A/N (5/28/2021): Small detail about breakfast.
A/N (5/11/2021): Fixed line about objective menu.
A/N: Part 2!
Beta: Path of a Writer
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
" - a second!" Jaune finished, now having been teleported back to the auditorium of the 'Beacon' school in the game world before he'd even realized it. He stood beside his stuff hand outstretched, attempting to stop a person that was no longer there.
It was only the second time he had been interrupted and Jaune was already tired of being cut off by these two gods. One was basically a male Karen with his attitude - I wasn't even the one who made the burger! - while the other one appeared normal, but was actually also…
Jaune took a moment to try to describe the other god. At first he thought he was a composed and rational elderly man… but clearly, that was off too. Even ignoring his 'acting' during the 'Special Event', he clearly had a more sinister edge to him.
Argh, I have no time to keep thinking about this right now! I have homework to finish!
Suddenly, a phone nearby rang.
Jaune ignored it. He wasn't a man that was so easily distracted. With ease, he ignored the sound all the way to the end.
The moment it stopped, he looked up from his still blank page.
Could this be my phone? After all, he spawned with clothing and a bag packed with necessities. In a world in which there were holographic screens and microphones, phones shouldn't be too far off either.
Putting his pen down he scooched over beside his bag and searched inside.
It didn't take long for him to find a long, rectangular piece of plastic with a star in the middle. A closer look revealed that it was actually two parts and it took only a little bit of fumbling for it to expand into what was clearly some kind of handheld device. The screen part was made out of some kind of sci-fi hard light material and lit up the moment it was fully extended. The UI was pretty alien to him, except for one thing.
There were forty-seven new messages.
On pure muscle memory he clicked on them before thinking too much about it as he would with his own phone and a new app window opened. His eyes widened as he glanced at the contact names. Bolded ones had at least one message waiting, he assumed.
Unknown Messenger. Mum. Father. Julia. Sister #2. Alexa. Joan. Jessie. Jamie. Asshole.
Jaune took a moment to sit back and ponder this sudden dilemma. This was clearly not an exact copy of his real phone, since a lot of the names were different. He normally writes down the real names of people instead of their relationship with him. So, was this… another Jaune's phone?
Was he taking over someone's body?
Isn't it weird to answer someone else's texts?
I guess it wouldn't be weird. Jaune thought. I'm technically playing as Jaune, so for the moment, I am Jaune. The other Jaune. Not like I haven't done the same thing for a thousand other games. With that thought in mind, he opened his messages. Luckily, their personalities were generally similar to the ones in real life, and he responded to them as he usually did.
Coincidentally, he also confirmed that his name in this world was, in fact, Jaune Arc. A very important detail that he only then realized he hadn't confirmed till now.
Finally, he got to the 'Unknown Messenger'. A little curious at what kind of spam the gods had thought of, he clicked it.
[UM]: Hey, uh
[UM]: I didn't click send.
[UM]: I said delete!
[UM]: This is the worst.
[UM]: Light, can you fix your speech recognition system?
[UM]: What? You are busy? Kittens - how did kittens get up there?!
[UM]: *sound of expulsion of air, a large gust of wind, or an explosion*
[UM]: Hello Jaune, this is Dark. :wave: I do apologize for the messages above, this phone 'program' does not allow me to delete messages. :( I gave up on Light's system, so I'll be typing the rest of these messages. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[UM]: :cryingface: I apologize about how you were treated during the event on behalf of my brother, but the rules were pretty clear. It was a game and I play games seriously (ง'̀-'́)ง. I hope that you understand that there is no beef between us. :) 3 3 3
[UM]: Is beef the right idiom O_O?
[UM]: What I mean, is that there are no ill feelings between us. It is very unlucky of you to have been targeted by Light's attention, but I assure you that no harm shall come to you as a result of his machinations. ( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ )
[UM]: I think. \ (•◡•) /
[UM]: Haha, I'm rambling. I actually contacted you in case you had something important to say, since you were cut off. Haha. Sorry for that!
