Learning More About The System

[Tasks Completed]

[Rewards: +50 EXP, (2) Attributes Points]

Mako was beyond happy when he learned about what the attribute points were for and what this could mean for the future.

He could complete daily tasks, continuously obtain more and more attribute points, and power up constantly as there would be no limit.

'Let's not get ahead of ourselves now, there is a lot more work to do, and see what else there is that I can do with this system.' Mako calmed himself down from the overwhelming happiness that he was currently experiencing.

'Open System Interface'

[User: Mako Grey]

[Health: 100/100] ⓘ (+1)

[Energy: 50/50] ⓘ (+1)

[EXP: 50/100] ⓘ

[Level 1] ⓘ

[Strength: 2] ⓘ (+1)

[Agility: 3] ⓘ (+1)

[Perception: Null] ⓘ (+1)

[Intelligence: 5] ⓘ (+1)

[Mentality: 2] ⓘ (+1)

[Stamina: 4] ⓘ (+1)

[Charisma: Locked] ⓘ

[Fortitude: Locked] ⓘ

[Attribute Points: 2] ⓘ

A plus one symbol had appeared in front of all of Mako's attributes indicating that these were the things that Mako could increase through his attribute points.

Mako wasn't exactly sure where the attribute points would be the most effective, and how much would a single increase in points actually improve inside of Mako.

Thinking about it a bit more, Mako was already a good academic student and at the top of his class so there was no immediate need to put points into intelligence.

Besides that, Mako had no idea what the purpose of mental capacity is or what it does, so he decided that it wouldn't be worth it if he didn't know what to compare his changed self with.

After spending a few minutes contemplating about he should do with the Attribute points, he ended up just putting them both in the perception attribute. This was the only Attribute that Mako didn't have any points in naturally so he decided to at least unlock it while he made up a plan of how to spend these points most effectively.

"I need to find out more about how this system operates and how I can optimally use these attribute points, luckily I know just the guy," Mako said as he prepared to leave his home.

He took a shower again because honestly, he needed it since he was sweating buckets before leaving home to go back to Bird's Eye Street.

Bird's Eye Street was the street where Mako was greeting all of the shopkeepers from the day before and right now he was going to visit Big Bro Gary.

Gary, one of the shopkeepers, had a significant elder-brother-like relationship with Mako. He would often visit his shop after school, and Gary would tell him of the origins and stories of old games that used to be popular during the early 21st Century and laid the foundation for more advanced and new games that became a sensation in the current world.

Although he was never interested in those old games, he still would listen with attention as maybe he could find something interesting while also learning some history.

Over time Mako got to know of many different types of games that were all the rage for people back then such as first and third-person shooters, strategy, Casual, Driving, etc., but the ones that Gary would talk the most about were the MMORPG style games which as per his description were where a character could be leveled up, taught abilities, improve attributes, etc.

It sounded a lot like Mako's system so to learn more about the system, Mako was hoping that Gary could help him out with the explanation of things.

A couple of minutes later, Mako was standing in front of a small shop that had the words written in bold on the top of the entrance.

{Gary's Gaming Bar & Library}

Mako opened the door, making the sensor make a small noise indicating that someone had entered the store.

A person soon came out of the storage room behind the counter. He had long brown hair that he had made into a ponytail, wearing very baggy and loose clothes that draped over his body. He didn't have a muscular build but wasn't completely overweight either.

"Mako! What brings you in today?!" Gary shouted as he moved from the counter to give a fist bump to Mako which Mako returned.

"Big bro Gary, I wanted to ask about some old game one of my friends told me about," Mako said as he went toward one of the sofas near the counter and proceeded to sit on top of it.

"Hmm, I didn't know you had friends?" Gary said in a teasing manner.

*Ouch*

"Umm... well technically he isn't my friend, but that doesn't matter. Will you help me?" Mako said in a shy tone, trying to quickly move from the fact that he got absolutely roasted in the first 10 seconds of entering.

"You know I can't resist talking about old games, fire away! ask what you want." Gary said with great enthusiasm.

Mako decided to not tell Gary about the system, as this was a very important and unique thing entrusted to him. If even one person made a slip-up and spilled Mako's secret, he would become a target and right he was nowhere strong enough to deal with an issue like that.

So Mako disguised the system as an MMORPG game that he had heard from a 'friend' about.

"Well, I don't quite remember the name, but it was one of those MMORPG-style games that you have told me about. It had a few things that I quite didn't understand like new attributes such as Perception, Mentality, Charisma, etc."

