Arc 3: Dangerous Installations
- Location
- Here
Sarah flinched as she stabbed her spike into the wall... and blinked as her hand hit the wall.
And lost her grip.
And the spike kept going. Into the new hole.
Glowing with blue fire or not, she froze in horror at having lost her brand new weapon only seconds after... oh.
Stunned, she looked at her hand... and the spike that had returned to it.
...With far less terror, she stabbed the wall again. NOT losing her grip this time.
It couldn't slash or cut, but stabbing something solid was now effortless!
...So it would probably be good to test that 'Comes back to the hand' thing.
Carefully, she placed the spike on the floor... and flexed her hand as it reappeared in her grip.
Sarah grinned at her new friend. 'Alright. I can work with this.'
Trusting her very short testing session, she gave the bone a flick... and it hurled in a blue streak through a wall.
<<Ambush Kill! +2cp!>>
...What?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam had continued spreading his crystals into the Warehouse's back systems when the alert went off.
And he blinked.
Apparently, her drawbacks were so dire that actually killing something (ANYTHING) earned her a massive bonus. A single kill (In this case, it was a very unlucky young 'Alien' crawling on the wrong wall) would normally extract somewhere between 0.03cp and 0.08cp, depending on how 'important' that single creature was.
Considering the other drawbacks made these things respawn should have lowered the reward even further.
His (currently non existent) eyebrows rose however at the next alert.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
>>Impossible Flames have consumed a foe.<<
<<Unlocked 'Flame Conversion' impact effect>>
Sarah blinked as a distant crackling suddenly began to whistle, feeling the air being pulled into what was probably a new bonfire.
...Huh.
Looking at the crack she was hidden in, she focused.
This planet, wherever it was or whatever it was called, was a death trap of course. The entire thing, or at least the local area she had covered, was a maze of tunnels, hallways, dead ends, and (thankfully) areas to hide and random boxes of equipment.
And while she hadn't found anything USEFUL in those many containers, she was pretty sure that whatever she had killed (And then incinerated) was close enough to some crates to keep the flames burning.
Seeing her cp progress bar inch up again as something in the distance screamed in pain... she turned back to Mr. McStabberson.
And held back a laugh as she launched it through the OTHER wall as hard as she could!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked as cp began flowing into her resource pool.
A quick glance at the logs... Huh.
Blue flames make a VERY good penetration enhancer.
Some of the girl's throws were delving five or six floors away, leaving small pillars of flame and screaming victims. Who then became pillars of flame.
...It was a DAMN good thing she was immune to this stuff, considering how much fire she was spraying in all directions.
With a glance at her bio stats... Adam decided to slow her progress slightly. Her rate was so fast, she could easily afford to lose a single cp or two if he was careful retrieving them.
Because Vault Hunters exploring Pandora couldn't find safe food or water, the ECHO systems would normally ensure small things like that or using the bathroom were handled through minute changes when using the teleportation systems or during resurrection... options Sarah didn't have.
So instead, Adam was going to 'waste' a few cp by directly using them to help her recover. Long term wise, this was not the best option when using something so valuable as 'Choice Points'... but Sarah didn't have long term options yet.
Cp after cp were slowly spent as Adam reached through the Avatar connection... and tried to get her body to a more stable condition.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Her arm jerked in an odd direction, destroying her throw attempt, when Sarah got another popup... and a surge of warmth down her spine.
Temporary Boost:
~Health Recovery
~~1cp Purchased! May be recurring until Recovered!
>>INSTALLING<<
A glance at her HUD's health bar showed the number (And related red color bar) slowly regenerating even as her various pains began to fade and her joints relaxed.
Even the constant thirst seemed to fade, as she let Mr. McStabberson aim downwards.
A glance at her fingers showed the tiny knicks, the older scars, and the torn skin all slowly fading away, showing new (and clean) skin for the first time in what felt like forever.
With a raspy chuckle (How long had it been since she felt safe enough to make noise?), Sarah stood in the blue flames that hugged her tiny (But now growing) room... and prepared to throw again, keeping her attention on her ever growing CP Bar.
After all... now she had goals!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
So.
Turns out, throwing spikes through all the walls (And the floor, and the ceiling), while filling the resulting holes with unnatural flames?
Not good for structural integrity.
