>>20357768
Let me sleep.
It's too early for this shit after the night we had

File: 1345214383636.jpg-(222 KB, 329x571, OMNI.jpg)

>[x] Fuck off and let me sleep.

You somehow manage to roll over and fall asleep again, slowly acclimating to the sunlight and dozing off warmly. This time, thankfully, is dreamless, and you're left to content yourself in warm sleep...

... at least until you hear a warm voice in your ear.
"Wake up, Yu. It's noon."

You nearly die on the spot from the shock and quickly look around, sitting bolt upright in bed. It takes you a few seconds to place him, since he's only there when you're looking at him directly, but after a few moments your vision locks on the glowing young man sitting on the foot of your bed.
"What?" he gives you a perplexed look.

[] "aaaaaaaaa"
[] "Who are *you*?"
[] "Why hello."
[] Free

>>20357971
Who are you?

>[x] "Who are you?"

He looks perplexed. Which is difficult when you're see-through like he is. He puts a hand on his chest.
"I'm OMNI. You made me, remember? As your butler, or close enough."
Oh boy.
"Made you?"
"That's right. You're even more out of it this morning than usual, Yu, and that's saying something, since it's already noon." his voice is... 'dulcet' would be the best word to describe it, soothing. "Normally you're up already on a Saturday. Did something happen?"

[] Explain about the memory loss.
[] Explain about The System.
[] (Lie) "Nothing happened, I'm just tired."
[] Free

>>20358081
Explain about the memory loss

>>20358081
[x] Explain about the memory loss

>[x] Explain about the memory loss

You do your best to string this together - at best, you do a pretty half-assed job of it, but OMNI is very patient and listens intently, nodding or pushing his glasses up every so often. Considering that he's apparently an AR construct that you built, you did a really good job of emulating gravity.
When you're done trying to string it together, he speaks.
"Well that's a hell of a story... I'm afraid since you by and large limited me to keeping your affairs in order when you were doing deep dives, I can't provide much help when it comes to the System, but for someone to suffer memory loss even from such an immersive program is... very, very, unlikely. I doubt I would find a similar case no matter how hard I searched."

[] "How useful you are."
[] "Deep diving?"
[] "Did anything happen while I was out?"
[] "Tell me about you."
[] Free

[X] "Did anything happen while I was out?"
[X] "Tell me about you
[X] "Deep diving?"

>>20358171
[x] "Did anything happen while I was out?"
[x] "Tell me about you
[x] "Deep diving?"

>[x] "Did anything happen while I was out?"

OMNI taps his chin thoughtfully. "Your school rang to complain about lack of attendance this past week and declined to leave a message... oh dear, did I say that? What a bad answering machine I am, accidentally taking messages. What else... ah yes, Grand Jupiter dialed in to ask if you were okay as you usually have a morning sparring session on Saturday mornings, which I presume you've forgotten, and left some remarks I shan't repeat about you being cute while you're asleep - oh dear, I'm doing it again."
Smarmy fucker.

>[x] "Tell me about you."
"I'm afraid there's not really that much to tell. I don't even know why you named me OMNI, to be honest." the way he says it makes you imagine it capitalized. "Probably because I do everything for you - mail, handle phone calls, wake you up... about the only thing I can't do is cook you breakfast and that's only because I can't physically carry things to and from the fridge."

>[x] "Deep diving?"
"You forgot that too?" he seems slightly put out. "Deep diving is completely immersing oneself in the AR network, as opposed to using it passively as you are right now. Of course, you couldn't see me if you weren't. Or hear me, for that matter. Anyway, people use it in lieu of meeting up in reality if they can't make the travel distance... of course, that's also the mode in which the System is played."

[] "Speaking of breakfast."
[] "Grand Jupiter?"
[] "My school?"
[] Free

[x] "Speaking of breakfast."

[] "Speaking of breakfast."
[] "Grand Jupiter?"

