Firey Takeover Chapter 01 - The Beginning Setup, an avatar: last airbender fanfic

Chapter 01 – The Beginning Setup

Bold Is used by the [System] talking telepathically at Xin Wo

"" Is used when People are talking out loud

Empty space simply meant Xin Wo was thinking or communicating via his thoughts

ooOoo

Hey, wake up! A feminine voice called me.

Hmmm... "Don't bother me, I need to go to work in a bit." The boy grumbled.

Wake up! The feminine voice raised her voice this time.

"Shut up! Didn't you hear me the first time? I will wake up once my alarm rings." The boy grumbled, slapping in the general direction before he lost his balance and rolled off the bed.

Hi, nice to see that your intelligence stayed the same even after you experienced death.

Rubbing his head as he swung his head around, only to see a void of darkness.

The hell...?

Where is this? Maybe if I look around, I can find an exit or the person who was talking to me.

Person? I am anything but. In some cultures, I am known as God, but in your lucky case, you may refer to me as the [System] that will be accompanying you with your upcoming adventures.

"No thanks, I want no part of your services and like to go back to my morning routine now." The boy responded not impressed by the [System]'s claims.

Getting tired of this charade, I covered my ears in defiance while trying to find some way to wake myself from this lucid dream.

It's not a dream. And if you haven't noticed, I am talking into your brain, hence you can't see me here. So stop covering your ears, it just makes you look more like an idiot. Plus, you can't wake up. Because if your ears were functioning as intended, you would've heard that you died. If you are wondering, from carbon monoxide poisoning in your sleep. Sucks that you ripped the smoke detector off your ceiling and chucked your detector into the trash. Just because you wanted to save a few bucks from replacing the batteries for it.

''How did anything you said just now help with selling me the idea of using you for whatever system? This is just bad customer service." I attempted to retort the disembodied voice.

I was just being nice here, stating the facts and all, but you aren't being cooperative at all. Anyway, this is not a matter for you to decide. But if it makes you feel any better, you get to choose where to reincarnate next. The [System] ignored my argument as a neon white screen popped up in front of my face, too close to comfort.

"UHH! My eyes, What's with the flashbang?!"

It's called a [System] screen that displays [System] messages. Such as this one that lets you choose from numerous worlds which you can choose to reincarnate into. No need to thank me by the way, here is the dark mode version.

Gee, thanks. Can't wait for more of your stellar services. You can look forward to getting your first positive review.

Uh uh uh. Cut your snark, you should look at what choices I have offered you for your next life.

Turning my attention to the black screen in front of me, I was surprised by the lack of choices provided when compared to how the [System] boasted its vast library of worlds for me to choose from.

Complete Worlds:

My Hero Academia

High School DxD

Avatar: Last Airbender

Incomplete Worlds:

Marvel Universe

DC Universe

Pokemon

(Worlds selection was drawn from users' past exposure to said worlds and the lists will be eventually updated)

"That's it? How about something from Webtoons? A parallel world to my home universe? Or even my world? It doesn't even need to be right after I died, I am open to sometimes in the past or the future." I questioned the [System]'s provided choices, hoping to get some more choices out of it.

First, I don't do reincarnation in the same world. Period. Also, just pick one already and maybe you can get more choices later once you die again down the line. We still need to go through character creation after this.

Fine, can you at least explain what the differences are between the Complete and Incomplete worlds?

Complete worlds are worlds that flow the same way as how you had experienced the world's story to be. Nothing will be changed until you start your life there and the world is trying to fit your existence in with the rest of the world. On the other hand, for Incomplete worlds, the only difference is that they don't flow the same way as how you had experienced the world's story. So the discrepancies from how you understood the world might be different from how you had expected. An example is Charles Xavier playing a major role in ending the Ultron threat in this hypothetical MCU Incomplete world.

My recommendation is that you should go for Complete Worlds as your first choice since you are new to this reincarnation-[System] thing, you will be able to predict the upcoming sequence of events, as it should play very close to what you know. Unless you do something drastic like killing off the main characters before the story narrative has even begun.

