Harleking31: How up to date are you in the Monmusu manga? Because I believe Centaur milk would be more controversial *wink wink Nudge Nudge*
You never forget how to ride a bike. It's like riding a bike
Gasp! I will not take this "Mumen Rider" slander laying down. The bike makes him EXTRA cool.
"Thankfully there haven't been Rifts around here as of late" YOU JINXED IT
I haven't finished reading and I can already tell you jinxed it you cyclops
(OK so she didn't jinx it for this chapter, but, I can tell next one won't be as peaceful)
I'm sorry are we getting into SAO no? Aw no reference to the Aincrad incident, shame. Still, wasn't the MHA universe extremely stagnated on the tech department?
A LAPTOP TO PLAY A VR- YOU HAD CASH TO SPARE AND DIDN'T GET HIM A PROPER TOWER?! For shame. For shame.
And now, Hatsume. *Lightning flashes briefly for effect as thunder blares* Huh, weird.
Re: I did mention wet nurses… That and I was generalizing the practice.
I don't recall if anyone in an Isekai who Reincarnated into "someone else's" body ever had to confront the Bike Paradox.
Mumen Rider has the guts to fight above his weight class. In MHA, outside the Top 100, in a vetting system that gives LITERALLY HALF of the applicants a Provisional License every 6 months, most of the "Showboat" Heroes are only as-strong as guys like… uuuuugh… Compass Kid…
I did hint at VR Headsets way back in… Chapter 11. I mean, sure, people can't go to Mars in the Canon, but other areas like Mechs, Holograms, Claytronics, and so-on are sufficiently advanced, even if people are obsessed with "Herocana". Also, the reason the AmuSphere looks like it was taken from the Light Novel, was because it kind of was. Brand recognition aside, the aesthetic design is also pleasing and you don't need to over-complicate things. And hell, in the Canon, Yuuei's bunkers are like something from Gundam or Evangelion with the underground vertical and lateral tunnel networks, so there's been some advancement, just only in the short-term gains.
As for the Laptop, they got him a portable model so he can take it to school. You can't take a Tower, Keyboard, and Monitor everywhere like you can a Laptop, and Canonically, Laptops are perfectly capable of running VRMMOs. That and it was a hand-me-down that they didn't need to shell out additional funding for; and also the Mon Squad can get a replacement for themselves during the next fiscal quarter.
NightmareKnight1: ...I want to question whether or not giving a literal death game to a "kid" was a smart idea, but then I remember it technically wasn't actually the game killing people in that one. Still, honestly enjoying the cute fluff surrounding the MM cast.
Re: To be fair, gun violence is actually less terrifying/traumatizing than the spectatorial Quirk-related violence available for purview IRL. And at least in GGO you've got "Bullet Lines" telling you when an attack is incoming; Sniper Rifles notwithstanding due to in-game rules regarding a Sniper's first shot. As for the Fluff, I'm glad the slice-of-life stuff is receiving some positive fanfare, and it's certainly a lot easier to do with Cameos than a flood of random OCs. Ugh, and don't even get me started on re-skins...
*AHA*
Waking up inside a cryogenic hibernation pod, the glass frosted with… well, frost, I immediately harkened back to the secondary prologue of Fallout 4 where the Sole Survivor woke up in an exactingly-similar situation.
They, of course, woke up in a retro-futuristic pod, while mine was straight out of Star Trek, or maybe Mass Effect.
A listing of nonsensical biometric data and pictographic data appearing on a holographic screen before me in "Chevron Red", the only thing I was able to catch was the name Wild Tiger, before the forward hatch folded upward with a loud *HISSSSSS!*
Tumbling out of the pod and landing harshly on hands and knees, when I pulled myself to my feet, I was greeted by the Mon Squad plus Kuroko in matching Hero Costumes like the aforementioned used in the "IRL"; albeit, the Mon Squad had a few cosmetic changes to their Gun Gale Online Avatars.
"Oh my god! He's so cuuute!" Tio's Avatar, the UserName Ti0 displayed on my HUD, squealed in delight with hands cupped to her cheeks.
In the GGOverse, Tio was still incredibly tall with tan skin and long flowing blond hair. What separated her from her IRL counterpart was she wasn't nearly as busty, and the red horn on her forehead was absent.
"Are you okay?" Manako's Avatar, the UserName Manak0 displayed on my HUD, asked as she took a knee and held a hand out to me.
Manako's Avatar was equivalently proportional to her IRL self, albeit, a tiny bit bustier if her tight-fitting body glove had anything to say about it. By the positioning of her nose relative to the rest of her face, she no longer had a mono-eye, but the high-tech mono-eyed visor she wore, making me think of the Zaku from the earlier iterations of Gundam, kept me from doing a double-take.
