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Gen

Fandoms:

Parahumans Series - Wildbow나 혼자만 레벨업 | Solo Leveling (Webcomic)

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Greg Veder/Other(s)Greg Veder & Sparky (Parahumans)Aisha Laborn | Imp & Brian Laborn | GrueGreg Veder & Aisha Laborn | Imp

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The System (Solo Leveling)Alternate Universe - Canon DivergenceCanon-Typical ViolenceButcher Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverGamer Greg VederClonesClone banterClone BrotherhoodParahumans Online

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English

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Fanfics I Wish Were Canon 3000

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Published:2025-05-14Updated:2026-02-14Words:90,632Chapters:15/?Comments:131Kudos:193Bookmarks:117Hits:12,741

Ready Player Greg

KingVessel

Summary:

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

No matter what happened, these words would forever direct Greg Veder's path, for better or for worse. But considering his new powers, it's still undecided whether that it's a good or bad thing how easily he adapted to having a 'game' literally redefine his reality. (Worm/Solo Leveling AU)

Notes:

Inspired by Inheritance by FirstSelector, Pendragoon

Inspired by Numerous Problems by Stress_Test_Anon

Chapter 1: Awakening 1.1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I, Greg Veder, was a loser.

I was awkward, clumsy and immature. I had no social skills, effortlessly annoying others as easily as I breathed. I tried, I really did make a sincere effort to interact with others, to follow all the invisible rules that everyone else seemed to know.

And that especially showed with my interactions with Taylor Hebert, especially my most recent one.

"Yes Greg, it is laundry day. Of course, I had to finish it last night to make sure things matched. You'll notice there's no glue or juice on this hoodie... Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

Taylor Hebert had come to school... in Teeth colors. I'd tried to play it off as a joke with some of their members nearby, only for her words to hit me like a metaphorical gut punch. Throughout the rest of that dreadful day, I had tried to recover from my self-esteem being irrevocably shattered to pieces.

Barely retaining enough of my senses to get through the rest of the day, I tried to recover from the feeling of being so useless.

I'd wanted to help Taylor? Bullshit, the Locker Incident had happened!

I would've intervened if he had the chance? I was a total computer whiz, and could've plastered video proof of the Trio's abuse online within minutes!

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

It was just as Taylor said. I wasn't just a loser.

I was a coward.

And perhaps it was karma that this had happened after trying to go home and cry myself to sleep.

"What's it gonna be, bowlcut?!" The E88 thug hollered as he kept a tight grip around my neck from behind, trying not to shiver more than I already was from the frost creeping out from his grip. "You gonna pussy out like some little race traitor bitch?!"

And as bad as it was for me, it was definitely worse for the black girl being held between two other E88 thugs, her mouth gagged while her eyes stared in naked terror. The knife that had been shoved into my hand definitely added to that, me avoiding her eyes to focus on the purple streak in her hair as a distraction to calm myself down.

It wasn't working.

"Look, are you sure we can't just go straight to Kaiser?" One of the guys holding the girl spoke up. "We already exchanged a small fortune for those vials and got instant superpowers without any of that trigger baggage. Do we really need the extra bit?"

"Yeah. This pussy can't even stab a little nigga bitch." The other thug scoffed. "I say we just off them both and get going before nightfall."

"Are you shitting me?! We've only got one chance to really impress Kaiser and get good spots at the high leagues!" I tried not to let my grunt be too loud when the cape with obvious ice powers jostled his grip a little. "The Empire ain't like those ABB losers, who've only got some Baku-something bitch now after Butcher was done with them. If we wanna stand out, we've gotta go for maximum effor-!"

Before I could make myself hesitate, I stabbed the blade in my hand up into the guy's throat.

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

For two painstakingly long seconds, the girl and the other E88 members stared as my captor released my neck and futilely reached for the knife in his throat. This granted me enough time to temporarily kick aside my utter terror and disbelief at deliberately killing somebody before smashing my fist into the nose of the one who had the tighter grip on the girl.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten one crucial fact: I was weak as you'd expect an average computer geek to be.

"You... fucking race traitor!" The thug snarled through his bleeding nose before he swung his palm towards me, causing something loud and bright to explode in my face and knock me into the wall at the other side of the alleyway we were in.

"GAAAAAAH!" I cried as I clutched my burned face, which of course made the pain even worse.

"That fuck!" Somebody screamed. "Gary's bleeding out!"

"Call Othala or something!" Another voice shouted back before I felt myself hauled up. "I'll break this fucker!"

I choked when a fist slammed into my own nose, definitely breaking it as fresh pain exploded anew. Still, I weakly clawed at my assailant, hoping beyond hope that their original victim had run away by now. I wasn't going to let another innocent person suffer again. Not on my watch.

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

Never again.

[Trajectory]

[Alignment]

[Agree- ARISE]

"No. That one's... an important experiment."

I suddenly lost my footing a second later when there was a sudden change in our surroundings. Crawling away from the shocked thug after he dropped me, I also looked around to regard our new location. Rather than the dinky alleyway, all five of us, including the very shocked black girl, were now in a massive and circular chamber with mysterious blue flames lighting the area through torches circling the upper walls, along with two pillars by what looked like the entrance/exit with larger blue flames searing at the top within braziers.

Additionally, there were many gigantic statues standing against the wall, most of them resembling knights. Sure they had moss covering plenty of their bodies, but that just added authenticity to their looks. Especially with the giant stone throne holding the biggest statue of them all. It faintly resembled a king or priest, as its design included a crown and robes, and its presence made me shiver just by looking at it, especially with how I could almost imagine it looking at me.

Was this some kind of dungeon boss room?

"Oi!" The thug that had been strangling him suddenly shouted, looking around wildly for clues. "Where the fuck are we at?!"

"Forget that! I haven't been able to teleport ever since we got in here! We gotta leave, NOW!" The other E88 thug shot back with his bleeding out friend hoisted onto his back. "Look, there're the doors right there! Fuck these two and let's just go!"

Completely ignoring me as well as the girl who was apparently brought along too, the thugs rushed towards the door with one of them waving his hand to cause an explosion that briefly deafened me.

However, no visible damage was left on the doors after the smoke managed to clear, not even scorch marks.

"The doors are cape-proof...?" The girl muttered in confused terror, both her and I flinching when we saw something else begin to move. One of the giant statues right at the doors swung it's mace-like lance faster than I could see, and suddenly there was so much blood- "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

"C-Come here!" I managed to scream as the statue slowly returned to its prior position, completely unbothered by the blood splattered allover it now. "Away from the statues!"

The girl staggered to her feet and rushed towards me, none of the other statues thankfully reacting to her until she came to an unsteady stop beside me. "Wh-What do we do?"

I didn't know what to do! All I got was the statues were bad news- Wait!

My stare turned back to regard the biggest statue of them all and gut twisted at the fact that it was looking back at me with it's eyes starting to glow-

"Get down!" Instinct had me force both the girl and myself down to our stomach, a rush of something hot and bright engulfing the space our upper halves had been a second ago. We both stayed as still as we could manage, with me slowly raising my head just to see the last wisp of smoke escaping from the statue's eyes before their glow faded. Behind us, the eye laser attack had gouged a molten trench across a good chunk of the ground.

"I-If y-you d-didn't see th-that coming..." The girl began to shudder heavily, tears dripping down her cheeks as she began to cry quietly. I didn't blame her in the slightest. This had to be a dream, some sort of nightmare that I was stuck in.

After all, what else could one call the casual slaughter of three capes, even if one of them had already been injured by me. And it didn't help that any potential rescue was unlikely to show up in any way.

Just look at Winslow.

I'd never wanted to cower in my entire life as much as I did now.

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

But forget dying, would I be able to face Taylor again, if I did nothing again?

Think, Greg, think! Every scenario had its 'rules'! The statues had attacked the E88 thugs for attempting to leave or attacking the doors, but not me and the girl. The big statue had shot freakin' eye lasers at us, but hadn't attempted to correct its aim or shoot again to hit us... this time...

My stare shot towards the statue again, confirming that it wasn't making any indication to attack us again. But when I moved to get up, the statue's eyes lighting back up had me dropping back down immediately and gasping when they faded away. "It won't fire... if I stay 'down...? So there were 'rules' to follow..."

"R-Rules?" The girl whispered next to me. "L-Like that over there?"

Following her pointed finger (after checking if the statue would laser her for that), I saw what she meant when my gaze landed on the only standing statue had neither a weapon or a musical instrument. It instead had angelic wings and a large hood obscuring whatever face it could have along with a large stone tablet with writing on it.

