“If you just ignore them, they will stop harassing you.”
Said no one ever.
If someone says that to me in front of my face, I would undoubtedly scoff at them. In fact, I would do my best to strike the retard down. People that say stupid phrases should not reproduce or else their stupidity will be passed down. I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.
But anyway...Currently I am struggling. It seems as if I am doing dumbbell lunges, with sweat pouring down my face with my tongue panting out..
I look so unreasonable so I sincerely regret living at the very top of this unreasonably steep hill. Whether it is walking up or walking down, it takes an unreasonable amount of effort to travel.
Which makes me seriously wonder how that old grandma two houses down from me, is able to easily scale the hill to obtain groceries and go back home several times a day.
Is she…a .superwoman? or am I just too damn weak…. Probably the former.
But honestly, I seriously wonder why it seems as if it takes way more effort for me than it takes for her.
But anyways, the only reason why I bother making the trip at all is because of my high school. The distance is a bit too close to ask the chauffeur to drive me around, but it is far enough for me to struggle going there…
So many nuisances.
After walking down the hill and after going straight down the road for about a mile down, you will eventually see my blasted high school: Flour Del Cour High School.
Man...I seriously should have asked the chauffeur to drive. I probably look so unsightly, that auntie over there is giving me a weird look.
Hey!
It’s not as if I want to look like a half dead dog!
Life is honestly just too cruel….
As I neared and got closer and closer to the entrance of my highschool, I realized my brutal mistake.
“…Effing hell.” I muttered under my breath... Even from a distance I could clearly see three unmistakable silhouettes lounging against the wall right next to the entrance. The three kids who had been antagonizing me since...honestly only god knows when.
The same three couple of guys.
Upon seeing them, I seriously had a miniature debate in my head.
Should I just leave?
A three way conversation initiated within my mind, which is what ends up happening most of the time anyways. Two versions of me always appears, with one wearing purely a white toga and one with a crisp black suit. The one with the white toga, always has little wings and a ‘pure look’? The one with a black suit, ends up having red tinted eyes, miniature draconic black wings and a three tipped spear.
Anyway, they always appear when I have an internal debate. The pure version of me, surprisingly calls himself Mikhael. While the other one calls himself Asura and they both appear on my right and left shoulder respectively.
A miniature version of me in angelic clothing, who calls himself Mikhael, popped up on my right shoulder whilst a more devilish looking version of me (who calls himself Asura) poofed and appeared on my left shoulder.
Me: ….I seriously feel like leaving.
Mikhael: But you’re not realllyyy going to do it right? You won’t disappoint your parents like that right?!
Asura: A-boo-damn-hoo. Shut your damn face Mikhael.
Asura throws his three tipped spear with pinpoint accuracy hitting Mikhael’s throat. With white and gold fairy dust spilling out of the wound, Mikhael gripped his throat trying to stop the damage, but it was too late. “Don’t do it!” trailed after his disappearing body.
Asura: Great. The annoyance is gone. I really hate goody-two-shoes. Nobody is that “innately” good, so it would be better for both of our sakes.
Me: So what do you propose I do?
Asura: Don’t ask me, what the heck?, figure it out yourself. I just appeared to counter whatever that little shit has to say. Just do what you feel like doing, but preferably something that does not end up with you being beaten up to a pulp like every other time.
….
Sigh, why is he so useless.
The only path that I can go, is forwards… Even if I left now, my parents would get suspicious and if I go through I would definitely get beaten. This time though….this time..
Gritting my teeth, I walked forward.
As I walked near the entrance, for some weird reason my palms started sweating and unknowingly my heart started accelerating.
Sigh why does this always happen. Even with the start of the new year, I got beaten to the point of unconsciousness. Right now, being the middle of the semester, I am still being attacked daily.
But despite being used to being beaten, the sense of nervousness from incoming doom could not disappear completely.
Attempting to appear calm, I strolled “confidently" up to the entrance. As I got closer, I realized that it was too late to turn back. They already noticed me. The shark like trio, like scenting blood, will definitely not let me, the ‘prey’, escape. The situation is just like a video game, where you enter the boss’s lair and immediately a wall closes the path for escape.
Trying my best to ignore them, I took a step past them, successfully taking a step into the academic grounds.
After entering, I immediately tried to quicken my pace to enter the academic building because at least in there I would be safe; there they will not attack me. But inside, I would only face another type of bullying. Passive bullying: where everyone treated as if I did not exist. They did not want to attract the dangers of being associated with me, the target of the three most powerful people inside the school.
