Me, The System and Meta

Elian closed the sheet. He was satisfied with the information he had gotten, at least he knew it was like every other system except for the bot that he could converse with. Well, that was because this was science, not like pure fantasy of other systems. This was the real deal. 

"How do I level up?" Elian asked Meta.

Meta hissed. "So now you need me, huh?"

Elian was just utterly baffled by that. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me quite fine." Meta answered, mockery clear in his tone.

Elian was silent for a bit, clearly surprised. "How are you able to…?"

Sensing the surprise in his voice and the confusion in his brain, Meta was quick to speak. "I'm an ultra-modern AI. I'm highly intelligent and I don't possess the limitations of the quack AI's back in 2024."

Elian inhaled sharply. "So you're capable of normal conversations…and even insulting me?"

"Yes…fool." Meta answered with a sneer.

Elian was annoyed. "What the hell? Don't do that!" Elian was irritated by the sudden change in the bot's attitude.

Meta went silent. "Well, let's continue. I still have some limitations on me though, those harsh creators of mine wouldn't give me total autonomy."

"They had better not. A rude bot like you shouldn't have total freedom." Elian said, apparently still annoyed.

"Is there anything you didn't quite get from reading the description of the system's abilities?" Meta asked, changing the topic.

Elian paused a bit, trying to assimilate the information he had read a few minutes ago. "Well, to start with, I asked you a question previously. How do I level up? And what is passive and active abilities? I never read many system novels, I only heard about them."

Meta answered his question straight. "You can level up by scoring more goals, assists might be among them too, it depends on what the system asks of you. But I know it ranges in between these two, and sometimes, it has to be the two."

Elian shrugged. "Aren't you the system?"

"No." Meta replied. "I and the system are separate entities, or rather I consider us separate entities. But I am an AI model, built into the system to help and assist the host of the system." Meta took a quick pause before it continued answering his questions. "Passive skills are skills that are somewhat natural, it becomes a part of you. You don't need any criteria to activate them. Just like seeing is a passive skill for all those who have eyes. On the other hand, Active skills are skills that need activation before they can function. They are like special skills, you have to meet a special requirement before you can use it and it has a fixed duration."

"Okay. How do I activate them?" 

"It's simple, you just have to think about that. Just think of activating the skill in your mind and it'll be activated. The System is connected to your mind so it knows when you want to activate a skill and which skill you want to activate."

Elian smiled in excitement as he closed his eyes, ready to activate a skill. "So it's three entities…huh? No longer my spirit, soul and body. Now it's Me, The System and Meta. Well… 

Skill Boost…Activate!"

Elian felt it. He felt a power coursing through him, he felt more energized than ever. He sensed he was faster, and his vision had sharpened a lot. He suddenly felt like he had hundred percent mastery in every skill he knew. 

"I should try doing a skill now, right?" 

"Go ahead. Meta spoke, his voice lacking thrill."

Elian kicked the ball at his feet slightly and moved with the ball, feeling a lot lighter and he felt his movements and footwork had aligned perfectly. He moved along with the ball and for the first time, he executed the real Scissor-legs, carrying the signature feint along with it. He leaned right and left as he moved his legs in these directions.

Elian noticed a small stopwatch counting down at the top of his vision. The time was: 01: 50. Beside it was -5 Stamina points.

Elian ignored it. He loved what he was feeling right now, he felt like he could do any skill right now. Elian kicked the ball more and ran along with it, zooming further. He raised his leg to take a shot but he quickly cancelled the shot, beating the imaginary defender in front of him. Elian placed his foot on the ball as he jumped over it, he balanced himself on the ball with one foot before landing on the floor, completely turning around.

A smile spread round the corners of his lips as he kicked the ball again. He started scissor-leg again, this time he reversed it, doing the skill in different directions as he accelerated his move, making the skill go surprisingly fast. Somehow, Elian was able to see the ball, he was able to keep up with the skill even though he knew it was something else that was powering him to do this skill.

Elian pushed it up a notch, he wanted to see the limit of this lv 1 Skill boost. Elian tried a 2-step elastico while the ball was in motion and to his surprise, it worked. Elian smiled even wider as he kept on moving the ball, dribbling imaginary opponents. Elian dropped his shoulder a bit and released a shot, a gyro shot.

Elian's excitement evaporated and the look on his face turned to one of surprise and bafflement as he saw the ball balloon far away, not even going a bit closer to the monkey post. Elian had not been expecting some perfect shot, but he certainly didn't expect something this bad.

Just then, a message popped up. –Skill Boost has ended. Cool down has begun. 00.29.59. A new message popped up and automatically closed the preceding message: Assist twice to level up.

Elian closed the message. He was happy that he now knew what to do to level up. But something bugged him. Why couldn't I do the shot just now, doesn't skill boost apply to shots too?

"It does. Meta replied. But the skills you performed easily with it are those skills that you already know how to do, Skill Boost only boosts your proficiency with the skills you already know. It doesn't give you proficiency with skills you know nothing about."

Elian flushed. "Is it that obvious that I've never tried the gyro shot before?"

Meta chuckled. "Yes. It's that obvious. Your balance and positioning was good, all thanks to the skill boost ability but the execution was totally off, you didn't even know what part of the ball to hit."

Elian shrugged. He didn't know what to say.

He looked at his stamina points. It now at 85 points. 

"Okay…let's do this. Body enhancement…Activate!"

Elian felt his body undergo another type of change. This time, he was much stronger, he felt his stamina soar and his endurance shoot up. He was so much stronger and felt like he could muscle several defenders at the same time. 

Elian smiled. He was going to become a striker. This was just what he needed.