Viscus stood in front of the junkyard, hesitating on whether he was making the right decision or not. It was noon by the time he left the hotel, and he had more than enough time to make a choice on his next action regarding crafting.

He thought about what constituted crafting, whether disassembling objects and reassembling them qualified as such, but he couldn't test his hypothesis with the guns in his inventory or the alarm by his bed. It also didn't help that he didn't have a kit to try anything with.

The blond stepped through the entrance and began walking to the warehouse inside, nervousness filling him. He thought hard on who he should approach to help him, but it wasn't as if he had a large list of people to go to. Starting from the bottom of the list was Mr. L, a person who most likely had many contacts who could help Viscus with what he needed, but the blond felt his blood boil even thinking about that man.

The next on the list was Blayne, but she, too, was met with the same response. Viscus didn't know what was up with Vacuo and it being filled with hateful people, but he couldn't dismiss her as fast as he did the information broker. She, at least, gave him a promise of access to training and the equipment, if for a price.

But he still felt revolted at approaching her, which led him to his last choice, the junkyard guys. While he wanted to consider them as his last choice, they were still, comparatively, the people who treated him best. While they only interacted for a brief period, he couldn't help but feel the sincerity, or at least he wanted to imagine it so.

As he navigated through the pile of metallic and plastic junk, he found himself in front of the warehouse where one man stood outside smoking. The blond took a deep breath and approached him, but halfway through he was shown an open palm telling him to stop.

"Anything I can help you with?" The man stomped on the spent cigarette.

"Yeah, I'm here to meet Diver, I think it was his name? I need help with something," Viscus was met with a raised brow and a "Huh?"

"Never seen you here before," the man motioned for Viscus to come, "I'll let you meet him in a sec'."

The Gamer gulped and moved forward, unconsciously preparing his Aura and Mana for any surprises. As they entered through the metal door, he was first greeted with a blast of smoke, making him cough. The smell of cigarette smoke was covered by that of metal and burnt plastic, but his eyes widened as he sidestepped a man running with a mountain of junk, some of which slipped and nearly dropped on the blond.

"Watch it!" Viscus called out, but it came out to no avail as two other guys with similarly stacked junk sandwiched him.

He was spun and forced to fall to the ground, his ears ringing from the deluge of sounds, most of which the Gamer couldn't decipher. A piece of junk fell on his head like a cherry on top, making him yelp.

Grumbling, he was quickly pulled up by the first guy he met with an apologetic whisper before they were on their way. Viscus's eyes then danced as he saw flashes of light and he nearly tripped as an explosion came somewhere from his right along with a loud yell.

It was then the Gamer began worrying whether they were a danger to him or themselves, and the idea reinforced when they had to dodge another group of people on the way, though it appeared that they were chasing after a guy with screwdrivers in their hands.

"I-is it always this hectic?" Viscus wondered outloud, and he was met with a chuckle.

"What do you mean? This is quite calm," the man said with a relaxed tone, making the blond gulp.

The Gamer's eyes wandered as they walked, some of the busyness easing off as they entered deeper within the place. The warehouse was open with a lot of space, including many rooms separated by walls of welded metal and even catwalks above them with men walking and running across them. It was as if Viscus was walking in the middle of a factory, making him wonder what they were even doing.

One of the men running ahead appeared to be the man Viscus rescued, though it seemed like the man, Tricky, didn't notice him and moved along. The blond was curious how busy the place could be if this was "calm."

From the glimpses Viscus saw, the men and women, both human and faunus, were hauling things and working with machines and equipment that he couldn't help but imagine himself in their places. Expectations began piling up in his mind, but he worked to curb them. Too many times did his expectations fail him, and he didn't want this time to be counted as well.

On the way, Viscus felt a hand on his shoulder guiding him forward and away from the bustle. He nearly shoved the man away but held himself back, and they were soon interrupted midway as they saw a gradient of orange to red hair bump into them.

"Yo' Ive, found this guy looking for Diver, can you lead him there? I think-" another explosion rang through the building, a scream following. "The boys need me."

