February 4th/2023
Queens New York
[You have been chosen to become the new generations, Gamer and champion of the primordial goddess Gaia. Congratulations.]
"Nani the fuck?" A young man asked in pure confusion as he woke up to the sound of his phone going off and saw a blue tinted videogame screen appear in front of his eyes.
This young man is Morgan Waylen. Morgan has fair skin with messy blonde hair and brown eyes. He has an athletic frame and is currently dressed in a basic tank top and boxers as he reached out to touch the screen in front of his face and actually managed to feel the thing. It was real and that made Morgan worry about the fact that he might be coming down with Schizophrenia or something.
[Would you like a tutorial? Y/N?]
"What the hell is going on?" Morgan asked in an exhausted tone of voice before he slowly raised his hand and selected the yes button.
[Tutorial has been activated!
Now let's start things off in a nice and simple way. You have been selected to become the champion of Gaia, mother of the Earth itself due to your lineage and her faith in your potential.
This means that your life has permanently changed and became something akin to an RPG. This power can allow you to do almost anything.
Your physical and mental attributes are broken up into numerical stats, along with your Health which is classified as HP and your Mana level which is classified as MP.
You can view this information by mentally or verbally summoning your [Status Screen].
You also have access to SP aka Stat Points and PP also known as Perk Points. Through stat points you can upgrade your physical and mental attributes and with perk points you can choose perks/abilities that can prove extremely useful.
Right now, your skills have been given physical skill lists and levels, but two new perks have been added. [Gamers Mind] and [Gamers Body] which help changed you into a Champion of Gaia. You have also been given the perk [Gaia's Blessing]. You can view the detailed information later via your [Skill Screen].
You have access to unique titles and quests, and you even have access to the [Gamer Store] where you can buy and sell items of all kinds.
The game is set on [Hardcore Survival] which is permanent in case you were wondering and any other details you might want to know can be learned through your own first-hand experiences.
Sincerely yours: Han Jee-Han
The first Gamer.
Tutorial Deactivated.]
"That's a lot of information to absorb right now. However, I'm still on the fence about this actually being real and not me having a mental breakdown or something." Morgan said to himself.
"Morgan hurry up and get ready for school before your late!" Morgan's mother said from behind his room door. Morgan let out a groan before he got dressed in a basic white and yellow T-shirt with jeans and sneakers on his feet after he cleaned up in the bathroom near his room. He had his house keys, wallet and phone in his pockets along with his backpack on his back.
Astella Weylen, Level: 9
Loving Mother/Fortune Teller
Morgan's eyes went wide when he saw the information above his mother's head.
"Morgan are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Astella said back to her son, who quickly shook his head to wipe the surprised look off his face.
"I'm fine. Just a rough morning." Morgan said before he went into the kitchen and grabbed himself a sleeve of pop-tarts before leaving the house and saying goodbye to his mother.
Now when Morgan got to school; he had been seeing names, levels and titles above everyone's head at Midtown High. It was weird to say the least. He saw sensitive title information about people, and he didn't want to ask questions to the people who looked at about why they had a weird or strange title under their names.
"This is so bizarre." Morgan said as he held up a heavy textbook on his desk along with a few pencils before a wild idea came into his mind. "Ok. If this doesn't work, that means I'm crazy and if it does. That means I actually do have superpowers." Morgan whispered to himself before he focused mentally on what he wanted and surprisingly he managed to summon an eight-by-ten grid styled inventory screen behind the pages of his textbook and away from prying eyes.
But that was just the first part of his plan. The second part was taking his pencil and pushed it against the inventory screen in an attempt to store it away and to his shock, the pencil vanished into his inventory.
"No way." Morgan said with wide eyes before the teacher cleared his throat.
"Morgan, would you care to pay attention to today's lesson? Or do you need to speak with the principal?" The teacher asked and a few other students chuckled a bit before Morgan responded.
"Sorry."
Now when school let out, Morgan had a million thoughts running through his head on what he should do or how he should handle things now. He had placed several objects in his inventory and noticed that they were truly gone until he pulled them back out.
Hence why he pulled out a cafeteria cookie from his inventory when nobody was looking. This kind of power is beyond insane to Morgan. He couldn't believe that his life had managed to transform into that of a videogame. Add on the fact that mother earth was real, was simply another thing that Morgan struggled to fully understand.
[Quest Alert!
Name: Dungeon Crawl
Objective: Head towards the nearby dungeon and clear it of enemies.
Rewards: 1,500 EXP!
Failure: Possible Death!
Do you accept this quest? Y/N?]
"Now I get a random quest?" Morgan asked himself before he hit the yes button and saw a mini map appear in the lower right side of his view with blue arrows pointing towards the dungeon. So, Morgan followed the path laid out for him before he eventually came up to a run-down gas station of all things.
