You'd think dying would be, I don't know, special, in some way. Like, you'd see the light or feel the cold embrace of death drag you to hell or something. No, what I'm seeing is by far the weirdest thing, right after finding out I'm a video game character.
Well~, this is sort of connected.
In front of me was a full on sea of screens and code, the type you'd find when programming a computer, or...a game. The screens rippled and glowed at random, lines upon lines of text, numbers and letters and symbols all blurring in front my eyes, and I knew for certain that every single one was reflecting into my eyes, it was extremely bright, yet not blinding.
Looking down, yep, there was the hole. It stopped bleeding but there was a huge dark spot on my clothes, and the inward tear into my hoodie wasn't exactly hard to miss. My arms felt odd. Come to think of it, my entire body felt weird. Forgetting the fact I'm still alive despite being shot really close to my heart, my basic motor skills and movements were still here. My body felt numb, yet I could still feel the fabric of my hoodie, and there was a slight sting when I fingered the hole in my chest.
Huh, I'm not panicking.
Looking up, I honestly don't know what to expect, but what I'm seeing right now isn't one of them. I mean, come on!? A class selection!?
In front of me was a figure of a typical dual wielder, carrying dual swords while wearing what looked like the attire of a typical highwayman, or that of a rogue. On either side was a glowing silver arrow, the type you'd see for changing screens. On either side were black silhouettes for, what I'm thinking, is other classes.
Although, it is kind of weird seeing my face in a different body.
There was no description or button to press except the arrows, so I'm guessing I need to put it together myself. The dual wielder carried matching katanas, but each second different pairs of one handed weapons appeared in different poses, some slashing, some stabbing and others blocking. It looked light and quick, something more my style, but other than that, there wasn't any real outliers.
Tapping on the arrow, the dual wielder went to me with a greatsword and a giant plate shield, wearing some rather heavy looking knight armor. The pose went from me in a relaxed pose to me with my greatsword dug into the ground, pieces of marble stuck in frozen flight and my shield bashing a transparent Beowolf.
Too heavy for my liking, and much to slow. Great defense and heavy offense, but it doesn't look to useful if my opponent has range. It then changed into my greatsword shifting in a railgun, arcing lines of electricity sparking in a frozen moment as a huge ray of bright blue electricity covered a cylinder looking shot. Hmm.
Clicking next had was me in robes, carrying a staff with a glowing gold crystal on one end, a transparent blade forming in my free hand. A mage, great. Magic seemed pretty amazing, but each passing image didn't show a solid melee weapon, or any sort of gun, so it looked like it limited me to magic. Well, I'm sure I could put in a gun or a baton or something in there, but being heavily magic reliant had many glaring faults. I'm not an idiot, thank you.
I clicked the arrow again, but it brought me back to the dual wielder, this time fully watching the shifting images as each sword glowed a fiery red and then changing to me with an automatic rifle firing at something I couldn't see.
Hmm. A ranger, a tank and a mage. The ranger was good, but I'd prefer to implement magic somewhere, and watching each shifting image didn't show any form of magic. The tank was out, I prefer mobility and not being a sitting target, thank you. The mage seemed okay if I went the full magic route, but doing that would forfeit defense and health, like other typical mages, so that's out. Do I need to make a choice to continue or something? The floating screens are still surrounding me, and I'd like to get out of this eerie silence, thank you.
There was a beep, totally didn't jump, stop that, and each of the three classes disappeared into a box of text,
Not liking these three options? Nice! Pretty good not meeting a stickler to the rules for once.
O...kay. That's odd.
"Odd"? It's a bloody miracle, thank you very much! Do you have any idea how boring it is seeing ever single Player choosing the same bloody thing! I mean, yeah, they change it up a bit, but they never steer away from their chosen class, it is so boring. Sticking to their given classes like the typical noobs. Well, except for you, of course.
"Me?" I'd like to think this would be common. The box beeped away, before what sounded like annoyance was embodied into a whine.
You'd think, but no. There's limits to what happens in the beginning, and nothing ever really gets interesting until the first death or they get the bright idea to act like an actual Player for once in their lives. I mean, come on. Heroes throughout time took these classes and not one of them had the idea to branch out of the box.
