Jaune awoke, and beheld a bright light.
It surrounded his prone form, and was all that he could see. Beneath him was a soft and springy surface, but not quite a bed. He rather liked the odd texture.
There's no sound in this strange space, nor any scents. And as recent memories flowed into his mind, reminding him of the ruined body that lay beyond saving, he noted with relief that there was a lack of pain, too. The afterlife wasn't so bad, then. A bit boring, but that may just be the sort of opinion typical of someone who died following a series of unbelievable events.
One thing stood out of place in this picture. He seemed to be gripping an object in his left hand. Lightweight, compact, cool to the touch, with a slight curvature to smooth out the edges… hold one scroll and you've held them all, certain features have become a mainstay among the devices.
Now, why would a ghost have need of a scroll? Who's he going to call?
He'd prefer not to imagine that the CCT service has expanded beyond the land of the living, because then there would truly be no escape from its terrible grasp. Let's consider the other possibility then, that this scroll was the same one he swiped from Jax, which meant—
With a surge of anticipation, Jaune pushed off to sit upright, and the capsule encasing him smoothly opened to reveal that the bright light was not all there was to see. Gray walls, white ceiling, a tiled floor. A bed to fit one. Table and chairs. A kitchen on the far side, and an open door nearby through which he glimpsed a shower stall. This room bore the hallmarks of a studio apartment, spacious but sparsely furnished. Too dull to be heaven, too restful to be hell, never had a sight so mundane filled his heart with such joy.
He smacked his own face. There was pain.
Jaune lived.
A whoop, and he bounced to his feet, dancing a jig in celebration. He almost fell over midway when the futuristic capsule began to fade into nothingness until only the word 'MedPod 720i' stenciled on the side of the machine hung in midair, before it too blinked out a second later. Waving his hands around the spot where it had been confirmed that it did not turn invisible, but vanished.
"Whoa, this is straight out of sci-fi!"
Then, his jaw practically dropped to the floor when he raised his head. There, on the other side of where the capsule used to reside, a window allowed him to peer out at the world beyond. What floor was he even on? Way, way down there a city sat, so distant that he cannot pick out the details. Clouds were floating lower than his vantage point.
Nobody would call him a well-traveled person, what with boats and Bullheads being akin to prolonged torture sessions for him, but he did attend school and the teachers there have shown pictures of Remnant's four main cities. None of the Kingdoms have managed to build anything like this. The technology just wasn't there.
And above? Above floated another planet. Not a moon. A planet. He can make out the landmasses from here.
Jaune had the slightest of suspicions that he wasn't on Remnant anymore.
-o-
As callous as it sounded, the novelty wore off. After staring at the sights for an indeterminable amount of time, he tore his gaze from the view to explore the room. Also, to find a shirt, because while the capsule had cleaned off the blood on his clothes, it did not repair them. His tattered rag of a top covered him with the effectiveness of strings. His pants fared better, and might have increased in value, considering the strange fashion surrounding ripped jeans.
Unfortunately, the apartment proved a stark contrast from the fantastical view outside. What he saw was what he got. Its barebone state extended to personal belongings, and even food, of which there existed none. By the looks of it, nobody had set foot in this place before him. As for leaving the room, the lack of a door put quite a damper on that idea.
Yeah, someone built a room with no exit, then dropped him in it. The scroll promised power, but seemed content to instead grant him a slow, half-naked death. He did discover a big metal disc in the corner that the sci-fi movies he watched would suggest might be a teleporter, but no amount of poking or prodding (or stomping or screaming activation catchphrases) have freed him from this place.
In the midst of his confusion, he turned to the scroll for aid. It brought him here, so what else can it do?
"I'm on an alien planet, and I still ended up with my face in a scroll. Maybe mom was right about my generation being addicted." Jaune said to himself as he sat on the bed, device in hand.
The message advertising an 'emergency recall' had closed itself. In its place was a basic black background, superimposed by a white ring on which app icons rested at equidistance. In the center of the circle were two words:
~The Company~
"The company of…what? "Jaune scratched his head. "Did they make the apps? The scroll itself? That lifesaving capsule?" His gaze alighted on an icon of a shopping basket, and a spark of hope blossomed. The notification had mentioned the ability to buy powers. "A teleporting portable hospital sure sounds like a power, so maybe the answer is all the above."
He tapped on the icon and…and a marketplace of impossible, wondrous potential unfolded before his eyes. Waifus, Skills, Weapons, Armors, Vehicles, Homes, Pets, Medical—oh, my!