Fine, I will play nice for now. I will just choose a safe world to start with, "Avatar: Last Airbender" compared to the other 2 worlds where one has deities that can wipe me out, and the other has villain attacks that can happen at a moment's notice. If I choose "Avatar: Last Airbender", I can always lay low and let Team Avatar handle things while I just skirt by the Fire Nation without any worry.

Good choice. Now let's move on to your character creation and get out of here.

The black screen popped up again in front of me, but this time at a suitable distance where I could glance at my black status screen without requesting personal space.

Please choose your name.

Fun, I get to name my character. I always knew I sucked at names, and I didn't feel like using my old name right now.

Considering it will remind you how you suffocated from being too cheap, I hope you learn from your mistakes and adopt a new identity.

For once, I agree with you [System]. I chose Xin Wo as my new name. I can't believe I still remember a little Chinese that I had learned for half a semester during college, to make up a name that I think fits the world I chose and me right now.

Indeed, for you to name yourself "New Me", I hope you will truly make some good choices in life and not die again because of your pettiness. Now let's look at your stats while I show you what skills you have. Once we get your skills sorted out, you can take a look at the choices of where you want to start before I send you off to your new life.

Fire Tribe pioneer had been selected. You will be transferred to the location after final confirmation of your status.

"Haaa..." Sighing internally, I wanted to beat myself up for jinxing myself and not learning the lesson of being greedy. I just wanted to move on from looking at my status one last time before I felt more depressed in myself. At least in my limited experimentation, I had sunk 10 stat points into LCK, raising it from N.A. to E, the results led me to estimate that I had a base of 1 stat point in each category, other than luck with 0, as it has started with N.A. instead of F.

Status:

Wo, Xin

Alignment: Fire Bender (Gamer Type)

Level – 1 (0%)

HP – F-

MP – F-

My eyes shot open as the smell of salt water burst through my nose. Turning my head to look around, I realized I could barely nudge my neck to one side before realizing my throat was dry as a desert and my eyes were burning. My head resting on the side, the black screen popped out by itself as [System] said to me, Here is my last gift for you, as a thank you for being my first user and this being part of the tutorial, I had left you a [Storage Space Bag] item for you, it is a care package with some supplies that will hopefully help you recover enough until you get back to land. The bag's weight doesn't change even if you put more stuff in it. I'll be waiting for you, whether you make landfall or we meet back up in the dark void is all up to you now.

STR – F-

PER – F-

END – F-

AGI – F-

DEX – F-

INT – F-

CHA – F-

LCK – F- - E-

(F- E- D- C- B- A- S- SS- SSS- EX) ("" and "-" can be added to denote slight changes to the level of the stats)

Unallocated Stats: 30

Skills:

[Mapping] – Came with the [Navigation] perk. It allows the user to map the places they have been before. Better eyesight or PER can help with mapping efficiency. The map is accessible via a [System] window. The map comes with a compass, so you will never lose your way.

[Basic Survival Skills] – Came with choosing to be a pioneer. As a pioneer, more often than not, you will arrive somewhere with no help from any civilization, so the knowledge to help you keep your life going is a must to achieve your dream of being a pioneer. It greatly can help with physiological needs (such as food, water, and shelter).

[Cold Weapon Mastery] – Came with choosing to be a pioneer. To survive in places where no one has gone before, protecting yourself is an essential skill. Let alone you are meant to be at the top of the food chain with you being a pioneer, you can raid and loot all you see only if you have the power to back it up.

[Market] – Came with choosing to be a Gamer Type Lifeform. A menu in the [System] interface where you can trade for skills, and items in exchange for monetary items or stat points.

Perks:

[Gamer Body Type] – Gone was your old realistic body, now your body is dictated by a set of HP, MP, and SP values. While it's easier to grow your stats, you will also be limited by the [System] in terms of potential. Equipment and skill restrictions will be imposed if requirements aren't met. Perks can be added, removed, or upgraded depending on specific [Quest].

