Normally Ryutaro wouldn’t have spared more than a few moments to fix his appearance at the mirror, but today was slightly different. As he stared at the mirror, it wasn’t his appearance that held his attention, but rather the bright blue texts above his head. His first instinct was to bob his head around, as if the action would dislodge the strange text, but nope, they stuck to him regardless of what he did. Trying to touch them yielded no results, as his hands passed clean through, and all first-year could mutter was, “Huh…” as he stared into the mirror. As much as he would have liked to dwell on the strangeness of the situation, the world kept on spinning, and as such he still had school to attend. “Ah…” he grumbled to himself in annoyance as he slipped his arm through a strap of his bag, before hopping down the stairs. He paused only briefly to take in the text above his mother’s head; it was slightly different from his. She didn’t have a special title like his or ‘Jack of Few Trades’, but she was a level higher than him, at two instead of one. The moment was broken when she turned around and smiled at him, waving him over as she set a plate down on the table in the dining room. [b]“Come on, Ryuchi. You’ve still got time.”[/b] She was right, he had managed to come down earlier than usual despite taking a while to try and figure things out, rather unsuccessfully by the way. So despite the fact that the situation was still a bit strange to him and put him on edge, Ryutaro decided to take advantage of the moment of normality. [b]“Thanks,”[/b] he murmured as he placed his bag on the floor and took a seat across from his mother, digging in. He almost regretted it, and had to fight the urge to sigh and facepalm, lest he worry her. [quote=System]Health regeneration increased by 10%.[/quote] Instead, he just raised his finger to close the notification, acting as if he had just recalled something to cover for the otherwise strange motion. He pushed the plate away, having finished quickly before he asked, [b]“I did tell you I was coming home late today right?”[/b] [b]“Mhmm,”[/b] she murmured with a nod as she took the plate away and dropped it into the sink, making a small splash. [b]“Gymnastic team practice right?”[/b] [b]“Yeah. I’ll be back at around 6 or 7 then. See ya,”[/b] he called out as he grabbed his bag and bounded down another flight of stairs towards the front door. He was slipping on his shoes when a call of [b]“Have fun,”[/b] came down from above. [b]“I will,”[/b] he called back again before he finally slipped out of the house, the door pulled closed behind him. ---- He had gotten used to seeing people with their levels and names displayed above their heads after the first dozen. Now Ryutaro wished there was a way to toggle whatever this was off. Sure, it could be useful in a bunch of situations, but it was really distracting to get dozens of name every time he bothered to look up. With a sigh, he turned his gaze back downwards and focused on the task at hand. The best explanation he could come up with was somehow, one way or another, he was viewing reality through the lens of a game. It was absolutely ludicrous, but he didn’t bother with such an assumption without proof. That came in the fact that he could call forth windows, Status, Inventory, Talents, Skills, and hell even a Quest. They were set out in a manner not too unlike the many MMORPGs he had played, and frankly the Skills window had the most damning proof yet. [quote=Skill Window]The Gamer (MAX LV) (Passive): You possess the Mind of a Gamer. +1 INT, +1 DEX. Immune to all Psychological Affects. Able to analyze things in the same way a gamer could. Game Character's Body (MAX LV) (Passive): You possess a body that lets you live like a Game Character in the real world. [/quote] So yes, Ryutaro was fairly set in his belief that somehow the world or, at the least, his personal reality had been game-ified. With that much established, he sighed to release some tension before finally looking up at where he was going. Despite his mutterings, no further windows had been opened, so he could only assume he was either missing the key phrases, or the so-called UI was extremely limited. Anyways, just a short distance away was Neo Tokyo U, his destination for the day and well frankly, many days to come. ---- It was a relatively uneventful day for the most part, after the shock of having his life game-ified of course. Classes at the university had been boring as usual, with him struggling to stay awake and pay attention. Honestly, he had been more interested in his professors at times than what they were actually saying. They held titles like, ‘Head of Psychology Department’, or, ‘5th Dan Kendoka’, and levels ranging from three to nine; it was pretty damn cool. Practice at the gymnastics club had gone as usual, albeit his performance was far from ideal. Probably had something to do with the fact that the club’s leader was a level four, while Ryutaro himself was only one. He knew his upperclassman didn’t know of his ‘level’, but the first-year couldn’t help but get pumped up with such an easily accessible goal. [i]‘Become level five by the end of this month and surpass my captain.’