5 Of birds and men...
At Old Tib's question Wei could only smile. In fact there were a lot of things he knew. That was part of his problem as a child. He was good at everything he did but quickly lost interest.
His mother made him go to piano lessons where he excelled and skipped grades but it was tiresome so he stopped.
Father made him play chess and he was good at it but lost interest when he found out he needed to learn optimum chess moves in advance at higher stages than just rely on his own talent.
He was good at mathematics so he was sent to competitions by his teachers only for them to be disappointed in him since he didn't put in enough effort to go through nearly enough examples as his competition.
He was the Jack of all trades and a master of none. His favorite thing was learning new stuff and solving problems by instinct rather than cramming the readily available solutions in his mind.
The only exception was when someone mocked him. That would bring out his competitive side and he would finally give it his all. It was in the beginning of last year in highschool when one of his nerd classmates mocked him for being a lazy talentless brat which pushed him to give it his all that year. He finished the last year of school by breaking all the previous exam records.
He had the best score on all tests that year and that got him sent by his parents to the USA to study. If he knew that in advance he would have rather flunked highschool.
In hindsight he would have flunked for certain if he knew it would save his parents.
Anyway, things turned out how they turned out and he could not change the past.
He took a deep breath after he reminisced on the past and passed the water skin back to Old Tibs.
'Jinx, show me my status. You said you can do that now.'
Name : Zhang Wei
Age: 27
[Strength: 4]
[Endurance: ???]
[Vitality: ???]
[Agility: 5]
[Dexterity: 5]
[Intelligence: ???]
[Wisdom: ???]
[Special: Mild hallucinogen withdrawal symptoms imminent]
[Karma points: 0]
'What's up with the question marks?'
'Not enough data for assessment,' Jinx replied.
He was just about to ask what's with the withdrawal symptoms diagnosis in the special tab when a massive headache hit him like a hammer.
"Old Tibs can I sit with you? My head feels like it's going to explode," Wei asked.
"Sure. Sit down. You were probably in the sun for too long."
"No, I don't think it's the sun. I was hungry and thirsty so I ate a wild root vegetable while walking," Wei replied.
"You ate the "Headache root" raw? How much did you eat?"
Old Tibs exclaimed.
"I don't know 4-5 or 6. I plucked some while walking." Wei shrugged.
"Say did you see naked women in the desert dancing?" Old Tibs asked with a smile.
Wei looked at him with amazement: "What?"
"Hehehe. A friend of mine ate one one time and he kept hugging air and dancing in the desert as the whole convoy laughed at him. You must have a hell of a tolerance to toxins if you can still stay sane after 4-6 Headache roots. He was basically a goner after one. If he were alone he would have probably died from exhaustion dancing with the wind in the desert. Afterwards he lay dead on the camel for two days before the headaches stopped, but you seem to be doing great considering."
Old Tibs explained while slapping his thighs in laughter.
Wei shrugged.
After a while of holding his head Old Tibs told him he should lie down in his tent. Wei thanked him a layed down on a cot and closed his eyes.
After what seemed to be a second he opened his eyes and looked warily at his surroundings.
"So it was not a dream," Wei mumbled and sighed after he got up from the cot. Getting out of the tent he noticed there were two cots in it. As he came out he saw Old Tibs was still sitting by the campfire but the sun was slowly going down.
'Jinx show me my stats.'
Name : Zhang Wei
Age: 27
[Strength: 4]
[Endurance: ???]
[Vitality: ???]
[Agility: 5]
[Dexterity: 5]
[Intelligence: ???]
[Wisdom: ???]
[Karma points: 0]
'Hmm. No more special status. That's good.' Wei thought in his mind.
"You are finally awake. Have some food." Old Tibs offered with a smile.
Wei wanted to refuse but his stomach started protesting so he could only say thank you and accepted it. It was a bowl of thick soup with unknown meat. As he started to eat it he found out it actually tasted a lot better than it looked.
"Do you like it? It's Green bull soup. They are fierce animals you can sometimes find here. If you get within 100 meters of the herd the male will run at you like a crazed beast and if he gets you on his horns only the saints can save you."
Old Tibs proudly exclaimed.
"It's good." Wei exclaimed as he nodded at Tibs story.
"Why are you so good to me?"
He suddenly asked Tibs.
"We at the lowest pecking order should stick together." Tibs exclaimed quietly as he warily looked around.
'Why would he not be good to you considering his karmic status.'
Jinx exclaimed in Wei's mind feeling smug.
'What do you mean karmic status?'
'I mean he has a lot of positive karmic points. He is practically a saint among these men.'
Jinx replied with smugness.
'You can see his karmic points?'
'Of course why wouldn't I.'
Wei suddenly held his head as if he was getting another headache and gritted his teeth.
'And you are only telling me about such an ability now you stupid piece of shit AI. No wonder you were F graded.'
'Hey watch your language and besides what could you even do with this information?'
'I could choose who I could and could not approach for help you stupid moronic AI.'
'Hmmm I guess that does make sense. I admit my mistake. I am sorry. Should I exclaim everyone's karmic points in the future?'
Wei frowned and thought about it and found the idea annoying if he were in a crowd.
'Just mark their outlines in my vision like you do with the HUD map. Dark green for those who are barely positive and grade the color lighter for those that are more and if I focus on someone give me a number on them. Do the same for negative karma. Can you do that?'
'Done.'
As Wei looked at Old Tib he had a light green outline and 767 karma was written on his chest.
Looking at the nearest people he could see a few dark green outlines and a bit farther away he could see dark red and while he was observing them three light red outlined people walked and greeted them.
'I guess it's true what they say. Birds of a feather flock together.'
He thought in his mind as he shifted his attention back to the food.
