CHAPTER 10: Video Editor
Surprise showed on Adam’s face as he entered the classroom. It wasn’t that he had ever been unliked or anti-social, he was just kind of ignored. When he saw several people around his desk this early in the morning, it made him feel more like it was a new world than anything else since the [System] hit.
Abbey was leaning on the desk in front of his, facing his seat. Alissa, much taller than the other girls, was standing next to her with her arm around Abbey’s shoulders while chatting. Brandon was standing with Brittney looking at some drawings on Adam’s desk. Walking in casually, Adam sat in his seat.
Everyone looked at him and got a little straighter. The drawings were cleaned up and Brandon started fidgeting.
“Good morning,” Adam said while looking each person in the eyes.
“Morning, uh, boss,” muttered Brandon as he looked at his hands.
“Just because Tom calls me that doesn’t mean you have to too. The way he does it is almost disrespectful. The way he does everything is almost disrespectful.”
Alissa drew her hand back from Abbey and came to his side, leaning on his shoulder. He could feel the pressure from it but with his enhanced strength it didn’t matter much to him, so he just allowed it.
“Then can I call you Big Boss?” Alissa whispered sensuously, lightly brushing the scratches on his face, slightly ruined by the amused giggle that came afterwards. Abbey looked down at that while Brandon looked up.
“By the way, where's Andrea?” asked Adam.
“Oh? Andrea? Is she your type?” asked Alissa as she tussled his hair.
“I’m just used to you three always being together. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you three apart,” he explained, trying to keep his face steady. The sudden attention felt odd and was making him a bit excited.
“Don’t you worry, Big Boss. She is recruiting help for us.”
“Help? What kind of help?”
“You’ll see when they get here.”
Adam looked to Abbey for an answer, but she just stared at her feet. It was a bit awkward, but they all chatted about various things, being quiet whenever the previous evening came up. Then a voice from across the classroom called to Alissa.
“Alissa, what’s the sudden deal with you and Adam? Is he amazing and we overlooked him all this time?” asked Jan, another girl from their class.
Alissa thought for a moment and then answered while getting even closer to Adam’s side. “Yes, he is amazing. Quite the hunk and no one even knew it.”
“Oh yeah?” Jan continued playfully. “What is so amazing about him?”
“His power and grace are both amazing. Unequalled, even.” Alissa commented even more and rubbed against him, practically climbing into his lap. “The size of his hammer and the way he pounds with it can’t be beat. He goes in and out so confidently and strong, keeping in control the whole time!” Then she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before going back to her leaning position.
Jan’s ears had turned red at Alissa’s description, but what surprised Adam more was that Abbey’s face was bright red as she pretended not to hear.
“W-what, even with those cruel scars?” Jan stuttered. Thanks to Abbey’s healing from the previous day, Adam’s black eye and the scratches had healed, settling to just light scars. Alissa drew her fingertips gently along them. Adam stayed stoic, but inside he admitted it felt good to be appreciated by a girl, even if she was just messing around.
“They just add to his overflowing manliness,” Alissa said wistfully.
Jan was going to say more, but then Andrea came through the door in a rush, moving to Adam’s other side. She leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek and said, “Good morning, darling,” at an audible volume. Adam looked at her with a frown, even while she was breathing deeply and flushed from her rush and excitement.
“What is this all about?” he whispered to her.
“Just staking our claim early. You are going to be a huge deal soon and we wanted to make sure we get to stay with you. Besides, one of the triple As, or maybe all of us, has a crush on you.” Her wink didn’t seem the joking kind.
A boy, not from their class came up to the desk following her.
“Darling,” Andrea continued to address Adam, “This is Ed. He’s one grade younger than us and I’ve worked with him before. His hobby is video capturing and editing. His goal is to be a director.”
The group looked at Ed, and Adam noticed a “Support [0]” tag over his head. “What does that have to do with us?”
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“It has EVERYTHING to do with us,” Andrea’s excitement grew. She reached into Adam’s jacket pocket and pulled out his cell phone, then pressed it against his finger to unlock it. Clicking through it furiously for a moment she handed it to Ed, who stared at it intensely. Adam could guess the video he was watching.
“He can’t tell anyone about this,” Adam growled.
“Oh, he won’t be telling anyone. He’ll be showing them.” Andrea’s enthusiasm was increasing, though she kept it to a whisper only for him. “If he can put together videos of what we do and then posts them to YouTube, it will make our popularity skyrocket. From a practical standpoint it’ll also record what we are doing in case trouble happens. We’ll have a record of where we were and what happened, as well as what the invaders are like. We could even use it to encourage people to fight them. Maybe there will even be some money from it we can use for better weapons and protection.”
Adam thought about it and decided it could be a good idea. There were numerous benefits that might happen.
After watching the video for a couple times, Ed looked at him and spoke. “Is this real?”
“Yes.”
“You mean that isn’t faked or had the time sped up?”
“That’s what real means.”
“So someone didn’t alter…”
“It’s REAL!” Adam roared.
