Love Addict's RPG Ch. 46 (Patreon)

The mission was simple; defeat Juan Rosas in a boxing match. To accomplish this goal, Oliver had 310LP to work with. He knew that this challenge relied solely on his strength stat, but the lock wasn't kind enough to specify if there was a specific number he needed to be at to overcome the obstacle. Because it didn't, Oliver was convinced he had some wiggle room. Dumping every last point he had into tier one skills to earn quick plus one stat boosts might not be the best way to go about this.

Bradley was in agreement. The living tutorial explained to Oliver that these progression locks were more than just a numbers game and that he could clear the challenge by choosing his skills smartly instead of maximizing his stats. Another twelve points to his strength wouldn't do him many favors when he had a roster of low-level skills with which to apply them. It was better to pick out skills that would actually help with the specific challenge, and that included looking in tiers two and three, where he wouldn't get any stat bonuses from his purchases.

"The BEST approach is a [Hybrid Approach]! If ZERO strength is [Slightly Below Average], then TEN is reaching levels of [Slightly Above Average]. Those numbers won't SEE you dealing [Sick-nasty Damage] unless you HAVE an [Ace Up Your Sleeve] to increase your [Attack Potency]."

"Sounds like we definitely need something from the game-breaking side of things, then,"

"I should SAY so! However! Why don't we [Narrow Down] the essential [Tier One Skills] YOU absolutely need to [Buy, Buy, Buy] and SEE how much LP we have to WORK with after the fact, shall we?"

"Yeah. I already have five tier one skills in mind, and I'm pretty sure you'd have a good guess as to what they are."

Bradley took this as a challenge and submitted his first guess while Oliver brought up his skill menu and clicked into the appropriate tab. "You can't GO wrong with [Physical Conditioning Lvl. 2]!"

Oliver nodded, navigating straight to it. "The level-up will cost me twice as much LP as an ordinary tier one skill, but something tells me I'll need it against Juan. I'm small and stringy. All the attacking power in the world won't help me if I go down in one or two hits. Hell, if I'm desperate, I could rely on the stamina this one gives me and try to stall him out."

It wouldn't hurt Juan like Mia wanted Oliver to do, but a win was still a win, and he doubted she would complain so long as he got results.

A moment later, Oliver had his very first leveled-up skill.

The first time he bought this skill, Oliver didn't notice much difference in his body. That wasn't the case the second time around. Warmth spread throughout his body, stemming from his core. He could feel his muscles hardening and his sinew tightening while molten blood surged like lightning through his veins. The sensation was so powerful that he let out a gasp, but it wasn't out of pain. Rather, this felt pretty good, actually. It was a shame that it only lasted half a minute.

Oliver was left panting once the sensation had passed, still getting to grips with his new condition. Bradley had gotten up during the entire affair to go and fetch him some water, which Oliver guzzled down gratefully the moment he got his hands on it. The whole thing felt like waking up after a night of growing pains sans the pain and the growing.

"Thanks," Oliver sat the glass down after stabilizing. "Didn't know it was going to be that intense. No idea how much this is going to help against Juan's punches, but it's definitely something."

"I wouldn't ORDINARILY suggest [Self-harm], but you could always GIVE yourself a [Good Old-Fashioned Whack] to test the difference!"

Throwing caution to the wind, Oliver shrugged his shoulders and sent his fist on a collision course with his face. The impact was utterly harmless, and he couldn't feel a thing. Oliver wasn't sure if that meant his body was tougher or if he was just that weak, so he tried a different approach. Digging his nails into the back of his arm, he discovered that he had to work at it if he wanted to come close to breaking his skin.

"Safe to say I'm definitely more durable," Oliver reported with a cautious grin. He still felt a sting, though, as most of the added protection was against physical force, not sharpness.

"Wonderful! Moving RIGHT along, then?"

"Moving right along," Oliver confirmed, scrolling back through his skill menu. "The entire plan falls apart if I don't pick this one, and while I'm at it, I might as well take it up to level two."

"Understandable! I'd argue that didn't EVEN need to be said!"

"It really didn't," Oliver said as he pressed the buy button on Boxing lvl. 1 and immediately upgraded it, spending 75LP in total.

The sound of a bell being rung three times in quick succession echoed in Oliver's mind. New neural pathways were carved into him where once existed nothing but weed haze and porn addiction. His muscles twitched with memories that weren't his own. He recalled the ring, the sensation of dodging an uppercut and landing one of his own, and of his coach yelling at him to ignore the pain and fight on using his Yamato-damashii, whatever that meant.

