I placed the bag of grocery along with the change money and while I was certainly sure that the quest reward also included the change money, it was stated it was optional. Since I don't have any plan that will require money soon, who knows maybe I can deepen my bond with mother with this. Not that I want to bribe our relationship with money and additionally, I wanted to test something out, about how the quest and its reward work. What would happen if I didn't take the change? What would happen if I didn't accept the quest reward? How would my mother – a normal person – react to quest?
"You've already come home?" Mom asked as she dried off her hands from washing the dish. "Oh? You don't buy anything with the change? Any snack or food that you wanted to eat?"
I was silent, still staring at the screen flying in front of me.
Quest Complete!
You've given 10 Lottery Point in exchange for optional reward.
So I got lottery point, which I still don't know what use is for, if I give the change money to mom. As I thought about it more, I didn't really need the small change money anyway so maybe Lottery Point is a better reward than money and that still didn't rule out the possibility of more similar quest that will earn more money and exp then this grocery quest.
"I'm not in the mood to eat anything mom," I replied and started to walk away from her. "Sorry but I need some time alone for now."
"Wait," I stopped my track and turned to face her again. "Are you sure that you don't want to… spend your time with mom? If you need to let off something just say it out and we will solve it together alright?"
I stared at her tired eyes for a long time but after a minute passed, I broke our contact and walked to my room. I'm sorry mom, I just can't do it now, I must be a disappointment in your eyes and maybe that's why you always give me that smile, because you pitied your son for being a pervert.
So, I won't say it until I become someone that you can proud of.
Closing the door of the room, I finally obtained the strange sense of self-privacy and securement within my own room. I sat on my bed with my legs crossed and checked my status, currently right now my WIS has increased to 9, courtesy of the system, and if it can increased by making a smart or in this case wise decision then I suppose the best thing I need to do right now is to level up.
Which begs to more questions, how? Completing quest seems to be a steady way to level up but I can't rely on it forever, not when there's so little for me to do, mom would only requested me to do small things like 'taking out thrash', 'washing dishes', or 'buying groceries' but I'd bound to run out a way to get more exp. It also didn't help that mom would only requested such a thing on rare moment mainly because I regularly spent my entire day, as Katase has said, playing inside my room. I need to find a way to get more quests, if possible before this Summer Break ended and to do that I need someone to trust me to do something for them which means building a relationship and trust with people around me.
By making a wise decision, your WIS has increased by 1!
Or better yet, I just need to keep on coming with idea to increase my status.
…
Just kidding. Though, if just by having an idea to create relationship increased my already lower-than-average WIS then it just shown how stupid I am before I got this power and it served as a proof, a testament of how wrong my way of living was. The first I opened the status window, it was kind of depressing to see my low WIS but I quickly gotten over the fact that I'm not a blessed person or anything, just a normal student.
On the topic of power, the first active skill that I got, Observe was extraordinarily useful for gathering information. Even at level one, it showed me a lot about whatever object or person I used it on, it was an active skill, which mean I needed MP to use it after all.
I spare a glance to the HP and MP bar flying at the upper-left side of my vision and unsurprisingly found that the MP I used to use [Observe] on Murayama and Katase has been restored. HP obviously meant Health Point, just like in the game it would show me how much life I got before I died so that take care of problem if I happen to suffer from fracture or broken bone then it would only take a chunk of my HP and with [Gamer's Body] it would be impossible for me to be permanently wounded huh? Things like cutting my arms and head may not be relevant to me now.
In fact, my curiosity really wanted to test it right now.
But I digress, my maximum HP is really low right now and I feared that just by cutting my head off will be enough for me to actually die. So that leads me to the thing that I found most problems with, MP. Most games would describe MP as Mana Point which basically point that's used to use skills or magic, it proven that skill like Observe cost MP but I can't really consider it as a magic can't I? Or I can? It's really hard to think magic did indeed exist when I lived my entire life without encountering any magic-related things.
Until this comes into my life of course.
