Chapter One: Game Over… not. Part 1

I really shouldn't have gone drinking that night with my friends. I mean, sure, I had just graduated from high school and I needed to celebrate that somehow but I had never gone drinking before. I was what you would call a boring guy because I never went out drinking, partying and doing drugs. I just knew better –results of spending most of your time reading random stuff on the internet-.

Anyways, I really shouldn't have gone drinking that night. I should've gone home, celebrated the fact I was out of school with my parents, the ones I knew really gave a damn about what happened to me, and after that I should've done what I do best: play videogames until I gave myself brain damage and passed out until the next morning to repeat the same thing every day until it was time for me to go to college.

Heh. College. I was really looking forward to that. I really wanted to get a degree in graphic designs and graphic animation so I could get a job in the video game development industry. Those had been my plans. But no. But fucking no! I had to ruin them just because I couldn't say no! Come with us, they'd said. It will be fun, they'd said. I did went with them. And I did had fun –made out with three different girls, two at the same time even-.

What they didn't tell me, however, was the fact that I was going to stare my own death in the face while I was too drunk to see that the green light was one for the vehicles on the street, not the people walking through the city. I knew how to drive but my parents knew I was going to go drinking so they didn't give me the vehicle for obvious reasons. I was supposed to call them so they could pick me up but in my drunken brilliance I decided to walk home.

A load of good shit that did me. I had stumbled forward, ignoring the warning of the homeless guy who was sitting next to the lamppost on that corner, and slowly rose my head when a bright light and an annoying loud sound suddenly blared against my drunken senses. I don't know how I can recall this with even half of the clarity I am but this is what I remember. That night I saw my life flash before my own eyes before I was hit by a car.

I remember half of my bones breaking and puncturing most of my internal organs. The pain had been excruciating. Milliseconds –don't ask me how I could a perceive such a tiny time frame because I do not know- after that I felt my head been separated from my body due to the strength which the car had hit me. I remember seeing my body sent flying meters away before my eyes turned to the horrified eyes of the man as he stared back at me.

But most of all. I remember ten words appearing in front of me as everything dulled as I began to die.

GAME OVER

Would you like to try again?

Yes/No

I don't know if it had been the survival instinct of a dying being making the choice for me. I don't even know if my mind even questioned the absurdity of words appearing out of nowhere as my head flew away from my body. The only think I knew was that I saw an opportunity to keep living. So, moved by instinct, I said yes in my mind. The words had disappeared. My head continued flying away as my body was crushed by the car that had killed me.

My consciousness, however, was transported elsewhere.

-DxD: Gamer-

You have slept in your bed. Your HP and MP have been fully restored. All ailments have been cured.

What

In

The

Actual

Fuck!

While my thoughts were raging a mile a second I was sure my face –or what I believed to be my face- was kept blank as I stared at the blue box with black letters in front of me. Not a moment ago I was reflecting of the decisions I took that led to me dying when I suddenly find myself laying comfortably in a bed staring at a message box suspiciously similar to the ones that appeared on 'The Gamer' manga I have been reading lately.

I looked around in panic trying to discern where I was but there was nothing distinctive of the room other than it was filled with posters of naked females that were very beautiful and very well endowed. When I was sure I was going to start hyperventilating, a wave of calmness overwhelmed the anxiety I was feeling me and my brain directed my consciousness into thinking about the situation at hand.

I was in an unknown place. First priority: Learn where I am. Secondary objectives: Find out why those letters appeared in front of my face when I woke up and why they resembled a manga I had been reading in the past and why I found myself calm all of sudden when I should be getting a heart attack.

That was when another box appeared.

Quest Alert!

Where in the hell I am?!

You have found yourself in an unknown place and weird stuff is happening around you not even ten seconds after you woke up! Find out where you are! Secondary objectives: Learn about the weird things happening around you.

Reward: 500 XP. 1000 XP if the secondary objective is completed. Skill Book. Not being a clueless idiot.

I narrowed my eyes at the message box appearing and realized that it was exactly like the ones that would appear before Han Jee-Han when he got a quest. Meaning that this 'weird things' were actually The Gamer ability manifesting before me in its default form. My deduction was proven correct when the secondary objective in the quest message box became grayed out and a plus sign appeared beside it meaning I had completed it.

When I didn't panic because of this knowledge being learned, I realized this was indeed the real deal and the skill Gamer's Mind was already changing me. Deciding to go with the flow as I didn't feel like I was in some kind of dream and I distinctly remembered everything from my live to the point I 'died', I rose up from the bed and went to search for a mirror to look at myself. Maybe it will give me a clue into where I was. I suspected that I was in the world of The Gamer for obvious reasons.

There was a small mirror in the room and I approached it with some trepidation that was quickly washed away by Gamer's Mind. I was surprised, however, when brown eyes stared back at me from the surface of the mirror. Dark brown hair was messily sitting on top of 'my' head and it was also framing and slightly above average looking face. I had already deduced who 'I' was but the letters floating above my head only served to confirm it.

Issei Hyoudou. Lvl 1.

The Gamer

I was in the world of High School DxD and apparently my consciousness has replaced that of the main character. Immediately after I thought that a ping was heard in my mind and a message box telling me I had completed the quest appeared. Immediately after a bright light appeared on my suddenly cupped hands as a white thin book appeared in my hands. I heard another ping sound and another message box appeared in front of me.

