Chapter 13: Bottlenecking

The next few days for Izuku had been quite a slow ordeal with a couple newcomers often coming in only to steer away or complain about the price. Thankfully he had seen Melissa, Mei and a couple of his newer regulars to at least keep him entertained. But he did have to admit it had been pretty quiet recently considering the fact his parents took Eri back to their home apartment to get her settled in. 

Starting up the new school year they had been debating between either trying out public school or getting a tutor considering as his father put it… 'a damn f-cking crow' kept her isolated and uneducated. So as they handle that and slowly get her used to being around people after sometime. 

Regardless this has left him a lot of time and quite the amount of levelling in both Destiny and Resident Evil. So while he was killing time as he and his father still have not gotten around to actually figuring out what allowed his mother's quirk to randomly develop, he pulled up his current status screen.

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Name: Midoriya Izuku (User 0002)

Current Privilege Rank: Tier 1

Privileges Noted:

Can View Stat Page

Renovation Access (T1)

Access to Resident Evil

Can add stat points to Stat sheet

Current Accessible Game Library:

Resident Evil 1

Destiny 2

STATS: [0 points to add] 

Strength: 20 'Can break bones with a punch' 

Dexterity: 19 'Can thread a needle all of the time' 

Intelligence: 23 'Smarter than nearly anyone without an intelligence quirks'

Constitution: 20 'Can run a several miles without effort' 

Realm: Early Body Forging 'Beginning of this Sprout' 

Realm Progression: 20.5 'Still needing to grow up a lot' 

Skills: High Speed Speech, Rapid Analysis, Mid Tier Parallel Processing, Mid Level CQC, Upper-Mid Level Knife Combat, Mid Level Firearm Usage, Arc Intuition, Dynamic Vision

Inventory Items:

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With that he then pulled up his current mission questline.

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Time Remaining for completion: 20 days

Description: How can you have a MMO if there's no players?

Criteria: [6/10] Get 10 new players to play Destiny 2.

 [2/5] Sell 5 month long memberships to Destiny 2

Rewards: Unlock Food: Shin Ramen (350 yen/300 yen)

 Game Sync Chamber 

 Unlock Destiny 2: Raids and Large Scale Missions

Penalty for the denial or failure of the mission: Demotion of free game usage for host to Discounted game usage.

The disappointment of the System

[Currently Active]

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At his pace right now he should hopefully reach his goal however at the same time a certain part of him could not help but be pessimistic. Due to some luck he managed to convince Melissa to also try out the game and it seemed she was just as unhinged as Mei when it came to picking apart her own body as she ignored the recommendations of playing a human. To say it was jarring was to be polite and well it did seem due to her preparations for the UA exam she was going to be going to spend a decent bit less time in the cafe and focusing on training with her 'Gran-Pa' as she calls him. 

Apparently he is really good at quirk training and was the one who helped her uncle train. Realistically the only person who he could think of was 'Gran Torino' considering it's pretty well known her uncle is the number one hero after all. Izuku really had to curb the urge to ask for autograph was immense solely because he could not actually gather the courage to ask her about it. 

Anyways he decided to push those thoughts aside as he heard the doors open. Turning he saw a new customer walk in.

She was roughly his height and was constantly glancing around the cafe as she walked in. Wearing a pleated purple skirt and red sweater. Yet what made him do a double check was the fact she had long bushy hair that ran down to her shoulders in a lime green with a mix of dark green in her hair. For a moment he almost thought she could be his sister considering his own darker shades of green in his curly hair. They made eye contact for a brief moment before she walked to the reception desk. Her biggest feature had been the mask with a ventilator attached which seemed to be the type you would wear as a graffiti artist. His eyes glanced a little more and he chose to ignore the darker patches on her sweater. 

"How much for internet use?" Her voice was a little scratchier than he would expect as she glanced at him with sunken eyes and blank pupils. 

