"Ah, it appears you're finally awake." A person wearing a pitch-black suit said. "My name is _ and I'm here to assist you on the way to your next life. Now before we start, any questions you would like to ask?"

I turned my head to the side, only to spot someone that looked exactly like me. "Who're they and why do they look exactly like me?" Both of us said at the exact same time.

The person who looked like me turned to me and started yelling about taking his limelight of asking the question before the person said, "Now now, please calm down. That there is half of who you are. They are you and you are they. We, my business and I that is, split your soul in half for... An experiment of sorts. Now of course we have aren't giving you nothing for doing this as we are going to reward the two of you handsomely as compensation for this experiment."

"An experiment on my soul!? You could've killed me, changed my personality, or just plain right fucked me up!?" My... Twin? Yeah, let's go with that. My twin yelled back at whatever this guy's incomprehensible name was while I just stayed silent, mostly content with listening to everything first.

Incomprehensible continued to listen to my Twins speel for another few seconds before he finally finished.

"Now that you're done with your episode, I'll now continue with the explanation." They said with complete patience while also putting a pen away they had been using to write a few things. "We split your soul into two halves as I said previously. One half is all of the rage and negativity you had in your life while the other is all the peace and positiveness that you together once had. Now even though specific halves of the original soul, that doesn't mean you aren't unable to feel the other emotions that would be associated with your other half. We filled the remaining half of your soul with an artificial soul that makes everything work exactly like normal and a few additional things as compensation"

"May I ask you a question?" I spoke up finally, having come up with a question I wanted to be answered.

"Proceed."

"What do you want us to do?"

Incomprehensible smiled a bit upon hearing this.

"Just live your life however you want. From that, we'll be able to take the results of our experiment and do with it as we must. Now normally there would be some other stuff to cover but it's mostly for formalities and whatnot so we don't need to go over them. With that out of the way, I'll now be sending you on your way. Please enjoy your next life and continue to be yourselves as much as you can." Incomprehensible said before lifting up his hand and snapping his fingers, making both of us disappear.


Congratulations, you have been gifted The Gamer thanks to an entity of high power.

The Gamer is an ability from another universe that we've been able to replicate and improve in certain areas. This power will give you the ability to live your life as if it was a game and as if you were a game character.

There are multiple abilities that The Gamer offers but let's first start with the basics.

Please say, "Stats" to open your stats.

Looking around, I noticed that I was in bed, and looking around I saw that I was also in what appeared to be a basic room with posters and decorations all around. There was also a computer as well. My twin was nowhere to be found and Incomprehensible was nowhere as well.

"Stats"

Name: ? Agath

Job: The Gamer

Level: 1 Next Level: 00.00%

Strength: 10

Vitality: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Luck: 10

Please create a first name to differentiate yourself from your twin.

Staring at the screen for a few seconds I noted the fact that I had no first name and any time I tried thinking of it all I could think of was that I didn't have one. I did however remember that my last name was the same as before and could remember that as clear as day.

Thinking a bit more to try and figure out my name, I realized that I can't quite remember. I know that I was almost at the end of my first year of college and know that I liked art but can't remember exact details like where I lived, what my grades were, or even what my friend's names were if I even had any.

Deciding to stop thinking about the past and work towards the future, I stared at the floating screen asking me for a name. After another minute, I decided to finally answer the input.

"Adam. I would like to be called Adam."

Name accepted.

Please spend stat points to differentiate yourself from your twin once again.

5 stat points have been given to accomplish this.

Almost immediately after saying that the entire life in this world appeared in my head as if it was on the tip of my tongue the entire time and just couldn't remember something.

Looking over my stats and contemplated what each one was for. I quickly decided to give myself a quick rundown of what each one was with tomatoes as a basis.

Strength is the ability to crush a tomato and the more strength you have the easier that is. Vitality is how well you would be able to eat a bad tomato without getting sick and the higher your vitality the easier it would be to not get sick or hurt. Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit and the higher your intelligence the easier it is to remember this simple fact. Wisdom is knowing that even if it's a fruit, it does not belong in a fruit salad, and the higher your wisdom the better your common sense and observations are. Finally, luck is the ability to find the exact type of tomato you want even if you normally wouldn't be able to, and the higher your luck the easier this would be.

Now all of this is from personal experience so it's probably best to ask the system for help before using the points. However just before I was able to ask, the system popped open a screen.

Thanks to continuous judgment, your wisdom has increased by 1.

'Wisdom? All I did was establish what I knew?'

Your wisdom increased because you decided to ask for help even though you know what all the stats do. By doing so and trying to confirm that what you knew was sound and correct, your wisdom increased.

'Well, that's good to know. Would it still be possible to learn what each one does though? I still want to be careful and waste anything.'

Affirmative.

Strength: Strength is the measure of exertion of force on physical objects.

Vitality: Vitality is the measure of one's ability to survive and withstand damage from forces.

