Riley arrived home, and rushed up the stairs.

Slamming his room door shut, he waltzed into his bathroom and took a quick shower to wash off the dirt and blood stains from both the bullies and the thugs.

After scrubbing his body clean, he walked down to the basement and did the laundry. Riley was glad that it was a Tuesday; his mom was busy working the night shift at the grocery store today.

If it was any other day where his mom worked the afternoon shift, Riley would have gotten into big trouble with his appearance. It might have also raised suspicion from his mother; and that the last thing that he needed right now.

He threw his clothes into the washer, together with the other loads, and pressed “Start”.

Once he was done with his basic chores, Riley made his way back to his room. Pulling out a notebook from his desk, he flipped to the latest page, where he had made notes from his research.

'Alright, time to test the extent of my newfound powers.'

Riley had done some testing and written down quite a few notes from the tutorial of his new character in World of Legend, “Qwerty1234”.

'First thing’s first, let’s see what checks out.'

He started marking similarities between what the game covered and his abilities, such as the skill menu, quest functionalities, level ups, and stats.

'Ok, time to test items!'

Walking down to the kitchen with his notebook and pen in hand, Riley opened his fridge. It was fully stocked as usual, courtesy to his doting mother. Riley scanned the fridge, and pulled out his favorite drink, Bepsi.

“Analyze!”

“A soft drink produced by the company Bepsico. Very sweet, and provides the user with a sugar rush. Restores 20 HP across 2 minutes after consumption. +1 Strength, and +2 Dexterity for 30 minutes. Does not stack.”

'Wow, that’s a lot of stats for something so cheap. Let’s try another one.'

Pulling out another popular soft drink, Doka-Cola, Riley used again.

Two windows popped up this time. The first was a window indicating that his skill had levelled up. The other window showed the stats of the sugary drink.

“A soft drink produced by the company ‘ The Doka-Cola Company’. Restores 20 HP across 7 seconds. +2 Dexterity for 30 minutes. Does not stack. Bought 3 days ago by Sarah Petesgeralt.”

Riley smiled and summoned his Inventory, then proceeded to deposit both drinks.

'Well, that truly ends the debate. Bepsi is definitely better than Doke!'

Suddenly, he had a stroke of genius. He rushed to his room, and opened his wallet, pulling out a bunch of crumpled tenners.

‘Right, I still have some money that I got from Jake. Might as well use it to fund my "research".’

Riley then proceeded out of the house, and headed off to the convenience store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On his way to the convenience store, Riley continued reading through his notebook.

'Alright, I’ve tested items, let’s see what else I got from the tutorial.'

His finger scanned through each row on his notebook before coming to a stop at the row just after “Using Items"; "Leveling up and assigning points". His eyes lit up.

'Right! I levelled a bunch today; let’s see what I got from that.'

Riley scratched his head, and muttered, “Attributes.”

His attribute window popped up, showing his stats. This time, however, he could see several "plus" signs next to his stats. Furthermore, there was an extra row below his stats.

“Unassigned skill points: 9”

Riley thought hard, before closing the window.

'Okay, unlike games where there’s skill resets, I don’t know if there are similar items in the real world. I should think this through before allocating my points.'

Before he knew it, he was at the local bodega.

As he opened the door, the bell hanging on the door chimed, followed by a familiar voice.

“Riley! Welcome! How can I help ya?”

“Hey Mr. Rodriguez! Just checking out some snacks!”

Riley smiled at Mr. Rodriguez. He was the owner of the local mom-and-pop store in Riley’s neighborhood. The 5'6 stubby middle-age man had an inspiring story; he had come from Mexico when he was only 24 and $12 to his name, but he had built up a sizable business within a span of two decades.

Riley had known Mr. Rodriguez since childhood; from the smiling, diligent man who always sported a man bun and had given him lots of sweets when he was in elementary school, to the jolly, bald, and rotund man he was today.

