I'm saying this now, this story isn't for those who simp for Ayanokoji. So, if you're one of them, best to leave now then later. Also, this first chapter is more of an introductory chapter to help understand the system and such utilized.
There will be far more social interaction and such in the chapters after. Finally, this story is written mostly based on the Anime.
═════ ≪ ❈ ≫ ═════
The ordinary and the extraordinary.
The talented and the talentless.
Everyone is not born equal, and that is an irrefutable law of humanity. Let it be family circumstances, physical limitations, or the ability to grasp a certain subject. However, talent and hard work go hand in hand.
If one doesn't cultivate the talents they're born with, those talents will eventually drown in the sea of nothingness. Those without said talent, however, either accept their fates or push ahead and achieve great things in life. Even the talentless should never be underestimated.
In the end, it all depends on a person's willingness to take the necessary steps.
For someone like Ryuga, he was among the latter, he was mostly average across the whole board. Well, aside from relatively decent looks and a certain degree of ability in singing, there wasn't anything that special.
Well, if you consider that he was quite well off, then there was that. It wasn't that his family was rich, he just had some... special circumstances.
At the current time, Ryuga could be seen inside of what looked to be a private gym of his, his breath slightly heavy as he stared silently at the floating screen in front of him. Ryuga was a young man no older than fifteen, though seemed to possess a very strong physique unbefitting of someone his age.
With a slightly pale but healthy complexion, which went well with his smooth snow-white hair, and his pair of metallic gold eyes, he was quite a gem in terms of appearance. And with his current clothing consisting of a simple pair of black shorts, a blue compression fitness t-shirt and a pair of black running shoes, his exaggerated figure was well on display.
He didn't have a body builders physique, his muscles were lean and compact, with little to no body fat. It looked better than even the body of a professional athlete. Aside from that, the floating screen in front of Ryuga had quite a lot of information being displayed.
Right now, he was focused on the lower half.
═══════════════
[STATUS]
• Name: Hiroshi Ryuga
• Skills: [Boxing (Master)] [Bloodlust - Variant: Spider (Elite)] [Parkour (Elite)] [Cooking (Master)]
.
Parameters (Stat Tokens: 0):
• Strength: 7.4 (7/15)
• Agility: 6.8 (2/10)
• Intellect: 6.5 (8/10)
• Dexterity: 6.7 (2/10)
• Willpower: 7.4 (2/15)
• Fortitude: 15.0 (0/55)
.
Stat Token Conversion Rate: 1/5,000 Points (Points Available: 0)
═══════════════
'The token count on Strength increased by three, not a bad amount at all. I pushed myself quite a bit today though, I feel exhausted...'
Ryuga didn't know how he got this system, but it was a blessing he wasn't going to refuse. To better understand how much it has helped him, we'd look at the stats. Three months ago, when he got this system, his stats were all quite average and bounced between 5.0 to 5.5. Those numbers have obviously gotten much higher now.
From what he understood based on a brief introduction he received when first getting the system, the peak a normal human can possibly achieve is 10.0. With his current Strength being valued at 7.4, he'd say that he had the physical power of your average professional athlete.
Of course, there were many factors to consider, but he was quite sure that top professional athletes along with bodybuilders probably had physical strengths in the 8.0 range. As for the strongest of bodybuilders, perhaps they may be capable of reaching close or possibly even into the 9.0 range, but he wasn't sure.
Aside from Strength, there were other parameters as well. Each obviously referring to other aspects of his person, both physical and mental. Strength referred to the strength of his muscles, which meant it also encompassed not only pure power but also his durability.
Agility was more interesting, it not only referred to his overall movement speed but also the speed of his reflexes and reaction time.
Intellect was also interesting, it didn't refer to the amount of knowledge he had, but his ability to comprehend, process, utilize and observe given information.
Dexterity was his control over his own body, as well as the flexibility of his muscles and such. Therefore, he made sure to work on this together with Agility and Strength.
As for Willpower, if he understood it right, referred to his ability to control his own emotions and mental state. Finally, Fortitude was his level of mental endurance in the face of hardship, adversity, and pain.
Both Willpower and Fortitude were similar in ways, but although they were both mental strengths, they were different in nuance.
His Fortitude was also abnormally far higher compared to the rest, ridiculously so. He wasn't exactly surprised either...
Training these parameters were pretty straight forward, but Willpower was another matter. He wasn't entirely certain how to properly train it aside from possibly meditation. Strength, Agility, and Dexterity had obvious exercises that could be done to improve them, and Intellect just required him to study.
