AN: Here is how the Tech Tiers are going to work. Similar to the Clockwork Empress(An awesome fanfic), there are 50 Tiers starting from Prehistory. The highest tier is Tier 0 on the Forerunners tech scale.
John is going to start at Tier 22, Early Extrasolar(I'll make a list now).
1. Prehistory
2. Early Paleolithic
3. Mid Paleolithic
4. Late Paleolithic
5. Neolithic
6. Protohistory
7. Copper
8. Bronze
9. Iron
10. Dark Ages
11. Early Middle Ages
12. Mid Middle Ages
13. Late Middle Ages
14. Renaissance
15. Industrial
16. Early Modern(WW1)
17. Mid Modern(WW2)
18. Late Modern(1950-2000)
19. Early Intersolar(2000-2050)
20. Mid Intersolar(2050-2100)
21. Late Intersolar(2100-2290)
22. Early Extrasolar(Current Halo tech)
It gives him the potential knowledge to learn and craft things, but he needs to first learn how to, or use Structural Analysis to gain blueprints or learn it on his own. There will be passive observation skills that would cost nothing but have a daily limit. Oh and of course, he'll need factories, space station docks etc to build things, it's not going to just be bam, things crafted. To get this he'll have to start from scratch, invent something and slowly accrue funds and so on.
So he is going to spend a lot of time improving his INT to get smarter but also train himself in combat skills, and some that give passives, e.g. Firearm Mastery, which would help with accuracy. But that would be later.
From what I know from other Gamer fics, Martial Arts styles give passives, there won't be any Stat passive bonuses here, only passives that help with flexibility, damage, agility, and only when that one skill is active. So if you're looking for an OP Gamer bulldozing over everything in the Halo universe, this is not the fic for you, this Gamer system is skill and knowledge based.
I am frankly sick of OP Gamer fanfics and this is my solution. He will have a stat cap of 50 physically at the base peak, and can only increase it if he gets augmented in the future or becomes a cyborg or replaces it with a stronger android body. Mental stats, however, have no limit.
Stat equivalent.
1 STR = 10 Kg worth of weight lifting with effort.
1 AGI = 0.5 Km/h
Don't flame me for the start of this chapter, there is no information of John's mother's character, so I'm going to make it up, oh and of course his dad was part of ORION but is KIA. There is no way they would kidnap an active or retired member of the military, at least I think.
Anyway, onwards to the story!
Chapter 1: Progress, however little.
(2 Years after Reincarnation)
John stopped to catch his breath after running around the neighborhood as he returned home from his daily early morning workout. It's been two years since his new life began and he has been making good progress.
John Niel Richards lvl.10
Title: Budding Inventor
Race: Human
HP: 280 SP: 280
STR: 15 AGI: 20 VIT: 14 INT: 100(105) WIS: 50 LCK: ?
Points: 25
INT was so high because he trained like crazy. When his very worried and glad mother collected him he explored his room and the little tablet device he found, that was so much faster than anything in his time, he used it to do research, namely how the standards of education increased.
At this time, grade 8 highschool education is equivalent to grade 12 in my time. It didn't intimidate me, I immediately got to work reviewing current grade 8 mathematics and other technical subjects so I can increase my intelligence… but not before having the wonderful dinner his mother made him. This was when I discovered skills exist for Mathematics, and any subject really.
[Mathematics lvl.50]
-Solve math problems 500% faster
-50% chance to find a solution to harder math problems
Passively increases INT by 5%
Like this.
Perks are another story, they can only be gained by doing Quests that give Gacha tokens as a reward. So far, the quests I completed helping around the neighborhood didn't reward that and didn't even give much XP, I only leveled up five times in two years. Oh well, that's expected since there's no ID: Create to fight mobs in another dimension and level up by grinding.
It was after I did research about how advanced space travel is that I felt disgusted, and realized the cause of the Insurrection.
FTL is very slow. Especially to distant Outer Colonies. This makes trade slow, and when the Inner Colonies had a demand for those resources for little in return as they worked their butts off trying to carve out their own little living, no wonder they wanted to be independent. He could totally understand that, he couldn't understand why they would resort to terrorism, bombing civilians and throwing Geneva Conventions out of the window. Where were the peaceful protests? Demands for Independence? Nope, they became violent and made everything worse.
