Bleeding Brilliance Chapter 1: The “Screen” And The Game Of Luck

Chapter 1: The "Screen" and the game of LUCK(Edited)

I am Pretty: Oh! This seems like the last chapter. This novel is not bad — 8 out of 10.

Cheap Kitty: The person above, I don't know you if are being nice or lying? But I don't care. I am going to be honest. This novel is so bad. Characters are worst and the writing is like I am reading little children fairy tales. No more please, 'I farm stories'! I will give it 1 out of 10.

Father Whale: Yeah! This is the worst novel I have ever read. The novel name is "The Blind Hero". Throughout the story, n.o.body, even the readers, knows that MC is blind while he is running around, eating, walking and fighting against criminals. At last when 'big fight' is over and there is a happy ending, MC's little son ask MC to help with homework, then it is revealed that he was blind from the birth, however, his other senses were more sharp and sensitive, thus, n.o.body found out. WTF?

I am your Grandfather: This is such a s.h.i.+t novel. I wouldn't be surprised if MC drove a car because of his 'superior' sense. I will give it 2 out of 10 because of that sh*tty ending. Requesting 'I farm stories' to not write another novel, I don't know if I could stop retching.

Emperor of Stars: Now I think about it, there were clues about MC being blind, but we didn't…..

Reading the comments, Cyril could not help but sigh. Shaking his head slowly, Cyril turned off his mobile. He had released the final chapter of "The Blind Hero" today. The reviews and comments on his last chapter were bad.

"Am I really that bad?" Cyril frowned as he mumbled. He couldn't keep the frown off his face as he considered his writing career thus far. At first, Cyril had believed that he could write well. He soon discovered, however, that he was not the author he thought himself. He had been confident that he could do well as he and his story progressed. However, the reality was harsh.

His story got 3.5 stars out of 10 stars and there were 563 comments among which 500 were bad and 63 were positive. Out of 63 comments, 52 believed that he was writing a parody and sarcastic story, so they gave him 6 or 7 and 11, because they genuinely liked the story, gave his story 8 or 9.

With a heavy heart, Cyril looked out of the train window. He could see birds flying in the sky and greenery as far as his eyes could reach. He gazed at them as they moved past him. Slowly, he was lost in his thoughts.

'Should I stop writing?' Cyril questioned himself. His dream always had been to become a web novel author. He had started writing "The Blind Hero" six months ago being optimistic from the start. But now looking at those reviews and comments, Cyril was considering giving up on that dream.

A moment later, Cyril woke up from his messy thoughts. He took a deep and long breath in and out. 'No, I shouldn't stop,' Cyril looked determined, 'I have been working so hard to become a successful author. This is the dream I have been exerting myself hard to come true. This is the dream which has kept me up all night.'

'This dream doesn't solely belongs to me. A part of it belongs to my mother. She has been motivating me to keep going. For her and for myself, I will keep going.'

As Cyril was gazing out the window, the sun retreated behind the cloud cover, suddenly allowing him to see his reflection.

His whole body was thin, a little taller than average kids around his age. His hair was long, black and messy, almost touching his eyes. He was wearing a dark blue, full sleeved s.h.i.+rt and light blue jeans. Cyril was not wearing his gla.s.ses today, opting instead for contact lenses. Thus, he was far from remarkable in appearance and also wouldn't be memorable in a crowd.

As he was gazing at his reflection, a rectangular screen materialized in front of his eyes. However, there was no change in his expression. It looked like the screen was a common occurrence.

You have gained some information about the target!

Name: Cyril Silver

Age: 18

Level: 1

Profession: Student, Author

STRENGTH: 1.2 ttINTELLIGENCE: 60

DEXTERITY: 1.3 ttCHARM: 30ttt

LUCK: 1tttWEALTH: 10

KINDNESS: 68ttHONESTY: 73

(Note: For Normal Person, STR, DET is 1 and, KINDNESS, INT, CHARM, WEALTH, HONESTY, LUCK maximum is 100 and minimum is 0)

Status: Normal

Equipment: Pen, Mobile, $106, Notepad, gla.s.ses

Details: A very simple boy struggling to write a good story. He can be your good friend.

Current state: Checking his level

"Level 1, huh!"

Looking at his level, disappointment spread across his face. Three months ago, on his 18th birthday, he suddenly gained this "Screen." He first thought was that it was either an illusion or a hallucination. But over time, he came to accept that it wasn't an illusion. Other people couldn't see this Screen, only he could see it.

If he stared at a person or an object for two or three seconds without blinking, he could read their information on the Screen.

