When the colorful cloud dissipated, Fresh Spiffy and Snasy stood in a wintery clearing surrounded by frosted pine.
The three take a moment to appreciate the sight. It was Fresh's first time experiencing snow and he enjoyed the satisfying crunch it made underfoot and how the light caught the lazily drifting snowflakes.
Snasy shivered and looked at Spiffy's rugby-like long sleeve shirt jealousy. "Man, I wish I had a sweater. But at the same time ..." They crouched down and grabbed a handful of snow, shaping it into a more round shape, holding it with a thoughtful look. "It's also not as cold as it should be. Like standing in front of an open fridge."
Spiffy shrugged. "Probably just attribute any weirdness to magic ... heh, now that's something I never thought I'd say unironically." They looked up at the cave ceiling high above their heads and stuck their tongue out.
The action confused Fresh. What were they-? Spiffy laughed when they caught a snowflake causing it to melt. Thinking it looked fun, Fresh copied the maneuver. Being successful in catching a snowflake, he looked down and saw Snasy who was for some unknown reason blushing and looking at him - maybe it was the cold.
Probably the cold.
"Sup?" Fresh asked, raising an eyebrow. "Somethin' on my face, broseph?"
They opened their mouth as if to reply, but shut it as if changing what they were going to say.
"Eh. Nothing." They said turning away, seeing an unimpressed expression on Spiffy. "Anyway! Hackers to fight, or ... whatever, right?" After a momentary pause, they added in concern. "I just realized we don't have armor, weapons or items."
"Oh!" Fresh snapped his fingers. "Knew I be forgetting somethin', bros. Try one o' these rad boyo's out."
From his inventory he emptied numerous objects onto the snow. Weapons such as duel yo-yo's, lawn darts, a d20 D&D die, and a squeaky mallet. Armor included a fanny pack, neon bomber jacket, a tie-dye bandana and the nokia phone.
He decided to keep his Skatebored and Batt equipped for himself. Patiently he waited as the two decided what they were going to use. He took the time to scout through the code. The Hacker seemed to be making their way through the Ruins.
He saw their LOVE increase.
The two Players Checked each Items buffs and debuffs, trying to find the balance that suited them the best.
WEAPONS:
---
*Duel Yo-Yo's
ATK 10
*Attack four consecutive times.
*A fight with flair! It just keeps coming back for more.
---
*Lawn Darts
ATK 22
*Critical doubles ATK output. Low accuracy.
*Straight to the point.
---
*D20
ATK 5
*ATK power multiplied by roll number (1-20) each turn.
*You're a NATURAL gambler, aren't you?
---
*Squeaky Mallet.
ATK 25
*Heals 3 HP each successful attack.
*Has quite the fierce battle cry, not unlike the mighty Desert Rain Frog.
---
ARMOR:
---
*Fanny Pack
DEF 15
*Heals 3 HP every other turn.
*Convenient stache for Gummies. Yum!
---
*Neon Bomber Jacket
DEF 18
*Raises ATK by 5.
*An assault on the eyes of your enemies.
---
*Tie-Dye Bandana
DEF 12
*Increase INV by 15.
*Makes you want to pick flowers and play guitar.
---
*Nokia Phone.
DEF 20
*Take no damage on the first turn.
*Feels indestructible.
***
(A/N: did i need to write the descriptions all out? no. did i anyway? clearly XD ... so, non-compulsory question, which combination would you use? :D (i plan to mix up the current combinations in later chapters because of ... plot reasons =) ))
***
Spiffy sighed. "I think it would make sense if we set me up as the main tank and fighter so you can keep your hands free for Hacking and support. Though most of this is pretty OP, so it pretty much comes down to play style."
"I'll take your lead on the strategy here." Snasy said, looking over the items. "You've always been better at RPG's."
"Give yourself some credit, you're not as bad as you claim." Spiffy said seriously before changing tones to joking and smiled. "Besides, RPG's aren't nearly as fun without you getting in trouble every five minutes."
"Just for that, I call dibs on the Bomber." Snasy said tossing a snowball in their general direction and missing. Putting it on, it only seemed slightly too large in the way that makes clothes more comfortable. "Mmm. Toasty warm."
Its colors were ... intense.
Spiffy face palmed. "I was gonna - sigh. Fine, take it."
After some internal debate, Spiffy chose the Duel Yo-Yo's and Fanny Pack, leaving Snasy to pick their weapon.
"Then I guess I'll choose these." Snasy said, picking the Lawn Darts and examining one. "Honestly? I'm not surprised these are weapons." They squinted in Fresh's direction. He seemed to be staring intently into the woods as a lookout. "I'm pretty sure they're banned for very valid safety reasons."
Fresh either didn't hear, or pretended not too.
"Are you sure you want an accuracy based weapon?" Spiffy asked, gesturing to where the snowball missed them.
Snasy looked from the disturbed snow, to the Dart, to Spiffy before saying, "But ... high crit go brrr?"
"... I'm honestly surprised you didn't choose the D20 with that mentality." Spiffy said, shaking their head. "At least the Squeaky Mallet is consistent and offers passive healing."
"I mean, I did consider D20." Snasy admitted. "It sounds fun and if we were playing a 'Game' Game, I would have picked it. But Darts paired with Bomber Jacket's plus 5 ATK, makes it's base ATK higher than Mallet by 2. A crit could even get 54 ATK!"
