"Peter, could you answer this question for us?"
The entire class looked towards the skinny looking guy sitting in the first row. He appeared to be frozen in shock.
"Peter?" the teacher repeated herself.
But Peter didn't exactly have time to care about questions at that moment. He was very busy staring at the blue window floating before his eyes.
[Condition fulfilled, awakening the Apex Slayer System.]
Reading those words, several thoughts appeared in his mind in rapid succession. Not only had he died 2 times, but he seemed to have even awoken a system.
'Am I dreaming right now? Am I in heaven or something?' To verify, he did the thing that made the most sense to him in his mind.
Slap!
The sharp sound of a palm striking a cheek permeated through the entire lecture hall. Several women present there, including the teacher, drew startled gasps because of the unexpected sound.
"Peter, i-it's alright if you don't know the answer." The teacher spoke to him somewhat timidly. What had happened was so out of left field that she felt a little scared of the nerdy-looking guy casually sitting there. "You don't have to punish yourself for not knowing."
'Ow, that definitely hurt,' thought Peter, completely oblivious to the fact that he was being spoken to.
Having verified that he was indeed alive, a new thought appeared in his mind.
'Really? Apex Slayer System? What kind of retard named this damn system? It literally abbreviates to A. S. S.'
Although he was complaining, he felt like he wasn't in any position to be making such remarks. He was named Peter Edward Elliot, after all.
'Alright then, A. S. S. Let's see what you can do!' He thought with excitement.
[]
[{Status}]
[]
In place of the text, a new and mysterious button appeared on the transparent window.
'Don't tell me I have to physically click the button?'
Peter cringed at the very thought of having to do that. Just imagining what he would look like to the people around him as he randomly poked at nothing in the air made him want to bury his head in a hole and suffocate to death.
However, inspired by the many system novels he had read in his free time, an idea soon came to him.
'Status!' He shouted as hard as he could in his head.
Unfortunately for him, his "genius" idea had fallen flat on its face as no changes occurred to the system window in front of him. After that, he could only sigh in defeat and physically press the floating button.
The teacher was already terrified of Peter after he straight up slapped himself out of nowhere, but she still tried her best to move forward with the class and take her mind off of unnecessary things. And she was indeed successful for some time. That was, until her eyes fell upon him once more.
(TwT)
'Why is he pointing at me?' The teacher thought with glistening eyes. She was just a small, 4'11" lady who taught poetry, after all. 'Did I offend him by asking the question? Is he going to beat me up?'
It had to be said that Peter was 6'4". Tall enough to tower over most of the population. However, because of his terrible posture and his weak and skinny frame, he was far from intimidating.
While the teacher was busy getting scared of him, Peter was busy looking at his status.
[]
[Name: Peter Edward Elliot]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 17]
[Weight: 55KG (Underweight)]
[Height: 6'4"]
[Blood Type: A+]
[Strength: 4]
[Dexterity: 5]
[Intelligence: 12]
[Perception: 9]
[]
'Woah, so these are my stats.' He thought, somewhat awestruck.
As someone who had read a lot of webnovels and webcomics back in the day, he had often imagined what it would be like for a system to suddenly pop up in front of him. But when it finally happened, it felt so surreal that it appeared to be a dream.
Of course, he had to die a couple of times, in pretty horrible ways, for it to happen, but all the pain was definitely worth it!
'Wait a minute? Why am I only 17?'
Even his first death occurred when he was 18 years old, as a second-year college student. After he had died on Earth, he had spent several more years in the apocalyptic world. Therefore, there was no way he was still 17. Unless...
"Time travel!" Peter said out loud before abruptly getting up from his seat.
"Umm, Mr Eliot? Is something wrong?" The timid looking teacher asked again. She was pretty much ready to end her career as a teacher that day. If she didn't, she felt like she would end up in the news sometimes soon as a victim of a vicious knife attack.
Only at this point did Peter actually realise where he was. He looked around the classroom for a bit before taking his seat again.
After spending 3 years in a world infested by nothing but zombies and wild animals, Peter had lost most of his prior memories and had built habits like constantly speaking to himself. He wasn't particularly used to minding his surroundings... Probably the reason for both of his deaths.
If he remembered it correctly, class would be over soon anyway, so he saw no reason to cause a fuss. 'Better to observe this system more.'
The status screen was the usual deal, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing he hadn't read multiple times already.
'What's with that stupidly high intelligence stat? Would I have slapped myself if I was actually that intelligent? This system is clearly busted.'
Reincarnating in the past with a system was great and all, but he was also feeling a lot of pain.
'Look at that strength stat! 4? F*cking 4?'
After grinding every day for years in order to achieve an amazing physique, suddenly being dropped into a body that looked like it would break in half at any moment was immensely frustrating.
Thinking about how much hard work was ahead of him made him wanna rip out his hair. Speaking of hair, he really needed a haircut. And some better glasses while he was at it.
[]
[Ting!]
[Mission: Look at stats]
[Status: Complete]
[Reward: 1 Common Reward Box]
[]
'Let's goooo!' Peter shouted in his head. He didn't really like how it said "Common" but, after living in an apocalyptic world, he knew that something was better than nothing.
[]
[Open Reward Box Now?]
[{Yes} {No}]
[]
'F*ck!' He cursed in his head. 'Do I have to press the button again?'
After shouting 'Yes' multiple times in his head, he gave up and just pressed the button.
[]
[Calculating Rewards]
[Please wait...]
[Ting!]
[Reward: Analysis (Skill)]
[Ting!]
[Unlocked Tab: Skill]
[{Status} {Skill}]
[]
This development didn't surprise Peter. After all, there was no point to a system if you didn't get missions and skills and stuff of that sort.
Perhaps because he was getting used to it by then, but he didn't even hesitate before pressing the skill button.
[]
[Skills]
[1. Analysis Lv. 1]
[Info: Provides greater insight into anything, living or otherwise. System window must be pointed towards the target before use.]
[{Use}]
[]
Having taken a better look at his system, Peter couldn't help but be slightly disappointed. Unlike the systems that he had seen people receiving in stories, the one belonging to him seemed rather low tech. It didn't even come with voice activation!
It was like living in the modern era where everyone had a smartphone, but he was still stuck using a brick phone from the 70s.
'Well, whatever. I should be thankful for what I have,' he told himself, getting rid of his negative feelings. One of his bad habits was being ungrateful for what he had, and thus, he was trying to actively fix it.
'Alright then, teacher whose name I don't remember, you shall be the first victim of my analysis!'
The entire process of using the skill could be described as taking a picture with a phone. Of course, there were a few key differences. Like how the system window always remained fixed in the middle of his field of vision, so he had to move his head to change targets.
It was slightly annoying, but nothing too complicated. And soon enough, a window of information appeared in front of him.
[]
[Name: Jessica Dorset]
[Gender: Female]
[Age: ???]
[Weight: ???]
[Height: ???]
[{Check}]
[]
Peter nodded his head in understanding after seeing this. His skill was merely level 1 so he didn't expect it to be super amazing in the first place.
'But what's this check button? Is that an option for checking her out or something?' Peter thought with a chuckle before pressing it. He was too curious to not press it.
[]
[Trust: 1 (Uneasy)]
[Fear: 4 (Afraid)]
[Value: 1 (Indifferent)]
[Anger: 0 (Ambivalent)]
[]
'Now hold on one second.' Peter almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. 'Does this mean I can read minds of anyone I use analysis on?? This is freaking op!'
As if this wasn't unbelievable enough already, there was one other thing he found even more unbelievable.
'I can't see her height, but I can see inside her mind? As I thought, this system is busted as hell.'