Beneath the Surface... [The Gamer Multicross OC]

[drake_azathoth]

Welp. Guess you know what you're spending some of those stat points on.

 

[Sam L Rioter]

Would Tylenol count as a health potion?

 

[The Stormbringer]

That poison consumes 120 HP, and he doesn't have any baseline regen yet, correct? Suppose he'll want to put a few points into VIT or STR.

 

[Ovid]

...wait. Are you telling me you started this story BEFORE reading The Games We Play?

Well. Kudos to you for a somewhat original idea. A lot of people do Gamer related stuff after reading Ryuugi's work.
And there goes all your free time over the next few days.

 

[Angle]

...wait. Are you telling me you started this story BEFORE reading The Games We Play?

Well. Kudos to you for a somewhat original idea. A lot of people do Gamer related stuff after reading Ryuugi's work.
And there goes all your free time over the next few days.

Click to shrink...

Yup. Not very far before - I picked up TGWP just a day or two later - but I did start before that.

 

[Angle]

I looked at my health, then back at the poison. 'That's a problem. I could get out of it by spending some points, though that'd leave me pretty close to dead. Alternatively, I've got an hour and change - lets see what I can accomplish in that time. Maybe I'll find an antidote or health potion or something.' I pause for a moment. 'Hell, I can probably just level up. I should have the time for it, and it might remove the poison in addition to restoring my health.

Quest Alert: Poison? What poison?
Level up and restore your health before the poison gets you to one HP!
Completion Reward: 200 XP, Vial of Common Antidote.
Completion Failure: Be required to spend 17 stat points on Vitality.​

That decided, I took a look around. The area was teeming with enemies - I'd have plenty of targets, at least. Plotting a course through the densest swathes of saprolings, I readied my bat - then had an idea. 'Maybe I'll get a skill out of this...'

I grabbed my knife and duct tape out of my inventory, and along with a couple small rocks I duct tape it to the end of my baseball bat, the knife blade sticking out perpendicularly, the edge facing back towards the bat.

Through dedicated effort, a skill has been created: Craft!​

'...Wait, does that cover ALL kinds of crafting? That is so broken.' I nod happily. 'It's good for me, though.'

-1 HP!

'Right, right. Let's see what this thing is capable of...' I start stalking towards the nearest saproling, my weapon held at the ready. I manage to get almost within range to hit it before it notices me, then bum rush it while its still busy reacting to my presence and impale it on my weapon. 'Boo yah!' I lift it into the air and jerk my weapon free, then reverse it and send the creature flying before it even hits the ground.

+26 XP. You performed a stunt! +4 XP! Through dedicated effort, a skill has been created: Weapon Bond!

'Who's yo daddy?' I grin smugly. 'Yeah, that's right.'

-1 HP!​

'Oh shut up already.' I toss the corpse back over to my pavilion, and stalk off to find more victims. Hurrying the pace, I go through another ten saprolings in a mere 8 minutes, earning myself another 312 XP and a level of bum rush and targeted attack. My weapon proves fairly effective, but not nearly so durable - the duct tape quickly begins to come loose, and the knife is starting to dull. With a sigh, I disassemble it into it's various components and return to using just the bat. 'Well, that was fairly effective. The weight was kinda off though, and I need better materials - kitchen knives and duct tape are not ideal.'

Through dedicated effort, a skill has been created: Engineering: Melee Weapons!​

'...Nice! I bet I can do all sorts of things with that. I can make weapons that are tailored for my exact build, I can make transforming weapons, weapons with mechanisms, electric weapons, weapons with explosive charges...'

-1 HP!​

'Fucking poison.' I pulled out my bat and got back to work, caving in saproling skulls with regularity, netting myself another 213 XP and a point of strength before I noticed the trouble approaching. Specifically, three triffids approaching me from three different directions. 'How lovely. Well, there's no reason to let them all get within range of me...' I quickly approach the closest, then bum rush it and take a swing at it's stinger. It avoids the blow, and takes a swing at me, which I manage to dodge too. We pause for a moment, evaluating each other, before rushing in to resume our battle. It manages to knock my bat out of my hands, but I think quickly, pulling the knife from my inventory and cutting the end of it's stalk off, then rush to grab my bat and prepare for the other two. They are more cautious, closing in together and slowly advancing, their stings held ready. I try and bum rush one of them, feinting my way through his guard, but his buddy covers for him, forcing me back.

