Sho was sitting on the ground cross crossed, and he was looking through his watch, seeing what he wanted to do with the 4,000 Fighter points he acquired from beating Acna.
Bebop was standing near Acna's body, looking down at it.
Gideon walked up beside Sho, saying, "Ooo! 4,000 points! What are you gonna do with them?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Sho answered. "What do you want?"
"Well, I think Bebop is sad."
"Ah? For what?"
"You DID killlll her mother."
"So? I did that brat a favor."
"I knowwwww but.."
"She said she hated her mother. Obviously she wants nothing to do with her. Also, stop being so soft hearted, it was either her or us."
"HOH? You DID ALL THAT FOR US?"
"Hell no."
"Mmm..anywayyyy.."
"Don't you have grieving to do?"
"My way of grieving is happening right now, behind this smile!"
"Tch."
"Bain and the others took me in when I thought no oneeeee would be my friend or partner. MAYBE I WAS ANNOYING TO THEM, at times. But we had each other's backssss. They were pretty strong. Bain is a nice guy!"
"Was. He WAS a nice guy. He's dead now."
Sho thinks, 'No one's behaved towards me like Bain did in a long time. My grief was just for a second when I witnessed his dead body, but everyone dies eventually. While the majority dies with regrets, others dying happily, and people wanting to die. At times, I don't know which category I would eventually fit into.'
Gideon asked Sho, "What are you going to do with your Fighter points? I HIGHLYYY ADVISE WEAPON DEFENSE."
"…."
Sho added 800 Fighter points towards his weapon defense stats.
Sho's weapon stats:
Attack: 6,000/100,000
Defense: 1,000/100,000
Power : 500/100,000
*You have added 800 Fighter points to your defensive stats.*
Sho sighed, thinking, 'If my knife ever breaks again, I'm gonna pissed. This should do it. I'll save the rest of my Fighter points, just in case. It's like saving money. Which was something I couldn't do before. This feels like a fresh start, so I'm gonna make his shit count.'
Sho stood up, and he started to stretch, then he looked over at Bebop.
Bebop was walking back to Sho, and said, "Big brother.."
Sho responded, "What?"
Bebop clung to his leg again, saying, "Don't leave me..I hate being alone."
"Huh?"
"Mister Moxxen..he helped me..when I was alone..and protected me a lot. I was scared of my familiar before, and kinda still am..so he fought for me so I wouldn't have to bring Dero out."
"I'm not a babysitter."
"Please..please don't leave me…being alone..sucks."
Sho started to think about the times he was alone, moving from abandoned place to abandoned place, without anyone. He didn't trust anyone, not wanting anyones charity, not even going out to find any other relatives.
Sho looked up in the sky, saying to Bebop, "Sorry. I'm not fit for the job. Find someone else."
"No! When I first saw you..you were just like my old friend, before my mother killed him…you're not a bad boy..I don't feel scared around you..I feel protected.."
"….."
Sho sighed, and he clenched his fists, "Dammit. Fine..but I have rules. Rule number one: Don't cling onto me all the damn time. My leg gets numb. Rule number two: you have to overcome the fear of your familiar. I know you brought him out due to trying to help us. You need to get used to it. Rule number three: do not annoy me."
"I understand! Thank you!"
Gideon grinned, "Awesomeee!"
Sho pointed at Gideon, "You!"
"Me?"
"You're gonna stick with us, only because I wanna know more shit. And if I'm careless and get beaten during a fight with Bebop around, you need to be there."
"Yes! Got it!"
"Now then. I'm hungry. Find us food!"
"Yes!"
[City 7]
[Sunset]
Sho, Bebop, and Gideon were walking on the sidewalk, surrounded by tall buildings, billboards, moving cars, and other Fighters, and Sho asked Gideon, "These cities..explain."
Gideon said, "Right! There are seven state sized cities throughout this entire floor! Andddd each city is kind of the same, but different. City 1 has mostly SSS class Fighters, City 2 has a mixture between SSSS class and A class Fighters. The cities between City 3 and 7 are a mixture between all of the above. But some of them have some weirdddd creatures from other worlds, like a talking cat or a talking frog. Like city 5, I've seen some alien looking things walking around with armor and weapons!"
"Hmph. There are SSSS class Fighters out there?"
"I haven't seen one personally, it's just what I've heard. But man, if anyone has reached SSSS class already, they must be crazy strong!"
"…"
Sho thought, 'As crazy and psychotic as Gideon is, he has a point. If anyone is SSSS class already, then they are on some serious crack.'
Sho asked Gideon, "What about training? Are there gyms around?"
"Huh? Noooo. Stay still real quick."
Sho stopped, Bebop stopped, and Gideon stopped.
