Quick Note:
This is a combination of a university rom-com, meets gaming au, meets twitch streamer/influencer au~ Also!
In canon, Law and Luffy have a 7 year age gap. Here, they have a 5 year age gap, in order for it to make sense that they're at the same uni 's gonna be a long one, but I hope you all enjoy it!
Helpful Terms
DPS - damage per second, it is a measurement of damage that can be done by a weapon, spell, or player. also refers to a high damage output player/character. basically, a really strong character who does the most damage.
NP - No Peace, the name of the main game everyone in this fic plays.
RogerGames - The developers of No Peace, the hit mmorpg. Shortened to RG, or GM for game masters, or simply devs.
LT - (the rip off for this fic, basically everyone streams here)
IGN - In-game name (the name a player uses in game, that likely isn't their real name)
Glass Canon - a character/weapon with exceptionally strong offensive abilities, usually to detriment of everything else, especially defense. In the world of No Peace, these type of characters deal a high amount of damage but have extremely weak/near negligible defenses and need a support or team to keep them alive long enough for them to deal damage—that, or they have to hit quickly before they die.
1. "This uncle can beat Lancet with a Lvl 10 barbarian, how about it?!"
BANG!
The door to the dorm slammed shut as Bepo walked in wearing pikachu boxer shorts while holding a towel in his hand.
There was a groan at the disturbance.
The curtains were tightly shut, and the room was shrouded in darkness. Shachi and Penguin had long since left to go to their morning classes, but a certain someone was still in bed in the far back bunk, buried under a pile of blankets.
Bepo used the towel to dry his dripping hair. He was built like a hockey player and had dark brown skin, but his hair was short and coily, and a few ringlets dropped water on the floor all around him.
"Law, you're not up yet?"
He walked over to Law's bunk. The top part was a twin sized bed, uncomfortable for both him and Bepo due to their height. They had to argue tooth and nail with the dorm Aunty to convince the Maintenance Office to get them a larger bunk, but all that happened was they removed the bottom banister, so their feet could hang over the edge ;-;
Underneath the bunk was a computer desk and bookshelf, and to the side was the small staircase that led to the bed. At least the ceilings were high in these dorms.
"Law, get up, you need to see this video!" Bepo pushed Law's shoulder.
He simply groaned.
"Come on, Law..."
There was a tsk . "Be quiet, you're so noisy in the morning."
Bepo chuckled. "It's 1 in the afternoon."
Before Law could mutter something in reply, his phone rang. The loud ringtone annoyed the living daylight out of him.
"Fuck," Law hissed, and whipped out his hand from under the covers. Bepo dodged right with wide eyes, just to catch sight of Law's hand disappearing under his pillow to retrieve his phone.
His groggy voice sounded deeper than usual. "Hello?"
It was a woman's voice on the other line. An annoyingly familiar one. "Good morning, Mr Trafalgar! This is Suzane Dawson from RogerGames! ^V^"
Roger Games was the name of the company that owned No Peace, which also happened to be the only game Law played enough to be ranked as the number 1 DPS on one of their top servers, Nimbus. Though, all of that was becoming increasingly irrelevant; he hadn't logged on himself in months due to how busy he was.
Law grit his teeth, put the phone on speaker, then let it fall to lay beside his head. He placed his free hand to rest on his forehead, partly covering his eyes. Thirsty, Law thought.
"Speak."
She wasted no time. "Well, as you know, the World's Worst Tournament is coming up in December, and we've been encouraging top ranking players to stream on our affiliate platform, ! Of course, we know how much you prefer to be lowkey, so a camera won't be required, just your voice, and you can just stream PVP matches and dungeons—"
"Miss Dawson," Law interrupted.
The lady faltered and sounded unsure of herself. "Y-Yes, Mr Trafalgar ^V^;;"
"I must thank you for your persistence," Law trailed, "I really feel like we've become old acquaintances at this point. You've given me a wake-up call every day this week, an occasional call at lunch to remind me to eat, and a lovely barrage of good night emails at 9PM, on the dot, recapping the last two calls. Every day. Without fail."
There was a nervous silence on the other line.
"...^V^;;;"
"At this rate, I really am going to leave the game."
Suzane's job flashed before her eyes. "No no no no, Mr Trafalgar! That was not at all our intention!" More like, my boss keeps pressuring me to sign a contract with you!
"We just really value you, and we're sure many of your fans would love to see Nimbus's number 1 DPS, Lancet, stream every once in a while!"
Bepo was standing meekly listening to all of this, and glanced at Law's expression to see how he liked her mention of the word-
"Fans?" Law moved his hand from his eyes and actually sat up, abandoning any idea of going back to sleep after this phone call. Now she really set him off.
