Morning.
The sun shining on my face as I climb out of bed.
"6:00" My clock reads, the time I wake up for school.
I search through my closet for a set of clothes, I don't have energy to curate an outfit so I just throw on the first thing I see.
A quick look in the mirror and I bound out the door to head to school.
A simple thirty minute walk is all it takes, it keeps me in decent shape and lets me get a breath of fresh air.
Stamina increased by +0.1
My system glows blue with white text, it tells me of a stat increase.
In this world your worth as a person is determined by these numbers, the higher your stat numbers the higher your place in society.
Not only stats, but people can also acquire skills. These grant even more privilege than stat numbers.
You can only gain skills two ways; Being born with one, or reaching the pinnacle of a certain field.
These skills are seperated into two categories, Innate Skills (The kind you are born with), and Master Skills (The kind you achieve with mastery.)
Not all skills are created equally, most innate skills are stronger than master skills, and with an innate skill gaining master skills becomes easier.
I was born with one of these innate skills, however my peers and instructors agree it's a useless skill.
It's called Experienced, it grants me stats for doing an action repeatedly.
It's why I gain stamina for walking to school. This may seem to be a good skill, but it's usefullness is offset by two things.
One, the stat gain is negligible, gaining a tenth of a stat per action.
Two, one can gain stats by going to specialized training facilities.
This made my skill essentially useless, the only thing that kept me from being looked down upon was my slightly superior stats.
Throughout my academic career my stats have been about 1 point higher than the average student.
This allowed me to maintain the top 5% spot at my schools, being beat only by those in families with the money to invest in stat training for their children.
I've avoided the wrath of bullies and failing grades, and my stats reflect why:
Strength: 11
Speed: 13
Stamina: 17
Mind: 15
My stamina and speed are higher than my other stats due to my daily commute and constant studying.
My speed only increase during running days in P.E. which are typically once a week.
Finally, my strength stat is my lowest. It increase quicker when i'm in a physical altercation with someone, but this happens very rarely.
Instead i've increased it slowly with home training doing body weight exercises.
The average stat for a student of my grade is about 10, putting me above my peers but just below the rich kids whose stats hover around the 20-25 range.
I finish my walk to school and enter the building, a white and maroon maze of corridors and doors.
The walls are lined with windows revealing the landscape outside, no doubt where most of the budget for our school goes.
In the fields there are multiple tracks and sports arenas, in which there are many students practicing.
I myself am part of no clubs, but I always check the bulletin board at the entrance of our school just in case one catches my eye.
Today, there was a poster that was orange and blue. On it, in bold letters, was a statement; "It's coming, prepare adequately."
Another way to scare the students into studying for the final exams, with them coming up in a few weeks many began to scramble.
However, something felt different with this poster and almost instinctively I ripped it off the board and placed it in my pocket.
I turned around to head to class when I bumped into someone who was standing behind me.
"What are you doing with that poster?"
It was Evan Truman, the number one student of my school.