As Ryu walked to school, he felt like he was on top of the world. He had gained strength, social status, money, and friends from the system. He was healthier than ever before. But what loomed over this happiness was the impending sense of doom he felt from the upcoming fight on Monday. He wondered if he would escape with his life intact.
As he entered the school building, he was spaced out, nothing really mattered to him except for his thoughts. He entered the classroom and sat down as usual. "I've never been able to experience a normal life," Ryu thought to himself as he reflected over the years of being bullied and experiencing life as a social outcast.
Ryu wanted to do something that would actually give him some semblance of a normal life, knowing that Kenji participated in many of the school clubs and some of the sports, he wanted to ask Kenji about joining a club today, there had to be more to his life than just the gym and fighting.
Ryu had already checked his quests that morning, and it turns out today he was lacking a daily quest, which normally happened a couple times a week, so he wasn't very surprised. Especially since he had been getting such good quests this week.
Because he had no quest, he felt like today should be the day he uses his extra time to branch out and meet new people.
So as Kenji entered in, tardy as usual, Ryu waited for him to enter his seat. Once he sat down, Ryu turned over to him indicating that he wanted Kenji's attention. Kenji looked over and waited for Ryu to speak.
In a hushed voice Ryu asked Kenji, "Hey man, how would I go about joining a club at school?"
"Oh, you want to join a club, I never picked you as the club type," said Kenji.
"Well, I've always been bullied, so I never really felt comfortable with socializing, but now I'm starting to feel better about myself," said Ryu.
"Well, we have a meeting for the Student Government Association tonight, the roles have already been voted on, but you could still help out," said Kenji.
"Alright, I'll be there, what time is it?" asked Ryu.
"It's at 7 P.M. I'll be waiting for you there," said Kenji, he had a smile on his face because he was happy to see Ryu branching out instead of being isolated as always.
With that they both paid attention to class and were good students for the day. As the bell rang for the end of school, Ryu quickly grabbed his backpack and went to leave class.
"Yo, wait up," Ryu heard from behind him, he looked back to see Kenji walking towards him.
"Do you want to lift together and then go early to help setup the meeting, I'd be able to introduce you to some of the club," said Kenji, oddly gung-ho about the entire situation from Ryu's perspective.
"Yeah, for sure, just don't slow me down while I'm lifting, string bean," said Ryu in response.
"Haha, I'm the string bean?" replied Kenji.
With that they walked towards the MMA gym together ready for a good lifting session.
The first lift Ryu started out with was bench press. Ryu was putting up 145 pounds on bench press, this was very impressive considering Ryu was such a beginner and he only weighed about 150 pounds at the moment. Kenji was seemingly impressed by what Ryu was putting up.
"What, never seen someone lift this much," Ryu said jokingly, noticing Kenji's surprised look.
"Heh, watch this," Kenji said.
As Ryu was done with his set, Kenji took off the weight Ryu had added to the bench, and put 250 pounds on to the barbell, not even counting the barbell's weight itself.
With that he proceeded to do 6 reps of that then he sat it back down where it came from.
Kenji looked at Ryu's shocked face and said, "What, never seen someone lift this much?"
Together they both laughed, and finished the rest of their gym session.
Before Ryu left the gym he got a notification from the system.
[Due to your hard work in the gym your strength has increased by 1, consequentially this has also increased your appearance.]
"Status," Ryu thought to himself, curious to see what his stats looked like after this new development.
With that a status window appeared in front of his face and he began to study it.
[Host: Ryu]
[Level 8: 300/800 XP]
[Strength: 15 -> 16]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Appearance: 11 -> 13]
[Agility: 16]
[Health Status: High End of Average, your stats overall are reaching towards the end of the spectrum of average, this means that some people may start to look at you as slightly attractive or slightly talented.]
[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]
[Skills: Regeneration, Hyper Focus, Hyper-Extension, Examine, Enraged]
[Arts: Boxer Puncher Level 2, Muay Bouk Level 2, Kickboxing Mastery Level 1, Judo Mastery Level 1]
Ryu read that his Health Status had changed, and he was surprised, never in his life did he think he'd make it to the High End of Average, and seeing the system actually compliment him, even if it was an extremely small compliment, gave him a renewed sense of confidence in himself.
After Ryu was done gloating at his Health Status, they both showered and headed back to the school building.
While they were walking through the front gates of the school, Ryu realized that he had never been to school after the final bell. This was because he used to generally regard school as a place of torture and would never willingly spend any more time than he had to in the building. But, looking at it now, the school was kind of peaceful with barely anyone in it. There were trees growing in the front yard, flowers, and all types of signs and posters promoting events, it was very picturesque.
While Ryu was admiring the outside, Kenji was getting buzzed into the front door. Once the front door unlocked, Kenji motioned over to Ryu indicating he should walk over and enter the school.
Once Ryu caught up to Kenji he started speaking, "Hey, I've never been to school after the end of class, you know it's really beautiful out here."
"Yeah? I like it a lot without the hustle and bustle too, I'm glad you think the same way," said Kenji, in a calm tone.
After that short conversation, they headed to the second floor of the building and into room 201, apparently this is where the Student Government Association always met.
When he walked into the room he saw four other people already there. One he recognized as Kujo, a skinny nerdy kid who was also bullied by Kenzo, but the rest he didn't know. Luckily, that didn't matter as Kenji planned to introduce him to the group.
"Alright guys, this is my good friend, Ryu," said Kenji.
"Wow, Ryu nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you from Kenji, he says you're a great guy," said a girl who stood at around 5'4 and wore their school uniform. She had wide brown eyes, black hair pulled up into a messy bun, and she overall exuded the aura of someone who was kind.
"The girl that just spoke was Yoko," said Kenji, "she's our vice president."
"Obviously I'm the president," said Kenji.
"Oh, no, your ego, it's inflating," said a girl in a blase voice, she was also fairly short, but stood at 5'5, she was also wearing her school uniform and had her hair falling straight down her back, she seemed a little gloomier than the rest of them, and it oddly felt like she didn't want to be associated with the rest of the Student Government Association.
"Haha, that right there is Haruko our treasurer, she's a piece of work," Kenji said all of that out loud, except for the last bit which he whispered to Ryu.
Ryu chuckled a bit which cause Haruko to raise her eyebrow wondering what Kenji said to him. Without giving Haruko any time to interject, Kenji spoke up again, "The last guy right here is someone who just helps around like you, his name is Kujo, I think you'll get along well."
After they had all been introduced Ryu quickly introduced himself with amazing depth saying, "Hey, I'm Ryu."
Once introductions had been concluded Kenji bossed around the group telling them what they had to do to get the classroom ready for the meeting before other students and teachers would arrive. They held their meetings in an open house type of manner, where anyone was welcome to come and watch, and they could also ask questions or present ideas to the members of the association.
It was quite cool Ryu thought, that they did all of this for the betterment of the school, he really respected the members of the Student Government Association.
While they were setting up Ryu kept catching Yoko glancing over at him, he wondered if he had something on his face. But nevertheless, he kept preparing for the meeting, and soon enough it would start.
Ryu was having a great time for the first time in a while, and just enjoyed the company of others even if it was in a situation where they had to be around him.