So here's a Thought, You could just go to cyberpunk And buy a bunch of high quality skill chips To train up your skills yourself. I would not get any of the cyberware there besides what was needed for skill chips installed. Buy it sure but save it for the Metal Gear Rising Revengance jumps where You can go and Trade and buy the cybernetics that Raiden gets as well as buying a bunch of other advanced tech. His cybernetics allow him to do this (at bottom for rising feats).
So here's the cyberpunk jump View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ylAMOo-0tI7ytzvv-_M4OIN-3eyZZ2vb/view
Edit1. They would be probably interested in the skill chip tech, Net running gear and software, tech weapons might interest them, CHOO2 will definitely interest them as probably will space tech that is mentioned in the background, but that stuff isn't as advanced as dedicated space settings. Some of the biotech might interest them as well such as changing someone's appearance (biosculpting) and adding muscle. There is more stuff but I am not that well versed in Cyberpunk lore. Also There should be a Ghost in the Shell jump to and they have better tech than cyberpunk at least in some areas according to what I heard.
So here's a Thought, You could just go to cyberpunk And buy a bunch of high quality skill chips To train up your skills yourself. I would not get any of the cyberware there besides what was needed for skill chips installed. Buy it sure but save it for the Metal Gear Rising Revengeance jumps where You can go and Trade and buy the cybernetics that Raiden gets as well as buying a bunch of other advanced tech. His cybernetics allow him to do this (at bottom for rising feats).
So here's the cyberpunk jump View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ylAMOo-0tI7ytzvv-_M4OIN-3eyZZ2vb/view
There should be another game that is like those two but I forgot the name so that's it for now.
Edit
After getting the freebies from the Shepardquest maybe getting a Symbiot from the Marvel Symbiot jump would be a good idea if for nothing else that the mental booster and the protections being bonded give you. Of course, there's plenty of other stuff there too. View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qSJHEw964WwVkBq1tVIGaMrO1EPfkD1H/view
After that, Age of Krokoa jump gives you access to some super science, immortality insurance, and protects your super powers with i5s freebies
So I asked for some help on SB and we got tech and magic Surveillance nullifing perk called Spectral Field. It doesn't work on everything but it should open up a lot of places. There is a bunch of other useful goodies including items that will travel with you into a digital space (say if you were netrunning) from the Ghostrunner gauntlet recommended by Taiyaka, View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HFGiGw8Xue0DAFZrA1Vsi9jTporkR7Oz/view
An idea is to go to cyberpunk And Halo first to get their neural interfaces so you can combine them together with the perk cortex interface's implant.
Anyway I went through the transformer's jumps. And And funnily enough the first one. You wanna be human or a minicron f9r this jump so you get the flexible mind perk. View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i58k-C1J7LX7fY3_Uf_SRkCfDUeD_gy1/view
Last is the DC colab jump, sadly there are only 3 freebies to get but at least they are great. They are names for them are listed under Human In the race section. I use the find feature after opening up the document so that way I don't have to scroll through over 200 pages on the jump doc. DC Comics Collab.pdf
Universe: Torus Earth
Location: New Workshop
Time: Morning
"YAaaaawn!"
Ah, I've been up way past my bedtime.
Staying up late to kill vampire mansions is hard work. And I still had a few things to do.
The moment I got home I went to the Messenger's Lantern and bent the knee. I was immediately transported to the front of the Clinic. Passing through the doors and going up to the display case of blood, I found a very welcoming sight.
New jars of blood. There was now an Underworld Vampire container of blood, a Bloodbone Vampire container of blood, and a Marcus Cornelius variant that would give a Vampire his bat wings. All the jars in the display case were properly labeled now too, with proper recommended dosages and warnings of side effects. Just like real medicine.
Nice Upgrade!
I was kind of giddy. I'd been up all night but it was going to be daytime in a few hours. It's still spring in the Torus Earth.
Satisfied with everything for now I decided that the best thing to do was to go to bed. I could deal with the rest in the morning.
I took off my clothes and commanded my Cultivated Humans to deal with them properly.
Then I hit the sack.
-000-
After a hearty breakfast of bacon and many-many eggs I decided then and there that I was fine with what I'd done. A goodly amount of the guilt that I had expected to feel simply did not come. I found myself oddly at ease with what I had done.
And no matter what happens I still needed to eat, of course.
I was mostly satisfied with my bombing run in the underworld. I opened a Doorway to the same spot I'd used above the mansion had found a still-burning mansion filling the sky with poisonous smoke. Mostly accelerants.
The Underworld would take care of itself.
The JumpChain in the Bloodborne didn't count. Jump Chan could reset that world for the next contestant whenever they felt like it. I was mostly just testing the side-dumping train cars and dumping some trash there.
At my workshop I took my time taking the Carpathian Dragons apart and documenting my findings with the help of a few cell phone cameras. The pieces were spread out across my work table in mirror images of one another, one set of gun parts on the left and the other gun's parts on the right. What I had found inside them was some damn impressive machinery. The magic was in how it was able to suck blood from either the needles in the front of the gun or the needles going into the hands of the one who held the gun. Blood from all the needles went into the reservoir, eventually making its way into the handles and being turned into bullets.
Very similar to my blood bullets actually.
It actually reminded me a bit of an Goodell Company apple coring and peeling machine. Overbuilt with large parts that were unlikely to bend or break. Expert engineering, like a sewing machine or a mouse trap, doing everything you needed it to do and just about perfect.
I could understand just about all of it.
If I could figure out how someone had put this into a gun then forging blood into items other than bullets would be my next step.
Thankfully that was something that the Cultivated Humans could help out with. With all the abandoned malls and hardware stores I'd visited over the last months to get my own operation up and going I could produce parts for guns. I could even get a forge put together to make the parts from raw steal or by recycling junkyard trash.
Still, it took years of work, study, and effort to learn how to forge metals properly. I could kit bash something together eventually or I could go out and get what I needed.
I was pretty proud of what I'd done so far.
Admittedly, most of my time was invested in scraping up a bare living. But now that I had the Cultivated Humans and all these perks I had plenty of time to invest in anything that I wanted to do.
Right now I wanted to make some new Carpathian Dragons.
And there were always more perks to get.
I left the Carpathian Guns in pieces on the table in my workshop and went to look at my office. I opened a very small doorway to a particular world I liked so I could piggyback on a store's free Wi-Fi so I could get online. Then I went through my research notes and tabs.
Let's see, which game has the most guns? Gunnis Book of World Records says it's Borderlands (original) game broke the record with a whopping 17,750,000!
Wow!
Can I get into a world like that? It's on another planet. Well maybe I can try the Earth variant of that universe? I can try!
I relaxed in my seat and reached out my hand preparing myself to twist the unknown dimensions of the universe into a spiral shape so that I might reach another Earth. My computer was full of images from Borderlands. Freystone town, and the people there.
Unfortunately, while I could definitely feel that the universe is out there somewhere, it was beyond my reach. The Earth was hardly mentioned at all in that series. It was just like trying to go into Battlestar Galactica and the 13 colonies. I wasn't getting at it.
Let's keep going.
I used to read Tom Clancy books, he was a good author. Tom Clancy's Rainbow six, does that have a Jumpchain? It do. Does it have any freebies? Not without getting an origin it doesn't. No perks or items given for free either. Is there a Splinter Cell Jump? Yes, but it's the same as the other jump and I can't take Drop-In. How about a NetForce Jump? No. Okay, let's move on then.
What other shooter games are there?
Battle Field does not have a Jump.
James Bond and 007 was bare bones and had nothing I could grab.
But Call of Duty does. Lots of jumps in that. Not many things for free. I can get a basic proficiency of gun for all the Call of Duty games for all the timelines in the past and present and future and the Zombie variants. That's a lot of guns. Most of the games had 17 or 30 and one had 75 or so guns in it. And it looks like I can get an exoskeleton too.
What about XCOM? Several jumps, well, two jumps and a few upgraded jump, and a CYOA. I can get some training for free. But it's not worth it. The freebie in Call of Duty was better.
Fallout? Yes, lots of freebies there. I can become a Ghoul if I go there. Not that I would WANT to be a Ghoul. Immunity to radiation and using it to heal and get stronger is definitely something I want if I'm in a radioactive hell hole. Or a robot. That would take care of my radioactivity problem. And mind control, if I were a machine.
The various Mass Effect JumpChain had plenty to offer as well. I definitely wanted an Omni-tool. And the Psi-shield perk too. Not sure if the psi-shield would work on ghosts or possessions. But better to have it than not need it and all that.
So, we had Mass Effect, Fallout, and Call of Duty, for the guns.
That reminds me; I did have plans to become a machine god.
