"The latest stats have smashed the world record," Noah thought, glancing at the notifications in his System.
Running 2000 meters in 4 minutes and 40 seconds — two seconds faster than the human record. Of course, it wasn't that Noah had magically gained superhuman strength; it was more that his overall physical metrics were nearing human limits.
His endurance wasn't quite marathoner-level, his sprinting speed didn't outdo pro athletes, and he couldn't lift like those strongmen who pull trucks. But his stats combined with perfect balance in each area made him far stronger than most people in a variety of physical feats.
It was like he had the endurance of a long-distance runner, the strength of a powerlifter, and the speed of a sprinter — all dialed to their optimal settings.
"Hey, Noah! Why'd you ditch school last Friday?" A heavy arm slung over his shoulder mid-thought, sending a sharp wave of pain through his sensitive muscles.
"Mind the shoulders, Ivan," Noah muttered, nudging the arm off. He turned around to face his classmate, who was staring at him with a mix of curiosity and shock.
"Oh my god, did you have some kind of plastic surgery over the weekend?" Ivan's jaw dropped as he scanned Noah's face, even reaching out to poke it. Noah deflected the hand with an annoyed look.
"I told you, I'm not into the whole touchy-feely thing, dude. Are you into guys or what?" he deadpanned, eliciting laughter from nearby students.
"No way! But seriously, did you find a clinic that can make you look this good? Give me their number!"
Noah just sighed and walked to his seat, but apparently, his new look was causing a stir. Even Peter, his friend at the desk next to him, looked at him in disbelief.
"Noah, you're like... movie-star level handsome now. Did something happen?"
"Guess it just happened," he replied with a half-smile, shrugging. If he'd thought about becoming famous before, those dreams now felt trivial. With the power he was developing, Noah's goals were way bigger. One day, people wouldn't just look up to him; they'd look to him. Even presidents might take a hint if he decided he was done with their policies.
Just then, Peter leaned in with an excited look. "Oh, by the way, you missed Friday, but the teacher said our class is going to tour the Osborn Group on Wednesday! If we impress them, we might even get to intern there. She wanted me to tell you."
"Good for you," Noah replied, glancing at his friend thoughtfully. This was probably the beginning of Peter's origin story as Spider-Man — a path that'd be packed with heroics and loss.
Peter grinned. "You really think I'll get picked for an internship?"
"Yeah, you'll get there," Noah said, distracted. He made a mental note to keep an eye on Uncle Ben, just in case he could change the course of events.
With a sigh, he pulled up his stats screen out of habit. Suddenly, a notification appeared in the description box:
"An attack has been detected. Analyzing the attacker's stats…"
Name: Ivan Christ
Strength: 1.1
Agility: 1.0
Endurance: 1.0
Spirit: 1.0
Charisma: 1.1
"Wait a sec… Is this the health bar feature?" Noah raised an eyebrow as he looked at Ike, remembering the slight pain he'd felt on his shoulder earlier.
"Peter, mind giving me a light slap on the back?" he asked, curious.
"What? Uh, sure," Peter replied, smacking Noah lightly.
As pain registered briefly, the display showed another notification:
"Attack detected. Analyzing attacker's stats…"
Name: Peter Parker
Strength: 0.9
Agility: 1.0
Endurance: 0.8
Spirit: 1.6
Charisma: 1.0
"Wow, kind of scrawny, but you've got a decent Spirit stat," Noah noted, chuckling at the oddity of analyzing his friend like a video game character.
The class bell rang, and the teacher entered, starting the daily lesson. But Noah was already feeling restless. After three intense days of self-training, his body was practically humming with energy. Sitting in a classroom and going over material he could master in one night felt like a complete waste of time.
He just wanted to get back to his training. Besides, with his mental strength now at 1.4, he could breeze through a whole semester's worth of material in an evening. There was no point sitting through lectures when he could be working on leveling up.
'This school's getting too cramped for me,' he thought, looking down at his desk. 'Maybe I'll work on that Zixia Magic energy technique…' He closed his eyes, preparing to focus.
But just as he started to slip into a meditative state, a soft voice cut through his thoughts.
"Noah, are you feeling alright?" It was Ms. Emma, his young and overly concerned homeroom teacher, looking at him with worry from the podium.
"Yeah, Ms. Emma, just feeling a bit light-headed. Might go check in at the nurse's office," Noah replied, trying to avoid the spotlight.
"Oh, I could take you there myself if you need," she offered, earning murmurs from curious classmates.
"Thanks, but I got it," he said, grabbing his bag and slipping out of the classroom with relief.
______________________________________________________________________________________
All right, my exams for this week are done. So, I will try to consistently upload for maybe the next 2 days. And here is one of the promised Bonus Chapters. There will be more. Maybe...
So, this is my first time doing this. I hope you guys can help me improve by providing your feedback, and some stones would be nice. (づ ◕‿◕ )づ