[Navigation] – Came with choosing to be a pioneer. A pioneer is good at figuring out how to travel to the places they want to go. Improvement in the sense of direction, and improvement in the manipulation of transportation. Granted [Mapping] skill.

[The World is a Numbers Game] – The rules of the world you are in were altered because of you, quantifying items, people, and more into numeric values. This also makes it so that you can level up by interacting with your surroundings, instead of fighting in dungeons.

[Permission not granted] – A negative trait that lets the [System] decide what you can say to others, or rebalance you or the world around you.

[Unlucky Beginnings] – You will likely have a higher chance of getting roped into things you want no part of, and people's initial impression of you tends to be lower than normal (leading to you being untrustworthy)

Background: [Pioneer] – You had selected a background that had you traveling around the world as an explorer. You also receive buffs for dominion-related actions instead of peaceful choices. Currently, you are lost, adrift in the sea, with no more food and water for a while, struggling to survive.

No need to be sad, you can just level yourself up and become powerful enough to get out of the bad hands that were dealt to you. Plus with the [Market] skill, you can trade in stuff to get rid of debuffs and get better skills, like the [Gacha] skill.

It already sucked enough that there was no Avatar Alignment, as the [System] told me that it was a unique Alignment that is currently held onto by Aang.

It also sucked or can be a blessing in disguise that I was only provided with some weak/ dangerous Backgrounds to start with. I mean the other weak choices were to be a [Caveman, which starts in some backwater Foggy Swamp as its Tribesman; and a [Labor Slave] which starts off getting locked up in a refugee camp/ penal colony similar to Mining village but worse, as a non-bender slaving under the Fire Nation, who would want to choose these backgrounds in their right minds? Or choosing the dangerous [Fanatic Loyalist] which started me off in a close tight-knit community of Fire Nation Nationals who brainwash and preach the greatness of the Fire Nation and worship Fire Lord Ozai in one of Fire Nation's many villages; or choosing the ambiguous, dangerous wildcard [Undead, where the [System] only explained the start as "somehow an ancient Air Nomad came back to life in the ruin Southern Air Temple, seeking for revenge, and it was uncertain if it could even bend, as it was a unique phenomenon."

After experiencing a lackluster start, the [System] tried to cheer me up by granting me perks and skills in exchange for unspecified negative trade-offs. Why did I try to get more perks and skills? I should've known the [System] wouldn't be that nice. But then again, the [System] did tell me that I could get a more comprehensive understanding of my status if I could get the [Analysis] skill, which can change the letter grading to a more easily understandable numeric value display. I also wanted to get my hands on the [Observe] skill, which can give me a better understanding of my surroundings by adding details in the [System] window. Sadly I wasn't able to get it in this character creation trade-off.

No use crying over spilled milk, let's get the show on the road already.

Well, it's not your milk that got spilled now, is it? Plus, I am "lost, adrift in the sea, with no more food and water for a while, struggling to survive." once I start, with all those crazy fantastical animals in the world of Avatar, how am I supposed to survive?

Not my problem, at least you can die quickly and come back to choose another world. And your status gets carried over with you as well, so maybe you can reroll another better start.

Very well. "Let's gooooooo!" I shouted while pressing the confirm button on my black screen, bracing for the upcoming painful trial ahead of me.

I'm seriously getting a bit sick of the [System] flip-flopping. At least while I was taking a few deep breaths to steel myself to find the supplies left behind by the [System, the knowledge granted by the skills I had obtained began to flood into my brain in mere moments, adding a whiplash migraine on top of the dehydration and aching body to my long list of ailments I was inflicted upon before entering this body.

"Hoowa..." My hoarse throat burned as I made some unintelligible sounds, struggling from the growing pains and frustration to look for the [Storage Space Bag] item. Finally, after opening the few different bags that I had on the small wooden boat, I was able to feel a feeling of emptiness when reaching my hand into the single-strap shoulder bag.