Question:
Last thread had comments about there being no glitches whatsoever in the game.
The story you are basing this on actually does use the idea of players abusing a glitch, making it basically into a feature, though. (The Imagine System, which was intended to offset certain issues with controlling your character, but actually lets you warp the game to a certain extent, causing players to get additional special attacks)
Do you intend to include something similar?
Personally, I consider abuse of bugs to be an important part of online play in games. Without them, it would only be half as fun and there would be a severe lack of depth.

>"Speaking of breakfast."
You finally drag yourself free of bed, shambling to the kitchen. Toast. Yum. Judging from the fridge you live pretty plainly, at least until you hit the bottom row, which is wall-to-wall beer.
Um, okay.

>"Grand Jupiter?"
"You've forgotten that, too?" OMNI has followed you, although from his perspective (if he has one) he may have been dragged. "He's your Parent. The one who introduced you to the System. At least, that's what you told me. You normally spend some time online with him on Saturday mornings, practicing."
That message is still blinking quietly, come to think of it.

[] Check the message.
[] "What did my school want?"
[] Free
[] Regret trying to run alongside an established quest

>>20358476
Of course.

Check the message, then ask about the school.


And never regret running an interesting idea. Only regret if you manage to turn this into an endless harem like MSQ.

[] Check the message

It will pick up a bit more OP, this just has a smaller audience because it is newer

>>20358527
Or running forever like ZQ or attracting the sort of shitstorms SWQ does

File: 1345219095405.png-(172 KB, 247x500, Schneider.png)

>>20358527
Never again.

>Check the message
It comes up with a very quickly parsed text message: "You're late, everything okay?" and the standard attached avatar, though this one breaks the usual pixel bounds because apparently obeying the rules of the messaging system is for chumps. It's labelled 'Schneider' instead of their System name - duh, of course - and it's dated just after 10 AM this morning.

>About school
"Well, for the past week, you haven't been to school and you've barely been home. When you have you've just slept and left again." OMNI explains as you munch your toast. "You haven't told me anything about what's been going on, either. Anyway, your school was threatening suspensions and detentions and all the rest of it if you don't turn up on Monday. Suspensions for cutting class, really..."

[] Reply to Schneider
[] Ask Omni about... (free)
[] Free

[] Reply to Schneider
[] Ask Omni about the massive pile of beer in the fridge, we don't remember being that badly alcoholic.

Question:
Does OMNI live in our NervGear (Or whatever it is called in this world) or is he our home AI, á la Jarvis?

>>20358687
He's Jarvis, but not as well-written.

>Reply to Schneider
You shoot off a quick reply telling him that you're fine, you overslept, not to worry, and not to tell OMNI anything he doesn't want to reach your ears.

>Ask Omni about the massive pile of beer in the fridge, we don't remember being that badly alcoholic.
OMNI scratches his cheek. "I believe you said something about saving by buying in bulk and then drinking in moderation. At least, that's the story you told me."

At about that moment, you get a message in a font that doesn't belong in your AR; it's black and spiky and burns with blue fire.

>SYSTEM CHALLENGE
>GRAND JUPITER
>ACCEPT?

>>20358775
Accept.
We should see how well we can fight still since our depower

>>20358814
I also want to see the combat system and our avatar in action.

File: 1345221137706.jpg-(78 KB, 1200x675, ocean cloud midday sky.jpg)

"Having an out of body experience, ma'am?" OMNI snarks as you reach out and click the trigger.

>YES

The world falls away, or maybe you fall into it. The sensation is less like you're leaving your body and more like you're finally returning to it; everything feels easier when you're in the System.
The map name displays briefly - Azure Sea - and you find yourself standing on the surface of the still ocean, leaving ripples when you step but never actually sinking in, as if you were standing on glass.

Looking around, you can see - peeking over the clouds - other Avatars, spectators most likely; you can't hear much from down here but you get the impression almost of... dissent.

