3 Ch. 3 Character Creation

"Ok….. This already seems much better than the Fallout 4 I remember. This seems older, but so much better. I get S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats and Skills? And it even tells me what affects what! And it gives me the equation, although I probably won't use it since the system should do that for me. It does help me decide what I want to do.

[ Are you sure?

Strength - 7

Perception - 9

Endurance - 9

Charisma - 1

Intelligence - 4

Agility - 9

Luck - 1

Important decision. Quadruple-check ]

"There's probably a way to increase the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats as I explore the world. Or the Mojave I guess.

I went with 7 Strength because I want a high carry capacity and to be strong to use weapons.

The 9 Perception is to make sure I don't get caught off-guard when I'm out and about. And it seems very useful.

Going with 9 Endurance should be a no-brained. I don't want to die, so the higher health is a must. And the other things are just bonuses.

Now the 1 Charisma is a bold decision. It seems useless besides the skills related to it. But I hopefully can just raise the skills and not worry about this.

Having 4 Intelligence does hurt my ego as much as it will hurt my brain. But it will also get boosted eventually. And I should get plenty of Exp by killing loads of dangerous creatures. And the skills related to it can also be increased when I level up.

That 9 Agility seems great. The Action Points are very welcome and moving faster will be so much fun. And it's always leg day when you constantly run from your problems.

Ironically, only 1 Luck. I wanted the other stats to be near 10 and luck seemed to only give Critical Chance. But when you can shoot an enemy in the face, does that matter? And it can be increased if absolutely necessary.

The 1s scare me a bit. But looking at the three 9s and one 7, I can't complain. I'll just need to increase the lower skills.

NEXT!"

Colton monologues to himself to try and convince himself this is the right decision. It's only his life on the line right?

[ You may now Tag! three skills. A skill can not go below 0 and won't go above 100

Barter = 5

Energy Weapons = 21

Explosives = 21

Guns = 21

Lockpick = 21

Medicine = 11

Melee = 17

Repair = 11

Science = 11

Sneak = 11

Speech = 5

Survival = 21

Unarmed = 21

3/3 Tags! remaining ]

"This seems pretty decent to me. This way of making a character seems so unique and exceeds what I expected. I don't plan on making any go below 0, I'm honestly unsure how they could do that. But the 100 is a great milestone to achieve and makes me want to get to it. Now…. the 5s definitely hurt... But we can change one of them with the turn of a dial and the click of a button!"

[ You have selected:

Guns = 36

Medicine = 26

Speech = 20

0/3 Tags remaining ]

"Yep! Getting used to guns is a must in this terrible world. I can have all the strength I want. But 1 bullet could end it all in an instant. I don't want to meet the Devil again after only 2 days of being conscious in this world.

And if I can raise Medicine high enough I could possibly help my mom and dad…. Well, helping a missing arm is a little...

But the speech will definitely be one of the first I max! Why fight when you can force your enemies to admit defeat before bullets start flying"

Colton then accepts the tags and the Skill are replaced with a list.

[ Select 2 Traits

Agoraphobia

-The horrors outside are scarier than monsters under your bed. You gain +1 to all SPECIAL while indoors but suffer -1 to all SPECIAL while outdoors.

Built to Destroy

- The Flamer that burns twice as bright and burns half as long. All weapons have +3% chance to Critically Hit, but equipment condition decays 15% faster.

Built to Last

- The Flamer that burns twice as long, but half as bright. Weapon condition decays 15% slower, but all weapons have -3% chance to critically hit.

Camper

-Make sure the claymores are set properly. Your cautiousness and patience grants you a +2 Damage Threshold, but you have -10 AP.

Claustrophobia

- You have a fear of enclosed spaces. Probably because of the mutants that live there. You have +1 to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes when outside, but suffer -1 when indoors.

Early Bird

- Hey early risers! Enjoy a +2 to each of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes from 6 am to 12 pm, but suffer a -1 from 6 pm to 6 am when you're not at your best.

Freshman

- You are here to learn what you can, but that means you aren't trained yet. Enjoy a +10% XP gained from everything you do. Look away from the -5 to ALL of your Skills.

Fast Shot

- While using Guns and Energy Weapons, you fire 20% more quickly but your shots are 20% less accurate.

Four Eyes

- While wearing any type of glasses, you have +1 Perception. Without glasses, you have -1 Perception.