So I decided to 'invent' the Frame Shift Drive and Elite Dangerous tech to give a boom to the economy, the influx of metals that would be needed to build ships for war was just a bonus. This would be a couple years more, but if the UNSC had access to the FSD, which allows supercruise and near-instant system travel, it could turn the tide of the war, and of course energy shields. Can't forget that.
Of course, the Tech Tier, at its current level, gave me access to blueprints to all sorts of sci-fi tech, not as good FSD but my INT wasn't good enough just yet to comprehend it. I needed about 200 INT to be able to recreate it, along with the smaller single piloted starships. At this rate, I'll be able to do it when I'm 10 years old.
The problem came to how to share it. He would be a kid and it would be hard to convince the UNSC, he could just upload the blueprints anonymously or he could get a middleman. He needed to profit from it by selling the designs and then perhaps starting a Mining Company, slowly build funds and workers from there and then turn the profit into Research and Weapons.
This is where the Shop comes in; they sell NPC's. Characters from various games, anime, etc. They cost Store Credits that can be earned by selling things or getting one in a Gacha spin. Store Credits can also be earned in certain Quests, like the big one I got recently.
[Quest: Alternate FTL]
Humanity has relied on Slipspace to travel between systems for 200 years, but still only reach speeds up to 2 light-years per day, which led to the use of Cryo Pods for long journeys that could last weeks or months. Trade is slow.
You have the means to change this.
Objective: Invent a better method of FTL.
Rewards: 1 Business NPC Card, 5 Gacha Tokens, 1000,000 XP.
Hidden Objective: ?
Reward: Tech up to Mid-Extrasolar, 1000 Store credits.
If he could get a good NPC, he could use them as a middleman for the company to act as CEO. The Business part ensures the NPC will have skills for it. If you're wondering how the NPC would appear in the system, it was because the Game would make it so they lived their lives here in the Halo universe, and would contact me to be their boss.
Anyway, enough about that, time for breakfast, don't want to keep mother waiting.
Gladys didn't know what she would do if her little John died that day when he didn't wake up that day. The doctors couldn't explain what was wrong except that he only had months left to live at most, and his organs were slowly degrading. Then he miraculously got better and her world was no longer crumbling around her.
After her husband died in the field of active duty fighting Insurrectionists the only light in her life was John, and he wasn't exactly a mothers boy and it felt like they weren't so close because of her job and his athletic lifestyle. That changed after he woke up from the hospital. After being told how close to death he was, he changed. Before he was a competitive child against other boys and had a select few friends, she could imagine joining the Military when he grew up.
Now he seems hellbent to live life to the fullest and has matured quickly, he also showed himself to be very smart when she found him doing math and science way above what his age should know, so she got his IQ tested and he has a score of 150. He also expressed his desire to be an Inventor when he grew up, and she believed him when she saw him tinkering with junk he turned into working computers and tools in the garage. In fact, he was only 8 years old now and he was nearly finished with all the high school material.
At least he was still friends with Parissa, too bad Ellie's family moved off-planet a few months after he nearly died. Even though he was becoming a nerd as Parissa put it, they were still friends, and he even kept active with exercise and ran their obstacle courses.
She just finished setting up breakfast and John entered the house right on time.
"How's school, honey?"
John sighed boredly. "Nothing new, why can't I just skip some grades, or take the graduation exams early so I don't have to go to school anymore?"
"You know why, you only have one childhood and I don't want you to grow up too fast."
He gave a look saying 'but school is torture!' "I'd rather tinker in the garage and use my genius to invent a new form of FTL that would make Slipspace obsolete." He said seriously.
His mother just gave him a look. "Fine, but Parissa's my friend, I don't need anymore."
She sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll let you try the Graduation exams when you turn ten and no later. I'll also let you skip grades at the end of this year."
"Yes!"
At the end of the school day, I entered my room and went to my computer. I opened the simulation program I made to test the FSD on the Diamondback Explorer model I created. After a few hours I tried again, it failed again, the ship is lost in the wormhole. I sighed, the math involved was too advanced for me to get right yet. I just had to keep practicing quantum mechanics and advanced math to increase my INT.
For now, I'll take a break and play Ark: Survival Evolved, it was remade years ago so it now plays on 8K and frankly, ridiculously realistic graphics and better AI. Ever since 8k became common in the 22nd century, game developers found it pointless to go bigger because your eyes can't tell the difference, plus its less processing power. The only thing that goes way above is deep space photographs etc.
