Chapter 4: chapter one
Ryga watched through a carved-out igloo window as Aang entertained the children and
Sokka stomped around furiously about it. No need to participate; he knew how that would end
up, and if he wanted to get involved with the plot (which he absolutely did), he could wait until
Katara and Aang went penguin sledding. For now, he needed to figure out why he'd been
transported into a TV show. And also what the hell that little white dot at the corner of his vision
was, visible even over the shining white snow of the igloo walls, not disappearing when he
blinked.
He rubbed his eyes. It didn't go away. He swiped at it. It didn't go away. He poked at it -
and reality changed.
Or, rather, reality paused and had another layer of bizarreness superimposed over it.
The world went perfectly still, the laughing children chasing after Aang on his air scooter frozen
in space. And there were... things. Like the dot, but bigger, and more obvious, and weirder. It
almost looked like a video game HUD - apparently he was at Level 0 with 0 EXP, 0 SKILLS, 0
COMPANIONS, 0 TICKETS, and 0 YUAN. Ouch.
Interesting, but even more interesting was the slip of paper rotating in the center of his
vision. He hesitated, then pressed it the way he'd done with the dot, and the 'screen' (or his
eyes, somehow?) zoomed in on it, with descriptive text popping up beside it. Skill Ticket
purchase. Cost: 20 YUAN. And in smaller text: Tickets can be purchased or won through
quests. No cash value. He swiped at it, but instead of minimizing, it scrolled over to another
ticket. Summon Ticket purchase. Cost: 100 YUAN. Same description underneath.
"Okay," Ryga said to himself. Why not think out loud, right? It wasn't like anyone could
hear him. "So I'm in a fucking Gacha game. But... it's also Avatar." He looked around, not quite
sure what he was looking for. A hidden camera for the world's most ambitious prank show,
maybe. "And I'm just kind of following the plot. Okay. Would've been nice to get a tutorial, at
least, but whatever."
After a longer and more careful examination of the screen than he'd like to admit, Ryga
finally found a 'back' arrow and pressed it. Looked like there were some more icons on each
corner of the screen. Bottom left: QUESTS. Top left: INVENTORY. Top right: WHEEL. Bottom
right: CONTROLS.
The second he spotted the CONTROLS button, he pressed it. That was definitely the
most likely to contain context. Somehow, it only made things more confusing. Apparently he was
supposed to do this complicated hand motion to use a skill, this awkward stomping motion to
summon a companion, etc. Probably would be helpful in the future, but for now? Not so much.
He hit the back arrow and checked the QUESTS menu. Seemed to be a lot, but they
were all locked except one, titled 'WELCOME TO THE SYSTEM! :D'
"Jesus, the thing's getting snarky with me," Ryga muttered, 'clicking' on it anyway. Type:
N/A. Difficulty: 0/5. Description: Welcome to the System, Ryga! Enjoy Avatar! Requirements:
Check out every available sub-menu. Rewards: Skill Ticket 3x. It probably shouldn't have been
surprising that it knew his name at this point, but Ryga still did a double take when he saw it on
the screen.
"Okay... so all I have to do is check WHEEL and INVENTORY. Not so bad." He
navigated over to INVENTORY. He'd expected it to be empty, so he was a little floored when the SKILLS sub-menu actually contained one item: PLOT ARMOR. Type: N/A. Ranking: N/A.
Description: Received upon first entering the System; grants the user the inability to die, as well
as the ability to grant the inability to die to a maximum of three others. Current assignments:
Unassigned x3.
Heart pounding, Ryga hit the 'ASSIGN' button and considered the options: Aang, Sokka,
Katara, Zuko. More options were there, all locked, probably because they wouldn't enter into the
story for a while yet. Ryga hesitated. He wouldn't have to worry about this for a while, since the
plot demanded all of them to stay alive... but then again, the plot didn't exactly account for his
presence, and given how new he was to this world, he wouldn't be surprised if he accidentally
got somebody killed. Hesitated again, then clicked Sokka, Katara, and Aang. Out of the
available options, he'd likely have the least interaction with Zuko, so there was less need to
worry about getting him killed. Besides, it looked like he could switch the assignments whenever
he wanted, so if anyone was in danger he could always transfer it from someone in a safer
position.
Checked on WHEEL, and - yup. Just what it said on the tin. A WHEEL, labeled... Normal
Type?
Brow furrowed, Ryga tapped the wheel and read the description that popped up. "The
Normal Type wheel will allow you to wield any Normal Type Pokemon skill - what??" Ryga put
his head in his hands. "Fuck, man, I thought this was Avatar! Now I'm a Pokemon??"
