2022-01-25 17:25:46After a brief moment of disorientation, Lucas reflexively clutches his stomach and starts leaning forward, gasping for a deep breath. When his eyes snap open mid-motion, his face is enthusiastically greeted by a vaguely familiar tattered and soiled plastic bag. Freezing in this position for a few seconds before realizing he's not in any pain, he slowly reaches up to grab and hold the repeat offender bag. Lowering his gaze, he stares at the familiar hand holding the happily billowing scrap of plastic. Waiting a few moments more the direction of the wind shifts and he gently releases the bag, watching it float away in front of him with a blank expression.
'This... Well then. I guess that's better than barely holding on while bleedin’ out. Hmm... knock knock super system, or whatever the hell you said you're called, ya still there?'
Blinking a few times, Lucas raises the focus of his gaze and notices the old woman struggling with her luggage. He opens and closes his fist a few times, not experiencing any notable difference from his state before his latest reincarnation.
[Bzzt... Rebirth complete with calibrations successful. Greetings host, this is your assigned system #427 of the Superhero Enhancement System. How may I assist you?]
'Honestly, I have so many questions I don't even know where to begin. First off, you're 427 from now on I am not gonna bother with the full name. Second, assuming ya even had any control over it, why roll back to specifically right now... and in the same body to boot? Third, are there any side effects I should know about..? Eh, I'll stop there for now.'
[Name acknowledged, I will respond accordingly, henceforth.]
[To answer your questions; finding and replacing a new suitable vessel with a sufficient Good Deeds Value requires more system resources than a rollback. As for this precise moment in time, it had been marked as a failed attempt at a Good Deed, please adjust your actions accordingly. Similar minor events are rarely eligible for a rollback, this has been performed as a courtesy service.]
[Please continue to accrue additional Good Deeds Value in order to further increase your enhancement bonuses. The intent for action on a failed performance still generates 1/10th of the potential Good Deeds Value. Meanwhile, ignoring a flagged event will result in a penalty equal to half of the estimated Good Deeds Value of the task. The only potential negative side-effects will occur after a net loss exceeding 1.0 Good Deeds Value has been generated in a 24-hour time span.]
[Your current Good Deeds Value is 2.3. Please be aware, you are currently the only detected human with a Good Deeds Value greater than 1.0 on this planet.]
Briefly rendered speechless, Lucas's left eye twitches before he takes a deep breath, then he approaches the elderly woman.
'Do me a favor and shorten how you refer to this... value. GDV? Yeah, GDV. Good enough. Anyway, you're saying that intent and the end result are all that matter, not how it's executed? Whelp, I already know she won't trust me if I'm nice so... Guess it's time to act more like a local.'
[Correct. However the... GDV can still be adjusted by negative actions at any time. For example, excessive destruction of property in order to prevent a lesser danger.]
'Uh, excessive? Whatever, this is all a bit much sooooo... Time to just roll with it.'
Having come to his own conclusions, Lucas scowls at the old woman and grabs the two heaviest-looking suitcases of the bunch without giving her a chance to react, casually carrying them as if they were weightless.
"It feels like I'm gonna be the one to die from old age just from watchin' you, you're so slow it's pissin' me off. Where are you takin' this trash? I'm just gonna keep gettin' fuckin annoyed seein' you until this is over with, hag." Lucas flexes his amateur acting skills, somehow with a degree of success.
At first, the old woman glares sharply at Lucas in response to his tone and actions. But, after realizing he's impatiently staring at her, waiting for her to tell him where to go, and not running off with her belongings, she relaxes a bit. A moment more and she realizes that there's basically nothing she could do about it anyway, given how effortlessly he's holding everything. Going along with it, she grabs the handle on the last small wheeled bag and walks through the crosswalk, like there is nothing at all strange about this.
"Hmph, just bring it to the quick scan counter at the subway station two blocks ahead for me then, if you're gonna be like that. Don't think I'm gonna pay you for it though, brat." Little granny's voice has significantly less venom compared to their first interaction. Glancing briefly over her shoulder and seeing him follow her quietly, a small smile sneaks onto her face after she's facing straight ahead again.
[Congratulations, upon successful completion of this task your previous .01 GDV from intent shall be replaced with the full reward GDV of .1, bringing your total GDV to 2.39. Please continue completing all subsequent GDV related tasks.]
Lucas stiffens momentarily, an expression of legitimate anger taking over his face while he goes about being an errand boy.
'So little!? Too stingy! Wait, what the hell would it take to lose an entire point in one day!?'
[...As previously stated, it would be the result of a cumulative net change in value. Presumably, you would need to perform several negative actions in a row in order to have such a significant impact on your GDV. The number of individuals affected also plays a large part in the formula when determining value changes, for both positive and negative adjustments.]
‘...Oh. I guess that makes sense. One little ol’ lady doesn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things, yeah?’
[That is correct. But even small acts of kindness have an impact on the world, and as such, still deserve recognition, even if it is only via a small value change. Please keep that in mind, and behave accordingly.]
‘Eh, Whatever.’
[...]
-----
Lucas deaths this chapter: 0
Lucas total deaths: 2
Lucas current GDV: 2.39
-----
Little character theater:
Lucas, still sulking a bit over his rate of gains: Hey, would ya do something about 427? He's so… ugh. Wait, we didn't even catch up to the last time I died, get back here!
A certain confused system #427: [I'm so what? Error, does not compute, additional data required.]
Author, softly: Shhhh, everyone knows the first chapter should be longer than the following ones.