Taking a wary crawl towards it, both of us inched closer and closer until we could both read the writing clearly. "C-Carthenon Temple's Commandments. First, worship the Lord. Second, praise the Lord. Third, prove your piety."

Wait, these... Was this all created by some religion-themed cape? "Those who do not follow these commandments..."

"...will never return alive." The girl weakly finished what I couldn't. "Wh-What does that all mean?"

"They're win conditions." I realized. "I don't know how exactly, but we've been somehow obeying them. Those guys tried to leave without clearing them and..."

And they'd died. However, this in turn meant that there was a chance for me and the girl to escape with our lives... as long as we followed the commandments. "Trying to leave gets a statue to swing at you... And getting up has the big statue lasering you..."

No... not getting up. Failing to worship the 'Lord'. A.k.a. the sole statue with both a throne and the closest thing to a crown. "That's the 'Lord'... Follow me, um..."

"...Aisha." The girl provided.

"Greg." I replied before leading the crawl back towards the center of the room, already having an idea of what to do once we were both before the Lord directly. How exactly would one 'worship' a 'Lord'?

Well, considering that it's laser attack could be considered a 'punishment' for holding one's head too high...

"First, worship the 'Lord'..." I took a deep breath and did the opposite of holding my head high.

I fully bowed down, to the point of pressing my sweaty forehead against the stone floor. A second later, I could hear Aisha uncertainly copying me. A few seconds of absolute discomfort passed before the sound of grinding stone reached my ears. Risking a glance at the statue, I choked at the expression on its face, having switched from complete indifference to a wide grin of sadistic cruelty.

"That sick fuck's enjoying this..." Aisha muttered.

"Yeah... but it's not attacking." I replied as I remembered the next win condition. "Second, praise the Lord... Are we supposed to sing hymns to it or something?"

A much louder rumble resounded through the chamber as the Lord got up from its throne, the ground trembling as it took a quaking step towards us after standing up to it's colossal height.

Along with it's glowing eyes, it's sheer size reminded me of-

-BIG-

-molten rock skin-

-glowing singular eye-

-NO, STOP REMEMBERING THAT!

"G-Greg, it's moving towards us!" Aisha grabbed my arm with justified panic, snapping me out of it. "What do we do?!"

I looked around desperately for a clue, but all around us were just the other statues. Considering what happened to the E88 thugs, neither of us had any extra lives to spare at the risk of moving towards them for cover, especially with their weapons and instruments...

Instruments...?

What would a attacking statue do with an instrument instead of a weapon? Heading towards them was a huge risk... but waiting for the Lord to reach them was certain death.

"The statues with instruments!" I gasped as I ran towards the closest one, this one being an unarmored woman in a robe while carrying a large violin. It thankfully didn't do anything to us after we reached it, but also didn't seem to beckon to stop the Lord's rumbling approach.

"Wh-Why isn't it doing anything?!" Aisha screamed.

"...because there's two of us." I realized before pulling my arm free from her grasp and taking some steps back. Almost immediately, the statue's eyes glowed as a soft melody emanated from the stone musical instrument. "It's one statue per person! I'll go for another one!"

Unfortunately, there were two knight statues between me and the next 'praising' statue, meaning that he'd have to run out of their range and risk getting into the Lord's. An uncomfortably close rumble reminded me of my lowering time.

"GODDAAAAAMNIIIIIIT!" I yelled as I took off as fast as I could make it, throwing myself aside to dodge the stomp that would've flattened me before sprinting towards the statue of an unarmored man with a drum before him.

Unfortunately, this was when my luck decided that it had reached it's limit, my path straying too close to the nearby statue of a knight with a halberd that moved to bisect me-

"GREG! FROM YOUR LEFT!"

-only for Aisha's scream to have me throw myself towards my right side and turn the lethal slice into a grazing cut that still stripped a good chunk of flesh from the left side of my torso.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed as I collapsed in agony before the 'praising' statue, unable to stop the tears of pain and relief in my eyes as the statue began 'drumming', which in turn pacified the Lord and had the massive statue return to its throne.

"Greg!" Aisha ran all the way towards him, only pausing to check when none of the knights moved despite her entering into their range. When she finally reached me, she choked at how much of my blood had already stained my blue shirt. "Oh, god... That's... That's too much blood..."

"It's fine... I'm not having any trouble breathing or spitting out blood, so it missed my lungs..." I tried to assure her, which clearly didn't work given how pathetic I must have looked to her. "C'mon, we've still... got one last win condition to pass..."

"R-Right..." Aisha gulped when the Lord sat down and waved its hand towards the center of the room, causing the entire chamber to shake when the circular emblem on the ground at that spot rose up to mimic a pedestal. "Wh-What now?"

"...third, prove your piety." I grimly responded, not missing how much that thing could pass for an altar. "Now that I think about, these are all the main stuff to do during church services: worship God, sing praises to Him... and offer up offerings. Or in the Old Testament or basically any pagan god mythology, sacrifices."

"...one of us has to die?" Aisha whispered.

"...I'll do it." I whispered, causing her to freeze. "I'm too injured to run away or do much else anyways. Plus, I've not really got many people that'd miss me."

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

"...besides, I wanna feel like I saved somebody today." I reached up to grasp her arm. "Now, help me to the damn altar."

"B-But what about the last commandment?" Aisha asked desperately as we slowly approached the altar. "We've obeyed everything, haven't we? Why would they put something like this then?!"

"Because the person who thought this up was a sadist." I determined as all the statue heads slowly moved to regard our approach to the statue. "I got too hopeful. The things I thought were win conditions had no clear reward, just punishments for losing."

Maybe this was my penance for being such a cowardly hypocrite.

Finally reaching the altar, several regular fireballs flared to life around the altar one after the other in a counterclockwise fashion until we were surrounded. Then another ring of fireballs surrounded us again, this time as blue as the ones illuminating the chamber and more numerous. But still, the flames did nothing to us.

Yet.

The doors suddenly rumbled open, spreading out invitingly into the void.

"They opened..." Aisha gasped, only to flinch when all the knights began moving towards us. Matching their movements, the ring of blue torches began snuffing out, as if counting down...

"Aisha, run." I decided, cutting her off before she could complain. "I can't guarantee that they'll ignore you, but we both know exactly what those statues will do to if somebody gets too close to them. Run, before they get too close!"

Aisha teared up before grabbing me into a brief but tight hug and then running towards the open doors with tears running down her cheeks. To my great relief, the statues completely ignored her as she made it all the way to the door and crossed it's threshold, vanishing the moment her body crossed its border.

"Ah, it probably teleported her back to where it took us from..." I determined as the doors closed back, the blue flames continuing to count down with every rumbling step from the stone knights. At least, it was me instead of another innocent girl needlessly suffering. "...I wish I'd at least apologized to Taylor."

I stared up at the first stone knight to reach me, wondering if the cape moving it could hear me through it. I wished I could give some sort of badass last words. A one-liner that maybe the cape would remember as at least something use later or as something to muse over. Hell, maybe even a bloody smile to haunt them with.

But I didn't have it in me. The best I had was a grimace, and I'd even closed my eyes in a futile way to ignore my incoming death.

That didn't make the giant stone sword that slammed down onto my shoulder any less painful, a scream ripping free out of my mouth and lungs as the weapon brutally cleaved upwards in a manner that sent both my right arm and body flying away in two different directions, feeling my ribs creak when I slammed back down onto the altar while my blood splattered down around its runic engravings.

This time, there was no denying the wad of blood I choked up as I began to cry again. "No... I don't wanna die..."

Another statue raised its spear before swinging it down, the large weapon obliterating my entire torso and pinning me to the altar while more blood gushed out of me.

"I... I..." I guess I couldn't even speak properly at this point, my lungs completely lost as even my breathing failed.

My last ever sight would be a giant stone knight raising its massive shield right above my head. If... If I had even the slightest chance to survive here...

The last blue flame extinguished.

And time itself froze.

The shield that had been in the middle of slamming down to crush my head stopped mere inches above me, all sound cutting off from my surroundings.

-:|Alert!|:-

You have completed all the necessary requirements of the secret quest 'Courage of the Weak'.

Huh? Was that... an interface screen or something? Why was there a blue and transparent computer-like screen hovering before his eyes?

-:|Alert!|:-

You have acquired the qualifications to become a Player. Will you accept?

Player? Like a game? What kind of cruel joke was this?

-:|Alert!|:-

You do not have much time remaining. If you refuse, your heart will stop at approximately 0.02 seconds later. Will you accept?

