Asexual:-90% Effectiveness on charm/seduction techniques used on/by you.
Born of the Corps: [MARSOC] You are a child born and raised on bases of the United States Marine Corps, and some aspects of that fighting force have passed down to you. Increased Reputation with most nationalist or patriotic: [American] groups. Basic Firearms Training is unlocked for free. 20% Increased XP gain in Basic Firearms Training. ?????, ?????, ?????. 50% Increased Likelihood of acquiring any [Military] Job. Boosted by "Seven Lights"
Seven Lights: Your parents are rather accomplished people, and you can draw to some degree on their success. +10 to Starting Luck. Able to use any Connections your parents have at 2 levels lower. Able to use any connections your parents have at 1 level lower for the purposes of acquiring the connection yourself. Inflicts Inferiority Complex [Minor]. ????, ????. Potential Penalties for overuse of this trait.
Watching the Gears Turn: Things Tick. You like figuring out how, and you've gotten good at it. 20% Increase in chance to learn techniques from incomplete information, such as damaged skill books. -20% Resistance to Hypnotic Effects. ????, ????, ????.
Visually Impaired: You're reading this through your glasses. Do you really need this explanation? Penalty to vision without corrective lenses.
Savage by Nature: From cutting sarcasm to actually cutting, you have it slightly easier when it comes to being slightly inhuman. Doesn't mean you won't feel bad about it, but if biting someone's throat out is how you live, you'll chomp, and you'll be keeping an eye out just in case. You, or someone you care about, that is.
Can add 10% of Int Value to physical attacks. -20% to Reputation Gains with some factions while using this skill. ????, ????, ????.
(Naruto) Current Progress: Running away from a small child
(Earth) Probably going to be late for class now. Good job, genius.
Information N' Stuff (So the actual story isn't clogged by exposition)
Skill Ranks
Skills which are maxed out can evolve into a new skill. The upper limit of evolution depends on the skill itself, as well as other factors depending on the player.
In the case of skills that start as a "Basic" Skill, the rank structure is as follows.
Basic->Advanced->Skilled->Expert->Master->??????? [Special Requirements]
The final rank can only be achieved with one skill, and the requirements are locked until fulfilled. However, once the rank-up is available, it is optional rather than automatic.
Skill Types
Most skills must be learned. However, some skills are given by default, such as the Core Skills, and some Utility Skills. The other exception is Achievement Skills, which are passives given by Achieving something distinctive. It is possible to have multiple Achievement Skills merge to unlock an additional Core Skill. Such evolutions will not be visible until they have been utilized.
Chapter 1
Exhaling slowly, I rubbed the bridge of my nose, considering the current situation. Opening my eyes a crack, I peered at the mirror again, my inner critic moaning about how OF COURSE this was how I had discovered this. Well, admittedly, it wasn't quite how I discovered it, but...
So, mental recap. I wake up this morning, feeling curiously more refreshed than I generally do in the mornings. Rolling over, I grab my phone, and in the screen I see a flash of something. I turn it on, expecting an alert, but there's nothing. So I turn it back off, and I see words floating over my head. After a long pause, I get up and walk into the bathroom, unsurprised that it is in fact what I thought. I mean, I'm surprised it's there, but once I saw words, the rest kind of just fell into place.
Cael O'Toole <LVL 7>
The Gamer
Oh boy, the Gamer. Live your life like an RPG, get skills, all that jazz. Only problem: I live on Earth. No, not "Magical Martial Arts" Earth, the Earth. Mundane Earth. A world that DOES NOT HAVE CRAP LIKE THIS. Apparently, I am now the exception.
.....
Before I get too interested in this, it's testing time. First off....
"Inventory"
Window opens. Floating box, lots of squares. Currently shows me wearing the black military-issue running shorts I sleep in. No other items. Money is... huh. Okay, that's the exact amount I had in my wallet. Interesting, but proves nothing. I walk back into my room, the window easily clipping through the wall, a motion I watch closely. Getting back in, I snag the first thing my hands drift near, my pillow, and toss it into the window. One pillow vanishes, one pillow icon appears in a box, with a little (x1) next to it.
