9. Stage 1 - 4
Hint: As you live life as the Gamer, you may find new quests appearing in response to your efforts and desires. If you want to grow in any area, put some time or planning into it and see if any new objectives come up!
"Yeah. So I see." Chisame closed the hint. In hindsight, it made sense. All of the quests that had appeared or been generated up until now were related to Chisame's circumstances. Her computer, the Analyze skill and Chao… Those were all things that had been, in one way or another, plaguing her.
And two new quests had appeared with the hint.
Self Improvement
You can improve yourself through a variety of different ways, such as working out or studying! Don't you want to give it a try?
Objective: Raise a stat without the usage of a stat point.
Reward: 1 XP, 1 Point
Hint: Stats are trained by using them heavily. Lower stats require less effort to train than high stats, so start with your worst stats first!
Accept / Refuse
'Am I really that out of shape or does this ability just like to taunt me?' If quests appeared in response to her problems, it was pretty obvious what this one aimed to fix. 'Well, I was going to try this out soon anyway. A quest like this is actually a bonus. Better base stats are always good.' She selected Accept.
What Chisame was mildly suspicious of was the necessity of the quest. Had it appeared because she was subconsciously unsatisfied with her body or because she was going to need better stats? '... Sure. Let's go with that first explanation.'
Skilled Work
Twenty thousand a week is a start towards reviving Desktop-chan, but it can be faster! Learn new skills and watch your pay increase!
Objective: Qualify for a new position at Chao Bao Zi within 2 weeks.
Reward: 5 XP
Hint: You can learn very fast, as long as you try the right things. Fortunately you have helpful co-workers to show you the ropes! Ask them to help you so you can help them!
Accept / Refuse
And the last quest had obviously sprouted from her new job. She also accepted it. 'There aren't any drawbacks I can think of, the only problem's the two week limit. Might as well try it out. God knows my Dish washing skill is going to get some mileage...'
The net idol in disguise sighed and leaned back against the Chao Bao Zi stall. What a fantastic mess her life was turning into. 'A science-fiction, Ranma-like, Ghost in the Shell-ish… total mess. Is this how anime protagonists feel like, suddenly uprooted from their normal lives and thrown into the madness?' She felt like running away from all the things that didn't make sense and finding refuge somewhere normal and safe and sane. 'Tch. Unfamiliar ceilings… I've turned into a real Ikari Shinji, haven't I?'
"Tch." Chisame crossed her arms. "Mopping is useless. You end up alone with a comatose tsundere on a beach after the end of the world." She had never had intentions of being a hero of any kind. Chiu was enough for her. But she'd be damned if she let herself become a loser.
The Self-Improvement quest was going to be easy enough. She could do it and have it out of the way before the morning was over. She'd pass by her dorm room first. Her uniform wasn't really appropriate clothing for exercise and besides... She wanted to see what the real damage had been. It would be good to be able to grab her wallet too.
"Hm. Character window." She called as she walked. What stat was she going to improve?
Hasegawa Chisame
Level 3
Class: Gamer
HP: 200/200
EP: 200/200
XP: 3/28
STR: 4 <+0>
VIT: 8 <+0>
DEX: 6 <+0>
INT: 8 <+0>
WIS: 8 <+0>
LUK: 7 <+0>
Points: 1
Money: ¥0
Strength. She hadn't touched it yet, so it remained on a pitiful four. It really stood out. And if she was going to needs better stats in the future, strength wasn't a bad bet. It probably affected physical attacks which, well, were the only attacks Chisame knew. More specifically, she knew how to throw a mean right hook. That was about it.
"Unless you count tsukomi." She closed the window. What else was there to do? 'I could get analyze to the next level pretty easily. I got stuff in my inventory I haven't checked out yet. Not with Chao hovering.' She could even do it on the way.
[]
"I need a stabbing implement." Grumbling to herself, Chisame closed the door to the washroom stall with a bang. "Or something blunt. Blunt is good too."