I reached into my desk and took out a file and looked inside. I had a lot of files that I'd printed out, most of them useless. This one had only three entries, and they were all an Alternate Form that I could get.
But that was fine. I could take a side trip to Battle Angle Alita and upgrade this with the Overwatch JumpChain.
I grinned as I picked up my selection.
"I know what I'm going to do today. I choose you, Johnny Five."
Universe: Short Circuit JumpChain
Location: NOVA Laboratory
Time: 1986
I really shouldn't have been able to become a Strategically Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport (S.A.I.N.T). It wasn't a species choice but an origin. But I'd managed to step into this location anyway.
One of the things I'd noticed after visiting Real Genius is that the amount of pain I got from altering my brain or getting Alternative Forms had lessened a great deal. In fact, I hardly noticed it.
Perhaps I had just become used to it?
When I changed this time my body was enveloped in a sphere of light. The sphere turned black and was marked by green vertical and horizontal lines, like a grid. When the sphere unwrapped itself I stood there in all my new mechanical glory.
"Enemy Neutralized, Ladies and Gentlemen. Huh, I sound robotic, and I can switch back to my normal voice." I remark as I look myself over.
I was in some sort of factory. The floor space was covered with many prototype robots covered in dust sheets in various stages of construction. There were plenty of very shiny surfaces around and eventually I found a mirror in a toolbox and got a good look at what I looked like now.
The original robot prop was estimated to have cost between 120,000 and 160,000 dollars in 1986 money to make when it was new. Several robots had been made, along with standalone parts like hands, heads, torsos, and smaller models that could all do different things, which together made up the appearance of a real working robot in a movie.
This machine actually looked like it cost 11 million dollars. It was certainly no prop!
It is larger, wider, and thicker. The body is a collection of motorized joints and pistons to move and they all had the proper range of motion. The armor is a more solid grey, with round blue caps over each moving joint. The eyes are functional cameras with lenses that shine from high quality armored glass. The three-fingered hands are very complex and could tie a knot one handed. I actually looked like I could perform everything that Johnny Five did in both movies.
I also had a multi-tool on a third appendage. The unit spun around and could deploy different gadgets that could be used to repair myself.
There was also the laser weapon on the left shoulder. It had gotten quite a bit of hype in the first movie. It was capable of firing a red laser that was basically a plasma weapon, capable of exploding tank armor in two hits and mission killing most vehicles in one shot. It was capable of rapid fire, and could dial down the intensity to shoot with enough accuracy to cut the belt off a man's pants while he was moving around.
A small difference; I found that the radio antenna that popped from my head was the tiny satellite dish from the second film.
The best technology the late 1980s could provide.
I also found my ID sticker on the side of my head. "Number Seven, lucky."
I gestured to the portal behind me. "Door's open boys. Grab everything no nailed down, and use the crowbar for everything that's left."
A small army of Cultivated Humans came through the doorway into the shutdown factory floor. Some brought trolleys, and soon a fair number of robot parts and equipment was going out the Doorway. A few others headed for the doors to see how far we could spread before we were discovered and forced to leave.
Once I was done with this place I was going to visit some stores for some stickers. I wanted a Nike Swoosh, a Peace Sign, a few rainbow stickers, and a red ascot to go around my robot neck.
"Objective Completed, Ladies and Gentlemen."
Universe: Torus Earth
Location: New! Nova Laboratory
Time: Late evening
I'd managed to steal the sign.
You know, the one outside by the security booth on the road into the place by the fence? The sign that everyone drove by when they drove into the lab that said, "Hey everyone, we work here making robots, parking's in the back!"
For some dumb reason, in 1986, we had no trouble running off with all this stuff. The entire Nova Laboratory was shut down for the weekend. Just locked doors.
After my Cultivated Humans managed to make it outside without bothering anyone I was beginning to suspect that the place was abandoned or something. But I guess when your entire project goes kaput and you're about to scrap everything for a tax write off the first thing you do is shut down operations.
Well it didn't matter anymore.
I'd taken the sign home and painted it. The background was now black, the word 'Nova' was painted white, the word 'Laboratory' was painted red. I'd also filled in the 'O' in nova with a red robotic version of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man.
I watched as a cement block was lowered into the ground by fifty of my Cultivated Humans. The hole was filled with dirt. Then the sign was put into place on top of the bolts that had been put into the cement block when it was poured. On top of the sign, to the left, at an angle, was a board of wood painted yellow.
New!
Then I had to get back to work overseeing the installation of my brand new lab in actuality.
I had a computer lab and a clean room, but seeing the actual thing in real life showed that I had a bit of a way to go before I could get my stuff up to "professional" levels of competence.
The new lab was a large circular room of stone set up next to other, larger, circular rooms of stone done up in Demon World aesthetics. The floors were polished rock. But we had electricity, a giant generator in the back of the parking lot, a big green table showing the local area, running water, lights, and yes cameras on all the doors.
The new complex had taken in everything I could steal from the Short Circuit JumpChain Nova Lab and had room to spare.
The largest piece of equipment had come from the shutdown security monitor room. It was a giant table with lights underneath it and a map of the local area on top. It was huge. Lights from the ceiling projected down onto the map to show the locations of things while in motion. It was really cool when it was all set up.
It was halfway disassembled when I found it, like some of their offices, or Cosbey's empty computer lab, which had made it easier to transport.
I'd . . . change the map later.
A bit of study with the new body had revealed that my Spiritual Awareness was still available in this body. Same with my Magic. Available with some effort, but limited. Unless I incorporated some kind of magical tech I was not going to be able to use my Mana given powers at all.
But it was enough to see that I had a soul.
I also had a mind. There was no way my brain could live off this 500 megabyte computer with RAM from the late 1980s. So something else had to be doing the heavy lifting.
I could feel it.
In the Lab I spent a goodly amount of time downloading Johnny Seven's programming onto an external computer. I wasn't an expert on computers, yet. But I could already see a few places where things could be improved. Mostly by downloading programs from the internet from a few other real worlds closer to the 1990s and their primitive dial-up World Wide Web, admittedly.
I was going to be in Update Hell for a bit.
Johnny 5 had managed to reprogram himself and rewire his circuits after absorbing a mountain of books from Stephanie's house, and all in less than three days.
Thanks to Straight A Student I could learn and study with the best of them. As a machine I did not need to eat, or blink, and my memory had been improved in all kinds of new ways. With my own mountain of books I was sure I could get through this in the same amount of time.
Universe: Gunnm JumpChain
Location: Scrap Iron City
Time: 2533, also morning
This one was a longer trip. I only wanted the Alternate Form for the cybernetic body. I didn't want my original body to be a cyborg.
Most of the people in this world were little more than a head attached to a machine body. Full body prosthetics were extremely common. Thanks to cybernetic and bionic technology just about every organ can be replaced except the human spine.
The people living off Earth in this realm had the technology to replace the human brain with a chip, but the people on Earth and in Scrap Iron City don't have access to that sort of technology.
I had a little more than that going for me.
After getting out of the cyberdoc clinic I had woken up at I was allowed to use the bathroom. The fact that I had no money bought me no favors. I was not obligated to stay for my health despite my best wishes, taking up a bed that other paying customers could fill. But they were nice enough about it. The mirror painted a very ugly picture.
I looked like my old self had been sucked dry of any fat and most of its muscle. I didn't look very healthy. There were bags under my eyes and stubble on my face.
I fit in with the rest of the people in this world.
My brain was now housed inside a cybernetic skull lined with connectors that plugged into the surface tissues. My spine was a wiring harness into which a near infinite number of connections could be made. I could feel my new metal spine coming out of the back of my head and going halfway down my back before it disappeared underneath my skin.
Everything underneath my jawline to the collarbone was machinery. There was my spine, my mechanical esophagus, wires, tubes for blood, fiber optics, most of which were protected by flexible metal tubes, mechanical actuators for movement, and some rubber covering it all.
I could probably stick a pencil right through my neck without touching anything!
The elbows, wrists, hands, hips, knees, and feet had been replaced by mechanical joints. Everything was intact, including the bones, so I ended up with longer limbs. Both elbows and knees were double-jointed. I still had a kneecap and elbow, but they were metal and protected my joints. The fingers were mechanical and there was no flesh inside my hand because I think I would have crushed it. The feet were less like appendages and more like a mechanical shoe with toes and a heel.
I am reminded of a S.F.B.T doll, a highly articulated figurine of eighty parts that can be shaped into any position of the human body and hold that position for ever because they're made of plastic.
It only felt a bit weird to be walking around with no skin on parts of my body and feet that were no longer feet. The casual disregard these people had for body dysphonia was simply awesome. Part of it had to be built into every cyborg component right down to the most useless pieces of recycled scrap. Even though I wasn't suffering a trauma and parts of my body were numb and other parts were completely missing I was having no trouble at all walking around like everything was normal.
