After a while Gary felt fine enough to be able to walk on his own, yet he didn’t know how to tell Kai that. His upperclassman was still carrying him over his shoulder and it would be strange for Gary to recover this fast. After the fight he had, it wouldn’t be too surprising if it would take a week to recover. Without any better idea, Gary just continued to play the role of an exhausted fighter.

‘I really need to find a way to control this power. Whenever my heart rate rises my whole body feels…different, and then soon after when it’s all over I get to a low point.’

By low Gary was referring to his Energy value which would deplete after a while and in his actual status he had used a lot of Energy points for healing as well that seemed to affect him.

Eventually Kai arrived at their school.

“Are you going to be okay getting back on your own?” Kai asked. “I’ve noticed you're walking a lot better.”

Gary hadn’t even noticed that Kai had stopped helping him as soon as they got close to the school and he was standing fine, meaning his cover was blown.

“Ehh yeah, I'll be fine.” Gary replied, nervously, his face turning a shade redder for having been caught. Fortunately, with how late it was, Kai didn’t notice it… or at least pretended not to.

“Good.” Kai nodded while retrieving a bundle of cash and placing it into Gary’s hands. “Here’s five hundred for today’s fight.”

Gary had to repeat the number in his head and he instinctively counted the cash to make sure the other boy wasn’t joking. It was only a couple of days ago that he had received five hundred for doing the most dangerous job ever, and now he was receiving this much because of one fight.

“Is this how much I won, for fighting?” Gary asked, still shocked, wondering why he had ever risked his life working as a transporter when he could have just become a fighter.

‘Actually scratch that idea! What are you thinking Gary, you would have lost every single fight before getting this System!’ His voice of reason reminded him.

“Not quite. This is a low level event after all. Normally, you would have received between one hundred and two hundred bucks, depending on how exciting your match would have been. As an incentive from the arenas you get some extra depending on how many bets were placed because of your fight.”

“Most of that is due to the bets I had made on you. As a newcomer your odds were naturally horrendous, so great job pulling through. Since this was your debut fight and you left quite an expression it seemed kind of shabby just giving you the minimum amount. Besides, I haven’t forgotten that you came to me because you were in dire need of money.”

“There’s actually a lot more to it than that, but for now the rest of today’s earnings will be set aside as ‘Gang funds’ for the future. I’ll keep setting that money aside for a rainy day or when the gang needs expanding. Once our gang has grown into a respectable size, you’ll have free reign over it,” Kai explained casually as if he had planned this all along.

“You’ll let me have access to even more money than what I’m holding?” Gary questioned. His brain was trying to process all that information. He had just come out today, to earn some cash, yet his partner in crime apparently had already made plans far beyond that.

“Of course I will let you use the money. I’d advise you to discuss what to use it for with your future lieutenants, but as the leader of a gang your word will be law.” Kai answered nonchalantly.

“Leader?! Now hang on a moment. I know you said you wanted to form a gang and wanted me to work, but this is the first time I’m hearing anything about me being the leader of it! Why would you even do that? It’s your gang.” Gary complained.

“Look, I’ve already made up my mind after watching you fight today. A gang needs a certain type of leader, and I think you're perfect for that role. Me, I will be the brains behind the whole thing, I don’t really like being in the limelight anyway. It’s not my style.” Kai argued.

However, Gary wasn’t really convinced by that. In school he stuck out like a sore thumb, not to mention all the fancy jewelry and expensive clothes of his practically screamed ‘Look at me!’.

“Do you really think you have much of a choice, Mr. loyal dog?” Kai teased him after seeing the unwillingness in the other’s eyes. “Just think of it as being the public face of our gang. All you need to do for the time being is concentrate on getting stronger. For starters, you might want to pick up a proper style, otherwise ‘Green Fang’ might soon enough become infamous as 'Rabid Dog’.”

Afterwards they each went their separate ways. It had been a crazy evening that was for sure, and it was hard for Gary to take everything in. Truth be told, he didn't take it all in. One event was just leading to another for him but most of all he just wanted to figure out this crazy system.

