Beta: Path of a Writer

A-Requiem-for-a-Gamer

Jaune Arc woke up, snapping to a sitting position. He was covered with sweat and breathing heavily.

"Just… just a dream?"

He looked around his tiny, messy bedroom. Clothes and personal effects were strewn everywhere.

The twenty one year old fell back onto his bed with a sigh. "Well, better than that crap actually happening. Still, it was kind of fun to play an RPG character in my dreams."

Fifteen minutes later, he got back up after being unable to go back to sleep. He stumbles to the similarly tiny bathroom, and dealt with his morning routine.

The phone on his night stand then began ringing.

Who calls so early in the morning?

He ignored it until it stopped, simply focusing on freshening up.

He finished brushing his teeth and looked up at himself in the mirror. Dark rings under his eyes from staying up late playing the latest God of War, messy blonde hair from a lack of care, and an expression sapped of energy due to his job.

"Ready for another day at McDough's, I see!" He told himself. Jaune pointed a finger at himself and made a pose. "Remember, you are a rockstar!" He quoted one of his dumb workplace posters.

He sighed.

The phone rang once again.

"Damn telemarketers!" he picked it up. "I don't need any goddamn fresh buns!"

"JAUNE ARC!" The voice almost blew him away.

Oh crap. He winced and moved his phone away from his ear. "Oh, sorry... hi, Mom."

"DID YOU WASTE ALL YOUR MONEY ON VIDEO GAMES AGAIN?!"

"What? No!" He said instinctively. How much money had he spent?! He took a moment to rethink. "No, I'm pretty sure I still have 200$ in the bank."

"Then, dear," His mother began, completely unconvinced. "Why is there an overdraft fee caused by multiple online transactions from 'RWBY: Online'?"

He'd never heard of a game named that. He wondered what 'RWBY' stood for. "No, Mom, I really didn't!" He assured frantically. "It sounds like I might have been hacked, I'll go check."

"That's why I tell you not to go on those sites!"

On those sites, which sites? She couldn't have meant- "I didn't, I swear!"

"Right… I'm sure," she said sarcastically. "Go check, get to the bottom of this!"

"I swear, Mom, I didn't check any of those sites!" He insisted, blushing bright red. "And it's because you never knock!"

"I'm your mom, I don't have to knock! Just go!"

Jaune rushed to his computer, booted it up, and logged into his online banking account. He scrolled to the most recent item in his debit account.

There really were expenditures. Lots of 10$ transactions, resulting in the utilities bill this month sending him under. Guess he'd have to call the police or something. It's kind of weird though. Normally, with tax, they wouldn't be such nice round numbers.

"Jaune, you idiot, you think hackers pay tax?" He smacked himself.

Something about the numbers seemed familiar though…

A-Requiem-for-a-Gamer

Yesterday

"I want to see your manager!"

Jaune winced behind the counter at his part time job. "Sir, it's just an onion, I'll just add it in if you would like."

"It is not just an onion, I paid for it and you lied to me!" The old blond man yelled. Behind him, a similarly aged man with black hair was smacking his forehead into the wall. "This is about the principle of the matter! If I walked away and ate it in transit, I would have realized it too late, that you scammed me! I demand a free burger as compensation!"

"Sir, if you would please calm down…"

"Calm down?! This is a matter of honor!"

"Is it though?" the other old man groaned.

"It is, brother! Look at this ruffian, thinking that he's all that just because he knows how to use their pocket magic tablets! Just for that, let's reincarnate him somewhere horrible!"

"You're breaking your rule of non-interference with life and death just to punish a person who forgot your onions?" The black haired old man flatly asked.

The blond man thought for a second. "You are completely right, we did much less to that Salem woman. Let's skip straight to it without reincarnating. Hey, youngster, what's the thing you hate the most right now?"

"Er…" Jaune blankly stared. "Sir? My manager is coming, if you could please wait..."

The old man stared at him. "EA? The hell is Electro Artists?" He squinted at Jaune. "A game publisher? What's a game publisher? Whatever, you be prepared to live through the worst days of your life!" He stomped away. "Darkness, let's stay away from this horrible establishment forever!"

"It's rude to pluck the knowledge out of his mind…" the other man groaned.

Jaune sighed in relief. Finally, the senile old men were gone.

A feminine hand laid itself on his shoulder.

Jaune stilled.

