Chapter 4: 04 - I hit the trash

By the end of the math class, my Intermediate Math skill had gone up two more levels, reaching Lv 21! For the first time in my life, I was a little disappointed when I heard the sound of the bell indicating that the class was over and that I had to go to my classroom for the next class. Luckily, when I arrived at the Biology classroom, the same Buff appeared, but this time with a focus on Biology. As in the previous class, I also received a Biology Skill, but the Biology Skill was only Lv 16, since it was my worst subject. By the end of the lesson, I'd managed to move up two levels in this skill as well, reaching level 18, giving me 18% more ease with Biology related subjects. The next lesson was Physics, which was the same as the other two, then English, which was also the same. When the break came, I was surprised to find myself disappointed that I couldn't stay in a classroom and study. The system is really powerful, just seeing my knowledge increase like in a game, as well as time limited learning bonuses, made me want to study and learn...' I thought surprised. I thought, surprised. When I arrived at the school cafeteria, not wanting to talk to anyone, I just took my lunch and sat alone at one of the tables while I read on my phone about singing training and how I could practice to improve the quality of my voice. While I was trying out some singing exercises by humming with my mouth closed, the message I'd been waiting for finally appeared. [Singing Lv 1 Effect: +1% efficiency when practicing singing, +1% chance that whoever hears your voice while singing will like what they hear]. Great, not only will it increase the efficiency of my practice, which will increase the speed at which I improve, but it will also increase the quality of my singing, so people will enjoy hearing my singing voice more! I thought excitedly as I continued to practice humming with my mouth closed using the technique I'd seen on my phone. Once I had the skill, it would be a little easier to perform the correct technique, which would surely increase the speed at which I could improve my singing even more. I wonder if there's a music room at the school,' I thought curiously, because if there was a music room, the chances of a buff being there while I was practicing were very high. However, considering the way I was treated at this school, it would be better if I waited until I improved my body a bit more before going to such a place to avoid the humiliation that would probably come with it. Although I wouldn't mind beating up anyone who came to talk shit to me, I knew that it wouldn't solve all my problems, so it would be best for me to just be patient while I improved myself, even learning some martial arts skills would be very useful. In my previous life, I was very fond of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because I watched MMA, but considering the practicality of street fighting, it's better to learn Krav Maga... Putting it on my list of things to learn, I went back to practicing my singing until I suddenly felt something hit my back. Looking at what it was, I saw that it was a paper ball. If it was the old Noah, he would probably ignore it and nothing would happen, but I wouldn't put up with that shit. In my previous life, I was the one who caused most of the problems in my school, now here, am I going to accept these little shits doing this to me? Hehe. Getting up from my chair, I looked at the little shit who threw the paper ball at me and laughed. "Sorry dude, I was trying to hit the trash can." He said as he laughed, making his friends laugh too. Hearing that, I laughed too as I bent down and picked up the paper ball. As I stood up with the paper ball in my hand and walked toward him with a smile, he laughed even more, thinking that I would be stupid enough to give it back to him after he threw it at me. But to his and his friends' surprise, when I got close enough to him with my outstretched hand to give him the ball, I quickly put my other hand to his throat. Shocked, he quickly tried to scream, but as soon as he opened his mouth, I took the ball and shoved it into his mouth. "Sorry dude, I hit the trash can." I said as I continued to smile and squeeze his neck. Even though I wasn't that physically fit for my weight, my strength was still decently high, so he tried to hit my arm to release it and I just ignored the pain as I kept my wrist wrapped around his neck. When his friends realized what was going on, they also got up to try to separate me from their friend, but as soon as they got up, I threw the little shit in their direction and started walking away. "Throw the ball at me again and I will put it in your other hole in front of everyone..." I said in a cold voice as I walked away from them. Although his attacks hurt, it was nothing compared to the pain I felt when I got into fights in my previous world, or the pain I felt when my father hit me. His friends wanted to chase me to take out their anger on me, but when they saw that I wasn't afraid of them at all, they quickly cowered and looked at the boy lying on the ground with a ball of paper in his mouth, waiting for him to say something. "Whale Black, just wait and see if I don't kill you..." He said in an angry voice as he stood up and left the canteen, extremely angry at the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of someone he considered easy prey. I knew he would try to take revenge, but I didn't care. I could very well hit him harder here in the canteen, but considering the problems that would cause me, and the high probability that I would get hit, since it was three against one, there was no point in me trying to do anything here. But considering how quickly I would learn fighting techniques from System, depending on how soon they came for revenge, I could beat them with my bare hands, but if they came early, I wouldn't mind carrying an iron bar in my backpack. I never cared about fairness and honesty in a fight, as long as I was the last one standing, it was all worth it to me. [+1 CHA] Now I was really surprised, could it be that just standing up for myself and trying to make them stop disrespecting me