Chapter 83 - My SI Stash #83 - Perfect Method by Consolidate Means (DCU Justice League) (1/2)
-Fairly new fic, not a SI but a student in Gotham who gets The Gamer system.
*Author precisely said at the end that there'd be no party mode and no spilling secrets, probably the only Gamer fic that follows the thief path? Check it out!
*Honestly, the whole shadow skill thing is giving me Solo Leveling vibes (a very cool manwha) I'm hoping for some ”SUBARASHII” moments~
(☝︎ ՞ਊ ՞)☝︎
Sypnosis: When a young man living in Gotham, is given the powers of the Gamer, he will claw his way out of the miserable life that was given to him. If he has to steal a thing or two to achieve the perfect peaceful life he wants, well then it must be fate that he is shaping up to be a great thief. OC main character.
Rated: T
Words: 12K
Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/13468450/1/Perfect-Method
(Consolidate Means)
PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (*´ー｀*)
-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)
Chapter 1
Routine had a way of making even the weirdest and uncomfortable things seem normal, one could get used to many things if they happened frequently enough. The human mind was adaptive, it was likely its most powerful aspect. Which is why Damien was no longer perturbed to wake up to the loud rumble coming from his ceiling anymore, the excessive noise would start around 6 AM without fail every day. It had gotten to the point where he could trust it to be his alarm clock for waking up for school, it was certainly louder than his old cellphone.
The upstair neighbors would start their daily lives with loud s_e_x, their bedframe dragging itself across their floor was the thing that Damien had been uncomfortable hearing when he and his mom had moved in a few years back. Now it was just a thing that happened, just like the sun would rise in the morning. He was just glad that their voices didn't carry through the thin walls.
His daily routine was far more normal after that: brushing his teeth, placing frozen waffles in the toaster for his breakfast, a quick shower, and putting on his clothes for school. Not bothering to say goodbye to his mother, who would not wake up for another few hours, he walked out of the two-bedroom apartment.
Damien White was remarkably unremarkable, he had nothing about him that was special, and he had nothing about him that was weird. He was just a teen of average height and built, his black hair had a sharp contrast with his white skin, and he wore blue jeans with a marron long-sleeve shirt. His looks were neither bad nor good, a perfect example of normal.
Making sure to avoid eye-contact with the local crackheads, who laid lazily on the hallway, he began to make his way down the old apartment complex. Reaching the lobby, he passed by the mailboxes which were mainly filled with overdue bills and eviction notices. It was comforting for him to think that it wasn't only him who was in financial trouble. It was a cynical thought, but misery loves company, it was a rule of the world; certainly, nothing he could do about it.
Damien might have looked normal, but within he held an iron will, it manifested in his dedication to his studies. He studied hard every day in order to achieve his status of number one in terms of GPA, even beating out freaks of nature like Barbara Gordon who was a natural prodigy.
It wasn't like Damien liked spending his free time in the library, but it was done to escape poverty. He needed a good-paying job if he wanted to move to greener pastures, money would certainly not fall on his l_a_p if he waited around for it. He did not wish to end up like his deadbeat father who abandoned his mother when he got her pregnant, not be like his mother who was only on the road to death.
She worked a minimum wage job that earned enough to pay for some food and her a little to support her drug addiction. He didn't blame her though, she did not have any choice at this point. She was stuck in the cycle of poverty and it was not something that she could break out of easily. She could be a good little worker ant and do as the rich always said and saved her money, eventually, she would have enough to make a move and so on. It was easy for the wealthy to lecture the poor, thinking that they knew what was best. They scoffed at the useless things that the dregs of society would buy. Saying: If you don't have enough money to put toward your retirement funds, then why are you buying a flat-screen TV?
They failed to connect with the common person who lived in downtown Gotham: TVs, gaming consoles, concert tickets, drugs, p_r_o_s_t_i_t_u_t_es, and everything else that was a waste of money was something special to the sc_u_m of the city. It was something that for just a little moment would take them away from their problems, away from the hardsh_i_p_s that came with this life.
Not that he would partake in those things mind you, he simply understood why people choose to waste their money in such a way. He rather study to get good grades, go to college with a grant, and spend the rest of his days rising up the corporate ladder as a salaryman.
So lost in his thoughts that he failed to realize that he had already boarded the subway and was nearing his stop, that was good, the subway was easily the worst part of his daily routine. The amount of weirdos that would gather around the place was astonishing and he had already received his fair share of muggings to feel no d_e_s_i_r_e to give any money to beggars who bummed around the place.
As he focused on his surroundings, he spotted a weird paper lingering in the air, looking at a different direction he was surprised when the paper moved with his eyesight. Testing the motion of his head again, he realized that the paper was centered in his vision, it would move to wherever he looked.