Gideon explained, "Everyone has a training room within their watches. Just speak into it, and say, 'Training room.' And boom."
Sho replied, "You better not be bullshitting me. I'll kill you."
"I'm notttt!"
Sho spoke into the watch on his wrist, saying, "Training room."
Immediately, Sho was standing in a large and empty pure white room.
Sho looked around, saying, "Shit."
Sho could hear Gideon's voice on the outside of it, Gideon said, "Your in the training room!"
"How are you talking to me?"
"Your body is still here with me and Bebop, but it's invisible. One other thing, you can't access the training room in the middle of a fight, but you can invite others to your training room. Look in front of you, there should be a menu."
Sho looked in front of him, and a red screen appeared, floating.
It said: "Choose a training option - Freestyle, easy, medium, hard, extreme, impossible."
Sho asked Gideon, "I'm seeing a bunch of options."
"Yeah! It should say freestyle, easy, medium, hard, extreme, and impossible!"
"Explain. Or I'll kill you."
"Alrighttt! With the freestyle option, a bunch of training dummies, punching bags, weights, and weapons will appear and you can use them to train. With the other options, on easy mode, you go up against 5 holographic clones of yourself and fight them. You have a health bar too, and you'll lose if it runs out! But in easy mode, you're fighting holographic clones who are somewhat weak and dumb. With medium difficulty, you go up against 20 holographic clones, and they are pretty normal, it's like fighting clones that are the same caliber as you are right now. With hard difficulty, the holographic clones are much harder, have tons more speed and strength, there will be 50 of them. With extreme difficulty, there will be 100 of them, and they are much faster and stronger and they will have weapons. And lastly, there's the Impossible difficulty. You'll fight 1,000 holographic clones, they teleport, and can defeat you in two hits. Your health bar will increase each difficulty as well. Any questions?"
"How do I get out?"
"Look into your watch and say, 'Training off.' Try it! Tryyy it!"
Sho lifted his watch, and said to it, "Training off."
Sho was back in the city, standing with Gideon and Bebop.
Bebop asked Sho with a smile, "Did you like it?"
Sho answered, "Mhm. Once my knife reforms again, I'm going straight in that training room, and then I'm going to do a few raids around my class level. I thought I was gonna be able to do all that shit first when I woke up, but it's been a whole bunch of other stuff."
Gideon said, "B-But rest is important too! Without enough rest, you'll faint on the battlefieldddd! Since we have power in us, our bodies are more prone to get worn out with fatigue, especially if we're low class Fighters."
Sho looked at Bebop, "Is that true?"
Bebop nodded, holding Sho's hand, "Moxxen..was talking about that too."
Sho responded, "Tch. I'm hungry."
[A nearby lunch cafe]
[15 minutes later]
In the kitchen, there were a dozen Passive Fighters working, cooking for the other Fighters sitting at tables.
Passive Fighters: Fighters who choose not to fight for points, instead, they work and do other things normal humans do in the world for points. But the amount of hours they put into their passive hobbies result in how many Fighter points they get.
The cafe was filled with armed Fighters, some eating ferociously, eating passively, or laughing and talking with their friends or guild members.
"Man! I went OFF in our last raid! I leveled up to Class A!"
"You kept stealing my kills!"
"Oopsies!"
"On the way here, a few Fighters were fighting some kid with long black hair in a ponytail! I mean, he was beating their asses!"
"Lost a few members from our guild today, I'll avenge them tomorrow."
"I upgraded my weapon! I used all my Fighter points on raising the power stats in my ax! Now I'll definitely reach class SSSS in no time! Say you're proud of me! Hurry the hell up!"
"I'm glad I got into the tower to be honest. Scary at first, but once I realized my potential, I'm not scared anymore!"
Sho, Bebop, and Gideon were eating at a table, eating food that was bought with 50 Fighter points each. Gideon paid for their meals, because Sho threatened him.
Sho and Bebop were sitting beside each other, eating like monsters. They both were scarfing down food like they haven't eaten in years, their audio was muffled due to the continuous piles of burgers and fries and steaks.
Sho and Bebop burped at the same time, and Bebop smiled, "Yummy! Stomachs full!"
Sho replied, "My fucking stomach hurts. I'm gonna kill something."
Gideon was eating his food with delicacy, he had a napkin on his lap, and on his shirt collar, eating steak gently with a fork and knife in his hand.
Gideon said, "Delicious taste. Extraordinary flavor. Tastes just like cardboard. I love it."
Sho answered, "You're not eating it right."
"I am."
Sho thinks, 'So he becomes normal when he's eating, but when he's not..he's insane.'
Sho asked, "How many points do we need to reach the next floor of the tower anyway?"
Bebop answered, "No one knows!"
"Huh?"
