Kaizen was buzzing. Three skills. Three.
And from the way they looked? All of them were stupidly OP.
A skill that made learning magic easy? Hell yeah! Instant nerd mode unlocked.
A skill that turned useless junk into ranked weapons? Who could do that?
Only him.
Student #4 had finally ascended from background NPC to "do not piss off this guy" territory.
And the last skill, whatever it meant, he was pretty sure it was OP as—
VROOOOOOM.
A heavy mana engine roared to life, slicing straight through his internal celebration. Kaizen blinked and looked up, only to see the back of the bus—already moving, already twenty feet away, and picking up speed.
"WAIT!"
Kaizen's pseudo main character complex shattered instantly. He scrambled forward, his backpack bouncing violently against his spine like a disgruntled koala.
"STOP! I HAVE A TICKET! I HAVE... well, I don't have a ticket, BUT I HAVE ZENITH ACADEMY ID CARD!"
He sprinted. His F-Rank legs pumped furiously. For a brief second, his [Agility: 4] kicked in.
'I am speed! I am... slightly faster than a walking duck!'
He was drafting behind the exhaust pipe, inhaling mana-fumes like they were oxygen.
'I can make it! I can make it! Don't let my loot get away!'
The bus shifted gears.
VROOOOM.
It pulled away. The gap widened. Five feet. Ten feet. Twenty feet.
"No!" Kaizen wheezed, his asthma knocking on the door of his lungs. "My heist! My economy!"
He slowed down, his chest burning. It was over. The next bus wasn't for an hour or two. By then, the Shady Bazaar might be closed, or worse, crowded with people who actually had money.
Then, he saw movement.
A small, round head popped out of the rear window.
It was the snotty kid.
Kaizen's eyes lit up. Hope! A human connection!
"Hey!" Kaizen waved his arms frantically while jogging, looking like a drowning man on dry land. "Hey! Kid! Tell your dad to stop! Tell the driver! STOP THE BUS!"
The kid stared at him. The wind ruffled his hair.
The kid giggled.
He raised his small, chubby hands to his face. He pulled his eyelids down. He puffed his cheeks out.
He did the Kaizen Derp Face.
Kaizen stumbled. 'That little... he's mocking me with my own move!'
"Stop the bus!" Kaizen screamed, ignoring the stitch in his side.
The kid stopped making the face. He smiled angelically.
Then, he slowly, deliberately, raised his middle finger.
Kaizen blinked. He almost tripped over his own feet.
'Did... did a five-year-old just flip me off? In a fantasy world? Who taught him that?!'
The kid withdrew his hand, laughed, and popped his head back inside the bus. The vehicle sped up, turning a corner, about to disappear from sight.
Kaizen stopped running. He stood in the middle of the road, hands on his knees, fuming.
"You little demon!" Kaizen yelled at the retreating exhaust. "I hope you drop your ice cream! I hope your socks get wet! I hope your pillow is warm on both sides!"
Suddenly, a blue window flashed in his mind. It wasn't the Status Screen. It was a Prompt. It blinked aggressively, red text on a blue background.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[Target Vehicle is leaving Render Distance.]
[Player/Asset is out of bounds for the Scene.]
[Asset Culling Imminent.]
[Proceed with [Blink]]
[Y / N]
Kaizen stared at the floating letters.
"What?"
He didn't have time to read the fine print. He didn't have time to ask what "Asset Culling" meant (though it sounded suspiciously like 'Delete Character'). The bus was disappearing around the bend. If he lost line of sight, he lost his ride.
"What kind of question is that?!"
Kaizen mentally slammed his fist on the
[YES]
button.
"YES! GET ME ON THAT BUS!"
[Command Accepted.]
[Lag Spike Initiated.]
ZZZZZT.
The world didn't fade to black. It smeared.
Kaizen felt like he was being sucked through a straw. The colors of the street stretched into infinite lines. His stomach did a 360-degree backflip inside his torso.
It wasn't magic. It was a glitch. It felt like aggressive server lag—like when you run into a wall in a game and the server rubber-bands you forward five seconds later.
POP.
The sound was like someone uncorking a bottle, but instead of wine, it was Kaizen's sanity.
He slammed into something soft and squishy. His vision spun like a discount loading screen. Cheap leather hit his nose.
He blinked.
He was… sitting?
In the back seat of the bus?
"Ugh…" Kaizen groaned, clutching his head. "Motion sickness… debuff… pretty sure I left my stomach back on the pavement…"
To his left, the dad was dead asleep, snoring against the window like a tranquilized bear.
To his right—
The snotty kid was kneeling on the seat, staring proudly out the back window at the empty road where Kaizen used to be. The kid was still giggling, absolutely delighted with his middle-finger masterpiece.
Kaizen leaned forward until his face hovered right beside the child's ear.
"Peek-a-boo," he whispered.
The kid froze.The giggling died instantly.
Slowly the kid turned his head.
His eyes landed on Kaizen.
The guy who was 100 meters behind the bus three seconds ago.
The guy now sitting comfortably beside him like a corrupted game asset, pale and smiling like a bugged-out NPC boss.
The kid's eyes ballooned. His pupils detonated outward.
He opened his mouth.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
The scream was loud enough to make the windows consider shattering.
The dad woke up with a snort. "What?! What is it?! Demons?!"
The bus driver slammed on the brakes.
Kaizen sat back, crossed his arms, and looked out the window casually, humming a little tune.
"Must be the wind," Kaizen said, looking at the dad with an innocent smile.
The dad looked confused, then looked at his son, who was now trembling and pointing a shaking finger at Kaizen. "D-d-dad! He... he teleported! He's a monster!"
"Hush now, Timmy," the dad yawned, patting the kid's head. "Stop making up stories. Be polite to the nice student."
"But—!"
"Hush."
The bus started moving again.
For the next hour, the ride was incredibly peaceful.
Well, for Kaizen it was peaceful. For the kid, it was a psychological horror film.
The kid didn't dare look Kaizen in the eye. He sat rigid, clutching his dad's sleeve. But every few minutes, curiosity would get the better of him, and he would slide his eyes to the side.
Every single time he looked, Kaizen was ready.
Kaizen would cross his eyes. Kaizen would peel his lips back like a goblin. Kaizen would mouth the words: I am under your bed.
The kid would whimper, tremble, and stare straight ahead, tears pooling in his eyes.
'Justice,' Kaizen thought, sipping his imaginary victory tea. 'Sweet, petty justice.'
Finally, the automated voice chimed.
"Arriving at Zenith Prime City Center. Please watch your step."
The bus hissed to a halt.
Kaizen stood up. He grabbed his backpack. He looked fresh, rested, and ready for crime.
He turned to the father.
"Have a wonderful day, sir," Kaizen said with a polite bow. "You have a... lovely child."
"Thank you, young man," the dad smiled wearily. "Study hard at the academy!"
"I will."
Then, Kaizen looked at the kid.
The kid was pressed against the window, trying to merge with the glass to get away from him.
Kaizen smiled.
He slowly raised his thumb.
He drew it across his throat in a slow, deliberate slicing motion.
Zip.
The kid's soul left his body.
Kaizen turned and hopped off the bus, whistling.
It was 8:00 AM.
The City Center was already alive. The smell of street food, sweats, and pollution filled the air.
"Alright," Kaizen said, adjusting his bag. "Time to go shopping."