0004: First Customer

Izuku sat at the reception desk as the clock ticked past ten in the morning. Realistically he should have expected most people would not be playing till after three or four when school ended. Yet the system insisted eight in the morning was the optimal start time. Deciding to alleviate some of his own boredom he sat at one of the rings.

"System, do I have to pay to use the system?" Izuku asked.

"Do you want to?" It bit back a little snarky.

"I'm taking that as free." Izuku huffed.

With that he sat in the comfortable chair reclining it a little and sitting in. Then he went to the headset at the side of the desk and put it on.

His body relaxed in the chair and he was suddenly immersed into the system. Looking in front he saw the screen displaying 'Games' with Resident Evil being the only option and selected it. Soon he was brought into the game and was faced with two options.

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Select your Character:

Chris

Special Operations Agent

Note: Stats will be adjusted accordingly

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Looking at the discernable face of Chris at the side of his choice, Izuku assumed it must be the main character of the story and selected it.

Soon he was greeted by Raccoon City.

Time ticked by as he got used to the immersion, he was moving according to his body and it seemed and felt like he was there. He could hear subtle sounds and the stench of the mansion he was faced with was pungent. Seeing what he thought was a person he began approaching them.

"Is this the tutorial?" He asked towards the figure.

Only for it to turn to him and reveal a grotesque and gnarled look. It growled and started to lunge at him. Izuku managed to barely avoid its wildly swinging attacks and managed to grab his knife from his side and stab it. The motion was fluid and Izuku felt as if a hand was guiding him till he saw a small prompt below in his field of view.

[Note: Playing as Chris at early levels you will be guided by the system till you are capable of his techniques. Happy Fighting!]

"Zombies, why would it be anything else but zombies?" He muttered.

Then Izuku began to focus on the fact the game was letting him learn the character's skills. He wondered if these techniques would translate later on to himself.

With that he began playing again till his first death at a dog that went and ripped at him.

"Ah!" He yelped, taking the headset off with a hand to his throat. The pain was so surreal and he was feeling as if his heart was beating at full.

"System, what was that?"

"Hmm, the death replication system is working well. The game is ensured to be as realistic as possible to ensure maximum learning potential. It is possible to lower the pain sensitivity but it's ill-advised for the User if they intend to learn rapidly." She chimed.

Izuku thought about it. The pain of dying was definitely a shock but he had nearly died before and spent a decade being beaten. He wanted to be stronger as fast as he could.

"Got it." Izuku responded by slipping the headset back on.

By the time Izuku was done it was already around six in the afternoon without a customer on his first day. Getting up he was proud of his progress and how his muscles twitched in memory of each technique he took to heart. But then he began to flex his muscles and felt them bulge a lot more than they should.

Quickly he navigated to his status window and looked.

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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

STATS: [0 points to add]

Strength: 12 'Can do push ups, easily'

Dexterity: 16 'Can thread a needle all of the time'

Intelligence: 18 'Smarter than most without intelligence quirks'

Constitution: 12 'Can run a full of a mile with ease'

Realm: Early Body Forging 'Beginning of this Sprout'

Realm Progression: 13.3 'Just starting out'

Skills: High Speed Speech, Rapid Analysis, Low Tier Parallel Processing, Mid Level CQC, Mid Level Knife Combat, Low Level Firearm Usage

Inventory Items:

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He saw the new status information about skills and he was confused. His new skills made sense as he played the game but he had no clue what 'Realm' could possibly mean.

"System, what is this Realm on my Status Tab?" Izuku asked.

"It is a method of training to gain strength and abilities. You are currently in the 'Early Body Forging' realm of Warrior cultivation. Now even a string bean like you can put up a fight, probably."

"How do I improve then?" Izuku was curious about it.

"Simply training in these games allows you to cultivate energy to refine your body whilst learning techniques can help with intelligence and dexterity that require practice. This system feels bad so here's some advice, to reach Peak of Body Forging you will need around forty in Strength, Constitution and Dexterity. Afterall you have just about reached the basics of normal people. The Realm points is essentially the average score of these values and that's technically what needs to reach forty itself. Though I recommend having a balance of stats before you specialise or you may bottleneck later on."

"So keep grinding. My life has become a glorified RPG." Izuku groaned as he heard the door open.

Turning he greeted the person. "Welcome to Origin Gaming Cafe." Then he took in the look of the person. She was a little taller than him with blonde hair and glasses.

"Hi, I was just looking around. What kind of games do you have here?" She asked.

"Well currently we have one game in the library due to more being in development for the systems we run."

That caught her curiosity as she tilted her head a little. "Why is that?"

"Due to the realism factor of these systems, making games with full range of freedom and making them realistic can be difficult. If you like you can try." He suggested hoping to make his first sale today.

"How much is it to try?" She said her eyes were lighting up eagerly.

"It depends on whether you want to sign up as a member or not. Members get things a little cheaper and get to keep track of time they pay for on their card if they end a session earlier than paid for."

"Got it, that makes sense." She then turned to the board he pointed at with the prices.

"I'll try just an hour today so I can get an Iron card."

Izuku nodded making his way to the computer at the reception and opened up to be greeted by the membership creation page.

"I'm going to need a name and any ID if you can. This is just so you can make a new one in case you lose your old one. Also an email and phone number."

"My name is Melissa Shield." She said she followed up with her information and an ID she had.

Izuku's face remained stoic as his brain began to go blank for the sheer shock. 'Shield, like David Shield the creator of All Might's costumes? No that can't be it has to be a coincidence.'

"You aren't related to David Shield are you?" He joked handing her the membership card. The card was a sleek black with a grey triangle in one corner. The system told him to just input the card in the device besides the computer to upgrade or downgrade the cards whenever.

She looked a little surprised. "How did you know?"

"Uhh, you do have the same last name after all." He responded.

This caught her a little off guard. "That… makes sense. Also how much for an hour of Resident Evil then?"

"For the first hour, 2250 yen. You can continue to pay more hours by coming up to the reception and asking me to add them on. Though if you do plan on playing a lot an upgraded membership gets you a set amount of hours at a discounted price." He said handing her the card device.

"Mhm, if I like it I'll definitely take a look." She said smiling as she paid her first hour and headed to a seat.