Morgan made his way to the back entrance to avoid being seen and the moment he grabbed the door he saw another message appear.
[You are about to enter 'Ratmen Den 1', and the recommended level is 5. Would you like to enter the dungeon? Y/N?]
Morgan hit the yes button and walked into the gas station through the back and the moment he entered the place he saw that the inside was vastly different from its outwards appearance. Morgan suddenly found himself in a small cobblestone room with the doorway open and leading down a long passageway that was lined with candles emitting sickly green flames that smelled horrible.
"A classic dungeon appearance." Morgan said to himself as he held his breath to avoid smelling the candles before he walked down the hallway and came up to another room with two closed doorways. One on the left and one on the right and at the end of the northern wall of the room is a mechanical chest. So, Morgan opened it and found some starter equipment.
1x Collapsible Police Baton!
1x Rechargeable Taser!
Morgan equipped the baton and felt it in his hand. It has a solid amount of weight to it and could do some damage when used. Morgan could also just stash it away by attaching it to one of his pants belt loops. He kept it out though and decided to walk through the door on the right.
When he stepped through the door, he saw another passageway with a few doors on either side of the hallway, but in front of him stood his first real enemy.
Ratmen Fledgling, Level: 5
The Ratmen was about half of Morgan's size and was comparable to a seven-year-old in terms of height. It is wearing a loin cloth to cover its shame and in its hands is its own police baton. The Ratmen let out a screeching noise as it charged at Morgan. Morgan evaded the Ratmen's attacks before he countered with his own swings of the police baton and after a good thwack on the head, Morgan kept swinging until he was sure that the creature would stay down.
1x Ratmen Fledgling Slain! 75 EXP!
Would you like to enable auto-loot? Y/N?
Morgan hit the yes button and received another police baton in his inventory, along with a loin cloth.
You have gained the following skills!
[Self-Taught One-Handed Blunt Weapon Mastery, Active Level: 1
You have taught yourself how to fight with a single-handed blunt object in order to deal damage to your enemies.
Deals additional 1% Blunt damage.]
[Close Quarters Combat, Passive Level: 1
You have learned how to fight in confined spaces with limited space to do so.
All damage types are increased by 2% while you are in an enclosed space.]
"Okay then." Morgan said before he entered the first room on the left and saw that it looked to be some kind of office with some paperwork all over the place and a human corpse on the ground behind the desk. "What's this." Morgan asked as he grabbed one of the papers off the desk.
To: Sinthea Shmidt
You probably don't know me ma'am, but I am Leonard Smith, one of the leading scientists on project Sparda. Our time pulling these Ratmen from their native world with the power of the newly discovered Warpstone has been an interesting experiment.
These Ratmen reproduce quickly and specialize in swarming tactics. They are also easy to control via audio instructions that don't affect human ears but affect the rat's sense of hearing.
The instructions put the rats under our control and allow us to properly experiment on them and transform them into the perfect foot soldiers for Hydra.
However, we have run into problems. The rats use the Warpstone as something similar to an arcane focus, if you believe in that sort of thing that is. And they have been able to use Warpstone as a source of energy. In my humble opinion I would say that Ratment have the natural mutation to allow them to drain the Warpstone material of its latent energy and redirect it into whatever tool they need.
Shooting it out as lightning or condensing it into a makeshift bomb to create a gas explosive. Even refining the Warpstone and creating the Warpstone Flamethrowers and Gatling Guns that the superior Ratmen use.
I believe that these rats aren't as dumb as we first thought they were, but again with the audio frequency instructions, they shouldn't harm Hydra members or others unless someone stumbles into this facility.
I write you this letter and a few others to keep you up to date on our progress in shaping these Ratmen into a proper meat shield for Hydra.
PS: I would like to study more races from the realm of Theos. The world of Greek myths and legends. I still maintain that magic or spiritual bullshit is fake and complete hogwash, but the world just beyond our own is fascinating. Hopefully we can alter the transporter to pull in more beasts from that realm.
Sincerely: Leonard.
"Okay that is a lot to unpack and understand." Morgan said to himself in disbelief of what he just read. "The Ratmen come from another world?"
Morgan thought it would be best to pocket the note and a few others before he made his way out of the room and started heading into another one. This next room seemed to be a torture chamber since it has a lot of blood and medical tools all over the place.
"I guess I found the place where Hydra experimented on the rats." Morgan said to himself as he saw Ratmen corpses as well and some were skinned, gutted, vivisected and one poor slob was still tied to a chair with the top portion of his skull removed to show his brain. Morgan was starting to feel sick in this place before his perk Gamers Mind activated and he calmed down before leaving and saw two more Ratmen appear from one of the other rooms.
