Chapter 7

Right about to execute the heathen, Reed immediately backs away and falls to his ass while laughing his nose off.

Why is he so friendly with me anyways? We've only known each other for an hour.

He kept on laughing and even spread some of his laughter to people. Hmm? He either really resonated with me, or the complete opposite; he wants to use me as a target.

Judging by his smile, it just seems he feels really friendly with me.

I lightly kick his leg.

"Alright get up funny guy."

"Pfffft." He kept on laughing.

I reach my hands to help him up and he takes them.

"Hahahaha you should've seen your face."

I smile and threateningly wave my fist.

He starts laughing even harder now.

"Alright whatever Red, help me pick up my stuff."

"Yeah yeah, my name's Reed."

I watch as he picks up my stuff and drops them on the desk.

"Okay funny guy, what was your business doing that?"

I pick up my chair and sit on it.

He hovered over my desk.

"I was going to apologize for suddenly running away but pfft— hahaha, now I'm so happy I did that."

"Shut up if you don't want me to punch you," I say in a joking tone as he begins laughing even harder.

Some of his friends begin gathering around us with a smile. Okay, the Achievement System will likely reward me with some points if I get friendly with all these guys.

They look like the sociable pretty boy popular guys that get along with anyone. If I get along with them I'll probably be able to get acquainted with more people and by chance get more opportunities for Achievement Points.

Suddenly I'm a part of one of the loud noisy groups.

I occasionally tune in to the conversations and other times just show reactions.

"Hey Charlie, I always thought you were always really quiet and shy. How come you're such a handsome lad now?" One of the guys called Alex shows a predatory smile as if about to eat me up. Holy shit, I think I got along a little too well with these guys. We're already going with the Homie sexual jokes.

I cover my chest and present the best flustered maiden expression I can.

"I am sorry to disappoint you but I don't swing that way." I shift into a similar predatory expression, "Maybe you can change my mind?" The group bursts in laughter. Shit, we were too loud.

They're probably going to think I'm a guy aiming to pop guy cherries. Shivers travel through my spine as I imagine a situation where a guy mistakenly flirts with me. Argh, even worse. What if the girls think I'm homosexual and don't recognize me as a possible partner due to the misunderstood sexuality?

I'll just hope no one heard that.

"Who knows?"

"Man, you're really different from the Charlie we've seen for the past few months."

"Hey, who knows? Maybe he was secretly judging us every day."

A female teacher came in and clapped once to grab our attention.

"Alright class, we're starting now."

Hm.. let's level up our Concept: Physics skill shall we?

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[Ding!]

[Due to a combination of brain exercises and acquiring of knowledge, the Intelligence skill has temporarily improved by a single point. Host, please keep working hard to permanently maintain this added stat point!]

Holy hell this is broken, overpowered, and so horrifyingly unfair but I love it.

I feel my mind focusing and completely changing gears. I feel like my neurons are working more efficiently and at a quicker pace. My perception clarifies and suddenly everything feels easier to understand. I think my vision has also slightly improved, oh my god this is amazing.

This feeling is beautiful.

My thoughts are so fast and my body reactivity has increased. Since brain activity also relates to the physical body's performance, my physicality has also improved.

Bodily functions are dictated by the central nervous system, if my intelligence improves it, naturally the bodily functions improve as well.

[Author Note: Check out "CNS Fatigue" it's pretty interesting.]

I feel so good.

By the way, what's with the system? It's only been giving me benefits, are there any downsides to this? If so, how are they going to affect me?

There's truly no free lunch in this world, should I be preparing myself for something worse?

I questioned myself about the System's true objective and pros and cons but the Achievement System merely remained in silence.

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Soon it was time for lunch and going to the cafeteria. I should probably just hang out with these guys. We head towards the High school cafeteria together and our group merges with another group.

Well, unexpectedly yet expectedly it's the pretty boys and the pretty girls. I notice a few of them pointing at me discreetly and talking to themselves. The girls I saw in the first period merely smiled at me and I smiled back while waving at Natsumi.

Going through my memories, I would sit with… Who would I sit with?

I abruptly stop walking and the guys just stare at me in puzzlement.

