Chapter 11: Preparation
By the time Mako made it back to his home, his body was still aching but all the visible injuries were already completely healed and only the internal ones were left, but the same couldn't be said for his clothes.
Mako already had a limited number of clothes, and these events reduced that number even further. He quickly showered and put on a fresh set of clothes before going out to his backyard to complete today's daily quest.
After about one and a half hours of training, Mako had completed his daily quest and went back inside to have a drink.
He sat on the sofa in his living room and checked his system again.
'Open System Interface'
[User: Mako Grey]
[Health: 94/120] ⓘ (+1)
[Energy: 112/150] ⓘ (+1)
[EXP: 150/800] ⓘ
[Level 4] ⓘ
[Strength: 2] ⓘ (+1)
[Agility: 3] ⓘ (+1)
[Perception: 2] ⓘ (+1)
[Intelligence: 5] ⓘ (+1)
[Mentality: 2] ⓘ (+1)
[Stamina: 4] ⓘ (+1)
[Charisma: Locked] ⓘ
[Fortitude: Locked] ⓘ
[Attribute Points: 25] ⓘ
After saving up for about ten days, Mako was finally going to see how much of a difference it could make to add a couple of Attribute Points to some of his attributes.
Mako decided to first and foremost upgrade his agility as every move from the phantom skill set had agility as its main requirement.
'Add 12 points to Agility' Mako commanded the system.
[12 Attribute Points have been added to Agility]
A cool chilling and soothing feeling washed over Mako's body as he sensed his leg muscles getting a lot stronger than before almost instantly.
Next, Mako wanted to bring up his stamina and strength stats to a good point, so that not only does he have good attack power and endurance, but they were also a requirement for the Phantom moves.
'Add 6 points to Strength and 4 points to stamina'
[6 Attribute Points have been added to Strength]
[4 Attribute Points have been added to Stamina]
Another cooling sensation washed over his body as he was strengthened once again.
Finally, Mako wanted to dump the remaining points into perception as it would help Mako sense attacks before they came at him which would be a huge help since it won't do him any good if he can't defend against the attacks.
'Add remaining points to Perception' Mako commanded the system.
[3 Attribute Points have been added to Perception]
Weirdly, Mako didn't feel the cooling sensation this time since perception dealt with honing one's senses which was not a physical part of Mako's Body.
After his leveling-up session, Mako viewed the Profile tab again.
[User: Mako Grey]
[Health: 94/120] ⓘ
[Energy: 112/150] ⓘ
[EXP: 150/800] ⓘ
[Level 4] ⓘ
[Strength: 8] ⓘ
[Agility: 15] ⓘ
[Perception: 5] ⓘ
[Intelligence: 5] ⓘ
[Mentality: 2] ⓘ
[Stamina: 8] ⓘ
[Charisma: Locked] ⓘ
[Fortitude: Locked] ⓘ
[Attribute Points: 0] ⓘ
Satisfied with his decision, Mako went back to his backyard so he could finally test out those phantom moves because the last time Mako attempted the move, it backfired horribly.
Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, he decided to just try punching the air as if he were practicing shadowboxing or something.
'Umm, how do I even cast the moves in the first place?' Mako asked himself as he himself actually didn't know how to perform a phantom punch.
But before Mako could facepalm his face again for his stupidity, the system came through to clear the confusion.
[The user only needs to think of the move that he wants to perform and the system will automatically perform it similar to how the user accesses the system interface]
'Huh, so the whole thing will be just controlled through my thoughts?' Mako quickly understood the system's explanation and decided to try it out.
Mako firmly planted his feet on the ground and cocked back his fist as far as he could go. Just as he was about to release the punch he thought in his mind.
[Phantom Punch]
Mako's arm muscles suddenly bulged, showing the outlines of his refined muscles and veins beneath his skin for a split second as his actual punch changed trajectory slightly while a silhouette of his previous punch continued to move in the same direction as before.
From Mako's point of view, He could see both punches but from an opponent's perspective, it looked like Mako's arm just turned into a blur for a fraction of a second.
The shocking automatic change in the punch nearly made Mako trip over himself, but he managed to catch himself at the last minute.
