This Is Still The Real World

When Gray reached the bus, he found that he was the first one to arrive. He patted the bus driver in greeting and the driver nodded in response. The old man wasn't in his usual talking mood; and Gray didn't feel like talking either. So after an exchange of worried glances, he took one of the seats at the back.

~Anyway, it seems I underestimated what the system gave me. I'm certainly not a superhuman, but my strength and speed are above average. Maybe even impossible for someone with my physique,~ he thought to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists.

His arms were still so wiry and thin; it was difficult to believe that he was stronger than a grown man at this point.

~Maybe I can protect them.~

He stared out the window, at the bus parked next to them. Two boys were arguing at the front, and some students were trying to break it up. Most of the others were glued to their windows, trying to catch a glimpse of the battle still happening in the sky.

Gray's attention, however, was drawn to a girl who sat at the very back. She had a tom-boyish appearance and was crunching into an apple as she laughed at the fight.

He couldn't quite wrap his head around it, but she seemed to be more… noticeable than the other students. Like she had a small magnetic effect that drew in his eyes. It was the same with the captain of the football team earlier. Back then he had been running so he didn't have time to focus on it.

~I wonder what it means. Maybe it has something to do with my talent,~ he thought, before shifting his attention to the map.

The system interface was always active, though if he focused on something else, it became faint, to the point he couldn't even register its appearance. It was just like his nose.

He searched the interface for some sort of navigation bar but found nothing.

~Maybe, it's thought activated?~ he wondered, before thinking about the Champion Screen.

In response, the map was replaced by the Champion Screen.

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『Champion #009Z』

[Level 1:0/100]

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[Talent: Universal Citizen]

[Talent Rank: Unique{F}]

[Class: Universal (Special)]

[Vigour: 3]

[Agility: 3]

[Arcana: 3]

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[No additional skills]

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[World Ranking: 201,313,542]

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~#009Z, must be an identification number of some sort,~ he thought to himself, only studying it for a second before moving on.

What he was interested in was his talent. Universal Citizen was apparently a unique rank talent, however, the 'F' right beside it made this sort of ambiguous.

~Maybe Unique is just a rarity, and F is the actual Rank? But if that's true, I'm a little on the weak side, aren't I? Or does everyone else start at F rank as well?~ he pondered. Regardless, he was lucky even by lucky standards; what with his class being listed as special.

~Bring up information about Universal Citizen,~ he thought. He wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth the try.

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『Universal Citizen』

[Description: Grants user universal properties.]

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"Come on now, you could give me a little more than that!"

He quickly covered his mouth, realizing he had said that out loud. Just then, he noticed that he'd been staring at the girl this entire time. And he wasn't sure when she had started staring back, but the two of them were now locked eye to eye.

"Oi, you have something to say to me punk?" she shouted from her bus, now fiddling with the handle of her window.

~Fuck.~

"Come on, say that again, I dare you." The window wasn't opening. For the first time since he had come to this school, he was grateful that they had cheaped out on the busses.

"Why won't this thing op-" A loud crunching sound masked the rest of her sentence, and an instant later the window and its frame were ripped out of their slot. She held them in her hand, shards of glass falling onto her seat, as she stared at him.

She looked at her hand, then looked back at him, her eyes wide in disbelief.

~She's a champion too,~ Gray realized.

The other students in her bus were staring at her now, and he could see the bus driver coming from his seat. He was pissed.

"What happened?" someone in Gray's bus asked. It seemed that while he was distracted, a few people had arrived.

The bus driver began scolding the girl, while she bowed her head, saying something inaudible—no doubt apologizing.

~Well. Best to avoid her,~ he thought to himself, before changing seats.

While the commotion was still going on, Gray began looking over the other information on the Champion Screen. The stats were all basic, vigour was probably some variant of strength, agility was obvious, and arcana was probably the equivalent of magic.

This part had him excited. He'd been under the impression that the system, and all the weird things happening were due to alien technology. But the prospect of being able to shoot fireballs out of his hands was way better.

~They could've at least given me, a skill to start with,~ he thought. The assumption was that skills were the active magical components of the system; based of the numerous novels and games he had played.

"This is going to be fu-" His daydreaming was interrupted by whimpering from the seat in front of him.

"Come on Jane, at least we weren't hurt."

"H-He's gone Nela. He's gone. He was right in front of me and then…" the girl speaking began crying even harder. He had known the girl's brother, Jack. He had been sitting in the front of the class when it was wiped out.

Gray's excitement died out, replaced by heavy guilt. Although this seemed like one of his novels, it wasn't. He'd almost forgotten that this was still the real world. Cool powers or not, people had lost their loved ones. And though he knew he couldn't even begin to imagine their pain; he had his own share of worries to deal with.

He had parents, and he had no idea whether they were alive or…