'You two really know what you're doing, huh? But then, so do I...' I dance back out of range and start flinging weights and rocks at them, aiming to break a stinger. I don't quite succeed before I run out of projectiles, but I do manage to do some damage, and more importantly, I manage to sucker them with the bum rush that follows thereafter, and break a stalk. The other swings at me, and I dodge back - tripping over the first one that I had disarmed but not killed, as it moves to stand directly behind me. 'Fuck fuck fuck...' I quickly roll to my feet, but not in time to dodge the last stinger. It gets me right in the center of the chest, giving me a heavy dose of poison.

-12 HP! You have been poisoned! Through desperate endurance, a skill has been created: Physical Endurance!
​

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" I shriek in pain as fire floods my veins and my muscles spasm, but I don't let it dissuade me - even as I drop my bat, I grab the stalk right behind the stinger with one hand, and pull out my knife out of my inventory with the other. "DIE MOTHERFUCKER!" I cut off the stinger, pulling it from my shoulder, then jump forward and stab the triffid with it's own stinger. With my knife in my other hand I quickly cut it to shreds, then turn to finish off it's companions.

Cripple LVL UP! -3 HP! Through desperate endurance, a skill has been created: Poison Tolerance! +117XP! Gamers Body LVL UP! +120 XP! +1 Str! Level Up! Quest Complete: Poison? What Poison? +1 Luk! +118 XP! +1 Vit!​

I brought up my status, and was relieved to note that the poison was gone - all of it. My health was back at full, and I'd gotten a couple stat increases - without even spending any stat points. 'Excellent...' My stomach rumbles. 'Huh. I wonder if triffids are edible?'

Name: Jonathan Birch	Class: The Gamer	Title: None
Level: 6	XP: 359/2100	Unspent Stat Points: 25
HP: 127/127	MP: 0/138	SP: 102/102
Str: 14	Vit: 19	Dex: 18
Int: 18.5 (18 +0.5 = 18.5)	Wis: 23 (22 +1 = 23)	Luk: 11

​

Spoiler: Skills

The Gamer Lv. 5 (87%)
Treat life as a game.

Gamers Mind Lv. 1 (94%)
Treat life as a game.

Gamers Body Lv. 3 (08%)
Treat life as a game.

Programming Lv. 5 (02%)
Program Computers.

Meditation Lv. 4 (16%)
Focus your awareness and attention.

Mathematics Lv. 3 (25%)
Discover the truths in the numbers.

Geometry Lv. 3 (19%)
Calculate Geometric figures.

Finance Lv. 3 (02%)
You know how money works.

Parkour Lv. 4 (69%)
Get from Point A to Point B.

Cleaning Lv. 0 (74%)
Make clean that which was dirty.

Cooking Lv. 0 (86%)
Feed the hungry.

Physics Lv. 3 (12%)
A basic understanding of matter and energy.

Biology Lv. 3 (78%)
How living things work.

First Aid Lv 0 (14%)
How to put living things back together.

Structural Engineering Lv. 0 (00%)
How to build things that won't fall down.

Occultism Lv. 0 (00%)
A Working Knowledge of Paranormal Beliefs.

Observe Lv. 1 (11%)
How to look at something and discover its secrets.

Stealth Lv. 2 (09%)
How to avoid notice.

Targeted Attack Lv 1 (32%)
How to hit your opponents in precise locations.

Bum Rush Lv 0 (84%)
How to charge quickly into battle.

Cripple Lv 1 (03%)
How to weaken your opponents through precise strikes.

All-Out Attack Lv. 1 (07%)
How to attack your opponents with everything you have, ignoring defence.

Hacking Lv. 0 (05%)
You know how to subvert security systems and abuse exploits.

Ethics Lv. 0 (84%)
You can tell right from wrong.

Flee Lv. 0 (21%)
You can escape your enemies.

Listen Lv. 0 (47%)
When paying careful attention, you can hear your enemies coming.