[UM]: rofl lol
[UM]: Is this the right person? :shocked: If it isn't, (人) I apologize profusely. (✿´‿`) ٩◔̯◔۶ . ≧ _ ≦ lol
Unidentified Messenger is typing…
Jaune's current face: ◉_◉
He pressed the two plastic pieces of the phone back together, collapsing the hard light section. It turned off. Then, he stuffed it into the furthest corner of his bag.
Then, he took out his pen and paper and started to finally actually write, a wide, hollow smile on his face.
A few hours later, Jaune realized he had to go to the bathroom. He had finally written a few pages of quality work, even if it was a little uninspired. Exhausted, he stood up a little too fast and stumbled.
He was so distracted by his tiredness and assignment that he did not notice a woman walk by him. His rapid change in direction had sent him straight into a collision course with her. "Watch out!" He cried and threw himself to the side, but it was too late. All he could see before his vision tipped towards the floor was her widening emerald eyes as he tripped over his own legs.
He landed on his face, as the woman nimbly dodged away in an almost impossible display of reaction time and skill.
"I'm sorry!" She gasped. "Are you alright?"
"No…" He groaned into the floor before pushing himself off the ground. "Iz my noze bwoken?" He felt the aforementioned part of his face. "Ah, great. I'm temporarily french now."
"Did you forget to activate your aura?" The woman asked him worriedly. "I know it's not instinctual for some…"
Aura? Jaune had no idea what that was. Is that the magic system?! Then, he recognized her. "Oh, you are the one who helped me with the orientation schedule before the speech! I forgot to introduce myself back then. I'm Jaune Arc." Now that god is trying to distract me from my writing by throwing random characters at me.
"Pyrrha Nikos. Nice to meet you." Much to Jaune's confusion, she put on a sudden smile after her introduction. It was clearly well practiced.
"Well, nice to meet you too, but I would like to get to my essay now. Could we please talk later?" He said, pressed on time. His words didn't end up as rude as he imagined them to be, however.
She paused there for a second, as if she had been expecting something else. "An essay?"
"Or a story, or really just any piece of writing."
"That's… very vague."
"Blame my professor." He sighed. Seeing his exasperated expression, she couldn't help but give a small, polite giggle.
"Is it professor Peach?" She asked. "I have heard she was one of the more... eccentric professors. I heard from the higher years that we'll be having a trip this year in which the only objective is gathering her favorite food."
"Isn't that basically slave labour?"
"The point was to practice against the Grimm in the wild. More like… convenient student labour?"
"Isn't that what I just said?"
Pyrrha smiled at his reply and shook her head. "So…" She put her hands behind her back. "What's your writing about?"
"I have to plan it out, but I think it'll be a story about two powerful beings playing with a person's life like they owned it."
"Sounds like a... pleasant read. Will the main character end up escaping to another country and finally succeeding at what's important to her?"
Jaune blinked at the specific wording. "You bet. Hey, alright if I bounce some ideas off you?"
Her smile grew a little wider. "Oh, I don't mind at all. I've got a few ideas myself..."
"Sounds great! Let me just get my writing utensils."
[Relationships]: +40 reputation with Pyrrha Nikos.
[Relationships]: Secret bonus objective completed, +100% reputation gain with Pyrrha Nikos for 24h
[Echoes]: Pyrrha Nikos UNLOCKED
/-/
Pyrrha had been of great help, allowing him to finish a good draft for his story. Enough so that he ended up going to sleep in the fake world at what was around one o'clock. She had contributed quite a few good ideas and had seemed very passionate, actually, if not a little… vindictive?
Also, since he had woken up in the game world, it seemed like being asleep here didn't wake him up in the real world. It was disappointing he didn't have more control over it, but at least he wasn't forced to wake up in the middle of the night.
Currently, he was eating breakfast provided by the cafeteria, which was strangely high in meats and eggs, by his lonesome in the cafeteria, scrolling through one of the new menus he had unlocked yesterday.
The menu he ended up unlocking was very interesting. There was too much information and it would take a while before he got the hang of them all. In fact, there was just so much content that it was hard for him to digest it all.
Oh who am I kidding?
The Objectives Menu was completely empty.
Thank you, you piece of shi - ship!