File: 1345221447767.jpg-(298 KB, 1000x1125, Grand Jupiter.jpg)

>>20358995
You don't have too long to look around, though, because the FIGHT symbol chimes and the long counter starts running down, although it fades out when you take your eyes off it. Schneider's avatar is imposing to say the least; burnished black steel and a single, glowing pink line that you assume makes up the eyes. The claws on the right hand actually leave little rends in the air as he walks towards you, not to mention the sheer sense of pressure he gives off.
"Come on, the crowd's waiting. Let's go."

You draw your sword.

>Meter: 0%
>Health: 100%
>DIRECT LINK

>>20359055
We were big and clunky so no charging in, let him come to us and be ready to parry or counter a hit as heavily as we can

He leans forward as he comes, shielding his body - with the lean, it means he can hide almost his entire body behind the black steel. You take your stance with your sword in front of you, ready to parry, and as his shield approaches - just as it starts to make contact - he suddenly plants his (feet? blades?) and slaps outwards; the entire point of the charge, you realise half a beat too late, was to push your sword aside so that he could bring those vibrantly-glowing claws into play, thrusting the metal gauntlet straight for your face -

>DIRECT LINK

>>20359330
Can we move backwards and try to evade his thrust?

>>20359330
Headbutt his fist!
Actually don't deflect or avoid the hit if we can and try to lock him in close so that we remove his advantage

>>20359443
Dammit that was supposed to read.
Actually don't,
Evade or deflect

You let your blade roll off the shield, letting it turn to reverse grip in your hand, and simultaneously step and sway back, causing the claw to whiff just barely - and then, as he begins to retract it, you step in, arching your whole body into a massive headbutt.
You don't get his claw, but you DO get his face, and the impact sets you both reeling - him less-so, though.

>Health: 97%
>Meter: 6%

Grand Jupiter shakes his head. "I should have expected that, but are you holding back? You didn't hit me very hard."
The consternation in the spectators' stands picks up at that comment.

>DIRECT LINK

>>20359488
Damnit, too late!

>>20359505
Can we send him a message privately so other people around don't hear? If so, tell him there's been a problem with out level.

If not, just say we'll tell him later and start attacking. No way we're going to win when we're level 1 and he's at least 8.

>>20359512
It worked out anyway
>>20359505
say we aren't feeling ourself right now and wait for him to come in again and catch him with a slash

>>20359530
Not in the middle of a game, no.

>"Not feeling myself this morning."
"Yeah, I could tell that from the way you slept in...!" he moves again, coming at you overhand with the claw, although he noticeably keeps his shield well back out of the way.
You drop and aim for the gap below his right arm, stepping past him - his claw arches over your shoulder, just barely scraping you, and in return you leave a gash along the center of his body which drips a silvery substance that leaves tiny fractures in the surface of the water wherever it falls.

As you turn to face each other after the exchange, he lets out an annoyed sound. "Yo, that was skillful, but this isn't going to be fun if you keep hitting me so weakly. Seriously, did something happen?"

Someone in the stands yells out "CHROME BRINGER GOT KNOCKED DOWN TO LEVEL ONE!" and Grand Jupiter nearly falls over, then rounds on you.
"Is that true?"

>Health: 90%
>Meter: 20%
>DIRECT LINK

>>20359656
"Have you known me to hold back?"
Leave it at that. Don't want to actually say yes or not at this point to all the people around us. Wonder how that news spread already.

>>20359682
And now I have to leave for about 2 hours. Hope this doesn't die while I'm gone. Interested to see where you take it.

>>20359656
Yeah I had a rough night, purging evil monster armour from my system was harder than expected

>"Have you known me to hold back?"
"No..." He lets out an annoyed sound. "So then it's definitely true. Jeez, what happened to you? Even if you did vanish off the map for like a week, nothing to that degree should ever happen."

Whoever it is in the stands yells down again. "SHE WORE THE ARMOR OF CALAMITY AND GOT SPLIT FROM IT BY AMETHYST DIVIDE!"