Good Natured

- You're Good Natured at heart, more prone to solving problems with your mind than violence. You gain +5 to Barter, Medicine, Repair, Science, and Speech, but have -5 to Energy weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed.

Heavy Handed

- Your melee and unarmed attacks do more damage, but less critical hit damage.

Hoarder

- You gain +25 lbs. to your carrying capacity, but suffer a -1 to all attributes any time the weight you're carrying drops below 160 lbs.

Hot Blooded

- When your health drops below 50% you gain +10% more damage, but you also suffer -2 to your Agility and Perception attributes.

Kamikaze

- You have +10 Action Points but your reckless nature causes you to have -2 Damage Threshold.

Logan's Loophole

- No one's going to put you out to pasture 'cause you're going to stay young (and level 30) forever! You'll never again become addicted to chems, and they'll last twice as long… but after level 30 you can kiss experience, perks, and skill points goodbye!

Loose Cannon

- From Frag Grenades to Throwing Spears, you can throw weapons 30% faster at the cost of 25% less range.

Neat Freak

- You can't stand disorganization. Lose -25 lbs. carry capacity, but you gain +1 to all SPECIAL whenever your carry weight is below 160 lbs.

Night Owl

- Enjoy the dark you brave Night Owls. Enjoy a +2 to all SPECIAL from 6pm to 12am but suffer a -1 to all SPECIAL from 6am to 12pm.

One Inch Punch

- Your Melee and Unarmed attacks deal more critical damage, but deal less damage.

Skilled

- You're skilled, but not experienced. You gain +5 points to every skill, but you suffer -10% from experience gained from now on.

Small Frame

- Due to your small size, you have +1 Agility but your limbs are more easily crippled.

Taunting Jack….. of all trades

- Who wants only one hand to have all the glory? Why can't they both be Doms? You are ambidextrous. You can use both your right and left hand equally at the same efficiency as a single handed person would. You don't gain anything special wise.

Trigger Discipline

- While using Guns and Energy Weapons, you fire 20% more slowly but are 20% more accurate.

Ultra Violence

- You are Ultra Violent at heart. You prefer to talk things out with your fists more than your words. You see faster results this way. You gain +5 Guns, Energy Weapons, Melee, Unarmed, and Explosives, but have -5 Speech, Medicine, Repair, Barter, and Science.

Walking Tank

- You have a strong, bulky, and sturdy frame. Due to the size of your frame +25% less limb damage. But you lose -1 Agility.

Wild Wasteland

- Wild Wasteland unleashes the most bizarre and silly elements of post- apocalyptic America. Not for the faint of heart or the serious of temperament. {This trait is already applied to the world. Only pick if you are stupid}

YEET!

- From grenades to spears, you enjoy putting all your strength into a throw. you gain 25% Range with thrown weapons, but suffer -30% Attack speed with thrown weapons.

0/2 Traits Selected ]

Colton scrolls through them just to see how many there are.

"There are 27 traits…. And 25 are terrible! The negatives basically outweigh the good! And what's with the Ambidextrous trait name? A cruel sense of humor….. But, not gonna lie, it is kinda funny"

[ You have selected:

Skilled

- You're skilled, but not experienced. You gain +5 points to every skill, but you suffer -10% from experience gained from now on.

Taunting Jack….. of All Trades

2/2 traits selected ]

"Sweet. Having 2 hands that are dominant are going to be weird. And it does say I gain nothing special besides that. So that means nothing negative as well. But this is the Devils system so something is bound to go wrong.

And losing 10% experience permanently isn't that bad to me. I can just kill a few more bugs to make up the difference. I'm sure that the giant ant population needs to be thinned anyway"

Colton moves the dial to the next blinking tick mark. But this one is blinking white while the others were blinking green.

[ Integrate New Stats? ]

"I knew it. I knew it. I knew it" Colton lays down on his back. "I called it. Of course it wouldn't be simple"

He takes a few seconds to prepare himself. His brain is probably gonna be tweaked, which is worrying. But the Devil wouldn't kill him via the system right? His body is going to be heavily altered most likely.

Fun!

"Integrate the Traits" He says. No point in postponing it.

[ Colton Lucky King... integrating S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats... please wait…. beginning process ]

Colton felt his entire body convulse and change. He couldn't help but shout and scream. He felt his bones getting denser, the muscles getting denser and filled with power, his brain was on fire.

