[Introduction]

Opening my eyes, it takes a moment to blink off the blurred vision. Eventually, my shitty eyes focus and I can tell the room I'm in is... unremarkable and bland.

At least there's a mirror on my wall.

Sitting up, I take a moment to internalize everything that just happened. In doing that, however, I accidentally start recalling the past of my current body.

My name is... Katsuo Naoki. Seventeen years old. Someone who, despite being apparently lazy was a top student at his past school. Even though he was laid back most of the time, he was quick to resort to violence if annoyed and scared those around him with his 'creepy smile'.

He thought it was funny how they squirmed.

Welp, I guess this is me now.

My parents left me in Kuoh Town to finish my education, because the local town has both a college and high school division, while they travel the world.

Apparently, they are successful day traders. Neat.

Ignoring that, why does the name Kuoh sound familiar? Have I seen this show before?

...No, I probably just heard it once or twice. I do tend to drop anime after a single episode.

Shelving that thought for later, I go take to the bathroom to wake myself up completely while checking the time.

From what I can tell, school should start in about a quarter of an hour but I couldn't care less. I think I misjudged what type of anime this is because high schoolers don't need hero blood, but I still don't care about school.

Since I have the technical knowledge but none of the social memories of my old life, it's a waste of time at best.

Plus I doubt anyone would care if I'm late. It's my first day so they'd probably just assume I messed up the dates.

Getting out of the shower, I take the Kuoh uniform they sent me and carefully put it on while assessing my looks in the giant ass mirror I have.

Yeah...no. It's way too hot to have this stuffy blazer and bow tie on. I'll just put on a normal green shirt. I'll carry the blazer with me if they wanna get pissy about it, but I'm not wearing a bowtie.

Roughly 6'1 with an alright physique. If I had to describe my body, it'd be similar to Saitama's in that it only looks defined when I take my shirt off and flex. Otherwise, I look like a really pale skinny guy.

...And I have chin-length brown hair, with two sharp reddish-brown eyes. Overall? Not bad.

«DING!»

[Skill Unlocked: Appraise]

<Enables the user to see how powerful a target is>

Ah. I almost forgot about that; I didn't even check my skill page yet.

That's a bit anticlimactic of a skill gain message though, but it'll have to do I guess.

Status? Nope. Apparently, I don't get one of those.

Skills.

«Skills Page»

[Appraise] - Lv. MAX (OFF)

[Sacred Gear: ???] (LOCKED)

...is that it? Welp. No free starter skills for me I guess.

How do I turn this Appraise thin- oh.

I was sort of hoping for something similar to the 'observe' skill from the original gamer, but this works too.

The moment I said the skill name it became clear what it did. Letters slowly formed above my head to tell me just how weak I am.

<Katsuo Naoki - Battle Power: 1>

<Unique Ability: [Pride]>

Is a 1 good? ...Oh who am I kidding, a 1 is never good. Still, I'm gonna have to check out other people to make a sound judgment on where I stand right now.

But on another note, if I could get an 'observe'-like skill simply from checking myself out in the mirror, what else can I get?

Can I get the most overpowered broken skill, the instant dungeon?!

Raising my hand into the air, I try to think back to the manhwa and remember what he said to focus on to create one.

Something about concentrating the mana to my hand, stretching my fingers, and just... focusing really hard on the fact that I want to create an instant dungeon.

Seems pretty self-explanatory but it worked for him so it should work for me, right?

...Guess not. I've been standing here for a solid five minutes looking like a dumbass and I've got nothing. No feeling, no skill, just nothing.

I guess if it was that easy to use magic then everyone and their mother would have it, huh. I could try something else though.

Sitting on the ground, I ignore the fact that I'm probably horribly late for school and empty my mind, focusing on nothing in particular.

And in just a few minutes...

«DING!»

[Skill Unlocked: Meditation]

<Increases the ability to look within>

Hell yeah. I've got no idea what it does from that vague ass description but I'm gonna grind the shit out of it. The original meditation restored MP, right? I don't have a stats page but it's gotta be useful for something.

Well... I'll find out later. I actually have to go to school now before they just lock the front gate and door. That'd be awkward.

I head out the door, not bothering to make any breakfast. I'll probably regret it later but I have a foreboding feeling that if I'm late on the first day, I'll incur someone's wrath.

Don't know who, but my gut hasn't failed me yet.

It's a long, boring 20 minutes to school but silence has always made me either go to sleep or ponder about things. In this case, I'm walking so I can't do the former.

With time to think I can't help but wonder, what build should I go for? I need to scope out if magic exists in this world but it's obvious that there's something supernatural here.

Speaking of, as I'm walking I notice that I haven't seen anyone outside myself with a battle power above 0. Does that mean that 0 is the baseline and anything above that is superpowered? Odd.

And do I focus on that supernatural element of myself or do I focus on my body? The original gamer focused on magic and it would be cool to play around with that, but he has way more going for him than I do.

I only have the skills page, after all. I don't have a party system, or the ability to heal from every injury easily, nor do I even have an inventory page.

The only reason magic was so overpowered was because he was one of the rare people who could regenerate his mana as if it were nothing. Bleh, I'll think about it later, I don't even know what I'm up against.

For now, I'll just focus on gaining skills to run away with.

My thoughts are interrupted when I notice a black-haired girl with glasses and an irritated look on her face gazing into my soul. She's standing at the gate of the school, seemingly waiting for me.

But why? Who is this chick?

<Sona Sitri - Battle Power: 580>

<Unique Ability: [Innate Water Manipulation]>

I repeat; Who the hell is this chick?!

I knew a '1' couldn't have been that strong but to be five hundred times weaker than someone? Fuuuuck. If my battle power is truly my overall capabilities, she could swat me like a fly.

When I get home, my homework can wait. I'm gonna grind the hell out of my skills.

"Katsuo Naoki?" Sona calls out when I finally get within speaking range.

"Nope," I say blandly as I walk straight past her. Better safe than sorry when dealing with people way stronger than me. Her power combined with that glint I saw in her eye is ringing alarm bells in my head.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice her staring at the air with an expression of pure confusion. She'll probably catch on in a minute or so and I don't want to stick around for that so I speed up my walking.

I make my way to homeroom by using common sense and the schedule they gave me before coming to the school.

I get there right on time, and as the teacher ushers everyone in, I scan the classroom for anyone who might be stronger than normal. Thankfully, everyone has a battle power of 0, and only two people have unique abilities.

Something called the 'Size Scouter', whatever that is.

There is someone with an interesting description, even if it is only slightly different from everyone else's.

<Issei Hyoudou - Battle Power: 0?>

<Unique Ability: [None?]>

...Wait a fucking minute. That guy looks familiar as hell. I think I saw him in one of those 'spot the protagonist' memes.

If that's not the protagonist, then I'll be shocked. He's got the typical protagonist hair and an apparently secret ability too.

It is alarming that my Appraise skill can't detect hidden abilities, but maybe it's because he doesn't know what it is either.

A locked sacred gear maybe? That's the only other thing I've seen with question marks so far.

Nah. That's a bit of a stretch. And the protagonist of an anime would probably have hero blood, not some lame locked gear.

Ignoring that, why is everyone staring at me?

...

Oh yeah, I have to introduce myself. Sitting in that void for so long fucked up my social skills.

The teacher steps back and gestures for me to speak, while the rest of the students stare at me with a mixture of interest and suspicion. I ignore that and step to the front of the classroom as everyone quiets down.

"Yo. The name's Katsuo..."