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Chapter 2: Noob
Friday
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A blue window appeared over Danny's sleeping face.
You have slept in your own bed, HP and EV have been restored 100% each. All ailments and negative status effects have been cured.
Not noticing what happened, Danny flailed his arm around to turn off the alarm clock and incidentally closed the window. Finally deciding to get up, he walked to the bathroom to wash away his morning face.
"What theā¦" Danny stared at his reflection, more specifically the lines of text above his head.
The Gamer
LV 9 Danny F.
"The Gamer? Level 9?" Danny muttered. He rubbed the mirror where the text was only for nothing to happen. He moved left and right, and the words followed above him. 'Oh, God. What's happening to me now?.' He waved his hands above his head to try and touch them only to feel nothing. 'Is this some weird ghost thing? Is this because of what happened last night?' He panicked. 'How am I supposed to hide this? My parents might think I'm being haunted or possessed by ghost letters. I need to get out of here!' He opened the door to sneak back to his room only to freeze on sight of the person before him: his mom.
Maddie Fenton smiled brightly to her son. "Morning, Danny. Are you done with the bathroom?"
'Oh, god!' "Uh... Morning to you too, mom." 'She hasn't said anything yet.' He tested his luck and asked the obvious question. "How do I look?" He braced for an overreaction and received none.
Maddie cooed and pinched her son's cheek. "Like my handsome young boy."
Danny wasn't sure what to do for a second. 'What? Can't she see it? I mean, that's good.' He smiled back to her only for his eyes to widen when he looked above her head.
LV 17 Maddie F.
Maddie noticed her son's blank stare. "Are you alright, son?" She turned around ready for a fight. "Do you see a ghost?!"
Pulled out of his stupor, he tried to recover. "What? No! I-I'm just a little bit groggy."
Coming to a calmer state, she nodded at his answer. "Well, once you get dressed, can you go take out the trash from last night? Your father forgot to do it after dinner."
Danny moved out of her way as she went into the bathroom and closed the door, leaving him alone in the hallway.
*Ping* A Quest Is Created
"Ah!" Danny jumped as a blue window appeared before him. Another window appeared soon after.
"Danny, are you okay?" called his mom.
He pressed his back against the door. "I'm fine mom. It was just, uh, a roach on the wall." He turned back to the floating screens. 'Quests? That was never in Doomed.'
Quest Alert
Task From Mom:
Description: Take out the trash.
Time Limit: 30 Minutes
Reward:
+100 EXP
Increased closeness with Mom
Failure Penalty:
Nagging Mom
Decreased faith in you
[Accept Y/Deny N]
The window hovered there for a while with Danny standing completely still. 'What is going on?!' Danny grabbed his temple and shook it in an attempt to clear his head. 'Am I going crazy?' Taking a breath, he steadied himself. Slowly, he reached out with his right hand toward the quest window. 'If it's just in my head, I won't feel anything. Right?' Slowly, his hand approached the screen. He felt resistance as he pressed 'yes.' 'Oh, god. It is real!' He needed to lie down. Dragging himself to his room and curled into the bed. "Great... Now I'm even more of a freak," he muttered.
10 Minutes Later
Danny walked down the stairs with an annoyed expression. 'Like it or not, I still have to take out the trash.' Entering the kitchen, Danny found another set of floating letters. 'Same as Mom.'
LV 13 Jack F.
The large man in an orange jumpsuit waved at him while setting the table. "Morning, son! Nothing better than having breakfast with your dear old man!"
Danny couldn't help but smile at him. He may not be the most practical of parents, but his heart is in the right place. 'Ironic because he wants to tear my other half molecule by molecule.' "Yeah, it is. Let me just take out the trash for Mom, and we'll eat." He walked over to the trash bin and tied up the bag.
*Ping* You Acquired The Quest Item [Garbage]
Danny looked from the bag in his hand to the screen in front of him. Waving the screen away, he walked to the sidewalk outside and dumped the trash in the metal bin.
