Chương 131: Chapter 127

Number one issue Wade had to contend with was that his random boon this time was going to be a problem. Arsonist (Common) - On killing an enemy, their body will explode. He didn't have a way to really test this out, since he'd need to kill stuff on Earth in order to even check what kind of explosion he could expect, or the damage type and scaling that came with this. The research phase was going to be a little scuffed.

Out of his three boons, he'd probably need the Skyviper Archer this round to stay alive with, it would work the best against the enemies in the Arcane Realm. It paired well with Eri running front-line, and he felt that so long as he had the grenades and bullets, he could probably survive a lot. Magic would help shore up the difficulties of that boon, namely making his jumps larger and Featherfall letting him glide down. He'd need to figure out how to use mana crystals, or get himself irradiated.

But before that was the obvious. Five coins to unlock the Water Mastery boon. This game was all about building up options. If he hadn't gotten the lightning dodge, he would have had a far harder time last round given Blackrot creatures got tickled by guns.

"Let's get the Water Master boon unlocked for the roster." Wade said, tapping the option on his side. Play nodded, extending a hand out to him without looking away from her PC monitor. Five coins vanished from his storefront inventory, clicking into her hands and then vanishing away as he spent the money. Water Mastery Unlocked! Thirteen coins left. It wasn't always about giving him combat options either.

The dodge roll allowed him to survive falls before he knew anything about Featherfall, or it could save him when he had no mana to work with. And it could help him phase through small walls and restraints too. There was utility in these boons he had to factor. Maybe in a future round, he'd have an excellent boon that just required a support boon to buff the hell out of it. This particular boon he knew he could trigger almost constantly using his rubber boots.

He looked down at his feet and still saw the garishly yellow rubber boots still half-filled with water. Maybe after he had his limp healed by Eri back on Earth, he could also have all the chafing and muscle cramps in his feet healed next. But more importantly for the Water Mastery Boon; there were boon upgrades in this game. Which meant all boons started off pretty bad in some way or another and slowly built up. Upgrading these boons would become the standard practice in the future.

He looked over to his options on that. A temporary one-round upgrade for three coins, and a permanent unlock for seven. Short term quick power that functionally set him back three coins on his long term progress, or an expensive but long term powerup that made full use of his storefront economy. The single-round boon upgrade was clearly an emergency 'I'm so screwed' option in case he had no good boon, and the ones he'd collected wouldn't work against the enemies expected.

Today was a close call on the totally-screwed department given his random boon, but being able to rely on the Skyviper Archer to hardcarry him through the arcane realm was perfectly doable: The enemies there didn't regenerate their health like a coked-up wolverine with matching attitude. They were just very large and had huge health pools. Which was perfect for how the skyviper worked, so long as he could get the first shot to land. Plus, he could probably do a lot more jumping around this time.

They had the healing ring, Eri was happy enough playing a discount undead priest, so his limp and health issues should be taken care of letting him actually jump without any pain. And with mana all over the arcane realm, he was sure it would be easy enough to get something going to empower his jumps and pair it with featherfall. So for now, Wade decided to spend his coins on something that would give him more permanent power. And speaking of - what boon would give him the best bang for his buck upgrade wise?

Seven coins was a hefty price and there wasn't any spreading it around. So where would he put his eggs into? Potential scaling or more immediate use? Potential came from the Water Mastery Boon. Who knew what kind of upgraded bullshit would come from a boon that gave almost pure buffs? And this boon was all about water mastery, as in control over water.

Sure right now it was made to help him swim through and move in a realm that normally he shouldn't be, but what if future upgrades in this boon gave more control over water itself? Late game, there would be more reason to save up coins for something or another, but right now every advantage he could get was useful. And as for late game, he looked over his buffs. Augmented Hunter was giving him a random stat point each time he killed a challenge gauntlet mob, up to five kills.

The System had basically handed him a free application of it when he'd unlocked the whole thing. And that buff still had a few more stats to give him before it ran out of charges. Which made it a problem: "Play, if I buy Augmented Hunter again, while the buff is still active on me, is it going to just refresh the whole thing back to five out of five charges, or would it add it to a total instead?"

If buying it just added five additional charges to his current count, then it wouldn't matter if he got it now or later, he'd be getting maximum value. But on the off chance that it didn't work like... he'd be wasting some serious coins.

"I wouldn't risk it~" She said, not bothering to look back at him as she focused on hunting down someone on her screen.

"Hold on a second. Here's a good lesson on what you should be actually asking about." Play clicked a few more keys, her character running after the enemy trying to escape ahead, penning him into a corner. It was like watching a horror film, except from the killer's point of view. Play's violently pink character stopped running and instead calmly walked forward down the hallway.

The enemy player up ahead slowly turned around, clearly aware they were caught in a dead end and the only way out was to fight the NEETess herself.

"It's time for my favorite part." She grinned." Sudden death." Her character dove forward in an attack and started a combination of moves, easily whacking the enemy's own attack off track in a parry before stabbing forward.

"Watch, he's going to start panic rolling to the right." Her head tilted back, chair leaning equally backwards, until her head was looking at Wade almost upside down.