Wasn't that just the worst? A game without an objective, in his opinion, was the worst! He was not a person who could play simulation games like the Sims for long. He just couldn't find enjoyment in playing god over some people, or building his dream house. For games like Animal Crossing, he would get bored the moment he solved the primary issue, which was, normally, debt owed to a goddamn, capitalist, trash raccoon.
Not that he had any issues with capitalism or raccoons.
That is not to say he was completely unable to enjoy games of the like. He still had fun while he had a self-made objective. For example, in games like Minecraft, he would focus on optimization of automation, making his survival easier. Though, that always ended up with him making the survival aspect of the game obsolete really fast, since it was easy to become self-sufficient in that game for basic necessities. He would always end up back at the start, aimless.
Without direction, was there really any point in playing?
It's not exactly like I have a choice, however. I guess I'll just go with the flow. I hope that we won't just do nothing but play around for the next few months.
He paused.
Actually, shouldn't the antagonist have been introduced already in the game? The random boss fight challenge with the gods didn't count since it's later chronologically. No, no, the antagonist appearing yet is not a requirement. Perhaps I'm still in the prologue.
He closed the menu, allowing himself to move again. He then ate a spoonful of his cereal.
However, I do distinctly remember that I finished the prologue the moment I stepped off onto Beacon's grounds. How strange. I hope this doesn't continue and nothing plot relevant happens in the next few months.
…
I hope that the field trip that Pyrrha mentioned is a great arc and not as terribly boring as it sounded.
...
Knowing those gods, I just fucking jinxed myself.
After Jaune was done with his food, he headed off to the weapon lockers. There was much to be done there, like picking up his equipment manually like a boring regular person.
When Jaune had realized this was going to be a monster hunting game he hadn't thought it would be so slow. As he stepped through the corridors filled with random NPCs, he pondered over the everyday things that are skipped in most video games, but of course, were kept in this terrible version he was currently playing. Walking… what a terrible action. He hoped he could unlock Fast Travel soon, or some kind of menu that allowed him to teleport between different rooms at the click of a button. It just wasn't exciting this way.
Red streaks caught his eye and Jaune spied Ruby glance his way from far away in the crowd, heading towards him. Upon seeing him look back at her, she hurriedly averted her gaze, but then looked back at him, a little panicked. What was she doing?
"Good morning Ruby!" He took the initiative.
[Relationships]: +5 reputation with Ruby Rose
She took a small breath of relief before strolling over, much to Jaune's confusion. "Hello Jaune!"
Guess she didn't recognize me? I changed my outfit this morning, since for some reason yesterday's one smelled a little bit of puke. He currently was wearing a different colored hoodie with the same picture of a bunny on it and a pair of cargo shorts. His armor was left behind with his weapon in his locker yesterday night, after the nice redhead had reminded him of where his equipment should actually go.
She joined up with him, both now walking in the same direction towards the locker room.
"Had a pleasant night?" Asked Jaune.
"Welllll…"
Now that she was closer, Jaune could see the dark circles under her eyes.
"...I can't say it was." She yawned. "Remember that girl from yesterday?"
"Which one?"
"The one that explodes."
"You were the one that exploded."
"The one who explodes into anger!"
Jaune remembered her clearly. "Ah, the white haired girl?"
"She came to me, in the middle of the night, only to nag, nag, nag!"
Jaune hadn't even noticed where Ruby had even camped in the auditorium because he had been so focused on finishing his homework with Pyrrha.
"That certainly doesn't sound like a lot of fun."
"I wish I'd never met her!"
The reminder of white haired girls made him remember the one he slapped accidentally in real life. He winced.
Ruby took it a different way. "I know! A bit harsh, but she really was mean! Yang and I ended up playing Hyper Smash Siblings Ultra yesterday since we couldn't sleep, and wouldn't you know it, like two seconds later she was already stomping over to us!"
Alright, whoever renamed the game from Bros to Siblings is a total idiot.
"Did you forget to turn off your sound?"
"Of course not!" Ruby looked a little offended. "I'm not stupid! She said that the light flashes were disrupting people's sleep!"
Ah, if it was after lights out -
"And then she started lecturing us about bedtime!"
