004 TO STEAL STRENGTH
Strength was easy enough to judge.
Thames was built like a machine—broad shoulders, fast legs, the kind of boy who always topped the physical aptitude charts at school.
But Charm? Damen almost laughed.
Then he noticed the sidelines. Every time Thames landed a shot, the girls squealed like they were at a concert. Some even had tears in their eyes.
Damen frowned. "Not bad looking. Tall, muscular. If I looked like that…" He let the thought trail off.
Then came Command and Meta.
"Give me!" Thames barked across the court.
Meta is easy to understand. Each student is required to be tested for their Meta scores in the finals' exam. Damen needed that but it wasn't the most important stat for him now.
On the court, one of Thames teammates had a clean shot at sight, but the instant he heard Thames's voice, he froze. The boy tossed the ball without protest, abandoning his chance at glory so Thames could take it instead.
"Huh. So, he really does have command," Damen admitted. "Even if it's just the command of a bully."
The glowing words pulsed faintly, waiting. Damen stared at them, his pulse rising. What should I choose?
After a beat, Damen made up his mind. Command would only buy him followers — bullies — and he didn't want that. Charm was tempting, Meta was important, but these were all useless if he couldn't survive a single trip home.
He needed Strength and muscle to survive the bullies, and to pass the physical aptitude test.
Also, there wasn't enough food available for him to grow. Tests were coming, and physical scores counted heavy toward the middle-school finals.
"Strength," he said, and thumbed the icon.
Expecting the instant rush of power in some cheap sci-fi fantasy, he instead got a mechanical beep and a notification bar sliding across his vision.
Coins insufficient.
10 coins required for Acquire (Strength).
He swore under his breath. The little counter on his app read 9.13. He was a fraction short.
The bell screamed suddenly. Recess was over.
Thames and his gang scattered off the court like a flock. Damen's jaw tightened. "You're not getting away next time," he muttered.
Back in class he trained his phone on Mr. Fischer, his teacher for the meta class, Human Evolution. He knew by now that different people yielded different rates of farming. The black cat gave the least coin followed by Ralph and then Thames. Teachers yielded the most.
"Sorry Mr Fischer, you'll be my farm today", Damen said as his camera locked on the teacher.
With the press of a button, the app began mining and the counter spiked quickly. "Of course, teachers mine faster", he thought as coins poured in.
The number rapidly climbed until it floated past 10.00.
"Now to steal Thames's Strength," he thought, and hit Acquire.
"Wait a minute, this is not right", Damen said.
He quickly stopped mining. Instead, he untargeted Mr. Fischer and locked back onto Thames. Thames was the one he had a grudge with, not the teacher.
He pressed on Acquire and then Strength.
"Arghhh!" Thames screamed, clutching his chest before collapsing to the floor.
The class froze. Mr. Fischer rushed over. "Thames! Are you alright? What happened?"
But Thames only twitched, his eyes rolling. He couldn't answer. He suffered an unknown shock.
Damen's stomach dropped.
"No way…" He had thought the DemCoin app was a scam, a fantasy overlay to make him feel better about stealing from the bullies in his head.
But this? This is real?
"Are you kidding me?" he whispered to himself.
He flexed his arms under the desk. Did he gain Thames' strength?
There was a change.
But the change was subtle … a touch more firmness in his muscles, a slight heaviness in his limbs, like his body had been tuned a fraction sharper.
It wasn't the superhuman surge he imagined, but it was real.
Paramedics hauled Thames away on a stretcher, his face pale and agonizing.
"I didn't get all your strength… but at least I knocked you out," Damen muttered.
Thames wouldn't be leading any ambushes on him after school now. Without him, the bullies would leave him alone for at least a few days.
Relief seeped into him. If Thames had been waiting at the school gates, Damen could never have fought his way through. The cameras in school only kept him safe within school compound.
Outside school was a different matter altogether.
"Whew… at least I can get home tonight without a beating."
The bell rang, shattering the moment. Class is over.
-----
"Are you really going to the Aur mine with your uncle today?" Mikey asked as they stepped out of class. "Doesn't he know you need to study and train? Finals are coming up."
Damen didn't answer right away.
The thought of his uncle Ralph made his chest tighten. The man wasn't just strict …. he was violent. Damen had lost count of the beatings.
If he skipped work again, Ralph wouldn't just be furious. He might actually kill him.
"You know we've got an extra-curricular today," Mikey pressed. "The school rented a Meta Amplifier. Training on that machine can boost your Meta score. You can't miss it."
Meta. The word carried weight in this world.
Since Armageddon, humanity had changed …. evolved. People awakened powers that once belonged only in myth, and the Meta score became the scientific way to measure that potential.
Middle school Finals also depended on it.
The exams had three pillars:
Theory — a written test on science and metaphysics.
Physical Aptitude — strength, endurance, and overall condition, all built on training and nutrition.
Meta — the evolutionary attribute, a number that defined how far a human could ascend beyond ordinary limits.
The first part was manageable to Damen. He was a smart student, and he managed to learn everything in class without much revision.
He could do well in a written test.
The second part wasn't impossible for Damen, but he doesn't have time to train weight nor the nutrition to keep up with a growing body.
But recently, he could also steal Strength using the DemCoin mining app.
The third part was the real difficulty.
Most students started small, with weak Meta readings, unless they were born gifted. Machines like the Meta Amplifier were designed to raise those scores, inching students closer to the extraordinary but only rich students could access those trainings.
The school's Meta Amplifier training would help with the third part. Missing that session could cripple Damen's future.
"I cannot miss the Meta class", Damen vowed.
But skipping work… could cost him his life.
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