Riley gave Mr. Rodriguez a small hug, and engaged in some small talk before bidding farewell and making his way to the snack aisle.

Cracking his knuckles, Riley was ready to grind.

“”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Potato Chips produced by the company ‘BepsiCo’. Can be bought for $4.”

“Fruit Snack Gummies produced by the company ‘Meddleys’. Temporarily increase Intelligence by 2 for 20 minutes. Does not stack. Can be bought for 50 cents a satchel.”

“A can of coffee produced by the company ‘Messley’. Great for helping a person wake up or focus. Temporarily increases Dexterity and Intelligence by 5 for 2 hours. Can be bought for $1.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After using for 15 minutes in the store, a new window popped up.

“Due to repetitive usage on a variety of objects, has increased by one level.”

Excited to test his newly upgraded , Riley scanned around the shop for the right target. Looking at Mr. Rodriguez at the counter from a distance, he had his second stroke of genius.

"!"

“Alejandro Rodriguez, Owner of Lucky Bagel Deli. Son of Miguel and Maria Rodriguez. Has two brothers and one sister. Married to Gabriella Rodriguez. Father of three children.”

"Level ???"

“Strength: 20~30”

“Dexterity: 10~20”

“Vitality: 20~30”

“Intelligence: 20~30”

“Wisdom: Unknown”

“Charisma: 40~50”

“Luck: Unknown”

Riley fell deep in thought. 'Hmm, my skill is slowly getting better. Now, I can gauge someone’s stats, though it seems to be based on the culmination of my previous interactions, just like with Jake. Guess I’ll need to level it up more before I can properly "analyze" their stats?'

Grabbing two cans of coffee, Riley made his way to the counter and checked out.

As he proceed to pay, Mr. Rodriguez placed a wrapped bagel on the counter.

“Here’s your favorite everything bagel on the house, as congratulations for your game last week!”

“Thanks Mr. Rodriguez!”

As he walked out of the store, he opened his “Inventory” and tossed both coffee cans and the bagel in. The once empty grid now showed an icon of the coffee, with a small number “2” at the bottom indicating quantity, and the wrapped bagel.

'Alright, grabbed some useful items from the store, though that didn't cost me much. I should probably use the rest of the cash from Jake on skill books.'

As he was walking to the bookstore, Riley heard a scream.

“Help! Thief!”

As Riley turned towards the direction of the voice, he saw two masked figures hastily running away from the source of the disturbance — a young lady — with a purse in their hands.

Immediately, a pop-up appeared.

“Quest: Neighborhood cleanup"

"You’ve recently gained powers that have made you stronger. However, with great power comes great responsibility.”

“Quest Prerequisites: Defeat (or help defeat) a total of 10 bullies or thugs. Have a random encounter of crime conducted by one of the following factions: [Bullies], [Thugs].

“Quest conditions: Help the damsel in distress retrieve her bag before the thugs get away (Time limit: 5 minutes).”

“Quest rewards: Unlocks Class ‘Vigilante’, +1 'Vigilante' Class Point, Unlocks title, ‘Crime Fighter’.“

'Wait, a whole new class? Hell yea!'

Riley clicked “Accept”, and started running towards the thugs. Though he was around 50 meters away from the masked figures, Riley knew he could catch up with ease. He toggled and sprinted towards his targets.

Normally this would have been a match of stamina, as both Riley and the robbers would be running at similar speeds. However, using , which essentially doubled his speed, Riley was able to cover the difference without breaking a sweat.

Within a matter of 5 seconds, Riley had already caught up to the two of them. He dived towards the thug holding the purse.

“Hey, what the fu-”

Riley caught hold of the hem of his target's t-shirt. The move was calculated, but man was he bad at math. Though he had managed to bring one of the thieves down, Riley himself was destined to taste concrete soon after. The momentum from his increased speed and sudden break prevented him from breaking his fall, especially when both of his hands had been preoccupied with grabbing the thief.