The man, Ive, nodded, and accompanied Viscus on the way. "Thought I wouldn't see you again from the way you acted last time."

Viscus nervously chuckled, "I kinda need your help."

Ive stared at the blond from above, his honey colored eyes seemingly staring at Viscus's soul, "Well, you wouldn't be here if you didn't. So, what's wrong?"

"I, uh.." Viscus gulped. "I wanted to learn what you guys did, like that guy!"

He pointed at one of the guys working with some electronics, only for the item in his hand to pop. The blond's face darkened, "Maybe not like him.."

Laughing, Ive slapped Viscus on the back a couple of times, "I see, I see. Viscus, right? Diver wouldn't mind, I'm sure."

Soon enough, after navigating through the maze that was this warehouse, they were in front of a room at the opposite side of the warehouse from where Viscus entered. The wall of the room was plastered with many posters, some of which were indecent, some were posters for bands like Achieve Men, and between them a window with one half boarded and the other showing a man with grass-colored mohawk hair walking from side to side. He wasn't that visible for Viscus, but the blond couldn't forget how this man looked.

Thanking Ive, Viscus opened the wooden brown door and was met with an open space. It was exposed to the outside with an open garage door at the back, and between it and Viscus was Diver. He glanced at the blond with his clear emerald eyes while watering a couple pots of cacti exposed to the sunlight through the doorway.

The door closed behind Viscus, startling him in the face of Diver's raised brow. "Surprised you're here."

"Well, I, uh.." Viscus struggled. "I-"

"Here for the drink I promised you? Sure, give me a few," he said as he continued to water the plants.

Rubbing his forehead, the Gamer took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Okay, so, I've been wanting to make stuff like you guys are doing, and uh," the blond stuttered. "I wondered if you were open for me to join?" His voice diminished to a whisper at the end.

Diver put down the watering can while staring at the blond, tilting his head in apparent confusion. "We'd be happy to have you, but have you got any experience with what we're doing?"

"..I can tie in a screw?"

Flabbergasted, Diver shook his head. "O-kay. Let's go find you something to do, but before that, I need your word on something."

Viscus urged the man to continue, "Alright, I don't know how you guys play in Atlas, but when you join us, you become part of the gang, part of the family. So, give me your word that you wouldn't harm any one of us."

".. I'm not an Atlesian, but I promise you that I'm not here to harm you guys. I just want to learn how to make things."

"Everyone here has a reason for being here," Diver grasped Viscus's shoulder tightly. "And I respect yours. Now, I do believe I know who can help you start out."

Gulping, the blond nodded and they left the room. Backtracking through the warehouse led to a room where Viscus heard two men shouting at each other. The voices were muffled through the door, but the owner of one of the voices was exposed to be Tricky, and he was yelling about something Viscus couldn't understand.

"I told you, man! I need this type of plastic, not.. This!" he pointed at a molten piece of plastic, and he was met with a shaking head.

"Tricky." Diver interrupted them and Tricky stood upright. "Remember this guy?"

"Oh! You, your name was.. "

"Viscus," he sighed.

"Right, don't think you gave me your name before. Thanks for helping me, Viscus," he walked up to the blond and shook his hand, then he looked at Diver. "Whaddya need me for, boss?"

The other man in the room excused himself before Diver began speaking. "Our friend Viscus here wanted to learn our craft, don't you think you're up for the job?"

Tricky's cyan eyes widened, "I'm getting me an assistant!?"

"Sure, but take care of him, will you? I've got something to do now, so I'll leave you be. Welcome to the family, Viscus." Diver tapped them both on the shoulder before leaving, and the room was soon inhabited by only two.

"So, uh, what are we going to do?" Viscus asked.

"Aight, V, let's start some work," Tricky began rubbing his hands, excitement seeping out of him.

"But I don't know how to do this work," the blond grumbled. "That's why I'm here."

"Don't worry about it. You just do this and that, and bam! Things happen!"

The Gamer didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It felt like he was left with the least competent member of the team.

