The clock on the wall ticked, echoing through the dim office. Monotonous and merciless, like a hammer slowly nailing a coffin shut.
Miyamoto Masashi stared blankly at his computer screen. The pale blue light from the monitor reflected in his dull eyes, highlighting the dark circles that framed the thirty-four-year-old man's face.
The clock read exactly 12:00 AM, and Masashi was still grinding away at work that never seemed to end.
The office had been empty for hours, leaving only the hum of the air conditioner and the sound of typing that had now begun to stop.
Yet Masashi still sat there, trapped between stacks of documents and deadlines that never seemed to stop.
"How much longer do I have to deal with this damn paperwork?! And that bastard boss still forces me to work overtime!"
"Does he not get that employees aren't machines and need a life too!"
While Masashi was buried in the documents, his vision suddenly trembled.
The screen in front of him seemed to drift away, and the text on the document blurred like ink dissolving in water.
In an instant, Masashi collapsed and his head slammed into the desk, followed by the sound of objects shifting.
The computer screen was still on, displaying the unfinished document—a silent testament to a life he never truly owned.
Miyamoto Masashi died alone in the office, amidst piles of work that weren't even entirely his.
Not on a battlefield.
Not in glory.
Just behind a desk.
His entire life, he chased something he never even understood.
Top grades.
A stable job.
Recognition.
But in the end, all he got was exhaustion and loneliness.
No family waiting for him.
No one who would mourn him.
Only a computer screen and cold office lights.
'...If only...'
His consciousness slowly sank into darkness.
'If I were given one more chance...'
A hope that came too late.
'I wouldn't live like this again...'
Then everything went black.
A pitiful death for a man who, his entire life, only knew how to work, without ever getting the chance to have a sweet wife and child.
Then, suddenly...
COUGH!
His lungs felt like they were on fire. Masashi choked on a bitter, chemical-smelling liquid.
He opened his eyes and found himself sprawled on the dirty floor of a school bathroom.
In his hand was an empty bottle of floor cleaner.
"Ugh... where is this?" he muttered.
His voice sounded strange and different, higher pitched and younger.
He saw his reflection in the cracked mirror.
No longer an office worker in a rumpled suit, but a skinny 17-year-old with a face covered in bruises.
Foreign memories slammed into his head.
Amamiya Menma.
A loser at Okato High who had just swallowed poison because he couldn't take the bullying anymore.
"So, I'm in this poor kid's body?" Masashi wiped the poison residue from his lips.
Just as he tried to stand, the bathroom door was kicked open.
Three teenagers in messy uniforms walked in, laughing mockingly.
"Oi, Menma! Not dead yet?" yelled the leader, a blond kid with an ear piercing. "You said you wanted to kill yourself, but your guts really are trash!"
Masashi stared at them calmly. "Listen, I don't know what problem you have with this kid, but you should leave. I'm not in the mood to deal with you."
The bullies froze for a second, then their laughter exploded even louder.
"What the hell are you talking about, huh?! Talking like some old man!"
THUD!
A raw punch landed in Menma's (Masashi's) stomach, followed by a barrage of attacks. Masashi tried to block, but Menma's body was too weak.
His body felt like it was going to break. His consciousness began to fade as his head was slammed into the porcelain wall.
'Am… I going to die again…?'
Right as his vision blurred, a cold, mechanical voice echoed in his brain.
[DING! STRONGEST DELINQUENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[IDENTIFYING HOST: AMAMIYA MENMA (MIYAMOTO MASASHI)]
A transparent screen appeared before his eyes.
________________________
PLAYER STATUS
Name: Amamiya Menma
Level 1 (0/100 EXP)
Strength: 8
Speed: 8
Endurance: 10
Spirit: 21
Intelligence: 12
(Average person has 10 points in all attributes)
Free Attribute Points: 5
_________________________
[WELCOME REWARD: 5 FREE ATTRIBUTE POINTS, USE IMMEDIATELY!]
Masashi smiled thinly as blood trickled down, 'Delinquent System, huh? Fits me.'
Without hesitation, he allocated his points: Strength +2, Speed +2, Endurance +1.
Instantly, a wave of heat surged through his nerves.
His muscles tensed like steel wire, his breathing became lighter, and the world around him seemed to slow down. His bruises didn't visually disappear, but the pain vanished.
"Hey, why are you smiling, huh?!" The blond kid prepared to swing his fist again.
Masashi rose with incredibly fast movement. He stood and caught the punch with one hand.
The look in his eyes was no longer that of a hesitant human, but of a predator who'd found its prey.
"Miyamoto Masashi is dead," Masashi whispered with an oppressive aura.
"From this second on, call me Menma, and this is payback for what you did to this body."
BAM!
A hard punch was thrown by Menma into the blond's face, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground.
Seeing their friend get beaten by the big loser made the other two teenagers furious, and they didn't hesitate to throw punches at Menma.
"Damn it, how dare you fight back, you bastard! Die!" One of the teens shouted angrily.
Menma took hits from both of them, feeling the pain from this body.