"My life has been really complicated ever since this showed up," I sighed and pulled the chair for me to sit. "Or is the real purpose was a complete opposite, to make me change my life for better?"
It was needless question, a question that doesn't meant to be answered but it feels better for me to say it out loud. Because I already know the answer, whether or not I got this power, I will become great someday and this power is just something to support me to do it.
I spent the rest of my day to Observe everything in my room until I ran out of MP, waiting to restore my MP and repeat the procedure. Sometime I use Observe to the object or people outside from the window when I'm bored by grinding inside of my room. Not long after dinner, I lay on my bed thinking how weird my power worked.
At first I didn't realize how powerful the notion of just sleeping to fully restore your HP and MP but after repeating so much, I realized one thing from that.
My power is bullshit.
-0-
Third day of Summer Break.
Yep, without doing so much, it's already passed the third day mark. When I meant 'without doing so much' obviously pointing to doing something that's actually worth it. Like finishing the eroge I bought two days ago, jerking off to random porno magazine, or getting a girlfriend but that's before my power, the Gamer, come to my life.
I snapped out of my thought when mom called me from downstairs for breakfast, looking at the HP and MP bar flying in my vision reminded me that I still need to do a lot of things.
When I come down, I was greeted by the sight of mom preparing the breakfast and I grimaced at the thought of sitting down on the same table with my own mother. I already do this a lot, heck, I do this every day and yet, I'm still scared of the result, of what my mother sees in me. I was easily able to maintain a carefree image in front of her but the actual inside was different, in truth was I fear my own mother and always trying to escape from conversation with her.
I sighed and plopped down into my seat, "Observe," I mumbled under my breath.
Arashi Yuuki – LV: 10
Background: A kind and caring mother of the Arashi family. Before married, she happens to train some kind of martial arts to keep her body healthy. She loved both her husband and son although her husband has left her, she nonetheless still loved him. An ideal kindly mother that love her whole family but sometime was uncomfortable with his son behavior despite that she still cared for her son until the last of her dying breath. Her three sizes is–
I closed the window quickly, not wanting to read any further. Is there any way to disable the three sizes option anywhere? Despite my favoritism toward woman shapely body, there's no way I would use my vision on my own mother. No Way. Although certainly she is a beauty on her own, I'm worried that she is burdening herself ever since dad leaves her and her lack of sleep clearly showed by her tired eyes. Dad is still transferring money every month to us enough for us to eat and sleep peacefully but because I was studying in a private-school for rich peoples like Kuoh Academy, it's necessary for mom to work extra hard to pay my school fund.
At first she was happy that I will entering the famous Kuoh Academy after it becomes co-ed for some reason but I can't see the same amount of happiness again after she was told by the teacher how I act in school. I was putting her under stress. Considering how I much I was put under detention during my life in school because of my perversion I can see that it saddened her that I become like this. I know it and yet I still do it, I'm really… a worst son for her.
"How is your morning sweetie?" Mom asked me. "Oh, don't worry it will be ready for a minute so can you wait for a moment?"
I nodded and breathed in the scent of food on the table, only then did I notice the horrifying truth.
I'm not hungry.
My stomach didn't feel full or empty, just, for the lack of better word, normal. I rubbed my stomach, fearing of what's actually happening inside of me right now. What's biologically happened with my body, all kind of logic, all kind of common sense, was thrown out of the window the moment I got this power. I should've realized it but I think until now my low WIS prevented me from doing that, Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind changed my very existence.
With Gamer's Body, I can't suffer any kind of permanent wound or scar, get a full good sleep and my HP will be restored. The same can be said to Gamer's Mind, any kind of hypnosis or something that will alter my mind will be negated, nullified, making it non-existent and forcefully made me calm to think every situation logically.
And I can't turn it off.
My life… it has been changed. For better or worse, I don't know.
"Sweetie?" Mom snapped me out of my thought and when I opened my eyes, the breakfast was already in front of me. "The food's ready, if you don't eat it soon, it will become cold."