Ever since he got this Screen, Cyril was struggling to raise his level. He started using dumbbells. He started running in the morning and evening. He started learning martial arts. After some time, he could see his STRENGTH and DEXTERITY increasing. Progress, however, was slow.

Previously, his STRENGTH had been 1.1 and DEXTERITY had been 1.2, but with all the exercising, STRENGTH had increased to 1.2 and DEXTERITY also had increased to 1.3.

His other attributes like INT, KINDNESS etc, all remained pretty much the same and didn't seem to affect him. However, LUCK was changing daily. LUCK was between 20 to 60.

When LUCK reached more than 50, Cyril usually went outside to "try" luck related games and activities, and most of the time, his "luck" was good. But when LUCK was near to 20, he usually avoided going out and coming in contact with people.

But for one or two months, LUCK hadn't been going up or down by 30. His LUCK had been normal- between 30 to 50, so lately he didn't bother to check. However, Cyril was soon going to regret it.

As the Screen disappeared, Cyril removed his gaze from the window. Cyril looked at the other pa.s.sengers in the compartment. There were about 20 people including him. Cyril started to gaze at each of them one by one. He only focused at their level, strength, and dexterity as he was curious if there were people with a higher level. But soon he was disappointed. The people there were ordinary, not exceeding level 1. Some had STRENGTH as high as 1.5 and DEXTERITY up to 1.6.

In the town Phania where Cyril lived with his mother, Cyril hadn't found any people exceeding level 1. Their STR and DEX were normal- from 0.7 to 1.5. INT, LUCK, KINDNESS, CHARM, WEALTH, HONESTY was also somewhat normal- from 20 to 60. LUCK was changing, so Cyril didn't normally bother to check unless he found himself across the poker table. As a result, nothing stood out. Everyone was pretty much as ordinary as him.

While Cyril continued to look at the people's information of his compartment, something attracted his attention. He noticed that 18 of 20 peoples' LUCK was negative 1 and the other two including Cyril had LUCK lower than 10. Cyril started to worry.

What did that mean?

Once back in his town, while walking to school, Cyril found that a pedlar in the streets had LUCK in the negative. Cyril had a.s.sumed that something unlucky was going to happen to that pedlar and didn't care too much. Later, when Cyril was returning from school, he heard that the pedlar died of a heart attack. At that time, Cyril was really scared.

That day Cyril found out the effect of negative LUCK.

From that day, the first time Cyril would do after waking up was to check his and his mother's LUCK.

Now with the most people with negative LUCK in the carriage alarmed Cyril. The pa.s.sengers were going to die. Cyril's mind started racing. He remembered his LUCK. It was 1. "s.h.i.+t," Cyril was alarmed. He had never LUCK so low. "...But when I checked this morning, it was 30. Why did it change to 1 all of a sudden? This has never happened before!.."

Cyril didn't think much about the reason for the sudden change because the situation was unfavorable to him as his life was at stake.

Instead, he started recalling all some sort of pieces of information about low LUCK and negative LUCK.

Back home, Cyril started to observe people with low LUCK. He found that all of the people who had LUCK approaching 10 to 1 got in some accident and suffered various injuries. Nearer the LUCK to 10, the minor injuries they suffer, however, farther the LUCK than 10, more severe the injuries.

Some people with low LUCK were drowning, or getting hit by a car or fighting with someone or burning or suffering because of other things. Cyril wanted to see if he could make any difference, so he tried saving them. Some were saved successfully which had given him relief. However, no matter how many times he tried, Cyril failed to change the effect of negative LUCK.

One day, Cyril saw one of his cla.s.smates had negative LUCK. Cyril followed him the entire day and later found that he wanted to commit suicide. Cyril 'luckily' saved him when he tried to jump off the roof. After saving him, Cyril found out the cause and also gave him the solution. However, that cla.s.smate 'mistakenly' fell in the river on the way home and died. That's when Cyril understood that death couldn't be avoided.

Thus, Cyril started to be scared. He couldn't save other pa.s.sengers as their death was 100% sure. Now he had to think of something to protect himself with this whole body intact.

Name: Cyril Silver

Age: 18

Level: 1

Profession: Student, Author

STRENGTH: 1.2 ttINTELLIGENCE: 60

DEXTERITY: 1.3 ttCHARM: 30ttt

LUCK: 1tttWEALTH: 10

KINDNESS: 68ttHONESTY: 73

(Note: For Normal Person, STR, DET is 1 and, KINDNESS, INT, CHARM, WEALTH, HONESTY, LUCK maximum is 100 and minimum is 0)

Status: Normal

Equipment: Pen, Mobile, $106, Notepad, gla.s.ses

Details: A very simple boy struggling to write a good story. He can be your good friend

Current state: Extremely Anxious, Scared