- ‘Ding!’
Classroom Notification: “Break the Ice!”
"So… why don't we all try to know each other better?” Ms. Happi suggested, swirling her hand across the globe on the desk. It spun around, pulling the clouds into cataclysmic hurricanes and prompting stares from the class.
A boy with brown hair slowly raised his hand. Ms. Happi recognized him as the student she had… ah, accidentally hit with a piece of chalk earlier. A faint pink mark still decorated his forehead.
"Yes, punk—uh, Calum," she corrected herself quickly, offering him an apologetic smile.
"Like an icebreaker?" The boy asked, wrinkling his brows. “Did you just..."
“Yeah, exactly!” Ms. Happi nervously laughed and started a rant about how she just wanted everyone to make some friends. “...And I just know you’ll all have fun. Just treat this as a free period!”
"Wait, but..."
"No but’s,” She declared. With a cheer of “Come on, vámanos!”, she coaxed the students to their feet and they reluctantly started talking amongst themselves.
—All except for one.
Steven glanced around, relaxing at his desk. He looked at the teacher, who noticed his glance and proceeded to walk over. Aw… darn!
“What’s wrong?” Ms. Happi asked, worried.
“Nothing,” Steven smiled, his dimples showing, “I’m just trying to find a place to sleep…”
This prompted Dieze to send him a message. He read it, but it was only a stat update about his ‘dumb stat’ going up.
[‘Dumb +1’]
(Why was that stat so high?)
"Well, yeah," Ms. Happi mused with her hand on her chin, “You ‘could’ sleep,” She beamed at him to motivate him further: "But this activity will be part of your participation grade!"
With that, Ms. Happi walked back to her desk, and pulled out an entire stack of… what was it… ‘pancakes’? She started nibbling on them, as Steven looked, mouth agape.
Helpfully, Dieze sent a pop-up detailing the snack:
[Dorayaki - B+ grade]
[‘Description: A delightful Japanese treat, Dorayaki consists of two fluffy sponge-like pancakes that sandwich a sweet red bean paste. This B+ grade version offers a rich, balanced flavor!’]
Weighing his options, Steven sighed and walked over to Ms. Happi.
“Did you bake those?” He pointed to the pancakes.
“Yeah,” Ms. Happi looked down at her snacks like she couldn’t part ways with them. She proceeded to wave her snack and Steven’s eyes couldn’t help but follow.
“They look amazing.” He sighed, his voice coming out a bit deeper, as he caught the smell. A stomach growl grumbled from his stomach and he blushed. He knelt on his knees and clutched his stomach, his eyes twinkling: “Can’t I have one, please…?”
A 'rolling-eyes' emoji popped into his view, notifying him that his ‘shameless stat’ had risen.
“Mm… alright,” Ms. Happi smiled, “Fine, but only if you talk with your classmates.”
Steven nodded. He quickly dispatched a request to Dieze:
[‘Nope.’ X] Dieze answered: [‘Host’s audacity levels may corrupt data files in this location. Try again later.’ X]
- - -
L0AD1NG...
1. The first person Steven talked to was a red-head with burning green eyes. Well, he tried to talk to him, but was brushed off with a scoff. It went like this:
“Hey, I dig your turtleneck.”
The boy was indeed wearing a turtleneck. Hearing Steven’s words, the boy tensely scratched his collar, gripped his sleeves, and retorted…
Something that wouldn’t be allowed for broadcast, but could crudely be translated to: Go away.
2. The second person Steven tried to talk to was Calum, the boy introduced earlier. It went something like this:
“No way, you don’t know what cultivation is?” Calum asked, after a couple lines, jumping out of this seat. “EVERYONE! THIS KID DOESN’T KNOW WHAT CULTIVATION IS??? Das funny. Das funny. That’s hilarious!”
The class turned their eyes to look at them.
3. The third and last person he tried to talk to… sniffed him:
“Don’t talk to me. You smell like poor.”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Steven stood there for a couple seconds.
Dieze bumped a sticker into his contacts, which said: “lol”
“Lol.” So that was it.
Steven agitatedly started motioning his hands in a melt down of signs. Translated from sign language into English, it would have caused some issues with publishing.
- - -
Finally, Dieze pulled the character profiles up for him to read. They were kinda like these little, stalker-ish profiles about his classmates:
[CHARACTER PROFILE: EMBER U. BURNS]
WARNING: DEATH FLAG. Interaction may lead to premature expiration. (Involvement with this character may kill you.)
* Age: 15
* Affiliation: Burns Family (Assassin Lineage)
* Rank: Heir
* Likeability meter: 0.5/100
* Bio: Ember's mother left his family, leaving him with a negligent father. He is MOTHERLESS. His family life is very peaceful and the extended family members love him and send him lovely gifts. He is super talented, except his sister is at least ten times better. Also, he has emotions like happiness and joy. His best trait is his compassion.