[YES/NO]

Despite my current state, I still stiffened in trepidation. So there was a hidden win condition for finishing all of the commandments? But this meant that the cape in charge of all this had been clearly testing us all for... whatever this implied. If I didn't accept, I would die. If I did accept... I would be used for something.

Something I had no clue off... but still clearly required me being alive. And I wasn't very picky at the moment.

-:|Alert!|:-

Welcome, Player.

"...finally. A successful Player."

After confirming with Igris that the girl had been properly umbraported to her home, Jin-Woo let out a weary sigh at the sight of the boy before him. After twelve carefully selected failures, this damned trial had finally spawned a successful Player. It personally disgusted him to use this particular method, but it still did the job of ensuring that he didn't grant the power of a Shadow Monarch to the wrong kind of person.

The mantle that he (and now his son) carried was a heavy one, millions of soldiers following his every step. It was because of this that he had personally taken the fight to the Itarim, and had happened to free another Earth-like world from one of them during his campaign. However, he'd been surprised to encounter how this world seemed to be suffering an invasion of its own. Knowing that he couldn't just put a pause on the Itarim, Jin-Woo had decided to go with the Ashborn Option.

A.k.a. Cultivate some unfortunate but responsible schmuck into another Sovereign of the Dead. However, considering that the person wouldn't have the advantage of being descended from him like Su-Ho, that meant that they would have to become a Monarch the same way Jin-Woo had.

Worship the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Prove your piety.

"I'm really sorry about this." Jin-Woo sighed as he repaired Greg Veder's body and downloaded a variant of the System into him as well as a sliver of the Shadow Power. "But I never know when my son might need a Monarch ally of his own."

If this went well, perhaps he'd repeat this for other worlds as well.

Stepping back, Jin-Woo admired his handiwork and umbraported them both to the nearest hospital, gently dropping him amidst the stunned civilians. "Good luck, kid."

With that said, the Shadow Monarch stepped back into the void.

Notes:

KingVessel: This Plot Bunny got into my head when I read Numerous Problems by Stress_Test_Anon just as I was binge watching Solo Leveling and it refused to leave.

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Work Header

Rating:

Mature

Archive Warning:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category:

Gen

Fandoms:

Parahumans Series - Wildbow나 혼자만 레벨업 | Solo Leveling (Webcomic)

Relationships:

Greg Veder/Other(s)Greg Veder & Sparky (Parahumans)Aisha Laborn | Imp & Brian Laborn | GrueGreg Veder & Aisha Laborn | Imp

Characters:

Additional Tags:

The System (Solo Leveling)Alternate Universe - Canon DivergenceCanon-Typical ViolenceButcher Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverGamer Greg VederClonesClone banterClone BrotherhoodParahumans Online

Language:

English

Collections:

Fanfics I Wish Were Canon 3000

Stats:

Published:2025-05-14Updated:2026-02-14Words:90,632Chapters:15/?Comments:131Kudos:193Bookmarks:117Hits:12,741

Ready Player Greg

KingVessel

Chapter 2: Awakening 1.2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

I snapped awake to an unpleasantly loud beeping of a heart monitor beside me as it went haywire, the strong scent of antiseptics cluing me to my surroundings. "A hospital?"

Groaning at the headache the beeping was giving me, I raised my hand to rub my- Wait. My gaze snapped to my raised right arm, fully intact. A brief check over my body revealed that all of my injures were gone. His stabbed torso, his gouged side... Had it all been some kind of bad dream?

A person knocked on the door, opening it and stepping inside without waiting for a reply. "Oh, I see you're awake."

"Um, excuse me?" I frowned at the unfamiliar woman in the suit.

"My name is Kuroko Smith." The woman adjusted her sunglasses before giving me a card. "I am with the Brockton Bay Division of the Parahuman Response Team."

"What do you guys want with me?" I frowned after surveying her card before my eyes widened. "Wait, did I get superpowers?!"

"No, no, we checked." Ms. Smith casually crushed that idea as she took a seat, crossing her attractive pantyhose-beneath-business-skirt legs. "But we are interested in the man who brought you to the hospital. Are you close to or aware of the parahuman capable of teleporting through shadows?"

"Huh? Forget that guy, I don't know any cape, period." Ms. Smith must've believed me because she sighed in a weird mix of relief and disappointment. "By the way, did that guy heal me up or something after bringing me here?"

"No, you are reportedly in fine health." Ms. Smith replied. "The reason why you're still here is because you've been unconscious for the past three days."

"WHAAT?!" I exclaimed in disbelief. "How?! No, wait. I remember what I suffered through."

"And that's why I'm here. When you first arrived, you were dropped here with your clothes in tatters and extremely bloodied." Ms. Smith leaned forward speculatively. "Judging by our investigation, we came to a conclusion that... frankly, you should've been a corpse if the damage to your clothing were any indication. Frankly, I'm lucky to have to popped in when I just did. Imagine coming here five minutes earlier and knowing that I missed you by that much, making me have to return. I'd like you to please state all of the events that occurred to cause your injuries, to the best of your abilities. Oh, do you also mind if I record this?"

"Sure, I'll tell you everything." I immediately dove into the whole thing and told her all that I'd experienced about the E88 and then the Lord and its statues, feeling emboldened as she seemed to be taking me seriously instead of dismissing my admittedly outlandish tale.

"I see... But we might have to assume that this mystery cape, whom we will designate as Tenebrous for lack of a proper identity, may not keep further track of you since you thankfully didn't Trigger from that horrific event." Ms. Smith sighed before getting up and brushing imaginary specks off her skirt. "Hopefully, the same goes for that Aisha girl. If there's any change, please call the number on the card. For professional purposes only."

Miss Smith finished her words with a warning stare before exiting the room, me giving her a befuddled look.

"Hmm... But still, despite her saying that I didn't get any powers..." I turned my gaze towards the blue screen that had been floating before him all morning. "Did she really not see this at all? Or is it that I'm the only one who can see this?"

-:Alert!:-

You have unread messages.

I reached out to touch it, only for my fingers to go through it as if it were a hologram. "So it's not touch-interactive, huh..."

Then how was I supposed to be able to open these messages, then?

-:Alert!:-

Welcome, Player.

The System is designed to assist with the development of the Player. Failure to comply with the System may result in Penalties.

You have acquired Reward(s) x3.[OPEN]

Daily Quest: 'Training Regimen' has arrived.[CONFIRM]

"Is this... a Gamer interface?" My jaw dropped in both shock and excitement. This! Was! "AWESOME!"

As I would later learn, it's generally a bad idea to shout anything, let alone 'awesome', so loudly in the hospital. At least me being a patient had the nurses letting me off easy. Which in turn flipped over to Mum's arrival.

After enduring a crushing hug from her, Mum had told me of recent news she'd heard at the docks where she worked, about how much ABB territory was being gutted down and absorbed by the new Butcher's Teeth and the overeager Empire Eighty Eight. Weaver, as she called herself, was slowly drawing Brockton Bay into another war, and I'd never been more glad to have powers that could potentially grow, allowing me to bypass the risk of stagnation.

I still needed to stay in the hospital for three more days, but that was fine. I was fit enough to do the {Training Regimen} that was required of me whenever they weren't running tests on me.

-:Daily Quest: Training Regimen:-

Push-ups[100/100]

Sit-ups[100/100]

Squats[100/100]

Running[10/10km]

Failure to complete the Daily Quest will result in an appropriate penalty.

You have acquired Reward(s) x3.[OPEN]

So far, I had yet to find out about the penalty, but this was now my second time fulfilling the quest. Even though my body felt like throttling my brain, I didn't feel any less motivated. Was this what a runner's high felt like? "Open."

+Status Recovery!

+5SP!

+Random Gift!

"Status Recovery." I sighed as all of my exhaustion immediately vanished, leaving me sprawled in relief against the bench I was resting on. "Now for the Stat Points."

-:Status:-

Name: Gregory 'Greg' Veder

Level: 1

EXP: 0/1,999

NRG: 100/100

Class: ?

STR: 70(E)

VIT: 60(E)

MOB: 80(E)

MAG: 10(E)

SNS: 180(D)

SP: 10

-:Quirks(Explosion, Frost, Warp Gate):-

-:Perks(Compassionate Healer Lee Ju-Hee's Blessing):-

My Status didn't translate like a regular rpg interface, but it still really pained to see my low stats. As much as I wanted to use up my SP immediately, I needed to store them up until I got into a fight and could adjust them according to what I needed. Perhaps at the end of my hospital stay, but not a moment sooner.