Agility: Agility is the measure of speed for the user, accuracy of shots, and balance of the body.

Intelligence: Intelligence is the ability to remember and acquire knowledge.

Wisdom: Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge and think of the results of one's actions.

Luck: Luck is the measure of how easily one can obtain what they want with ease in situations that normally wouldn't occur.

Each stat has more to it than listed but that is up to you to find and figure out yourself.

Rereading each and everyone I made sure to remember it as best I could. Deciding to see if I could keep the stat points for later use, I asked the system to see if I could keep them for later use and after getting confirmation for it, got myself out of bed and went to the bathroom to start taking a shower to prepare for the day and listen to the rest of what The Game had to say.

Now to once again differentiate you from your twin, I'll be giving you a list of starting gear that is entirely different from your twin. You may only pick one item from the list but may be able to get some items from the list later on.

Choose your starting gear.

1. Twice Critical: A Sacred Gear that allows you to double your physical power once for one minute. Makes you slightly draconic which makes you 10% less resistant to attacks meant to harm dragons and deal 10% more damage when using fire.

2. Extending Staff: A cheap imitation of Sun Wokong's staff Ruyi Jingu Bang. This staff can extend or retract 3 feet from its original size. Gives you the basic proficiency with staffs which increases staff damage by 5%.

3. Memory Fragment: This allows you to remember a memory of your past that made you who you once were. Offers no real benefit.

4. 10 Lowest-Grade Health Recovery Potions: A lower grade recovery potion that restores 200 HP. Tastes like cherries.

5. 10 Lowest-Grade Mana Recovery Potions: A lower grade recovery potion that restores 200 MP. Tastes like blueberries.

6. 5 Lowest-Grade Health-Mana Recovery potions: A lower grade recovery potion that restores both 100 MP and HP. Tastes like grapes.

7. Random: Something random that could be literally anything from a rock to a sword, to even immortality. Chances are random so there's no guarantee to get something good.

While all the choices were good and saving it for later would probably be the best option, the memory fragment stuck out to me. Sure, it didn't offer any real benefit like the others, but gaming isn't always about killing and fighting things to death. Most games were entirely about that but there's also the lore, amazing background scenery, and the people you talk to.

With that in mind, I selected the memory fragment and expected some sort of pain to erupt inside of his brain but once again it felt like I remembered a word that was on the tip of my tongue. I remembered being in middle school and preparing to take an English test and having to read a story before answering some questions about it. When looking at the title, it instead was a weird blurred-out blob. And just like that, the daydream was over. With a sigh, I finished up my shower before finally getting out, drying up, and getting dressed.

I'm surprised you picked the memory fragment. Nobody ever picks it because it has literally no use compared to the others.

But that's beside the point.

With you receiving your starting gear, it's time for the final part of the intro to the game. Your new life.

In this world, you've existed for 17 years and have already created your own life. This new life was stylized so that it would fit your personality so that you would be able to act like yourself instead of imitating someone else. Your memory of your brother and family life will now be unlocked.

Some more basic memories were unlocked, ones that I didn't even know were missing from the previous memories being added. The main thing I remembered was my brother, whose name I now knew was Lucian, and that we were originally born to loving parents but after an argument between the two, my parents divorced and took a child each. My father took me while my mother took Lucian.

This all happened while I was really young so don't have that many memories of it but from stories told by my dad, I know that my parents were both born and raised in America and were lucky enough to find each other when they both visited Japan. From then on, they got to know each other and eventually decided to marry in Japan and just stay there.

After the divorce when I was around 2, my father took me back to America to be raised like him while Lucian and my mom stayed in Japan to continue their life there. Now, at the age of 17, my father decided that it was time to go back to Japan and ensured that I would be able to fit in well enough by teaching me Japanese, the culture of Japan, and the conversion between Yen and USD.

Today is also my first day of school and I have been living in Japan for almost a month now. I would be going to Kuoh Academy, a high school that was formerly a private all-girls school that recently became co-ed. At this point I stopped and stared at myself in the mirror, noticing things I should've picked up on previously. A black blazer with white accents over a white, long-sleeved, button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes. The exact uniform of the academy that I had put on subconsciously.

Due to continuous observation, the skill [Observe] has been created!

A skill that shows information of the target. Information discerned increases on skill level.

With a sigh of defeat at the realization of the world I was in, I thought of what to do. While most of my original memories were gone, it mostly targeted the important stuff. Memories of anime however seemed to be intact. These memories of anime were normally useless in regular life as they were just stuff to keep you entertained but now, this is my life and its actually important.

With a sigh I used Observe on a nearby lamp to test it out, immediately enjoying the usefulness that was shown from using the ability.

Metal desk lamp made by Lamps Plus.

An ordinary desk lamp created by Lamps Plus that is made out of Aluminum to increase durability and reduce weight. The lightbulb is nearly dead.