"I know where to start!" Tricky ran off to one deep end of the room where a bunch of junk lay. "Not this, no, nope."

"... It's not here. Where did-" he snapped his fingers. "They took it! Gimme a sec', I'll go get it."

Before Viscus could respond, the man dashed out of the room, and the blond was left on his lonesome, the smell of burnt plastic wafting through the air. He was incredibly confused at the speed at which everything was moving. He expected to have a long talk with Diver before being given a tour of the place and introduced to some of the people, not just thrown to the same guy he saved for some reason.

Viscus's face darkened as he considered the idea that he was handed to the least capable man in this place. Tricky looked like he knew what he was talking about, but something about him didn't mesh well with the Gamer.

As soon as he looked toward the door, he heard yet another boom and he felt some regret at approaching them and not Blayne. The way the place was run didn't give him high hopes, to the point where he began thinking about going back to Diver and telling him he didn't feel like it anymore.

Before he could take a single step out, Tricky barged in smoking and charred with a block in his hand. "I got it!"

"Is.. is that an alarm clock?"

"Yep, and I need you to take it apart. C'mon, it's gonna be easy."

Viscus sighed and took the object, "I need a screwdriver if I want to disassemble it."

"Feel free to use the tools on the desk. I'm gonna be busy doing some stuff, but don't hesitate to ask me any questions. I owe you that much." Tricky smiled.

Giving up, Viscus walked to the desk and grabbed a screwdriver before beginning to work on the clock.

[Crafting Unlocked]

He blinked before chuckling, "Guess it's going to be worthwhile, huh."

"You betcha!" Tricky said as he pulled the goggles to his eyes, to which Viscus just shook his head and continued his work.

-CEM-

Viscus stared at the pile of parts in his hands, the remnants of what was an old digital clock. His brow twitched while he was trying to reassemble it into something coherent, but every time he would manage to misplace a certain part or forget about another entirely.

On the other hand, the System was clearly enjoying itself having given him experience for the disassembling, but he had yet to go past level 0 crafting. He thought about asking Tricky for help, but a part of him staunchly refused to do so. It definitely would have been faster, but it couldn't have been that hard, would it?

"It's a simple clock. C'mon, Viscus," he whispered to himself, but it looked like the other inhabitant heard him speak.

"Need help, V?" Tricky leaned away from his work, a mishmash of a hairdryer and some motor. Viscus shook his head, but Tricky didn't seem to find humor in that.

"Look," he grabbed two large pieces from the blond's table and put them together. "That goes like that, and this.."

The Gamer reluctantly followed along the more experienced mechanic, and within a few minutes the alarm was back in tiptop shape, though the digital screen only had half of it working. Regardless, the act seemed to fit with the System's standards and he saw an increase in [Crafting], but it was only 20% of a level.

On the topic of [Crafting], he couldn't help but note how it appeared differently in his skill list. For some reason, rather than being a single skill, it was divided into subskills, and he didn't see the skill experience increase without one of the subskills improving.

He only had two subskills, [Misc. Object Disassembly], and another called [Misc. Object Assembly]. Both, however, did not have any levels. Rather, they were only out of a percentage, and he didn't know how the System made it function. Was it that when they reached 100% that they stopped giving him [Crafting] experience, or did the System work on another basis?

Sighing, he put down the alarm on the desk and stared as his mentor worked. Tricky was hard at work fiddling with the mysterious hair dryer-motor, where half the object was made up of an amalgamation of colored wires.

While staring, the blond noted the mechanic's apparel, a blue tank top drenched in sweat while covering what Viscus could perceive as lean muscle within a lanky frame, most likely due to lugging around junk. The man's cyan eyes were seemingly glimmering and focused, to the point where the blond imagined Tricky tuning out the whole world in favor of his work.

In a bid to learn a thing or two, Viscus studied the orange haired mechanic, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't understand what was happening. "Hey, Tricky, what exactly are you trying to do here?"

Tricky hummed, briefly glancing at Viscus, "I'm trying to make a super hair dryer with the strength of a bullhead engine!"

