Chapter 4: Wanna Hangout?

I wake up in my room, and as I sat there on my bed, I suddenly remember what happened last night.

(That was so embarrassing... Can't believe her mom saw us too... Hope there isn't a misunderstanding or anything.)

I got up, and remembered the other thing I received besides the quest...

Oh yeah, what do I do with this?

[Random Skill Card]

[Get a random permanent skill. Either attack, defense, physical, or passive]

[Quality of skills will be ranked from best to worst]:

[Platinum: 0.05%

Gold: 2%

Silver: 15%

Bronze: 25%

Wood: 57.95%]

[Note: The player will only receive attack skills that their current physical attributes can handle.]

"Oh so it's like one of those gacha games... I didn't know this system had rarities too. How rare are my skills right now?"

[Attack skill: Perfect Jab] - Platinum

[Attack skill: Decent Cross - Silver

[Attack Skill: Great Uppercut- Gold]

"Woah, so I'm gonna have to say my current attack skills are pretty good! I wonder what defense, physical, and passive skills mean..."

(Anyways, let's try this out.)

[Player: Andrei Mendoza] has opened up the random skill card.

[Player: Andrei Mendoza] will be rewarded with the following skill]:

Gold Card: [Physical Skill: High Powered Jump!]

[Leg muscles will be temporarily triple in strength and give the player the ability to jump vertically as high as they can off the ground in a short powerful burst!]

[Note: Skill's effectiveness and power will be directly proportional to player's physical stats and can only be used twice per day.]

"Oh! So this system doesn't just provide martial arts moves? That pretty cool!"

(Well anyways, I gotta get ready for school)

It's the same morning routine again, yadda yadda, get ready, go to the LRT.

"Grandpa, I'm going now!"

"Take care!"

I take my phone out and try to put my earphones on, only to see someone familiar in the corner of my eye. It was Emma.

(I need to greet her. It's only natural.)

"H-hey! Good morning!"

"Oh! Good morning! Hehe!"

(She giggled? What's that about? Do I look weird today?)

As I was fussing over my looks, she tapped me on my shoulder as to get my attention.

"Hey, you promised last night to walk with me right? C'mon, let's go!"

"Oh!! Ah... Yeah!"

(Is it just me, or is she more cheerful today? I mean, what happened to the tough girl act?)

We both get inside the train and I let Emma take the open seat while I just stand up, holding the metal bars of the train.

(Hoho! Look at me, such a gentleman!)

Emma thanked me, but I was too busy giving myself a pat on the back for my gentlemanly deed. Eventually, we reached the next stop, and a few others got in the train.

Some of them were from the same school as us, judging by their uniforms, and a few other students, some office workers. You know, the usual. But there was one person that caught Emma's eye.

It was an old lady with a walking stick.

She was holding two grocery bags that looked kinda heavy and It was pretty obvious that she had weak legs and trouble walking, but noone in the train paid any attention to her besides me and Emma.

(I feel really bad... Maybe I should tell Emma to give up her seat...)

"Hey, Emma-"

"Oh, here you go ma'am, take my seat!"

"Oh my, thank you dearie... These old bones ain't what they used to..."

"It's no problem ma'am!"

She didn't even hesitate. Well, it's not like I'm surprised. Emma seemed like a nice girl, and it seems like my instincts were right in thinking that...

Emma then stood right next to me since she gave up her seat.

As I was reading on my phone, I see at the corner of my eye, Emma standing on her toes trying to see what I was reading.

Emma was about 160cm tall while I was standing at a beautiful 172cm!

Okay, I'm maybe not that tall, but I'm still growing okay?!

Well anyways, it was pretty cute, but might as well let her read it. It's not like I was reading something dirty. And so, I lowered my phone to a level where Emma can clearly read what I was reading.

She noticed my gesture and gave me a small thank you before asking me what I was reading.

(Didn't know she was interested in comics! Well to be fair, I don't really know her that well. But hey, atleast we have something in common.)

"It's a comic. It's called Appearancism. It's about a fat guy getting a second perfect body and he makes friends in school and learns how to fight. And there's these 4 gangs and bla bla bla bla bla bla...."

We had nothing to do besides talk about comics in the train. I gave her some recommendations, and she gave me some of hers. It was pretty fun!

Eventually our stop came, and we exited the train. But not before Emma waved the old lady goodbye.

We walked to school and continued our conversation about comics and some other stuff.

For some reason, today feels great. Talking to an objectively cute girl, and oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Markus isn't in the school anymore.

After the fight, Emma dragged my body away to somewhere safe where noone will see me. So she put me in the gym's storage room. And went to tell the teachers what happened. Some teachers didn't really believe her, but there were some who didand promised to take action once there was enough evidence.

Because of that, Markus was only supposed to be suspended for a few days... Well, that was until I came along and anonymously messaged the picture I took to all the social media accounts of students and teachers I could find.

Markus was later on expelled after the evidence spread... I'm glad that I don't have to be anyone's slave anymore, but still, there's this feeling inside of my chest that feels terrible...

Markus used to be a good kid. He just got caught up in the wrong crowd and ended up turning into someone horrible. Now his future is ruined because of the bad decisions he made in his life...

(If only I could've stopped that from happening...)

I scowled and clenched my hands...

Emma noticed this, and gave a worried look.

"Hey, about Markus, I heard that the two of you used to be friends right?"

"Yeah..."

"I've only heard rumors, but I kinda get the full story... "

"Why are you saying this now?"

I asked her.

"Well, I just want to tell you that's it's not your fault!"

"What?"

"I guess, what I really want you to know, is that you're not the one to blame for him becoming like that. I know you tried your best..."

She paused, before shortly continuing.

