NEET Fighter Alpha; Rise of The Hikikomori

[Grape_Drink]

((See link related for details))

You were on your way back home from the gas station across the street, or perhaps you were sitting at home, or back from an interview you were forced into when a tiny delivery drone carrying a letter came out of the sky… Usually you’d ignore such things since they’re mainly spam, but this particular letter had no send or return address, the envelope was completely blank, there was not even a stamp on it!

Opening up the envelope, there appears to only be a small microchip inside. Curiosity gets the best of you as you pop it into your VR device behind your ear, a downloading window immediately appearing on your screen! Shit, it’s probably a virus... You just got this new VR device too!

Fiddling around trying to stop whatever is downloading proves futile though as your security programs don’t seem to recognize its existence. A download complete sign appears for a few moments before your screen turns to black…


NEET Fighter Alpha!


It’s the first thing to greet you as you suddenly find yourself in the familiar world of CC. Well, that’s new. They’d never officially accepted that name after all, guess it’s an appeal to the fan base? And what’s with it taking up your entire field of vision instead of just a large box? The urban center here in town was rather familiar to you, though you’d taken warp gates to other regions in the world before. You’re surprised as the program usually takes a few minutes to load up, not seconds… What’s more surprising is how empty the city looks. Usually the urban centers are loaded with hundreds of players packed into tiny spaces, especially in major trade hubs like this, but right now there only seems to be a dozen or two folks lounging around.

Out of nowhere, a series of warnings begin to appear on your screen mentioning that you’ve broken the terms of use, telling you to exit the game! What!?

...

These quickly disappear as a small series of messages appear in the corner of your screen-


Game Modifications synchronized
Level synchronized
Weapons synchronized
Armor synchronized
Synchronization ratio 96%: Success!

Synchronized? What does it mean synchronized!? Looking at your character stats, you find to your horror that they’ve all been reduced to level one! Your weapons and armor have been wiped clean! What the hell!?

You go to exit the program and send an email to the support team when a box appears over your “log out” button:

You must defeat an opponent to log out.

That’s insane. You’re level one and possibly out in public right now, this is dangerous! One of your hands reaches out to tap the back of your device and force it to shut down only to feel the touch of your hand against your head, or rather touch sensors against your helmet in some cases. … Is this for real? What kind of modification is this???


Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• Titanium foam lattice mod obtained! (lightweight/fast)
• Miniature sub-machine gun attachment obtained!
• H&K G3SG/1 Rifle obtained!
• Smoke Screen shoulder-mount obtained! (releases smoke behind you)

You motion with your mind to step forward as your mech fails to move… A strange sensation washes over you as you suddenly realize... You have feeling in both of your legs!?

It takes you a few minutes, but before long you’ve regained your balance as you feel as if you’re actually walking with your own two legs instead of simply going through the concentrated repetitions that you’re so used to... Looking over your inventory, it seems your lattice armor is much like bone in its design, but much lighter and much more durable, allowing you to sprint at faster-than-regular speeds! Except for the fact that your mech is taller than you are in real life, and you proceed to fall flat on your face a few times as you gain your balance. Your machine gun and rifle are far from perfect, especially since the rifle isn't an attachment, but they seem like they'll serve you rather well.

“Well, well! Looks like a mecha, boys! 4 Ball? Pft, I got this, no way a huge lug like that can keep up with me…!”



Your excitement is short lived as a level 1 approaches you, the all-too-familiar fight request appearing on your screen, except there doesn’t seem to be a decline option.

Challenge from Miss Hellhound; 50 XP standard wager
Player-defined Wager: two minute Mind Meld on loser’s XP.
Accept now
Accept Later [ ] minutes
Change Wager: [ ]

You note that you currently have 100 XP, and require 500 to level up. Looking at your opponent, she seems to have two leashes in hand with large metallic balls on the end of them.

Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• Secondary Arms Obtained!
• Gauss Rifle Obtained!
• Medpack Obtained! (1 use/battle on self, or 2 use/battle on allies)
• Foot-Hands Obtained!

As you look at your hands, you note that your brain doesn’t seem to be able to control them, in fact, if you were to use words to describe it, it’s almost as if they were actually…

You bend over as your second set of arms picks up a small bit of debris, the feel of the concrete against your hand sensors. Holy crap! You can actually feel with them as if they were real! You clumsily move your hands around as you get used to the synchronized feel of additional arms. Digging into the ground with your feet, you can feel the distinct flexibility of your toes as if they were fingers. You have a feeling that running will be a bit harder until you get used to them, but climbing buildings with them or hanging upside down from them should be a cinch!

Wobbily making your way along, a player approaches you with a wave of a mechanical arm sticking out of his shoulderblade. He begins to talk in some foreign language that you don’t recognize as your translator gets to work.



“Yo, you’re new, right? I’m Ex-Stasisey, what’s your name? Look, it seems we’re both stuck here, so do you wanna hook up and maybe win a couple fights to get out of this mess? Here lets synch up.”

While his words seem sincere, you note that he already has 200 XP whereas you only have 100, requiring 500 to level up. By all accounts he’s had to have won at least one fight already. Two windows appear on your screen.

Ex-Stasisey has sent a team request, accept (y/n)?
(team requests allow tracking in-game as well as private “group channel” discussion)
Ex-Stasisey has sent a friend request, accept (y/n)?

Warning: Friend Requests allow tracking of the location of players out-of-game.


Well, that warning is new. They never did that before...

Jason

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• Brain Cloak Mod Obtained!
• Thruster Boots Obtained! (5 second bursts per minute)
• Hookshot (5 meters) Katar Obtained!
• Merovingian-style High Frequency Seax Obtained!

Rain pitter patters around you as you try to step forward with your mind to no effect. Eventually after panicking for a few moments, you try moving your foot, and to your astonishment it works! You look over your tools, checking their individual effects noting their differences from the default level one weaponry… It seems this Brain Cloak mod temporarily speeds up your neural processes making time appear to “slow down” around you while simultaneously covering you in a chameleon-like effect, but it only has a 10 second activation limit before overheating and requiring a couple minutes to cool down (though from a quick test, ten seconds feels more like thirty seconds to you). You test out your hookshot, expecting to be able to jump from building to building like that old “Zelda” game your grandpa used to play, but you’re disappointed at the extremely short range it has… It’s still enough to dodge out of the way indoors or to surprise an opponent who thinks they dodged an attack, but it seems you’ll need to upgrade it to further its effects. You find your Seax to be… Interesting. You’re not quite used to this ancient-style sword, having preferred more modern ones honestly. After getting a feel for the weight though, you try it out on a nearby statue as the vibration-effect allows it to slice through the stone like a knife through cheese- it definitely took some effort, but with the right angle and force it could virtually chop through most materials. You think.

“OHOHOHOHO!!!! Svezheye myaso!” (fresh meat)



With a distinct tromp that reminds you of a chicken walker, the robot speaking in Russian pops out from behind a nearby corner, waving around a ridiculously large machine gun you’d expect more on an Apache than a mecha avatar as something appears on your screen…

Challenge from Torchy Pie; 50 XP standard wager
Player-defined Wager: Must Accept Friend Request if Loses
Accept now
Accept Later [ ] minutes
Change Wager: [ ]
Warning: Friend Requests allow tracking of the location of players out-of-game.

