The Elemental Nations Gamer Experience
+32CP!
I breathe. As the warmth of chakra fills my body, I force myself into stillness and listen past the drumming of my heart in my ears, for once thanking my current body as it's both small and flexible as only a child can be, allowing me to quite literally squeeze my way into what looked liķe, for all intents and purposes, like a gopher's burrow.
Stop.
Try to gauge the situation. 5 W's and one H, in no particular order.
What is going on?
I am being attacked by… Gamers. There's no other way to describe it. These people are Gamers much as I am, and for the past twenty minutes, I've been leading them on a wild goose chase for survival.
Who am I being attacked by?
...god, their names are so stupid. Almost makes me wish I didn't get an [Observe] off.
Solaire Kurogane, Samurai Warrior, Lv.18
STR: ?
VIT: ?
DEX: 20
INT: 10
WIS: 20
CHA: 20
CC: 10%
LUK:24
Uchiha Sàsüké, Konohagakure Genin, Lv.15
STR: 23
VIT: ?
DEX: 40
INT: 20
WIS: 20
CHA: ?
CC: 14%
LUK:10
A Dark Souls knock off and… quite literally a clone of Sasuke, name spelt weirdly notwithstanding.
However, there's one thing to pick out here. One of them is a Konoha genin, which I am… temporarily putting on hold now, but the other is a Samurai, from all the way back in the lands of Iron.
What the fuck is he doing here?
"We've lost her." The Samurai sighs, leaning against a tree as he waits for his companion to catch up. Which is surprising, considering that he's got the lower DEX and he's in some sort of… goofy, full body armor. Then again, he's three levels higher, and is the one who has been giving me the most trouble. "Fucking stealth builds. You would think that they would nerf them for PvP. Wanna ditch this realm?"
A sound of rapid feet approaches, and a moment later, a panting boy catches up. "Fuck no. We've been grinding invasions for the past two hours, I'm not losing all my PP. We're finding this bastard."
...trying to kill me, apparently.
"You know, you probably would have already killed her if you'd gone and unlocked the Sharingan first things first like I told you to." The samurai comments.
"I tried, dude! Not all of us can grind for days trying to get perfect RNG in situations where you can lose levels easily just to get some stupid OP skill."
"Ouch, man. Low blow."
"Why the fuck did this guy choose a little girl as his avatar in the first place? That's fucked in the head, man." The Uchiha snarls, and the other sighed.
"Hell if I know. Maybe it's actually a girl who's at the early stages of the game. Not sure why they wouldn't progress past overleveling, though."
"Freaking loser."
As they grumble to themselves before resuming their search for me, I let out a quiet little sigh of relief. Resume Meditation.
Where am I, in this moment?
It seems silly to ask, but I'm genuinely lost in a way that doesn't feel natural. A heavy fog has fallen over the Forest of Death, and I wasn't certainly deep enough that running and jumping for a good twenty minutes in a straight line should have gotten me nowhere. Even in that case, isn't there a village-wide sensing barrier? The Sasuke clone I get, but how did the other guy get in?
...hmm. The fog in this place… it doesn't really hide people- if anything, it highlights them, makes them more visible. Jumping into a hole in the ground to cut off visibility hid me, but that's still weird. What even is this fog?
...oh, right. I forget that I can just check. I should be using [Observe] on objects more.
Pure World Fog: Prevents users from leaving a certain area during a PvP match.
Right.
So I'm just… in the Pure World. Whatever that means, since I don't see ghosts around and we've been getting attacked by very alive animals all this time.
As to how I'm not dead yet?
I couldn't help but notice that, while they do seem proficient at doing what they're doing, they also look… clumsy. Not in a tripping over themselves way, more like… I don't know. Robotic, I guess? Like, after getting me with a nasty hit that nearly decapitated me the first time, the swordsman has been pulling the exact same combos. The Uchiha will randomly stop to cast jutsu. They're not coordinated with each other in the way you'd imagine trained ninjas to be, and they also just don't feel competent.
It's triggering all sorts of uncanny valley just thinking about. Moving on. Skipping when because that's a pointless question, why am I being attacked?
We've been grinding invasions for the past two hours
The blood chills in my veins for a moment. So I'm not the only one who they've been going after… but then again, maybe it's with the knowledge that I'll just be back.