"Mhm," I nodded and snapped the chopstick. "Err, mom? You know what happens yesterday? I, uh, just want to apologize that if I offended you for some reason, I didn't actually mean it to sound like I was uncomfortable with you, but it ju–"
"Shuush," Mom placed a finger on my mouth, effectively shutting my mouth. "Don't talk while eating."
I sheepishly nodded and continued eating the food in silence, no talk, just painful silence reigned upon us. I just wanted to say sorry but it's hard to do so, almost like hurting myself. Why? Why am I so weak? Isn't Gamer's Mind should've disabled this kind of things? So why–Ah.
I see. I am calm right now, there's no malfunction in the skill, it just my own unwillingness that's preventing me from doing this.
When I'm almost done eating, I caught the sight of my mother tiredly closing her eyes in middle of meal. Her lack of sleep is starting to catch up and now, even her hand is shaking, struggling to hold the chopstick. It pained me to ignore this but what can I do to lessen her pain? Can my power help me? Can I rely on something that's intruding my life just two days ago?
She half-finished her food and stood up to clear up the table, before she can pick up the plates, I was already there to stop her hand from reaching it.
"Huh?" Mom was surprised at my action and stared at my hand which was gripping hers. "What are you doing, young man?"
"It's…" My eyes still lingering on where our hand touched, even now I can still feel the warmness from her hand, a mother's hand. "Someone like me, no, your son, what do you wanted me to become? What do you have in mind for me in the future?" I said while stopping grasping her hand.
She looks surprised before that turned into a giggle. "Oh sweetie, you don't need to worry about that," She started placing the plates on top of each other. "You're still young, it's up to you to become whatever you want and it's not up to me to decide what you wanted to do, you're your own person and you can become whatever you wanted."
I was left speechless while staring at her back. I could become whatever I wanted, that should be true, even moreso with my power in hand I could literally become anything if there's really no limitation to my gamer power.
"Thanks, mom," I said, smiling. "And, uh, why don't I handle the dishes? I know you're tired after making the breakfast."
She raised her eyebrows before she chuckled and nodded. "I'll leave it to you then."
After confirming that she has left the kitchen, I picked up the rest of the plates on the table and washing all of the dishes.
A skill has been created through a special action! Continuously washing dishes has created the skill "Dish Washing" to clean dishes quickly!
So even things like this? Well, I guess I can at least lessen mom burden by handling the housework. With Dish Washing backing me up, I was able to clean it quickly than even mom herself can do it. Although it made me feels a bit bad about it, at least now I can start my plan faster.
-0-
Repeated effort caused your STR to increase by 1!
Repeated struggles caused your VIT to increase by 1!
Right now I was lying on my back while facing upward to look at the clear sky with panted breath. Despite my earlier impression of the ground being good to sleep on, the stone pavement that I was using as a make-shift bed right now is hard. Not only that but it's also embarrassing to be seen like this by the people around me but fortunately, I usually done this in morning that there's not a lot of people passing by the park.
I've repeated the routine of training until I thought I was gonna die. At first I was lazy but the more I thought about it, my training is probably being counted by numerical amount and accumulated into the point that I got and that made up for my entire motivation all because I was given the advantage of having something to see the result of my training. It was already two days since I've done this and it was really hard just to raise one point for STR and VIT, though I want to raise DEX to by running around the entire town, I afraid that I don't have enough time to do that because I still have to help mom back home too. This made me think that maybe it's better to just raise my level and to do that I need exp and quest to do.
For the last two days, mom doesn't give me any quest and so that made me stuck at level 1 for the time being, unless there's other person that trusted me enough to give a quest then I don't think I'm going to level up soon.
I stood up, still panting hard from the training I've gone through. As expected of Gamer's Body, even though my human instinct mentally restrict me to pass the limit of human's body, I does it anyway though it cost a little HP it was worth it. Back when I don't have this power, just simple repeating push-ups will cause the bone in my arms made a strange cracking sound.
Now? It doesn't matter anymore.
I plopped down into the wooden bench, enjoying the result of my hard work in the form of flying screen that showed my improved stats. I closed my eyes while waiting for my HP to restore to full.
