>>2759579
You are Jack King, and until very recently were just a beat cop in the PRPD. After responding to an unusual call at a morgue, you saw some sort of horror squirming its way into the water drainage system, and were immediately intercepted by a strange government enforcer. The man quickly stooped to sample a strange fluid on the alley floor, but before you could see more, you were ushered away by another suited government worker, and debriefed with the rest of the officers present.

Strangely, within a week, all of the officers who'd been inside the building had been transferred to different precincts. The circumstances surrounding this didn't sit well with you, having seen the strange creature, and the odd government intervention, you began digging. You searched high and low for any other related incidents. Anything involving the strange government agents in the brown coats. Eventually you stumbled upon a chat room that seemed to exist for the discussion of such events. You spent a good deal of time reading strange stories of ghosts and demons, none of which seemed very believable, but all of which involved a brown coated agent slaying the monster. The stories were so gratuitous you began to wonder if the chatroom existed to glorify the strange agents, despite the fact that you gut told you there was something more sinister at play.

You had been in the chatroom for perhaps an hour when suddenly your world went black. You heard the hum of an engine and found yourself restrained and gagged upon waking up. Everything was dark, and you came to realize that a bag had been placed over your head which allowed no light through. Your immediate reaction is to flail, but you'd been trained better than that. Even so, your captors apparently still recognized that you had woken up.

"Ahh good." Comes a dispassionate female voice. "Back to the world of the living, eh? You, Mister Jack? You are an exceedingly lucky individual. Y'see, most people who start looking into UNNA don't wake up from that little nap you just took. You get to live another day. I'd recommend playing along if you'd like to live two more days. Your file says you have no living family, and only a couple of close friends. That makes it pretty convenient for us as well. When you are unmasked and unbound, you will be in your new home. I do hope you manage to survive your first week." She says as the vehicle comes to an abrupt stop. It was, seemingly only to throw you to the floor of the car, as the drive resumed immediately afterward. The woman was quiet for the rest of the trip though, and as the vehicle came to a stop once more, this time a bit more gently, you heard the doors open and felt hands on you guiding you to walk.

>>2759583
Feeling little choice in the matter, you march forward blindly. You feel rough concrete turn into smooth tile underfoot as your march progresses, but you never seem to hear the opening of a door. That is, until you come to an elevator, which opens. You step into the carpeted interior can feel yourself descending for a long time after the small group of you, four by your estimates, board. When it finally comes to a halt, you're ushered through a series of rooms, some of which have the sort of idle chatter you wouldn't have found too out of place at the precinct. You can't make out much though, as the words all seem muffled through the bag over your head.

When you finally come to a stop once more, you are pressed down into a chair. When the bag is finally removed, you're greeted with a pair of black suit and tie agents each sporting a dark pair of glasses. One man has neatly trimmed short black hair, while the other is bald entirely.

"Greetings Mr. King." The younger one with the short black hair said as the bald one slipped some sort of viewing device over your eyes. "We're going to be doing a few tests. In the mean time, you're going to do a little bit of required reading. See what it is that we do here."

Your vision and hearing shift then to a blank, black world. You can sense a small pinprick at the back of your neck as your headset punctures you, but after that you feel very little from your body.

Your vision is transported to the first person view of some man. He's trouncing through a distant jungle with a gun slung around his shoulder. Two fellows in similar brown coats are there, and they unsling their weapons suddenly. Your camera angle is suddenly thrown backwards as the other brown coat wearing soldiers fired strange munitions at the creature that had grabbed your unfortunate cameraman. You see the owner of the body you're viewing from firing his pistol into the deep toothy maw of some sort of beast straight out of legend. It's body was similar to that of a sea urchin, but it's size greater than that of a bear. The strange spikes that covered his body seemed to flow in the wind, but were capable of hardening in an instant and piercing into it's target's body. The camera feed cuts out as the victim enters the creature's mouth, only to be replaced by another first person perspective taking place in some dark and eerie building.

>>2759586
The soldier, once again a brown coated warrior, is leering through the shadows, gun drawn with the flashlight affixed. At some point, despite the direct attention of the flashlight, the room fails to remain illuminated. A set of yellow eyes opens in the darkness around him. Followed by several more sets of glowing eyes. In a moment of panic, the soldier begins discharging his weapon. Some sort of flame based munition that immediately strikes a wall of blackness, before rebounding toward the unfortunate soldier. This feed cuts out as the wall of fire reaches the unfortunate soldier, only to be replaced by another angle.

This one, a woman swimming under the ocean. She wears no brown coat, thanks to her diving gear, but you notice the colored bits of the gear are all colored brown. She descends into the darkness of the sea, when a creature that has far too many tentacles to be a natural denizen of the sea. This feed lasts just long enough to see the tendrils ripping apart the diver, letting flow a torrent of silvery blood.

It continues like this for an untold amount of time. Sometimes you see the brown coated soldiers coming out victorious against their supernatural opponents, but as often as not you see their horrific ends. You are watching as a toxin wielding fighter is suddenly vaporized by a massive blast of energy from it's core when the goggles are finally lifted. You can feel the needle it'd embedded into your neck lifting as well, and find yourself now in what looks to be a hospital bed. You hadn't been aware that you'd been moved at all, which is a little bit jarring, but a clinical man in a white labcoat interrupts your thoughts before you can consider much.

"Hello Mr. King. You probably aren't aware, but we've been running some tests on you for the last few hours. Let's go over your results?"

"My results? What exactly is going on here?" You ask. You're too tired to feel panicked, and just want a straight answer for once.

"You've been inducted into His Majesty's UNNA squadron, one of the most potent secret forces groups sanctioned by the king. Congratulations on your promotion officer." He says handing you a small ID Badge with your name and a four digit number, 0081. You see his own badge has him listed as 0291, and wonder if there is any significance to that ID system.

"Anyway, your results. We see that you're in good physical condition, well, relatively speaking. You should begin feeling the effects of the serum you'd been exposed to before you'd first awoken. Soon your powers will begin to manifest themselves. According to our tests you should have...

>>2759589
>Pyrokinesis - Control fire to attack (can manipulate existing fire or create it)

>Aquakinesis - Control water to attack (can manipulate existing water or create it)

>Acid power - Emit a powerful acid from your hands towards your enemy

>Poison power - Emit a poison gas to damage biological opponents

>Lightning generation - Fire lightning from your hands toward an enemy

>Improved Telekinesis - Much stronger than your average mutant in terms of what you can move with your mind. Though the ability is innate to many mutants, yours will be far beyond what they can do.

>Energy Emission - Fire blasts of raw psychic energy from the palms of your hand to attack your enemies

>Enhanced Ability - Choose strength, speed, hand eye coordination, or any other physical ability and enhance it

>It's manifesting oddly slow - (DM's Choice)

>Other (Write in, within reason)

Filthy UNNA SCUM. Nothing but mass for the SUPERIOR lifeforms.

>>2759592
>It's manifesting oddly slow

>>2759592
>Enhanced Ability - speed

Gotta to fast

>>2759592
>>Energy Emission - Fire blasts of raw psychic energy from the palms of your hand to attack your enemies
That sounds pretty fucking neat.

>>2759592
>Energy Emission - Fire blasts of raw psychic energy from the palms of your hand to attack your enemies
This sounds like we can do Dragon Ball Z stuff. Let’s do this.

>>2759592
>Improved telekinesis
Come on, telekinesis can allow us to chuck pebbles with the same impact as a tank round. And fly, and block or deflect bullets, and all sorts of fun stuff. It is seriously versitile.

>Its manifesting awfully slow

>>2759592
>>It's manifesting oddly slow - (DM's Choice)
This better be something cool

>>2759629
>>2760000
>>2760004
Alright so slow manifestation.

No rolls needed yet. Sorry for the on-the-rails nature of this quest for the intro stuff. I swear you'll get more autonomy once you get through training.

"...some inkling of what your power is over the course of the next few days. In extreme cases it could take as long as a month to manifest, but don't worry. You'll still be in training come the month's end, so you shouldn't be in any real danger until you know what you're working with."

"Uhh... okay? What exactly are you talking about?" You ask bewildered.

"Ah, right. Nobody's clued you in yet. Mr. King, you should be aware that you are alive because you possess a certain mutation in your brain. In laymen's terms, you have latent psychic abilities that will begin to manifest over the course of the next few weeks while the serum does its work on you. You should get the basic abilities pretty quickly. Go ahead, see if you can levitate my pen." He says holding his pen out for you to focus on. "Don't worry if you can't do anything yet, sometimes it shows up immediately, sometimes it takes a while.

You try to will the pen to float, not really sure how you should envision this action. Was there a pose you had to do? A wave of your finger? In the end, you figured if the ability was in your mind, it came down to the mind to make things happen. You envision the pen floating gently off of his hand, however instead, the pen shakes violently and crumples in on itself, folding up and squirting both you and the doctor with black ink.

He produces a cloth from his pocket, and begins to wipe his glasses, succeeding only in smearing the ink across the lenses.

