Systematic Survival

28 - Self Defense

When he thought about it, he was going to need another day to pay his rent. He had wanted to pay it tomorrow so he could get the mystery reward faster, but he needed to be patient.

Matt decided it would be best to head home for the night. After a few minutes, he arrived at his apartment. As he got home, he was a bit surprised that he didn't really feel tired. Even though he did more deliveries in one night than he ever had, he was feeling fine.

'It's not too late so I'll try a few things before bed.'

He opened his stats screen and thought about what he wanted to do. He found it satisfying just looking at his stats. It felt nice becoming more powerful and his stats represented his power.

He always enjoyed the feeling he got when he leveled up or increased his stats in a game. And the feeling wasn't any different now that he was doing it in real life, actually it was much stronger.

He thought about yesterday's events again and remembered what he had thought about earlier.

'Just having high stats isn't enough. I really need to know how to defend myself.'

He had never considered learning self-defense or how to fight, even when he was getting bullied by Chad in high school. At the time, he just put up with it. He thought, if he fought back, it might only get worse, or he might be expelled.

But now, he thought differently. Not just because he had the system.

'All I was doing was running away and hoping my life would improve on its own.'

He had a scary thought. If he had never gotten the system, his life really could've spiraled into a bad place. Regardless of the powers it gave him, the system was just a spark, the push he needed to get his life on track.

'I'm glad I got that wake-up call.'

Now filled with new motivation, he decided it was time to learn how to learn self-defense. He searched online for some sort of guide, but he couldn't find much besides random clickbait articles. So he searched for some videos instead.

He found one that was posted by a middle-aged man who looked pretty tough, describing what he should do if he encountered danger. Matt watched the video as he showed, in the worst scenario, how to disarm someone who was pointing a knife at him.

Matt tried to imitate the man in the video, and he seemed to quickly shove the assailant's hand to the side, proceeded to step next to him, and twisted his arm, causing the other man he was demonstrating on to drop the knife.

Of course, Matt couldn't practice on someone, so he just pretended someone was in front of him. The man in the video showed a few more useful methods, including a few for someone who is attacking him unarmed. It seemed like the techniques were focused on being as safe as possible.

'This is actually pretty useful! Why didn't I learn this earlier in my life?'

The final part of the video was about what to do if someone had a gun pointed at him. While the video briefly mentioned how to grab it and redirect it if they're holding it incredibly close to him, he wouldn't recommend it.

They mentioned that it's much safer to talk to the attacker and attempt to diffuse the situation with conversation and give them your money or belongings if that was their goal.

Matt wasn't sure if this guy knew what he was talking about, but he decided to practice the moves anyway. But while reenacting the moves, he suddenly heard a sound.

[Skill Training Successful]

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[New Skill]

Self Defense [LV.1]

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||Stats||

Name: Matt Peterson

Age: 18

LVL: 3 [XP 48/144]

HP | 30/30

MP | 0/0

Status Effects: (None)

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||Attributes||

[Str] - 21

[Con] - 14

[Agi] - 20

[Dex] - 13

[Int] - 17

[Luk] - 12

[Stat Points]: 0

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||Skills||

Inspect [Lv.2], Map [Lv.2], Help [Lv.1], Storage [Lv.1], Mind Palace [Lv.1], Self Defense [LV.1]

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||Quests||

-General-

Pay the Rent [$309/800] [Reward: +Mystery Reward, +30xp]

Reach LVL 5 [3/5] [Reward: +10 Unassigned Stat Points, +1 Artifact]

Make a stranger believe you are a celebrity [Reward: Stat Unlock, +30xp]

Compete in an event and win [Reward: +1 All Stats, +75xp]

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-Daily-

*Daily quests not available in beta*

||Storage||

-Items [3/25]-

Used Bullet [1], Gun [1], Knife [1]

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