Flopping my hands around the empty space in the bag, I was able to feel a squishy cylindrical thing. It felt like those cheap plastic bottles of water you can get in a convenience store. Hoping that it was in fact water, I yanked the squishy cylindrical thing out and was glad that it was in fact a plastic bottle of water, which is surprisingly out of place for the world of Avatar. But I could care less about it than to quickly drench my dry throat with the sweet taste of water.

After emptying the bottle, I first looked around the vast lonely blue ocean around me, as I exhaled a sigh of relief as condensed air came out from my mouth. I was so glad I had access to drinkable water, I don't want to imagine how the original owner of the body felt, as he looked out of his boat in despair without any supplies, seeing the vast amount of water so close to him, yet undrinkable because it will eventually kill you via dehydration.

Only then did I realize that I must have drifted to somewhere cold. Based on my understanding of the Avatar world, the Northern Water Tribe was a more populated and advanced civilization when compared to its Southern counterpart during the Hundred Year War, so it's reasonable for me to assume that I am in fact in the Southern area, as it would be reasonable to assume that the Northern Water Tribesman would've found me out here by now.

Then I realized that I wasn't in a small wooden boat, but instead, a metal skiff boat with wooden flooring, guess the previous owner of the body cared enough about interior design to add some wooden flooring to the sleek metal skiff boat, which I own now. And there seemed to be some sort of broken metal box stuck to the end of the skiff boat with some broken holes around it, attached to some long metal pipes extending to the exterior of the ship. Water leaking all over the wooden deck from the holes.

Having enough of the outside, I began to dig more into my single-strap shoulder bag [Storage Space Bag] to see what else was inside. And thank you for the [System]'s generosity, I was left with a [Metal Spear] (no wooden parts for me to let it catch on fire if I were to firebend), a [Metal Knife (50-centimeter)] the size of a machete with a fiberglass-reinforced nylon handle, 4 more [Bottled Water]s, 2 [Metal Bucket]s, a pair of [Binoculars, a handful of [Pemmican, an assortment of [Jerky, a [Flag (Fire Nation) (Large)] (flag pole adorned with the Fire Nation's red flag), a [Modern Composite Tent (Large)] made of composite materials and uses zippers that's too big to set up in the skiff boat, and a normal sized [Modern Composite Sleeping Bag (Lightweight)] with extra padding and layer for comfort and temperature retention. Feeling around, it felt like the bag was halfway packed to the brim with stuff, so while I could put the rest of the cargo that was left in the skiff boat in it, it would be impossible for me to fit the skiff boat itself inside.

Knowing that I needed to get better to survive, I decided to eat a bit of food before I went to rest up in my sleeping bag to recover some strength to reach any land, or large ice sheets in this case. Knowing that eating the food I had in itself after the body was starving for quite some time wouldn't do well for my stomach, especially if I ate something hard to digest. I decided to boil some water with some of my Jerky in one of my [Metal Bucket]s to make a simple soup so that I could swallow the softened Jerky and digest the food more easily.

After resting for a few hours in my [Modern Composite Sleeping Bag (Lightweight), I decided that I might have a chance to survive if I could hunt some of the amphibious animals like the otter penguins, as seen in the first episode of the show. Not only do they seem relatively tame and easy to hunt, but it might also give me some clues to try to track down some of the local Southern Water Tribes, where I can try to first trade with them to see how strong their defenses are, before taking stronger dominion-related actions to gain some stat buffs.

Having a plan of action in mind, I began to try to maneuver my skiff boat around with some oars I found in one of the many containers in the small ship, setting a course to the south with the help of the [Mapping] skill's compass in the [System] window. Slowly heading south, my mapping skill began to map out the route that I had taken, giving me a better idea of where I was headed at the moment. Throughout this paddling, although it was pretty slow due to it being a heavier skiff boat and the waves going against me, I was able to progress for a long distance according to the map before I felt hungry and needed a rest.