"Hm. Right." He says, his voice suddenly taking on a hard edge. "Anyway, you're to proceed to room 512, where you'll choosing you arms specialty. You'll meet some of your fellow... inductees there. Whatever your feelings on this, it's best to know that this is all for the greater good. Please understand how important the work we do is."

"You've still kidnapped me though."

"UNNA operates under the impunity of His Majesty. Our actions are sanctioned by His Majesty for good reason. Soon I trust you will come to understand why what we do is necessary."

"I highly doubt that, but it's not like I'm going anywhere."

"Other than room 512." The lab coat wearing man says smugly. You take that as your cue to leave, and promptly head out the door. Maybe he thought you did that thing with the pen on purpose? Who knows, at any rate he doesn't seem very happy, and you're more than willing to leave him be.

>>2760071
You head outside the room, which you note is labeled 501, and navigate the halls unopposed. You spend a moment wandering the halls and find that all of the rooms here are oriented on the left hand side of the wall, while there are no doors on the right hand side of the wall, which appears particularly reinforced. Moving through the hall you pass 503, but when you get to 505, you see a hall that cuts through the hall that you've been traveling through. Judging by the numbering on the doors you've passed so far, you decide the best way to get to 512 is to go down this hall and look for the evenly numbered doors.

The urge to explore takes you, but you figure that you'll eventually be afforded the opportunity to explore your new living environment. The reality of the situation is heavy in your mind as you navigate the halls, so you simply take the turn and hope to find a 512. You begin wandering for quite some time down the hall, and find neither door ways or windows to occupy your attention. Only the electric blue lighting that seems to be a favorite of whoever designed this place. Not an incandescent light in this place, only the neon glowing that looks straight out of a cyberpunk scene.

Your mind wanders to the predicament you're in as you wander. A lot has been happening so fast, and you've not had a moment to yourself yet to process how you feel about all this.


>This could be a new lease on life. A place I can start over. The police force was supposed to be that, and these guys are basically the super police.

>These guys kidnapped me, and are clearly not trustworthy, but I'll hear them out for now.

>The first opportunity I have I'm out of here, these guys are crazy people.

>Evil or not, these guys are effective. They took me out in my apartment without my even noticing. There's no point in trying to run, they'd find me. Might as well just keep my head down for now.

>I'm not really sure yet. Psycic powers, strange beasts, weird serums and government secrets, this is all way too much for me.

>Other (Write in)

>>2760074
>>These guys kidnapped me, and are clearly not trustworthy, but I'll hear them out for now.

>>2759592 #

Enchanced hand eye coordination, we're neo afterall

Shoot. Forgot to refresh first

>>2760074
>This could be a new lease on life. A place I can start over. The police force was supposed to be that, and these guys are basically the super police.
>Other (Write in)
>Might as well explore this labyrinth. What's the worst that can happen if I ignore his order? *contemplate*

>> 2760074#

I vote keep our head down

>>2760074
>These guys kidnapped me, and are clearly not trustworthy, but I'll hear them out for now.

>>2760074
>Other (Write in)
Start wondering if you’ll be allowed to leave this place later or if you have to stay here? Because it’d really suck if you weren’t allowed to go to a movie theater or a nice restaurant anymore.

.....then start wondering about why all the agents are always dressed in brown? That seems like an unusual color choice for a secret organization. Maybe it’s so that nobody can tell they’ve shit themselves whenever they run into one of those monsters they’re hunting?

Looks like begrudgingly hear them out for the time being. Will make up a post before I sleep, and then hopefully another after I wake presuming I wake at a reasonable hour.

>>2761339
Alright so I didn't realize how long it'd take me to get all the different NPCs ready for this next part, so the post itself will have to wait until I get off of work. Sorry for the constant delays guys.

>>2761781
No worries!

>>2761781
Quality > Quantity.
Take your time QM

Seems pretty neat.

>>2761910
New? You should read the main story
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=mass+quest

These guys haven't given you much reason to trust them. You aren't sure that you care for their methods, but you seem to be stuck here for now. For now you'll play along, but you don't know if this arrangement is going to work out forever. You have always had a sense of duty and justice. That's what had drawn you to the force in the first place. An organization like this doesn't sit right with you, but you'll learn more about them if you play along. Whatever the future holds, you're where you need to be right now.

You continue through the halls, traveling at a relaxed pace and in a sense dreading what lies ahead. You eventually make your way to room 512, and find yourself in an odd shooting range. Several others share the space with you, including eight other people who are all dressed in a sort of brown and black skin tight uniform, and one man in a brown coat who seems to be conducting things. You immediately feel out of place, with your lack of a uniform, but the man in charge doesn't seem bothered.

"Ah, the new recruit is finally through with his orientation. You aren't happy, but the normalcy of this seems almost surreal. The others are all busily shooting their rounds at targets down range. You find the lack of noise to be somewhat curious, because it's clear that the guns are all definitely impacting their targets.

"What is all this?" You ask as the brown coated man approaches you and begins sizing you up.

"What? Never seen a shooting range before? I thought you were an officer."

"You know damn well what I mean." You say gesturing to the room around you.

His brow furrows, and you feel a sharp pain in the base of your neck. It's not a crippling pain, just enough to serve as a reminder that you are not currently a free man.

"That's "You know damn well what I mean, Sir!" he says, his mouth twisting up at the edges to form a wry smile. "And like I said, this is a shooting range. Take a minute, get your bearings and then get to work. You're a late joiner to the class, and the practical exam is at the end of the week." With that he laughs. "But, I'm a nice guy, I'll give you a few minutes to get acquainted with your fellow trainees." He begins moving toward the door, and judging by the pack of cigarettes he's produced you guess his generosity has ulterior motives. "When I get back you'll be picking a weapon to specialize in, so keep that in mind." He says, before the door hisses and he steps out. It quickly locks shut behind him leaving you and the other eight trainees alone.

>>2764815
Some of them seem relieved and immediately move away from their positions lined up on the shooting range to come greet you. Others remain diligent. In the corner is a girl with long straight blond hair, who has neither spent time practicing with the arms, nor has she reacted in any way to your presence.

Catching you looking, one of the girls, a short thing with red hair and freckles says "Oh don't mind her. That's Alice. She's weird, but insanely talented. Doesn't like guns though." She grabs you by the arm and starts tugging on you, pulling you toward the center of the people who'd stopped their training to come introduce themselves.

"Get off of him!" Said another girl, in a far more annoyed manner than you felt was justified.

"Oh come off it Cass, this one is cute!" The redhead says

"You say that about anybody who's got a cock between his legs Vivian!" The other girl, a brunette with glasses, says managing to disentangle the redhead from your arm before stepping back. The five people who had come to introduce themselves form a small semicircle around you, the girl, Cass, speaks again.

"So, let's see... How new are you? Like, are you 'new' new? Or just an upjumped agent who has the right brain stuffs?" She asks, but before you can answer, a younger blond kid who looks like a teenager asks

"What's the outside world like these days?"

"He asks that of everyone. They got Les when he was just a kid."

"I'm finally old enough to take the training courses!" He says with a sort of giddy enthusiasm.

"You seem weirdly happy about that." You say looking to the others. Those who haven't spoken up yet seem a bit uncomfortable at his behavior as well. "I don't know about you guys, but I think this is all pretty fucked up."

"H-Hey now! Don't talk like that! UNNA are the good guys!" the young one says defensively.

"Are you sure about that? If I didn't have a special brain or whatever, I'd be dead right now according to them." You retort, and see the girl who'd been quiet so far widen her eyes a bit, before regaining her composure.

"The Prying Eyes program." She says, her voice level. "That's how they got me too. Snuck into my room when I found that damned chatroom. Next thing I know I'm waking up in an interrogation room. They thought I might be working for someone, though I have no idea who." She was quiet, with black straight hair that stretched to the middle of her back. "Don't mind Lester. He's an innocent kid who needs these guys to be good for him to justify his life." The way she talks is cold, almost clinical, but it seemed to upset Lester who took a few steps back.

>>2764817
"Y-You just don't get it! They do what they have to do to keep everyone safe!" He didn't seem interested in justifying his statement however, as he immediately ran back to the shooting range station he'd been at before and started firing his gun again. The total lack of sound still makes you uncomfortable, and you ask "Why isn't there any sound?"

"Oh, there is." Cass says, gesturing toward the range. "When you stand over there, there's sound. These UNNA guys have lots of crazy technology. Sound dampeners are just the beginning.

"What do you mean?" You ask, wondering what sort of information you might be able to milk out of them.

"Well.. lemme see. For instance, this whole level, maybe even the whole base, I'm not sure, has some sort of powerful technology. Nobody dies here. I don't even think we age past thirty. I've never seen anyone who looked older than thirty five on base, despite the fact that Les says some of these guys have been here for over a decade. According to him, they haven't gotten any older at all, though I dunno how reliable a witness he is. He's kinda just a stupid kid. I heard they got to him when he was just a toddler."