"I don't have 'fans' , Miss Dawson, I'm just a grad student that plays video games. This constant harassment has gotten out of hand; the mere fact that Roger Games has my personal data, which I didn't give them, is becoming increasingly apparent. If I get another call or related email from RogerGames, I'm permanently leaving the platform. Goodbye."
Bepo watched as Law smashed the hang up button and threw his phone onto the bed. Then he glared to his right.
"Had fun eavesdropping?"
Bepo laughed nervously and rubbed his neck. "I-It's not eavesdropping if you saw me right there, is it?"
Law sighed and came down from the bunk.
Everyday he contemplated leaving these crappy dorms and just sleeping in the apartment he rented near the school; but when he thought about the all nighters he had to pull in the labs, the dorm was always closer than his flat. Even if it smelt of Shachi's cheesy socks.
"Where the hell did those two go leaving this mess?"
Socks were all over the floor, boxers were strewn all over the bunk banisters like party streamers, ramen and takeout boxes sitting on the large table in the middle of the dorm, and there was a (banned) tabletop stove sitting incriminatingly on top of a stack of textbooks. His expensive, $600 textbooks.
Law's eyes narrowed. "And they even brought a stove into the room."
Bepo followed his line of sight and stiffened. "I'm sorry..."
Law scowled at him. "You didn't make this mess, so don't apologize, idiot."
Bepo glanced guiltily in the opposite direction. "...The stove is mine."
"..."
Bepo suddenly found the darkness in the room a bit stifling. It was the afternoon, time to let that glorious midday sun in, right? He began to walk over to the curtains.
A chilly voice spoke behind him. "I don't have to tell you what to do, do I?"
Hey, hey, it's just Autumn, why is there an arctic wind blowing behind me!?
Bepo stopped in his tracks and stuttered, "Y-Yes?"
Law was no longer by the bunk bed. He was standing right behind Bepo, and he was holding the tabletop stove in one hand. "Yes?"
Bepo blinked rapidly. "I-I mean no! No, you don't have to tell me! Of course I know without you saying so! I know exactly what to do!"
Law raised an eyebrow, walked right past Bepo towards the sliding doors, and stepped onto the balcony. Bepo watched helplessly as the tabletop stove hovered between life and death, as Law held it precariously over the edge of the railing.
"Wait wait wait, Law please! I saved up all of last month's allowance for that! I ate maro-chan ramen and sn*ckers for weeks!"
Law was only wearing his boxers and a grey t-shirt, but he sure looked more intimidating than Bepo who was begging in his pikachu underwear.
Bepo inched towards the balcony, and the cool September winds brushed through his damp locks. Bepo was taller, and stronger, but it's important to understand: Law was an absolute demon.
And he definitely would drop that tabletop stove, from the 7th floor, and let it shatter on the hard asphalt road outside the dormitory.
"Law, just...carefully..."
"What did I say about banging the door? And about Shachi's stinky socks?"
Bepo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I can't control Shachi's stinky feet! Why are you complaining to me for?"
Law's gaze darkened.
Bepo immediately shut up. "I-I mean, I'm sorry for putting my precious, portable stove on your textbooks! I honestly didn't even do that, I bet it was Penguin! I'll give them a real talking to, I promise!"
Law was already tired of this conversation point. "Take this." He threw the stove at Bepo and he clumsily scrambled outside to catch it. Then Law stepped back inside and locked the sliding doors.
Bepo stood there helplessly in the cool autumn winds.
"..."
Law stared at him from behind the tinted sliding doors.
"I-I'm sorry..."
"For what?"
"Buying a stove, putting it on ur textbooks, putting the dorm at risk for suspension, not controlling Shachi's stinky feet..."
Law sighed and opened the doors. "Don't look that pitiful; it makes it seem like I'm bullying you."
Bepo, who was being bullied by Law: "...I'll control my expressions better..."
After Law took a shower and Bepo finished tidying up the dorm, it was already 2pm. Law had gone downstairs to buy breakfast from the cafeteria; he came back up with some red pea soup and two turkey sandwiches. He gave one to Bepo.
"Thank you!" he said, happily opening the sandwich. "How many times is that lady gonna call you," Bepo asked. "I wonder how they even got your number?"
Ever since the semester began in August, Law had been getting emails non-stop from RogerGames, asking him to do promotional events for the upcoming Tournament for NoPeace.
No Peace, shortened to NP, was a massively popular mmo, famous for its wide player base, frequent updates, and persisting presence despite being nearly a decade old.
Law grew up with NP since he was in high school. Now he was in his 5th year of Uni, with a year left of his accelerated PhD course, and he hasn't stopped playing since.
