Chapter 10

Well, I've got some good news about my latest invention that I feel like sharing. But let's recap for a bit before getting to the informative portion of my explanation. In short, after I was dismissed into a workshop to test my inventing skills I had made a fantastic discovery. It wasn't until I had actually finished the body shield that I had attempted to see if I could think of anything else that wasn't primarily defensive. To my joy, I could do much more than that, as I gazed at every piece of technology in the room and found that with enough time and resources I could not only improve everything around me to the maximum efficiency, but I could make whatever I wanted without any sort of mental blockage that wasn't catered to supplies of any kind.

Although the only thing to be worried about now is how it works in the field, but I'm confident that nothing will blow up in anyone's faces.

The results however, is the reaction when I recollected this to Armsmaster, he stood stock still with his jaw dropped. That was probably the most emotional I've ever seen him since I've been around him, and I had already considered him to be stoic to a fault.

However, it seemed suspicious enough when he told me that I was free to grab an unused parts to build something else while he promptly exited the room. I was puzzled when I tried thinking of the possibilities of such a thing and why he left me alone, but my mind hasn't come up with anything. But the only clue was that he must have gotten a notification of some sort if the way his visor lit up was any indication. I'm gonna just assume that there's someone waiting outside in case I do anything stupid. Even though I admit I was tempted to question it even further, my mind was instead once again excited at the prospect of making something else I want.

The good news about my first shield, was that I had managed to create it with the first two functions I had in mind. Not only will I have maximum protection against many threats, but even those with super strength won't mean much in the long run. The gadget in question is about as small as my wrist and is shaped in a circular fashion with a little blue glow in the middle. The ideal place I'm putting for now however is my inventory so that I can pull it out at some point later.

Now however, I'm trying to consider what to build next.

'What else could I build that would be extraordinary in some way?' I thought with my right hand cupping my chin on reflex.

While I wanted something new, I wanted it to be used by me and only me. Something I knew I could personalize and use over and over. Briefly I looked at the headphones that were wrapped around my neck before I had an idea.

'That's it!' I thought in realization 'I can create the best phone with the most top of the line functions!' I thought with internal excitement.

When I think about it, it makes sense in a way. It's not only smaller than a laptop of some kind, but with enough coding and what not, I could definitely achieve similar effects with it. Although the main thing to question is how much do I want from it in order to determine how often I use it. As far as data goes, I can make that a nonexistent problem along with it's battery life. But I doubt I can simply have it function with the exact same stuff my previous phone had. Although an upgrade sounds nice once I cross that bridge.

Eh, it'll make communications much easier later on anyway.

With this in mind, I began to start on the process of getting myself the best piece of modern technology that anyone will ever know.

This shouldn't take as long... I think. I don't know how long it took me to make the shield exactly, but I'm sure I've been building it for at least thirty minutes or so. So if I'm gonna take a wild guess, then I'd probably say this would take up about maybe half of that time.

As soon as my hands were already getting to work on the new gadget, I allowed my mind to wander aimlessly about today.

Geez, today didn't seem to end for whatever reason. I already went through a bunch of crap on my own due to my new gaming physics, which I still wholeheartedly agree is becoming one of my most preferred superpower. Not just that either, but apparently this world is all kinds of screwed up as well. I mean, imagine people back home with powers like these people, that right there is already nightmare fuel for me on both dangerous and stupid levels that humanity seems to breach WITHOUT powers. But at least it can't get much more worse than that right?

The other thing that got me curious is the way they label powers here. When I mentioned being another person, they assumed I was a master type of cape that could control others. How do they label other kinds of abilities? How the HELL would they label mine? Things like this make me question my placement even more the less I know.

The people I've met so far... either they're seriously stoic and almost seem lifeless, boring as watching water dry on pavement, or they're relatively nice enough to hold a conversation with. Those listed in the latter description are only a couple of people, which is not a good sign. Then again they did mention a younger team of heroes known as the 'Wards'. Other than them being younger than eighteen, there's not much else I can decipher myself until I meet them. I hope they're cool though... like, Assault cool. Seriously, the guy works like everyone else, but he seems legitimately carefree to an extent. Miss Militia's nice too, but I haven't gotten to that level of closeness to where we can just mess around in light banter.

And isn't that funny, since I've spent more time around her than anyone else here. Though, that could also be partially blamed due to my slight introvert tendencies. But I guess I could do something about that later as I'm probably going to be busy for a while considering what all of what I'm capable of. Though with that in mind, I need to be sure to learn what else I can do otherwise I'll probably regret it later.

I took a moment to stop my work in order to scratch behind one of my fox ears. It brought a small feeling of pleasure that one would find if they were to be massaged, I made a small note to do it more on my own time.

I moved my distracted appendage to get back on track to my new gadget.

'Now where was I going with that?' I thought as soon as the comfortable feeling washed away my previous train of thought. Seeing as I haven't been able to remember, I mentally shrugged and got myself back into building my latest creation. Man, I'm totally going for the science-mage combination, 'cause lord knows how dangerous they can be when given enough prep time for any situation.