"What is this I heard about customers getting rejected?"

"Ms. Goodwitch, M-Ma'am!" He yelped.

Alternate-Reality-Game

Jaune slowly opened his eyes.

What happened? Ah right.

He had gone back home after work, feeling more drained than ever, especially after the talk with his supervisor. She understood his situation after listening to him… but gave him a lecture anyways.

Sheesh, what a bitch!

Then, he had stumbled to his desk that was plastered with his university homework. He took a moment to sigh, before he walked straight past it and to his game console, played some games till late at night. Then, nothing. Jaune guessed he fell asleep.

Weird though, he seemed to be suddenly in a rectangular room? He looked around.

The floor and walls were a strange pale jade color. Large half-circle windows with gold framing were in all four walls. There were also quite a few people, though from what he saw, it looked to be kids in their late teens.

Then, suddenly, the scene froze and in front of him at about chest height, a blue-tinted holographic dialog box popped up. He stared at it with incredulity.

Waittt I know this situation! It's one of those 'I've fallen into a video game things'!

He skipped the 'am I dreaming phase', realizing that if he was dreaming, he wouldn't be questioning if he was dreaming, unless he was dreaming about thinking he was dreaming then dreaming wouldn't be the only issue because then how would he…

Jaune paused the thought right there before his brain could light itself on fire. Instead, he decided to go forward to read the textbox.

Except he couldn't move. While he could move his head and breathe, his limbs didn't respond at all. Probably to stop him from doing actions while time is stopped, he guessed. The thing is, that sucks a lot.

Since the text on the dialog was font size three or something.

"Seriously?"

He craned his neck forward as far as he could and squinted, barely making out the first word: 'You'. Then… 'forgot'... and then…

Jaune's eyes widened. His body was tipping! Instinctively, he attempted to catch himself with his arms, but they didn't move. He threw his head backwards, almost giving himself whiplash, trying to shift his weight. It was no use.

There was a dull thump.

"Why the hell is time stopped, but gravity on?!" He yelled into the floor. He lifted his head. Luckily, the dialog box seemed to have moved with him, and was now in front of his face.

"You forgot my pickles too." He read. "What? Pickles - the old man!" He suddenly remembered. But what does that have to do with anything? He poked the 'next' button on the dialog with his nose.

Written on the next dialog was:

For insulting a god, you will face the following punishment:

Finish the main quest in this game I made, or lose your money like you wasted mine!

No tutorials, mortal!

[Next]

Jaune stared.

I don't even know where to start. He shook his head. I'm sure there's a rational explanation for all of this.

He pressed 'next' with his nose again. It disappeared, and with it, the strange affect on this new world. Time restarted.

"Ehhh… you ok there?" A teenage girl a bit further away noticed him and moved to come over. She wore a black dress - and wow, was it a dark black because he could barely make out the details - that was trimmed red. Her neck-length black hair matched her attire for some reason with it's dyed red ends.

"I'm good, thanks for asking." The girl offered a hand and he took it, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. She was surprisingly strong, especially for a girl her size. The girl didn't even reach his shoulders. "I'm Jaune Arc. And you are?"

"Ruby Rose!" She introduced herself with a cheer. "Sooooo you here, for… that?" She winced as she finished her question. "I mean, of course you are here for the Beacon Initiation, not like I didn't know this was the Beacon shuttle…" She laughed awkwardly.

Jaune chuckled at her. It reminded him of one of the neighbors, who was also coincidentally called Ruby. "Nerves, I see? Don't worry there, I'm sure you'll do great!" Great at whatever the Beacon initiation was. Now, how should he get information about that...

He stopped his thought, since at the top right corner of his vision a notification popped up. He tried to look at it in order to read it. It moved. His gaze chased it. It kept moving. Who made this thing?! His gaze kept chasing it, until he was twisting his head almost all the way back.

"...you sure you didn't hurt your head when you fell?" Ruby watched him do a spin all the way around like an idiot.

"No! No, don't worry! There's just uh… a fly! Shoo! Fly!" He swatted at the damn notification as if it was an insect. Not completely untrue, since it was bugging him. "Nevermind." He gave up on it. "So, you come from far away?"

"Not really! From Patch, actually!"

Jaune jumped at the opportunity. "Ah, Patch. Tell me about that place, I don't think I've been there."

