Ima had rushed to do everything to arrive early. He had woken up 20 minutes later than usual, so he had to hurry.
Even so, on his way, he couldn't help but feel ecstatic. The trance in the car, the HUD cards, the application, and playing video games were finally opening up the panorama for him. It wasn't a consequence of his damaged mind; it was a real fact, and just as he had said while running:
"I've woken up with the powers of an eroge game!"
Upon arriving, class had already started, although he took advantage of the fact that the class was with Teacher Alexandra, who, seeing him, remembered the compliments and the chat from the previous day and let him enter without question.
Ima spent most of the class thinking about what he would do once the break arrived. This time, the "alpha" wasn't there, only his lackeys, who looked at Ima sideways and with a strange expression. Still, he was grateful for what he did yesterday, because, after analyzing it completely, he had considered the hypothesis of whether repeating his behavior would generate the same reaction in them or not.
Regardless, they were lackeys; for no one in the class was it obvious that many times they were only brave because they had the "alpha" on their side.
The absorption this topic held for Ima was so great that he didn't pay attention to Vanesa, who, uncomfortable in her seat, could only recall what had happened every time she looked at him. She couldn't imagine that the man who had declared his love just a couple of days ago was now completely calm, with his characteristic reflective demeanor.
Finishing the class, the teacher collected the classwork, and as she passed near Ima, he smiled at her in the most honest way he could and, intentionally, looked directly at her legs to check if it had an effect on people.
The card appeared in milliseconds:
<
[Shyness +4xp, Confidence +6xp]
[Status: Confident]
"Perfect…" Ima said to himself. The teacher left, and finally, he could dedicate time to analyzing his abilities.
The visual interaction with the teacher had proven that there was more than one way to generate points, since simply looking with intention and being perceived by the other party was enough. Now he wondered if something could also happen through touch.
At the end of class, both the chubby one and his companion approached him, again to ask for money, but this time Ima had been sufficiently invaded by the ecstasy of experimenting that he wasn't afraid. His strategy was risky, but even so, Ima was confident that he was already stigmatized enough for people to talk about him more than necessary; conversely, the two people in front of him clearly depended on social vision, and Ima would take advantage of that.
"What's up, guys?" he asked with a mocking, unserious tone. "Where's your lord? Sick?"
Both were stunned, but still, the chubby one replied:
"Why the question? Just give us the money and we'll leave you alone."
"Ah, come on, let's talk a bit," Ima replied. "We've never talked much; tell me, what are your names?"
The group began to fill with curiosity, and even Vanesa was surprised by Ima's tone and behavior.
"Why do you want to know that? Hurry up and give us the money," the thin guy grabbed Ima by the collar of his hoodie.
"They are starting to get frustrated again."
<
[Strangeness +6xp, Insecurity +8xp]
[Status: Frustrated]
<
[Strangeness +6xp, Insecurity +8xp]
[Status: Frustrated]
Ima suddenly moved quite strangely in his seat, grabbed the thin guy's arm, who instinctively pulled away for fear of a hit, but Ima took his hand in milliseconds and brought it close to his mouth.
"Oh, come on, my lenders don't want to pity me and tell me their names! Why are you so cruel!?" he shouted in a totally effeminate tone, and in an unexpected move, he licked the thin guy's index finger with sexual connotation.
The response was immediate; the expression on everyone's face was one of obvious second-hand embarrassment and repulsion.
"What's wrong with you, you sick freak?" the chubby one said, approaching him with a red face.
"Nothing at all! I'm fine, are you? Give me your hand too!" Ima shouted again, now moving toward the chubby one.
Both the thin guy and the chubby one backed away from Ima in repulsion.
"We just want the money…"
"Come on, fat guy, let me touch your round face like you three do in the basketball gym storage room!" Ima's strategy was working, and the added benefit of delivering comments confidently and mentioning facts that everyone knew, like the gym incident, was transforming the atmosphere from an attempted intimidation into a comical act. Ima read both their cards and confirmed the usefulness of his strategy: "[Shame +10 xp, Humiliation +8xp], [Status: Ashamed]" read both their cards.
Both refused to continue and left the classroom in complete failure with totally red faces.
"It worked!"
"Thank you, everyone…" Ima let out an abrupt laugh and bowed to them. "Enjoy your break."
Before leaving the room, Ima looked at a couple of classmates. The statistic for shame and persuasion increased by 8 and 10 points, respectively.
He left the room proudly, and when he was finally completely alone, back on the rooftop, he calmed down. Having done something like that felt disgusting and intimidating, but his curiosity about the abilities had started to obsess him enough to dare to do something like that.
II
"What will I do now that I have this power? When does it end? Why do I have it?" his mind questioned, as he finally ate bites of good food.
Perhaps the goddess had taken pity on him because of his miserable habits and situation, and therefore granted him this ability. Although it wasn't precisely what one would expect if they were told they would be given the abilities of an eroge game. He could ask the goddess later if he wanted, or simply explore every action and the application in depth. The only thing he was sure about was his xp gain from every decision, word, or deed he intentionally made or said.
"Anyway, I must apologize to Vanesa somehow now that I have this power in my hands. I can't let things continue like this."
He searched from the heights to see if Vanesa was in the garden; upon observing her eating with her friends, he began to get anxious, but he didn't back down. He quickly descended the stairs, threw his food trash where it belonged, and headed toward the garden.
He didn't care at all to read the stats she would present, because his feelings for her were authentic: he genuinely felt ashamed and cowardly. And it was evident that Vanesa noticed this as soon as he approached her.