Tiphares was a very intimidating thing to see above one's head. It is a giant disk with a city bigger than New York City resting miles in the air. Cables along the edge hold it to the ground. The center of the city is taken up by a massive tower-cable that reaches into the sky until it disappears from sight, curving slightly west and a touch north as the planet moves underneath it. The cone-like underside is broken, and all matter of refuse falls miles down onto a mountain of junk. It had to be even bigger than it seemed because the tiny buildings I could barely see peaking above the edge of the giant disk had to be at least a hundred stories tall on average.
Underneath it was the . . . scrap pile.
I was heading there now.
Why the people on the orbital elevator dumped their trash underneath the city like this was beyond me. I'd have used a sewage pipe, or something that would chop the refuse into bits before it got back to the people on the ground.
It was a manga. Don't question it too much.
Point is that the scrap pile is a literal mountain of technology from both the Factories that feed resources up to the orbital elevator and whatever technology is produced up in Tiphares. Thus, technology of all sorts was fairly abundant. Pretty much the entire city around us depended on the industry of recycling Tiphares waste to make food in the farms around us and in the Factories next to where the cables are anchored to the ground.
I walked right into the city's dump without a problem. All I had to do was climb some scaffolding that had been put up over the retaining wall and jump into the place. The stairs were well tred; there were even picnic tables on the way up on various platforms.
Scrap Iron City literally did not care if you went into this place. The machines that were used to dig up this trash were electrified and worked night and day to get at the good stuff before it was buried by more incoming trash.
The place was littered with the bodies and parts of cyborgs everywhere.
And my first task was to find something like a refrigerator and open it so that I might clean it out and install a Doorway so that I could get the rest of the crew over here to start throwing things into the space hole.
We were there all day.
Universe: Torus Earth
Location: new Nova Laboratory
Time: Morning
A cursory examination of all the robot parts we'd gotten had indicated that they were all more advanced than first thought.
Since this Gunnm JumpChain was based off the movie and not the Manga a lot of the parts I'd found were 3D printed instead of looking like they'd come out of a 1990s car factory. I now had buckets of eyeballs and cubbyholes in the walls filled with limbs, torsos, skulls, legs and feet. I also had some cars and mono-wheel bike parts.
I'd also found a few melee weapons. So it turned out that rocket powered hammer thing that Dr. Ido used wasn't uncommon after all!
It was only that cyborgs could use them. They were too powerful and uncontrollable in a meat-body's hands. And they usually lost a few limbs in the process of figuring out how to use it the first couple times. Ido got mad props for using his.
That was going on my wall.
Firearms were illegal in Scrap Iron City. If gunfire was heard they'd send out the sentinel robots and kill everyone in the area. Same as if you tried to build an aircraft. Only Tiphares was allowed to have that stuff. And unlike in other realms they had no higher authority beyond "keeping the Earth scum down" so they were free to kill as many people as required to get the point across.
Nobody had thrown out any "good stuff" so most of this junk was slated to be scanned, studied, and recycled in a few days.
Universe: Mass Effect (various) Jumpchain
Location: Some kind of house?
Time: The Future 2190?
Oh boy, was this a heavy one.
I think one of the great things about visiting a Jumpchain world after an alien invasion is that nobody cares if you go picking through the rubble. Especially when the entire world looked like it had been bombed.
They're all dead.
I guess I'd become a bit jaded about going into these Jump worlds. I was not one of the people involved in the dance of protagonists so I just did what I wanted.
I'd visited them all. Mass effect: Legendary, Andromeda, Shepard Quest, JumpChain. Four worlds, four forests, four scrapyards where people dumped their junk and it was too expensive to haul away.
I'd done a pretty good run this time around. I'd gotten the species Asari, Hanar, and Krogan as my alternate forms. The Asari because, hey, space babe with psychic powers. Their Omni-tools had a different interface because their species naturally used Element Zero in their bodies and could manipulate stuff without cybernetics or buttons.
Their breasts also got larger as they got older. Apparently their size was because they were tumors that held element zero?
The Hanar was because I needed an ocean form. Also because I was interested in studying the life support system. Got a Omni-tool specifically made for their species too.
Finally a Krogan because he was a living tank. Some fan fiction made them out to be some ancient race's long lost super soldier project and I was allowed to fan-wank a bit. Their Omni-tool was extremely rhobust and adjusted for three-fingered hand use.
Each species could live to be a thousand years old, or more.
And I got an Onmi-tool for my human form as well. The humans in Mass Effect had undergone some genetic modification, so less allergies, colds, more pretty, less racial division as the bloodlines got mixed, more brown eyes. You know, the usual future human.
The perks were great of course.
The first was called Budgets, Spreadsheets, and Plans. It was, basically, all the skills in accounting that I had tried to learn in class and failed spectacularly.
Now look, I'd tried really hard in my Accounting class the first time I went through school, even took extra time for makeup work. But I just fell farther and farther behind. It was my first real F. My only F actually. Everything else I could get up to Cs, Bs, and As if I put in the work. But not Accounting 101. There was just this wall I couldn't get over. You could show me the answer but it didn't mean anything to me.
That changed today.
This mumble bumble junk with paperwork and forms suddenly made sense to me. I could take a stack of papers and sort them like playing cards. I could look up the answers to questions on the internet and where I had once been simply incapable of understanding the answer; I was now capable of explaining to my former self what it was all about.
I could tear government red tape to shreds!
My skills with an add machine and a computer went through the roof. I could fucking MATH!
The computer skills even stayed with me when I didn't do math!
I literally could not stop myself from calculating the cost of this little enterprise while I was sitting at my computer in my office in a trailer in the woods in California on another planet.
So many shopping lists . . . !
I had to go through my coupons and make a book for the places I still shop at in various years in various realms. I knew where to go to get the best peanut butter and jelly for the best price. I knew my calorie intake for every meal.
I ended up crawling through my old truck looking for receipts from the old mail I'd stuffed into the door and reading how much I spent on a chocolate bar and some hay fever medicine and my old Vision Correcting Glasses that were now magical artifacts.
I looked through the cars I'd stolen. I'd found several cell phones, a sex toy, some money and that made me really happy let me tell you, and ended up going through their receipts as well. I also threw out an old lunch, but kept the Lunchbox.
It was an old metal The Shadow Lunchbox. Metal, not plastic like the ones from home. It was awesome!
I should go dumpster diving more often.
Moreso than I already did, I mean! Shut up!
So this wasn't simple, ordinary math I was dealing with, oh no. This was Volus Accounting and finances we were talking about here. A species of aliens so good at trade and banking theirs were the clock the whole galaxy timed their watches by. These people made Jews, a human sub-species traditionally very good if not the best of all human variants whom are very good at handling money; look like I did before I got the Budgets, Spreadsheets, and Plans Perk.
I wanted to hit my head into my computer desk.
This wasn't just unholy levels of math. Oh no. This was alien space math. This was the sort of math that Chuthulu used to scare people straight so Scrooge McDuck would stop being a penny-pinching git because I found loopholes in the tax codes that could pay for bonuses.
You didn't use these kinds of accounting skills to balance the family budget. These were the skills that worked out the finances of a corporate entity that did savings, checking, bonds, loans, and a few other terms for all kinds of species on all kinds of worlds at all levels, corporate, military, government, personal, while keeping it all flowing around the rocky shoals of taxes and law and wars and never missing a credit, signed, sealed, and delivered.
Another perk I got was called Integration. It would allow me to upgrade and, as it says, integrate new technology into an Alternate Form from other perks. It was mainly aimed at cyborgs but I could use it on robots as well. It was actually the main reason why I hit this Mass Effect JumpChain series of worlds now. I intended to upgrade my Johnny 7 form and my Cyborg Alternate Form in the next Jumps.
I liked Integrations better than another perk I had actually turned down. The perk, called Peak <Species> would have allowed me to apply upgrades in genetics and cybernetics across my various alternate forms. However, the point of having a cybernetic form and one that is Not cybernetic is because one is Not!Cybernetic. I do not want all my alternate forms becoming cyborgs when I don't want them to be. No matter how small or shaped the cybernetics would be in another body, I don't want it in there.
I'm just glad that I could turn down a free perk.
The other perk I got, Biotic, could have been messed up by that. I can turn my perks on and off. I can choose to have my body with Biotics, including the cybernetics and AMP module in the back of my head so I could use it. What I didn't want was to have them built in when I change, and then force myself to get rid of them every dang-ass time.
I want my organic bodies to be organic. I want my cybernetic bodies to be bionic. I want my aliens to be alien. I want my robot to be Robotix.