That...what? "'Through out time'? Video games haven't existed for very long though?" That's just confusing. People have been playing video games before the discovery of electricity?
No no no. People have been video games since before the discovery of electricity.
Wha?
Think of it like this: video games are made of code and animation and the works, so think of mortal life being the same. All code and a string of numbers and imagery. Can't tell you how life started, don't know that ourself, but that's a form of life itself. Everything is a sort of code, and the soul is simply the mortal form of the console.
I see...I think. "Everyone is a game, essentially?" Another beep, this one a tad more chipper...how do beeps convey emotion?
Don't think about that. But yeah, we mean, the "Semblance" you mortals so affectionately call it, is simply like your Ultimate in an RPG or action game. Not to mention everything is like a game. Haven't you seen the Hunters? If you compare the most famous ones or just the Headmasters and students to that of a typical action RPG or MMO fantasy game, they wouldn't look to different now would they?
That, actually clears things up.
We know. Anyway, we're kind of breaking the rules here, but since your not a complete noob, think of this like a tutorial reward. Sorry if you need to learn somethings from scratch though.
"Wait, wha-!?"
There was a bright flash and the rows of text and screens disappeared, along with the weird text thing, and the next thing I knew, there was a single, new class in front of me.
This...this was perfect.
It was me, obviously, but it was wearing a set of leather armor with plates placed over strategic places, a black cape covered my body while my head was covered by long hair, and I looked like a much better ranger character. Instead of dual swords, there was a longsword in one hand while a bright purple crystal floated in front of my other hand, which was glowing, and the image changed to me with my magic fairing hand on the ground, a shockwave of bright red flame carrying transparent Grimm away from me. The next image showed dual pistols in both hands, bullets stuck in frozen time flying everywhere as Grimm corpses lied in front of my figure, frozen in decay.
This, this was beyond perfect. A beep drew my gaze from the slowly shifting battlemage in front of me, taking my eyes to another string of text.
Technically, we're breaking the rules, so this battlemage class will be yours to discover, but everything in between will be your own choice.
I looked back to the battlemage class, walking slowly closer and tapping my frozen pistol shooting figure, before another white screen appeared:
Are you sure you would like to be class: GA5!$ ?
Y/N
"It wasn't kidding about breaking the rules." Clicking yes with a calmness from Gamer's Mind, there was a flash of light before a stabbing knife of pain went through my quickly closing eyes, which only decreased to a numb ache as I found myself lying down in something soft.
"Uuugghh...why me?" The pain was only an ache, but not even Gamer's Body could completely negate the pain of a point blank bullet to the chest. There was the slightest beep and a bright silver window popped up in front of my face,
Mission "Introduction and Tutorial" Completed!
Gained Class "Young Moon Wolf", gained Path "Battlemage"
Your Character has been reset!
"WHAT!?" Oh dear Oum, my chest! Flooding calmness and cloud of cold enveloped my panicking body, and my quickly developing bout of curses were silenced by Gamer's Mind, leaving me much calmer, but still ever so pissed.
Eyes wide, I quickly looked around, but it appears no one was coming, and it was here that I fully saw where I was: the Infirmary. It wasn't to hard to figure it out with all the times I had gone to one back home.
There was a brief tinge of annoyance and even bigger twitch of confusion. I was just shot in the chest who knows how long ago and there isn't even a nurse to see if I was okay? What in the nine Hell' is the school?
Looking down at the window, I closed it with a thought before swiping my hand down, sighing in relief as the symbols for each menu hadn't changed. Sigh, time for the big reveal. I clicked on Character.
Jaune Wynters Arc
Age: 16
Race: Human
Level: 1
Title: The Gamer
Path: Battlemage
Class: Young Moon Wolf
HP: 200/200
AP: 1500/1500
SP: 100/100
STR: 5
AGL: 5
MAG: 10
SKL: 5
-Gamer's Mind: (Passive) Lvl MAX:
Being a video game character grants you all the perks of a game character, including this skill. Remain almost permanently calm, reason through obstacles, and negate certain mental attacks.
...
Gamer's Body: (Passive) Lvl MAX:
Being a video game character grants you all the perks of a game character, including this skill. Ignore pain, push through physical attacks, injuries (sans dismemberment, death, or drug like effects) will be almost instantly healed. Broken bones, or major injuries can be healed through First-Aid, or sometimes, sleeping. After aches are not guaranteed to be healed.
