3 A way to become stronger
...
|A few minutes before...|
-Tik-
-Tak-
-Tik-
-Tak-
-Snore...-
Farid was currently sleeping soundly on top of his bed while hugging his pillow tightly and drooling all over it without a care in the world. After what happened yesterday with the Idle system, Farid was left too exhausted mentally to continue doing his favorite hobby of imagining himself fighting pirates.
Thus, after simply doing his usual activities during the day, he went straight to bed and did his best to sleep while trying to not get distracted by the screen beside him, which still had several mysteries lingering around it, much to the Farid's curiosity.
Eventually, Farid was able to fall asleep, leaving his worries aside for at least that night.
Back to the sleeping Farid, from one moment to another his eyes started opening up, as the sounds of birds were coming from outside and the noise they produced was starting to kick Farid's sleepiness away.
"It's morning...?" Farid's eyes glanced at the window of the room before his groggy voice spoke tiredly.
Rubbing his eyes, he stood up from the bed and walked towards the bathroom of the orphanage. Fortunately for him, he seemed to have been the first one to get up today, as there was no one using it by the time he arrived there.
After doing his necessities, Farid rapidly picked up his toothbrush and started cleaning his teeth at a rhythmic pace, seemingly enjoying the peaceful moment without a care for what had happened the day before.
It was true that Farid wished to one day become a powerful marine or bounty hunter and fight legendary figures... However, he still enjoyed the peaceful moments a lot, as his nature seemed to be a mixture of being an extremely carefree kid and a little bit of a battle maniac who wanted to become the strongest one day.
-Schhhk-
-Schhhk-
-Schhhk-
-Ptu!-
However, despite how relaxing brushing his teeth was for him, the exciting sensation of uncovering several secrets from the screen that he felt yesterday was still lingering around, and as soon as he stopped brushing his teeth, his eyes naturally darted toward the screen sitting in the corner of his vision.
His eyes, which were simply looking at the screen looking for something new, suddenly flashed with a confused light in them as he noticed that something had changed once again since he opened his status yesterday.
His status points, which used to be below 0 until yesterday, had increased dramatically now and were finally a number that Farid could understand... At least almost all of it.
▽
Status points remaining: [13.7]
...
☠ [Selected oponent] ☠
▸[Human: Rayhan Shieda] Gives 0.01~0.1 status points every [1 minute and 38 seconds...]
『Do you want to try and set up a new record?』
『Yes』『No』
△
Surprised by the sudden change, Farid curiously moved his finger and tried tapping the status points just like he had done with Rayhan's name yesterday. It had been pretty much proved already that he was able to either say "yes" or "no", or on the other hand simply tap the option on the screen.
After he did that, exactly as he had expected, another screen popped up in front of him and made him tilt his head to the side with a curious expression on his face as he continued to read the words on the screen.
『Do you wish to allocate your status points?』
『Yes』『No』
"Allocate?"
With his hand, Farid touched the option "yes" on the screen and looked curiously as the screen in front of him changed yet once again. This time, for some reason, showing his status window.
▽
『Name: Farid』
-Age: 8
-Species: Human
-〈STATUS〉-
『User characteristics:』
▸Strength: [2]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Defense: [4]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Stamina: [5]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Internal Defense: [0]〈0/100〉[+]
▸Soul Power: [0]〈0/1000〉[+]
『Body abilities:』
▸Psychomotor ability: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Healing speed: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Cerebral power: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉[+]
『Senses:』
▸Eyesight: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Hearing: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Touch: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Smell: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Taste: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Gut's feeling: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
『Special skills:』
▸Armament Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Observation Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Conqueror's Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Voice: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/100,000〉[+]
___________________
Status points remaining: [13.7]
△
"... What am I supposed to do now?"
Farid couldn't understand what the screen wanted him to do. However, seeing the [+] buttons everywhere around his status window, Farid didn't look further into it and rapidly tapped the first button on the list which also happened to be from the strength stat, wondering what it would do once pressed.
Strangely, as he did so, nothing too big happened, and instead, the only thing that changed there was that the zero next to the ten increased to one right after he tapped the button.