*Ping* Quest Completed
Rewarded:
+100 EXP
Increased closeness with Mom
He felt an invisible force flow inside of him, but he didn't feel any different after. 'That actually worked.' Before he could get another thought in, another window came up.
*Ping* Your Level Increased By 1
'I leveled up! Why don't I feel any different?' He blinked in the middle of the sidewalk and sighed. 'First the titles and then the quests. Now I can level up.' Danny groaned along with his stomach. 'This is way too much to take in before breakfast. I'll deal with it after I eat.' A few minutes later, Danny sat down with his family at the table, and each of them still had labels above their head. He finally had a chance to see his sister's.
LV 6 Jasmine "Jazz" F.
Danny deadpanned. 'I shouldn't have assumed any different.'
"So, kids," His mother started. "What are your plans for today?"
"After school, I'm gonna hang out with Sam and Tucker."
Maddie frowned. "Now Danny, while we are happy that you aced your exam, this doesn't mean we forgot your poor study habits."
Jack continued. "We can't have that happen again, can we?"
"I know. I know," Danny relented. "If it makes you happy, I'll stop by the library after school on Monday to study."
"Good for you Danny. That's one more step to being a responsible adult. As for me, I'll be doing some volunteer work at the mall," answered his sister. She turned to her parents. "What about you guys? More ghost stuff?"
"Yup! We're still working on our Fenton Anti-Ghost Missile Defense System for the house. In fact, Danny boy ran away while we were working on it yesterday."
"Oh, yeah. I was in a hurry to meet with my friends online."
"You shouldn't spend too much time playing games. It'll rot your brain."
"I'm pretty sure that it depends mostly on the type of game, but I'll try to lay off for a while," Danny replied. 'Even if I tried, I don't think I'll get getting away from games that easily.
They talked more about their plans today; however, Jack and Madie went on a long tangent on ghosts before Danny and Jazz decided to finish their meal and leave.
Both teens left the house in a relative hurry. Danny took his time walking to his friend's meeting place: the park, before they would head to class. During that period of self-thought, he went over the possible implications of his new situation. Not only was he a half-ghost, now the world around him is acting like a video game and calling him 'The Gamer.' 'I really need to figure this all out sooner or later.' A new window appeared.
*Ping* A Quest Is Created
'Another quest?' he thought.
Quest Alert
Task From Self:
Description: Learn More about your new [-X-X-X-] ability.
Time Limit: 1 Week
Reward:
+200 EXP
+5 Stat Points
Failure Penalty:
Increased Chance of Death
[Accept Y/Deny N]
'That's oddly convenient,' he thought dryly. Any normal person would be shocked at the increased chance of death, but Danny was different. His life was on the line so many times that it has become a chore. If this quest would help him stay alive, he was taking it. Danny accepted the new quest. If he was going to do it anyway, might as well get rewarded for it.
When he arrived at the park, he took a seat on a nearby bench. Slouching, he stared at the numerous trees and birds soaring by by. To be honest, flying helped clear his head most of the time with the stress of his daily life. Since he wouldn't be able to do that in broad daylight, this was the next best thing. With that, he continued his line of thought on his gaming powers.
'Okay. If this is anything like Doomed, then I should get stronger each time I defeat an enemy, but that hasn't happened.' Danny placed a hand to his chin. 'What changed? Any other video game would have some sort of stats page. What's that one called? World of Warcraft? Yeah. It even has quests.' Danny thought for a minute before speaking up. "Status?" A new brown window appeared before him and started looking over it.
NAME: Daniel "Danny" Fenton
RACE: Half-Ghost
OCCUPATION: The Gamer
TITLE: Hero In Training
LEVEL: 10
NEXT LEVEL: [0/413 EXP]
HP: 150/150
EP: 50/50
MP: 50/50
STR: 15 (+0)
VIT: 10 (+0)
DEX: 15 (+0)
INT: 12 (+0)
WIS: 7 (+0)
LUK: 7 (+0)
POINTS: 5
MONEY: $25
