Have you ever woken up, only to realize you are still dreaming?
That is how it felt for him. Sleep paralysis, some would call it. He could feel his body, but he had no control over it. He was fully aware that the world around him was the real one, yet, he knew he was dreaming, he always did. Before this day, he thought lucid dreams were always amazing, because if he knew, he could control, or at least direct what happened.
But not today.
He couldn't control the real world. Just like his awareness surged, it faded, and his senses were dulled; the world around him didn't feel real anymore. Hours, sometimes days would pass by until his brain seemed to work again. At a later time, he would be grateful for it. Right now, he was simply confused.
Finally, he felt his eyes open. This time, it was different. He felt like blinking, and his eyes followed. He frowned, and his eyebrows moved. Had he regained control of his body? He tried lifting his right arm, and it obeyed. Where am I? The muscles suspending his limb felt wrong. It should feel much heavier, yet, easier to lift. What has happened to me?
When he dropped his arm, he barely heard any sound, even though he felt a very soft impact with the mattress below. Whose bed is it? This place can't be room. Although there wasn't enough light to see any details, the proportions were all wrong. His room was a big square, this one was a huge rectangle! And he should be seeing some light coming from the small corridor that leads to the bathroom, and... Wait, was he surrounded by bars?!
Ping!
Ping? That sound put him on edge. He might have tried to figure out what it was, however...
You have slept in your own bed. HP and MP have been restored 100% each. All temporary ailments and negative status have been cured.
His mind went blank. How the fuck was he supposed to associate logic with a blue box appearing in front of his eyes?!
"What the hell is going on?", is what he tried to say. Instead, high pitched gibberish left his month. The blue window seemed to understand, however...
Ping!
Welcome to The Game!
- Baby mode enabled. The Game's functionalities are severely limited.
- English translation is partially enabled.
- Gameplay difficulty is temporary set to "pacifist".
- Enjoy!
He blinked. And, in a way, that might have been one the most intelligent things he could have done.
There was a blue box floating in front of him. It claimed he was in a game, and stuck in baby mode for a while. He brought his hand close to his eyes, trying to observe it in the dark. Then, he sighed. Yep, he thought. He really was a baby. He wasn't mad, surprised, or even scared. Honestly, he was tired.
He was so not dealing with this bullshit so early in the morning.
Fuck it, I'm out of here, he brooded, then rolled his tiny body to the side, despite the trouble. He fully intended to go back to sleep, but as it appears The Game didn't like the idea.
Ping!
Some would've been pissed, he... he couldn't bother. Instead, he sighed again. He was almost expecting to be interrupted, Murphy's Law and all that...
Please, choose your name!
Oh. That's right. What was his name? Ray. No, that wasn't his real name... Yet, he couldn't think about anything else. Ray it is, then. He typed in the virtual keyboard provided by the box the best he could with his small hands. It was frustrating. A short victory sound played by trumpets greeted him as soon as the "OK" button was pressed, and the box shrunk until it disappeared.
Ray waited almost a full minute.
That's it?
Nothing happened. He was starting to get pissed, because it really, really seemed like The Game was mocking him.
Okay, damn it, I guess I'll have to deal with it. He sighed for the third time that day. That had to be a bad omen... and he wasn't even up yet! ...not that he could be, mind you.
I'm stuck in a game, I have no idea where I'm and I'm a fucking baby. What kind of game is this? What happened to my memories? Who is behind this? He could think about a hundred answers for each one of his questions, which is as good as having none. He was completely in the dark, literally too, and wouldn't progress any further without gathering some information. He looked around without putting much effort into it; Ray knew he couldn't make out any details in the dark, but he really seemed to be in an ordinary room.
Yet, one minute ago there was a floating blue box above his head that followed every move he made.
The Game's functionalities, it says... Ray frowned. Different games had different functionalities, he knew. A few of them, however, were quite common.
"Menu", he said, hoping The Game would understand baby talk.
Nothing happened.
"Manual. Settings. Preferences. Configurations. Setup" This is a game a have no control over, it seems.
"Trophies. Achievements. Journal". Maybe I'm looking in the wrong directions. Maybe I should worry more about me, the character, than about me, the player.
"Character sheet. Status. Inv..." He didn't need to finish. A new box had appeared.
Ray, The Baby Gamer
(Limited Functionalities)
Level - 0 (Locked)
HP - 5/10
SP - 0.5/1
CP - 5/10
CONTROL - 0%
Allegiance - None
STR - 0
VIT - 0
DEX - 0
INT - ?
CHA - 0 (+20 -10) = 10
CL - 0
CC - 0
LUC - 0 (+10) = 10
Points - 0
Money - 0
Ray is a baby. He sleeps a lot, eats when he feels like it and still uses diapers.
Status:
- ?. Effects: ?, -50% HP, - 90% HP Regen, -50% SP, -30% SP Regen, -50% CP, -50% CP Regen, ?, ?.
- ?. Effects: ?, ?, -10 CHA, ?, ?, ?.
- ?. Effects: ?, ?, ?, ?, +10 LUC, ?, ?, ?.
- ?. Effects: ?, +?, ?.
Cuteness - People will think you are adorable as long as you are not wailing like a banshee. Effects: +20 CHA.
Clean Diapers - Believe me, you should be grateful for this.
Whoa. That's a huge box! He forced himself to read everything before drawing any conclusions, but he couldn't keep one thing from coming up to his mind: These attributes suck! What the hell, I have zero everything except maybe INT!