...
Aura: (Passive/Active) Lvl MAX:
Light of thy soul, shackles unbound, may thy inner light broaden thy path
30% bonus to all Aura related skills and actions, may be increased through continuous Meditation or increase in MAG
...
SKILLS:
...
What? Why are my stats missing!? Okay, calm down Jaune, think things through calmly...Gamer's Mind settled down any form of verbal rant or fit I would have undoubtedly acted with. Oum, I need to calm down. I'm guessing the four new stats go over everything the old ones do, why else would there only be four? This must mean my new "Path" or whatever is simply a game changer (heh). Still seems to work right. Besides the loss of most of my stats, the Path thing and decrease in my level, there wasn't anything I couldn't catch up in, so I don't see the big deal as of now. There was a tab for Skills, where before it was an open page, but other than that, nothing was really new.
Clicking on Skills, I nearly choked on air.
What is all this!?
Hundreds upon hundreds of different bubbles with different bubbles branched off of a dark silver sphere of rippling light, there being four different branches coming off of it, all going on and on.
The top left was a brilliant blue with the word "Magick" at the base, the top right was an amber orange with the word "Melee", the bottom right was a snowy white labeled "Ranged", and the bottom left was a dark glowing purple labeled "Branch Methods". In between each base was a hexagon of bright pink, each having circular symbols of interconnecting diamonds. Hovering my sight on each labeled each hexagon as an "Ultimate". Swee~t.
A quick study of each showed that Magick was a chart of all magic spells and routes I could practice in, including minor skills for anything related to magic such as Alchemy and Elemental Buffers. Melee was very varied for any form of melee weapon I could ever use, branching off into a connected branch with Ranged for mecha-shifting weaponry (So many...), Ranged was any sort of throwing or ranged based weapon such as javelins to rifles. Branch Methods looked like many different traits and skills with minor branches to each, such as a section for Blacksmithing, others for Stealth, and some ranging from Cooking to even Cleaning.
Feeling giddy, the hundreds upon hundreds of ideas for expanding on these made me want to jump, but a quick stabbing ache in my chest prevented that. I thought this was supposed to heal me!?
Due to a well nights rest, HP reset and all ailments cured! Slight ache in rib cage, recommendation: Take it Easy
Fuck you.
The sound of the door opening dragged my attention away from the notification, and-oh great, this asshole. Smirking, I felt a little smug seeing the fading purple bruise enveloping his left right eye, as well as most of his cheek.
"Good evening Mr. Arc, I hope you rested well?" So you want to play polite, huh? I smiled with obvious fake joy.
"Oh yeah! Point blank bullets to the chest just make sleep so much better!" Saying nothing for a moment, the silver haired bastard took a slow sip of his coffee. I thought dad was the only person I'd meet with a coffee mug in their hand indefinitely.
"I apologize Mr. Arc, I had heard from your parents that from the previous injuries you had sustained when practicing with this, it had gone away with nothing more than a few hours rest. Injuries varying from scrapes...to the near decapitation of your head." Oh.
"It wasn't that bad!" I narrowed my eyes, "How does one incident give you the right to put a bullet in my chest anyways? 'Coul've died you know." Ozpin smiled (little bastard), and took another sip.
"That 'not so bad' injury you sustained happened when you fell onto your own sword at first training, getting over confident in this 'Strength' ability of yours, and nearly cut out half your neck. The loss of blood would have killed you withing the hour, but only little later upon passing out, I was told that it had healed with nothing to show for it, healthy as could be."
OK, cue embarrassed chuckle.
"Alright, I might have over exaggerated that, but still. How would you know that would've worked?"
"I did not, Mr. Arc. I assumed being a 'video game' character, as I've been informed, would have triggered something you should know, a 'respawn' if you would." I felt a little stupid, but even more confused. I'm pretty sure a "respawn" doesn't work in real life. Placing a hand to my chin, then again. Whatever I spoke with said that nothing happens until first death, so maybe respawning does work?
I kinda don't wanna risk it.
