While I probably hadn’t ended up with the best rewards due to letting Sal get away, I still ended up walking away from the encounter with three Phase Point gains, 1500 credits, and a few new fans.
Crowdpleaser had given me a total of 570 points from the crowd that had gathered. Apparently even the folks watching from their windows on the street counted and I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain. Thanks to the fact that the alert had actually been an Ambush, I also got the static 200 points from the Survivor point gain. The last one I had gained wasn’t one I had actually been anticipating Axio considering point worthy, yet all the same, I received it.
“Phase Points Gained! The People’s Champion (NEW!). During an encounter, you chose to put the needs of a hurt Sentient NPC first. By lending a hand instead of chasing down your… I guess we can call him your nemesis for now, you've earned the respect of those you protect… and maybe a little karma boost too. This gain has a static value. Total Value: 250 points. This gain comes with a Medium Reputation Boost.”
With those points applied I had brought my point total all the way up to 6,680. Interestingly enough, the Reputation boost moved the bar along the side of my screen nearly to the top. When I probed Angie for information, she informed me that in order to claim higher tiered territories, such as the Community Center that Hell’s Kitchen was a part of, I would need to reach at least the next tier of reputation, “Local Hero.”
By the time I had made it back to the apartment, Angie had gone through the entire explanation of the leveling process for Jon.
As I entered the apartment, I found him practically perched in the Command Room still, having more or less set up a nest like he was a bird with snacks and drinks in various spots on the desk around him. The console seemed to actively adapt to his layout needs, spawning cupholders and smaller tiered tables to place his various things. Not wanting to stand around, I pulled one of the chairs from the kitchen table outside the door and plopped down before opening the leveling window.
At Jon’s insistence, I increased my Luck by 2 and then put a point into each my Dexterity and my Intelligence. He was still going through the back-end information he had access to on exactly what the different skills did, and it led to him muttering about how he’d probably be up all night just puzzling it out with an odd amount of excitement in his tone.
Of the eight base stats, he was relatively certain that I was going to want to focus on, obviously, Luck, but then Strength, Dexterity, and, of all things, Intelligence. The first three were for my general build, between my abilities and my hand-to-hand skills, they needed to take priority. But Intelligence was important for a much different, but equally necessary reason.
While the knowledge books I had gained so far had been without requirements, Jon learned that Angie had conveniently left out the fact that any book not received through a loot box would have an Intelligence requirement before I could utilize it. A good chunk of books could be used with an average Intelligence level score. But more advanced topics, or even skill books that raised a knowledge stat higher than level 3, could require intelligence scores that were well out of my current reach. I wasn’t even 100% sure why I would need to care about raising a knowledge stat higher than 3, but Angie insisted that other powersets benefited from higher knowledge levels, so theoretically mine would too.
She also insisted that unlike how the Strength stat would actually increase my Strength, increasing my Intelligence wouldn’t suddenly turn me into a rocket scientist. There was a book for that, but having a high Intelligence score wasn’t automatically equivalent to just becoming a genius. It just meant the capacity for that intelligence was there.
When it came to the other standard stats, Toughness, Ingenuity and apparently even Style could have some benefits for my skill set, but they were also stats that I could get on my gear over time to make up for any lack of points dropped into them through leveling. Charisma as it turned out, was the oddball. Jon refused to drop the fact that I had wasted an entire stat point just to raise my Charisma up to 10… all just to “use” the bathroom, and I was hard-pressed to find a good argument for what I had done so we just chose to move past it. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t anything about the stat that would help me in combat but it was impossible to ignore the fact that a higher Charisma was naturally just more helpful for a hero that innately needed to be in the spotlight.
We decided to approach it as we needed to, maybe dropping the occasional stat point into it and hoping we could gather some gains on it through my equipment. That was another thing that Jon was insistent we needed to focus on, and it was something that was also impossible to argue with. So far I had only utilized 4 of 12 gear slots, and filling out the rest could easily help boost the lesser stats without having to utilize any of my leveling points. But that said, Angie pointed out buying that gear would cost a veritable fortune. Someone like the NPC Greg in the Neutral Shopping Segment wouldn’t stock anything quite that powerful, but there were team-based resale shops that I could visit and hope to get lucky.
With only so many credits however, we were going to have to be economical about just where we spent them, and we agreed that while finding more equipment was on the list of things to do, increasing my available abilities was the more important thing to focus on. With all that discussion out of the way, we finally came to the last thing I needed to take care of with my level 6 increase, the ability augmentation.
“I really hope you get more time for this eventually cause this is kinda ridiculous,” Like with everything else, Jon had found this part of the process endlessly fascinating and he had already prepared a screen that he believed would give him at least some sort of information as I went through the augmentation process.
“It really is too bad you humans think so slow without any assistance,” Angie mused, but we chose to ignore her as the Ability Augmentation window opened.