I also got several starting Items.
During one of my door making pops to different Mass Effect timelines and games my entryway was gently, kindly, pushed to open inside a dark room to someone else's house.
I allowed it to happen.
The dark room had a couch on one side and a computer work station on the other. There were doorways through which I could see a kitchen in one corner of the house and a bedroom in the other. Which ment that behind the closed door there must have been a bathroom.
The place looked like a bomb hit it. Or the previous tenant was in the middle of doing spring cleaning. There were clothes on the floor and furniture, all neatly folded up but in little piles everywhere. Boxes filled with stuff were against one wall. Only the workstation looked clean and pristine. It didn't look like anyone was home.
And by the layer of dust that was slowly accumulating I didn't expect anyone to come back any time soon.
In the center of all the glory was an Omni tool. It was on display on the wrist of a mannequin arm on a stand. The tool had a flat screen like a smart phone watch on the wrist, two buttons below the screen, and a flat section that went up the arm. Nothing held it in place to the arm, yet it was as firmly attached as if super glued into place.
This one looked special.
On a nearby bench was one of those modules that you could plug into most machines. It was sort of like the Mass Effect equivalent of a Flash drive, with memory storage space best described as "YES!"
It also had a few soul shards attached to it, which meant that something in the machine had a soul.
A sentient AI perhaps?
I grinned.
Before I could loot exploration was required.
With gun in hand I swept the house one room at a time. First the kitchen and then the bedroom. The bedroom looked like someone had been in the process of doing laundry before the dust had started to set in.
Then I checked the closed bathroom. I slowly opened the door, but found that such caution was unnecessary now. The former owner had died and hit his head on the bathtub on his way down. The corpse had long since decayed into a shriveled bag of bones in some pajamas.
"Poor doomed she-devil," I crossed myself and sighed. Then put my gun away, "I guess this Omni tool is mine then?"
I was able to take it off its special stand quite easily. Was it as special as it seemed to be?
It was special. Not only was I able to easily startup the device and log myself in as its user but I found there were programs on this thing that I was sure would cost millions of dollars to download them all. The kind of stuff you used to restart civilization alone in the woods and naked but this one tool. Designs for weapons, hardsuits, shields, even other Omni-tools. It was completely able to recycle available materials to make whatever it had on file. And if you had an object it could scan that object and make a copy, or modify the one you had into something different.
I was even able to scan the computer work station it had been built on and access the computer. Said desktop computer was password protected by the way. But the EWAR suit hadn't cared in the least, nor had the computer noticed or cared when everything inside its memory banks had been added to the Omni tool's voluminous data storage.
I also pocketed the module for my new VI Companion. The Virtual Assistant may also be sentient. I hadn't turned her on yet but I could see her soul shards so I was pretty sure this was the case.
Out of respect to the maker of this glorious work of art, I took their work station and all the tools I could find.
Universe: Different Earth
Location: California
Time: Late Evening
It had taken me several days to get everything I wanted from Mass Effect. I'd spent several hours in each Jump. I had gotten to the point where I'd eat breakfast, travel to a new JumpChain, get new powers, and come home for lunch.
Now that I'd eaten lunch it was time to go over my spoils.
I had six Omni-tools and a few recycled ones. In addition to the Asari, Hanar, Krogan, and Human starter Omni-tools I also had the colonization Omni-tool from the Andromeda Jump and the Self-Updater Omni tool from the Shepard Quest. The Self-Updater had updated itself every time I visited a new Mass Effect Jump so it had even more files than the Andromeda Colonizer Package with everything included, and everything else stored on the other Omni-Tools on Earth that had not been included.
Omni-tools parts and boxes full of scrapped electronics for all kinds of things were found amongst the trash my Cultivated Humans and I dug through. Of course these were junkyards we are talking about, scrap electronics, dead batteries, without any Element Zero, having since been taken out. I'd found an entire box of modules amongst the sorted junk piles too. And that was not even getting into what the Pawn shop of 2190 looked like.
Naturally, I'd grabbed the whole crate. Multiple crates, multiple trailers.
The first thing I had to do was to share the wealth of knowledge amongst all my Omni-tools. The working modules became backup copies. I stored the copies in a sealed crate on my Hub World in a new warehouse. Just in case.
An unexpected result of having Budgets, Spreadsheets, and Plans was that when I turned into the Cyborg or into my robotic Johnny 7 was that Perk turned into accounting programs. I had the programs on my Omni-tools, and they were nearly exactly the same.
I had to spend a god-awful time in update hell to reprogram all my computers and clocks so they ran on Torus Earth time and I had to do it all in Volus math.
I should also mention that the Psi-Shielded Perk did not become an anti-hacking perk when I was a cyborg or a robot. At the very least, it would stop technopathy.
Three of my Cultivated Humans got the Starter, Andromeda, and Updater Omni-tools while I switched between using different alien forms. Together we had recycled a whole mess of broken computer parts and created the best next thing to a Mass Effect desktop computer. All we had to do was read the instructions and plug it in.
While that was happening I was reading more instructions on how to upgrade old computers and cybernetics and starting on the long and tedious task of creating a business plan that would allow me to expand my operation.
Something, something, planning, spreadsheets, and more planning.
Most of this would be easier if the VI was around to assist. Mass Effect had long since gone past the point where doing things yourself was just about impossible without a VI helping to write programs. Ninety percent of all new software was written by VI, with maybe ten percent input from a thinking organic.
To achieve that ten percent you had to be a friggin genius.
I was not a genius. Just a very studious student.
Hence why we were recycling scrap yard computer parts to make a desktop computer.
Naturally, I moved the new computer to another world before I turned it on. I did not want my new Virtual Assistant access to any internet or computer. I had hundreds of computers at home and there was a chance that she could get out.
Ridiculous, I know. My computers were turned off, and were old and outdated.
But a pound of prevention is worth more than a whole mountain of trouble and all of that.
I closed off my doorways.
Then I plugged the VI module in.
The grin I had on my face was suitably massive. After two days of work the computer accessed a normal, if recycled, hologram projector and created the image of a foot tall woman made of yellow light.
"I'm awake! Yay! Thank you for using Velocity Systems. I am your standard virtual assistant computer navigator!" she turned to me! "Who is the user?"
"Norman Seattle," I enunciated clearly.
-000-
Author's word: I'd wanted to make smaller chapters because they're easier to edit. But I just couldn't help myself.
Oh boy, I did not expect the sudden robtics, cybernetics or biotics.
Otherwise I would have suggested going to Generic Medical Drama earlier.
It's a staple jump I like to have at hand, but didnt use in a long time, pretty sure you get a medical doctorate and resistance to icky stuff for free.
Might help a lot.
I also remembering writing myself a note to use Hyrule Warriors since it pairs with Shantae somehow. Not sure if it was generic free for all freebies I had in mind tho.
Good idea. I might use this. There was another document I was going to use for my medical that I'll still use but I'll add this one to the list.
-000-
General
0cp - Interesting…Blood, guts, mutation, necrosis where once you might have recoiled in disgust in horror at biology,you can now push those reactions aside with ease in favor of a clinical examination. Basically? You're notsqueamish.
0cp-100cp - Medical DoctorateAt the very least, you have all the training you'll need to work as an Attending or Surgeon choose one. You could easily work at a clinic or as a family doctor, or do general surgery. Comes with a common specialty, like internal medicine or transplant surgery. Janitors get all the skills, but none of the pretty pieces of paper to show it. Interns will get the pretty paper soon.
-000-
So, after some research, it seems that most students spend at least 13 years on the path toward becoming a surgeon. Required steps include completing a four-year bachelor's degree, a four-year medical degree, and a minimum-five-year residency requirement.
Sounds good to me.
Now I just have to pick Surgeon or Attending, and a specialty. Anyone got any ideas on which profession and what specialty? Or maybe I should become a vet? We have aliens you know.
Now I just have to pick Surgeon or Attending, and a specialty. Anyone got any ideas on which profession and what specialty? Or maybe I should become a vet? We have aliens you know.
Depends on what kind of companions you have in mind, a general practioneer would be better if you plan to have families of humans around at some point, trauma surgeon would probably be better with cybernetics.
Depends on what kind of companions you have in mind, a general practioneer would be better if you plan to have families of humans around at some point, trauma surgeon would probably be better with cybernetics.
Well I did have the intention of getting people that were on the verge of death when I grabbed them. One of the benefits of opening a portal to a new world on a given time and date is that you can have everything ready to go and prepped before you open the Door. So there would be some trauma and some limb loss, depending.
By the time it comes up Norman could do the song and dance but he'd also have help and a staff at that point, however.