Ruby, you might be the one in the wrong there.
"It was ten!"
He snorted.
"Yeah, funny for you, who wasn't getting his ears yelled off." She grumbled. "Who cares about beauty sleep, or how 'it takes a week for the effect of sleep depri - deprivatization to wear off.' We're huntsmen!" She imitated the girl while quoting her, doing quite the good impression of an uptight rich brat.
Sleep deprivatization?
"You're not wrong." Jaune nodded in agreement with her.
After all, Jaune was a master at sleep deprivatization - deprivation! - and barely slept at the right times, nevermind before ten! Who needs sleep? Not him.
"So anyways, I then made my move to get rid of her!"
"You told her to get lost?"
"I challenged her to a Smash Siblings match!"
Jaune twitched.
"She didn't want to join though, until Yang said that she'd lose for sure because she looked like a girl too high class to even play video games. Strangely it made her want to play Smash Siblings more!"
He tripped.
"Jaune?"
"I'm good, I'm good!" He waved off the girl's worries.
Every time she says 'Smash Siblings' it gets worse…
"Anyways," Jaune sought something to distract himself with. "Weren't you heading the other way before you met me?"
"Yeah, because I thought the cafeteria was that way."
"I'm not heading towards the cafeteria."
They stopped.
Jaune watched as the realization slowly came to her, as her eyebrows rose, her eyes widened, and her face distorted into a classic 'oh shit' expression.
He glanced at a clock on the wall. "You also only have ten minutes to eat, if you want to make it."
[Relationships]: +50 reputation with Ruby Rose
[Relationships]: -50 reputation with Ruby Rose
Oooof.
"My cookies!" She yelped and suddenly burst into a stream of red flower petals, soaring down the hallway.
Jaune stared at the scene with interest.
I can't wait till the 'aura' system is explained. I wonder if I can do that speed move. That'll be pretty cool, honestly. For now, Jaune thought about the systems he had currently unlocked. The only things that stood out were the Status Menu and the Skills Menu. I still haven't figured out how to allocate stat points, and the skills menu doesn't talk about how to gain new skills. I also still haven't figured out the prestige system that the menu hinted at either.
Stat points are normally allocated to stats, as expected, which would be used as a measurement of a person's abilities in diverse areas. Perhaps if he increased his Dexterity, he could unlock abilities related to speed?
If only he could buy a walkthrough manual for this game…
Suddenly, the moment he entered the locker room, a ping distracted him from his thoughts. He peered at the top right of his vision, where a new notification came in.
[Common Objective Revealed]
An objective!
They were about to have initiation, so it looks like he'll be finally having his first actual mission in this game! Jaune had some mixed feelings about it, since the God of Light's track record wasn't great in terms of ideas, but half of him was honestly excited to finally fight those monsters he had seen back in the cutscene before he had fought Salem. He was hoping for a similar system to Monster Hunter World, the game currently first on his wish list, with its perfect balance of skill and progression based combat, in his very objective opinion. He'd also heard some nice things about Horizon Zero Dawn, but he's still waiting for that fabled 75% off.
[Objective]: Reach "Crush" reputation with Pyrrha Nikos.
Fuck off. This isn't some kind of shitty dating sim!
Luckily for him, there was more text below the line explaining the objective.
[Reroll for 100$, 5/5 remaining]
That was why his bonus was 100?!
He ran the numbers in his head. Assuming the average price, no inflation, minimal reinvestment, the span of one year and only buying during 50% off sales… I'll be able to get at least four (moderately) recent AAA games! He wasn't about to waste his hard earned money on something stupid and useless like RNG rerolls.
Jaune took a step forward into the locker room.
On the other hand… Isn't this too much like a dating sim?
...Am I playing an RPG with dating sim mechanics?!
A shiver went up his spine.
Isn't this… kind of embarrassing?
Dating sims aren't exactly… something you would like people to know you play, right? Luckily, it's not like anybody will know. Except the gods, that is.
It's not like they gave me any choice. I'm not wasting 100$ just because of a little bit of embarrassment!
