A Certain [Gamer] in a Valkyrie Academy

Prologue

It was morning in Japan. Many people were just waking up. Many of them had their usual morning routine, some had their oddities, but one stood out from the rest.

Beep!

[Congratulation! You have become ‘The Protagonist’! Let’s start raising flags!]

“What the…”

Our hero, Glynne Romero, just stared at the thing in front of him. A screen, like a notification. He had just woken up when it suddenly appeared in front him. He blinked and blinked, thinking it was a hallucination of sorts. But no matter how much he does it and time passed it stayed and refused to vanish. He tried looking around the room, but the screen just followed his line of sight, always staying in the center of his vision.

After several seconds of wondering what he needed to do, he reached out and ‘clicked’ the screen with a grunt and some hesitation. After that the screen suddenly vanished with a small electronic sound, leaving him to his own devices.

“…huh. Well that was…” he mumbled to himself. That was a weird way to start up the morning

‘Good morning!’

With a small manly yelp and a flinch, he was surprised by the sudden voice that he heard. It sounded a like a young girl’s voice.

‘Hehe, sorry about that.’ The voice said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Who are you?” Glynne asked, becoming alert. He looked around the room, only to not see anyone with him. “And where are you?”

He heard the voice giggle a small bit, likely because of his reactions. But he traced no malice from her, only sensing childish innocence.

‘Ahem. My name is ‘A Reality Overwriter’s Nifty Assistant’, but you can call me Arona for short. I am an AI that’s here to help you with your powers’ She introduced herself. ‘As for where I am, I’m inside your head…I think.’

“Inside my head? Wha…?”

Question marks appeared on Glynne’s head as he stood up from his bed to do his morning routines and opening the TV to check the news. It showed how a bunch of young women called Valkyries are fighting beasts called Honkai beasts. Then he realized something about what she said. “Wait, powers?”

‘Yes, you have powers. Well, aside from the ones you already have.’ The boy flinched at her words. How did she…he heard the AI giggle at his reaction yet again. ‘I am in your head, silly. That means I have access to your memories, or at least some of them.’

“So it seems…” the boy muttered with a small frown. He’s not quite sure he was ok with another person just knowing his memories, and likely also capable of reading his mind. He’ll leave that one for later though, he needed to know what powers the girl was talking about. “What powers were you talking exactly?”

‘Reality warping’

Her words made him spit out the coffee he was drinking, making her laugh. The ability to manipulate reality? Why and how did he gain that kind of power?! He was not sure he was ready for that kind of responsibility!

‘To answer your questions, I’m also not quite sure what my origins are. Same goes with your powers’ she admitted. ‘All I know is your power and that I and it suddenly appeared in you.'

That didn’t help his confidence. For all he knows, the world was probably giving away free reality warping powers to everyone, or some god decided to choose him as a plaything by giving him free powers to see what he’ll do with them.

‘Don’t worry’ the AI said. ‘You can’t control reality, only your powers can. It just decides things on its own.’ So he can’t control his powers? Great… ‘And call It a hunch, but I believe only you have received this power. You’re quite unique because of it’

The boy pondered her words. While he was happy he wasn’t saddled with a huge responsibility, he was more scared that his powers can apparently just do things without his consent.
“Can you tell me more about my powers?”

‘Sure!’ Arona happily replied before clearing her throat. ‘You have the power of [The Gamer]!’

“The Gamer?” he questioned.

‘Your life is like a video game! You get drops, exp, gold, and gacha.’ Arona answered. ‘Well I say like that, but your primary powers are like a Dating Sim or Eroge, while the RPG stuff come secondary.’

“Dating Sim? Eroge?” asked Glynne, confused at some of the terminologies.

‘Oh right, you’re not into video games much like others…’ she realized. ‘It’s hard to describe to words, so I think it’s best if you play those yourself. Besides, you still need to go to that boat.’

Glynne blinked at her words, before quickly checking the time. Apparently he hasn’t realized how long he’s been trying to figure out his powers that the boat will sail in a quarter of an hour. With a quick curse, the black-haired boy quickly changed clothes and grabbed his things before leaving the motel he was staying at, all the while Arona was cheering him on.

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*taps mic* Uh, testing testing... Welcome to mic- I mean, my fic, everyone. As you can read from the description, this story is based on Riguill's 'A Certain Boy' series, so better read that first if you want some general information.

It actually also takes from other fics, most predominantly 'SAO The Eroge' by SaintInfernalNeos in regards to Glynne's dating sim powers. God I love that fic, and I'm not even an SAO fan.

Anyway, THANKS FOR READING!

???: Huh, where am I?

Y-you! What are you doing here?!

???: Wow. If I had a nickel for every time someone said 'What are you doing here?!' to me I'd have two nickels.