Chapter 3: Megaton View

The screeching of metal continued to echo throughout the cave as Jayson walked through the darkness, leaving the vault behind. Pieces of bones and skulls littered the floor as he goes up a slight incline and could see beams of light filtering in-between old wooden boards and a door thats positioned over the opening of the cave tunnel. Looking back and at the ground, he knew that the pieces of bones are most likely from the swarms of people that tried to get into the vault when it originally closed.

Turning back to the wooden door, Jayson walked up to it as the Vault Door finally shut; with the tunnel being penetrated in silence. Jayson reached forward and put his hand on the door, noticing no green screen showed up, and then pushed it forward. Light flooded into the tunnel as he stepped out into it; having to shield his eyes since the body he inhabited has lived it's entire life in the vault and is not used to sunlight yet.

Blinking a bit, his eyes soon quickly got used to the light and he then continued to walk forward a bit, away from the wooden door and towards a small overlook. Standing at the edge, he stared out at the empty brown wastes spanning out for miles like the rolling blue of the sea. Carcasses of pre war buildings, burnt husks of trees, destroyed pre-war roads and highways half buried in dirt, the silhouette of the DC ruins barely seen in the distance, and of course the thing that stood out the most from the view; Megaton.

He looked out at the huge metal structure of Megaton out in the distance; from here it looked very small, but he could tell it was way bigger than the game. He continued to gaze out at the wastes, his new home, until eventually a transparent green screen appeared in his vision; the Level-Up screen.

Jayson breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing it as time around him froze. He thought it would most likely still be a thing since he got a screen from the medicine bobblehead, but he wasn't completely sure. Nice to know his worries weren't true.

He looked at the screen in front of him, with it saying 'Level Two' at the top and showing a list of the thirteen skills. At the bottom it also showed that he had 20 skill points to distribute among them.

With time standing still, he thought about what he needed right now. He could get easy caps from fixing the broken pipes at Megaton and also disarming the bomb there; with him even getting a place of residence at Megaton if he successfully disarmed it. The pipes would need a repair skill of 30, while the bomb would need an explosives skill of 25. He would like to increase his explosives skill to 30 though; mainly because he wanted extra insurance against the nuke.

Deciding on what to do, he brought his repair and explosives to 30 and then put the remaining 14 into small guns; bringing it up to 56. He wanted to bring his main weapons skill, small guns, up as fast as possible. Since he knew the wasteland is incredibly dangerous and having at least one high level combative skill will be imperative to his survival.

Continuing on, he is then brought to perk selection. In Fallout 3 you get to choose one perk each level but the problem is that the game didn't have the best perk choices. After checking to see if he could, he figured out he can't leave the screen and unpause time until he picks a perk. So that means he won't be able to save and stock up on perk points.

The list of available perks so far available to him are:

Daddy's Boy: Just like dear old Dad, you've devoted your time to intellectual pursuits. You gain an additional 5 points to both the Science and Medicine skills.

Gun Nut: You're obsessed with using and maintaining a large variety of conventional firearms. With each rank of the Gun Nut perk, you gain an additional 5 points to Small Guns and Repair skills.

Little Leaguer: Years as the Vault little league MVP have honed your hitting and throwing. With every rank, you gain 5 points of Melee Weapons and Explosives skill.

Thief: With each rank of the Thief perk, you gain an immediate bonus of 5 points to both the Sneak and Lockpick skills.

Intense Training: With the Intense Training perk, you can put a single point into any of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes.

Lady Killer: In combat, you do +10% damage against female opponents. Outside of combat, you'll sometimes have access to unique dialogue options when dealing with the opposite sex.

Swift Learner: With each rank in the Swift Learner perk, you gain an additional 10% to total Experience Points whenever Experience Points are earned.

To Jayson, the first four perks are not worth it to him. All they really did is increase his skill points. That would give him a small boost at early levels, but at later levels, their impact would basically disappear. He found that their a waste of a perk.

The Intense Training Perk seems useful at first but with the Almost Perfect perk available at Lv. 30 in Fallout 3's perk list, the Intense Training perk loses its importance. Also, after focusing on the perk, a small notification tells him none of his Specials can be increased any further. Looks like he won't be able to go past into superhuman limits through this perk.

The last two perks are a bit different though. The Lady Killer perk is useful but is quite situational; he also has no interest in the other ability it brings. The Swift Learner perk is, in his opinion, the best option.