"Don't worry about the wooziness. Hibernation Sickness will wear off in a couple of minutes," Zombina's Avatar, the UserName Zomb1na displayed on my HUD, said lackadaisically with her hands laced behind her head.
Zombina's Avatar was equally busty to her IRL self with the same wild red hair and mis-matched eyes. What separated her from her IRL counterpart was that her skin was all a uniform color, the suture marks dutifully replicated with tattoos, showing the game's robust post-generation Avatar Customization.
"Damn, when you rolled for an Avatar, you just won the lottery," Doppel's Avatar, the UserName Dopp3l displayed on my HUD, said with a knowing smirk.
Doppel's Avatar was at the middle-ground between her "Highschool Girl" and "Chocolate Loli" personas with caramel colored skin, golden eyes with normal sclera, and silver-colored hair stopping at her back. Seeing her wearing actual clothing like this was a bit jarring, but I assumed she wore clothes inside GGO because of prudish Admins… or something.
"Wild Tiger-kun, welcome to the SBC Glocken Cryo Bay. Local time is 6:54 AM, and the local temperature is a balmy 75 degrees Fahrenheit. For your safety and comfort, please remain in a seated position until your Hibernation Sickness abates. Please check around your cryo pod for any personal belongings you may have brought on board with you, and please use caution when opening the overhead bins, as heavy articles may have shifted around during the flight. On behalf of the Space Battle Cruiser Glocken, we'd like to thank you for joining us on this interstellar journey, and we are looking forward to seeing you aboard again in the near future. We hope you enjoy your stay on the Cradle of Humankind, Planet Earth," Kuroko's Avatar, the UserName Kurok0 displayed on my HUD, greeted with a smile like a flight attendant, only one for an interstellar journey.
As an office worker, I never had the opportunity to see her in a body glove like the rest of MON, but I had to admit, she pulled it off remarkably well, even inside "The Matrix". Out of all of the Mon Agency, she had the least alterations between her Virtual and IRL selves.
"Well, here's hoping I don't have to come out of cryo in real life," I said taking stock of my surroundings.
Unlike in the anime and light novels where new Avatar simply materialize "out of thin air" in a plaza somewhere, in the adaptation of GGO a few Updates in, new Avatars awaken within a bay of Cryo Pods. A thematic change that made narrative sense since the SBC (Space Battle Cruiser) Glocken, the main hub location on GGO's Japanese server, was originally a massive spaceship prior to its return to Earth following the events of some largely-unspecified global war.
The Lore was largely unspecific about why planet Earth was nothing but a smoldering ruin filled with automatic machines and mutant creatures that players can hunt for riches and glory, but people rarely played FPS games for the lore, even with a robust PvE.
Wiping the frost crystals off my all-white medical body glove before shaking out my shoulder-length hair, my hands came to a stop before my ears flicked atop my head.
Yes, I know what I said.
Rushing over to another cryo pod and staring at the reflective surface, looking myself over, I realized that my Avatar was way on the shorter end of the spectrum at only 150 centimeters, a little under 5 feet. Slender with a slightly rounded face and big pupils with golden blond hair in a boyish short cut, what drew my eye were the pair of fluffy cat ears atop my head, as well as the striped tail protruding from the back of my body glove that swished every which way.
"Man, you really lucked out, drawing a Cait Sith Avatar~ I didn't even know that kind was still in circulation anymore!" Dopp3l grinned. "If you don't like the look, you could sell that CS2000 Series for some serious bank~ Five, maybe six MegaCredits!"
*AHA*
"HWAAUUUGH!" I cried as my body suddenly jolted up, the AmuSphere's golden visor tinting the room in front of me before I yanked off the blue, red, and white-accented overlapping metal rings.
Pulse racing as alarm klaxons blared from my laptop, the chevrons Disconnection and Increased Heart Rate blinked loudly after the ASU's safety measures automatically disconnected me from the program in response to the elevation of my Heartrate, Blood Pressure, and Electrophrenic Respiration.
*BAM!* "Take-chan! What happened!?" Zombina cried as she kicked down the door.
"Yeah, you totally spazzed out on us," Doppel said, lifting her visor from her eyes.
"Er, s-sorry… I guess winding up as a freaking 'Shota' made me wig out…"
And if there was one thing to be worried about on the internet, especially a virtual reality one, it was degenerate sex perverts. And though I only knew of the quasi-infamous "Chapter 16.5" from the SAO light novel by reputation… I mean who knows what was allowed to 'fly' in the 23rd century through VR game adaptations of lightnovel VRMMOs?
"Well, don't worry about it, none of us are legit Shotacons, and apart from Tio glomping you like a stuffed animal, I think that'll be the worst of it as long as you don't mess with the deep-menu options."
