1.3
Several hours later I had been signed into the hospital, examined and then tucked into a bed with a nurse checking on me every fifteen minutes to make sure I didn't slip into a coma from my concussion or something. I was also told that I would be talked to on the matter of my amnesia sometime tomorrow morning with a specialist.
I also bugged a nurse into doing a quick internet search for my name. My new identity lost her parents about six months ago in a car crash caused by a cape fight in Boston. It was apparently all over the news as they were very wealthy with my new dad having been thinking of running for senator in the next election before their deaths. Then a couple of months ago my name was in the papers again because my appointed caretaker was discovered to have been stealing money from me.
After that papers reported on the court approving my emancipation. That was two weeks ago in Boston and now I'm living here.
All in all it was great to know a bit more about my new. It was not so great that my name was fairly well known in Boston and maybe here if any one keeps up with major Boston news stories. So I might ended running into people who have at least heard about me.
But that knowledge did get the nurse to arrange for me to have a private room. And let me just say thank god I had my own room and didn't have to worry about a nosy roommate, even if that meant the room I was in barely fit a table, bed, one chair and a tiny personal bathroom to the side.
I waited until the nurse checked on me and then moved onto other things down the hall before trying to check my gamer stuff, "Status."
[Skylar Durant]
[The Otome Gamer]
[Lv 2 Exp: 0.00%]
[HP: 100/100]
[STR: 5]
[AGI: 5]
[VIT: 5]
[INT: 5]
[WIS: 5]
[CHA: 6]
[LUK: 5]
[Unspent Points: 5]
Huh, I guess I'm starting from the bottom. It's a good thing that Worm timeline doesn't start until next year because that'll give me time to level up and gain skills.
I wonder how all this is going to work though since the ROB fiddled with it. Maybe it still only works with skills like the description said?
A lot of Otome games you have to get a minimum amount of certain stat points to hook up with a certain guy. Like if you want the guy who values intelligence then you have to have raise your INT stat. But that wouldn't work here.
Seeing as I have a ten year time limit versus the month that most of the otome games I played had, I could certainly raise all my stats way pass the needed level for anyone and more probably for everyone.
Unless it's less about a certain minimum level for a guarantee and more about reaching pass multiple levels for increased probability. In an otome game you make all the choices and can replay if you don't like the outcome you get the first time, but I'm living this now and I can't replay anything. I also have no guarantees that even if I make certain choices that the guys won't like me as just a friend or maybe like a sister.
That's life after all. That sort of thing happens all the time.
God, I'm going make myself crazy with this until I figure it.
Nope, not right now, I push those thoughts back, I've got other things to think about.
Anyways, for now I guess I'll hold off on using my stat points and try to gain them other ways like some of those fanfics I read.
[A smart decision causes your WIS to go up by 1.]
That. . . was fairly easy, but I doubt point gains will always be like that. Now what can I do in here until I can be released? I can probably ask for some books or puzzles to try to up my INT stat. Wait, I'm forgetting something aren't I . . .
Oh, well don't I feel dumb. I turn to the bedside table on my left and stare at it.
[A skill has been created through a special act.]
[Through continuous observation, a skill to find the target's information, 'Observe' has been created.]
Yes! It worked. Great, I'd have felt a lot dumber if that hadn't worked, since I'm not sure which the gamer's skills will translate here. But now I can level it up just by looking at things here in my room.
[A smart decision causes your WIS to go up be 1.]
"Cool. Observe."
[Bedside Table]
[A place to put things.]
Okay, I think that leveling it like this will probably take forever so let me go ahead and check my other stuff first. Then I can focus on leveling up Observe.
"Relationships," I watch as a new window of floating words appear with list of grayed out boxes, my eyes almost bug out of my head in surprise as I counted fifteen boxes under Love Interests were the only clear box was one that held a picture of Jeff in it.
Fifteen!?
Why so many?
Does the ROB think I'm trying to become a sheik or a sultan?!
Fuck.
I shake my head and tap of Jeff's box to enlarge it. All it contained right now was the picture, his name, his age was listed as 18 (wow, I thought he was a year or two older) and a measured bar with a bit of red in it, but there was plenty of greyed out room for more information.
I guess these get filled in as you learn about them as people, maybe?
[An insightful deduction causes your INT to go up by 1.]
Apparently I was right. I looked closer at the relationship bar at the bottom of his entry to examine it, confused about why the red bit was in the middle of the bar.
Huh, it went from -1000 on my left to 0 in the middle to 1000 on my right. So from each mark to the next was a hundred points and with the points I scored with Jeff earlier he was sitting at just under the second mark to the right from the neutral center.
Wait. . . with the marks going in both directions that means I can actually make some of my possible love interests hate me doesn't it.
Well, crap on a stick, I'm going to end up some of them baying for my blood aren't I.
I tap the bar to see if it'll explain more.
[-1000 Complete Loathing]
[-900]
[-800]
[-700 Archenemy]
[-600]
[-500 Enemies]
[-400]
[-300 Rivals]
[-200 Frienemies]
[-100 Acquaintances]
[0 Neutral]
[100 Acquaintances]
[200 Casual Friends]
[300 Friends]
[400]
[500 Crush]
[600]
[700 Lovers]
[800]
[900]
[1000 Worshiped]
"Whoa," I look over the listed levels with a vague sense of amazement, "That's certainly extensive. I guess that puts Jeff in the Acquaintance category and just 20 points from being a Casual Friend."
