Speed Leveling! Rockerboy!

Back at it again.

I appreciate the support as always.

Enjoy the chapter!

-+=[BoG]=+-

Marcus was speeding down the streets of Watson, getting a complete feel of the handling of the car as he got more comfortable making sharp turns at higher speeds.

He checked his stats as the car came to a complete stop.

Reflexes 2(325/1200)XP

- Driving (100/100xp)

Leveling it, he got memories of how to drive a multitude of cars and bikes, but that was about it.

Perhaps higher levels will give him some insight into drifting and weaving between cars and the like.

Exiting the training shard, he felt hungry from the grind and got his usual. Another 22 eddies.

He took another smoke break and turned on the TV for the first time in this world.

Marcus regrets it as most of the stuff is just trash with ads. The news told of the usual gang violence and whatnot. Same old Night City.

Turning it off, he played some music while chilling out and resting.

There was not much to think about as he was consumed by the grind, but he did wonder if he'd meet the cast of Edgerunners. That'd be cool. 

Gloria is still alive, so the canon for the anime hasn't happened yet, but Maine's crew should be out there.

Oh, Sasha should also be alive...maybe. Don't know the length of time between her death and the start of the show.

Also, which V will be in this world? Nomad? Street Kid? Corpo? Male or female? Who knows.

Street Kid Path would still be in Atlanta, Nomad would still be with the Bakkers, and Corpo would be in Arasaka still.

He'd probably figure it out this year. There's a lot to do.

Taking a final drag he put it out and headed over to his computer.

There weren't any messages, so he got back on Stardew Valley. Always a good way to relax and unwind.

A few hours went by before he got up and stretched.

'Let's get back to it.' He decided that he would do two physical workouts a day and two gaming sessions to keep his mind from fatiguing. Mental health is very important here. Don't wanna go cyberpsycho.

He got down and busted out some pushups, situps, squats, and forward lunges. Next, he did some running-mans and burpees.

Wiping off the sweat with a towel, he sat down on the couch put on his straw hat from the table, and checked his stats.

Body 2(375/600)XP

- Brawling 1(200/400xp)

- Athletics 2(600/600xp)

- Shotguns 2(300/600xp)

- Blunt Weapons 1(0/400xp)

'Nice, my Athletics is maxed but now I have to level up Body.' Marcus smiled before entering the training shard. Getting a whole hundred XP feels nice and addicting, while the training in the comfort of his home is nice, he can only imagine what it'd be like to get a hundred in Pistols, Brawling, and so on, but that'd involve risk. Something he's not yet ready for.

Heading to the Gunplay module, he wanted to get his Reflexes and Body up faster, so he wanted to try out the SMGs and HMGs. Body will naturally be easier because of his physique but he gets no help in the Reflexes attribute, so it's best to stock up on some skills.

He first started with SMGs and set up a simple bullseye target in the range. There was the Guillotine, Shigure, DS1 Pulsar, and Saratoga.

The Guillotine felt alright, nothing to write home about, but the Shigure was nice. The DS1 Pulsar wasn't much better than the Guillotine, but the Saratoga was where it was at. He got to level 1 and the memory influx helped him with aiming, reloading, and controlling the kick a bit.

Next, he tried the HMGs. Thank god that they came preloaded because he has no clue how he'd do it. 

There was the M2067 Defender, MA70 HB, and the Mk. 31 HMG. He would not be able to fire any of these in the real world because of their weight and he even saw that there was a Body requirement for these. Body 8 for the Defender and HB, while the Mk.31 needed Body 10.

Luckily the first two had tripods while the Mk.31 didn't. It wasn't even meant to be carried so no wonder it has a high Body prerequisite.

They were very fun to shoot though and he had to set up dozens of targets, but it was great. The Defender had a high fire rate, and the HB packed a punch with each round with a slower fire rate.

The Mk. 31 HMG? It obliterated everything. It didn't even have a tripod so he had to shoot it while placed on the desk. In actuality, he couldn't hold any of these guns while shooting, he tried and got knocked on his ass. While he can't hurt himself while firing guns that had higher Body requirements, that doesn't mean he can hold or accurately fire them.

He got the level up and finally figured out how to reload them and some muscle memory and knowledge of accurately firing them from both tripod and standing. Very cool.

Now it was time for a shooting montage. He played a song: Waking the Demon: Bullet for My Valentine

Loading up the Nue, he adjusted the targets to mannequins at further range to fire at.

From there, he cycled through the different firearm types and had a list he wanted to get.

The Tsunami Nue was a must. The Overture, a revolver, was also sick. Liberty would be nice too. A classic Unity too. He absolutely must get a Crusher shotgun, it felt awesome being an automatic and great stopping power. A Tactician would be cool too.

As for Assault Rifles, the Kyubi was a must-have. It was like the Ajax but better, if he couldn't, then an Ajax would be preferable. Copperheads are good too.

He can't really use the HMGs yet but he'd like all of them. Imagine busting down the door to a Scav den and just unloading the Mk. 31 HMG. Now that would put hair on any man's chest doing that.

SMGs weren't really that impressive apart from the Saratoga, but that could change in the future. He hadn't even used the Tech or Smart weapons for each type yet.

After an hour for each type, so a total of five hours of grinding, he checked his stats.