This cycle of paddling my skiff boat slowly, resting, looking around with my [Binoculars] to spot any land, using my [Binoculars] to increase the [Mapping] skill's efficiency with my improved view distance, and eating, eventually led me to a larger ice sheet surface that the [Mapping] skill wasn't able to log its surrounding borders yet. Deciding that I should take my chance, I anchored my skiff boat before setting my foot on the ice sheet, soft on my steps to test if the ice would break off or not.

Thankfully, I guess the [System] decided that this doesn't count under the criteria for [Unlucky Beginnings]. Once I got my two feet set on the sheet of ice covered with snow. I tried to plant the [Flag (Fire Nation) (Large)] that I had with me, hoping to trigger [Pioneer] in some way. Feeling a surge of energy as if I just woke up from bed, I received a ping that told me I had leveled up. The level up break down is as follows:

Cooking – EXP

Rowing boat – EXP, STR

Mapping new locations – EXP, PER

Setting foot in a new land for the first time – EXP, Achievement

Level Up!

Achievement Unlocked: [Colonialist] – Requires pioneer background as a prerequisite. Granted [Territorial Claim] skill.

Skill Unlocked: [Territorial Claim] – Requires pioneer background as a prerequisite and the [Colonialist] achievement. You can claim up to 2 zones of area, with a combined size of up to 10000m2 as your territory where it can buff yourself and targets designated as allies while debuffing targets designated as enemies in limited capacities. The removed territory will lose the status effects and can only be redeployed after 24 hours.

Well, it's good to see that I can get EXP to help level myself up by doing different activities. But it's detrimental to not know if any actions can help level me up faster than others. At least, I got a skill out of it and came to learn of an achievement system.

Well, there are a lot of hidden functions in the systems that you have yet to experience or unlock, and I'm not about to baby you and give you too many pointers for everything. After all, I value users' freedom of choice. Anyway, do your best to use [Market] to get more functions and quality-of-life improvements out of me. Maybe then... Wait, [Unlucky Beginnings] just triggered. Guess depending on your luck, you will see if you get to stay in the background or get roped into the main story in unexpected ways. As a friendly reminder, you should allocate your 32 points of Unallocated Stats to help make your life easier.

Ah, so I guess level up gives me 2 points of Unallocated Stats. At least that's something I can look forward to. But I will take my chances. Honestly, up to this point, other than the [Storage Space Bag] goodies that I got from the [System, the words uttered by the system seem to led me to my downfall. So I will take my chances and see what I will get pitted against.

You had rolled a safe roll this time.

Well, you were lucky Wo. The landmass you are on in fact was not the one that Aang's iceberg originally broke off from, and the fleet of Fire Nation cruisers had yet to collide with your ice panel, at least you are safe for now. But the Fire Nation would be happy if they knew you had colonized the first mass of land for them as they just drove through the area hastily, hunting for the Avatar.

Well, at least I can finally breathe out a sigh of relief. I should check out the [Market] and see what's in store for me.

Opening [Market:

Limited time offer:

Skill: [Gacha] (100-10 Stat points) – Requires Gamer Type Lifeform as a prerequisite. A menu in the [System] interface where you can gacha for skills, and items with a lower than [Market] value discount, in exchange for monetary items or stat points.

... [System, you are joking, right? The [Gacha] skill will be taking away a little less than a third of my stat points? So that I can potentially get some skills or perks for cheaper? Also, what's with the [Market] only selling one item? Are you trying to force my hand here?

Will you believe me if I said no? I mean this skill is a balance breaker. I won't lie and tell you that I won't be limiting your gacha pool, but I can assure you I won't take away what you had fairly gachaed with your luck.

[System]... I am really trying on my end here to not just stop playing your game altogether.

Fine, I promise I won't rebalance the things that you get from the [Gacha] skill, I will even change the parameters for [Permission not granted]. As long as you get it from the [Gacha] skill, you don't have to worry about it being taken away from you.

Perk: [Permission not granted] upgraded.

[Permission not granted] – A negative trait that lets the [System] decide what you can say, or rebalance you or the world around you. Except for any items, skills, or perks obtained via the [Gacha] skill.

