Latest Update:December 1, 2022
Summary: We've all seen gamer stories. The main character hops in, instantly gets his super powered epic skill and a harem of hotties. Goes on to hop into the main plot and become the best of friends with everyone important and everything ends up going their way.
Unfortunately, Leslie doesn't want to be here. And all of that sounds like way too much work.
Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/project-gamer-ver-2-young-justice-gamer-multicross-oc.92217/reader/
Word count:620k
Chapters:174
Chapter 1:
You know? Being dead isn't really so bad.
It's calm, peaceful. Quiet.
Beautifully so. Tinnitus didn't carry over.
Just myself, my thoughts, and an endless yawning abyss filled with horrors and eyes. Staring, judging, weighing and waiting...
I waved.
"Please don't encourage them!" And I suppose I should introduce the only other 'Person' here with me.
Terra-Tan, girl was a head and a half shorter than me, measuring up to a rough one-point-four meters. Ish. Maybe. Size is relative here, I think. She had wheat-gold hair done in a pair of drill-like pigtails and eyes the lightest color of jade I'd ever seen.
And she was dressed in a magical girl outfit. I kid you not. Frills and bows everywhere, even had a scepter with a large red gem at the end, with one ring with a pair of pearls right around it, and another ring with four pearls around that.
Total weeb.
"Why are you so rude!" Fists on her hips, cheeks puffed out, she tried to lean forward and look intimidating.
"Because I'm all thoughts and no filter?" And it wasn't working. I just couldn't muster up the energy to be afraid.
I was already dead after all. Stroke in my mid-fifties, just like the rest of my family. Except without the cigarettes and alcohol.
Honestly, I thought I'd been doing pretty good.
"And you were." The girl, goddess probably. Or bad joke my own psyche is playing on me, admitted. "The stress you put on yourself didn't help any, but if you'd gotten to a doctor, you would have made a full recovery. Or as full as it gets, I guess. Brains are hard."
"So, what happens next? Reincarnation? Recursion? Passed around like a sorority girl to the elder gods?" The last one involved actual madness, it should be entertaining for a bit.
"What? Eww, no! They're just here because it's the only thing entertaining left at this level of reality. I pick a human soul, offer them my boon, and then throw them into a random part of the multiverse!" She seemed very proud about that, leaning back in this indefinable space with a smug grin and closed eyes.
"Oh! You mean like Aqua!" She deflated at my words, almost visibly shrinking.
"I'm better than Aqua!" Terra shouted as she waved her fists and pouted. "I don't have to send people to her miserable little death world, and I don't prey on NEETs and Shut-Ins!"
Well, that was fair enough. Now I was kind of wondering if my wife would be calling my workplace. The bastards would probably pull out a Ouija board and ask if I could come in on Friday.
"And-and-and I'm the one who made the first gamer! Without me, Han Jihan, Harvest and countless others would've just-just... Why are you looking at me like that?" The girl slowed down, less and less certain as her audience of one was, for all of her boasting, not impressed.
"Which I suppose is what you were going to offer me?"
"Yup-Yup!"
"Oh." Was my entirely unenthusiastic response. "I think I'll pass."
"Excuse me?" She was looking at me like I'd said something absurd, or just realized I was simple. "Maybe you don't understand. Magic? Stats? Potential for unlimited power? Loot? You guys like loot, right?"
"Yeah, that's awesome and all, but I had enough trouble relating to people without sociopathy from the whole 'Mind Protected From Emotions' thing you got going on with it. How many of your gamers -Don't- end up being ADHD murderbots?" I was not a paragon of virtue, no, but most of the gamers I knew about were murder-obsessed blood knights.
It was incredibly telling when she refused to answer.
"Right, so, if we could just get this ball rolling? I'm sure there's some other option for me. Maybe reincarnating as a fish? I like fish, well, fried fish."
"...I've been trying to patch things..." She was mumbling.
"Sorry?" I leaned down. "Don't think I got all that."
"I'm TRYING!" She exploded, shouting in my face. "But do you have -Any- idea how hard it is to fix things when people are complaining 'Where's my skills, Terra?' 'Why can't I have a party, Terra?' 'My HP hit zero 'cuz of a paper-cut, Terra!'? Well do you?!"
"I was married, so yes." My response was said in such a sincere deadpan, too.
She screamed wordlessly, the... Things, in the background, screaming as well. Or maybe laughing.
"Alright, alright, just take a deep breath, okay?" I tried placating her, but I wasn't sure it was working. Her eyes were glowing a darker green now, and I was pretty sure I could hear her teeth grinding.