She got out safely with Mr. McStabberson, but even with the entire hallway glowing with her blue lines of flame etched on each surface, she still felt less safe.
Sarah kept her spear sized spike aimed forward as she cautiously moved to find some dead end, a safe place to go back to spear fishing some monsters.
Her progress was slowed by having to use her weak connection to shift the flames, by moving the almost silent inferno forward with her steps... But the advantage of being surrounded by a blue lattice of prepared fire was too useful to give up.
And when she used it in this strange marking form, it was much easier to see and manipulate than when she simply filled the hallways and tunnels with an inferno.
It was like a leashed puppy. Happy to be here, but eager to prance about and 'meet' new people!
Another sudden scream of pain and rage showed that another monster (Or the same one? Hard to tell.) had managed to get within the range of her markings.
Of course, the bright blue flames flaring up was a solid hint as well.
*DING!*
THE FUCK!?
Sarah jerked her weapon in several directions before noticing the alert window.
Skills, Abilities, and Powers:
~General
~~{Looter Shooter: -200cp, free for the duration of the jump} Purchased!
>>INSTALLING<<
<<Remaining: 3cp>>
What? Oh, she had 'Leveled up', It now listed her as a 'LV 1 Jumpchain Child'. A thought had her bring up the full interface from her ECHO system.
Seeing a new tab, 'Skills, Abilities, and Powers', she opened it and selected 'Looter Shooter' to see the details.
[Bandits, dangerous animals, ancient alien constructs and just about everything in this world that will put up a fight with you seems to have something at least semi-usable on its person that just falls off of them the moment they die... Or you could just start checking inside random Portable toilets, dumpsters, and just about anything that's unlocked and find something. The quality of the med kits, bullets, grenades, grenade mods, firearms, shields, class modifications (etc.) that you get from your scavenging varies wildly with better and more loot or even unique and powerful drops often coming from those that are the most dangerous in the area. Of course since you're paying for the drops here each piece of equipment is guaranteed to work via benefactor Fiat for as long as you own it.]
She blinked as there was a set of notes listed below it.
[Due to Drawbacks, no currency will be available from any drops.]
[Weapons are most commonly found, followed by single use items, with rare items like shields and grenade modifications least likely. This ratio may change next Jump.]
...Did she NEED more weapons?
Remembering the hours of near silent crawling from each hiding location to the next safe area, Sarah nodded.
Yes.
Yes she did.
Going back to the top of 'Skills, Abilities, and Powers', she examined 'Next Upgrade', currently set to {Legendary Luck: -400cp, Drop-In: -200cp}.
Selecting it opened interesting details.
[Probability works in strange ways around you. You seem to find a lot of loose change on the ground and always find the necessary part to repair that broken thing in a very timely manner. If there's a fork in the road you always seem to guess the one that leads to your destination. Shrapnel from explosives seems to fly "around" instead of "through" you. Patrols that hear you might discount the sound as the wind or a mouse. An enemy with a perfect killshot on you might even have their perfectly clean gun jam. Beware though, as Luck has only so much power over the world around you. If you get surrounded by a horde of enemies with guns, they won't all jam, and there's sure as hell no lucking your way out of getting incinerated by a nuke.]
With more notes:
[Due to Drawbacks, no currency will be available from any drops.]
[Note, Mission Objective: Survive.]
...Still. "..."
Cough, how long had it been? "H...Hello?"
No response. Not surprising, really. "Can... Can I choose something else instead?"
The blue flames etched into the surroundings pulsed slowly.
She looked at the display. "I just... I don't want to trust luck. Never went well enough for me. Could... could I pick something else?"
<<...>>
<<Jumpchain Update Version 0.002 in Progress>>
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Shit.
Right, Don't just dump everything in there, poor girl has enough on her shoulders already.
Adam grumbled as he rewrote the 'Skill Tree' subsystem normally used by Borderlands to show information from the Jumpchain Document.
Obviously, tiers weren't needed... if you had the cp, you could pick anything you wanted really. Instead, he had set up sections:
'Skills, Abilities, and Powers', 'Gear and Supplies', and some read only parts that showed the previously made choices for this Jump, and finally! The selected Drawbacks that currently apply to her. That one was disabled for now, even Adam wasn't sure about what was on there.
Dump in the data, clean up the text, make the prices a bit more obvious... there.
