I wanna start off by saying I was inspired to do this after reading some 'Gamer' stories, and the in-progress fanfic called 'Foreign Land' by YeOldDoorHinge. Check it out. It's only a couple chapters, but it's very good. Also, it's going to start very confusing, but all will be explained. Have some patience, and a little love.
This starts off quite dark.
()-()-()
My life was ending in the worst possible way. I had maybe a month left in me, at most. My doctor, wonderful woman, said she could make my last month as painless as possible, but...
I wasn't going to see if I could make it. The intense, constant pain in my chest... There simply wasn't another option for me. Even if, by some miracle, I survived this... this thing, I would relapse. Maybe not immediately, fuck, maybe I would get a good few years in before it happened. But I would surely have to go through treatment again. My heart...
I don't want to hurt anymore. It's too much. Sure, there was a lot I could do in a month, but...
I can't take any joy from anything. My heart is practically being strangled from the inside. That feeling of your own body killing you... I would kill for this pain to go away.
And that's what I'm doing, right now. One of the hospital's nurses, a somewhat dim man, left the keys to my medicine cabinet behind when he just went to the washroom. I knew I had to act quickly; the second I got unhooked my heart monitor, the entire floor would bolt to my room. I also had to ignore the intense drowsy feeling my pain medication gave me, or I would hit the floor.
I finally had the chance to end this. Yes, I'm going to kill for the pain to go away.
I carefully removed my IV needle, not that the damage it would cause mattered, and carelessly removed all of the sensors attached to me. I didn't know what half of them were for.
The very second my sensors were torn from me, I bolted to my scrawny legs. Standing up alone was the most exercise they've had in several days, I was sure I'd fall over my head.
I pumped my incredibly weak legs with all my might, stumbling towards the keys and medicine cabinet. I grabbed the keys, and in a stroke of luck, was able to get the correct one in the hole to the cabinet. I heard scrambling outside my door. The nurse also closed the door, locking it as a result. I truly was grateful. I threw things that were in my way to the side until I found what I was looking for. Some form of painkiller in a syringe... I couldn't remember what it was called. I didn't care what it was called.
With the little force I could muster, I jabbed the syringe into my chest, and pumped the medicine into me.
"Heh... I win, cancer," Were my last words. And I did truly win.
()-()-()
Damn, did someone just shove the sun in my eyes? I tried to hold out my arm in front of my eyes, but that did little to stop the searing light.
Before my eyes could adjust to the blinding light, a voice made itself known. "Well, aren't you an odd one? Says here that you killed yourself? Well, I guess it's too be expected, what with the cancer and all," the voice said. It sounded fairly feminine.
I blinked my eyes open, finally adjusted to the light. In front of me was... A screen. With a happy emoji just plastered onto it in bright yellow. I couldn't help but be annoyed.
"Are you kidding? You are what greets people after they die? Not a magical angel, holy saint, or the devil, but a computer screen?" I was tempted to just hit the damn thing. I freed myself from such an intense pain, just for a smiley face of bullshit?
The face on the screen turned into a pouty emoji. "Hey kid, I'm trying hard to keep up with technology!"
Good fuck. It had a sense of humor. Looks like I was greeted by Satan afterall.
The face turned to an absolutely neutral emoji. "Kid, listen to me. You have a choice right now. For some reason, you still wanted to live when you overdosed. You wanted to live while you grabbed the morphine. You didn't want to kill yourself, but you did it anyways. That's quite rare, infact, for the dead to have a constant want to live. And when it happens, they get a choice." The emoji paused. I couldn't take it seriously.
"You're an emoji. If anything, I'm tripping off my ass right now," I deadpanned.
The emoji sighed. "Fine kid, maybe if I take a more 'human' form?" It didn't wait for a response, rather the screen just unceremoniously disappeared, leaving behind a very plain looking woman. Her skin was a light brown, her eyes were brown, her hair was black and cut to a bob, and looked entirely average. Her clothing was also average; a long-sleeve shirt, coloured a murky green, and jeans. In her hand was a tablet-looking device with my picture on it, and what I can only assume as my information.
The woman snapped her fingers, and two cheap looking chairs appeared. When the woman say down, she motioned for me to sit as well. I did so, after realizing I was standing the whole time.