I breathe in deeply as I try to shake the deep sense of unsettlement. It's… fine. If they're Gamers, then maybe they respawn too, and so, they're assuming that I can just shrug death off. And it's not like I haven't been dealing with people trying to kill me before. So why is it making me so unsettled?
Probably because they're like me. They aren't enemy ninja fighting for their village, they're… I dunno.
You would think I'd have met the Uchiha, but maybe we're not even operating off the same world. For all I know, we're all trapped in different versions of the Naruto world, and this is the one way to interact with each other.
Maybe I should talk to them. Maybe-
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"A startling scream pierces the air, from a voice I recognize far too well. As I turn my head in the direction I heard the scream come from, my blood freezes for an entirely different reason this time.
Uchiha Izumi, Uchiha Clan Kid, Lv.9
I heard a dull sound of something smacking against flesh and the screaming stopped. I was paralyzed.
"Geeze, the NPCs here sure can scream. Who the fuck is Izumi?" The guy with the deeper voice asked himself. "Meh, doesn't matter. Hey, dude!" He shouted louder. "I don't want to be a bully, but either you come here and fight us, or we kill your NPC!"
"Yeah, stop stalling us like a pussy!" the other agreed.
For a moment, I understood nothing. Orochimaru dressed up like kaa-san with massive tits and a following of snakes playing the maracas with their tails could have passed in front of me and I wouldn't have registered.
And then I saw red.
-5CP!
Sending chakra to my legs saw me rocketing out of the gopher hole as I drew a pair of kunai- I'd left the katana at home because of its sheer unwieldiness- and pinpointed the two bastards. Fifty meters in front of me, sitting under a tree with Izumi next to them, passed out. [Status].
Fuma Tomo, Assassin (The Gamer), Level 15
Health Points (HP): 19/60
Chakra Pool (CP): 54/100
Experience Points (Exp): 600/1400
Money: 600.000 Ryo
STR: 15
VIT: 6
DEX: 66+5
INT: 29
WIS: 17+5
CHA: 10
CC: 12+19%
LCK: 15
Questions Unasked: 0
Points to Spend: 5
[Skills] – 24
[Jutsu] – 8
[Boons] – 2
[Titles] – 4
[Karma] [Affinities]
Two opponents, both physically stronger and far tankier than I am. My health has not yet recovered at all. If I die, I have no idea what will happen to Izumi.
30 meters. The two of them spring to their feet, startled.
If either of them so much gets one jutsu off and I'm not out of the way, I'm dead. I'm practically a shadow clone.
...actually, you know what?
'Dump remaining points into CHA.' I think at the system, Three hand signs later, there's two of me running at the fuckers.
-80CP!
I cough as I feel my heart burn at the massive chakra loss. Glancing at the shadow clone, I nod, and we split off. I rocket towards the Uchiha, while my clone goes towards Izumi. I'm forced to slow down into evasive manouvres as he keeps trying to pelt me with kunai, either dodging or parrying them altogether.
15 metres. I watch as the Uchiha guy- and he truly looks like what I'd imagine Sasuke to look, minus the fact that his headband is around his arm- starts racing through hand signs for a Jutsu I'm familiar with.
Snake, Ram
10 metres, and he's glaring at me, blitzing through hand signs.
Monkey, Boar
I throw both of my kunai, but they don't hit him. He laughs at me. Little does he know, I activated Ricochet.
Tomo Clone, in the same moment
I keep an eye on Tomo as she- he- ugh, not the time, rockets towards the Uchiha guy. In front of me, instead, is a wall of armor and muscle, adult where the other guy is barely a teenager.
I stop, rethinking my approach. Slow as he is with me having three and a half times as much DEX, I know that if he wants to, he can just kill Izumi, now that he's standing with his blade drawn over her.
"Let her go." I growl out, trying to push as much threat into my words as I can.
To my surprise, he chortles. "You probably shouldn't party up with NPCs if you don't want them to follow you into PvP matches." As he says that, he begins moving through hand signs faster than I thought, and after a moment where I'm startled into indecision, he turns towards Tomo and shouts "Lightning Release: Lightning Bullet!" before casting out his hand.
As I see where he's aiming, I shout out "JUMP!"
