NEET Fighter Alpha; Rise of The Hikikomori

[Nobudi]

Ginko stared at the man junk for a long time.
Then, she pulled up the pants and sat on the toilet seat.
"I- I think I'll just wait," she said faintly, watching the countdown tick by, hoping it would count down a little faster.

[that man]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

the name is above the avatar picture

While initially confused by all of this, Jamie Lane...or, if he wanted to go by his female avatar's name, Tagase Roshi, took her first couple of steps around this new virtual world, the differences between what he had seen and what she had expected being amplified by the sudden appearance of someone challenging her to a fight.

"Hi..." Tagase Roshi nervously bowed to the strange new figure, trying to figure out the controls for this world as best she could. "So, I take it that you don't want me to be here right now, right?"

Not expecting a response, Tagase followed this up by sweetly asking, "since I just got here, couldn't you give me an hour or so to get my barrings? You know, figuring out what exactly each of my commands does, and other such things like that?"

[spitfyre]

After the fight was over and Amelie was standing, somewhat, over her enemies victoriously, she shouted out, "Oh hell yea! Good ass fight!"

Seeing the dialog box open up and allow her to choose a type of grenades, she takes a look at all of her choices and, after asking, "Fun grenades?" over the comms to Ex-Stasisey, she chooses two cryo grenades, thinking it would be good to buy time for her to line up a shot later on.

Just before the mind meld took hold, Amelie said to Ex-Stasisey, "You have balls my friends, I like that."

As reality changed into a party, she said out loud, "How the...?" Looking around she noticed people around her all out of it, looking down she noticed that she was holding a rolled up bill and realized that somehow she was in the middle of snorting something that didn't belong in her bloodstream. Sneezing loudly as the drug had barely reached her nose, she drops the bill and stands up. "Where am I?" Amelie says out loud. Realizing that there was something uncomfortable in her pants, she reached down and tried to move it out when she realized it was attached to her. Realizing in shock that somehow she had just turned into a guy. Thinking to herself, hoping someone or something would hear, "What the hell is this? Is this the Mind Meld thing? How long am I even going to stay like this?"

[TheDaughterOfHades14]

Claire can't help but smile when she sees the sight of the muscular man doing a silly fish dance. "Yeah, good match." she says as she proceeds to add Natty Iron to her friends list. As she realizes that this man is going to suffer through all the torment from this live stream Claire begins to feel guilty. "Uh, I'm sorry that this is going to go viral and all that. I kinda wish that the consequence for losing was different. Uh, anyways, good-bye." she says as she closes the live stream.

[Grape_Drink]

Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sure enough when you put in your financial information, the bitcoins appear in your account, which you convert into acceptable currency for most services in a matter of minutes. Everything seems to go through correctly as you hang up the phone and debate whether to start up the game again or not. It doesn’t take you long to come to a conclusion as you re-enter the game world once more, the familiar urban setting appearing on your screen and a few folks lounging about. Miss Hellhound gives you a small wave as she walks along, figures she’d be back on the server already. Based on the time, she probably just finish class.

Your chest suddenly hurts as if your hear was beating too fast as you grip it tightly, your health bar seeming to drop down to about 90% even though you’re out of combat! A small popup appears on the screen:

• Level 1 multi-entry per day penalty: 10% of HP
• Second Entry: Fast Travel Unlocked
• Logout Requirements: Defeat a PC Opponent

There’s a few PC opponents lounging about as you pull up the fast travel menu. You can always inspect them to see if there’s a type you’d like to battle. It seems you have access to a few locations right now, and numerous others are greyed out suggesting you’ll be able to get to them after you hit some goal or another. You decide to look over the current ones available to you.