Somehow along the way, he became a top ranked DPS on the Nimbus Tirade Server, one of the top 3 servers in No Peace. With only 10 servers in total (1 added each year) he was kind of a big deal on NP's player forums and within dedicated discord servers.
Little was known about the user with the IGN 'Lancet', besides the fact that for the last 4 years, he's consistently ranked as the #1 DPS on Nimbus, which was as good as being one of the top 3 DPSs in the entire NP gaming community.
Even more unique, was the fact that different from many of the popular glass cannon builds that allow users to quickly rank in PVP, but don't have any longevity at all, Lancet has insane damage, yet an incredibly strong defense.
Most people call his playstyle boring—different from flashy DPS play styles, Lancet simply prioritizes a strong combination of offense and defense, and calculatedly whittles down his opponent's health until his victory is guaranteed.
Like the player in real life, it was patient, but effective.
With the coming 10 Year Anniversary in December, Roger Games, the developers of NP, have been ceaselessly gathering top players to aid in promoting the anniversary update.
The ace in the hole of this marketing campaign was the World's Worst Tournament in December, featuring both famous players from the e-sports circle, and famous players on the NP Server Ranked list. After all, the top players weren't all e-sports athletes, some were normal people...like say...a stressed PhD student in Biomedical Engineering named Trafalgar Law.
Needless to say, Law wanted no part in this.
Different from when he was in high school, he barely had enough time to sleep now that he was doing his doctorate.
He only played NP when he couldn't fall asleep, or relax—becoming a top player was just a side effect of that.
Bepo was incredibly offended by this, I didn't choose the famous life, the famous life chose me, attitude Law had going for him, but if he ever voiced that, Law really might lock him up outside again.
"If she calls me again, I'm quitting the game."
Bepo perked up at this. "If you do, can you sell your account to me?"
"Scram."
Bepo didn't bother hiding his tears. "It was worth a shot TT. I bet some people would be really happy if you really did quit though."
At this, Law glanced at Bepo. He was seated in the small couch by the sliding doors of their dorm. Outside on the balcony was a washbasin and some shelves. Most of their laundry had to be done downstairs in the communal laundromat, in the same way, they all shared a large shower room with around 30 shower stalls. However, since they were on the 7th floor made for grad students, each quad-dorm cam with its own small bathroom.
Law didn't really care if people were rejoicing that he left the game, NP was just something he played to relax. But, his words reminded him of something else.
"What were you trying to show me this morning why you kept trying to wake me up?"
Bepo had a piece of lettuce sticking out of his mouth as he answered. "There's this video that's been trending on the NP forums lately."
Law sat down next to Bepo and opened his soup. Before he could begin drinking it, Bepo shoved his phone in front of him.
"You know that streamer named CreateWithUsopp, right?"
Law literally pushed Bepo's phone out of his cornea. "Bepo, if the phone's that close to my eyes, how do you expect me to see it?"
"Oh, sorry."
"Who the hell's Usopp?"
Bepo sighed. "Of course you don't know who that is. All you do is sleep and do research in that lab, then sometimes you sip soup."
Law glared at him, and Bepo did his usual nervous laugh when he knew he was testing Law's patience.
"Haha, I'll stop, I'll stop. He's this popular YouTuber who mainly makes videos about experiments that you shouldn't try at home, or dumb inventions like, 'What if there was a gun that shot farts?'"
Law scowled. "People actually watch that?"
"Yeah! He's so entertaining, Law! He's got like 2 million subscribers! But anyways, recently, he's picked up streaming on LaughTale, right?"
Law took a sip of his soup and remained silent for Bepo to go on.
"Every Friday, he does a Drunk Q&A segment where he brings on a new guest. And his stream last night, featured this kid he knows in real life, who went by the name 'Call Me Lord Overlord'"
"Can you get to the point?"
Bepo stiffened. "I have to give context! You live under a rock, you don't have any background info on this at all! TT"
He didn't need to feel Law's glare on him to know that he was.
"Anyways, hehe, the kid goes on this whole rant about how the only reason Lancet is no.1 on the Nimbus Server is because he stopped playing 3 and a half years ago." Law frowned at this, but Bepo went on, "Which, obviously made no sense, but then he went on this whole spiel of trash-talking you. I got the video, if you want?"
Law put down his spoon. He really was a second away from saying, 'Hold my soup'.
"Play the video."
In the VOD, there was a face cam in the lower left corner, while the NP game interface took up the rest of the screen. A lvl 150 Human Sharpshooter was idling on the screen, while the guy in the lower left face cam looked piss drunk.
He had a nose longer than most, brown skin, and long curly hair that he had in a ponytail. There was the vague outline of a guy behind him who was laying down on a bed/table, it was hard to tell because the camera was out of focus. Luckily, he had a mic, and the stream picked up his words just fine.