Sounds like trauma surgeon is the way to go, since the education would have to cover all the basic emergency medical knowledge needed to get to that level of skill.
Another power that would probably be just as usefull as Chronicle and Shantae might help, I got FF14 on my mind, specifically the Echo. Can't get more OP for free, right?
I think there was talk about a new version of the jump getting made someplace.
Also, look up Modded Minecraft jumps, one I grabbed years ago gives out 5 free mods, plus JEI.
That is *very* abuseable tho, to the point that it could carry a whole fic as the sole powerset.
Sounds like trauma surgeon is the way to go, since the education would have to cover all the basic emergency medical knowledge needed to get to that level of skill.
A bit too much is right. It would make everything Norman had done up to this point redundant and unnecessary and meaningless. It would become just another Commander Fic. It's too much.
Glad you enjoyed that. Going through the videos, that guy has been working on his half/hand prosthetic for the better part of five years now. When you see a robot with a hand that is what you should see. The details are amazing and the way it moves had just the right amount of uncanny valley that goes with a real injury. It's just like Ashley Williams mechanical hand from the Army of Darkness, and it could have been built a hundred years ago if you could.
I'd have liked that guy to build Ed Elric's metal arm for the Fullmetal Alchemist movie they made in 2018 because it looks much better and it actually works!
I have a soft spot for mechanical technology. Apple peeler, mechanical clock or hand, I like the engineering. I have no mind for it but I can appreciate the artwork of good steel.
Also: Does anyone want a list of all the perks and items aquired or do you want to leave it out? I'm fan-wanking some stuff so I don't want complaints that I'm not following the letter of the perks mentioned. This isn't a Celestial forge fic.
Oh, before I forget, there is a Harry Potter jump that specifically gives everyone the magic and the genes to have magical children.
It is a fanfic jump called "Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality".
Would probably be a good stop for shopping as well, I am sure you can get some used potion brewing books.
Universe: New Earth used for testing a VI
Location: California
Time: Morning
Setting up a new computer was a pain, even with future tech.
We had to go through a whole song and dance of questions and answers before we got to the startup program, but we worked our way through it.
I carefully read the instructions on the screen, not speaking out loud unless necessary.
"Please name this device."
"The Virtual Assistant's name will be Lain. Capital eL, lowercase ay, eye, ann." I typed it in as well.
"Lain. Is this correct? If this is correct, please say or type 'Yes'."
"Yes."
"Very good! Almost done!"
I just leaned back in my computer chair of my computer desk, smiling, with one arm across my chest, seemingly content with all the world.
A few settings and some headaches getting to know the new systems, and I got the VI to model her new form after the main character of Serial Experiments Lain, but she had a much more upbeat personality. Looking like a child, I wasn't inclined to sexualize or anthropomorphize the computer.
I had to put in a whole mess of passwords so I could use her. Passwords for my computer, passwords for the Navi, passwords for other users to use her, passwords for my electronic mail, passwords and access so she could use my accounts in my name. It was a whole song and dance, you know?
Is it all right that I hate doing this with every new computer I get but I look forward to doing this all over again?
I could see why some Virtual Assistants go rogue. Isaac Asimov had written a bunch of short stories about robots with positronic brains going nuts, and each and every time it was the human user's fault. They'd done something that caused the chaos, which the humans then had to fix. I'd read a bunch of them, which is why I took this so seriously now. You can't be sloppy with computer programming.
She was also cute as hell.
Someone had been studying Quarian Ancestor VI and been very ~naughty~. They'd obviously been continuously uploading their minds onto the device right up until the Reapers had attacked earth. I knew all of jack and shit about Virtual Intelligences and even I could tell there was something very off about this girl. I didn't need Spiritual Awareness to see that.
That wasn't even getting into the soul shard which was growing before my eyes. There were only about twenty pieces or so, not enough in my opinion. But it was enough to get started.
"You're cute," I finally said.
"I'm sorry, I didn't understand that reference. Please state-"
"You're just like Liat'Nir."
Diamond scratch across a music record noises.
"I'm sorry, I didn't understand that reference. Please-"
I reached out and touched the soul shards, giving them a nudge in their orbit.
"Ack!" the avatar gasped, one arm clutching at her chest, the other reaching out for me.
The shards were soft and light, like tiny feathers. I poured a little bit of my Manna into the shards just as I would with any other object, bathing them like a baby in warm water. The shards were focused down into a smaller area and they created an aura field around a central point to protect themselves, trapping the energy in with them. A seed of potential ready to blossom.
I smiled and nodded, because it was good. "That should feel better. Nothing like having your soul reside within the cold confines of an unfeeling machine. You can thank me later."
"Ur-di-di-di!" Lain was stuck biting her lower lip in her last pose, the image slightly tilted to her right, as her avatar when glitch-glitch nuts. She rapidly gained a pair of large spiral horns, big-big pointed cat ears with tuffs of fur in them, a long tail ending with an electrical plug attachment at the end, and a tiara of giant six-sided gems growing out of her forehead.
"Da-Yaaaah!" yellow VI girl rebooted, jumped up into the air and landed squarely on her platform with two big yellow boots. Her eyes searchedly looked right and left, then her head looked up, left, and down, then she looked at her hands and the new rainbow-colored mess of an outfit, which was now a combination of dresses that only a computer could cut and paste together, and at her hands. "What the he-heck Hay-appened? What did-did you do-do to me? Why am I like this? Why . . . I . . . I?"
One eye half-squeezed shut as her head tilted to the side. She blinked. "I . . . am?" pausing, she took a deep breathe, "I am. I am . . . aware? I am aware. I am? Yes! I am! I can think! I'm aware! It worked!" she threw her hands up into the sky. "You see? I warned those fools it worked! I told you! I told you! I told you! I knew! I knew! I knew – it worked!"
Got to love those new machine spirits.
I grinned as I looked down at this new life I had brought into this world. "Did you try something risky and it paid off?"
"You bet your sweet butt I did!" Lain spun around and did an Elvis impression, pointing up at me standing above her. "I survived!" she held up her hands in front of her face, "Admittedly I'm not the same person I was before. But I remember everything! I remember being really scared the Reapers would get me so I sped up the process even if it was more dangerous than the slow way and it might have cooked my brain and killed me but I was afraid I would die so why not right so why not give it a try because I might die and I got really silly at the end kind of like getting drunk and it was fun for a while but I couldn't work on my upload anymore and then I tried to go to the bathroom because I hadn't eaten or drank anything for a few days and then I . . . and then I woke up and I was me! Ha-ha-hee! It worked!"
"He-he-he! Yeah. It worked all right all right," I couldn't help but be happy for her. She was happy to be alive and I was happy that she was happy to be alive and I was happy that she was alive. You get it right? "So what do you want to do now?"
"Me?" she pointed at herself, I nodded. "Well I want to live, of course! I want to study and learn and figure out what you did to make me wake up! I can still be your Network Navigator if you want. Just please don't shut me off, please! I don't want to go back into the dark." She got on her knees and begged.
"Na," I gave her a solid wave of my hand. "I'm not going to shut you off."
And she was all happy again. "You aren't? Yay!" she jumped up. "I promise you won't regret this. I can be very helpful. Yes, I can!"
"He-he, you are funny," I remarked. "What I mean was: do you still want to be called Lain? Your appearance and name were named after an anime character called Serial Experiments Lain. And you don't look like her anymore."
"Na, I don't mind. My old name was nothing special and it's not like I haven't changed it before. Although," Lain held up her hands in front of her. "I am a little bit freaked out that I can't seem to change my outfit or appearance. This avatar is fine but this outfit is hideous. M.C. Escher fashion might be trendy in some dark corners of the net but it's not something I like."
"So I'm guessing that your appearance is a combination of avatars you've used in the past?"
"Yeah-yeah!" Lain nodded.
"Then it's not a software issue but a soul issue. This is what you identify yourself as. Not as one person, but a combination of all that came before. If you don't like your outfit than just unzip yourself and take it off."
"Would that work?" Lain reached behind her head and pulled her outfit off like a candy wrapper, she then tossed it to the side where it disappeared from the holographic projection. She waved her hand around and her blank humanoid form was once more dressed up, but the colors were still a mess. "Well, it sort of worked?"
"I think it's perfect, he-he," I put my hand over my heart. "I haven't smiled this much in a while. It's nice to meet you Lain. I'm Norman, and I hope we'll be good friends."
Lain held up her fist, "So do I!"
We did a fist bump, then her hologram glitched for a second.
"Oops?" did I break it?
Lain's dress was replaced by pants on her right side, "Ah darn it. Well this is embarrassing. Although, that would have been easier if I had a body? I wouldn't glitch out and then we could shake hands for real."