Colton covers mouth with his hands and rolls to his side. "Gaahhh…. Heeeuuuggh.... bleh…." He vomited onto the ground next to him. He opens his eyes that felt like rats were tearing them apart like in Suicide Squad 2. Through his read and green tinted vision he sees that the liquids he threw up didn't look like they were his breakfast. It was a worrying amount of blood.

[ Getting rid of DNA that has left the body ]

Colton watches as the blood hisses and sizzles as it turns to black smoke and then disappears. Even with his brain that was burning itself he could appreciate the fact he wouldn't need to worry about being cloned. But the problem of having and of his DNA evaporate will be a problem. It's kinda hard to explain that one.

*POP*Schllk*Crack*Schllk*POP*

Colton couldn't describe the pain of having his bones dislocate, break, reform, and then un-dislocate themselves.

It all hurt so much he couldn't hear himself shouting. Or maybe that was his vocal cords being readjusted. They were wriggling like that virus in 'Helix' did when it got inside a person.

His throat felt like it was gettting shredded.

[ 50%. You are doing better than Anticipated. Skipping 'Half-Way Intermission' and continuing with the integration process ]

"Son of a bit-!"

[ Purging Previous Imperfections ]

"Are you saying you are only doing previous and not future? Gre-" Colton isn't able to finish his sarcastic remark before the process kicked into the next gear.

Colton's eyes roll to the back of his head as he feels the pain of something forcibly exit his pores. He had a black and red liquid exit his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and pores.

He couldn't even pass out from the pain. Because as soon as he was about to, something else would hurt. It began strengthening his body to match his 9 stats. And let's just say that jumping from 4 or 5 to a 9 is not a fun ride. He though that that's what the first part was, but nope. That was just the preparation step. This was when he truly felt it.

His eyes could only see red, and the inside of his skull. His nails dug into the concrete floor of the bunker. His muscles were constantly twitching, flexing and relaxing as they got used to the new abilities.

Then he felt his left arm feel like it was chopped off. Then it was like someone duplicated his right arm moved it to his left arm. But the thumbs were still correct. That part at least felt 'good' but then it got to his brain and the right side felt like something cracked. But then there was relief….until he felt something force it's way inside his brain.

Knowledge flooded his brain. The various knowledge from the Skills flooded him. It served as a good distraction at least.

The information about guns was not small. That took a while to sort through. And medicine was even worse honestly. There was so much knowledge about basic treatment to cuts and splints. To diagnosing basic colds and various symptoms. A lot of random knowledge that he wasn't expecting to be honest.

Survival, Unarmed, and Melee were fun at least. It was more practical than just information. It was as if his body had gone through training while he was convulsing on the ground. Kinda similar to the guy who tased himself after falling ontop of the security guard at the airbase in 'Transformers 2'. Colton would laugh if he wasn't being broken and reformed.

——Some Time Later, Time is Still Frozen——

[ 100% Integration ]

[ Complete ]

Colton just payed there and had his arms at his sides. His body was very sensitive at the moment. When he tried to hold himself it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

He just laid there on the ground. He looked very similar to how he did before the process, but there were changes. His eyes were sharper. His body sturdier and his sense now 9/10…. Literally. He just regulated his breathing. He couldn't exactly move his body much.

"This is V.A.T.S. huh?" Colton was feeling better. He didn't notice before but, he was only allowed to move before because the system gave him access to. Now he could barely move. And it felt like a button was pressed in his brain and he knew this was how he would activate V.A.T.S. from now on. This would be a great help. But he needed a few more minutes to think and get used to no more pain.

[ Hidden Perk Gained ]

[ Perk: ????-???????-???-????? ]

"And it's just a bunch of question marks. At least I have my first perk, but it would be great to know what it was"

"Alright, off you go" the green tint goes away and he can tell that it's off. Not only because he can move freely now, but because he can actually feel time begin flowing again.

As he gets up from the ground he looks at his Pipboy's status screen. It's the vault boy standing with his feel apart and his arms out. He looked like he was trying to mimic Patrick the starfish.

And below the Vault Boy was:

[ Colt Lucky King • lvl 1 ]

His name and level. He flicked down to the RAD tab and saw he had no RADs at the moment. Which he was really happy about. Even a toddler knew that radiation was bad.

The next tab was EFF.

He flicked to this tab and saw that there was nothing there. He expected the [ Ambidextrous ] to be present there. But apparently it was just a part of him now.

Now there were tabs to the right. There was:

S. P. E. C. I. A. L.

Skills

Perks

General

The only interesting one was General. It apparently will display his Krama level and information about Colton and his actions. Specifically how the factions view him.

