Worm: Four's a Party

[SimonSloath]

The first thing I notice is a pretty lady in an unnecessarily revealing outfit smiling kindly while opening her arms in a welcoming fashion. Seriously, that outfit is far from classy. It's like she thinks pure sex appeal is a valid replacement for style. Or maybe she's trying to distract me so I don't properly think through whatever offer she's making. Unfortunately it seems to be working. Those oversized boobs seem to have their own gravitational pull. I don't even like them that big. At a certain point you get diminishing returns, and they take so much more effort to play with. Yet here I am just staring at them. I need to find something else to look at. Oh look! Nothing!

Quite literally. We are standing in an endless expanse of nothing. No light, no darkness, no stars, no kaleidoscope of colors, no eldritch horror. Just . . . nothing. Cool, I always wondered what nothing looked like. In fact, I remember one time where I spent hours wondering if it would be white, black, glassy, or mirrory. Okay, two times. Five? It was a very boring summer vacation. Also, there is no word I know that can be used to describe the appearance of nothingness itself. Don't think the human mind is supposed to even comprehend it. The part of my brain that was trying to make sense of it started screaming, but now it's laughing. Neat.

Somehow my most surprising discovery is that "we" includes to two other guys. Kinda boring looking, wearing unremarkable clothes with no bloodstains. Same as me now that I think about it. Lack of blood reduces the odds of us being dead. Also, normal attire indicates we were not taken in our sleep. Probably. You can never really tell in these situations. Not that I've ever been in one before, but I've read enough isekai (fanfiction or otherwise) to have a pretty good guess.

This has all the makings of a reincarnation/transmigration at the hands of a Random Omnipotent Being (ROB), but there being three of us is a little different. I don't remember any fanfictions with multiple people. When light novels and anime do it, it's usually an entire class or something. Not three random guys with little to no notable features. At least we aren't naked. That would be awkward.

One of them has a great beard. Lucky. All I can manage is this mustache. The other one is clean shaven. And bald. I'm going to start calling them Beardy and Baldy in my head.

I seem to have been staring a little too long again, but they don't seem to have noticed. Too busy listening to the lady who might be our ROB talking. Oh crap, I wasn't listening to the exposition! Hope I haven't missed anything important.

" . . . which is why you will be sent to this alternative Earth with powers of your choice from the provided selection." Cool, I skipped the boring introduction and bullshit excuse.

"Here is the list." What looked suspiciously like digital displays opened in front of us. "The grayed out options are non-selectable. Once chosen, powers will be grayed out for the others to prevent overlap. You can only choose up to three "Tier 3" powers. To ensure fairness, everyone will have the same number of points for power selection, indicated as "SP"."

Okay . . . so . . . good news and bad news. Good news: I am familiar with these powers and even this set up as a whole. Bad news: we are going to Worm. Tier 3 powers will make things easier, but Worm's Earth Bet is still a hell world. There are worse worlds out there, but not many.
Worse news: well . . .

"What do you think the odds are that we are getting played?" The other two give me blank looks. Maybe wondering what I mean. Maybe surprised I'm even talking. Perhaps angry at me for doubting the slutty angel(?) lady.

"How so?" Oh cool. Baldy seems genuinely curious and willing to listen. I can work with that.

"The powers, layout, point cost, and points being labeled "SP" are exactly like a CYOA I like playing with. Like, it's one for one. But there is a lot missing. Perks, Drawbacks, Powers Origin, Skills, Items, and so on. The three of us here with identical starting points is just like one of the drawbacks which causes three other people with power equal to the original to be sent after them. The grayed out options could have been selected by the original, and they include Manager which lets the user steal powers with a touch."

I wish that had come out in a confident and organized manner, but honestly I just kinda started rambling. They were still listening though, so I continued telling them what I know. How "SP" means "Shard Points" and what shards are, which led to what entities are, which is why Powers Origin matters, and shardless is the superior option. Oh, and CP is missing, likely due to Point Conversion, how they are used for skills, items, and quality of life perks. Realize I haven't talked about perks, some of them are essential, some are nice, some are fun, and some actually get in the way. Which leads into Drawbacks, how some aren't worth the points they give, how I decide which ones are bearable, how some can become advantages. What haven't I talked about yet? Why is everyone staring at me? How long have I been talking?

". . . I was planning on only revealing these if you asked, but since your new friend went ahead and talked about everything, here you go." The maybe-ROB lady in front of us made a gesture and new windows opened up in front of us, all the ones I had talked about. I wonder if I forgot any. "Now, do you have any questions?"

"I have a few, yeah." Beardy starts asking lots of really good questions. He seems to know exactly what questions to ask to get us the full story. Basically, the guy before us asked about taking drawbacks so he could get more powerful abilities. He chose the drawback that summons us three thinking he could just steal our powers and effectively quadruple his own.