The object of her ire was the college student that had been left in charge of investigating what had happened in her room. He'd refused her everything. He wouldn't tell how the investigation was going, she apparently didn't have to know the state of her own freaking room and, obviously... Chisame rolled her eyes. Obviously, they couldn't have her messing around and contaminating evidence. She had gotten to the point where she wanted to wring his little pencil thin neck and...
Chisame exhaled. She could do calm. She had managed to convince him to grab her sport shoes after all. It hadn't been a complete loss.
Then she remembered the glimpse of torn drywall and wires, the visible scorch mark, that she had seen when had opened the door.
And back were the murderous feelings. 'You can't escape me. I know your name: Level Six, Nobuyuki Shinji.'
"Fuck." Usually Chisame would have a long Chiu session to settle her frazzled nerves. Of course, that wasn't an option she possessed currently. 'I haven't even touched a computer in... thirty-six hours? More?' No wonder she was so wound up. "Maybe exercising will actually help this time. Burn up all that negativity with concrete and visible results." Or it could just add to her bad mood. Like usual.
With a last sigh, Chisame called up her inventory. This was something she had remembered while analyzing the rest of the items in her inventory. She swiped her finger over Gamer's Shirt and dragged it into her torso equipment slot. Her uniform shirt disappeared, replaced by a beige t-shirt. "Hm." 'I didn't feel anything. Just there one moment, and then not. Can't complain about lag in this stuff.' With a couple more finger swipes over the interface, Chisame had replaced her skirt and shoes by pants and tennis, put on a cap and finally switched her glasses. Inside her inventory the items that had composed her previous equipment had separated into individual items again.
Smoothing down the t-shirt, she observed the effect on the public washroom's mirror. "Ok. I look cool. Maybe a little shady? Definitely could grab a part as a cool anime hacker. Except for the shoes. Ugh, this white." It clashed really badly with the rest of her clothes. The cap was black, Game Over emblazoned on the front with an 8-bit space invader between the two words. The shirt had a trio of zelda style health hearts on the back and the pants were a mix of darker and lighter greys, patterned in a modern camouflage way, all pixel clouds and everything. She ran a hand over the fabric. She had no idea of what it was. They felt like comfortable jeans and a cotton shirt, but clearly weren't. A line of white letters inside squares formed a line on the outer seams of both pants. "Q, w, e, r, t... Ah, of course." Her tennis ruined it though. They were too white and plain, standing out too much from the rest of the ensemble. 'Maybe a paint over on the soles, some details near the laces... I could do a tron-style pattern with a textile pen. ' A thought for another time.
But looking into the mirror, it was the glasses that carried the look. They made Chisame look serious, sharpened the lines of her face. She frowned to test the effect. 'Focused, intense. I... Damn, I like it.' A smirk. 'Oh yeah. I like it.'
She adjusted the cap, letting less of her face in shadow, pulled the glasses a bit down and let her hair out of its ponytail. Then she smiled, relaxed and posed with a wink.
Chiu was looking at her. Even with the glasses, she looked like a completely different person.
"Still have it."
Seeing as she had finally gotten appropriate clothes for exercise, now she only needed a place to actually get to work. Preferentially away from prying eyes. 'Now, where in Mahora's huge campus could I find some place like that?'
[]
Between the so called World Tree and Mahora's old buildings, housing the Elementary and Middle School Sections, there were ruins. Abandoned buildings, left out to the mercies of time and nature. At the turn of the millenium, wear and tear had made it necessary to close down the place. The old main building, already in a poor state, had been condemned. However, the long history of the Academy led to some questions as to what to do with the building, which preserved a unique legacy of architectural and sentimental value. To raze it and build something new or to restore it at greater monetary costs, were debated. And still were, whenever the administration had no greater or more comfortable topics to discuss. As a consequence, they had only fallen into greater disrepair. Chisame had heard rumours that this would be the year construction work, positive or negative, would start. Then again, she had heard very similar rumours last year.