"Wait wait, go back a second. People can't die here? What do you mean?"

"Well... it's easier to just show you." she says before gesturing over to the towering, yet silent man who had been standing off in the corner. "Toss me your shotty," She says.

He seems to realize what she's angling at, and instead just aims the shotgun down toward his foot and pulls the trigger.

This time you can hear it, and your ears are ringing as you take a few steps back. Blood has spattered across your hospital gown, and you see for an instant the mangled mass that encompasses not just his foot, but the bottom half of his leg. That shotgun fired with way more power than any you'd seen before. He fell back with a grunt, fingers clenching into a pained fist. However, before your eyes, you see the flesh knitting back together and the blood and gore being absorbed into the floor.

"Yeah that never gets any prettier." Cassandra says before the man stands up.

"No. Never does." The man agrees with her as he wipes some of the sweat from his forehead. Remarkably still composed.

"Anyway, we should do proper introductions. I'm Cassandra Turner. My special skill allows me to fire psychic blasts from my hands." She says as she holds out her right hand and fires a few blast at the ablative walls.

"I'm Vivian," Says the redhead who'd first pulled you over. "And I have the power of suggestion. When I suggest something, it's hard for anyone to turn me down," She says with a wink, which produces an eye roll you can almost feel from Cass.

>>2764818
"I'm Tristan. I can do this." The larger man says as he holds out his two hands. Suddenly two walls of glowing blue spring up in the air, and as he slams his hands together, they come together crashing. You can feel the wind from the collision blowing your hair back, and you nervously take a few steps back. You had almost convinced yourself that your earlier display of psychic power was a hoax, but seeing all of this leaves you a firm believer in the supernatural.

"And I'm Abigail," the girl with black hair who seemed to be here under the same circumstances as you says, not immediately displaying any power. "My ability is a little less flashy. My skin is super hard, when I want it to be. Let's see... who else. You already met Lester, he can generate fire. Then there's Jason," She says gesturing to an asian man who hadn't left his position at the range to come greet you. "He's got superhuman agility and reflexes. He's basically someone from an old martial arts movie." She says.

"You're drooling," You hear Cassandra whisper to Vivian, who is currently admiring Jason's well toned physique. Perhaps skintight uniforms weren't the best design choice.

"Then you've got Victor," She said gesturing to the Hispanic man who was stationed next to Jason. "Those two are best buds. Victor's ability is Telekinesis. I mean, we all have that to some degree, but his is another level. He can pluck bullets out of the air, and send them back twice as fast. Those two work incredibly well together, so if they wind up paired against you at some point be ready.

"Paired against me? Care to elaborate?"

"Oh right, you wouldn't know. So, there are a couple of rooms, really big ones that kinda dominate the floors central space. One is a holographic chamber, but that's not super important as psychic powers are disabled inside of there. The other is a sort of..."

"I'd call it an Arena," Cass says cutting Abigail off as she started searching for words.

>>2764820
"Well, sorta." Abigail says, "It's got changeable terrain, and lots of unique obstacles. I won't spoil too many as finding them out is half the fun, but yeah, sometimes we split off into two or three person teams chosen by the instructors. When we fight in there, the gloves really come off. I'm sure you'll see though... Now, let's see... Alice is the only one left right? Yeah, she's an enigma. The girl doesn't talk, doesn't use powers, and doesn't even pretend we exist. She's never lost in a one on one fight. Hell, she even beat Jason and Vic in a doubles match after they'd taken Tristan down like a chump." She says, and you catch the massive Tristan shrinking a bit in shame. "We're guessing she has some sort of super sensory power, the way she moves is surreal. But honestly nobody really knows, and we can't get her to open up so who knows if we'll ever really know unless someone manages to get their hands on her file." Abigail says as the doors begin opening up. You can smell the cigarette smoke clinging to the brown coat when he comes in, and says "Alright, get back to it everybody! The day's a wasting!"

You still have a lot of questions for the students, but they'll have to wait.

"Alright, I hope you had some time to think about what sort of weapon you wanna use." From behind him, a robotic steward enters the room, carrying with him a large sack of what you can only presume are weapons. As the robot begins emptying the bag, your suspicions are confirmed. Soon they are all neatly arrayed before you, and you have several options to choose from.

>A shotgun - These things seem to pack a punch

>A sniper - Distance is nice

>A Pistol - Already been trained on how to use pistols, why not go with what's familiar?

>An automatic rifle - Good distance, good fire rate, what's not to love?

>A submachine gun - Shit accuracy but if you wanna fill something up with lead this is the option for you

>A melee weapon of some sort

>Something Explosive - Making shit go boom is greater

>Is that a squirt gun?

>Other (write in)

>>2764823
Hope the info dump isn't too much. Jesus it feels weird to write dialogue after five episodes of Mass Quest.

>>2764823
>An automatic rifle - Good distance, good fire rate, what's not to love?

>>2764823
can we wait till our power manifests stronger before choosing or choose again later? if not

>Other (write in)
why not specialize in knives (atleast for now)
close up melee + ranged options if we carry alot of them

>>2764823
Squirt gun! Its probably a flame thrower or a vortex gun

>>2764823
An automatic rifle

Also, I’m kinda hoping once our powers manifest, we can channel them through our weapon. That way, even if we run out of ammo, we can still use our weapon.

>>2765039
Or it could be full of acid.

>>2765370
>>2764831
Automatic wins it, let's get 1d100 real quick.

>>2766172

Hopefully i did this right #NoWhammies

>>2766172
I failed maybe it will work now?

>>2766366

You type Dice+1d100 in the options field right?

I guess i dont know how to do it anymore...

>>2766368
the d has to be lowercase, but yeah. dice+1d100

Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>2766172

Rolled 51 (1d100)

>>2766172
Sorry I'm late, slept late

Rolled 88 (1d100)

>>2766172
Let's see how the not-a-blob side lives.

>>2766661
>>2766631
>>2766527
88, not bad for your first time holding an assault rifle. Writing soon.

>>2768149

The longer I run this quest, the more damage I do to the credibility of the word "soon" Anyway, here ya go.

Your eyes dart back and forth over the various weapons laid out. Finally resting on an assault rifle the likes of which you'd never seen before. Like most of these guns, it was white with a black zagged stripe on either side. You felt somewhat drawn to it. An assault rifle. Soldiers had been using them for centuries as their go to weapon. Ever since the technology to create them was recovered by the Royal Archaeology Foundation well before your time, they had been a hallmark in every major confrontation between the three great powers for as long as you can remember.

You pick it up, finding the weapon surprisingly light in your hand. You can easily hold it steady at arms length with a single hand. You inspect the gun further, finding the safety, as well as a small switch that appeared to change between semi-auto, burst fire, and full auto. On the opposite side of the gun from that switch you find another similar one that just seems color coded with the seven colors of the rainbow. Before you can fiddle with it though, your eyes are drawn to the magazine, which seemed unusually bulky at your first glance. Upon closer inspection though, you realize there are actually six different magazines all fitted into individual slots where one singular magazine would sit. You run your hands over the gun, getting a tactile sense of the weapon, before the agent in charge of the class interrupted your inspection.

"You gonna take it on a date too? Stop fondling your weapon and get over to the range trainee! Ain't no way to know a weapon like first hand experience!" You could practically hear the 'hoo-rah!' in your head as he spoke. Your brothers and father had been military when they'd been alive. You were used to that sense of bravado, and knew that you wouldn't earn any brownie points by giving any of the sarcastic responses your brain began to conjure up for you. Instead you stow the sarcasm, and just start trotting over to the range diligently. If you're stuck here for now, no point in making a fuss. You level the rifle with your shoulder, getting a look down the sights, which you find are digitized. The small glass lens that sits at the end of your barrel is lit up with a low green light, a singular dot in the center and flashing figures at the bottom which estimate distance and give you wind speed indicators. You'd never learned much about marksmanship when getting your fire arms training at the police academy, but you knew enough to know that these figures would be useful to you once you were more literate with the firearm.

>>2770312
You envision you father's old hunting rifle, and flip the left-hand switch over to semi-auto before sighting your target. When you squeeze the trigger, you're amazed by the strength of the kickback. The lightweight nature of the gun had left you unprepared for such a powerful recoil, but you manage to keep your grip, and to your surprise your shoulder remains firmly in its socket. You realize the butt of the gun is made of some sort of impact absorbing material, as half of the momentum of the kick is dispersed as the butt of the gun deforms like ballistic jelly for a moment, before snapping back to its original shape.

Your shot wasn't bad. it was only one circle out from the bulls eye. For a moment, your ears are ringing, however the sensation disappears as quickly as it comes upon you. Maybe if you can't get killed in this place, you also don't have to worry about stuff like hearing loss? It would definitely explain the total lack of safety equipment thus far at any rate.

