Chapter 4: Ned is Cool

(Author's POV)

While Devin was sleeping a high schooler found this game on steam and decided to check it out. When he joined for the first time he was asked for his name and he put "NedIsSkinny" as his username and clicked play and then he passed out in his chair.

When Ned appeared in the game he was shocked by what happened because he appeared in a cave dark cave with slight lines of light made by the sun as most of the sun was blocked by a rotting wooden door and on the other side of him was a huge vault door that had the number 101 on it. he went to that vault door and saw a panel off to the side and he clicked a button on it trying to open the vault but he accidentally activated the telecom broadcaster which the security officer Kendall saw by chance and went to find the overseer for instructions. The overseer heard the situation and decided to talk to the 'wildlife' that appeared outside.

"No wildlife allowed in our vault, so if you would please go back to where you came from and let us live in peace," the overseer said through the intercom which shocked Ned who didn't expect someone to see him here. Ned quickly responded as he didn't want to offend whoever was in there as he wasn't much of a fighter and said in a hurried voice "Yes sir, I'll leave right now and you have a good rest of your day". Ned quickly left from there and opened the rotten wood door off to the side and was immediately blinded by the bright sun which was like a flashbang in the face for Ned. Ned's eyes quickly adjusted to the abnormally bright sun but his eyes once again rounded in circles soon after because of the shocking thing that was in front of him. All Ned could describe it as was 'Barren', and he saw houses that have fallen apart and the remaining structures were tattered and rotting away. He went down there but soon encountered a prompt in his mind "Location Discovered: Springvale, +10 Experience Gained". After Ned made sure he wasn't hallucinating he quickly scavenged the place and got a comic book grognak the barbarian, a 9mm pistol with 45 9mm bullets, a scavenger outfit, a dusty leather backpack, 2 stimpacks, 5 Nuka-colas, and a Nuka-cola quantum. As Ned was about to continue scavenging he heard a whizzing sound and a muffled radio from a distance and went to hide behind a wall. Ned is much faster now as he has a slightly toned body with long legs compared to his previous short and fat body with a severe lack of exercise. When Ned hid behind the wall he could hear the radio more clearly and the man on it was claiming he was the U.S. President Eden. Ned was confused by this but ignored it and decided to take a peek at what was the thing playing the radio and was shocked seeing a device that looked like an antenna floating around the street and scanning things. When the eyebot saw Ned it just gave him a quick scan and continued on its route on the road which calmed the terrified Ned down. Ned continued scavenging houses gaining himself some squirrel bits and a bottle of beer he continued to the last house which was quite a lot smaller than the rest but much more intact than the rest only having some small areas of the wall that are missing. When he walked in he saw a kitchen and a small dining table sitting there with some rusty pots and cups scattered around and on the wall is a med-kit and under it is a cabinet stacked with turpentine, duct tape, a wrench, and a whole bunch of rusty metal cans. When Ned was going to open the med-kit a woman jumped out from the door pointing a .32 caliber pistol at Ned and he became so extremely terrified he almost fell straight on the floor but he barely stood up albeit with his legs shaking visibly. The woman saw this action and visibly calmed down thinking that the young man in front of her was not a threat but still kept the gun pointed at him in case something unexpected happens. They stood there for a few seconds in awkward silence staring at each other until the woman spoke."Where are you from? Did Moriarty send you here? If he did you better scram because I'm not gonna pay a goddamn thing!" she lets out but her last sentence was said louder because of visible anger. Ned is a person with a high IQ and best friends with Peter Parker who will be spiderman in the future so he thought quickly and grasped the general situation and said "No I'm not from Moriarty's and I don't know who you are, If I see Moriarty I won't tell him anything". Ned prayed internally that this was enough for her not to shoot him while staring at the loaded barrel of the pistol in a daze. The woman visibly paused for a few moments to think and with the gun still pointed up and then said "I understand now my name Silver and you can stay here for a bit but do leave before nighttime". Ned frowned a bit thinking of how to respond but just ended up saying "Thanks" and awkwardly sat down at the dining table. Silver saw this and finally put the gun away and sat down opposite Ned and gave Ned some BlamCo Mac & Cheese which tasted a bit stale since it was packaged for 200 years before being opened to eat. Silver asked Ned where he was going and he said he didn't know so Silver recommended he stop by Megaton as it is the closest city to their current location. She also explained how she ended up camping out here, who Moriarty was, and that he is in Megaton running a bar with a ghoul as a waiter. Ned inquired what a ghoul was and Silver was shocked as anyone who is in the wasteland knows what a ghoul is but she still explained what a ghoul is to him.

While Ned is on his adventure, back in the Marvel world things are getting out of hand with the fallout, and many people have started playing and even the government has started to get involved because of the game's ability to take your consciousness into the game.