At this point you're almost debating throwing your sword at the guy and seeing if it hits, just to shut him up, but Grand Jupiter considers it.
"Even so, that's still ridiculous... and I've lived through some pretty ridiculous shit. Explains why your sword is still weak. Still."

You get the impression that he's smirking behind his faceplate. "I'm too high level to knock you out of the System, and if you beat me you'd get a *lot* of points. So instead of throwing the fight, why don't you come at me and try and take them from me?" he challenges you firmly.

>DIRECT LINK

>>20359798
Sure, burst of speed and go for a feint then a big blow.

Also say to the guy in the crowd yelling out that we can handle the conversation well enough on our own, unless of course he wants to come down here and fight for us.

You step, quick as you like it - which is very quick at all, really, but it'll do - and start to bring your sword up at him from the ground. As his shield drops, though, you suddenly reverse the arc, spinning with the step to bring it down in a seriously powerful overhand cut.
Grand Jupiter didn't get his name for nothing, though, and as your blade comes down, his shield comes up... nobody could be prepared for what happens:

Your sword hits his shield and actually knocks him stumbling and skidding backwards across the water, drawing grooves into the ocean surface with the blades that pass for his legs. As part of the motion, you whip your blade out to point at the son of a bitch who keeps shooting his mouth off and tell him sternly to shut the hell up unless he wants to come down here for himself. There's some nervous laughter in the audience, but most of them are pointing at you, or at your name.

So you look down and discover that your Avatar is beginning to shift around you, growing lines like you're a rejected character design from Tron; your name on the HUD is flickering in and out too.
Uh.

>DIRECT LINK

>>20360073
This can't be good

File: 1345228424420.jpg-(393 KB, 1082x766, Platinum Dragon.jpg)

The form around you shifts, and blends - it retains the heavy armor and the chainsword, but it adds distinctly more flash, giving it a regal, dragonic bearing... not to mention the gigantic red scarf jutting from the collar, plus the fact that the chainsword almost doubles in length.

Contrary to how you felt before, as if you were comfortable in a new body, this time it simply feels like it is your body rather than something you're wearing; it fits you perfectly, like a first skin rather than a second.

You eye the new name on the stat bar, listening to Grand Jupiter's incredulous mutter.

>VOID DRAGON

Perfect.

>DIRECT LINK

File: 1345228491329.jpg-(95 KB, 500x375, 1282503103050.jpg)

>>20360411
PLATINUM EVEN.
DON'T READ AND WRITE.

>>20360411
Go time?
Go time.
Wreck him, chainsaw to face.

You move before Grand Jupiter has his bearings back, revving the blade and bringing it down hard at his face - he blocks it, but the teeth dig into his shield, picking up sparks and dragging a groove down the center line. He hisses as he steps back.
"Now that *definitely* shouldn't be happening...!" he complains, and comes at you again, leading with a wide shield bash that masks the claw attack behind it. "On the other hand, now we have a real battle going on!"

>DIRECT LINK

>>20360814
Block the shield and ride it out, staying away from that claw is top priority, considering it leaves marks in the fucking air.

>>20361031
And I am back. Go with this for now.

Stepping into the arc, you turn with the blow, masking your motion in the shower of sparks so that Grand Jupiter stumbles past you, but rapidly turns so that your followup can't land, blocking with his shield and spacing.
"There's no rule that says a level 1 can't defeat a level 8, but you're definitely doing well... looks like all that experience you accumulated is still with you, if not your Avatar. Why don't you try it out?"

You're about to ask what it is when a pulse of light catches the corner of your eye:
>Meter: 100%
Perfect. Even if he offered to let you try it out, Grand Jupiter isn't making it easy; he's already defending yourself.
You brace yourself to use your Super, then come at him with...

[] ... an area-of-effect attack.
[] ... a powerful man-to-man technique.
[] ... an attack reversal technique.
[] ... a super mode.