Well that warning is definitely new, and why is there no decline feature like there used to be? What’s up with that!?

Jonathan Edge

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• NATI Mod Obtained!
• SOPMOD Assault Carbine obtained!
• Sand-Vaporizer Mod Obtained! (2 seconds per use)
• Jetpack (10 seconds/minute) Obtained!

The light throb in your knees and kink in your neck from age and experience seems to be all but gone as you look around… It seems to be CC, but something about it feels… More real? As you go to step forward with your mind, your avatar doesn’t seem to move… Panicking for a moment, you calm yourself and try to force the movement through your muscles… Surprisingly enough, this works as you begin to walk forward, quickly tripping due to the difference between your height in real life and your character’s slightly taller height… You’ll get used to it quickly enough you figure. Aside from being a bit off-balance, you also seem to be spry and fit as if you were ten years younger!

Looking over your items, you note the large selection of modifications to your Carbine. This “Sand-Vaporizor Mod” seems to be a wrist-mounted mid-ranged gun that shoots plasma-heated sand particles at your opponent… Could prove useful for blinding them, or causing mild burns to throw them off balance should they think it’s an actual flamethrower, but it seems to have a minute cooldown on it… The Jetpack is also rather nice, though the minute cooldown means you’re screwed if you go straight up vertically.

As you look over your items, you can’t help but notice that your interface seems far more advanced than it previously did… What gives? As if hearing your thought process, a young feminine voice chimes in…

“Teehee! I’m NATI! Neuro-Analytical and Tactical Interface! Nice to meet you, Mr. Edge!”

A small smiley face appears in the corner of your screen as small squares seem to go over the nearby landscape and players, most of them ignoring you or only casually glancing over. As it goes over said objects, it seems to point out weak points in their structures, distance from them, etc.

“As you can see, I can provide all sorts of information for you during battles, and even help you focus your aim by giving computational adjustments under most conditions! Isn’t that gre- oh, hold on...”

NATI seems to see something in the corner of the screen as she focuses in on it, a small box expanding on the left side of your helmet to reveal a woman seeming to glide towards you.



Alright, this new VR device definitely has a higher resolution than your old machine. This HD view is almost realistic, in fact it pretty much looks realistic, which combined with the feeling of gravel under your feet is pretty badass! Your screen turns a tint of red as NATI displays a large warning across your visor.

“Aggressive intent detected at five hundred meters east, sir! Also, I’m detecting elevated levels of Testosterone and Adrenaline upon visual confirmation of target, hehe.”

Challenge from Acutus Velox; 50 XP standard wager
Player-defined Wager: Four minute Mind Meld on loser’s XP.
Accept now
Accept Later [ ] minutes
Change Wager: [ ]

What, no decline option? What’s up with that!?

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• Scorp-Bot Mod Obtained!
• Brain Burst Obtained! (5 seconds, minute cooldown)
• Glider Wings Obtained!
• Hunter Mod Obtained! (30 seconds, three minute cooldown)

Controlling your avatar with your mind is quite easy, but you find yourself unable to do so as you panic a bit! It quickly dawns on you that you have to move your limbs physically to move the character as you let out a sigh of relief, but expect to bump into something at any moment in real life. Looking over your avatar, it seems you've gained a few perks that didn't exist in-game before! Also, your balance feels funny, as if you had a lot more support in the back... Can you actually feel the weight of your avatar's tail? How is that even possible? Moving your bum muscles around a bit, you find yourself able to control the direction that the tail swings in, and after a few minutes you think you could even target large objects with it!

Your tail seems to extend into a human-sized scorpion bot when you activate the first mod, but after activation you don't seem to be able to use your brain burst power until it reattaches. You aren't sure how Brain Burst works, but a small in-game help screen tells you that locking your tail around an enemy's head causes you to gain control of them for five seconds at a time. Sweet. Aside from the gothic stinger-tipped butterfly wings on your back that let you glide in the air, the only other thing of note seems to be this hunter mod... You have to pull out the in-game help menu again, which isn't too helpful as it shows you kneeling down like a cat before pouncing? This seems pretty stupid, but you go ahead and get into position, and just as it reads, you pounce- and oh do you pounce! Flying through the air, you freak out as you land flat on your face, but you manage to try again. You can pounce a good thirty meters, and even jump from building walls after the initial jump! This is kind of fun, and with your claw-hands, you could probably rip the shit out of someone!

Speaking of which...



Challenge from Dickes Bundesliga; 50 XP standard wager
Player-defined Wager: Three minute Mind Meld on loser’s XP.
Accept now
Accept Later [ ] minutes
Change Wager: [ ]

A mech with two large jackhammers for hands appears from around the corner as a challenge screen pops up! Unfortunately you don't seem to have a decline option, but he seems to be level 1 as he speaks in German, your translator quickly going to work.

"Haha! Finally someone to fight so I can go home! I'm not sure what possessed me to warp to the Japan server..."

[spitfyre]

" New? Well, not exactly, I plugged in some new update, and it reset my damn account. But sure, we can work together, although, I seem to have some new changes and kinks to my mech that I need to work out. But I still know the basics, point and shoot. The name's Ebony Nightshade."

yes

yes

With that Amelie starts to get reacquainted with her new Mech, testing out the hand/feet, as well as her second pair of arms. She tried climbing and running and aiming upside down, all the perks that came with her new versatility.

[exalted]

Raina lazily fanned herself with an old oriental fan, resting her eyes as she tracked each bead of sweat that rolled down her frame. The AC had packed it in again and she wouldn't be able to call the technician until her next pension cheque came in. The universe's cruel irony, she thought, given enough she could have probably weaponized it let alone fix it, but the bastard unit was mounted too high up on the wall to reach. So here she sat, stewing in an old set of boxers and a tank top. A flutter of hope went through her as she heard the drone, hoping her cheque had come, but she knew that was still a week away.

Nonetheless she rolled herself to the door and accepted the letter. This sort of letter wasn't that unfamiliar to her, while officially the non-disclosure forms and contracts she'd signed prevented her from working, she still did some anonymous consulting at times for some extra cash. Not all of the work was seedy, sometimes her old friends farmed some work out to her if they were stuck, though at times she thought it was out of pity. Regardless, she thought, it was a way to fix the AC before she melted.

Plugging in, her suspicions were lost immediately she felt her legs, actually felt her legs. It was amazing, she'd never even heard of a system capable of this... if slaved to a real...

Her thoughts were turned aside as she heard the woman's voice and watched her approach, the fight message appearing across the screen. All right, she thought, let's see what this thing can really do.

Sizing up the woman she knew she would have a to keep her distance, hopefully using her speed to keep the woman at range. Initially she would only use the rifle, saving the SMG as a surprise stinger for if the woman got in too close.

Accepting the fight request she was immediately on the trigger, hammering rounds at the woman as she dashed to the right.

[Nobudi]

Ginko... no, RYuuna, was absolutely confused about what was going on, but then a stray thought from a year ago struck her mind: Could this be the legendary banned program?
If it really was so, why her?
Those problems were swept aside as she tested out her new avatar.
It was pretty damn sweet, truth be told. But the problem that she couldn't log out kind of frightened her.
Then a challenger appeared before her, a German, if what the software was telling her.
As for the wager, she asked him "Do we have to make a wager?"
She then tried to change the wager to make it blank, or at least try and put in "Trade Wins".