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

Okay so let me get this straight. I died. Of that I had no doubt. And then I was reborn in the world of one of my favorite anime/manga/light novels series as its main character wielding the abilities of the main character of another series I had recently began to read…

Surprisingly –or maybe not- I felt not at ease with that revelation but more like content in a very grim fashion. I have to admit that more than once I had wanted to live in a world of fantasy wielding incredible powers, fighting bad guys and doing what it needed to be done with the hot girls that kept appearing on the shows and manga I have read. As I dismissed all the message boxes that had appeared on my field of vision I realized that this was my chance to do exactly that.

The first thing I needed to do was to find out exactly when I was in the timeline of the DxD universe. Looking at myself –Issei- on the mirror once again I realized that I couldn't be far from where the light novels began since I looked around Issei's age when that happened. That's when I realized that I did have my memories of my previous life but I didn't possess Issei's from this life. I can recall being friends with Irina Shidou and thinking she was a boy but only that from the past and I was sure it was because I have already saw that in the light novels.

The next thing I needed to do was prepare myself for when shit hit the fan. I decided I was going to go by the timeline as it was presented in the light novels and alter it as little as I could because the slightest thing I did could heavily alter how stuff happened. I admit I was afraid of getting caught off guard –try not being when you were killed because you were caught off guard drunk- and I certainly didn't want to die again.

That line of thinking made me recall the book that I was still holding in my hands so I brought it up to my face. Even though it appeared out of light it felt like a real book but according to the quest that rewarded it to me it was a skill book. I focused on it and as I expected a blue window appeared.

You have acquired the skill book 'Mana Manipulation'. Would you like to learn this skill?

Yes/No

I pressed the yes button and I stared as the book was enveloped in bright light before I absorbed said light. As it died down and the window disappeared automatically I became aware of the magical energy swirling inside of me and knowledge on how to manipulate it filled my mind. As I began to marvel at the sensation of it –it was like a warm limb deep inside your core waiting to be used- another window appeared.

Mana Manipulation. Passive. Lvl Max. Allows the user to freely manipulate mana which is the energy within most living beings. Passively increases INT by 10%. Passively increases mana pool by 10%.

I nodded at that and dismissed the window as I moved away from in front of the mirror and took a seat on my bed. I knew that I was still incredibly week even by the standars of this world and my previous one but I still needed to know where I stood at the moment. I took a deep breath and decided to use my voice for the first time since waking up as Issei Hyoudou.

"Status."

Name: Issei Hyoudou

Title: N/A

Status: N/A

Race: Human Job: The Gamer

Level: Lvl 3 Next Level: 0.0%

HP: 325/325 R: 0.5% (1.6) per Minute

MP: 907/907 R: 1.4% (12.7) per Minute

STR: 4

VIT: 5

DEX: 3

INT: 33 (30+3)

WIS: 14

LUCK: 10

Stat Points: 10

Money: 0$

I got over the fact that my voice sounded different and that I spoke a different language even thought I still perceived it as English very fast once I saw my stats. They were definitely better than I was expecting them to be but to be honest I was not surprised by them. They actually made a lot of sense once I spent a minute analyzing them.

STR was the Strength modifier and it governed the physical damage I could deliver and the amount of weight I could carry. It was pretty accurate as far things go. From what I knew about Issei's character he never trained nor performed any physical activity before he became a devil and was forced to do so. I was tempted to put points into it immediately but I knew that since it was so low I could rise it up by training physically and that I should save those points for later.

The same happened with VIT and DEX, the Vitality and Dexterity modifiers respectively. Vitality essentially governed the amount of stamina and max HP I possessed. I deduced that VIT modified the amount of HP on a 25/1 ratio if the amount I had a level one was 100 without taking into account my VIT of 5. Dexterity governed how fast I was physically, my reflexes, my reaction time, my coordination, my body awareness and my aptitude for acrobatics and flexibility. The same occurred here as with STR so the modifier was pretty accurate.

INT was the Intelligence modifier and it governed the potential I had to acquire new knowledge and the amount of mana I possessed. And as humbly as possible I realized that it was very accurate too. Before I died I had been a very good student. Not only that but I spent my time reading and learning new stuff along with playing a lot of games that forced me to think things through so I knew that my mental capabilities were above average.

The amount of mana I possessed was also accurate if the same happened with INT and MP as with VIT and HP: a ratio 25/1 if my base MP without taking into account my INT at Lvl one had been 50, half of my initial HP at 100, which was the common on most games if you choose a class with an average affinity for everything which I knew I was.

WIS was the wisdom modifier and it governed my ability to make the correct decision, how I used the knowledge in my possession and mana regeneration. I think it was also pretty accurate since I like to think that all the choices I made through my short previous life had been the correct ones –except for the one that had made it so my previous life was short of course-. It seemed like the regeneration of my mana was directly proportional to the amount of WIS I had calculated in percentages. And the same seemed to happen with my HP. Good to know.

LUCK was the luck modifier obviously and it governed, you guessed, how lucky I was. However, I know that it also governs the quality of the drops I get from fighting mobs and how prone I was to getting a critical strike. A lot of people would think that luck is a useless stat to increase, and it normally would be because you can normally raise your stats through stats points, but since I could modify my other stats by training and doing other stuff I can see the potential here. But I wasn't going to get ahead of myself.

Looking at my stats I realized that I had the perfect build to become a mage class character just going by how high INT and WIS were when I was in level 3 but this 'game system' allowed me to get points in all stats by doing certain actions. I knew I could rise my STR, VIT and DEX by doing specific exercises for each. I could raise my INT by studying and I could raise my WIS by making correct during difficult situations. LUCK was the only one that I needed stats points to raise because there was no way to get lucky on purpose.