would increase my charisma? Ignoring the hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at me, I went back to my lunch and continued practicing my singing skills. Surprisingly, even though I'd been practicing for about 10 minutes, my skill had already increased to Lvl 2. I guess the lower the level, the easier it is to improve your skill, right? I thought, trying to understand how it worked. Fortunately, the physical changes that my charisma increase made to me were very few, and probably quite hidden under my fat, so no one noticed anything unusual about me when a stat gained one point and increased my overall stat by 20%. -------- Olivia's comment -------- Since the school year had just started, Olivia, who had just arrived at the high school, hadn't seen Noah being bullied yet. Olivia sat on the couch with a shocked expression on her face. "Ever since I moved to this school, I've heard that my brother was bullied a little by his classmates, but I've never seen it happen..." she said a little sadly. She said a little sadly. "Today was the first time I saw it happen, but I didn't imagine that he would get so frightened with anger." Looking around, Olivia commented. "If he reacts like that when they bully him, how come they've had the courage to bully him for so long? Aren't they afraid of dying? I really thought Noah was going to beat that kid up!" Until she finally cracked a smile. "Even though he was scary, I have to admit, he seems to have become cooler after acting like that, I've never seen him like that." -------- Comment End -------- When I went back to my classes, people kept even more distance from me, which was very good for me because it gave me more time to study on my own and take advantage of the classroom buffs to raise my skill level as much as possible. I imagined that one of the teachers would talk about what had happened at lunch, but maybe they knew what had happened to the old Noah and now that I'd fought back, they just accepted it. What a shitty school...' I sighed mentally as I realized how bad this school was. Considering that the neighborhood we lived in was one of the worst in the city, it wasn't surprising. On the way home, I noticed that Olivia looked at me in a better way, as if she had more respect for me after seeing what happened today. Fortunately, she didn't tell our mother about it, because I would have a hard time dealing with the two-hour lecture she would probably give me when she heard that her son had been involved in a fight. When I got home, the first thing I heard was Ethan's request. "Noah, you promised you'd make my hair like yours, come on, help me cut my hair like yours!" He said excitedly as he walked around me. Smiling, I nodded as I looked at my mom. "How about it, can you help me?" "Yeah, I'll get the blunt scissors." She said as she ran into the house and grabbed the safest scissors so I wouldn't hurt Ethan. Olivia looked at me in surprise, but began to understand what I was doing. Instead of asking my mom if I could do it, I just asked her if she wanted to help, which already satisfied her helicopter mom mode. This was going to be my first time cutting someone else's hair, which was easier than I'd imagined because I had a lot more control over my hand doing something I was looking at directly rather than a reflection in a mirror. Within minutes, Ethan's hair looked exactly like mine. He was like a mini me, only thinner and smaller. "After you shower, do you want to do our homework together?" I said as I ruffled his hair. Ethan's eyes lit up when he heard this, because he knew that it would be much easier to do his homework with someone else, the problem was that his mother didn't have the patience to teach him, and the only one who liked it was our father, who took a long time to get home. "Yeaah!" Ethan shouted happily as he ran to the bathroom to shower and clean up the cut hair that was stuck to his head. While Ethan was showering, I went into our bedroom and looked at my manga collection. I think I can get about $80 if I sell all this... I thought as I decided to sell everything to buy a guitar. I didn't like this stuff anymore and it would just gather dust in my room, since my parents probably don't have the money to give me to buy a guitar, I can get rid of it and get what I want. The guitar is the only instrument I knew how to play in my previous life, so if I learned the guitar skill, it would probably be at a higher level, which would leave me more time to practice my singing. So while Ethan showered, I grabbed a bag and put all my manga away. Since I finished quickly, I used the rest of the time to speed up my homework, which was very easy once I'd learned most of the content. I even got an extra level in math and physics. When Ethan arrived, I had already finished my homework and helped him with his, explaining it much more clearly and patiently than the others had with him. [Teaching Lv 1 Effect: When teaching other people, as long as you know what you're teaching, they have a 1% higher chance of understanding what you're explaining]. ... [Teach Lv 2] ... [Teach Lv 3] ... ... [Teach Lv 4] By the time I'd finished helping Ethan with his homework, almost an hour had passed. Fortunately, the higher the level of the skill, the faster Ethan learned what I was explaining and the easier it was for him to do his homework. Even though it was only a 4% buff, it was still a much bigger buff than 4% compared to the inefficient teaching method the others were using with him. -------- Ethan's Comment -------- Sitting on the sofa with a big smile on his face, Ethan looked into the camera while happily holding his superhero notebook. "Today my brother helped me with my homework...it was so easy!" He laughed happily as he opened the notebook and showed it to the camera. "It seems that the more he taught me, the smarter I got and the easier it was to understand what he was explaining!" Ethan looked around carefully and spoke quietly. "Just don't tell my dad I said that, because learning from my dad is cool too, it's just not as easy as learning from Noah." -------- Comment End -------- After Ethan left to play, I took the bag I'd put my manga in and went to sell it.