"Huh? Motohama?"
A familiar sound made me opened my eyes, almost instinctively, and I was surprised by the sudden appearance of the one in front of me.
"Katase?" I said with a fake surprised tone. "It's a surprise to see you here."
She tilted her head. "A surprise? It should be me who said that, I'm always jogging on this neighborhood around this time," She seat herself beside me while popped open the water bottle and chug it down. "That's why I was surprised to see you, of all people, in here at this time."
"Is that so? I'm just going for a change," I said while looking downward. "It just so happens that the so-called-change involved some physical training."
"Wow, I guess you really do intend to change huh? In school, I never thought of you as that kind of person." She said, honestly surprised at my word. "Still, why the sudden change? Not gonna lie but I've a feeling that you won't do this kind of thing unless you have a reason."
"What? You kidding? Of course I have my own reason," I said in jovial tone. "Eh, not really that important for people like you though, you can think of it as my first step toward a better future."
"Somehow I doubt that."
"Feel free to believe it," I shrug it off and headed toward the vending machine beside me, taking the coin from my pocket, I inserted it to the machine. "After all, in your eyes, I'm still the worst pervert that will do anything to get his hand on a woman's body right?" I received the can of soda from the vending machine and proceed to drank it.
One of the advantages of having this power is maybe how I don't have to care about drinking soda after training because it was unhealthy.
Katase was obviously surprised at my choice of drink but she sighed and drink her water until it was empty and thrown it at the trash can. "Yeah, even now I still think of you as a pervert but... I guess at least you're slightly better than before huh, seeing you sweating and panting hard in this place seems to have made my opinion of you better."
I brighten up at her answer, maybe this way I can get her trust and build a friendship after this?
"Hey Katase," I called out to her. "Why haven't I seen you yesterday in this park? I remember you said that you usually jog around this time right?"
She blush a little and scratched the back of her head. "Well, I guess I kinda… forgot about it? I was relaxing and resting my body because… this is Summer Break you know!? It's not like I planned to spend this entire break without training." She huffed and crossed her arms.
"Well, then why now? If you want to relax then why are you doing this?"
"For me it was necessary to do this if not then my body will be getting dull with all of this," She said while closing her eyes. "To keep up with Murayama it was the least I can do, in the first place, I entered Kendo Club because of Murayama but now that I start to enjoy it, I can't back down, I need to catch up, no, I need to surpass her, she may be the Ace of Kendo Club but just for you to know, we're fighting for the position of leader." She smiled and stood up to start leaving.
"Leaving so soon?"
"Murayama and I wanted to do our homework in my house after this and I need to prepare from now," She said and that's when I twitched, remembering my final enemy in this summer break. She seems to have noticed my sudden discomfort and asked. "You don't… forget about it right?"
I coughed. "Of course not, I was just enjoying my break a little more than you think." A little lie won't hurt.
I was so caught up with the whole game-like power that I forgot about the enemy of all students in school. Damn it, why did Japan have to give their students a lot of homework in the middle of holidays? Obviously I know its reason but trying to deny the truth somehow comforted me.
That's right. I haven't even touch it ever since the first day of Summer break let alone finishing it.
She seems skeptical about that but she shrugged it off and before she can leave, I stopped her by standing in front of her. "What are you doing?" She asked, tightening her fist while doing so.
"Uuh, it's… well, if maybe if we can do it together wouldn't that be faster?" I blurted out the word.
She blinked once, then twice. "Are you serious? You asked me, someone who beat you up almost every day in school, just like that?" She sighed. "I take back my word, you're still an idiot."
"Idiot, huh, last I checked you're ranked the tenth in our class right?" I let out a low chuckle and I could see from the corner of my eyes that her raised fist will hit me if I say anymore. "And here you are, denying someone who's clearly better than you to help." She lowered her fist and I suppressed my urge to laugh, I finally beat Katase!
Ah, by the way I'm ranking sixth.