"I suppose now that you can take me seriously, you'll let me continue?" I nodded quickly. "Goody. Kid, you have a choice because of how you died. You can either go on with death, be reincarnated or go to heaven or whatever, or you can be reborn into a false world," The woman said plainly, as if discussing a business deal.
I considered my options. Go on with being dead, like I intended, or be reborn in someone's imaginary world? I had to say, the possibility of going to hell for killing myself wasn't exactly pleasing... Screw it, she was right; I wanted to live.
Letting out a deep sigh, I replied. "I want to live. I don't care about what world, so long as I can do some good with my life."
The woman smiled. "Goody! Well, there are some things that I have to apply to you. First off, you will be reborn as a newborn baby. Secondly, you will be reborn into a fictional world you know nearly nothing about..." She paused for a second after scrolling through her tablet. "Ahh, here we go. You said you wanted to do good? Well, here's your chance. I'm putting you in the fantasy known as RWBY. What do you know of it?"
I paused. I was pretty sure people in that show had some sort of superpowers or some shit like that.
"Umm, don't the rules of physics still apply? From what I know, people there have superpowers, and that's simply not possible," I responded. This earned a chuckle from the woman.
"Ha, that's cute. You think all universes work on the same laws as yours. Absolutely adorable. But seriously, let's continue." Thanks for the half-assed explanation. "So the last thing is what makes you special, also known as a semblance. In your world, you were extremely good at playing video games, correct?" She asked.
"Yeah, but I don't see how that's relevant," I replied. Exactly what was a semblance, and why does video games affect that?
She gave a short laugh. "Oh I'm going to enjoy watching you progress in this world. If you couldn't tell by now, I'm an extremely influential being. I can alter your appearance, change your gender, I could even change your personality when you're reborn. It's no stretch for me to give you a very particular power as your semblance. It will turn your life into an RPG, in a sense. You okay with that?"
Wait. What.
Not even waiting for a reply, the woman typed on her tablet, and pressed a large green button that I could only assume was a 'confirm' button.
"Oh, and kid, you can call me Kami," She said before everything started to blur. Wait...
Did she call herself God?
()-()-()
I had the mind of a seventeen year-old boy, fully functioning and mature. However, Kami wasn't kidding when she said I would be reborn into a newborn.
My memory retention of my first year of my reincarnation was very weak. While I thought like a teenager, my physical brain was still weak, and I could only grasp tiny little snippets.
My earliest memory was the day my biological parents took me home from the hospital. They had named me Barum. Barum Thorne.
I was... actually very fond of my new family. I mean, I loved my old family and all, but they didn't exist in this universe, and I suppose part of my fondness for my new family was my newborn brain forcing the bonding thoughts into my mind.
My mother's name is Gravelien. She was a very caring mother, and dare I say more affectionate than my previous mom. There's my dad as well, named Steele. Everytime I think of him, I can't help but be reminded of my older brother of my previous life. Strong, smart, and a military man. He serves the Vale military as a general.
And then there's my twin brother, Carbon. With nearly an infinite amount of energy, he was always causing trouble, even when we were newborns.
I, however, was the exact opposite. I still retained my personality from my previous life, and was very cut-and-dry.
My entire family was what is known as 'faunus', meaning we have animalistic appendages, and small personality traits from our animal cousins. To be specific, we were wolf faunus, with the exception of my dad, who was a wolverine faunus. The genetics between faunus types are passed down by the mother, apparently
When I started to really remember things is when I was four. My first cohesive-full memory was actually my first day of school.
()-()-()
"MommyPleaseDon'tMakeMeGoToSchoolItSmellsLikeOldFeet!" Carbon whined at supersonic speed. In contrast to my inherent maturity, Carbon was highly childish. Or, the more likely explanation is that he's still mentally a child, and I didn't like small children in my previous life.
But, my brain is still that of a child. So I blew a raspberry at him. And tugged at his wolf ears. "You can't make go alone Carbon! It's not fair!"
Yep. Real mature of me. Inhibitions are through the window. Lovely.
And then our mom decided to carry us out the door. Literally one in each arm. "Boys, I promise your dad will be there to pick you up. Now, can we behave?" She asked us. Our only response to her was a mumbled yes. We loved her, no doubt, but she could be scary when she wanted to be.