[/i] It was as good as any. ---- It was almost frightening how easily he had brushed aside the strangeness of this “ability” he had gained, and it took an entirely new occurrence to remind Ryutaro of how things had changed. He didn’t know how he had noticed it, but as he was walking to school the next day, his head jerked to the side as if compelled and his eyes spotted a yellow purse laying near a lamppost. He looked around, but people seemed to be passing it by without so much as a spare glance. A bit odd in his opinion, but with a shrug, he crouched down and picked the lost object up, giving it a small dust off. He just as quickly nearly dropped it when a window sprung from it, although he managed to just tighten his grip instead. [quote=System: Quest]Return the Lost Purse You’ve discovered a lost purse. Do the right thing and try to return it to its rightful owner. Completion Reward: 3 EXP, Reward from Owner? Failure: Possibly Guilt, The Purse’s Contents [/quote] A quick glance told Ryutaro all he needed to know, and a small grin formed on his expression. He didn’t hesitate to hit the [Accept] button, causing the window to close itself. After all he wasn’t lacking in money, and to him, a beginner in this “game”, experience was far more valuable. Not to mention, it was the right thing to do. Ryutaro did feel slightly bad for rummaging through the girl’s purse, but how else was he going to get a clue who it belonged to? He took note of the University ID inside along with the cellphone, before a plan formed in his mind. The library’s printers would be seeing some use today… and some of his money as well. ---- It was halfway through practice with the gymnastics club when Ryutaro’s cell phone finally rang. Excusing himself, but not without some teasing from the other members, he was just glad that this quest wasn’t going to drag itself out for days and weeks on end. ---- It was a quick meeting between the two of them. Ryutaro compared her to the student ID, and asked for a bit of information of the phone to confirm she was the owner, before handing her possessions over. A few formalities were exchanged between the two of them, a reward was offered, a reward was turned down, and both walked away with a smile. She because her possessions had been returned, and he because a bright blue window had appeared. [quote=System: Quest Complete] Reward: 3 Exp [/quote] --- In the lecture halls with hundreds of others, Ryutaro was fighting the urge to simply slump on the desk and nap. His professor droned on about this and that, but the noise simply flitted in through one year and out the other. His eyes moved to the screen of his laptop, and he tapped the touch screen lazily, flicking his finger vertically to scroll through the web page. So unfocused, that when a window appeared, Ryutaro nearly fell from his chair. He didn’t quite do that, but as his face smacked into the table, he did catch his classmates’ attentions. [b]“Ow…”[/b] he muttered under his breath as he rubbed his forehead, before he looked up at the cause of all this. [quote=System Quest]Others Like Me Issued By: A Passing Thought Sometimes in the world there exist multiples of the same thing. There could possibly be more of those with above their heads, or in this case more of those who are . Whether this is true or not is uncertain, but perhaps going to investigate could be very beneficial. Its not like there is much else to do at this point anyway. Reward: 4 EXP, Possibly more information on Failure: Not finding out more about [/quote] Just like last time, Ryutaro cracked a grin and didn’t hesitate to hit the [Accept] button. The window snapped closed and he was left to think, all the noises around tuned out. He was sure he hadn’t seen another in the two days, he would have definitely noticed something like that above an individual’s head. There had to be at least hundreds, if not thousands of people attending the university he had glanced at over the past two days. It was alm- Before he could get too lost in his contemplations though, the refresh of the webpage he was on caught his attention. He blinked for a moment, unsure of what he was seeing, and even went so far as to refresh the page manually again, but nope it was still there. A thread on 2chan asking about , what were the chances? Actually pretty damn high if Ryutaro bothered to think about it. Nevertheless, he didn’t question his good fortune and quickly replied to the thread, including a throw-away email account with his post. [u]‘? Blue text above your head? Levels? [Game Character’s Body]? Email me if you want to discuss.’[/u]