"The fuck was th-" Boxer Ben shouted. "Shit, Ivar!" He looked up at the 5 people, the one I slumped had gotten back up in the meantime after a bullet slammed through my gut.

Ben rushed forward at an incredible speed, my eyes could barely keep up, I knew a gunshot was fired, but no one collapsed, I just heard the repeated meaty thuds of fists against skulls. It didn't long before all 5 were taken down.

Ben approached me and kneeled down by my side.

[Time until permanent death: 00:00:15]

He laid two of his hands on my chest and started performing CPR, my ribs and sternum felt like they were caving in as he was doing it, the pain was unbearable but dying was worse.

[Healing ability applied: CPR]

[Time until Revification: 00:00:14]

SHIT, FUCK, SHIT.

[Calm Sendoff perk disabled]

GOD, FUCKIN', DAMNIT.

NO

IT WON'T END LIKE THIS

Hackhack

Blood spewed from my mouth, I took a deep breath.

"Boxer- D-Don't quit, go f-for 6 more s-seconds, it'll b-be fine." I weakly uttered out.

"What the fuck does that mean? 6 seconds? just don't fuckin' die jackass, I won't quit on ya." He said as he continued to pump the blood around my body in place of my heart.

Eventually 6 seconds later came, I pawed away at his hands as he tried to cave my chest in and he stopped. I slowly sat myself up.

"Oh god."

I hurled my guts out on the floor, I think it was my guts anyway. God damn, my throat hurts, I have a headache, blood is pouring from my belly like a fountain, somehow there wasn't any detriment to my HP because of this, no bleeding effect or anything.

"Get me to a d-"

Oh, my health just went up by 3.

"Where?" He asked. "C'mon, tell me." He said, shaking me up.

"Calm it the fuck down man, keep me here, I'll recover like I usually do." I reached inside my pocket and grabbed a few thousand from my inventory. "And buy me a change of clothes, I can't be assed to clean these up."

He looked at me, looked at the leak in my gut and just hoisted me up into his arms without a word.

"Jackass, get off me." I said, trying to push away as he lifted me up.

"You're bleedin' out." He said, walking out of the alleyway.

"You don't get it, just put me down and buy me that change of clothes." I said, reviewing my system, my health bumped up again, a tiny bit of colour returned to my skin and I felt just a little bit better than I was before.

"There's a girl in that alley-" I hacked out some more vomit. "Sh-she was being dragged away, I can recover, just go get her." I said.

He stopped for a moment, swivelled his head towards the alley, shocked to see a girl there. He took a moment to consider what he should do, and he decided on gently propping me down onto the floor and running back to the girl.

He came back a minute or so later with an empty expression on his face. By the time he came back I felt healthy enough to attempt to get back on my feet, but I didn't have the strength, so I fell down onto one knee until I regenerated one last time.

"What happened?" I asked, looking up at the man

"Dead." He simply stated

My heart dropped and tears streamed down my eyes.

I almost threw away my life for someone who was already dead, shit... How could I be so arrogant to think that I was a hero? I could've just ran, avoided all this bullshit, not gotten involved, but no, I have to become a legend, I have to be someone great.

These are fantasies I should've given up when I turned 8, what the fuck is wrong with me.

And why am I so goddamn emotional.

Oh, that's right, [Calm Sendoff] got disabled, that's why I'm contemplative, that's why I'm rethinking the chuuni bullshit I pulled, I guess it's for the better.

Ben planted a heavy hand on my shoulder and turned to me.

"What the fuck is this?" He said, looking at a slot machine that was in front of him-

How could he move?...

I just stood there, staring at him silently, I didn't know what to say.

Friend Slot (Rare) has been given to the person who saved your life

Well, that explained everything.

I wiped my tears and composed myself as much as I could.

"Pull the handle." I said. "It's my devil fruit ability." I lied, but I might as well make something believable.

"You will get something from this if you pull it because you saved my life, it gives away these slot machines automatically, I didn't give you it, my fruit did."

He frowned, before cautiously gripping the big red bulb at the top of the handle and pulling down.

Various items flashed by and not long after he pulled the handle, it finally stopped.

A piece of paper appeared in his hands and it had my name on it, could this be?-

"A vivre card?" He said out loud. "That's… some weird devil fruit you got." He clearly looked like he was trying to abandon the topic of the dead girl in the alleyway, I can't say I wasn't either, it's a very stressful situation right now and all we can do is just distract ourselves.

I slowly got back up to my feet, I stumbled a little but I caught myself.