Oh god, that was actually a thing…?!
"Ah, but don't worry. We put an age restriction on your AmuSphere yesterday evening, so you won't have to worry about getting 'lewds' from any thirsty bitches~" Zombina said with a slight chuckle before realizing that wasn't the appropriate thing to say.
"So, you coming back on for your 'Birthday Livestream'?" Doppel asked with a tilt of her head.
" . . . *SIIIIIIGH* . . . Give me a minute to calm down. I'll be back on in a minute," I sighed as I fluffed my pillow, laid my head back down, and unfolded the ASU back around my head.
*AHA*
Finding myself back in GGO, once more occupying the Avatar I'd left behind after my little freak-out, I left the Cryo Bay and immediately found myself before a robotic quartermaster, programmed to issue those awakening from hibernation with their "starter gear". Aforementioned gear consisted of military style boots and olive-colored fatigues, as well as starting funds which I could use to get my starting equipment in the city above; provided I didn't use IRL currency. Of which I had none.
Stepping into a narrow changing room and toggling the settings on my Menu, I was momentarily rendered quasi-nude in the vein of Sailor Moon as my [Hibernation Suit] was traded out for [Colonist's Fatigues]. Stepping back into the hall, my heart jolted as I was greeted with Ti0 on her knees in front of me, a cutesy pink digital camera in her hands as she snapped a pic.
"Awwwwww! Look at those stumpy little legs~" she cooed.
'OH GOD NO!' I screamed internally as a marshmallow hell suddenly smothered me.
Before I could find out if GGO had an "Oxygen Gauge" or not, something on Tio's end forced her to let go, recoiling as though she'd touched a live wire.
"Um, what just happened?" I asked, thankful for the reprieve as a black dialogue box with yellow warning stripes chimed angrily at her.
"Looks like Tio set off the 'Harassment Warning'," Kurok0 shrugged. "It happens whenever players 'enact inappropriate conduct' to other Players or NPCs. Unless a Player registers a Friend in their deep-menu options, other people can't fondle them inappropriately."
"Well… Thank god for small miracles… I guess," I said as Ti0 whimpered cutely.
I didn't have a grasp on the deep-menu quite yet, so I decided a compromise would be to pat her atop the head.
"Hey girls, looks like we've got an emergency dispatch," Kurok0 suddenly said as an Alert appeared in front of her. "Wild Tiger-kun, as long as you don't leave the SBC Glocken, you'll be safe in a Non-PvP zone, but just in case, log out after getting a hang of the Tutorial," she said pointing down the hallway, the members of the Mon Agency vanishing Star Trek-style a moment later.
"Well, it's a good thing they have their priorities straight," I hummed as I followed the directory.
*AHA*
The Tutorial, as was to be expected, covered everything one needed to know in an FPS VRMMO; weapon types, cover, environmental traversal, stealth, quests, Gun Gale Online's proprietary mechanics, etc. etc. There were lesser sub-tutorials meant for those that never handled guns IRL, and I had to admit, the amount of realism when it came to ammo management was refreshing. Counterintuitively, the "Automatic Reload Animation" that you could opt to have used from the Menu, was not influenced by one's Stats, the Dexterity Stat in particular; in essence, it was perfectly possible for you to fumble with the reload because of "stupid fingers" as the virtual drill sergeant so colorfully explained, while those who used guns IRL could do some action movie BS with how-fast they could reload.
Considering I lived with a bunch of real-life gun nuts and I had a hypothetical target painted on my back, in addition to them wanting me to join them on Livestreams, I figured it wouldn't be too hard to get firearms training despite my young age.
Crime in Japan was only at 6%, the global low, but as long as it wasn't zero, no-one could in their right mind would disparage the young ward of a Hero Agency being taught how to protect himself.
Not that I'd ever be allowed to carry a live firearm until I was eighteen; fourteen if I became a "sport shooter"; but the implication was that if I needed one, I'd use the tried-and-true OSP method.
On an unrelated note, did the Tutorial NPC have to be that ridiculously over-sexualized…?
*AHA*
After having had enough of the Tutorials, I logged out and went about managing whatever in-game assets I was able to from the real world. Something that had become necessary in the VRMMO industry to prevent viruses from mainstream internet search browsers from infecting their IP with some sort of virus if someone wanted to look up something on the FAQ.
Just like in the anime and light novels, the Stats in GGO were divided into [Strength], [Agility], [Durability], [Dexterity], [Intelligence], and [Luck].
