“Wow.”

“How did he do that?”

The advanced class fighters are chatting. Right now there's a match going on in the advanced class. Every time these two people fight, everyone always stops what they're doing to watch this match. Right now the known top fighter in their gym, Rory Pierce, is having a difficult time.

'It's almost like he can see through all my moves! How does he do that!?'

Rory's opponent parries him again.

As if he was just leading him on the entire time, a decisive blow lands on Rory.

Rory thinks to himself, 'He is just too amazing! While I'm thinking 1 or 2 moves ahead, he's thinking 3 or 4! Even though I'm stronger and faster than him, I still can't land a decisive blow!'

The instructor announces the results. “Winner. David Lewis.”

They shake hands as it is customary in the gym to do so. David gets changed and starts to head home.

“David. Wait up.”

It's his instructor, Heraclio Maes Hinojosa.

“David, the growth that you've shown in these past 4 years is truly abnormal. You are so strong, yet you refuse to fight in the tournaments. Why?”

“I'm not trying to impress anyone. It's as simple as that.”

“Why do you work so hard if you are not trying to impress anyone? I mean, seriously. You would be hard pressed to find someone who works so hard and not let people know of their results.”

“There is only one reason I work so hard. I'm trying to surpass my yesterday self. As long as I can do that, nothing else matters.” David said with utter indifference.

The instructor contemplates saying something, then says, “We're having a party tomorrow for the anniversary of the gym's opening. Do you want to come?”

“No thanks.”

“You never go to any events or parties, nor do you ever talk to anyone. All you do is just stay here to train. Don't you ever get tired of that?”

“Not at all. Now if there's nothing else we need to talk about, I will go.”

David leaves and heads home. The instructor shakes his head and sighs. 'I'm really worried about that kid.'

He is completely unrecognizable from his 7th grade self. Even David himself looks in the mirror and has a hard time believing it's him. 4 years have passed. He's gotten a growth spurt, and now stands at 5'10” with an athletic build. He grew his hair out a little and also sports beard stubble. Some would say that he looks handsome, but due to his permanent frown, no one would notice. A person looking at him would never believe that he had once been obese.

He works at a bookstore part-time, which is at 10 hours per week. He never really does anything there as the cashier is an android. All he is responsible for is sometimes loading books when they come in, cleaning when the bots are under maintenance, and closing. David mostly spends his time reading. He is saving up money for a new system coming out.

David is getting excited. Due to his brother's invention of quantum reality emulation, the governments of the world have collaborated and made a near 100% immersion virtual reality game called New Reality. It has done well for Michael, as he is now a trillionaire, one of the world's first. Now, there were always virtual reality games before New Reality, but when you play them, you feel like you're a Super Mario 64 character. There is a reason that David wants to play the game, and no, it doesn't have anything to do with money, adventure, romance, or fame. He just wants solitude.

David lives in a mega city. Solitude is hard to come by even for a person actively seeking to be alone. At home he is constantly bothered by his family, mostly his sister. In the library, he has to deal with obnoxious people talking and playing around even when he's trying to read. When he goes into a private booth in the library, the librarians constantly check on him every ten minutes to make sure he's not masturbating. Work, school, and his gym are self explanatory. In two weeks, he will buy the game.

The virtual planet in New Reality is 1.5x bigger than the real planet Google, um Earth. The virtual planet's land area encompasses 50% of the surface instead of our 30%. Only 18% of the world has been explored. With that much space, he can just go into the wilderness and never have to see another person ever again. There's no risk of dying in real life. Time passes 5x faster in game. It has only been out for 2 years, and already has over half a billion people playing. Well it's no surprise. People have so much free time it's a surprise its not higher. A person needs to be 16 to play, but due to having insufficient funds, he decided to get a job. Most of the people in his grade had started playing a year ago. He would be behind them, but he's not trying to compete with them, so he doesn't care.

The next day, David goes to school. The name of his school is Jefferson High, and it's been two weeks since school started. He still hasn't dropped out of his old habits from when he was obese, such as wearing plain clothes that are too big to fit him and preferring to conceal himself as much as possible. It's been a while since he went to school early.

His sister had decided to pour hot water on him while he was asleep. Rather than being mad, he was impressed that she was not only able to enter, but even managed to get the water to him with his paranoia being at savant levels. He had placed 10 locks on his door. If that had failed an alarm would have sounded if she tripped the lasers. Leave it to her to do that.

Classes haven't started yet, so people are hanging around at random spots. David looks for a place devoid of people. There's a spot in the corner. He sits there and starts playing with his augmented reality glasses, or AR glasses for short. He's running a simulation currently on the evolution of the universe if the strong force were 30% weaker. While he's immersed he hears a voice.

“Hey, you!”

David was kind of startled but then he remembered something. 'Someone's calling to somebody in my direction. Well it couldn't be me as I have no friends.'

“David! I'm talking to you!”

'David is a pretty common name. There is no way she is calling for me.'

“David Lewis!”

'...She sounds troublesome. Better to just ignore her and hope she goes away.'

She steps in front of David.