"I'm not even going to look at my screen and still wreck this guy." Pink and white death rained on the computer screen, and the enemy dodge rolled to the right as she predicted, while her own character was already turning that way, awkwardly standing still now, waiting. Play lifted her mouse straight up like a sword, then tapped the left button. A virtual katana sliced through the enemy, right as they landed back on their feet. A single basic attack with little flair or any spell to it.

Blood ripped free over the monitor. The enemy stumbled forward dramatically, falling limp into the ground. Dead, with only Play's character looming above them. A slew of angry text messages were already starting to populate the left side of Play's screen, many of them in all caps, and Wade could just feel the salt radiate even from this distance. A giant 'YOU WIN' appeared over the screen shortly after. She gave him a deep grin, eyes still locked on him.

"So predictable. Mortals are silly little creatures, don't you think? Maybe you could learn a little from this one's unfortunate ending against a better player." If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Yeah, I get it." Wade said, rolling his eyes.

"Player vs Player is coming for me one way or another, and I'm not keen on getting eliminated before I'm prepared to fight back. The extra retry option is something I need to take seriously." One thing he'd noticed: Dying multiple times hadn't knocked him out of the game yet. But having killed another player, even a Nathir on the other side, seemed to have eliminated him from the game according to the notification.

Which meant Player vs Player is a significantly larger threat than just the enemy being able to equally use the System. And the enemy team had started up early. There was only one single option on his storefront to counter Murphy's law in this case: The Extra Retry option. It did come at a significant early-game cost. Five coins. If nobody came to wack him this round, he was effectively spending all those coins just to not have to worry as much about that.

But at least it was a buyable thing rather than a one-round insurance.

"Choose what you wish." Play shrugged, then lifted her head back up to close a few notifications on her screen, before she went to loot the body for items.

"Better to have it and not need it, than to need it, and not have it." She was right. Getting eliminated from the Game would cripple all of his future plans here, and he'd already quit Hobby Froggies. Crawling back to Bob to ask for his job back was going to be a fate worse than death at this point. He was all in on THE GAME. He couldn't afford to ever lose.

"Do it." He sighed.

"Buy the Extra Retry. If I don't end up using it, it's carried over into the next rounds, so I'm buying that stress free thinking for multiple rounds." When he thought it like that, maybe it was worth five coins. And those five vanished from his storefront, as Play yanked them out of the air and counted them one by one, tossed into her own screen. One additional life added to your account. Extra lives: 1"Do these coins even matter to you, power wise?"

He ran another identify on her and found her level hadn't increased at all even after buying both the extra retry and the water mastery boon. That was ten coins.

"Maybe another five would give me one more level?" She shrugged.

"I can't quite tell what level I am or not, I'm not a player. But in terms of power, if I had waited here for two hours, I would have passively gained the same amount as one coin." Two hours. Two hours of the entire global population on Earth playing games, starting new projects, creating stories and worlds. Probably thousands of small additions to her power over that span of time.

"So they are powerful. You're just too rotund to notice."

"Yeh, that's abo- HEY! Rotund?! Did you call a goddess like myself fat??" Wade looked over what was left of his storefront economy. Damn, just two buys had eaten up so much money. Real life was simply cruel, even a dimensional video game felt like he was watching his paycheck fly off into rent and bills. Eight coins left. Speaking of broke, "I'll buy the extraction loot spawns for a coin next. Money and income."

Play snatched a coin out of the air and threw it into the storefront window, still looking like she was about to cry.

"I have a perfectly balanced diet! You take that back mortal!" Money and income, loot and vendor-trash. Hopefully this would pair with the minimap, because being told there was loot containers nearby that had potential extraction spawns would be gamechanger for Wade. And the minimap was on his radar to eventually grab. There were a lot of one coin options, and their low cost clearly meant they were for tutorial reasons - and probably exactly what he should be unlocking right now, getting the basic tools needed.

Seven coins left. Enough for a few more of those basic tutorial unlocks… or enough to upgrade one boon. Wade stared at that storefront screen, contemplating decisions that would change everything. Plan A: Upgrade a boon for seven, bet it all on getting one boon to hard carry him.

"Michael! Are you even listening to me, mortal!? Don't ignore me! I want attention!" Or Plan B: Grab the minimap, add challenge mode for extra coin return this round. Leaving him five coins for more options. One in particular he was eyeing. Challenge mode would have been one dangerous gamble given his current random boon could be worthless and he'd be relying solely on Skyviper Archer. If he ran out of bullets or gear out in the Arcane Realm, he'd be in deep shit.

Especially since he couldn't guess what the challenge mode would throw his way. But there was a way to handle the lack of a good boon, either pony up to temporarily upgrade it on a gamble it would be good… or just get another one. Single-round additional random boon: Spawns a Mythic Lootbox on round start containing a random boon that will remain for the rest of the round - 5 coin. That was a good option.

In comparison, the upgrade was seven coins and clearly something made for either late game or multi-round saving up for. But on the other hand, if this was a mid-to-late game upgrade, it was probably beefy. He saw Leon's boons. And he saw how much more nutty his Skyviper Archer had been with a single uncommon upgrade. He clicked the option to upgrade. The boon roster opened up, with his current collection of all three boons. Right at the very top was the Water Mastery boon.