The moment I do, I'm treated to quite the sight. The main body jumps- no, kicks off the ground if the small explosion of dirt is anything to go by, still retaining forward momentum, and begins a spin as she begins blitzing through hand signs. A kunai ricochets off of one of the branches, towards Tomo instead of the guy.
He's still making hand signs, but so is Tomo. The main body then plucks the kunai out of air and shouts "Fuma Art: Blade Projection!" with her body angled completely downwards and the kunai pointed towards the man's hands.
I assume that Tomo wants to stop him from using the jutsu, but a moment later, I see the chakra construct blade extend far beyond its typical reach for a moment before impaling the guy through the chest.
He flinches, spitting out blood, and as Tomo lets the kunai go, she pulls out her tanto and finishes the guy off by decapitating him.
I'm stunned.
Have I always been this badass?
But also holy shit, the main body killed that guy. Instead of the spraying of blood I'd imagine, though, he turns into a red mist and vanishes.
[Invading Spirit Uchiha Sàsüké banished.]
My surprise however is short lived as the guy in front of me quite literally squeals in excitement. As Tomo lands on the ground, I can see the main body shaking and stumble its fall.
"That was so cool! Oh my god, what was that!" The samurai shouts. "Those movements were super clean! Are you even using any macros? You didn't even stop at all to-"
Tomo glares at him- no, at me, and I can see her eyes unfocused and the shaking worsen. "Dispel." she rasps out.
Oh shit.
A tiger seal later, I'm gone.
Main Body
+22CP!
That little stunt nearly cost me my life. Used far too much chakra there. My head is spinning. The Solaire guy seems to have forgotten himself, too busy… fangirling?
"Can you let my sister go?" I cut through his chatter, and he straightens himself a little.
"Oh- yeah, yeah. You did come and fight us. But man, how did you do that?! It's already hard enough to pull any sort of acrobatic maneuvers like that without the Thought Acceleration perk, but to keep moving while casting and catch your own Ricochet like that? Man, are you smurfing or something? That was sick!"
As I keep breathing, trying to get my head to spin a little less as I'm also trying to make heads or tails of his gibberish.
After a moment, I'm still not clear. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Well, you're level 15, right?" he asks me.
I blink. "Yes?"
"Well, for Thought Acceleration you need to have at least 150 Dex to get it. I've tried to do any sort of acrobatics without it, but my head spins waaay too much and I'm pretty much an uncoordinated mess. But you don't have anything like that!"
I pause. "It's… not that hard. You get used to your own speed." Then, something he said races through my head. "Wait, what do you mean you tried? You're not high enough level either!"
"Oh yeah, this is a lower level account I made to party with my friend. Man, Cam's going to be pissed that we lost all his PP…"
"So you don't want to kill me? Even if I killed your friend?"
"Well, it's not like I can unkill him." I get the feeling that he's rolling his eyes. "That requires PWR, and that's way too lategame anyways. By the way, do you want to become friends? I'd love to play together sometime."
I'm boggling at the sheer amount of subtext I'm missing. "Wait wait wait wait wait, slow down. What's PP, what's PWR? Why do you know all this?" After a moment, I process the full sentence. "Uhhhh, sure?"
"Cool!"
[Friend Request from Solaire Kurogane.]
[Y/N]
Well, as I said, I'm smurfing too on a low level account. PP is Pure Points, PWR is Pure World Resurrection. Are you really this much of a noob?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but I've only been at this for five years!"
"Oh yeah, true. By the way, isn't it time to move on? I know some people like to linger in the early life portion of a character, but you're basically capped out on everything. And, honestly, either disable online, spend your PP or actually do the timeskip, whatever. Fighting someone that looks like a little girl is uncomfortable." he huffed.
"How do I do any of that?!" I threw my arms up in the air. "I've been stuck like this for so long!"
"Well, for PP, you can either spend them for stat points, LUK included, but their main use is Pure World skills at the Point Shop. As for the rest-" a blue screen appeared in front of him. "Nevermind, gotta go, Cam is salty that he died and wants me to carry him. Ja ne!"
"No, wait!" I shouted. "Don't-"
I watched Solaire disappear in a cloud of red smoke.
[Invading Spirit Solaire Kurogane banished.]
+1000Exp!
+10PP!
[Your level has increased to Level 16!]