I used to observe a few more times and leveled it up. Now while I would like to just stay home and work on increasing this skills level, I had school to go to in half an hour and didn't want to be late on the first day. Heading to the kitchen, I looked around to see if my dad was still home but couldn't find him so assumed that he was already heading to work.

Thanks to continuous judgment, your wisdom has increased by 1.

Swiping away the screen, I went to the fridge to grab some eggs and cheese to make an incredibly basic omelet for breakfast. While doing so, I decided to test some things out and learn more about my new power as The Gamer. Calling out multiple things that would do with a gamer, eventually I came upon the most useful one. The menu.

MENU

STATS

INVENTORY

SKILLS

EQUIPMENT

OPTIONS

Having already been in stats, I picked the next option in the list which was inventory. Doing so, a translucent light blue screen opened that had a grid pattern on it. As I had a spatula in hand, I decided to move it towards the screen to see what it would do and as it touched it, it went into the screen instead of going through it like it a hologram. Wanting to finish making my omelet, I reached forwards to the screen and reached inside of it but couldn't find the spatula.

Disappointed, I started taking his arm out while thinking about how much I was disappointed to not fight my spatula and then suddenly felt something touch my hand. Grabbing it, I slowly pulled whatever I grabbed out and discovered that it was my magnificent spatulate!

"Huzzah! I can finish my omelet!" I proclaimed triumphantly.

Messing around with the inventory for a few minutes I started smelling something burning while halfway through pulling the spatula out of my inventory.

"Oh no, my omelet!" I said while rushing over and taking the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate.

Due to continuous cooking, a new skill [Cooking] has been created. It increases your cooking level and allows you to create food that tastes better than usual.

Moving over to the table to sit down and eat, I once again checked the time to see how long I had left. From the quick check, I figured out that I had about 20 or so minutes before I have to leave which would allow me to figure out a few more things. Since I already figured out stats and inventory, the next thing down the line would be skills which upon opening showed that I already had 2 before having even gotten Observe and Cooking. Selecting both, I read what they both did.

Gamer's Mind

Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows a peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effect.

Gamer's Body

Grants a body that allows for the user to live their reality as a game.

'So, am I just a game character? It isn't all that bad, but I just hope that I'm not being controlled like one too. That would not be fun.' I thought while finishing up the rest of his omelet.

Once done, I noted that I only had equipment and options left. Inside of the equipment menu showed an exact copy of what I looked like with my clothing and everything on. On the right of it was what looked like to be a small area similar to that of my inventory.

None of my current clothing had anything that would improve my stats or skills, but it did have a set bonus that just allowed me to get into school without getting into trouble. Messing around with it left me with only a few minutes left so I quickly cleaned up any mess I made and then left for school.

Taking my time walking to Kuoh Academy, I took my time enjoying the scenery and just looking at the world around me. After a few minutes of walking, I saw the outline of Kuoh Academy and stood in wonder at its size. Compared to regular schools in America, one could tell that a lot more detail and attention was put into these as American schools were just... Basic to put it simply.

Merging with the crowd that was also going to school, I saw from the corner of my eye a few people staring at me, but nobody really stared at me for too long. Being a foreigner causes this sort of stuff to happen but that's to be expected. Humans just stare at things that are different from what they're normally used to and since I'm a foreigner, I'm different.

Walking into the school, I asked a nearby teacher in a classroom for directions to the principal's office. After the teacher stared at me for a bit, they eventually gave directions to the office which I then kindly thanked them for before turning and finding my way there.

Once there, I spoke to the secretary nearby in order to let the principal know that I was here. The secretary who was previously reading a book somewhat glared at me for interrupting her reading before finally notifying the principal. From there, I just went to a nearby seat and sat down. A few minutes passed before the door opened and an overweight short balding middle-aged man stood in the door.

"Agath-san." The principal called out to Adam. "Please join me in my office."

The principal then turned around and headed back inside his room. I followed a few seconds later after picking up my bag from the ground. Inside the room was a simple wooden desk and multiple cabinets with awards and pictures. The principal was already behind his desk and indicated to a chair when I fully entered the room and closed the door.

"Agath-san, I have received all your paperwork and am happy to say that you've successfully been added to the school system and will be able to start everything today. Now as a foreigner, we decided that it was best to have someone help you find your way around the school and decided that there would be a vote to decide who would help you." At which point the principal pressed a button on a nearby microphone and spoke into it saying, "Shitori Souna please report to the principal's office. Shitori Souna please report to the principal's office."

After that, the principal explained the basics of what was required and expected of me during my time here at the academy. Once Souna arrived, the principal handed me my class schedule and sent me on my way. Once out of the office and in the hallway, Souna introduced herself.

"I am Shitori Souna, pleased to make your acquaintance. Now as we're on a strict schedule, I'll be dropping you off at your class and allow the teacher to assist you in the rest needed for that period." She said sternly and quickly before turning around and walking away.