As for the Quirks(weird substitute name for Skills), finding a quiet place to test them out had me realizing that most of them had been parahuman powers, specifically the ones that had belonged to the dead E88 thugs. A bit of me was understandably squicked out by the idea that I had gotten their powers, mostly due to me being reminded of their deaths... but I was also relieved that I had considerably cool powers as well.

Frankly, I was also just a teensy bit relieved that they hadn't gone straight to Kaiser as one of them had suggested. The idea of the Empire Eighty Eight having a teleporter that could've made Oni Lee a joke was terrifying.

Perhaps that evening was in a way my Trigger Event: Want a Superpower? Have a huge helping of Trauma as garnish.

...come to think of it, Aisha could've Triggered as well. Wait, I'd read online that it was the zenith of rudeness to demand details on one's Trigger Event, and I certainly wasn't going to harass Aisha on that, wherever she was now.

Now for the Random Gift. Manifesting it into my hand, I blinked when it slowly unraveled itself to reform into... a key?

"I only got a pen that lets me write in mid-air yesterday." I curiously turned it over to observe it's jade-like composition. "But if this exists, there has to be a lock to match it, right?"

-:Gate Key:-

A key for teleporting into an instant dungeon. It can be used at Hanging Cat Apartment Complex.

"An instant dungeon... So it makes a gateway or something to a dungeon where I can grind and properly level up." I grinned in realization, only for my smile to dim when my mind flashed back to the Lord. Now that I thought about, that place was most likely a dungeon itself. An extremely high-level one, too...

Making up my mind, I dressed up and went down to take permission for an afternoon stroll or something, fighting down my nerves until I reached the spot for the key. Standing before the complex while the key seemed to heat up in my pocket, I wandered around for a secluded spot until I brought it out into the air.

Just as I wondered if I'd have to twist it into an imaginary lock, the tip of the key glowed before blue lightning sparked from it to form a glowing circular portal before him.

Holy shit. This was really happening! But I still had no clue on what kind of dungeon I'd be getting sent into. The most I'd taken into my Inventory had been some water bottles and a knife I'd bought on the way here.

"Well, its a dungeon IRL. If it's anything like the Carthenon Temple, it might still be do-or-die... but still doable..." Hoping to meet enemies that weren't so overpowered this time, I grit my teeth and stepped through the glowing doorway, sparks of blue trailing after me as I stepped before the entrance what looked like an temple-like ruin.

-:Alert!:-

You have entered into an instant dungeon. Until you defeat its boss or use a return runestone, you cannot exit the dungeon.

When the portal fizzled out of existence behind me, I gave it a dry look. "Yeah, I kinda already expected that. I don't even have any kind of runestone, let alone whatever a return runestone is."

Stepping closer to the entrance and peering into the darkness within, I considered the idea of entering inside with little idea of what to expect.

Pfft. As if.

I palmed the ground and beckoned {Frost} forward, having the growing ice rush forward and deep inside as far as I could manage until my NRG, which was most likely my mana, stopped at 0.

+900EXP(x10)!

Level Up: 1 → 4

+75SP!

-:Status:-

Name: Gregory 'Greg' Veder

Level: 4

EXP: 3/4,999

NRG: 400/400

Class: ?

STR: 70(E)

VIT: 60(E)

MOB: 80(E)

MAG: 10(E)

SNS: 180(D)

SP: 85

-:Quirks(Explosion, Frost, Warp Gate):-

-:Perks(Compassionate Healer Lee Ju-Hee's Blessing):-

Holy shit... After all that exercise, it'd taken actual combat experience to fill up that EXP gauge. This meant that even my ridiculously unique power still behaved accordingly to the Internet theory of all parahumans instinctively seeking conflict one way or the other.

My power blatantly wanted me to fight.

Shuddering as I pulled my too-cold hand free of the ice while the Level Up got rid of the growing frostbite I hoped I was imagining, I stared inside with a grin for about a minute to see if any enemy would come rushing out. But none showed up and I hadn't gotten an alert yet so...

"Into the unknown... But first."

VIT: 60(E) → 95(E)

MAG: 10(E) → 40(E)

SNS: 180(D) → 200(C)

SP: 0

I didn't want to get sneaked, so my SNS stat which (probably) governed my spatial awareness would very remain my highest stat. I also needed my Quirks to increase in potency as well as buff my body's toughness as much as I could manage when heading into unfamiliar danger.

Continuing inside, I soon came upon what the theme of this dungeon apparently was: Goblins. Ten of the green-skinned dwarf wannabes had gotten completely frozen over, with an eleventh barely having just the upper half of his head exposed. This meant that while he could see me approaching, he was completely unable to shout out warnings to what I suspected would be the rest of its horde or even try to free himself.

In games, goblins generally rated higher than slimes in terms of mooks. But they were also known to be the medieval fantasy version of roaches. Easy to kill or dismiss, but lethal to ignore or underestimate.

Especially with their numbers. What Mum had always told me about roaches could easily apply to roaches as well: "If one of them's here, there're many around!"

I almost considered using my knife for this, but the only viable place to stab was the goblin's skull, and I didn't trust in my STR enough to not mess that up and accidentally free the monster.

So I just placed my hand over it's bald green head and completely froze it over with {Frost} again.

+900EXP!

Continuing deeper inside, I spent the time experimenting with {Warp Gate}. From what I could tell, the black mist that would allow me to teleport anywhere always required its manifestation from my body. Plus, the places I wanted to teleport to always had to be predetermined, whether by my eyesight or my experience. My first clue of this was when {Warp Gate} had failed to work after trying to teleport straight to Hanging Cat Apartment Complex without even knowing what it looked like, requiring me to actually look up its location.

Additionally, using it to skip the long distances without needlessly walking it allowed me to grow used to the brief weightless sensation each time. And also 'assassinate' every goblin I'd catch off-guard before they could react.

+900EXP!

Level Up: 4 → 5

+25SP!

-:Status:-

Name: Gregory 'Greg' Veder

Level: 5

EXP: 404/5,999

NRG: 500/500

Class: ?

STR: 70(E)

VIT: 95(E)

MOB: 80(E)

MAG: 40(E)

SNS: 200(C)

SP: 25

-:Quirks(Explosion, Frost, Warp Gate):-

-:Perks(Compassionate Healer Lee Ju-Hee's Blessing):-

A bit of me wondered if I should be worried about getting better at snapping necks, the latest one quietly dropping after I released it with my arms and my body having seven full meters between them with only smoky portals covering the separated parts.

But soon enough, I finally reached a large enough clearing that spanned out to reveal sunlight from above. It looked like the center of the temple itself, the exposed top letting the afternoon sun shine down upon the loitering goblins. From what I could tell, there were at least forty of them down there.

Plenty enough to overwhelm me if they'd gotten the chance to rush at me altogether.

"Hooray for the stealth option." I whispered before teleporting straight up to the temple's highest point within my sight, before then spreading out {Warp Gate}'s mist to blot out the sky.

The alarmed cries and clamoring from below signified that they were all aware of my presence now, but it was too late. "Fall."

A twist in space later and a portal connected to right beneath the goblins, causing them all to instantly fall into it and out the portal beside me... at thirty meters in the air.

+900EXP(x47)!

Level Up: 5 → 10

+125SP!

-:Status:-

Name: Gregory 'Greg' Veder

Level: 10

EXP: 2,709/10,999

NRG: 1,000/1,000

Class: ?

STR: 70(E)

VIT: 95(E)

MOB: 80(E)

MAG: 40(E)

SNS: 200(C)

SP: 150

-:Quirks(Explosion, Frost, Warp Gate):-

-:Perks(Compassionate Healer Lee Ju-Hee's Blessing):-

If the sudden plummet and fall didn't kill them, the many stone pews that fell down after them certainly ensured their crushing demises. Plus, my level was finally in the double digits!

Teleporting down to the ground, my SNS alerted of the approaching enemy before the familiar shaking of giant footsteps did. Stepping out from a narrow doorway, a hulking humanoid with grey skin, protruding tusks and a beard stepped out, dwarfing me with a gigantic 13-meter figure.

[Ebony Hide Ogre]

"An ogre?" I questioned.

"So those damn goblins weren't even worth good foot soldiers." The ogre grumbled, its voice being a deep gravel-like growl that nearly shook my bones. "So you are the invader that dares to set foot in my fortress?"