...Adam wasn't sure how to feel about this really.
Normally he just had an idea, went with it, and handled anything that came along in the process. Having someone flat out reject his opinions hadn't happened in a long, LONG time... but all this WAS her life.
He was just worried she was about to destroy it.
What if she picked something powerful but expensive? And he would be unable to use the cheaper options to hopefully bend the rules a bit?
What if only the 'fun' and not practical items were chosen?
In the end, he needed to trust that she knew best, despite his abilities and history and, well to be honest, Adam's ego usually said that his way was the best way.
Could he do that?
...Well, best find out.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah looked at the long list of options in awe.
Not just new abilities, but vital equipment and potential skills impossible to imagine at her fingertips!
Tempting was the {The Basics: 100cp, Vault Hunter: 0cp}, which would give her two guns, some grenades and an energy shield... well, that and the {Storage Deck: 100cp}, which would let her ECHO system access an inventory... with her new 'Looter Shooter' skill she would need something to hold all the junk she would find.
But right now, her focus drifted to find something that was less physical. Items could come later, abilities couldn't be taken away so easily... she needed to know that if her situation changed again, she would still have options.
Her breath caught. What was {Bad Ass: 200cp}? For that cost it couldn't be something stupid like an unlimited supply of suits and sun glasses.
Selecting the option, she checked its features:
[You are a particularly imposing specimen of... whatever you are. You're in peak physical condition, or maybe a little bit farther, and your pain tolerance is MUCH higher than normal. Expect to be able to run around in truly heavy armor, or win fistfights against even Pandora's animal life. Alternatively, any creature you summon with the Phone A Friend skill is much tougher than it should be.]
Her finger shook as she read the text.
...This was it!
Years, decades, Jumps of pain!
Never able to retain all those hard earned muscles and well worked bodies, never able to build up reflexes and skills to an intuitive level!
Her kidnapper would shove her somewhere, and she quickly learned that if she didn't gain technical knowledge it would be a waste at the end of the Jump. Her body was discarded, and she wasn't allowed to gain any Perks or Skills or Abilities that would allow her to retain all that hard effort.
In desperation she had spent lifetimes studying mental tricks for memorization, learning languages, strategy... as information was all she could gather, she collected everything!
But now!
Now she could learn how to fight without being trapped in the weakened body of an untrained young woman! Weapons and tools that she had to forgo or abandon due to being unable to adapt, unable to truly train... All within her grasp!
Luck might let her find an extra bullet or dodge a bad blow, but a peak body? One that would allow her to dominate rather than resort to only trickery and strategy for every fight!?
She couldn't confirm her choice fast enough, seeing the 0/200cp 'Bad Ass' now listed on her Choice Points progress bar as the next goal!
Well, it was actually at 13/200cp, thanks to a few more screaming bonfires. Or maybe a single Alien monster too dumb to learn from previous mistakes.
With a vicious grin, she stabbed the ground again. Her spike continued pumping flame markings into the surroundings again, her guiding attention tightly focused.
First, find another safe, dead end corridor.
Next, trap the hell out of it with these strange flame marks. Odd things, able to instantly incinerate a monster but not even char wooden boxes or melt rock... they were the safest delaying tactics she could deploy.
Hide a bit, get a body that could actually fight... and then. THEN.
Then... she would hunt!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched what seemed to be a mentally challenged 'Alien' creature run right back from the 'New-U' station... and mindlessly jump RIGHT BACK into Sarah's flame rune minefield.
And burst into flames.
And die.
Again.
It seemed to be one of the 'Undying Foe' drawbacks, ones that were supposed to always survive, always find you, and never be reasoned with or able to be trapped.
But... this one had so many drawbacks pushing it to attack that it was nearly brain dead.
It wasn't able to plan. To set ambushes. To gather allies.
Instead, reality itself was forcing this stupid thing to just... jump in the flames. Again. Because that was the fastest way to get to its target.
No wonder this moron was worth so many choice points, it was INTENDED to be an unstoppable, adapting, immortal foe.
Not just... experience fodder.
Adam sighed as his crystals went through another cycle of expansion, connecting to more esoteric sections of the Warehouse, then contraction as 'Purification' scanned the setup to 'Research', cleansed that area from taint and corrosion, and then scanned it again so 'Research' could suggest modifications and optimizations.
