Wish upon the Stars chapter 2 pt 2

The next step was, obviously to get a few people to make wishes. But I  was somewhat worried I'd end up screwing myself over if word of my  powers got out, so I had no idea how to do that. Benny, to my surprise,  had an easy answer ready. "Doom Sovereign." I stared at him blankly. "Is  there any reason you need to be physicall standing next to a person  when you grant a wish? Like is that stated in the rules?" I opened my  mouth to respond but then paused to think.

It...wasn't.  The wished were stipulated to have to be withing my stat allocation for  three days, but there was nothing on the contract that made it seem  like I had to be right next to them. I blinked. "Holy shit. Ok, that  might actually work. Plus with Doom Sovereign as a medium no one would  know who I was. Complete anonymity." We were on the bus headed back from  the WCP and I was trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to  use my powers safely and make the money needed for my obfuscator, but  this would definitely do it if it worked.

Benny  grinned. "Hell yeah man. I can imagine it now. Secret rumors of a  shadowy in game figure who makes deals that can give you anything you  want for the right price? Very cool. We just need to figure out a  character name." I gave him a blank look because he'd lost me there, I  had a character. He rolled his eyes. "Your current character has been  associated with you for a long time, man. Plus there's registration to  your scan gear and all that stuff. No, we need to set you up with a new  ID, something clean and untraceable. Luckily my sister bought a new scan  box for her degenerate boyfriend with concealment protocols on it. I  can convince her to give it to us."

By  which he meant blackmail her using knowledge of her whereabouts  tonight, but I wasn't in a position to be picky. We agreed to split up  so he could go get the box. You could technically play Doom Sovereign  with a scan ring, which was basically a scaled down version of a box,  but the amount of the game that would rendered was much lower. A  decently powerful scan box could create an AR hardlight representation  that covered a whole room, a scan ring would only do a foot or so in any  direction. As one might expect, playing a game where you can only see a  foot isn't really appealing.

I  got off the bus and headed for home to take my setup apart so we could  install the new box. My scan box in my gaming room was set up in a  dedicated cradle that supplied power and kept the connection stable. It  didn't take long to remove the box and then it was just a waiting game  while I killed time in preparation for Benny showing up. When he arrived  he looked sour but handed me the box. "I had to promise to help Maria  sneak out for a concert next week, so thanks for making me an  accomplice."

I  shrugged and set up the box. My gaming room, contrary to the image one  might have, was a big empty space with a scan box in the middle. The  lack of furniture made the hardlight construct of the AR interface  easier to project. We fiddled with the settings for a bit before we got  the new avatar set up and finally it was time to boot up. I hit the  button on the box and the room shifted, becoming a hardlight  representation of a small fantasy village. Doom Sovereign spanned more  than a few genres, but I tended to prefer the fantasy segments, and my  target audience would be here too.

The  next several hours were an exercise in frustration. Aside from having  to grind up a new character I also tried to interact with some other  players to try to get them to make a wish. Turns out aside from  anonymity Doom Sovereign being a game also made it nearly impossible to  convince people I was serious about my ability to grant their desires. I  was dismissed as a crackpot and a troll by basically every person I  met. Benny had left a while ago, since two player rigs were rare he  couldn't do anything but sit and watch and he decided to try to join up  and convince people from his end.

On  the upside my new skills were...impressive. Lesser skills might not  sound like much but I was absolutely crushing every quest and battle I  came across. If nothing else maybe once I had ground up some levels I  could convince some people to wish for something. I kept putting the  word out and grinding, enjoying myself as my new much higher level  skills let me crush my enemies. Finally though, I got a friend request.  'Priscilla_Penguin has invited you to her friend's list. Accept?' I  didn't have any reason to refuse so I confirmed the request.

A  split second later a buzzing sounded from my pack. I took out the  communications mirror that everyone got as a starter item in Doom  Sovereign and accepted the call. It was actually a base model, and you  could get much better ones but this was a new account so I hadn't  bothered. My game character was as bland as I could make him and about  forty physically since I figured that would help sell my gravitas. When I  activated the mirror an image of a girl appeared, with my own image  projected back to her.

She  was tiny and pretty cute actually. Very thin and kind of gaunt but  intense. When she saw me her eyes lit up. "Hi, are you the guy?" I  raised an eyebrow at her and she huffed impatiently. "The guy who can  grant wishes or whatever? I mean, I know you probably can't that's  crazy, but I'm desperate. So, are you the guy?" I nodded and she sighed  with relief. "Cool, so here's the deal, I'm up for a scholarship in my  university, I won't say which one because I don't know you."She seemed  somehow sheepish and dismissive at the same time, which was new.