With a sigh and deep breath, I followed behind for a while before we stopped walking and Souna indicated to a door. Confirming I saw the door, Souna then walked away without saying a thing.

Looking at the door for a bit, I just stared at it before taking a deep breath and then opening it. Upon opening it, nothing bad happened to happen but I just felt something within my gut that told me something was wrong. The classroom was empty and turning around showed that even Souna who was walking away had disappeared much quicker than she should've.

I slowly backed away from the classroom and started heading back to the principal's office to check that he got the right schedule as he assumed that he went to the wrong classroom. As he made his way there, no noise was heard, and nobody was seen. This all sent a shiver down my spine, but I still was hopeful I wouldn't have to deal with the supernatural so early on.

After about a minute of fast walking, I was once more outside the principal's office and knocked on it to indicate that I was there. After a second passed, I heard some noise from behind the door which made me smile.

'Seems like I wasn't going crazy. That's good to know.' I thought to myself with a small smile.

Opening the door, I looked inside and noticed that the secretary from before wasn't there. Heading over to her desk, I took a peek at what was behind there and saw the rotten corpse of the secretary that I had seen living only a few minutes ago.

Seeing the corpse, I took a step back and fell onto the ground out of surprise which created a loud thud. Then the previously unmoving corpse suddenly became even more rigid as its eyes opened and it moved around rapidly for a few seconds before landing on me.

The secretary's corpse got off the ground, opened its mouth so wide that you could hear its jaw unhinging, and then it screeched a noise so loud that I had to cover my ears from hearing it. Once the screech was done, a notification popped up saying "The Illusionary Zombie Secretary had summoned the horde of zombies."

The word "Illusionary" stuck out to me before I worryingly laughed for a second. By the time I looked away from the screen I noticed that the illusionary zombie secretary was just a few feet away from me. Trusting in the screen that said it was an illusion, I walked over to the zombie and went to poke at it, expecting my finger to go through because of it being an illusion. Instead, my finger felt the cold, rotting skin of the zombie. Before my eyes could even widen, the zombie grabbed my hand and bit it, easily biting a finger off.

Tearing my hand back I screamed in pain before realizing that there was no longer any more pain and that his finger was still there. Looking back up to the zombie I saw that it was indeed still chewing on the finger I had thought it bit off. From there, I put everything together.

"This is all because of The Gamer." I said while looking around. "I gotta figure out how to escape."

Backing away from the zombie who was still preoccupied with chowing down on the finger, I decided to use Observe to gain a better understanding of everything.

Zombie - Lv. 8

Hp: 800

Mp: 50

Continuing to back away carefully, I compared my health and mana to it. My health was currently at 50 out of 100 and my mana was still 100 out of 100. In total, this zombie a total of 7 levels above me, has 8 times my max health, and only half of my mana.

Continuing to back up, I eventually backed up into the door and quietly and slowly opened it and went through it. Closing it behind me, I was now outside in the hallways of the illusionary school, and not knowing what to do I rested my back on the door for a few seconds to think of a plan and keep the door closed. As those precious few seconds passed, a new screen popped up.

Quest from The Game: Kill 10 zombies!

The Game has noticed that you've accidentally found yourself in a Zombie Illusion Barrier. Let's be quick and get you to some levels before class starts!

Time Limit: Before Class Starts (24 minutes and 38 seconds).

Reward: XP +500, increased reputation with teachers and student council.

Failure: Massive decreased reputation with school, decreased reputation with student council and increased reputation with the Perverted Trio.

Accept / Decline

I read the quest twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. While the free XP would be nice, I wanted to escape from this and get to class, not go on a zombie killing spree so I declined the quest. The main problem I had with the quest wasn't the fact about killing, but the fact that if I got too caught up in completing the quest, I would be too preoccupied with the quest and not escaping. Also, the reward for the quest didn't give away to return to class.

Thanks to continuous judgment, your wisdom has increased by 1.

I continued to just think about how to leave this barrier and just survive in general, but as I was doing so, I eventually saw some movement. Moving away from the door, I took a look to see what it was and noticed that it was a massive hoard of zombies. Turning back around, I took off in the other direction of the hoard to avoid any conflicts if at all possible.

Another few minutes later I was a good way away from the horde but still a bit lost in the massive school that was Kuoh Academy. Double-checking around some corners to make sure there were no zombies, I eventually sat down on the ground in the middle of the empty room. Closing my eyes, I continued to think about what to do to proceed and decided to focus on what's currently the problem. The zombies can somewhat follow me possibly.

Using the knowledge of games, I still retained, I knew that a zombie is usually an undead being created through the reanimation of a corpse. Though reanimation is the most popular method of getting a zombie, to get there something has to be used to fuel the resurrection, most commonly magic.

Although in modern depictions of zombies they don't necessarily involve magic anymore and instead use scientific methods such as disease, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, and other random scientific accidents as their source.