FAST TRAVEL LIST (10 XP charge)

• Change Servers: [Enter Server Country Here] (100 XP fee)
• Urban Center (you are here) (Conditional Mob Zone, PVP Enabled, Difficulty Rating: N/A, Main Enemy Type: Aliens)
• Devil’s Mines (Mob Zone, PVP Disabled, Difficulty Rating: Levels 1-3, Main Enemy Type: Lust Grappler)
• Platinum Beach (Partial Mob Zone, PVP Enabled, Difficulty Rating: Levels 1-3, Main Enemy Type: Underwater)
• Infected Jungle (Mob Zone, PVP Enabled- Hardcore settings, Difficulty Rating: Levels 1-5, Main Enemy Type: Infected)
• Rural Outpost (No Mobs, PVP Enabled- Nonmatch settings, Difficulty Rating: N/A, Main Enemy Type: N/A, Merchants present)

A few of those words seem a bit strange to you. The Mines area had always been home to a bunch of NPC monsters and great resources for building weapons, but it had previously been a high-level fighting area with PVP enabled, and you don’t remember the word “lust” in any descriptors. Actually this all seems off, even some of the area names have been changed meaning there’s no telling what might be there now. You could always stick around and look for an opponent (or wait for one to find you), though exploring seems to be available to you now.

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Your legs seem to move on their own as you stand up and go for the door, speaking to yourself.

“Well then lets have some fun! Enjoy the club life here in Berlin!”

He lets out a small laugh as he goes to open the door and get back to dancing, though should you will it, you find control of the body returned to you. It seems that you’re able to alternate between an “active” role and a “spectator” role while in this mind meld program.

…

As the timer finishes counting down, you feel yourself sucked back into “reality.” Your head rests on your desk at home, a bit of drool leaking from your mouth as you sit upright and wipe it away. Huh… You note on your clock that after subtracting the three minutes from that mind meld, virtually no time has actually passed in the real world while you were in that game, despite how long you had been in it.

Looking out your window, you’re surprised when a mind meld option appears on a school girl you see walking down the road on her way home… It seems that whatever this program is, it allows you to “mind meld” anyone within eyesight.

Jamie Lane

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A timer appears in the corner of your screen counting down from sixty minutes as Ringleader cocks his head before shrugging. You note a red glow appears around your character, an icon in the corner offering to begin the match at any time as you try to get your bearings. The surrounding area is pretty barren save for the occasional group chatting or fighting. There appears to be two such folks sitting around chatting, one with grasshopper-like legs and the other with ridiculously large metallic ears as they seem to be discussing something about aliens.

“Yeah, those fuckers knocked off a solid 50 XP! I can’t believe it, that’s crazy!”

Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

”Don’t get me started on fun grenades, the mod devs have a sick sense of humor.”

…

“Woah, calm down man, the hell is with you? You’re in Georgetown! Guyana? You know man? Seriously, you need to lay off those VR games, brah.”

The counter in the corner of your screen continues to count down as they laugh at you sticking your hands down your pants. It seems the note is correct, you’re in Guyana of all places.

“Hey! Dude, get your ass up here! Your girl is starting shit again, bahaha!”

What? You feel an arm drag you along as you make your way upstairs. Your body feels pretty good as the thought of kicking someone’s shit in etches through the corner of your mind. When you get upstairs, a Caribbean-looking girl seems to be poking some dude’s chest as she yells at him about something or another. Honestly you aren't really focusing on what they’re saying as you feel your body move on its own for a moment, pulling her out into the hallway, closing the door as the folks inside laugh. Seems your host still has partial control of your body if he focuses hard enough.

“The fuck you doin’ Jaan? Get the fuck off me, I’ma kick that assholes shit in!”

She seems pretty fired up as you realize you still have a grip on her, and your member feels a bit harder than it did before.

Claire

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

He shrugs as you close the live stream. You note your parents pulling into the driveway as you get your bearings, only a few minutes have passed by despite how long you were in that game world. You could always reenter it if you wanted to, but you note that as your mother gets out of the vehicle, an icon appears above her head on your VR device listing a “mind meld” option as you note an acceleration button in the corner of your HUD.

Then again, you could call it a day if you wanted to, who knows?

[that man]

Curious over the conversation, and just wanting to get away from that guy before anything bad happened, Tagase made her way over to the group of people she heard talking about exp, figuring that they would at least be able to help her a little bit with getting started.

"I'm sorry to bug you two, but I was wondering if you could help me out a little bit," Tagase smiled as she approaches the two people who were talking. "This guy just challenged me to a fight, but I postponed it for an hour. Is there anything I could do to help get myself ready for it?"

