The Game of Worm

by Sudokori1

SI wakes up in the middle of the woods in the body of a child, with strange abilities, and a heavy helping of fear due to his knowledge of cannon. Can he survive in this world or will he die screaming for mommy?

1. Chapter 1

Hello fanfiction. This is my first attempt at fanfiction and I'm excited to hear constructive feedback so I can improve! I'm hoping to finish at least a chapter per week at the moment but that may change with school coming up. Do note that I have changed some minor mechanics of the powers in this fanfiction compared to the source. I do not own Worm or the other pieces of media I draw from. Enjoy!

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I stirred awake, something hard and rough poking my back. I rolled over to get away only to realize that I'm not in my bed when I feel and hear leaves crinkling under me. My eyes shoot open and I try and sit up, taking in the environment around me. I appear to be sitting underneath a large oak tree, its girth at least three feet. Around me there is nothing but more trees and fallen leaves as far as I can see. Standing up and brushing the crushed leaves off of me I notice a few more alarming things. Besides my outfit, which is a pair of blue jeans with a brown t-shirt and bland black tennis shoes, I realize that some things have changed. My hands are smaller than I remember and the hair that usually adorns my arms is completely missing. Taking a closer look I don't see any blemishes or blisters on my hands. Even the scar I got when I was 5 is missing from my left palm. I touch my face with my left hand, alarmingly noting that all of my facial hair has been replaced by smooth skin. My increasingly panicked inspection of my body was interrupted by a sharp beeping noise in front of me. My head jerked upwards to see a baby blue colored box in the air.

Due to intense observation the skill "Observe" has been created

I stood there uncomprehending for a couple moments before another screen appeared.

Observe (active) lvl. 1

Observe allows the user to gain information of people, objects, and events. The higher the level the more detailed the information gathered.

Reading both boxes I stand there, unable to believe what I am seeing. I reach out and touch the first blue screen. It gives a little resistance before it is pushed back an inch. I press the small X in the top right corner of the first screen and it vanishes. I look to the second screen displaying the skill "Observe" and poke it as well. It doesn't vanish until I hit the X like the first screen. I stand there in the forest for a few moments, just processing what happened.

'Is this one of those lucid dreams?' I ask myself. A few tests such as multiplying small numbers and physical pain via pinching quickly disprove that theory.

'So I apparently have a skill now. Is this like a game?'

I try to say a few words out loud, shocked at how young my voice is. It's I'm a little kid again, and due to my previous examination that seems to be the case.

"Menu. Save. Load. Title screen. Status"

At the word Status a new screen pops up. This one is colored a light brown and shows two bars, one red and one blue which i'm guessing is my hp and mp respectively. It also has a list of numbers which are apparently my stats.

Hunter Trent, Age 9

Title: none

Class: The Gamer

Lvl. 1

HP: 40/40

HP regen/s: 0.08

MP: 100/100

MP regen/s: 0.1

EXP: 0/100

Strength: 3

Vitality: 4

Agility: 4

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Luck: 1

Points: 5

Each stat has a small plus button next to them, which i'm guessing allows me to put points into them. It's pretty easy to guess which stat does what. Strength is how strong I am, Vitality is my health and stamina, Agility is my quickness of movement and manual dexterity, Intelligence makes me smarter I'm guessing, Wisdom allows me to make better decisions, and luck is just luck. But why is my Luck only 1 and all my physical stats are low. Oh, and I'm apparently 9 years old now with a different name. Huh, that would explain why my physical stats suck. I should be freaking out about this a lot more than I am right now. Well whatever, I'll just keep the points I have in reserve until I figure out more about each stat.

For making a wise decision your wisdom has increased by 1!

Cool, I can get wiser by not being impulsive. Now what else can this thing do? After experimenting with a few more words I discovered that saying "skills" opens up another brown screen with a scrolling bar with what appears to be skills. Each is color coded, Blue for passive and Red for active. Neat.

Gamer's Mind (Passive) lvl. MAX

Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological effects.

Gamer's Body (Passive) lvl. MAX

Grants a body that allows for the user to live the real world like a game. Sleeping in a bed restores HP, MP and removes all status effects.

Man of Mystery (Passive) lvl. MAX

It's nearly impossible to find out your secret identity unless you allow it, powers designed to ferret out anything about your motives, identity, past, or future action return a divide by zero error, and a massive thinker headache. Cameras render your face and voice as static while people find it impossible to remember your face.