They charged at him, and Morgan took a few hits from their batons, but he prevailed in the fight thanks to doing what a classic Abridged series said.
'Hit it till it dies.'
And as a result, he got loot from the corpses and two extra items.
1x Random Skill Book!
1x Rat Fur Mask!
Morgan used his inventory and equipped the mask. It is soft against his skin and offered plus 2 protections from damage. It was made from light pink leather and had holes for the eyes, nose and mouth. It also covered his head completely and stopped at his neck, meaning his identity would be safe if anyone looked at him right now.
Morgan also looked the skill book over and when he saw the option to learn the skill, he quickly hit the yes button as it burst into golden flower pedals and got absorbed into his body.
[Earth Bullet, Active Level: 1
You can harness your inner mana and produce a solid amount of condensed earth to shoot at your enemies.
Range: 5 Feet
Size: Baseball
Cost: 20 MP.]
"Well, that's something, I guess. Also, more rats are probably going to be spawning in this place, so I should probably start fighting with a bit more power." Morgan said to himself before he equipped a second police baton in his off hand. Meaning that now he would be dual wielding the blunt weapons.
Morgan checked the remaining rooms and had to fight a few more Ratmen before making his way back to his starting point. Luckily, he got some more loot and skills.
1x Rat Fur Long Coat
1x Rat Fur Leggings
1x Rat Fur Gloves
Due to gaining the appropriate skill book. [Self-Taught Blunt Weapon Mastery] has evolved into [Blunt Weapon Mastery] and gained 2 levels!
[Dual-Wielding] has leveled up! Level: 2-3!
[Parry] has leveled up! Level: 2-3!
[Close Quarters Combat] has leveled up! Level 3-4!
Morgan looked himself over a bit and saw that he was basically wearing a leather outfit that was a light pink color as far as the mask and gloves went, the leggings and chest piece however were thick with brown fur and the coat stopped at his knees.
All together Morgan knew he had gained some protection from damage which was nice, but he would have to get used to how leather feels on his body.
"Now it's time for the left passageway." Morgan said before he made his way to the left door and saw two doors in this passageway. One password protected door to the left and down the hall was a large metallic door that also had a password device next to it. "Didn't I pick up something for this?" Morgan asked before he rifled through his Inventory and took out a card with a passcode on it.
He tried it with the door on the left first and saw the device glow green before the mechanical door unlocked and allowed Morgan inside. The room was another office, but this one was a murder scene with two guys in Hydra uniforms being left for dead in this room with their chests torn open from behind them.
The back of their outfits had entry wounds, but the fronts didn't. Meaning that they were taken by surprise by whatever hit them.
"I'd feel worse for you guys if you weren't Nazi's." Morgan said bluntly before he made his way to the computer that was in the room and saw that it was also smashed to bits, but luckily the desktop computer was on a desk that had a few more files in the drawers along with a concealed flash drive. It was concealed by being a flash drive that was in the shape of a panda and the top came off to reveal the flash drive part that plugged into the computer.
Morgan took everything before he made his way out and towards the last door of this facility and before he could enter the code, he saw a new alert appear in front of him.
[Warning! You are about to enter the Boss room! There will be no way to exit until the boss is slain or rendered unable to fight! Make sure your prepared before entering.]
"I've got everything I can possibly get." Morgan said to himself before he typed in the password and got the door opened. When he walked through, he saw the room was decently sized and circular in shape and in the middle of the room is another Ratmen, but this one is different. He is wearing protective armor and instead of a police baton he is holding a metallic spear in both hands.
"Foolish man-thing has come to die-die by my claws. The council would be pleased if I wasn't trap-stuck here in your world." The Ratmen said with hiss of anger in his voice. "Killing those man-things that tortured us was a joy-pleasure."
"I won't cry over Nazi blood, but I can't let you leave. You'll just kill innocent people if I do." Morgan said back as the Ratmen chuckled.
"Man-Thing is right. I'd kill-slay many humans until I'm happy. My name is Skinner man-thing. I'll flay your skin and eat your bones!" Skinner shouted before rushing towards Morgan, whose eyes widened before he dodged to the side to avoid the spear thrust.
"Damn that thing has reach." Morgan said to himself before he tried closing the distance. He used the baton in his off hand to bat away the spear and stop Skinner from striking him with it. Morgan then brought the baton down hard on Skinner's head, which did damage the rat but thanks to the armor over its head, it did only minor damage. Skinner, then used his strong legs to jump far back and gain some distance.
"Blunt weapons aren't going to cut it this time, unless I do something about that armor." Morgan said to himself before Skinner rushed him again, but this time he was faster, and the spear was getting too close for Morgan's comfort.
So, Morgan stashed away one of his batons and extended his hand outwards.