You take a few more shots, trying to get a feel for how the gun will fire once the barrel is warm. However, you find that the bullets almost always land in the same spot, no matter how many times you fire. Curious. What kind of technology do these people use exactly? Guns like this could revolutionize warfare. You could finally put down those beasts on the eastern continent once and for all.

You sigh, and shake your head. Trying not to lose focus. You stop focusing on the tightness of your grouping, and instead focus on better accuracy. After a few more shots, you manage to hit the bulls eye directly, and send several more rounds down the chamber toward it. After you are satisfied with your singular shots, you switch to burst fire. Once again, you are surprised by the kick of the weapon. The three rounds it discharges slam into you. While your first shot is on point, your second lands several feet above that, and your third a couple of yards further up, embedded in the beige wall beyond the target. The cracks in the wall immediately begin knitting themselves closed before spitting out the discharged round and closing entirely.

"What the fuck is this place?" You mutter to yourself.

For the next twenty minutes, you spend time trying to keep the burst fire under control. By the end, you are at least getting all of the bullets to land on the target, though you still struggle to keep them close to the center. Beyond that, your arms are killing you. It seems whatever healing field exists in this facility doesn't extend to muscle fatigue.

>>2770315
"Oh well, time to go full auto I guess. This is gonna be a bitch." You mutter already dreading the arm wrenching force. As you flip the third switch, you suddenly realize that you've not had to reload a single time, despite the fact that you've fired easily over two hundred rounds so far. You again take a stunned moment to marvel at this technology. The question of "Who even are these guys" never far from your mind.

You finally bite the bullet, so to speak, and fire the first volley of full auto fire. You manage to keep the trigger squeezed for a full five seconds before you have to stop and rub your shoulder. You see the target, or what's left of it, tattered at the other end of the range. However, for every shot that landed on the target, another four or five were scattered in the wall around it. You definitely wouldn't be too accurate with this weapon until you develop your arm strength a little more.

"Alright that's enough recruits," Comes the gruff voice of the instructor over the intercom. "Time for a lunch break."

You hear an excited chattering from the trainees still on this side of the sound dampener, and quickly move to join them as they reassemble in the center of the room around the instructor, who quickly dismisses the lot of them. You are surprised to see that none of them stow their weapons. Instead, they're slung over their shoulders or holstered and the group trots off towards lunch. You and the quiet girl Alice are two of the last ones leaving the room when the instructor places a hand on your shoulder.

"Not you. You've got some remedial courses to watch. Food will be brought to you while we work on getting you caught up to the rest of them." At this point, the two of you are alone in there. "You did pretty decently on the range. Maybe you'll not be a total waste of space. For now though, report to room 504. Once you're there just take a seat, sit back and watch. I'll have one of the kitchen staff bring some food by within the half hour. Do you want beef, chicken, pork, or fish?" He asks, and you're surprised to find that he's softened slightly now that you aren't in front of all the other students. He's sounding less like a drill instructor, and more like a regular human being.

"Uhh.. I guess.."

>Beef

>Chicken

>Pork

>Fish

>Actually, do you have any vegan options?

>>2770320
>Beef

I like beef. Beef is tasty.

I wonder if this is going to have some sort of major reprecussion later on...

Also, QM! You forgot your name!

>>2770327
oh dammit I forgot my name again. This is what I get for looking at other quests. I'm just gonna start keeping the name on when I vote elsewhere so I don't keep doing that.

>>2770320
Where’s the beef?

>No name
Hey everybody! This guy’s a phony! That’s right, he’s a big fat phony!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQVoyWWluQ

>>2770320
>Beef
(i wonder how this choice will effect us)

>>2770327
>>2770579
>>2770889

beef it is then

>>2770889
My bet is that its all the same. Just a different ramen flavour packet thrown on it lol

>>2772627
"Beef, for sure." You say, remembering the pot roasts your mom would slow cook for you back when you still lived in Greater Agraria. Sometimes you still yearn for the good old days, but there are things you can never return to.

After telling him your preference, he nods, "It'll be delivered to room 502. You should find the room ready for you when you enter." before departing the room. Leaving you alone for a moment to collect your thoughts before leaving yourself. You sling the rifle over your shoulder before you wander down the hall. As you proceed, you notice subtle engravings just under the room numbers of each door. "Huh, odd that I didn't notice those earlier." You mutter to yourself seeing that the one under 512 read "Shooting Range" You proceed down the tunnel, passing the several rooms between you and room 502. The rooms that you pass are peculiarly named. First is martial training, the psychic training, followed by some more mundane rooms labeled math and history. Finally you come to 502, the video room. You enter and find a projector sending a beam of white light to illuminate the far wall. You pick a seat near the center of the room and as you do, the lights in the room begin to dim. You hear a sound that sounds like an old school film reel spinning up, before a black and white video is cast on the wall in front of you. It reads "UNNA" And underneath each of the letters are the words "United Norra Nanotechnics Agency" It pauses on this screen for about five seconds before fading to a grey version of Suburbia. You see the idyllic identical houses and healthy looking grey lawns. Your attention is drawn to the door where a crisp looking man in business attire is leaving his home, kissing his wife as he starts strolling toward his ancient looking car. Just before reaching the door he stops and looks directly at the camera.

"Oh, well hey there neighbor, I didn't notice you there for a moment." He says quickly turning to lean against the car. "Oh boy, I bet you've got all kinds of questions huh? Where to start. You might be surprised to be seeing this right now. For some of you, this may even be the first thing you see after waking up. Not to worry! Despite what you may think, we're the good guys! Don't believe me? Well maybe this will change your mind." He says as he waves his hand. As he waves his hand, the screen transitions away from him. The black and white video transitions into a poorly dressed movie set with a few men in long overcoats with terrible sci-fi style weapons.

"Egads! There's another of the beasts!" The lead shouts, hamming it up for the camera. Suddenly, a man in a fuzzy suit with poorly glued on teeth steps out of the obviously fake bushes.

"Uh Rrrrrrrr. I'm gonna eat people and disrupt social order!" The beastly man in the suit says holding his arms at length as he slowly starts approaching the trio of coated heroes."

>>2772941
"Not on my watch, foul fiend!" The lead says as he points his gun at the opponent. Suddenly, the screen shifts to a grey background as the letters BZZZZZZZZZZZZT scroll across the screen. When the camera falls once again on the trio of coated warriors, there is nothing but a pile of ash where the fuzzy 'monster' was standing moments again.

"Ahh. Another victory, for humanity!" the man says while holding up a thumbs up. As he does, the camera zooms in, focusing on his chiseled jaw.

"Golly captain UNNA! You sure showed that monster who's boss. He'll think twice before messing with humanity!" said the young male counterpart behind him.

"Or he would, if you hadn't atomized him with your UNNA issue fissure ray." The female supporting character said adjusting her glasses. You get the idea that she's supposed to be the 'smart' one. You feel slightly impressed. Progressive for the time frame being portrayed by the shitty camera style.

"I couldn't have done it without the two of you, and a bit of that good old Norra fire that burns in every Norranian heart!" He says, as the camera zooms back in again, a cheesy sparkle effect being added to his teeth.

Suddenly, you're back in suburbia. "Oh wow, that was a close one. If not for Captain UNNA, who knows what could have happened to humanity." The smug looking businessman says still leaning against his old school car. "Despite what you may think, there are all sorts of monsters in this world." He says, waving his hand again. "This world is dangerous," his voice continues as an info-graphic begins to pop up. "In the depths of the seas, in the deepest parts of the jungle, strange things dwell." Several cartoonish monsters scroll across the screen. From tentacled horrors to gargantuan beasts. "Now, I know you're thinking. 'What does this have to do with nanotechnics?' Well, I'm glad you asked. Y'see, UNNA started not as an agency in it's own right, but as a nanotechnics research group. When they perfected their technology, the old wise King Arius, ancestor to our current King EDMUND". The king's name comes in as a robotic sounding thing, cutting over the movement of the man's lips. "..saw the promise in the technology. He quickly had the department merge with the RPRU, or the now defunct Royal Psycic Response Unit. Gifted humans have always been rare. If you're lucky enough to be one, then your king and your nation salute your service. Which, is mandatory. We need every advantage we can get against the dark unknown."

>>2772943
At this point, the video pauses as the doors open up behind you. Light floods the room, and a heavenly scent fills your nostrils. A robotic servant, straight out of an early television future themed cartoon comes rolling into the room on it's unnecessary treads. It's 'hands' are little more than claws with flat ends. It deposits a platter on the desk in front of you and you're greeted with a beautiful looking beef cutlet. "ENJOY. ENJOY. ENJOY." It says, its eyes flashing yellow as it begins rolling backward out of the room, repeating the word until the doors close behind him. You find a knife and and fork for cutting into the luxurious meal. You find the breading to be perfectly applied, with little green flakes of some unrecognized herb that adds a whole new dimension to the flavor. The dipping cup has some sort of onions based sauce, which really ties the flavor together. You had been half expecting an MRE, and are pleasantly surprised by the gourmet dining experience you've been treated to. There are several cutlets, and as you begin chowing down, the video resumes.

