‘Isn’t the average human’s stats supposed to be 1.0 for each individual one? And that’s for a strong healthy adult male. If I recall correctly, the world record for a stat in any section was 1.8, so this means this 15 year old girl has surpassed the world record for the strength, agility, and vitality that has stood strong since the beginning of time in my previous world? And what’s this Mind stat?’

  Lucian was very intrigued upon seeing Sofia’s stats, and couldn’t wait any longer to find out what his own were. The very idea that such a young girl could possess those terrifying figures gave him some hope. Perhaps his own stats could be quite abnormal for his own age?

  ‘AI, Scan my own physique!’ He commanded.

  A few seconds passed just like it did with the young girl, only the time required before Lucian received a reply was shorter than the girl’s.

  [Scan complete!]

  [Name: Lucian Verdan. Age: 12. Sex: Male. Vitality: 0.7, Agility: 0.6, Strength: 0.5, Mind: 0.1 Status: Curious, Hungry. In a state of slight dehydration and starvation.]

  The same mental image appeared in Lucian’s mind, this time of himself. But there was one thing Lucian noticed immediately. The scan of his body indicated that while he was starving and a little thirsty, other than that there was nothing wrong with it. No injuries of any kind, with any that may have been there from beatings from Roderic and associates having already healed.

  ‘No foreign bodies?’ He questioned.

  But there was also no detection of anything inside his body that shouldn’t be there naturally either. This was concerning to Lucian, as the AI implant should have definitely come up on the scan. He knew this for a fact, as he had performed countless tens of thousands of self scans and external scans before, as his job as a scientist required him to, and every time his AI implant showed up in the scan.

  ‘What could this mean? The AI implant is a material object, subject to the same laws of mass preservation as everything else in this universe? It can’t just not be there or not exist, especially when I confirmed its existence inside my mind already!’ Lucian was quite baffled.

  He thought to himself, thinking how fascinating of a discovery this was. If this were his previous world, this would at least warrant him a whole new research project with millions in extra funding!

  Lucian’s lips gradually formed to create a mesmerising smile, creeping out the other students who were nearby to him. In a world like this one where there was little to no technology at all, having something as advanced as his AI implant to help him was akin to holding the future of this world’s scientific advancements all in his mind.

  If he wanted, Lucian could probably speed up this world’s development by centuries! However, the excitement soon wore off, as some realisations soon dawned upon him. Mainly, the fact that his own stats seemed so pitiful compared to that young girl Sofia.

  ‘How did the Original Lucian allow himself to become this weak…’ He was almost speechless when looking at the abysmal stats of his predecessor. He didn’t know what to think, other than ‘weak’. The difference between himself and that Sofia girl should just be an anomaly. But just to make sure he decided to collect the stats and information of a few more students who sat around himself.

  [Scan complete!]

  [Name: Unknown. Age: 14. Sex: Male. Vitality: 1.6, Agility: 2.0, Strength: 1.8, Mind: 0. Status: Intrigued, Entertained. Body is in peak state.]

  [Scan complete!]

  [Name: Unknown. Age: 16. Sex: Female. Vitality: 2.0, Agility: 1.9, Strength: 1.9, Mind: 0. Status: Bored, Tired. Body is in peak state.]

  After half a minute, Lucian had scanned two more students and obtained their data in his mind, scanning their bodies and displaying their stats. But what he found left him even more dissatisfied with his own data.

  ‘Not as absurd as Sofia’s stats, but their stats are still definitely abnormal compared to my previous world. The people here are definitely stronger. And these are all only children, I have yet to scan an adult. My predecessor seems to be the only outlier though… Even the weakest of students here has stats slightly above 1.0… I’m starting to feel embarrassed for this kid.’ He wondered to himself internally.

  Lucian continued scanning the cafeteria. There wasn’t a single adult present except for the cook who was serving and handing out the food to the students, but even he had an overall physique above 1. He didn’t seem like he went through the same training these kids did either. In fact, he didn’t seem like he went through any training at all, yet he still held such stats!

  The rest were all students around the same age, between 14-16 years old. But Sofia’s stats remained the highest he had scanned out of the lot, and she gave him the greatest sense of danger.

  As a scientist, Lucian knew what high stats meant — Vitality represented the body’s ability to heal, defend, and resist outside forces. Most common are viruses, infections, but also physical injuries like stab wounds and burns.

  Agility represented the body’s reflexes and speed, measuring how fast they were and how well they were able to control their hand eye coordination, as well as maintain control over their bodies at speed.

  Strength was the most straightforward — it measured both capacity to hold weight under stress, but also to exert force. It wasn’t necessarily about muscle mass but about muscle density.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  But it wasn’t just that simple. Stats weren’t a simple case of 1+1 = 2. A person with all round stats of 1.0 across the board could lift 100kg, run 100m in 13 seconds, and had a general good resistance to viral infections, penetrations to the skin, and a good recovery time.

  But a person with all round stats of 2.0 could theoretically lift up to 550kg, run 100m in 8 seconds, be able to resist most viruses and infections, and had triple the recovery time from wounds as someone with 1.0 in vitality.

  While these figures were all estimations, and would require the person to exert their entire potential to pull off, it still gave a good representation of what was possible with certain levels of stats. To put this into perspective, a big portion of the students gathered in this cafeteria were faster in a 100m sprint than the fastest human in history from his previous world, and could dead-lift more weight than the strongest bodybuilders in history.

