A Young Lam

Between Klay and Simon, another student had slammed their tray of food onto the table loudly which caused Klay to jump slightly from the startle. Simon, albeit confused and unexpecting, just turned and looked at the student questioningly.

The offending student wore the traditional uniform of Copper High and had several cuts and bruises on their face. With an angry expression, they glared at Klay for a moment before speaking.

"Give me back my phone, asshole," the student said, looking at Klay.

Shocked, Simon looked between the two of them, waiting for Klay to say something. Having been casually chatting just seconds before, he was caught completely off guard by the younger student and felt worried about Klay due to their aggressive demeanor.

After not speaking for several seconds, Klay looked over the student and saw a familiar face. "I don't have your phone," he began. "I don't even know who you are."

The new arrival at the table was the younger kid that had attacked Klay the previous afternoon. His face was adorned with several cuts and bruises, most prominently the black eye that he wore. His eye was slightly swollen because of it, which combined with his smaller stature, made him seem like the prime target for being bullied, instead of being a bully himself.

When Klay responded, he tried his best to keep the recognition off of his face, since he was worried about Simon finding out he had gotten into a fight, let alone come out of it unscathed. This attitude merely made the student more angry, and he began to cause more of a scene within the cafeteria.

"Don't lie! My name is Thomas Lam, and you stole my phone yesterday!" Thomas yelled out, ignoring the additional gazes from the other students as he tried to intimidate Klay. "Don't you know who my brother is, or my dad? Just give my phone back and we won't have an issue!" 

Hearing his name, Klay thought for a few moments to try and remember if he knew more about Thomas and his family, but nothing came to mind.

"I don't, nor do I have your phone. Sorry?" Klay tried his best to appease the situation while not making his and Thomas' relationship clear.

Practically growling, Thomas was clearly unhappy about everything as he glared daggers at Klay before looking around and seeing the eyes of the many other students and a few staff within the room, all focused on their conflict. He begrudgingly picked up his tray and stomped away, throwing his tray into one of the large bins and leaving the cafeteria in a huff. 

Stunned, neither Klay nor Simon said anything for a few minutes after Thomas left. Simon was trying to piece together what had happened and why Thomas had accused Klay of stealing from him, and Klay stayed silent so as to keep the attention off of himself after the event.

Finally, Simon spoke up with a question. "So did you take his phone?"

Having been in the middle of a bite of food, Klay coughed for a few seconds.

"I, uhh, didn't take it, not really," Klay stated, keeping his response vague.

"What exactly happened between you two? He was pretty certain that whoever had taken his phone was you." Simon didn't let Klay get away and quickly turned the conversation back. 

Sighing, Klay looked down as he began to explain. 

"I was walking around yesterday and he had tried to jump me, so after knocking him out I kind of…" he paused for a moment as he scratched his head. "...Took his phone and threw it away."

The two sat in silence for a moment before Simon smacked his palm to his forehead. 

"That was really stupid of you, Klay. Don't you have even a clue of who he is?" Simon looked at Klay incredulously.

"I know it was, but I can't turn back time or anything. And no, I don't know anything about him. He looks so young, why would I?" 

Simon sighed before explaining who Thomas was, or more specifically who he was connected to.

"Thomas Lam is the younger brother of Henrik Lam and son of the local police captain." Simon paused to wait for his point to reach Klay, resuming after a couple seconds. "He's a freshman, so a year younger than us which is part of why he looks so much younger. His older brother Henrik is in his junior year, and is one of the more notable bullies at the school. I mentioned him a little bit ago, when we were talking about Elias and how he got injured the other day.

"Both brothers are fairly well known for using their father as a way to stand above others. Since he's the captain of the closest police station to us, they are able to manipulate things which make them such high-ranking bullies." 

Klay, having only just heard this information, buried his face in his hands. "This is really bad then, isn't it?" With a groan, Klay pushed the negative thoughts away. "How do you even know so much about this all? You aren't in any groups or circles that I know of."

Despite the exposing and slightly embarrassing comment told to him, Simon was unfazed.

"I've said it before, but most people ignore me enough that I can just listen to their conversations. The majority of the information I learn is from those kinds of moments," Simon explained his source to Klay once more before going back to focusing on his food. 

Thomas appearing like that is just more reason for me to push myself harder than I have already. I need to learn more about this system and the power I can get from it soon, so that I can decide what I want to do with it later on. Assuming I survive that long of course. With how these bullies have been coming at me, it's unlikely that I'll manage for very long, especially if multiple of them come at me at once.

Thinking back, the most efficient way I've gotten stronger so far is with my regeneration stat improving. I can get more stat points by defeating more bullies, so I guess I should be kind of thankful that they are feeding themselves to me as experience. So what should I do? Keep fighting them?

Klay was pulled from his thoughts as the bell for the end of lunch rang, and he and Simon quickly cleaned up their trays before parting ways to go to their separate classes.

After lunch, his day went as usual, with each class following the usual lesson plan and no interruptions appearing. Klay paid attention to each class and took notes of the important things as the teachers spoke, but he couldn't help but continue to think about what had happened during lunch and how he was going to handle things going forward. Hours later, the bell finally rang for school to be let out. 

Should I go to the dojo today? I probably should, and I'll just workout more later for the extra stats. I need to eat more though, and I can't just ask dad to buy more food. Should I get a job?

Shelving the thought for later, Klay hurried home, dropping his backpack off and grabbing his gym bag before catching the bus to take him into the city. 

A few minutes later, Klay was walking down the street towards the dojo, hurrying inside with no hesitation.