>>20361200
[] ... a super mode.
Just feels right for that to be the new ability after the whole armour of calamity thing.

>>20361200
>[x] ... a super mode.
It's gotta be.

>[x] ... a super mode.
It's not you that says it; rather, the System itself generates the roar. What else could it be called?

>DRAGON INSTALL

The dragon heads covering your armor, as one, come to life - their eyes glow bright white and they slide back, letting loose plumes of bright fire around you, making your entire body hum with power.
Doesn't even matter that your meter is draining at a meteoric rate.
You step forward, stomp down - the impact shatters the water, using it as a pre-emptive strike against Grand Jupiter, actually pushing his shield up - and then the blade itself hits, and with a scream of metal, forces through, leaving Grand Jupiter as two halves on fire.

You come back to the real world with a huge grin on your face, a real Avatar and 80 points richer.
Before you might have had some doubts about being able to pull this off - this thing with dealing with the memories, not to mention the whole Armor of Calamity deal.
Now you don't. Not even one: this world is yours for the taking. Maybe this blank slate thing isn't so bad after all...

>>20361511
Is this a wat do, more coming or thread end?

File: 1345235500909.png-(305 KB, 500x500, Platinum Profile.png)

>>20361600
That's it for tonight, barring upgrade discussion if any. I need to pick a night when a pre-established quest isn't running since otherwise I'm going to suffer a full-court press no matter what I'm doing (looks like I got lucky last Friday and I'll have to play it by ear.

Inevitable Profile Post:
Name: Amane Yurina (Yu)
Handle: Platinum Dragon (previously: Chrome Bringer/Chrome Disaster)
Legion: N/A
Role: Protagonist
Points: 130 (Next: 70/200)

Equipment:
(A, Anti-Personnel, 0%) Platinum Blade - Basic chainsword with good reach and a secondary grip that allows it to be used for almost half-swording. Powerful, but unwieldy. Has plenty of room for improvement.
(C, Personal/Anti-Personnel, 0%) Dragon's Mantle - Red twin scarf mounted on collar. Has trivial morale-boosting effect on allies and intimidating effect on enemies. Has plenty of room for improvement.

Special Attacks:
(S, Personal, 100%) Dragon Install - Burns meter to drastically improve all parameters. Degree of meter drain proportional to impact of performed maneuvers. Lasts until the super gauge is empty, then causes 50% reduction in all parameters for 30 seconds. Strangely, does not cause Platinum Dragon to pulse red.

>>20361766
What kind of choice do we have with upgrades? Pick one of the items and then it's just an upgrade or do we get to pick what kind of upgrade for an item?

Also, what else is running now? Didn't realize anything major was running atm.

>>20361802
Deculture's Magical Girl Noir Quest was midway through when I hit go time tonight, hence the offbeat fourth option in >>20358502

As far as upgrades go, stat max is 2, upgrading from 1 to 2 costs 20 points (as discussed here http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20262471/#p20264621).
Equipment is more nebulous, in that I feel it's something that should be a lot more free, so that's more of a "hash it out and we'll put a price on it" thing.

>>20361855
Hmm. What happens when we hit 200 points? And does the 70 more points needed change if we spend points now or can we spend freely and it just looks at total points gathered?

And what's j.defense?

>>20361895
The amount needed changes if you spend any (because it costs to level up - remember Holly and Habicht intentionally hang at level 8).
j.defense is jamming defense, the System equivalent of ECCM.

>>20361895
Level up, duh.

Could I get a reminder on the stats? they're not in the status post.

>>20362032
Oh, there it is.

>>20361766
Hmm. Thinking we should spend some points on stats and then hold on to the rest for now so we're not at risk of hitting 0 points.

Well, work it out. You could actually upgrade all three without blowing all your points and still have 70 left.