Seeing as how I was a little shrimp and I didn't wanna waste money on pricey microtransactions for what the game called "Full-Body Modification", I decided my best course of action was to lean into my virtual "lot in life", and raise my [Agility] so I could get up-close-and-personal to whatever P or E I was V'ing while presenting as small a target profile as physically/digitally possible, with [Dexterity] behind it so I wouldn't miss a point-blank, "95% Hit" shot, XCOM-style.
My [Luck] IRL was complete shit, so I figured I'd at-the-least raise that one up to 10 and get by on "making my own luck", since luck by its very nature was a fickle mistress that'd frequently snubbed me.
I'd also abstain from [Durability] because the whole point of an AGI Build, as well as gunfights in general, was to not get shot! That, and, if you've made yourself tanky-enough to survive a sniper round to the eye, you're doing something seriously wrong…!
In the Fallout games, I frequently went with an [Intelligence]-based build because it offered the most rewards in the long-term, so it only felt right to do the same thing here. [Strength] would be my second sub-stat so I could at-the-least carry whatever high-tech weapons my [Intelligence] and [Dexterity] stats would let me use and/or craft.
Or at least that was the plan once I started to level up. While I could probably join whatever "guild" the Mon Squad had in-game and "power level", since they could be called away for work even on dedicated time off, I decided to try and find whatever like-minded individuals there were to find on GGO, and team up with them whenever possible.
At least once the Christmas Break was over.
Make no mistake, a real-life VRMMO was utterly fascinating to experience, but I can't imagine I'd sink any significant portion of my "New Game+" into it unless I was helping my caretakers on a Livestream.
*Ping*
Oh? It looks like Hitomi and Mitsumi have just sent me some Friend Invites through the GGO portal.
" . . . "
I'll just say that Mitsumi's got lost "in the mail"~
*AHA*
"So…" Manako hummed as the two of us put up the tree. "You want to go to the mall, see Santa Claus?"
"Pass."
"O-Oh. Okay then… Hitomi wanted to take you, but if you really aren't interested…"
"That's a low blow, and you know it."
"Er… Sorry…"
" . . . It's fine. And I appreciate the gesture, I really do, it's just… Even if I did go, it'd be completely disingenuous, and I wouldn't even know what to ask for.
"Really? You can't think of anything?" Kuroko asked from the kitchen.
"And what kind of twelve-year-old knows what the word 'disingenuous' means?" Zombina asked.
"I already have everything I really need. Maybe once I start school that will change… but right now, I'm perfectly content with what I have," I said to Kuroko's inquiry.
I poignantly ignored Zombina's.
"There's scads of people twice your age who'd never be able to say the same thing," Kuroko hummed. "So… you going to get us anything this year~?"
"With what money?" I ask turning out my pockets for emphasis. "In case you aren't aware, I'm flat broke."
" . . . I thought you had his allowance handled," Kuroko said turning on Zombina.
"Me? You're the one penning the books!"
"Well, it was her idea to take him in!" Kuroko said turning on Manako.
"And you kept putting off how much allowance to give him!"
"Guys, seriously, you don't need to-"
"Shhh shshshshshshshsh!" Doppel shushed clapping a hand over my mouth. "Just lay back and let it happen~"
" . . . "
" . . . Please don't call one-one-nine on me…" she said after realizing how that sounded.
"Assuming you don't say pervy shit like that in public, I won't need to."
*AHA*
"So you really let the five of them forget about your allowance?" Mitsumi asked as I played the role of 'escort' to the mall.
"It just wasn't important," I shrugged. "They're already giving me a guest room and letting me eat their food, not to mention that really nice bike."
"True, though since you're doing the house work they used to shell out to a maid service for, you deserve something for your efforts," Mitsumi hummed.
"I'll probably just make them some fancy bento, leave it at that until new year's," I shrugged. "So, what do you plan to get the family?"
"Well, otou-san and onee-sama didn't say they wanted anything… but I know for a fact that Hitomi's been eyeing a pair of mono-glasses, so I'll be picking that up today."
"And the reason I'm here…?"
"As a bodyguard."
" . . . You are aware that my track record with villains and 'feral wildlife' sucks, right?"
"WAAAAHHHHHH!"
*FWOOSH!*
"Hit the deck!" I yelped tackling Mitsumi to the floor as a fireball soared through the air overhead.
"Get your hands off me! It's just some whiny brat getting pulled off Santa's lap!" 'Top-chan' growled as she elbowed me in the ribs.
"Sorryyyy!"
"Top-chan, you shouldn't be mean to Take-chan like that! He was just being Mitsumi's body guard!" 'Mii-chan' pouted at herself, Mitsumi's personae starting to bicker with one another while hopping around like a one-woman show.
'This shopping trip cannot be over soon enough…' I thought as a mall employee walked up to the flaming decorations with a fire extinguisher and put it out with practiced ease.
