It seems obvious in retrospect. Especially now that my Intuition and Wit were both Peak Human. But throwing 24 total points at my mental attributes, instantaneously, was going to give me a headache. All those new neurons and neuronal connections forming. But between what I can only guess was my increased Endurance and Determination (the latter being a double-edged sword in this case), plus Gamer's Mind and Body, it faded to a moderate ache after a few seconds.

Except I couldn't move. It wasn't like I was tied up or numb or anything. But like my limbs weren't responding. Or my eyelids either. And it was not just me. Around the mass of pop-ups, I could see that Nomu was also frozen. Beyond that, neither Ami nor Shigaraki were moving, either.

Was I dying? Had I fried my brain? Was this the theoretical phenomenon where your brain keeps going over the last thing you saw, as your last moment stretched out seemingly forever?

No, there was a message.

[That was dumb. Awesome, but dumb. -24 Health, condition added: migraine]

And now that I was looking, there was a message box like I hadn't seen before. This one had larger text and some of it was flashing red. I closed the condition alert, and looked at it.

[LIMITED TIME OFFER
FREE TRIAL RUN
EARLY ACCESS TALENT

Pause

Normally you have to meet the qualifications for this Talent (you don't) and then receive it as a Quest reward (this isn't). Instead, one time only, you can trade your 'Peak Human Quickness Bonus Talent', 'Peak Human Wit Bonus Talent', and 'Peak Human Intuition Bonus Talent' to gain 'Pause'. And you are even getting one free use of Pause before you decide, to help you make up your mind.]

Okay, so I wasn't dying and seeing my last moment. Time was just frozen. But I guess that made a sort of sense. Almost every video game had a pause function. Except I couldn't go the toilet or get some water, because I was the player and the character both. So what could I do? What could Pause do?

I focused on the word Pause and thought hard, 'Analyze.'

[Talent: Pause
Skill(s) Unlocked: N/A
Cost: 100 Energy (limit 3 times per Recovery Rest)
Duration: 5 Minutes
Prerequisites:
Quickness: 101
Wit: 101
Intuition: 101
Reflective Dungeon V
QUEST REWARD
Effect:
Freezes time* relative to The Gamer. Cannot move, act, use any skills that consume Energy, or use other skills that affect the physical world. Can observe, plan, take a mental break, and access the menu system. For example, user cannot Pause and then launch a barrage of telepathic or telekinetic attacks for when normal time resumes. User can Pause and calculate a trajectory, try to decipher a password, or prepare to activate a skill once Pause ends. User can end the effect of Pause at any time before the five minute duration.

*technically time is not frozen. The Gamer mentally experiences one yoctosecond as three hundred seconds. Because it is pure perception, that is why Energy cannot be used.]

That meant things were still technically moving. But a quick dive into the math and physics knowledge my skills afforded me, plus Analyze for a definition, let me calculate that even something moving at light speed would travel less than half the radius of one proton in that amount of time. And when I read the duration, I noticed a timer in the upper right side of my vision, opposite the concealed health bar. It said 4:28 and was counting down.

But if I can access my menu, that means I could spend points, right? Which was in line with many traditional and action RPGs. Of course, I couldn't change all my clothing and eat a full three course meals like Link could, but it was still an advantage. Like now, I could have just spent the individual points to get most of my Attributes up to fifty, instead of quickly throwing out a number guaranteed to get them all up there.

And spared myself a migraine.

Also, it appeared that Analyze was still available, since it did not require Energy, and I had just used it to learn about Pause and get the definition of a yoctosecond.

[Yes, that seems like a loophole. +1 Wit, +1 Intuition]

Which meant I could, 'Analyze!'

Ignoring the messages, I looked at Nomu.

[Name: Prototype Anti-Symbol of Peace Nomu
Race: Nomu (altered former Human) (Quirk metagene overload)
Age: 33
Height: 195 cm
Weight: 219 kg
Level: 7
Active Title: Anti-Symbol of Peace
Quirks:
- Shock Absorption
- Natural Steroid
- Pure Muscle
- Pain Nullification
- Super Regeneration
Health: 4083/4083
Stamina: 2438/2656]

He had five Quirks. How could he have five Quirks? Even Todoroki and Cassandra, who seemed to have two Quirks, really just had one Quirk with two parts to them.

A few more analyzes didn't clear it up. My understanding of what Nomu could do was better. Unfortunately, that also made me more worried.

