A scrawny young man was standing a few feet away from him in the dimly lit hallway. He had a small scar jaggedly cut above his left eyebrow.
His shirt buttons were unbuttoned low to his chest, showing off a patch of a cheap dark tattoo. His overall appearance screamed that of an edgy teen trying far too hard to look dangerous.
Oscar blinked in mild confusion and pointed an index finger directly at himself. "You are speaking to me?"
Although Oscar had received the memories of the previous owner of this body, it felt like reading a written summary of a movie.
He was still entirely himself, keeping his own personality, habits, and mindset from his previous life.
Because he was so focused on processing his status registration and his new Divine Hack System, he completely failed to recall the face of the young man standing opposite him in that moment.
The scrawny teenager was taken aback by the clear, relaxed tone of Oscar’s voice.
A confused expression washed over his face as he stared at the academy outcast who had never previously dared to look anyone in the eye, now standing tall and looking straight at him without a single trace of fear.
As a local dorm bully, the scrawny teenager had never faced such a strange predicament before. He involuntarily took a step back on instinct.
However, he quickly recovered from his stupor as his cheeks reddened in intense embarrassment and anger. He felt insulted by the calm look in Oscar’s eyes.
"You motherfucker, wanna die?" he screamed, charging forward with his right fist raised, intending to beat some sense back into the quiet orphan.
The distance between them closed rapidly. But before the boy could even cover two meters of space, a metallic red cylinder flew through the air in a straight line.
The unopened can of cold cola smashed directly onto the center of the boy’s forehead with incredible force.
Bang!
The heavy impact echoed through the corridor like a loud crack. The boy’s eyes rolled backward into his head immediately.
His legs turned to soft jelly, and he collapsed face-first onto the cold hallway floor, out cold before his body even hit the ground.
The burst cola can bounced twice and spilled its fizzy dark liquid all over the concrete.
"Fuck, that was my cola," Oscar muttered in annoyance as he looked down at the unconscious boy.
He let out a heavy sigh, looking back and forth between the twitching teenager and the broken aluminum can leaking onto the floor.
That unopened cola had cost him a whole two credits from the campus vending machine down on the ground floor.
His total bank balance in this world was barely a hundred credits, and he had just wasted two of them on a trashy teenager.
What terrible luck. Oscar almost wanted to stomp on the idiot’s ribs just to vent his frustration.
If this idiot had not aggressively rushed at him like a wild dog, Oscar would not have thrown his drink in the first place.
When the boy had charged at him, Oscar’s Aim-Bot trait had reacted instantly.
The ten-meter range requirement was easily met, and the system auto-locked the trajectory of the cola can directly to the boy’s head.
The moment Oscar flicked his wrist to toss the can, the trajectory corrected itself perfectly in midair, landing a direct critical hit without missing a single millimeter.
Oscar leaned down slightly, staring closer at the scrawny, scarred face resting against the dirty floor.
"Wait... he actually seems familiar," Oscar murmured, focusing his memory on that ugly scar above the eyebrow.
His eyes lit up a second later as the previous owner’s memories clicked into place. "Isn’t this Ronin? The sidekick of that academy bully group?"
Ronin had actually been a childhood friend of the original Oscar when they were both raised in the same lower-district orphanage.
But as they grew older and entered the academy, Ronin abandoned their friendship to become a loyal bootlicker for a group of wealthy student bullies who had background and money.
The entire reason the original Oscar had walked into that dark alleyway earlier today was because Ronin had sent him an urgent text message, pretending he was in desperate trouble and needed help.
The gullible, soft-hearted original owner had run straight to the alley without thinking, only to be ambushed and beaten to death by Ronin and his wealthy masters.
What an absolute idiot the original owner was. Even after knowing Ronin was a deceitful bootlicker who treated him like dirt, he still believed his fake calls for help.
And this piece of human trash had taken that blind trust for granted, leading his old friend straight to his death.
"Whatever," Oscar shrugged, completely losing any interest in the matter. He had no intention of shedding tears over the original owner’s soft-hearted foolishness.
An idiot like him would die sooner or later in this cutthroat world. Anyway, his death offered Oscar a second chance.
That was all that mattered.
He pulled out his key, unlocked the door to Room 304, stepped inside, and shut the heavy wooden door behind him with a firm click.
The moment the lock turned and the hallway returned to total silence, the unconscious teenager lying on the floor suddenly opened his eyes.
Ronin groaned quietly, clutching his swollen forehead where a large purple bump was already rising.
He pushed himself off the cold floor, his hands trembling with rage and fear. He stared at the locked door of Room 304 with a vicious glint in his narrow eyes.
"You think you are tough now, you bastard?" Ronin whispered under his breath, spitting a mouthful of saliva onto the floor.
He pulled out his smartphone with shaky fingers and hurriedly typed out a text message to his gang leader.
Leaving the spilled cola behind, he quickly turned around and scampered down the dark hallway as fast as his legs could carry him.
*
* *
Inside Room 304, Oscar locked the door from the inside and took a look around his new living quarters.
It was a tiny, rectangular room with bare concrete walls and a small single window overlooking the dreary campus courtyards.
The furniture consisted of a metal bed frame with a thin mattress, a plain wooden desk, a single chair, and a narrow wardrobe.
It was cheap, cold, and minimalist, but to Oscar, it was a private sanctuary where he could figure out his next moves in peace.
He tossed his jacket onto the wooden desk and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. The spring mattress creaked under his weight.
Testing Aimbot on Ronin with the cola can had proven one thing: the system’s functions worked flawlessly in real life, exactly like a cheat code running in a video game engine.
It did not require complex mana channeling or precise physical coordination. As long as the skill was activated and he performed the basic motion of firing or throwing, the system took over physics to guarantee the result.
Suddenly, a loud chime rang directly inside his skull.
Ding!
A bright gold notification window popped up over his main status panel, displaying glowing text.
[First combat interaction detected!]
[System quest protocol initiated.]
Oscar leaned forward, his interest instantly piqued. "A quest?"
[Main Quest: Establish Dominance and Eliminate Nuisances]
[Objective: The host’s peaceful life is threatened by local low-tier bullies. Completely crush the bully ring led by Brad within 24 hours.]
[Path to Objective: Hack into their system database to destabilize any of their innate variables]
[Quest Reward: 500 EP]