"Go…" I murmured, watching as the fog dissipated, and I was back in the Forest of Death.
Why… why was he so blase about everything? Did he just accept that we're trapped in this place after however long he's lived here?
But wait, he complained about me not skipping forwards? Can I just do that?
[As part of the Guest experience, Time Skipping has been temporarily disabled.]
What? But then… what?
Wait, he said that he had multiple… bodies, I guess, even if he called it accounts. Switch Account?
[As part of the Guest Experience, one cannot have more than one character. Register an account to gain the ability to create more characters!]
Register?
[Cannot register account while still logged in.]
Logout?!
[You do not have the permission to use this command.]
I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate. I couldn't tell anymore what was going on, if the world I lived in was real or just some sort of sick game. How did they even get in. Why did things work differently for them. Why could I not leave. Why can I not remember anything about my life before this. Why-
Hissss
A massive blue-scaled snake snaps at me, looking at me angrily. "Sssstop crying." It orders, and I'm struck dumb enough that I just look at it.
Seiryu, Snake Summon, Lv.31
"Seiryu, have you found the kid?!" A female voice shouts.
"Yess!" the snake shouts back. A moment later, a girl with purple hair and a blonde boy with glasses burst through the clearing.
Mitarashi Anko, Orochimaru's Student, Lv.?
Shimada Satoshi, Orochimaru's Student, Lv.29
"Oh crap! You kids look like you got put through the wringer!" Anko said, before jumping down in front of me. "You alright, can you walk? We should get you out of here, this place isn't for kids. How'd you even get here?"
"I don't think bombarding them with questions is going to do much, Anko-kun." The bespectacled guy said, prompting her to whirl around.
"Stop calling me Anko-kun, you bastard! I'm not a boy!"
"Well, you're certainly no fair maiden, that's for sure."
"Come and say that to my face, you bastard!"
My gaze was torn away from them by a pair of hands scooping up Izumi, reminding me of her presence in this entire shitshow, and I turned to stare at the third member of their team, a serious looking boy with short brown hair and the veins on his face looking ready to burst due to his Byakugan being active.
Hyuga Makoto, Hyuga Clan Branch Member, Lv.31
"We should get her admitted to a hospital." He spoke softly. "Can you walk on your own?"
"...yeah." I nodded, standing up, concern for Izumi slowly clearing the nascent panic in my mind. Right. Not the time to freak out.
"You're lucky you found yourself in the clearing we usually train in, the beasts of this forest tend to avoid it. The Forest of Death isn't a good place to have a panic attack." The boy said sternly, his blank eyes staring into my own.
I nodded again, this time more resolutely as I stood back up.
"You're right. Thank you."
"Let us be off, then. If we're lucky, we can have this whole thing behind us before those two buffoons figure out that we're gone." he nodded to himself gravely. I snorted in humor, despite the fact that he didn't seem to mean it as a joke.
This is the clearing that Team Orochimaru typically trains in? That's… good to know. But not important at the moment. Right now, worry about Izumi.
And I should probably figure out a way to not get my ass absolutely grounded. What's my HP at? [Status]?
Health Points (HP): 6/60
I didn't come out as unscathed as one could hope from that Lightning Bullet's AOE, but I also didn't die.
...what's that obaa-san said about me coming home too injured to be disciplined?
Woah, more gamers! Though... it doesn't appear like they're taking the situation as seriously as Tomo is...
I'm gonna be changing my update schedule! Updating 4 fics all at the same time is hard, man . instead, I will be uploading one update at the start of each month, and every week thereafter, it'll be another fic (In the order of The Elemental Nations Gamer Experience - Comfort By Candlelight - Royal Business - Syzygy). But don't worry! This month, I'm doing my start-of-month update, *and* this new update!
(The next update rolls out tomorrow because I forgot to upload the files on my laptop lul)
If you wish to support my writing, you can check me out on the place of patrons where I post five chapters ahead. Alternatively, you can always PM me in private if you wish to commission something written where we can hash out the details. Otherwise, a review is still more than enough, and I can't be thankful enough for it.
I now also have a Discord Server! If you want to come talk to me about anything and interact with other people reading my works, here's the link! /xuSVQY7bw3
Drink water, stay awesome. Nick of Name, out. :)