[exalted]

"Well that sucked" Raina mumbled as she tried to steady her breathing and let the the pain in her chest pass.

The travel options interested her, particularly the mines, but she would need to stockpile some more XP before spending it.

Stretching out in her metal body, she basked in the sensation of feeling her legs again. She started to walk slowly, then jog, run and sprint, leaping and jumping over obstacles in her way as she tried to see how far the body could take her. The first battle had come too quickly for her to properly test things out, now she could while she waited for the next challenge.

[spitfyre]

Amelie cursed to herself as she realized she was stuck in a strange place and a strange body for however long this 'mind meld' lasted. Realizing that someone else was somewhat controlling the body as she was. She then tried to relinquish control of the body back to the host, hoping that he could stop all this and end the meld. If that did not work Amelie would then grab the Caribbean girl by the shoulders and say. "Calm down, why don't you explain what just happened, and then I will decide if you can go 'kick that assholes shit in'." Amelie reasoned to herself that the faster she got out of this without having to deal with her newly discovered, and slowly hardening manhood, the better.

[Nobudi]

So, the mind meld did what it was supposed to: Meld minds. Ginko was surprised that it allowed cohabitation of the mind.
Something to look into in the future.
As she left the game, she was greeted with surprise as it seemed like she could just mind meld with just about anyone visible.
She really wanted to see if this would work.
She selected "Mind Meld" and if there was an option... 3 minutes to the girl outside her window.

[Grape_Drink]

Jamie Lane

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"I'm sorry to bug you two, but I was wondering if you could help me out a little bit,

The two look between each other before shrugging.

"This guy just challenged me to a fight, but I postponed it for an hour. Is there anything I could do to help get myself ready for it?"

”oooh, tough break there… An hour’s a lot of time, hope you don’t have anything too important in the next five minutes.”

”I guess you could look over his stats to try and find a weakness, or get some distance if you use a gun…”

”What if she took on a lead-eater and got a mutation from it?”

”ew, why would you WANT to get a mutation from a lead eater!?

”Well the stat increases…”

”Yeah, and all the other bullshit attached, I’d rather not turn into a clusterfuck. Fun grenades are bad enough.”

”Anyways, if you head towards the city center there’s some lead eater aliens running around, you could maybe kill one or two and trade the XP with someone for some bonuses, but that’s about all I can think of outside of examining your enemy.”

You decide to take a look at Ringleader’s stats as he cocks his head.



It seems he has very few points in projectiles or armor, with most of his points being focused in Unique and Mid-Range.

Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You run through the city, jumping over obstacles as you note the occasional players fighting. Watching someone kick out a chunk of building causing a fight to temporarily disperse, you figure out that while PCs can’t directly damage those in a fight, they can cause environmental damage…

You’re only about five minutes into your run and wondering if you’ll ever get tired when a fatigue bar appears in the corner of your HUD. It begins to empty rapidly as your limbs begin to feel as if they’d been running for miles. When you stop though, the bar begins to refill as the feeling in your limbs begins to disappear at a rapid rate. It seems your character can’t run for very long… At least not at the moment. As you stop though, a small bar appears in the lower right hand corner indicating that a “speed training” bar has increased by 10%.

The next thing you notice is that the closer you’ve gotten to the inner city, the quieter things have gotten, and before long it seems as if the building-repair script has been disabled completely… Looking around, you can’t see any player tags in sight, wait, no you think you spot one in the distance…

Approaching the scene, you note the tag disappear as you round a corner, a creature standing over multiple dead bodies as it looks up at you, withdrawing from the soldier’s shoulder.



NPC Challenger: Sucker (level 2)
XP Worth: 200 points!
Mutation Percentage Chance: 35%!
Continue? (y/n)

You’re not entirely sure if these things have changed since the game was released, though you remember encountering something like this at one point in the wee hours of the morning. Usually the Urban Center is devoid of NPC monsters though. That mutation percentage chance is definitely new, you don’t remember that at all.

Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

It seems you’re able to wiggle your way into the back of the host’s mind as he tries to calm down the situation a bit, taking the girl downstairs and sitting her down on the couch, handing her a drink. It seems like the situation is under control as he rubs his nose, heading back upstairs. For a moment you think he’s heading towards the bathroom before he takes a turn back into the room, approaching the large man and-

Ooo! Your knuckles hurt pretty badly, but that blow to the side of his temple seems to have one shot knocked that big guy out. Damn! Your host begins to argue with someone who you assume is the owner of the house as they shove each other, your instincts telling you to intervene.
By this point though the situation has escalated out of control as you and “your girl” are kicked out of the house, a fight breaking out inside as your mind meld finally ends.

…

Sure enough, only ten minutes seemed to have passed by in the real world as you find yourself slumped over, drooling slightly, but in your own body at least. The pain that had been in your knuckles and body from that fight are slowly fading, as if only an afterthought to your brain.

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You feel a sharp pain in your forehead as you note your HUD subtracting 30 XP points before that feeling of vertigo washes over you again…

A few seconds later, you find yourself in the other girl’s body, a small countdown in the corner of your screen counting down from 3 minutes.

“Nani?”

Whoever’s body your in seems to look up towards the window where your body is as you note your own body’s head swaying slightly before slumping forward onto the desk again. Your host doesn’t seem to notice though as she shrugs and continues along. It seems she noticed some kind of connection, but is unaware of your presence.

You do, however, find that in all instances, your own willpower and movement of limbs seems to override whatever your host wants to do. This could prove very interesting…

[exalted]

Raina stared at the creature for a moment, interest piqued. Hastily she accepted the challenge and let rip with the assault rifle while the creature was still occupied with it's previous prey, before back-pedalling 4Ball back around the corner. Once safely around the corner she turned and sprinted for cover, hoping to draw the creature into a killzone.

[that man]

Realizing just how bad of a situation he had forced his avatar into, Jamie Lane made her character bow down, Tagase replying to what she had been told by saying, "Thank you for the information, I guess it would be the best for me to go and fight some lead eaters now."

Instead of walking away, Tagase stopped for a couple of seconds, but then turned back to the two guys there to ask, "Um, I know that you two have a lot to do now, and have much better things, but could you two help me out with fighting the lead eaters? I am not sure what I could do to pay you two back afterwards, but I'll do whatever you tell me to do in return for the help."

[Reaver]

The creature was fast and that made Jason smile. "Continue at your own risk!" Yasker growled, readying his sword. Jason wasn't sure if the mutation chance was something good or bad, since it could end up being a buff of sorts or even something that crippled his character. Regardless, he wanted that extra xp before logging out for a bit and a better challenge than the one that the Russian robot had given him. "I'm all out of lead. I hope steel will do!" Pointing the sword at the creature, already angling his sword at the alien in case it tried landing on top of him.

[Nobudi]

Hmm, so there was something going on when mindmelds occurred.
Ginko made notes of whatever she could about the strange software that allowed this to happen.
She didn't want to test the distance limit, not that she could at this time, with only 3 minutes.
So she decided to screw with her current 'host'. She could do for having a friend.
Ginko's neighborhood was quite nice, mostly upper middle classed income families.
Quite close to the main entrance of her house, there was a rather large Sakura that was a major blindspot for anyone along the sidewalk.
There, she moved the schoolgirl's body there, and left her host to quietly voice her panic.
Then, making a small grin on her host's face, she began to unbutton her blouse and skirt.
She was stripping this girl in the middle of public, visible to others if she made a sound.
Of course, no one was around, but hopefully, her host wouldn't notice.

[spitfyre]

Amelie opened her eyes after the mind meld was finished. She then stood up and stretched assuming that she was sitting down for quite a while, until she looked at her watch and saw that she had only been out for the ten minutes of mind meld. Feeling curious once again about the game Amelie logged back in to the game with her mind, hoping to find a log out button so she could get out whenever she wanted.