Since I was unable to augment either of my main offensive skills for a few more levels, something I was realizing I really needed to adjust, I was left deciding between the utility abilities I had developed so far. Jon had been informed of the limited timeframe I was going to have the moment the process started, but he had pointed out that that didn’t exactly stop us from discussing just what ability I should be planning to augment before I ever got to the point where I was under threat of a timer. By the time I had even gotten back into the apartment, we had already discussed the possible, or at least theoretical (based on my currently augmented abilities), outcomes for each of my remaining skills and settled on Mirror Image.
“Mirror Image: Level 1 Activated Ability. Immediately turn invisible and leave an afterimage in your place. Invisibility lasts for 10 seconds, afterimage lasts for 30 seconds. This ability has a 10 minute cooldown.”
“First Modification Option! Time Extension. It never hurts to have a little more time to work with! Receive a 2x time extension for the duration of both your invisibility and the afterimage. This effect will scale with any time increases that come from leveling this ability.”
“Second Modification Option! Copycat. Your afterimage will now mirror your movements while you are invisible. This effect will continue even after you reappear. This modification comes with no additional effect.”
“Third Modification Option! Recording. After activating this ability, your afterimage will follow a preset path. At its current level, you may have up to 2 preset paths to select from.”
“25 seconds, what are you thinking?” I quickly called over to Jon as soon as Angie had finished reading off the options. “I’m leaning toward Copycat, feels like it could be a good way to basically get behind people to hit them by surprise.”
“That could absolutely be a good tactic but it’s also something that people who are observant enough might pick up on after you use it once or twice. I know you get to augment each skill a few times, but you have to look at the long term viability of the modification on top of the initial usefulness of it,” He replied as quickly as he could. “I’d say grab the Recording augmentation. If you take the Time Extension at face value, then that implies leveling Mirror Image will naturally result in increases to the abilities duration, so you don’t necessarily need to have it get doubled right here and now, you just have to use it often enough to level it higher. Now, Recording might have a similar issue to Copycat where clever enough people might be able to prepare for it, but that’s only if you don’t get more preset paths or can’t change them as you choose too.”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
I was still a bit amazed by just how quick on the uptake he was with all of this, but when I did get past the sentimental reason for wanting Jon to know about my powers, his obsession really was a gold mine. As the timer ticked down, I took his advice and selected the Recording option. My Mirror Image ability was now sporting an alert icon. When I checked it, it read: “Please create Preset Paths.” I waved it away for now and planned to take care of it when I was back outside and in my gear.
“Okay, now let’s get those loot boxes,” Jon said as he clapped his hands together.
As we had discussed, I pulled the A+:Tier out first and opened it. While it didn’t end up coming with a Scroll of Level Up as my first A+ had, it did come with an item that made me hesitate to have Jon reroll. While it would have been nice to get the extra Phase Points from the Powerleveler gain, plus getting the extra level, I couldn’t actually complain about the item I had received either.
“The Mask of Strategic Fortitude! Equippable Mask. Color: Orange. Although this mask looks quite similar to your current one with just a bit more flair, trust me when I tell you you’re gonna want to put it on. Putting aside the fact that it’s a perfect match for that jacket of yours, this mask comes with a whopping +10 to Toughness and +3 to Style. If that wasn’t enough, on top of the obvious Who’s That feature, it also comes with Mental Fortress.”
“Mental Fortress! This feature provides the wearer a 25% resistance to all psychic and mental based attacks. Additionally, you are immune to Mind Control effects while the associated gear is equipped.”
“There’s Augments with mind control abilities? That’s… that's really creepy.”
“Well for obvious reasons most of them are Vill- er… Miscreants. I know there was Pocket Watch back in the day that tried to control The First, but that ended really, really badly for him,” Jon said as he turned out from his chair and got to his feet. Once it was clear I wasn’t going to reroll the mask he seemed to decide he needed to stretch, though that didn’t stop him from rambling on. “There’s also Puppet Master over in Italy, I know Mount V was fighting him for over a year in Sicily, though last I heard he went into hiding. And the last ones I can think of are the twins, Lure and Charm in California. Though I guess what those last two are is less Mind Control and more seduction? Maybe that’s the same thing… Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a database I can look into that would give me info on all these guys.”
“Sheesh, you’re gonna put me out of a job Mr. Blue Eyes,” Angie said with a whistle. “I mean, that’s honestly useless information for you as a human, but it’s really cute that you know it all.”
“There’s a lot more people that have psychic based abilities though, so that resistance is going to be where that mask really goes the distance for you… well that and that +10 to Toughness, I already added it to your primary equipment loadout,” he said before falling back into his chair and throwing his hands behind his head with a cocky smirk.
“Wait, you can do that?” I asked, opening the window myself and seeing that my loadout had indeed changed.
“Well it’s part of the job after all,” He laughed. “You know, that and being your codex of Augment knowledge.”
There was a sudden beat of silence. Honestly it might have been short enough that I was imagining it but I think at that moment everyone in the room had the same idea. Jon’s eyes sparked with excitement as he turned hard in his chair.
“That’s it!” he nearly shouted. When he turned back around, my HUD highlighted him and I let it pull up.
“Codex. Level 6 Guy In The Chair.”