Chisame experienced a sense of deja-vu when she looked at the abandoned building. Being built as a part of the same building where she had classes, she could see the same class room windows and guess more or less where everything would be. It was closed off with a high chain link fence, but everybody knew there were ways around it. Truthfully speaking, she didn't need to get into the building proper. Near the base of the giant tree that dominated Mahora, the grassy parks were pretty empty during school hours. Chisame, however, wasn't risking it.
She could not be seen.
Through hard training, DEX has increased.
Chisame's finger hovered over the small panel, as she panted. "What. Seriously. I run around a bit and this happens?" She'd been warming up and after some jogging decided to try and achieve the most speed she could in a single sprint. They'd done it sometimes in gym class, it was a fast workout. But Chisame had never done gym with freaky powers that oh so helpfully told her when her physical condition improved. At the fourth run, that panel had popped up. Followed soon by another.
Quest Complete!
+ 1 XP
+ 1 Point
"Urgh." She closed both the panels. It wasn't a bad thing, but Chisame was already dreading a normal gym class. There were going to be panels everywhere.. 'Also, I wanted to raise my STR. I suppose I could leave now...' She stole a glance at her wrist just to remind herself she had no watch with which to know the hours. 'Well, I doubt it's been that long. Half an hour, maybe a little more?' She kind of did want to increase her STR and she did have plenty of time still.
"Leaving the training episode without some visible power-ups is lame..." She said to herself. "And it's not like grinding ever hurt anybody."
She started pacing. 'But gaining DEX... Dexterity also applies to speed then. I think athletes train speed by running like that, unlike endurance. Endurance is trained by continuous running then?' She really wanted her laptop. She would be able to just check the internet for answers instead of having to speculate so much and use a made-up training regime. 'If I had weights of any sort I'd be able to raise STR... Would the desks laying around do the trick?' She supposed she could do pushups, but maybe that increased her VIT instead.
She moved into a dusty classroom as she thought. "I don't even know what changed with my body for sure." She told herself. She knew with relative certainty what the Gamer's Mind had done to her thought processes, despite not having tested it against psychological effects, but not Gamer's Body. 'Oh, I know some things about my... new... body. For one, it has stats that can be improved. I don't think I'll lose ever them either, so I don't need to keep training to be in a good shape. Lack of sleep doesn't bother me like it did before. Also, I recover from tiredness much quicker. It makes sense, because a game character is never tired for long. At most, only until the stamina regenerates.' Out loud, she thought. "I can probably time it, since it looks like I'm adhering strictly to round numbers now." She had tried touching the health bars on her character window, and discovered she recovered 2 HP and MP per minute.
The desks still piled inside the classroom were dusty. Grimy. "Yeah, not touching that. Push ups it is."
Chisame couldn't do ten pushups without collapsing.
Through hard training, STR has increased.
"Huff!"
Through hard training, STR has increased.
'Ow.'
Through hard training, STR has increased.
"Argh!"
Through hard training, STR has increased.
+ 1 XP
'I must be crazy.'
Through constant training, VIT has increased.
"... ... I... caught the... crazy... from them... their... fault..."
Down on the ground, Chisame struggled to breathe. Still a smile had made its way to her face. She had never managed to do as much as she had in the past hour or so. Every time, she could do a little more, hold on a little longer. Off-hand, she mentally praised her clothes for not getting dirty despite all that she was sweating. She knew that in a little while, all of her exhaustion would disappear, washed away by her new abilities. The little pain she felt would be gone even sooner. When it came to physical things it looked like her ability, the Gamer, was the best.
"Does food help me recover?" The thought made its way out of her lips before she could even acknowledge it. She did have some of Chao Bao Zi's leftover Nikuman with her... "Inventory."
'Hmm... Hmmmmmm. Yotsuba Satsuki. You. Are. A goddess.'
[]
Between getting out of the condemned building without being seen, changing clothes and returning to the Chao Bao Zi, Chisame didn't have to wait much. The bell rang and with it a veritable flood of students descended into the streets of Mahora. They came to swarm the canteens, restaurants, bars and food stalls that had sprouted around the lucrative school.