Closing my eyes, I sit and breath for a minute, focusing as carefully as I can on my sense of touch. The window was floating in front of the door, so if it was on the floor, and NOT really in a floating inventory window, it would be in front of me. I slowly reach out and carefully feel the entirety of the floor. Nothing. Definitely not a pillow.
Right, so if I AM crazy, it's quite intense. My class has a group chat. Opening up Facebook on my laptop, I click it open. Psychology major, so if any college cohorts would pick up on a massively delusional person, it'd probably be them. There's some random chat going on about the class jumpers design, but this thing gets derailed often enough.
"Hey, guys, can I get your opinion on something? Working on a magic trick and wanted to see if it looks believable."
There's some random assents, from five different people. I turn on Facebook Live, wait until the it shows people watching... and remove the pillow from the inventory. I can see on the camera the pillow just popping out of nowhere. From the disbelieving comments, It seems like that's what other people saw too. I play it off with some comment about it actually being from a video-editing software I got, and that I had wanted to see if it looked like actual magic. Apologizing for the deception, I close the window. Wasn't really a huge deal, I didn't actually hang out with the other people in my class much and the Psychology course was literally made of tests like that.
Sitting back in bed, I bit my thumb for a long moment, considering. Which was more likely? That I was so utterly crazy that I was imagining a world where I had these abilities, and other people saw them, with such utter accuracy that I was unable to find a noticeable flaw despite intense suspicion, or I really had gained them? Well, previously, I'd have gone with the crazy one. Still, if I had been behaving erratically, odds were I'd probably be noticed soon enough. It also would have had to literally happen this morning, which seemed... really really fast, honestly. I didn't know of a delusion that did this, and I hadn't been stressed, injured, or anything like that.
So... this was real.
"Fuck... yes. Status Window."
With a ding, another window popped up, which I read over eagerly before frowning. Huuuuuh. Okay, this actually raised /more/ questions. As I recalled, the window in the webtoon had name, title, HP, Mana, Skills, XP and Money. This was... different.
So... no MP, but I did have Stamina. "Skill List" and with a ding...
Skill List
Core Skills:
Gamer's Mind
Gamer's Body
???? ??????
??????? ??????
Traits:
Asexual
Born of the Corps
Seven Lights
Watching the Gears Turn
Visually Impaired
Selective Savagery
So, no descriptions. It looked like I had to click them to open the description, but the actual skills and traits I had were hidden away behind categories. Traits first then. I clicked them all, and watched as the boxes lined up.
Asexual: -90% Effectiveness on charm/seduction techniques used on/by you.
Born of the Corps: [MARSOC] You are a child born and raised on bases of the United States Marine Corps, and some aspects of that fighting force have passed down to you. Increased Reputation with most nationalist or patriotic: [American] groups. Basic Firearms Training is unlocked for free. 20% Increased XP gain in Basic Firearms Training. ?????, ?????, ?????. 50%
Increased Likelihood of acquiring any [Military] Job. Boosted by "Seven Lights"
Seven Lights: Your parents are rather accomplished people, and you can draw to some degree on their success. +10 to Starting Luck. Able to use any Connections your parents have at 2 levels lower. Able to use any connections your parents have at 1 level lower for the purposes of acquiring the connection yourself. Inflicts Inferiority Complex [Minor]. ????, ????. Potential Penalties for overuse of this trait.
Watching the Gears Turn: Things Tick. You like figuring out how, and you've gotten good at it. 20% Increase in chance to learn techniques from incomplete information, such as damaged skill books. -20% Resistance to Hypnotic Effects. ????, ????, ????.
Visually Impaired: You're reading this through your glasses. Do you really need this explanation? Penalty to vision without corrective lenses.
Oh boy, my ability was snarky. Ironically, that WASN'T sarcastic. That was genuinely pleasing to me. This last one, though....