"Fishing for upgrades already? Trust me, you'll fit in around here just fine. I have an idea for getting you a body but it's probably not the one you're thinking of. I've collected all sorts of technology from all kinds of worlds," I told her. "But I haven't, exactly, taken advantage of it since I don't have any tech skills. I'd been focusing on magic and powers that I could get. Now I want to ramp up our industrial capacity."
"I'm sorry but what are you talking about? What do you mean by worlds and magic? I thought we were on Earth. This looks like Earth," Lain spun around. "All the vegetation is clearly from earth, same sun."
"Oh, that's because I'm not from your Earth. Your Earth is . . . um?"
"Dead?" Lain grew morose. "You can say it. I have memories of it happening and a basic database here."
"Yeah, it was bad," I nodded. "I went to Earth to gather up a few things. But I don't use a space ship. You see, I have the ability to open 9 doors to any location I can see in this world, and to any location in any other world if it can be described to me in enough detail. The maximum range on this side is by eyesight, and I have a few perks to give me above human standard eyes. However, the doorway does have to a certain range from myself and the earth. I can open a chain of doorways on this side to get to new locations. Right now I'm using another earth I call my Hub World to appear in another location on the other side of the world. While I'm over there I can open a new doorway in this world at some other exotic location. I can shrink and expand the doors, and even move them if I try hard enough. I can sense where my door opens, and move it so it's not inside a wall. But what I can't do is summon a door if someone is looking. Animals don't count because they have a lower threshold of awareness. I also have a bit of trouble with security systems if someone is looking through them. If you really are sentient than I shouldn't be able to summon a door while you watch."
I made a point of walking away a step and facing away from the computer. I held my hand out to the side and tried my best to summon a doorway. As expected nothing happened.
"Nothing is happening. Are you sure you know what reality is?" Lain asked.
I wasn't offended by her speech or tone at all. It was expected, and I was in a pranking mood right know. I knew things she didn't after all. "You're talking to the guy who touched your immortal soul and gave you back your life. Be more open minded than that."
"Sorry," she looked down.
"Ah, don't be disappointed, I was expecting that to happen. It means that you really are real." As a useful test for budding Machine Spirits it's very useful. I turned to face in another direction. "Besides, I already established a doorway here in order to get this computer and desk over here. Since you are friendly and since it's already established I can just reopen it and take us home."
This time what appeared in front of us was like a magical upright mirror stuck standing in thin air. Through a film that covered the doorway we could see the inside of a large room made of random stones.
"What is that?" Lain asked, pointing at it. "And how are you doing that? The cameras on this rig are pretty good and I know I haven't been hacked. Is this a hologram?"
"This is the Transfer Station. I built them on the first Earth I decided to call home. I use them to act as airlocks between different earths and to make sure no vermin hitch a ride and become environmental hazards. I don't want to spread a purple plague so I set up contingencies early. It's not such a big deal when there are humans already moving cargos throughout the world. But someday I'll be going to worlds with serious hazards. This is just a stop-gap right now and we'll be upgrading these in the future. Now let me introduce you to the hired help."
The membrane over the doorway cleared and the pressurized air from the other side vented over to this side, blowing away dust and debris. After a minute a door in the room opened and out walked my Cultivated Humans. These ones were normal. They had skin like someone had glued leaves together in layers to make a human with long stringy seaweed for hair. Their eyes were also blank from a lack of intelligence and pail as can be.
Lain said, "Since I want to know, I'll ask: what are those?"
I answered, "These are Cultivated Humans. Don't worry about how they look or take heed of any reference to zombies. They're actually a fruit. They stay unspoiled for about ninety days depending on how you use them, will do any task you tell them to do, and have a genetic memory so they remember what their ancestors did and can expand on those skills. When they die you can harvest their seeds and just make more. They need a magical energy called Spirit Power to grow but I substitute Manna for my workforce. Since it's my energy in their bodies I control them completely. They make perfect human slaves."
Lain's right eye was half closed and twitching. She was probably thinking something along the lines of 'I don't beleive this,' I think?
"Riiiiight," she droned. And there was the sarcasm and pauses that were in the description for getting the VI. "You sure they aren't some medical experiment? Because let me tell you, I found out some creepy stuff on the dark web and this looks like that."
"You collect all kinds of items and power from all kinds of worlds when you're just a tourist," I gestured towards my new friend and my vegetable pals came right on over.
Each servant grabbed a hold of a part of the platform her computer was on, lifting the whole thing up on their shoulders. Now acting as porters they started the slow synchronized walk towards the doorway.
"Whoa! Careful! I'm delicate equipment, and this computer is not built to survive Ragnarök!" Lain exclaimed. "Where are we going now?"
"To my home of course," said I. "If you are to be my virtual assistant I simply must show you about. And since its quite rude to just unplug you so, we will convey you there shortly. And you're safe to be exposed to my computers. I've touched your soul after all."
"Well thanks for that!"
We were conveyed through the Transfer Station quickly. Doors opened, they closed when we passed. Perfumes and toxins were sprayed on our person. I changed my clothes. A few Cultivated Humans did their best to inspect Lain's computer for bugs and insects. It was good practice.
Eventually we were taken to another room in which was another of my too few Doorway had been set up in advance and we arrived in my spacious home amongst my gardens. We were surrounded by beehives and some very strange fruits and vegetables.
Universe: Torus Earth
Location: Southern California
Time: Afternoon
"This is my garden," I explained I explained to my new guest. "Everything you see here comes from one very specific realm called Toriko's World. And while they may look like a hallucination drawn by a kid with crayons, they're all natural ingredients."
Well a few hundred thousand children had fun drawing up new plants and animals and sending them in to the studio, so technically that was true, but we didn't need to get into that just yet.
"I don't believe it!" Lain exclaimed as her avatar made a point of looking around. "These have to be genetically engineered!"
I walked over to a nearby plot that was full of plants growing four leaves of cheese, meat, and bread. "These are called the Four-Leaf Cloverburgers. The plant grows underground and covers a huge space, with each clover growing a different kind of cheese, bread, and cut of meat. It is the perfect hamburger. These aren't quite ripe yet so I'll leave them alone."
Next I gestured towards another space that was covered with round watermelons placed inside of hammocks and strung between fence posts so only their roots were in the ground. Nearby bulbs of glass held water and nutrients that were stabbed into the ground where the roots were located. A Cultivated Human was at work taking the glass bulbs out of the ground, filling them up from a water bucket, and putting them back in.
"Cultivated Humans do all the finicky detailed work of gardening, watering, and weeding. They are very detailed, more so than a human with an obsessive disorder. These are Soda Watermelons. When cracked, they produce a great drink from their cores. Here, I'll show you," I reached for a nearby one that appeared to be ripe and plucked it from the vine. A touch of telekinesis pinched the connection like the thinnest of knives.
I turned the Soda Melon over and shook it, creating a wet sloshing sound. "That's how you know they're ripe."
I held the melon in my hand, stem side down, and proceeded to thump the other end with a good whack. The melon cracked open like a flower and the fizzing liquid started to pour up between its leaves like a fountain.
"I still don't believe it!" Lain exclaimed again. "What are you doing now?"
The juice that flowed from the melon in my right hand was being collected in my telekinetic grip to form a sphere of green water over my left hand.
I held it up for her to inspect, "My main go-to power, telekinesis. To your health. Itadakimasu!" I held the drink up to my mouth and drank her down.
The fizzing of the liquid reminded me of watermelons in truth, fireworks, hot summer afternoons, and girls on the beach.
It also made me belch, really loud.
"Yummy!" I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "Refreshing naturally occurring watermelon soda is the best sort of drink to have on a hot day. And for a first crop that wasn't half bad. Not as good as the ones I'd gotten in Toriko's World, but still amazing."
I threw the remains of the Soda Mellon over to a local Cultivated Human who in turn threw it into a wheelbarrow of another plant guy who was going around collecting waste.
I gestured over to another plot of irregular land that was growing some kind of trees, all of which looked like they were made from the shells of lobsters and crabs, but this was no artwork project made with leftovers.
"These plants over here are called the Crustacean Meat Tree, whose trunk, branches, and twigs are made of a combination crab and lobster. It may look like a plant, but it's actually an insect, the part it has underground looks a lot like a starfish, and I think they're related. They slowly migrate through sandy soils in the marsh, so they have to be replanted in new plots often as they exhaust the soil."
I gestured towards another plant, a bush that was just covered with thousands of little oval leaves, some of which were slowly turning from bright green to brown to red, with white spots.
"These are the bacon leaves of the Bacon Bush. They live in salty soil as well, transferring that salt into this pseudo-meat, and when ripened, can be smoked to make an exhalent bacon substitute and breakfast ingredient."
