Fanfic #90 Project: Gamer Ver. 2 by Axel(YoungJustice)

This is an si oc into young justice with the gamer power. I really like that this isn't just a gamer story and it focuses more on the characters and their interactions.

Synopsis: We've all seen gamer stories. The main character hops in, instantly gets his super powered epic skill and a harem of hotties. Goes on to hop into the main plot and become the best of friends with everyone important and everything ends up going their way. Unfortunately, Leslie doesn't want to be here. And all of that sounds like way too much work.

Rated: M

words: ??? (I'm pretty sure it's over 40k, but I can't really tell with the format of the website)

https://caerazkaban.groups.io/g/main/search?q=Project+gamer

(So this isn't a common fanfic site, but all you need to do is scroll down until you see 0.0.1 next to Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build and then you can just just go back and scroll up to get to the next chapter. Just let me know if you have trouble with it)

Here's the first chapter:

You know? Being dead isn't really so bad.

It's calm, peaceful. Quiet.

Beautifully so. Tinnitus didn't carry over.

Just myself, my thoughts, and an endless yawning abyss filled with horrors and eyes. Staring, judging, weighing and waiting...

I waved.

"Please don't encourage them!" And I suppose I should introduce the only other 'Person' here with me.

Terra-Tan, girl was a head and a half shorter than me, measuring up to a rough one-point-four meters. Ish. Maybe. Size is relative here, I think. She had wheat-gold hair done in a pair of drill-like pigtails and eyes the lightest color of jade I'd ever seen.

And she was dressed in a magical girl outfit. I kid you not. Frills and bows everywhere, even had a scepter with a large red gem at the end, with one ring with a pair of pearls right around it, and another ring with four pearls around that.

Total weeb.

"Why are you so rude!" Fists on her hips, cheeks puffed out, she tried to lean forward and look intimidating.

"Because I'm all thoughts and no filter?" And it wasn't working. I just couldn't muster up the energy to be afraid.

I was already dead after all. Stroke in my mid-fifties, just like the rest of my family. Except without the cigarettes and alcohol.

Honestly, I thought I'd been doing pretty good.

"And you were." The girl, goddess probably. Or bad joke my own psyche is playing on me, admitted. "The stress you put on yourself didn't help any, but if you'd gotten to a doctor, you would have made a full recovery. Or as full as it gets, I guess. Brains are hard."

"So, what happens next? Reincarnation? Recursion? Passed around like a sorority girl to the elder gods?" The last one involved actual madness, it should be entertaining for a bit.

"What? Eww, no! They're just here because it's the only thing entertaining left at this level of reality. I pick a human soul, offer them my boon, and then throw them into a random part of the multiverse!" She seemed very proud about that, leaning back in this indefinable space with a smug grin and closed eyes.

"Oh! You mean like Aqua!" She deflated at my words, almost visibly shrinking.

"I'm better than Aqua!" Terra shouted as she waved her fists and pouted. "I don't have to send people to her miserable little death world, and I don't prey on NEETs and Shut-Ins!"

Well, that was fair enough. Now I was kind of wondering if my wife would be calling my workplace. The bastards would probably pull out a Ouija board and ask if I could come in on Friday.

"And-and-and I'm the one who made the first gamer! Without me, Han Jihan, Harvest and countless others would've just-just... Why are you looking at me like that?" The girl slowed down, less and less certain as her audience of one was, for all of her boasting, not impressed.

"Which I suppose is what you were going to offer me?"

"Yup-Yup!"

"Oh." Was my entirely unenthusiastic response. "I think I'll pass."

"Excuse me?" She was looking at me like I'd said something absurd, or just realized I was simple. "Maybe you don't understand. Magic? Stats? Potential for unlimited power? Loot? You guys like loot, right?"

"Yeah, that's awesome and all, but I had enough trouble relating to people without sociopathy from the whole 'Mind Protected From Emotions' thing you got going on with it. How many of your gamers -Don't- end up being ADHD murderbots?" I was not a paragon of virtue, no, but most of the gamers I knew about were murder-obsessed blood knights.

It was incredibly telling when she refused to answer.

"Right, so, if we could just get this ball rolling? I'm sure there's some other option for me. Maybe reincarnating as a fish? I like fish, well, fried fish."

"...I've been trying to patch things..." She was mumbling.

"Sorry?" I leaned down. "Don't think I got all that."

"I'm TRYING!" She exploded, shouting in my face. "But do you have -Any- idea how hard it is to fix things when people are complaining 'Where's my skills, Terra?' 'Why can't I have a party, Terra?' 'My HP hit zero 'cuz of a paper-cut, Terra!'? Well do you?!"