When he hovered his finger over it, he saw a message displayed right next to his index finger. Permanently upgrade Water Mastery (Common) into (Uncommon)? 7 Coins. He could already trigger the base version. But he wasn't certain the additional picks would also be triggered reliably. It could be like spending seven coins on something that actually required him to be underwater to make full use of. In which case, he'd screwed himself.

The lightning dodge could also be quite useful, he could reliably trigger it, and it did give him a lot more options out of combat too. He hovered over that one for a moment, debating. But Skyviper Archer was already at uncommon, and if Leon's boon was an example of what the higher tier options offered, it might be worth just sinking into. The description of this storefront purchase was straight up 'next-rank' boon, which meant a rare boon. And that might be a game-changer. He hovered over the Skyviper archer.

And saw the storefront screen change. Permanently upgrade Skyviper Archer (Uncommon) into (Rare)? 14 Coins. Wade blinked a few times. The price remained the same at fourteen coins.

"Wait, what?! This is false advertising! What the hell?!" Play jumped on her seat and stood upright, barefeet, hands at her hips, glaring down at him.

"Hah! Serves you right, this is divine retribution for your earlier insolence!" One finger extended with absolute accusation.

"Divine retribution!" Did the price double? Would that mean upgrading a rare boon to exceptional would cost a whole twenty eight coins? Or was it just an additional seven coins each time? Wade wasn't certain, but he wanted a refund on the time spent debating this option for the archer upgrade. This was bullshit. Probably late-game bullshit, but still bullshit! It did give him some more understanding of what he could potentially expect late game.

At some point he would be generating more coins per run than the mere pocket change, and the absurd prices of all these things just made him more certain of that. Quest experience had caps that he could increase, and now he was reasonably certain so did coin gains. Especially if later storefront options came with higher costs, like the alchemy sanctum addition. Or the game was made to be played over months on months, in which players would slowly save up to upgrade their little roster.

Which would suck, but that was still a possibility. He shifted his line of thinking. Getting another boon to run around with would give him three boons in one round. Could potentially be overpowered. And it only cost 5 coins, which would leave him two more coins for other options he'd been looking at. Mind set, he went down plan B.

"Minimap next please." One more coin vanished. Play did not stop glaring at him the entire time.

"Take it back. Right now! Or else, divine retribution! I'm warning you mortal, I will cry!" Minimap unlocked! Nothing happened.

"Uh, is it going to trigger in the round, or do I need to say 'minimap' to bring it out?" It did show up right away on him saying those words in answer.

"Ah, it's like Identify then. Neat." The tiny little compass thing showed up with the size of a small laptop hovering in front of him. And what looked to be a pixel-art like rendition of Play's basement. A very, very tiny rendition. Almost eighty percent of the entire map was just darkness.

"Any way to zoom in?" He asked.

"Maybe try to use it like a smartphone instead of insulting deities and being a meaniehead." Wade held his hands out at it, and then drew them apart as if he were zooming on his phone screen. It worked. The little box rendition grew in size until he could see details. Right down to showing some empty cans nearby out of Wade's sight. And Wade saw potential: There were two blinking white dots. One at the very center of the minimap, and one exactly where Play sat. It was showing him nearby people.

"Good start." If it could tell him where enemies were ahead or around him, that alone was worth quite a penny. Extra knowledge was excellent. He needed every bit he could. Plus the range of this thing wasn't small but neither was it huge. About fifty feet it looked like. Hence why most of it had been darkness before. There wasn't anything outside Play's domain. Good buy. And starting at one coin, he was certain he'd find upgrades for this thing. Not every tool needed to be combat focused.

Sometimes being able to avoid combat, or work around obstacles was just as lifesaving, and he was going into a round where map knowledge was missing on his end. This could help mitigate that. Six coins left. He was going into a much more controlled round this time, with his strongest damaging boon, along with an extra life in case everything still went to shit. If there's any time to risk it for the biscuit, it was now.

"Let's do challenge mode. One coin." Play yanked the coin out of the air and slammed it into the storefront screen, staring at him the entire time. The mode might give him another Nathir invader. Or it might cause something else as an issue, all it said was increased challenge but basically guaranteed rewards. He was already focused on power leveling and that would include maximizing how much coins he could earn out in one round.

The System halted for a moment, and he got a notification early this time instead of the start of the round like the last time. Random challenge mode active. Challenge mode (Type: Restricted Boon). You are unable to use the Skyviper Archer Boon for the rest of this round. Successfully extract from this round to earn 3 storefront coins. Oh shit. OH SHIT. Luck triggered! Challenge mode restrictions changed. You are unable to use the Lightning Dodge Boon for the rest of this round.

Wade stared at the notifications, going through a roller coaster of emotion. Because holy hell, he'd almost screwed his entire run by that one selection. The adrenaline spike he'd had on reading his best boon would be out of commission… Play looked back at his still sheet-white expression of terror. And now she looked real smug.

"Divine. Retribution."