They were unstoppable, even the teachers could do nothing about it. All three of them had relatives with leadership positions inside the school. Even the teachers were affiliated with their families. Thus, they could not be touched. A tyrannical system. But at least, in the school, they would hold back the violence. Because, even if they did not look like it, they were smart in their own way. Second, third, fourth places respectively in the entire school.
Me? I’m first. Perhaps, that’s why they always antagonized me, or was it because their parents did not love them enough?
Who would ever know?
But I took ten additional steps which successfully made placed me at the halfway mark between the school’s entrance and its academic building.
Am I safe?
Are they not going to attack me today?
Thinking thoughts such as these, I took three more steps.
“OY you fucking brat”
A single voice permeated the crisp morning air. The voice owned by a man by the name of Aiko. The man who was the son of the most powerful man in the board, the son of the director.
…I was too naïve.
All of a sudden a huge arm appeared and wrapped itself around my shoulders, a boa constrictor.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” A second voice whispered to me in my ear. A cruel voice, Makinoichi Ren.
Before I could even address either of the two, my hoodie was grabbed and I was grabbed, or rather, dragged back to the entrance of the high school. This guy, I reckon, is Hander Gretchel. A man who rarely talks and if he does talk, it was short sentences... The Frankenstein of the school, with a huge unreasonable body all he does is follow Aiko’s orders. He wordlessly obeys.
This man, is the scariest. To me Aiko, Ren and even the amount of influence they have due to their parents...they are not scary. To me, the man by the name of Hander..he is the scariest one. Expressionless and emotion-less, he is the stuff that comes from nightmares.
For the umpteenth time, I was forcibly dragged somewhere by this brute and for the umpteenth time, I was thrown.
Thud! The sound of my face meeting the earth could be heard.
Why is it always me? I lamented and cursed my luck. But, I should have guessed that they were going to wait for me… Who am I kidding; they will always wait for me. Is it because I am superior? In terms of looks? In terms of intellect? or was it simply because their parents stressed them out too much or they did not love them enough?
“What do you want…”I sighed out as I attempted to pick myself off the ground.
WHAM! That was the sound of a foot hitting the ground and missing my head by a few centimeters.
That kick barely missed my head by centimeters! ...If that blow hit my head, would I have died or would my skull shatter?
“Who said you could ask questions?” The scoundrel of a leader scowled.
Crouching down, Ren dusted off the dust off my clothes as if he really cared.
“Oh my, oh my.. look at you! You got dirt all over yourself!”
Grabbing dirt with one of his hands, he gently applied it to my hair with the motion of brushing the dirt off.
Chuckling, Ren seemed to admire his handiwork.
“Now you look just like my dog!”
This…guy
I silently grit my teeth and clenched my fist.
Bending over again, Ren once again positioned himself so that his face was directly next to my ear.
“Hey...why don’t you just die already? I know if I were you, I would have done the same thing. Except nobody would care if you disappeared, so just go. Go already.”
I clenched my fist once again and turned around sharply. Locating his throat, I threw a punch. With as much force as I can muster.
Whak!
My fist met his throat and Ren fell down dazed. Clutching his throat and wheezing, it seemed as if Ren was struggling to breathe. Lying on the ground, and clutching his throat, his chest was heaving up and down.
“Get the hell away from me.” I breathed out angrily.
“Haaah?” The leader questioned. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
Aiko motioned to Hander with his eyes and before I knew what happened. I felt a pain in my stomach and I was lifted more than a couple of inches off the floor.
There was no hope of escape!
“Prepare yourself.” Hander breathed out these two words with such a low voice that even I struggled to hear it.
The leader smiled in maniacal anticipation. Stretching his limbs, Aiko sat down leisurely underneath a nearby tree to see the spectacle.
The only thing that could be heard in that entrance area was the sounds of fists meeting flesh, the sounds of kicks successively hitting their targets, and the thuds of stomps meeting more flesh. Every time that I am about to fall down, Hander grips my hoodie to prevent it and attacks me with more force. As I accelerate towards the ground, his fist accelerates towards my body.
Endure!
Endure!
ENDURE.
I must, no matter what, endure. Endure everything.
Because no matter what, power is absolute authority in this world and If I do not have power, I have no hope but to face them directly.
This world is absolutely rotten.
Everyday I end up being purpled from bruises; but if seeing me in pain is their goal I would not submit. No matter what, I will refuse to acknowledge the pain and endure.
I will not even let out a gasp. But in a way, I guess this means that I win. Because I will not even let out a grunt from the amount of force that is put upon me. In this manner, I will not submit. I will endure quietly, because I believe in vengeance.
Determination! That is the only thing that I have left when I face against them.
But what use is determination if I did not have power?
I hated being weak and I hated being powerless. I was disgusted at my lack of strength.