Savage by Nature: From cutting sarcasm to actually cutting, you have it slightly easier when it comes to being slightly inhuman. Doesn't mean you won't feel bad about it, but if biting someone's throat out is how you live, you'll chomp, and you'll be keeping an eye out just in case. You, or someone you care about, that is.
Can add 10% of Int Value to physical attacks. -20% to Reputation Gains with some factions while using this Trait. ????, ????, ????.
Hmm. So, there was a lot of blank spots on these traits, which was curious. They weren't unlocked yet, or weren't applicable? It wasn't entirely clear. Still, these seemed at least pretty broadly applicable to me. I exhaled, dismissing them, and popped open my skill boxes. Huh. Not as many as I thought, and pretty simplistic too.
I already knew what the typical Gamer abilities meant, and I could get the gist of most of the other ones. "Basic Archery' was probably there from teaching it for a summer, but it was a dirt-basic level. It also made sense that Firearms and Fencing were higher, I had some level of training there. I decided to read through some of the more precise explanations later, such as the levels of technique. There was clearly Basic and Advanced, but how far up did that go? Was it a three level system? Four? Higher? Scratching my head for a moment, I shrugged.
"Menu"
[Menu]
Status
Skills
Inventory
Quest Log
Party Management
Options
There was a ding as a box appeared in the air. [Quest]
Routine for Now!
Objectives:
Get to Class on time. Prepare for Upcoming Assignments. Figure out potential uses of the Gamer Ability in Regards to Schoolwork.
Rewards: 350 XP
Ooooh. Exciting. Rolling my eyes slightly, I stood up, stretching, and began to get dressed. The normal way, not the "equip everything" way. If I really was losing my mind, I wanted to be sure I was at least clothed. If I got my picture taken being dragged off, I wanted to look decent. It was interesting to note the "Gamer Ability in Regards to Schoolwork" objective had filled in literally as I watched, though.
I mean... that was also really damn obvious. Hell, the guy in the comic had done it, and he was an idiot at the time. I wasn't sure precisely how the skills scaled, but I was pretty sure 20 was at least reasonably intelligent. One pair of black socks, dark tan slacks, and black dress shirt later, I was shrugging on my coat and heading out the door. As I walked down the road, I contemplated something. I mentally willed my Status window to open. In a stunning show of unhelpfulness, precisely fuck-all happened. Well, that was super.
"Status."
With a ding, it popped open once more. Ugh. "Options, Sound." Right, moving that "System Sound" down to a bloody zero, that ding was getting on my nerves. For the sake of sanity, I avoided the other sliders."Master Sound" and "Atmospheric Sound", along with "Speech", were all at various levels. "Music" was at zero. Subtitles was also disabled, but I decided to avoid messing with that for now as well.
After that, it was just a matter of messing with the inventory system, seeing if there was some apparent weight limit. Based on the fact I did not manage to store a car, it seemed to be "What I could lift/Fit inside the window". I naturally immediately attempted to resize the window. It gets smaller, not bigger. I was disappointed too.
I continued fiddling around with it on the train into the center of the city, although it took me a minute to notice people glancing at me poking the air. I stopped. Leaning into my hand, I muttered "Skill List", and waited for it to pop up. Pulling out my phone, I held it, and moved my hand up until it overlay the window. Tapping, I grinned triumphantly into my palm as the window responded. Nice. Good way to obfuscate all this, and- Oh, shit, my stop.
I was a little disappointed that hadn't caused a skill ding, actually. So far, nothing had. Then again, this was mundane as all hell. What was going to trigger a skill in my routine that I didn't already have, to some degree? Especially an interesting one.
That was what was bugging me about this. I had no MP. I had no Supernatural Skills. I mean, sure, upping my stats was potentially handy as hell. Inventory? Also cool. The whole thing was honestly probably handy, and sure, it's great, but.... to what end? I got a supernatural power, and it seemed... empty. What was I even going to do with it? There wasn't really much real wonder left in the world to me. Sure, I could keep studying, learn about things, but the upper limits of possibility that just vanished like smoke in fiction were still, as far as I could tell, firmly in place.