Power, and more, lay at his fingertips… obtainable with a currency called Points, of which he had a balance of zero as noted on the top left of the app screen. Likely due to the lack of funds, the shop had deactivated the corresponding purchase buttons for each item. Still, a man can browse.
A few of the listed categories, he didn't really get—the Waifu tab and the figurines on sale in its catalog, especially. By the actions of some mad corporate executive, these dolls carried the highest prices on average when he compared a sample of items from each category. It rekindled his worries that this was all make-believe until he found the capsule that saved him under the Medical section. The price differential between a toy and a groundbreaking piece of tech was mind-boggling, to say the least, but the presence of what he had seen with his very eyes to be an actual object served to convince him that the spam mail he opened had followed through on one of its claims. And, maybe, all the rest.
Jaune stopped there for a while, sitting stock still and nearly in tears with relief at the idea that the end of the world had been put on pause, that his friends and family were safely frozen in time at this moment. Frozen, and waiting. Once he regained his composure, he dove back into the shopping app with renewed eagerness.
Weapons, that's the ticket. He needed the means to beat back the untold number of Grimm, White Fang, and murderous robots, along with the dragon(!) and the fire lady.
…He also caught a glimpse of what had looked like a giant robot during his descent from the locker, but that had to be his imagination, right? Better safe than sorry, he'd add it to the list.
Maliwan Volcano
Universe: Borderlands
Pele demands a sacrifice!
A simple sniper rifle that sets your enemies on fire with exploding bullets.
Lightsaber (Purple)
Universe: Star Wars
The weapon of a Jedi, an elegant weapon of a more civilized age. Utilize its plasma blade to cut flesh and blast doors, alike. Also the weapon of a Sith. And of General Grievous.
Commonly found in blue, green, or red. This one's purple.
Way cool, but he needed a bigger oomph. Jaune adjusted the sorting function, typing in a random 38,542 as the lower price limit. The items shown now were a lot more ornate, many sporting strange energies and motifs.
Khartoth the Bloodhunger
Universe: Warhammer 40K
A Daemon Weapon of Khorne—the Blood God, the Lord of Skulls, the Lord of Blood, the Lord of Rage, the Lord of Battle, etc. Capable of cutting through not only matter, but also time. May or may not send wielder into a blood frenzy from which there is no return.
Tome of Meteor Shower
Universe: Magicka
Knowledge is power. Use this tome to learn the magick (that's magic with a 'k'!) Meteor Shower, and summon a barrage of meteorites to bombard your enemies.
Warning: Low chance of setting the planet on fire.
Drops of nervous sweat poured down his brows. These ones, and others like them, have a bit too much oomph. Then again, when it came to fighting the forces of darkness, he'd rather start with overkill and work his way down. Ruby, whose dream involved building a gun that can blast through ten Grimms and level the building behind them with one bullet should the need arise, would certainly agree.
Experimentally, he pressed the grayed-out purchase button.
Tome of Meteor Shower
Points Cost: 157,000
Points Balance: 0
Insufficient Points. Unable to purchase.
Sadness.
Ah well, the scroll already warned him of his empty budget. What he wanted to know about were the methods by which he could acquire these 'Points'. He did spy a 'Sell' tab, but his current possessions consisted of a pair of pants, boxers, and sneakers. Not exactly worthy items of trade barring some bonkers exchange rates.
Exiting the marketplace, he moved on to the other apps in search of answers.
The next icon displayed a rectangle with lines of scribbles. It opened up to a page bearing the heading 'Contract Terms'. Before he could panic over having to read, a notification materialized.
Error, Inactive Contract. The app shut down, and turned gray.
Well, crap.
On the one hand, no legalese. Yay! On the other hand, it appeared that certain functions of the scroll were tied to Jax and they ended with his…end. Depending on how the other apps turned out, he might be in a spot of trouble.
He tried another program, and arrived at a page reminiscent of a video game status screen.
Name: Jax Darkphenix
Level 45
HP 0/0
State: Dead
Oh, sure, remind him of his crime forevermore.
He didn't want to hurt Jax, but there are things you just don't do! Lines to never cross. Stabbing your allies in the back was right up there at the top. He had to stop him. A-and he got shot for it, didn't he? Fair's fair!