[Reaver]

Jason was confused at first, he was playing as Yasker except all of his stats and equipment was gone. "What the fuck!" He yelled, not caring who heard him in the real world. All of his work at leveling and creating a unique build had just been flushed down the drain. But then again he wasn't with the level one crap, some of this stuff was actually top-tier and fitted his play-style. "Yea... This will work well..." Switching over to Yasker's deeper, grittier voice. Once he upgraded most of this equipment it could easily outshine his old set of weapons. The Merovingian Sax was a bit unwieldy since Jason and Yasker were used to smaller daggers but Jason couldn't deny it's superior lethal cutting power. They still needed to logout since playing on the street wasn't the smartest idea but apparently that couldn't happen until he won a battle.... Which he just happened to find.

"Lets making it interesting! 100 exp for the winner and if you want my location I want yours if I win!" Yasker growled underneath his mask, swinging his sax with one hand, enjoying the humming noise it made as it cut through the air. Jason still wasn't sure about all of these changes to his character but at least there was an opportunity to test it all out. "If those terms are met then Yasker the Relentless accepts your challenge!"

[Grape_Drink]

((Note: I’ll probably just be making posts in my free time, so anywhere from once a week to three times a week, I’ll try to give folks a heads up on days I plan to make posts for the next week. Additionally if I ever emote out something you don’t feel like you’d do, you’re more than welcome to change it.))


Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You note that your friend seems to be from Nigeria as he tags along, allowing you to get the hang of climbing buildings and mastering your new/different limbs, his own arm swinging across the lamp poles as he seems to be scouting the area. You aim out into the distance, and spotting a stop sign you decide to give your gun a test run.

Kreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- PROW!!!

The recoil of the gun almost knocks you off the building as a small projectile launches out of it, taking out the stop sign… Followed by a bolt of energy a second later that lights up half the block. Jesus…

“Careful, that rifle of yours seems to be designed for a level four, it’ll tear apart anything level two or below on impact…”

-That- was level FOUR!? In-game that used to be like… Like level eighty! You note your cooldown gauge as it reads three minutes remaining… In a close-up fight, a few seconds is the difference between winning and losing, but if you can hide at a distance, and wait for another chance to shoot, three minutes should be alright.

“Anyways, this is a highly illegal mod for the game, so I guess we can rat the other out if one of us decides to backstab their ally. Just try not to die. It’s not pleasant and if you lose too much XP, well, it won’t be pleasant in the normal world either.”

You find his use of normal instead of real to be a bit odd. The two of you continue along as Ex-Stasisey seems to be a less than stellar conversational partner, refusing to even show you his special abilities as you continue in… No particular direction. Eventually he perks his head up, looking off in the distance.

“Alright, we got a match soon, go hide somewhere and prepare yourself” he states over the team channel.



Challenge sent to Juie 8 and Afro-Glider; 200 XP super-high stakes wager
Player-defined Wager: One Enemy Modification random generator-selected

Opponent-Defined Wager: ten minutes mind meld on loser’s XP
...
Challenge Accepted!

What!? That amount of experience is just flat out ridiculous!!! And what’s a mind meld? You didn’t call for an all-or-nothing battle your first fight, and what happened to your decline button???

Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(16, 15, 12, 6 vs 19, 14, 8, 3)
Miss Hellhound: 30% HP
4 Ball: 65% HP, on fire!

A large fight sign appears on screen accompanied by mechanical gear noises as you let loose a volley of fire at Miss Hellhound!

The woman quickly dodges behind a building, letting out a cold chuckle though you think you hit her a few times.

“Ah, ah, ah! Surprise attacks like that aren’t going to work on me, little miss!”

Jumping out from behind the corner, one of the balls quickly transforms into a tower shield with a symbol that looks like a dog’s face on it. You shoot at her, hoping a shot will graze her unprotected portions, but your fire seems to be doing negligible damage.

With her other hand, she begins to swing the other metallic ball over her head like a lasso, tossing it towards you! You expect it to impact at high speeds, but instead it seems to transform in mid air, a mechanical dog shooting a flamethrower at you as your frame lights up! Ah well, this isn’t a big-

Synchronization has increased by 1%!

Immense heat passes over you, and as your health bar begins to decrease, you swear you can feel the flames passing through the foam lattice, causing your skin to feel like it’s burning! You cry out in pain, beginning to fire at her like mad as you run for the nearest source of water!, a number of your shots land on the poorly armored woman who is still recovering from her previous attack!

“Gah! Mechs aren’t supposed to be that fast! Argh!”

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(20, 11, 8, 4 vs 20, 12, 3, 1)
Dickes Bundesliga: 50% HP
RYuuna: 65% HP

"Do we have to make a wager?"

“Whether we have to or not is irrelevant! It’s bad etiquette to not do so! One should never sacrifice the joy of the game for mere mechanical advantages out of game!”

Huh, so he does speak Japanese and was just choosing to speak in German. And mechanical advantages out of game? What does that mean? As you add in your wager, ((feel free to change it if you want upon this new knowledge)) a large fight text complete with mechanical gear noises appears on your HUD, announcing the start of the match as your health bar fills up! Immediately you pounce into action, charging towards the mech as your claws go to swipe across his frame at breakneck speeds that surprise even you!

Perhaps by sheer luck or perhaps by experience, he seems to detect this strategy as he goes to dodge, the first swipe of your claws hitting him dead-on while your second swipe catches on one of his jackhammer fists, stopping your attack in mid-air!

“You should think before you act Mädchen!”

Synchronization has increased by 1%!

A metallic ball pops out of his other arm as he smacks it with that jackhammer, causing it to spin rapidly as it collides with your abdomen, sending you flying through the air and through the window of a nearby building! Pain rips through you as you cough up blood from the impact, trying to stand upright. That… Actually hurt. A lot!

“What, is the little Japanese girl already down for the count!?” He calls out in German, mockingly. “I’ll play nice with that mind meld if you surrender your XP now, hah!”

Still, despite this asshole’s attempts to rile you up, his HP bar is lower than yours, and the counter is steadily counting down. If he didn’t land any more shots on you, you’d win by default.

Jason

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(16, 16, 12, 4) vs (17, 10, 7, 2)
Torchy-Pie: 30% HP
Yasker the Relentless: 80% HP

Your Wager: Change to high-stakes match and location awareness
…
Both wagers accepted. Beginning match!

A fight text appears on screen accompanied by gear-like sounds as your battle begins. The Russian seems to spare no time in unleashing a volley of machine gun fire at you as you dodge behind a building, activating your mod and charging him for a quick victory.


“What the fuck!?” your translator reports as you look to the side as well, a large beam of energy shooting out from the distance and obliterating a nearby stop sign, the both of you barely outside the blast radius!

However while he’s still distracted, you take advantage of this opportunity and run him through with your blade, severing one of his legs after a few precise slashes. He lets out a mighty roar as a flamethrower is produced by the smaller set of arms. “schas po ebalu poluchish, suka, blyad!” (your translator simply gives you a series of censored noises) Flames shoot out at you as a burning sensation fills your left arm, much to your discomfort.