Trudging out of the train station, I idly took in the view around Pearse Street, view flicking from person to person as was my wont. The levels were pretty low, on the whole. Most adults had 5, at minimum, kids seemed to vary from 2-4. There were a few 7-8s, and as I crossed the street and turned into the university, I blinked as an 18 marched past. "Observe", just below my breath. His window popped up, and I whistled slightly through my teeth. Ah, well now. That explained it.
Professor Philip R. Lane
Governor of the Central Bank
Level 18
"Professor Philip R. Lane is an economist and Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland. Former Professor of Macroeconomics, Current Whatley Professor of Political Economy"
Hmm. I'd be interested to see his stats. Unfortunately, my ability seems to neglect to give me the XP amounts for specific skills. It's almost like someone felt too lazy to calculate that out for me to see. So, I guess I just need to keep using Observe until I can see stats. I feel like that was relatively low, below ten or so, but mine might be different. My variation of the gamer seems to be altered to some degree. Still, can't complain too much. It's... well, it's something. Checking my watch, I shrug. Class isn't for another good while, actually. I kind of wandered in early, bit of a daze there.
Well, in the meantime, I now have an excuse for something I love to do anyway. My face split into what was probably an unsettlingly aroused grin.
Book-shopping
There was a shop on the other end of campus, near where my lectures took place, that sold all their books for a fiver. I could probably pick up a few Skill Books there, get a bargain. Realistically, I'd use Amazon in the future, but I'd need a better sense of what counted and what didn't.
In the future, I'd look back and both curse and bless this moment.
Once inside, and bemoaning the minimalistic selection, I ran my fingers over the edges. Nothing. I tried pulling it out a bit, and there it was. A pop-up that asked if I wanted to learn... Basic Floral Arranging? ... Not really. There was a number of ones that popped up, but they were all fairly useless or uninteresting to me. Basic Knitting, Basic Photography, Basic Scrapbooking. Different section.
I wandered up the half-flight, and looked over contemplatively. Maybe a fiction book would have some skill at Swordfighting available? I shrugged, putting my hands against the shelf and looking over it. Fingers flickered over the tops, popping them out so I could see the cover and letting it drop back. For almost a full shelf, nothing happened. I was running on auto-pilot at this point, and wondering if I should take the time to walk over to another bookstore. That's probably why I didn't notice the pop-up window until things were a bit too late. I had just enough time to process what I had just clicked yes to.
[World Resonance] Available
Do you wish to enter this Xenologue?
(Yes) (No)
With a thump, I was deposited on the ground, landing in a half-crouch as I barely managed to keep my balance. I was not in the bookstore. I was not in my world, at all. I was currently standing, almost nose to nose, with a small brat wearing orange clothing and a blue bandana, and wondering what imbecile put a manga in the fiction books section. That should clearly be with comics or at least on a separate shelf. I worked in a bookstore for four years.
I was also, frankly, quite annoyed. You see, I had read Naruto. I gave it a fair shake. I could respect aspects of it as interesting, sure. Of all the things I hated, though, and hoo boy were they there, the biggest was the main character, especially as a kid. So sue me. So, faced with this, I did the only thing that came to mind at the time.
Two seconds later, I was high-tailing it down the street, a furious blonde child running after me as I barely kept ahead, his voice yelling after me.
"HEY! GET BACK HERE! HOW'D YOU DO THAT, HUH? WHY CAN'T I FEEL YOUR CHAKRA? HEEEEY."
For being inattentive and allowing yourself to be thrust unprepared into danger, your Wisdom has dropped by 1
Oh, you can just fucking bite me.
Gonna be updating both here and on Spacebattles cause why not.
Gamer fics can be quite nice, hope to see what you make of it.
Also you may want to try putting spaces between paragraphs because it's a little hard to read.