“Hey, I know you heard me calling you.”

David sighs and takes off his glasses. When he looks at who it is talking to him, he is surprised. Standing in front of David is a long blond haired girl with blue eyes, and an in shape body with C cup breasts and a slim waist.

'Wow. She's very pretty. What could a person like her want with me? Most people in this school don't even know who I am.'

In school, David's social life is in a very peculiar situation. When he started injuring people who fought him, the bullies started to back off, and people had feared him. This was only temporary. Due to him losing weight, wearing plain clothes, and not standing out, people gradually forgot about him. It's only when he goes to a place where he's forced to go with a lot of people that bullies remember him, and start talking about him.

He would never throw the first strike. It would eventually escalate into bullies trying to fight him. He would fight and injure them. Repeat. He never did any harm until you touched him, then all bets are off. So now we have a situation where a small minority of people fear David, a slightly larger minority bully him, and the vast majority forget about him even if they see him multiple times.

“Um. Can I help you?”

“I just wanted to see the person who beat me at getting the best awards for mathematics and chemistry.”

“Oh. Well I'm sorry to tell you, but I don't know who got the best in mathematics and chemistry. I didn't go to the award's ceremony. You should ask someone else.”

“Are you playing dumb?”

“I'm not gonna lie. I'm lost. Why are you here and so angry at me? I've never even seen you before.”

“How could you not know who I am? I am Cecile Vincent, vice president of the Honor's Society, top student in our grade, and am in THREE OF YOUR CLASSES!”

'Oh god, she's one of those smarties who have to be the best at everything. Well, I do seem to recall an angry stare facing my direction in advanced chemistry. I just ignored it.'

“Okay miss vice president. That's all fine and dandy, but why are you here?”

“I'm here to tell you that this year I won't lose to you! I've been studying extra hard!”

“Okay.”

“No one has ever beaten me scholastically. Imagine my surprise when I see that it had been some gross, creepy guy to do it.”

“Okay.”

“Mark my words David, I'm going to get the best in everything just like how it used to be.”

“Okay.”

She then angrily steps off.

'That was weird.'

He puts his AR glasses back on and continues with the simulation.

These past few years, David has become a force to be reckoned with. He kept achieving his goal of surpassing his old self. The problem is that he has no self awareness, and doesn't know that he's a force to be reckoned with. He has been so focused entirely on himself that he still doesn't see that he can compete with other people. In his gym, he thinks that Rory is taking it easy on him when they spar. He's not. He genuinely doesn't know that he had been picked as having one of the best scores in his grade. When people fight him and they lose, he thinks that they're just taking it easy on him since he's such an easy target.

The bell rings for homeroom. David sits in the back left corner of the class playing with his AR glasses. Some students are talking about having a match on their AR glasses with a 3rd person shooter called Guns Blazing 5. It gives a 3-D layout and only lets you see your avatar's background. People may have gotten smarter using the brain chips, but the amount of knowledge people know is largely the same as it was 60 years ago. All the chips have done is enable a person to go through entertainment faster.

While they are setting up the game, a student runs in yelling

“Hey, hey! She's coming!” The guys start causing a commotion.

"Okay everyone let's hold off on our match. I want to see what she's wearing."

"You didn't have to say that. We were going to do that anyway."

"Honestly. You boys are such perverts." A girl frustratingly says.

"I'm a super healthy young male. Nothing wrong with that." The person they are talking about walks in. Even David who shuns all human contact can't help but stare.

Walking in is a girl so beautiful it borders on absurd. Her name is Luciana Leavitt, ace of the basketball team, part time model, and daughter of a billionaire. Her father is the CEO of Energy Solutions. She stands at 5'8”, beautiful face even without makeup, straightened black hair that reaches down to the middle of her back, DD breasts, slim waist, and an ass that refuses to quit. She rarely smiles and gives off an air of indifference like an ice princess.

Despite all her blessings she has never once looked down on anyone.

"Good morning Luciana. How are you this fine day?"

"I'm fine."

"Luciana, I really like your shirt. Where did you get it?"

"Wall mart."

"Leave it to you to make it look so good." They kept on praising her.

'God damn! Get off her dick!' David yells in his mind.

Luciana doesn't really care for this attention, but she knows she can't stop it. Right now she's wearing plain clothes. It doesn't matter what she does. She can't help but attract attention. Some of girls in the class are giving her strange looks, but they don't dare talk bad to her.

“You all are starting to annoy me.” Luciana calmly says.

To the other students, this is the equivalent of someone busting out a gun and saying the same thing. They immediately scatter and whisper among themselves.

“She talked to me this time before she got upset!”

“Aw man, I didn't get a chance to talk to her. Lucky bastard.”

'Her fan club is so annoying,' grumbles David in his mind.

The next moment, someone who everyone wants to go away comes in. His name is Brett Lowe, a 6'3” muscular build juggernaut. He walks in like he had a bad day. You know he's going to be a problem because he's the only bully that has been named so far.

“What are all of you lookin' at?”

