The Hero stands up for himself

If Elijah didn't have the System's backing, knowing that he would heal after an injury or having the incentive to fight back, he wouldn't have stood up for himself.

"Hey!" Elijah shouted angrily.

"Hahhh?" The boy named Hachi turned around and said.

All the hard feelings of getting bullied and sucking it up like a sponge over his primary and high school days bubbled forth from him like a frothy volcano.

"You bumped into me."

"Yea so what?"

"Then I want you to apologize to me."

"Why should I?" Hachi scoffed.

"Or else."

"Or else WHAT gaijin!"

"I'll bash you up," Elijah said, taking a line from Jason. It felt liberating.

Hachi's eyes bulged out like a raging bull. He never had a short skinny person speak back to him like that before. Especially a gaijin.

Perhaps Elijah got fed up with other people bullying him, so he took a stand. Hachi was going to make him regret going against the law of the jungle.

He swore to break Elijah so that he'll never defend himself again.

"What did you say to me!" Hachi walked over there to beat him up, but Elijah already charged at him when he yelled.

Elijah had several fighting experiences in the past because he had to defend himself. He'd lost all the fights because he was weaker. He could never win a straight fistfight so he'd imagine other ways to fight opponents bigger than himself.

Although this was mostly futile because a lot of the moves he developed were lethal (squeezing someone's eyeballs with thumbs) and he'd get into trouble if he used them.

Many of the moves also required striking first, which was against his morals of only ever fighting in self-defense.

For example, looking at the air behind the bully and saying "Teacher! He's trying to hurt me!". When the bully turns around, Elijah will use a chair, table, fence, or rock to jump on the bully's neck and head, pulling him to the ground and then bashing the face repeatedly until they can't stand up anymore.

Now, Elijah preemptively charged at the bully and did a jump. He smashed into Hachi with his knee. Since Elijah's arm punches were weak, he had to use the charging momentum of a hard part of his body like the kneecap.

Elijah's first attempt at his strategy turned out surprisingly smooth.

He assaulted Hachi the moment he landed. Not giving time for the opponent was key to his strategy.

Elijah jumped on Hachi and pinned him down with his weight, then he went crazy. Fists were flying everywhere, he punched as fast and hard as he could.

Although this only lasted for 3 seconds. Hachi gave a hard right hook into Elijah's face, which nearly toppled him off. Hachi then threw Elijah off in the brief instant he was reeling from the pain.

Elijah instantly got up and tackled Hachi to keep him on the ground, but he wouldn't fall for that again. He withstood the tackle and the following punches. When he was standing tall, it was over for Elijah.

Hachi kneed him in the stomach but seeing it stopped Elijah in his tracks, he didn't stop. Again and again. One hit smacked into his ribs, causing him a lot of pain which paralyzed him.

Hachi threw Elijah to the ground. Hachi pinned his arms down with his knees and unleashed a series of punches on his face.

Elijah tried to push him off, but he was too weak.

[You have leveled up!]

The System's notification wasn't paid attention to as his face was badly beaten. The pain on his face went numb, and it started to even feel good.

He felt himself getting lost into a daze. A sort of weird ecstasy. All worries of Alyssa went away.

He watched his HP bar drop.

51

47

43

39

When Hachi got off, Elijah's face was beaten to a pulp. He normally has restraint, but the kid did a number on him earlier.

It was supposed to be simple. He had a bad day. He was going to vent his frustration on an innocent passerby and go home, but the gaijin messed up his day!

Hachi gave a kick to Elijah's stomach.

"F***ing Gaijin! Next time stay on the ground!"

Hachi gave another kick before spitting on his face.

33

Elijah's injuries were severe. He needed to be hospitalized. A delayed concussion can kill if one wasn't careful.

Spit in Elijah's eyes clouded his vision, making the System screen blurry. One notification popped up.

[Probability of reuniting Alyssa: 0%]

[A hero is a requirement.]

Another text box appeared.

[You do not meet the requirements]

Was the System trying to say that he had no chance of meeting Alyssa again with the way he is?

[You do not meet the requirements]

Elijah smiled in self-pity. The same text box repeated itself by stacking on top of one another.

[You do not meet the requirements]

[You do not meet the requirements]

[You do not meet the requirements]

'You're a harsh System you know that?'

But the System is right.

[You do not meet the requirements]

[You do not meet the requirements]

[You do not meet the requirements]

[You do not meet the requirements]

[You do not meet the requirements]

Elijah brought up his status screen which cleared away the text boxes.

He saw he was now level 1 and had 5 ability points to spend. Since he was injured he thought he should put some points into his vitality stats.

When he spent one point on it, there was a green number next to his HP.

[Status]

LV. 1

Name: Elijah Whitlock

Class: None

Title: None

______________________________________________________________________________

HP: 33/100 (83/150)

MP: 0

Fatigue: 74

______________________________________________________________________________

Strength: 0

Agility: 0

Sense: 0

Vitality: 1

Intelligence: 0

AP: 4

______________________________________________________________________________

One vitality point is worth half of his health? Elijah was pleasantly surprised. That meant if he had two points, he would be healthier than before he got beat up!

He added another point into vitality and added the rest to strength.

[Confirm your selection? (Yes/No)]

'Yes'

Elijah immediately felt revitalized after updating his stats. He was still injured, so that went against his expectations of having over 100 health points.

Elijah wiped the spit from his face and stood back up. He looked around and saw Hachi's unsuspecting back 50 meters away down the street. He chased after him.