Synchronization increased by 1%!

Welp, discomfort just became blistering pain. What the hell!? You duck into a nearby water fountain as the mech seems to struggle, balancing itself against a nearby wall with one leg as the man in charge of the droid continues to let out a series of grunting noises as if in some pretty serious pain. Judging by the sound of his voice he’s also really -really- pissed off.

Actually, now that you think of it, why is a Russian on the American server in the first place? Looking into the corner of your screen, it dawns on you that you’re on the French server for some reason… No wonder your translator has been activated this whole time. The Front National party and Czar Putin II have been pretty good friends since that war in Europe a couple decades ago.

Claire Jones

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• Plasma Storm Mod Obtained!
• Remington Field Gun Obtained!
• Repulsorlift Gloves Obtained! (“unlimited” short bursts, or 30 seconds of “extended burst” w/2 minute cooldown)
• Spiderpack mod Obtained!

As you try to walk in this variant of CC, you find yourself unable to! It takes you a few moments to realize that perhaps you should actually try to move your feet instead of just thinking about moving your feet… The cracked ground beneath your feet has texture to it and everything! Sweet! Wait, not so sweet. You trip and fall flat on your face as you realize your avatar is taller than you are in real life, throwing your center of balance off.

Going through your pack, you find a number of neat features, this Plasma Storm mod seems to let you shoot small plasma particles out of your shoulders… It isn’t very damaging to your surroundings making you think it won’t be very effective in an actual battle, but it also lacks a cooldown and has pretty good range to it, meaning you can use it to your hearts content against enemies at a distance! The shotgun seems to be standard issue, nothing really special about it other than the exploding rounds it seems to shoot out, which, ok, is pretty cool. You aren’t really sure what “Repulsorlift Gloves” are as you look into the help menu. It seems they create miniature “reverse” black holes on your gloves, creating an "reverse-gravity" field! Combined with this backpack that lets you run around on eight legs/climb objects more easily, and you’re in for a fun time!



Just as you’re getting the hang of it, someone nearby cracks their knuckles, and without saying a word, challenges you to a fight! Wait a second, where’s your decline option!?

Challenge from Natty Iron; 50 XP standard wager
Player-defined Wager: Recording of loser doing the fishy style dance (an extremely embarrassing new dance that's been gaining popularity) in their underwear on social media, enforced by mind meld on loser’s XP if not performed.
Accept now
Accept Later [ ] minutes
Change Wager: [ ]


You note that “Natty Iron” seems to lack any weaponry… Except for a large barbell and weights strapped to his back.

[Nobudi]

As RYuuna coughed out a glob of blood, she immediately realized why exactly this thing was illegal.
She felt so idiotic for putting "Friend Request" for the wager, especially since he seemed to have it out for her.
Still, there was no time to ponder as she used her Hunter mod and started bouncing through the city.
All she had to do was lose him and not take any damage before the timer finished counting down.
Both her scorp- bot and brain burst were last resort types. She didn't know what would happen to her tail if the bot was destroyed, and brain burst seemed to be her trump card.

[exalted]

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck" Raina screamed as she ran, "Metal aint meant to burn!"

Gritting her teeth, she made note to mention this on her report, a tactile feedback was only useful if it didn't cause pain to user. She consoled herself with the fact that being shot had to hurt worse than this.

Not seeing any water she launched the mech forward into several forward rolls, trying to use it weight to crush and turn up the ground to smother the flames and rob them of oxygen, before taking cover behind a small building.

"Let's try this again," She muttered, peering round the building to try and spot the woman, "Without the whole fire thing."

Popping smoke, she angled the it cover both sides of the building. Once the cloud was thick enough to fired a small burst from the left side to distract woman and draw her fire before dashing to the right hand side to hose her down again with lead.

[TheDaughterOfHades14]

Claire looks at Natty Iron and thinks, "Well, since I don't have a decline option, might as well get this over with". She accepts the battle and starts shooting Natty with the plasma particles in her shoulder. While continuously firing, Claire looks for a tactical advantage, like higher ground to shoot from. After looking, Claire stops shooting and pulls out her shotgun and prepares her Repulsorlift Gloves. She backs up and waits for Natty Iron's rebuttal.

[spitfyre]

After firing her gun and seeing the laser explosion happen around a stop sign she looks at her gun and says, " Damn, I never had anything this good. Cooldown is longer than a short fight, but if they group up, well."

Seeing the stakes and no option for a decline Amelie speaks over her comm and says, "Why are we wagering all of our xp in one go? an what is a mind meld? and why would we modify them if we win? an why can we not decline? What the hell is going on here!"

Either getting an answer or not Amelie looks for the tallest building in the vicinity to go camp out on, hopefully she could see these guys coming before they saw her and put them down.

[Reaver]

"Is the chicken already squawking?" Jason teased, barely feeling the pain coursing through his arm with his victory so close. "Because I can silence it!" Finished Yasker with a growl. Being on the french server didn't much sense but it barely mattered to Jason since he would be done with this match in a few seconds. In fact he was more perturbed by the explosion during the duel that neither of them had caused. If other people were on this server and currently battling he'd have to hurry up before he was either caught in the crossfire or challenged to another duel. "So let's finish this now!" Yasker said loudly before charging the giant Russian robot. The robot was already on its last leg, literally and Yasker used that to his advantage as he activated his thruster boots as he closed the distance. With the extra speed and momentum he tried to slice completely through the other leg with his high frequency sax. After the cut, the relentless warrior spun around, firing his hookshot into the back of the mech to get onto it's back to deliver a flurry of strikes to serve as it's coup de grâce.

[Grape_Drink]

((Next post won’t be until either Thursday or Friday, probably))

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Escape: (6+5(Hunter mod) +5(difference in speed)) vs (17-2(mech vs plugsuit penalty))
Attack of Opportunity: 1 vs 1 ((you both critical failed…))
Dickes Bundesliga: 13% HP
RYuuna: 17% HP


You look around the building for a quick escape as the annoying football-bot appears in the window you busted through, he’s not very quick, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s aiming right at you! Dodging out of the way, an explosion goes off behind you as small bits of shrapnel impact your back, causing mild damage. You need to get out of there!

Pouncing forward, you’re forced to activate your glider-wings in order to avoid his soccer ball of death hitting you in a face, but you suddenly remember that… Oh right… You’ve never flown before!

KONK!

You headbutt the mech on accident as he falls backwards.

“What? What the hell are you doing!? Is this some sort of special move!?”

You’re rather embarrassed as you find yourself straddled around his (well, the robot’s) “face.” The mech tries to shake you off, but you can’t be caught off balance now, and simply letting go would be certain doom! Shooting multiple metal soccer balls into the air in the confusion, one impacts your arm when it lands as you’re flung off of the mech, a distinct snap echoing through the air from its impact! It hurts a lot worse than the one that impacted your abdomen, but you can’t afford to think about it right now!

“And now, to finish you off… Nothing personal!”

Looking up, you begin to think of old cartoon humor as you note the metal balls had created a hole in the ceiling. You manage to distract him for a moment as you point up with your still good arm, a piano sliding off from the floor above and landing on top of him!