Survival Lv. 0 (00%)
You know how to stay alive in the wilderness.

Craft Lv 0 (16%)
You know how to make things with your hands.

Weapon Bond Lv 0 (24%)
You have a special bond with weapons you create.

Engineering: Melee Weapons Lv. 0 (21%)
You can design weapons.

Physical Endurance Lv. 0 (26%)
You know how to survive physical damage.

Poison Tolerance Lv 0 (9%)
You can withstand poison.​

-------------------------------

Still feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh well, I'll go back and edit things later to make sure they're consistent.

 

[Daniel14541]

I'm pretty sure your forgetting physical endurance. He has taken more then enough damage to trigger acquiring that skill.

 

[Angle]

I'm pretty sure your forgetting physical endurance. He has taken more then enough damage to trigger acquiring that skill.

Click to shrink...

Added.

 

[Daniel14541]

Damage reduction is finally here. That is going to be useful.

 

[Rooster]

I'm going to take a guess.

Is this Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead?

It's a roguelike. There are multiple apocalypses going on at the same time.

Zombies, Fungi-men that spread like wildfire, Giant Ants and Bees, Demons, Radiation that causes mutations, Mythical beasts like the Jabberwocky, Triffids and couple of others.

It's a pretty fun game. In that how we say it on Bay12 "Losing is fun!"

 

[Angle]

Well spotted. I've actually done a tiny bit of dev work for Cataclysm, and been following it since Whales first posted it on Bay12. This isn't really a cross over though, it's just that many of the games enemies will be showing up.

 

[Rooster]

Hah! Nailed it!

Well, at least now we can take bets on whether the character will turn into a cow, a lizard, a plant, a blob, or a perfect human. There were a couple other mutations out there.

 

[Angle]

Do note, cataclysm isn't the only thing that's poking it's head in, and this story won't really be about any of them. The main character may or may not end up taking mutagens, but if he does, there's no reason it'll play out anything like it does in cataclysm.

 

[Daniel14541]

I'm pretty sure there should be more experience towards the next level of physical resistance then just 7%. Poison Resistance has more towards it of all things.

 

[Angle]

I'm pretty sure there should be more experience towards the next level of physical resistance then just 7%. Poison Resistance has more towards it of all things.

Click to shrink...

done.
---------------------------

George Smith was having a bad day. "No sir, I - yes sir. Yes. I'll take care of it." With a resigned sigh, he hung up the phone and leaned tiredly against the wall.

"Well? What are our orders?" His partner inquired impatiently.

"Find the subject and bring him in, or we both get transferred to antarctica." George replied.

His partner paled. "Seriously? It's just some kid. He can't be that important."

George shook his head. "Some kid who managed to avoid our whole team. Worse, he managed to do so without bleeding despite breaking through a window, and we haven't been able to find any DNA samples no matter how thoroughly we check his apartment. This is a live one, John."

John looked subdued. "No DNA evidence? How is that possible?" He looked around the apartment. "We didn't find any sign of the kind of cleaning you'd need to arrange that. And even then, you'd need to be incredibly thorough... And the bed at least should have had traces i it. There's no way a normal person could sleep in a bed without getting skin flakes all over it."

George shrugged. "For the moment, we know that he was caught by our tracking systems making suspicious purchases from a bookstore, buying books faster than he should have been able to read them, and then was singled out by a clairvoyant, and thus we were called in to grab him and take a look."

John nodded impatiently. "Yeah, I remember the briefing. I was there. But since when do mutants stop shedding skin cells? They're still basically just people, right?"

George shook his head. "Some of them may seem pretty normal, but trust me - I've seen the weird ones. Not shedding skin cells or bleeding on glass is pretty tame."

John frowned. "Right. Well, do we know how he got away from us?"

George shrugged again. "Nope. He jumped out a window without taking any visible damage and started running. When our men pursued him on motorcycle, he vanished around a bend in the path. We used every sensor we had on the area, and found nothing."

"Nothing?" John furrowed his brows. "There should have been something! What about the DTD?"

"We only have an old outdated model. It took us hours to get it to the area and set up, and by that time most traces would have faded." George said with a hint of frustration.