Literally in both cases.
"How about you just tell me what changes you've tried, and we'll workshop this, alright?" At my urging she did take a slow, deep breath before exhaling in the loudest, most obvious way I'd seen.
Outside of an anime.
The weeb.
"Alright. Alright. So I've tried toggling access to the shop. Some gamers have it, some gamers don't, it doesn't change much. I've also tried ID create. Some of the more entertaining gamers have used it for a kind of teleportation, and that was really cool! Bust most of them just go in and pew-pew-pew zombies until they're too strong for their reality." She actually did finger guns for the pew-pew-pew part.
"But the gamers who don't get ID create just find some other mechanic to abuse?" I already knew the answer.
"Yeah... They usually go for the adaptive abilities and do crazy stuff like catch themselves on fire or eat lightning bolts or stuff. Then they walk up to the big bad and become a bigger bad." She sounded more and more depressed, which was fair. On the surface, it was a cool idea.
"Alright, and what about relationshi-"
"No." She stopped me cold.
"Yeah, that's fair." I already had a good idea about the next set of questions. "What about Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind?"
"What about 'em? They're, well, they're like the whole draw aren't they? Live life like a video game! Be the ultimate gamer! Who doesn't love that?" She seemed incredibly proud about that, too.
"But maybe they're a big part of the problem?" I could already see that she was going to argue, so I held up my hands. "Hey, hey, just give it a thought, okay? A lot of the really good protagonists have got some trauma, or some kind of motivation, right? Something they feel really strong about?"
She nodded, still not looking too happy with me.
"Being an emotionless tactician is great in things like the Civilization series, but your gamers are supposed to be action RPG's, yeah?" She nodded again, looking slightly less unhappy with me. "So maybe they need to be a little more vulnerable? Let them be scared, and reckless, and clumsy so they can make mistakes. Mr.Perfect is Mr.Boring, isn't he?"
Terra still didn't look happy, but she nodded at me.
"But... I built it all on those things. ID create, Gamer's Body, Gamer's Mind. They're, like, my hallmarks!" Ooh, tears now! Aqua vibes rising.
"And sometimes you have to innovate, try new things, cut out some bugs! Or is your name Bethesda instead of Terra?" To be fair, I was goading her. I really shouldn't have been surprised.
"You know what? You're right!"
I was? I mean, yeah, I was!
"And you get to be my beta tester!" Terra was starting to sound manic. Why was Terra sounding manic?
"I'd really rather not. Could I maybe just, y'know, pass on?" Seriously, I'd already lived. I wasn't actually eager to go on to some afterlife, but I was very, very keen on not being some god's entertainment.
"Nope!" Yay.
INITIALIZING CHANGES...
"So, is this gonna be some kind of reincarnation deal then?" I wasn't sure if I hoped it was or wasn't. Both sides had their pros and cons.
CORE MODULE: GAMER'S MIND - UNINSTALLED
"Eh, well, no. I've got a great deal with the Death of that multiverse though!"
CORE MODULE: GAMER'S BODY - UNINSTALLED
"So, y'see, when someone decides to unalive themselves there, I can make them an offer. In exchange for incarnating my champion in their body, I'll erase their karmic debt and help them reincarnate."
CORE MODULE: ID CREATE - UNINSTALLED
"I really can't help but feel I won't be terribly useful at the bottom of a rope." Or with any of the other common side effects of that kind of activity.
CORE MODULE: ID ESCAPE - ERROR! FILE SET TO READ ONLY!
"Don't be silly! The swap happens the same moment they -decided- fully and certainly, to do it. I just rewind the clock a little bit and do a little switcharoo." She looked a bit concerned about the error message, but shrugged it off. "Though, if you could maybe resolve whatever caused them that pain to start with? I'd... Really appreciate it."
CORE MODULE: MENU - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!
CORE MODULE: STATUS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!
CORE MODULE: SKILLS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!
CORE MODULE: SPELLS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!
CORE MODULE: PERKS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!
CORE MODULE: SHOP - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!
CORE MODULE: SETTINGS - ERROR! (MULTIPLE) MASTER FILES MISSING!
"Good enough!" Terra was actively giggling now. That was probably a bad sign. "Are you ready?"
"No?"
"Too bad!" Then the stupid magical girl hit me in the face with her stupid scepter and I 'Woke Up'.
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 0.0.2
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
"Don't worry, he knows."
