Jaune Arc had trouble holding down the vomit that wanted to escape his throat.
Unfortunately, when his eyes caught sight of the city far below him, an overwhelming sense of unbalance nearly sent him flying to the floor of the airship he was aboard.
And then his half-digested breakfast leaked out of his mouth as he stumbled trying to stay upright, he heard screams of disgust, the resulting embarrassment only put his nerves even more on edge.
His feet quickly found what little stability they could manage and he fled to the nearest restroom, having to use his eyes to locate the desired room only made his motion sickness that much worse.
Jaune was growing desperate as he failed to find a proper place to unload the puke pooling up in his mouth, with each step he took he gagged as it sloshed around his tongue and throat.
He profusely apologized for ever calling anything his parents had cooked as gross, the exotic meals were a hundred-times more desirable.
The slop in his mouth was more comparable to sewage, his own comparison only made him gag more.
After finally finding the restroom, he flung open the door and lunged forth towards the nearest ceramic in sight which luckily happened to be a rather large sink.
His partially digested breakfast, the microwaved sushi and the chicken sandwich he had bought at a small Dust Station, exploded from his stomach, through his throat and out passed his lips.
Jaune had to close his eyes and pinch his nose shut so he didn't vomit some more at the sight or smell of his own vomit. Blindly, he felt around for the faucet handles and continued to puke until his stomach was empty.
After a while, when his nerves had calmed down, he opened his eyes and washed his hands before gargling some of the nearby hand soap.
A few more minutes passed until he was in a more presentable state, the disgusting taste of vomit had been replaced by soap.
Heaving heavily to regain his composure, Jaune eventually calmed down and saw himself in the restroom mirror, he sighed at the sight he saw reflected back.
[Name: Jaune Arc] - [Rank: D (Lv. 1)]- [HP: 200] - [??: ??]
[STR: E] - [END: D] - [AGI: E] - [???: ?] - [CHA: D] - [LUK: B]
'So, nothing had changed. I suppose I was mistaken, just because this thing suddenly appeared doesn't mean I was any different than before it had appeared.'
Two days ago now, a transparent floating screen just popped into existence before his eyes. He spent some time trying to figure it out, but unfortunately he didn't discover anything more than this single screen.
Still, this unexplainable phenomenon had momentarily tricked him into thinking he was special or something. Jaune continued to sulk in the restroom until the airship he was aboard finally landed.
Nervously, he crept down onto the dock. His eyes kept darting to the shadows around him, he half-expected the staff to reveal themselves before and personally kick him out on the spot.
He came to a sudden halt, it wasn't the appearance of the staff or of any person who caused him to freeze, no, it was the fact that a new screen had popped up.
[Tutorial Quest] - [Friendship: Gain 1 Friend!] - [Reward: Activation of ???]
'What? Gain a friend? Seriously?'
Jaune wasn't against the idea, however that didn't mean he wasn't confused as to why this weird pop-up screen wanted him to make one.
However, the fact that the 'reward' was the activation of something, meant that he was definitely going to accomplish this task. Whatever it was would only help him understand what was happening, hopefully at least.
His blue eyes began scanning the sparse students around him, nearly all of them had a stern look of focus on their faces, not a single one of them seemed approachable.
He definitely didn't want to cause friction with anyone on his first day, especially not with trained warriors on edge, while they had their weapons at the ready.
Before he could express his downfallen mental state with a sigh, a loud explosion shook the air and the ground rumbled beneath his feet.
A light ringing echoed in his ears, but that didn't mean he couldn't also hear the following shouting.
He tried locating the origin of the sounds, however he probably took the wrong path, because the shouting came to a stop before long.
Still, he continued to where he thought the explosion came from, and eventually he found a small girl laying down in a small crater.
Jaune almost panicked, until he noticed she was unharmed and mumbling something, he couldn't make out her words, but she didn't sound like she was in pain. Regardless, he still wanted to confirm if she was okay.
Almost immediately after reaching her crater, his body froze, his still form casted a shadow over her causing her to look up in his direction.
He hadn't frozen by himself, rather it was like something else had taken control of his body. The rest of the world also slowed to a crawl, before he could panic, more screens popped up.
["..." And walk around her.]
["Need some help?" And attempt to help her up.]
["Can I join you?" And lay down in the crater.]