"Wow! Where did your 'friend' hear about this?" Gary asked still teasing.

Mako gave him the look that he had given Gary a million times before that meant "Please just get on with it."

"Anyways," Gary said giggling dropping the 'friend' joke for now. "Perception was an attribute used way back which allowed the player to sense danger before it came at him like those fancy movies where the hero dodges a bullet or arrow without even knowing that it was aiming for him,"

Mako had a look of understanding as Gary continued.

"Well, it wasn't just for evolving your sixth sense which was the sense to detect danger but also evolving the five basic senses that would aid the main character in different ways, for example: In one of those old games, there was a feature where the main character could become a werewolf and had to train his sense of smell to better track enemy trails and finding treasure." Gary continued.

"Mentality was a type of boost that the player had which would help him defend against mind and sound attacks, I remember there was a very popular game that came out near the end of the 21st century in which one of the bosses was so tough as she would constantly daze and cast illusions making it hard for players to hit her, the mental attribute boosted the player's pain tolerance and the number of skills that he could learn as well gave him resistance to those mental and sensory attacks."

"While Charisma was just a way for the developers to bring more simps to continue playing their game as charisma boosted the player's beauty comprehension and speech skills etc. so it was great for flirting with NPCs and bargaining in trade."

Mako finally understood how important each of those attributes was that he didn't care for before and he realized that he needed to make investments in each of every one of them to become strong and don't have any big weaknesses.

"Big Bro Gary, In your opinion how should one upgrade their character in an MMORPG game? and how can a player unlock attributes that are locked?" Mako asked.

"Well it depends on the gameplay style of the actual player, but I would recommend that a person builds a balanced character with all of his stats more or less equal, and as for the second question; Most games made it so that if the character did a certain action or became a certain lever that a locked attribute would unlock."

*DING!*

A notification voice went off inside Mako's head.

[Hidden Quest complete]

"I haven't seen you this interested in any of the old games I talk about, what's up?" Gary said with a bit of curiosity as he put on his apron.

"Huh, What's that supposed to mean?" Mako replied half-attentively as he was more focused on the notification that he just received.

"I mean you are keen to listen to me rambling on and on about games that my father and grandfather told me stories of, but I have never seen you this interested before," Gary replied.

"No Big bro Gary, it's not that. Maybe it is just because a few people at my school were talking about it and that I thought it needed more looking into," Mako replied with an aloof expression, hiding his actual joy and excitement over what that notification entailed.

Mako needed to get Gary off his back for a moment so he could properly read what the notification was about, and luckily he had the perfect idea.

"Hey, Big bro! Don't forget about the bet you made me last time I came here. I beat you at that fighter game, and now I get the triple deluxe burger for free!" Mako said.

Luckily, it did work as after failing to try and make a counter-offer in order to change Mako's mind, Gary gave in and went to the grill to make Mako his well-earned meal.

As soon as Gary was busy doing his own thing, Mako reopened the notification tab to check whether or not he had misread what was written earlier.

[Hidden Quest complete]

[Find out more about the system.]

[Rewards: +200EXP, +2 Attribute points, New Skill Set Learned]

[User has Leveled Up!]

[Reward: +3 Attribute Points]

[Current Level: Lvl 2]

Mako was happy with the rewards he was given, but what he was most ecstatic about was that he had apparently learned a new skill set. He immediately opened his skills tab to find out what skill he had learned.

[Skills] ⓘ

[Basic Skills] ⓘ (NONE)

[Power Skills] ⓘ (NONE)

[Unique Skills] ⓘ (NEW!)

[Absolute Skills] ⓘ (NONE)

He directed his thoughts toward the unique skills which expanded and displayed all the unique skills he had learned.

(NEW) [Basic Phantom Skill Set]

- [(F-Tier) Phantom Punch] ⓘ (LEVEL 1)

- [(F-Tier) Phantom Shift] ⓘ (LEVEL 1)

- [(F-Tier) Phantom Kick] ⓘ (LEVEL 1)

"Woah, I learned three new moves just from learning more about the system!? That's so cool," Mako voiced out in a slightly low tone.

"What was that Mako?" Gary asked from across the counter.

"UHHH...! Nothing Big bro Gray, just looking at the details of my rewards!" Mako replied as he acted to pick up the menu to read about the details of his triple deluxe burger.

'Well, I am literally reading the details of my "other" rewards.' Mako thought as he had a small smirk on his face which was covered by the menu.

**************************

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