Those were the first words he heard when he woke up in this reality, wearing the skin of someone else. It was accompanied by a full body jerk as he tried to figure out what was going on.
One moment he'd been in the abyss, talking to... Well, she never quite introduced herself beyond her name, Terra-tan, but he was going to assume goddess. Or eldritch equivalent in a convenient, non-mind breaking package.
The world was already in full focus, which was disorienting in the extreme. Human minds struggle terribly with shifts that happen without transition.
It didn't take incredibly long for him to put together where he was, or what was going on around him though.
The air stank, bitter and very reminiscent of skunk. Empty cans were piled up on every surface nearby. Explosions and gunshots coming from the television screen.
A girl, someone his meatsuit presumably knew, getting felt up and kissed by an older man. Potentially a problem, but... How old even was she?
'13'
Alright, huge problem. How old was the guy kissing her?
'37'
Yep. Awesome. Huge problem.
"Bro, you alright?" One of the two boys playing the game on the tv asked him. Who was he?
'Johnny'
"Yeah Johnny. Just... Man, I really need some chips." He didn't have the full details, he couldn't even remember what was supposed to be happening here! Every time he tried, he could remember what he'd been doing before he died, but nothing about any of this.
Except that he -could- answer himself if he asked a question he should know. Which was... Interesting. The kids brain could answer queries, but it couldn't be directly accessed.
Maybe a software to hardware mismatch? Fifty year old nerd trying to run on thirteen year old stoner brain.
"Man, I could go for some cookies!" The other boy on the couch...?
'Tommy'
Tommy said.
"A'ight. You got money? I'll walk to the corner store, get some stuff." Tommy waited until his character got downed by a headshot and gave...
'What's my name supposed to be?'
'Leslie Winters'
'...'
Leslie a fistful of crumpled bills he pulled out of his pocket. He didn't bother counting them before stuffing them in his own pocket, pointedly ignoring what was happening on the chair and shuffling outside.
It was hot, incredibly humid, and fairly early if the sun being high in the sky meant anything.
Leslie stalked down the road, making a mental note of the house number as he passed the mailbox.
--QUEST ALERT!--
--Resolve the events that lead to the suicide of Leslie Winters!--
--REWARD!--
--1000 GP!--
As he got further down the road, he looked up, checking the street sign, and then began patting down his pockets. He found the wad of bills Tommy gave him, a flip lighter and a wallet that had a student I.D. and a further fifty dollars in it.
And a scuffed smartphone with a cracked screen.
Perfect.
It took him a moment to turn it on and he stared at the lock screen.
'What's my P.I.N?'
'7734'
'This kid was such an edgelord' Well, Leslie thought that, but didn't bother voicing it. Too little too late after all.
Passcode put in, a moment to puzzle out the buttons later and-
"Nine-One-One, what's your emergency?" The responder was a woman, he thought her accent was from the east coast but he wasn't actually sure.
"There's a pedophile with three kids in his house, he's been giving them weed and beer. He was feeling up a twelve or thirteen year old girl when I saw it."
She asked a few further questions, things he didn't have an immediate answer for except the address. Leslie might have, but other people asking questions didn't prompt that little answer like his asking did.
"Listen, if I stick around I'm going to commit a crime. Tell the officers if they need me I'll be at the corner store two blocks south of the house. Leslie. Green hoodie and blue jeans." It would've been dramatic for him to just hang up on the responder then and there, but not terribly useful. She asked a few further questions before thanking him for his time and telling him to stay put for the officers.
Not something he was looking forward to, but it'd probably resolve his starter quest.
Leslie hung up and continued walking. No starting knowledge of a setting and waking up to a tragedy, this was going to be awesome, he could already tell.
"Inventory?" He was expecting a grid, but got a list instead. In the upper right corner it listed GP, and had the number one-thousand there.
Experimentally he pushed the flip lighter into it.
It still sank right in, and at the very top of the list the word -Lighter- was filled in. Thinking at the menu didn't move the selector up or down, but he found he could move it with his eyes by focusing on the words, or he could wave his hands and move things that way. He highlighted the lighter he'd just put in and shifted his focus to the neighboring screen.
-Flip Lighter-
-Brand: Zippo-
-Fuel: 67%-
-Description-
"A flip lighter with a Buckeye leaf on one side, and a large red O on the other. Leslie stole this from a tourist because he thought it was a marijuana leaf."
Disappointed, though not surprised, he closed the inventory.
"Status?" A new window popped into existence. It had seven core statistics, and three other figures.
