Tutorial 1.3

  Still running off the high that finding out he had powers had left him with, Greg continued to pore over his stat screen, interested in learning everything he could.

  “I mean,” Greg began, raising an eyebrow as he reread his stats for the fourth time, “I know I’m only level two but what kind of stats are these? I mean, my HP looks like it’s… decent, I guess.”

  80 for a level 2, though? Talk about an arbitrary number. Why not start off with 100 HP at level 1? Whoever designed this needs to go back to the drawing board?

  “Wait,” Greg blinked, raising a finger to his chin. “It’s my power, right? So… did my unconscious design this?" He mulled the thought over for a bit before shaking his head.

  "Ughh, that’s just weird.” Greg shuddered, “I really don’t want to think about that. ”

  Stepping back from the screen, Greg turned his gaze down to his left hand. “Let’s just test this HP thing out.” Letting out a quick breath, he curled his fingers into a tight fist. Alright. Let's do this! Before he could chicken out, Greg drove his fist into the side of his face as hard as he could.

  -2

  A starburst of pain erupted in his left cheek, right above his jawline where his fist had collided with his face. “Motherf-! ...huh.” As quickly as the pain appeared, it vanished, leaving Greg cradling his jaw for no reason.

  “Cool! No pain… less pain?” He shrugged. “Still cool. Uhhh... sta- wait, do I have to say stats every time? Can I just say [HP]?”

  In response to his words, a smaller screen appeared.

  “W-wait? Two damage from one punch?” Greg whined, poking at his fist as if seeing it for the first time. He glanced at the mirror, marvelling open-mouthed at the fact that he didn’t even have a bruise marking his face. Not even a hint of soreness or tenderness on his face, either. “That’s super weak… right?”

  Wait, if I only did 2 damage with a punch, is my body strong or am I just too weak to hurt myself? The blond frowned at his reflection, his eyes narrowing in thoughtful confusion. "Question for later."

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  In a small blink of blue, the HP screen vanished to be replaced with a larger, wider one.

  “I can make skills?” Greg froze, eyes going wide as he began to process this new bit of info.

  “Oh, I’m sooooo going to abuse the crap out of this,” Greg added, his head bobbing up and down excitedly.

  “You know, I swear these game powers are making it way too easy. I might not even have to bother min-maxing.” After a moment, Greg burst out laughing, clutching a hand to his stomach at his own joke. “Yeah, right. OP-ness, here I come!" He pumped his fist in the air and grinned, only to pause a moment later as a thoughtful look spread across his face. "But first, let’s get back to that stat screen again. [Stats.]”

  The blue box appeared once more, laying out all his information for him to look over.

  As he looked over his status screen again, Greg’s eyes fell all the way to the bottom, towards something he hadn’t paid much attention to before, with his attention too focused on his - stupidly low - numbers and what they meant. “The frick is this stat? C. T. D? Cat D. Ketid? And why is there an ellipsis there?”

  “C. T. D? CTD?” Greg blinked for a moment and leaned in, to get a closer glance at the box. Sighing, he brought a palm to his forehead. “I’m so stupid. It's continued.”

  Poking the shortened word, Greg blinked again, a frown spreading across his face as he read over the new box of text.

  “...crap on a cracker.”

  Greg stared at the newest screen in front of him, his mouth turned downwards into an impressive frown. His hand came down on the blue box with an open palm, literally slapping the screen away. As it vanished, Greg let out an angry sigh, turning a pissed-off gaze towards his computer.

  “...okay. Now, I’m mad for multiple reasons.”