After the move was completed only a second had passed but it still took Mako a few seconds to process what had just happened.
With moves like these, he was sure that Bill wouldn't be able to avoid them at all, and thanks to his increased agility and perception he should be able to detect his sloppy and rapid attacks and finally counter them.
Realizing that he might just have a chance at Bill made Mako crack a burst of light laughter as he would finally be able to exact his revenge.
Although it looked like the Attribute points in Mako's Intelligence were wrong, Mako did indeed have a decent IQ.
"Right now, I have no control over the Phantom punch as it just felt like I was just a passenger. I need to practice these moves again and again so I can use them efficiently against Bill," Mako announced his theory, which was absolutely right.
Mako was just the vessel performing the Phantom punch without any control, and if he wished to survive tomorrow's fight he would have to have somewhat of control over them.
Mako spent the rest of the day training his Phantom Skills and remembered to take a shower before heading out at night to the bakery for his night shift.
Ever since Mako upgraded his Energy bar, he felt less tired and noticed that he could work efficiently for longer before any kind of strain kicked in, and it took less time for him to complete his sleep and feel refreshed.
The morning was uneventful other than the fact that Sir Derek was acting weird with Mako. Weird not in a bad sense, but rather Sir Derek had been very empathetic with Mako the moment he arrived at the bakery for his shift.
Not only did Sir Derek give Mako an early leave but also fixed him a giant breakfast, one like Mako never had before. Mako was genuinely confused about this sudden behavior change, but Sir Derek was not the type of person who would actively express his emotions in words so Mako didn't bother to ask.
This turned into a blessing because since Sir Derek had allowed Mako to leave early, Mako had the time to do his daily quests before school started.
[New Daily Quest]
Task 1: Run 4000 meters.
Task 2: Do 5 random acts of kindness.
Task 3: Lift a total of 550 Kg.
[Reward: 50 EXP, 2 Attribute Points]
Mako arrived in front of his high school just in the nick of time before the bell rang, It took him almost his entire free time after his shift to finish his quests, mainly because he couldn't perform acts of kindness at 4-5 AM in the morning when there were hardly any people around.
This wasn't the first time that Mako had received this quest, and when he first questioned the system about it; it responded by saying that it was randomly generated and nothing more.
Mako wouldn't have completed his quests before school if it wasn't for the new points he added into agility and strength which allowed him to run much much faster than before and lift a lot more weight.
Mako realized that it would be very important to focus on his attributes as well, not just skills and abilities as those attributes themselves were essential to making him a force to be reckoned with.
As Mako walked over to his classroom, he noticed that a lot of students were giving Mako cold stares and pointing at him behind his back while whispering something to each other.
I weirded Mako out a lot, and he was shocked at how he became so observant all of a sudden. This was all thanks to his perception which was Null before.
He decided to approach a group of students to ask them what was going on, but they dispersed before he could reach them.
After about 10 minutes of trying to approach different students, Mako knew that something was seriously wrong and he had to find out what it was.
Finally, he managed to catch another frail-looking boy off-guard and grabbed him before he could run away.
"Let me go!" The boy yelled at Mako but he didn't budge at all.
"I will, but first tell me what the hell is going on!" Mako screamed at the boy whilst also releasing his frustration.
"Okay... okay.. look, man, I just found out myself and I don't want to get in any kind of trouble." The boy said nervously.
"Found out what?" Mako questioned further.
Not wanting to cause a ruckus and attract more attention the boy decided to spill the beans.
"Bill Johnson has announced to the entire school that he would get rid of you today for good, and that your fight will be broadcasted on the internet where people can bet on many different things. Bill warned all of us that if anyone tried to interfere then they would be next." The boy stated.
With that, Mako's grip around the boy's collar loosened, and he immediately made a run for it.
Mako stood there dumbfounded after hearing how far Bill had actually gone, as this was a league of its own. Bill was going to use this as an event to make... money!
Mako's blood boiled just at the thought as he just stood there for around two minutes, thinking of the best possible action that he could do when the school bell rang and brought him back to reality.
*RING!*
Instead of feeling like he was dropped into a pit of despair, Mako actually had a smile on his face.
'This just got really interesting.' Mako thought as a small grin appeared on his face.
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