Ruby happily spilled as much as she could. "Patch is a reallllllyyyy awesome place! The people are nice, the cookies are great, and there's lots of great big trees by my cottage… It's so green, and brown - and there's a lot of flowers, like lilies, carnations, and orchids. It's really nature-y, unlike Vale. I think I like the nature better." She looked like she was already missing home, before suddenly perking up. "But I'll get the learn how to slay monsters from the best huntsmen in the Kingdom! I'm so excited!"

Jaune probably should have been listening more, but everytime the girl mentioned an unfamiliar word, a notification accompanied by a sound effect popped up on the right. He tried to ignore them, but the repeated 'ping!' sounds were really grating his nerves. You are a terrible game developer, old man!

There was another 'ping', but this time at the bottom left. He glanced that way automatically. To his surprise, it didn't move. It read:

[Server Administrator]: Think that again, and you'll receive a penalty.

Was the god reading his mind?!

[Server Administrator]: No… Er. Hint: the pop ups aren't designed to be impossible to view, it's your own goddamn fault.

Jaune's eye twitched. Thankfully the girl in front of him hadn't noticed. She was still pratling about her hometown.

"...you really need to try the Mistralian chocolates in the general store, they are very good! Even Yang says they are great, though she rarely eats them because of their high fat content." In just that one phrase, two new notifications popped up on the right. Now the whole right side of his peripheral vision was filled up, the new ones actually started a new column towards the left, filling up even more space in his vision. I can't let them continue, or my whole vision would be obstructed!

He groaned internally. Why is this game so dumb?! Why was the first challenge using the god-awful UI?!

Jaune calmed himself down before the god applied the mysterious penalty. Instead, he attempted to figure out what was different about the bottom left message notifications compared to the top right ones. Nothing, from what he could remember. He tried looking toward the bottom left again. It was empty, the notifications had disappeared. He tried looking back at the top right side, and they moved.

Why are they so far in the corner anyways - oh.

He realized something. This time, he only moved his eyes and kept his head still.

It worked.

Seriously?! You should have just told me!

[Echoes]: Ruby Rose UNLOCKED

[Echoes]: Beacon UNLOCKED

[Echoes]: Patch, Vale UNLOCKED

And more were listed as notifications. Each line had a word spoken earlier by Ruby that he hadn't understood, as if he had unlocked them in some kind of database. Jaune wasn't sure why there was a 'Echoes' prefix, however.

"...which is really great, because the 0.308 Winchester rounds are sold in all seven hundred and fourteen standard dust types! Look, aren't they nice?" Ruby shoved a large rifle round straight into Jaune's face, distracting him from his previous thoughts.

Subconsciously, Jaune had nodded along with whatever Ruby had said and made the appropriate noises. Somehow, she didn't notice he was not listening at all. Lucky him, sort of? The only issue is… why is a teenage girl showing him bullets?!

He probably should have listened.

"So what's your weapon?" She asked with sparkling eyes.

Wait, her silver eyes are actually sparkling. What the hell!

He had a lot of time to think about it, as time stopped again. A glowing dialog box popped up in front of him.

Roll for your weapon!

[Yes]

A weapon? So this must be some kind of RPG? Shooter, since Ruby was holding up a bullet?

It was too far for him to use his nose again and he once again couldn't move his limbs. Worst of all, it was right behind Ruby's head. He couldn't do his falling trick, unless he wanted to headbutt the younger girl. He narrowed his eyes. Perhaps there was another way, just like with the notifications.

He glared at the 'yes' button. Nothing. He stuck his tongue at it. Nothing. He made a face. Nothing.

Suddenly, he had a genius idea.

"What if I spit at it?"

He would have face palmed, if he could move his arms. You dumbass! Jaune locked away the stupid idea into the 'last resort' box. But then, what could he do? Was there a kind of input he didn't try yet? He ran through the ways he had tried.

Hitting the button with his body seemed to be out. Glaring or looking didn't seem to do anything. The only thing left was… wait it out?

[System Administrator]: Then you'll be here forever till your body starves.

Yikes! He thought about the problem harder. The answer must be… He racked his mind. It must be… prayers!

"Erm… God… I'm terribly sorry, help me now, please?"

[System Administrator]: What makes you think that I'll help you?!

He stared at the dialog box. "It's just clicking a button…"

...and it worked.

"I had to say it?! Which was the keyword?!"