"Earth Bullet!" Morgan cast his spell and saw a baseball sized rock form in front of him before it flew towards Skinner and hit him square in the chest, knocking him back and hurting him through his armor. Morgan didn't relent though and cast the spell several times over before Skinner was sent down onto his back. His spear on the ground and his body badly beaten from the rock projectiles.
Morgan walked over and stashed away his second baton before picking up the spear and thrust it downwards onto Skinner's skull. Morgan didn't know how to feel about this since the Ratmen had been victims of Hydra, but Skinner himself admitted that he would have gone on a spree if he hadn't been stopped.
1x Boss Ratmen slain! You have earned 340 EXP!
[Earth Bullet] has leveled up! Level: 1-2-3!
You have earned one of three possible rewards to choose from!
1: Robe of the Slayer
2: Steel Enchanted Mace
3: Necklace of Obscurity
Morgan looked at the screen in front of him and at the information under each object in front of him. The robe is cool looking and inspires fear in Ratmen while inspiring other people to look at him like a hero. The mace would be a powerful weapon and the necklace would disguise his voice and give it a filter so nobody could identify his voice.
Despite how cool the robe and mace were. Morgan knew that the necklace was the practical choice since he now had a suspicion that Hydra might hunt for him if he continued to do this.
When he hit the necklace, he saw it materialize in front of him and appear around his neck. The necklace was in the shape of a thin but sturdy chain with an orange tear-shaped medallion in the center of it.
"Cool." Morgan said before noticing the change in his voice. His voice was distorted and sounded like he was talking through static. "Now let's clear out of this place." Morgan said before he put the spear into his inventory and made his way to the last door at the end of this room and when he entered, he saw another meeting room, but this one contains maps of New York and points labeled 'Attack' and on top of that, there is a hit list of heroes that Hydra was aiming to take out with the attack.
"Hydra is really planning on attacking the city soon." Morgan said in shock before he pocketed every note, journal and photo he could before he rushed out of the dungeon the same way he came.
Thankfully a squad of soldiers wasn't waiting for him and after checking for any onlookers or cameras, he un-equipped his armor and made his way back home to his worried mother.
Later
It was late into the night as Morgan sat on his bed with several notes, journals and pictures on the bed. Morgan had his own notebook in hand along with a pencil as he started writing down the most important information from the notes he got.
[Quest Alert!
Name: Saving New York and its Heroes
Objective 1: Clear out all the Ratmen dens!
Objective 2: Warn several heroes about the upcoming attack!
Objective 3: Help put a stop to Hydra's plot!
Reward: 30,000 EXP! Increased REP that depends on the heroes you speak with! Increased REP with S.H.I.E.L.D!
Failure: Death!
Do you accept this quest? Y/N?]
"As if I'd say no to something this important." Morgan said before he hit the yes button and accepted the quest before stashing the notes and information back into his Inventory and decided to go to sleep for the night.
February 7th/2023
Queens New York/Midtown High School
It has been a few days since Morgan challenged his first dungeon and frankly, he couldn't just go dungeon crawling every day. He has school and responsibilities to attend to.
"Morgan, do you think you could help me with this?" a familiar voice asked him as he turned to the right and looked at a familiar and cute red-headed teen.
Julie Powers, Level: 17
Lightspeed
Morgan's eyes went wide from what he just noticed and not just because he thought that his crush was looking extra cute today. Lightspeed along with the other members of the Power Pack were heroes working with the Fantastic Four.
"Sure." Morgan said as he put up a brave face and started helping Julie with her with the class assignment and a bit of her homework until classes came to a end.
[Acting, Active Level: 1
You can play the fool or play the killer and the hero. You have learned the art of acting and can perform any performance with skill.
Grants 11% increase to success when playing a role or pretending to know or not know something.]
Morgan felt a tick mark form on his head from what he saw. He hated acting like he didn't know anything about what he saw or what he was dealing with, and he especially hated that he had to act dumb around the girl he liked, but he did it without question.
If he brought up the stakes about an upcoming attack, he would have to do it while he had his identity concealed.
"Are you ok Morgan? You're acting a bit weird today." Julie said to Morgan as the duo walked the halls of Midtown High School together.
"I'm fine. Just a bit exhausted recently."
"Well, that sucks. You need to start taking care of yourself more. Now come on, we've got free period in the library." Julie said before Morgan smiled and followed Julie to the library where they sat and read a few books together.
END
A/N: Okay I literally couldn't get Marvel out of my head until I wrote this. A gamer story in Marvel with heavy influence from Greek Myth and DnD campaigns. Also shedding some light on some lesser-known Marvel heroes and villains.
Hell, if I'm being honest, the Power Pack comics were my entrance into the Marvel universe and I'm sad that they don't get more attention because they are awesome.
Anyway, please fav, follow and review.