"... I don't think the modifiers stack in that order on a crit. But a crit 49 ATK isn't exactly bad either ..."
"Great! Lawn Darts it is."
Spiffy sighed. "And here I thought you were going to follow my lead." They gave Snasy a pointed look. "Which would have been to choose the Mallet and Nokai btw."
"Maybe if it weren't chilly." Snasy shrugged. "As is, best combo with Bomber is Darts."
"You've made your point." Spiffy sighed. "I guess that just leaves healing Items. Fresh?"
"Hmm?" Fresh turned as if surprised out of his thoughts. "Oh, you brosephs, ready then? Gnarly! Let's stop by that sick Snowden Shop to get some radical items then, dawgs.."
The two followed after Fresh as he set off after recollecting the unused items.
"You seriously don't have any healing items?" Spiffy asked.
"No do, broski." Fresh admitted. "Ain't really a point for meh, man. Damage and death be false for this radical broseph and any physical injury be fixed with a bit o' hyper healing."
"Huh." Snasy said, before asking a question that should have been obvious. "Wait, if you're an Admin can't you just /gift us with healing items?"
Fresh paused mid step and Spiffy nearly walked into him before he turned.
"Woah, bro ..." Fresh said as if Snasy just suggested something ludicrous. "If I just kept making things all whimsy-like, that there would be causing economic stagnation, bro. Unrad. Best perpetuate the radical exchange of goods at the source, dude. Support the little dudes." He shook his head with a smirk, placing a hand to his sternum in what seemed like a mock offense. "I ain't no freeloader, broski! With great radical power comes some sick nasty responsibility, yo."
Fresh turned and began walking toward the town again, confident they bought the story and didn't suspect he had simply forgotten that was something he could have done. Besides, he was curious to get a peek of the sleepy town.
The two Players were left a little confused, but accepted the answer. Though the two suspected he had just not thought of just making the items and was trying to save face. He surprisingly didn't have a very convincing liar's voice. Does economic integrity matter if it's gonna Reset? For non Resetting AU's it makes sense, but this was a geno loop timeline - it's basically deleting the money ... money that was probably spawned in the first place.
"Sooo, what kind of Hacker we going against?" Snasy asked. "What's the plan?"
"The low risk, high reward Hacker kind, man." Fresh said, waving a hand dismissively, still walking as he explained. "This Hacker bro created a bot to follow an infinite unrad loop of geno route choicers." Both Snasy and Spiffy cringed in sympathy. "It's rigged to alert the Hacker-dude of any deviant script or odd event flags and send out a gnarly recording of it, broski's."
"Probably trying to see if they can recreate Dusttale or something similar." Snasy muttered, scowling. "Thinks of it as an easter egg."
Fresh shrugged. "Regardless of their unrad motives, I figure the bot be a good practice dummy for us. It'll pass the time until the Hacker-bro reacts to the notification at least, brolios. Though this Undertale copy be currently running at a radically faster speed rate than the Hacker's pov, so we may need to pop out and in again to a different AU to speed things along to fight the Hacker themself."
Lights could be seen through the trees as they approached Snowden.
"Then when they do come online." Fresh continued to outline the plan. "After a few rounds ta lower their firewalls, I ban the wack Hacker-pal and delete their game file memory to clear more radical space in the Multiverse." He shook his head in disappointment. "Infinite loops take up a ton of the 'versal RAM which is super unrad, dudes. 'S why their high priority, bro-pals."
Fresh paused at the edge and turned to the two. "Any question, brosephs?"
"I mean ... I understand a lot of that." Spiffy said, face scrunched in thought. "But if the Game - er - universe is running at a higher rate than the Hacker time, shouldn't our IRL counterpart and Avatar selves be experiencing time differently to each other? Yet we aren't?" They look up, worriedly. "We didn't just inadvertently cause a paradox did we? Because I'm pretty sure, that's bad. "
"Naw, ya good, bro." Fresh said instantly.
"But how?" Spiffy asked. "Like, that breaks physics as we know it, I think."
"Dude." He placed a hand on their shoulder to pat with a smile. "Trust me."
"Telling someone to trust you is not a good way to get someone to trust you." Snasy pointed out.
"It's just a vibe I got bros." Fresh shrugged, before looking thoughtfully. "All I know is the Multiverse code decided to sync up with your universe when ya took my radically improvised deal and it somehow works, bro. Though thinking about it too hard's given' me an unrad headache, for some reason." He looked upward, eyebrows narrowing in confusion. "Normally I'd just up and instinctively know the specific ratio of time dilation between universes down to the second and why with the Fourth Wall deactivated, bro-dudes, but this time I be drawing a blank on the why department ... it's like the answer is on the tip o' muh tongue but I just can't get at it, y'know bro?"
He rubbed his skull. Thinking about it was making his headache worse. It was like looking at the maybe-second-Fourth-Wall layer ...
"Eh." He dismissed the topic. "Anyhow, if we're ready to head to the shop now we might be in time to catch the bot leaving the Ruins. Or at least make it ta the gate interaction, yo."
The two nodded and the three stepped out of the treeline into the wintery town that was still oblivious of the danger approaching from the west.