Luckily, I can take a large guess that these zombies are probably magical in nature. This world in general is just filled with magic as it's a world of supernatural beings. These beings include but are not limited to, gods, buddhas, devils, angels, fallen angels, and dragons.

These beings are hidden from the public and exist in the background, living their own lives and having their own problems like anyone sentient creature would. Sometimes magic leaks through or some stuff becomes revealed but as long as it's nothing huge it can easily be hidden away with some magic.

Now thinking back to the zombies, they can usually be resurrected through dark and evil rituals which either create an artificial soul for the body or uses dark mana to control the body. Either way, a possible way to exorcise the zombie in video games would be some sort of holy magic. Magic isn't something I know but I believe I have enough of an idea on how to start out.

Opening my eyes, I read a notification saying that I had gotten a point in wisdom and intelligence from thinking so much and just swiping it away. Stretching out my arm in front of me, I concentrated on my palm while trying to bring any sort of energy inside of me out through the palm. A minute passed with nothing happening except that I was getting a bit mentally tired. Finally, after another few minutes passed, before I knew it an incredibly small glowing blue ball shot out from my hand towards the ceiling.

The skill Energy Bolt has been created through the repeated use of mana!

A skill that attacks by shooting mana. Attack power increases with INT. The range is 30 feet.

Frowning at the message as it wasn't what I was looking for, I instead looked at the positive and noted that I had somehow figured out a basic spell, now I just had to figure out how to turn it into a healing spell. Once again, I tried moving my mana and noticed immediately that it was much easier than before as I've done it once before now.

This time instead of just forcing it outwards, I put my hand on my chest and focused on forcing mana through my hand and then inwards while also focusing on the thought of restoring health. After a bit of time and some mental exhaustion, I also felt physically better at the same time, which at that point made a screen pop into existence.

The skill Lowest Healing has been created through the repeated use of mana!

A skill that heals by using mana to fix a body. Heals for 50 HP plus WIS.

Getting off the ground, I looked around for a zombie to try my newest spell with. Hopefully, if my assumptions were correct, I would be able to use Lowest Heal as both a way to damage the zombies and to heal myself whenever needed. I just have to stay hopeful and believe.

It didn't take long after that to find a singular zombie by itself. I had found the hoard of zombies that were summoned earlier but didn't want to attempt it with so many of them in close by. Sneaking behind the zombie, I put my hand on the zombie that was pretending to be asleep, and quickly cast Lower Healing before it had an opportunity to jump at me in response to touching it. Backing away quickly, he heard the zombie groan in pain before slowly getting off the ground and making its way towards him.

The level of Lowest Healing has increased

Using Observe showed that I had dealt 64 damage from a singular use of Lowest Heal. Doing some math showed that I would have to do another 10 and a half uses of heal just to finish off the zombie completely. Taking in the cost of lowest heal, my current mana regeneration which I got by looking at my stat screen, my current amount of mana, and how long till class started, I came up with the fact that I wouldn't even be close to having enough time to kill this zombie.

But then again that wasn't even my goal and I just had gotten a bit sidetracked.

Pushing the zombie away, I also used my mana which now felt like it's been there my entire life, and thought of using it to escape from the illusion while having my arm raised towards the sky. A few seconds later, cracks appeared in the sky, similar to that of cracks in glass. The cracks grew larger and larger before the world shattered like glass and the nearby zombie and empty hallways were replaced with the normal school filled with people.

The skill I.D. Escape has been created through escaping an illusion barrier!

A skill that allows you to escape illusion barriers. The chance to escape depends on enemy aggro and level.

Looking at a nearby clock showed that I now only had five minutes left till class started and I once again definitely did not want to be late on my first day, so I quickly rushed my way back to class and got there just 2 minutes before class started. The teacher gave me an evil eye seeing as I was cutting it close but told me where to sit and warned me to try and be an earlier next time.

Class was really simple luckily. The teacher introduced themselves to all the students and then immediately started educating everyone on their Japanese, which was their version of English class. I made sure to learn as much as possible as who knows how of my Japanese if incorrect and I even got a point of Intelligence for doing so.

With that class done, I waited near the entrance of the classroom in hopes that Souna would help lead me to my next class but instead what happened was that the protagonist of this world decided to show up and ask me the most profound question possible.

"Boobs or Ass?"

Now let's not forget what type of world this is. While it is a world of supernatural beings, it also a world where the main protagonists get stronger by thinking about boobs and I think we can all agree that that sounds stupid. This world would possibly be the best possible world for some men as there are girls everywhere that have bodies that defy the laws of physics and for them, they'd probably do what you'd expect them to do in this world. But for me, that isn't my type of thing.

The protagonist of this world, Issei Hyoudou, the man who knows nothing about me and just walked up to me and asked, "Boobs or Ass" is what you'd classify as a pervert. In this school he's a member of the "Perverted Trio" which is the most perverted men in the entire school, and or possibly the world if you ask me.