Thoughts swirled in my mind and I my mind completely numbed the pain, or was my body numbing up due to the pain? I am not too sure, but the sense of pain’s slowly diminishing.
Frightening willpower? You can call it that but in reality, all I had was that. Determination. Because despite being weak, the only thing that I CAN do is holding on and Despite being powerless, the only thing that I could do was endure.
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Divine retribution.
Surely someday they’ll receive that right? Or maybe, one day, perhaps, I can even give it to them...my divine retribution.
Well I can only hope and place my hope in karma and divine retribution or something like that.
After what felt like hours, the attacks stopped coming, perhaps it was because Hander thought it was enough? or was it that Aiko decided that this was enough for today? But sure enough, I heard the voice of Aiko.
“That’s enough. Let’s ditch school for today and head to the game shop”
“Why?” Hander questioned in the same low voice.
“I wanted to buy that new VR game, New life or some shit..Oh what the hell, i’ll buy one for you too. Oy! Ren! Get up, stop pretending to be dead.”
“…You’re so mean Aiko, can’t you just let me rest some more? I barely slept last night playing the stupid game.” Aiko replied rubbing his throat and stood up slowly.
“The brat really did a number on me, I seriously felt pain for a minute there.” Aiko said once again, swiftly kicking my body.
I felt too much pain to even notice.
The three of them talked as they left me on the ground, as a result, less and less of their conversations could be heard as they started leaving and walked in the direction of the game shop.
If any of them felt or even saw the murderous aura or intent in my eyes that I had at that moment, I think that they would not have been so quick to leave.
The weird thing is that it seemed as if the only reason as to why they went to school was to torment...me? Tormenting me took priority and education took secondary? Perhaps with the new game, they’ll be immersed for another month? I hope so, then I will be safe for another month.
But one day, one day...I will get revenge.
Brushing off the dirt, I slowly tried to stand up.
At least nothing’s broken… I’m only bruised and my clothes aren’t in tatters. they are only dirtied. Freeing the loose tooth from the confines of my gums, I spat it out and looked around. I was attracting stares: however once I looked back at them they quickly looked away.
“Fucking good for nothing no lives…the bunch of these cowards.” I directed my comment to everyone in the vicinity. All they did was look, albeit in horror and empathy, but mostly in neutrality.
Patting myself down once more to rid the dirt and I finally entered the building to attend class. Despite the troubles that the students of the school gave me, I was still a top student. Putting in minimum efforts, I achieved great academic results. Perhaps it was because it’s high school, I understood mostly everything that was taught to me, hopefully the college admission tests are on the same level.
As a result of this, not even the teachers bothered me. They had nothing to teach; I more or less knew most of what they were teaching me. But I guess in this way, I also faced malicious bullying from my classmates. In class, at lunch, on the way home as well. I was alone. I was much too different? In terms of appearance and intellect? I was an outlier in a concentrated graph.
The school day went by quickly seeing as the delinquents never came back. Well, I mostly just took a nap throughout the day because there were no more disturbances. WIth a glance at the chalkboard, any problem that the professor gave me I could easily solve. In my high school, the teachers moved and enter different classrooms to teach their subjects, so I ended up napping. In the end I felt mad refreshed and rejuvenated despite the injuries.
***
Upon leaving the school, a chauffeur and a limousine was waiting for me. Thank god, I did not want to walk up that hill, at least not with my current injuries. At around this time, a small sized bruise was forming near my jaw.
So when I returned home, my parents were waiting outside and they immediately went into shock.
“My God! What happened to your face Tendris!” Father rumbled.
“TENDRIS, MY CHILD, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!”My mother shrilly yelled.
“…. It’s nothing much, I just bumped into the railing at school.” I muttered “Not really that big of a deal.”
“Stop lying...did you get into a fight? You’re at that age aren’t you! DEAR! Our son’s turning into a delinquent” Mother depressingly sighed out.
“....”
“Now, now. Honey, stop over reacting. He might have really hurt himself accidently, you know how early he wakes up? He might have still been tired..But still, in the future still be careful.” My father responded and easily accepts my answer.
“My poor child...Are you still in pain? Are you hurt anywhere else?” Mother carefully inspects the wound, turning my jaw here and there with furrowed brows. She almost tore off my clothes to inspect everywhere before both me and my father stopped her.
“We’re still in public!” With that excuse, she stopped.
Anywho, Yuu is a shortened nickname my mother gave me and only she ever called me Yuu. In fact, everybody else called me Tendris or rather, Tenri. Something that one of my cousins started, but it’d take much too long to tell the entire story. But Tendris Yuusha is my full name. Something that’s rather ironic. Yuusha means hero, but rather than being a hero I would consider myself to be a side character?