Upon hearing his comrade fall, the other thug grinded to a halt, pulling out a knife.

“Hey kid, back off, or I’ll carve you a new smile. No point getting hurt over a purse that ain't yours.”

Riley forced a smile as he slowly got up, retorting, “No need for that when my smile looks this good. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” As he was speaking, he quickly calculated his next move.

'Alright, one thug down. Before he recovers, I need to take out the guy with the knife. Should be easy with .'

Riley charged towards the thug, though he felt slower than usual. Riley then reeled his fist back and tried to use . However, before he could get into range, his [Sense Danger] triggered, and instinctively, Riley dodged to the right, narrowly dodging a stab.

“What the-”

Before Riley could complete his sentence, a window popped up.

“Insufficient Mana.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that was toggled off.

'Ah crap. I forgot how mana exhaustive is. That explains why I was so sluggish. This might be tougher than usual, but I think I’ll manage.'

Taking advantage of the thug’s unstable balance from the missed stab, Riley squatted and performed a . Due to his already compromising stance, it took absolutely no effort for Riley to topple the thug.

“You know, you need to aim properly before swinging that stuff around, else you’re gonna trip. Here, let me show you how to use it.”

Riley squatted down, and rested one knee on the thug’s back. He grabbed the arm wielding the knife and placed him in an arm lock.

“Wait, wait, stop, I give up!”

Riley smiled as he continued applying pressure on the thug’s arm.

“But you didn’t stop when the lady told you to, though?”

“I-I’m sorry! I quit, I quit!”

The thug screamed and floundered as the pain intensified, releasing the knife from his grasp. Riley pocketed the knife.

Pulling the thug up by the collar, Riley gave him a solid punch to the gut, before pushing him away into the nearest wall. Out cold, the thug collapsed onto the ground.

"Oi."

Riley jumped away from what he presumed was the other thug, [Sense Danger] buzzing in his head.

Turning around, he saw that he had managed to avoid a chokehold.

"You'll pay for this, brat."

The other thug had dropped the bag on the floor and now had his arms up in a pseudo-boxing stance. Riley smirked.

"Your friend couldn't fight me with a knife, what makes you think you can take me on barehanded?"

Riley was trying to buy as much time as possible for his mana to regenerate. The bar had barely filled up to about around a tenth. With his mana bar depleted, he could see a small text at the right end of the bar, “+0.22 per second”, recovering seemingly around 0.1% per second.

The thug charged at him, right arm reeled back for a punch. Riley tutted.

'Why was I even worried? I won't even need any mana for this.'

Riley dodged out of the way, caught the thug's arm as it flew past his face, and used all his might to perform a . The thug hit the ground hard. As insurance, Riley gave him a hard kick to the torso.

'There's no way he's getting back up from that one.'

With his mana somewhat depleted, Riley had to ensure neither thug would be performing any sneak attacks when his back was turned.

“Battle ended. Experience gained: 40.”

His EXP bar appeared, and he saw it fill up to full and resetted back to zero, filling up till it showed 3/149.

“Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 5.”

“Alright, time to return the purse to the damsel in distress.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's note:

Patch 7.0

- Regular weekly update

- Hidden class mission unlocked!

Name: Riley Petesgeralt

Age: 16

Job: The Roleplayer

Level: 5 (+1)

HP: 250

MP: 220

EXP: 3/149

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 23

Vitality: 25

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 22

Charisma: 25

Luck: 20

Skills:

Roleplayer’s Mind

Virtual Body

Analyze (Level 4) (+2)

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)

Physical Endurance (Level 1)

The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)

Dodge Step (Level 1)

Counter Flip (Level 1)

Leg Sweep (Level 1)

Power Punch (Level 2)

Extreme Agility (Level 1)

Sense Danger (Level 2)

Trash Talk (Level 1)

Power Swing (Level 3)

Quick Draw (Level 1)