My palms begin to get sweaty and the speed of my heart races. My hands that rested in my pockets began to grip them uncomfortably and a huge cloud suddenly hung overhead me.

My memories clear the blurred faces and the face of my ex appears. Fucking shit. Don't tell me we both dated the same girl.

I gag and cover my mouth with my hand. I begin to get dizzy and my vision is swimming. Why would we both date her? Blergh, a void in my heart begins growing. Shit, I wasn't that affected when I'd think about her in my past life. Argh, but I remember I'd get some of these symptoms in this life.

Ugh, the sadness from both sides merged.

My eyes begin tearing up from the urge to vomit. I'm so dizzy.

Standing petrified, I head to the side of the hallway and begin leaning on a wall.

I was too dependent on her on this side.

I look to the side which is just the entrance to the cafeteria and I take sight of her sitting at the table we used to sit together before chatting happily with my old group of friends.

Ugh, at least their faces I didn't know in the other life.

Blergh.

Staring at her gives me the urge to meltdown.

I feel a hand on my back begin patting me and I stare back to see the guys looking at me in concern.

The girls just stood to the side, watching us.

Reed's arm rested weirdly on my shoulder due to the difference in our heights– 6'1 to my 6'3 and I felt my complexion get better.

Ugh, damn well aren't these guys destined to be my best friends?

"Thanks, dudes. I got a little lightheaded."

No sooner, we got back to cracking jokes between everyone.

Natsumi bumped into me and smiled.

"What's wrong?"

I showed her my pearly whites, and a thumbs up.

"Nothing, I was just lightheaded but staring at you made me infinitely better."

Ugh, please pay attention to the flirting and not the fact my symptoms were way worse than just being lightheaded.

[Ding!]

[Lying has advanced by 10 points!]

Thank you, system.

She laughed. "Are you sure you didn't feel horrible from seeing me, instead?"

Yes. She took the bait.

My black pearls stare deeply into her hazel eyes, "No, I'm absolutely positive there can't be such a pretty thing in this world and that was what shocked me."

Shit. I took the flirting a little too hard. Shit shit shit.

Her cheeks slightly darkened and she looked to the side to avoid my eyes.

God damnit, if I hadn't stared directly at her eyes she probably would've just laughed it off.

The group suddenly became quiet and just stared at me in shock.

Reed, seeing my predicament came and elbowed me in the ribs.

"Are you cheating behind my back?" Ah yes, thank you, my savior.

"You know I wouldn't ever do that. It's just a misunderstanding!"

We continued our dumb play of a partner cheating behind his partner's back and so the awkward atmosphere steered back into the goofy and dumb circle.

Crisis successfully averted.

We enter the cafeteria and our loudness attracts a few stares from others. Damn, aren't these guys and girls just basking in attention everywhere they go?

I look around and once again notice her but she's in closer proximity and staring at me now.

Looking away, I begin swallowing my saliva in large gulps to try and calm my raging stomach. Ugh, she looks more attractive than before. BLERGH. My palms begin sweating once again.

Urgh, feeling the 13 points of intelligence within me, I instantly deduce:

I don't like her, I'm just obsessed with the thought of losing what I had first.

I think.

My vision cleared up and my stomach stopped raging. Although my heart was still beating wildly, my palms were still sweaty, and I felt a little pulsing pain, I felt much better.

That's right. She's just someone I used to know. She died in my heart eleven months ago, I can't keep looking back to the past.

Blergh. Holy fucking shit, I feel completely cut apart from her but now it's only the personality from this side that keeps wishing to get back to her. Damn, this woman broke the me from here.

Ugh, the me from here was too dependent on her because she was the only thing that granted me happiness. If I hadn't been transmigrated here from the other world this guy probably would've drowned himself in depression the moment she got another boyfriend.

Now, one personality was completely serene and at peace and the other one was crying and yelling and mourning the loss of their happiness.

[Author Note: It might seem extremely annoying that this guy is being so affected by this girl who has no relation to him anymore but I want to make it clear that Charlie's Pangaea self was an introverted and depressed guy. I also want to highlight his rebirth, and how he rises to be someone amazing. If you think the main character is just being a pussy, please just have a little compassion. He will not be like this for long.]

Fortunately, this time I didn't stop walking and no one noticed anything.