Strength and Vitality, Dexterity and Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom, and finally Luck. A little bit bare-bones, but not too surprising.
HP and MP were expected as well. VP wasn't. He highlighted that.
-VP- Vitality Points
"These points are not directly affected by your in-game stats. Instead they represent your bodies actual health. HP may act as a buffer or shield to defend against permanent or crippling injuries, but VP represents your actual life remaining. Piercing damage, critical blows and various debilitations or injuries can cause direct harm to VP. Non-Lethal attacks cannot reduce VP"
He had one-hundred HP, twenty-five MP, seven VP, and a flat five in every stat.
Three squad cars passed him by, heading in the opposite direction. He was almost at the store, a Seven/Eleven.
Did he just get incarnated back into normal reality?
"Shop?" This window was just a search bar. Unlike his inventory though, it responded directly to what he thought.
'Status Recovery' He wasn't stumbling around drunk on the side of the road, but he could taste something bitter at the back of his throat and his thoughts felt... Off, somehow.
A lot of options were brought up, and he did mean a lot. Powdered unicorn horns, pixie dust, anti-anything he could think of was listed here.
And most of it was more expensive than he could afford.
He scrolled down, moving past the single use items and into spell and skill books. Just like before, most of it was just outside his price range. Cure Condition, Status Restore, Purge, Chakra Cycle, Vera, Spoon, the list went on and on. And the prices went up and up.
Except for one. Listed at Six-Hundred GP was a spell called Esuna. Well, there were a bunch of different Esuna listed, but this one was conspicuously inexpensive. He highlighted it.
-Esuna-
"This version of the spell is from the world of Palakkia. It can initially only cure poison and blindness. As the caster becomes more experienced, however, it can be used to cure nearly all debilitations!"
He clicked purchase.
He also picked up a bottle of water from a refrigerated rack in the store and a pack of mint gum. Paying for it, he sat down in front of the store on the sidewalk and pulled out his new spellbook from his inventory.
It very inconveniently did not burst into motes of light and ash and add itself to his list of known spells. He had to actually read the book before the spell was useful.
Which wasn't actually too bad, it was thirty pages and closer to an idiots guide than a magical treatise. He even got to keep it when he was done.
"Spells?"
There were actually two entries here, which was fairly surprising. Esuna, which he'd been expecting. And I.D. escape, which he hadn't been expecting.
Well, that wasn't terribly important right now. He focused on Esuna, focused on himself, and with a strange twisting feeling, it was cast.
[Alcohol has been removed]
[Tetrahydrocannabinol has been removed]
No lightshow though, which was surprising. Good, but surprising. He was going to have to figure out how to increase his MP however, or he'd be unable to cast the spell after it leveled up a few times.
He took a sip of his water and was about to reopen the status menu when a squad car pulled up and parked in front of the store.
Gotham City Police Department.
Oh. That... Wasn't good.
A portly man stepped out of the vehicle, wearing a beige trench coat and a brown trilby hat.
Leslie started chewing a piece of gum.
"Hey kid, you the one called in that Chester up the road?" The officer stopped directly in front of Leslie, so he got up.
"Two blocks north of here?" Leslie wasn't quite sure what he meant by Chester.
"That's the one, yeah." The man reached into his coat and pulled out his badge. "Harvey Bullock, GCPD."
"Leslie Winters." The boy held out his hand, but the detective didn't shake it. "What do you need?"
"I'm a need you to fill out a statement kiddo. Ya wanna do it here, we can do it here. Otherwise you an' me are gonna have ta go to tha station and do it there." The detective was getting more brusque, but then he could probably smell the cheap weed Leslie was soaked in.
'Where do I live?'
The address the remnant of Leslie offered was relatively nearby.
"I live three blocks over, Mr.Bullock. You wanna just go there, get my mom to sign off on whatever she's gotta and we get this over with?" Leslie was still a minor, if this world was anything like the real world then she'd have to get involved with the whole mess anyway.
"Not happenin' kid. Here or the station." The detective was getting impatient.
Leslie wondered if he'd been having a bad day to start with, or this just upset him.
Or both.
"You're gonna take me to the station either way, aren't you?" Bullock didn't say anything, but he did cross his arms. Screw it. "Let's just go to the station. Sooner begun, sooner we're done."
"'Least you're smarter than your two pothead friends." No handcuffs were involved, and the detective didn't 'Help' him into the car, but still. An hour and a half into day one in this reality, he was already in police custody.
Awesome start.
Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/project-gamer-ver-2-young-justice-gamer-multicross-oc.92217/reader/