And ahead of that wave of people, rode Chao. With Ku Fei running by her side, Chachamaru rocketing on the other and Satsuki on the back seat, the chinese genius gunned down the accelerator on her bicycle.
Because those bulky delivery boxes attached to the vehicle? Hid rockets.
'This. Is bullshit.' Chisame started trembling, remembering that she had ridden that same bicycle in the morning. 'Buuuuulshit! Where the fuck did she hide the rockets anyway!? And doesn't she need a fucking driving license to use that!?' The trembling intensified. Chao probably did own a license for her custom bicycle and everything...
They screeched to a stop in front of the trams turned stall. "Yo! Chop-chop, let's get to work, ne!" Chao jumped out of the rocket-cycle and immediately started opening things.
"Right." Chisame sighed and, resigned, accepted the apron Chachamaru was already extending to her. Then she rolled up the already short sleeves of her uniform as much as she could. Dish washing by hand splashed water a little bit everywhere if she wasn't careful, and she worked right next to Satsuki.
Said cook paused besides her, looking up at her face. "What?" Blurted out Chisame.
Satsuki smiled and shook her head. "I'd never seen you with those glasses."
"Oh." That was right. Chisame hadn't switched into her old glasses. She could just do it later and then it had just slipped her mind. Nowadays she used glasses so often that she forgot she was even wearing them. She went to sleep with them, even, and she was more likely to notice something was wrong when the familiar weight was missing than otherwise. "Err… I passed by my room to get them. They're… new."
"They look good on you." Said Satsuki.
Chachamaru, who had already noticed them, nodded. "Indeed."
"Let see, let see, aru!" Ku Fei poked her head inside the stall. "Whoo! Cool! Chisame looks good with them on!" She gave the redhead a thumbs up only to be dragged out forcefully by the back of her collar.
Chao smiled threateningly. "Yo! The tables aren't set yet, ne. What a mystery, ne!" Ku Fei laughed awkwardly and got to work again. Chao turned to appraise the hacker. "She's right though, Chisame-chan. Those glasses make you look more serious, ne. More cool, ne." Chisame narrowed her eyes at Chao's compliment. "Yeah, just like that, ne! Now back to work, yo!"
And soon Chisame was elbow deep in water and soap, too busy to think about Chao's appraising glance or why why she didn't believe her smiles at all.
Mastery of the skill [Dish Washing] has increased.
Mastery of the skill [Dish Washing] has increased.
+ 1 XP
The only change from that morning was Hakase, who appeared to give Chao a hand. Or rather, start discussing with her theoretical improvements to the tricked out trams. 'Well, the water had to come from somewhere, considering these aren't directly connected to the public supply, but really, a super self-efficient water recycling machine, with cutting edge filtering technology? Why aren't these two out there fixing scarcity?' They probably were in some way, Chisame supposed. She also, briefly, wondered what they meant by propulsion systems and new generator tests, before putting it out of her mind and very, very much away from her thoughts. 'Well, Hakase's class is certainly appropriate...'
<Mad Scientist>
Lv14 Hakase Satomi
'But that level… She's probably an INT monster, isn't she? And WIS is probably her dump stat…' Chisame had not felt safe in the same class as her, though it had been proven that a strong enough slap upside the scientist's head was enough to discourage her most of the times. Now she was working under her and Chao. 'Maybe, just maybe, investing a bit in STR wouldn't be such a bad idea.'
Yukihiro had also appeared during lunch time, sat at the stall proper and ordered a big plate that she ate very slowly. While observing Chisame. Observing her by not taking her eyes off her, except when Chisame turned to look, in which case she pretended to be looking anywhere else but her. She could feel the gaze pinned to the back of her head. 'Class Rep… You're not… being discreet. At all.' Chisame sweatdropped. Already people were noticing it and looking between the two. She sincerely hoped it was only concern behind those looks, because the Yukihiro heir on any sort of mission was… daunting.