This was why there were limits on 'Drawbacks' and 'Flaws' normally. They could interact badly (Or if you were clever (Or lucky), in a beneficial way), and cause all kinds of odd effects.
Case in point, offering respawning to the Aliens AND the Predators on this planet.
From what Adam could tell, when this world was set up (A massive laboratory like expanse covering a whole planet, full of tunnels and traps and random items and stuff to make it easier for monsters and harder for the Jumper), things started normally.
A massive number of monsters, those psycho hunters that had arm nukes and grenades and spike launchers and stuff.
Then the Hunters found out that suicide attacks didn't end the hunt. Their ammo and bombs ran out quickly soon after that little note.
And the Monsters found out death was temporary too... So why be clever?
No reason to ambush and be stealthy and smart when you could just run screaming at a target, slaughter it or die covering them in massive sharp body parts and acidic blood, then return after respawn to eat the whole mess.
Adam felt a low level of humor that the effect of granting immortal, never ending combat was a bunch of lazy fighters who were not bothering to improve themselves.
Definitely good for Sarah though.
Speaking of which, Adam was not exactly sure why the girl was able to not only convert his Blue Flames into runes but manipulate them. Why exactly could she control those marks, move them, or set more like explosive candy?
No idea.
But it certainly took a heavy weight of stress right off HIS shoulders. Gave him more time to just slowly integrate into the Warehouse systems and hopefully begin stabilizing the big mess.
Ironically, the dickish nature of the Sponsor helped here.
She had no items nor advanced features selected for her Warehouse already... and that means none of those portions were damaged when the bastard took everything and scarpered.
Unlike 'Choice Points', 'Warehouse Points' seemed to be generated naturally over time with a portion being awarded to the Jumper after each Jump they complete, the rest going to the person in charge. Adam in this case.
He paused... and sighed.
Right, he had to have Sarah involved in this part too. It was HER Warehouse after all, and it wouldn't be right to spend her collected energy on stuff unless it was a life or death situation.
Which, from what Adam could tell, this no longer qualified as.
He smirked as the monster, again, sprinted from the New-U station to immediately commit suicide on Sarah's traps.
Yeah, she could handle this.
And lost her grip.
And the spike kept going. Into the new hole.
Glowing with blue fire or not, she froze in horror at having lost her brand new weapon only seconds after... oh.
Stunned, she looked at her hand... and the spike that had returned to it.
...With far less terror, she stabbed the wall again. NOT losing her grip this time.
It couldn't slash or cut, but stabbing something solid was now effortless!
...So it would probably be good to test that 'Comes back to the hand' thing.
Carefully, she placed the spike on the floor... and flexed her hand as it reappeared in her grip.
Sarah grinned at her new friend. 'Alright. I can work with this.'
Trusting her very short testing session, she gave the bone a flick... and it hurled in a blue streak through a wall.
<<Ambush Kill! +2cp!>>
...What?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam had continued spreading his crystals into the Warehouse's back systems when the alert went off.
And he blinked.
Apparently, her drawbacks were so dire that actually killing something (ANYTHING) earned her a massive bonus. A single kill (In this case, it was a very unlucky young 'Alien' crawling on the wrong wall) would normally extract somewhere between 0.03cp and 0.08cp, depending on how 'important' that single creature was.
Considering the other drawbacks made these things respawn should have lowered the reward even further.
His (currently non existent) eyebrows rose however at the next alert.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
>>Impossible Flames have consumed a foe.<<
<<Unlocked 'Flame Conversion' impact effect>>
Sarah blinked as a distant crackling suddenly began to whistle, feeling the air being pulled into what was probably a new bonfire.
...Huh.
Looking at the crack she was hidden in, she focused.
This planet, wherever it was or whatever it was called, was a death trap of course. The entire thing, or at least the local area she had covered, was a maze of tunnels, hallways, dead ends, and (thankfully) areas to hide and random boxes of equipment.
And while she hadn't found anything USEFUL in those many containers, she was pretty sure that whatever she had killed (And then incinerated) was close enough to some crates to keep the flames burning.
Seeing her cp progress bar inch up again as something in the distance screamed in pain... she turned back to Mr. McStabberson.