Kicking him in the face for good measure, you flee the scene as he tries to lift himself back up, rather disoriented from the pain that likely came when his touch sensors registered that piano.

…

The ten minutes left on the timer quickly count down as you continue to run away, your health bar losing small percentage points over time from bleed damage. At about a minute left, your opponent seems to realize he’s not going to catch up to you, and your bleed damage won’t take you below his health fast enough as a message appears in big green letters across your screen:

Opponent has withdrawn from the fight!
YOU WIN!

In the corner of your screen, you see a “friend request accepted” as a series of messages appear across your screen, accompanied by a sound that is like a tank shell sliding into place.

• 50 XP acquired!
• Friend Request Accepted!
• Mind Meld Learned! (10 XP points/minute)
• Bitcoin Transfer Learned! (Bitcoin exchange rate €10 worth per XP point)
• Street Light Hack Learned! (1 XP to auto-turn a light green, 5 XP to turn all lights in a 500 meter radius red for five minutes.)
• Initiating Mind Meld...

Hm, you wonder what this Mind Meld initiation is as your former combatant speaks to you over a private friend channel. You note he’s apparently in Berlin, Germany. The pain in your arm dissipates as the health bar disappears, and seems to set itself properly as if by some in-game script.

“Congratulations on your first win! Try not to do anything too embarrassing, alright? I don’t need to get kicked out of the club.”

He seems to be taking the fact that he had just tried to “kill” you (at least, it seemed like it to you) rather lightly as your screen begins to distort, your body changing size…

German Hip-Hop greets your ears as fresh beats pump through the speakers. You’re rather disoriented, just a bit drunk as you find yourself dancing between a group of sweaty folks, glowsticks and blacklights illuminating the area. A timer in the corner of your screen counts down from three minutes as you notice a girl grinding against you, your-

Woah, WOAH! Alright, not cool! Mind Meld might be neat and all, but what is this sensation in your pelvis? Are you inside some dude’s head right now!?

Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Surprise Check (speed): (13-2(mech vs plugsuit)+2(armor mod)) vs (5+3(speed difference)) Hit!
(20, 19, 4, 2) vs (17, 9, 9, 5)
Miss Hellhound: 0% HP
4 Ball: 30% HP

You shoot off into the distance, creating a distraction as you rush towards her, unloading lead into her form before she can react. She tosses her hound bot at you once more as it, once again, manages to light you on fire from your failing to dodge it, but her health bar is so low that you don’t even stop to think about the renewed pain shooting through you! Charging her head on, she tries to activate her shield as you punt it out of the way with your foot, unloading your SMG clip into your opponent as she lets out a blood-curdling scream!

YOU WIN!

The words appear on your screen with the sound of an artillery tank shell being loaded up in the background as you hear your opponent sniffle slightly, standing up now that the HP bars have disappeared. The flames and all the damage and pain that seemed to accompany them have faded completely as your opponent speaks.

“Jeez, ow! Overkill much? Man, I’m gonna get it now…”

• 50 XP acquired!
• Friend Request Accepted!
• Mind Meld Learned! (10 XP points/minute)
• Bitcoin Transfer Learned! (Bitcoin exchange rate €10 worth per XP point)
• Out-of-Game Acceleration learned! (Slow down time to in-game rates out-of-game, 10 XP per use)
• Initiating Mind Meld...

The screen begins to distort as the sound of gunfire in the distance is replaced with someone talking. You note a two minute timer in the corner of your screen as you find yourself sitting in a desk, in the corner of your eye you note a sign outside reading “North Shore Senior High School, Harris County, Texas.”

“Abigail, why do you think he pushed for a second conflict so soon after the war was over?”

Huh? The class seems to stare at you as you note the teacher looking towards you… What the hell is even going on and who is Abigail…?

“See, this is why you’re failing my class. You need to pay more attention!”

He lightly bops you on the head with a rubber velociraptor on the end of a yard stick before going back to his lecture on General Patton, a number of students chuckling before going back to taking notes.

Claire

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(16, 15, 13, 1) vs (17,15, 4, 2)
Natty Iron: 75% HP
TheDaughterofHades: 60% HP

You unleash a volley of plasma shards at him as they seem to do minimal damage. At first you think they’re just worthless, but pulling up a stat menu, you notice that Natty Iron’s stat-circle has a huge spike in Armor and CQC, with virtually no speed or other stats to speak of. Seems like a poor combination to you, honestly.

“Hyup! LMAO ONE PLATE, LIGHTWEIGHT BABY!!!”

As you go to get to higher ground, you hear him say something as you turn your head just in time to see two 45 lb weights flying towards you at high speed! What!? He has virtually no points in projectiles, though!

Synchronization has increased by 1%!

CRACK, CRUNCH!

You feel as if some of your ribs were just snapped as the weights impact you at high speeds, sending you face-first into the cement. A small trail of blood trails out of your nose as you stand up, feeling the urge to cough up some fluid or another. Pissed off and injured, you begin to shoot him with your shotgun, small explosions going off around him and seeming to do minimum damage as he continues to walk towards you!

“I bet you use machines, am I right? Hah!”

You… Aren’t entirely sure if he’s taunting you, or if he’s just insane. Probably a bit of both.

Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sniper Check: 19 vs (19, 20, 12)
Surprise Attack: 11 vs 19
Ex-Stasisey: 40% HP
Afro-Glider: 100% HP
Juie 8: 0% HP
Ebony Nightshade: 85% HP

“Trust me, you’ll see, and because that’s how the extension works.” He states over the teamspeak as the battle begins. You manage to find a nice hiding spot as the fight down below begins. Immediately, Afro-glider begins taking pot shots at Ex-Stasisey as Juie 8 approaches him at lightning speeds, beginning to put the beat-down on him. There’s no way you can win this battle at this rate, he’s a sitting duck! You wince as your partner’s health begins to get pummeled down to zero at an incredibly fast rate before his special bar ignites.

“Now.”

He states simply over the channel as a blueish-purple globe seems to form around Ex-Stasisey, expanding. Even from this distance you can hear the sounds of a bass turned up to 11 emanating from it as your opponents hold their ears down below, likely shouting from the pain. You take aim, doing your best to avoid hitting your partner as your shot lets loose, impacting Juie 8 through the neck as the laser vaporizes him.

Your victory is short lived though as you notice that the armored figure that was attacking Ex-Stasisey was just a hologram, his health still in-tact!

Looking around, you see a small droid no bigger than your fist hovering near your face.

“Synchronization has increased by 1%!”

Kreeeeeeeeee- BZZZT!

Oh god damn it! Searing pain fills your right eye as you fall off the building, barely managing to stabilize yourself as you crash through a window a few floors below! Trying to look through your HUD, you find that the right half of your vision has gone blank aside from the stats and messages in the corner!

Jason

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(18, 15, 15, 10) vs (17, 12, 6, 3)
Torchy Pie: 0% HP
Yasker the Relentless: 80% HP

The Russian mech panicks as it begins shooting wildly trying to hit you. Beelining your way to its leg, your sax easily carves through it as the bot lets out a disgruntled yell, falling flat on its face!