[Grape_Drink]

Raina

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

10, 9, 7, 1 vs 13+1, 6+1, 5+1, 2+1
4 Ball: 490/700 HP
Sucker: 157/200 HP

The first thing you notice as you enter this particular battle is that your HP is displayed in fraction terms rather than as a health bar… It seems that battles outside of PvP rely on the old script that the original game had transitioned away from some two or three years ago. The next thing you notice, is that in the corner of your screen, a “retreat distance” has appeared… It seems if you leave a certain radius centered on the enemy (in this case 800 meters) or line of sight long enough, you’ll be able to retreat from the battle.

Your plan is perfect on paper as bullets riddle the creature, causing it to let out a hiss like steam escaping a teapot, its health steadily dropping with each shot before you turn the corner, taking off at high speeds to find cover.

But unfortunately your plan doesn’t seem to work out the way you wanted it to as the critter drops in from above, latching onto the front and covering your field of vision as you hear a grinding noise, your health rapidly dropping!

Suddenly, your HUD becomes a bit wonky, as if frizzing out. It goes black for a moment as something appears in big red letters across your screen:

Hull Critically Damaged: Switching To Manual Override Mode

You find yourself in an avatar that looks extremely similar to you, only naked. Your arms and legs seem to be in some sort of black goo which you imagine allows you to control the arms of your mech in this “manual override” mode as a display screen shows what’s happening “outside” of your mech. You begin to punch and shoot the sucker as its claws manage to rip through your armor’s lattice structure, creating a large hole as you find yourself face-to-face with the bug. It lets out another hiss before jabbing its large proboscis into your shoulder. The pain is rather… Appropriate for the size of the instrument in your shoulder, and it rapidly drains blood as you begin to feel light headed.

Luckily, uou seem to find a weak spot at the point where its limbs attach to its torso, causing more than the standard “1 or 2 damage” and forcing it to fly off in pain. Still though, your HUD seems to be gone for the most part and your viewport has gone from a 360-access camera to this large hole in the front of your armor. A warning on one of the robot’s inner screens reports toxins present in your left shoulder where you were impaled a few moments ago, though your health doesn’t seem to be draining!

Jamie Lane

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

“Woah, hold up, you actually WANT to fight one of those things?”

“Eh, well I guess we could help her.”

“Yeah, but doesn’t that split the XP?”

“Who cares? I’ll send an invite to Scurve to see if she wants to use a temporary stat-transfer in exchange for that XP, plus if the three of us take it on, then it’s bound to go down more easily.”

”You honestly think Scurve would do that?”

“She has a soft spot for noobs, I’m sure she would, heh.”

”Alright, if you’re willing to join the heart flutter gang, we can hook yah up with Scurve to get a stat bonus in exchange for some XP you earn, Roshi.”

The two of them nod to each other before motioning for you to follow. Looking at their character stats, you note their names are, unoriginally, “Tan Locust” and “Mousey.” Your counter shows about fourty minutes remaining when you finally hear a roar in the distance, a creature that you assume to be a lead eater rapidly approaching your group! This thing is surprisingly fast!



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

Jason

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

19, 14, 10, 4 vs 16+1, 10+1, 9+1, 7+1
Jason: 628/800 HP
Lead Eater: 232/300 HP

The first thing you notice as this battle begins is that NPCs seem to rely on the old HP script from a few years ago instead of the modern HP bar…

You prepare your blade as the lead eater jumps… Over you? Only to turn around and ram you in the back as you faceplant! Your blade manages to slice across one of its legs leaving a nasty gash as blood sprays from the wound onto your armor… And hurts, holy shit that hurts! You note that this thing must have acid blood as you manage to get out from under it!

It looks pretty pissed, but not very injured as it runs its leg across the ground with a growl, preparing to charge head-on!

Ginko

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

As you begin to move back towards your house, your host seems confused as her eyes dart around, her body trying to resist the movement and failing.

And as you strip her down, she lets out a small squeak before her breathing increases in panic, though she keeps rather quiet in fear of being caught aside from the occasional mumbling of trying to figure out what’s going on and asking herself to stop!

Looking over your host, she’s not a bombshell by any trace of the imagination, but she is pretty nice looking. Her breasts are a little less than a handful, and she seems to shave most of her body routinely though she could do to lose a little weight. You also notice that she’s shaking slightly as you finish undressing her out in public! Looking out from behind the statue, there only appears to be one person nearby as they walk along the other side of the road towards their house a few meters away. You believe he once said he was a second year at the nearby highschool you had gone to as you note a little less than a minute remains on your counter.