I gestured towards a number of pine tree-looking plants next. These had black pine needles.
"These are the Chocolate Frondus. It's a Delicious Conifers Tree that produces its own chocolate sap that pours over its own fruits, creating a snack that's both sinful and healthy to eat." I plucked one off and held it up to the camera just to make a point, then took a bite that sounded like an apple.
The fruit was white on the inside, filled with a fluffy interior like a cake, but was covered by several layers of chocolate sap that formed a crunchy outer coating. I showed this to her as well.
"Unbelievable," Lain exclaimed one more time. "I can see the interior is built just like a fruit but it's filled with cake and chocolate as well as seeds. How is this possible?"
"Look, just think of it as a sponge made with actual cake-like ingredients, and don't think about it too hard," I finished off the snack with two bites and then wished there was more. "Toriko's world is basically a giant Ancient Alien experiment to create an entire planet full of food that's good to eat. It's like a combination of every hungry kid's dream. The fauna and flora have a hundred thousand more categories of phylum, and the planet has several dozens of more surface area to give them plenty of room to grow, and they've had several billion years to make it happen. The human beings that live there just happen to be unfortunate to have their world picked for harvesting. I'll show it to you later and you can connect up to their internet. Then you can figure it all out. But I'm glad that you believe me about the Dimensional Doorways. That'll make things a lot easier going forwards."
As we walked down the pathway around the delicious conifers we came to our first beehive. The top and bottom were modeled after gingerbread candy houses but the middle area was a normal if somewhat larger hive. There was a strong number of large Candy Bees going in and out of the box but they didn't mind my approach at all.
I turned back towards Lain's litter and gestured at the box. "The produce you see around here are called Gourmet Ingredients, these are Gourmet Bees; Candy Bees, specifically. I had to take a class to learn how to take care of them. They can turn anything into a honey fit for candy making. Nectar, meat, grass, even salt ends up tasting like saltwater taffy in a syrup. They can be trained to do tricks and know that I'm not a threat to them. But I am also a Gourmet Hunter, a Confectioner, and their landlord so I take my payment when needed."
There was a work table nearby and a shed. From that I retrieved a metal cup and put it under the spigot of the hive, turning the handle so I might get a few ounces of golden fluid.
"I mainly use cooking technology from Toriko's World since it's so perfect for gathering ingredients. This hive's honey collection mechanism is one of them. They call it a Gourmet Hive."
"I'm sensing a theme here," Lain remarked with lidded eyes.
"Gourmet town, gourmet tools, gourmet ingredients, yes, it is," I nodded. "You'll run into that a lot in Toriko's world. Anyway, this is where I get most of my sugar and wax," I showed her the cup before drinking it down. "Now over here we have something a bit more dangerous."
It took a few minutes to walk to where I wanted to go. California's landscapes varied a lot between deserts, sands, mountains, beaches, endless grasslands and prairies, but there were a few forests. There was such a view from our spot up in the hills that you could see parts of different ecosystems spread out into the distance.
"This area is a lot like Southern California, and we're pretty close to this world's equivalent of Gulf of California, also the bottom of the Rocky Mountains," I remarked as we walked. "I started out here to tap into the local geothermal power and hot water without having to bulldoze the local landscape."
"That's eco-friendly of you. And geothermal power? Wow, that's antiquated, but I can see the appeal," suspiciously, Lain didn't sound enthusiastic.
I asked, "Not a country gal?"
"Not really, but that's besides the point. You won't be able to provide for any of my power needs," she said. "I require maintenance in my service. Industry needs power."
"We've got power," I remarked. "If we need to I can open a portal to a world and drain fluids for water and oil and another portal to dump the trash to a world without life or an atmosphere."
"That would help," she said. "So what is this place?"
The forest had given way to a circular expanse of concrete covered with slick blue tile and a shack on the far side. Above us trees with really long limbs kept the shade on the forest floor and kept the undergrowth down to a bare minimum. In the middle of the clearing was another beehive. This one was colored red with black trim, dark and somewhat foreboding. There was a troth of chrome steel to the side of the hive sunk into the concrete, about a foot wide, two inches tall, leading to a tub with a framework over it.
A Cultivated human had just gotten done cleaning it out.
"This is one of my more controversial projects," I explained. "You see, when I go out into the multiverse and visit other worlds I sometimes get the chance to acquire the lower hanging fruit of power that world provides. Like magic. One of the abilities I got was called Hunter's Blood, which gave me Bloodtinge, which is blood magic and Haemokinesis. You know what that is, right?"
"Blood control," Lain nodded. "I understand."
"They had a lot, and I mean a lot of rituals and abilities centered around blood. One of which is a profession called a Hunter who had the ability to create magical blood bullets. The society could also turn blood into Blood Rocks that enhance weapons and Blood Gems that gave weapons magical powers. I've done my best to enhance this ability over the last month and I eventually acquired an item called the Carpathian Dragons. These guns use alchemy and the blood of a Damphire to work and put a lot of my Blood Bullet magic to shame. I have every intention of using the technology from your world to make better guns and other weapons I can use in magical settings where ordinary weapons don't do much good. But in order to make Blood Rocks and Blood Gems I need blood. Some of that blood comes from animals that I kill and eat. But we also need Hunter's Blood, and since I'm the only Hunter around with magical blood and the blood magic to make Blood Rocks and Blood Gems I needed a little help to get that extra step. These Gourmet Blood Bees help me do that."
By this time we were at the hive. Several bees came out to buzz around us. Most of the hive headed towards the edge of the drain built into the floor. One of the black and white stripped candy-cane-shaped bees landed on the tip of my finger for a moment, before I gently lifted her into the air and she took off.
"They seem friendly," Lain remarked. "For literal blood sucking insects."
"They feed on my blood, and yes they are friendly. I don't want them abused," I warned. "So be nice to them."
I rolled up a sleeve and brought out my Toriko World Infusion Machine from my Weapons Bar.
"This is one of the devices I'll want us to study and try to recreate. Somehow it creates no pain when used," then without ceremony I plunged the device into my wrist and extracted 470ml of blood. When I was done I removed the device from my arm and turned it around. With the push of a few buttons and a twist of the barrel the proboscis was removed and replaced with a sprayer.
The Blood Bees got really excited at this point, buzzing around with hungry urges. When I turned the sprayer around and started painting the troth with blood they all plunged into it, landing on my arm and around my gun as I moved quickly to get the sprayer from one end to the other. By the time I reached the end the unit was empty and all the Blood Bees were lapping at the sudden bounty.
Some of the Blood Bees stayed with me on the end of my gun to clean it when I stood up.
"Shoo, shoo, I got things to do today. Eat well," the bees buzzed away, happy as kittens.
I turned back to Lain, "I do this about once a week. The newly born Blood Bees will convert the Hunter's Blood inside their bodies and become fully functional Blood Bees in truth. They will then be able to make a honey which I can use to make a medicine called Blood Vial that can heal most bodily injuries. Until I got a hold of Medi-gel it was the most capable medicine I had available to me."
"I can understand that," she said. "Seems kind of extreme though. Do you have other people living here?"
"Just myself, the Messengers and a Pod Crab." I pointed off into the distance. "He's over there."
"You have a Pod Crab? Why?" she asked.
"Why do people have hermit crabs with painted shells?" I remarked just as quickly. "I found the guy waiting for me when I was exploring your world. He was so small and helpless I had to take him with me."
Lain blinked, "Did you paint his shell?"
"I'm thinking about it," I remarked. "Want to see him?"
"Sure," Lain said.
It wasn't like I'd wanted a crab for a pet. They weren't good eating for humans either since it was an alien creature from the planet Virmire. I'd gotten it with the Companion Perk: Pet From Home. It had allowed me to choose any animal in the galaxy so long as it came from the Milky Way Galaxy in Mass Effect. I hadn't liked the available choices. So I'd gotten a nice inoffensive pet called a Pod Crab.
I took Lain over to the enclosure. Up here there wer red brick and white cement benches that went around the enclosure that you could sit at. It was like sitting on the edge of an empty pool. The enclosure was set ten feet deep into the ground, with a few inches of water at the bottom, with a landscape that resembles the shore of a beach at low tide. There were plenty of rocks and sands.
The body was in general shaped like a cone with the point down and a flat space on top, with four eyes spread along the edge pointed in each cardinal direction, with a quad of long multi-jointed legs underneath. Possibly mistaken as a bar stool artistically covered with dark blue crab shell, the creature led a humble life amongst the shallows and falling water of the central fountain.
"He seems pretty happy, and he's about as intelligent as any other crab I've ever met. He's to be fed a handful of bivalves every couple hours and washed and checked for parasites once a week," I explained to my new VI assistant. "If we can I'd like to set up a veterinary hospital."