The unlucky victim that the hero saves? I guess… But in this particular story, there is no such story and I am still the unlucky victim.
Whatever. It is just a last name anyways.
“Maa, I’m fine. Stop worrying!” I smiled innocently.
Still worried, my mother patted me down once more to check for any signs of broken bones or deep bruises. But since I did not let any signs of any pain to show, my mother determined that I was not that deeply hurt after a few more moments of petting.
Finally satisfied, my mother once again stood up in a posture that indicated that she wanted to announce something.
“… Me and your father bought you a surprise present!!” Mother excitedly announced, “WE BOUGHT YOU NEW LIFE ONLINE!!”
Ahem my father coughed and quietly interrupted. “Well we actually bought 3 capsules with the game already installed” His father hurriedly explained. “But we, meaning me and your mother, probably won’t be able to play till our vacation starts or something. Work is taking up too much of my time.”
“So earlier today, we saw a televised commercial on the television while we were eating breakfast and we decided to purchase one! The advertisement made the game seem so interesting, and all of our co-workers were playing it at the moment. As a result we easily made the decision to purchase one for our family! It turns out that the game requires the purchase of a common capsule and a one time payment of 590 USD.”
“Don’t worry about anything, Yuu, honey. We already paid for everything!” His mother assured me. “Just go upstairs to your bedroom; we already asked the workers to install the capsule in your room.”
<
<< This new VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) allows the user to experience a new world and have adventures. It should be really fun!>>
***
*Flashing back to what the bullies said earlier*
…
-If those three brain dead retards were aware and playing the game already…. I’m sure at least 70% of the school should also know about the game or that they already have it-
I mused thoughtfully.
***
“Thanks ma! Thanks dad!” I ran up and hugged both of them. “Thanks for the present!” I beamed at both of them and started running into the house.
“The game manual is on your desk!...and don’t RUN IN THE HOUSE!”
My mothers voice trailed after me as I dashed up the stairs. I was eager to start. I can start my plan for vengeance already. I can already taste the sweetness that comes from revenge. Because within the game, I can be strong. I can train and become stronger than I am already right now.
Running into my room and shutting the drapes once more, I immediately saw the silverish capsule put on the bed. Instead of a futuristic looking like capsule that I expected, it was a delicate looking motorcycle helmet looking contraption, except without the visor.
I turned on the little lamp stationed on my desk,sat down on a chair and started reading the manual.
A New Life Online was a VR that had and boasted of being the first VRMMORPG with 95% realism with a pain limit set up to protect the user from trauma. Within the game, time is somewhat warped. For every 4 hours that you spend within the game, only one hour is spent outside which creates a sense of fulfillment. “I did so much in so little time!” Thoughts such as this.
The game, apparently, has only recently been created, so I would reckon that there would be smaller amount of high leveled players. Reading on I consequentially realized that:
In the game, there were currently 5 discovered races: Elves, humans ,orcs, dwarves and demons. There were many discovered races and they will unlock as users discover them. For example, when someone discovers the hidden race: Vampire, the race will then be able to be created and selected from the character creation screen. When you start the game, you’ll be put in a starting town with a starting family. There will be a time restriction limit of 4 weeks inside the game before you’ll be able to venture outside.
I also learned that in the game it will be possible to gain skills.There are also multiple ways to gain skills such as learning through a skill book or doing a special motion to create a new skill. The manual does not say anything further in that regard. But apparently, depending on the skills that you have in real life, there will be a greater chance of recreating the skill successfully in the game. Like a pickpocket, would have no trouble doing the same in the game and they would eventually generate a new skill.
To raise a skill to a level, you can gain experience for the respective skill by repetitions of the skill itself or rather you can utilize the skill in a variety of different ways to boost experience.
Stats, similarly, could also be gained through enough training. Constantly running may gain more agility stats and lifting heavy objects may gain the strength stat. All in all, other than by leveling there are other ways in which you can raise stat points.
Skimming through the less important parts, I skipped to the instructions on how to enter the capsule and consequentially the game itself. After making sure that I did not miss anything of huge importance, I plugged in the helmet like capsule and turned the power on. When I lied down and put the capsule on, blackness covered my eyes and it seemed as if I fell into a dark abyss. Slowly heavenly bodies and stars appeared out of nowhere and surrounded me as if I were in space.
In front of me, a transparently blue window appeared opting me to make a selection.
Starting initial operations…
Scanning for necessary personal data…
Unregistered user detected…
Would you like to Register a New account?
“Yes”
Once I made the selection, in the next moment both the galaxies and the window disappeared and I was sitting on a chair in a blank room.
A soothing female’s voice could be heard.
“Welcome to New Life Online.”