Special Snowflake (Passive) Lvl. MAX

Any attempt to copy, drain, reproduce, steal, or suppress your powers fail automatically.

Self Adaptation (Passive) lvl. MAX

Your body rapidly adapts to help you survive and thrive. Works with Gamer's body to allow your body's natural abilities to grow to superhuman levels quickly. Removed cap on physical stats and skills. Allows for the creation of new resistances to damage and environmental effects.

Observe (active) lvl. 1

Observe allows the user to gain information of people, objects, and events. The higher the level the more detailed the information gathered.

Beginner Waterbending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to bend the element of water to their will. Fine control increased with wisdom.

%1 less mana used to control water

%5 increase in damage of waterbending attacks

Beginner Earthbending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to bend the element of earth to their will. Fine control increased with vitality.

%1 less mana used to control earth

%5 increase in damage of earthbending attacks

Beginner Firebending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to create and control the element of fire. Fine control increased with strength.

%1 less mana used to create and control fire

%5 increase in damage of firebending attacks

Beginner Airbending (active) lvl. 1

Allows for the user to control the element of air. Fine control increased with agility.

%1 less mana used to control air

%5 increase in damage of airbending attacks

After reading all of my apparent skills I just had to sit down and think for a minute. How did I get here, why do I have skills and powers, and why am I in the body of a nine year old me? I thought back to everything that happened yesterday. I woke up and did housework in the morning, ate and played some video games in the afternoon on my laptop, and then I went to work until late at night. I remember getting back home extremely tired, but I wanted to check my messages. Some friend of mine sent me another CYOA for Worm over Discord. I filled it out in a notepad and then went to sleep. Now that I think about it I do remember what I filled out for that CYOA. Gamer powers, Check. Avatar Bending, check i guess. Helpful wildcard power, check. Perks designed to protect me from other parahumans, check. Drawbacks that I kind of remember getting, not check. The expected panic attack at realising just where I am… not check. I also kinda remember that I need to survive the next ten years to 'win' and if I die… I think I died for rea. I can't really remember. I guess Gamer's Mind is keeping me calm when I would normally be hyperventilating and trying not to scream. It's kind of creepy to be honest, but nice at the same time since I can think clearly. After reading through all the screens I close them one by one. In the process I discover that I can just will the screens to move away and disappear. With one more thing to test I speak in my weird younger voice "Inventory".

Another screen appears, this time it is another brown screen with a 5x5 grid of boxes. On the bottom there are indicators for weight and money. Currently my max inventory weight is about 4 pounds and I have $0.00. Curious I click on the max weight box to find out why I can only carry 4 pounds. On contact a smaller Blue screen appears.

Max inventory capacity is %10 of your maximum lifting capacity.

So I guess I can only lift 40 lbs? That's disappointing. But it's good knowing I can increase my stats through training as seen with my wisdom. Deciding to test it out I dismiss the window and pick up the rock I was sleeping on. Before testing my inventory I used observe on the rock, which just told me it was a rough textured rock, big help there. I pushed it into the screen, my fingers slipping inside the screen with little resistance. I let go of the rock and pulled my hand out. The top left box in the inventory screen now showed an image of the rock with a small 1 in the bottom right corner. I assume this means I can put multiple of the same object in here. I'll have to test that later. I looked at the weight and saw that the rock only weighed half a pound. Now for retrieval. I pushed my hand into the screen and tried to grab the rock. I felt it appear in my palm and I pulled my hand out to reveal the rock I had inserted before. This is so cool! I don't need to wear a backpack, I can carry my money so nobody could steal it if I had any money, and I can hide whatever I need to and nobody can take it away from me.

After a moment I decided that standing in one place for ten minutes in the middle of a forest isn't very productive so I began to walk in a random direction after putting the rock back in my inventory. The forest I found myself in is pretty relaxing after the initial confusion. The background noise of birds and the wind in the trees is kind of soothing. It appears to be some time in the morning, I can't tell more since I'm not good at reading the sun. While walking I used observe on everything I saw. After a few minutes walk I came upon a small valley. A small river, now wider than two or three feet, meandered through the middle while the hills surrounding this valley were only about 50ft tall sloping downwards and easily transversable if you went slow. Deciding that I had nothing better to do and it would be a great place to test out my abilities I began to descend the hill. The many roots and small trees growing on the hill gave me plenty of handholds to move from, which I needed since my body isn't as large or as athletic as i'm used to. About halfway down I received two notifications. They surprised me which caused my hand to slip and me to tumble the rest of the way down the hill.

Ding!