"Ugh, fine, you don't have to be so jerk to say it, you perverted jerk." She said so and leaving the park while I followed from behind her. Taking off my glasses, I wipe off the sweat from my face with my clothes and keeping the sight of Katase in front of me, I activated my ability.
Mioda Katase – LV: 6
B-W-H: 78.5–67–80
Yep, as I thought I'm still a pervert.
-0-
"Sorry for intruding." I said while entering the room that I never would've thought in my entire life would be granted permission to enter to. I whistled at the scenery, as expected of Katase, it's not too feminine nor was it too manly, she was kind of tomboy but from her room, I can see a bit pinkish color around mixed with the orange colored wall.
"You really come huh." The other occupant of the room suddenly said upon my entrance. I switched my attention to the two girls sitting in the middle of the room with small round table separating them. I casually walked up to the table and sat on the soft carpet, I would've loved to smell the scent of girls in this room but I need to keep my image in front of these two girls.
Murayama seems a bit disturbed by my appearance and avoided me. While seeing this, Katase shrugged it off and returned to her own work. I took out my notebook and pen but upon seeing the complex combination between numbers and alphabets in the math, I sighed and twirled the pen in my hand.
A quest has been created!
A Few Good Students: Finish your homework!
As a student, it was absolute necessity for them to study and the homework is a perfect stuff for that! Complete your homework without cheating! Time Limit: Five weeks.
Oh? A good thing to keep me motivated at least.
"Well then…" I cracked my neck and savoring the blissful feeling from it before I corrected my glasses. "I will finish it today."
…
Quest complete!
Your level has increased by one!
I grinned at the notification from the screen but refrained from opening my status in front of these girls. Who knows that I can create my own quest by setting my priority – if it was important enough – and actually leveled up just by doing a homework, albeit a lot of them.
Diligent studying caused your INT to increase by 1!
Heh, bonus status is always good.
"You've finished?" Murayama asked me from the opposite end of table. I nodded. "Wow, that's… fast, faster than I thought you can actually."
"Don't even think about it Murayama," Katase, who's still struggling with creating essay said beside her. "In fact, if you have a spare time to talk about him, maybe help me to write something about this? I haven't got any idea what to write in this!"
Murayama sighed and leaned closer to Katase. "Honestly, just write it like how it told you in the book. There's a similar question in the page 48 right? Just change it a little and you're done."
"Huh? There is? That's weird, I don't notice it." Katase tilted her head to the side while cupping her chin.
I sighed through my nose and stood up, looking around the room. "Hey Katase, If it's okay with you, can I see around some things in your room?" When I look at her, her only reaction was a simple nod while she herself was busy copying from Murayama's so I took that as 'yes'.
There's nothing much in here, except maybe a bookshelf that piqued my curiosity. If it was the past-me, then I would have no doubt that I would maybe do some things that was not meant to be told of in this room – a girl's room – like, probably what a stalker will do to its prey. I feared my own thought but at the same time I know that it was the truth, I was really that bad in the past. Walking through the entire school just to search for a hole to peek on woman body but looking back at it again, I can see that it was wrong and yet I can't stop it because it was already done.
But is it really fine to regret it? Because I still remembered what I've done was through my own volition and worse was I enjoyed every single moment of it.
I shake my head and took out a random book from the shelf, it was some kind of old journal that look like it will fall from its cover just by flipping through its pages and it was quite thick too, almost reaching that of small dictionary. It's also dirty to the point that some letters was already fading but not completely. I only managed to read some of its word by wiping the dust only to discover that the word was in unfamiliar language.
I was snapped out of my own thought by the sudden appearance of flying window appeared.
You obtained the skill book "Jacob's Flesh". Would you like to learn this skill?
You obtained the skill book "Jacob's Limb". Would you like to learn this skill?
You obtained the skill book "Jacob's Step". Would you like to learn this skill?
You obtained the skill book "Dragon Slaying". Would you like to learn this skill?
You obtained the skill book "Ascension". Would you like to learn this skill?
You obtained the skill book "Heavenly Fist". Would you like to learn this skill?
Huh?