"I was married, so yes." My response was said in such a sincere deadpan, too.

She screamed wordlessly, the... Things, in the background, screaming as well. Or maybe laughing.

"Alright, alright, just take a deep breath, okay?" I tried placating her, but I wasn't sure it was working. Her eyes were glowing a darker green now, and I was pretty sure I could hear her teeth grinding.

Literally in both cases.

"How about you just tell me what changes you've tried, and we'll workshop this, alright?" At my urging she did take a slow, deep breath before exhaling in the loudest, most obvious way I'd seen.

Outside of an anime.

The weeb.

"Alright. Alright. So I've tried toggling access to the shop. Some gamers have it, some gamers don't, it doesn't change much. I've also tried ID create. Some of the more entertaining gamers have used it for a kind of teleportation, and that was really cool! Bust most of them just go in and pew-pew-pew zombies until they're too strong for their reality." She actually did finger guns for the pew-pew-pew part.

"But the gamers who don't get ID create just find some other mechanic to abuse?" I already knew the answer.

"Yeah... They usually go for the adaptive abilities and do crazy stuff like catch themselves on fire or eat lightning bolts or stuff. Then they walk up to the big bad and become a bigger bad." She sounded more and more depressed, which was fair. On the surface, it was a cool idea.

"Alright, and what about relationshi-"

"No." She stopped me cold.

"Yeah, that's fair." I already had a good idea about the next set of questions. "What about Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind?"

"What about 'em? They're, well, they're like the whole draw aren't they? Live life like a video game! Be the ultimate gamer! Who doesn't love that?" She seemed incredibly proud about that, too.

"But maybe they're a big part of the problem?" I could already see that she was going to argue, so I held up my hands. "Hey, hey, just give it a thought, okay? A lot of the really good protagonists have got some trauma, or some kind of motivation, right? Something they feel really strong about?"

She nodded, still not looking too happy with me.

"Being an emotionless tactician is great in things like the Civilization series, but your gamers are supposed to be action RPG's, yeah?" She nodded again, looking slightly less unhappy with me. "So maybe they need to be a little more vulnerable? Let them be scared, and reckless, and clumsy so they can make mistakes. Mr.Perfect is Mr.Boring, isn't he?"

Terra still didn't look happy, but she nodded at me.

"But... I built it all on those things. ID create, Gamer's Body, Gamer's Mind. They're, like, my hallmarks!" Ooh, tears now! Aqua vibes rising.

"And sometimes you have to innovate, try new things, cut out some bugs! Or is your name Bethesda instead of Terra?" To be fair, I was goading her. I really shouldn't have been surprised.

"You know what? You're right!"

I was? I mean, yeah, I was!

"And you get to be my beta tester!" Terra was starting to sound manic. Why was Terra sounding manic?

"I'd really rather not. Could I maybe just, y'know, pass on?" Seriously, I'd already lived. I wasn't actually eager to go on to some afterlife, but I was very, very keen on not being some god's entertainment.

"Nope!" Yay.

INITIALIZING CHANGES...

"So, is this gonna be some kind of reincarnation deal then?" I wasn't sure if I hoped it was or wasn't. Both sides had their pros and cons.

CORE MODULE: GAMER'S MIND - UNINSTALLED

"Eh, well, no. I've got a great deal with the Death of that multiverse though!"

CORE MODULE: GAMER'S BODY - UNINSTALLED

"So, y'see, when someone decides to unalive themselves there, I can make them an offer. In exchange for incarnating my champion in their body, I'll erase their karmic debt and help them reincarnate."

CORE MODULE: ID CREATE - UNINSTALLED

"I really can't help but feel I won't be terribly useful at the bottom of a rope." Or with any of the other common side effects of that kind of activity.

CORE MODULE: ID ESCAPE - ERROR! FILE SET TO READ ONLY!

"Don't be silly! The swap happens the same moment they -decided- fully and certainly, to do it. I just rewind the clock a little bit and do a little switcharoo." She looked a bit concerned about the error message, but shrugged it off. "Though, if you could maybe resolve whatever caused them that pain to start with? I'd... Really appreciate it."

CORE MODULE: MENU - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!

CORE MODULE: STATUS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!

CORE MODULE: SKILLS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!

CORE MODULE: SPELLS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!

CORE MODULE: PERKS - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!

CORE MODULE: SHOP - SUCCESSFULLY LOADED!

CORE MODULE: SETTINGS - ERROR! (MULTIPLE) MASTER FILES MISSING!

"Good enough!" Terra was actively giggling now. That was probably a bad sign. "Are you ready?"

"No?"

"Too bad!" Then the stupid magical girl hit me in the face with her stupid scepter and I 'Woke Up'.