Izuku felt a little bad for staring and chuckled. "Our systems aren't exactly enabled to be accessed via the internet and solely for the games we have."

With a click of her tongue she sighed and glanced towards the sign he gestured to. "Fine I need something to do anyways. What do you recommend between Resident Evil and Destiny 2?"

He thought about it and the silver glint from under the sweater clued him in that she might not exactly be the most legal of people and clearly fond of sharp objects. "Both games are fundamentally first-person shooters. But Resident Evil is more of a quirkless survival horror while if you prefer games more realistic with quirk like abilities Destiny 2 is probably the better game. Also both have enjoyable stories but Destiny 2 does allow for a co-op feature…" As he was about to ramble on he heard a tap on the desk.

"I'll try out Resident Evil then." She seemed a little annoyed but it was more that she seemed tired than anything else.

"Okay would you like to sign up for a membership?"

"Is there any benefit?"

"You get a certain amount of hours a month and they come at a cheaper rate than normal hours. You also gain discounts on drinks and activation costs."

"I'll get the Bronze membership and can you activate Resident Evil up?"

"Sure, that'll be 8750 yen total." 

"Sure." Taking out her card she paid for the membership.

"What's the name for the account?"

"Shinobu Doukan." She replied curtly, taking the membership card from him. That was when Izuku had to stifle his surprise considering her hands had felt ice cold. 

"Nice to meet you Shinobu I am Izuku Midoriya, the owner here."

"It's nice to meet you Midoriya."

He could almost tell she was smiling behind the mask as she went to sit in a booth.

 With that he quietly went back to watching over the cafe. That made her four in the cafe at the moment. He had built up a few students that became avid regulars yet judging by the fact it was still only just past 12PM on a Tuesday but Izuku was not exactly going to judge them for it. 

But then he directed his thoughts to his current status. It took him a while but it seems for whatever reason he had begun stagnating at around twenty points. 

In his mind he decided to start talking to the system again.

"Hey System, why have I not been going up in stat points recently?"

With a short chime she replied. "You are reaching what is normally considered the base human limit. Normally in cultivation you would already be training to establish a core and gaining Qi. However within this world what would originally have been Qi is now known as QFR. However exactly because of that I cannot naturally process it into an energy source for your body as it does not naturally fit with you."

"Is that why a lot of people with quirks seem to be somewhat stronger even without a physical quirk?"

"Essentially yes as quirks are essentially a rigid Qi core that expresses their abilities in a singular method. Which helps add to enhancing their bodies overall to properly cope with the stress a quirk affects on them. Yet as a quirkless individual you do have the benefit you are able to adjust what is your Qi core usually…"

"What do you usually mean?"

"Well considering you don't exactly have an affinity for a quirk you technically cannot really create a proper Qi core as you are. Solely because your body needs to be capable of handling foreign energy types. The best way to do this is to gain access to an outer realm source."

"Like what?"

"Like Void, Arc and Solar…"

"Aren't those from Destiny 2?"

"Precisely. That's the reason why you need the game sync chamber. Essentially what it does for you is basically fully integrate you into your character. Still without the risk of permanent death it however will cause you a lot more harm if you do. At the same time can get you to harness and absorb the energy you control until your actual body accumulates enough."

"That's pretty cool and all but wouldn't I need access to the Traveller to have that power?"

"Normally yes but in a way it builds your core and can store QFR for you in a container within your body. Without actually directly affecting you or harming you. With slow accumulation of power you will eventually be able to adjust till the foreign energy helps raise your physique up."

"So just finish my quest and I will be able to finally get past the bottleneck?"

"Pretty much."

Izuku groaned and rested his head on the reception desk. Getting people to play or even buy the game at least once is fine. Yet to have people willing to commit to a month-long membership is nearly impossible. After all it's both a lot of money and you also have to pay for membership to consistently gain use out off it. 

And with that he decided to finally catch up on his lack of sleep for the last couple weeks and dozed off at the desk.