Player One by alohaflower (My Hero Academia)
Latest Update: January 31, 2022
Summary: At age 14, Midoriya Izuku manifests a quirk. His only problem? It's the weirdest quirk he's ever seen.
"The Gamer" lets Midoriya live life like a video game: stats, skills, XP, and inventory included. And despite its irregularity, Midoriya decides to use it to be the best hero he can be! But... things don't exactly go according to plan.
When circumstances force Midoriya to register as having regular analysis quirk, he's obliged to max out his intelligence and wisdom stats to keep up the lie. Not to mention keeping the rest of his abilities a secret. After all, the last thing he needs right now is suspicion, not after registering his quirk late and under... to put it charitably, unusual circumstances.
Becoming a hero might just have gotten a little more complicated.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34257820?view_full_work=true
Word count:91k
Chapters:41
Chapter 1: Delayed
Chapter Text
Izuku yawned, waking up from his sleep with the sun. He sat up and threw his sheets aside, rubbing his bleary eyes.
But once he opened those eyes, he saw something odd.
It was just… strange white text, floating in the air.
Hello, Midoriya Izuku.
Welcome to your Quirk: The Gamer! Apologies for manifesting so late.
Was this… some kind of joke?
It was probably an illusion quirk or something. Most likely just one of the other kids at school messing with him, using their quirk to make him look the fool. Izuku sighed and curled up in bed. It was a cruel prank to play on a quirkless kid. Trying to make him think he had a quirk. Well, he wasn't going to let anyone make fun of him! He would ignore the stupid message as long as it took.
Izuku waited, but the words in the air didn't go away. He huffed, and poked the words impatiently. They rippled under his touch. Izuku blinked as the words in the air changed.
To begin, please say 'Profile' aloud. This will bring you to a list of your abilities. If you wish to see any categories within the Profile Window, state them aloud while in the Profile. State "close" when you wish to close the Window. Say "okay" to confirm!
Izuku stared at the message for a long time.
Eventually, he cautiously said, "Okay?"
The text vanished, as if it were never there.
Then, Izuku, feeling cautious (feeling as though his classmates were about to jump out any minute and make fun of him) whispered "Profile", quiet enough that none would hear it.
A giant box appeared across his vision, filled with white-colored text and numbers.
Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 12 -- Age: 14
HP: 120/120
Exhaustion: 0/600
Title: None
Quirk: The Gamer
[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]
Izuku still felt stupid for experimenting with it, but…
He glanced around.
No one was around but him. If this was an illusion quirk, then how was that person changing the illusion to follow whatever he said?
"Stats," Izuku said, testing the waters. The white text flashed to a different screen.
VIT: 12, STR: 6, DEX: 7, INT: 15, WIS: 13, CHA: 11
Unallotted Stat Points: 0
Were those stats meant to be for him? He supposed it made sense. His strength was the lowest, and he wasn't very strong. If someone was making stats for him that's what they'd probably pick, after all. And the interface had reacted to his words again, which meant the first time hadn't been a fluke.
"Um… Skills?" Izuku said.
Skill List
Japanese [Lvl. 81]: speaking the Japanese language
Literacy [Lvl. 45]: reading and writing [language: Japanese]
Mathematics [Lvl. 45]: ability to use mathematical equations to solve problems
Quirk Analysis [Lvl. 30]: make deductions about what a person can do with their powers, and what their weaknesses might be
Observe [Lvl. 1]: gathers information about something when the player states 'observe' while looking at that thing
This…
If this was a quirk, it was the weirdest one Izuku had ever seen.
Izuku was staring down at his spare notebook, pen in hand.
He didn't want to put information about this, in Hero Analysis for the Future #13. That seemed far too hopeful, like he was assuming all this was real.
It probably wasn't! Really. It probably wasn't.