You kick away the flamethrower as you line up the hookshot with his face, firing mercilessly...

YOU WIN!

What sounds like an artillery shell sliding into place accompanies each piece of text as it appears on your screen.

• 100 XP acquired!
• Friend Request Accepted!
• Mind Meld Learned! (10 XP points/minute)
• Bitcoin Transfer Learned! (Bitcoin exchange rate €10 worth per XP point)
• Remote Access Learned! (gain access to any security camera and its records for 10 XP)
• Torchy-Pie is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia!
• You are now able to log out!

The Russian mech seems to have regenerated as your loot was shown, and you notice the sting in your arm is completely gone.

“You won fair and square. This is true…”

And with that he goes to walk off, a couple of nearby spectators giving a small clap as the fight concludes.

Should you log out, you’re surprised to learn that despite all the time that has passed in-game, only a minute or two has passed in real life!

[spitfyre]

" Shit, alright fall back to me, i'll heal you up, and I am out for 3 minutes.". Natasha speaks into the comm as she gets back up and tries to find her way out of the building. After checking the damage on her and Ex-Stasiey she says over the comms, "I am out of vision on the right side but I should still be able to use my left for firing."

[Zender_Solarheart]

"Alright, let's see what this bad boy's all abou-WHOA!!" Jon's immediate reaction upon seeing all of the warning windows is understandable. There's a certain level of integrity with which he conducts himself online, and "don't use hacks" is one of his personal rules. The sight of all this makes him feel like he just opened an illegal mod package by accident...and yet, the warnings go away almost immediately afterward, as if it was a minor hiccup in the auto-detection system. Well, if he gets any angry messages from the admins in the future, he'll simply tell them the truth: he got a mysterious package in the mail, and curiosity got the better of him. Simple enough.

After getting the...er, "new features" booted up, Jon's first realization is that the usual kinks and irritations of his real-life age have melted away, as if he's a mere 18 years old again. Well, that's certainly handy; must be some nifty update in the VR helmet's neuro-connector systems, or something like that. Of course, with this being a PvP-oriented action MMORPG, Jon's next reflex is to check his gear. His Carbine is right where he usually finds it, which is a relief...and yet, it somehow seems...different. It still has that handy ergonomic grip and seems to weigh the same, but there's certainly a few changes to the exterior structure, which he can only hope do more to aid his handling of the weapon than hinder it. As for the Sand-Vaporizor...wait, "Vaporizor?" Is that a typo, or are they doing some intentional spelling quirk a la "Mortal Kombat?" Oh well, it still is a quite versatile device: wrist-mounted for easy on-the-fly use, and the plasma-heated cloud of sand can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from direct damage to a brief smoke-screen, and maybe even more. There's also a jetpack, but its cooldown rate is ridiculous; a whole minute? Unless it lets him move a huge distance in the blink of an eye, the longest recharge time anyone should put on something like that is 30 seconds. With any luck, he'll be able to convince the developers to patch that one in due time.

The most eye-catching modification, however, is Jon's new AI assistant, who wastes no time popping out of his sufficiently upgraded HUD to introduce herself: the Neuro-Analytical and Tactical Interface, or "NATI," for short. She quickly proves her worth, as well, highlighting a number of useful tips on the surrounding PCs. Armor weak spots, distance measurements...and is that one having his gear revealed? Damn, Sun Tzu was right: if you know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles. NATI's humanoid form is actually pretty cute, too, which makes for quite the nice bonus.

Unfortunately, Jon isn't given much time to marvel at all of his new gadgetry, as another player has already sent him a challenge. "Acutus Velox," eh? Sounds pretty Star-Trekky, but one shouldn't judge a player by his username. After all, there have been MLG legends with tags as silly as "Kampy" in the past, but it didn't make their skills any less badass. On top of that, the "decline" option appears to have become nullified by all the new software upgrades here, meaning there's no backing down from a challenge. Well, Jon's no simpleton. If he's going to fight this guy, he wants a better idea of what he's up against. Provided that he can move towards the guy while the challenge screen is up, Jon cautiously makes his way towards the eastbound challenger, while readying his Carbine, and whispering to NATI: "NATI, when we find the source of that 'aggressive intent' you mentioned, how quickly would you be able to scan his gear? I'm not sure how much time we'll have to react before he attacks."

[Nobudi]

Oh hell no.
In horror, the voice that came out of 'her' mouth came as masculine as they came.
She was in the man's body.
"S- Sumimasen," he/she squeaked as she attempted to disengage the bodies from each other.
She had to see this to believe it. She had to find the men's room.

[exalted]

"There are competing viewpoints depending upon whether you see Patton as a shunned glory hound or forward thinking pragmatist. If he's a glory hound, we see his push as being a result of his denied moments of triumphant by the British and Montgomery with Market Garden; which in itself, was an attempt by the British to restore their standing in allied forces as a senior member after the wastage in Africa and Italy; the Russian's taking the assault on Berlin and to some degree his own country with the 101st still to this day refusing to accept they needed his rescue at Bastogne. Denied his glories, he seeks further conquests and victories against the only enemy remaining.

Alternatively, if we view him as the pragmatist, he sees that conflict with Russia is inevitable, much the same as MacArthur and other members of the government some years later during the Korean War, and that they should strike sooner rather than later. America still had man power reserves, was still in a wartime economy and and had both strategic and technology advantages, while the Russian's had stretched supplies lines and dwindling man power reserves after years of costly battles" Raina suddenly interrupted, standing up she dropped a large whiteboard marker on the table, "I have to use the restroom."

Turning immediately she walked out the classroom, desperately suppressing the laughter building up inside her. She didn't have time to laugh, she had legs and wanted to use them, she thought as she broke out into a run.

[Reaver]

"I sure did comrade! Feel free to request a rematch anytime, I could always use extra xp!" Quipped Jason as he readied to log out. However he hesitated to execute the command. He was still curious about the explosion that had almost interfered in his match not to mention who else could be on this server, maybe he could rack up some more xp in his first session than he thought. "The hunt never ends." Yasker growled as he began walking in the direction of where the explosion had came from. SO far Jason's first impression of the game had been wonderful and the mods he was picking up were rather illegal and awesome. He could basically converter all of his xp into at least two thousand American dollars at this point, just from one game! Not to mention remote control access to any security camera and all it had recorded. He was pretty sure that type of information could come in handy at some point.

[TheDaughterOfHades14]

Claire stares at Natty Iron for a second and says "What? I use machines? Uh, okay...". She activates her Repulsorlift Gloves quickly to jump into the air and lands behind Natty. As soon as she lands, she takes her shot gun and shoots him in his back. After a few shoots Claire reactivates her Repulsorlift Gloves to suspend gravity for a few seconds, as she does she punches the back of Natty to send him flying forward. As he sails through the air, Claire begins to shoot him with the plasma particles.

[Grape_Drink]

Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(17, 12, 6, 2) vs (18, 6, 5, 3)
Ex-Stasisey: 0% HP
Afro-Glider: 60% HP
Juie 8: 0% HP
Ebony Nightshade: 80% HP
…
(16, 13, 13, 8) vs (17, 11, 7, 3)
Ex-Stasisey: 0% HP
Afro-Glider: 0% HP
Juie 8: 0% HP
Ebony Nightshade: 25% HP

“Ungh, no can do, I think I saw a grenade on that Afro fellow. We meet up now and we’re as good as dead. No telling where he is.”