VIT: 95(E) → 145(D)

MOB: 80(E) → 120(D)

MAG: 40(E) → 100(D)

SP: 0

"Yeah, I am." I confidently replied back even as I eyed the massive club in it's left hand. A bit of me had wanted to add to my STR as well, but one look at this guy's physique made me take a more realistic apporach to surviving any sudden hits that I wouldn't be able to teleport or dodge away from. A person not limited to pure melee didn't need to start seeing STR as their favorite stat.

Besides, I always picked the mage build whenever I played D with Mum, even if she always found a way to kick my ass with her preferred fighter/assassin build.

"Anyway, please die." I stomped my foot down, calling upon {Frost} to send forth a thick surge of ice that immediately engulfed the ogre. Not done there, I created a {Warp Gate} beneath the ogre and had it fall from the same height of the goblins earlier, stepping back to let gravity finish it up for me.

Crashing down hard enough to kick up both debris and dust, the surrounding air immediately cooled down as I waited for the Alert to signify my victory.

"Impudent fool!" I ducked down swiftly to avoid the club that was flung at my head, the giant weapon crashing down behind me as the dust cleared to reveal the ogre as it got back up, it's wounds visibly closing up. "Don't mistake me for these mere goblins!"

The ogre raised its hand, manifesting a giant fireball above its claws. Having no intention of letting it finish it's chargeup, I opened a {Warp Gate} and had it engulf the ogre once more, deliberately cutting it off when half of his body was gone.

"GAAAAAAAAAH!" The ogre roared in immense pain. "What did you do?! Where is the rest of me?!"

The 'rest of him' fell down in a splatter of bloody body parts nearby.

"...holy shit. That worked." I gushed as I walked towards the downed ogre, noting that it's healing apparently wasn't strong enough to regenerate lost limbs. "Well, best not to test my luck any further than it's been going."

Grabbing my arm as I pointed my palm towards the ogre's face, I braced and unleashed a powerful explosion that launched me away from it, getting a brief flash of the ogre's head and shoulder's being pulverized and incinerated from the fiery shockwave.

-:Alert!:-

You have defeated the boss of this instant dungeon.

+9,000EXP!

+9,000 gold!

Level Up: 10 → 11

+25SP!

-:Status:-

Name: Gregory 'Greg' Veder

Level: 11

EXP: 710/11,999

NRG: 11,000/11,000

Class: ?

STR: 70(E)

VIT: 145(D)

MOB: 120(D)

MAG: 100(D)

SNS: 200(C)

SP: 25

-:Quirks(Explosion, Frost, Warp Gate):-

-:Perks(Compassionate Healer Lee Ju-Hee's Blessing):-

"Urgh..." I groaned as I rubbed my throbbing bicep, even as the pain soon faded away. Until I raised up both my STR and VIT high enough, {Explosion} wasn't going to be a Quirk I would use often.

-:Alert!:-

As the boss has been been defeated, the dungeon will now collapse.

"Oh?" I perked up when the same portal that brought me here opened up once more, quickly stepping through to regard the complex I'd left a while ago. Since I'd been there for over an hour, it didn't surprise me to see that as much time had also passed here too.

I'd almost think that I'd imagined it all if not for my increased level. As I made my way back to the hospital, a sighting of an Armsmaster toy made me consider new things going forward.

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

Now that I had powers that I had a good enough handle on, I had even less reasons to stay back and be a bystander when I could save people.

I could join the Wards and actually do something about all the daily injustice I witnessed, showing those assholes and bitches that Justice was a real deal. Hell, I'd even get f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ teammates! ...but I'd also stand out too much. The only other parahumans who was known to be get potentially and infinitely stronger through their powers were Lung and some other criminal already in the Birdcage. Just as Weaver with the previous Butchers, everything I did would be painted in their image rather than mine.

Of course, I'm different from Weaver. No matter how good they claimed to be, they were the one still stuck with multiple serial killers in their head. The sheer mental stress alone would soon break them.

And if I wanted to save Taylor from the inevitable fallout when that happened, I needed to get a lot better where my actions wouldn't be under heavy scrutiny.

Which meant I had to become an Independent Vigilante rather than a PRT Hero... Of course, this meant that I ran the immense risk of having zero allies or support... but that wouldn't be much different from my regular life anyways. Plus, acting on my own meant that I never had to answer to any authority beyond myself... or the System. Still, this also left me with little financial profit...

-:Inventory:-

Cellphone x1

Wallet x1

Light Pen x1

Common Knife x1

Water Bottle x4

Return Runestone x1

-:Shop:-

Buy: Please input keyword to aid in locating and purchasing the desired item(s). [?]

Sell: Please select an item in your Inventory to increase in-game currency. [?]

Budget: 9,000 gold

First of all, how long had that return runestone been in my Inventory?! Second of all, the System's got an online shop?! Okay, this would definitely help me along as a vigilante.

Things were going great!

Notes:

KingVessel: For now, Greg. For now.

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Rating:

Mature

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Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Category:

Gen

Fandoms:

Parahumans Series - Wildbow나 혼자만 레벨업 | Solo Leveling (Webcomic)

Relationships:

Greg Veder/Other(s)Greg Veder & Sparky (Parahumans)Aisha Laborn | Imp & Brian Laborn | GrueGreg Veder & Aisha Laborn | Imp

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Additional Tags:

The System (Solo Leveling)Alternate Universe - Canon DivergenceCanon-Typical ViolenceButcher Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverGamer Greg VederClonesClone banterClone BrotherhoodParahumans Online

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Fanfics I Wish Were Canon 3000

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Published:2025-05-14Updated:2026-02-14Words:90,632Chapters:15/?Comments:131Kudos:193Bookmarks:117Hits:12,741

Ready Player Greg

KingVessel

Chapter 3: Awakening 1.3

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Friday, April 15 2011

Greg Veder

So apparently, my super healthy self leaving and returning with zero complications yesterday meant that the hospital could get away with discharging me a day earlier, even if to free up some beds.

However, this meant that it was back to school for me this morning. Back to Winslow, back to the gang recruiters, back to... Taylor.

-:|Daily Quest: Training Regimen|:-

Push-ups[100/100]

Sit-ups[100/100]

Squats[100/100]

Running[10/10km]

Failure to complete the Daily Quest will result in an appropriate penalty.

You have acquired Reward(s) x3.[OPEN]

Long after getting in the bus, I regarded the rewards from my mandated morning workout. Maybe it was time to finally get rid of that last (E) amongst my attributes.

STR: 75(E) → 105(D)

SP: 0

Huh. I guess mental commanding the System works without me needing to physically speak. Good thing I tried that on a whim, so that I wouldn't worry Mum. Also, having my physical strength rise up a rank barely felt like much, but I guess that was what it was for barely stepping past the line while hoping for an actual physical change. My sudden interest in exercise may have surprised Mum, but now that I thought about it, the workout would also serve as an explanation to the one person in the world who knew me best about the sudden (and hopeful) appearance of never-seen-before muscles.

Stepping out of Mum's car, I waved her goodbye before heading towards the stairs. I had just put my foot on the last stair, only for my SNS to alert me of incoming trouble. Reacting on instinct, I stepped to the side and dodged the foot that would've tripped me before spinning about to grab the wrist of the hand about to shove me.

"What the fuck?!" Sophia Hess snarled as she ripped her hand free of my grip, albeit not without difficulty as she gingerly rubbed her wrist. "The fuck are you on, Vetard?"

"So me not being your punching bag for this morning means that I'm on drugs?" I scoffed as my annoyance grew. I hadn't even stepped inside the school building and there was already trouble to deal with. "I'm fresh out of the hospital and out of fucks to ever give to you again. Try that again, and I'll break your arm just like you did to me last year."

Flipping her the bird as I left, I relished her gobsmacked expression as I remembered the spoken incident a year ago. Hess had wanted my lunch money, and then stomped on my forearm after knocking me down to the ground as a response to my initial refusal. Then she'd gotten the audacity to not only claim that I was accusing her of injuring me when I'd injured myself by tripping, but also get away with it.

Well, not anymore. Sure I would hide the extreme parts of my powers, but there was no way I wouldn't use my increased physicality to push back against those who would try to harass me again.

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

Or others.

Entering the building, I made my way towards my locker and began checking around for which books I needed. Inside my bag, the boxed gift that I intended to give/return to Taylor as my apology was thankfully still intact. After all the effort I'd put into it for... something more, I hoped that using this as a physical token of my remorse for not helping Taylor would at least smoothen the rough patch between us-

I dodged aside from Hess's fist as it smashed into my locker, her punch actually denting the metal. "What now?"

"You think skipping school suddenly makes you better than the chump you actually are, Vetard?" Hess spoke in that unsettling calm way that emoted just how pissed she was, turning so that her scorching glare had a solid bead on me. "You think you can get away with mocking me?"