And held back a laugh as she launched it through the OTHER wall as hard as she could!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked as cp began flowing into her resource pool.
A quick glance at the logs... Huh.
Blue flames make a VERY good penetration enhancer.
Some of the girl's throws were delving five or six floors away, leaving small pillars of flame and screaming victims. Who then became pillars of flame.
...It was a DAMN good thing she was immune to this stuff, considering how much fire she was spraying in all directions.
With a glance at her bio stats... Adam decided to slow her progress slightly. Her rate was so fast, she could easily afford to lose a single cp or two if he was careful retrieving them.
Because Vault Hunters exploring Pandora couldn't find safe food or water, the ECHO systems would normally ensure small things like that or using the bathroom were handled through minute changes when using the teleportation systems or during resurrection... options Sarah didn't have.
So instead, Adam was going to 'waste' a few cp by directly using them to help her recover. Long term wise, this was not the best option when using something so valuable as 'Choice Points'... but Sarah didn't have long term options yet.
Cp after cp were slowly spent as Adam reached through the Avatar connection... and tried to get her body to a more stable condition.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Her arm jerked in an odd direction, destroying her throw attempt, when Sarah got another popup... and a surge of warmth down her spine.
Temporary Boost:
~Health Recovery
~~1cp Purchased! May be recurring until Recovered!
>>INSTALLING<<
A glance at her HUD's health bar showed the number (And related red color bar) slowly regenerating even as her various pains began to fade and her joints relaxed.
Even the constant thirst seemed to fade, as she let Mr. McStabberson aim downwards.
A glance at her fingers showed the tiny knicks, the older scars, and the torn skin all slowly fading away, showing new (and clean) skin for the first time in what felt like forever.
With a raspy chuckle (How long had it been since she felt safe enough to make noise?), Sarah stood in the blue flames that hugged her tiny (But now growing) room... and prepared to throw again, keeping her attention on her ever growing CP Bar.
After all... now she had goals!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
So.
Turns out, throwing spikes through all the walls (And the floor, and the ceiling), while filling the resulting holes with unnatural flames?
Not good for structural integrity.
She got out safely with Mr. McStabberson, but even with the entire hallway glowing with her blue lines of flame etched on each surface, she still felt less safe.
Sarah kept her spear sized spike aimed forward as she cautiously moved to find some dead end, a safe place to go back to spear fishing some monsters.
Her progress was slowed by having to use her weak connection to shift the flames, by moving the almost silent inferno forward with her steps... But the advantage of being surrounded by a blue lattice of prepared fire was too useful to give up.
And when she used it in this strange marking form, it was much easier to see and manipulate than when she simply filled the hallways and tunnels with an inferno.
It was like a leashed puppy. Happy to be here, but eager to prance about and 'meet' new people!
Another sudden scream of pain and rage showed that another monster (Or the same one? Hard to tell.) had managed to get within the range of her markings.
Of course, the bright blue flames flaring up was a solid hint as well.
*DING!*
THE FUCK!?
Sarah jerked her weapon in several directions before noticing the alert window.
Skills, Abilities, and Powers:
~General
~~{Looter Shooter: -200cp, free for the duration of the jump} Purchased!
>>INSTALLING<<
<<Remaining: 3cp>>
What? Oh, she had 'Leveled up', It now listed her as a 'LV 1 Jumpchain Child'. A thought had her bring up the full interface from her ECHO system.
Seeing a new tab, 'Skills, Abilities, and Powers', she opened it and selected 'Looter Shooter' to see the details.
[Bandits, dangerous animals, ancient alien constructs and just about everything in this world that will put up a fight with you seems to have something at least semi-usable on its person that just falls off of them the moment they die... Or you could just start checking inside random Portable toilets, dumpsters, and just about anything that's unlocked and find something. The quality of the med kits, bullets, grenades, grenade mods, firearms, shields, class modifications (etc.) that you get from your scavenging varies wildly with better and more loot or even unique and powerful drops often coming from those that are the most dangerous in the area. Of course since you're paying for the drops here each piece of equipment is guaranteed to work via benefactor Fiat for as long as you own it.]
She blinked as there was a set of notes listed below it.
[Due to Drawbacks, no currency will be available from any drops.]
[Weapons are most commonly found, followed by single use items, with rare items like shields and grenade modifications least likely. This ratio may change next Jump.]
