Prologue.
Where to begin…
Let's start at the present, and follow the life of Jayden Break.
It begins rather unremarkably, in an equally unremarkable teenager's room.
Jayden Break is a 17-year-old teenager studying at Orange Star High, despite the American name, he was born and raised in Japan, where his parents had left him at an orphanage with only but a name for the child.
Jayden Break.
He had grown up with much hardship, having to learn everything by himself, learning, as he had found out, was something Jayden excelled at, he soaked up knowledge like a sponge, whether it was languages, math, science, you name it, Jayden only had to read about it once and perfectly understand it.
This talent, naturally, got recognised.
At 15 years of age, Jayden got offered a full scholarship from Orange Star High, a prestigious school, with a stipend.
Jayden hadn't thought twice before deciding to ditch his life in the orphanage and move from the small village he had grown up in to West City.
Two years had peacefully passed by, and like usual, he excelled at everything. A prodigy, the moniker had been strapped on to him as a child.
When standing in front of greatness, only a blind man would fail to recognise it.
Jayden's own so-called greatness, his genius, was the thing that brought upon his downfall.
Great people were noticed, but that attention wasn't always of the good sort.
But that's neither here nor there, let's start at the present…
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It was early in the morning – right at that time when you woke up and felt refreshed from a good night's sleep. And then your whole mood went to shit when the day actually started.
So far, Jay's mood hadn't changed. He was drinking his morning coffee right before going to school, and his mood was becoming worse by the second as the minutes passed by.
He dreaded going to school. Just a waste of time he could spend making some good cash, he thought.
Ping!
General Toxins Resistance Skill Learned.
General Toxins Resistance Lv.1
-A skill that helps in resisting harmful toxins ranging from poisons to harmful cigarette smoke.
"Da Fuq?" Jay spoke out loud as something appeared in his sight. He lazily tried swatting it away, only for his hand to pass through the thing.
He clicked on the big red 'X' at the top right corner of the thing, which made it disappear.
He sat in thought, cigarette hanging from his mouth.
Would you like to start the tutorial?
Yes/No
After a bit of thought – well, not really. Jay wasn't the type of dude to dwell on things too much.
He pressed 'Yes', how else would he learn about this weird thing?
To start off, you've been chosen – chosen to be the bearer of great power. How you use this power is completely up to you(Have fun).
First off, let's start with the most fundamental function of this system.
Say or think 'Status'.
Doing as he was told, Jay said the magic word out loud, prompting another screen to appear.
Name: Jayden Break
Age: 17
Race: Human
Power Level: 5
Durability: 1.2x
Stamina: 1.3x
Ki: 1.65x
Attack: 1x
Speed: 1x
Life Force: 100 – Regen: 0.2/minute
Innate Trait: Presence
Overall Potential: I/E
Instead of gaining clarity, Jay got even more confused.
He had played a ton of games, enough to know that this was his character's attribute panel.
But there were no levels, no points to invest and become super strong – only some weird multipliers.
This is where you'll view how strong you've become. The multipliers behind each stat is how much that stat influences your power level. Consume rare items to increase this multiplier!
Next thing, Quests!
Here's one for you.
- Have a Power Level of 100! -
'Get your power level to 100 to complete this quest.'
Reward: 0.1x increase in chosen stat multiplier.
Seeing that Jay's power level was a measly 5, and that was from his whole life of fitness, he didn't have much hope in completing this quest.
Next!
Training Function.
Say or Think 'Training,'.
'Training?'
- Training Function -
. Shadow
Jay quickly clicked on the 'Shadow' option, curious what training with a shadow could provide.
The shadow is the most basic training function. It's a copy of yourself, only three times more powerful. By fighting it you'll gain an increase in power level, and by defeating it for the first time you gain 100 power level.
You'll automatically unlock more training opponents, you just have to find them.
That's it for the tutorial.
One more thing – watch your life force, after all, you die if it hits 0.
"Woah!" Jay stood up from his chair as a copy of himself materialized in front of him.
The thing stood unmoving, gazing off into the distance.
Jay marveled at the figure. This was the first time he had seen himself from a third person perspective.
Damn, he was sexy!
He honestly didn't wanna hit that devilishly handsome face.
Thinking that, he swung a haymaker at his imaginary twin.