Only thing to go on from there is to find out what to call myself, and since I'm qualified for both technology and magic I think I'll try my hand at keeping that theme. I'm not going for the obvious gamer theme, as it not only sounds absurd to the general public, but it would also just be a lazy effort if I'd done so.

So as I continued to work, I began to think on different names I could use that would suit me in some way. I believe I have a better chance at finding one since I doubt anyone has the same type of power combination as I do.

'What could I call myself that everyone can remember? Hmm... names like 'Cyber-Mage' or 'Technagician' are a good start I suppose, but I'll only keep them if I can't come up with anything else.' I thought with finality on the matter. I looked to an electronic clock on the wall to show that it had been at least thirty minutes since I started building this thing.

'I didn't think I was into it for THAT long.' I thought with some surprise at that notion. I turned my attention to the gadget in progress, and channeling my inner 'tinker' senses told me that everything I wanted within this thing was almost complete. It's rate of completion, I estimate at about... eighty-two percent completion? Either way, it was good news to me. So with another mental shrug at my good news, I got back to it.

For the next few minutes, I continued to make progress with each part that came together to get my intended product. It was almost done, but I was interrupted in the next moment as I heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Hello? Everything ok in here?" the mysterious individual asked.

I stopped what I was currently working on in order to turn around and regard the now revealed adult male who was standing near the entrance. In terms of appearance he didn't really stand out, but more so that he was ordinary looking to where I could lose him in a crowd. He was fairly tall, taller than me by a good four to five inches, and his hair was a dark brown color that seemed to almost match mine but at a slightly different tone. He also wore glasses, but they were a respectable size as to not be a hindrance to him.

Once he had asked the question I casually shrugged in response "Yeah, everything's good over here. Just need to get the last of this stuff added before I'm completely finished." I say with a wave toward the object in question before I turned back to him "So, you're one of the people they sent to check on my progress? Because if you're also going to be watching me in place of Armsmaster, then I'd like to know your name first." I say with a small smile on my face as I now had someone who I could most likely talk to.

My smile turned to a concerned frown when his look of confusion had changed into what I could describe as something precious lost. I'd know, because I've experienced it myself for one, and he has a look of despair that just rolls off of his face to where anyone could spot it.

Concerned (for once), I prodded "Hey, are you okay? You just seem kind of... down." I hope I didn't somehow offend this guy somehow. He didn't give off a feeling that makes me mistrust him, and so far he didn't seem like a bad person at first glance.

He answered, but wasn't looking me in the eye as he said it "Y-yeah, I'm... okay. How are you doing on the tinker tech?" It was obvious that he was trying to change the subject.

I knew what he was doing, but it also wasn't my place to get involved. But it may at least distract him from what he's thinking about, because if it's one thing I can do, I can get off of the previous subject.

With a small smile I turned towards the nearly complete object "It's going great actually. Pretty soon I'll be able to get a lot more things done than what any other phone could've ever done." I said in a humorous tone despite it not really being funny.

He looked at it in confusion "Phone?" he questioned.

"Yep," I began with a nod of my head "Pretty soon this thing will be able to process so much more data, information, and a lot of other stuff once I'm through with it. I'll also be able to play my songs through these headphones just the way I like to do it." I explained before motioning to the mentioned headphones on my neck by pointing at them with my right hand.

Yeah, I'm not holding anything back with this thing's functionality. Pretty soon I'll be doing futuristic kinds of things that one could hope to see at the touch of the screen. I'm nearly done with the thing as well, so I'd consider that an even bigger bonus in the long run. Because I'm definitely positive that something like this would've taken years to develop back home, and that's not including the process of doing so such as financial reasons. Lord knows how much that would cost for any individual.

The man looked at the incomplete device with a small frown before turning back to me "Are... you sure that's a good idea?" he asked me.

I just shrugged my shoulders "I don't see why not really. I mean, cellphones nowadays can pretty much get stuff done for anyone who has one and that they know what they're doing. And what I'm building will make things a lot easier in the long run." I explained before I turned to him with a curious gaze "You still haven't told me your name by the way." I say to him.

He seemed to grow a slightly saddened look on his features, but before I could ask what was wrong again, he looked at me with a smile that was strained "Danny. Call me Danny." he told me before he turned around towards the door with a slight slump of his shoulders "Well... it seems you're doing fine, so I'll get going then." he added with a small wave.

I frowned for a moment before calling out to him "Hey, are you sure you'll be alright?" I asked him in a concerned tone of voice. I've never heard someone who spoke to me sound so... down.

Without turning around, he just nodded before he left the room with the door closing behind him.

I couldn't help but wonder what was up with him before turning around and going back through the motions of putting the parts together. I had only a few minutes left before all that I wanted were completely installed and programed within the device.

