An old friend.

The canteen was a large hall that was quite plain. It was filled with large tables that could seat four people on each side. There was no set of seats in the canteen meaning students were free to sit wherever they liked. 

However, that doesn't mean the high-level wouldn't set their own rules. 

Erix noticed that low levels sat next to other low levels while the high levels sat with the high levels.

School had barely resumed, yet the social norms appeared to have already been established, just like they had been in his old school. 

Erix stood at the back of the last person in the queue. 

However, while waiting patiently for his turn, a boy came late into the queue. He nonchalantly nudged Erix out of line, and smuggled himself into the line.

Erix was surprised by that abrupt push, and because he wasn't expecting something like that, he lost his footing and butt-kissed the floor. 

If it wasn't for the 1 point he added to his agility, he would have smooched the ground entirely.

"Oh, sorry man. I didn't intend to push you har.." The boy paused to take a closer look at Erix, before exclaiming in shock.

"Holy moly, Erix! C'mon, I never knew it was you." 

The smugness on his face showed how joyous he was after seeing Erix.

Erix was shocked when he heard his name. 

He never imagined someone from his old world could show up nor let alone call him by his name. 

But that wasn't the case there, whosoever was the person was no doubt Erix's bully. Erix had no friends so it possibly couldn't be one.

He decided to look up at the person's face to know what kind of shit he was into.

As soon as he saw the person's face, he had an awful flashback to his time in elementary school. 

The person in front of him was by far one of the biggest bullies he had dealt with, and his name was Bones Blackstone.

Like the boy's name implied, he was very lanky and had a body full of bones. 

His cheekbones were sulking out as though his flesh were imprinted on it. 

His cranium could have been visible if it wasn't for the tiny flesh covering them. 

Overall, the boy was bony like hell.

Bones was one of Erix's childhood bullies.

Although he wasn't very strong, he was strong enough to beat Erix. 

Since Erix was considered weak, he was bullied every day. 

Almost every day in their elementary school, Bones would use him as a punching human and extort a lot of money from him to vent out his frustration.

"I'm very sorry. I never knew it was you. Here, take my hand, let me help you," Bones said as he outstretch his hand toward Erix who was still on the ground.

Of course, Erix wasn't so stupid to think Bones would genuinely assist him, so he ignored his hand and stood up on his own.

"Didn't ya miss me? I bet those summers were boring without me, right?" Bones said while laughing.

Seeing Erix hadn't changed a bit from his weak nature, he couldn't help but laugh even harder.

He planned to only overtake the Lvl 1 students in the queue since he couldn't wait to go through the line the normal way as it was too long, but after seeing that the first Lvl 1 he overshadowed was Erix, he had a quick change of plan.

"Ummm… Bones, could we at least not do this here? There are staff watching?" Erix said while pointing at the two armed soldiers standing at the entrance of the canteen hall. 

Thinking for a moment, Erix was surprised he managed to say those words without cracking in between.

In the past, he couldn't have been able to look up at Bone's face, talk more of arguing his words.

Bones was stunned as well. He never imagined Erix could be this bold.

"Ha, seems you have grown from the little Erix I once knew. Wow, that's good to know," Bones said with a smile.

'That's good because I won't have to hold back anymore.' Bones mentally rejoiced.

But Erix was thinking, 'I guess the system made me even bold.' 

"Anyway, since you and I haven't seen each other for three years, you are 160 weeks overdue with your weekly payment. My family is poor and my uncle was admitted to the hospital. I need your help to pay for his living expenses. Since you're overdue 160 weeks, I will round it up to 200 weeks. That's the interest. So your payment is 2000 points," Bones said while grinning maliciously. 

Bones was of course lying. If Erix could recall correctly, Bones was an orphan like him and had no relatives alive.

He was only trying to find an excuse to extort a stupid ignorant kid that was weaker than him to gain more money. 

"Also, my moves have gotten rusty ever since we stopped training together. Meet me at the school gate by 5 tomorrow. Together we will enter the woods and train there. And don't forget to come along with the money." Bones said with an even spooky smile.

'Training' was just Bones' excuse for beating Erix shitless. Erix couldn't believe he fell for those lies in the past. 

It wasn't like Bones was a good liar, instead, was the complete opposite.

The old Erix simply wasn't able to decline Bones' words or requests because of fear of being bullied more. 

But after the system showed up, he become even bolder and less afraid. 

Erix first looked at Bones's wristwatch to check his level.

[Lvl 2]

As his eyes were glued to Bones' wristwatch, pondering whether to accept the offer or not, a notification popped out in his eyes.

[Host's mind level has increased]

[+10 mind attribute points]

'Well, I'm not surprised. This must have something to do with the sudden boldness. I think so,' Erix thought. 

However, his thoughts were interrupted by another message from his system.

[New quest has been received]

[Hint: An old friend has bullied and stolen from you in the past. Don't you think it's time to get back at him for all of his past deeds?]

[Quest: Avenge yourself by brutally killing Bones Blackstone]

[Time limit: Two days]

[Reward]

[????]

[Reward depends on the number of times he pleaded for mercy, shedded tears, and blisters of blood he gave out]

[Students killed: 0/1]

[Students tortured: 0/1]