"Crap..."

Sum Ting Wong was ready to go to his campus, but when he reached the first floor, which extended for several meters before the front door. And right in front of the front door...

A bald middle-aged man, with floating health bar on top of his head and was wearing beer stained white tank top covered with a striped boxer was standing in front of the front door, AT 7.30 AM, which totally was not normal, as that man supposedly still slept on the top of his coach. But today, rather than doing his usual activity that middle-aged man was talking happily to someone that Wong assumed as his friend.

Wong quickly hid behind the wall. Even though that middle-aged man aka the owner was a good man, but when it came to renting money...

Wong felt the chill in his spine. If the owner could lecture someone for about two hours just because they were one day late with their payment, just think what the owner could do to Wong, that was two days late.

Considering the risk he could face, Wong started thinking to skip his class. Although... Not coming to today class wasn't a wise choice either. 

Today was the first week of the second semester. Which meant, if Wong didn't come to class, he wouldn't have a group to finish whatever group project the professor gave to them and had to do it alone. Or if he was unlucky, he could've joined a group where no one was ever working and had to all the work all by himself, and they still got the credit.

With no other choice, no matter what happened, even when a moon size meteor dropped straight from the sky toward earth, Wong still HAD to come to his class.

Looking around to his surrounding, there were two ways that he could use aside from the front entrance.

The first one was the backdoor, but Wong had already known that the backdoor always locked. The other way was through the fire escape ladder. Then again, it crashed when someone tried to use that ladder a few days ago, and the owner still hadn't called someone to repair it.

Sighing, Wong's only choice was to patiently wait until the owner moved away from the entrance.

But no matter how many minutes Wong waited, the owner's spits kept flying out toward his friend along with his burst of laughter.

Clocking the gear on his brain, trying to think for a way he could go to the outside without getting noticed, Wong remembered something.

"Stealth..." Wong whispered quietly, but nothing happened.

Did he miss something?

This time, Wong opened his Skill Screen and staring at it. Of course, there was nothing different about it. "Then how about Running?"

Running (Level 1): You are swift of foot. When running, you move three times your Agility (wearing suitable equipment and carrying a load no more than your STR x 12 kg, this includes your own body weight) or two times your Agility (wearing unsuitable equipment or carrying a load more than your STR x 12 kg, this includes your own body weight). While running, your stamina consumption gets reduced by 5% .

"Oh? It appears?"

Unlike Fast Food and Kitchenware, both Vocal and Somatic options didn't appear. And the screen also didn't give Wong a choice to use Running, maybe this was the so-called passive skill?

But why the screen didn't give Stealth skill description to Wong?

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Raising his eyebrow, once again Wong muttered "Stealth."

Stealth (Level 2): The ability to move without being detected audibly. Reduce the noises that you create by 20% at your normal walking speed (equal to your Agility x 1 km/h) or 5% at your normal running speed (equal to your Agility x 2 km/h.)

"Oh? Now it appears?"

Rubbing his chin, Wong wondered what was the difference that he made. At first, he thought it was because of his intonation, or maybe because he didn't pronounce Stealth correctly.

Full of curiosity, Wong closed his Skill Screen and carefully said "Animal Handling."

But nothing happened.

"Ah, I see."

Wong guess was that the skill description wouldn't show unless he opened the Skill Screen.

Thinking he slowly discovered more of the status screen function, Wong widely grinning. But he suddenly gasped when he remembered his initial purpose.

Peeking to the front entrance, the owner and his friend still stood there like a statue. Although there were two possible options that Wong could take, he hesitated. He could continue to move slowly, trying his best to remain quiet, or he could simply run to the outside. But considering he had just raised his Stealth to Level 2, thinking that Level 2 Skill should be more effective than a Level 1 Skill, he chose the conservative sneaking route.

With a determined face, Wong began pressing himself to the wall and creeping his way to the front door. He kept trying at his best to avoid the owner's field of vision, his breath sounded extremely heavy in his ears and even though he didn't know how much Stealth Level 2 would help him reduce the noise, it still boosted his confidence that he might be able to pull this off.

And this time, Wong gave the owner no more than a sideward glance as he slipped past behind him with nothing more than the slight scuff of his soft-soled shoes on the floor. And by the time the owner's friend watched Wong suspiciously, tilting his head to the side, wondering what the hell was Wong did. Wong had already dashed away to the outside without getting noticed by the owner.

With a relieved sigh, Wong nonchalantly walked under the bright morning sun, feeling the warm sunlight on his skin while humming the victory song from his favourite fantasy games franchise. His destination was obviously, an ATM and then his campus. 

But when Wong arrived at the ATM, he had a conundrum. "Huh? Where is it, where is it, my Precious, my PRECIOUS WALLET?!"

Wong shouted until many heads were turned in his direction. He checked his whole body, patting every pocket in his attire but he couldn't find anything.

As cold sweat fell from Wong's forehead, he turned around and began tracing through the list of places he had passed, his eyes darting more wildly with each passing second, searching for any silvery salmon fish leathery wallet, hoping it was him.

But, the next thing that Wong realized was he already stood right at the front of his apartment building.

With nervous eyes, Wong peeked inside, and sure enough, the owner and his friend were still talking in front of the entrance. As he sifted and sorted his eyes were constantly on the look-out for any gleam of silver on the brown floor, but there was no sign of his wallet whereabouts.

Maybe his wallet fell on the stairway or second floor?

But to check it, that would mean Wong had to go to the inside and take another chance with the owner.

With a big sigh, Wong just thought it wasn't worth the risk and silently left to the bus stop with a slouched shoulder. But when he took a line in the bus queue, he noticed he didn't have a single penny left to ride a bus.

With no other choices, Wong watched his feet took steps across the stone path. It took around a half hour of nonstop walking for Wong to finally arrive at his campus.

Though, his journey made him realize something about stamina consumption rate. In the first ten minutes after he left his apartment, he found he got bored and jokingly opened his status screen. His stamina was at 70 after 10 minutes and decreased slowly to 66 after 20 minutes, going to 58 in the last 10 minutes.

Wong stopped, sweating lightly from the constant walking. He supposed could formulate something from his discovery, but he just let the thought slip away.

Instead, Wong went straight to his lecture room, his dusty canvas sneakers lined next to the shined pointed-toe leather shoes of passing student. Friends were greeting each other with a hug or a playful punch. As for Wong, he took whatever empty seat that was left and silently sat on it.

And even though Wong's stamina hadn't increased by a single point, the professor, a middle-aged man with grey messy hair, with a bent back and an unsteady gait came in. His eyes were hidden behind large reflective glasses, and without even introducing himself, he turned the projector on and started the lecture.

But when Wong opened his bag, that was when he a gleam of something silvery that he was looking for the whole time.