Besides, even if this was a quirk, he didn't want anyone reading his usual notebook and finding out about it. Especially his mom, he didn't want to get her hopes up and then proceed to crush them. Better to put it in a top secret notebook. He titled it, "History Notes."
(Anticlimactic, but it was supposed to be a secret.)
He wrote about the strange, untouchable words that floated in the air. He wrote down everything written in the stats and skills pages as well. Once he was done writing those things, he still had more to check.
"Profile," Izuku said.
Midoriya Izuku -- Lvl. 12 -- Age: 14
HP: 120/120
Exhaustion: 0/600
Title: None
Quirk: The Gamer
[Stats][Skills][Inventory][Relationships][Questlog]
"It says my quirk is 'The Gamer'," Izuku muttered, writing it down. "It said it was the Gamer, earlier, didn't it? So it's definitely claiming to be my quirk…" Weird.
'The Gamer' was a strange choice of name. But Izuku could understand how his quirk was supposed to be similar to a game, considering the leveling system and the stat points.
"Inventory," Izuku said. It popped up, but unfortunately…
Inventory: [LOCKED] -- Required Level: Lvl. 20
"Required level--?" Izuku muttered, then glanced at his profile. "Since I'm only level 12, I need eight more levels to access the inventory… but how do I level up?"
And what was inventory even useful for, if he did suddenly manage to reach Level 20?
There was no one to answer him.
With the inventory unavailable for now, Izuku decided to try the next tab.
RELATIONSHIPS
Midoriya Inko: Rep +96. Unconditional Love.
Bakugou Katsuki: Rep -53. Enemy. (Type=Petty)
Bakugou Mitsuki: Rep +10. Friendly Acquaintance.
Bakugou Masaru: Rep +9. Friendly Acquaintance.
Classmates [Homeroom]: Rep -29. Moderate Hostility.
Was this true? As happy as he was to see his mother listed as "unconditional love", seeing such low rep with Kacchan made him wince. But, well, it was true that Kacchan wasn't that fond of him, so it wasn't like it was wrong or anything. He didn't agree with the 'enemy' classification, but if the type was listed as petty…
Maybe he could consider Kacchan a petty enemy. That was kind of like frenemies, right?
But this whole weirdness was making less and less sense as the result of someone's quirk or an elaborate prank. How would someone else's quirk know Midoriya's relationship with Bakugou's parents?
"Izuku, come down for breakfast!" he heard his mom yell.
Izuku sighed. He hadn't had time to look at the last tab-- Questlog. But whatever. This would help him check something else as well.
Izuku could see white text in front of him, moving with him as he walked, because he'd never said "close." Now was the chance to see if his mother could see it.
Izuku cautiously sat down at the breakfast table. His mother greeted him cheerfully ("Good morning, Izuku!") and gave him a bowl of miso soup. He started eating his food absentmindedly, glancing up for her reaction to the white screen in front of him.
There was no reaction. In fact, at one point she reached through the text to put down some tea and natto, all without even blinking. His mom definitely couldn't see it. So… was it some kind of illusion? Some kind of false computer interface?
"Close," he muttered to himself, and the Profile vanished. All that was left in front of him was his soup.
Izuku tried to make conversation with his mother, but it was difficult when his mind was still whirling with what he'd just discovered. "Sorry for being distracted," he said. "I just saw this really cool villain fight online and I can't wait to take notes on it."
His mom smiled sadly and shook her head. "You can take notes on it after we eat. It's Sunday, after all."
Sunday… that was perfect. He could spend all day playing with… whatever it was.
He wanted it to be a quirk. Really badly. Even though it probably wasn't.
But whatever it was… maybe it could be useful? If it was real? Being able to tell what other people thought of you… that was almost like an entire quirk on its own, wasn't it? So even if the rest of it was worthless…
By the time breakfast had finished, Izuku had made his decision.
If this was even remotely real… he was going to use it to be a hero. Whatever advantages this 'quirk' could offer, he was going to make the most of them.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34257820?view_full_work=true