The weapons, each in boxes, appeared in a column in the similar style as a slot machine. There was an arrow pointing at the center box. It spun, then finally stopped at a box.

Congrats!

You get:

[Silver Spork]

[Legendary]

Description: Fork that is also a spoon. Used by the Arc family for generations… though not always by their warriors.

1 damage

[Tableware]

Other stats hidden.

[Accept] [Reroll for 10$, 20/20 remaining] [Drop Chances]

He stared blankly at it.

Now, he expected a starter weapon to be weak, but he didn't expect this. Still, he was about to try saying 'click' as the keyword when he stopped himself.

He felt pain before, when he fell over on his face. If he gets a weapon that's too weak, and gets mauled by monsters… could he get hurt or even die? What happens on a game over? That wasn't a big stretch, was it? Till now, he was having a bit of fun figuring stuff out. Could the dic - err, benevolent and gracious - god have put actual stakes? The god did say this was punishment, after all, and it didn't feel like punishment at all yet. What was happening?

Jaune decided to play it safe by taking a look at the other weapons. He glanced at the weapon above the one that was stopped on and said 'click'. Its description popped up. Guess I'm supposed to say click.

[Crescent Rose]

[Unique Legendary]

Description: High Caliber Sniper-Scythe Wielded by Ruby Rose.

171 839 damage.

[Scythe/Sniper]

Other stats hidden.

His jaw dropped. He did the same to the weapon box above this one.

[Dex Replica]

[Common]

Description: A shield that absorbs damage taken and charges up at 200% efficiency. Returns damage taken as a beam of hard light.

1 base damage. 100 000 max.

[Shield/Rifle]

Other stats hidden.

That was a common?!

He closed the two description dialogs, looked at the reroll button, and said 'click' without hesitation.

Your funds: $201.53

Continue with payment of $10?

[Yes] [No]

That's an oddly specific amount of starting money. And there's something familiar about it too…

"Ah well, probably overthinking it."

He confirmed it, and the slot machine moved to give him a new weapon. Jaune watched the slots with excitement. This game was cooler than he expected. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thought?

The column of weapons finally stopped moving, and the middle weapon box's description popped up.

Oh, nice!

[Strongly Damaged] [Standard AR-74]

[Rare]

Description: Old prototype assault rifle that was supposed to be used by the Atlesian robotic fodder, but didn't make the cut. Very valuable collector's item.

23 damage

[Rifle]

Other stats hidden.

A bit suspicious, he checked out the drop rates.

Drop Rates:

Legendary: 0.01%

Epic: 0.99%

Rare: 4%

Uncommon: 15%

Common: 80%

Modifiers (applies on non-common items):

Unique: 0.0000001x

Damaged: 2x

Strongly Damaged: 10x

…

Buy premium for 1000 times the chance for good items!

[Premium for 7 Days: $10 000]

Ah, so it was not too hard to get, since the damaged modifier made it ten times more likely to get. It didn't look like a good starting weapon, however. He was thinking about getting it then selling it, but he wasn't sure when he'll have access to merchants. So, he rerolled.

Hm… still terrible.

And rerolled.

Oh, so close to something good again! A pair of shotgun gauntlets is right there, above!

And rerolled. And rerolled. Rerolled. Rerolled more.

The Silver Spork again?!

Twenty rolls later, he wanted to cry.

Congrats!

You get:

[Crocea Mors]

[Legendary]

Description: Sword with a sheathe that's also a shield. Used by the Arc family for generations. But still just a sword and a shield. Think of the history, instead! But still just a plain old sword and shield.

901 damage

[Sword and Shield]

Other stats hidden.

[Accept] [0/20 rerolls remaining] [Drop Chances]

[Buy premium for 100 more rerolls!]

He didn't have enough funds for the premium pass (wasn't it kind of strange having the ability to purchase it using in-game currency?), so it looks like he was stuck with not even a gun... In a shooter. Great. Now that he thought about, he didn't see anything else that wasn't also a gun in some way except for the tableware.

This… this is true suffering, isn't it?

He dejectedly accepted it.

And then he woke up.

ARGentina

Present

He paled.

Just a coincidence… right?

ARG

A/N: Righto, that's a chapter. Please leave a review, means a lot since I can edit my writing depending on your feedback! Favorites and followers are just as good, but numbers are plain and unfeeling… :(

Path of a Writer: Like Jaune's chances on the rerolls?