“Don’t worry, he knows.” Those were the first words he heard when he woke up in this reality, wearing the skin of someone else.
It was accompanied by a full body jerk as he tried to figure out what was going on.
One moment he’d been in the abyss, talking to…
Well, she never quite introduced herself beyond her name, Terra-tan, but he was going to assume goddess.
Or eldritch equivalent in a convenient, non-mind breaking package.
The world was already in full focus, which was disorienting in the extreme.
Human minds struggle terribly with shifts that happen without transition.
It didn’t take incredibly long for him to put together where he was, or what was going on around him though.
The air stank, bitter and very reminiscent of skunk.
Empty cans were piled up on every surface nearby.
Explosions and gunshots coming from the television screen.
A girl, someone his meatsuit presumably knew, getting felt up and kissed by an older man.
Potentially a problem, but…
How old even was she?
’13’ Alright, huge problem.
How old was the guy kissing her?
’37’ Yep.
Awesome.
Huge problem.
“Bro, you alright?” One of the two boys playing the game on the tv asked him.
Who was he?
‘Johnny’ “Yeah Johnny.
Just…
Man, I really need some chips.” He didn’t have the full details, he couldn’t even remember what was supposed to be happening here!
Every time he tried, he could remember what he’d been doing before he died, but nothing about any of this.
Except that he -could- answer himself if he asked a question he should know.
Which was…
Interesting.
The kids brain could answer queries, but it couldn’t be directly accessed.
Maybe a software to hardware mismatch?
Fifty year old nerd trying to run on thirteen year old stoner brain.
“Man, I could go for some cookies!” The other boy on the couch…?
‘Tommy’ Tommy said.
“A’ight.
You got money?
I’ll walk to the corner store, get some stuff.” Tommy waited until his character got downed by a headshot and gave…
‘What’s my name supposed to be?’ ‘Leslie Winters’ ‘…’ Leslie a fistful of crumpled bills he pulled out of his pocket.
He didn’t bother counting them before stuffing them in his own pocket, pointedly ignoring what was happening on the chair and shuffling outside.
It was hot, incredibly humid, and fairly early if the sun being high in the sky meant anything.
Leslie stalked down the road, making a mental note of the house number as he passed the mailbox.
–QUEST ALERT!– –Resolve the events that lead to the suicide of Leslie Winters!– –REWARD!– –1000 GP!– As he got further down the road, he looked up, checking the street sign, and then began patting down his pockets.
He found the wad of bills Tommy gave him, a flip lighter and a wallet that had a student I.D.
and a further fifty dollars in it.
And a scuffed smartphone with a cracked screen.
Perfect.
It took him a moment to turn it on and he stared at the lock screen.
‘What’s my P.I.N?’ ‘7734’ ‘This kid was such an edgelord’ Well, Leslie thought that, but didn’t bother voicing it.
Too little too late after all.
Passcode put in, a moment to puzzle out the buttons later and- “Nine-One-One, what’s your emergency?” The responder was a woman, he thought her accent was from the east coast but he wasn’t actually sure.
“There’s a pedophile with three kids in his house, he’s been giving them weed and beer.
He was feeling up a twelve or thirteen year old girl when I saw it.” She asked a few further questions, things he didn’t have an immediate answer for except the address.
Leslie might have, but other people asking questions didn’t prompt that little answer like his asking did.
“Listen, if I stick around I’m going to commit a crime.
Tell the officers if they need me I’ll be at the corner store two blocks south of the house.
Leslie.
Green hoodie and blue jeans.” It would’ve been dramatic for him to just hang up on the responder then and there, but not terribly useful.
She asked a few further questions before thanking him for his time and telling him to stay put for the officers.
Not something he was looking forward to, but it’d probably resolve his starter quest.
Leslie hung up and continued walking.
No starting knowledge of a setting and waking up to a tragedy, this was going to be awesome, he could already tell.
“Inventory?” He was expecting a grid, but got a list instead.
In the upper right corner it listed GP, and had the number one-thousand there.
Experimentally he pushed the flip lighter into it.
It still sank right in, and at the very top of the list the word -Lighter- was filled in.
Thinking at the menu didn’t move the selector up or down, but he found he could move it with his eyes by focusing on the words, or he could wave his hands and move things that way.
He highlighted the lighter he’d just put in and shifted his focus to the neighboring screen.
-Flip Lighter- -Brand: Zippo- -Fuel: 67%- -Description- “A flip lighter with a Buckeye leaf on one side, and a large red O on the other.
Leslie stole this from a tourist because he thought it was a marijuana leaf.” Disappointed, though not surprised, he closed the inventory.
“Status?” A new window popped into existence.
