Chapter 6 Double (But It's Actually Just One) Dragon

Jake walked towards Riley, another big smirk on his face.

"Hello! I would call you by name, but I’m not in the habit of remembering the names of weaklings. Now's a good chance for you to get revenge on me on your own. There's no need for him to do it for you."

As he was saying this, a window appeared, saying: “You have received a quest called “First Fight: Vengeance”.

“Quest Details: Make sure the School Bully never bothers you again. Neutralize all enemies, either by knocking them out or making them run away.”

“Quest rewards: 200 exp.”

“Bonus Objective: Steal the School Bully’s lunch money by going through his pockets.“

“Bonus Reward: 10 exp.”

This description was then followed by the two buttons, Accept and Decline. Riley clicked on the “Accept” button. He wrinkled his forehead, his expression changing into one of vex.

"Eh. Our friendly neighborhood dumbass needs ten people to take on two. This’ll be a good one for the history books."

Jake forced his face closer to Riley’s, and cracked into a huge smile.

“Do I look like I care? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint but I don’t! Let’s get this party started, guys!”

As he watched two of Jake’s minions step forward, he could feel his adrenaline pumping. He felt something within him change. Riley sighed.

“Let’s get this over with quickly. I still have some food left and I don't want to waste my entire lunch break dealing with you fools.”

He observed as they charged him. He smiled to himself.

‘Two attacks. Simple.’

He dodged the first punch, then utilized the momentum of the second to <Counter Flip>.

Gripping the minion’s arm, he knew he had him right then and there.

Using all his might, Riley performed the <Counter Flip>.

The result was the minion hitting the floor with a massive “thud!” and the loud sound of what-sounded-like a snapping bone.

“Arghhh! Shit! M-my arm! I think it’s broken!”

Jake glared at him. “Shut up, wuss. Can’t even win in a two versus one situation. You deserve to have your arm broken.”

He pointed at the other minion.

“You. Get him.”

The first minion who had missed his punch charged towards Riley, both arms up in an attempt to grab him.

“My god. That is a very ineffective way of grappling someone.”

As the minion got close, Riley unleashed a full-strength uppercut aimed at his chin. The minion’s momentum denied him any chance of slowing down and dodging, and he was knocked out in a single blow.

‘Not bad. If my regular punches are this strong, I can’t imagine what a <Power Punch> would be like.’

“Surprise!”

Riley turned his head, [Sense Danger] going off like an air-raid siren.

[Dodge Step] enabled him to narrowly avoid a punch from Jake.

“Woah. Almost got me there. Good try Jake, A+ for effort!”

Kyle snickered as Jake turned red with rage.

“Shut it, weakling.”

He threw another punch. This time, Riley knew he wouldn’t even need [Dodge Step] to avoid it. The time he used to draw his arm back gave him all the time in the world to formulate a plan.

As the punch came flying towards his face, Riley stepped to the right. Drawing his arms back, he gave Jake an almighty two-handed shove. Jake flew backwards, and landed on the ground a few meters away. Shaking his head, he looked at his minions.

“What are you buffoons looking at, get him!”

The three remaining minions that weren’t preoccupied with Kyle turned towards Riley.

Cracking his knuckles, he said. “I would advise you to take me three on one. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise. Wouldn’t be fun either.” The minions looked at each other, then charged. Riley smiled. “That’s the spirit!”

All it took was a <Leg Sweep>, and Riley had all three on the floor. He kicked the one closest to him, getting some extra pain in, as he walked towards Jake.

Facing off against Jake, he sneered.

No one in the world would've thought that Riley the geek could've been able to leave Jake lying on the floor, let alone win against 5 of his minions too.

“Couldn’t you have gathered better fighters, Jake? I thought you were the Great School Bully? Able to hang even the heaviest of nerds on the school flagpole with their underwear? Is this the limit of your influence? I’ll tell you right now, that’s pathetic. “

“No, you. You’re pathetic.”

Jake was slowly getting up, brushing the dirt off himself. He could see the panic in Jake’s eyes, sweat rolling from his face.

Riley walked right in front of Jake, his face a few inches away from Jake’s. He grabbed Jake’s collar and smiled, reeling his fist back.

“W-wait! Let’s work this out! Cut a deal! I’ll be your minion! I’ll carry your bag for you! Force a hole through the cafeteria queue for you! Hell, I’ll even do your homework for you! Just please!

Don’t hurt me!”

Riley tutted, as he lowered his fist.

“What did I just say about being pathetic?” He smirked at Jake.

“Now, what should I do with you? You clearly need to be taught a big lesson. I know, maybe I'll gather a huge crowd and show them how pathetic Jake the big bad bully actually is. Who knows, there might be some people who want a piece of the action. I'm sure you've no shortage of enemies."

As he said so, he gave Jake a kick to the crotch.

“Ah fuck! Not cool!”