Instead of behaving as Ima expected, Vanesa's friends respected their decision and moved to a different spot, to give them privacy.
"Vanesa… I…" his heart began to beat strongly, and he felt his throat closing up. He had leaned forward to deliver his speech. "I want to apologize for what I caused and how this has affected you. I don't expect you to reciprocate humanly after all, even though my heart, my love for you, is still latent, I don't long for reciprocity," the silence of the environment, the beating of his heart, and his position were agitating him too much, his body was itching. "I need you to be aware that it was never my intention to reach this point…"
There were eternal seconds where everything remained the same. The scent of the flowers, the buzzing of some bees passing by, and Ima's breathing seemed to intensify every time air left his nose.
Finally, there was a movement, the sound of shoes dragging dirt.
"Lift your head, Ima."
Ima obeyed, and Vanesa, just as she did in the first months of the semester, took pity on him. The man's gaze in front of her, the small tears held back in his tear ducts, and the depressed corners of his mouth struck an already sensitive heart.
"You're a stupidly weird guy to everyone, even a little bit to me. But you're not a bad person, Ima," Vanesa's face drew a bright smile that perfectly blended with the flowery background, and Ima couldn't help but lower his head in shame. "It wasn't your fault; you don't need to feel bad. You couldn't have known those three would do something like that."
Vanesa approached Ima, who was still unable to meet her gaze. She took his head with both hands and lifted it. She did the same with the rest of his body, and Ima made a maximum effort to remain straight despite the embarrassment.
"And come on… Your reputation was already dragging you down, and mine wasn't exactly the most outstanding," Vanesa commented, sitting down again. "It's not like you or I can do anything either…" Vanesa's voice was filled with a poignant sadness for Ima. She lifted her gaze back to his eyes with innocence. "I forgive you, Ima."
Ima remained silent; he didn't know how to process it, he couldn't even order his thoughts. And when he thought he did, the bell rang, signaling the start of the last class.
Ima couldn't stop reflecting on everything. He hadn't thought about it since the rejection due to resentment and the ecstasy he had, but Vanesa deserved to be helped as much as he did now that he had his abilities. The realization that, if he didn't act, she would be as much a pariah as he was during the school period stirred his head and led him to a radical solution because of his extreme resilience: He would become the sole object of shame, and thus people would forget what happened with Vanesa.
The class consisted of ethics, philosophy, in short, and it caught Ima's attention because of the topic they were covering: The Eternal Return. The professor quoted Nietzsche's famous quote verbatim:
—"What if a demon were to tell you that you would have to live your life over and over again, eternally, with nothing new, every pain, every joy, every sigh, in the same sequence?" his teacher quoted fervently. "Nietzsche didn't say any of this under the yoke of the depressing and hopeless; he believed that one should always choose to act and decide meticulously in every circumstance, in order to make the choice that, if repeated, we would love to live again without any change," the professor began putting his things in his briefcase. "Don't take things lightly and think clearly; any decision can change the course of life, and all that cliché talk."
The class finally ended. Ima cautiously said goodbye to Vanesa. None of the bullies came to bother them, or so he thought.
The piercing sound of the door being roughly slid open caught everyone's attention. Ima felt a sharp pain in his chest: the figure of the "alpha" appeared, but there was something strange about him; his face was inhuman, something denoted savagery.
"Stop, Barry, you don't have to do that," the chubby one and the thin guy said in unison. "We brought this upon ourselves."
"So your name is Barry? That surprises me a bit," Ima said haughtily. "Tell me, are you coming to reveal what you three do…"
Before he could fully articulate his dialogue, a dull thud cut through the air and impacted Ima's jaw directly.
"Stop! You'll get us into trouble!" the chubby one said, but Barry was completely disconnected.
He grabbed Ima by the hair, feeling proud that the entire room was watching, and delivered another blow directly to his stomach. Ima's thin body pathetically hit the bench where he had been sitting minutes before.
Ima always believed this day would come, but he never dared to formulate any plan for it, and now that school was over, he couldn't count on any teacher intervening for him. Not even Barry's friends tried to stop him out of fear; a fear so intense that it made them flee the scene for fear of being punished as accomplices to Ima's beating.
<
[Error registering fluctuations]
[Status: Danger!]
The beating continued for 5 minutes, 5, during which no one dared to enter to do anything, during which Ima gathered an enormous amount of shame.
Ima, despite the exhaustion, moved several times even with his face covered in threads of blood. He tried to speak, hoping to calm Barry, but nothing seemed to work. The same message repeated on his card: Impossible to interact.
Still, Ima had a fleeting idea, and he didn't hesitate to put it to the test despite the fear or the consequences. He stood up in a sudden and extremely painful movement, daring to elude Barry, and ran as best he could toward the hallway, where a large group of students had gathered, even those from other grades. Upon exiting, he pretended to fall, with the goal of Barry grabbing him again, and, almost unconscious, he smiled as if unafraid, as if belittling Barry's authority.
Barry wasn't stopping at all, but Ima no longer cared; he couldn't even perceive the pain; it was just a matter of waiting. The camera next to the upper part of one of the many pillars in the hallway pointed directly at the beating, and, just as he had planned, the screams attracted the attention of the teachers from the continuous classrooms. One of the teachers was his ace up his sleeve: Teacher Alexandra, whose classroom routine he knew by habit.
Before falling completely unconscious, Ima could see a new onomatopoeia that appeared like a bloodstain:
<
You have unlocked the profile section!
You can now obtain more information from the sections!
You have advanced to Level 2!
You have obtained a new skill: Probability Reading!>>