This body wasn't his, but the pain felt so real, and for the first time, he felt alive.
But with his system-enhanced body, Menma was far better at taking the punches from the two.
Without hesitation, Menma launched a kick into one teen's stomach and sent him to the floor, then threw a hard punch into the second teen's face.
Hit by Menma's hard punch, the second teen was knocked back and slammed into the bathroom door.
[DING! PASSIVE SKILL OBTAINED: STREET FIGHTING]
EFFECTS:
- Combat adaptation increased
- Pain tolerance increased
- Dirty attacks more effective
[NOTE: THIS SKILL EVOLVES WITH EXPERIENCE]
The blond kid got back up and tried to land a hard punch to Menma's head, but Menma dodged nimbly and delivered a low kick to the blond's right calf.
Menma's low kick made the blond feel intense pain.
"ARGH! Damn it! That hurts like hell! What the hell was that kick, you bastard?! Why does it hurt so much?!" the blond said while clutching his right calf.
Seeing an opening, Menma didn't hesitate and launched a hard kick to the blond's chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
The first teen who took the kick to the stomach got up from the floor, and angrily launched a punch at Menma's face.
Menma couldn't dodge it and took the punch, losing his focus for a moment.
Then the second teen, who had taken Menma's punch, also got up and kicked Menma in the waist, making him fall to the ground.
Seeing their attack land, the two teens viciously unleashed a barrage of kicks on Menma's body as he lay on the floor.
"Die, you bastard! Die!" The first teen shouted.
With no time to dodge, Menma was forced to take all the attacks, leaving him cornered on the ground unable to get up and fight back.
Menma didn't hesitate, grabbed the first teen's leg, and bit down hard.
The first teen whose leg was bitten screamed in pain.
"ARGH! Damn it! Let go of my leg, you asshole!" the first teen shouted while trying to kick Menma's head with his other leg.
Menma didn't let go.
The salty taste of blood in his mouth only triggered his adrenaline to spike.
With one strong jerk, Menma twisted his body on the floor, gripped the first teen's leg, and used his body weight to take the opponent down.
Once he had his opponent on the floor, Menma didn't hesitate to wrap him up and lock his neck, choking him unconscious.
After taking down the first teen, Menma got up with a technical stand-up, a fast transition from the floor to a standing position commonly used by MMA athletes.
The second teen, who was still standing, felt fear after seeing Menma take down the first teen.
He tried to throw a wild haymaker at Menma's face.
But Menma was ready.
With his Speed increased to 10 points, Menma ducked under the opponent's swinging arm, then unleashed a clean uppercut that smashed into his opponent's jaw.
SMACK!
The second teen staggered, his vision going blank for a split second. Menma didn't waste the moment. He stepped in, grabbed the back of his opponent's neck with both hands, and drove two knees into his opponent's stomach.
THUD! THUD!
The teen fell to his knees, vomiting everything in his stomach, before finally collapsing and kissing the cold bathroom floor.
Now only the blond was left, who had just managed to stand even though his legs were still shaking from the low kick earlier. His face was pale seeing both his friends taken down by the guy they always called a loser.
"What the hell are you?! What happened to you, damn it!" the blond yelled as he pulled a long metal ruler from his pants pocket, swinging it wildly.
Menma looked at him with a predator's gaze. He kept his distance, waiting for the right moment. When the ruler swung and missed, Menma shot forward.
Jab! Straight! Low kick!
The three-strike combo landed perfectly. The left punch diverted attention, the right punch broke his nose, and the final low kick hit the nerve in the blond's thigh.
CRACK!
The blond fell, his back slamming into the hard ceramic floor.
He tried to crawl away, but Menma's foot was already pinning his shoulder, pressing him back to the floor.
Menma crouched down, staring into the blond's fear-filled eyes. "Listen well, the real Amamiya Menma is dead. The one standing in front of you now is your nightmare."
Menma grabbed the blond's shirt collar and slammed his head into the floor hard, knocking him out cold.
The bathroom fell silent again, leaving only Menma's ragged breathing. In front of his eyes, the system screen flickered again.
[DING! BATTLE FINISHED]
[RESULT: 3 DELINQUENTS DEFEATED]
[REWARD: 30 EXP OBTAINED (30/100)]
Menma tried to stand straight, fixing his messy, blood-stained uniform. He looked in the mirror, wiping the bloodstain from the corner of his mouth.
He staggered out of the bathroom with difficulty, leaving three bodies sprawled on the floor.
Suddenly, a notification screen appeared before his eyes.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE TAKEN YOUR FIRST STEP TO BECOMING THE STRONGEST DELINQUENT IN THIS CITY!]
[WITH THIS, THE SYSTEM ISSUES THE FIRST MISSION FOR THE HOST!]
[FIRST MISSION: GATHER A CREW AND TAKE OVER OKATO HIGH]
[REWARD: ???]
Menma stared at his bloodied hands. In his past life, he died as a loser behind a desk.
In this life, he would stand at the top, over the pile of those who tried to put him down.
His boring life was over. Now he would write a new history with his fists on the harsh streets of Okayami City.