"...well, you're obviously determined to give me hell for whatever excuse you've cooked up today, so why not?" I shrugged with an obvious sigh. Given how much she was riled up, it was obvious that Hess had been previously pissed off by something else and had chosen him to vent, only to be denied one of her usual 'punching bags'. Now, all of her ire had been solidly redirected towards me.

Even while the surrounding students rearranged themselves to box us, or rather me, in, I was more preoccupied on the fact that this fight was really not stacked in my favor. My SNS alone gave me a rough idea that Hess was somewhere on par with me, and her muscular yet slender toned body didn't help my chances compared to my own body.

And to worsen matters, this was my first fight as a civilian, meaning that I couldn't use any of my Quirks to just finish her off as I'd done to the goblins and ogre. But for some reason... I didn't feel intimidated enough to cower as I would've normally done.

"Something to think about next time you decide to sit back and do nothing."

Prove your piety.

...I guess I just couldn't acknowledge Sophia Hess as an enemy to be afraid of anymore. Not if I was serious about my resolve to change things from now on. I was Level 11 now, but would that be enough right now?

Hess moved faster than I could almost react, her fist smashing into my cheek as I kept myself from falling over or down.

"...my turn." My fist was a millisecond faster as it slammed home into her hastily raised forearm, knocking her back a few steps. "Brace yourself, Hess. Right now, I'm extremely invested in knocking your teeth out."

"Cocky shit!" Hess charged forward and punched at my face, suddenly dipping into a leg sweep just as I'd raised my hands to protect my face. When I nearly staggered from that, Hess landed a solid kick into my stomach that had me almost hurling my breakfast. However, this allowed me to get a solid grip on her leg and swing her off her own feet as well into a painful meeting with the floor.

Now that I had her momentarily dazed, I couldn't hesitate to capitalize on this brief chance. Just as I moved forward to stomp on her stomach, my SNS alerted me of one of the jocks coming in to shoulder tackle me from a 'blind' spot. Unfortunately, he was expected as I dodged back and stuck my foot out, letting him trip and hit his face against the lockers at full speed.

+800EXP!

Seriously? He gave less EXP than a goblin?

"Anybody else feel like stepping in?" My challenge went untaken as many students took a wary step back from me, especially as my grimace worsened at the sight of Hess getting back up.

(It would take a long while for me to learn that my blue eyes had glowed along with my growing anger.)

"Heh. I guess it's easy to be tough against a sure win." I scoffed at the other jocks I could see, a few of them having bullied me as well in this school. "I mean, it's all of you against just me... as usual."

"Big talk for a loser who's about to get-"

"Teacher incoming!"

Hess's taunt ended as all the students around immediately scattered at that warning, both of us fighters included as I spied the gym teacher making his way towards us, being hindered by the chaotic rush of the jock students deliberately using their collective bulk to take his attention of the perpetrators. Sighing at the weird disappointment I felt for not beating Hess, I left with the crowd.

And thus missed Taylor's wide-eyed reaction to this spat.

Taylor Hebert - Butcher XV - Weaver

What... the hell just happened?

"The nerdy kid has finally crashed out!" Sabertooth shouted as if he were a commentator. "I totally lost faith in him, but there's Teeth material right there!"

"I wonder what happened to cause such a change." Damascian hummed. "Perhaps it has to do with whatever hospitalized him."

"Does it even matter?" Sanguine scoffed. "So the nerd grew a pair. Big whoop. I'm not considering him worth anything unless he's actually Triggered. We have too little capes on our side, even with Spree."

What? Greg could've Triggered?

That... was a scary thought. Greg was like a puppy or a possum, not something one would consider frightening for any reason. Plus, the idea of recruiting him to join our raids was laughable, especially as I imagined him awkwardly holding a weapon.

"Taylor, look up the percentage of school shootings done by bullied kids." Fester chimed in, causing me to no longer find an armed Greg laughable. "Frankly, you outstand us with every moment you went in this hellhole without taking a page from Carrie's book."

Watching him step into class, he locked eyes with me briefly before turning towards Sparky.

"Sparky, I have been burdened with glorious purpose!" Greg exclaimed as he took his seat beside him, his words causing the normally despondent guy to regard the blond geek with wide-eyed shock. Those particular words had meant something between them.

"That was definitely code for something between them." Alkaline murmured. "Nerds always tend to do that."

"Really?" Sanguine questioned.

"I've fucked a few nerds, okay?" Alkaline revealed. "They make sweet pillow talk."

"You know, you could just ask him." Knockout suggested. "Unless that's changed, the nerd's gonna bend over for you regarding anything."

"Mr. Veder, you've missed school for the past few days." Mr. Gladly noted. "I hope you have a good reason for that."

"Well, I was hospitalized due to an E88 initiation gone wrong. They wanted me to stab some innocent girl, and I showed my disagreement by stabbing the knife they gave me into one of the guys' throat." Greg answered as he answered the teacher, his words cutting off all other voices in the classroom. "Sure I nearly died from what came next, but some other cape killed off the rest and saved me and the girl. Afterwards, I didn't even get charged with anything since it was clear self-defense. But hey, I'm at least glad that I learned one sure thing about myself."

"Huh?" Gladly weakly asked.

"You never what you're capable until right when you're about to die." Greg responded, an absentminded smile on his face. "And even up to this moment, I still haven't felt anything about killing that guy."

Several guys in E88 colors suddenly looked very uncomfortable in their seats.

"He is awakened to the call of blood." Sabertooth sniffled. Actually sniffled like a proud parent. "And look at that murderous intent. He's not even doing it consciously!"

True. Whether he knew it or not, Greg was causing my danger sense to ping slightly now and then after Gladly shakily got the class going, up until Sparky did something to calm him down. Through it all, Sparky was the most animated I'd ever seen him be, definitely grilling Greg for more details.

Answers that my unnoticed fly was were going to get me soon.

Greg Veder

"So what did I miss?" I asked after I'd given Sparky the details of that night without mentioning the Lord or the Carthenon Temple in case of any annoying eavesdroppers, deciding to later tell her the real story at a safer location. I'd instead gone with the fake story of the shadow teleporter killing the other E88 guys after I'd stabbed one of them.

"A lot." Sparky said after she managed to calm down. "For starters, the school got fumigated back on Wednesday, and Assault and Battery paid a visit."

What.

"Assault gave autographs, by the way. Then yesterday, Weaver robbed a bank and apparently absorbed the Undersiders into the Teeth."

What.

"Oh, and I strongly suspect Hebert to be Weaver."

WHAT.

That...

The Locker... If Taylor had Triggered back then... then...

"Calm down."

Sparky whispered with her hand on my forearm, startling me when I saw that frost had begun to creep out from my hands and onto the desk. Thankfully, it was still small enough that Sparky was the only other one who could see it.

"Sparky... what do I do?" I asked desperately.

"Nothing. Taylor's cape status is none of our business." Sparky immediately answered. "All you have to do is give her your apology and say your goodbye. And then you'll never have to bother each other ever again. Whether its true or not that she hates you, it's still a fact that she doesn't really have a positive view of you."

"...yeah. You're right, Sparky." Sparky was always right. Even when being gloomy to the point that she was perpetually unkempt and be often mistaken for a shaggy long-haired boy. Even when she was unlucky enough to often suffer absurd strokes of misfortune.

Sparky was right. From what she'd trusted me with, Sparky had Triggered young with a Thinker power that let her see the future through tarot cards. And she seen something in the future so bad that she'd never recovered from it, as far as I knew as she never told me or anybody the details.

Curiously, she'd also destroyed all of my hard-earned Scion merchandise without giving me a reason back then. If it wasn't for the fact that she was the closest thing I had to a friend, I probably wouldn't have forgiven her.

But regarding Taylor... "Well, she's gay, so it's not like I had any shot with her in the slightest. Hopefully, she'll accept my apology."

I sighed. And waved the away the fly that had settled in my hair. For some reason, it kept triggering my SNS and I didn't like it.

Still, lunchtime came with a surprising piece of good news.

"Greg...? Greg!"

I was suddenly tackled from my side, nearly shaking off my attacker until I saw that familiar streak of purple in her black hair. "Aisha? I can't believe that you go to Winslow, too!"

"And I can't believe that you're actually alive... I thought you'd died..." Aisha replied as she kept hugging me, tears of relief starting to well up from her eyes as she beheld me. "...did you grow taller?"