Given how-readily prepubescent brats used their Quirks when their parents didn't give them what they wanted, that was a distinct possibility.
*AHA*
In the short time I'd been playing GGO on and off, the Mon Squad Fireteam had hooked me up with some hand-me-down weapons and mid-tier Equipment from their HQ Armory.
When I first saw how much surplus they possessed, enough to wage war on a small country even on the conservative side and looking like that one scene from the first Matrix movie, my knee-jerk reaction was to shame them on all the Yen they spent on something they couldn't even touch in the real world.
As it turned out however, that was not the case.
On the one hand, being an IRL Hero team drew in fans of their VR and IRL identities, some of which were willing to shell out rare guns and equipment in exchange for meet-and-greets, if not team-ups on Livestreams. On the other, because actionable user testimony about the effectiveness of firearms from participants of the Hero Industry was so-valuable, the company that owned the VRMMO adaptation of the Gun Gale Online property entered into lucrative endorsement deals with them. Not only that, but some of the Mon Squad's more-interesting raids against Villain hideouts were actually adapted into in-game Missions, Raids, and Questlines within the world of Gun Gale Online; the IRL Villains and organizations were-of-course, swapped out with robots, mutants, and post-apocalyptic raiders more in-line with the VRMMO's lore.
Because Hero culture was so-prevalent in both the real and virtual worlds, there was actually pretty good money to be made by Heroes and even "Sidekicks" selling the rights of their career's "chapters" to content creators on the VR platform. Because [Based on a True Story] content was always so-popular and thus, earned the most industry awards, there was rarely a shortage of companies willing to shell out to Hero teams and solo acts due to the revenue they stood to gain.
And the practice didn't only allow Heroes with limited merchandising opportunities to bring in additional income; it sometimes even created merchandising opportunities because of an upsurge in demand due to the global exposure these genre-savvy Heroes received. In the best-case scenario, it even allowed the more niche Heroes to remain competitive in such a cutthroat industry, and thus, positively influence their standing in the Hero Billboard Chart. This in turn made their virtual content more-popular, which made it more in-demand to the innovators in the gaming industry, which in turn fed back into their general popularity IRL, which thusly went on to create merchandising opportunities they might not've had if they'd kept their influence solely in "realspace".
When I'd learned that the Mon Squad did Livestreaming in the real-life version of Gun Gale Online, at first I didn't think anything of it beyond them using it as a means to "decompress" from their hazardous occupation. However, after learning all of this... I realized just how-savvy Kuroko was at what she did to work the system like this. And it certainly went a long way in explaining where the latitude it took to raise a "young ward" in such a hyper-competitive industry without negatively impacting their bottom line came from.
Suffice it to say, I had a newfound respect for what Kuroko did, slacker attitude or otherwise, as well as the gaming industry as a whole.
That, and it definitely headed off any sense of guilt I might've developed at the possibility of hurting their livelihoods.
Stepping away from the surprisingly-deep symbiotic relationship that existed between the Hero industry and the virtual world...
My INT and DEX weren't high-enough to make any of the [Composite Armor] available in the Crafting Tree, but at the very least I was able to customize my gear to be cobalt-colored with dark orange trim; this was done in remembrance of Ratchet's Galactic Ranger armor from the franchise that didn't exist in this alternate Earth and which I missed very dearly. Camouflage-wise, the pattern was horrible outside the game's "night cycle", but I figured once I started crafting my own Gear, I could cover the major archetypes; assuming I got into the PvE scene and really wanted to lean into my Avatar's only tangible advantage.
Speaking of which...
*AHA*
"This feels wrong… on sooo many levels…" I hummed from inside GGO as we waited in ambush atop a rocky outcropping, the SBC Glocken visible in the distance.
For the past week or so, I'd been getting my feet wet by helping whichever member of the "Mon Squad Fireteam" had some time to spare hunting a seasonal mob that'd been available on-and-off because of their somewhat controversial nature, despite its lack of outright religious subtones.
Said mobs were post-apocalyptic Elves salvaging the ruins of post-war Earth, and upon killing them, there was a chance to get [Flight Plan Data fragments], which would later be used to "summon" the quasi-raid boss, Santa. The rare drops one could get from successfully slaying him before his sled's auto-repair function got him airborne again, in addition to rare pieces of weapons and equipment, were digitized versions of the IRL season's hottest Pro Hero paraphernalia, with All Might-related in-game loot being the most-desirable for decorating Fireteam headquarters.
Thanks to the [Game Coin to Real Money Conversion System] that the "Pros" took advantage of to pay everything from their monthly connection fees to their own IRL livelihood, there was a decent "black market" for this particular strain of virtual loot; even if you didn't get what you wanted out of the quasi-raid. What stopped it from being a full-on "raid", was that only one Fireteam instead of multiple could participate.
