It has already been two years since I got my Terraria System "Quirk." I couldn't sleep last night, watching the progress bar sit at 99% as it finished loading. By the time it was completed and I was looking at a completed world, the sun was already up and the smell of eggs filled my nostrils.
Mom was worried I didn't get any sleep and fussed over me to see if I was okay. I mean, my movements were a bit sluggish but the adrenaline coursing through me kept me running. After she was done fussing over me and let me eat my egg on rice with gusto, she finally drove me to school. After the usual spiel of her making sure I was presentable, I finally reached the entrance area.
After putting my outside shoes in the cubby and putting on my school shoes I turned to see Takumi flanked by two boys in a rather boisterous one-sided conversation approaching me. After getting a closer look, Takumi adopted a quizzical look over his usual all-teeth smile.
"Wow Ando-chan, did you get any sleep?" Takumi asked, studying my eyebags with exaggerated movements.
Hora Takumi. My best friend. We were about the same age, although an asshole would say that I'm younger due to me being born on the 29th of February. His quirk was named Sweet-gel, which forms from pores of his skin in sweet-smelling, bouncy globules. When ruptured, releasing a sticky, adhesive slime that is also very flammable.
And his personality? I'd hate to say it, but it's bubbly. Kid has a smile that makes you feel out of place not smiling with him. And now he has two other kids from school flanking him as he waits for my answer.
"Yeah, I was trying to see if I could bring out my quirk, last night," I lied, "Maybe it's very small."
Another lie, which led to one of the kids scoffing, just not at the lie itself.
"Is that what you tell yourself?" He said, crossing his arms like an ass, "Maybe you're just quirkless. You must've broken your pinky toe when you were a baby!"
"Nagata-chan, that's mean," Takumi whined, looking at the boy in question, "Ando-chan has no reason to lie!"
Nagata Yasuo. Black smooth hair, pale violet eyes, and fair skin. His quirk is Repeat. Repeat allows him to repeat any action he does within a three second time frame. He displayed it by flicking someone's forehead, before a phantom-version of his hand began to flick the poor kid's head eighteen more times as a result. Although it seems like he can only choose one action to repeat at once.
The other quiet boy was Amano Masahiko. Long brunette hair, dark brown eyes, also white skin. But funnily enough, his quirk was a mutation quirk called Running Rabbit. Allows Masahiko to set the tempo and rhythm of anyone within a certain radius. This quirk mutated his ears, turning them into lop-bunny ears that bended with his hair. I think a lot of the girls like him, but you'll never hear the dense boy recognize that.
"But why hasn't it appeared yet, Ando-san?" Amano asked, "Don't they appear before you turn four?"
Well at least they haven't figured out where I was lying, might as well keep the ruse.
"I dunno, the doctors said that maybe I was a late bloomer. So maybe I could force it out." Then a clever thought came to my mind.
"Maybe it's a 'being smart' quirk!"
Now this got all three boys to start laughing at the absurdity of it.
"I'm sorry Ando-chan," Takumi said between fits of laughter, "You're very smart, just not genius smart!"
Thank you for the vote of confidence, buddy.
"Yeah, if it was a smartness quirk, then it's the weakest to ever exist!" Yasuo exclaimed, laughing harder than the two boys.
I know it was a lie to cover up my actual abilities, but that kinda stung. But before I could say anything, a mostly normal man with scaled lizard hands came around the corner.
"You boys better stop teasing Ando-kun and get to your home class!"
"Yes sensei!"
Like that, off to head into our classes. I don't share the first period with Takumi and Yasuo, much to the former boy's disappointment, but I do share it with rabbit ears instead.
Upon entering the class, I quickly found my seat, right under the fan that is constantly blowing cold air. Perfect. As I waited for the class to start, I felt someone standing to the left. It was Aimi, a light blush on her downtrodden face and fidgeting hands. I knew she might admire me, but I can't exactly acknowledge that, we're only eight!
"You know, if the cold air is getting to you, you don't have to stand there," I said, a crooked smile plastering my face as her face became redder.
"No, no," Aimi stammered, head shaking to get rid of the growing blush, "I'm fine."
Well that's that. I closed my eyes to again look at the world file in the Power Menu:
___
[Enter Sub-World?]
Large Legendary World - time spent: 00:00:00:00
[Sleepless Enter] [Dream Enter]
___
Well that's weird, what do those even mean? But before the system could answer me…
"U-um,"Aimi, now much quieter, stuttered out, "you don't mind if I sit next to you?"