Everyone in this school besides the other two members are disgusted with him but for some unknown reason, he was also born with one of the most powerful abilities in the world. The Boosted Gear.

The Boosted Gear is an item called a 'Sacred Gear' which is bound to one's soul and each sacred gear can do something different. In Issei's case, his scared gear is able to double his power every 10 seconds while also having a dragon inside of it that gives him the ability to do it which he can talk to if needed.

Humans at birth have an incredibly small chance to get this 'gift from god' known as the Sacred Gears. Once again, these sacred gears can do a multitude of things depending on which one you have. The thirteen strongest are called the Longinus and the boosted gear is one of them. The Longinus are also known as "Tools that Destroy God" as they're so strong that they're capable of killing god. Currently, Issei has no clue of the supernatural or of the power that he has but will after being killed (spoilers) and getting reincarnated into a devil by Rias Gremory.

"So, what do you prefer?" Asked Issei.

"Excuse me?" I asked questioningly.

Issei made a motion of groping the air in front of him with a lewd grin.

"Breasts or butt man!" Issei said proudly without a hint of shame.

"You know we're in school, right? That isn't something you just talk about to someone you just met."

"I totally bet that you love breasts. Breasts rule the world and I'm going to have a harem full of women one day!" Issei continued as if not hearing what Adam just said.

"Dude... That... What're you even saying?"

By the time I said this, I luckily saw Souna making her way over. Issei appeared to have seen her approaching as well and gave a silent swear under his breath.

"Issei, are you trying to taint your fellow classmate with your perversion?" Souna asked while giving him a stern glare.

Issei rubbed the back of his head and gave a big grin.

"Hahaha, no! I'm just asking him how his time in Japan is."

Souna looked as if she didn't believe him.

"And you weren't going to ask him to join you in your peeping of the kendo team?"

"Uh, yeah, definitely not!"

Souna stared him down but eventually turned around and told me to follow her to my next class. Issei waved goodbye while also saying how he hoped that they could talk again.

After that, the rest of the day passed by without difficulty. People stared at me once again for being a foreigner, Issei kept trying to talk to me for some reason while I also kept trying to avoid him as I didn't want to get a reputation of hanging out with the guy who openly talks about his kinks. Luckily, Souna kept showing following me around so Issei wasn't able to talk to me much.

One good part of the day was gym class as during it I was able to get 2 points of strength, 2 points of Agility, and 3 points of vitality because of how much they forced me to run around as the 'new kid in town' as the gym teacher said. I was also able to get another 2 in intelligence from just paying attention in school.

With school now done for the day, I started making my way back home, taking a different route this time to see if I could avoid most other students. After a few minutes of walking, I heard someone calling my name a good distance behind me. Turning around showed that it was Issei of all people.

"Hey there Issei, what're you up to?" I said politely while forcing a smile.

"Just finished peeping on some girls with my two friends, you should totally come and join us next time." Issei replied proudly.

"Thanks for the offer but I'm not into doing that sort of stuff. I'd rather have a good school record and not get arrested by the police for that type of stuff. Now I don't want to be rude, but I've got to head home and start preparing dinner for my father, neighbors, and I." I said hoping that he would simply accept it and leave me alone.

Walking away, I watched as Issei continued to follow me for the next few minutes. At one point, I finally asked the question I was dreading.

"Do you happen to down this way too?" I said, hoping it too not be true.

"Yeah, who would've thought that we lived so close apparently!"

'I don't know, maybe the person you've been following for the last five minutes!?'

Thanks to continuous judgment, your wisdom has increased by 1.

With us now walking together in the same direction, Issei continued to try and talk about his usual perverted topics while I tried to convince Issei to stop talking perverse things. It didn't work.

Eventually, as we were walking, I noticed that the world had grown silent and that there was no longer any sign of life. I was able to notice this thanks to having encountered it earlier today but Issei however, from what I assumed to be his low wisdom, was somewhat on edge but unable to figure out why.

Thankfully, he was able to put two and two together when he saw them.

Issei's first response was to scream out the word "Zombies!" while pointing at them, but I had noticed this in time and before Issei was even able to finish a fourth of the word, I had covered his mouth with my hand. Issei continues to try and speak but nothing was audible or understandable because of the hand.

"Hey, calm down now! We don't want to alert the zombies ok?" I said to Issei in a quiet and composed voice in hopes that doing so he would stay quiet and not alert the zombies.

After another few seconds and with Issei seeming to have finally calmed down I slowly removed my hand. With a quick question if he was ok, Issei gave me a shaky nod and started questioning if his friends and family were ok.

"Don't know why you're so afraid of zombies but trust me, everything is probably ok. If you listen carefully, you can hear the quietness of the world. The world will definitely not end quietly if there was a zombie apocalypse." I said to a shaky Issei.

There was no response from this except for a small nod. I did however hear him constantly muttering the word "Oppai" over and over under his breath, possibly as a morale booster.