"R-really?" Viscus blinked at the reason. "That's.. Interesting?"

"Interesting? It's groundbreaking! No longer shall I spend minutes drying my hair, no, it will be dried in seconds!" he waved with his arms. "And y'know what's the best thing about it? If I'm right, I can blast objects across the room with its sheer blowing power!"

"Right.." The blond shook his head and looked back at the alarm.

When he looked at its blinking numbers, he felt as if it was challenging him to fix its dead half. Clearly, he messed up some connection somewhere, but his amateurish self had yet to discover where. He groaned before leaning on the plastic chair, then he looked at his inventory.

Out of his many assortment of guns, most of them were empty and he had no ammo to reload them with. "Maybe I could.."

"Woah woah woah! Calm yourself!" Tricky nearly fell from his chair. "Why'd you pull out a gun, man!"

Confused, Viscus put down the gun on the table and looked at Tricky, "I want to disassemble it."

"Hey man, I don't mind you doing what you want, but I'll have you know I'm banned from coming near any weapons. Could you please put it back and we'll say nothing happened?"

Viscus felt a bit ticked, but he sighed and stored it in his pocket (inventory). That made the mechanic calm down, but the blond couldn't help but wonder what warranted such a response. It wasn't as if he was pointing it at anyone, but he wasn't given the chance to think about more before Tricky took out a new object for Viscus to play with.

"Here, a calculator."

The blond took it but not before glancing at the clock. "Okay, but could you help me understand the electronics after I dismantle it?"

"Y-yeah, yeah, sure. Just.. try not to pull out another gun around me, or I'll get in trouble, okay, V?" he said shakely to which Viscus slowly nodded.

The day was still young, and Viscus had nothing to do other than improve his crafting. At least he began working on it, but he couldn't help but lament the fact that he could have started on it earlier.

If it was as simple as disassembling and reassembling objects, then he could have just bought himself a toolkit and browsed from mechanical and electronic guides. In any case, he still felt some enjoyment from being directly mentored, and at the end of the day, he just got access to a near infinite amount of junk to break down.

He looked at the calculator while his mind wandered. "Maybe I made the right choice," he mumbled. "Maybe going to Blayne wouldn't have been the right idea."

After all, starting from 0 at a weapons workshop didn't sound like the best idea. More likely than not, he would have adapted and learned quickly, especially with the assistance of the System, but in the junkyard he had more freedom.

A small smile rose from his lips. It felt better for him to do something so innocent like tearing down random objects. He still knew, however, that all of it was going to lead to him making weapons for war, something that stoked his inner child, but also terrified his maturer mind.

He couldn't help but pause midway through unscrewing, a realization coming to his mind. What if Viscus wasn't actually doing anything of value? What if, in reality, he was wasting his time with, as the System categorized it, miscellaneous junk? If the [Crafting] skill had subskills, then wouldn't it have been better if he started at Life's Guard?

Groaning, he felt conflicted. On one hand, he might have some use for these subskills, but on the other, he wasn't leveling what was most important, his capability for making weapons and armor.

Hesitantly, he checked the skill before palming his face.

[-Crafting Lv0 (35%) : Passive/Active

Current maximum grade: Extremely Low

Subskills:

-Misc. Object Disassembly (4%)

-Misc. Object Assembly (3%)]

After a brief thought, he understood what it was doing. More likely than not, his [Crafting] level was associated with the subskills in total, so even if he started by learning the weapon related subskills, he would have still needed to augment it by some other subskill to raise the skill's level, in turn raising his maximum grade to something more than "Extremely Low."

The grind of it didn't enthuse Viscus, but it still showed that he had a lot of work ahead of him, starting with the half-screwed calculator. So he worked, and he began feeling more at home dealing with it. He may have told Diver that he could only tie in a screw, but it wasn't the full truth.

At home, his friend would often grab a random assortment of old items to tear down, and more often than not Viscus would assist him. Personally, Viscus wasn't that interested in electronics, but he wasn't a complete amateur at it. Anyone could unscrew anything with the right tool, after all.