▽
『User characteristics:』
▸Strength: [2]〈1/10〉[+]
▸Defense: [4]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Stamina: [5]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Internal Defense: [0]〈0/100〉[+]
▸Soul Power: [0]〈0/1000〉[+]
___________________
Status points remaining: [12.7]
△
His status points or whatever also seemed to have changed... Though, they seemed to have been deducted one instead of increasing.
However, seeing the numbers there change, something clicked on Farid's mind, as he seemingly finally understood what he was supposed to do.
Without hesitation, Farid's finger moved rapidly and started tapping the same [+] button from before repeatedly, making sure that the number reached ten.
And just as his finger tapped the button for the tenth time, something incredible occurred on his body, making him fall on his buttocks because of the surprise.
"A-Ack what is this?!"
It was to say, Farid still had some doubts about whether the screen and everything he lived yesterday was a product of his imagination or not... Hallucinations were something that he had never experienced before, and thus, he didn't know whether they acted like this or not.
However, it was at this moment that he finally understood that everything was real, much to his shock... After all, a hallucination would never make him feel the way he was feeling right then.
Similar to when you twist a cloth to the point it becomes extremely hard, something similar was happening to his muscles. He wasn't in any pain, but he could feel how each of his muscle fibers was tightening to their limit, making him feel like his own body was becoming as hard as a rock.
Not only that, but as he looked at himself in the mirror, he saw how his whole body had decreased in volume several times and how each of his muscles had become a lot more visible through the skin, giving the impression that he had become a mixture between being a muscular yet scrawny kid in a matter of seconds.
However, the sensation didn't last very long, as soon his whole body started going back to its usual form without warning, making his appearance also revert to normal in a matter of seconds.
His muscles and his volume reverted to normal, making him look exactly like he looked before the strange and brief transformation, with no change at all. However, there was something different from before, and Farid could feel it.
Without warning, Farid suddenly punched the wall of the bathroom and caused it all to tremble slightly.
-Thud!-
"..."
Farid was left without words, only being able to watch his fist with wide-open eyes in disbelief.
He had felt it... His strength had increased, and by a lot at that!
"Holy cow of all cows... This is incredible!!"
The screen was real, and it helped him increase his strength at that!
For the first time in many years, Farid felt how the screen that had always been a problem for him was now something good in his life.
▽
『Name: Farid』
-Age: 8
-Species: Human
-〈STATUS〉-
『User characteristics:』
▸Strength: [3]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Defense: [4]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Stamina: [5]〈0/10〉[+]
▸Internal Defense: [0]〈0/100〉[+]
▸Soul Power: [0]〈0/1000〉[+]
『Body abilities:』
▸Psychomotor ability: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Healing speed: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Cerebral power: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉[+]
『Senses:』
▸Eyesight: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Hearing: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Touch: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Smell: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Taste: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
▸Gut's feeling: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉[+]
『Special skills:』
▸Armament Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Observation Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Conqueror's Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉[+]
▸Voice: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/100,000〉[+]
___________________
Status points remaining: [3.7]
...
△
As if everything was falling into place, Farid's mind was finally starting to understand everything in the system.
The status points allowed him to increase different specs of his body easily... However, each of these stats required a certain amount of status points to increase the stat by 1, strength, stamina, and defense, for example, each required 10 status points before the stat would increase.
He was gaining status points automatically without doing anything special because he had fought the fake Rayhan yesterday. However, seeing how the time for collecting status points was the same time it took for him to defeat him, it was easy to guess that the faster you defeated your opponent, the faster you would gain status points.
Finally realizing this, Farid's eyes couldn't help but look at a certain question within the status window.
▽
☠ [Selected oponent] ☠
▸[Human: Rayhan Shieda] Gives 0.01~0.1 status points every [1 minute and 38 seconds...]
『Do you want to try and set up a new record?』
『Yes』『No』
△
The last time he fought against the fake Rayhan he was taken by surprise and pinned down by him without being able to understand anything. It was only after he counter-attacked that the fight took a turn in his direction... But, what could happen if he was the first to attack this time?
His strength had also increased just now, so his punches will be probably stronger than yesterday... Right?
How much time would it take for him to defeat the fake Rayhan as he was now if he was the first one to attack?
There was only one way of discovering it.
Without hesitation, Farid selected the option "yes" by tapping it with his finger, and soon, the whole environment changed to the already familiar white room with the fake Rayhan standing in front of him.
...
-To be continued...-
