Chapter 1
Host Green? What did that even mean? He was a "host"? Was this thing some sort of parasite or something? And why the color Green? Where even was he-
World Designation locked. ATLA World Template downloaded. Choose one of the following Elements.
Water
Earth
Fire
Air
Elements chosen can affect the initial location and scenario. Confirm your Element by saying "I want _".
Suddenly his mind grinded to a halt from the unceasing questions as another notification came across his eyes, this time with a choice. He noticed that Air was greyed out, and when he tried choosing that out of mere curiosity, he received the following message.
Air is Unavailable. Air is Extinct within the chosen Timeframe. Please choose another Element.
He shrugs his shoulders, not really too bummed out about it. On one hand, it was annoying to be given an option he couldn't even actually choose, but considering the fact that the notifications said that "Air is Extinct" gives him an idea that the elements aren't just used for fun, but are connected to people.
If that was true, that meant that the Air People were all either killed off, or too weak to survive to this point anyways. Either way, obviously neither of those options sounded very promising even if he did want it for whatever reason.
That just left Water, Earth, and Fire. All were very solid choices, now that he knew they were connected to people, either as a cultural sort of thing or maybe even based around powers? Maybe that last part was reaching, but he was in what looked like a fake world with weird screen notifications showing up in front of him, wth knowledge just seemingly being inserted into his head and he couldn't freak out about it for some reason-
Anyway, going by that logic, them being connected to powers isn't super off the rails. With that in mind, he had no clue just how far he would be able to utilize them. Would Earth allow him to use Crystals or Sand, or only Rock? Did Water include Ice? Plants? How about Fire? Was he allowed to shoot lasers or make things combust or something?
There were too many unknowns, and for all he knew, it was only going to give him powers of only that element with nothing branching from it, or even the fact that it could be he won't even get a power at all. It didn't help that when he asked about these things, the screens didn't say a thing!
Water… By itself it was weak in a way, unless you included pressurized water which can cut through even metal. A pretty solid choice by itself, sorta. But he had no clue what situation he was going to land in, and if it was just cultural, he would rather not go into a place where it was all about "going with the flow" or something.
Earth was strong in its own way, considering it was everywhere and pretty hard to destroy in general… But it was far better at being a defensive sort of power than offensive, compared to say Fire or even Water. Culturally though, he would rather not want to deal with stubborn sticks in the mud.
Fire however… How did that work? It was definitely the most destructive choice, but he wasn't super sure if Fire only used existing fire or could create its own thing. If it's the former, it would be a lot weaker. On the other hand… Fire meant passion in a cultural sense, which meant that no matter how weak they were they could no doubt try and overcome that weakness with determination and passion.
That seemed like a very promising thing, and honestly, it felt like they were his best bet if he didn't want to get stuck with lazy or super stubborn people. They were also the least likely to care about tradition if his ideas around their culture being around passion had even some merit.
Nodding to himself at his choice, he confirmed it by speaking it out loud.
"I want Fire." He confidently said, before everything seemed to swirl for a second.
Trying to shake the dizzy feeling away, he was met with a few notifications…
You chose Fire! Downloading Fire Element into Player-
Error Detected.
Fire Element Locked.
Choose your Difficulty!
Normal
Brutal
Insane
Choosing any Difficulty above Normal will result in gaining an additional benefit, increasing the higher you go. Difficulty cannot be changed once chosen, and will determine how you start your journey. Confirm Difficulty by saying "I am _"
For one, he wanted to know why the hell he had his Element unlocked! That was really annoying, especially since the way they worded it definitely seemed to be power-related rather than just purely cultural! It was formatted weirdly too, the words moving to the right until they went off screen and just disappeared after a few seconds.
After raging at the screen for a few minutes, demanding answers, he calmed down a bit and sighed. Yelling was getting him nowhere, and he still had to choose a difficulty so he could start.. Whatever this was. A game? Hopefully. He didn't know where he was or why he was here, but this was too elaborate to be a dream. Or at least it was too clear and seemed to be following its own rules way too closely if it was.
Normal was straight out, because while it may seem smart to go Normal, he had no intention of missing out on the once in a lifetime deal of some free benefits, wherever they were, especially since he had his Fire Element Locked. With that logic in mind, it was obvious which one he planned to go with.
"I am Insane." He said, feeling slightly ridiculous saying it out loud but going through with it nonetheless.
Insane Difficulty Confirmed. Perma-Death Activated, Limited Resources Activated, Randomized Growth Activated, Randomized Stats Activated. Granting Bonuses.
Bonuses Granted;
Limitless - There is no cap to your levels or stats, the only limit being your own efforts.
MetaKnowledge - Gain canon information around the worlds you enter, up to your current point in time.
Processing…
Complete!
Choose your Proficiency Talent!
