Fortunate Son (The Gamer)

Looking out over your shoulder, you started packing up a backpack full of what you considered the bare necessities. First up was a sound backpack, which you adjusted to fit without too many hiccups. Next up went a quartet of pocketknives, the plain steel shimmering slightly with a waving pattern when held at an angle to the light. Next went a short hand-axe, the carbon haft light in your hand as you checked the sheath on it before loading it. That's when you noticed the clothing racks a few isles down.

First things first, though- a shower. A few questions and answers got you to one, and after a quick rinse and towel-dry you were looking much better. After that went a few pre-packaged sets of underwear and shirts, along with jeans too. That led you to camping, which snagged you a light one-man tent you could theoretically fit in, plus a spare coil of rope and a few carabiners. A quick snag got you an analog mechanical wristwatch with a pendulum autowinder, which then prompted you to grab a collapsible baton too. After throwing in a rain jacket too, you went over to snag a few MREs and a one-liter canteen. A set of boots later, and you were ready to go.

"No guns?" the voice asked carefully.

"Nope." You replied, checking you could get your baton easily. "Don't know how Canada feels on the subject."

"Your call, mate." the voice said. "Windsor, Canada is coming right up. Just step on the pad, and we'll do this thing."

---

It was about a moment later you groaned, coming to in a chair in what looked to be an old office of some forgotten factory. Outside, you saw through a window a giant casino dominating a skyline, a short way across a wide river. To the other side was a door, leading into a fairly benign community.

"Alright, then." the voice said, chuckling. "Now that we're out of the robot wards, an introduction. I'm Manfred, and as you may have guessed I'm your connection back to the powers of the Gamer and general talky-helpy person."

"Nice to meet you." you replied. "So, uh, any ideas?"

Manfred chuckled. "Well, let's check your quest log. Those are a pretty good way to get XP, and the more XP you get the sooner you can get the nifty shit like Inventory Access and enough magic to actually do shit with it."

You frowned, looking around. "So, what do I do with XP?"

"You accrue it, and it makes you stronger. Or rather, nine-tenths of it makes what's left of The Gamer stronger, while you get a ten percent cut yourself. The more levels you get, the more tricks from the Gamer you can access, plus the stronger you get. Currently the strongest one of the Doctor's children is.... Level 85."

Moving your hand dramatically, you pulled up your Quests screen. "Well, here goes nothing."

---

[] Quest: House, Hearth, and Home- Your safe house isn't very safe or house-like. Fix that up by cleaning up physically by making a habitable area, and security by taking care of anyone liable to infiltrate while you devise defenses.
-[] House: Get some creature comforts in here, like a bed, stove, etc.
-[] Hearth: Clean the joint up some; make sure it's roughly habitable
-[] Home: Start scouting the area out so you're not surprised by anything 'interesting'

[] Quest: Papers, Please!- You have no documentation or communication, which might make some problems if you run into the law
-[] Alles en Ordung: Poke around for a state ID or something to use to prove you live here.
-[] Eighty-Day Wonder: Get a car so you can move around, and if neccesary go to other areas for reasons.
-[] Squtter's Rights: Find out about your new safe house, and make it yours.

[] Quest: Make a Man out of You- You've got abilities, right? Time to learn how to use them.
-[] No one's as strong as Gaston: Find out your strength the hard way. Time to lift and throw
-[] No one's as quick as Gaston: Time to figure out that Dex stat, and that means sprints and leaps.
-[] No one's as smart as Gaston: Numbers related to intelegence, hmm? Time to use your head and learn what the numbers mean!

(Please choose one Quest, and one of the three Quest Objectives to start on first)

Looking around your new joint, you sighed quietly. Unlimbering your backpack, you quickly cleared out a small area to bed down in. Some digging around found a broom, and soon enough you'd cleared enough dust and cobwebs to mark out a place to sleep. Once you'd gotten that ready, you ditched your backpack and folded up a pair of jeans to use as a pillow.

"What are you doing?" Manfred asked, curious.

"Sleeping." You replied, throwing an arm over your eyes.

"It's eleven in the morning." he replied, and you imagined a pair of eyes rolling at you.

"Excuse me while I try and care." you said, groaning. "How the heck didn't I loose any HP from those kill-bots, anyway? I'm certainly sore as hell."

Manfred chuckled. "Regen field in the armory. Most of the sore is from it, not the fighting."

"Great. Wake me up if anyone's coming."

---

Waking up, you groaned as your back primly informed you bare concrete was a shitty sleeping material. A blanket would have helped so much- why hadn't you brought one, anyway? Either way, time to go Do Things. Slipping on your rain jacket to help with the fact that things had gone from comfertable-ish to really cold, you made sure your baton was handy. You'd decided on the second Quest, and to start with getting ID. As such, you needed to figure out how to get said ID, which meant a trip to the library.

About an hour's worth of walking later, you found yourself at the Windsor Municipal Library, applying for a library card so you could use their computers. It was kinda tricky, ballenceing a few off-color comments from Manfred on one hand while polietly handling the rude librarian on the other, but you managed. Sitting down at a computer station, you started poking around at the topic of regional IDs. The answer came up pretty fast- you needed proof of identity, plus a nominal cash fee, along with proof of residence.

Currently, unless you could request some forged or actual documents from what you'd privately started calling The Lair, you were shit out of luck on this particular branch of the Quest Chain. Asking Manfred, you got a definitive "no" to the question of documents. Turned out The Lair was the workshop and armory of The Gamer, while the offices and logistics branch were in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

As you walked back home, you noticed a blinking signal in the corner of your HUD. Activating it, you blinked at the ignored log.

You have gained the skill: Bureaucracy! You can now handle institutions and large organized systems better!
Bureaucracy has reached Level 1!
Bureaucracy has reached Level 2!
Bureaucracy has reached Level 3!
Bureaucracy has reached Level 4!
Bureaucracy has reached Level 5!

"Manfred, what is this?"

Your assistant answered bluntly. "It's Personal Skills. They track differently than Base XP, so you don't have The Gamer's Throne leaching it off you."

"Noted." You replied drolly. "The other indicator, though, what does it do?"

"That's a Mission of Opportunity marker. Think of it as a low-risk pinata of guilt-free fighting goodness."

Rolling your shoulders, you grinned. "So what would you think of me taking it?"

Manfred chuckled. "Free XP is free XP, man! Besides, your hand-to-hand skills outside of Rage are kinda shit."

"Then let's do this." You replied, grinning.

--

It turned out your Mission of Oportunity was a pair of thugs in the middle of a breaking and entering on some old liquor store three streets over. It was simple enough to sneak in and watch the holdup, when you thought you saw something fishy. Holding your hands up by your eyes in the traditional binoculars fashion, you jumped a little when everything went into what you thought was about a 1.25x resolution with a green filter.

"Say hello to Active Perception." Mandfred said, chuckling. "Passive Perception is mostly just niggly feelings and the ability to remember and track random shit, but this is the better of the two skills."

"Nice." you muttered. "Hey... is their car still running?"

As you sniffed the air and noted the fresh exhaust smell, you started to smirk. "Manfred, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"I don't know, Henri; what are you thinking?"

"Well, one of the quests did have 'get a car' in it. Think this one counts?"

"Only one way to find out!"

---

VOTES

[] Steal the car, ditch the encounter. Quest progress and safety!
[] Finish the encounter, leave the car. It might be stolen, after all.
[] Finish the encounter, then steal the car. Collect ALL the XP!