It was only a matter of time before the object in question was completely finished with no other interruptions apparent. I moved all of the other parts which I no longer needed to the side in order to get a full view of it.

It was about the size of my old HTC phone, but the edge of the screen was outlined in a thin red, while the sides with the other buttons were colored black. Other than that however, I already knew most of the other features in and out of it for obvious reasons.

But while it's structure and programming was complete, it was missing one thing.

I turned my gaze to the little piece of metal off to the side with the other parts, it was only smaller than the phone by seventy-five percent. It was also colored in black, as I didn't want to mess up the color scheme I had set up for it.

In short, it was the battery I needed in order to power it for an indefinite amount of time.

But this is where I wanted to experiment. I wanted a different power source so that it would not only last almost infinitely, but wouldn't burn itself out like if I'd used regular electricity or something else to draw from. It's where I got the idea instead of those things, I wanted to try my hand at keeping it powered only by mana, or magical energy in general. It seemed like something worth trying, as I could tell also that if I were to use any other forms of power, then I may be tracked by the city grid or something whenever I feel the need to build something big.

I don't care how good these guys are, if they're gonna stop a majority of my creations, then I'll be sure that none of them will be able to get in my way.

What makes this battery special however is that it can replicate and project more of whatever I powered it with. Taking that energy and supplying itself with it forever. The only thing it can't do is switch to another form of energy, as I'm sure it will make itself unstable. I'm not completely sure that it'll happen, but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks concerning this. Plus, mana should be the only thing that I'd really need to put into it.

I used my left arm to bring the conductive battery closer to the high tech phone, before I simply brought up the menu without pausing the world this time. I scoured through the options up until I found my personal designation as the 'player' and changed it.

I came back to this because I grew a theory about how I could truly be in control. Due to the previous discoveries that the game conveniently ask me questions I find myself curious about, I found it odd that it also wasn't already in my jurisdiction. Well, it is, but the mere fact that I was labeled as the 'player' applies that I only had a limited amount of options that were slightly more loose than any other game.

But I'm sure if I designated myself in a higher position, then I should have an even greater amount of control...

\YOU WISH TO RENAME YOUR DESIGNATION AS: GAMEMASTER?/

I confirmed that I wished to change it. As soon as I'd done so, a ton of different options became present before me than ever before. Hell, I don't think I even had a quarter of this many options when I had previous access to it. Now there's things like leveling up objects around me without limit, changing character's traits and memories(?), language settings, and an even an option to summon enemies in game as my own allies.

And the best part?

NONE of these even counted as being hacked in the slightest.

"Now THIS is pretty awesome." I said out loud to no one in particular to my newfound discovery. I just knew I could make some useful ideas out of this, but I need to get what I came for.

Turning off the menu in place of the lab again, I briefly focused my mana without triggering any of the techniques. I focused it into my hand, in which it glowed with a bright blue hue to signify my concentration. Knowing that I have the proper amount of focus to maintain such a simple task, I didn't waste any time grabbing the energy conductive battery with my free arm.

With great care, I brought my left arm to meet my right as I let my mana energy flow into the power source. The next moment, the battery glowed in a similar fashion for a couple of seconds before it dimmed into nothing, and pretty soon I let up on my concentration as well. I looked to see that the metal on the object seems to only have a light glow to it, but nothing surprising.

I grabbed it before grabbing the phone as well, then simply planted the battery into it. I then put the protective case around it to secure it before I turned it around to turn it on.

Now since this phone wasn't truly branded in any way possible, there was obviously no logo that appeared within the first two seconds. But then again, most phones don't start up immediately either, given that I'm already at the start screen. But obviously there's nothing to do as there are no programs installed other than the ones that even get it to this point. I knew this and already planned for it but I just had to get the right equipment suited for programming and installations which should be around here somewhere, but I knew I wasn't allowed to touch those quite yet.

'Oh well,' I thought with a shrug 'Might as well wait for them to come back, I can just mess with these settings in the meantime.' I gained an evil grin at the thought of just what I can do now.

"Oh yes," I said quietly to myself whilst bringing up the menu "THIS is gonna be fun." I ended with a silent, but devious laugh that no one but me could hear.

With that, I got to the FUN part of 'work'.

A/N: NEXT chapter will be an interlude. Told you guys I didn't forget about Danny boy. But with that out of the way, I just also wanted to get out that I'm working on another worm cyoa, but it's the first version. Before you decide to groan about OP bullshit and what not, I just wanted to say that I chose powers that I believe wouldn't completely wreck or fix the setting. But I also just wanted to add that I don't know whether or not if I want to make another, as it'll be a LONG while before I do that as I want to get a bunch of chapters out of the way for 'In this game'. Either way I'm sure I'll come up with something later so see you guys till then.

P.S: This took a bit as I was feeling nostalgic and decided to play some of my old gamecube games, like Sonic Adventure 2.

P.S.S: Does this chapter seem rushed to you guys? I couldn't tell, even when reading over it myself.