Following that were questions about our options and the set-up as a whole that I had not already answered or was unclear about in my rant. I had a few of my own as well. We each had a conscious and unconscious geas to ensure we filled our respective roles as hero, villain, and rogue. Some perks and drawbacks could not be selected or unselected, such as world affecting ones, and others that ensured we had similarly powerful builds. We had to be drop-ins and could not alter our appearances. Arrival time will be about a year before the start of the Boston Games. Hours later, we were almost ready to make our selections.

"We're gonna team up, right?" It seems like the obvious course of action to me, but the other two might not agree.

"No?" Seems Baldy at least doesn't agree. Maybe he doesn't trust me, or wants to beat the first guy on his own, or is untrustworthy himself and cannot imagine placing trust in others.
"We are going to be forced into the roles of hero, villain, and rogue. You know, natural enemies." Oh. He's just dumb. Or maybe he doesn't know. I should tell him.

"In Earth Bet heroes are the ones who obey all the laws, at least in public. Anyone with powers that break the law for any reason are villains. Rogues avoid obviously breaking laws while using their powers to make money. Morals are not necessarily part of the picture. We could work together for common interests. Like fighting the asshole who wants to kill us to empower himself, or saving the world. It's not like we'd be the first or only secret society, and we can hardly do worse than Cauldron. Oh right, I haven't talked about Cauldron yet. You see they-"

"Wait! Hold that thought. I'm sure that information is very useful, but let's first agree on whether or not we will actually be forming some sort of alliance."

I mostly zoned out while the other two started going back and forth on the various merits and demerits, as well as whether we could trust eachother. I provided input when asked, mostly on the Earth Bet and some powers that could be used to empower us collectively and/or keep us from betraying eachother. Long story short, we are now allies. We are even going to choose our builds to complement each other.

I quickly claimed my favorite combo of "Self-Rewrite", "Self-Inserting for Days", and "Be the Butterfly Effect!". I can now become anyone and anything I want, complete with a backstory and the power to remove any plot holes. Beardy is the combative sort and went with "Unstoppable Force", "Immovable Object", and "Rival". Baldy seems to prefer being clever so he went with "Sylar", "Neural Network", and "Vision".

How do we complement eachother? Well we each have different roles we accel at. I infiltrate, Baldy plans, and Beardy fights. We also chose other powers specifically because of how well they synergize with eachother. More on that later. Skills are not much of a concern, but we can share some of the items. One person gets the base and the other two get stuff to put in it.

After listening to me ramble on about the setting for another hour or so we are able to put together a pretty good plan. After making some last minute adjustments to our builds it is finally time to move on. A world filled with misery awaits for us to break it until it's better! That's how it works, right? Meh, it'll work out.

. . .

Self-Rewrite is overpowered. At first glance it may not seem that much better than the other tier 3 powers . . . until you start getting creative with it. You could turn yourself into something that is immune to whatever your enemy is throwing around. Get injured anyway? Rewrite yourself to perfect health. Enemy immune to whatever you're using? Give yourself a different power. Fight just isn't winnable? Rewrite your location to the other side of the planet.

Now the argument can be made that the other tier 3 trump powers are better because they let you have more powers available and can use more at once. Self-Rewrite only gives you only one of the tier 2 power and whatever you turn your body into. Counter point: it can give you the exact power you want anytime you want AND the skills required to use it. The other powers have limitations that make getting the right power a lengthy and unreliable process. As for the limit for the number of powers, there is a way around that.

Before I get started on that, I first need to meet up with the others. Good thing they had some good ideas on how to find eachother. I'd have over complicated the hell out of it. We each have phones, Baldy has the Richter AI, we all send texts to a memorable number, the AI intercepts the messages and connects us, Beardy sends us the base location (it was his purchase), and we meet there. Simple.

I got there first by rewriting myself inside, and I started hooking up the interdimensional cable so I can get back to that anime I was watching. Priorities.

The other two took a while because they had to avoid catching Donald's attention. We started calling the first guy Donald because he's an asshole with trump powers. We also gave ourselves code names for just between us.

I'm Maoh Mao because if I have to be a villain, I'm gonna be a comedic one. Baldy is now Kaito Kid because he wants to be a charming rogue with lots of fans. Beardy is Son Goku because he wants a constant reminder that he can be better. Man, what are the odds of all three of us being weebs?

It didn't take Kaito long to show up. His thinker powers probably helped him find the best path here.

"Any problems?" I greet him. Shouldn't need anything else. We parted not even half an hour ago.