The OS of this time was a godsend, bluescreens of death is a thing of the past because of dumb AI debugging and just better electronics.
Surprisingly, virtual reality was not a thing, I mean there is much better but no full-dive. But holographic technology is very advanced. Quantum computing also helping a lot, in the 21st century making simulations that I'm trying would need a supercomputer and a lot of power, I did it with a computer I put together from parts I got on discount and at the junkyard that I fixed up. It is so advanced that I would never be able to afford it with a year's salary. It goes to show the more widespread in its use, the cheaper it is.
Anyway, it was going to be a busy 2 years.
(2 years later)
The computer setup in my room, complete with holographic screens had improved quite a bit as I became smarter.
According to what I remember from the halo wiki, Eridanus II would get glassed in 2530, and I want my mother off the planet by then.
Onto more pressing matters. The simulation is a perfect success after hundreds of tests. However, there was something missing, the hidden objective. I think I know what it is.
What if I combined slipspace with supercruise? Sure the FSD can be used to travel to systems in seconds, but it needs one thing. The object with the most gravitational pull in a system, a star. SlipSpace on the other hand can go anywhere as long as coordinates are set even if it's slower, at least at the current human technology level.
Could using supercruise while in slipspace protected by the field generated by a slipspace generator increase FTL travel speed? Or would you disappear into oblivion?
Only one way to find out.
(A few days later)
"It's alive! Mwahahaha!" I couldn't help but quote it as the hybrid Slipspace/Frameshift drive. The simulation showed a ship entering supercruise at the slowest 30 km/s, opening a slipspace portal and entering it, and speeding up to 1 c, since any higher speed caused complications with the current level of slipspace technology.
The simulated destination 100 light-years away showed the ship appear an hour later, the only problem is how inaccurate the jumps are, but that can be improved in time.
Quest Complete
Objective: Invent a better method of FTL.
Rewards: 1 Business NPC Card, 5 Gacha Tokens, 1000,000 XP.
Hidden Objective: If possible, make a hybrid of the new FTL and slipspace.
Reward: Tech up to Mid-Extrasolar, 1000 Store credits.
Wasting no time I used the Business NPC card, and waited. I soon got a call on my Menu from Friends and answered it. The Friend was under the name Jonathan Irons.
Many think that when Jonathan Irons, CEO of the private corporation Atlas and largest PMC in the world died a power-hungry man until the end… couldn't be more wrong.
At his end, he realized he let the power get to his head, as the saying goes. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. He truly did want to make the world a better place but somewhere along the way it changed, the loss of his son Will just accelerated it.
It didn't excuse the sins he committed so imagine his surprise, some being called the Gamemaster told him about a way to repent and told him about the Halo Universe and of Gamers.
The Halo universe is what he wanted mankind to achieve, the whole world under one flag united. The Insurrectionists weren't a surprise to him, people would always be dissatisfied somewhere, however, if they wanted independence they didn't have to resort to terrorism… not that he could say too much lest he is a hypocrite.
He accepted his role as a companion NPC to the Gamer and was reborn into this new life. Using his foreknowledge and charisma he graduated at 15 and then slowly built up connections to start a company as he finished university. He started as a mining company to gain profit selling minerals, then expanded into R&D.
Years passed and the company, again named Atlas Corporation became a successful mining and research company, on advice from the Gamemaster he refrained from making weapons until he got the signal to contact his handler.
Now in his late twenties, he checked his E-mail and got the message and details on who allowed him to start a new life here and laughed at the irony. The Gamemaster had allowed his knowledge of the Halo universe, so he knew this was a clone of the eventually famous war hero Master Chief. The information was a surprise, he had just managed to successfully create a new form of FTL that would allow the near-instant systems to system travel, and boost the speed of slipspace by several magnitudes.
Irons didn't exactly have the means to recreate technology from his world, he could give engineers ideas about the exosuit but even with how advanced humanity is here, it would take a while. But with John's help, he could do it. Irons wasn't exactly a scientist, he just had access to the brightest minds that allowed his company to advance so far. He could simply hire him as a young intern and as he slowly shows how bright he is, and slowly introduce weapons that would turn the tide of the coming war.
Nodding to himself, he sent out the call.
Chapter End.
So how was it? Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I couldn't find a better way to end it here. Expect a new chapter in 1-2 weeks in a similar length.