Giving a thoughtful look to her at the request, I tilted my head to her. This caused her fading blush to come back full-force as a result. Really, a look? Shouldn't you be worried about boy-cooties, or something?
"Well that depends," I said, not wanting to give a definite answer, "Have you asked Shinji and Norio to switch?"
Balling up her hands in response, her slight frown became even droopier.
"They said they didn't want to-"
"I'll let you trade seats with me, Takahashi."
Turning to see who spoke was a short-cropped black haired girl with glasses. Holding an easy smile, she was already standing with her schoolbag in hand. Guess that's her wing-man.
"T-t-thank you, Kai-chan!" Aimi said, bowing rather deep for a simple kindness.
Kai Usagi. Straight, short black hair, gray eyes with glasses, and fair skin. I honestly didn't know her quirk, never had the chance to ask or see. What I did know was that she also had a mutation quirk. Which she showed by smiling widely at the appreciation given, showing rows of too-many sharp teeth.
"It's no problem, Takahashi-Chan!" she beamed. Already walking over to Aimi's old desk. Leaving her and I to settle in each other's presence.
Before it got too awkward for the both of us, the bell rang followed by the teacher a second later.
"Alright, alright everyone," she started, setting her bag on her desk, "settle down."
And just like that, Aimi managed to find her land legs and sat behind me. Giving me some time to look at what the system said about my question.
[Sleepless Enter allows you to physically transport you and whatever is on your person to the selected world. This only includes items not obtained from a Sub-World or items that do not have a comparative. However, using this option has a three hour build-up before you can use it again.]
Why would I use it then? I doubt there is something in this world that I couldn't make in the sub-world. And what about Dream Enter?
[Dream Enter allows you to transport to the selected world. This option forces your body into a torpor state. Using this option and dying within the world will double the death timer penalty as a result.]
Death Timer Penalty? I had assumed that I was in Hardcore mode, just like here! I think.
[Would you want to activate hardcore mode?]
Hell no! In fact, remove that option entirely!
[Choosing hardcore mode will only remove your ability to further interact within the world you died in. Being in hardcore mode will drastically increase the strength of your power menu drastically, reducing Research requirements by 30%, increasing Duplication limits by 300%, and success of Unique Crafting attempts by 100%.]
Oh that's some 'ole bullshi-
"Ando Saboru-kun. Did you not get any sleep last night?" our classroom teacher asked, hands on her hips as I looked around to see the other standing students, eyes fixed on me.
"Ah no, but I'll be alright."
With a nod, and at the sight of me standing, the day began with earnestness. Leaving the rest of the day anti-climatic.
———————————————————————
Well that's the end of the school day, and I'm already energized after the classroom cleaning! Although I couldn't say the same with my peers as it began to rain halfway throughout the day and was still going strong as we began to wait for our parents or walking home.
The reason I was the odd one out? It was because I could use this as an excuse to sleep and begin building up my power in earnest! Although, how would time progress here when I'm in a Sub-World?
Feeling the sudden urge to close my eyes for longer than a blink, made me realise that the system was trying to answer my question. Complying I did just that, adopting a thinking pose as I did so.
[Time spent inside a Sub-World is modified through the Sub-World Time Menu.]
Oh? Well let's take a looksie then.
___
[Sub-World Time Menu]
Time Differential: 1:1 scale
Sub-World Time: 24 hour days
Force Wake-Up Timer: 7 hours
___
Huh. Well that's interesting. What I think these options are saying is that I can make time spent in the Sub-World faster or slower than time spent here, and then I can extend and shorten my time spent there. Then why wouldn't I just set the timer to be like three years in there and only an hour here?
[Force leaving a Sub-World before the allotted time is complete will close the world until the allotted time has passed.]
Ah, so I can't be brainless about it then? Man I kinda don't like this system, but it's better than people finding crystal hearts throughout the world and getting beefed up as a result.
At the sound of a car horn snapped me out of my reverie, as mother dearest was parked right in front of me. But before I could step out into the rain a voice called out.
"Hey, Ando-chan," Yelled Takumi, as he came jogging from the building, "Wanna hang out?"
"Nah, feeling quite tired myself," I easily lied. This caused Takumi to frown as a random boy turned to Takumi with a casual smile.
"Isn't your quirk like, super energizing?" one of the boys asked. That immediately caused Takumi's frown to flip.