"During your time here you'll be able to develop your skills. If you are a part of the R&D team, you'll be getting access to all sorts of information you could have never dreamed of in the civilian world. Your whole universe is about to expand! And, if you're a part of the Hunter program, you'll be given training to sharpen your mental and physical abilities far beyond what you may have thought possible for yourself. You'll also be given time to develop your psychic powers. If you're worried about the fighting you'll have to do, don't be! You see, thanks to the nanotechnics we've developed, you can undertake missions remotely. While this limits your ability to use your psychic abilities, the weaponry you'll be outfitted with and trained to use will be more than enough to see you through your missions. In the event that you fail, and your nanosleeve is destroyed, you will simply wake up at your local UNNA agency. You'll be able to review the footage from your first encounter, and this will be used to determine a better course of action against your foes. Enough about all that boring stuff though, let's get to the action!" As he says that, the screen begins spinning, and you find yourself once again viewing the trio of long coat wearing actors.

"Oh boy Captain UNNA! I can't wait to try out these new weapons HQ gave us!" The young male actor says with gusto.

"You betcha Dizzy!" The 'captain' says as he hefts up some sort of missile launcher. "Let's test this bad boy out!" He says before firing it toward the camera. A jagged edged bubble appears on screen that's made to look like an old action cartoon action bubble. Instead of reading "Pow" or "Kaboom!" or something to that effect though, the text reads simply "Advanced Weaponry"

>>2772947
The original speaker begins once more, as the video goes through several weapons, including the assault rifle you've got leaning against your desk. You learn a lot about the elemental settings and munitions UNNA takes advantage of. Your brain is starting to zone out when the video abruptly changes once again to the Suburbia scene.

"Alright killer, I think that's enough for one day. Once again, your country is indebted to your service. And remember, service is both mandatory and compulsory. A job with UNNA is a job for life! Your family will be informed of your unfortunate death and will recieve a sizable sum of money in recompense."

Well, they won't have to worry about that at least. You say, wondering if maybe you have some surviving distant relative who will receive a lump sum of money out of nowhere. You hope so, but can't honestly be bothered to think about it much.

The video just kinda goes dark at that point, with nothing further being said. The UNNA title card is displayed again, along with some triumphant trumpeting before the feed cuts out entirely. As the lights come up, a voice comes into the room through some intercom system.

"That's it for the day. Feel free to mingle with the other trainees, get some practice in, or just explore the compound. Just don't start any trouble." You recognize the voice as the instructor from the previous training room, but the voice cuts out without anything further. As you gather your things to leave the room, the voice comes back on again saying "Oh right, your room number is 516."

And like that, you're free to roam the facility. What do you want to do?

>Mingle with students

>Explore the compound

>Go back for some more shooting practice

>Check out the Martial Training room

>Check out the Psycic Training room

>Go to our room

>Other (write in)

>>2772956
>Psychic training room
Let's test this then, shall we.

>>2772956

Lets explore, see what is to be seen. Uncover stuff that isnt meant to be uncovered. Break into the armoury and play with all the guns???

>>2772956
>Psychic training room
Let's do this

>>2773396
>>2773167
Time to see how powers work, lemme get 1d100

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>2773731
Let’s do this.

Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>2773731

Rolled 6 (1d100)

>>2773731

Lets think real hard!

>>2774064
>>2774048
>>2774028
44/100, not bad, not great but not bad.

Will write up soon.

You leave the room, remembering your room number as you trek back up the hallway. You unsure of what to do with the 'freedom' you've been granted. You find yourself reading the engravings under the doors as you make your way toward the central hall that connects the two halls you've seen so far. You pause at the room labeled "Psychic Training" finding yourself curious. It was said that your powers should manifest over the next few days, but you can't help yourself. You go inside, and immediately find that you are not alone. In the far corner, sits the fair of hair and pale skinned girl Alice from the other room. Her eyes are closed, and she sits there in some sort of meditative pose. The way the other students talked about her, she seemed to be some sort of an enigma, but an elite enigma. If this is where she spends her free time, perhaps you're on to something.

"Hey there," You say with a friendly wave. She crack an annoyed eye, before closing it again and returning to her meditation. Right then. Silence. You think sighing and finding a spot of your own. You sit there for a time, trying to mimic her pose as she meditates. She however, is far more limber than you are, and you can't hold it for more than thirty seconds before having to change your posture, your lower back simply isn't equipped to continue that sort of pose. In the end, you settle in a pose that's much more comfortable, while still pushing the limits of your flexibility to a more manageable level. You sit there for a while, not really sure what it is she's doing, or what you're meant to be doing. In the end, you kind of focus on the sensation you had when you'd lifted the pen, and accidentally squirted it's inky contents all over the doctor. You're unsure if you're doing anything, that is, until you open your eyes and see the sand floating in a small circle around you. The brief moment of excitement you feel as you realize you're telekinetically effecting the sand causes the sand to fly out around the room, sandblasting the nearby walls and eliciting a very annoyed glare from Alice. To her credit, she had stopped each of the grains that had approached her before they could touch her, but she still seemed annoyed that her meditations were being interrupted.

Oh well. You really couldn't care less at this point. You had a lot of questions, and so far the answers you'd been supplied with had been. The only way you're going to figure any of this out for yourself is if you keep at it. You continue focusing on your meditation, each time you open your eyes, the sandy ring around you maintains stability for just a bit longer before your excitement inevitably gets the better of you and you feel the grains explode again. You manage to even start directing the explosions of sand after the fourth or fifth outburst, mostly just making it so the sandblasting avoids Alice. If she appreciates your efforts, she makes no show of it.

>>2775161

Still, the small modicum of control you feel now is infinitely better than some quiet angsty girl's approval. After a while, you start manipulating single grains of sand. It's much easier to do when you're not holding several all at once, and you manage to start psychically juggling a few at once.

You sit there for perhaps an hour, alternating between meditation, and telekinetic practice, but in the end you are no closer to determining what your 'specialty' is. You know telekinetics to be one of the basic powers you should have regardless of whatever becomes your specialty though, and you're glad to know that you can at least manipulate these forces somewhat competently. You are starting to get a headache from all the strain though, so you spend another fifteen or so minutes 'meditating' without attempting to exercise your psychic powers, which seems to help with the headache somewhat, before you decide it's time to go do something else.

You stand up, thinking about what you should do next.

>Mingle with students

>Explore the compound

>Go back for some more shooting practice

>Check out the Martial Training room

>Try to talk to Alice

>Force yourself to keep training your psychic powers

>Go to our room

>Other (write in)

>>2775165
>in the end you are no closer to determining what your 'specialty' is.
Anyone ever play The Darkness & The Darkness 2 games? I’m kinda hoping our specialty will let us manipulate the darkness, like you can in those games. Hell, I’d settle for just having those tentacles with the mouths on them, if that’s all we could do! Or honestly any kind of darkness manipulation.

>What do?
Let’s go check out the Martial Training Room. We don’t want to be the guy that relies only on his psychic powers and guns, but become completely useless in a hand to hand fight!

>>2775165
>>2775490
Yeah, martial training go!

Although we might want to mingle soon, we want to have actual people who like us and are willing to tell us things. Unlike Alice.

Hell yes, shadow tentacles! Lovecraft Mode incoming!

>>2775692
>>2775490
Although, it would suck to get hurt by light like Jackie...

>>2775693

Maybe we just dont have powers. This is looking to be a lot like Sky High right now.

>>2775165

Lets talk to alice, maybe she can help us handle our powers better and faster.

>>2775490
>>2775692
Looking like martial training wins it. A nice even way to round out the day. Will write up soon.

>>2775693
The light doesn’t really hurt Jackie, it just prevents him from using his darkness powers.

>>2775908
I have something tentatively in mind for your power. It's not that though. Don't worry though, it'll be pretty nifty.

>>2775914
You have passing understanding of how your psychic powers are supposed to work now, and you'd done some training with your gun on the range earlier, so now you figure it's time to get a little bit of a workout in. You proceed to the Martial training room, and inside you see a couple of students are already there. You spot Tristan, Jason, and Vivian inside. While Tristan and Jason seem to be hard at work fighting vigorously against their respective animate robotic opponents, Vivian's bot seems to be set to a far more simple setting, as it offers easily predictable jabs and punches which she dodges effortlessly. She seems to be oggling Jason and Tristan more than focusing on getting any actual training done herself. Her glance your way as you enter the room, and she puts on a show of pretending to focus on her training, unaware that you'd caught her gawking.

You push it out of your mind, trying not to think about the possibility that her eyes might be hungrily glued to you at some point. Instead of launching into your training outright though, you decide instead to watch Tristan and Jason at work. Jason is clearly the more accomplished fighter. His bot seems much more aggressive than Tristan's own. It's movements more fluid, and more akin to a martial arts master. Tristan kept up admirably, constantly dodging blows and deflecting punches, but after you watch for a while you see that he's desperately fighting to keep up. You realize he's not getting any counter attacks in, and you don't know how long he'll be able to last. After watching a while, you spot a green number on the bot's forehead that reads 85.