Ding!

-5hp

-5hp

-5hp

Ding!

"Owwww" I groaned, pulling myself up off of the moist dirt I landed in and brushing myself off. I angrily glared at the notifications that caused my tumble. I must have hit every damn root on the way down.

Due to prolonged exercise your Vitality has increased by 1!

Due to using coordination to traverse difficult terrain your Agility has increased by 1!

A new skill has been created by a special action!

Following that a fourth window appeared. I dismissed the first three while I read the new skill.

Physical Resistance (Passive) lvl. 1

The ability to resist physical damage.

Resists 1% of damage from physical attacks.

Well that's bloody useful. I check my status and see my HP at 25/50. Huh, I guess a new point in vitality doesn't come with HP, just increases the max HP I have. Good to know. From what I can see it should take a few minutes for it to fill all the way back up. I checked where I banged my arm on some stupid root and see a small cut that is bleeding slightly. As I watched the cut slowly closes, the blood vanishing, and the skin returning to normal as if nothing ever happened. All of this over the course of about a minute.

"That's so cool!" I exclaim.

It really is. No more paper cuts annoying me for days! No more minor scrapes bothering me for weeks! This is awesome! The best part is probably that I can increase the healing speed by increasing my vitality. The worst part is that at my current state 10 small cuts could kill me. Or knock me out.

'Who am I kidding. With my luck as soon as I drop to 0 HP I die and my corpse will poof into glitter and sparkles.'

I walked through the miniature valley until I found a suitable place to test my abilities and think. After a few minutes of carefully traversing the moist dirt and mossy trees I found the place. A large tree stump a few feet away from the stream. The ground around the stump was dryer and firmer than most of the surround soil which makes it perfect for figuring out what I can do. I walk over and sit on the stump to rest for a moment, even though i'm not very tired at all. I start thinking of what to do first.

'Man, I hope this works. Otherwise I'm going to have to find a way to lay low for the next decade. My family is probably worried about me'

Thoughts of my family rush to me. My brother, my sister, my father, my mother. The thought of being unable to see or talk to them for a full decade brings a frown to my face. I have no support here, nobody who would give me a place to stay, nobody who would give a fuck if I was bleeding out in the woods. God, it's only been half an hour and i'm already missing them. What will the next ten years feel like?

'I have to be strong. I need to make it through, if only for them. I'll figure it out. I'll get strong enough that nobody will fuck with me and i'll find a way to survive. I might end up fixing a few things in this world but i'll need to get stronger. Now, what's first?'

My inner monologue over, I decided to try and figure out what my mana was. So I sat in a comfortable position on the log and closed my eyes. I did some breathing exercises I half-remembered and a meditation technique I somehow know, even though I never meditated before. Is this part of the knowledge perk for avatar bending? If it is i'll need it.

Sitting in the proper position I began to relax. I first focused on my breathing, letting all my senses fall to the wayside as I focused on nothing but the breath flowing in and out of me. I began to look deeper, to feel the pulse within my veins and the beating of my own heart. After a while I noticed something else. Something more, something vibrant. I focused on this fuzzy feeling, until it started to become clearer and clearer. I began to feel it. A second pulse alongside my heartbeat, a second system within my body. It's contents were brimming with untapped power, just waiting to be released. With fingers of my willpower I brushed up against this system, and it started to flow. No, it was flowing through me before but now I could feel it as it flows through every part of my body. I spent an unknown amount of time just marveling at the feeling of pure energy flowing through my body. It was nice, peaceful. Nothing but my inner self. Of course life decided to interrupt yet again.

Ding!

The unexpected noise snapped me out of my trance and nearly knocked me off of the stump I was sitting on. I opened my eyes to see another blue screen.

A new skill has been created through a special action.

Meditation (Active & Passive) lvl. 1

The ability to focus on the energy within. User cannot move while active.

While active increases mana regeneration by 10%

While active increases mana sensitivity by 10%

Passively increases wisdom by 1%

Well that's pretty useful. Not at the moment, but when I level it up i'll be able to recover mana rapidly when I need to. The passive increase to wisdom is nice. Looking around I realize that it's about noon now. I must have spent almost an hour meditating. I get off of the stump to get started on the most pressing issue. The fact that my strength stat is resting at a pitiful 3. Clearing away the leaves so I have a bit of room I get down on my stomach and prepare to perform push-ups. I brace myself and push with as much force as I can muster from my 9 year old arms. I push myself and with a force of will I barely manage to perform a single push-up. My arms collapse and I feel disappointed in myself before a comforting Ding! rings in my ears.