Everyone except one person looks away. That person had sent Brett a glare. He gulps and immediately averts his eyes from that person. The person in question was Luciana. Now you may be wondering, what's the daughter of a billionaire doing at a public school? Why doesn't she have bodyguards? Why is everyone afraid of her? The answer to all these questions is one. She is wrath incarnate.

**************************

Flashback:

There was an incident in the last school she went to. She went to a high school well known for housing the cities' wealthiest people. Luciana had always had a tough time making friends. Unlike David, who had trouble making friends because he was looked down upon, Luciana had trouble making friends because people felt inadequate around her. She still had people that hung around her though, even if they were only using her for status, so things weren't so bad until something happened.

There was another girl at the school known for her beauty named Penelope Strunner. Unlike Luciana, she was arrogant and haughty, and was always surrounded by her underlings. Penelope had never paid attention to Luciana until a vote was cast on who the most beautiful girl in their grade was. Luciana had won by a landslide. She isn't one to care about these sorts of things, so she just ignored it. Penelope however was furious. She gathered up two of her friends and started bullying Luciana. Penelope had made one mistake though. Luciana is no push over. It came with no warning. She just started wailing on them. All four of them got suspended.

When they came back to school, Penelope had gathered up the rest of her friends. They were 29 people strong. She planned to ambush Luciana on her way out of school. When the police had arrived, they saw something that made them shiver: 29 people laying on the ground in pain and a beautiful girl covered in blood standing over them all. It wasn't her blood. She was expelled. No other private school would accept her. Finally, she was placed in Jefferson High in 9th grade on February.

***********************

As for the reason why the bully, Brett is afraid of her, he had seen the new student and liked what he saw. He got a little handsy and touched her butt. David had arrived late that day for homeroom. When he opened the door. He saw a knocked out Brett being repeatedly hit in the face even though he's unconscious. Luciana had looked at who opened the door with a look of madness. David had slowly backed away, and closed the door without stepping into the classroom. He headed home early that day because he had to change his pants. That was another major source of trauma for David.

Flashback end:

***********************

Brett looked at the seat where David was at.

“Hey you, move.”

David didn't know who he was talking to because he was focusing on his AR glasses the whole time. Brett slammed his palm on David's desk. David didn't even flinch.

He took of his AR glasses and asked, “Can I help you?”

“I usually like to sit next to the windows, but it looks like all the seats are full. I also prefer to sit in the back, so the seat you're sitting in is my favorite spot. Now move it.”

'Pain in the ass,' David muttered inside his head.

He moved to a seat 3 rows down from him.

“Yeah, that's what I thought. Your clothes are so damn lame. Haha, did you get them from a bargain bin? And what's with you using your AR glasses all the time you nerd? Trying to look smart? HAHA!”

David just sighed and thought, 'I miss the fat jokes. At least they were funny.' David just continued to ignore him and use his AR glasses.

************

It is now lunch. David usually sits outside in a corner, but it is raining outside, which is why he is currently sitting at a table by himself. He used to sit on the toilet to eat, but there was a thing in 5th grade where some bullies had caught him on the toilet, flushed his lunch, and then flushed David himself. It still makes him nervous going to the bathroom to this day because of it.

He had just finished eating and is reading about recursive formulas in a book when he hears some cackling. The shrill laughs were coming from the table next to him. David gives them a side glance. There are a group of girls surrounding some other girls. It appears that they are bullying her. The girls are saying,

"Who still wears glasses in this day and age huh?"

"Haha. Are your boobs so big that they drained your brain cells?"

"When you jump do you smack yourself in the face?"

"I bet she just stuffs 2 watermelons to show off."

While they are talking about her, they were also eating her food.

“You don't really need to eat this. Your boobs have more than enough nutrients.”

David looks at the girl in question. She looks so sad. She's one year above David. He thinks, 'Looks like she's eating with her friends. Judging from how silent they are, I guess that they refuse to help her. Well, not my problem. Anyway those shrill girls are destroying my precious reading time. I won't allow that.'

David says, "Hey. You people.", to the group of bullies.

The girls who were having a merry time at someone else's expense looked at David.

"Could you stop it with your yakking for five minutes? I'm trying to read."

The leader of the girls speaks. "Who do you think you are talking to us like that? Don't you know who I am?"

"Who I am and who you are doesn't matter. Your breath stinks. Please shut up."

Now those girls are upset. They start walking towards David.

"You sure talk a big game for a friendless loser."

"Yeah. Look at him. No one wants to sit with him so now he's trying to take it out on us."

"Aw poor boy. You can make friends someday. You can do it!"

They all start laughing.

David talks. "Hmph. What you said is correct."

The girls weren't prepared for him to admit it.

"I am friendless like you said. To this schools social norms, I am also a loser. However, pointing these things out won't make your breath stink any less."

"You little..."

They start throwing food at David. He didn't move from his spot. When they threw applesauce at his head, he just wiped it from his eyes.

“Hey you!”

Someone pops up.

“Do you think I'll just let you talk about my girlfriend?”

It's Brett, the bully in David's homeroom. He has two other people next to him. He recognizes them. They also bully David from time to time. David knows things are about to get complicated.