You're pretty confident you'll never be able to match his ability in hand to hand combat, thinking back to what the other students had said about him before. That his special power enhanced his physical agility. Was that why he was able to keep up with that level of fighting?

Tristan by comparison was fighting a slower bot. It didn't attack and counterattack with the same fervor that Jason's did, but it still proved to be too quick for the hulking fighter on several occasions. Often times a punch will slip through his guard, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by pink octagons of light. You recall Tristans earlier display as he slammed the walls of energy togther to create a resounding clash, and realized that this is what that power looked like on a much more localized scale. Each time he blocks one with his shield power, he lands a savage counterattack. If Jason is especially agile thanks to his power, Tristan must be specially strong thanks to his genetics. You've rarely seen a man so large. He looks more like a bear than a man, and the power he lands with each punch manages to deplete a health bar of sorts, you happen to notice in the robot's eyes. It's left eye is a full green circle, but the right is perhaps a fourth of a circle. At this rate it's only a matter of time before Tristan depletes his opponents health.

>>2775921
You observe for a while longer, but in the end you know that you'll only learn anything new if you go challenge one yourself. You choose one near Tristan, putting him in the center between you and Jason, while Vivian poorly masks her attempts to watch you from the other side of the room. As you step forward, the Robot's eyes light up, and it seems to come alive. Moving as if an idling human. Not fully still, yet not actively moving either. "Greeting human," it says with a far too human looking bow. "I am TU055. Please indicate you preferred training level."

As he says that, a small light grid appears in front of you. There are numbers ranging from one to one hundred. You steal a glance at Tristan's bot, and see that he's fighting on 45. You don't know if you can even manage to best that bot. You mull over your option for a short while.

What do you pick?

Just give me a write in from 1-100 and then let me get 1d100.

Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>2775923
Let’s start with 25. 25 seems good.

>>2775927
+1

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>2775923
a bit higher. the same as him at least. 45.

>>2775923
35. Decent start

>>2775923
Lets go all the way to 100. We'll never know if we don't try.

Rolled 60 (1d100)

>>2776621

>>2775927
>>2775975
starting at 25, a reasonable choice. Write up soon.

You crank the machine up to 25, deciding that seems like an appropriate level. You've got some training in hand to hand combat from the police academy, but those are mostly nonlethal holds and submission tactics. Still, this thing is a humanoid robot, so in theory some of your 'moves' could be effective. "Training mode 25 accepted." The machine says with a loud whirring as you watch it's body start spinning up. You start to get an idea of how the robot moves after watching this procedure. You notice that there are dozens of circular segments that make up it's body, they all seem to spin in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise direction before finally coming to settle in a solid frame, the joints you'd just observed the spinning in now invisible to the eye as it locks it's form. Whereas before it was a blocky training dummy, it now looks more humanoid, with a broad chest and smooth arms and legs. Its eyes light up, and you watch the two green circles in them fill one after the other.

"Ready...Fight!" it says as a small buzzing sounds. Immediately it throws a solid punch at you. Though you block it, it still stings your hand a bit. You dodge away from the follow up punch, trying to catch it's arm, but as you do so it's right hand smacks into your fingers. Pinching them badly between the two metal appendages. You withdraw, taking a few steps back and dodging a few more punches in the process, before nailing its torso with a heavy counter punch. You see the left eye's meter shrink by about an eight, but what's more, your hand is now throbbing. As it turns out, punching metal isn't exactly fun. You notice that the robot isn't really making very good use of his legs. Perhaps at this setting they mostly focus on upper body attacks? You test your theory by delivering a low kick to his knee joint as you dodge another punch. The kick lands well, and the bot is caught off balance. You use his stumble to deliver a powerful knee to it's face, which knocks the bot back, and leave him sprawling for just a split moment. However, it recovers before you can capitalize on it's fall, rising to it's knees and slamming you in the gut with an unexpected punch. You're sent reeling for a moment, but quickly realize the pain has subsided much more quickly than it ought to. You're reminded of the healing field, and are thankful that it's letting you keep your feet in this fight. However, after taking that blow, you see the green meter in it's right eye drop down about a fourth of the way.

Ah, so that's what the second meter is. You think, carefully avoiding the next several punches thrown your way. After about a minute of dodging and weaving, and just generally getting a feel for the robots attack patterns, you put together an effective counter routine. Your stamina is also surprisingly not waning as the fight continues, and you start to factor that into your plans as well.

>>2776941
You bide your time, and when the robot takes a quick jab at your face, you're ready to dodge it and counter, grabbing the arm and twisting it behind it's back. Once you've got it in that position, you kick the back of it's knee, forcing it to the ground. Your other hand slides under it's elbow as it falls, pushing the limb up and out, disallowing it from using it to steady it's fall as you drop it the rest of the way to the ground by burying a knee in its upper back. From this position it's sufficiently subdued, and you deliver punch after painful punch to the back of its head. After about six, solid THWACKS, you hear a soft dinging as the robot stands up, knocking you off of its back as if you'd not even been there. "Challenge level 25 complete. Congratulations >JACK KING<. Do you wish to proceed to a new difficulty level?" it asks as the light screen appears once more with the list of difficulties. Although, there is a slight difference now. Difficulty number 25 is gold, instead of the dull gunmetal grey the rest of the difficulties are highlighted with.

>Try another round without the use of any powers

>Watch the others train some more while you rest up

>Try another round, but try to incorporate your telekinetic abilities

>I'm getting pretty tired, maybe it's time to go sleep for the evening.

>Other (write in)

Rolled 12 (1d100)

>>2776944
Incorporate TK at level 25. Let’s try and get a better handle on our TK and how it interacts with the world.

Rolled 20 (1d100)

>>2776944
>>Try another round, but try to incorporate your telekinetic abilities
>>2776984
On 35 since we can easily handle 25.

>>2776944
>>2776999

supported. Lets up the difficulty

Rolled 14 (1d100)

>>2776944
do we have to roll again?

>>2776984
>>2776944
support

>>2776944
Support this one
>>2776999

>>2776999
>>2777086
>>2779540

3 for 35, will write up soon.

>>2780004
You're feeling pretty confident after that fight, and after having seen Tristan using his powers in conjunction with his fighting style, you decide to do the same. You'd been practicing them a bit, and want to see just how they work in a real setting. Since you already know how to beat the 25 setting, you go ahead and crank it up to 35. Once again the robot does the spin up procedure, but this time it's barely finished before it launches into a relentless attack. You are still in the process of throwing up your stance when the first blow lands on your jaw, knocking you off of your feet all at once. You scrabble to your feet only to find a knee connecting with your gut. With one hand you instinctively clutch at your gut. The damned bot had landed his blow straight in your solar plexus. With the other you attempt to push the bot backward with your telekinetic abilities.

Despite your lack of concentration, or perhaps because of it, the psychic energy you pour out is pretty impressive. You're reminded of when you'd accidentally crushed the doctor's pen, as the robot is slammed into the back wall by your kinetic force. You are granted a small reprieve, and manage to get your wind back, as the bot remains motionless for a moment. Suddenly, the green circles surrounding its eyes flash red.

"Unauthorized offensive ability used, entering psybreaker mode."

"Wh-What? But he-" You start to say, as a sudden gripping pain shoots through your body. The pain comes to a head near the back of your skull. Suddenly red agony overtakes your vision. As your vision starts to clear up, the red glow of the bots eyes is gone, and you find yourself with an aggressive bot quickly closing the distance between the two of you. You try again to use your powers, but nothing happens, and desperately you fling yourself at the bot hoping to take it unaware. You were rewarded for your efforts by a solid punch to the jaw. Reeling, you tried to change up your game. You quickly begin to realize that the tactics you used against the level 25 bot were just not up to snuff against this one. It's punches are too quick for you to execute a proper hold, and it's movements too unpredictable for you to analyze and adapt. Each time you change your approach, it does as well. You see the green bar indicating your 'life' has already dropped down into the red, while the bot's life bar is still firmly in the green. With maybe one-twentieth of the bar being consumed.

>>2784717
You start trying to focus on dodging, and for a while you are somewhat successful, but just as you're starting to get a feel for it's routine, it changes it up, apparently having lulled you into complacency for that exact reason. Your world briefly goes black as you catch a powerful right hook. When light returns to your world, you're greeted with a laughing Vivian looking down on you. "Oh man, you should have seen yourself go flying after that last punch." She said taking a few steps back as you start to find your feet. Tristan too has come to check up on you, apparently finished with his fighting. "You shouldn't push yourself too much." he said as he walked towards the door. "These things run on logarithmic scale, not a linear one. If you find a good challenge number, go up one by one from there. Don't skip ahead unless you find your previous difficulty too easy."

"It sure would have been nice to know that going into the fight." You say rubbing your jaw, despite the fact that the pain has already faded and you feel practically as good as new. Except for a dull aching in the back of your skull.

