This is a rewrite of my first very serious fic ‘Spirit of the Gamer’. It is a Bleach/Gamer fic where... well, I used every horrid gamer trope now known. It IDs left and right, random loot, and just going to the sketchy manipulative people. It was... not good XD

So thought I give it another try but I can’t promise it’ll be good this time either.

Remember the golden Stew rule. Characters before Character sheets.

I have 74 chapters to copy over from Spacebattles, so if you feel like things are moving slow, don't sweat it. I'll update like 3 a day to ease people in and give comments at general times.

And one more thing... people comment on the System's attitute. Know that she becomes one of the more popular characters. Just give it time ^^

---

When playing spot the anime protagonist, what do you look for?

Well, besides the supernatural powers and weird coincidences that are totally not being controlled from the shadow by puppet masters? The hair. In a world dictated by the power of power-ups, magic, and bullshit magic swords, you always look for the hair.

In a sea of black hair, lightish brown, and a few spiky blond rebels sat a lone ginger. He was even sitting in that seat. Bored and looking out the window.

Good thing tradition was respected or I have a hard time believing I was here. Well, despite what my handy little power was saying.

Stealth has increased to level 4!

I should probably go back to the start of this sordid tale.

It began a long time ago...

---

4 hours earlier.

I might have just died.

I stared up at the unnatural blue sky of the world above me. I ached. That sucked.

Dead people shouldn’t ache. Then again, maybe that’s why they were so damn grumpy all the time? I closed my eyes.

I remembered smoke... heat... screaming of a scared lady. No wait, that was me. Well, what a way to go. I shifted and itchy gravel moved under me. It looked like that crap people put on their roofs to make people not want to spend time there.

Death by smoke. Always knew it would kill me in the end. I stood up with a wobble as I took in my afterlife. It was surprisingly... metro. White gleaming buildings, endless traffic, people buying from trendy shops.

Oddly, it was a bit tamer than I was expecting! Then again, dead people had been dying since people existed. I should have guessed they keep up with the living trends! I was on a very tall roof so I peered over the edge and nearly topped over to a new death by pavement by a ringing noise behind me. I spun, heart pounding as I saw the strangest thing yet.

A floating black box with white writing.

The game has started. There is no tutorial. Reality is what you make of it.

...You have rested outside in bad terrain. 10% healed!

The box remained and I stared.

The box remained floating. I stared.

Box. I.

I... swatted at it like it was a ghastly phantom. It blurred as my hand moved through it. Was this some system for the dead? Did we all get this? Why did mine have an ominous fortune cookie message?!

I finally hit some exit button in the corner and the window just blipped out of existence without so much as a howdy do.

So... that was happening. This was happening. I turned back to the city and decided, just for a moment, to pretend I was not dead. I let that thought go on its merry way, it picked up speed, hit a few snags and rebounded with a little question.

Where the hell or, hopefully, heaven was I?

I read signs in words that blurred between an odd house looking letters and English. The two blurred for a moment until all I saw was English. Ads advertised clothes, cars, fast food...

“Black box thing? Please help,” I pleaded. Another box opened up and showed a map that was 99.999% filled in except for a tiny little island in the middle... which blinked cheerful white.

The top read a cheerful 20 Celcius, the side showed a sunny symbol with a tiny hint of cloud. The bottom read as Karakura Town, the right of the map bad a bar from gentle green at the bottom to high red at the top with the words ‘Hollow population’ stamped neatly long it.

“No, I refuse,” I said bluntly. The map didn’t seem to care about that at all. It blinked cheerfully and in the island of white with my little paler icon blinking, came a red symbol. What on earth was tha-

An explosion rocked the streets below and I grabbed the mesh chain fence as I fell from the shockwaves.

“Jesus Christ, everything is on fire! Again!” I yelled and threw myself to the ground in case the building felt like topping.

I felt it then, passing the sounds of screaming, cars honking horns, alarms screeching, and the sound of something crunching. A wave of pressing... horrid darkness. I couldn’t breathe... I couldn’t move.

Spiritual pressure exceeds your own! You are unable to move efficiently!

A black box announced as it appeared in my vision. Spirit... I moved my eyes up to where chunks of the chain fence were being ripped slowly apart by something yanking itself up. I couldn’t see it... But I felt it.

A deep endless hunger and something primal in me wanted to curl up and hope it didn’t see me. Wind exploded over me as something launched past, sailing over me. I didn’t exist to it... I was worth nothing to it. I saw a slight blur of a thing and it was gone.

I was spared due to being nothing. Now there was a thought and a chilling one.

“Mr. Black Box? Can I go home?” I asked quietly. The box appeared it repeated its earlier words.

The game has begun.

“Can I not play?” I asked hopefully as my dread seemed to ebb with every second that creature put between us.