It had seven core statistics, and three other figures.
Strength and Vitality, Dexterity and Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom, and finally Luck.
A little bit bare-bones, but not too surprising.
HP and MP were expected as well.
VP wasn’t.
He highlighted that.
-VP- Vitality Points “These points are not directly affected by your in-game stats.
Instead they represent your bodies actual health.
HP may act as a buffer or shield to defend against permanent or crippling injuries, but VP represents your actual life remaining.
Piercing damage, critical blows and various debilitations or injuries can cause direct harm to VP.
Non-Lethal attacks cannot reduce VP” He had one-hundred HP, twenty-five MP, seven VP, and a flat five in every stat.
Three squad cars passed him by, heading in the opposite direction.
He was almost at the store, a Seven/Eleven.
Did he just get incarnated back into normal reality?
“Shop?” This window was just a search bar.
Unlike his inventory though, it responded directly to what he thought.
‘Status Recovery’ He wasn’t stumbling around drunk on the side of the road, but he could taste something bitter at the back of his throat and his thoughts felt…
Off, somehow.
A lot of options were brought up, and he did mean a lot.
Powdered unicorn horns, pixie dust, anti-anything he could think of was listed here.
And most of it was more expensive than he could afford.
He scrolled down, moving past the single use items and into spell and skill books.
Just like before, most of it was just outside his price range.
Cure Condition, Status Restore, Purge, Chakra Cycle, Vera, Spoon, the list went on and on.
And the prices went up and up.
Except for one.
Listed at Six-Hundred GP was a spell called Esuna.
Well, there were a bunch of different Esuna listed, but this one was conspicuously inexpensive.
He highlighted it.
-Esuna- “This version of the spell is from the world of Palakkia.
It can initially only cure poison and blindness.
As the caster becomes more experienced, however, it can be used to cure nearly all debilitations!” He clicked purchase.
He also picked up a bottle of water from a refrigerated rack in the store and a pack of mint gum.
Paying for it, he sat down in front of the store on the sidewalk and pulled out his new spellbook from his inventory.
It very inconveniently did not burst into motes of light and ash and add itself to his list of known spells.
He had to actually read the book before the spell was useful.
Which wasn’t actually too bad, it was thirty pages and closer to an idiots guide than a magical treatise.
He even got to keep it when he was done.
“Spells?” There were actually two entries here, which was fairly surprising.
Esuna, which he’d been expecting.
And I.D.
escape, which he hadn’t been expecting.
Well, that wasn’t terribly important right now.
He focused on Esuna, focused on himself, and with a strange twisting feeling, it was cast.
[Alcohol has been removed] [Tetrahydrocannabinol has been removed] No lightshow though, which was surprising.
Good, but surprising.
He was going to have to figure out how to increase his MP however, or he’d be unable to cast the spell after it leveled up a few times.
He took a sip of his water and was about to reopen the status menu when a squad car pulled up and parked in front of the store.
Gotham City Police Department.
Oh.
That…
Wasn’t good.
A portly man stepped out of the vehicle, wearing a beige trench coat and a brown trilby hat.
Leslie started chewing a piece of gum.
“Hey kid, you the one called in that Chester up the road?” The officer stopped directly in front of Leslie, so he got up.
“Two blocks north of here?” Leslie wasn’t quite sure what he meant by Chester.
“That’s the one, yeah.” The man reached into his coat and pulled out his badge.
“Harvey Bullock, GCPD.” “Leslie Winters.” The boy held out his hand, but the detective didn’t shake it.
“What do you need?” “I’m a need you to fill out a statement kiddo.
Ya wanna do it here, we can do it here.
Otherwise you an’ me are gonna have ta go to tha station and do it there.” The detective was getting more brusque, but then he could probably smell the cheap weed Leslie was soaked in.
‘Where do I live?’ The address the remnant of Leslie offered was relatively nearby.
“I live three blocks over, Mr.Bullock.
You wanna just go there, get my mom to sign off on whatever she’s gotta and we get this over with?” Leslie was still a minor, if this world was anything like the real world then she’d have to get involved with the whole mess anyway.
“Not happenin’ kid.
Here or the station.” The detective was getting impatient.
Leslie wondered if he’d been having a bad day to start with, or this just upset him.
Or both.
“You’re gonna take me to the station either way, aren’t you?” Bullock didn’t say anything, but he did cross his arms.
Screw it.
“Let’s just go to the station.
Sooner begun, sooner we’re done.” “‘Least you’re smarter than your two pothead friends.” No handcuffs were involved, and the detective didn’t ‘Help’ him into the car, but still.
An hour and a half into day one in this reality, he was already in police custody.
Awesome start.