“Neither is bringing ten goons to fight two people.”

Riley drew his arm back and Jake covered his face.

“Riley! Look out!”

Before he could unleash his punch, he felt someone grab his arm and pull him back. He fell backwards, and caught a glimpse of the four people that had attacked him previously before he was dragged up and had both his arms locked.

“A Full Nelson hold eh? Not bad.”

Jake smirked as he walked up towards Riley.

“Looks like the tables have turned. I’ll be the one beating on you now. Now, how shall I take care of you? Oh, I know. I’ll hit you ‘till you pass out.”

“Oh really? Fifty says you can’t touch me.”

“Hahaha. We’ll see about that. First, we’ll start off with the most painful punch to the face that you’ll ever feel in your entire pathetic life.”

Jake began swinging his arm to warm up the muscles. Riley smiled.

After preparing, Jake threw his punch. Riley used all his strength to bend his body down. This brought the minion holding his arms over him. Unfortunately for the minion, his cranium was at the exact spot where Riley’s head was a moment ago.

A sickening “crack” resounded through the area.

Both Jake and the minion hit the ground; the minion because he had fainted instantly, and Jake because his knuckles were bleeding profusely.

“Shit! Why you little - Get him!”

As the three remaining minions ran towards him, Riley hit them all with a <Leg Sweep>. Activating <Extreme Agility>, he punched each of them in the face to make sure they weren't getting up.

“Hat Trick! Now then, where were we when we were so rudely interrupted? Oh yes, you were busy groveling for your life. Tell you what. I’m bored now, so I’ll give you a painless death.”

Riley walked over to Jake and threw a <Power Punch>. Jake tried to dodge but was too slow, and the punch hit him square in the stomach.

"Is… is that all you can do?"

He spat on Riley's shoes.

Riley looked at Jake in disdain.

"Wow. I would say I'm impressed that you withstood that, if I weren't so utterly disgusted by you."

He got ready to throw another punch when he noticed Jake’s mouth frothing up. He waited a few seconds, and Jake’s body collapsed on its own.

'I guess he wasn't able to endure it after all.'

A window appeared.

“Through continuous taunting, the skill [Trash Talk] has been discovered.”

“Passive skill: When taunting enemies, the user has a (10% + (100% of Charisma))% chance of ‘tilting’ enemies. (Tilted: Status debuff. When tilted, the target's Strength is increased by 20%, but suffers a 50% debuff in Wisdom and Intelligence). Does not stack. Chances of tilting are affected by the target's Wisdom. Cooldown: 5 seconds.”

'Huh. I was always pretty good at trash talking, but this takes it to a whole new level.'

Closing the window, he turned his attention back to Jake, whose body was sprawled on the floor. Narrowing his eyes, Riley noticed something different about him.

Jake's level had changed from “???” to “25”.

'I see. I have to first see them in action to evaluate their skills before their level is revealed to me. That’s interesting.'

He stooped down to rifle through Jake's pockets. After "liberating" all the money he had — which amounted to exactly 50 dollars — Riley turned towards Kyle, and saw 3 minions on the ground. Using <Extreme Agility>, he caught the last one off guard before Kyle or the minion could even react, then grabbed him by the collar.

“Kyle, heads up!”

Riley pushed the minion with all his might towards Kyle, who proceeded to give him a clothesline, spinning him in the air once before his face landed squarely on the ground.

“I had him, man. Nice assist though”

A few seconds later, a notification he had never seen before popped up: “Battle ended. Experience gained: 90.”

His EXP bar appeared, and he saw it fill up from a tenth of the way to full. Upon hitting 100%, the bar reset to zero, and a new window followed.

“Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 2.”

This window disappeared, and was replaced by a new window saying, “Quest Completed! Gained 210 experience!”

His EXP bar reappeared, filling up to the brim before resetting, and continued filling the new bar to 90%, showing “100/122”.

“Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 3.”

'Woo! About time. I guess it’s the same as games, right? Sure, you can have fun from the side mission and grinding, but the fastest way to level up is still questing. Let’s see what I get from levelling u-'

A hand patted Riley’s shoulder, interrupting his train of thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s Note:

Patch 6.0
- Regular weekly update

- New skill(s) unlocked!

- [Trash Talk] gained!

Name: Riley Petesgeralt

Age: 16

Job: The Roleplayer

Level: 3

HP: 250

MP: 220

EXP: 100/122

Strength: 27

Dexterity: 23

Vitality: 25

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 22

Charisma: 25

Luck: 20

Skills:

Roleplayer’s Mind

Virtual Body

Analyze (Level 2)

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 3)

Physical Endurance (Level 1)

The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)

Dodge Step (Level 1)

Counter Flip (Level 1)

Leg Sweep (Level 1)

Power Punch (Level 1)

Extreme Agility (Level 1)

Sense Danger (Level 1)

Trash Talk (Level 1)