been unlocked, but to unlock the skill list you had to perform different actions a couple of times.

After stating "Skill List", the blue box popped up in front of him.

Throw Lvl 7, Breathing Lvl 8, Running Lvl 5, Walking Lvl 6, Scratch Lvl 3, Punch Lvl 2, Kick Lvl 2, Jab Lvl 2, Hook Lvl 2, Communication Lvl 4, Cooperation Lvl 3, Training Lvl 4, Studying Lvl 4, Concentration Lvl 2, Adaptation Lvl 2, Blunt Weapon Mastery Lvl 1, Trip Lvl 1, Jump Lvl 2, Climbing Lvl 4, Cleaning Lvl 2, Cooking Lvl 2, Knife Mastery Lvl 1, Dodge Lvl 1, Uppercut Lvl 1, Ride Lvl 1, Examine Lvl 4, Listening Lvl 4, Reading Lvl 5, Writing Lvl 5, Sleeping Lvl 7, Premonition Lvl 7, Spying Lvl 2

There were more skills than he had before. There were the skills that he had earned in the intense training he put himself through in the month before. The one that he did not remember getting, however, was Premonition.

Premonition is something that lets me know the future... does that mean the game knows that I'm from the future? It shouldn't affect too much of the game, right?

A rustle in the bushes snapped him out of his thoughts. He ripped off another branch, and held it in some kind of battle stance, with both arms at the end, the stick pointing at an angle.

When nothing approached, he moved forward, tentatively, to discover nothing there.

Something's watching me, he thought.

He continued to search, looking behind and inside trees. However, other than a set of tracks, he was unable to find what he was looking for.

The tracks were relatively small, so the rustling must have been due to an animal. Due to the environment, it was either a squirrel or a bird.

Persistence has been unlocked!

While he didn't find what he was looking for, he managed to unlock another stat, which was his real aim all along.

He stopped thinking about the watcher and began training his stats. He ran around the clearing, only stopping after a few laps.

Agility has been unlocked!

Stamina has been unlocked!

Now for INT and WIS, he thought, stretching his legs. For INT I have to learn a new skill, while for WIS I need to use something I've already learned. In other words, WIS = INT and INT = learning capacity

"Hmmm... I could try climbing one of the trees around here. I could also try something with the herbs and other plants nearby." he said, thinking out loud.

With a grunt, he lifted himself into a sturdy looking tree. The branches could not hold his weight and he fell. He landed on his feet but still took damage.

"Oof...I really wish I could use gravity right about now."

He attempted climbing 2 more trees but each time the branches could not support his weight and he fell.

Resistance has been unlocked!

Learned Fall Resistance Lvl 1!

Intelligence has been unlocked!

At least that's useful, Markus thought.

Now it was time to unlock mana. He imagined energy, forcing some of it out of his palm. Of course, nothing happened, but his efforts were rewarded by a blue box after several tries.

Wisdom has been unlocked!

Mana has been unlocked!

Skills will now be organized into Mana and Non-Mana skills.

This was now his status page:

Name: Markus Zhang

Lvl: 1

HP: 100/100

MP: 77/77

SP: 62/62

EXP: 0/100

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 10

Persistence: 12

Agility: 12

Resistance: 10

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 20

"Oh, I almost forgot about the classes!" Markus said, facepalming.

He said "Classes" and the class list popped up in front of him.

Warrior: Requirements not met.

Mage: +2 INT, +2 WIS

Archer: Requirements not met.

Rogue: Requirements not met.

Crafter: +2 INT, +2 DEX

Supporter: Requirements not met.

Fighter: Requirements not met.

Shit, do I need CONS before I can get my class? Markus thought.

He examined the nearby plants until he found what he wanted.

Ganbea Plant: Leaves of this plant can be used as bandages. If ground up, can be used as a healing paste.

The leaves were broad, flat, and green in color, somewhat like the leaves of reeds. He wrapped one around his scratched arm before shoving the rest into his pocket. It would be useful later on, he whispered to himself as he moved away from the metropolis in the distance. Walking through the woods, the trees, bright and friendly on the outside, began to appear more sinister.