As for Fortitude, it already was high enough that he doubted he'd ever need to train it.
Regarding the Stat Tokens, he knew of how to get those, and that was through assigned quests. As for the conversion of Points, he had no idea what Points referred to, he had never received any.
'Hmm...' Without saying anything, Ryuga took put his phone. 'Only two more weeks until I head off to ANHS, three whole years there, huh?'
ANHS, otherwise known as Advanced Nurturing High School.
An elite academic institution that boasts a 100% employment and college entry rate, and for good reason too. It was a government funded school, so you can already guess it'd be high end.
From information and pictures available online, the school looked like a damn paradise. That's why thousands try to apply to attend, and in the end, only 100 end up being accepted.
Fortunately, he was one of those few.
'But even a paradise has its dark sides.' Ryuga shook his head and got up from the workout bench he was sat on. 'An elite school would never be easy, such luxurious benefits definitely aren't being given out as charity.'
He absolutely refused to believe that simply being accepted assured your future, the purpose of a school was to cultivate its students after all.
If a student could just go to school, do absolute jack shit while living in heaven, graduate and become the next billionaire then Ryuga wouldn't know what's wrong with the world.
Whatever the case, he'll definitely know more when he actually begins attending. For now, he was going to freshen up and get some serious studying done.
His Intellect was his lowest stat right now, so he definitely wanted to improve that if he was going to be attending an elite school.
═════ ≪ ❈ ≫ ═════
[STAT: Intellect (+1)]
[STAT: Intellect (+1)]
[...]
[INTELLECT: 6.5 —> 6.6]
As Ryuga was focused on studying while sitting at his desk, a familiar notification popped up in the corner of his peripheral vision.
Although he didn't react much, a small smile appeared on his face. He naturally came to realise that the higher his stats became, the more difficult it would be to increase.
Therefore, the dinging sound of improvement was absolute music to his ears.
Improvement was relatively fast at first, but after reaching the 6.0 and especially the 7.0 range, naturally increasing the parameters instead of using obtained Stat Tokens was evidently slower.
He wasn't going to make a fuss though, it had only been three months and such a degree of improvement from an average person was incredible.
On top of that, it also meant that he was one step closer to completing the current mission that the system had issued for him.
Speaking of which, he stopped studying for the time being as he swiped his hands as the familiar system appeared in front of him.
═══════════════
[MASTER CLASS SYSTEM]
• Status
• Mission
• Inventory
• Examination
═══════════════
The system itself was quite straightforward when it came to menu options, Status was what was seen before, and the other two were self-explanatory.
The last one labeled 'Examination' was special, they were essentially tests provided by the system that he could undertake and gain certain rewards.
It was through completing these tests that he managed to gain a number of Stat Tokens as well as those Skills and Abilities on his Status screen.
Speaking of Skills and Abilities, a good thing to note was that the displayed Skills and Abilities in the Status screen only showed those obtained by the system, not ones he's cultivated himself through his life.
For right now, Ryuga tapped his finger onto the second option labeled as 'Mission'.
═══════════════
[MISSIONS]
• Objective: Raise four of your parameters to 7.0 or more
• Time Remaining: 13:17:25:30
-
Rewards:
• Stat Token (x50)
• Skill Token (x1)
═══════════════
Since the requirement for completion was four of his parameters, he was already three down with both his Strength and Willpower being in the 7.0 range and his Fortitude a whopping 15.
And looking at the current situation of his parameters, any of the remaining three were candidates for what he could work on to fill the final spot.
'Agility and Dexterity are my next two highest, so I guess I'll work on one of them. As for others, I can just use the Stat Tokens rewarded to improve that up to match the others.'
Aside from Stat Tokens, he was most interested in the Skill Token. He found them to be the most miraculous on top of having the best benefits.
Depending on what Skill is extracted, he would suddenly find information he had no idea about before suddenly flood and root themselves into his mind.
Example was his Skill of 'Cooking (Master)'.
He initially didn't know much or anything about cooking, but after getting the Skill, he gained knowledge about the life skill he never would have known of unless he studied.
The knowledge of basic cooking operations, the basic skills to use things like knives, and even the knowledge on foundational cooking prerequisites.
In other words, extracting Skills through this method was basically learning a particular cultivated skill in an instant without any proper hard work.
It was simply broken.
On top of that, each of the Skills had levels of proficiency, seen where the level next to the cooking Skill was labeled as 'Master'.
He didn't know the complete list of proficiency levels, but he knew at least three, two being Elite and Master, and also Veteran.
