Prestige Modifier: Bookworm

The footage that had been rewinding in front of me disappeared.

We've run out of time, the voice noted, though we'll still be able to communicate to each other from time to time through the System, we will need to be careful as if another Sponsor decides to audit you, they'll recognise something is suspicious. We won't be able to talk with as much freedom as we just had.

"Let's do a quick recap then," I mumbled to myself.

"You're the Game Master from whatever dimension or realm you're from, and the...'Game' that you and your peers are playing just so happen to be the reality Earth is in.

"Because of a secret alliance of your peers — the 'Sponsors' — you've secretly reached out to a random 'Player' — me — to become my Sponsor and bestowed me with my Prestige Ability."

I paused to see if the Game Master had anything else he wanted to add, but an awkward silence spread throughout the nothingness I was currently in.

"Now, what you need from me is to slowly but steadily grow stronger so that I could one day prevent whatever this secret alliance of Sponsors have planned for my reality and ruin your Game. But I have to do this secretly so that none of the Sponsors in that alliance will notice me until I'm strong enough."

Exactly.

Oh, now you want to chime in, I thought to myself.

There was an odd sensation now, like the nothingness had started to get sucked away. Like the very atmosphere of my nothingness surroundings started to be sucked up by a silent vacuum cleaner or something like that.

Our time is up. You will now be transported back to your Prestige Start Position. Prepare yourself.

I was just about to say something snarky at the Game Master only to blink and suddenly was back on the footpath outside the Hero's Stand Guild headquarters, half-squatting, half-doubled-over and feeling the familiar sensation of a panic attack start to subside.

I have to say, panic attacks do not feel good.

I was back to the day that I went to get Registered into the System. Again.

As I felt the panic attack start to fade away, I straightened my legs, stood up and stretched. I thought about where in my timeline I've returned to.

I remembered that I had just completed the embarrassing Registration Process in front of the two men who were working the reception.

Anthony and Gary. Their names are burnt in my head because of how they treated me at the Registration.

I looked down at myself and sighed sadly at the fact that I was once again back to my old weight of around 130 kilograms. All that hard work that I did over the nine or so months disappeared and a sense of dread came over me for a moment.

A Window popped up in front of me on the System that surprised me as it didn't appear in my first Prestige.

[PRESTIGE MODIFIER HAS BEEN ACTIVATED!]

Oh nice, I thought to myself, it automatically applied the new hidden skill the Game Master gave me.

[Prestige Modifier: Bookworm

DESCRIPTION: You are someone who hates physical activity. Why go outside and get sunburnt when you can stay inside and read books all day?

EFFECT: All Fortitude Attribute Improving Activities have their effects severely nerfed, while all Aptitude Attribute Improving Activities have their effects buffed.

FOR. ACTIVITIES: 100% → 10%

APT. ACTIVITIES: 100% → 200%]

The contents of the Window hit me like a punch to the gut. My oversized gut.

I shook my head and focussed on what just happened and what I had to do next. If Fortitude Attribute Improving Activities are lessened, then does that mean it's harder to maximise my innate limits for the Fortitude Attribute? Or is it just talking about external rewards? Like, does it only affect how fast I lose weight this time around or not?

With no immediate idea as to how I'm going to figure that out, I realised that there was one thing I hadn't yet looked at in this new Prestige.

Responding to my thoughts, a new Window popped up in front of me.

[Skill Creator (S+ Ranked): Player is able to turn any and possibly every real life action into a System Skill and improve that Skill through the System's Level functionality.]

I brought my hands up in front of me and remembered about all the times I punched the punching bag during my first Prestige. I thought about the positioning of my fists, the positioning of my feet. I thought about how I had to transfer my weight forward as I extended my fist forward in a basic jab motion.

Nothing happened when I performed my first jab. My body felt a bit rusty and slow, but that wasn't a big surprise, as I was back to my old weight, but I breathed in slowly to calm myself down and prepared myself again.

My second jab felt a lot better, and for a split-second, I imagined how weird it would look like for everybody who's passing me at that moment. Seeing this random obese man throw jabs in the middle of the footpath, dressed in a hoodie and tracksuit pants. Little did they know that in my previous life, I threw thousands of these jabs like no tomorrow.

Something pinged inside my head and a new Window popped up in front of me.

[CONGRATULATIONS!

The Player has created the skill 'Basic Jab' thanks to Skill Creator.

Basic Jab (LVL 1): A type of punch used in martial arts.

Note: Improve the skill to Max Level to gain progression at uncovering the Hidden Functionality of 'Skill Creator'.]

"Nice," I mumbled under my breath, but then I remembered that I was still standing outside on the footpath and a number of people were out and about walking around.

I cleared my throat and went back inside the Hero's Stand headquarters.

Luckily for me, the queue at the reception was quite small and I didn't have to wait for long. Anthony was still hanging around the reception desk, looking like he's trying and failing to flirt with the young receptionist.

He noticed me as I approached the desk and scoffed, "lookie here, why're you back so soon after your Registration?"

I ignored him and spoke to the receptionist, "I'd like to notify that I've unlocked a Player Skill that I think the guild will be interested in."

Anthony was not happy that I ignored him and leant forward over the reception desk to me, "What the hell? Why didn't you tell us this when you went through your Registration?"

'Cause the Prestige respawn point is awkwardly placed, I thought to myself. I was tempted to say it out loud, but the Game Master's warning still rang loud in my head.

"'Cause I just found out about it just then." I said as calm and collected as I could.

Anthony clicked his tongue in disgust, or disappointment, I couldn't really tell. I didn't care that much about his feelings either. He turned to the receptionist, "It's alright, I'll deal with this."

The man motioned for me to follow him through some familiar corridors and I found myself back in the Registration room. Gary had been playing on his smartphone but he quickly hid the phone once he noticed people entering. When he realised it was just Anthony and me, he groaned and took his phone out again.

"Oi!" Anthony snapped, "What did the big man say about using your phone in the middle of your shift?"

"You ain't the big man," Gary snapped back, "and what about you? I bet you were bothering Cheryl at reception."

"How dare you—I'm not bothering her, we're just chatting!" Anthony defended himself.

"What's he doing here?" Gary jutted out his jaw in my direction without even looking up from his phone.

"Ah, apparently he got a Player Skill." Anthony mentioned. I could hear his struggle to not laugh in his voice.

"Oh yeah?" Gary said, now interested and not looking at his phone. A clear asshole-ish grin on his face.

I sighed as I sat down on the other side of the desk right where I was less than half an hour ago. When I was totally embarrassed by my terrible Attribute grades.

I mean, they're still terrible, but a lot has changed since that original Registration.

Anthony sat down heavily on his designated seat next to Gary and started to work on the computer set up in the room. Probably grabbing out my personal file again to add an addendum notifying about my Player Skill.

"What could your Player Skill be, I wonder..." Gary mused out loud, his shit-eating grin still all over his face.

I didn't answer the man, but I placed my right hand on the scanner that was on the table in front of me, and with the left hand, I made the motion of swiping the System Window over to the two men.

It took a couple of seconds of sniggering and grinning before they realised what the System Window I just shared to them actually said. Funnily enough, when they realised I had "just unlocked" an S+ ranked Skill, their faces suddenly froze in shock.