The System appeared to not consider his skills from his time pre-Remnant, nor did it consider his own parameters either. It started him as 10s across the board, so it either normalized him, or the numbers just had no meaning.

Clicking his tongue, he pulled out the last screw and the pieces were left sprawling on the table with wires connecting them. "I'm done, Tricky. Are you free now?"

Humming in agreement, the mechanic finished soldering a wire before turning to the blond. Readying himself for the lecture, Viscus dragged his chair closer and grabbed the calculator.

"Alright, let's start with this part. That's the battery, and.."

For nearly 30 minutes the man explained while Viscus listened intently. Halfway through the blond flinched as a notification appeared for him about gaining a new subskill called [Electronics].

"Anything wrong?" Tricky tilted his head, but Viscus shook his head before urging him to continue.

Fortunately, after the lecture was done, Viscus found that his skill was near leveled, so he rushed to reassemble the calculator, and he smiled happily as it turned on instantly. "One thing done right, finally."

While his mentor was diving through the junk in the corner of the room, a man barged through the door, whipping his head left and right. "Hey, seen Tricky?"

"He's right there?" Viscus pointed.

"Tricky! The Dust lady is here, get the stuff."

Breaking his head out of the pile, the cyan eyed man hurried to get up, nearly tumbling, but he stabilized himself quick enough before running to a cabinet and grabbing a mixer-like machine. It was too large for that, though, and it had too many wires protruded out of it.

"Wait a min', V. I'll be back soon," he said before rushing outside without waiting for a response.

"Okay.." he shook his head before looking back at the table.

Tricky had yet to bring him anything new to disassemble, so Viscus stood up and walked out of the room, wanting to take a breather. Said breather was difficult due to the smells, but it was better than the staleness of the room, if even by a small margin.

As he walked, he checked the rooms and the open areas, noticing the presence of large machines and projects of various sizes that lay in pieces on the tables.

The blond paused midway to consider an issue. He was too afraid to disassemble and break the guns he had, and the lack of a guide further dissuaded him from doing so, but he might be able to acquire some help if he asked around. Maybe Ive or Diver could point him to someone, he thought to himself.

After asking around for the two's locations, the mechanics pointed him to the entrance. A minute later, after weaving through the busy and narrow walkways, Viscus exited the warehouse, finding Tricky, Ive, and Diver talking to a woman with black hair. They appeared to be arguing about something with Tricky waving his arms around animatedly while the "Dust lady" shook her head.

On spotting the Gamer, Ive separated from the group and walked to him. "Hey, Diver told me he stuck you to Tricky. You good?"

"Yeah, he's a pretty good teacher."

Ive hummed, "Say, can you go help the boys get the supplies from the van? They're right there."

Hesitantly, Viscus nodded. He didn't quite like the idea of becoming manual labor for the group, but he had to accept if he was to continue learning from them and using their resources. Though, he knew one thing for sure, and that was, soon enough, he would start working on the pile of guns in his inventory, and he would go past the perpetual usage of "Extremely Low" quality equipment.

But until then, he had some more junk to tear down, and later that night, another hunt.

Slowly but surely, he was approaching his goal. "Too slow," he grumbled. "Way too slow?"

"Huh?" one of the haulers responded.

"Nothing!" Viscus shook his head.

'Maybe I should start thinking out loud less,' he thought embarrassedly.

So it was that easy? Surely not..

I was supposed to release this chapter yesterday but I was kinda busy, sorry.

If possible, Pasta also wanted to know your opinion regarding Viscus as a character. Did he feel unique, or was he just another blank slate? It's been 19 chapters (prologue + 18), which I assume should be enough to form an opinion.

And the System. Do you like it this far? Hate it? Do you want to see more of it, or do you think its current pattern is good as is?

The rest of the cast, too. Do they feel unique to you, or are they just cardboard boxes, as some may describe.

Questions, questions, but no one to answer.

In any case, I hope this chapter sees you well, and till the next one!