And just before the bell rang, after Chao and company had left, Chachamaru bowing and everything before rocketing away, Chisame's fears were realized. The blonde pulled her aside.
"Hasegawa-san. Chao-san told me everything was fine, but I would like to hear to from you. How are you feeling?"
Chisame sighed, resigned. "I'm fine. Better than ever actually."
Yukihiro raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"Well…" 'Shit. I need an excuse, an excuse!' She shrugged. "I'm just less tired. I think sleeping a full day might have helped. Some real rest after this past week or so."
"Ah, the Festival was so exciting wasn't it?" Ayaka smiled. 'Right, exciting, I suppose the loonies would find it a nice walk in the park and not a completely overwhelming maddening three days.' "By the way!" Continued the blonde. "You shouldn't be exerting yourself so soon! What was Chao's idea, putting you to work!"
"Oy." The hacker interrupted before Yukihiro got any ideas into her head and went into a rant about unfairness and exploitation or anything of the sorts. "It was my idea. I'm a little strapped for cash right now and I'll have to replace my computer eventually, so… It's easy work anyway, nothing too much."
"I see." Said Yukihiro, a glint in her eyes. Something crawled under Chisame's skin. She was not liking that look. It was too familiar and not at all reassuring. "Anyway, please remember that Shizuna-sensei is waiting for you in the infirmary. I'll see you later, Hasegawa-san."
She turned and left, but not before fixing Chisame with another of those looks. A calculating look.
Chisame had a bad feeling about this… Ping!
A skill has been created through a special act.
A skill to predict bad things, [Danger Sense], has been created.
"Oh, fuck off!"
Chisame has a bit of her afternoon off! Now what?
[x] No Hint!
[x] 1 Freeform hint!: Write-in. Anything. At all. … Not too meta.
[x] No quests!
[x] 1 Quest.
-[x] Write-in: Quest and Hint.
[x] 2 Quest.
-[x] Write-in: Quest and Hint.
-[x] Write-in: Quest and Hint.
[x] 3 Quest.
-[x] Write-in: Quest and Hint.
-[x] Write-in: Quest and Hint.
-[x] Write-in: Quest and Hint.
[x] More quests!?
AVAILABLE QUESTS! … might need better names. Also, subject to change. A lot.
- Courage Test: The Mahora Ruins at night (+10XP) Questline Start - you only vote for the hint on this one
- Prank Nobuyuki Shinji (+5XP, +[Wireless Mouse] | -Takamichi's trust, +Detention if failure)
- Achieve [Stat] 50 (+10XP, +[Hachimaki] | [Debuff] if time limit failure)
- Investigate Chachamaru (+3XP, +Chachamaru's trust, +[Cat Chow], +2[Go Pieces], +[Matcha] | -Chachamaru's trust if failure)
- Investigate the Chinese Martial Arts Society (+2XP, +[Practice 'Gun' Staff])
- Win Chao Bao Zi's Eating Competition! (+15XP, +¥1000, + | -¥100, [Belly Ache] Status if failure)
- Get [Item]? (+?XP depending on items and difficulty | -[Nikuman] if not achieved during afternoon) - hint: ways and places to get items? uses for item?
- Get [Skill] (+?XP depending on chosen skill) - hint: how? why? ideas for skill use?
- [Skill Set] Go! (+?XP, +?object depending on chosen skill) - Skill Sets are at least three skills that go together, like ninja skills or rescue skills or certain attack skills. Must be related!
- Something else, aru!
Proposed skills?
[Dash] [Disguise] [Stealth] [Craft] [Dungeon Create] [Dungeon Escape] [Programming] [Parkour] [Sprint] [Wall Running] [Calligraphy] [Repair] [Alchemy] [Impersonate] [Illusion] [Energy Bolt] [Energy Shield] [Instant Cosplay] [Outdoor Survival] [Clone] [Replacement] [Surprise Attack] [Acrobatics] [Water Walking] [Tracking] [Pickpocket] [Sprint] [Broom Mastery] [Chair Stacking] [Rollerblading] [Charm] [Upgrade]