"Chat, did you hear that?" said Usopp, "Overlord here just said he could take Lancet's rank in a single day."
There was a live chat replay as well, and Law briefly glanced at what netizens were saying.
DoubleLPlusRatio: This guy's lucky no one can see his face properly. Some Lancet stans might actually try to doxx him, lolol
Noobphobic: Usopp your hate mail looking hella overflowed rn, those antis are already marking off your your grave with chalk
PoggersLol: Lancet is barely even active, do u dumb 12 yr olds think he cares if u defend him in some random LT chat?
lancets_wife_xx: stfu dont speak like that abt my husband!
LancetsAunt: ehem dont speak like that about my nephew
LancetsGreatGrandFather_: please cast ur aspersions elsewhere my great grandson is innocent
helpwantedtoodummythicc: can u guys shut up have respect for lancets actual wife and grandfather wtf
Milklizard_: op ever heard of a joke wtf?
GooseGooseDuck: well not like we know anything abt him lol he cud be a 40 yr old white dude
SamanthaFlower: like my face? ? click this link:
PoggersLol: Mods do your job lol
EEEEazy: someone tell this porn bot no one can even see her profile pic lmfao
Law: "..."
Law didn't know his great grandfather used , considering he was dead. And he hadn't known he was married either.
Usopp glanced at the lower right of his screen, and he grinned. "Noobphobic says, 'Usopp those antis are already marking off your your grave with chalk'? Bro, I'm pretty sure they've already booked the whole cemetery! Those twitter stans can come for me, what's new, lmaoo"
Benlolol: Yo, just joined what the hells going on
LucarioXD: #UsoppIsOverParty trending lik 5 seconds ago
Ozilive: yoooo
HiggzyPigzy[MOD]: FPepoSaysHi stop spamming emotes or you'll be put on time-out
Usopp glanced away from the chat to take another sip. "I honestly didn't know I had Lancet stans in my chat; maybe putting NP in the tags was a real mistake, huh Overlord?"
From behind him Overlord was piss drunk as well, and he was tossing and turning on the table so much the shuffling sounds could be heard in the mic.
"Tell those lancet stans I could beat their idol with my eyes closed!"
EatingtoStayHealthy: someone tell this uncle that Lancet's been no.1 for years because of skill, not just cause of some random 40 yr old in his mom's basement
Usopp was amused by this comment; the mother's basement part seemed especially trite, but he found it quite entertaining that people thought Luffy fell into this cliche. His entire existence was the opposite of this. "Overlord, they're calling you some random 40-year-old uncle!"
Luffy groaned from where he was plastered all over the cold hard table; a table identical to the one in Law's dorm, because this stream had happened 6 floors down in the same building.
"Tell them–" buuurp, Luffy had a splitting headache, and could hardly remember what he had been planning to say. Then it came back to him. "Urgh, Well tell them that this uncle can beat Lancet with a lvl 10 barbarian, how about it?!"
The chat immediately exploded:
lancets_wife_xx: someone take this kid off national tv
Notlikeothergirlsexceptiam: yikes, hate to be overlord when he wakes up from this one lol
honeyidfk: shit this is too embarrassing
EEEEazy: [screenshot] [screenshot] [screenshot] watch this blow up on the forums tonight
PoggersLol: someone look into this Overlord kid? Imagine if he's actually some old beta player that actually knows what hes tlakin about
PainButWithoutTheSpain: you could be the messiah of gaming a lvl 10 barbarian is not gonna fucking beat a maxed out lvl 150 swordsman no fuckin chance
AshyKnees: I kinda wanna see them fight now ngl this dudes so entertaining
KaimenRaider: this guys fucking stupid
Law frowned. "This kind of thing blew up in just a few hours?"
Bepo was happily eating his popcorn, basking in all the drama with a front row seat. "No one would actually pay him any attention if it weren't for his match before this, you know? So? You're curious now, aren't you? You're so curious!"
At that, Law looked away from the screen and glanced at Bepo.
"Wipe that smile off your face."
Bepo giggled. "You never pay this much attention to what happens in the NP Circle, that's why!"
Bepo was right. Law never paid attention to this stuff, so there was no way he was gonna start now.
"Shut up, and put on some clothes." Law looked up and down Bepo's pikachu boxers, and he covered his chest in some attempt at preserving his chastity. "I've already seen it all; your chest hair's long enough to braid."
"Lawwww!" Bepo groaned, embarrassed, but Law had already thrown his soup away, picked up his messenger bag, and stepped out of the dorm. "I have a meeting with my professor till 9. Don't wait up for me."
"Not like I was going to!" he yelled, but Law had already shut the door.