He had improved his skill of 'Parkour' from a Veteran stage to the current Elite stage. He hadn't even intended for it to happen, it just did when he was out on a run.
Speaking of which...
"Alright, I have quite a bit of work..." Ryuga stood up from his chair before stretching his arms. "I'll study for a bit more then go for a run."
Looking at the mission information, the remaining time he had was the same amount before he'd be officially heading off to ANHS.
It was a bit of a time crunch, but he was certain he could get the job done. If he really pushed himself, he could probably get it done with possibly a few days to spare.
"Wait, what day is it...?"
With a small look of doubt on his face, Ryuga took out his phone before checking the displayed date. When he saw it, his eyes widened slightly.
"Nevermind, screw studying! To the mall I go!"
You may be wondering why he suddenly acted this way. Well, to put it simply, it was only today that a particular kind of ice cream was sold in the mall.
And considering this also only happened once a fortnight, today was his last chance for the next three years to eat that speciality ice cream!
And since it was an ice cream that is custom made by the owners themselves, it was literally impossible to find anywhere else.
He may value increasing his stats, but there were now more important matters! In any case, a sprint to the mall was basically Agility training anyway!
Two birds with one stone!
═════ ≪ ❈ ≫ ═════
In all of his training since three months ago, Ryuga probably hadn't ever run as fast or hard as he had done in the past ten minutes.
[STAT: Agility (+1)]
[STAT: Agility (+1)]
Although he felt like his legs were on fire, and his breathing as heavy as that of a bulls. He didn't stop and quickly arrived at the mall.
He didn't stop either until he rushed inside and up to the second floor of the complex, and since it was still very early, there were barely any shoppers at all.
In record time, Ryuga soon arrived in front of a simple but comforting looking ice cream shop. Nothing special really, just your generic ice cream shop.
"Grandma Kozuki, I'm here!"
"Hm? Oh~, Ryuga."
The person Ryuga called out to was an elderly woman who looked to be preparing things behind the display case for all the flavours of ice cream.
As Ryuga leaned over the counter next to the display case, the woman known as Grandma Kozuki walked over with a gentle smile on her face.
Due to the sheer number of times Ryuga had come to this ice cream shop, he had naturally come to know the owners very well.
"I can guess why you're here so early." Grandma Kozuki laughed slightly as she looked at Ryuga. "You want some of the Kozuki family's special ice cream, correct?"
"Of course." Ryuga nodded with a smile on his face. "I definitely can't afford to miss it today."
"Oh, right~! You will be starting high school soon. If I'm not mistaken, at that elite school, Advanced Nurturing High School."
"That's right. Since I'll have to stay there for three years, I have to get my fill before I head off."
"It'll be quite lonely without you." Grandma Kozuki sighed slightly as she said this. "Three whole years. In that case, please wait for a moment."
"Hm?"
Although confused, Ryuga did as told as he watched Grandma Kozuki head off into the back of the shop. It didn't take long before he saw her coming back out.
Unlike when she left, she now had a plastic bag in her hand as well as a familiar cone of ice cream held in her other hand.
"Here you go, Ryuga." Grandma Kozuki smiled as she handed the ice cream cone over the counter to Ryuga. "And as a farewell gift, here is a little extra for you. It's on the house."
Ryuga looked as Grandma Kozuki opened the bag to show a large container, labeled with 'Kozuki Special Ice Cream'.
Just the sound of it being placed onto the counter was enough to show how full it was. Obviously filled to the brim with the written ice cream flavour.
Seeing this, Ryuga's eyes had a small stars that seemed to shine.
Each person could only buy one cone of this kind of ice cream whenever it was on sale, so seeing this large container, how could he not be ecstatic?
"Then here's the money for the cone. Thank you so much, Grandma Kozuki!"
"No need, Ryuga." Grandma Kozuki shook her head with a smile as she gently pushed his hand back that held the money. "There is no need to pay."
"Are you sure...?"
"Of course. Seeing how much you love our ice cream is already enough for me." Grandma Kozuki gave a small laugh as she responded. "Hm? Are you still wearing those?"
What Grandma Kozuki was referring to were the pair of thin black gloves that Ryuga had on, thin enough to show off his slender fingers but not show any skin colour.
"Even after all these years. You changed from such a quiet and distant boy to who you are now, but you still haven't ever taken off those gloves."
"W-Well, they're important to me." Ryuga laugh a bit nervously as he now held the plastic bag with the ice cream in his right hand. "In any case, thank you everything, Grandma Kozuki."
"There is no need for thanks, I wish you the absolute best of luck in your new school."