Less Than a Hero, More Than a Gamer

Chapter 2

Max stared at the blue panel with a mixture of confusion and irritation.

[Welcome to the Game Maxwell Argentum]

Max tried to inch away from the floating text, but it just moved along with his body, much to his frustration. No matter how much he looked away, how much he turned his body the panel always stayed in front of his face. Even when he closed his eyes he could see the stupid thing. It was very annoying.

Max tried to swat the panel away, but his hand only passed through it. The panel became distorted for a second before reforming, this time with a different set of text.

[I understand that you have more than a few questions, and I guarantee that I will answer none of them…probably]

Max's eyes narrowed, it was that crazy voice…god…thing.

"What the hell is going on!? One second I'm in my room, next I'm sitting in an alley with these on my head."

[Well considering you're finally conscious and surely confused, Welcome to your new home! A wonderful world of superpowers, magic, color coordination, and giant creatures of darkness.]

Max suddenly tensed, "Wait, Creatures of Darkness! Just where the hell did you send me!?" The boy punched the panel again, hoping for a decent answer. He got none.

[Why this is the wonderful World of Remnant. And don't you worry too much, In this life you have the makings of someone who isn't a total weakling like you. Who knows, maybe you'll become a…Never mind I shouldn't say.]

"What were you about to say? Can you just give me a normal, not completely irritating answer." Max could feel how much the voice was trying to annoy him, and it was starting to succeed.

[Cultivate your strength, become worthy of the answers you so want. Only then will I tell you. But, I recommend saying Menu before you try. And by recommend I mean order. Buh-bye!]

And with that, the panel closed. Max glared at the empty space in front of him. Max stormed off deeper into the alleyway trying to clear his head. Suddenly an odd buzzing sensation filled his head. The feeling persisted until another blue panel fazed into existence in front of him.

[Open the Menu, its voice activated]

"Fine, fine, I'll open the stupid thing. Fuckin asswipe." Max mumbled he reluctantly complied, fully expecting some cryptic, nauseating message to pop up. He was pleasantly surprised when all that popped up was a simple drop-down menu


[Menu]

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Inventory]

[Gear]

[Settings]

Version 2.5.7


"This is all sorts of crazy."


[Status]

[Maxwell Argentum Lv2: 0/100]

'Dick didn't even bother getting my last name right.'

[Health: 130/130 | Stamina: 200/200 | LOCKED]

[Race: Faunus/Wolf]

[Stats] [Strength: 6 | Vitality: 7 | Constitution: 5 | Agility: 8 | Dexterity: 6 | Spirit:LOCKED]

[Condition: Hungry]


Max quickly went from annoyed to confused. He guessed the…extra appendages made him a faunus, and he certainly knew what "condition" meant, but he couldn't make heads or tails of his "stats". They sounded simple enough but max felt that there was something more to them. He was trying to think of what they could mean, but suddenly felt the hairs on his neck stand on end.

A fist crashed into Max's chin sending him back into a wall. Someone held a knife in front of his neck and pushed him against the wall. The boy blinked in confusion before trying to shake out of the grip of whoever was holding him.

The man pushed the knife deeper into Max's neck as he struggled, nearly drawing blood.

"Now, now ya damn animal, make this easier on the both of us and hand over the cash." the man hissed in Max's ear.

Max's eyes narrowed in realization and carefully inched toward his pocket, seemingly complying with the mugger's command

"That's right, just hand over the cash and I won't have to cut y-." The thief was in interrupted by a hard kick in the chest and a fist hitting the bridge of his nose.

[Doe Johnson: Health 84/110]

Max, wiping his bloodied knuckles, picked up the dropped knife and charging toward the bleeding man in front of him.

"You sonofabitch!" the man snarled, clutching his bleeding nose, "You'll be less than mincemeat when I'm done with you!"

The mugger saw Max charging at him with his knife and cursed. He pulled a pistol from his jacket and aimed at the silver-haired boy, causing him to stop in his tracks.

"Listen, just hand over the cash and I won't have to shoot you!" The man panicked his gun shaking in his hands. Max, deciding to take a risk, ran at the mugger with his hand outstretched.

The thief hesitated for a moment before firing, giving Max just enough time to smack the man's hand away, causing his shots to miss by a mile.

Max seizing an opportunity, forced the man to release his hold on the gun and kicked him into a wall, causing spit to fly out of the thief's mouth. The man tried to stand back up but a stomp to his head knocked him out cold.

[Doe Johnson: Health 29/110]

Max let out a heavy sigh of relief but was surprised at the cloud that came out. His adrenaline and distress

Shivering slightly Max eyed the thick black jacket the thief was wearing. Max considered taking the man's jacket, debating if he should.

"I think it came from over there."

The boy's ears shot up in panic 'Damn! Someone must have heard the gunshots.'

Max rushed over to the man and practically ripped the jacket off his body. In mere moments the wolf-eared boy was racing down the alleyway ignoring the yells of the officer behind him.

Max turned right and ducked behind a dumpster, using the darkness to his advantage. The hard footsteps of his pursuer faded allowing Max to steady his breathing. Slipping away with practiced ease, the boy walked casually in the opposite direction, dissolving into the sea of people.

A police siren blared down the street, but Max remained calm and mimicked the confusion of those next to him.

Once the cruiser passed, Max pulled his hood up and walked away from the commotion, trying to get out of sight as fast as possible.