'What is this?'
Unfortunately his question wasn't answered.
'What are these? My decisions or something?'
Jaune honestly wasn't sure what to be more unsettled by, the fact he lost control of his body and the world froze or the fact the weird screen knew what he was going to say.
Hopeful to resume the natural flow of time, he focused on saying what he had been about to say anyway.
"Need some help?" His body moved on its own to speak and reach out a hand to the girl. Even after helping her up, he didn't regain control of his body.
"Aren't you the guy who vomited everywhere?" The girl asked with an inquisitive look on her face.
["No." (Lie).]
["..." And walk away.]
["Happens to the best of us. I'm Jaune."]
["Screw you!" And attempt to shove her away.]
This time the world didn't slow down, so he was able to see the look on her face shift slightly as he took more than a moment to respond.
"Happens to the best of us. I'm Jaune."
It was mentally exhausting, he couldn't actually speak or act at all for the entire conversation, all he could do was select his speech and actions during this whole encounter.
When the conversation ended, and the girl dashed away into a crowd, a new screen popped up.
[Completed Quest] - [Friendship: Gain 1 Friend!] - [Reward: Activation of ???]
Something even more bizarre happened, his sense of balance was messed with like never before, then as he stumbled backwards, his feet didn't meet the ground as he took a step back.
He ended up staring directly into the back of someone's head, a head with messy blond hair. They were wearing light armor over a hoodie, and had an old sword on their hip.
Jaune wasn't sure what emotion overwhelmed him as he looked at the back of his own body. The rest of the world was moving in slow motion around him, and a few screens had popped up.
A want, a need, to gain even a loose understanding of what was currently happening led him to focus on the screens instead of panicking.
[Bond (Lv. 1) with 'Ruby Rose' achieved! She now considers you a friend!]
[Bond (Lv. 1): Ruby Rose, a young girl who attended Signal Academy, where she forged Crescent Rose, a scythe-sniper.]
That didn't help him, it only regurgitated the information she had told him during their 'conversation'.
[The 'Game System' has been activated!]
[This System grants the Host various abilities that allow for them to treat life as a game.]
[Skill: 'Perspective' has been learned!]
[Perspective (Lv.1): Allows for a third person view of units.]
Yeah, the screens that explained his situation didn't really expand his understanding, just because he knew how something was happening didn't mean he knew why.
His brain, uh, mind, began to strain as his consciousness fluctuated, the screens flickered and glitched out of existence.
A rim of nothingness framed reality, and as he gazed into the outside, his sight grew blurry.
[ᴱᵣᴿₒᴿ! ᶠᴬᵢᴸᵤᴿₑ ₜᴼ ᶜₒᴺₙᴱᶜᵀ ᵀₒ ₙˣₜᵂᵣᴷₐᴰₘᴺₛˢₜᴹ#!]
As the rim of nothingness faded away and his sight became clear once more, he became keenly aware of a link between his mind and body.
When he opened that link between himself, a wave of information washed over his mind as he was reconnected with his nerves.
There was still a gap from his body to his mind, but he was in full control of himself, the world had resumed to exist at a normal rate of time.
He could move. He could make himself move, as if he was playing a video game. He was even able to move his perspective around his body, it was an eerie experience to see his own face with a mirror.
Jaune was still capable of making expressions that showed on his face, however they seemed unnatural to himself, when he smiled, he wasn't moving the muscles in his face, his lips simply curled up.
[System Updating!]
'Ah.'
Something… popped. Something abstract beyond his comprehension had crumbled away like dust, the concept it represented vanished completely from within his being.
'Cool, it's like a video game!'
As if he was circling a joystick, he made his body spin in place without getting dizzy.
When the lights in the amphitheater dimmed and the chatter of the crowd ended, his body stopped moving and focused on the cutscene or something. It was kinda boring, he wanted to jump into the action as soon as possible.
[Skip 'Headmaster's Speech'? Skipped scenes can still be played back in the Library.]
'Yes!'
The world flickered and the lights came back on as the headmaster was suddenly off the stage.
Jaune was suddenly back in control, and as he looked around, he noticed a floating exclamation mark above the head of a cute girl next to Ruby.
AN: Ah, what can I say? Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, this story literally had a dozen different main-plots before I decided on this one.