[Level 2]

[Exp 20/200]

Before Gary had 70 points of Exp and needed 30 more points to level up. After defeating his opponent he had gained 50 points of exp, bringing his total to 120/100.

‘At least it looks like the exp carries over, but the way quests come up is so random, the only one that is consistent is the workout one and eating food since they're both daily quests.’

However, with the level up there also seemed to be a few more changes. For one, he had received a stat point which appears as if it could be used in a number of different ways.

[A stat point can be used to improve a user's basic stats, or can be used to increase one’s health. If used on health or energy it will be increased by ten points.]

‘Wait I have stats, didn’t see that before, what even are my stats?’

Thinking about this, another status screen appeared in front of him.

[Strength 4]

[Dexterity 3]

[Endurance 8]

Looking at these numbers, Gary didn’t really know how to gauge them at all, but he knew based on how high his Endurance was, that his Strength and Dexterity were extremely low.

‘I knew I was weak, but that weak?’

‘So I have Health, which seems to go down as my body gets injured. Then there’s Energy, which is used up just on a day to day basis, but if I start fighting more than it uses it similar to a stamina bar in a game. However, it can also be used in an emergency to heal my body as well.

‘As for the normal stats, Strength had to mean how strong I am right? Dexterity must be things like speed, agility and reflexes. I am pretty slow so that makes sense, and then Endurance. I’m glad to know that the only thing my body is good at is taking a beating, but I'm guessing some of that has to do with me turning into a ….I don’t even want to say the word. It feels like bad luck or something.’

Thinking about the fight that just occurred, Gary was wondering what the best way to use the stat point was. At first his mind thought something like dexterity would be most useful. He could become a counter hitter using openers strength against them, especially if he was going to participate in more underground tournament fights.

However, his mind started to wander and he found himself thinking about the rugby match and how Xin thought he was kinda cool when he had tackled Blake.

‘Don’t be stupid, your life is more important then getting some girl.

[Your Energy has now increased to a maximum of 110]

In the end, Gary had opted for increasing his Energy. With the other basic stats, Gary wondered if he continued to go gym if they would change by themselves. His stats were based on how his body currently was, so he thought this was possible, but how would he increase his energy or his health without the system?

The energy was important for him to fight for a long time, which would give him more time to come up with a way to defeat his opponents and also healed him up. To him, this was a no brainer.

There was one more message that had appeared in the middle of the match and that was that Gary had acquired a new skill.

Thinking about it again, another screen appeared in front of him.

[Current list of skills]

[Mark: 0/5]

[Charging Heart] (new)

He had already seen what a mark was and what it was meant to do, but it was interesting that he could only have five of them active at one time.

[Charging Heart]

[When activated, the user's heart rate will increase to 150 BPM.

The skill will take 10 points of energy to use.

When the users heart rate is above 150, all physical stats will be doubled]

’Does that happen even if my heart rate rises that high on it’s own? That would explain where the sudden surge of strength came from, but if I had this in the last fight I wouldn’t have had to start thinking about… Anyway this is good news, if only there was a skill that could lower it as well.’

After reading all the notifications, Gary thought it was time for him to head home. He couldn’t stop counting the money that had been given to him as he walked. With this amount, depending on how regularly he earned it he would be able to help out his family.

He was still unsure how much he could rely on Kai, but it was working out for now. Using some of the money, Gary stopped by a twenty four hour convenience store and bought some raw steaks. They were expensive but his energy was low and he knew to replenish it he needed to eat, plus it didn't hurt to treat himself once in a while.

It was the middle of the night so no one was around and this time it was a lot easier for him to eat. He dug into the steaks so quickly that he didn't realise how much his body needed it.

[Daily quest complete]

[5 Exp received]

The quest to consume two kilograms of meat had already been completed and it was nearly one o’clock at night, but this time the exp awarded was half that of before.

‘Looks like I’ll have to find other ways to gain Exp later. For now I better head home.’ Gary thought, as he ran through the empty streets to his bed.

———

The next day, with the sun rising, Tom was a little nervous. He had his silver pendant ready and his bag of chocolate.

‘Gary, I hope what I’m thinking isn’t true.’