"Oh right, and don't use your powers against them offensively. It's okay for defensive use, and if you use them subtly, like to turn their punches at the last second, that's usually pretty okay too," Vivian said, surprisingly informative for her.

"Is that why my powers didn't work after that robot did that... thing?" You ask, and she nodded.

"Mhmm! You should get them back after half an hour or so," She said thinking for a moment, before asking "Hey, what are your powers anyway? You didn't say anything about them when we were giving introductions earlier." She asked.

"Well, I guess I don't really know yet." She said, which drew a surprised glance from the two of them. Even Jason seemed to give pause at that, earning himself a punch in his kidney for his trouble before refocusing on his fight.

"You don't? I thought everybody's powers were evident immediately. Weren't yours?" She asks Tristan, who nods.

"Yeah, they took a few samples and ran them through their test equipment. It told me what my powers were immediately."

"Yeah, me too..." Vivian said curiously. "I've never heard of something like that before."

"But the doctor said this was pretty common." You say, suddenly unsure of that statement. It's not like they were obligated to tell you the truth afterall.

"So that means that they either don't know what your power is from their testing..." Tristan begins.

"Or they're lying to you about not knowing," Vivian finishes. Suddenly you feel much more on the spot. Why would they lie to you? What possible reason could they have? And if they weren't lying, if they just didn't know, what could that mean?

>>2784721
"I think it's time for bed." Tristan says, seeing the complex emotions on your face. "It's late, and we start early in the morning around here. You'll wanna be well rested if you're going to perform well tomorrow. We'll be doing mock battles in the morning, and based on your training here..." he said looking at the robot that had bested you. "Well, I hope you're good with that rifle of yours."

You sigh. You were still getting used to it. You were likely in for a rough morning if Jason and Tristan were any indication of what sort of fighter you'd be up against. Tristan had easily beaten his level 45 opponent, while Jason was holding his own even now against his level 65 opponent.

"Y'know, not a bad idea. Bed sounds good right now. I still need time to digest all of this insanity."

"Which room are you in?" Vivian asks as the three of you leave the dojo-esque room.

"Uhh, 516," you say shrugging.

"Ooooh Tristan you finally got a roomie!" She says with a giggle. He doesn't seem bothered. "I guess my personal room couldn't last forever. Oh well," he said walking with you toward the room.

As you enter the 'room', you feel more like you're stuck in a closet. It's impossibly cramped. There are two valved hatches on the wall, a rifle rack which you both stow your respective weapons on. There are also a few desks, and a door that'd been left ajar, revealing a bathroom.

"Uhh.. where are the beds?" You ask, and he points at the wall hatches. "Right there. I hope you're not claustrophobic. They're actually pretty comfy. Temperature controlled too so you don't get too hot or cold."

"Great." You say unenthusiastically. He opens his up, his massive frame just barely squeezing into the bed. He goes in feet first and says "I'm not much of a talker. Goodnight." And with that, he's sealed away with a soft hiss of air.

"Well, I guess I could have been stuck with the hyperactive kid. I suppose this isn't too bad." You say, trying to convince yourself. Instead of going straight to bed, you check out the bathroom, and decide to get a quick shower in. You find a laundry hamper with dozens of the brown and black skin tight suits in it, and deposit your own.

As the warm waters run over your skin, you try to digest all that had happened in the day. Your thoughts are consumed by strange turn your life had taken even after you seal yourself away in your little pod. You spend hours trying to fall asleep. Even when you do feel yourself descending into blackness.

However, blackness doesn't come, not fully. You find yourself eventually sitting up in frustration, only to be greeted by a strange sight. Your body lays motionless underneath of you. Staring around, you see lots of blue glowing masses, the nearest one just a few feet from you. It appears to be much larger than the others, and you belated realize you're looking at Tristan.

>>2784729
"W-What? What's going on?" You say looking around. You notice several other masses like him, all blue, save for one pink mass. They all appear distant, but your vision is obscured by the walls of the pod.

"What on earth is this?" You say as you try to open the pod doors, only for your hand to phase through harmlessly. When you start moving, the pink mass of energy begins moving toward you. It's an almost casual pace.

What do you do?


>Stay here, see what's going on.

>Run! Who knows what the fuck is happening. This is so weird.

>Lay back down 'in your body' try to sleep normally

>Other (write in)

>>2784732
>Stay here, see what's going on.

>Other (write in)
try to communicate with the pink masses

>>2784732
>>Stay here, see what's going on.
>other
Communicate with all the masses, jrpg time!

also hey QM why upload so late when most people in america are asleep?

>>2785221
because my work schedule is stupid, and I update super slowly anyway so there's usually quite a while for people to come in and have their vote before I call the voting.

I'm going into my third consecutive 6 day week at work, which has really killed the energy I have for writing.

That said, just because I've been slow to post lately doesn't mean I've been idle. Been fleshing out the world in subtle ways that you guys probably won't see right away. Will try to post more reliably going forward, but I'm a pretty flighty person on the best of days so please bear with me.

>>2785231
You've told us about your work scheduled and I understand that, but you shouldn't push yourself man. I've been he since the start and really like where we as the players, for better or for worst have done and what you've done with the choices that we have selected.

If your too tired take a break, or go to sleep. I'll still be here waiting for this quest, and hopefully others have the same passion for this quest.

Also this perspective of this quest is really good for world building, which you've done alot. Keep up the good work sir.

>>2784732
Stay here and see what’s going on.

>pink mass of energy.
I’m going to guess that’s probably going to end up being Alice.

>>2784732
Move towards the pink mass. Mentally Constructing the concept of moving forwards should do it.

>>2786369
>>2785246
>>2785221
>>2784758

Looks wait here and see what happens wins out. Will write up now.

>>2786521
You elect to stay there and wait for the pink glowing mass to reach you. Whatever might be happening, whoever that might be, you wouldn't get any answers running away. So, you stand your ground, and when the mass of light reaches your small room, you're not alltogether unsurprised to see Alice staring at you. Her eyes are still harsh, but they're more wild than you'd seen them before.

"You shouldn't be here. Did they send you to contact me? No... That can't be right." She starts muttering to herself.

"Hey." You say, snapping her out of whatever fervor she had entered. "I'm as lost as you are here. What's going on here? Am I... what's the word, astral projecting?" You ask scratching your head.

"No... Look, don't tell anybody you can do this. You could ruin everything." She says biting her nonexistant nails.

"I don't want to ruin anything, but I need some answers."

"No, just... here. Hold still." She says, moving closer.

"Ah!" You say, moving backward in equal measure. "Not so fast. Tell me what you're doing first." She looked annoyed, but her voice was urgent as she said.

"I'm helping you dumbass. Look down."

You do so, and you see that your form is glowing a vibrant, brilliant pink. Far more brilliant than the energy coming from her. In the moment that you look down, she presses her hands into your temples. Before you can resist, you feel information flowing into your mind. Something about your power is different. A free knowledge fills you, and you find yourself glowing brighter, until all at once the information clicks in your mind, as she pulls her hands away you feel the ability to make small changes to your aura awaken inside of you.

"Wh-What did you do?" You ask, but she hisses, "Quickly, dim the pink, or make it blue, or something. Just don't keep standing here like a lit beacon someone will notice!" She urges you, and not seeing the harm in it, you comply.

Once your aura is dim, like hers, she looks slightly more at ease.

"Okay. I'm sure they suspect what you are. That said, they won't act unless they're certain."

"Wait wait, slow the fuck down." You say, catching her a bit off guard. "Can you please tell me what the hell you mean? What this is all about?"

>>2786639
"Right... Right." She says, looking nervous, but sighing. "Listen, I need you to promise that if I fill you in on what you are, what you can do, that you won't stand in my way. I don't get the impression that you're particularly attached to UNNA. If you are though, it's even more important that they not find out about you. Okay... so, I'm gonna throw out some terms you probably won't understand at first. Please give me the time to explain what's going on first. You are what we call an Esper. Who 'we' are is unimportant right now, but we're all espers. You're basically the same as any run of the mill psychic, but you don't have a readily apparent specialty. Your regular psychic abilities are enhanced somewhat, but not enough to be considered a specialty. UNNA calls us something different though. They call us mind eaters. It's not a particularly awful description of how our powers work, but it does make us sound like monsters, so we prefer to go with our word. When an esper does what we're doing right now, we're capable of allowing the free flow of information from one being to the other. If you were to, for instance, go spend a bit of time with your hands in Tristan's head right there, you'd probably get a pretty good idea of how his shielding works. However, as you draw on those memories in his brain, the connections will begin to overload, and there will be damage in that aspect of his psyche. He'll find it hard to perform at the same level as before, but he'll eventually retrain himself. We are in many regards, a psychics worst enemy. Even if they were awake, there is no promise that they can detect us if they haven't trained in some very specific disciplines. Now, look up." She says, and guides your vision upward. You don't see much at first, but slowly as you start to focus, small lights begin to come in and out of view, depending on where your vision is trained.