For the game it's recommended not taking the perk since enemies increase in difficulty depending on your level. So it's actually advised to have a slower levelling speed than a faster one; it would actually make certain parts of the game easier. Here though, it's not the same. Enemies won't scale depending on his level here; instead their already incredibly dangerous and well armed as they could be since this is real life and not a game. Enemies can also kill him in one shot/hit if their lucky or smart enough. Because of this, it's actually very advantageous to be able to level faster. The faster he levels, the faster he's able to stand up to the horrors of the wastes.

Making up his mind, Jayson picks the Swift Learner perk and then accepted his choices; with the green screen vanishing and time resuming around him. Already getting used to the feeling, his mind swam slightly as new knowledge and muscle memory burned into him. Slightly more knowledge on how bombs work, how they tick, how to use them effectively and also knowledge on how to use tools to fix machines, pipes, weapons, armour and other such stuff; and of course way more knowledge about a bunch of stuff about guns. His muscles and body twitched slightly as new muscle memory went into them; it felt like he has used pistols and rifles for years.

After all the sensations cleared up, he also noticed something else a bit different. He wasn't expecting any change felt from Swift Learner but he actually felt like his mind has opened up slightly. He feels like he'll be able to pick up and learn new things slightly easier.

He was really amazed at this realization. These perks didn't just give you their statistical benefits, they also affect you slightly depending on what the perk is. He guesses that if he chose Gun Nut, he would actually get a bit obsessed with guns and on how they work; becoming a gun nut himself.

Looking out at the scene again for a bit, he then started to walk down the small trail that leads down from the vault. The trail lead to the side of an old pre-war road, with it being filled with cracks, changes in elevation and numerous potholes. He decided to head left towards the ruins of the small pre-war town to travel on the outskirts and then head to Megaton to earn some caps and to get some basic supplies. Going to Megaton will also be a good start by catching up on news, finding out what's different from the games and by getting his name out there.

He doesn't really know what he'll do long term, but for the short term he'll be travelling around and doing requests from others; like the quests from the game. He'll be a wanderer/scaver/mercenary of sorts; until he gets stronger and cements himself into the wastes.

A bit of time passes by until he gets close enough to the pre-war ruins, with a whole bunch of skeletons of pre-war houses all around him. With ever step he kept his ears, eyes and even nose completely sharp, and steeping as softly as he could. The reason why he was on such high alert was because he knew a group of raiders uses the ruins of an elementary school here as a base. He's being cautious just in case he runs into any traps or patrols.

As he walks through a street on the edge of the ruins, he rummages around through some of the houses and containers. Most of everything was empty and picked clean, but he did find a few things and even a hidden safe that he easily unlocked. Some notable finds was a few frag grenades, an old .32 Pistol and even a set of Leather Armour he found crumpled between some rocks. The biggest find though was when he finally found the Pugilism Illustrated book he was looking for in a mailbox. How it survived and hadn't been looted all this time, no one knows.

He willed the items into his inventory and they disappeared in a way like it disintegrated into his pip-boy screen. He also found out he's able to instantly switch outfits using his pip-boy. That was very nice to know and he actually switched his vault-suit out with the quite scuffed and used leather armour. It provides way better protection but also with it the residents from Megaton won't instantly know he's from the vault.

Jayson eventually saw a metal sign with 'Megaton' painted on it with an arrow pointing towards a road going past it. Following along the road going away from the ruins, he eventually comes to another Megaton sign that pointed to a small path that headed to the right. He travelled along the path through a bunch of rocky outcroppings, with it swerving back and forth for quite awhile. As he continued to walk along, he was able to see the massive walls of Megaton in the distance; with them getting larger the closer he got.

Turning around a corner, he eventually see's the front of the humongous circular walls of Megaton and its gate with the old plane engine above it. Everything was WAY bigger than the game, and there was quite a few caravans and traders in front of the gates; either waiting to get in to sell their wares for a few days or just making quick deals with others outside of the walls.

This is it, he finally made it to Megaton. His life in the wastes can now officially begin.

/ / / / / / / / / /

Skills:

Barter- 27

Big Guns- 27

Energy Weapons- 27

Explosives- 30

Lockpick- 27

Medicine- 37

Melee Weapons- 27

Repair- 30

Science- 27

Small Guns- 56

Sneak- 42

Speech- 42

Unarmed- 27

Perks:

-Swift Learner