And like the flash, now Takumi was now riding with me and my mom. Strangely, my mom had a ghost of a smile on her face. Why? I'm not a hermit!
Well… I kinda was during those last two years, so I can kinda understand her worry. And to add to the fact that I hadn't really gotten to know any other kid at school, which wasn't helped by that I had intense eyes — just my mom's.
"Ando-chan, you want some?" Takumi asked, holding a globule of gel in his palm.
"Nah, I think I'm fine," I replied, watching the pedestrians move in slow-motion from the car's speed.
"Oh, come on!" he whined, "If you don't, then you'll go to sleep and it'll be boring!"
Yeah, maybe you should pick up a book during that time, reading has always been your weakest point afterall.
I was content on ignoring Hora until the aroma of gel got stronger. Opening one eye revealed Takumi's hand hovering in front of me.
Now I could once again ignore him until we got home, but last time this happened, he pushed the slime up my nose, giving me a near heart attack.
But hey. At least I got 15 gel out of that.
I flicked up a finger of gel into my mouth, inwardly cringing at the taste. If I wasn't in the world of My Hero Academia, I wouldn't even be caught dead eating slime out of another kid's hand.
___
Gel (99)
Ammo
Material
"Extremely sweet and flammable"
Research 99 more to unlock duplication
___
Oh, wait! Takumi, you annoying bastard of a saint! Immediately, I put the gel into my research chamber, without any preamble, I saw the slamming and heard the jingle of a completed research emanate. Giving me a feeling of winning the jackpot!
"Um, Ms. Ando-san," Takumi uttered out, "what was that sound?"
When I opened my eyes, I saw the look of shock my mom had in the rear view mirror. She was scanning the outside of her car like a madman looking for Cthulhu. No pun intended.
When she spoke, it was after she had taken a deep breath.
"I- don't know."
———————————————————————
Well that's some surprise. You would've thought that any sound made in the menus could be heard by people around me.
Hey, system! Could you mute it so that no one else but I can hear it?
[Unable to fulfil this request.]
Well isn't that peachy?
"I got you on the ropes, Ando-chan!" yelled Takumi, mashing his controller with ferocity.
Right now, we're playing a fighting game with the artstyle and gameplay of Skullgirls. But instead were the pro heroes of Japan. He was, like most kids would, playing All Might. I was Mirko. And he was right, he had me in the corner. And it was due to him using that god awful machine-gun punch attack.
But the frames on that move left him in the negative on block, something I exploited the moment he chipped Mirko's health to red. Mirko in this game was a combo monster, having two touch of death combos on advantage. Adding that with her rage mechanic that increased her attack speed near death, it was quite easy to beat Takumi with his full health.
"What?" Takumi shouted with annoyance, "Your Mirko is too good!"
"Yeah, I know I'm good," I said, feigning a yawn in response.
"I want another rematch!"
Looking at the score board of 12-1, I was immediately both annoyed and admiring Hora's "no-quitter's" attitude. He hasn't even let me even lay down to explore my quirk! Wanted to live like a kid and what not. And when I tried to get a nap when he went to the bathroom, my mom woke me up because, "It's too early to be sleeping Saboru". But that's just how the cookie is baked, I guess.
"Alright," I said, locking-in my game face, "but if you lose you'll let me take a nap, deal?"
"Deal! You're going down," Takumi said with a fierce smile.
It was a shame what I did to him in that match.
The game was given to me by my dad who was a graphics designer at the studio that made the game, meaning that I had a lot of time to practice playing the characters, and one character out of the entire roster was broken beyond belief.
Mt.-fucking-Lady.
Safe to say, the amount of relief I had when Takumi's face dropped from the flawless victory I scored was heavenly.
"Alright, good night!" I said, hopping on my bed, outside clothes and all.
___
[Sub-World Time Menu]
Time Differential: 1:1 scale
Sub-World Time: 24 hour days
Force Wake-Up Timer: 7 hours
___
Alright, now let's change this so I can get a day's worth of progression in three hours.
___
[Sub-World Time Menu]
Time Differential: 1:8 scale
Sub-World Time: 24 hour days
Force Wake-Up Timer: 3 hours
___
Majestic.
___
[Enter Sub-World?]
Large Legendary World - time spent: 00:00:00:00
[Sleepless Enter] [Dream Enter]
___
Let's get this show on the road!
[Dream Enter!]