"Well, I'm clearly alive. And I'm in the middle of my overdue growth spurt." I added, which caused Aisha to chuckle and release me. "Let's restart. I'm Greg Veder. And this is Sparky. My... friend?"

Was it okay to actually label her as such? We often hung around, but never went beyond exchanging contacts...

"I'm Sparky. I'll tell you my real name later if you don't look it up yourself at another time." Sparky replied, neither confirming nor denying my words. "And you are?"

"Aisha Laborn." Aisha responded with a challenging smirk before returning her undivided attention to me. "Now, give me details."

Once again, I delved into the story of the Lord's dungeon, this time mentioning the System along with all that followed.

Becoming a Player.

Completing all given Quests.

Gaining EXP and superpowers in the forms of Quirks and Perks.

Thankfully, there was no sudden message or warning preventing me from telling them, so I assumed it was okay for them to know.

(After all, Aisha had already suffered half of the trouble with me.)

"So you're saying... that right now, there's a popup screen right before you that only you can see?" Aisha asked as she waved her hand before my face, her fingers easily rippling through the System's interface. "Talk about high risk, high reward... Looks like this really was some kind of hidden reward for finishing all of those... commandments gave you the ultimate power."

"Yeah..." I weakly replied.

"Still, I wonder just how powerful the perpetrator is if they could do all this." Sparky's observation presented a real worry I'd given some thought to as well. "To reiterate so far, they're capable of dragging individuals into alternate dimensions they most likely have full control over, creating 'keys' that can do that as well, turning you into a freaking video game character, interfering with superpowers like a Trump that'd make other Trumps weep and finally... discreetly observing you on a constant basis. Because there's no way they're not keeping some manner of surveillance on you right now."

I stiffened at Sparky's words, mentally slapping myself for never having considered that. Was this 'Lee Ju-Hee' person? No, Ms. Smith had clearly stated it to be a man who had dropped me at this hospital, and I knew enough Korean from online to recognize a woman's name... Did that mean that it could be a whole group? "So what do I do about that?"

"Does it really matter?" Aisha shrugged. "If it's not doing anything but making your personal life better, then why spoil a good thing? If you're a geek like the rumors say you are, I'm pretty sure the getting of the System that bothers you more than the having."

"...well, when you put it that way, you're totally right." I hummed in happy realization.

"Of course, I am." Aisha nodded sagely. "Now gimme your sandwich. It looks delicious compared to the cafeteria's stuff."

Sparky shamelessly stole my sandwich as Aisha reached for it.

Taylor Hebert - Butcher XV - Weaver

"Took you two long enough." I said after Emma and Sophia waltzed in, swallowing my latest chew of my lunch and putting it away. "I thought you might be getting cold feet."

"That would be incredibly ironic, given what's about to go down." Fester muttered.

"How the-" Emma started, only to cut herself off as her common sense began to catch up as she actually surveyed their surroundings.

Sophia, on the other hand, prowled forward with complete confidence and plenty of aggression. "First, you. Then, freaking Vetard. If only you two would just learn your damn places, we might have finally just ignored you both like the worms you were. But now you're the Teeth's newest whore, so we don't even need a reason to beat you up."

Bullshit. You never needed a reason to hurt people and even Greg knew that.

"Before you do..." Emma cut in. "Tell me Taylor, how can you even hold a cell phone knowing that was the weapon you used to kill your mum?"

"Oh, just how badly does this bitch want to die?" Fester growled.

I was of the same page, nearly losing it until I forced my anger down for the moment. I would need my cool for this. "Huh, maybe I did. Now that I think about it, the timing does match up."

Emma was clearly grasping for straws at this point when she saw me shrug. "Uncle Danny certainly believed it. I overheard him blathering on and on about how he blamed you for killing your mom when Dad picked him up while he was too drunk to remember you even existed."

"Wish I could get that drunk." Sophia quipped.

This caused both Emma and I to chuckle, albeit for very different reasons as she would soon learn. "Just what happened to you Taylor? What happened to that sweet girl who actually cared about her parents?"

"That's simple, Emma. You bitches killed her." I shot back calmly, enjoying the twitch Emma made with her face. How much more would it take to make her erupt? "Are you two done? If you are, then get the fuck out of my way. I've got shit to do."

As absolutely predicted, Sophia's fist took a direct path towards my stomach. I barely felt the impact, wondering how long it would take for either of them to catch on.

Sophia lashed out again, as fast as she could as her fist connected squarely with my jaw. Unlike the last time she tried this, I didn't let my head move even the tiniest inch as I sighed.

Either she'd snapped or she'd finally sensed my murderous intent towards her, Sophia was quite fast in drawing out a knife. Unfortunately, I was faster. Before she even had time to point the knife at me, my hand had already grabbed and twisted the black girl's hand to the point of breaking some bones. Then I lashed out with a kick that broke Sophia's shin and had her buckle under her own weight before kicking her away like the trash she was.

Apparently, Emma was still in the midst of processing all this until I hoisted her by the front of her coat with a single hand and slammed her against a wall, immediately snapping out of it to ignite her fist and punch at my face with way more strength than the visible muscles on her limb could offer.

Just like before, it didn't earn even a flinch. Neither did the following knee to my stomach. "Well, you're stronger than Sophia, I'll give you that."

For some insane reason, Emma grinned at that. "Fucking finally, Taylor. What the hell took you so long? I mean, you're in a shitload of trouble but-"

"Shut up, Emma." I cut off Emma off with briefly added pressure to her chest. "Do you want to hear something sad?"

"Like how you had to join a gang before you finally decided to be a person instead of a victim? Or that you got powers that just let people beat you up better?"

"I... I think this girl might actually be stupid." Butcher marveled with genuine confusion.

I barked a laughter at that, making sure that I didn't accidentally slacken my grip. "No. The sad thing is that the Teeth treat me with more respect than anyone has in the past two years. Now, I wonder why that is?"

Emma managed a passable sneer. "Because you're fucking them?"

"See, I'm not good with people anymore." I continued with an idle-sounding tone. "Until last weekend, I didn't have friends. I barely even had family, because my mother died and my dad still hasn't recovered."

Should I consider Greg? He may have been an annoyance at times, but he had been one of the few points of... neutral human contacts that I'd had during that time-

Oh, Sophia was getting up. Crucio, bitch.

Sophia let out an aborted scream before collapsing on the ground, twitching and hissing. Still, she still had enough sense of self to try and reach for her phone.

"Say what you want about this one. She is committed." Alkaline commented.

I made a noncommittal hum of agreement as my roaches and beetles swarmed Sophia and snatched the phone the moment it left her pockets, bringing the device close enough so that I could crush it with a stomp that cracked the tile below my foot.

"Here's the thing, Emma." My swarm spoke with me, my voice coming from both my mouth and hundreds of meticulously timed mandible clicks and winged beats. Raising up my hand, I displayed Sophia's crushed blade before reshaping its matter into the form of a flower, a butterfly from outside the window coming in to land in it's petals. "I'm not the Teeth's new whore. I'm their boss."

"Remember it!" Ironsides crowed.

"No." Emma whispered in what I could see was stark terror mixed with desperate disbelief. "No, no no no. You can't be. That doesn't make any sense."

It didn't make sense? Of course, it didn't make sense! Nothing had ever made sense! Not for the last fucking two years!

"You know what doesn't make sense, Emma?" I didn't notice my hand beginning to press harder against Emma, doing worse than choking off her breath. "Throwing away ten years of-"

"Stop it, Taylor." An unexpected hand patted my extended forearm, carefully not trying to pull it away from her. "You might kill her."

"The fuck?" Stratego muttered, several of the other Butchers mirroring him.

"Greg?" I growled in disbelief as Greg took a careful step away, somehow having entered the girl's bathroom without any of us noticing. "What are you doing here?"

"I... really wanted to apologize, but I didn't find you at anywhere during lunch, so I searched around and around until I heard Julia talking to Emma Barnes regarding your location, so I came here..." Greg looked incredibly uncomfortable under my glare - as he should - but he still decided to keep talking. "Obviously, I guess I can't tell you not to kill Barnes or Hess, since I have no right to order you around-"

"Good. A smart conclusion. Now leave." I gave out a warning.

"No." Greg responded without hesitation. "I want to talk to you, and I need you to please spare me your time. Just a few minutes or so. After I'm done, I swear that I'll never bother you for anything again. I just..."

Greg paused to take a deep and careful breath. "I just want... I just want to clear the air between us... and get you to hopefully hate me less."

Hate? I didn't exactly hate Greg. I don't know why he believed such a thing, much less why he'd been so obsessed that he would pseudo-stalk me.

