The Name of the Game Chapter 1 - A New World, an avengers fanfic

(A/N) Hi, whoever is reading this I hope you like my story, It's been a while since I've written anything. I've tried to give myself a fresh start so I've purged my previous stories. Sorry to anyone who liked them, just needed to try something new. Anyway, despite my track record of writing inconsistently I've got the next twenty or so chapters written already so if you like this one there's a lot more to come, thank you.

"Ah, fuck." John Smith groaned as he held his head, severe pain racking his head. He stumbled out of bed as the world twisted around him, the beam of sunlight from the open curtains causing him to flinch in pain. "Water." Came a croak out of his throat as he groggily stumbled to the kitchen in his tiny box apartment.

He quenched his thirst and all he could do was wait as the pain passed, eventually allowing him to flicker his eyes open and look around, confused.

He stood in his own apartment, knowing that if was in fact, his own. However, it felt distinctly unfamiliar, as if someone had flipped the room like in a mirror. He sat back on his bed and investigated his mirror, realising that he felt the same way about his own body.

Shaking his head, he attempted to snap out of it but failed, so he began to go through his morning routine, beginning to make himself breakfast in his pyjamas. He considered that eating properly for once might do some good. As he broke the eggs and began to fry them something strange occurred.

Congratulations! You've learned the skill: Cooking – Level 1.

Looking at the text in front of him in shock, he reached out and waved his hand through it, nothing happened. It wasn't there, it was in his head.

"What the fuck." He said in confusion.

John Smith, you have expressed confusion in the aspects of the game.

Would you like a tutorial?

Yes – No

"What?" The confusion continued; he began to think that he might be going crazy. He began to think about pressing the 'yes', but the message suddenly disappeared moments before another showed up.

Tutorial

Objective: Complete the tutorial.

Rewards: 50 Skill Points, 1 Randomised Ability, 50 EXP

Failure: Eventual Death

John rolled his eyes and simply wanted the text to carry on so he can get on with it and ignore it in time to go to work. As soon as he thought about it, it continued.

Tutorial – The Basics

Your profile contains a large amount of information about yourself. Call upon your profile and it will appear.

"Profile." John spoke and watched as it appeared in front of him.

John Smith – Level 1 (5/125)

Title – Always Average

HP – 10/10

AP – 100/100

Str – 10

Con – 10

Dex – 10

Int – 10

Wis - 10

Skill Points: 2

Skills:

English – Level MAX

Cooking – Level 1

Abilities:

Blessed Soul (Passive)

John shook his head once more, hoping that when he opened his eyes again that the messages would just disappear. It did not, so he continued. As he read through, information on what everything was and represented entered his mind automatically.

First was his level, which he guessed, like in most games, it was a measure of his experience. As far as he knew it could be increased by levelling skill sand completing tasks. Then there was the title, which was a representation of himself and his abilities, they could represent who he was as a person or if he had any particularly impressive skillsets.

Then were his HP and AP. His HP represented his health and the amount of damage he could and had taken. Furthermore, AP represented how much energy he had. Both were affected by his physical stat, but his AP was also affected by his Intelligence stat.

Next were the stats. Strength represented how strong he was. Constitution was how physically healthy he was. Dexterity was his agility and fine-motor skills. Intelligence was how smart he was and how fast he could learn things. Finally, his wisdom was how effectively he could use the information he had.

Then there were skill points, these could be earned several ways such as completing quests and levelling up skills. They could be used to buy various things within the game system such as extra skill levels and even abilities.

Finally, were skills and abilities. Skills were things that could be learned or earned by him, sometimes naturally and sometimes thanks to the help of the game system. For example, languages can be learned. Whereas abilities are things that can be gained through more unorthodox means. One example that popped into his head was the Hulk he had seen on news stories a couple of times. Although the ability he currently had did confuse him slightly.

Blessed Soul – Due to alterations to the soul, your physical, mental and spiritual potential has been exponentially increased.

Simply dismissing the message, John moved on and removed the eggs and bacon from the hob.

Congratulations! You have levelled up a skill:

Cooking – Level 2

He simply ignored it. It disappeared.

Congratulations! You've completed the tutorial.

Rewards: 50 Skill Points, 50 EXP, Randomised Ability: Danger Intuition.

Once again, he ignored it. His head began to hurt. He sat down at his tiny table and began to eat. The pain in his head increased.

As he ate it still increased.

Suddenly, it got much, much worse. Like the headache he'd previously experienced.

Things began to enter his mind, memories, feelings, experiences. It was strange, completely, and utterly.

What he thought was minutes later, John found himself lying on the floor, having no idea how he had gotten there.