After a short car-ride, we arrived at the school. Everyone introduced themselves and got to know each other. The typical kindergarten activities followed.
()-()-()
It wasn't long into my life I've outed myself as an outsider. I was twelve by then, and my brain had developed enough to contain my previous life's mind. I had always been a star student due to my innate maturity and personality, but I never had enough space for my academic memories, meaning formulas, equations, and accumulated intellect of my past life.
It happened very suddenly, in the middle of a history lesson about Hunters, the protectors of this world. Having the intellect of my previous life piled onto my already accumulated intellect is actually not noticeable until it's pointed out to you. I was answering all of the teacher's questions, as usual, but with absolute detail, down to specific facts of famed hunter families.
I was already the quiet nerd, which was just fine, but after that class, I was the quiet weirdo nerd. That got old fast, as the bullies that would usually leave me alone would now pick on me. The anti-faunus racists were just given ammunition. My elementary school's grapevine turned me into a hyper-genius with a god-complex. Thankfully, I only had this one last year left before I could attend a combat school.
Being a Huntsman was my number one goal in this life. I guess after ending my past life, I wanted to give people a better chance of living. Odd, I know, but it seemed Kami put me on Remnant for good reason.
My added intellect was well timed, as the school decided to give a standardized test. I guess that's just an multi-universal thing. The two-hour long test covered what we needed to have learned by then. I was done in forty minutes, and the result was a perfect score.
()-()-()
Signal Academy of Patch, the combat school for those wishing to become hunters. Ever since we heard about Hunters, Carbon and I wanted to become them. Hell, we've been training ever since mom let us, me with a katana, and Carbon with a zweihander.
My dad was technically a Hunter, as you need a Hunter's license for any of the higher-ranking military positions. He would always tell us about fighting off monsters called Grimm. He would always tell me how his non-contact semblance would allow for ridiculous attacks from the inside of an Ursa, or leaving grenades in Nevermore after phasing through them.
Whenever he talked about his semblance, I asked him what mine might be. I already knew it was something that would turn me into an RPG character, but it's always nice to know what other people think of you.
Before I headed to the exams, I made sure I was at least presentable. My ear-length light brown hair and wolf ears were combed neatly and my vibrant, green eyes scrutinized the rest of me. My battle wear consisted of baggy pants that were dyed a mix of green and brown, and a moss-green robe wound around me in such a fashion that it covered my right arm down to the middle of my forearm, and left my left arm bare from the shoulder down. I resembled an armorless samurai, much to my satisfaction. A quick slap of my slightly round face was enough to get me pumped up.
The entrance exams for Signal were very... odd. We were each given the choice of a dulled base weapon, sword, mace, scythe, what have you, and then we were paired up with one random person. We had to fight against said person, but it wasn't the winner of each fight that went on, it was up to the discretion of the headmaster to accept the one-hundred best fighters, meaning both of a pair could be accepted, or neither of a pair.
My chosen weapon was a katana, and my opponent was a girl named Yang, an admittedly cute girl with massive amounts of blonde hair, . Her weapon was fairly odd; a pair of heavy-looking gauntlets.
"Future Huntsmen and Huntresses!" The headmaster greeted loudly, and with a boisterous smile. He was a rather large man, standing easily at six and a half feet tall, equipped with a monstrous claymore strapped to his back. "Today, you are tested to see which of you advance a step further in your hunting education, and which of you will not. You all know the rules; no attempt of killing, first one out of the ring loses, and any blows that do not upset the first rule are legal. Good luck, children, now fight!" The headmaster yelled, and smashed a gong with a hammer, signaling the fights.
My opponent, Yang, rushed at me fiercely. She started with a left hook, which I leaned back from. As I leaned back, Yang attempted a downwards slam with her right elbow, but I rolled out of the way and got up quickly.
"You're pretty good, Yang! Keeping me on my toes!" I near-yell to her.
Yang smirked. "You're not too bad yourself, Barum. Shame I'm gonna win!"