Amelie

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You enter back into the game as that Urban setting fills your vision. Ex-Stasisey seems to have logged out for now, though you note under your friends list that you can always invite him to join you. Afro-Glider and Juie 8 are nowhere to be found, though you do note-
Ow! What the hell!?

You feel an intense pain in your chest as you find it hard to breath for a moment, your health bar dropping by about 10%.

• Level 1 multi-entry per day penalty: 10% of HP
• Second Entry: Fast Travel Unlocked
• Logout Requirements: Defeat a PC Opponent

Looking around, you spot what appears to be an alien on four legs fighting with a player. Notably there doesn’t seem to be anything preventing you from going into the fray and helping out if you wanted to.



Pulling up a new panel in the corner of your screen, you note the following:

FAST TRAVEL LIST (10 XP charge)

• Change Servers: [Enter Server Country Here] (100 XP fee)
• Urban Center (you are here) (Conditional Mob Zone, PVP Enabled, Difficulty Rating: N/A, Main Enemy Type: Aliens)
• Devil’s Mines (Mob Zone, PVP Disabled, Difficulty Rating: Levels 1-3, Main Enemy Type: Lust Grappler)
• Platinum Beach (Partial Mob Zone, PVP Enabled, Difficulty Rating: Levels 1-3, Main Enemy Type: Underwater)
• Infected Jungle (Mob Zone, PVP Enabled- Hardcore settings, Difficulty Rating: Levels 1-5, Main Enemy Type: Infected)
• Rural Outpost (No Mobs, PVP Enabled- Nonmatch settings, Difficulty Rating: N/A, Main Enemy Type: N/A, Merchants present)

The mines had always been a good source of resources for building things, but you find it strange that the word lust is involved. Actually, the whole list has little changes here and there that you hadn’t seen in the original game. Huh.

[exalted]

Raina hissed in pain as she still felt the sting in her shoulder. Who knew what the hell the toxins would do in this game, anyway it fell she knew it would be better to end this fight quickly instead of drawing it out with hit and run tactics as she would have preferred.

Screaming in rage she let loose with both rifle and SMG trying to aim as best she could for the creatures joints on the torso.

[spitfyre]

"Damnit" Amelie exclaimed as the pain wracked her and she saw that she couldn't log out until she defeated another PC. Seeing an alien fighting a PC she leaped away, trying to stay quiet. After finding high ground, she looked through her scope, surveying the fight, ready to jump in if the PC needed help. "After all" she said to herself, "If I can save them, they probably wouldn't want to fight me."

[that man]

"Thank you for helping me out in this way!" Jamie had Tagase bow, making her go as low as he could before returning up with, "and I'll be sure to do whatever is needed to win!"

Such enthusiasm was diminished she was attacked the lead eater, almost instantly realizing that staying still, or getting near it, would be a bad idea, Tagase had to adapt a strategy of attempting to initially Dodge whatever it was doing and trying to kill it from as far away as possible, not even taking into account some of the horrible things that could happen if she took up all of it's attention.

"I'll try to shoot it from far away, guys!" Tagase shouted, trying to get them to help her out as she made clear to them she was going to run around it for a better angle.

[Reaver]

Jason gritted his teeth as he made a misstep in the fight and got Yasker knocked down with his face. He had no plans of losing to a simple NPC. He was going to get that xp and whatever else this thing had to offer. "A grave mistake. One that won't happen again." Growled Yasker as he charged at the Lead Eater. "You just simply won't have the time to make it happen.." Simultaneously activating his brain cloak and rocket thrusters at the same time. Everything felt extra slow to Jason and Yasker as they raced forward, their sword already up to deliver the first strike. He zoomed by the alien after making contact, only to spin around and fire his hook into the back of it, using the momentum to bring him back towards it and his Sax through its back. After that strike Yasker didn't waste any time pulling his sword to avoid any more acid blood before proceeding to land as many attacks as possible before his brain-cloak burned out and his adversary retaliated.