"I thought you didn't care about seeing Santa at the mall," Zomb1na hummed as she checked her weapons.
"This and that are completely different things."
There were just some things you didn't do!
"I've got contact, it's now or never," Kurok0 said looking up from a hand-held radar device, the in-game Quest Item you received after getting enough data fragments.
Looking over my shoulder toward Hitomi and Mitsumi's virtual Avatar, both clad in mono-eyed visors because having binocular vision was too-jarring for the two Mutants whenever they looked in mirrors, I let out a tired sigh before loading my gunmetal-colored P-90 SMG and pulling my other munitions out of the Inventory.
"We already committed war crimes against Santa's elves. We might as well go all the way," I groan. "Also, won't this really cheese off your viewerbase?"
"Oh don't worry, in-game, this isn't the actual Santa Claus, it's just an android with a tendency to go rogue."
What, like Futurama?
"You could've told me that from the start, dammit…!" I bit out as Manak0 and Ti0 equipped the heat-seeking SAMs they'd gotten on sale just for this occasion, Santa's sled coming in on its "predicted? flight path.
The surface-to-air missiles flying one after the other, Manak0 dropping her SAM and getting off a shot with her sniper rifle just to be safe, the necessary damage threshold was met, and Santa's quasi-futuristic sled and robot reindeer started their forced descent with smoke trailing off the rear.
"I'm moving up!" I say leaping out of cover.
Thanks to a bit of power-leveling over the past week, I was able to get my Agility up to the point that I was as fast as an IRL moped. I wouldn't be motorcycle-levels of fast until well into the next year with how infrequently I actually played GGO, but at the least I was fast-enough to meet Santa's sled where it crash-laned within a few seconds of it touching down, the rest of the raid party climbing into their Humvees and converging.
Arming as many legally-distinct "Thermal Detonators" as I could once the quasi-raid boss' HP Gauge materialized, I chucked them like mad into the downed transport, kicking up dust and debris. Before I ran out, Robo-Santa climbed up into the open, half his artificial skin blown off either from my bombs or from the crash, looking more like the freaking Terminator.
"Terminator Santa" levelling his candy cane-colored minigun at me, an array of crimson [Bullet Line]s peppered my form, and I'd have been turned into Swiss cheese if I hadn't hauled ass behind the nearest point of cover. The rock I was hiding behind wasn't an [Immortal Object] like the cover in most FPS games seemed to be, but it held out long-enough for Manak0 to shoot him with her sniper rifle and draw aggro.
"This is hardly how I thought I'd be spending December…" I thought as I drew more grenades from my Inventory, and signaled the rest of the raid party of my impending strafing run. As the fastest member of the raid party, it was my job to deliver our sum stock of high explosives into the boss' lap for max DPS. I hadn't gotten used to the "rigors" of using firearms within GGO (my [Bullet Circle] was all over the place due to my present inability to "modulate" my IRL heart's fluctuations), so at my early level, this was really all I could do for the Mon Squad at the moment.
GGO unsurprisingly did not come with a "Friendly Fire" feature, at least outside of the VR-inside-the-VR training sims, and while it was fun to call the rest of my Fireteam "team killing cockbite" IRL, the novelty of it got really old, really fast.
*AHA*
"You team killing cockbite!" I snapped at Mitsumi on Christmas Eve when she and her family showed up for the "sleepover".
Three guesses as to why I was calling her that; first two didn't count.
"That was 'Top-chan', not meee!" Hitomi's youngest sibling whined.
"What's a cuckbite?" Papi inquired.
"It's something you call a mean person."
Did Red vs Blue exist here? Part of me was tempted to see, but another part didn't want to find out if it didn't…
"Cuckbite!" Papi thusly shouted, feathers in her face causing Mitsumi to sputter.
*AHA*
"So…" Kuma hummed as he watched the children bicker. "Do you really think introducing him to VRMMOs was a good idea; especially one with guns and knives in them?"
"To be fair, it'd be a little bit weird if he didn't do something recreational on the internet," Kuroko shrugged. "And also, we've been tracking his online time through the Fireteam portal; he's well below the national average, and it hasn't impacted his studies any."
"Well… It's good to know he has his priorities straight," Hitomi sighed in relief.
She'd mainly gotten into VR so she could visit Tokei even when she couldn't do so IRL, and Mitsumi had trailed along so she wouldn't feel excluded. Kuma felt more comfortable keeping his brain "out of The Matrix", citing that his time would be better spent protecting their IRL bodies whenever they went under.