The whole classroom froze. From the sound of it other classrooms froze too. Ed looked like he was about to wet his pants and he shivered and looked away from Adam. No one turned to look at Adam. Something instinctive in them tried to pretend he wasn’t there.
“Shhh shhh shhh,” whispered Alissa.
“There, there, darling. He didn’t mean anything by it,” Andrea comforted while stroking his hair.
That left Brittney to calm Ed. “Don’t pee yourself, he isn’t going to hurt you. Maybe just don’t be annoying next time.” She slapped Ed’s back and he nodded frantically. Brandon looked at him with pity.
“Anyway, Ed, how about you get to the point?” suggested Andrea.
“R-right. Yeah. Right. So anyway, if you can move like this and you are going to be fighting monsters, then I should set a few different cameras to follow you. Each night I’ll edit them together and post the video for people to watch. That way we can get a ton of views from them. You will become a star.”
“Hmm…I think a few things need to change about the plan. I don’t care about being a star,” Adam started but then was quickly interrupted by Alissa.
“You are going to be BIG, boss,” Alissa giggled. “If we had video of last night then it would be even more incredible since you actually had weapons.”
“Wait, what happened last night?” Ed asked curiously.
“We went out as a group and fought some goblins,” said Adam.
“Hahaha, don’t down play it, darling. We killed 17 goblins and more would have come out if they weren’t so scared of what you did to the assassin.”
"What did he do to the assassin?” asked Ed.
Brittney explained with enthusiasm, “He was fighting eight single-handedly…”
“Nick, Carlos, and Lucas were with me.” Adam earned himself a glare from Brittney’s previously starry eyes.
"Then he ran at the rest of us, jumped a goblin, jumped the stair railing and kicked a falling assassin off a wall, completely saving us all. He even cut its head off before it had a chance to land. Then, and then, oh wow, he kickflipped the body of the assassin onto the other goblins scaring the hell out of them only to start attacking them himself. It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen!!!” By the end Brittney was breathing heavily.
“Wow. That just sounds wow. Yeah, I’ll need more cameras. You aren’t exaggerating that?” Ed’s question was met with five people shaking their heads.
“If anything, she is down playing it,” added Andrea. “It’s our humble but amazing leader.”
“Good. Humble, strong, and caring will look good on film.”
“Anyway Ed,” Adam cut in. “How are you going to get camera angles at all?”
“Drones. I have five drones with high quality cameras on them. I can program them to follow a target, set different heights, and then from my laptop change their positions. With five feeds I should be able to edit the scenes together.”
“Ok, but a few things need to be stated. First off, no YouTube. That’ll be too public in the beginning and can lead to too many questions they could force us to answer. Instead start our own site where you post them. Put the raw videos where only we can see them and then your highlight reels public facing. After we do this for a bit, we can start sharing the location.”
“That is doable,” responded Ed.
“Next, it isn’t about me. It’s about the group. If my fights help carry it, that’s fine, but we need to make sure the whole activity is recorded and that we can watch it to see how to improve as a group. This is our lives and possibly humanity. You will need to do your thing next to Brandon. He can help you if he isn’t needed for weapons. Finally, since you are already a support, I want you to go the healer route. That way you can be helpful and keep yourself alive. We need an additional healer to help Abbey.”
“Sounds good,” Ed said dismissively. “This is going to be a great opportunity. I’ll leave at lunch to get more of my equipment. I’ll need the drones, my 360-degree camera, laptop…” He continued to mutter as he walked out.
“Well this will be interesting,” complained Adam.
“Don’t worry, darling. He’ll do a good job and this will be good for you and the group.”
The whole day went on like that. Teachers were mostly ignored. During every break they would gather around his desk to chat, with Andrea and Alissa being very touchy with him while Abbey blushed with embarrassment whenever she saw them.
Nick, Carlos, and Lamar each came in and discussed ideas that they had. Carlos had bought some cheap night vision goggles and strong searchlights from a hunting store. All the previous gear had been cleaned and sharpened and was in Carlos’s car. Lamar wanted to be an archer and had “borrowed” one of his dad’s compound hunting bows and some sharp arrows. Nick meanwhile was trying to learn stealth by walking everywhere as quietly and invisibly as possible, which of course made him stand out more. He had also found a night vision app that he had bought for his phone, though the quality seemed suspect to Adam.
Adam didn’t understand the enthusiasm, knowing that fighting these invaders could get them killed. He had a more blasé attitude towards it because he had the weird strength, but also because when his inner river flowed it felt addictive. Who he was would leave him and that only left him with actions. There was concern that if he ever got pulled away too far, he wouldn’t be able to come back, but he also had the cooler feeling in his head that he could use. He really needed to figure out what was happening with all these senses and emotions.
STATUS:
Name: Andrea Fritz [2]
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: Mage [2]
Body [0]
Strength: 2
Agility: 3
Vitality: 5
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 4
Skill Points: 2
Skills:
Mana Dart: Shoot an element-less projectile created by mana to do a slight amount of damage.