He looked up and around, realising what had just happened as he thought over the memories that had just entered his mind.

Two lives were in his mind. One of the John Smith who had always lived in the house he'd been in and the other of another John Smith, one who had died as a teenager, having spent most of his life alone. One of the few things that had brough the other John Smith comfort had been the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel comics and other similar things.

It didn't take John long to realise something important. He was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2008 Iron Man had come on the scene, with the famous press conference where he admitted to being Iron Man. There was also the Hulk incident. The massive green humanoid beast that had been seen around the world, causing destruction wherever it went. He hadn't known what it was before, he did then.

He went through the events of the MCU in his mind and realised something. He was a regular guy; he didn't want anything to do with that. Other people in his position would probably end up trying to get involved with those major events, but that's the last thing he wanted. If he tried that he knew he'd probably end up dying, so he was just going to keep his head down and keep away from anyone like that.

He stood up from the floor and decided to ignore the issue from then on, to continue with his life as normal.

+1 Wisdom for making a smart decision.

John shook his head; he still did not think that that was real. It could not be, he was just a normal person.

He looked over to his clock and his eyes widened, he had been on the floor a lot longer than he had thought. He was supposed to leave for work ten minutes ago.

Congratulations! You have discovered a new skill. Due to previously high level of ability in the skill, it has been increased by 10.

Cleaning – Level 11

Congratulations! Cleaning Skill has reached Level 14.

John sighed as he wet the mop once again, cleaning the floor of the near-empty office of the HAMMER industries building, only ten or so people were at their desks, the rest were in a meeting.

That was his job, a janitor, he hated it with about as strong a passion as one could hate something, but it was the only thing keeping him from being completely homeless.

He had been kicked out of his own house a few months prior by his mother, she had never liked him throughout his life so the moment she was able to she kicked him out of the house, shoving him out on the streets. He'd had the foresight to see it coming so he'd saved up enough money to begin renting his apartment and had applied for this job, which once again he hated but he didn't have much of a choice.

As he mopped the floor, he felt a small prick on the back of his neck. Suddenly his brain was screaming out to him to move his head to the side, confused, he did so. As his head moved, he watched a scrunched-up piece of paper fly past his head, if he hadn't moved it would have hit. Annoyed, he picked it up from the floor and placed it in the bin. It took a few moments before he realised what had warned him to move.

The 'Danger Intuition' he'd received from the tutorial. It had warned him that it was headed towards his head.

"It's real." John shook his head, the implications of what that meant popped into his head. But once again he ignored it. He knew that he might be able to gain powers from getting lots of skill points, but that did not mean anything. He still was just going to live a normal life, no matter what.

But he was going to do something, he decided, he was going to get himself out of that place, get himself a better job. The first step of that was getting his GED, something he hadn't been able to finish after being kicked out on his 18th birthday.

He moved his head once again as a second paper ball flew towards and past him. Unlike before that didn't annoy him, he was looking forwards to the future too much.

John shut his door as he walked into his box apartment, relieved to be home after a long day at work and a quick trip to the library. In the library he had done a bit of research about what it would take to complete his GED. There were 4 tests. One each for maths, science, social studies, reading and writing. With his memories from the other John Smith's life and some more learning, he'll probably be able to get it done pretty well. He picked up some books on each of the subjects from the library, alongside them grabbing a couple of books about learning French.

Placing the books down, John picked the one that guided beginners on how to learn French and decided that he was going to start with that. He sat down at his table and opened the book beginning to concentrate. He made a mental note to get some lined books so he could take notes.

He continued for a while, reading through the book. He would be able to understand essentially nothing if not for the memories of the other John Smith learning about French, it provided him a good foundation to build up his knowledge.

After a while of reading and running through mental exercises John looked up from the book and saw a few messages floating in the air from the game system.

+ 2 Intelligence for learning something new.

Congratulations! You've gained a new skill:

French – Level 6

Congratulations! You've gained a new special skill.

Increased Cognition (S) – Level 1

Tutorial Fact - Special Skills are skills gained through the game system which can give you boosts to other things. For example, the Increased Cognition skill increases the rate at which information can be processed and learned. Unlike normal skills, these skills are much harder to level and only have a maximum of level 10. Special skills are noted by the presence of (S) after the name of the skill.

John just smiled slightly, as he read on however, he did notice that he was processing the information entering his brain much more effectively.

-END OF CHAPTER 1-

John Smith – Level 1 (105/125)

Title – Always Average

HP – 10/10

AP – 120/120

Str – 10

Con – 10

Dex – 10

Int – 12

Wis – 11

Skill Point: 84