Several minutes passed by. Max saw the cops retrieve his would-be mugger. He peaked around the corner to see the man making exaggerated hand motions to the officers. He must have been trying to fast talk the police into letting him go.

'I'd like to see him try to explain the whole trying to mug my part.' the silver-haired boy mocked in his head.

The taller officer shook his head and moved the man into the backseat. Siren's blaring the cruiser sped off. The red and blue light hit Max's eyes causing him to turn back around the corner in an effort not to be seen.

Once the cruiser was well out of sight and the murmurs ceased, Max dusted himself off and walked away, barely recoiling when a blue screen popped into his vision


[Achievement Gained (Thief Path): Hit and Run-Escape police pursuit once.]

[Gained: 720Lien | Winter Jacket(Black)(Common) | Carving Knife(Melee)(Common) | GLOCK 19(Ranged)(Common) | Model 2 Scroll(Common)]


Despite questioning what a lien was or when he picked up a gun, his fatigue caused him to push aside the screen in favor of searching for somewhere to sleep.

*GRUMBLE*

Max pace sped up suddenly and his eyes frantically searched the street. He was hungry, starving even. It didn't matter if he was broke or not. His only thoughts were of food and how to get it.

Max broke into a full sprint when he saw a convenience store, weirding several people. It didn't matter how tired he was or why he was so tired; he needed to eat something and fast!

Practically kicking the door open, the hungry wolf saw an assortment of chips, snack cakes, and junk food ripe for the taking.

Max's darker thoughts tempted him to just knock out the cashier and eat everything in sight, but he couldn't risk another run-in with the police. He prepared to put a bag or two into his jacket but saw the labels.

32 Lien

Max, slightly relieved, set his face back into a cold mask. The boy snatched two large bags of chips off the counter and presented them to the cashier.

"That will be 64 lien." The cashier said in a practiced cheerful tone. Max dug into his pockets and gave the man what he thought was 70 lien.

"Thank you sir, and here's your…" The cashier trailed off to see Max greedily stuffing his face.

The bag was empty in less than thirty seconds…

Max paused mid-bite so stare awkwardly at the man. Grabbing his change he silently walked out the door, eagerly digging into his second bag at a much slower pace.

Dropping his now emptied bag Max settled for looking around admiring the many buildings of…wherever he was. They were almost the same as in his world, but so much different as well.

'My World.' Max thought in disbelief.

The boy was still reeling from his transport to Remnant. The fact that almost everyone's hair was some shade of the color wheel, the Menu, his ears and tail, none of it made sense.

TWO LIVING BODIES CANNOT POSSESS THE SAME SOUL, AND I CANNOT SIMPLY PULL YOUR SOUL OUT OF YOUR CURRENT BODY INTO YOUR NEXT ONE.

'My next body. The voice said that he couldn't pull my soul into my next body. And he mentioned taking me to remnant on the phone.'

Max looked up at the shattered moon, the pieces coming into place in his mind.

'The voice killed me…put my soul into this body…which was on Remnant…and gave me the Menu.'

Max let that sink in. He was on another world in another body which had silver hair and was apparently a wolf faunus…whatever that was. The Max who was a human and lived on Earth was dead.

The Max in Remnant was a clean slate with no past and human Max's memories.

Max didn't notice that he started to grin. Not a small reserved grin, but one that threatened to split his face. He chuckled in glee. The restrictions, the identity, the trauma of his old life didn't matter because the old Max was dead.

Max's face set back into a calm facade under the people's stares, not knowing where that little outburst of emotion came from. But he felt a chill go up his spine when he thought about it.

'What the hell was that just now.' Max never would've allowed his mask to slip like that. And even then it wasn't so…intense.

Max mood soured on the inside. 'I'm in another world, with a clean slate. But what the hell will I do with it?'

The silver-haired boy looked at the moon, glowing in the sky. Max looked over a fire escape that led to the roof of an apartment building. After several failed attempts to knock it down. He resigned to pulling it down himself.

Getting a running start, Max ran on the side of the wall and barely grabbed onto the ladder. It didn't surrender under his weight, an unusual occurrence for him, but he jotted it down to the locking mechanism, which was far more advanced than the so-called locks on earth.

Setting himself near a warm vent on the roof, Max stared upward to the sky, the many stars, and the shattered moon both new sights to him. Anywhere away from the countryside on earth, stars were a rare sight, especially in the larger cities. Yet in this massive city, the sky was crystal clear.

Allowing his eyes to grow heavy, the boy drifted off into a dreamless sleep, the first peaceful one in years for him.


Maxy Chibi ep1

Max was literally inhaling everything edible on the shelves. Hundreds of bags flew into his mouth, his stomach a bottomless pit eager to be filled.

Nothing was safe from his hunger. Even paper plates and bottles were sucked in, But Max couldn't care less.

"Umm, sir you need to pay for tha-aaaaaaaaaa!" The man at the counter began, but Max turned his comically oversized mouth toward him.

"Nooooooooo! I was 43 years from retiremeeeeeeenn-" the man was sucked inside the ravenous teen's mouth, never to be heard from again.

15 minutes later

Max's face was blank as he fell asleep having devoured everything that wasn't nailed down in the store. His stomach swelled to the size of a semi.

Max cheeks, normal sized compared to his body bulged out. A brown shoe and a cheap watch came out with a burp.

The police outside were so confused.

"So…do we need an ambulance, a huntsman, or a crane?"

"Just get all three," the man sighed tiredly, "I'm too tired for this shit."