Due to pushing your muscles to the limit you have gained 1 strength!

That's both encouraging and insulting. My limit was a single crappy push-up? But I could also permanently increase my strength by performing simple exercises. It can't be this easy, can it? After thinking it over I remember the passive ability "Self Adaptation". I guess getting stronger quickly is helpful to my survival. Also being able to recover near instantly would allow for my muscles to repair and grow constantly. In fact I can think of a few ways to use this.

Ding!

You have gained 1 wisdom!

Thanks game. Well if 1 push-up increased my strength then why not try as many as I can? So I got back into position and was about to start doing push-ups until I thought of the annoying ding sound that would keep interrupting me. So I started trying to find a way to turn off the dinging.

"Settings" seemed to be the right word as a brown menu popped up with a few options available. I read them over before turning off notification sounds, turning on mental commands for skills, turning my hp and mp bars visible if not full, and keeping everything else the same. Most of the options were grayed out at the moment and I don't know why. With that problem solved I returned to my position and started doing push-ups. At first I could only do a couple, but then I started doing sets of 5. Then sets of 10. Then 5 sets of 10. After that the push-ups were too easy, I was getting too strong for lifting my own weight to be a challenge. I was less than 100 pounds, I'm in my 9-year old body remember. After what must have been 20 minutes since I started I stood up and was assaulted by notification screens.

Your strength has increased by 1!

Your strength has increased by 1!

Your strength has increased by 1!

Your vitality has increased by 1!

Your strength has increased by 1!

Your vitality has increased by 1!

Your strength has increased by 1!

Your vitality has increased by 1!

Holy crap that was effective. Dismissing the windows I summoned my stat screen by thinking the word "status" really hard. Looking at it I saw that my hp has doubled since the time I woke up today. Now that most of my stats are 5 or above, except that damn luck, I should try to figure out those elemental bending skills. Looking at them I decided to try out waterbending first. From the information that I know from the mental archive the first step of water bending is to get into a tai chi stance. Using this knowledge I move myself into a rough approximation of a beginner's stance and go through the motions. My movements are jerky and abrupt much to my displeasure but soon enough I get a notification.

Due to a special action a skill has been created!

Basic Tai Chi (active) lvl 1

A chinese martial art that features slow movements and elegant forms that evoke the feel of flowing water.

Increases control of waterbending techniques by %5

Decreases cost of waterbending techniques by %1

Increases wisdom by %1

I continue to practice this technique for a while until I receive a notification that Tai Chi has leveled up. I am by no means even a beginner but I'm feeling a bit more comfortable. Now to try to control water. I look to the small stream only about five feet away, the water is inches deep at most but quick moving. To begin I resume my stance facing the stream and begin the circular movements as before except this time I'm trying to, for lack of better words, 'pass on my momentum to the water'. At first I just feel silly trying to make water move, but then I see a bulge in the surface of the water. It continues to rise as I continue the circular motions, this time with a rising pattern them. A small tendril of water begins to rise and coalesces into a sphere of water about a foot above the stream. As I continue my dance the sphere grows in girth to about six inches. I was so excited, I can do this. I can actually do this. I looked over to my MP bar and saw that in the 20 seconds or so I was doing this I've lost about %80 of my mana. After another 5 or 6 seconds my MP was depleted and the small sphere of water I summoned splashed back into the creak.

Beginner Waterbending's level has increased by 1!

I couldn't help but smile. I can do this. I can do these things. I can become great! I can SURVIVE! I just need to learn how to use all of my bending skills before then. At that thought a blue window appeared in front of me.

A new quest has been created!

The first step

Objective: Reach level 10 with all 4 bending styles

Bonus Objective: Reach level 10 with all 4 corresponding martial art styles.

Reward: 100 exp

Bonus reward: 100 exp

Failure: none, sadness

Time limit: none.

Yes/No

So quests are a thing, that's cool. After reading it over I pressed Yes and the screen vanished. I mean, I was going to try and do all of what it was asking regardless so this is just a bonus. With my new goal in mind I sat down to meditate to restore my MP. This was going to be a long, productive day.

Stats at end of chapter 1

Hunter Trent, Age 9

Title: none

Class: The Gamer

Lvl. 1

HP: 80/80

HP regen/s: 0.32

MP: 100/100

MP regen/s: 0.12

EXP: 0/100

Strength: 9

Vitality: 8

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 12.36

Luck: 1

Points: 5