"It probably looks pretty nebulous right now, but we're on floor five. The people on this floor are pretty easy to see, but there are layers of shielding between layers to make psychic communication and powers less effective. You have to really concentrate to see the other hunters above us. Hold on... look there." She says, gesturing to some place above her. "About three floors up, concentrate on that spot,and imagine roughly that distance.

>>2786641
You do so for a while, and as you focus, eventually a green lighted aura is visible to you. "The type of person who can sense your presence in this form carry with them a natural coloration that allows us to see them as well. We call those Hyper Hunters. Pretty much the only people who get to that level are insanely high ranking in UNNA. Their minds are guarded. Don't try to siphon off their powers unless you get to nearly the same level yourself. In fact, don't try to siphon off anyone's powers. You have to be really delicate when you do, and you don't know anything yet." She seemed really stressed, and in that moment, you make up your mind.

>Whatever she's doing, I don't want any part in it. She can have her weird conspiracy, I'll take my cool power and run with it. I'll just pretend this never happened and let her do her own thing.

>I want to help her. Whatever she's up to, she's going against UNNA, and I've got no reason to love these guys.

>I'll play along for now, but in the morning I'll turn her over to UNNA. I'm sure there will be some reward for handing in the spy.

>Other (Write in)

>>2786644
>Other
I need a teacher, and she's willing to give me information... She's just like me, and I don't think the UNNA will spare me when they find out I'm an esper.

>>2786644
>I want to help her. Whatever she's up to, she's going against UNNA, and I've got no reason to love these guys.

>>2786711
support

>>2786644
We should stick around her. Also if once we get trained in esp-ing we should steal just a little of everyone's power so we can be like the avatar! But also for the most part support what >>2786711 has to say

>>2787277
>>2786725
>>2786711

Looks like we're gonna ask for some mentoring then. Will write up either soon, or after my short work shift tomorrow. Will start it now though.

>>2786644
Ask her if this is going to happen every time you try to sleep? Because this is going to get really annoying really fast and you’re gonna end up sleep deprived.

"Look." You say, not really sure how to approach the girl who'd been nothing but a distant silent bitch up until the moment where you'd met in this weird dreaming state. "I don't know what you're up to, I don't know what's going on, but honestly, I've got no love for UNNA."

She seems relieved to hear you admit that, even if she had already suspected that to be the case. Before she can talk again though, you continue.

"I don't know anything about this place. I don't know about you, or your weird secret organization. I don't know about UNNA, and their weird secret organization. I don't even know about myself. I have powers? I have unique, rare powers? What the fuck did I ever do to paint this target on my back?" You ask, leaning against the wall behind you. The fact that your an ethereal being at the moment is not lost on you, but you find sturdiness behind you where you'd expect to, even if it doesn't make plain sense to you.

"Look. I only ever wanted to help people. I was a police officer to help people, and now I'm here, and can help people again. It's obvious that UNNA doesn't just care about helping people, and to be frank I have no clue what your angle in all this is. Still, I feel more compelled to trust you than the weird organization that's kidnapped me, so let's just start fresh. Help me figure this out, and I can help you back."

"This wasn't the plan though." She said confused, her stress turning into apprehension now that she knows you can be at least a little bit trusted.

"Plans rarely survive contact with enemy." You say, borrowing a phrase from your more military minded family. "Sometimes you gotta adapt to the situation. This is me attempting to adapt to this fucked up situation. You should try it."

"O-Okay... Look, you make a good point. None of this was supposed to happen, but if I left you to your own devices you'd probably get caught and wind up bringing me down with you. Alright. Listen..." She said, before pausing for a long time, trying to get her own thoughts in order about how to proceed.

"I want you to start by closing your eyes and holding your hands out."

You do so, and after holding your hands at arm's length from your body, you feel her presence draw nearer to you.

A moment later, you can feel her guide your hand to her face. Your index fingers touching either temple. "Don't do anything yet, just watch." She says, and you do so. Slowly, you start to feel a nebulous presence beyond the tips of your fingers. As you stay there doing nothing, it starts to come into clearer view. You start to pay attention to the individual motes of glowing white light in the nebulous mass of energy you can sense. You see a smaller version of Alice with a tall gruff man, before the white light of the memory is immediately enshrouded in a pink that you cannot see through.

>>2790571
"I told you not to do anything! Just sit there and relax. Pretend your meditating." She says, and you can't help but feel that the girl is embarrassed by something.

So you try again. Trying not to focus on the motes of light, but typically failing to stop your mind from wandering. After six iterations of this, you finally manage to go a full five minutes without earning an elbow to the ribs or a harsh reprimand from the girl instructing you. "Okay... You seem to be getting the hang of it. If you try to invade someone's memories like that, they'll feel it. They may not recognize it at first, but experienced psychics will know what's happening. It's very important to just allow yourself to hook in without disturbing the balance of their mind. Once you're in there, you can do all sorts of stuff. You can add things to memories, you can take things away from them, you can even seal them away entirely." She says, as the nebulous energy of white continues to rotate around a common obscure center. You start to see motes of blue light mixed in with the white, and before you can ask about them she begins to explain.

"Differently colored nodes have significance. In this case, the blue nodes you are seeing come from our classmates. Here." She says as one of them proceeds to the forefront of her mind. "I don't get much use out of this one, and I've internalized enough of it that if I pass it over to you I should still be able to make use of it. This one is from Cassandra. When you wake up in the morning, you should be able to produce weak energy blasts just like her."

"What do you me-" You start, but feel the energy and knowledge of the stolen memory fragment being immediately processed by your mind as she forces the mote into you. Your psychic powers are a lot more flexible than you'd realized. You imagine the way you were moving sand earlier, and the motion of that energy. You then imagine that energy being condensed down to a singularity, and even as you do you can feel the act of condensing energy being developed into a sort of muscle memory like reaction. You try to do so from where you are, but nothing happens. She laughs slightly at your attempt to manipulate your psychic energy in your astral form, before saying "Nah, that doesn't work. Or at least I've never met anyone who can produce psychic force while in this state."

"In this state? Oh, I guess I should ask, is this going to happen every time I sleep? How does my mind get the rest it needs if I'm gallivanting about in the spirit realm." You say feeling a little ill at ease.

>>2790575
"Well, sorta. For the rest of your life, you'll be at least partially aware of your surroundings while you sleep. Your brain follows the same physiological processes it always does when sleeping to clean itself out. This exerts about as much strain on your brain as dreaming does. So yeah, it kinda sucks, but you're still sleeping normally from any outside perspective. If someone were to come wake you up right now, your... let's call it projection, would just be sucked back into your body as you wake up normally. If you get good enough at the discipline, you can eventually project while you're awake. That takes a lot of focus though, and you'll pretty much have to do it while you meditate otherwise people will start to wonder about the distant look in your eyes each time you focus elsewhere." She said with a soft, short lived laugh that dies in her throat almost immediately.

"You can use your new power tomorrow if you want, but I'd strongly caution against picking up more powers to use while you're still in training. Properly trained UNNA agents can pick up a few different disciplines naturally, but it's incredibly rare for recruits to do so." She said as she began to move away again. "Just... try to do your best without drawing too much attention okay? I've got stuff to do tonight. If you lay back down in your body, you should feel time pass you by a little quicker until you wake up in the morning. Hell, just pretend your meditating. It'll be good for you." She says as she starts to drift upward.

Before long, she's gone, and you are left alone in your room. How do you spend the rest of the evening?

>Explore! There are other floors to check out, let's see what there is around here. (Up or down?)

>Muck around in some brains - maybe check out some of the sleeping students thoughts. They hardly qualify as 'experienced psychics' right?

>Follow her about some more, try to be sneaky about it to see what she does at night

>Just 'go to sleep' and wait for the morning.

>Other (write in)

>>2790577
>Just 'go to sleep' and wait for the morning.

no point in fucking around and getting in trouble for it

>>2790577
Just ‘go to sleep’.

You’re too inexperienced to make any sort of attempt at anything right now. Maybe later when you get better at it you can go do stuff.

>>2790577
>other
We should meditate and get used to being in this form and our current capabilities without making too much noise. Like changing our color and brightness and stuff

>>2790577
>>2791002
support

>>2790577
>>Just 'go to sleep' and wait for the morning.

>>2791002
+1

Looks like we still have a tie.. Even so I think that's a good spot to leave for this quest. I think I'll try hosting the next one on that fiction.live website that was recommended to me. Gonna go ahead and drop the discord one more time in case you guys aren't on it yet.

https://discord.gg/bKVhZF8

If it doesn't work out I can always come back to running on 4chan again, but it does seem like a way better built medium for it. I'll be running under the name EmergentQM over there so look for me.

>>2793638
Please do post the link here, lad!

>>2794031
https://fiction.live/user/emergentqm

that's the profile I made over there. Haven't really done anything with it yet, but am preparing the thread to be started sometime around when I get off of work tonight hopefully.