Gideon said, "Once you get enough points, you'll get a notification from your watch. That's all we know. No one has ascended to the next floor yet either."
"Hmm."
Some Fighters looked over at Sho, and said to each other:
"That's the brat..right there…"
"He's the one that beat a class A Fighter and ranked up to class D in less than a few hours."
"Wasn't he a class Z before?"
"Yep. And he had nothing but a butterknife.."
Sho asked Gideon, "Oi. How do they know what happened between us and Acna?"
Gideon answered, "If you go on your watch and go to the tower feed menu, it will display news captions and pictures of Fighters that have done something impressive. You were probably posted on there."
"Pictures? Who took the picture?"
"No one knows that either. Some people think it's the tower itself. You're getting kinda famous."
Gideon finished his food, and he smiled, "Phew! That was sooooo good! Delicious!"
Bebop grabbed Gideon's arm, "Gideon! Can you buy me sweets and junk food? Please?! Please?!"
"Of courseee!"
Sitting at the table behind Sho, was none other than Kell, and his sister May. May had red and white hair now, with her eyes still blue, but she had a scar on her right eye. She had her arms folded, and she was chewing on a piece of gum.
Kell said to her, "It was your fault. I'm not a violent person. That guild I wiped out was your fault. You shouldn't have spit on them for staring at you too long. That's poor hobo behavior."
"Yep."
"You can't do things so reckless."
"Sure."
"Look at you. That scar on your face is so cliche, I bet you got hit there on purpose. Disgusting behavior."
"Nah."
"And I bet you dyed your hair to try and look an Amazon."
"The hell is that?"
"You're so young."
"Bruh, we're only one year apart."
"Shhh while I'm talking. I'm the leader, I'm higher than you and everyone else in this cafe. Tch. They all should be kneeling to me. And ugh..this burger tastes like shoelaces. I'm taking this and throwing it back in the kitchen."
Kell stood up with the burger in his hand.
At the other table, Sho stood up, saying to Bebop and Gideon, "I'm using the restroom. Do anything stupid, I'll kill you."
Bebop and Gideon gave Sho a thumbs up, "Okayy!"
Sho turned around to head to the bathroom, but when he did, he and May locked eyes.
Sho said, "May..?"
May's face blushed, and she looked away, saying, "Sup."
Kell heard Sho's voice, and Sho turned around.
Kell looked at Sho, "You!"
Sho replied, "You.."
Kell then looked at May, and he got close to her, and he smiled, "Why are you blushing? DO you like this scum?!"
May responded, "Nope. He's nothing to me."
"You never blushed around anyone in your introverted life," Kell continued to smile creepily.
"Bag back a few feet. I'm claustrophobic. You want me to panic?"
Gideon and Bebop turned, and Gideon pointed at May, "She clearly likes Sho!"
May replied, "Shut up. Sho is nothing to me."
Kell and Sho stared each other down, with menacing glares.
Kell said, "I never thought I'd see you alive in here..Sho."
Sho replied, "I'm glad you're alive."
"Hoh?"
"Cause I'm gonna be the one to kill you."
"I was thinking the same thing. I have 'Kill the hobo' on my checklist."
"I'm gonna behead you and use it as a toilet."
"You used anything as a toilet on earth when you were out in the trenches."
"You talk big for someone who's about to die..I'm gonna enjoy this. Bastard..•
Fighters all around looked over at them, commenting:
"Sho and Kell are about to go at it?"
"But they can't fight in establishments! They can't even pull their weapons out in here!"
"Sho has no chance anyway. Kell is a Class A Fighter, while Sho got lucky today and became a class D!"
Bebop stepped in between Sho and Kell, saying, "No! Y-You can't fight in here!"
Sho said, "Back up, brat."
Suddenly, walking into the cafe, was a man with a muscular body, pointy ears, yellow and black eyes, light grey skin covered in scars and burn marks, yellow and black arms, long white hair, and jean shorts.
His name was Kaiju. Class A Fighter, power level: 120,000. Species: Human/Elf.
Everyone looked at Kaiju, and Kaiju had a smug grin, saying, "Hohh? What's with all the stares? Are you intrigued? Boo fucking hoo! I came looking for a potential rival, someone strong enough to go toe to toe with me unlike other candidates! I found my candidate, Sho! Sho Takahashi! Come forth! Come here! Oh I'm getting excited already! I heard you defeated a class A Fighter, despite being a class D!"
Kell and May thought at the same time, "Sho beat a class A Fighter..?"
Kell continued to think, 'Impossible.'
Sho said to Kaiju, "Fuck off, elf."
"Yes, yes! I like that! Blood is pumping!"
"Weapons broken. Got about 30 minutes until I can righteously kill you. You mind waiting?"
"Sure. Let's chat in the process, shall we?"