When he got to the last part, however, Ray stiffened, and his mood turned a bit sour. Four unknown status, all of them with unknown modifiers. That's twenty questions marks! The interesting thing is that they were not affecting attributes as the unveiled effects were. Why was that? Were his attributes being erroneously displayed because the secret effects were not accounted for? Or were they correct, implying those effects were inactive at the moment? And why did two question marks have a plus sign before them? He had to find out as soon as possible!
Furthermore, the first mysterious condition was simply terrifying. -90% HP Regen? That means he would take forever to heal any wounds! He sighed for the fourth time that morning. One sigh for each unknown status, it seems. There is nothing I can do about it right now. Ray still required answers to his most fundamental questions. Without knowing where he was and what kinda of game he was being forced to play, it would be impossible to fill in the blanks. Hence, Ray decided to go back to the basics.
STR is strength. VIT is vitality, and it's probably related to my total HP. DEX is dexterity, which translates to precision, agility and maybe speed. INT is intelligence. CHA is charisma, or how well others will usually see me. LUC is for luckiness, and that's always a tricky one to understand. Wisdom is missing, and so are mana points. That means this game is not related to magic, and that wisdom is either mixed with intelligence or that all decisions are entirely left to the player's personality. Plus, HP means health points and SP means either stamina points or special points. The latter may or may not be related to physical activities and perhaps combat too.
But a few things were not adding up. Ray's long-lasting frown deepened... CP should stand for Character Points, and I should be able to trade them for a point in any other attribute. However, it has a maximum amount and is grouped with HP and SP. To put an end to any discussion, my unknown status number one clearly states it puts a dent in my CP Regeneration. But how could one passively regenerate points they would use to level up their attributes? Ray didn't think this could be an idle game either. That would suck.
CP was not Character Points. That might be the key to answer most of his questions. What Ray knew as Character Points were probably those Points right above his money. It might also be related to the CC, CD and the CONTROL attributes. All of them started with C, that had to mean something! That simplistic way of thinking is actually quite effective, it seems.
And so, Ray spent the next few minutes analyzing what that C could stand for. Most hypotheses weren't even worth mentioning, but he did come up with some interesting ideas. At some point, he guessed it could be chakra, but he didn't dwell much on it thanks to his utter lack of knowledge regarding oriental concepts of energy, religion, things like that. I could probably create a Naruto game engine using those attributes.
He enjoyed his digressions on how to simulate chakra for a while, considering to have CP as Chakra Points. and CC and CD as Chakra Control and Chakra Density, respectively, with both being related to the CONTROL attribute, since the manga implied one's overall chakra control is inversely proportional to the size of his chakra pool. But then Ray decided he needed to be serious and regain his focus. His life could be endangered, after all, therefore he couldn't afford to waste time thinking about games and fantasy.
Ironic, isn't it?
The sound of dry hinges screeching and the sudden change in the ambient illumination overwhelmed Ray's senses, bringing him crashing back to reality. A deep cold took hold of his spine. His eyes widened and his heart started beating fast. He was on edge. His gaze tracked the source of light and landed on the person walking into the room.
"Reijin-kun, onee-chan is back!"
What the fuck. It was a girl. A kid. How old was she? Twelve? She just called herself his onee-chan, and her smile wasn't just coming from her lips - her whole body was beaming! Should he remain scared? Ray didn't even know. She kept walking towards his cradle, the bars occasionally blocking his vision, and in no time Ray was on her arms. By the gods, this is weird.
Ray couldn't resist when she decided to lift him. Instead, he took a good look, and the first thing he noticed was her hair. At first, he had assumed it was black, but now he knew better. This girl had purple hair. It wasn't his first time seeing artificial hair colors, oh no, definitely not, for his love of colored hair was unmatched. Hence, the moment his eyes landed on the girl's hair, he knew it. It wasn't artificial at all. Her hair was purple all the way inside her hair's roots, and no signals of paint could be spotted anywhere. No, that's not even it - he instinctively knew even before he noticed those things!
She hugged him gently, slowly swaying left and right to add to his discomfort. That's when his eyes moved to her attire. Her upper body was clothed in a white sleeveless shirt and two simple gray forearm protectors attached to black gloves, therefore it was unremarkable. But when she extended her arms forward, suspending him right in front of her as if she intended to scrutinize his condition, Ray had the perfect opportunity to check her lower body.
At the moment his eyes landed on her pants, he had a passing thought, and one as innocent as they come. Shinobi pants. Cool. And that's when it clicked. She's wearing black shinobi pants, and blue sandals, and... Oh gods, is that a hitai-ate encrusted on her glove?!
Conveniently enough, that's when she decided to say anything other than baby cuddling babble.
...Ne, Reijin-kun, I'm so happy! Today, after training with my teammates, sensei told us we are ready for the chunin exams! She had a peculiar - and cute - way of expressing happiness, now that she wasn't as euphoric; her voice was calm and controlled. She didn't squirm, and her expression wasn't excessively distorted. Yet, Ray knew for sure she was still beaming, he could feel it.
But after what she had said, there was no denying it.
I'm inside Naruto's universe.
Two chances to guess who the purple haired girl is, and another for each mysterious status. I'm being nice :p
If you're worried about me expending too long writing about Ray as a child: don't.
If you're wondering if Ray will be OP too soon, read the summary.
I hope you guys get excited about this idea, and please do give me ideas and suggestions, especially regarding my writing quality, since English is not my first language.
By the way, this fic is heavily inspired on "Yami: The Gamer Kage" and "Percy Jackson and The Game", both from "imjusttryingtofindmyway". Initially, I'm using his variation of "The Gamer", except with the addition of CHA as "Charisma" while CD determines how much chakra you have. It stands for "Chakra Density".
However, you will quickly notice the system is very different from his when Ray starts using chakra. I did send him a PM, tho.
See ya o/