However, there was another issue, a key one in fact, that was making him hesitate. A normal dating sim was, at the end of the day, still a game. A game with stiff visuals and most likely buttons to press as choices instead of actual actions like in real life.
There's a certain detachment to the characters in any game one plays. No matter how much they are invested in the fates of the characters or how relatable those characters are, the fact that it is still a game creates a rift between the player and the NPCs that is difficult to bridge. There is just too much that is off. Leaves that sway in the wind a little too stiffly, character's expressions just a little too uncanny, or physics just deciding to turn themselves off sometimes. This means that, at the end of the day, the player knows it is a fantasy.
But that's just the thing.
From the start of this game that the gods had forced him into, Jaune could only tell it was a game by his HUD, the menus and display. During the times he had no notifications and wasn't paused in some way, everything felt scarily realistic. He could feel the stale air of the locker room against his skin, blowing against him and passing into the hallway due to the difference in pressure or temperature. The smell of sweat was subdued, covered by an overwhelming, nose-killing scent of…
I thought I escaped Axe body spray when I graduated high school.
That was not something he missed, or needed back!
Anyways, this level of nose-blinding reality was making Jaune have difficulties in separating himself entirely. He knew this was a game. The gods had said…
Wait… Why am I even trusting these gods' words?
What if this is a real world? Am I being sent into and out of an Isekai?!
[Admin]: Life is suffering. To live is to suffer. God is dead.
Never mind, they seem pretty wise.
Hey Dark. The god of Darkness was weird, but he wasn't Light, so basically he was already Jaune's best friend.
[Admin]: Greeting, Jaune. How is everything? I do apologize, by the way.
This has to be Dark. Jaune mumbled 'menu' to himself in order to pause everything in the game. Apologize for what? And in terms of myself, well, better than I expected? Don't tell your brother that, though.
[Admin]: He's still out right now.
I have a question.
[Admin]: Ask away. Remember though, I'll still have to make sure my answer still fits within Light's rules.
Jaune blinked, surprised a little at the implications. He thought back to Dark's and Light's interactions and realized he had just not noticed till now. Putting that aside for the moment, he carried on. Light did not create a new reality just to screw around with me… did he?
[Admin]: No.
An awkward silence settled back in.
Jaune would have shuffled a bit in discomfort, but he was in the menus so his body was frozen.
[Admin]: Are you agonizing over your objective?
The sudden ping from the new message almost sent him falling backwards. Yes.
[Admin]: Oh don't worry about that.
Truly, Dark was the better of the two.
[Admin]: Do whatever. Just remember I'll judge you for every single action you make.
Oh fuck off!
[Admin]: Ha!
Knowing that someone was actually watching his actions and knew his thoughts, didn't that make this whole situation worse? This was like someone watching him play a dating sim!
[Admin]: I would leave, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.
Why not?!
[Admin]: For one, remember I promised Light I would take his post till he comes back. Two, I won't be able to stop things if they go wrong.
No way for a compromise?
[Admin]: …How about this? Here, I seem to have access to not just the alternate version of my domain but his too. I'll give you one free reroll, but you can't complain about whatever new objective you get.
What's the pool of different objectives? It's probably just a bunch of crap, isn't it?
[Admin]: Let me check… there's a bunch. 'Kill a single Grimm within 1 hour of initiation', 'wield a weapon that is not your own', they all seem pretty standard.
And your brother? Won't he object?
[Admin]: What he doesn't know can't hurt him.
He can't look into the past or something?
[Admin]: ...not anytime soon, hopefully?
He doesn't look like the type to forgive...
[Admin]: He never does. That's why he
[Admin]: It's done. Free reroll.
Thanks!
Jaune eagerly pressed the reroll button, ignoring the cut off text.
[Legendary Objective Revealed]
His eyes widened. Does that mean he got something good?! Unless these rarity names came from Destiny 2, that is, where Uncommon weapons were useless, Rare pretty much trash, and Legendary being the tier of generally usable weapons.
[System]: Legendary objectives give substantially better rewards than regular objectives. Sometimes, it may be worth it to do one single legendary objective rather than a hundred regular ones!
[Reveal]
Explanations?! It isn't Dark in disguise, is it? There was no response to his thought.