Telling him to stay there, I quickly ran off to find a singular zombie which took a bit of time, but I luckily was able to do. Casting lowest heal on it, I did over 100 damage thanks to it having leveled up previous but even after expending the rest of my mana by casting it 5 more times, it left the zombie with 75 HP left. I contemplated just waiting there for my mana to regenerate enough to cast the spell again, but I then came up with another idea.

If I could somehow get Issei to unlock his boosted gear while it was just the two of us, I could have him on my side. With the protagonist of this world by my side and my ability to… Heal? We'd be able to defeat anything in our way!

'If I also diverge my spells, I could possibly get some buffs to make us even stronger…' I thought to myself.

Running back over to Issei I quickly dragged him over to the nearly dead zombie who almost had a small hand-sized hole on his chest. From there I tried convincing Issei to kill it, mostly as a way to show him that he could do it and to make him trust me. Instead, Issei tried getting me to kill it and almost ran away in fear but I was grab hold of him.

"Issei, you need to face your fears to survive man," I stated to him with determination. "Don't tell me those stupid perverse things are a façade that gives you the confidence to do things. Man up! Throw away those worthless actions and become a true man by killing something before it kills you! Kill this zombie and take that step of being a true man!"

Issei had tears in his eyes and nodded. I felt that my entire speech was incredibly stupid and cliché but hey if it got the job done then who am I to argue.

Issei walked over to a nearby wall with a rusted pipe and picked it up off the ground. Walking over to the zombie, Issei started screaming into the air about how he was a true man while also beating the zombie over the head multiple times, even when it fell to the ground dead.

You've earned 175 XP for assisting in killing a zombie!

You have leveled up!

From there, Issei watched as the zombie he just re-killed turn into a black mist and disappeared. Issei continued to breathe heavily and then seemed to start to freak out again slightly. Putting a hand on his shoulder, I tried to help him calm down.

"So, what next?" Issei asked while sitting on the ground.

A few minutes have passed since the moment Issei had killed the zombie and I had decided to make a risky move of revealing the world of the supernatural to him. While incredibly risky, I believe that it would help in the long end of making him want to get stronger.

After a bit of time, Issei kept talking about how he couldn't believe it.

"It's real. It's been here before we were born and will be after we're gone." I said while calmly watching the clouds pass by.

"And you've been part of the supernatural for how long now?"

"About a month ago since I discovered my Sacred Gear." I lied.

To make the story seem more realistic, I decided to make my ability just the ability to find these weird pocket dimensions and then leave them as my sacred gear, and that because I only got it recently, am still having lots of trouble controlling it.

"Those are the things given by god, right? Do I have one?"

"You might. All my sacred gear allowed me to do is these weird pocket dimensions. Sometimes it forces me into them without prior warning and not everyone has a sacred gear. In fact, the chance of getting one is probably one in a million."

Though I didn't like to lie, I also knew I couldn't just reveal everything. Revealing the power of the gamer and everything I know would lead to situations where people would try and abuse that fact. It was better for him to just say what everyone already knows about the world.

"D-Do you think you could help me train then?" Asked Issei hesitantly. "I don't feel safe knowing that all sorts of supernatural things exist. I want to do my best to train and get stronger so that I can survive!"

I smiled a bit. Though it was what every protagonist in anime says, it means he would want my assistance in his journey. Who knows, maybe I can get him to do all the work while I be a weird pacifist that makes him get into all my fights for me.

The idea of becoming a support is starting to feel even more enticing now…

"I'll help. I'll find more of these pocket dimensions, but I'll leave you to kill them. I'll support you as much as I can as that's the type of magic I'm focusing on using."

Another minute of talking later and I decided that it was time to leave so I broke the illusion barrier and continued walking home. Surprisingly enough (not really), both Issei and I were neighbors meaning they would have to see each other more often.

From there, the rest of the night went nicely. I made some soup and was about to eat it with my father when Issei and his parents came over for a surprise visit. Even though we had been living here for a month now, none of the neighbors had talked to us and are only now visiting.

My father accepted them inside and I quickly got some food from the fridge for them to eat. The Japanese might qualify what I had gotten as American-type food but either way the neighbors enjoyed it and Issei seemed to have calmed down a bit from a few hours ago. In fact, he wasn't asking any weird perverted questions and seemed to be just having a good timer overall.

At the end of the night, my dad and I waved goodbye to Issei and his family as they prepared to head home for the night. Just before the door closed, I decided to use Observe to see if I could get any more information from Issei, and mostly to see what would happen if I used Observe on a person which I hadn't done for whatever reason.

Issei Hyoudou - Lv. 3

HP: 60 MP: 20

A Human born with the Boosted gear that is currently inactive. Previously a massive pervert that used an obsession with breasts to ward off depression, he had decided to trust Adam to help him become a better person.

Observe has leveled up!