“Ahhhh, I’ve got a name that’s so fucking cool! I know I don’t get to go and do all the heroics and shit but like, gah, this is legit the next best fucking thing. I know you’ve got the weight of all the game shit on your shoulders and all that, but like, we got this. I’m gonna make sure Loophole is known worldwide” he said, practically buzzing in his chair.
“I’d settle for just surviving, but I mean… I am in it at this point… And now that you know, well I guess shooting to be the best hero I can might be pretty cool,” I said, thinking about it for just a minute. I had never necessarily dreamed about being an Augment, but the last day, even with its insanity, had felt more fulfilling than cleaning office buildings. I felt a bit dirty feeling appreciative toward Axio for allowing Jon to be clued in this way, especially given that we were essentially guinea pigs, but the best I could do at this point was roll with the punches.
“Ok,” Jon said, clapping his hands together once again, “Now get those other boxes opened really quick and let’s see if I should reroll anything. I still really want you to give me a tour of Sanctuary Square. Even if I can’t go there myself.”
I decided to tackle the last three of the boxes I had in descending order. Within the A:Tier was 500 credits and a Spotter’s Tank. I materialized the tank top into my hands and highlighted it.
“Spotter’s Tank! Equippable Undershirt. Color: Black. Ok bro, it’s the bottom of the ninth, and we have three other bad sport’s metaphors before we can do a touchdown, smack each other on the asses and win the big game. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to what you actually want to know. This tank top is light and breathable, providing +1 to Dexterity and +1 to Luck. It also comes with the Team Player - Minor Leagues feature.”
“Team Player - Minor Leagues! This feature provides a 3% increase in damage when you’re in either a Temporary Team-Up or a Squad. This bonus is increased by an additional 3% for each additional person in your team, up to a maximum of 15%.”
The B:Tier interestingly enough came with an item simply labeled The Common Ground: Level 2 Access Pass and 10 Enhanced Stamina Injectors. It wasn’t exactly hard to guess what the Access Pass was for, so I pocketed it to deal with later when I was actually in Sanctuary Square. That left me with only the F:Tier left to open. The box went through it's usual fanfare of randomization, but when all was said and done, I only received another How the Hell Does This Fool Anyone mask.
“That one, reroll that one, I might get another loot box here tonight but I could always hold them off until tomorrow if we wanted the reroll chance,” I said and Jon obliged.
“New Achievement! Not Good Enough! You rerolled an item you received from a loot box. Well what’d’ya know, I guess beggars CAN be choosers. This is a Gold level achievement. Reward: Since this is the first time you’ve done this, the item rerolled will have an above average chance to be an uncommon rarity or higher item.”
The item began to spin and click rapidly through options for about five seconds before it slowed and stopped.
“Pocket Dojo! This is an Uncommon Safe House Expansion. Offers access to a personal training room. This room provides a realistic but safe training area where you can practice your moves. Ability durations and cooldowns are removed while within this space but no usage experience is gained. Any abilities on cooldown will continue to countdown while you are in this space but they will still be usable within the Dojo.”
“Have I mentioned how cool literally all of this is?” Jon piped up as we examined the expansion.
“Once or twice,” Angie giggled.
“All of it? Even the part where I have an axe hanging over my head if I don’t get to a set amount of points… or that I could die if I happen to fight the wrong dude. Or hell, I could die if Axio just up and decides he’s done toying with me. Just saying, I got a whoooole lotta ways I could end up dead here,” I said.
“Well okay, no not all of it if you’re gonna bring that up,” Jon said and I could practically hear him roll his eyes. “But like besides, even with that stuff, think about how much better you have it now than all the regular people.”
“Because of the super powers?” I looked over at him with a raised brow just as he swiveled back toward me.
“YES BECAUSE OF THE FUCKING SUPER POWERS!” he practically yelled before making a show of settling down. “Sorry, yes, obviously that. But think about it, we already lived in a world where you could die at any time, especially with the Augments running about.”
“I did get crushed by a dumpster,” I offered.
“Oh for Axio’s sake will you let it go?!” Angie cried.
“Exactly, had you not gotten lucky and been Augmented, you would have died right there and I’d be attending your funeral with my parents. Instead you have fucking super powers. And that’s not even mentioning all of the benefits coming with the game aspect of it all. Obviously it has its downsides but like, they’re only downsides if you don’t take advantage of all the upsides. Yeah the point thing sucks, but you’re making great progress on it and honestly I think based on what you’ve already gained, I bet we could cover the remaining points by the end of tomorrow.” Jon explained with a shrug before he turned back to the monitors. “Once we can stop worrying about all of that, I’m sure as hell gonna take advantage of the upsides I get. Kinda sucks I can’t share all this info with the subs, but Angie already told me that was a major no no.”
“He’s cute when he listens,” Angie said and let out what I could only describe as a playful growl. “I mean, talk about the whole package, smart as a whip and a cutie with a booty.”
“Angie, I appreciate the compliments, I do, but can you tone it down by like, 50%?” Jon asked and she giggled.
“Hmmm, how about 30% and the ones you don’t hear I just say to Loophole?”
“Deal.”
“Wait, don’t I get a say in this?”
“No,” They said in unison and within a moment we were all laughing.