Unlike the common tier objective from before, this one came packaged inside a glowing purple loot box. On it was a button he had to press - again, by looking and saying 'click' - in order to uncover it.
The moment he pressed it, confetti rained from the sky and purple light filled his vision, accompanied with fanfare. It had all the excitement of actually rolling a loot box. Did that God of Light get his game idea from trash gachas or something?
[Admin]: …
Oh, that's pretty telling without saying a word.
[System]: Your legendary objective is-
[Timed Objective] [Flirt with Weiss Schnee and reach tier 2 reputation]
[WARNING]: 360 seconds remaining
Jaune stared.
[Admin]: Pffffffft
He stared some more.
[Admin]: Ha!
He stared further.
[Admin]: How? How did you roll so badly? I think this and the last were the only two bad ones out of thousands of others!
It's because I didn't pray to Lootcifer… Jaune had realized his terrible mistake. There were times that you should curse yourself for receiving rare items. After all, just because it was rare, it didn't mean it was good. Lots of gamers have complained about such things to the developers, like for example, Warframe's relics and their Forma.
Dark? What happens if I don't complete this objective? Just some lost rewards?
[Admin]: Let me check…
[Admin]: Oh.
What?
[Admin]: You should attempt to finish this objective at all costs.
It's that bad?
[Admin]: The punishments get worse as you fail more, but the first one you get is a fate worse than death.
A fate worse than death?! He squeaked out in a tiny voice.
[Admin]: It's truly cruel.
Jaune sweated. He imagined something like Prometheus' fate, or some kind of cruel torture straight out of Game of Thrones, like its ending. It was the God of Light, after all, and he and his brother did make this world. Probably. He should ask someday.
Tell me.
[Admin]: You can't handle the truth.
I can too!
[Admin]: Even just reading it gives me echoes of pain.
I… are you kidding me?
[Admin]: Once your eyes are opened, Jaune, they can never be closed again. Are you willing to take the risk?
...Seriously, what is it?
[Admin]: Upon the failure of your first objective, you shall be tied up and forced to watch videos from the dark side of youtube for 10 hours.
It took a moment for the implications to settle in for Jaune. "That still doesn't sound too bad. I can survive 10 hours of kazoo kid."
[Admin]: Yes, but can you survive 10 hours of Spiderman and Elsa PreGanAnTE?
He was quiet.
[WARNING]: 240 seconds remaining!
"Menu." He snapped into action, rushing into the room as time resumed, almost tripping over someone else's weapon case.
Well, at least flirting wasn't very hard. Jaune was a master at flirting. He was more concerned about how he had no idea who Weiss Schnee was and had only about two hundred seconds to figure it out and get into her good graces.
But Jaune… was not an idiot.
He was in a video game, and more often than not, names were pretty on the nose. Ruby's name was a shade of red and she had partially red hair. Someone, namely the bunny girl from before, was referred to as 'Bun', which again, was pretty on the nose. Unless it was a nickname. And Pyrrha's name is…
Was 'Pyrrha' a color?
The only thing he could think of that was similar was the Py - Py - Pyrrhagorean Theorem or whatever it was called, and wasn't that just about triangles?
I guess Pyrrha… is kind of triangular?
'Weiss Schnee' did not ring any bells either for him. Jaune realized that this wasn't about to work without some googling and he didn't have time to figure out his new phone. He decided to try anyways though, and took it out, because taking a few seconds clicking random apps and trying to figure out which one was the web browser wasn't that hard. He ended up opening a photo gallery app, then a clock app.
Dark… some help?
He received no answer.
Seems like he's busy.
[WARNING]: 200 seconds remaining!
Should he ask around? Wouldn't he look like a creepy stalker? He did not want to look like a creepy stalker, video game world or not.
Jaune racked his brain for any other hints, putting his phone away.
I forgot one example of names being on the nose. My name is Jaune, which is french for yellow, and I'm blond. Perhaps I heard Pyrrha's name wrong? Maybe it was… Pyr-red?
…
…
It fits! I'm a fucking genius! Yeah, it sounded a little like 'pirate', but also like 'pure red', as in hair!
