Chapter 5 - My SI Stash #5 - Playing Our Roles by The Grim Blade (RWBY) (1/2)

-I'm pretty sure this is the only SI Roman RWBY fanfic, probably the only good one. Author's a real gamer too.

Sypnosis: Something unexpected happened to me. I'm stuck inside the body of the (future) greatest thief in Vale, with the power of The Gamer given to me for some unknown reason. All in all, it could be worse. For now I have given myself a mission, actually being the greatest thief in Vale! I also need to screw over Cinder, save Pyrrha and Penny, and not end up dead in the process.

Rated: T

Words: 154K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/12454951/1/Playing-Our-Roles

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

I g_r_o_a_n_e_d as I cracked open my eyes to find myself staring up at an unfamiliar and dusty ceiling. I was surprised, but I felt way calmer than I honestly should have been. Blinking, I looked around my new location and came to the rather easy conclusion that it was the upper office of some old decrepit warehouse. If the window overlooking the large, empty main storage area was any indication.

Half my vision was also colored orange from the hair covering my right eye, a fact that had me a little suspicious as I did not have bright orange hair. I had to push that thought to the side, because what really caught my attention was the blue, mildly transparent square floating in front of my face.

Welcome, Gamer!

You have been randomly selected to experience a once in a lifetime… experience!

(New Quest!)

Would you like a tutorial to get you started?

Rewards: 1000 XP, 500 Lien, 10 free stat points, and potentially a deeper understanding of your new role in life!

I'll admit that I have never been expressively fond of extreme change. I usually prefer to keep things simple and plain, so that I can mindlessly go through most of my day without thinking too hard. Only breaking out of that mindless zoning out when it was time to have fun.

That being said, I can't help but find this new, and extremely abrupt, change of pace in my life to be… weird as hell for sure, but strangely nice as well. I always fantasized about having superhuman powers, add to the fact that this was a power from one of my favorite Korean comics was just a bonus.

Standing up from the large pushed together boxes I was apparently using as a bed, I tentatively pressed the yes button, almost expecting my finger to pass through the window and confirm if I was actually insane. Turns out I was not, in fact, insane and the second I finished pressing the button the window flashed and new text appeared on it.

Excellent choice!

Normally you would not get a tutorial and would have to figure things out on your own, but due to your new circ_u_mstances, this was made an exceptional case.

Please, say or think ”Status” to continue. This will set your skills as internal or vocal commands for the future.

Changing between thinking and speaking commands can be modified later in the options menu.

”Status,” I thought to myself. A new window replaced the previous in a flash of blue, showing me my stats… and something I was not expecting but did explain why I have orange hair now.

Name: Roman Torchwick

Level: 10 (Next Level: 0/5500)

Title: None

Bounty: 0 Lien

HP: 760

MP: 708

STR: 18.2 [Base 14 + 4.2(30%)]

VIT: 26 [Base 20 + 6(30%)]

DEX: 28.6 [Base 22 + 6.6(30%)]

INT: 20.8 [Base 16 + 4.8(30%)]

LUK: 11

Elemental Affinity: None

Attribute Points: 0

Lien: 250

Status Effects: None

Apparently… I became Roman Torchwick? I mean that does explain the orange hair. I admit, this has really taken me off guard and I don't know how I really feel about losing my body and replacing it with someone else's.

I sat back down on the boxes I was sleeping on in shock and placed a hand on my new c_h_e_s_t, absently staring at it as I slowly started to freak out. A sort of calm quickly washed over my mind before that could take root, I figured that was the Gamer's Mind passive skill going to work on keeping me sane.

[For getting ahead of the tutorial and recalling key information from a previous life your INT has risen by 1!]

I dismissed that notification with a roll of my eyes. But seriously, for a level ten, Roman had more stat points than I would have expected. Even if they are allocated way too weirdly for my liking. I would have thought there would be a bit less in vitality and more in dexterity and intelligence.

On it you will find a plethora of useful information, things such as your total health (HP), your total Aura (MP), various stats, any elemental affinities, status effects, and your total money. Tapping on any of the info on this screen can bring you further information on it.

Try tapping on one of your stats now.

I tapped on my intelligence stat for the hell of it.

[How smart you are. Higher levels of this stat will increase learning ability and speed, memorization, thinking up new ideas to solve a problem, etc. Each point in INT increases MP by 10 per stat point.]

Huh, judging by my total MP right now a little bit of math tells me that each of my level-ups gives me fifty MP. I tapped on all of the other stats, best to figure out what each one does before I spend any points.

[By planning ahead to figure out what each stat does before making a decision has increased your WIS by 1!]

I dismissed that with a flick of a finger.

[HP, or health, is how much damage after Aura you can take before dying.

Current HP regen is 2% of max HP/minute]

Current MP regen is 1% of max MP/min]

[Strength is how strong you are, duh! It affects physical carrying capacity and how hard you hit with melee weapons!]

[Vitality is how tough you are. Increasing this stat allows you to actually take a punch to the face without crying like a baby. Each point in this stat increases your overall HP by 10.]

And using math tells me that each of my levels also increases HP by fifty. Good to know.

[Dexterity is how agile you are. It increases hand-eye coordination, attack speed, movement, how easy it is to DODGE! attacks, damage and aim with a ranged weapon, and also aids in more… nefarious skills.]

[Wisdom is the ability to take any decisions you have and choose the best one out of them. It also increases MP regeneration by an extra 1% every 10 levels.]

I didn't feel the need to check on luck right now, I figured that was probably pretty straightforward. Once finished with looking over my status screen I continued with the tutorial.

Now that we have finished with the Status screen, let's move on.

Try thinking ”Inventory” now.

”Inventory,” I thought. Sure enough, the status screen was replaced by the inventory screen. So far all I saw in the inventory was a lighter, some cigars, and Roman's Scroll. I gave a look at what I was currently wearing, nothing seemed to match what Roman had on during the main timeline of RWBY. Right now he was just wearing some brown cargo pants with a green polo shirt and a zipped black hoodie. Not the most classy of things, which is something that must be rectified soon.

Obviously, I must be some time before the main story, perhaps Roman hadn't become the best thief in all of Vale yet and also hadn't adopted that classy look. Also because Roman was clearly weaker now than what he is in the show, I highly doubt a level ten would hold out for long in the kind of work he was doing. Once I finished with this tutorial I needed to figure out how much time until the fun stuff begins.

This is your inventory, you can put things into it and pull them out whenever you wish. You can also equip clothes and items in this screen without having to manually change them.

Convenient, right?

When you are finished here, please think ”Skills”.

”Skills,” I thought, the inventory screen being replaced with a mostly blank one. It only had three currently in it. The tutorial screen decided to voice itself on that issue.

Oops! Seems you are lacking some skills. How about we fix that?

Sure enough, a couple of skills fazed into being in the menu. I tapped on one of the new ones.

[Pickpocketing Lv16 (Active) EXP 0.0%: This skill allows you to reach into another person's clothing and grab hold of their hidden assets… their money and other valuables of course!

Base chance of successful pickpocketing: 65% (Can be increased or decreased by your dexterity relative to theirs. Yours minus theirs applied to the base, mostly applies to other hunters as civilians will probably not notice you.

Cost: None

Passively increases dexterity by 15%]