KAYLA SYDNEY MARTIN
AGE 18
STATUS: IN A RELATIONSHIP
RELATIONSHIP TO YOU: 18/100
SLIGHT CRUSH
Chet replayed these sentences in his mind over and over again as he ran to shop class. For the first time in his life, he showed confidence and assertiveness toward a girl. And not just any girl, but arguably one of the hottest girls in the entire school. And it worked. The words floating above her head proved it.
But she was in a relationship with Josh, head of the wrestling team. Chet weighed the pros and cons of pursuing something with her as opposed to using his newfound powers on someone else. Powers that he was reborn with after being killed in a woodshop accident. He could see his relationship to other people broken down as simple statistics floating above their heads.
With this system, Chet also had backdoor access to improving all of his mental and physical traits, albeit without knowing the extent to which he could tinker with them. The points he spent last night upgrading his mind and body definitely paid off, but he didn't know when he'd get his hands on more. He wished his new powers came with a manual.
Just how do I level up?
This question was in the back of his mind during the safety demonstration his workshop teacher, Mr. Algernon, put on for the class. Considering that Chet was killed the last time he took this class for not paying attention, it behooved him to try and listen this time.
But instead his eyes drifted over to Anna Young, the only girl in class. Chet never paid any attention to her previously, but his RPG-vision was displaying something curious.
ANNA YOUNG
AGE 19
STATUS: SINGLE
RELATIONSHIP TO YOU: 8/100
INTRIGUED
Intrigued? But we've never even spoken to each other.
Since Chet only received his powers of enhanced perception last night, he had no idea if Anna always felt this way towards him, or if it was because he upgraded aspects of his appearance and personality. He had never considered Anna as a romantic interest before, but now that he knew about this, he began to reexamine her.
She didn't have a bad-looking face, even if it was a little masculine. Sharp eyes, sharp cheekbones. Slightly prominent nose. These were partially obscured by safety goggles. Chin was a little strong for a girl, but nowhere near a guy's. If Chet had been a little more empathetic, he would have realized that these were probably sources of insecurity for her. But his empathy stat was only a five.
Out of a hundred.
She had dyed her long blonde hair black and cut them à la Skrillex, with one of the sides buzzed down, which was a major turn-off, as was her septum piercing and left arm tattoo. Luckily she didn't have those hideous gauge piercings in her ear, but overall she had an intimidating, tomboy look.
Her green eyes caught him staring at her. Chet resisted the urge to look away immediately, so he slowly turned them back to Mr. Algernon and his band saw.
Maybe if I had more CONFIDENCE points, I would have kept my eyes on her,
Chet chuckled to himself. He was curious what an 8/100 level of interest meant for Anna. He had to do 30 successful pull-ups and expose himself to Kayla to get the same rating from her before he escalated things in the locker room.
The teacher concluded his demonstration and the class broke to start working on their assignments. Today's was making a cutting a thin strip off a board of wood and turning it into a ruler.
Chet drew out an outline with a ruler and pencil, curious to see if the game overlay would kick in. To his disappointment, it didn't.
Huh.
He rested his block on the metal work surface. He was to cut a parallel line from the edge of the board, a mere quarter of an inch thick. If the blade didn't follow the straight line he drew on the wood, the ruler would come out with an irregular thickness and receive a worse grade. With the size of the block he was given, he only had three tries to get it right.
He lowered the upper saw guide until it was just above the height of the wooden block and got the air blower ready to clear away any sawdust. He flicked the on switch and adjusted the band speed to get the blade spinning at the right frequency. As soon as he put his hands back on the board to push it against the blade, a holographic circle appeared, hovering above the wood.
The circle had a little notch on the top, and a pointer that followed the angle of the wood. When Chet tilted the board with his hands even a little bit, the pointer would wildly swing away from center and the circle would glow red. But when they were aligned, the circle would appear green. Chet exhaled and made micro-adjustments to keep the board in the green. When it was, he then pushed it against the spinning, serrated band of metal.
Keeping the circle in the green while pushing the wood through at the same time was an agonizingly slow process. Twice he had to stop and collect his breath, turning his head away so as not to inhale any sawdust. When the blade cut all the way through and the ruler-sized chip broke away from the block with a satisfying snap, he turned off the power to pick it up.
Chet held it against the light and gazed at his handiwork in awe. The two flat edges of the ruler were perfectly parallel. He laid it against the flat metal table of the band saw. It was in full contact from end to end. He took off his glove and rubbed it against the cut end to confirm it for a third time. It was smooth. Only a minor bit of polish was needed to make it perfect.
He walked over to the end of the classroom where all the sanders were. It was empty because everyone else was still busy cutting. Mr. Algernon put a burly hand on his shoulder.
"Looks pretty good, Chet. Are you going to use the 500 grit?"
"I was thinking about using the 1000. The edge isn't that coarse, and I don't need to shave off too much."
"I agree. It seems pretty level to me."
The teacher walked away and left Chet alone. As soon as he put the sander in his hand, another mini-game interface popped up, highlighting the uneven parts of the ruler in red. Polishing became simply a matter of sanding away at these parts until the red disappeared.
This is too easy. I could crank out a dozen of these before class is over.
Satisfied, Chet took out his pen and wrote his name and date in small print on one of the corners, and turned it in.
"Great job, Chet. I'll give you your fifty points. You can work on the extra credit assignment now."
Mr. Algernon wrote 50 in red next to Chet's name on a sheet of paper in his grading binder. As soon as his pen left the page, a little chip tune chirp reverberated in Chet's ears.
WORKSHOP MISSION COMPLETED +15 EXP
"Woah," Chet exhaled softly.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, sir." Chet turned around and headed back to his station.
That is to say, after he bumped into Anna, who was standing right behind him, ready to turn in
her
assignment.
"Oof!" He exclaimed in surprise as his torso collided with the older girl's. Her B cup breasts smushed against his chest. He didn't notice though, because her hard forehead knocked against his chin.
"Hey, watch it!" She grunted, the level of aggression in her voice surprising both Chet and Mr. Algernon. She rubbed her forehead and gave him a look expecting him to say sorry. It was actually kind of intimidating.
Chet looked her up and down and went, "Pff," before walking away. Anna's eyes and mouth bugged open and she gawked at him. Mr. Algernon was almost about to chastise Chet for not apologizing but he was already gone.
15 points, huh? Is that enough for me to level up?
Chet was too busy thinking about his 'experience' to notice that Anna's interest in him had increased to 9.
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