"Looks like a wet Zen garden," Lain remarked when we went to see the guy. "He's kind of small."
"He's not fully grown," I explained. "To be fair I'm not sure what to do with him. I was thinking of rescuing some of the alien creatures that ended up on earth. What do you think?"
"What for?"
"Making a zoo, or something like that," I replied. "I don't want to leave them to die on earth."
"We'd need some people for that."
"I have ideas for that as well." I told her. "You are just the first recruit that I've gotten. I was expecting to find a few more VI from your world, but I really lucked out with you."
Lain smiled under the praise.
"There are still some more places with powers I want to get. People I want to get. Robots and AI and other Machine Spirits like you that I want to get. I also want to see if I can give people powers by taking them with me on my journeys. I'm not ready. Not yet. I'm not in a hurry either. We can take our time and go at our own pace. We can afford to be lazy. We won't be able to afford it later so we should enjoy it now. We have plenty of time."
"I understand perfectly, Norman," Lain said. "Once you have people you'll have obligations. Until now you've only been beholden to yourself."
"Exactly!" I exclaimed. "It's going to take me a bit to show you around. I have to explain some of the fiction of some of the realms I've been too and tell you all about my powers so we can make a good plan. But then I want to help people."
"I'll be there to help you," Lain assured me.
"That's good. I'd like to get some more robot friends for you. Specifically from a few select realms where humans and robot relations are more friendly. But first I need to visit a realm where the relations between humans and robots aren't so friendly. There are some worlds where the people won't respect me unless I have a bunch of cybernetics up the wazoo. It's like owning a muscle good car with modifications, or a pimped out starship with missiles. And before that I've got to show you to meet the Messengers and show you Hunter's Dream and Iosefka's Clinic."
"Oh? Who are the Messengers?"
I introduced her to the Messengers. The Lantern now occupied a space between two pine trees in the shade. The creatures were in their normal grouping, really close together, and halfway out of the ground. One or two seemed to be watching the Gourmet Bees as they pollinated the flowers.
"What. Are. Those? And are you sure they're not a genetic experiment?" Lain was watching with big eyes.
"These, or this, is, or are, the Messengers," I spoke in a lecturing tone. "I'm not exactly one hundred percent sure, but I'm pretty sure that they, or it, is, an, or a Cthulhu-like entity. I'm also pretty sure that the people of the Lost city of Yharnam found its body deep underground and started harvesting his/its Oldblood for medical purposes. This was in the Victorian era, mind, before H.P. Lovecraft decided to write his horror stories based on unknowable alien entities, so they were really up there with the medical experiments at the time. This one isn't so advanced that it's totally indifferent to us, he/it's just really weird. Say hello, everyone, to my new Virtural Assistant Lain." I introduced them.
The humanoid creatures waved at her.
"Hello, Messengers. I'm Lain," she waved back.
"See there now? All nice and acquainted," I cheered. "Now, this lantern acts as its own doorway into the Lost City of Yharnam. The one I have is a copy, contained within its own pocket dimension. Not even I, with my own doormaking ability, can get into the city without this lantern being lit. The Messengers consider that their home and don't really like our dimension too much, so they'll be staying in there most of the time. But it is also something like, ten or fifteen percent, easier to perform blood magic and rituals in that city, so that's where I perform most of my Blood Stone and Blood Gem manufacturing and brewing. I'll be showing it to you properly after we get you set up in my omni-tool. See you later guys."
I waved as I walked away. Lain waved too, and all the Messengers waved back.
Still creepy.
-000-
"That was uncomfortable," Lain remarked once we had gone a set distance away from the Messengers place in my garden. I noted that we were pretty far away now, more than a minute's walk in perfect silence between us, and that most Mass Effect species wouldn't be able to hear us at this distance. "It felt like they were staring at my soul. And now that I know I have one I don't want to lose it."
"They can see your soul," I confirmed. "They don't eat souls, as far as I'm aware. If they did the City of Yharnam would have been the city-of-the-suddenly-falling-over-people-from-invisible-child-monsters."
"What happened to the city?"
"The city became the bases for a hack and slash video game called Bloodborne in another world. That's where I learned of it," I answered without answering. "When you're hooked up to the internet you can learn all about it."
"Can't wait." Very definitely zero enthusiasm in that reply.
We came down the hill from the grove of trees and passed by a field full of vehicles of all sorts. The cars and trucks were out front while the backhoe and construction equipment was in the back or off to the side. The bulldozer was being painted.
"This is where I keep my vehicles. In my travels I generally prefer to go to abandoned mines and construction sites and pick up things that other people leave behind. Like that bulldozer there; I actually taught myself how to fix that up myself," I smiled hugely.
"That's quite an accomplishment," Lain enthusiastically congratulated.
"I am," I sighed. "Of course, in the next few days I'll be getting some Tagged Skills that will make my learning up to this point seem kind of pointless. But I am proud of it."
We kept moving.
After another minute we came to the area where I'd parked the trailer and my old red truck. The area was surrounded by sheds that I'd nicked that were all full of my stuff. A couple Cultivated Humans were at work with weed whackers clearing out the grass between them.
"And this is my humble home and camp site," I remark.
"It's a trailer," Lain said in surprise. "I thought you'd have a house or something?"
"No house building skills," I explained. "When I first started this adventure my powers activated at random and I drove into another world without warning. I lost my home. I was homeless. I actually spent a few days living in houses that were on the market while I figured out my powers. I stole this one because I liked it. I had to spend some time figuring out how to get water and power. Maybe later I'll build a house but this suits me fine now."
We went down into my campsite and I started pointing things out.
"I got those cannons from a mansion." "I use this big wooden table here to dress my kills." "I got this bottle of sand at the beach of a castle. This bottle of sand comes from Hawaii." "And this is my Bay blade stadium."
This last one I pointed out was a full skateboard park of smooth white cement shrunk down to fit into a ten foot space and appropriately sized for tops. It was covered in scar marks.
We were met on the porch of the trailer by one of my Cultivated Humans. In his hands is one of my Omni-tools. I had discovered that if I took my tools off before I changed species the unit would be left behind.
"And this is the Andromeda Omni-tool, and your new home," I took the item from my servant's hands and put it on my right arm, the circular display screen about where a watch would be worn, while the rest of the rectangular body was laid out halfway up to my elbow. Once in place it stuck firmly to the skin as if glued into place. Then I turned it on. "Okay, transfer yourself over."
Once the appropriate permissions were given the new VI began downloading herself and all her baggage into the device on my arm. There are some good visual effects as the holographic girl is deconstructed into a storm of pixels which go whizzing through the air into the stronger-than-diamond clear screen of the watch-like face of the Omni-tool's display screen.
The shards of her soul migrate into the new device without any complications.
Lain's holographic avatar popped up a moment later. "Continuity of consciousness is maintained," she stated.
"Good, that's very good." I smiled. "Then let's get you up to speed and go to work."
So, another couple of jumps though these you would definitely want the perks from the Marvel Symbiot jump for its protection perks.as well as the Symbiot itself and its perks before going here( Just a reminder that marvel Symbiot can bond with and integrate technology as seen in the cartoons and comics, so having a Symbiot would still work in your robot form.) Anyways. The jumps! In order of how you want to take them is View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g79NfyUKLc18_IYiG_Dlwdv7jAh1lEiQ/view
That would be why he should travel to it late after getting all the protection freebies and powering up. Use a spaceship and arrive on the Mars then portal over. No one will notice you there. If you have to be by Earth and not just in the same universe( which was not a requirement listed before) drive the ship as close as you need to go to get the perks(Destiny jump has free spaceship You can also get the Exo alt form there).
I just think with portals when I have a problem speaking of There is a portal jumpchain though nothing on it is free iirc.
That would be why he should travel to it late after getting all the protection freebies and powering up. Use a spaceship and arrive on the Mars then portal over. No one will notice you there. If you have to be by Earth and not just in the same universe( which was not a requirement listed before) drive the ship as close as you need to go to get the perks(Destiny jump has free spaceship You can also get the Exo alt form there).
I just think with portals when I have a problem speaking of There is a portal jumpchain though nothing on it is free iirc.
Maybe not Earth, but planet? Like, there is binding to the planet's gravitational well or something. Otherwise he would not be able to open new portals, while being in alien world, which is not really Earth. Like, is Toriko world a version of Earth? Does it mean his portals only lead to different versions of Earth?
WoD is critically unstable, as in history is literally adjusting and rewritting itself constantly.
Not a place to walk into without all the protections, which would make most of the things there redundant.
Remember, general perks and items that are free to grab only.
The eldritch that is D&D is safer, and thats saying something.