"Let's get back, I've got a lot to think through." I said, he simply nodded and we walked back to the hostel. I wasn't bothered to wash up, I'd rather just strip down to my boxers and take a little nap, because I sure as shit wasn't gonna get a good night's sleep today.

Yeah, so, uh, I didn't take on that nap, instead I went back to the gym with Ben, I came to a revelation that I wasn't the scumbag as I failed to nap, yeah, maybe I have a hero complex, I was definitely a chuuni, but helping someone doesn't make me shitty, if something like this goes on again, I need to be strong so I don't die and so I don't need someone else to help me.

"Right hook, jab." The head coach of the gym shouted orders out. His buddies managed to recover after they got fucked over by some mafia types, though some were still clearly fighting through the pain.

I threw my sloppy punches at the bag as the teacher barked commands out and the assistant coach immediately saw my ineffective punches and went up to me. I hadn't heard him talk but his actions spoke louder than words ever could. He simply waited for the coach to say another combo.

"Jab, right uppercut, left hook."

I performed them as well as I could but the assistant simply shook his head in disapproval. Following this, he grabbed my hair, pulled me into the right posture, kicked my foot forward a notch, grabbed my wrist and pulled it into the bag. I repeated how he wanted me to do the first punch, he nodded in approval.

"Left hook, Body straight, left uppercut."

I was about to perform the combo but he shook his head, I didn't follow through. He showed me the jab uppercut hook combo and I tried to copy his movements to the detail, though my eyes didn't pick up on anything I wasn't already trying to do, or what I at least thought I was doing.

After a few more hair pulls, drags, kicks to the legs and whathaveyou, the assistant coach finally nodded in approval at my combo.

Boxing (4/150)

+100 EXP For upgrading a skill via natural means

That encounter in the alley did bring me a lot of EXP, 500 to be exact, which was enough to level up and then some, I hadn't spent my stat points now but I now knew what I wanted to allocate them to.

Seeing how Ben just blitzed those guys inspired me, I wanted to be fast like him, and so I assigned my points into agility, putting me at a staggering 10, or an 11 with the boxing boots equipped. I learned my lesson the first time I entered, dress shoes just look weird when doing something like this.

I did notice a massive increase in speed, and I was able to use proper technique faster than I had originally done beforehand, the assistant coach gave me the death glare as I sped up but upon inspection of my technique he found no problems, he seemed rather sad he didn't get to pick on the new guy, which is a good thing for me, that just means I'm improving.

"Ok everybody." Coach said in his thick Brazilian accent. "We do light sparring, just play around, no killing anyone."

Ben stared me down from across the room and smiled, beckoning me to come over. I obliged and we entered each other's range, He held his hand out, I bumped it with my thick glove and we were off.

It was safe to say he absolutely dominated me throughout the fight, even with my speed increase and him going 'light', he toyed with me all the way through the round, I thought I could dodge a few punches due to my speed but I barely saw them coming, if I was gonna be able to react to these blows I might have to increase my perception, as that was the only other stat that I saw that could possibly increase reaction speed.

The round went by fast and I luckily didn't get knocked out or slumped like the last time because of the increase in constitution during the fight in the alley, not to say I wasn't absolutely destroyed, wrecked and made into a fool during the round of sparring we had.

Since I was getting absolutely manhandled and the coach noticed this, he paired someone a bit more experienced than me with Ben, and his former partner with me.

The fight went much more smoothly, even if they were lucky, I managed to land some clean blows, I even dodged a couple times which really made me feel like a boss, but I was humbled shortly after, midway through the round though, my lack of stamina got to me and I was fighting to get air into my system while defending from an aggressive opponent, his hits didn't even deal damage but I was still pressured into corners multiple times.

I preferred this guy more than Ben, at least the defeat wasn't so bad that I wouldn't be able to learn anything, with this guy I can still try things and see if they aren't gonna be shut down by someone who could just pretty much anything down in my eyes.

I got a good workout in and by the end of it all I felt pretty good. It was a good distraction from recent events, and I was improving myself, though that was mainly the system assisting me. Normal people simply don't progress this fast, but maybe in this world they do, who knows?

Ben and I made our way to the hostel, before we entered the hostel, he turned to face me, handing out a ticket.

"My fight's in two days, watch it if you have time." I grabbed the ticket and shoved it in my pocket, discreetly slipping it into my inventory.

"Sure man." I said, nodding,

"And they're doing some amateur bouts too, so if you wanna partake, feel free." He said, I was probably not gonna get into that sorta thing yet, or even in two days, I'm not sure how experienced people were and I simply just wanted to practise first.

Dead woman-

I wish I could turn my brain off, negative thoughts can piss off, I just want to sleep.

Discord: EMvrKkMRxc