Jaune forced himself to continue on, swiping past that section to hide the damning words to reach a series of stats. Lacking a reference for where the numbers stood in relation to a typical Huntsman, he skimmed over them. The CHARM stat outpaced the others by a large margin, though. Fitting for the guy.
Past that was the [Skills] list…
Holy crap, you can just buy the ability to talk to women!?
…which at first sounded amazing for its diverse and useful effects. Yet, once he read through the later entries, his heart wasn't in it anymore. He left the status screen at speed, and put the scroll down on the bed. Then, he curled up into a little ball.
[Excuse my Mistralian], [Once is an Accident], [A Second Shot at Love], [Third Time's the CHARM], [Sharing is Caring], [All Your Waifus are Belong to Us Lv.1],and a whole lot more whose descriptions were…
When it stopped being about improving oneself, and became manipulating the minds of the people around them, that's when a person should know they'd gone too far. He'd always wondered why Team RWBY accepted the fivesome arrangement so smoothly. It must take a man possessing charisma and eloquence on a level he could merely dream of having to swing that, he concluded. As it turned out, sharing was caring in the world of Jax.
And he had an interest in Weiss, hadn't he? But he went to bed one night with the idea of asking her again at breakfast to go on a date, and then just…didn't. Not once from that day on, even as the emotions for her still beat within his heart. Was it because he realized—in a sudden bout of humility and self-awareness—that he had no chance compared to Jax, or did the other boy activate the damned [Skill] that stopped him from acting on any of his romantic feelings? In hindsight, the second option looked all too plausible. And that was at Level 1. Compound those abilities with the rest of the list, and he suspected Jax could have become Remnant's new god given enough time.
The scroll promised power, and the scroll delivered power. In all its forms.
Later, when he could peek at the scroll without feeling sick, Jaune took the device in hand again. A return to the shopping page confirmed that it sold every sort of [Skill] conceivable (and many many that weren't, at least to him). Romance and sex featured prominently, but so did combat. There was even a category full of benign-sounding ones, like [Househusband]— though the numerous proficiencies governed by that composite ability seemed suspiciously redundant for him.
Cleaning, cooking, sewing, and…yeeeeah, my family expected my future wife to be the breadwinner between us.
In the end, what it came down to was choice. Jax went down his path, but Jaune did not have to follow the trail he blazed. Nor did he have to avoid [Skills] altogether. From a certain point of view, they possessed greater potency than weapons. Every bit of strength counted, and as long as he stuck to the combat-related ones, there were little reasons to shy away from this particular catalog.
Calmer now, he continued exploring the scroll. The Communications app powered off in quick order, blaring the same "Error, Inactive Contract" notification. Ditto with Quests and Achievements, which he was pretty worried about. In games, those usually came with rewards upon completion. By the time he got to the last app, most functions had locked down to leave him with a store he cannot afford and a dead man's information.
He breathed deeply to brace himself, and touched the icon bearing a globe. The page opened, the title 'Jump Portal' emblazoned on its heading. A message popped up. He despaired.
Error—ERROR–Modif-0-Access—
Jaune's vision blurred, and he cradled his head as a bout of dizziness overwhelmed him. It felt a bit like being on a Bullhead, and right on cue his stomach performed a flip. Thankfully, he'd already emptied the contents on a Griffon earlier, and thus avoided the accompanying mess. Focus soon returned to the world.
The odd text had vanished, replaced by two options: Permanent Worlds and Instances. The first contained a blank page upon inspection, but the second? The second activated when he tapped on it.
Searching… searching… temporary connections established.
A series of boxes took up the screen. Their significance failed to register for him in the beginning. He caught an inkling of it, when he came across a familiar—yet unfamiliar—phrase.
'Universe: Warhammer 40K'. He carefully read through the rest of the box. It mentioned a location and an event that helped him understand nothing, but the information revealed when he touched the option to show more details? Danger rating. Loot rating. Inspiration smashed into his head with the force of a truck.
Out there lay other worlds, and in those worlds existed the items on sale in the marketplace. Their inclusion under an app named 'Jump Portal' suggested the possibility of him entering them. How? He had no clue. The itty bitty device managed to pluck him from Remnant and bring him here, so he would not doubt it can put him somewhere else again.
If he were to, say, travel to Warhammer 40K, could he perhaps acquire the item Khartoth the Bloodhunger straight from the source and not have to pay for it in Points? Even should he not succeed in such an endeavor, he might find any number of weapons or objects of value strewn about. What's to stop him from keeping what he can use, then selling what he cannot, thereby accumulating the Points needed to go on a shopping spree?