Apparently that was just another thing to adjust to. Ryga sighed, clicking through the
different wheels. Sure enough, there was a wheel for every Pokemon type - Normal cost one
Skill Ticket; Fire, Grass, Water, Flying, and Bug cost two; Rock, Ground, Steel, Ice, and Electric
cost three; Flying, Fairy, Ghost, Dark, Poison, and Psychic cost four; Dragon cost five. Awh,
guess I won't be getting any Dragon-type moves just yet.
In response to his disappointment, a very jarring confetti storm rained over his vision,
giving way after a second to the words 'QUEST COMPLETED!' in massive text. "Okay. That's
not gonna get old at all." He clicked it and hated how satisfying it was when a ticket icon with a
x3 symbol next to it replaced the text, with the enticing caption of Click to claim!. He clicked, the
tickets flew up to the respective part of his stats menu, and the screen finally settled back down
to the wheel menu. Looked like there was a whole separate screen of wheels for summons, but
it was locked.
Despite all the craziness, he'd figured out a few things.
One: He wasn't going insane. Either that, or this was the most elaborate hallucination
ever, and he seriously doubted his imagination was capable of that.
Two: He really was in the world of Avatar. If that hadn't been obvious from the beginning,
the quest screen had proved it.
Three: He was in a Gacha system, meaning he could get power - virtually any power, at
least from the world of Pokemon - just by inserting a ticket and spinning a wheel.
Ryga had gone to bed the night before with tears drying on his cheeks, covers clenched
in his fists and bunched up to his face. And now he was in a world he never could've dreamed of
seeing in person, with powers that not even the magical residents of this world could dream of
possessing.
If he was crazy, he never wanted to go back to being sane.
Now that he'd confirmed to himself that this was real (or at least resigned himself to
being nuts), Ryga was practically dying to get back into the world and hang out with the people
he'd always wanted more than anything to be friends with. First, though, he should probably
spend those tickets.
Of course, he could save them for now and get a stronger type of skill later on. Probably
wasn't a good idea, though; Ryga had played enough video games to know that at the start of
the game, you used all the resources at your disposal and waited until you were in a comfy spot
to start saving up. Only question was which skills to spend his currently available tickets on.
Getting one Ice, Ground, whatever skill would be a pretty big risk. He'd have no fallback
if he got something terrible, and even if it was great, it'd just be the one, which meant no
versatility. Three Normal-type skills wouldn't be good, either; in the games, at least, they didn't
have any Type advantages, and they probably wouldn't be very strong in comparison to more
expensive ones. That left him with the option of one Normal-type skill and one... well, elemental
skill.
Ryga looked out at the paused world behind all the menus and grinned. Only one option,
really. He navigated over to the Water-type wheel and pressed the overly flashy SPIN!! button. A
ticket disappeared from his Stats menu, the wheel began to spin, finally landing on...
"Flip Turn." Ryga chewed his lip. Certainly a safe option, but he wasn't thrilled about
putting his favorite characters - well, not so much characters anymore, he supposed - in danger,
especially in his place. It could work well, but he'd have to use it carefully. Good thing I didn't
dump all my Tickets into one skill, I guess. Now for the Normal-type skill. Hopefully something
more useful this time...
"BATON PASS??" Ryga threw his hands up in the air. "Damn it, System! I want a
refund!" Just his fuckin' luck, spending an extra ticket on essentially a weaker version of the
same skill. "I'm gonna need some more of those goddamn tickets."
According to the pause screen, the only way to get tickets was to either buy them with
real money or to complete quests. And, naturally, he was broke. Ryga closed his eyes and took
a deep breath, trying very hard not to get incredibly frustrated. "Okay. So what's the next quest?"
SUNKEN SHIP. Type: Story. Difficulty: 1/5. Description: Help Katara and Aang explore
the Fire Nation ship! Just make sure somebody hits that booby trap! Story purposes and all.
Requirements: Activate the booby trap on the Fire Nation ship. Rewards: Skill Ticket 2x,
Summon Ticket 1x. And all the rest of them were locked.
Great. Wonderful. Perfect.
Well... at least he had an excuse to get out there and talk to people he'd idolized from
behind a screen for years, right?
Somehow, realizing that this was what he actually had to do next was more stressful
than exciting.
Ryga closed down the menus, looked around at the paused world around him, and
sighed. Time to hopefully not screw up a whole alternate dimension.
He pressed the white button, and the world came to life again.
SKILL MENU:
PLOT ARMOR
TYPE: N/A
RANKING: N/A
DESCRIPTION: Received upon first entering the System; grants the user the inability to die, as
well as the ability to grant the inability to die to a maximum of three others.
FLIP TURN
TYPE: WATER
RANKING: 2/5
DESCRIPTION: After making their attack, the user rushes back to switch places with a party
member in waiting.
BATON PASS
TYPE: NORMAL
RANKING: 2/5
DESCRIPTION: The user switches places with a party member in waiting and passes along any
stat changes.
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