Special

After I finished talking with Sawbones he left saying there was still other work he had to do today and would come back later, leaving me alone by myself. I just sat there in silence for a while taking in the fact that I had somehow reincarnated into a videogame world and wondering what I was supposed to do now?

Since I was already registered as an NCR soldier I would have to stick with them for the time being, which wasn't too bad.

Because I had absolutely no idea how to survive by myself in my old cushy world let alone how to do it in the dystopian hell scape known as Fallout. So having an entire army at my back showing me the ropes sounded pretty okay. The only problem I had was that from what I remembered the NCR and its soldiers end up getting the shit kicked out of them by the Mojave.

I wasn't 100% sure where I was in the timeline but, the fact that the NCR were fighting against the Brotherhood of Steel made me think I was fairly early. From what I knew the NCR only fought against the BoS when they first pushed into Nevada and before they even knew the Legion existed.

So I knew that I still had some time left before things start going south but, I would have to remember to ask Doc what year it was when he came back. So I could know for sure exactly how much time I had to prepare.

"Wait" I slapped my forehead "I'm an idiot!"

I didn't need to wait to ask what year it was because I could easily figure it out myself, reaching over I grabbed my personal file off the counter. Since I was 16 years old just like in my past life all I had to do was find my birth year and add my age to that to find the current year.

"Yep, there it is" I flipped open the folder and saw what I needed on the first page.

Age: 16

Born: April 5, 2260

Which meant that it was somewhere between mid 2276 and early 2277.

"Great" I sighed this wasn't good.

When you first start a new game of Fallout New Vegas your character wakes up October 11, 2281 which means that there is still over five years left before The Courier shows and ends the war, and that's assuming they actually exist or side with the Legion.

Of course it was way too early to be worrying about stuff like that, my main problem right now was figuring out how I was even going to survive long enough for that to even be a problem.

I shook my head, hopefully Doc can find a way for me to get some training so that I won't be completely useless here. Even though the thought of brutal training in the hot desert sun didn't sound much like fun, I didn't really have a choice.

Who knows maybe if I'm lucky I might be assigned to some kind of support role and avoid most of the fighting? Probably not but, a man can dream.

Leaning back I placed the folder to the side and wondered why I was taking all of this so well? I felt like I should be panicking more but, for whatever reason I was relatively calm. Maybe it had something to do with my missing memories? Since if I can't remember my old life I can't miss it, making it easier adapt?

Either way I was starting to get bored and I hadn't even been on my own for half an hour yet, at least I think it was half an hour since there was no clock in here.

Eventually I got tired of waiting and picked up my folder again to kill some time since if I was stuck here I might as well learn more about the body I found myself in. Since I had no memories I couldn't even tell if this was my original body or if I had just stolen some poor bastards. And after flipping through a few pages I realized that Doc was right about there not being too much more useful information in my file.

Most of bulky file was some kind of contract the NCR must have had past 'not' me sign. It was mostly things like pay grade, what duties I was expected to hold, and all kinds of other bureaucratic nonsense.

One of the only things of note I could find was a small memo stating that I was an only child and that my parents were murdered by raiders. Which a moderate relief since I didn't really want to have to lie to people and pretend to be their son.

Other than that I also found out that my blood type was O- which meant that I could donate blood to anyone, which was cool I guess. Oh, and I finally figured out why I was in medical in the first place.

Apparently I somehow pissed of a commanding officer on the march up here and the asshole decided to punish me by banning me from refilling my canteen and forcing me to ration my water, eventually leading me to collapse from heat stroke and dehydration right as we arrived on base.

Which explained why I was feeling like I'd been run over by a truck and my throat was so dry. I would need to remember to ask the next person I saw for some water.

Eventually after another half hour or so I finally finished reading through all the mindless medical jargon and contracts and groaned hoping that something interesting would happen soon. Flipping the folder closed one last time I was ready to throw it aside when something strange happened.

My body froze, as a strange green window popped up in front of me.

"No freaking way" I mouthed as I stared at the familiar screen.

It was the Special Attribute Panel! I guess it made a weird sort of sense that when I reincarnated into this world the system from the game somehow followed me here. Though I wondered why it didn't trigger before now instead of hours ago when I first woke up.

My eyes wandered down to the folder in my hand, was it because I finished reading this? Like the Special Book from Fallout 3?

A shiver ran down my spine. If that was true would I have ever awakened it if I decided not to look through the folder and just took a nap or something? "No" I slapped my cheeks that's doesn't matter since I did read through the folder and it did activate.

Looking back up at the Special Panel I took my time thinking about the best way to allocate my points.

Special

Strength <5>

Perception <5>

Endurance <5>

Charisma <5>

Intelligence <5>

Agility <5>

Luck <5>

Normally if I was playing the game I would max out Intelligence by lowering some of the physical attributes but, that didn't seem like it would be a good idea since I didn't think I couldn't afford to do that since it might make it more difficult for me to survive. Realistically the only attributes I felt okay lowering even a little bit were my Luck and Charisma since having low Luck wouldn't affect me too much... at least I hoped it wouldn't. And having 3 or 4 Charisma was probably going to be fine for a while too since I was in the military and having a lot of charisma wasn't really necessary.

Eventually I figured out a build that I hoped would give me the best chance of survival without sacrificing too much.

Special

Strength <6>

Perception <5>

Endurance <7>

Charisma <3>

Intelligence <5>

Agility <6>

Luck <3>

3 Luck and Charisma was pretty low but, it wasn't outside of the acceptable range and was hopefully at a level I could manage. While 7 Endurance and 6 Strength/Agility would hopefully make me tough enough to not be killed the first time I stepped outside. Though I was a bit upset I couldn't raise my Intelligence at all but, beggars can't be choosers.

After spending a minute or two making sure there weren't any better options I reluctantly pressed enter.

As soon as I confirmed my choice the Special Panel disappeared and I felt a burning energy spread through my body. The only thing I could do was grit my teeth and endure, the pain reminded me of the muscle soreness after a intense workout except a million times worse.

Thankfully the pain only lasted a moment before it disappeared and a I was filled with an amazing sense of strength.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself down I got up off the bed and flexed my muscles and felt my clothes tighten around my body, and lifting my shirt up I saw the beginnings of an eight pack showing on my stomach.

Seeing that I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud, this was awesome!

Noticing the full length mirror by the door I decided to go take a look at my body and admire my new muscles.

My excitement died instantly though as I saw my face for the first time.'

"... crap" I muttered while staring into the the almost lifeless eyes looking back at me.

Even though my face was relatively handsome, the strange forced smile on it made me look like some kind of serial killer. Happy, sad, angry, surprised no matter what expression I tried to make my face always look slightly unnatural like it was stuck in the uncanny valley.

Sighing I just shook my head and slumped back down into the bed, I guess this was the price I had to pay for only having 3 Charisma.

Still it was worth it for the muscles, and it wasn't really that bad as long as I kept a neutral expression. Not to mention that I could still raise my Special by picking the Intensive Training Perk once I level up so it wasn't like this would be this way forever. And even if it was forever it wasn't I would probably get used to it eventually.

Though I did wonder if having 3 Charisma was already this bad what was my Luck going to be like? I guess I would just have to avoid gambling for the foreseeable future, which actually kind of sucked since the name of the game was literally New Vegas but, whatever.

Now that I had dealt with my Special I still needed to pick my Tag Skills and Traits.

"... Hey wait" Shouldn't another screen already have popped up the second I finished picking my Special? "Hello System...? Um, Traits...? Tag Skills...? Well Crap..." I eventually swore.