I really need more sleep.
Reaching out to grab the paper he noticed something peculiar, it was immovable. He could touch it but moving it was like trying to push against a wall, it did not budge in any way.
What in the world? It feels weird.
True to his thoughts, the texture of the paper was inexplicable to describe. It felt like it was there, but not really. Like it was a trick of the mind. Seeing that he could not move it he decided to read the stupid thing.
Welcome Gamer!
The 'Ok' part seemed to be almost like a button, risking looking like a weirdo in a train full of them he reached out and pressed his index finger on Ok. The screen immediately changed into a similar screen with more text than the last, at this point Damien had already realized that this thing was definitely not a weird sheet of paper floating in the wind as he initially thought.
Congratulations on becoming The Gamer!
We wish you success in future endeavors, the System will now support you in all aspects of your life as The Gamer.
Ok. / View Tutorial.
Damien looked at the screen with no small amount of confusion, the subway arrived at his stop and he was forced to run out in order not to miss first period. Like the previous screen Damien opted to simply press Ok once more, it was definitely weird, but more than likely it was the weird that would get him a one-way ticket to the Arkham Insane Asylum.
After pressing the Ok button the screen was dismissed and Damien felt relieved that the object of his concern disappeared without a trace, he didn't need something weird in his life now.
The Gamer?
The thought stuck to his head for a single lingering moment before it was squashed by the more pressing matter of getting to class.
Damien stood in front of his classroom door, it stood a monument to his failure. He had arrived late, and as proof, the door was locked. His chances of quietly sneaking into the class were dashed away, he would have to knock and wait for the teacher to unlock the door. A spectacle to be sure.
Damien had no friends, while he was the smartest student in his grade, he never spoke to anyone without being spoken to first, he was the quiet weird kid that spent all his time with his nose on a book. He wasn't weird exactly, but his social awkwardness was like blood in the water to the sharks that lived in the school. He was, by all means, the social outcast of the school. Not that it bothered him much, it got lonely at lunch, but it was not something he pondered on much.
Taking a deep breath he knocked on the door and hear the class go quiet. Footsteps slowly made their way to the door and Damien waited as his stomach dropped, it was his first time being late to class in all his life. The consequences of his tardiness were already piling on his mind.
Damien had never been in trouble and his disposition to authority made him fear punishment, it had been like that for him all his life. He wasn't a coward, but he certainly wasn't the kind of guy to mouth off to the teacher if he got in trouble.
Something peculiar happened however, the anxiety he had been feeling was quickly suppressed into non-existence. It simply vanished. His mind was completely calm, his thoughts flowed fluidly.
”Mr. White, tardy? That's a first, seeing as how it's your first time late to my class I'll let it slide, take your seat.” His teacher Mr. Gonzales explained with a monotone voice that expressed how little he cared.
Damien replied with a quiet 'Thank you' and walked on over to his seat, he could feel the class staring him down, normally such attention would have made his cheeks and ears red, but he felt strangely at ease.
As the teacher began to speak about the lesson, class once again forgot about the late teen and returned to the usual small chatter of teens talking about anything but school.
Damien's thoughts drifted back to the thing he had experienced in the subway, What even is the gamer anyway? Like a video game? Although he used to play video games as a kid, his current financial situation did not allow for much recreational funds. He had not played in years.
Does it mean like games like FPS with guns or RPGs with statuses?
At the last thought, a new window popped up in front of Damien, a much bigger one than the one he had seen previously, this one was filled with information that Damien was not sure what to do with.
Select an item to view additional information.
Name: Damien White
Title: The Gamer Age: 16 Gender: Male Level (D): 9 Debuff: Mental Corruption X100
HP: 40 SP: 35 MP: 0 Magic: E0 STR: D25 DEF: D15 AGI: D10 INT: D85 WIS: D55 CHAR: B LCK: B Points: 0 Money: $15
Damien stared at the screen for a new minutes, taking in all the information it gave. Way past the point he could discard this as a hallucination, he began to wonder what all the letters and numbers meant.
Are the letters supposed to denote my ability and the number is for more accuracy? They all are D, expect for his CHAR and LCK. His magic too.
Deciding that the best way to learn more was to simply press on each item.
Title: Awarded by special actions, can grant stat bonuses and special skills.
Level: Represents the current overall rating of your status, a higher level means higher overall ability, each level will naturally increase your attributes. Levels can be earned through the System. (Level is Denoted by a Letter Rank)
SP: Represents the maximum amount of stamina you possess. Should this drop to 0, you will faint.
MP: Represents the maximum amount of magic that can be performed. Should this drop to 0, you will be unable to perform magic.
