Neon reflections shimmered faintly on the broken glass panes of the abandoned warehouse. The storm had passed, but puddles still clung stubbornly to the cracked concrete floor, catching threads of blue and red light from the streets outside.
Jack sat on an overturned crate, stretching his shoulders. His body still remembered the bruises from Ken's attack but the pain was gone. When he pressed a finger against his side, where a rib had been tender yesterday, nothing hurt.
He frowned. "There's no way this healed overnight without a trace."
The System's dry voice answered immediately:
[Passive Regeneration unlocked: Your body now heals faster due to System adaptation. Small wounds and bruises recover without medical aid.]
Jack blinked. "That… explains why I don't feel like I got smashed into the pavement. Not gonna lie, that's freaky but convenient."
[Convenient is one word for it. Another is: lucky. Without me, you'd still be some bruised,battered trash.]
That hurt Jack but he ignored the jab, rolling his shoulders again. A grin tugged at his lips despite himself. Every time the System reminded him he should be dead, it also reminded him he wasn't.
Jack stood, breathing slowly. "Alright, System. Training time. If I can teleport reliably, I don't have to keep nearly breaking my neck."
He eyed a cracked brick column a few meters away. Focused. The air rippled faintly. His body blinked out of existence then reappeared with a soft crack directly in front of the column.
He let out a whoop. "Yes! Nailed it!"
For once, no crash, no collision, no embarrassing face plant.
[Shocking. You didn't trip or headbutt into some object this time]
"Maybe I just needed a little confidence."
[Or maybe fear is your performance degrader..Try keeping a thug with a knife nearby at all times. Very motivating.]
Jack chuckled despite himself. "So it's adrenaline. Heat of battle makes me panic and screw up, but here? Calm. Focused. Guess that's the difference."
He wiped his palms on his jeans, then set his eyes on another point: a metal crate across the warehouse.
He teleported straight into the corner of the crate with his shoulder, hard enough to send it screeching an inch across the floor. Jack stumbled, clutching his arm. "Ow. Okay, that sucked."
[Observation: your accuracy is about as reliable as a blind sniper.]
Jack groaned. "Yeah, yeah. Aim and efficiency. I get it. Need to work on both."
[Excellent deduction, genius. Truly, the intelligence upgrade was immensely needed.]
He rolled his eyes. "I can do this."
Then his eyes lit up on the rusted ,metal,leaking water tank across the room,he closed his eyes the image of the flat top of the water tank screaming across his mind and then he teleported but found himself drowning,gasping for air.He instantly teleported out,"I guess I really need to work on this".
An idea sparked. Jack crouched, picking up a loose metal pipe on the ground. "Hey, System. Can I teleport objects? Like, not just me, but things I'm holding?"
[Brilliant question. Direct physical contact allows you to teleport objects along with yourself—or just the object if you focus hard enough.]
Jack's eyes lit up. "Wait, so… if I grab this pipe and think about moving it".
The pipe vanished from his hands then clattered onto a pile of scrap across the room.
He let out a sharp laugh. "Holy! That actually worked!"
[New skill unlocked: Object Teleportation Lv.1.]
A small black-and-white text screen floated in front of him:
<
Object teleportation Lv.1 – Allows teleportation of objects in direct contact with user.
Current Limit:5 kg max weight.Accuracy questionable.
Jack's grin stretched wider. "This is insane. I can move weapons, tools… even food."
[Impressive ambition. You discovered a new ability and immediately thought of snacks.]
Jack shrugged. "Priorities."
At the far corner of the warehouse, the dented water tank still leaked steadily, forming a dark pool across the floor. Jack smirked.
"Alright, let's try something bigger." "If I can't practice my teleportation with you,I might as well just do this".
He placed his hand against the cool metal, shut his eyes, and pictured the tank sitting just two meters away.
For an instant, the tank shimmered then warped clumsily forward, slamming down with a metallic boom. Water splashed across the concrete, soaking Jack's shoes.
He laughed nervously. "Okay… that worked. Sort of. But it nearly drowned me,again".
[Congratulations. You are now slightly less pathetic at relocating plumbing.]
Training stretched for hours. Jack tried teleporting short distances, then objects, then both together. Each attempt came with mixed results:
He reappeared upside down once, dropping flat on his back with a groan. He tried to teleport a crate to a hanging beam overhead only for it to appear directly over his head, smashing onto the floor and nearly breaking his toes.
[Note: at this rate, you'll need a medic on standby just for your training sessions.]
Jack wheezed from laughter. "Okay, that one's on me."
But not all failures. By the end of it, he could blink reliably across the warehouse at will. Accuracy wasn't perfect, but he was improving.
At last, he collapsed onto his crate again, sweat dripping, chest rising and falling. "Alright, System. Show me my progress."
A stat board shimmered into view, plain black-and-white text scrolling smoothly:
<<[Status Screen]>>
Name:Jack West.
Level:1.
EXP:50/100.
Credits:150
HP:125/125.
Strength:3.
Agility:3
Endurance:3
Speed:1
Intelligence:4
Willpower:5
Charm :2
Charisma:2
Luck:1
Available stat points:2
Skills:
Teleportation:Lv2
Inspect:Lv1
Object teleportation:Lv1
Jack wiped sweat from his brow. "Not bad. Two free points to assign."
[Yes. Congratulations,you deserve it especially after Winning that fight yesterday even though you were starving.]
Jack snorted. "Well I guess he isn't all just teasing and humour".]
[Consider it motivation. You're still weak enough that even a toddler with a water gun could be a threat. But progress is progress.]
Jack sighed back to normal I guess but it was good while it lasted.He studied the board, fingers twitching. "Alright. Intelligence and Willpower went up from before. Guess that's all this practice."
[Correct. Intelligence grew when you used your brain to adapt to the unfamiliar kitchen surroundings and learners new fighting concepts your brain to learn new concepts. Willpower rose when you resisted,giving up yesterday when you were starving . Both are shocking developments in your case.]
Jack smirked. "So I got smarter and tougher just by surviving your training course.and by going through yesterday's ordeals"." Not bad."
He exhaled, thinking hard. "Okay. Two points. Let's make this count."
He tapped the interface, assigning one point into Agility and the other into Speed.
The board updated:
Agility: 4
Speed:2
He stood, bouncing lightly on his toes. His body felt just a little sharper, his legs a little quicker, like his reflexes had been tuned by invisible hands.
"Yeah," he whispered, grinning. "This feels right."
[Congratulations. You are now only slightly less pathetic at running away.]
Jack laughed, shaking his head. "Better than nothing."
As dawn light filtered weakly into the warehouse, Jack stood tall again. His clothes were damp with sweat, his muscles trembling, but for once, he didn't feel broken.
He flexed his fingers, staring at the faint shimmer of energy dancing at his palm. He was stronger, Smarter. Still sarcastically bullied by the System but undeniably more capable than he had been yesterday.
"Neon City," he muttered, glancing at the skyline beyond the shattered glass. "You have no idea what's coming."
[Correction: you Jack have no idea what's coming as your power increases,there will be harder quests and problems which will be more difficult to solve.]
Jack grinned. "Yeah, yeah. Keep talking." "System,Neon city bring it on,give me whatever you got and I promise that I won't quit until the very last day."
The city outside pulsed with the Neon heartbeat, and Jack felt, for the first time, like he was pulsing with it.