Sword
Axe
Lance
Bow
Brawl
Reason
Faith
Authority
Heavy Armor
Riding
Flying
You may choose up to two Proficiencies for Free, but any more will come with drawbacks to random Proficiencies.
Huh, well, that was a lot to take in. He really regretted choosing Insane now that he realized that Permadeath was possibly inactive in Normal, and he had no clue how random stats or growth would affect him…
Focusing back on the new choices, he had to say there were quite a few. About half of them were directly combat related, and the other half was just… Weird. What did the "Flying" proficiency even entail? That he could fly?
Whatever it was, he knew he was going to only choose two after seeing how severe the downsides can be with this system when he chose Insane Difficulty. No need to risk himself even more after all. With that in mind, he definitely planned on choosing one combat Proficiency, and one extra he can use both alongside it and outside of it.
He had no plans to use a bow, when people could possibly shoot fireballs around, not to mention how cowardly and disrespectful it would be to kill someone with something so distant. He wanted to be fast if he had any plans to counter the elemental people before they could use their elements, which ruled out Lance and Axe, leaving him with Sword and Brawl.
Sword was a good safe choice. Fast, good reach, good damage… But then he thought about how earth could easily crush it, how fire could possibly melt it, how water could just take it away from him and disarm him. If he didn't even have a sword, it would be a useless thing to invest in.
Brawl however? That told him it was an unarmed-based fighting proficiency. Sure it was more dangerous, closer range, but he could easily just train himself up to be stronger or faster, and no matter what he would always have a way to fight back even without any actual weapon.
Nodding at his choice, he moved on from the combat choice to a support. Flying was immediately out mostly because he had no clue what it entailed. Riding and Heavy Armor was also out, because they didn't seem to have much synergy with Brawling at all, and Heavy Armor would just slow him down too much to invest into too much.
That left him with Authority, Reason, and Faith. Faith was out because while these events could make him question if there was a God, he didn't want to waste an entire Talent around Faith. Authority and Reason however… Had very interesting aspects if he was guessing right. Reason would definitely be a great boon regardless of what it meant, because anyone who had a talent in Reason had to be good right? How many tacticians, fighters, and so on used Reason? How many have had it help ignore debilitating mental issues?
On the other hand, Authority was obviously a support to help him gain allies and command them probably. Allies were always helpful, especially if they had Elements to use in his stead.
In the end though, he decided that while allies were very nice, it wouldn't matter much if he died before he could even gain allies, and reason would probably help his chances of gaining allies anyways.
"I choose Reason and Brawl." He said to the system before he can second guess himself, assuming the confirmation method to be the same as the last two.
Reason and Brawl Talents confirmed. Downloading Talents.
Choose your Class!
Classes Available;
Commoner
Noble
Will affect initial circumstances. Can be changed later.
…
Why did he have so few choices this time around? Commoner or Noble? It didn't even tell him what the difference was at all!
If he based it off of just common knowledge, it would be safe to assume that Noble was likely better than Commoner in some way, even if just in how the starter is affected. Whatever, it was pretty obvious that Noble was the play here.
"I choose Noble."
Noble Class Confirmed.
Growth Confirmed. Initial Stats Confirmed. Talents Downloaded. Initial Circumstances Loaded. Loading World Templates.
Please Wait...
So I guess that's that huh? Well, it was a fun customization, even if it was pretty short. I wonder what I should do first-
Error Detected.
World Aberrations Detected in the World Template.
World Template Corrupted.
Destroying World Te-
Cancel Immunity Response, Force Continue.
World Template Saved.
Processing…
Access Granted.
Game Shall be Starting Soon.
It took him a full minute of gawking at the notifications before he felt shivers go down his spine. The world he was going into was "Corrupted"? And the System seemed to just.. Wave that very concerning piece of information away like it meant nothing. Didn't he get a say in this?
Whatever it was, he knew he wasn't going to get involved in that world. He decided to go the humble route.
"Listen here you fucking floating square, I don't know what you've been smoking but there's no way I am going into-" He snarled at the screen before another appear.
Game Start. Enjoy!
"Don't you dare-"
Then everything went black.
Author's Note:
Sorry this took so long, but I finally got the motivation to actually write at last! I already had this chapter done for a while, but then I had more and more ideas that made the system more and more complicated, and recently I just decided to just wing it and not use the complicated original stat and skill system, but instead just use the Fire Emblem Three Houses system for fun. The game is super fun, and the systems were both very interesting and still difficult enough to not feel too easy.
With that in mind, I plan on making more chapters very soon while I still have the motivation, since this just kinda came to me suddenly and I finished all this in one go in about… An Hour? Not even going to edit it much beyond some minor grammar corrections and such, because damn is editing super tedious and kills my motivation to write pretty easily.
Next chapter we actually get into the Avatar world and my sadistic plans with Green, along with potentially introducing an important main character. Should be fun to write.