As Quinn and the bully began their fight, a new System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[Battle Mode Initiated.]
As he looked ahead, he noticed that the normal circular vector that would normally appear over whatever he was looking at was completely gone.
Instead, he saw that a green bar, reminiscent of a "health bar" in video games, had appeared over the heads of both of the fighters. Under the very bottom of Quinn's bar, it read "10/10".
The bully slashed his hand at Quinn.
Quinn raised his hand to block the attack, but the hand still sliced through part of his arm, drawing blood.
On impact, Tsukuru noticed Quinn's green bar slowly began to shrink from the far end.
The bar left a black outline where it had shrunk, giving it the appearance of a gauge going down.
At the same time, the number underneath the bar changed from "10/10" to "8/10".
A System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[HP: 8/10]
Quinn and Tsukuru looked at the bully, who now had his hands transformed into tiger claws, revealing he had a Beast Transformation Ability, albeit weak due to him being a Level 1.2, only allowing him to change his hands.
Quinn felt a stinging pain where his arm got sliced.
The bully charged at Quinn again, swinging his right hand at Quinn.
Using his improved reflexes, Quinn ducked below the claw, and threw a punch into the bully's stomach.
In Tsukuru's vision, the bully's "health bar" went down by one-third. Tsukuru smirked in approval.
The bully staggered back, shock on his face from the sheer force behind Quinn's strike.
The bully recovered quickly, maneuvering around Quinn, and slashing at his back.
Again, Quinn's bar in Tsukuru's vision depleted, now reading "6/10".
At the same time, a System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[HP: 6/10]
"Shut up, I know!" Quinn yelled.
He lifted up the bully using both hands, lifting him up by the legs, and throwing him against the wall.
The bully grunted in pain as he impacted with the wall, and the bully's bar went down another third in Tsukuru's vision.
He now was down to a third of his health. One more hit from Quinn, and he'd win.
"How did Quinn pick him up like that?" Peter asked.
"He's stronger than he looks." Tsukuru replied without looking away. "Apparently, he wasn't…in top form during the test earlier."
Tsukuru's eyes then narrowed, as he thought back to the test in the wasteland. The scores he got had not only been abysmal, but they had been exactly half of what Tsukuru's stats were when he first unlocked the System.
'Did something happen that somehow weakened him?' Tsukuru thought.
He then thought back to earlier, when Quinn had told him that one of his 'Daily Quests' was to stay out of sunlight for eight hours. Then, there was when he had gained that 10 Exp for 'learning more about the System' conveniently right after he had finished reading a book about Vampires.
As a major fan of fantasy media from far before the Dalki War, Tsukuru was quite knowledgeable about Vampires.
Suddenly, a thought came to him.
'Could he be…' Tsukuru started to think, before he then shook his head in dismissal, instantly discarding the idea. 'Nah, that can't be.' He thought with a smile. 'Vampires are about as real as Werewolves…'
Tsukuru and Peter both watched as Quinn walked up to the bully, still laying on the ground against the wall, and kicked him full-force in the stomach.
Instantly, in Tsukuru's vision, the bully's health bar went all the way down to zero.
A new System screen appeared in front of Tsukuru, as his and his vision went back to normal.
[Battle decided. Battle Mode has been deactivated.]
Meanwhile, a System screen appeared in front of Quinn, as well.
[First fight has been completed. 50 Exp received. Exp: 70/100]
"Is he dead?" Peter asked.
Hearing his voice, Quinn turned around, and he saw Peter and Tsukuru approaching him.
As if to answer Peter's question, the bully began to cough up blood.
"No, but if he attacks you again, he'll wish he was." Quinn replied with conviction.
Suddenly, a new System screen appeared in front of him.
[Additional Ques Reward: New Skill Unlocked.
Skill Inspect - Lv. 1 has been acquired.]
Quinn looked at the screen in front of him.
'Inspect?' Quinn thought. 'So maybe this can tell me the weaknesses of my enemies?' He thought.
Quinn decided to use his new Skill on Peter. Unfortunately, Quinn had no idea how to activate it.
But the second he thought about using it, the Skill activated on its own, and a screen appeared next to Peter.
[Name: Peter Chuck
Race: Human
Ability: None
HP: 3/5
Blood Type: A+]
'This Skill sounds a lot like that 'Scanner' function Tsukuru talked about earlier!' Quinn realized.
He looked over to Tsukuru, and activated the Skill.
A screen appeared next to Tsukuru, as well.
[Name: Hikiko Tsukuru
Race: Human*
Ability: Video
Ability Level: 1
HP: 10/10
Blood Type: O-]
'If Tsukuru's HP is anything to go on, he must have the same stats as me!' Quinn thought.
Quinn also raised an eyebrow at the asterisk after Tsukuru's "Human" race identification. Unknown to Quinn, the same anomaly occurred when Tsukuru used his System's "Scanner" function on Quinn.
However, at the same time that Quinn was looking at Tsukuru with his new Inspect Skill, a System message had popped up in front of Tsukuru.
[A Skill is being used on you. Would you like to block the attempt?
[Yes] [No] ]
Seeing this, Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in confusion, a puzzled look appearing on his face.
'A Skill?' He thought in confusion. 'How can somebody be using a Skill on me? I feel perfectly fine!' Tsukuru thought 'no' to the System's prompt.
As long as the Skill wasn't causing some kind of ill effect on him, he didn't see why it was any sort of concern.
Looking forward, he saw that Quinn was staring rather intensely at him.
'Huh, wonder why the hell Quinn's looking at me like that…' He thought.
Tsukuru then began walking forward, causing Peter to look at him in confusion as he passed.
Together, both Quinn and Tsukuru walked up to the bully. They both looked down at him, looking at him with their "Inspect" feature, though Tsukuru's activated automatically.
[Name: Kyle Main
Race: Human
Ability: Beast Transformation
Ability Level: 1]
[Name: Kyle Main
Race: Human
Ability: Beast Transformation
Ability Level: 1
HP: 1/8
Blood Type: B-]
"I…I think we better leave before somebody else shows up!" Peter replied, frantically looking left and right.
Both Quinn and Tsukuru ignored him, as they took in the new information.
Suddenly, a new System message appeared before Quinn, but Tsukuru saw it as well.
[Optional Quest: Drink the blood of your victim to absorb a Stat Point]
Quinn stared at the screen, wide-eyed.
'What?!' he thought. 'This thing is crazy!'
Tsukuru looked at Quinn. He looked like he was having an internal struggle, trying to decide if he should or shouldn't complete the optional quest that had just popped up.
"Quinn!" Peter shouted again.
Both Quinn and Tsukuru turned to him.
"Yeah." Quinn muttered, as he began walking back towards Peter. "Yeah, you're right."
As they began to walk, Quinn turned back around to Tsukuru, who had gone back to staring at Kyle's now-unconscious body.
"Hey, you coming?" He asked.
Tsukuru waved his hand dismissively.
"Yeah, I'll be with you in a second." He replied.
Quinn raised his eyebrow, but eventually walked away.
Tsukuru continued to glance down at the newly named Kyle Main.
For a moment, he considered just taking the boy's blood, and holding it for Quinn later.
But, Tsukuru then thought better of it. This was a Quest from Quinn's System. And Tsukuru knew better than anyone that there was nothing more frustrating than a "backseat gamer".
Tsukuru took one last look at Kyle, and then walked back down the hallway, following after his new friends and roommates.
Unknown to Tsukuru, in another timeline, him doing the exact thing he had just decided not to do had caused a giant rift in his and Quinn's friendship only two days later.