Despite  that she kept talking. "This girl keeps beating me out on all our tests  and I KNOW she isn't as smart as I am. But tomorrow is the cut off date  for the scholarship and if I don't ace this test I'm going to lose it.  So, I wish that I knew all the answers to the test later today." She  finished talking in a bored sort of resigned tone that told me she  legitimately didn't believe this would amount to anything and was  actually just desperate to do SOMETHING. Wish Detected. Grant Wish?

Despite  that I felt my skin tingle, and I grinned as the familiar purple flame  words rolled across my vision. "Well, i can do that for you. The  question is what are you willing to pay?" I tried to keep my voice from  sounding too smug, because I was more than aware that I looked like a  forty year old guy and this girl was in college. My vibe couldn't be too  creepy or it would sound like I was hitting on her. I decided to steer  things. "What kinds of things are you good at? Maybe a skill or  something you don't use or care about anymore. I can trade for that."

She  looked confused. "I...ok, that's a weird price to ask but I...guess?  How would that even work? For skills...I used to be really good at piano  I guess? I was going to pay with money, though I guess I don't really  have much, so maybe that's...better?" She sounded skeptical and unsure,  but honestly that was ideal. I'd decided to do a skill transfer for a  few reasons. First because she seemed like she wouldn't have cash,  second because it proved the "mythical" nature of my powers. Doing  something impossible would spread my rep faster.

As soon as she accepted the terms I granted the wish. The tingle on my skin was as strong as ever. Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 1 Focus, 1 Impact, 1 Perception.  I saw the girl on the other side of the mirror sway and I felt the same  crash of information Benny had mentioned as a ton of information I  didn't have before hit me all at once. Skill acquired- Minor Piano mastery.  It was more intense than my Doom Sovereign skill upgrade, most likely  because it was only a minor skill, but it still felt insane knowing all  these things I hadn't known before.

I  knew how to read sheet music and how to do my scales, I had memories of  practicing a few basic songs over and over again as my fingers ached,  of putting on a recital in a blurry room I couldn't see. But in the end  the transfer finished without too much craziness. On the other side of  the mirror Priscilla_Penguin swayed as her eyes began fade from the  purple glow of my power. She looked at me in absolute awe. The sense of  shock and wonder in her eyes felt pretty amazing, like I was a god or  something, and I couldn't help but quirk my lips up.

Her  voice was shaky as she spoke. "I...I know all the answers. Some of them  were on thing's I was out sick for or hadn't really understood.  You...what are you?" I just smiled blandly at her and she swallowed  hard. "I...thank you." She bowed formally to me. "I'll tell other people  about you. Recommend they come to you. Not sure how many will believe  but I know some who will. This is..." Her lips split into a manic grin.  "This is a dream come true. I have to go. I have to get ready, my test  is soon. Thank you so much." Her voice was trembling in glee and I was  glad to have a satisfied customer.

The  connection closed and I exhaled as I slumped down to the floor. That  had really taken it out of me. I only got three wishes per day. Hell I  didn't even know how to get stronger0. My Thought was cut off by the  purple flame words. Tales of your exploits have begun to  disseminate. You have done a great deed and whispers of your power are in  the ether. Fantasy plus one. My eyes widened as I  hurriedly pulled out my wishmaster scroll. I unrolled it and looked for  my stats and sure enough. One across the board except fantasy, which was  now at two.

I  swallowed hard. So that was how to increase stats. Reputation. It made  sense actually. Doing impressive things being a way to get stronger  explained a lot about the way the Unity ran things. A great deed. So I  needed to do something impressive to increase my stats. Fantasy went up  probably because granting a persons deepest wish had a very fantastic  sort of vibe to it. Now I just had to keep that going. I also considered  getting a piano, I kind of wanted to test out my new skill. plus I had  to admit it matched the whole devilish wishmaster aesthetic.

As  I mulled over my power and how to best use it I got another friend  request on Doom Sovereign. I grinned as I accepted. Seemed like that  girl had called a friend right away and told them to contact me. I  wasn't going to complain about that. More wishes meant more skills, more  money, more power. Basking in this feeling I could totally understand  what led the first Wishmaster to create the WCP. This was kind of  addictive, and it just pushed me even more towards winning this  competition. I had so many more wishes to grant.