Giddy with the prospect of having found his path forward, Jaune browsed the available Instances. In his view, the ideal location was one that overflowed in treasures he can claim, with no accompanying risk. His perusal nixed the dream right quick. The two ratings tended to go hand-in-hand. Warhammer 40K rocked a maxed-out danger rating of 10/10; quite apt, going by the description of the Khartoth. Deeming himself unprepared to handle that level of peril, he crossed that universe off the list for this go-round and began sifting through the choices.
"This one seems doable," Jaune remarked as he checked the specifics on the fifth Instance.
Danger at 4/10 stars, a middling threat level. Universe, Location, Event, they held no meaning for him. Loot rating was…high for the risk involved. Very high. Wow, if he was going to choose a place to visit, this was the winner. A quick in and out and he'd have an armful of loot, easy.
He took a look at the last Instance for completion's sake, and dismissed it when the numbers differed unfavorably.
Selection made, he pushed the big, blue button labeled 'Jump'. The pop-up almost gave him a heart attack.
Recommended [Skills]:
[Blank]
You'll need it where you're going.
Ominous. Not least because the device can evidently perceive him in real time. That's not a general 'you'. That's a Jaune Arc 'you'.
"You can see me," he accused.
The scroll laid there, looking innocent.
Thoughts for later, he decided. He needed the scroll too much to abstain from its use. As for the [Skill, while he appreciated the warning, what can he do? To buy it, he required Points. To gain the Points, he had to enter the universe sans [Skill]. What a conundrum.
He stared at the screen, fretting in silence. 'Need', it stated. As if to press the point, intermittent golden light pulsed around the purchase button. Demanding. Insistent. It taunted his pauperism.
Hang on… the button had a color. Jaune tapped on it with a tremulous finger.
[Blank]
Points Cost: 400
Points Balance: 0
Insufficient Points. Buy on Credit (Credit Available: 1000 Points)?
Hey now, that option wasn't there before. Granted, it might be due to him trying to buy a 157,000 Points item. A price tag of 400 sounded like a steal in comparison.
Very much a steal, and Jaune bought the [Skill] without further ado. Sure, he'd owe, but the idea of taking on debt hardly fazed him. He owned a credit card, and used it on the regular. So long as the card gets paid off on time, the cutthroat interest rate won't come into play. In this case, one good run in the Instance can probably take him back into the black.
Ding!
[Skill] purchased.
[Blank]
You Thinkers get off my lawn! Render yourself unreadable to clairvoyance and related abilities, no matter the source.
And, in the end, he bought the [Skill] because it was power. His first power. He had no way to confirm its authenticity, but the idea that he'd just gained a literal out-of-this-world ability felt phenomenal.
Activating Portal
Swirls of energy manifested above the scroll, and shot off to hit the wall. There, it thickened to form a large circle shifting in a kaleidoscope of colors. Through it, Jaune heard what might be distant voices and the sound of waves. He tasted salt in the air.
It tasted… off. Different. Unlike home. Like another world.
A grin sprang to Jaune's lips. Tucking the scroll in a pocket, he unsheathed his sword and shield, then walked up to the portal. Whatever doubts he had, he crushed down and left behind.
Before him stood the road to everything he wanted, so what was there to fear?
This universe will be his starting line. From nothing, he shall walk the path of the straw millionaire. Loot. Barter. Gain. Then repeat, repeat, repeat until he has achieved the means to protect his friends and Beacon.
Starting Jump in 5…4…
He felt a tug coming from the portal. The pull boosted in strength with each passing second. Rather than resisting, he relaxed his stance. The energies grew to a crescendo.
…3…2…1
He didn't wait for it to take him. He leapt right in.
The new world awaited.
Universe: Worm (divergent). Location: Brockton Bay. Event: Leviathan.
Author's Notes: gg, new story next week?
10/10 danger rating is equal to the current attack on Beacon for sure, so 4/10 is probably, like, a pack of Beringels, right? Just need to be careful and everything should go without a hitch.
…Jaune has no Gamer's meta knowledge, no sense of the scale that other worlds are operating at. He thinks the Grimm is the scariest threat there can ever be. Heh. He'll learn. Or die.
A weapon, a shield, and topless. Jaune's starting out with the Deprived class.
Would've taken the pants, too, but I don't think anyone's here to see Jaune get stripped.