"None. Wasn't too far away." He started exploring the base. I haven't bothered. I'll figure it out sooner or later.

"I AM HERE!" Maybe Goku should have called himself All Might. Also, it's a little weird the owner of the secret base was the last to arrive. "Sorry for the wait. I spawned on the other side of town. Donald's powers helped me get here quickly though."

With the power of Rival, Goku gets a copy of Donald's Unlimited Trump Works as well as any power he gets from it. Of course he will lose all those powers if Donald stops viewing us as enemies, or he dies. Whichever happens first.

"Were we right about his choices?" I had kinda assumed he got the fusion for his trump powers.

"Kinda? He has the Unlimited Trump Works power fusion, but he didn't get any power upgrades. He instead has several lesser powers."

Good for us. Bad for him.

"Since we are all here now, let's get this show on the road. As powerful as we are now, I'm kinda looking forward to being stupid levels of OP." Kaito just walked back in, eager to begin the exploit I had proposed prior to our transfer.

Without any further ado, I used Self-Rewrite to give myself the tier 1 power: Hive Mind. Using it can create a perfect copy of myself once a day that has all my powers except Hive Mind and is loyal to me.

My new clone then uses Self-Rewrite to get the tier 1 power: Network Hub, which lets us form a network where everyone who joins shares powers.

With Kaito and Goku added we willingly share our tier 3 powers with eachother. Rival gives me access to Unlimited Trump Works (UTW) as long as Donald views me as an enemy, allowing me to add more powers to my repertoire. My Hive Mind clones also get all these powers and whatever they make with Self-Rewrite and UTW. Which they then give me access to.

To make matters even more bullshit, Kaito And Goku now both have Self-Rewrite, UTW, and Hive Mind on top of being part of our power network. Can we get more unfair? Yes. Yes we can.

Ask yourself this: how many UTWs do I have? I have the one Goku obtained from Rival through our network. The network also gives me Rival, allowing me to get a UTW due to Donald viewing me as an enemy. Same goes for Kaito and all our clones, each of them adding more UTWs to the network. I also have the power upgrade: Best of my Own, giving me access to any power my clones obtain.

Now if there was an admin or game master they could say "You only get one" and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, game balance doesn't exist outside of games, and life hacks can't be nerfed.

Those familiar with the lore of Worm and how shards work could point out why this would never work. When you use the power of someone else's shard, you aren't taking power from it. Your shard is simply copying the pattern of that power. Having multiple blueprints of the same power doesn't mean having multiple copies of the same power.

Then there is the problem of your shard running out of power. No matter how many other powers you steal or copy, your own shard has a finite amount of power. Even if power copying did generate multiple versions of the same power, our setup would quickly drain our shards simply by existing.

Which is why we aren't using shards. Shardless power for the win! Not only do we not have to worry about draining our shards, we also don't have alien supercomputers in our heads that may or may not reveal all our secrets.

Shardless power also enables our next layer of bullshit! The shardless power of Universal Aptitude and its upgrade, Universal Power Plant, combined with the Homecoming perk is simply cheating. We can send our Hive Mind clones to any fictional world, and with the powers of Sylar and Neural Network they can learn any power system in no time at all. Obtaining advanced technologies is even easier.

Then there is the Saitama's Will power upgrade that Goku got. As long as we stick to a decent workout routine we can obtain absurd levels of physical might. This complements several power systems out there.

Also, the synergy of Neural Network and Hive Mind? Insane. If Neural Network turns one person into a supercomputer, then Hive Mind lets them create an entire internet of supercomputers.

My favorite combo is still my three tier 3 powers. Self-Inserting for Days has so many possibilities for fun. Also scarry in how it could be used maliciously. I can make a backstory for myself, and the world itself will change to suit that story. People will have memories of me being who I say I am. There will be a paper trail, physical evidence, forum posts, and even pictures will change to include me in them.

The weakness of this power is that none of what it convinces people of ever happened. That person I "killed" is still alive. People were still arrested due to that one law I got repealed.

Also, it doesn't give me the ability to do what I claimed. I could convince everyone that I'm Shadow Stalker's twin brother with the same power she has, but I wouldn't be black or be able to turn into shadows.

But that's where my other two powers come in. I can use Self-Rewrite to make myself fit into any story I like. Be the Butterfly Effect! lets me patch up any of the plot holes. It's made even easier with Vision and Neural Network now helping me plan everything out.

With everything we have going for us, we could rule, save, or destroy the world with ease before the Boston Games even start. By the time cannon begins we could be literal gods. But where's the fun in that?

Why live out one self-insert fantasy when I can live out hundreds? Across multiple worlds. All from the comfort of my new home.

I wonder if interdimensional cable can help me find a season 2 of "No Game, No Life".