A deep voice spoke loudly near Klay's ear. "Get up, son!"
Eyes snapping open, Klay saw his father standing next to his bed with his arms crossed, looking disapprovingly at Klay's figure laid out on the bed.
"Hurry up and get to school, I've been trying to wake you for at least 15 minutes. I have things I need to do today."
Pushing himself to sit up, Klay nods to his father and watches his back as he leaves the room, leaving Klay to get ready.
Klay's father, Gideon, is a man of average height and build, with a constant serious expression on his face. While he seems almost unassuming based on his appearance, Klay has found his father to be quite strong, and even witnessed him quickly defeating his uncle in a spar between the two. Despite this, Klay's Uncle Phoenix is the family's face, as he has been offered and accepted participating in several large martial arts events.
Taking a short shower, Klay stops in front of his mirror with a gaze filled with mixed emotions as he looks over his body, seemingly skeletal with little muscle tone despite his many hours spent training at the dojo.
At least I know that my life hasn't drastically changed from before. My body still looks the same.
"[The Regeneration System has merely connected to your body and mind. Any changes that you wish to occur must occur through your own actions.]" The monotone voice spoke in Klay's mind with little inflection.
Sighing and moving on, Klay quickly put on his school's uniform as well as a baggy hoodie since his school allows students an item to ornament their uniform should they choose to.
Klay's school was the public high school for most of the students in Roseland City, Copper High School. With around 1,000 students, the school wasn't the most well funded, but they got by as any public school does. Bullying and fights at the school were a weekly occurrence, but Klay took solace in the fact that he never was connected to any incidents since most people overlooked him.
Leaving his house, Klay began walking to the school. Since he was late to wake up, he was quite hungry and wanted to get food several times as he passed by the rustic and simple architecture of the buildings along the crude layout of everything. The city was built into 4 sections, all surrounding a large river. The city's sectors were split in two, with the south and west sectors on one side of the river and the north and east sectors on the other, both connected with a few bridges. The north of the city was set as the factory and warehouse district.
The city managers figured stuffing all the less appealing buildings would be better overall for the city, as it would allow more tourism to occur. This ended up working, but with the city pieced together as it was, it made for a poor decision in the end as opposed to spreading everything out and intermingling more. Despite the clear sectioning of the city, money skimmers and the homeless began living within some of the factories throughout the sector, creating the ever-moving slums as they are always seemingly gone before the working day begins.
The eastern sector of Roseland City was the true urban location, with high rises and office buildings on every corner, splitting apart the smaller businesses and restaurant chains. This was the largest quarter of the city, and the only main roads that connected the city to the college went through the office district. For anyone who didn't make enough income to live in the low density housing, there were an ample number of apartment buildings littered throughout East Roseland.
To the south was where Klay lived, along with anyone else who preferred a more scenic and rural setting. This was the more expensive living area, with spread out housing and exposure to free air, unstifled by the many buildings. Most of the several schools of Roseland City were positioned around the low density outskirts, connecting to the rest of the city through the use of an ample number of buses, both the school and public type.
The western quarter of the city was the least populated, with only a couple individuals laying claim there. Most of the land toward the west of Roseland City was quite fertile, so the natural and smart choice was to set it up as the farmlands district, ultimately rounding out the city enough to have tour guides refer to the city as 'self-sufficient'.
Continuing on his walk, Klay eventually arrived at the gate of his school. Copper High was surrounded by a short wire fence with several openings for the many students with cars. The parking lot had both student and faculty cars in the same area, giving both more options for parking but as the teachers and staff arrived much earlier than the students, this was rarely an issue. The school had a few fields around it as well, with a track on the opposite side from the parking lot and various sports equipment littered around. The building itself had a brick exterior with a road winding through the buildings, splitting apart the school. The main building was a 3 story c-shape with a few other smaller buildings connected to it by covered walkways, and all the outside brick was painted a white that had turned faint and stained in many spots, for various reasons. The roofs were a metallic red color, and the front gate of the school had a mural of the school's logo nearby, a cartoonish smiling bison with a copper-red mane.
As Klay passed the outer fence of his school, he was greeted by the sight of seemingly innumerable amounts of cars, many of which were parked poorly and took up more spots than necessary. Taking it all in, Klay began to hurry towards the front building, hoping he wasn't too late.
Between some cars a few rows away from Klay, he noticed two of his classmates caught in a conversation that was quite animated.
Aren't they dating? I wonder what they're talking about.
"[Would you like to activate the Observation skill?]" The voice asked Klay suddenly, making him jump slightly.
"Uhh, sure. I'll have to figure out what it does eventually." Klay agrees, not thinking too much of it as he looks in their direction.
[Activating Level 1 Observation]
Suddenly, a rush of information filled Klay's mind, his senses seemingly heightening and absorbing all the ambient sounds nearby. A cat stalking a bird in a tree nearby. A cold gust rustling through the few leaves left on the trees as the winter season has progressed.
Alp Wolfe. Stronger than most, bully. Dating Lisa Paulsen. Average build, somewhat petite. Fairly social. Alp is frowning. Angry. Lisa is clenching her fists. Also angry, defensive body language. Fed up. She walks towards the entrance. Alp is pissed, wants to lash out.
Just as quickly as the onrush began, it ended, leaving Klay completely disoriented as he fell to the ground, holding back his stomach from throwing up.
What the hell was that?! There was so much information, so fast! I could barely keep track of it all, and my mind is aching now. What the hell?!
"[That was the Observation skill. As the ability is not highly trained, the information you receive based on the clues you notice is not narrowed down at all, which is part of what caused your rapid mental fatigue and disorientation.]" Answering his question gave Klay the clues he needed to understand.
So the skill fed me all the clues I could sense in my environment without narrowing it down, right? Hell, that was a horrible feeling. I barely had time to figure out what I was trying to. They were in a fight, and Lisa walked away right? I think I remember their names from around the school, that's probably how they were fed into that stream of overwhelming information.
"[That is correct. The Regeneration System isn't all that complicated, see?]" The voice spoke appreciatively, praising Klay with a seemingly happy tone at his competence.
Recovering bit by bit from the cannonball of information, Klay slowly stood back up and started to walk toward the entrance of the school before a loud shout from behind caught his attention.
"Hey kid!" Turning around, Klay saw Alp angrily tromp over to him. With a worried feeling in his gut and the gnawing headache from before, Klay stayed put as Alp approached.
"You heard about what happened just now, didn't you?" Alp asked, clearly having decided the answer for Klay.
"H-heard what? I'm not sure…" Klay's nervous response seemed to set Alp off more, as he yelled louder than before.
"You did! Well guess what? Nothing happened! So don't go talking about anything like something did or I swear, I'm gonna make your life a living hell!"
As he shouted at Klay, Klay simply stood there looking away nervously as he wanted to run away from the conflict. With a few short and quiet responses from Klay, Alp eventually got fed up and reached over to grab Klay's collar tightly.
At the perfect moment, the entrance to the school opened and an authoritative voice yelled at the two of them, "You two! Stop fooling around and get to class! You're both late!"
Seeing Klay look at the approaching teacher gratefully, Alp scoffed and let go of Klay's hoodie with a shove, knocking Klay to the ground. "Watch your back, I'm gonna teach you a lesson eventually," he told Klay before walking past the teacher and into the school building.
With beads of nervous sweat on his forehead, Klay watched Alp walk away, both thankful of the current issue having ended and nervous about the threat he received, Klay stood up and nodded his head at the teacher. The teacher shook their head and held Klay's shoulder, taking his name before walking him to his class.