Just because you could connect the AmuSphere to your alarms, didn't mean it was an infallible safety net for a determined-enough criminal. And there were criminals who specialized in attacking AmuSphere users due to their vulnerability. Of course, those were far and few in-between because those that threatened those companies' bottom line with the bad press, tended to have corporate lawyers throwing their weight behind the prosecution aiming for maximum punishment.
The virtual video game industry wasn't quite on the level of still-fictional "megacorps", but it wasn't unheard-of for licensed Heroes to serve corporate interests. In an ultra-competitive industry, no-one could disparage the working man from cultivating alternative revenue streams; though of course, those that chose that path of fiscal stability, were always subject to certain levels of scrutiny due to the stigma therein due to how megacorps were portrayed in pop culture.
"Are… Are you worried about school, this spring?" Manako asked.
"Well…" Hitomi hummed. "Picar-sensei wasn't able to get him into Mitsumi's class… but I don't particularly recall that Quirkless discrimination was especially bad at Damoto… And it's perfectly possible that everyone will just assume he has a weaker Heteromorphic Quirk and not dig any deeper into the matter," she said eyeing Takehiko's distinctive golden blond and orange-brown-streaked hair.
A convincing dye job of that exacting nature was pretty much impossible, even with today's cosmetic techniques, so it was perfectly feasible that he did have some form of Heteromorphic trait, even if conventional tests still came up Quirk Factor Negative.
"We can only hope…" Manako hummed somberly, as memories of her own junior high experience came back.
Having a Quirk wasn't a guarantee for social success, especially if your Heteromorphic trait wasn't quote/unquote "cool-looking".
*AHA*
So… It's my first Christmas in another world.
Huh… sounds like a half-decent title for a one-shot manga, actually~
"I guess even in a world of superheroes and supervillains, it's perfectly possible to pretend like it isn't," I hummed the following morning as everyone merrily opened gifts, either bought or hand-made. Everyone enjoying one another's company as family, both blood-tied and not, came together for the sake of celebrating togetherness, if not the birth of a man whose sole purpose in life was to suffer and eventually die in incredible agony as a ritual sacrifice to stave off the wrath of a vengeful god, the religion's practitioners wearing the symbol of the mechanism used to execute him around their necks.
The whole "Reincarnation" spiel tended to put things like that into broader, more-graphic perspective.
"Take-chan," Sorahiko said hobbling over to me.
"Ojiisan," I greeted putting darker thoughts on the backburner.
"How's your first Christmas out of the 'vegetable patch' treating you?"
"It's fine. Things got crazy once or twice, but I'm still breathing, so I must be doing something right."
"Glad to hear it!" he said slapping my back. "Come on, I pulled some strings and had Yuuei's Development Studio make you something."
"Um… Is that legal?"
"When it's Yuuei, you have a lot of latitude to work with~"
"Good to know, but that does not answer my question!"
"Don't worry. Old fogies like me get away with all sorts of crap~" the elderly Hero chuckled, leading me back to the tree where a package larger than the laptop bag I'd gotten for my birthday was waiting for me.
Tearing the wrapping paper away, I found a second-hand metal suitcase with white plating, silver trim, reinforced corners in black, and a silver octagon in a middle where I assumed some sort of number or letter had originally been based on the traces of neon green paint to be found. The thing looked like it could tank a prybar, if not a demo charge, and given how it allegedly came from Yuuei of all places...
*Click*
" . . . Really?" I asked incredulously as I stared in at the contents. "Isn't wearing this in public, like, suuuper illegal?"
"You're registered as a 'ward' of a Hero Agency instead of a Hero Academy student, so you have a little more latitude to work with," Kuroko stated. "At least as long as you don't try to flaunt authority you don't actually have. Nothing in the law against wearing cosplay~"
" . . . You're really leaning into this whole mascot thing, aren't you?"
"Hey, if anything, it'll be good for our PR, and it'll help you pick up girls~" Zombina grinned.
"You spend 'the weekend' with us, you can even get away with showing up to class in this on Mondays~" Doppel added.
" . . . Alright, fine, I'll put it on…"
*AHA*
"Takei-kun! You look so cool!" Hitomi squealed as I came back into the living room.
"I feel ridiculous…" I said as camera lenses snapped.
"You might feel 'ridiculous', but to anyone else, you look really fucking cool~" Kuroko grinned.
My attire at-present consisted of a black neck-length catsuit, over which I was wearing black fingerless gloves, combat boots, yellow sleeves with brown trim, angular metal pads on my elbows and knees, a yellow flak vest with orange shoulder pads, and a brown utility belt with matching orange pouches. The insignia MON was located on my right breast as well as across my back, and over my eyes I was wearing a reinforced visor in a matching yellow.