I chewed on my lip as thought hard over the relationship bar and what it possibly meant for me and for anyone tagged as one of my romance options.
On one hand, I really didn't like that 'Worshiped' tag as it didn't have pleasant connotations. But on the other hand with the bar going in the other direction too meant that it was possible for disagreements and personality clashes to affect the standing of any possible relationship vs. otome games where the positives stacked but no negatives could be taken.
The other thing I wanted to know was did the game mechanics actively effect me and my relationships or were they more along the lines of a very invasive monitoring system?
Either way was fairly bad, but at least if it was just a monitoring system any feelings that come up are 100% real and unaugumented.
I shake my head, another thing that'll probably keep me up all night if I think on it any more right now.
I release my lip before I manage to chew through it and reach for the Skills Tab. A quick tap and there was a new window in front of me, but what caught my eye first was the little memo down at the bottom.
[Skills]
[Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lv Max]
[Gamer's Body (Passive) Lv Max]
[Power Manipulation (Active) Lv Max]
[Cooking (Passive) Lv 12 Exp: 53.45%]
[Drawing (Passive) Lv 5 Exp: 87.30%]
[Flirting (Passive) Lv 2 Exp: 1.46%]
[Bluff (Passive) Lv 1 Exp: 6.42%]
[P.S. Tap here to activate the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body when you get home. Can't have everyone knowing how special you are. - ROB]
Huh, sure why not, I ruthlessly suppress the urge for hysterical giggles, take a breath and let it out slowly forcing myself into a slightly calmer state. Then repeat until the tension in my shoulders melts away and I can concentrate again.
I sigh heavily and rub my eyes in exasperation, that does explain the pain and the blood that didn't magically disappear like the manga or those fanfics. Though I do appreciate not yet being on anyone's radar just yet as far as other parahumans go.
I go back to read the list and pause over power manipulation. . . I almost completely forgot about that. . .
Fucking concussion.
Actually my INT stat which currently sitting at 6 has to be messing with me head too. As soon as I'm out of here I'm gonna fucking take my ass to the library every chance I get.
I hate feeling stupid. Especially when I've taken iq tests that placed me just a point or two short of genius level.
I close my eyes and think about making powers trying to somehow feel for my charges. A tingle runs through me and I shiver at the weird feeling.
Isn't that the same tingle I felt when Jeff held my hand earlier?
Oh, fuck. . . sexy CAPE reverse harem. . .
Fucking ROB. . .
Well, he's not any of the heroes obviously. . .
Not E88 or ABB because he's half Hispanic and not the Merchants because eww. . .
He's got to either be Uber or Leet. He just doesn't fit anywhere else and he mentioned a friend named Dominic. He's probably the other part of the duo. . .
Wow, I got the number of a supervillian.
A really hot, friendly supervillian. . .
Okay, moving on before I break my brain.
It's getting late so I should probably go ahead and use my charges for today, and watch out for any of the nurses coming to check on me.
What do I make first though?
Probably some kind of thinker powers would be best for now since it'd be pretty noticeable if I suddenly healed or broke something.
Oh, I know what to do!
I start designing the superpower I want in my head and feed a charge into it as I shape it. It pulls in another charge before it's formed and I grin as I pull it into myself. I shiver as my new power settles and I look up as I hear the ding of an alert.
[Accelerated Development has been created.]
[Accelerated Development (Passive) Lv Max]
[The ability to develop skills, traits and abilities faster and more effectively than should be possible.]
[ You now earn double the exp.]
Yes!
[A smart decision causes your WIS to go up be 1.]
Awesome, now I've got three more charges, hmm.
I don't want Lisa's super intuition and precog powers are suppose to be difficult with my Man of Mystery advantage. I don't want telepathy either so maybe empathy instead; I think it can double as a life detector too.
I take my other charges mold them into a Empathy power and made sure to include an off switch because I sure don't want to ever be overwhelmed by other people's emotions.
[Empathy has been created.]
[Empathy (Active) Lv Max]
[The power to fully detect, interpret and replicate the emotions, moods, and temperaments of others.]
[Increased possibilities of positive social interactions.]
And with that I'm done with my charges for today and my skills page is updated.
[Skills]
[Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lv Max]
[Gamer's Body (Passive) Lv Max]
[Power Manipulation (Active) Lv Max]
[Accelerated Development (Passive) Lv Max]
[Empathy (Active) Lv Max]
[Cooking (Passive) Lv 12 Exp: 53.45%]
[Drawing (Passive) Lv 5 Exp: 87.30%]
[Flirting (Passive) Lv 2 Exp: 1.46%]
[Bluff (Passive) Lv 1 Exp: 6.42%]
[P.S. Tap here to activate the Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body when you get home. Can't have everyone knowing how special you are. - ROB]
I wonder if the powers I added are maxed out on the list just to show I can't add to them this way or because they are complete up to the level I designed them to be.
I know I can expand on them further with power manipulation. . .
What would happen if I tried to make something really powerful that needed more than my five daily charges? How would they show on my skills list at all?
I guess I can find out later, a vague idea already half formed in the back of my mind.
I decide to instead focus on getting observe leveled up for now. It kind of feels anticlimactic though as I close out my status window and start looking around my bland hospital room.
"Observe. Observe. Observe."
[Observe has leveled up.]