And then it was over, Oliver snapping out of it and rubber-banding his way back to his current place and time.

"Holy fuck, that was weird... it felt like I just downloaded knowledge straight into my brain cyberpunk-style."

"How ELSE were YOU expecting the [Relevant Experience] to GET in there?" Bradley asked in his typical chipper tone.

"Beats me," Oliver shrugged. "It's just that this was the first time I've ever gotten a skill teaching me how to do a thing, so I didn't know what to expect. That's all. It wasn't unpleasant or anything, just weird. Ah, well. That's three skills now and three additional points of strength. I didn't notice it while I was tripping out just now, but damn, my body is starting to feel good."

"Why not [Show Off] a little and GIVE a proper [Demonstration]?" Bradley suggested. "We won't know HOW well it worked until YOU do!"

"I was just about to," he said, standing up and taking a few steps away from the table to give himself some space. Vital energy was building in his body the more points he put into strength, counteracting a life spent indifferent to physical activity.

Closing his eyes, Oliver assumed a boxing stance he'd seen before in an anime, thrusting both forearms out in front of his face and turtling up.

He envisioned Juan standing before him, decked out in boxing attire. An imagined right hook from the brute rippled through the air as it lashed toward Oliver's cheek. He could dodge, he could duck, he could take the punch and try to mitigate the damage... Oliver had so many options in just a fraction of a second that the choices would've been overwhelming without his newly acquired skill helping streamline the process.

Oliver twisted his body to the side just narrowly in time, a punch of his own swiftly zipping towards his phantom opponent. It struck Juan on his blind side, doing little beyond incurring the larger man's anger. Another punch, another dodge. As the fight continued, the tempo sped along at a frightening pace. Oliver was pivoting with his feet, backstepping, jabbing, doing everything he could to stay in the game and not get hit. The whole thing felt like a huge uphill battle, but he was always one or two seconds behind and never ahead.

After one nonstop minute of shadowboxing, the demonstration ended when Juan landed a jab to his face. The latex rubber foam of his opponent's illusionary boxing glove smashing into him felt so real that it caused Oliver to react as if it had actually happened. The experiences he'd gained through his skill pounded the memory of what it felt like to be punched deep into his subconscious and gave him a reasonable estimate of how hard someone like Juan could hit. It told him it wouldn't be pretty when it actually happened and that it was a good thing he decided to bolster his defenses.

Though he didn't exert himself thanks to his increased stamina, Oliver's breathing was unstable from the shock of the phantom pain. Once he'd calmed down, he looked to Bradley, asking, "How did that look?"

"Your form was EXACTLY as described on THE skill description for [Boxing Lv. 2], that is to SAY, [Intermediate]! Well done!" Bradley's enthusiasm seemed genuine, as did the cursory round of applause he tacked on.

It didn't assure Oliver that much. "Do you think that's good enough? I didn't want to take it to level three if I didn't have to, but..."

"The level of [Combat Proficiency] you displayed just NOW was greater than most of the LOCAL street fights I've witnessed WHILE wandering [Vista Venus]! [Juan Rosas] is NOT a [Trained Athlete] to OUR knowledge. Therefore, I have SIGNIFICANT doubts that [Boxing Lv. 3] would be a NECESSARY improvement to triumph OVER him!"

That was good to hear. There were other skills Oliver wanted to use his remaining LP on, skills which his shadowboxing just now helped point out he was lacking. The main thing he noticed during the short bout was that his body couldn't keep up with his brain's new knowledge. He needed better reflexes and didn't have the time to train them naturally.

After explaining his rationale to Bradley, they decided on the last of the tier one purchases.

Every last nerve in Oliver's body jolted in unison as his eyes opened wild, pupils dilating. Sweat trailed down the sides of his face. He found himself in a new direction every other second, never the same one twice. Oliver felt aware of himself and his surroundings in a way he had never before been.

There were no imminent threats in his immediate vicinity, but now he knew there very well could be. People delude themselves into thinking they're safer than they actually are at any given moment. This tore the veil off, imparting a sobering horror onto Oliver for the brief seconds this sensation lasted. He was grateful it ended when it did, as the thought of living the rest of his life in this state of perpetual awareness and hypertension was even more terrifying than the state itself.