"Really?" Reflex sounded genuinely puzzled at my confusion. Due to the sole heroic Butcher rarely speaking, even the others had quietened down. "From your very brief interactions with Greg Veder, he has shown himself to be a generally disliked outcast within the school with no social skills and plenty of bullies. Who does this remind you of?"

"...well, when you say it like that, he sounds so lonely." Fester hummed. "And if we go by your memories, he's been like this for much longer than your two years."

...I knew Greg as early as 5th grade. That's six whole years.

"Ah, then his 'stupidity' might be a mental defense." Stratego mused. "If he tried to mask his insecurities for so long, he would've eventually fallen too deep into the pretense."

"...wait your turn, Greg." I finally decided, the blond boy nodding and stepping back as I returned my attention to Emma. "You know, I've fantasized about this ever since I Triggered. Using my powers to finally fight back, to take down the bitches that ruined my life... But now? It feels... hollow."

And wasn't that startling to realize. I had both Emma and Sophia at her complete mercy, and I wasn't even in the mood to enjoy it. All because I literally had better uses for my time. Properly cultivating the Teeth, doing away with the Empire, resolving things with Greg...

When and how the fuck did Greg become a higher priority than Emma?

"When Greg Veder finally owned up... and Emma Barnes didn't." Damascian answered my rhetorical question.

I took a steadying breath. "I never gave in, even after I inherited, even after you used my mum's death as a weapon against me. Even as I had thirteen voices in my head screaming at me to end you, I held my ground. I stayed strong in the face of every temptation I had to just be done with it, and let me tell you, my predecessors can be creative and vindictive little fuckers."

"Guilty as charged." Fester readily admitted.

"Damn right." Damascian agreed.

"I'm still up for the surprise teleport fifty meters up in the air." Pyro suggested... again.

"No, I told you, the slow squeeze 'n' hug works better." Ironsides complained. "Especially with the useless struggling as their spine and ribs implode afterwards."

"Please. She should go for the simple and brutal: RIP AND TEEAAAAR!" Butcher finished with a roar, which prompted Sanguine and many others to mimic him.

"The PRT will..." Emma still managed to gurgle. The PRT? Really? Not much of a concern at this point.

Dropping her, I walked over to where I'd dropped my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. "I'm done playing this game. Winslow is mine now. If you try to bring the PRT down on me, I'll make sure you receive a personal visit at home. Hell, the PRT might not even listen to you, since a Butcher spending eight hours a day in school isn't using that time to wreck the city."

"And without taking lives, you could still give them hell." Greg suddenly spoke up. "When Brockton Bay inevitably runs out of bug spray, you could kick off a one-girl pranking war directly on the workers... sorry, please ignore me."

"What? No. Please, keep talking." Sabertooth beckoned.

"I haven't had a proper prank war since I was a kid." Stratego reminisced. "So many criers born from sheer annoyance at my victories..."

"I wanna see the entire PRT building doused in pink paint... and watch the reactions." Quarrel mused.

"Approved! We gonna need so much fucking paint!" Butcher decided.

"Do we have stop at just the PRT building, though?" Sanguine asked.

"And now they're arguing about raining rainbow paint allover the city. Thanks a lot, Greg." I chuckled with no heat. Any argument within the chorus that didn't involve some sort of murder or depravity was a welcome reprieve. "Well, I'm just about done here. Ah, I almost forgot. Greg, you listen to this too. There's this funny gentlemen's agreement among capes to avoid searching out or acting on secret identities, which is really important to me because I happen to be enjoying my civilian life for the first time in years. And while the Unwritten Rules are just that and really only apply to capes, I would be more than happy to make an exception if any one of you so much as think about telling anyone about me."

"I won't tell anybody." Greg immediately answered, which earned him an approving nod from me.

"Tell the authorities you slipped and fell or something, I don't really care. I have actual problems to deal with, like an Empire that is long overdue its fall." I stepped past Emma and gave Sophia a pointed glare when she didn't give me a vocal reply like Greg had. Leaning down, I grabbed her face and forced her to look me in the eye. "Did you get all of that?"

To Sophia's credit, she managed a stilted nod even if it was accompanied by a groan. That was good enough, I suppose... Oh, she was bleeding internally. Better put a quick fix on that. "Come along, Greg."

Leaving the bathroom, I kept half of my attention on two of the Trio while' I led Greg towards the nearest classroom. It was just the two of us (plus fourteen Butchers) now, in this empty classroom. "So? Get with it."

"R-Right." Greg gulped nervously before digging into his bag and pulling a small box out. "I... Half a year ago, I saw when... Barnes destroyed this, and how badly it hurt you. To the point of throwing away the pieces."

I stiffened, both in my human body and my bugs. Half a year ago...No... He couldn't have...

I never noticed Fester shushing the other Butchers as I mentally mapped out the objects that could fit into the box.

"I wanted it to, you know, get me a leg in. Give you something absolutely positive to think in regards of me. But now that I know you like girls, it almost feels laughable." Greg dropped the box on the table between them and gently shifted it towards her. "It took me so long so carefully fix the pieces and make sure it could still work fine without messing it up even worse..."

Hesitantly, I reached out and took the box into my hands. Reshaping the box's wrapping paper and ribbons into confetti, I pulled off the lid and gasped heavily at the sight of Mum's flute, returned to it's former glory.

"H-H-How?" Gently lifting it up, I turned it over and surveyed the very faint cracks that had used to be the broken pieces as well as the identifying scratches I had personally put there myself. This meant that not only had Greg returned this priceless treasure to me, he'd also repaired it meticulously rather than going the simpler route of buying a whole new one. "Why... Why did you do this...?"

Greg blinked in surprise at my question before giving me a sad smile. "Because... I like you. Like, like-like you. I've always had a crush on you since you saved me from a high schooler when we were kids. You probably don't remember it, though."

Eh? My first thought was to dismiss his words as a joke, but that was just distasteful with mum's flute miraculously repaired. It was all just too much! When did this happen?!

"No, wait. It's here." Damascian noted as she dragged up the needed memories, my breath catching as I recognized the small chubby blond boy as an eleven-year old Greg while Emma and I as kids chased off the drunk teenager. "Huh. The childhood romantic interest lost? This is bullshit!"

"Oh, the childhood friend loses all the time!" Fester challenged. "Out with the old and in with the new!"

"But doesn't this make it an Archie-Betty-Veronica Scenario?" Sabertooth pointed out.

"Yeah, but Weaver's the brunette Veronica here, with Veder being the blond Betty and Vex being the redhead Archie. The dynamic's been keelhauled from the start." Stratego noted, which caused a new wave of arguments to spring forth.

My cheeks warmed against my will as someone threw in the option of having both Chrissie and Greg at once, which was taking worrisome traction.

"Well, it looks like you like it. Thank goodness." Greg sighed in oblivious relief before stepping away. "With this, I say goodbye. We'll probably never speak with each other again-"

What.

"-but that's fine." Greg perked up, even despite the obvious pain in his eyes. "I can't be the lame clingy guy..."

Greg lowered his head before me, surprising me and a few of the Butchers. "Taylor Hebert, I sincerely give my apologies for never helping you with Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess. The only excuse I have is that I never wanted to become a worse social pariah than I was already currently living as."

Right... He'd been a victim far longer than I'd been...

"You don't have to accept it, but I'm truly sorry. Goodbye." Greg raised his head and tried to leave only to stiffen when I pushed the table out of the way and grabbed him into a crushing hug(while carefully securing the flute and making sure I didn't break any of his bones).

"Thank you. Thank you." I whispered into his shoulder, Greg floundering between whether to hug me back or stay stiff in my arms. Pulling back, I put the flute back into the box and resisted the urge to teleport straight home and lock it in the safest spot I knew.

"Tell Greg that he's a good kid." Reflex spoke up. "And that I personally wish him good luck in his future endeavors."

"The same goes for me." Fester added with a grin. "I don't really have good opinions of most men, but Greg's clearly a lovely exception."

"Ask him if he's interested in joining the Teeth." Sabertooth asked. "That bloodlust of his can't be wasted!"

"And his ice, too." Chisel pointed out, remembering that brief flash of frost we'd earlier seen from him.

They all made good points, even as I only gave out Reflex's and Fester's messages to Greg, who was shocked to hear them. None of us had never seen an ice-type cape ever, from either a hero or a villain. He would've been so useful against Lung...

But I wouldn't ask Greg to join the Teeth.

I wanted Greg as my friend, not my subordinate.

Notes:

KingVessel: I think I did good with this.

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Chapter 963 - ready player greg