"Besides, it worked, did it not?" Slowly, I nodded. I'm still mad about this, but at least I know he isn't a psychopath or something. I hope.
"Can we not, I don't know, try that again? When I died," Shiver "I went to a whole different place, something I'm sure I can't go to again. I think it's only a one time deal anyways."
The Headmaster hummed slightly, nearly drowned out by another sip from his mug. That actually smells kinda good.
"Of course, let's not tempt it...This place you were in, could you describe it?" Hoo boy. How do I explain this...
"Well, it was a black 'space', I guess I could call it, and there was thousands of screens and stuff, all showing code and programming patterns." Ozpin raised an eyebrow slightly. "It was weird, but I went through a class selection, and-" Ozpin raised a hand, his mug now lowered.
"A what, Mr. Arc?"
"Uh, class selection. In a game, it's what you choose for your play style, what path you want to go with." He stared at me. "O-okay, uh, classes can range from things like being a mage, a purely magic character that gains benefits from anything magic, to something, like, a knight, all heavy armor and focusing on high defense and offense. Each class would and could have specific skills and items specific to that certain class, so, say, a mage couldn't use a greatsword or a pair of daggers like a pure melee class like a Knight or a Rogue. There are hundreds, apparently even thousands that can be a mix or just custom made by the player when play styles aren't limited, so whatever you can make work for you can be a class."
There was another hum, and the coffee mug was lowered completely to his lap. When did he get in a chair?
"What class did you choose in this 'space', Mr. Arc?"
"I'm a, uh, battlemage. Mix between melee and magic. The given classes weren't to my liking, so something began talking with me and gave me the battlemage class, er, Path." Now Ozpin seemed more intrigued.
"'Path'? What is this thing that talked with you, Mr. Arc? Is it alright if I call you Jaune?"
"Hm? Oh, uh, yeah, sure. Um, this 'Path' thing looks my actual class, I think. Something like my profession, now that I think about it. My actual class is the same one I showed you before, 'Young Moon Wolf'. For what I talked with, I'm gonna go on a limb and say that it's The Game itself. It referred to itself as 'us' and 'we', so it's not something singular, but other than that, it just talked about how I was choosing something out of the ordinary and that it was breaking the rules or something."
"'The Game itself' hmm. It sounds like you spoke with the manifestation of your Semblance, Jaune. But that is a discussion for another time. For all we know, that could have been the only time you can speak with it, so that will be looked into later. Do you know why you have such a named class, Mr. Arc?" Actually, I don't now that I think of it. Nice change of topic to, I really don't know how to explain anything else on the Speaker. Opening my Character screen, I noticed Ozpin looked it over, despite it being backwards to his direction.
Tapping on the class, I jumped when a sub-window closed, opening another one showing the image of a howling wolf silhouette in front of the shattered moon, with lines of text beneath it. I spoke aloud as I read,
"'Young Moon Wolf', one of the many thousands of sub-classes to battlemages, emphasizing the traits and teachings of the Lunar Servant, Aurea Lacrimae, the Golden Tears of the Lunar Goddess of Eclipse, Nisshoku. The wolf is a pack hunter, the Leader, and the most powerful, the Lone Wolf. Serving to a divine cause grants the Divine Art of Lunar Manipulation, a form of magick only devout followers, or the potential ones, of Nisshoku can obtain. The grace and deadliness of the night packaged into a single soul, bringing the user closer to a divine being than any form of prayer or plea.
Grants Magick path "Lunar Manipulation" including any and all traits of the Silent Hunter, Aurea Lacrimae. Permanent fluidity in the arts of Lunar Magick, grants permanent bonus, Wolf Blood, increasing fluidity in any and all traits of the Wolf Style." Oh ma lord.
Ozpin was silent, thinking on what I read, I'm guessing. Closing out of the window, I waited patiently for the man to respond, all past hostility gone. After several moments of silence, he spoke, his voice soft but serious,
"Well then, Jaune. Let us get started."
STR: Strength, HP, overall body fitness
AGL: Agility, stamina, overall body ability to move and react
MAG: Magick, Aura levels, ability to cast any form of Magick related ability/action
SKL: Skill level, ability to use Stamina and Player reliant skills instead of Magick, such as Quickstep, Stealth, Parry, Blade Arts, etc. etc.