That was just the "Stats tab". The next tab was "Items".

It showed the following:

Weapons - Lists all weapons on the person.

Apparel - All clothing, worn and not worn.

Aid - Anything to heal or influence the user.

Misc - Items that don't fall in the categories.

Ammo - I'll give you one guess what goes here.

At the top of these tabs there are the Weight, HP, AP, XP, and...

Colton freezes when he looks at the Bottle caps. There were so many numbers there. At least in the hundreds of thousands. He had to reboot his brain.

Weight

- Shows how much weight the user is carrying/the maximum that the user can carry without over-encumberment at any time.

- How many Hit Points the user has/the maximum Hit Points the user can have.

- How many Action Points the user has/the maximum Action Points the user has.

- How many Experience points the user has to level up.

Bottle caps

- The number of bottle caps carried by the user.

And he had to sit there and look at the number of caps he had. There were definitely a ton.

###,###.## Caps. He had over 100,000 caps. How to access them? Only the Devil knows apparently. But he will figure it out before he gets to New Vegas.

A giant smile spreads across his face. He doesn't like gambling with cards or random wagers. But having this amount of caps could do a ton of things. And helping him find a cure for whatever his mother's sickness is would be a start. And getting a new arm for his dad. Those two would both take a decent chunk of change each. But it's not like he was lacking it anymore.

Colton shakes his head. That's 4 years in the future. And who know what will happen before then.

The last one is the "Data tab", It had:

Local map

- Shows a detailed map of the user's local area. The map will only show areas that the player character has already explored.

World Map

- Shows a map of the area. Locations already discovered are marked, and new locations are automatically added when discovered. also features a quest-linked map marker which appears on the Pip-Boy HUD as a large, solid arrow and guides the user to their current quest destination. There is a secondary, user-selectable marker that can be positioned anywhere on the map, which provides the same real-time guidance. This marker appears on the Pip-Boy HUD as a large, unfilled arrow. The world map can also show the location of one's current companions. They will appear as small open triangles.

Quests

- Shows any quests the user has been given as well as a record of those completed. Selecting a quest will make it active, and markers for the quest will now be found on the local and world maps.

Notes

- The notes section keeps a record of all notes that the user has discovered. Paper notes can be read here after being scanned, and holotapes can be played after being loaded in or downloaded for later listening.

Radio - A built-in radio receiver that can tune into local radio stations that have been discovered.

"Uh oh" Colton rereads the world map again and is sure of it now. He has no idea where he is. Well, he's at Oasis Bunker but that doesn't help him. And there isn't a fast travel option. Even with the Old Swine House as an option to travel to.

Colton wonders why it was called that. Maybe pigs used to be raised there?

He shakes his head as he checks the flashlight and nearly flash bangs himself. He quickly shuts that off and checks the Geiger Counter.

You do not want to hear that thing ticking. It means that you are in an irradiated area and should do your business and leave as soon as possible.

He goes to the settings and changes the green color to white. It just looked better and more appealing to him.

As he's looking at the Pipboy he realizes that time isn't stopping like it would in the games. We don't talk about 76, it was fun for about a few hours then got boring fast.

Colton stretches his arms, back,neck, and legs. Various pops and cracks could be heard from his joints.

"What are you, a glow-stick?" Jack asks as he walks around the shelves of supplies.

"Maybe" Colton turns on the flashlight of the Pipboy and the area around him lights up.

"Haha! It seems that you've already checked it all out. That was fast, did you see the Map and Geiger Counter?" Jack leans against the shelf attached to the wall.

"Yep. Already seen them both. And there isn't much around us here. If we secure the area w-"

"Hold your horses. I've already checked the area briefly this morning. I'll teach you how to do it after we finish repairing the water pump. Deal?"

"Ready when you are. And I'll wait to check the clothes out. Plenty of time to do that later"

"Let's go then" Jack moves towards the Ladder while Colton freezes mid stride before continuing a second later.

He noticed the compas in the bottom left of his vision and there was a quest in the top left of his vision.

[ Home Sweet Home ]

And there were a lot of things to do.

[ Home Sweet Home:

- Help Jack repair the water pump

- Check out the clothes in the bunker

- Secure the perimeter with Jack

- Clean the bunker with Samantha

- Count and log the items in the bunker

- Find earplugs or find a new place to sleep

- (optional) Find and unlock the hidden door

The sooner the better. The best home is a safe home. Don't dilly dally ]

Next chapter