"Fuck," Oliver huffed, hunching over the table as he drank the next class of water Bradley had rushed to get him. At the same time, Bradley rubbed his back in a stiff, robotic motion. It helped to have a physical reminder that he wasn't alone.

"That... was was not what I was expecting, Christ... didn't think I'd be shooting a dose of existential terror straight into my veins with that one, but here we are..."

"I'm so SORRY you had TO experience [All That Jazz]!"

Oliver laughed, brushing it off. "Whatever, at least it's out of the way. Now, let's test it out."

He didn't initially have an idea of how to do so until Bradley revealed he was carrying a number of small rocks in whatever hammerspace he had access to. Oliver didn't even question why he had these rocks on him; he was just going along with it at this point. He allowed Bradley to chuck them at him rapidly, using enough speed and force for the rocks to hurt if they made impact.

Oliver's hands glided effortlessly out in front of him in a dizzying flurry. He would catch a rock in one hand, let it fall from his palm, jab with his other hand, and repeat the process until each stony projectile had landed limply on the carpet below. There was no way he would've pulled this off without his increased reflexes, and thus, he considered the demonstration a success.

"All right, now that's over and done with, we're down to a hundred and ten points. I feel stronger than I did before getting another five points in strength, but I'm still not confident in how hard I can hit. I think it's probably about time we started looking for a trump card."

Oliver and Bradley were in agreement and thus started scrolling through tiers two and three. One option stood out to him fairly early on in their search. It was a tier two utility skill called Weakness Exploit - Pain that promised he would see icons representing structural weaknesses in any physical object, including organic matter.

It wasn't his intention to gravitate toward a single skill immediately; it just so happened that Oliver didn't really have many other choices. Outside of tier one, everything focused on improving his quality of life, helping him win over heroines, and giving him access to weird, crazy sex stuff. There weren't many straightforward options for hurting other people, the only other choice being the occasional corruption skill, which Oliver had no interest in ever adopting.

Without much debate, Oliver did the thing.

Nothing bizarre happened to him in the wake of his newest acquisition. He was thankful, even if it was somewhat anticlimactic. If Oliver was hoping for a surprise, however, he was about to get it when a notification appeared a couple seconds later.

"Huh," Oliver remarked. "I unlocked something that looks like a sub-skill? That hasn't happened before. I wondered about the 'pain' part of the name, though."

"Why NOT [Check the New Goods]?"

"Way ahead of you," Oliver said as he clicked on the skill's name on the notification, creating a subsequent pop-up for Weakness Exploit - Pleasure, a tier three lust skill that would only cost him 50LP.

Talk about temptation. Oliver was already somewhat sour about not getting to really touch Mia during their first make-out session, and this only exacerbated his desires, making him want to run his hands all over her body as soon as he got his chance. The low price only made it even more appealing.

He'd definitely have to pick that one up eventually, but not today. It wouldn't help him win a boxing match, and he could buy another two tier one skills at the same price. Oliver motioned for the box to disappear but was interrupted before it did.

"Now hold ON just a minute there, [Champ]!" Bradley raised his index finger and smiled. "Haven't you HEARD what they SAY about [All Work and No Play]?"

"No, never once in my life,"

"Hah! Good ONE, [My Friend]! That was a VERY nice [Sarcasm]. In all SERIOUSNESS, I believe purchasing [Weakness Exploit-Pleasure] MAY [Light a Fire] under your [Ass] and provide a PSYCHOLOGICAL incentive to fight even HARDER once you're [In the Ring]. Consider the following. Wouldn't you be even FURTHER motivated knowing you had [Supernatural Pleasures] look forward to UPON your [Hard-earned Victory]?"

Oliver didn't like talking about this kind of thing with Bradley, but he did have a point. The thought of giving Mia a mystical massage had him foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. His blood was boiling the longer he envisioned her reactions, the things she would say, the cute noises she would make for him, and the way she would tremble at his mercy.

Oliver's senses took leave of him long enough for his body to act on impulse, blacking out and refocusing on a shameful notification.

"Shit," he cursed, embarrassment coloring his face. "I didn't mean to do that, but then you got me all worked up, and now I don't have enough LP for anything else..."

"Look on the [Bright Side]! Now YOU'LL be BRIMMING with [Motivation]! You don't WANT that [Erotic Purchase] to be [All for Naught], do you?"