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Vol 2 Ch 11 - System Updates
Lucas and Jonathan—dressed decently but nowhere near as fancy as yesterday—are most of the way to Cat’s Paw Cafe, pointedly not utilizing the stinky subway station to get there.‘Ya know, it’s been surprisingly peaceful, yeah? Though, not havin’ people gawk as much as yesterday is kinda nice. All that attention was gettin’ old fast.’[Ahem, well, fortunately, Boss System approved my long-term task priority filtering proposal.]‘Oh? Whassat?’[Compared to before, now it requires an opt-in before being bombarded with every single task in range. Before receiving alerts—and therefore penalties for ignoring them—we’ll run the calculations of the tasks’ estimated impact vs. potential unwanted attention. This effectively weeds out a majority of minor tasks—plus some moderate ones—by accounting for how suspicious it would be for you to know the event was taking place, let alone be believably compelled to interfere. I knew there was no need to ask if you were interested in activating it immedi
Vol 2 Ch 10 - Chosen Chores
Once the allotted thirty minutes have passed—precisely down to the second—427 tentatively undeafens Lucas. At first, all he can hear is a booklet’s pages being flipped through, followed by Lucas grumbling.Hesitantly removing the remaining sensory suppressions one at a time, 427 nearly sighs with relief upon discovering that Lucas is standing in the kitchenette by the new automatic drip coffee maker—thankfully dressed—in the midst of poorly attempting to demystify its instruction manual.‘How the hell is this so complicated?’[Ah, making good on your promise to Jonathan?]‘Oh, thank fuck; yer back. Took ya long enough.’[…Hello, again, to you, too.]‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. So, anywho, can ya scan through this or somethin’ and tell me how to use it?’[…I already looked up the instructions from everything’s model numbers earlier. First, measure out—]427 guides Lucas through measuring and grinding a serving’s worth of coffee beans and setting it up in the machine with such in-d
Vol 2 Ch 9 - Solitary Request
For a few peaceful minutes, Lucas delights in demolishing the delicious delicatessen delivery. As Jonathan reaches for his coffee cup to gauge if it’s cool enough for a sane person to drink, he ends up cutting himself off with a yawn, earning a side-eye from Lucas.“Hey, ya barely got any sleep, yeah? Instead of havin’ caffeine, shouldn’t ya go take a nap?” Upon Lucas’s question, Jonathan pauses, looking at the contents of his mug with an obvious longing. “I’ll make ya a fresh one in like half an hour; I’m sure 427 can figure out howta use whatever newfangled machine ya got,” Lucas continues, his eyes also fixed on the beverage.[…I suppose I appreciate your vote of confidence.]Jonathan’s gaze lingers on the coveted coffee for a moment before he sets it back on the table. As soon as he lets go of it, Lucas lays his claim upon it.“Um, o-okay, yeah. I just, um, sh-should take a shower first,” Jonathan stammers as he stands.Lucas hums an agreement around a mouthful of coffee.[Did y
Vol 2 Ch 8 - Good Un-Morning
Thankfully, there are no further interruptions during the rest of this round of deliveries. Or even during the next one, either.Once Jonathan finally has the fourth and final load of freight, he makes a detour to a delicatessen. More specifically, the one where he previously purchased yesterday’s breakfast.After equally uneventfully acquiring milk, third breakfast for himself, and first breakfast for Lucas—since he’d totally only eat sugary baked goods if real food wasn’t conveniently available—he makes his way home.With his back to the recently re-locked front door, Jonathan reclaims the last armload of supplies as he looks at Lucas’s still-shut bedroom door.‘…Our food will still be too hot to eat for a little while; I’ll make some coffee first.’Jonathan may or may not be making up excuses to keep putting off waking up Lucas in the hopes that he’ll do so on his own, knowing full well that he probably won’t.While taking longer than necessary to decide which appliance to christen
Vol 2 Ch 7 - Ongoing Onerous Obligations
“Ah! Um…” Jonathan’s face scrunches up a bit as he looks over his pending purchases.‘Can we at least turn off tasks while my hands are full? I really don’t want to drop everything and have it get broken or stolen by the time I get back to it… It will be annoying enough having to run back and forth a bunch.’[Requesting temporary task suppression… Permission granted; disregarding minor tasks for one hour at no penalty, effective immediately.]Jonathan barely represses his urge to sigh with relief.Before Ji Soo works up the nerve to express concern over Jonathan’s vacant stare at the wall behind the service bot, Jonathan’s attention returns to reality and redirects to said bot.“Um, c-could you hold some of it for a few minutes once I’m done paying? I-I won’t take long… Like, five minutes?” Before fidgety Jonathan even finishes asking his question, the bot is already nodding.“Certainly. Do you wish to use a private scanning kiosk to complete your order?”‘I’m surprised it’s even an
Vol 2 Ch 6 - Whole Latte Shopping
Jonathan, however, doesn’t hear the utterance of recognition. Unaware, he continues his quest for a coffee maker.A short time later, Jonathan stands--while quietly grumbling--before a row of two-in-one coffee/espresso machines.Behind him is a sea of drip coffee machines, with cold press equipment further off to the side. Alongside the arrangement of two-in-ones sits a selection of espresso machines, both automatic and semi-automatic.‘How are there so many!? What even are the differences? Wait, no, don’t answer that. The technical details will probably just be even more confusing.’[Understood.]Although Jonathan notices movement in his peripheral vision, he doesn’t outwardly react to the recent arrival at the end of the aisle. Instead, he pulls out one of the two-in-one machines set at eye level, rotating it so he can read the back of the box.“Ah! Don’t get one of those! That entire line is overpriced trash,” the newcomer blurts out, muffled by the layers of carbon-filter fabric f
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