Weiss must then be pronounced 'White' or something! Who knows, foreign names always have weird pronunciations. Might be German or something.
Jaune ran past a bunch of lockers, searching for a white haired girl.
[WARNING]: 160 seconds remaining!
Finally, he found someone with white hair. This girl was the same one who had interacted with Ruby, so there was a high chance of her being an important character. She was alone, interacting with the contents of her locker. Jaune wiped his sweaty palms on his shorts.
He marched confidently towards the lone girl and slammed his hand against the locker beside her.
"Good morning, Snow Angel." He drawled playfully.
Beads of sweat gathered on Jaune's forehead as he casually leaned against the row of weapon lockers, stupid grin on his face. His hand hurt.
The girl stilled for a second in disbelief, before turning to face him gradually with the iciest blue gaze he had ever seen.
His smile broke for a second, recognizing the face.
Isn't this…? Nevermind that. Is my pose wrong? He shifted his stance, attempting to look more confident. You see, the secret to getting girls is all in your hips.
"Are you mentally deficient?"
What? "What?"
"Clearly, you have no idea who you are talking to."
"I know I'm talking to a pretty girl who's just my type." He winked.
"And I'm talking to a clown who's wasting my time."
Using his twenty years of experience, Jaune knew exactly what kind of situation this was. It was obvious. Truly, whoever thought that women's hearts were a mystery was an idiot.
She was playing hard to get! If she wasn't, she would have given me the cold shoulder!
She spun on her heels and stomped away, giving him the cold shoulder.
Jaune wasn't one to not take a hint.
He collapsed to his knees.
Mission Failed. We'll get them next time.
Then, like Mufasa's spiritual head appearing in the clouds above the young Simba at his darkest hour, the words of Jaune's father echoed in his head.
"All you need is confidence, Son."
Fuck you, Dad!
Standing back up, he dejectedly watched the side of his screen as the mission countdown did its thing beside a stream of negative reputation point gains.
"Can it at least be 10 hours of japanese spiderman instead?"
[Relationships]: Rank Down! Successfully reached: Deadbeat.
[Relationships]: Rank Down! Successfully reached: Whitley.
[Timed Objective]: Tier 2 (Negative) Rank Reached.
[Mission Complete]
He blinked.
[Loot]: Legendary Reward Pack Awarded!
Er, wha-
[System]: Congratulations!
He gave himself a big thumbs up.
"All according to plan."
[Admin]: Also, you should be ashamed, japanese Supaidāman is a classic.
/-A-Requiem-for-a-Gamer-/
Jaune's eyes snapped open. The transition was incredibly sudden, leaving him disorientated for a good second before he realized his face was mashed against his keyboard.
He yawned and stretched. Somehow, he wasn't sore anywhere even though he had slept in such a terrible position. That wasn't the only good surprise this morning, though. Additionally, beside him on his desk, a bunch of coins were in a bag placed on his wallet. Must be the coins the God of Light was peeling. That prank with the chocolate coins really backfired on the god.
Leisurely, he stood up and went to make breakfast for himself. He hadn't woken up too late and his story was finished, so he had plenty of time. He casually filled up the coffee machine, scratching at his butt, then strolled around his tiny kitchen gathering up ingredients for his lunch.
Fifteen minutes later, he was in the bathroom, checking out his face in the mirror to make sure he wasn't getting any new pimples.
"Gah!"
As he was doing it, an eyelash fell into his eye.
He spent another five minutes trying to get that out. For some reason, this time it was especially illusive.
Brushing his teeth, he stared at his handsome self in his mirror. What can he say, he's got the face of a winner!
Suddenly, he paused, toothbrush still in his mouth. Approaching the mirror, he opened his mouth wider and tried to see the back of his throat better in his reflection.
He shrugged when he saw nothing and continued brushing his teeth.
After washing his face, Jaune checked his emails.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the econ exam will be postponed…
"Thank god!"
There was also some spam, like one that really pulled at his nostalgia.
"Important!" He read out loud. "This is not a joke! You must send this to ten other people or EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND LOVE WILL DIE!" He made sure to yell out the capitals.
He clicked delete.