* Stat Info: [LOCKED Until Likeability reaches 50]
* Likes: Ice cream, Cucumbers, Grass, Flowers… >
* Dislikes: Sister, Weak People, Dads, People with daddy issues… >
[Click to expand Additional Info….]
- - -
Well, that…
…was helpful.
Dieze: [“Moving on to Call’s profile.” X]
- - -
[CHARACTER PROFILE: CALUM CHARLESTON]
Nickname: Call
WARNING: Interaction may lead to fatal third-party conflicts. (Involvement with this character may get you killed by other people.)
* Age: 16
* Affiliation: Charleston Family (Adopted)
* Likeability meter: 20/100
* Bio: Unbeknownst to him, Call is an illegal alien species. He was adopted because his biological parent(s) ditched him: a reasonable choice considering his personality type. According to his biological family members, his blood is premium grade. Tasty.
* Stat Info: [LOCKED Until Likeability reaches 50]
* Likes: Talking, trains, humans, ketchup … >
* Dislikes: Rules, being left out, sitting still, thinking for long periods of time… >
[Click to expand Additional Info….]
- - -
[“And the last girl…?” X] Dieze prompted.
‘I don’t need that last one.’ Steven coughed. He turned his head—
—tripped over a desk—
—tripped over a chair—
—and crashed into two unsuspecting boys.
“Agh,” One of the boys yelped, but appeared to shrug it off. (They were too busy arguing about ‘walls’.) One of them tried to remind the other about the “last time”, to which the other mentioned that it would be “fun”. The first one proceeded to throw his hands up, exasperated, and grumbled: "I had to help you wash the walls even though I didn't do anything!"
Finally noticing Steven, the blonde-haired guy on the right asked, “Hey, you’re… Steven, right?”
"Uh, yeah," Steven replied, “You’re that guy who flicks his friend. Cool.”
The blondie laughed and pointed to himself and to his friend, who didn’t find it humorous. "Hey, I'm Lucius and this is ‘Snakey Boy’."
"Dude. Stop. My name is not-" the green-haired boy emphasized this 'not' part, "-Snakey Boy. It's S-Sinclair," and antagonized by his own stutter, he groaned. He whacked his friend and covered his eyes, "Damn it, I told you not to introduce me to new people like that."
"Why not? Snakey's a cool name." Lucius teased, while Sinclair scoffed something about blond people.
"H-Hey… what's that supposed to mean?"
“Nothing, Lucy.”
“Y-you turn into a GIANT, green snake!” Lucius retorted.
“…And you work as a flashlight.” Sinclair rebutted, “With shiny, glowy sunshine… magic. I bet if I hit your head, you start to glow.”
They glared at each other. Sinclair bonked his friend on the head. Steven squinted. ‘Lucy’ was beginning to glow and ‘Snakey’ had what appeared to be scales crawling up his neck.
"Ok... that's so not lit,” The flashlight… Lucius complained, the glow dying down.
"A nightlight?" The snake… Sinclair suggested. His serpent-like eyes gleamed.
Lucius looked back at him and they reached a silent agreement. Meanwhile, the green-haired boy spoke to Steven again:
“We’re friends.”
Steven… nodded.
“Yeah,” Lucius agreed. Looking back at Steven, he said, “By the way, you’re good at catching cookies with your mouth. Almost like a dog.”
“Thanks?” Steven said.
* * *
The three chatted for a bit more before Steven dipped. There, Ms. Happi caught his glance and eagerly smiled and waved.
Ha.
Steven jabbed his elbow to the side, accidentally hitting someone in the ribs.
[‘Jab Ability +1 EXP!’]
“Sorry,” Steven muttered. He looked at the person he had elbowed, but the expression was hard to read. And his contacts spurted out a weird message instead of popping out a profile:
[‘???’ X]
-- ??? --
>> ???
Loading… [||||||||||||||||__ 80%]
[‘ERROR: missing_char_profile’ X]
- - -
Wearing a red sweater, the boy had pale eyelashes that covered dark, red eyes.
“Nah, it’s fine,” The boy dismissed politely. His left eyebrow had a nick while the right side of his face was dotted with two moles. As his lips parted, they revealed two canine teeth and pearly incisors. "Steven, right…?"
“Yeah,” Steven nodded, “Nice to meet you-”,
Steven stepped forward, tripped over a chair, and crashed his head into the desk. BANG!
"Are you… okay?" The white-haired guy asked. There was a huge welt growing on Steven’s head.
- ‘Ding!’
[‘Status Update: -2 HP]
- ‘Ding!’
[‘Intelligence -1’]
"No," Steven replied, dismissing the notifications in his contact lenses.
Ms. Happi rushed over and blinked S.O.S in her distress, "O.M.G! Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Steven replied.
After making sure Steven was fine, she returned to her desk. Beside him, Steven noticed a slight, wry smile on the guy’s face.
“I’m Zero,” The white-haired boy introduced, "Zero Dreams."