Mrs. Grant's class finally came to an end. She handed out the day's assignments with her usual dispassionate tone, then walked out, heels clicking softly across the tiled floor.
A wave of relief spread through the classroom. It had been a long day, and everyone was eager to get moving.
Since it was the last period, students began packing their bags and shuffling out, some chatting, some yawning.
The energy was winding down. But not for everyone.
Travis stood up slowly, his chair scraping loudly against the floor—a deliberate, attention-seeking sound. He made his way toward Tyler's desk with the heavy steps of someone carrying unfinished business.
Without warning, he slammed his hand down hard on Tyler's table, the sound snapping the attention of nearby students.
He leaned in, face inches from Tyler's.
"Don't even think about running, twerp" he growled, his voice low and brimming with threat. "You try that, and I'll break every bones in your body."
Tyler didn't flinch, as he slowly looked up at Travis, looking very unbothered. Then he scoffed, repeating the same words he'd said earlier, but this time, with a calmer but firm voice.
"Like I said before, you don't need to bark too much. I'll be there."
The room tensed yo immediately. Some students who hadn't left yet paused, sensing the shift in energy.
They turned to each other and starting talking in low voices to each other, clearly shocked by Tyler's bold words to Travis.
With their knowledge of Travis and Tyler, they considered the later's action to be nothing more death-seeking.
Travis was clearly pissed by Tyler's boldness, as his jaw twitched. He raised a fist, clearly tempted to smash it into Tyler's face—but stopped himself. Instead, he smacked Tyler hard on the back of the head.
The impact echoed, drawing a few quick glances from those still in the classroom.
Unlike what everyone had expected, Tyler didn't wince or groan in pain. He gave no reaction, as his steady eyes remained on Travis.
This only irritated Travis more, as be wanted a reaction from Tyler.
Though he didn't get it, it didn't matter to him, as he would make sure Tyler screamed later.
Turning to two of his boys nearby, he barked an order.
"You two. Watch him. Don't let him slip out, or it's your faces I'm breaking next."
The two nodded quickly, not needing a second warning.
Travis adjusted his collar, cracked his neck, and then walked towards a girl standing by the door, and slid his arm over her shoulder.
And without another word, he left the class, surely making his way to the gym locker room.
With Travis gone to wait for Tyler, some of the curious classmates stayed behind in the class to see what Tyler would do. They were curious to see how he plans to escape the certain death situation that he placed himself in.
Meanwhile, while his classmates' eyes and attention were trained on him, Tyler was completely busy with something else.
After he had accepted Travis' challenge, another small screen appeared with a new message and a voice reading it out.
[Mission Triggered: Stand Your Ground!]
Tyler's eyes widened, as the voice continued, reading out what was written on the Screen.
[Stand Your Ground: You've been publicly challenged by Travis, your old high school bully. What will you do now?]
[Option 1: Stand and Fight
Objective: Defeat Travis in the gym locker room.
Reward: +1 Strength, Risk of temporary suspension possible.]
[Option 2: Run
Objective: Do not attend the locker room meeting.
Reward: +1 Intelligence, +1 Stat Point, Travis's bullying escalates.]
[Option 3: Report Him
Objective: Report Travis to the school counselor with evidence
Reward: +2 System Points, School steps in to curb bullying, Travis resents you quietly, looks for revenge in the future.]
...
Tyler looked at the options, trying to make a decision. He had wanted to question the voice reading out the messages, to get answers from it.
The whole situation was still unreal to him and it would take him a period of time to get used to it.
But then again, he thought to himself that if he could accept returning to the past, then then the screen in front of him and the voice in his head shouldn't sound so crazy to him.
He felt that the screen and voice—system—could actually be what was responsible for his current situation—him returning to the past.
Tyler smiled, gathering his thoughts. Now wasn't the time to be lost in his thoughts but to be making decisions.
And those decisions had to be made fast.
He took a look at the options and without hesitation, chose the first.
[Ding! Option 1 Selected. +1 Strength, Risk of temporary suspension possible.]
The next moment, Tyler felt a faint, warm stream of energy starting to course through his body, causing his muscles to tighten faintly.
The stream of energy disappeared immediately as Tyler felt it, but he could feel that there was some changes.
He clenched his fist, curious to see if he had actually grown stronger. But he didn't feel much.
"I guess I was expecting too much with just+1 Strength," he muttered.
"I want to beat Travis into a pulp. And to do that, I need more strength, because I'm currently too weak. With my current strength, forget about even be able land a punch, I will be dead before I know it," Tyler said to himself.
He suddenly remembered seeing something and he turned his attention to the big screen.
[Name: Tyler Reyes]
[Age: 16]
[Strength: 3]
[Agility: 5 —> 6]
[Stamina: 5]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Stat Point(s): 5]
[System Point(s): 0]
[Mission: Stand Your Ground! (Ongoing)]
[Knowledge]
[System Store]
....
"My strength has increased by one point. I wonder what those stat points are for?..." He asked.
Like something answered his question, he suddenly got the answer in his head. It wasn't the voice that replied but more like his question unlocked a part of his brain where the information about stat points were.
He decided to test it out, cautiously allocating 3 stat points to his Strength.
Immediately, he felt that same warm stream of energy, but this time, it was stronger and it didn't disappeared quickly like before.
But it didn't last long either, as it disappeared, but Tyler could feel a huge difference from before.
He clenched his fist and he felt his muscles tighten, and an explosive strength that he has never felt before, coursing through his body.
"Good. This should be good enough to teach that bastard a lesson," he smiled confidently.
But he didn't immediately stand up, as he turned his attention to the remaining 2 stat points. He decided to do the needful, allocating them to his stats accordingly, with one going to Agility and the last stat point going to Intelligence.
"Tyler had been torn between allocating his last stat point to Agility or Stamina, but after he got the information on what each stats does, he decided to go with Agility.
The reason for this was because he wants to finish the fight as quickly and brutally as possible. He wants to make sure that after today, Travis won't dare to look him in the eyes.
With his preparations completed, Tyler smiled coldly, standing up and picking up his bag.
He didn't bother with the two dogs Travis told to keep watch over him, as he exited the class, walking down the hall, and making his way to the gym locker room.
It was time to take care of the trash called Travis.