We both grinned, and I charged her with a horizontal slash, which she outright blocked with her right gauntlet. I followed through with a kick to her right hip, forcing her to relieve some of the pressure on my blade. I forced my blade through her already weakened defense, allowing me to finish the swing, but Yang ducked backwards, making my sword miss entirely. Yang capitalized on this, and delivered a fist full of metal to my face, forcing me to fall. Ignoring the pain, I stood up again, and charged Yang yet again, this time starting with a vertical slash. Knowing, it wasn't going to connect, I whipped the blade around my body, and swung a heavy horizontal slash that surprisingly hit Yang right below her ribs. I connected several more blows, until Yang read one of my moves, and started a combo that resulted in certainly several bruises, but also my ring-out. That's when I realized something.
There was a blue window in the corner of my vision. On it read:
Quest "Hunter material" completed!
GUI unlocked!
HUD unlocked!
Gamer's Mind skill unlocked!
Gamer's Body skill unlocked!
Gamer's Reality skill unlocked
Sword skill unlocked!
Sword skill increased to LV 10!
Physical Endurance skill unlocked!
Physical Endurance skill increased to LV 8!
Samurai skill unlocked!
Samurai skill increased to LV 2!
Up-to-Crescent skill added!
Up-to-Crescent skill increased to LV 2!
Title Added: Gamer (Auto equip!)
Title Added: Samurai
Title Added: Signal Student
Oh. Well, I guess fourteen years of waiting for this to appear, and it's a blue notification window. Seems a bit anticlimactic to me, but hey, what are you gonna do?. I focused on the screen, this action seemed to pause the world, and got it to reveal the information it was sending me. And it was a ton of information blasted into my face.
Name: Barum Thorne
Title: Gamer
(Grants Nothing)
HP: 120/120
MP: 60/60
AP:0/0 (Aura Locked)
Gamer's Mind: Passive, Maxed
You have the mindset of a gamer, even in reality! +100% Mental Affliction RES.
Gamer's Body: Passive, Maxed
You have the body of an RPG character! +HP(Health Points) Bar, +MP(Mana Points) Bar, +AP(Aura Points) Bar, Sleep optional, Food/Drink optional
Gamer's Reality: Passive, Maxed
Pick up loot, accept quests, communicate with Kami, and progress in factions!
Sword: Passive, LV 10
+10% DMG with SWORD weapons. (+1% DMG per LV)
Physical Endurance: Passive, LV 8
+4% RES Physical DMG (+0.5% RES per level)
Samurai: Passive, LV 2
+3% SPD When equipped with a KATANA weapon, +2% DMG with KATANA weapons (+1.5 SPD per LV, +1% DMG per LV)
Up-to-Crescent: Aggressive, LV 2
Start with a vertical strike, then combo into circling horizontal strikes!
Max combo: 7 hits
+5% DMG per strike (+2.5% DMG per LV)
Cost: 6 MP per strike
Title: Gamer
Grants Nothing
Title: Samurai
+30% SPD, -15% Physical RES, +20% END
Title: Signal Student
+25% Academic Learning SPD, +15% Dust/Aura RES
'How do I go about changing my title? Let me try something... Equip Title: Signal Student'NOTIFICATION: Title changed to 'Signal Student'
'Well,' I thought to myself, 'I am in for one hell of a time.'
()-()-()
/Note de le Author/ So, who wants me to continue with this? I'm gonna, regardless of whether you want to or not, just wondering.
NOTE! There will be no levels in the traditional sense, but there are stats (Such as DEX, STR, CHA), Barum just didn't bring them up. Also, I know, It seems broken-up here, but it's going to become consistent starting next chapter. I just needed introductions & prologue over with.
Give me criticism, so long as it's constructive. Flames are no fun.
Introduced OCs this chapter: Barum Thorne: OC based loosely off myself. In his previous life, he killed himself because he couldn't stand to bear heart cancer anymore. 31 years of experiences. Uses Katana. Name based off of element barium; causes green fireworks.
Carbon Thorne: OC based loosely off my younger brother. Barum's biological fraternal twin. Always hyper. Uses Zweihander that is far too large for him, but makes it work. Name is literally element carbon.
Gravelien Thorne: Matriarch of Thorne family. Loving, but strict mother. Name based off of construction material gravel.
Steele Thorne: Patriarch of Thorne family. Fun, joke loving father. Role model to Barum and Carbon. Name based off of construction material steel.
And as always...
Exeunt