...Did she NEED more weapons?
Remembering the hours of near silent crawling from each hiding location to the next safe area, Sarah nodded.
Yes.
Yes she did.
Going back to the top of 'Skills, Abilities, and Powers', she examined 'Next Upgrade', currently set to {Legendary Luck: -400cp, Drop-In: -200cp}.
Selecting it opened interesting details.
[Probability works in strange ways around you. You seem to find a lot of loose change on the ground and always find the necessary part to repair that broken thing in a very timely manner. If there's a fork in the road you always seem to guess the one that leads to your destination. Shrapnel from explosives seems to fly "around" instead of "through" you. Patrols that hear you might discount the sound as the wind or a mouse. An enemy with a perfect killshot on you might even have their perfectly clean gun jam. Beware though, as Luck has only so much power over the world around you. If you get surrounded by a horde of enemies with guns, they won't all jam, and there's sure as hell no lucking your way out of getting incinerated by a nuke.]
With more notes:
[Due to Drawbacks, no currency will be available from any drops.]
[Note, Mission Objective: Survive.]
...Still. "..."
Cough, how long had it been? "H...Hello?"
No response. Not surprising, really. "Can... Can I choose something else instead?"
The blue flames etched into the surroundings pulsed slowly.
She looked at the display. "I just... I don't want to trust luck. Never went well enough for me. Could... could I pick something else?"
<<...>>
<<Jumpchain Update Version 0.002 in Progress>>
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Shit.
Right, Don't just dump everything in there, poor girl has enough on her shoulders already.
Adam grumbled as he rewrote the 'Skill Tree' subsystem normally used by Borderlands to show information from the Jumpchain Document.
Obviously, tiers weren't needed... if you had the cp, you could pick anything you wanted really. Instead, he had set up sections:
'Skills, Abilities, and Powers', 'Gear and Supplies', and some read only parts that showed the previously made choices for this Jump, and finally! The selected Drawbacks that currently apply to her. That one was disabled for now, even Adam wasn't sure about what was on there.
Dump in the data, clean up the text, make the prices a bit more obvious... there.
...Adam wasn't sure how to feel about this really.
Normally he just had an idea, went with it, and handled anything that came along in the process. Having someone flat out reject his opinions hadn't happened in a long, LONG time... but all this WAS her life.
He was just worried she was about to destroy it.
What if she picked something powerful but expensive? And he would be unable to use the cheaper options to hopefully bend the rules a bit?
What if only the 'fun' and not practical items were chosen?
In the end, he needed to trust that she knew best, despite his abilities and history and, well to be honest, Adam's ego usually said that his way was the best way.
Could he do that?
...Well, best find out.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah looked at the long list of options in awe.
Not just new abilities, but vital equipment and potential skills impossible to imagine at her fingertips!
Tempting was the {The Basics: 100cp, Vault Hunter: 0cp}, which would give her two guns, some grenades and an energy shield... well, that and the {Storage Deck: 100cp}, which would let her ECHO system access an inventory... with her new 'Looter Shooter' skill she would need something to hold all the junk she would find.
But right now, her focus drifted to find something that was less physical. Items could come later, abilities couldn't be taken away so easily... she needed to know that if her situation changed again, she would still have options.
Her breath caught. What was {Bad Ass: 200cp}? For that cost it couldn't be something stupid like an unlimited supply of suits and sun glasses.
Selecting the option, she checked its features:
[You are a particularly imposing specimen of... whatever you are. You're in peak physical condition, or maybe a little bit farther, and your pain tolerance is MUCH higher than normal. Expect to be able to run around in truly heavy armor, or win fistfights against even Pandora's animal life. Alternatively, any creature you summon with the Phone A Friend skill is much tougher than it should be.]
Her finger shook as she read the text.
...This was it!
Years, decades, Jumps of pain!
Never able to retain all those hard earned muscles and well worked bodies, never able to build up reflexes and skills to an intuitive level!
Her kidnapper would shove her somewhere, and she quickly learned that if she didn't gain technical knowledge it would be a waste at the end of the Jump. Her body was discarded, and she wasn't allowed to gain any Perks or Skills or Abilities that would allow her to retain all that hard effort.
In desperation she had spent lifetimes studying mental tricks for memorization, learning languages, strategy... as information was all she could gather, she collected everything!