-Basic Fighting Profeciency-
Level: 34
Your ability to win in a fight
The next moment, he had his nose broken.
Jay was often bullied as a kid, there were many kids, and some adults, that were jealous of his natural gifts in the village that he called Shit's Creek, so naturally, he had to learn how to defend himself. What Jay didn't take into account was that his shadow would have all of his fighting experience, only it was three times stronger.
Not even a minute passed before Jay began screaming in his head for the shadow to go away.
Thankfully, it did – fading into nothingness.
His broken nose, cracked ribs, and probably fractured skull all returned back to normal. All of Jay's physical damage had gone away, with only some lingering tiredness staying.
Training Results:
Durability Gain – 0.4
Stamina Gain – 0.1
Ki Gain – 0
Attack Gain – 0.1
Speed Gain – 0.2
Life Force Lost – 34
Life Force Gained – 0.3
Total Power Level Gain: 0.8
That was insane, Jay thought.
All he had to do was get beat up and he would get stronger? That was broken.
Jay could become the ultimate punching bag by doing this everyday.
Wait… if all Jay had to do was watch out for his life force getting depleted, he could do one more training session. Likewise he could do one more after four hours, seeing as that was how long it took for it to tick back up.
Jay spawned in a shadow once again, yet this time he took a different approach.
He lashed out with a leg sweep, followed up by an axe-kick, which resulted in his shadow falling on his back.
Jay knew that if he disengaged the battle would be lost, since his shadow was thrice as fast as him.
So he aimed a liver punch at the shadow – yet it never landed, since the shadow lashed out with a fist while still on the ground, hitting Jay square in the face.
The following sequence of events was much like the previous, ending in Jay bruised and screaming for the onslaught to stop.
Training Results:
Durability Gain – 0.4
Stamina Gain – 0.2
Ki Gain – 0
Attack Gain – 0.3
Speed Gain – 0.2
Life Force Lost – 40
Life Force Gained – 0.4 – 100.7
Total Power Level Gain: 1.1 – 6.9
The results were much greater than Jay's previous training.
And now he was at 26 life force, so he didn't dare do another training session.
Looking at the time, Jay lit another cigarette and began walking towards Orange High.
————————————————————
"Jayden~"
Jay's school life wasn't that bad.
Even though he hated attending classes, Jay really loved the people at school. He was the type of person to be friends with everyone, the type few hated.
He rarely went to school, that was why when he did his classmates and the professors got surprised.
The one he was most friendly with – Bulma Briefs just greeted him.
"Sup Undies," Jay greeted her in his own way, sitting down next to the girl. He gained many looks of discontent from the boys that flocked to her.
The girl had it all.
Money to buy the world, the brains to do anything she wanted to, the looks models would kill for, and the awful personality that came with having all those things.
"I told you not to call me that!" Bulma screeched, smacking Jay with her notebook.
"It ain't my fault your family name sounds like a bunch of underwear – Plus, your name literally means 'bloomers,'." Jay took the notebook from Bulma, also taking a pen from the table.
He began scribbling in the notebook, drawing art figures.
-Drawing-
Level: 15
'Your ability to draw what you visualize.'
"Fuck you, Jayden! And how about your family name?" Bulma bantered right back.
"It comes from a long history of breaking people's bones – or breaking other things," Jayden fired back, idly glancing at one of the boys around Bulma. He was staring a bit too much at Jayden, in a way that set him off.
"Ohh? Momma told me to stay away from guys like you," Bulma joked.
"You should listen to her, smart woman." Jayden said, returning the notebook to Bulma, a drawing of her in it. Not really, Jay had just drawn a pair of underwear and written Bulma under it.
"But maybe I want you to break me~" Bulma clung to Jay's arm, using the opportunity to squeeze his bicep.
Jay cringed at the attempt to flirt. He didn't know why the girl was interested in him, when he considered her as a really good friend and nothing more.
Bulma didn't give any other guys the light of day, no matter how rich, how buff, how popular – she laughed at all of their attempts at flirting.
Jay didn't have any defining features. He was an orphan. He was piss-poor, he didn't really have a social life.
The only thing that Jay considered good about himself was the ability to not give a shit about anything. People's feelings included.
"Then we can get out of this shithole," Jay offered, looking for a friend to hang out with.
