The street screamed with the movement and activities of young adults and students as they browsed for new attire and accessories.
"Wow look! Oh my god, isn't that a salamancers ring?" A student fitted in a black and yellow uniform preached to his friends.
"Holy shit! a +25 mana increase along with a casting time reduction?" Another student chimed in while glancing at an invisible screen.
"Don't even pretend you guys can afford this, not even a level 125 would be able to buy this without the backing of a large clan!" Stated a short girl with glowing blonde hair and deep hazel eyes.
"maaan I'm so envious!" pouted a tall brunette schoolboy across the street while eyeing the group of students.
"I wish we could see what their eyes are glued to on those system screens! Don't you agree Zeth?" he asked as his head turned towards his friend.
"Wait, what? Can you say that again sorry I was listening to music." The teen cocked his head slightly displaying a confused expression.
Holding a phone and with one of his thin hands, pulling the ear of his headphones off with the other he stared, deep, abyssal black eyes lazily glanced towards the students drooling at the sight of a seemingly normal ring.
"Dude, I understand that I'm boring, but you can at least listen to what I'm saying…" the tall brunette stated as his fixed his uniform, his white shirt untucked and brown tie untightened.
"You aren't boring Andrew; I just don't want to think about the system or classes or anything like right before my 18th birthday." Groaned the skinny raven-haired teen, his hunch concealing his true height.
Andrew sighed and continued to window shop among the bustling streets of the cramped city, armor shops and weaponry littering both sides of every street.
"I don't understand why you're so stressed Zeth." Andrew stated as he pulled up his brown pants and stamped his shoes to remove gunk.
"I'm turning 18 before you anyways, so there's no reason you should be acting all jumpy when I'll be able to teach you everything you need to know!" Andrew said laughing to himself imagining Zeth being clueless with the mechanics of their newfound power.
"Andrew" Zeth spoke as he glared at his friend.
The situation immediately became tense as neither person spoke another word as they continued walking to school.
A large building towered over a flood of students gossiping and bustling between classrooms and outside the building.
"Remember everybody, leave your weapons in the designated halls before class, any and all weapons caught outside of these zones will be confiscated and taken to the school council!" yelled a burly teacher outside of the large glass doors leading into the school.
Zeth and Andrew maneuvered their ways through the crowd without any effort and began to make their way up the first flight of stairs leading to their separate homerooms.
"Hey man look, I'm sorry about before." said Andrew as they were about to part ways.
"I forgot you have a lot more riding on this than I do, and I know that I need to be more supportive and be there for you for every possible outcome." He spoke, tones of embarrassment littered his speech as other students stared and even laughed at the spectacle.
"You're my best friend Andrew, don't worry about stuff in the past. What's done is done." Zeth said as he smiled and turned towards his classroom.
Andrew stood and watched as his figure grew distant, before turning himself and strolling away.
Zeth scrolled through his playlists as his headphones connected to his phone, students' voices and chatter muffled and drowned out by the sounds and instruments blasting in his ears.
His hand gripped the door handle before opening the door and walking into class. Eyes darted towards him and glued to his figure as he glided towards his desk at the front of the room. The teacher wouldn't arrive for another 5 to 10 minutes, so Zeth spent this free time practicing his broker skills on a well-known app.
The app creates fake situations where a customer either barters for an item or the player needs to entice a customer to buy an item.
"Hey Merchant! Why does this necklace cost 50 Echelons? You have got to be a scammer if you think anyone in their right mind would buy this junk for that price tag!" yelled an angry customer on his phone.
Zeth contemplated for a moment before three options appeared on his device.
[Barter]
[Expel]
[Convince]
He listened to the tone of the customers voice one more time before selecting the barter option. A textbox opened and Zeth began to type to the npc.
"Excuse me sir, that necklace you're slandering has just been brought in by a very renowned hunter, however you seem to have a keen eye for a displacement in prices." Claimed the player model controlled by Zeth.
"Ahh, I see my expertise has been noticed! If you know what's good for you that necklace will enter my possession for only 30 Echelons!" stated, the now cocky npc.
Another text box appeared on the screen, this time however containing a separate box for pricing.
Zeth laughed as he typed, the junk necklace only costing him 25 echelons to purchase from the nearby clan hall.
"That seems like a fair price sir; however, I need to recover some losses after the sale so can we settle on 35 Ech?"
Zeth held his breath as he waited for the Npc to respond.
"Hmm, you seem like a smart man! Deal, 35 Ech for the necklace!" The npc proudly stated as if he had ripped Zeth off.
He snickered as his phone faded to a menu screen and he was rewarded with his money and bonus reward money for successfully roping a customer into a profitable sale.
With Zeth being from a disadvantaged background and the future of a battle filled profitable life being highly unlikely, he decided to hone other skills just in case his activation didn't go as planned.
Afterall, having backups was better than ending up on the streets or as a slave for a large clan.
Zeth turned his head as he heard the classroom slowly dying down, he immediately realized that his teacher must be right outside or very close to the classroom.
Placing his phone and headphones in his bag he took out his synthesizer and created a display.
The synthesizer projected a recreated version of the 'system' however instead of displaying statistics such as health and mana it displayed school criteria, grades, and classes.
Synthesizers were used since grade school to accustom the students to a non-physical form of messaging, typing, and user interface.
"Synthesizers out! Mouths closed!" Growled a short dwarf like man. Carrying a synthesizer and a tome.
The man slammed the items on his desk before muttering incoherent blabbers to himself.
"Everyone rise." He said as the whole class stood and froze as if afraid.
"Greet." The man spoke.
"Good morning Mr Riosa!" the class yelled in sync.
"Be seated." He coughed as he covered his mouth with a tissue.
The entire class sat and the noise of chairs squeaking as they moved along the wooden floor pierced the silence.
"I don't know about everyone here but I'm so glad this year is almost over" Mr Riosa sighed as he kicked up his feet and turned on his synthesizer.
"I can finally get you useless kids out into the real world so you can finally do something with your miserable lives" he stated as he laughed to himself.
Some students laughed with him while others stayed completely quiet, Zeth was one of these people, one of those who still hasn't turned 18 and still hadn't activated his system.
"Well, since there's only 5 more days of this garbage we might as well go over everything from square one, am I right?" Mr. Riosa said as he sent out a file to each student.