But now!
Now she could learn how to fight without being trapped in the weakened body of an untrained young woman! Weapons and tools that she had to forgo or abandon due to being unable to adapt, unable to truly train... All within her grasp!
Luck might let her find an extra bullet or dodge a bad blow, but a peak body? One that would allow her to dominate rather than resort to only trickery and strategy for every fight!?
She couldn't confirm her choice fast enough, seeing the 0/200cp 'Bad Ass' now listed on her Choice Points progress bar as the next goal!
Well, it was actually at 13/200cp, thanks to a few more screaming bonfires. Or maybe a single Alien monster too dumb to learn from previous mistakes.
With a vicious grin, she stabbed the ground again. Her spike continued pumping flame markings into the surroundings again, her guiding attention tightly focused.
First, find another safe, dead end corridor.
Next, trap the hell out of it with these strange flame marks. Odd things, able to instantly incinerate a monster but not even char wooden boxes or melt rock... they were the safest delaying tactics she could deploy.
Hide a bit, get a body that could actually fight... and then. THEN.
Then... she would hunt!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam watched what seemed to be a mentally challenged 'Alien' creature run right back from the 'New-U' station... and mindlessly jump RIGHT BACK into Sarah's flame rune minefield.
And burst into flames.
And die.
Again.
It seemed to be one of the 'Undying Foe' drawbacks, ones that were supposed to always survive, always find you, and never be reasoned with or able to be trapped.
But... this one had so many drawbacks pushing it to attack that it was nearly brain dead.
It wasn't able to plan. To set ambushes. To gather allies.
Instead, reality itself was forcing this stupid thing to just... jump in the flames. Again. Because that was the fastest way to get to its target.
No wonder this moron was worth so many choice points, it was INTENDED to be an unstoppable, adapting, immortal foe.
Not just... experience fodder.
Adam sighed as his crystals went through another cycle of expansion, connecting to more esoteric sections of the Warehouse, then contraction as 'Purification' scanned the setup to 'Research', cleansed that area from taint and corrosion, and then scanned it again so 'Research' could suggest modifications and optimizations.
This was why there were limits on 'Drawbacks' and 'Flaws' normally. They could interact badly (Or if you were clever (Or lucky), in a beneficial way), and cause all kinds of odd effects.
Case in point, offering respawning to the Aliens AND the Predators on this planet.
From what Adam could tell, when this world was set up (A massive laboratory like expanse covering a whole planet, full of tunnels and traps and random items and stuff to make it easier for monsters and harder for the Jumper), things started normally.
A massive number of monsters, those psycho hunters that had arm nukes and grenades and spike launchers and stuff.
Then the Hunters found out that suicide attacks didn't end the hunt. Their ammo and bombs ran out quickly soon after that little note.
And the Monsters found out death was temporary too... So why be clever?
No reason to ambush and be stealthy and smart when you could just run screaming at a target, slaughter it or die covering them in massive sharp body parts and acidic blood, then return after respawn to eat the whole mess.
Adam felt a low level of humor that the effect of granting immortal, never ending combat was a bunch of lazy fighters who were not bothering to improve themselves.
Definitely good for Sarah though.
Speaking of which, Adam was not exactly sure why the girl was able to not only convert his Blue Flames into runes but manipulate them. Why exactly could she control those marks, move them, or set more like explosive candy?
No idea.
But it certainly took a heavy weight of stress right off HIS shoulders. Gave him more time to just slowly integrate into the Warehouse systems and hopefully begin stabilizing the big mess.
Ironically, the dickish nature of the Sponsor helped here.
She had no items nor advanced features selected for her Warehouse already... and that means none of those portions were damaged when the bastard took everything and scarpered.
Unlike 'Choice Points', 'Warehouse Points' seemed to be generated naturally over time with a portion being awarded to the Jumper after each Jump they complete, the rest going to the person in charge. Adam in this case.
He paused... and sighed.
Right, he had to have Sarah involved in this part too. It was HER Warehouse after all, and it wouldn't be right to spend her collected energy on stuff unless it was a life or death situation.
Which, from what Adam could tell, this no longer qualified as.
He smirked as the monster, again, sprinted from the New-U station to immediately commit suicide on Sarah's traps.
Yeah, she could handle this.
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