You begin to travel through the building as you hear a small buzzing noise like an RC helicopter. Hiding behind a corner, the small robot that zapped your eye out earlier makes its way into the room you’re in. You seize on the opportunity, grabbing it in hand as its robotic eye darts about in confusion. spotting you, it begins to power up its eye beam again as you tighten your grip on it…

“Squeeeeeeea-”

CRUNCH.

It explodes in your hand as you crush it, causing mild damage to yourself as you remember that damage in this game actually hurts… Picking out the small metal shards embedded into your hand, you find your way over to a staircase that undoubtedly leads to the ground floor.

“Gah! Found him. Come quickly! I will not hold out, but you can probably finish him off before he can run away!”

You begin to rush down the stairs, swinging around guardrails as you descend, your cooldown timer slowly but surely dissipating as the match countdown clock reads at around 13 minutes left. You watch, completely helpless to stop it as Ex-Stasisey’s health quickly drops, his grunts of pain occasionally ringing out over the team channel.

As you round the corner, a small round object lands at Ex-Stasisey’s feet as he tries to run away!

“C'est des conneries!”

With a loud bang, you duck around the corner as his lifeless body goes flying past you, a series of rifle shots following as they impact his corpse. Turning the corner, you see Afro-Glider looking around, seeming to freak out when he spots you. Without your gun, you’re dead meat at this range!

Rushing after him, you proceed to drop kick him, your feet curling into balls as they impact his face. Quickly trying to get back up, you note only three seconds left on your cooldown. At this range though, he could easily dodge if he knew you were getting ready to shoot!

Getting an idea, you try to pin him down, holding your rifle at point blank against his chest. It begins to charge up for its attack as he pulls a pistol from his waist, trying to take pot shots at you! One of them impacts your head as a raging headache accompanied by ringing and the feeling of blood running down it goes through you, a critical hit message showing through on your screen.

Kreeeee-

PLANG PLANG PLANG!

eeeeeee- PROW!

Your rifle unloads into his stomach as blue energy begins to spread in every direction underneath you, singing your feet and causing residual damage as the force of the impact lifts you into the air!

YOU WIN!

• 200 XP Acquired!
• Mind Meld Learned! (10 XP/minute)
• Bitcoin Transfer Learned! (Bitcoin exchange rate €10 worth per XP point)
• Police Hack Learned! (Create police/emergency vehicle sounds in the minds of everyone in a 500 meter radius of you as if originating from your location, 5 XP/minute)
• Grenade Clusters Mod Acquired from Afro-Glider: 2 grenades of owner’s choice acquired! (choices: Frag, incendiary, cryo, warp, sticky, pulse, or “fun”) ((Choose two, or choose one and get two of that one))
• Initiating Mind Meld…

You note the dialogue box opened in your screen to choose between grenade types. Most of them look familiar or you can guess what they do except for this “fun” grenade. Obviously cryo freezes, warp teleports them, and pulse will either be electric or an actual “pulse” that launches the target.

After selecting, two grenades appear at your hip (complete with little smiley faces with giant afros on them). You note that Ex-Stasisey’s arm seems to have a small arc of electricity circling it as he gets up as if uninjured. Actually, now that you think about it, you feel brand new, as if all the pain from the battle has melted away!

“We wagered all our XP because I knew they’d take the bait, you’re about to find out what a mind meld is, it seems you earned a couple grenades out of that fight, and you’re playing NEET Fighter, the extremely unethical, extremely illegal, and extremely awesome alpha extension, baby.”

And with that, your sense of reality begins to distort as you find yourself at some sort of house party. Most of the inhabitants look totally strung out as one of them pats you on the back. You note a rolled up bill in your hand as you sneeze, a bit of white powder escaping from your nose.

“Oh come on man, what the fuck!?”

One of the inhabitants smacks you upside the back of your head as he speaks in English before walking off with a random girl. You can hear music downstairs as if from a party as you note a counter in the corner of your screen counting down from ten… You can feel your body heating up as whatever you were inhaling begins to pick up. Looking at the rolled up note, it appears you’re in Guyana of all places, huh.

You go to readjust yourself as you feel something between your legs. It’s probably just a towel or-

Alright then, that was unexpected. Mind Meld begins to make sense as you realize it must be some sort of mental connection with another person that allows you to experience things “through” them, but more importantly… Why are you a guy!?

Jonathan

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(20, 16, 13, 8) vs (15, 14, 11, 6)

A small figure poofs onto your screen that certainly doesn’t look like something from the game.



She points at the expanded image of the woman gliding towards you as she speaks “Silly, that’s the source of the aggressive intent! Ah, er… Sir! Acutus Velox, looks like latin to me, something about fast and pointy?”

The younger figure points at the boots of the older woman as she speaks again in NATI’s voice.

“It looks like she’s got glider-boots, approximate height off the ground estimated to be 5 meters from collected data. The way she has her hand behind her back makes me predict there’s a plasma knife, sir! Chances are her other two mods are ability-specific. I’ll pull up her info sheet!”

NATI reaches behind herself, pulling out a small circular image as she returns the magnified image of Acutus to normal view, the woman quickly approaching.

Pulling up her info sheet, her stat circle has a ridiculously heavy spike in speed, with secondary mid-tier spikes in CQC and uniqueness, her armor, mid-range melee and projectile stats seem to be at or at least very close to zero in comparison to the others…

A timer appears in the corner of your screen announcing that the match will auto-begin in one minute if you don’t accept the challenge or enter a wager shortly.

“Yah gonna stare all day or what?”

This voice is unfamiliar as it comes in over a private channel. It seems to be coming from your challenger as NATI reads her distance as only about 150 meters away.

…

Razor’s Edge: 90% HP
Acutus Velox: 20% HP

“Hah, you’ll be eating the dirt by the time I’m done with you!”

Acutus eats her own words as you release a volley of fire on her, predicting her movements with the help of NATI as her health bar gets eaten away, multiple critical hits reading across your screen! She cries out in pain as you realize that this particular game mod seems to make all sensory output as realistic as it can be… Well shit!

Synchronization has increased by 1%!

In your moment of hesitation, she manages to speed up her approach, her plasma dagger cutting into your shoulder as a burning sensation fills it! God damn it that hurt! Turning around, she seems to have entered a nearby building as you note her health bar, which should be taking bleed damage, is actually healing at an extremely slow rate, her special bar also appears to be full…

“I’m detecting that she has combat regeneration, sir! I’m unsure of her fourth mod!”

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Two minutes Remaining

You manage to untangle yourself from the girl as she looks at you with confusion and disappointment. Wasting no time, you begin to make your way towards the restrooms, your gait a bit off from both the alcohol and the unfamiliar flesh between your legs. It doesn’t take you long to find the private bathroom as someone exits it.

Quickly making your way inside and locking the door behind you, you drop trousers as, to your amazement, a smaller than average, well, what you’d been lead to believe was average anyways, penis stares back at you, sweaty from partying and with a distinct but not wholly unpleasant odor coming from your (his?) nethers.