Body 2(600/600)XP

- Brawling 1(200/400xp)

- Athletics 2(600/600xp)

- Shotguns 2(550/600xp)

- Heavy Machine Guns 1(200/400xp)

- Blunt Weapons 1(0/400xp)

Reflexes 2(700/1200)XP

- Driving 1(0/400xp)

- Pistols 2(550/600xp)

- Submachine Guns 1(150/400xp)

- Assault Rifles 2(600/600xp)

- Blades 1(0/400xp)

'That's what I'm fucking talking about.' Marcus laughed as he saw a few maxed.

Body had hit the cap along with Assault Rifles. He did tend to get too into shooting the Kyubi and Ajax. They were just that much fun.

Before he moved on to Melee Combat, he was going to upgrade his Body and Athletics. Unfortunately, he can't do anything about Reflexes yet.

Feeling hyped up, he exited the training shard and got something to eat.

He was about to turn on the TV but the giant holographic screen above the table cause his eye. They were just advertisements but he wondered about something. Looking around the contraption, he noticed different ports, but one was practically screaming at him. It looked like a slot for a BD Chip.

Grinning, he had an idea, he took out the chip from his inventory and slotted it.

Nothing happened.

Marcus didn't give up though, one port looked like where he could plug his personal link into, which he did.

There were options of what fights to choose and he knew he did it. He went with the classic Luffy vs Rob Lucci at Enies Lobby.

Now this was real entertainment as he watched the holographic screen that was no longer spinning around the device.

After eating and relaxing while watching the fight, he turned off the device and threw away his drink and wrapper. 

It was time to level up Body and Athletics.

As expected, he felt the warm embrace of agony and despair as he was feeling knives piercing every part of his body.

Like clockwork, the pain subsided and he felt much more firm and robust.

He had a body now of a track athlete or a swimmer, but that's not enough for him. Some may dislike the bodybuilding aesthetic, but he was a fan. That didn't mean he wanted to be so big he can't even wipe his own ass, but he wanted quite a bit of size on him. He'd look much more imposing that way.

Marcus wondered if there would also be a limit to have physically muscular he could get. Maybe he'd start condensing his frame above level 10? Or his muscle density would increase. He remembers a random tidbit where Mitsuri from Demon Slayer had eight times the normal muscle density, which made her far stronger than normal people.

He hoped that would be the case as he didn't want to be too big.

His stomach grumbled.

'Really?' Marcus had to eat again so he bought just a burrito this time and then he was good.

Now he wanted to see the requirements for level 3.

Body 3(0/800)XP

- Brawling 1(200/400xp)

- Athletics 3(0/800xp)

- Shotguns 2(550/600xp)

- Heavy Machine Guns 1(200/400xp)

- Blunt Weapons 1(0/400xp)

Just 800? This will be a breeze. The physique is coming in clutch.

He loaded up the shard and headed to Melee Combat.

His training regiment was becoming more streamlined which made him feel a sense of discipline and accomplishment. An hour for each skill just like with the guns.

Marcus forgoes training Throwing Knives to better focus on Body and Reflexes. He'll train it at some point, but it's not a priority.

He stopped after the last hour because he was truly too exhausted to continue. Looks like today's training is over. He may have gone overboard, but it's all for the grind, plus he'll just sleep a little longer tonight.

Training Brawling, Knives, and Blunt Weapons was quite tiring, but it was worth it as he stared at his stat screen.

Body 3(250/800)XP

- Brawling 1(400/400xp)

- Athletics 3(0/800xp)

- Shotguns 2(550/600xp)

- Heavy Machine Guns 1(200/400xp)

- Blunt Weapons 1(300/400xp)

Reflexes 2(825/1200)XP

- Driving 1(0/400xp)

- Pistols 2(550/600xp)

- Submachine Guns 1(150/400xp)

- Assault Rifles 2(600/600xp)

- Blades 1(250/400xp)

His Brawling is maxed which was good. He spent an hour on each skill, but he used the wooden posts for Knives and Blunt Weapons which may explain why he got more XP there. Perhaps he should try it with Brawling next time.

There were no fighting bots yet since he wanted to try practicing a bit more first.

He leveled up Brawling and knowledge and muscle memory were engraved into his head. Now he felt he could take on that Level 4 bot. Next time.

Marcus exited the Melee Combat and went back into the classroom.

Rockerboy

That was something he wanted to try and it seemed like a good way to relax.

Making his way to the door, he was transferred to what looked like a studio booth with a guitar and microphone. There was also a bookshelf in there for some reason, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of soundproofing? Well, it is a virtual world anyway. Not like it matters.

The books were basically lessons for beginners for playing the guitar and singing.

This will be fun.

One book taught him how to read Tabs and an example of playing Twinkle Twinkle. Well, everyone had to start somewhere.

He grabbed the cable leading out from the giant amp and plugged it into his guitar.

Next, he grabbed a pick from a box in the corner and sat down with the guitar in his lap.

Plucking a string…

It sounded like someone stepped on the tail of a cat.

-+=[BoG]=+-

Hell yeah, big training time!

Don't worry, I don't plan on going every single day until the week is up.

That will be too boring, but I'll have to calculate a realistic end point from the training.

Thanks for all the support, and I'll see you in the next chapter!