A glance at the clock told him it was almost time to leave. Jaune sighed and opened up his folders, ready to print the story that he had written.
Now, where did I save it…
He stilled.
"Fuck!"
The game world was so realistic that he had completely forgotten he hadn't actually written it in the real world yet! Jaune did quick mafs to figure out he had only ten minutes left before he had to leave.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!"
He furiously typed at the keyboard, attempting to rewrite it from memory.
Yes, Jaune was sometimes an idiot.
/-/
Half an hour later, he crumpled into the seat beside Ren. Seeing his state, his friend helpfully didn't comment on the obvious.
"Did you finish the PSY assignment last minute again?" asked Nora, leaning over her desk and on her hands.
"Yeah…" Jaune muttered, before he realized what she had said. "Hey, I actually finished early this time, but I lost the other copy!"
"Right~" Nora rolled her eyes.
"What did you write about for yours?" Ren calmly asked.
In response to Ren's question, Jaune groggily opened his bag and half-hazardly dropped a stack of papers in front of his friend. Ren picked it up and flipped through them.
Five minutes later, he put it down.
"This was actually really good."
Jaune perked up. "Really?"
Ren hummed. "You could feel the emotions of the main character through her struggles as if they were personally affecting the reader. I was shocked by how much I sympathized with the main character's plight."
Jaune laughed. "Oh, it's not that good…" He felt a little bit embarrassed by the high praise. Ren rarely praised anything that much.
"What an incredible portrayal of the hypocrisies and dynamics of parenthood."
Hm? "That's… not the main point?"
"Yes, but it's written in between the lines. The desperate plea of the daughter as she was strangled by expectation, her delicate heart crushed by people she loved…" Ren blinked tears away that had sneaked up on him earlier.
Ren, crying?! The same Ren that hardly ever shows any strong emotions?
Jaune tilted his head. He had generally a great relationship with his family, so he had no idea what his friend was talking about!
"Truly, you must have put your heart and soul into this. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all the personal experience of an especially sensitive person. Were you inspired by a testimony on the internet?"
Jaune blinked slowly.
"The only thing bringing this down is honestly the atrocious spelling and grammar mistakes. It really brings the whole thing down, like spraying ink over the Mona Lisa. It could honestly be called a crime. Whoever this is based off was putting herself in an especially vulnerable situation."
Jaune stared. "Can I have that back please?"
Ren handed it back.
"Thank you."
Jaune burst out of the classroom with the assignment and his bag.
"But class - !" Ren yelled from faraway.
"I'm skipping!"
Pyr-red, I'm sorryyyy!
/-/
Jaune nervously stood in front of a billboard at his university. For the first time since forever, he was reading the posters nailed to it, heart pounding in his chest.
I have two hours till the due date. I need this to be looked over, ASAP!
There were tutors available for Biology, Math, and other subjects. He picked the first one related to English writing and called. He spoke quickly. Luckily for him, the tutor was free. However, due to the sudden request, the payment was doubled, which sucked, but Jaune didn't really care at this point.
Five minutes later, he arrived at the designated meeting spot in a Sunbucks.
'I'm here'. He typed and sent the text on his phone.
'Good. I'll be there in a second, please find us a seat.' Came the reply.
Jaune looked around the crowded place. There was only a spot left at the far corner, a bit isolated from the rest since it was by the washroom. He occupied the table and sent a message with his position. Now, there was nothing to do but scroll through social media and wait.
"Hello, are you the one who needed help on his literature assign… ment?" A woman's voice trailed off.
Jaune looked up.
It was a familiar white haired woman.
His left eye twitched.
"You!" She almost screeched.
Why is it always her?!
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
[Echoes of Yang Xiao-Long]
Oczt xvggzy czm v ymvbji ajm czm zvmoc-ncvfdib apmt.
Cjrzqzm, azr zskzxozy v ndibgz ovgji wzorzzi czm nxvgzn oj wz czm piyjdib.
Vgvn, zqzi wmdggdvio gdbcon rdgg xzvnz oj wpmi.
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
A/N: Poor Weiss, always having to deal with Jaune. Wait, I have it backwards.
Next Chapter: April 25, 2021