" . . . Thank you for including me," I conceded after a moment. Getting over my pre-reincarnation incredulity at the idea of wearing a 'super suit' IRL, I had to admit, I did feel pretty cool. "But I'm not gonna wear the same in GGO."
"Why? What happened there?" Sorahiko asked.
"The game gave him a freakin' Shota as an Avatar."
"Oof, tough break, boya."
"Sooo… Any advice?"
"Well, some people use baby powder, but I'm a firm believer in corn starch," the elderly Hero hummed.
"That's… surprisingly helpful," I admit before turning away and tugging at my... undercarriage. "Could stand to be a little roomier in the crotch though..."
"Check out what else we got you~" Zombina grinned holding up a cobalt-colored P-90 SMG with a ribbon slapped on the side. "Kinda pulls your whole look together, huh?"
Oh sweet salty Christ…
*AHA*
Meanwhile, in the very heart of the HPSC…
"Ladies. Gentlemen. I assume you're curious as to why I called this emergency summons," the madam president of the HPSC, Kinoshita Sayaka, demanded from the head of the board room table, the winter-swept city of Tokyo visible through the ballistic glass at her back as she steepled her fingers.
While it was inarguably true that those in attendance, the heads of the HPSC's various departments were-in-fact curious as to why they had been pulled away from their families on Christmas of all days, the steel in the woman's eyes, the ominous, looming pressure washing off of her, stilled their tongues and stemmed their complaints.
"As you may know, while receiving letters of thanks for the uncelebrated work we do is rare, it isn't completely unheard of, either," Sayaka began, slowly drawing an opened envelope into the open before laying it on her work surface. "This letter in particular however, raises cause for concern."
Hologram-emitting diodes at the other workstations activating, as the lights dimmed and the windows polarized, the scanned image of the president's letter appeared before all of them, and it went unspoken that all of them were expected to read what was being presented before them.
Dear Madam President,
I hope this letter finds you well, assuming it passes the preliminary screenings and actually finds its way onto your desk at all.
It has been a few weeks since I left the quote/unquote "vegetable patch" after the unfortunate… altercation, between Dr. Shiga and myself. Though I was left understandably traumatized from my ordeal, I am receiving the mental help surviving such a thing requires, and the support network built around me ensures I will eventually make a full recovery to become a productive member of society.
All of my needs from food, clothing, shelter, and mental stimulation are being met to the best of my caretakers' ability, and I am set to resume my formally-recognized schooling in the spring of the coming year. I feel no need to divulge the location thereof, as it is well within your ability to acquire that information with nothing more than an above-board inquiry from your office line.
In summary; I would like to thank you and the HPSC as a whole from the bottom of my heart for not holding me in your custody against my will and stripping me for parts.
With best wishes in all that you and the HPSC as a whole do,
Takehiko Tokei
"Now… enlighten me…" the president demanded as the ominous pressure mounted, the long table seeming to creak in fright as she pushed herself to her full height. "Just what in the hell…have you all been up to this past year… that this is what prepubescent children think it is what we do here…!?"
The furious demand punctuated by a near-elderly fist pounding the desk before her and causing the holograms to flicker, beads of uncomfortable sweat ran down many a temple as the inevitable question was subconsciously asked; just what sort of information leaks had been occurring under theirs, as well as their sum peers' watch, for something like this to come to their boss' attention in such an obtuse and contextually damning fashion?
"Well…? I'm waiting…!"
It was at times like this that the "old guard" missed the previous president, and were grateful that Lady Nagant had been locked away in Tartarus after the assassination of the aforementioned.
Of course, the fact that Tsutsumi Kaina hadn't been executed for her crime, but instead had been locked away in one of the lower-security segments of Tartarus, gave off the unspoken message that the madam president was-in-fact, keeping the One-Shot Hero "in reserve" in the event that any of them "stepped out of line" as her predecessor had...
*AHA*
AN:
The worldbuilding about the role VRMMOs played in the Hero Industry wasn't a part of the initial draft, but once I started writing the exposition for the Mon Squad's virtual fanbase, it just made so much sense and the ideas flowed like tap. That I was able to get an additional 1,000 or so words out of it for worldbuilding... I'm pretty satisfied to be honest, and I don't know if anyone's used this particular idea yet, but if I happen to inspire someone to write their own take on this untapped side of the Hero industry... What greater reward could I ask for as a writer?
On a separate note, in lieu of a canonical name to work with, I gave the HPSC President the same name as her Japanese VA, Kinoshita Sayaka ("Sayaka Kinoshita" in the west's naming convention). If she were meant to have a name of any thematic significance like most of the MHA cast, I'm sure Horikoshi-sensei would've given her one.
Anywho, next-chapter and by popular demand… Hatsume Mei-chan!