Though it was short and didn't really offer that much information, I was glad to know that he was able to help Issei, if even a little. My random guess that his perversion was because for confidence hit pretty close to the bullseye though.

Happy with what I had done today, I talked to my father for a while before cleaning up and getting ready for the night. Once alone in my room, I sat down on my bed and planned a few my goals now that I had set some things in motion.

It would be a bit hard to continue predicting the future as high school DxD wasn't my favorite anime meaning I kinda just watched it in the background and didn't do that much research about it, so I'll be unable to just walk up to some high-rank person with blackmail.

What I do remember however is that there are some insanely strong beings that exist in this world. So, to survive, I simply need to get stronger but also stick to my new personal goal of being a support to create the powerhouse that is The Red Dragon Emperor, or just Issei in general once he finally unlocks his boosted gear.

Now completely laying down in bed, I closed my eyes and just thought of how I could get the XP needed. My mind struggled to come up with a simple solution until I thought about what happened earlier today. I had discovered two illusion barriers and escaped two illusion barriers. If I could escape them, then why not try creating them?

Bolting upwards, I noticed a screen saying I had gained another wisdom and intelligence point but quickly swiped it away. Right behind the message, I swiped away was another translucent blue screen.

The skill Meditation has been created through repeated Meditation and thought!

A skill that allows you to regain more mana and think of solutions to problems. Additional 10 MP per minute and 1 Wisdom per level when active. Must remain completely still while active and external shock may break meditation which causes the user to fall into a state of Mana confusion.

Once again swiping away the screen, I raised my hand into the air and attempted to create a barrier instead of getting out of it. As the energy rushed out through his hand, all the previous noise and every little movement stopped.

The skill I.D. Create has been created through repeated use of mana!

A skill to make an instant dungeon. You can make stronger ones by increasing your skill level.

Quickly getting off my bed, I looked around for some zombies to kill. After a few minutes of not being able to find them, I eventually gave up and concluded that I might have to increase the skill level a bit to actually be able to use it correctly. Escaping the barrier while outside revealed that if I moved while in the barrier, I would also move in the real world which I made sure to note of for later use.

Going back inside a barrier, gaining a level for it, and nearly jumped with joy at how easy it was. Running back to my room I sat down on my bed and just spammed the skill over and over until it reached level 5 and notified me that he could now create zombie barriers.

Once inside, a quick look showed that it was indeed inside a zombie world as just outside my window I saw a few zombies shambling around. Going downstairs, I also noticed a zombie sitting against my door and quickly got close enough to cast Lowest Heal on it before quickly backing away which gave me a level in the skill.

The zombie, having been attacked, got up and attempted to leap forwards to bite me, only for me to dodge out of the way at the last second. The action of dodging gave me an agility point for the quick movement, but I didn't pay much attention to the notification. Instead, I rushed forwards and rested my hand on the zombies, cast Lowest Heal twice, and then backed away.

Once again, the zombie tried to attack me a few more times but with it being slow and my increased agility, I was able to dodge them with only a bit of difficulty. When the zombie tried to once again lunge at me, I let it fall face-first into the floor and used the opportunity to get a use of Lowest Heal off before the zombie turned around and grabbed me, tackling me to the floor with absurd strength.

I struggled to get the zombie off me for a bit before realizing that I stood no chance as the zombie got two bites out of my flesh, leaving me with incredibly low health. Just before the zombie was able to go in for the finishing blow, however, I just barely got my hand free and rested it on the zombie's head to cast Lowest Heal one more. The zombie then for whatever reason slowly stopped moving as a small smile came to its heavily deformed face.

"Thank... You..." The zombie said in a horribly deformed voice as it turned to dust and then nothing.

I just stared at where the zombie was before a screen popped up. I continued to look at the dust pile of the zombie for another few seconds in confusion before finally looking at the screen.

Quest from The Game: Kill 10 zombies!

Kill some zombies to gain some Experience!

Time Limit: None

Reward: XP +1000

Failure: Be turned into a zombie against your will.

Accept / Decline

I accepted the quest and saw two other screens open up saying that I had gained 350 XP from killing the zombie and has gained a level because of it. A quick look at my stat sheet showed I had 15 stat points to spend, and I decided that now would probably be the best time of all to spend them to ensure that he wouldn't get hurt. So, I dumped all 15 stat points into wisdom.

From there, I started my self-employed job of killing the zombies. I would get hit every now and then which increased his vitality a bit but after constantly getting hit and using Lowest Heal on myself to great effect, I was able to successfully finish the quest in about an hour or so. The quest and exorcising the zombies gave me a total of 4500 XP which allowed me to level up another 3 times.

Immediately dumping the points into wisdom, I gave a light smile upon seeing that Lowest Heal was able to do nearly 350 healing per use. Soon I would be able to kill zombies with just a singular use of healing and just the thought of that spurred me into the action of heading out and killing more zombies.