>>20362324
Was thinking of suggesting that but I don't want to be the only one saying what happens. I know there was that one other anon around and wanted to see what he thought.

>>20361766
How many points would it cost to give our weapon an increase in the damage it could do? Maybe make it more able to cut through armour and such more easily?

So we have minor upgrades for points and major upgrades by raising our level?
Is there any drawback for having no points? It doesn't seem like we've got the drawbacks of the Burst Link system.

>>20362439
It would be awesome to have an upgrade for three chains. So the two outer chance run at half the speed and counter to the middle chain, causing the weapon to be easier to handle and thus upgrading its attack speed.
(I'd also suggest fluffing out all upgrades. That's just a lot more awesome)

>>20362453
We lost access to the system completely if we ever run out of points. Who knows if worse happens due to the odd things that have happened to the main character.

>>20362474
Feasible idea. Especially if we can later upgrade the teeth on the chains to make it cut a lot more effectively.

>>20362453
Habicht mentioned it indirectly, but running out of points will get you knocked out of the System, a la Brain Burst.

>>20362439
A straight up damage increase technically falls under the purview of the offense stat, whereas an armor piercing attribute for the weapon... probably the same cost in terms of defense reduction (10 for the first point, 20 for the second, and so on), with the same maximum limit as usual (double your rank, or 2).

>>20362493
I guess real armor piercing would be one of these level-up upgrades.
Part of the appeal of Accel world is the insane customization - Not only is your avatar extremely personal due to being based on your personality, but almost everyone also gains some kind of rare skill or equipment. All characters are broken in their own way.
The funny thing is that many characters also have really useless abilities, like anti-air missiles despite only one avatar in the entire game having the ability of full flight (and he doesn't even exist during the time that ability was gained).
There's always room for some unexpected opponent or some upgrade that doesn't seem to make sense in the context of the game.
Accel World also has a character with a mindwipe ability, (And the whole IS matter, with beautiful abilities like permanently damage avatars via blade attacks. Have fun fighting without a head.) but I guess that's going too far for our system.

>>20362526
Not necessarily...

>>20362634
So we can get crazy upgrades from levelling up?

>>20362705
And by buying and finding them, I'm sure.

>>20362775
We should go get the armour of calamity again. Surely it'll go better with us now that we're level 1 again.

Ok, what do we want?
I personally would love adding some speed. Faster reaction speed (maybe fueled by the special gauge or as upgrade to our supermode), the proposed balancing of our chain sword and maybe a dagger for an additional attack and parrying?

>>20362807
The armor of calamity is something that you DO NOT want to have.

>>20362809
I'm thinking maybe a speed upgrade and then two ranks of armour piercing. That'll make us pretty nasty in the early fights seeing as defense maxes out at 2.

>>20362840
Well, I was talking more about the big upgrades.
I guess agility and speed should be our first focus.

Do we do single combat only or will we add something for fighting higher numbers of enemies? How about a transformation of the chainsword into a chainwhip, allowing us to clear the area by spinning?

>>20362807
I admire your confidence.

>>20362921
It sounds a bit like
>We should enter the eye of terror again. I lost my gun along the way, so it should be easier this time

>>20362921
Removing it the first time caused all these weird things to happen. Clearly the armour did something to the main character, and I'll just assume it's only good so I will assume she's more compatible with the armour now.

>>20362974
The armor basically transforms you into a mindless berserker. That's likely why we didn't go to school for one week.

>>20362983
Chrone Bringer couldn't handle the armour. I'm sure Platinum Dragon can!

Okay, enough joking around about the armour. Any other thoughts on what we should do with the points?

>>20363018
Double jump! (Like in Devil May Cry - So we create a temporary plattform beneath our foot, from which we push off)
Lets us do crazy moves, like feinting by going airborn, then changing direction completely.

>>20363018
I'm all for upping all the stats to the max of 2.

It's good to have a solid foundation.

>>20363111
Yeah.
Getting comfortable with combat first should be helpful.