"It was his own decisions that led up to this moment. Although unfortunate, it's true that it's what he deserves... Whatever the cause or reason, it doesn't justify his actions. So, it's not your fault... Okay?"

I looked at her with my eyes wide and opened, then smiled gently.

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks..."

As we walked through the halls, we hear students talking about the incident that took place yesterday.

"Hey guys! Did you hear? Markus got expelled!"

"Whoa seriously?! Good riddance!"

"Dude thought he owned the school just because he can box!"

(I see, I guess I wasn't the only one Markus was messing with...)

Well, not all the conversations are about Markus...

"Hey did you hear? There's someone saying that they saw a girl drag a dead body to the gym's storage room!"

(EH?!)

Emma giggles after hearing that.

*Sigh*

"I guess I wasn't able to hide you properly haha!"

"Ahaha...." I laughed nervously in return.

The both of us went to class, and it was pretty much the same thing. When lunch time came around, I noticed Emma was eating alone. Why isn't she with her friends? Or did she not have any to begin with?

(Not like I should judge her though... I don't have any either... Hey wait a minute, aren't we supposed friends now? Okay, let's go talk to her!)

I approached her desk with my lunch on hand.

"Hey!"

She got slightly startled by me, when I called out to her.

(Yeah, I was probably a bit too loud.)

"Oh! Uh, hi!"

She looked around the room for a moment until finally realizing who called her.

"Wanna eat lunch together?"

She looked at me with a surprised face and meekly asked "Me?"

"Yeah! I noticed that you're eating by yourself, so I wanted to ask if it's okay to eat with you."

"Uh..."

"Oh, sorry. It's okay if you don't want to."

"N-no, it's okay."

....

Emma

I didn't expect Andrei to just walk up to me and as to eat with me. His loud voice kinda scared me, not gonna lie.

The two of us talked about alot of things. Although he was the one doing most of the talking. Seems like he's really interested in Comics, and I was too! But, my knowledge was surface level at best...

Now that I think about it, he's the first friend I had since middle school. I used to have a friend two years ago, but she sadly moved away when we went into high school.

I'm surprised he's being friendly with me considering I was pretty rude to him when I first talked to him. Although we didn't really talk.

In my defense, he was also rude for just ignoring me without even giving a simple thank you. But, he did apologize to me, so no hard feelings I guess.

Wait... Does he even consider me a friend? He probably just felt bad about me eating alone right?

Oh no, have I been too friendly with him earlier and that ended up making him think of me as someone desperate? Okay, I'm getting worried... Might as well ask him.

"Hey, Andrei..."

"Hm?"

He looked at as he was chewing on his food.

"Do you think the two of us are friends?"

He looked at me with a baffled and confused expression. He finished chewing his food and then swallowed it shortly after before speaking.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Um, so like, I was being too friendly with you earlier, and I started to think that was a little rude."

He looked at me, even more confused.

"I don't really see what's rude about that though? Is there some unwritten rule about making friends or something? *Gasp* wait, doesn't that mean I was also rude to you?! Sorry!"

"Oh no, it's fine! Don't worry about it! It's because I'm not really that good at making friends, so I don't know what to do, really..."

"Mm! Yeah, same here! I don't really know what counts as a friend, but if you don't mind, can we be friends?"

Hearing that brought a big smile to my face.

"Yeah sure!"

(My first Highschool friend!! I'm so happy!)

.....

Andrei

Emma suddenly asked me a weird question. Of course we're friends now right? Granted, I had no idea how friendships started. Markus was my friend, but I don't really remember how we became friends. I just know that we hit it off at some point.

Lunch time ended and it was back to afternoon classes. We were learning about some type of plant or something? I don't really remember. I'll just cram all that knowledge into my head last minute before a quiz.

Classes ended, and I packed up my things and start walking through the hall.

With no quests right now, it's basically the same old boring life, but I now have a friend and the dude who treated me like a slave is now gone. This is the life! Now I can focus in getting into college!

As I was busy appreciating life, I feel someone grab my backpack, and my upper body got pulled back too.

(Oh no, don't tell me it was one of Markus' goons!? Whatever, you were just losers who hung around him for protection! Come at me you sunnuva-)

I quickly turned around. What was awaiting me wasn't Markus' goons, but was a brown haired girl, with thick but cute eyebrows and eyes that can see through your soul. It was Emma.

(Sorry Emma, for almost accidentally calling you a sunnuva-)

"Hey!"

"Oh hi! You know you could've just called me right?"

"Sorry, hehe..."

She giggled, her thin mouth grinning slightly.

(Whoa!!! Why is she so cute right now?! Her usual scowl has softened too!!)

"I was thinking, since we're friends now, why don't we hang out tomorrow?"

"H-hang out?"

(Whoa!! Is she asking for a date?!? I didn't know I was such a lady killer!)

"Yeah! It's Saturday tomorrow, and you're my first ever friend in highschool, so I wanted to celebrate!"

After hearing that, my mind went blank... As if I saw the light of god appear before me...

Her intentions were pure! She just wanted to have fun as friends! What was shining down upon me was the pureness of an angel disguised as a maiden... The sight was so devoid of sin, my eyes welled up with tears and washed away my sinful thoughts as if I was getting baptised by a waterfall of holiness...

(I AM UNWORTHY OF THIS!!! I WANNA BEAT MYSELF UP!! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?! GET RID OF YOUR DIRTY PUBESCENT THOUGHTS YOU BASTAAAAAA-)

As I was busy being enraged with myself, a slight gust of wind suddenly flowed into the hallway and directed my focus to her.

"So, how about it? Wanna hangout?"

"Yeah! Sure!"

I said with a wide grin.

[A Quest will be unlocked tomorrow]

[Remaining time: 23hr:47min:24sec]

Chapter 4 end...