There, this should make my game devolve into an unbalanced mess sooner.

Sure, whatever, I haven't even experienced becoming overpowered yet, so why worry about it?

All I can say is you will regret this day eventually when the world gets destroyed around you.

Just give me the [Gacha] skill, so that I can have my first gacha.

Skill Unlocked: [Gacha] – Requires Gamer Type Lifeform as a prerequisite. A menu in the [System] interface where you can gacha for skills, and items with a lower than [Market] value discount, in exchange for monetary items or stat points.

Unallocated Stats: 32- 22

Nice, let's see what's there to gacha with the [Gacha] skill.

Opening [Gacha:

Welcome to using the [Gacha] skill for the first time. Before letting you start using your first gacha, you get a free gacha that can either grant you stat points, unlock some quality-of-life functions for the [Gacha] skill, or win all of the prize pool. Here is the breakdown as follows:

Rolling a 1-60 to win one of the following Unallocated Stats increase

20 stat points

50 stat points

100 stat points

Rolling a 61-99 to win one of the following quality-of-life upgrades added to the [Gacha] skill

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Ability to gacha perks

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Ability to reroll 3 times

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Ability to choose what you want from rerolls

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Pity System Ability: Mass 10/100/1000 rolls granting better rewards than if individually rolled

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Pity System Ability: Set gacha rolls for rolling what you want

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Free daily rolls

Quality of Life Upgrade [Gacha: Can only be used with the [Gacha] skill. Rate ups: Alter rates or create banners to help increase the chances of obtaining what you desire

Rolling 100 to win All of the above

I would recommend you to use up any of your remaining Unallocated Stats before attempting this gacha, you can easily win back most if not more stat points, even if you weren't lucky enough, but a higher luck gives you a better chance of winning big.

Damn... This is the best skill I can get. Just looking at the quality of life features for the [Gacha] skill got my imagination running wild with how crazy overpowered it will be if I can get some quality of life for my other skills and perks. I quickly allocated all my saved-up Unallocated Stats to my LCK stat, which still displayed it as E- rank. However, I can feel a rushing sensation as if I had suddenly become the luckiest man in the world, or it could just be some weird placebo.

It's now or never, let's get the grand prize home! Gotta smack the gacha button down for good luck.

Because of your LCK stat, D100 will be transformed to D100(LCK value/10), resulting LCK roll 3.

You had rolled 98(3)=101.

Congratulations! You are granted All of the above rewards.

Calculating...

Unallocated Stats: 170.

7 quality of life upgrades to the [Gacha] Skill.

[System] attempted to interfere with [Permission not granted].

[System] interference failed.

This was why I did my part to limit you at first, seriously the balancing of the features is simply terrible.

What the hell? I could've never expected this, does this mean I have 30 in LCK?

xxXxx

Thank you for reading the version of the first chapter.

You can find the same story updated in Ao3, as they have rich text format that won't get rid of my system brackets. That's also where I post the story faster, with it up to chapter 4 now. Go over there to check it out if interested.

If you enjoy what I write, and want to read ahead, come visit my Pa-page. I don't intend to paywall my stuff, but any support I get can help keep me writing instead of dealing with whatever life throws at me.

The following is Xin Wo's current status.

Status:

Wo, Xin

Alignment – Fire Bender (Gamer Type)

Level – 2 (0%)

HP – F-

MP – F-

SP – F-

STR – F-

PER – F-

END – F-

AGI – F-

DEX – F-

INT – F-

CHA – F-

LCK – E-

(F- E- D- C- B- A- S- SS- SSS- EX) ("" and "-" can be added to denote slight changes to the level of the stats)

Unallocated Stats: 170

Skills:

[Mapping]

[Basic Survival Skills]

[Cold Weapon Mastery]

[Market]

[Gacha]

Perks:

[Gamer Body Type]

[Navigation]

[The World is a Numbers Game]

[Unlucky Beginnings]

Background: [Pioneer]