John slammed the table with his fists. "Wonderful! So what're we supposed to do George?"

George leaned heavily on the table. "Keep looking. And stall. If we can't find him, well... I'll figure something out."

John looked sharply at him. "You better. I hate cold. Living in Antarctica? No way in hell."

------------------------

I'm not really very happy wih this one, though it was good practice. I might go back and rewrite it later.

Edit: Switched out satellite surveillance for clairvoyants.

 

[Rooster]

It's pretty good. At least there's more talking going on that the average game turn here.

 

[The Stormbringer]

Mutants, huh? Interesting. And a government cover-up! That makes a little more sense about why they went after him, though they could've been more subtle about it, like... sent in a single infiltrator to drug or taze him or something.

 

[sdarian]

I don't know, that strike team was pretty effective. As they said, normally we would have been bleeding from the glass or broken limb from the fall. And when we ran they were ready with motorcycles.

Our body letting us move regardless of injuries wasn't enough. It it hadn't been for them not being able to see inside the dungeon, they would have had us easy.

Edit: There still should have been skin cells from before we changed, but since we don't give off anything afterwards that wouldn't have made a difference either way.

 

[Lumarin]

The 'we' is creepy, since this isn't a quest. @sdarian

That said, mutants huh?...I have no clue what this is a cross with. Original? X-men? Something else? THE PLOT THICKENS.

 

[jaiveer00]

threadmark?

 

[Daniel14541]

So the cleaning skills looks like it is far more effective even at this low a level so long as you are actually thorough and follow through everywhere.

 

[Kenshkrix]

The 'we' is creepy, since this isn't a quest. @sdarian

Click to shrink...

I've seen literally every single post on SB and SV which uses 'we' in this context in a thread that isn't a quest immediately replied to with "This isn't a quest".
This statement is almost always accurate, but I'm curious nonetheless.

To me it mostly means they're strongly empathizing with the character(s), but I can only assume there's some history to this universal and swift response that explains why it's creepy.


Anyways, it's always nice to see other people who play(ed) Cataclysm, it's essentially the best modern-era (sort of?) roguelike I've ever played.

Also a good place to get examples of strange monsters and stuff, since it pulls heavily from various other series for eldritch horrors, mutants, cyborgs, etc.

 

[Angle]

I don't know, that strike team was pretty effective. As they said, normally we would have been bleeding from the glass or broken limb from the fall. And when we ran they were ready with motorcycles.

Our body letting us move regardless of injuries wasn't enough. It it hadn't been for them not being able to see inside the dungeon, they would have had us easy.

Edit: There still should have been skin cells from before we changed, but since we don't give off anything afterwards that wouldn't have made a difference either way.

Click to shrink...

The 'we' is creepy, since this isn't a quest.

Click to shrink...

We are the Borg.

So the cleaning skills looks like it is far more effective even at this low a level so long as you are actually thorough and follow through everywhere.

Click to shrink...

Nah, Gamers Body just applies retroactively. Law of Contagion and all that.

I've seen literally every single post on SB and SV which uses 'we' in this context in a thread that isn't a quest immediately replied to with "This isn't a quest".
This statement is almost always accurate, but I'm curious nonetheless.

To me it mostly means they're strongly empathizing with the character(s), but I can only assume there's some history to this universal and swift response that explains why it's creepy.

Click to shrink...

Once a hivemind, always a hivemind.

Anyways, it's always nice to see other people who play(ed) Cataclysm, it's essentially the best modern-era (sort of?) roguelike I've ever played.

Also a good place to get examples of strange monsters and stuff, since it pulls heavily from various other series for eldritch horrors, mutants, cyborgs, etc.

Click to shrink...

yep. That's actually where I picked up both the day of the triffids and the cthulhu mythos. And that one japanese horror manga.

 

[Daniel14541]

Though I do have to point out that the MC doesn't have any supernatural skill levels yet. All his stats are still well within the human average. And buying a bunch of books really isn't that strange. Book stores wouldn't even be a thing if it was.

 

[Angle]

No, but buying loads of How-to books all at once like that is slightly unusual - not enough to get him noticed on it's own, but enough to put him on further watch lists. And they have no idea what his skill levels are at.