Magic: Represents the quality of magic you may produce.
STR: Represents the amount of strength you possess.
DEF: Represents the amount of defense you possess.
AGI: Represents the amount of agility, dexterity, reflexes, and speed you possess.
INT: Represents the amount of intelligence you possess.
WIS: Represents the amount of wisdom you possess.
CHAR: Represents the amount of charisma you possess. Value cannot be changed through normal means.
LCK: Represents the amount of luck you possess. Value cannot be changed through normal means.
Points: Earned through leveling up, can be allocated to stats.
Once again, Damien found himself at a huge loss. It was a lot of information to take in, all his ability could be quantified on a single page so easily? It was a reality check to be sure, but it only brought out more questions than what it managed to answer. The Title section mentioned skills, did he have some sort of menu-
A thought was all it took for a new screen to pop up in front of the old one, this one more simple than the last.
Menu:
Status
Skills/Blessings
Inventory
Quest
Relations
Damien was beginning to regret not opting in for the tutorial. He checked his inventory and found it empty, along with his quest tab. He decided to check the Skill section next. This one again was filled with information.
Blessings:
- Gamer's Body, your body is like that of a game. Damage received will decrease your HP rather than damage your body. Sleep will restore HP & remove status effects.
- Gamer's Mind, your mind perceives reality as though it were a game. Allows your mind to be calm despite the situation you may find yourself in, you are immune to all mental statuses and attacks.
- Gamer's Anathema, you will live life as though it were a game. Allows for Paracasual abilities.
- Gamer's Right, set of inalienable tools for the gamer. Gamer can use Inventory and Observe. (Note that entities than exceed The Gamer's level by at least a value of 1 will have information hidden).
Skills: A/N
Aside from that, there was nothing else on the screen. It was surreal, he almost thought that he may have been drugged if not for the fact that it was so vivid. He began to wonder how something like this came to be, everyone knew of the Metagene, but those things tended to be way more physical even if they also had weird abilities, but this was vastly different. This had intelligence behind it, this was even referred to as a System in several of the things he had read so far, the mere fact that it contained text clearly pointed to the fact that something had written it. But for what end? And why did he have it?
The more he thought about it the less it made sense, there was something eerie about the whole thing. The whole Mental Corruption times 100 wasn't giving him much confidence either, had the Gamer's Mind negated the effects? Or...?
There was only one thing he could do now, and that was trying out his new ability. How would he go about receiving a quest, would it come to him? There were too many questions in his head so the only thing he thought about doing was using observe on his classroom. There were plenty of subjects to try it on, he hoped it would be something unnoticeable or there would be a lot of explaining to do.
Looking at his teacher, who still was writing on the board, he thought about how he would go about using his ability before he simply decided to do what felt natural, Observe, the thought brought up a box on top of Mr. Gonzales to appear.
Name: Gustavo Gonzales Title: High School Teacher Age: 46 Level (D): 14 Description: ? Relationship: Liked
It seemed that because his teacher's level was higher than his, he was unable to read his description, he wondered what kind of information that would give. He began to observe some of the other boys around the class to learn more but was saddened to learn he held the lowest level amongst the boys. It wasn't surprising given how little he worked out, but it still stung slightly. Seeing that he was getting nowhere with the boys, he set his eyes on the girls and started to learn more.
Name: Alice Palm Title: High School Student Age: 16 Level (D): 8 Description: Alice Palm is a High school student who likes to spend time texting her boyfriend, dreams of long vacations on the beach, and getting rich by marrying into money. Relationship: Disliked
Finally, he encountered a person with a lower level than him, the information he was given was not much, but it was more than what he knew of her prior. He looked down at his pencil and used Observe.
A slightly used wooden pencil.
About what he expected, he continued to observe his classmates until he was satisfied with the results. It was when he was done with the whole class that a new pop up appeared in front of him, this one slightly different, it read:
Quest!: Know your limits. Use Observe on a target whose level greatly exceeds yours.
Rewards: 50 XP
Failure: None
Accept?
Despite the question mark, Damien took note that there was no option to decline, would this be the case for all quests or just some? Seeing no harm in accepting he pressed his finger on the button and saw the Quest placed on its appropriate tab in the menu. No matter how many times Damien used his Observe on others, some football players had levels in the 20s, but it failed to fulfill the quest. There was no exact number by how much higher the level had to be so Damien had no reference to know how much he needed to see. It was then that he spotted the girl of everyone's dreams. Barbara Gordon, the redhead beauty. She was unapproachable due to the fact that her father was the Commissioner of Gotham, getting on his bad side was not on many people's best interest. Therefore, despite her immense popularity she was only ever seen with her closest of friends. He decided to take a look at her information.