  This world was clearly not normal, and Lucian intended to find out why. He also intended to find out why his own stats were so low in comparison, with the primary goal in mind being how to fix that…

  ‘A person with those kinds of stats could only be created with some sort of scientifically advanced genetic modification. Even back in my previous world, we had over two and a half centuries of research behind this topic, yet we couldn’t produce such perfect physical bodies…’

  Lucian ruminated over the stat difference between humans in this world and his old one, and couldn’t quite wrap his head around why they were special. Nothing about this place gave him the feeling that they were an even more advanced civilisation than even 2175 Earth, where they had already colonised half the solar system!

  Let alone advanced, this place didn’t even seem like they had discovered the most basic of basic medicinal advancements yet. Heck, all the books he had taken a peak at during class looked handwritten, so it wasn’t even clear if the printing press was even invented yet.

  ‘This world is definitely not a simple at all!’ Lucian seemed sure of it.

  On the surface Lucian’s transmigration seemed like his consciousness had returned maybe a few hundred or thousand years into the past, but it was clear that this was not a case of time travel at all. The fact that they had completely different names for the locations here, as well as the only crudely drawn map he’d seen looking nothing like any place he recognised from Earth. He’d sure as heck never heard of a place called the ‘Barren Islands’ in any history books.

  Lucian continued thinking to himself as he scarfed down his food like a starving street dog, before looking over at the terrifying young girl who possessed those stats. Normally, seeing such figures without seeing the actual person who possessed them would create the image of a perfectly sculpted 7 foot tall bodybuilder in one’s mind. Yet, they actually belonged to this petite, barely even 5 foot tall teen girl. She was clearly some sort of noble, as evidenced from her attitude towards Roderic earlier, but also from the fact she had a servant following her around wherever she went, keeping his head down and not daring to utter a single word in her presence unprovoked.

  ‘Wait, she has a servant?’ He did a double take, confused.

  In fact, Lucian was surprised, because he failed to notice this servant’s presence until now. Originally, he thought the only adult present was the cook, but things were getting interesting… Lucian quickly developed a strong interest in this man after finding yet another mysterious phenomenon occurring around him. He was quite an observant person, thanks to his scientific nature, so for something to slip past his notice was quite the achievement.

  Looking at him, he appeared rather normal. He wore a black robe, keeping a hood over his head constantly so only his face was visible, and his eyes looked despondent, like he was only half present in the moment, with his mind elsewhere.

  ‘AI, scan this guy’s stats!’ He commanded.

  Without hesitation, he initiated a scan on the unnoticeable servant with almost maniacal eyes, eager to dig into his secrets and all he had to offer.

  Interestingly, the AI was silent for longer than it took to process the terrifyingly strong girl’s stats, only further intriguing Lucian. But he was a patient man, or rather a child now, considering he was technically 12 years old? Regardless, around 10 more seconds passed before he received an answer from the AI.

  [Scan complete!]

  [Name: Unknown. Age: 31. Sex: Male. Vitality: 5.2, Agility: 5.5, Strength: 6.5, Mind: 0. Status: Obedient, Observant. Body is in peak state.]

  Lucian examined the stats as soon as they appeared, and his eyes practically widened out of their sockets. He almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but considering all of the other weird and strange stuff he had witnessed in this world already, he suppressed his surprise for the time being.

  ‘Average stats around 5.5? What is this guy, a monster? He can probably lift well over a ton with that kind of strength, and with his extraordinarily high vitality, his body would be able to withstand it! Incredible!’ Lucian could hardly believe what he was seeing. ‘This guy could probably classify as a superhero in my previous world if he dressed up and went out solving crimes!’

  Lucian thought to himself as he looked at the terrifying person who possessed these stats once again. ‘No wonder the AI’s alarms and warnings went off when I stepped into the cafeteria. They weren’t because of Sofia, but because of her servant!’

  His dinner was soon finished, as the portion sizes weren’t too big and he practically vacuumed his food down in seconds. Lucian stood up and started walking back over to the counter to return his tray, but as he did so, a voice from behind stopped him.

  “Oi! Who’d have thought that Lucian would be brave enough to come to the cafeteria today!” That same, high pitched and arrogant voice that scolded Roderic earlier spoke out once again. This time, Sofia directed her ridicule towards Lucian. It seemed he was her new target.

  “Hurry up and take your food!” The cook over the counter shouted, suddenly scaring the two gawking students who were in the process of taking quick glances at Lucian and Sofia.

  His great shout scared one of them quite badly, making him drop his tray on the floor and creating even more of a ruckus. But unfortunately for him, the school wasn’t kind enough to give him second’s, so he either had to suck it up and eat the now dirty food, or throw it away and go to bed with an empty stomach.

  Lucian ignored the ruckus from his one side, and instead turned around to face Sofia, who was now staring at him with a face that screamed ‘Look at me, scum!’

  ‘Am I, or rather my predecessor, really so unpopular in this place that I have to be picked on everywhere I go?’ Lucian was starting to get a bit annoyed at this point. His predecessor really did set him up with a poor beginning to his new life.

  Regardless of his slightly irked thoughts, Lucian quickly performed a deep bow towards Sofia and her servant, closed his eyes and strained his face.

  “I am really sorry, Lady Sofia!” He shouted with fear evident in his voice, before turning tail and running out of the cafeteria in embarrassment. This was the best course of action he could take. It resulted in the conflict being resolved instantly, shortened the time he had to interact with her, and enabled him to make a quick exit. All it took was a little bit of embarrassing himself publicly.

  But with his reputation already at rock bottom, could a few more ridiculing stares really make a difference? Lucian didn’t care much for that anyway. Things would change in due time.

  ‘That should satisfy her childish tendencies for now.’