“I kind of figured this would happen. So what’s the plan, lass?”

Whoah, what? You didn’t say that, but it came out of your mouth… Is the owner, no, “Dickes Bundesliga” still conscious? You assume so as you stare at the foreign tool of yours. Aside from this particular feature, you seem to actually be in decent shape, one might even say you’re mildly attractive.

Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

“Well shit, I’m gonna have to actually study now, damn… Feel free to add me when you get back. So what's your name?”

You find yourself talking between breaths as if your opponent was mentally aware of everything happening right now.

“Track’s the next left and then straight through those doors, but I’m pretty lazy…”

You run through the hallways and out the side door, the time counter quickly falling from a minute and a half to a minute, then down to only half a minute left as you realize what poor condition this girl is in. Barely a minute into your run and you feel like you’re out of breath!

…

After the next thirty seconds pass by, with a small thud you find yourself faceplanted against the table, seems you were out cold… Looking at a nearby clock, you realize that it’s only been about five minutes, though you swear that at least fifteen or twenty have passed by since you entered the game!

Shortly after, a different sensation hits you as with a small crackle, an error appears on your visor telling you that the micro-USB slot has become permanently attached. Sure enough as you go to remove it, you note that it seemed to have become welded into your VR device. Lovely.

You could always log back into the game, but your three skills you learned are still being displayed in the corner of your screen suggesting they’re for use out-of-game, as well as your XP progress... That bitcoin exchange could easily nab you a new AC unit, though you’ve never heard of a game trading in-game “currency” for real life currency (at least not legally).

Jason

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You begin to make your way towards the source of that beam from earlier as you note the sounds of a bass cannon from that direction, followed by a wave of light a few minutes later. It takes you a bit to get there, but when you do, you find four avatars gathered around each other. An idle tick lies above each of them as it counts down from forty minutes…

You go to tap one on the shoulder as your hand physically passes through them, a creepy feeling running through it as if your hand were passing through foam soap.

You don’t have much time to react though as you hear a shrieking in the distance…

In previous editions of the game, there had been a strange NPC species that would come down to terrorize players if there weren’t enough battles per hour. With the popularity of the game, they were rarely if ever seen outside of hidden areas though. Supposedly they had some sort of backstory related to the mech armor all the avatars have, but no one honestly pays attention to the flavor text in these sorts of games!

Now that you think about it, there aren’t very many players around, this group of four and that Russian mech are the only ones you’ve encountered that were your level, and including the higher level characters you saw clapping for you, that only accounts for a couple dozen folks...



One such critter clicks and chitters as it zigzags across the walls of buildings towards your position!

NPC Challenger: Lead-Eater (level 2)
XP Worth: 150 points!
Mutation Percentage Chance: 35%!
Continue? (y/n)[/b]

No Name? (That Man)

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

• Heaven’s Boots Mod Acquired! (Maximum Height: 200 meters) (3 uses/match, 1 minute per use)
• Energy Double-Blade w/boomerang mod Acquired!
• Buzz-Saw Hat Mod Acquired! (hat turns into a buzz-saw)
• Ruger 22 Charger Pistol v.7.0v Acquired! (Urban Camo)

You find yourself in your avatar’s body as you try to walk forward with your mind… To absolutely no effect!

Panicking a bit, you finally realize that you have to actually move your limbs physically as you try walking- and promptly fall flat on your face a couple times due to the differences in your avatar’s physique from your own. Getting the hang of walking, you look over your mods… Most of the equipment is self-explanatory- a nice little scoped pistol with a bipod mount, an energy double blade that looks like it could tear through just about any material, not to mention as you test out the boomerang mod (and nearly chop your hand off), it seems you can toss this sucker around at folks. The Buzz-Saw hat is neat in its own right, seeming to be able to cut through even cement and steel if it isn’t too thick. These Heaven Boots though are pretty interesting… You can’t physically fly, but when you activate them, you seem to be able to walk through air as if it were solid ground! You can even use it to jump sideways as if wall-jumping, and the only indication of what’s happening seems to be a small symbol that appears on the ground where your foot impacts.

Admiring your new equipment as you get a feel for these game changes, you note someone in the distance approaching you…



Challenge from Ringleader; 100 XP standard wager
Player-defined Wager: Randomly Generated Mod from Loser
Accept now
Accept Later [ ] minutes
Change Wager: [ ]

The lack of a decline button is concerning as he remains silent, casually slinging his little laser-rings around himself.

Claire

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

(16, 16, 8, 2) vs (13, 11, 7, 2)
Natty Iron: 40% HP
TheDaughterofHades: 55% HP
(16, 16, 5, 1) vs (9, 6, 4, 3)
Natty Iron: 0% HP
TheDaughterofHades: 40% HP

Your attacks continue to whittle away at his HP bar at extremely slow rates as he seems to take the brunt of the damage, getting kicked around. As you go to repeat your repulsorlift stunt, Natty Iron seems to realize what’s going on as he grabs your arm, spinning you around and flinging you into a nearby building as vertigo takes over!

You manage to get up from the wall as you once more begin to unload everything you have into this armored bastard, as his HP bar approaches zero, he begins to swing a barbell at you as you dodge out of the way! He manages to get you once in the leg (a none too pleasant experience), but in the end you manage to shoot him enough times and keep enough distance to absolutely obliterate the sucker!

YOU WIN!

• Mind Meld Learned! (10 XP points/minute)
• Bitcoin Transfer Learned! (Bitcoin exchange rate €10 worth per XP point)
• Out-of-Game Acceleration learned! (Slow down time to in-game rates out-of-game, 10 XP per use)
• 50 XP Acquired!
• Initiating Livestream…

You find yourself back in the real world as a new stream opens up in the corner of your screen, a rather buff man wearing nothing but socks and underwear seems to be sitting at a table eating a bowl of oatmeal as he waves to the camera.



“Feel free to add me to your friends list if you’d like, good match I suppose, I'll need to train up my glutes…”

Your VR device seems to be recording the livestream separately as he places down his bowl of oats and begins to do the fishy dance, music and all before your eyes… The knowledge passes through you that this will end up on social media very soon, and from there… Well, from there it will spread like wildfire. For now though, the thought that you caused this is all that seems to matter.

[exalted]

Raina sighed as the depressing weight of reality caught up with her again, sitting heavy in her chest. She couldn't run, she only had one leg that didn't work and she stuck in a lousy apartment with no working AC. Screaming in frustration, she angrily inspected the device and contemplated hurling it against the wall as it too was now apparently trashed.

Grumbling to herself she rolled to the computer and tried to research whatever the hell she had been through and who had made it. The mind meld scared and exited her the most, on one level it was some serious "Manchurian Candidate" level stuff, something she stay away from, destroy any evidence she had been a part of it... but it let her have legs, even if they weren't her own, she could still use them.

She glanced back at her device... no, she shouldn't... it was dangerous... but if she wasn't going to use it she should at least cash in the XP... not all of it, who knew if that bit was legal as well... just enough to fix the AC, 10xp should be enough to get the technician to come around.

Grabbing her device she deducted the XP and collected the funds, making the call for the repairman, ideally stroking the rail of her chair. Perhaps one more game wouldn't hurt... to pass the time while she waited for the technician.