"No, I don't..."

He wanted to tell Bradley not to tempt him so hard in the future, but deep down, he knew not much of the blame rested on his advisor. Bradley would've folded if Oliver had been insistent; the problem was that he got carried away and lost out to his compulsions. He chalked it up to not getting enough attention tonight from Mia, and besides, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't noticeably more motivated. Figures, given how well Bradley knew him in and out.

Oliver sighed and resigned. "Whatever, what's done is done. Let me give Weakness Eploit a shot real quick, and then we'll discuss the next part of the plan."

The skill activated when Oliver consciously wished for it to do so. Weakness Exploit - Pain caused his eyes to tingle in their sockets. It was a strange sensation, though not the worst he'd felt that night. Little white icons shaped like a marksman's target started appearing all over his field of vision on top of just about every object in his surroundings.

If an object had more than one, these targets varied in size. The coffee table in front of him had multiple targets, but the biggest among them was the wobbly leg on Oliver's left. Then, you had objects like the glass cups Bradley used to serve their iced tea. The cups were surrounded by one big icon, representing how easily they would break if you dropped them.

Oliver made plenty of discoveries by looking around at his meager possessions, but some of the information was more concerning than interesting. It bothered him to see how weak points there were in his walls. He knew this place was cheap, but not that cheap...

Other than that, the most significant discovery was that Bradley didn't have a single weak point anywhere on his body. Oliver had suspicions, but this seemed as good a time as any to finally ask. "So, do you not feel pain, or...?"

"I EXPERIENCE no [Physical Stimuli] whatsoever!" Bradley set the record straight, sounding oddly chipper about his lack of a nervous system.

That certainly explained a lot, but the revelation didn't sit well with Oliver. "Does that ever bother you?"

Adjusting his bow tie in thought, Bradley contemplated for several seconds before speaking. "If I'm speaking [Truly and Honestly], then my [Answer] would be SOMEWHERE between a yes AND a no. It's [Mildly Upsetting] to ME that I KNOW what [Slices of 'Za] and [Cold Ones] taste like due to YOUR memories, and yet I will never TASTE them for MYSELF. [On the Other Hand], there are PLENTY of human sensations I am [Overjoyed] to [Go Without]! You TAKE the [Good] with the [Bad]."

"...You sound like you've thought about this kinda thing a lot."

"At NIGHT I often walk down [Lonely Roads] and [Empty Shores], my only COMPANION the [Icy Kiss] of [Existentialism]!"

Oliver didn't have a high school diploma; this philosophical shit was so far beyond him it circled the world and back. He still had no idea what to think about the fact that he'd created a dude out of his brain who was now living a bizarre half-life dedicated to helping him pick up chicks. All he knew was that Bradley was his friend before anything else and that he had to do right by him.

"Right, well... just letting you know that I've got your back if I ever get a chance to pull a 'my third wish is to set you free, genie' moment."

"No need, I'm CONTENT with what I AM! Now let's get BACK to the [Big Picture]. What DO you have [In Mind] for tomorrow's [Training Plans]?"

That was a good question. All Oliver knew for sure was that he wanted to see if he could get his strength stat up one more time. Beyond that, his only idea was maybe going to a boxing gym and seeing if he could find anyone willing to spar with him. He needed some hands-on experience using all his new skills in tandem, along with actual combat practice.

Bradley was pleased to find out they were on the same page, but he also thought Oliver wasn't thinking big enough. "Sure, we COULD go to a [Boxing Gym]..."

"...Or?"

"OR I could lead you [Down the Rabbit Hole] and unlock a LUCRATIVE new [Side Hustle] for you, [My Friend]!"

"Does this have anything to do with that streetfighting ring you brought up a few times? Because I wouldn't feel good about beating up homeless people no matter how much you paid me."

"This GOES deeper than [Homeless Bum Battles], Oliver, MUCH deeper," Bradley leaned across the table with a small grin and a glimmer in his eyes. He held his cell phone in his hand, loading an app as he extended it to Oliver. "Allow me to INTRODUCE you to the [Brave New World] of [BRAWLN]! Underground streetfighting FOR the [Digital Millennia]!"

Oliver was then given a thorough lecture on the most ridiculous topic he'd ever heard, feeling dumbstruck by every word coming out of Bradley's mouth. Something like this didn't even sound possible, let alone legal. He had to admit it seemed promising, though...

Very promising, indeed.

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