The box dinged once.

Reality is what you make of it. Playing is the same as not playing. Playing simply offers a longer existence.

...You have learned Danger Sense lv 1! Sense bloodlust and dangerous foes from a distance! Range: Within feet.

“Thanks, really useful,” I groaned and sat up, pulling more gravel out my hair.

“Show me what I got to work with,” I asked, deciding I might as well see if I could run next time I feel that monster... within feet of me. Yesh.

The box unfolded like paper art.

True name: Russel Rivers

Given name:

Nickname:

Title: The Gamer

Physical: 5

Spiritual: 5

Energy: 5

Mental: 5

Skills:

Danger sense 1: You can sense the danger of a truck traveling into your face within inches!

Gamer Body Max: Allows the body to be adaptable and attain growth.

Gamer Mind Max: Allows visualization of menus and pop-ups! Allows user to see unique Gamer elements in the world!

Quest: You have no motivations and thus deserve a pity pat.

“Can I turn off your attitude?” I asked with eyes narrowed. The box shifted.

The system was designed perfectly and functional. No options to allow tinkering. Please work hard not to die!

“Tell me why I should even work with you?” I waved a hand as I tried to gather my thoughts.

System lets you see skills and effort rewarded. It also lets you use stat points and other functions. System is key to not dying. Dying is bad. Please do not terminate life User. Dying is not good.

The words dug deeper with each line.

“I don’t like you.”

System is honored.

I closed the damn thing. I knew one thing for sure. If this was... if this was... the damn world of a cleaning product then I was in massive danger. Being in this city was like asking to be eaten, crushed, turned into an evil gimp monster, have your soul sucked out, get used by a smug ass to reach God, or even worse, get dragged into teenage drama bullshit!

This town sucked and yet I’m not sure I could leave because outside this town. I knew nothing and I was pretty sure there had to be other afterlives and hollows abound.

What if I ran into something worse than Aizen plotting his wicked schemes?

But staying meant I had to deal with Aizen...

The Aizen I know... or the Aizen I don’t know?

Well, fuck it. I might as well see where the heck I was in this magical timeline. I just needed to find a school with a pissed-off looking ginger kid.

How hard could that be?

Quest accepted: Find out if you’re doomed or not! Reward: 1 Stat point. Failure: Bitter crippling fear of the unknown.

Shush you.

---

Karakura Academy, Karakura Reform School. Karakura Culinary school. Jesus Christ, I just wanted a damn anime protag, how hard could this be?!

I stopped as people gave me an odd look but I could hardly blame them. I was walking around with no shoes in a tank top and shorts.

I was lucky it was so hot...

I stomped to the next location on my tourist map.

Karakura school was marked seven times on the map and this better be the one I’m looking for or I might just give up.

Crippling despair of unknown will be received upon failure. Would you like to ‘give up’?

I closed it. I stopped responding after the fourth time it asked. It clearly liked pissing me off.

I slowed as the building came into view. Hot damn... it was hazy but this looked like the place! I could almost see where Orihime would fight exploding squid tentacle, parasite bitch.

God, Hollows were fucking weird.

So it was early enough that school hadn’t started and I bet hanging outside the main gate would get the police on me pretty fast... I looked around and saw there were no good waiting spots. There was also the secondary problem of shelter... food... resources... giant monsters. Common issues of a homeless person.

“How come you haven’t given me an ‘observe’ skill or heat resistance or... ya know... stats for walking?” I scratched at my chin as I asked.

Looking at things like you are mentally challenged does not count as observing things. You barely got a suntan and if walking for an hour made you fit, obesity would be a fairy tale. System rewards effort. Not whims.

“So you wanna see me suffer?”

System prefers... encouraging growth under duress!

“I don’t like you.”

Note 45 of this remark is store for emotional value to System for later need of cheer.

I shut it off and decided I might as well see if I could get into a spot to stalk some kids via inside their school building. It let me see if I could actually do this whole... Gamer thing. I slipped into the open door and vanished into a toilet. I pushed up into the ceiling panel and shimmed inside.

Most schools had some decent spacing under their floors for wiring and the occasional horror story.

I walked carefully along with the pink insulation that keeps the building warm and the outside out. I soon found what I was looking for. A slim shaft that had connections and wires running up it.

This was going to suck to climb but I remembered... that my Anime Protag, Ichigo Kurosaki, had a classroom high up.

Now, I had to just shimmy up this shaft, sneak about. Avoid deadly spirit using teenagers, and hopefully not find a dead body!

I wasn’t optimistic about any of this.

Wisdom increased by 1!

I grinned until my face fell.

“I don’t have a wisdom stat,” I said bluntly.

System is proud of you regardless for trying.

I was going to murder my power long before Aizen could get me.