[Shock Absorption] reduced bludgeoning damage to Nomu by ninety-six percent. And any other physical damage by sixty four percent. And damage below a certain threshold was simply negated. But it did take one stamina each time it reduced or neutralized damage.

[Natural Steroid] was a Mutation type Quirk that gave him +50 to his base Strength, and a +200% growth multiplier to Strength as well. Which would have been bad enough, but [Pure Muscle] made it so Nomu used Strength instead of Endurance or Quickness. So just increasing his Strength would make him faster and tougher. The only comfort was he still had a separate Agility score. I estimated based on his level and Health that his Strength was over 600, probably close to 700.

[Pain Nullification] not only prevented him from feeling pain, it also all but eliminated Nomu's sense of fear. And any other physical ailments caused by pain, like localized paralysis from hits to a nerve cluster.

And [Super Regeneration] was why my Gondor Smashes healed almost instantly. It converted one stamina to five health every time Nomu was injured, up to 100 stamina per second. It would even restore lost limbs or damaged organs. If we could destroy both his brain and heart, he would die. That, or we had to drain both his stamina and health fully.

I had just over three minutes left after I finished scanning Nomu. I needed to pick my bonus Talents, decide if I wanted Pause, and try to come up with a plan. I guessed that the 'trial offer' for Pause would likely end as soon as I picked it, and definitely would end as soon as I rejected Pause or picked on of the three bonus talents it would replace. So I would make the most of it and save that until last. But better to start soon.

My bonus talent options for Strength were:
[Pump You Up] Limit Break Strength Training skill and gain latent bonus to Strength based on level of Strength Training skill (+1 latent Strength for every five levels of Strength Training).
[Will of Muscle] Use Strength instead of Determination to defend against mental attacks and mental status ailments.
[Mental Muscle] Increase weight and damage of telekinetic skills based on a percentage of your Strength.

The first one was nice. Latent bonuses meant less for Attributes, which didn't have a natural cap, than for Skill, which did. Still, the bonus would be a nice positive spiral for Strength. The second skill was basically worthless for me. My Determination was already higher than my Strength, and Gamer's Mind already improved my resistance to mental attacks. Ultimately, I chose Mental Muscle. It added 25% of my Strength to the mass of projectiles for TK Attack, and also the damage of those projectiles by the same factor. The same applied to any other telekinetic damaging skills I might get in the future. And for TK skills that moved things but did not damage them, it added 50% of my Strength to the weight I could lift instead.

The random talents I was offered for Agility were:
[Evasion] Greatly reduce incidental or AoE damage on a successful Dodge.
[Wall Run] Limit Break Parkour and can run nearly horizontally on walls (depending on Quickness and Parkour level).
[Contortionist] +10 to Yoga skill or unlock it, Limit Break Yoga.

Yoga was an okay skill, but I wasn't going to waste a Talent on it. Wall Running was tempting. I was teenage Japanese boy, of course I wanted to be a ninja. But ultimately, I was losing Health quickly to Nomu's near misses. Even if Evasion didn't completely prevent it, decreasing the drain on my Health and Energy was critical. And Evasion would continue to be useful in the future; if I could get out of the kill zone of a grenade, the shockwave and shrapnel would do almost nothing to me.

Endurance offered me the choice between:
[Recovery Boost] Increases healing received by 20% from all sources.
[Stamina Boost] Increases Stamina by 10%.
[Acid Adaptation] +10 to Acid Resistance skill or unlock it, Limit Break Acid Resistance.

They were all pretty straightforward. My Energy was currently based on Ki and Mana, not Stamina, and that would change based on my current highest Attributes. So Stamina Boost was a no. Acid Adaptation was nice, but since I was thinking about healing myself after time restarted, I decided on Recovery Boost.

My Quickness choices were mostly about movement, including another Parkour related Talent. My Intuition options were related to non-combat skills. Though one was for Telepathy and Clairvoyance, which would be good for the eventual operation to save All Might.

Wit really only gave me one option. I mean, there were three. But the first one [Invoker] increased the damage of my spells. Which would be great, if I could figure out how to unlock magic. The second was called [Spell Resistance], which instead of reducing damage, gave me a percent chance to just ignore spells cast on me. Again, very useful, if I had any enemies who used magic. That just left me with [Omniglot], which Limit Broke every language Skill, including signing. Even the ones I didn't have yet. It also increased the growth of language Skills by 20%. Which was really great for school and future Hero work, but not of immediate use.