"Sure!" Bulma shrieked, her excitement bleeding out of her in waves.
"Let's go then princess."
With Jay leading the way and Bulma skipping happily after him, the two soon found a Caffe and sat down.
"Jay, how many times have I told you to stop smoking!" Bulma scolded Jay as soon as he reached for his cigarette pack.
"C'mon girlie, just be grateful I'm not smoking joints by the dozens everyday again."
"Yeah, cigarettes are a better alternative than that…depending on how you look at it." Bulma muttered, "Either way, both those things are bad, you should stop while you have the chance."
"Aight," Jay said, proceeding to light his cigarette.
Bulma fumed quietly in anger.
Once their coffee arrived Bulma broke the ice.
"Hey Jay," She began, "Sorry if this is a bit of a personal question but…" Bulma stopped herself, not sure how to ask Jay the question.
"Go on Bulma, I'm not the person to get mad at you just for asking a question, I know you're a good person – well, not really, but you get it." Jayden said, raising an eyebrow at Bulma when she began hesitating.
"Do you sometimes wish you had a family?" Bulma fired, knowing the topic was a sore subject for Jayden. She watched as his face went through a multitude of expressions, which was for all but a second before Jay schooled his expression back to the uncaring one he constantly projected.
Bulma knew Jay long enough to look past the mask he projected for everybody around him.
"You mean would I like to know what it's like? Yeah, returning home to a mother's babbling wouldn't be too bad." Jay said, humorless mirth in his voice.
He too wanted to know what a mother's cooking tasted like, or to have an example on how he should act from a father figure. Sadly, he would never get to experience any of that.
"What if I told you there's a way to make that a reality?" Bulma said, laughing nervously when Jay sent a look her way that could kill.
"You better not be playing a joke on me, Bulma." He warned, clenching his jaw tight.
Bulma knew first-hand how hard Jay had tried to find his parents, the ones that just left him to the world, yet there was no trace of his parents.
Jay's heart began pounding at the prospect of having a family, and Bulma's next words just made his heart beat faster and faster.
"I'm not." Bulma smiled, getting some satisfaction from seeing Jay express his emotions.
"How exactly would I go about doing that?" Jay asked, unconvinced about the possibility.
That's when Bulma went on to explain what the Dragon Balls were to Jayden.
…
"Apparently they were made by the earth's deity, only to be used in times of great crisis. If you collect all seven you can summon the great dragon Shenron and state one wish – you could wish to become immortal or to even bring back someone from the dead!"
"In this case, we could wish for the dragon to bring your parents to you," She added.
"The world is too big Bulma, how would I even go about finding this magical set of wish granting balls from a dragon?" Jayden instantly found the problem. The orbs could be at the bottom of the ocean, and they'd never have a way of obtaining them.
"You mean 'we'." Bulma said, with a smile on her face, "I already have one of the dragon balls, and I've designed a device that looks for other similar objects. I call it the Dragon Radar!"
Saying so, Bulma proudly displayed the device to Jayden.
Jayden mulled over the things he just heard, not knowing what to think about it.
"Let's say these things do actually work, what do you get out of it?"
"I get to see my friend happy, dumbass! Plus, I get to go on an adventure with you by my side," Bulma laughed.
Jay's heart warmed at this.
"Scoot over with your chair." He said, motioning with Bulma to come with his hand.
Bulma did so, and instantly her nose was assaulted by the smell of cherries and cigarettes as Jay hugged her.
"Even if these orbs don't end up granting me a wish, I'll still be grateful to you." Jay told her, holding Bulma's head to his chest. If anyone were to see them they would surely think the two were a couple.
Bulma quickly got out of Jayden's hug, her heart pounding.
"S-so, we're going after these things?" She stuttered, waving her hands in front of her as she talked.
"Heck yeah," Jay answered, "But don't be so foolish as to think that we're the only ones after these orbs. We'll need to prepare." Jay explained.
He would need at least two months – a power level of a hundred would probably help tons against anything they might encounter.
"Gimme two months."
Jay told her, and Bulma happily agreed.
With that out of the way, they enjoyed their coffee before returning to school for the fourth period.
Jay was no fool – the mysterious arrival of his weird powers, and now these wish granting balls of a dragon?
Something was going on.