With the first three screens cleared, and the Pause and other three moved to the side, I saw an unexpected window.

[Congratulations!
All Physical Attributes have reached 'Peak Human' tier. Please select a bonus Talent.

Fighter
Improved mastery of melee combat (+10% damage dealt, -10% damage received).

Free Runner II +
5 latent bonus to Dodge, Running, Parkour, Climbing, Swimming, and Acrobatics.]

Only two options, but both were really good. If it weren't for the current situation, I would be more inclined to take Free Runner II. But instead I focused my mental eye on Fighter and 'clicked' it.

That left me with just over a minute. To decide if I would take Pause or the other three Talents. And to plan what to do once time started.

Having been reminded I had a Telepathic Attack skill, which I hadn't spent points on or tried to use, I checked on it. It was mostly for breaking through mental defenses. It would do a small amount of Health and Psion damage to anyone whose defenses were down, or did not exist. But since Nomu didn't have Psions, and would regenerate more HP per Stamina than I would do in damage per Energy, it wasn't worth it to try now.

Glancing through my available Talents, one jumped out at me, and a plan formed, at least for the immediate situation. So I bought [Focus: Telekinetic Attack].

I also realized if I spent all of my Attribute points, I could get my Charisma and Luck both up to 50. Which should give me three more bonus Talents, possibly four if I got another one for getting all nine Attributes up to Peak Human. But I wasn't sure if those Talents would be helpful here, and I wanted to save those points. I was even more tempted to just split them between Strength and Quickness, and try to hammer Nomu with punches and kicks as fast as I could, to wear him down. Every hit would take one SP from him. More if I could break through his defenses. But no, there might be a need for me to suddenly boost my psionics or ki. All the more reason to consider Pause.

For now, execute the plan to protect Ami. Once I made up my mind.

Pause? Or three other talents? I had about twenty seconds left to decide.


Status Changes for Midoriya Izuku:

Max Energy: 1319→ 1320

Attributes:
(W)it: 53 → 54
(I)ntuition: 55 → 56

Skills:
Analyze (W) – Battle Scan: 49→ 50
Mathematics, Basic (W): 19→ 21
Physics, Basic (W): 3 → 6
Telekinetic Attack (I/A) LB: 26 → 26

Talents:
Mental Muscle
Evasion
Recovery Boost
Fighter
Focus: Telekinetic Attack


Author's Note: So there is the poll/Izuku's choice. The classic game effect 'Pause' or three talents that may be useful in the future, but not so much now. I didn't want Pause to be game breaking (no Captain N or other time stop antics), but just giving him time to weigh options and spend points would be pretty useful. And if he gets it, it might get upgrade Talents later (like letting him change equipment while paused). But what do you think, readers? Is it good and balanced? Overpowered? Underpowered? Balanced but just boring? Let me know. I will take votes up until Sunday, March 15th 2020. Then Izuku's choice will be set. Also, one bit of warning, if Izuku does get Pause it will help him immensely in the new first event of the Sports Festival.
Author's Note II: Since this had come up twice in rapid succession; when Izuku (or his Guild) are offered a choice of random talents, these are never special talents. They might skirt the prereqs for those talents by a small amount. But they are always Talents that they can get later, by buying them normal, if they want them.
AN III: I was just reminded that I can make a poll here. So I did. Please vote there.
AN IV: I didn't want to do this, because I am afraid it will unduly influence the outcome. And I moderately subscribe to the Death of the Author trope, and to a person's right to vote wrongly based on misunderstanding and borderline misinformation. But given the number of responses I have had saying he can just get Pause later, I feel the need to correct this. The purpose of this vote is not to weigh Pause versus a cost, whether the cost is 5 talents, 3 talents, 1 talent, or 20K yen for lunch, gas, and tolls. The purpose of the vote is do you want Izuku to have Pause at all. Not now or later. Now or Never. If Pause loses, that means that you the readers (or at least the majority of those who voted) don't like it, so it will not appear further in the story. I could explain further how the 'future option' isn't and the cost is balanced in Izuku's mind. But again, don't want to influence or give out unasked spoilers.

So tl;dr, the text of the poll is poor, and that's on me. But if you vote 3 talents, you are voting for Izuku to never get Pause.

Also, for those unfamiliar with the site's poll system, the poll is at the top of my user profile.