Realistic or Modern 𝗟𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 - 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻

[SleepyConley]

╰──╮ ❇ ╭──╯



The Gift changed so many lives. But it also caused others to go insane. Seeing everyone you love and hate gaining new magical powers while you're still stuck at the bottom can be frustrating. Trust me, I know better than anyone else.

My name is Axel Lee, I'm an F rank, which means I'm the lowest of the low. An F rank is almost as rare as an S rank to put things into perspective a little bit. Yeah, I got nothing from The Gift.

However, today, when I woke up. I discovered that magical cards with words on them keep manifesting from nothing in front of me. I'll ask a question, and boom, magical card. I catch them of course, but still, what is happening? Okay magical card, "What are you?"

Okay, let us see what it says: "I am your new power, increaser, you've been re-gifted!"

Power...? Wait...? Why did it call me increaser? I need to know more... "No, tell me everything."

A new piece of paper, hm, "You gained the power to increase the power of yourself and those around you by completing quests. To get a quest, simply ask for one and for who!"

Wait...? This is real? No way...

I'm afraid to test it on myself, I need to find someone who can test it first.

Maybe I'll make an ad on craigslist?

"Looking for reapers D rank and lower to test out new power."

Guess that will do?

​

 

[SleepyConley]

╰──╮ ❇ ╭──╯​

Nothing matters. That is what I keep telling myself. It is what I've always told myself. I'm weak, we're weak. This is how we met. It all started with me waking up to some crazy new powers and me idiotically posting an ad on craigslist... I guess this is how most things start out, by sheer luck. The Gift gave most of its power to the ones it favored and it looks like now, it is favoring me. It is my turn to have some luck.

I finally found someone willing to try out my power. They're coming over to my house, they're around my age, maybe older. Because craigslist is local, they must be familiar to the area a little. Their name is Jolly Belle, what a pretty name, never heard something like that before... according to what they sent me, they're just as weak as I am. So she should be a good candidate.

I'll have a card prepared for her for when she gets here. "System, thing, whatever this is. I want to power up Jolly Belle."

Boom. It gave me a card, I can see the quest it gave Jolly: "Stand up to a bully to receive a rank increase."

 

[SolsticeArcanum]

Joe is currently trying to train for his fight that's later tonight in his apartment. Joe's mind is filled with the loud cries of his neighbor's puppies and the pup's mom quiet barks through the thin walls. The pup's constant cries; "Mom! Mom! Mommy!" The mother tries to hush her pups; "Quiet down children, the scary man living next door can hear you." Joe hits his punching bag harder and harder before.. BAM!! Joe punches a hole through his punching bag. "Shit.." Joe exclaims. Joe unhooks his punching bag and put it in the corner of his room. "And I just ran used my last repair kit yesterday.." Joe puts earbuds in his ears and plays Metallica, he cranks up the volume close to max trying to mute out the dog's voices in his head. Joe scrolls through craigslist looking for cheap patch-up kits for his punching bag. He comes across an ad listing for someone wanting to test their power. Joe looks at his watch. He thinks; 'I have 3 more hours until my fight. I might as well help this fool and get some quick cash to increase my betting pool.' Joe puts the location into his GPS. 'That's a good distance away. I'll be able to work up a good sweat. Might be there in 30 minutes or less if I go fast enough.' Joe leaves his apartment locking the door behind him and sprints to the location in his GPS.

 

[PlusUltra]

Rebecca Lee

Rebecca was a girl who seemingly had nothing and had come from nowhere, going through her life with grit and effort alone regardless of what got thrown her way. There was also the fact she had a keen perception of the world around her, in particular sniffing out opportunities and capitalizing on the few advantages she could find. This is what had gotten her where she was, and also what brought her to take note when a group of higher ranks mocked a Craigslist ad that piqued her interest. While not one to take shortcuts in particular, her efforts so far had consistently resulted in stagnation, not falling down but not rising up either, so she had nothing to lose by at least giving it a shot.

That is what brought her to the relatively nice house in a nice neighbourhood and gave four firm knocks on the door of a relative stranger. She maintained caution regardless though, just because it didn't look like a typical run-down banger house didn't mean those inside could not be involved in some messed up stuff under the guise of upstanding citizens.

SleepyConley

 

[SleepyConley]

╰──╮ ❇ ╭──╯​

I'm getting more people to be interested than I thought. Jolly Belle from earlier messaged me back, it seems like the power really worked! It increased their rank by one... Outstanding. I got to be careful about this. I'm taking down my craigslist ad, for now I'm going to focus on the ones I have interested for right now. I have Jolly, Joe and Rebecca. All low ranks, except Joe seems to be interesting...

I'll go ahead and prepare two cards for them.

Let's see what Joe's card says: "Win a fight to get a rank increase." Interesting, he doesn't look like the kind of person to be doing fighting. Must be a bunch of low ranks that like to fight and hangout probably.

Rebecca's card says: "Accept Axel Lee as your mentor, understand he can help you. Do this to rank up." Woah woah woah! I never said I'd be taking people as a mentor... what a strange quest.

 

[SolsticeArcanum]

On Joe's sprint to the house he runs past an animal shelter. When going past it, Joe's mind is flood with whimpers, cry, and yells. Joe does his best to mute out the sounds with his music and arrives at Axel's house. Joe looks at the house. He thinks; 'So this is the place.. best not be some kind of trap.' Joe knocks on the door of the house. Joe waits for Axel to come to the door, he plays some more calming and classical music than before due to the lack of animal's voices. But the few voices he does hear are happy.

 

[PlusUltra]

The shabbily dressed girl held up the card for several moments looking between it and the man before them with a raised eyebrow. She honestly was sceptical about the entire ordeal and it seemed far too convenient that it just so happened to say to accept the guy who put the ad up. Looking back at the card though, it was certainly weird how the card had her name on it before she had even given it, it was curious how the text had changed when it had been given to her from English to Korean. It was the latter aspect that confirmed this was a gift power instead of just a trick, though she gave the card a quick bite and sniff for good measure, making sure it was not printed on some fancy stock card.

"Ok, I'll bite, what's your real angle here? Getting people hooked on these little cards with a free taste before upping your asking price for the next one?" she paused studying the man's expression "Though looking at your face did you not expect this card to say what it does too huh? Hmm so guess someone else set this up, whoever's deciding the whole gift things got a weird sense of humour" letting out a sigh and slotting the card away she stretches slightly "Eh screw it, might as well see how it plays out, but Im not calling you master, boss, sensei, or anything else goofy got it?"

SleepyConley

 

[SleepyConley]

╰──╮ ❇ ╭──╯​

At the door are two people, Joe and Rebecca. I told them the whole situation, explaining that I woke up to someone, something, I don't know, talking to me. Apparently I can increase power but to think so far it would increase the power of people so easily... Jolly Belle got her rank increased. I've been texting her.

Rebecca seemed to be extremely hesitant. I don't blame her though, I don't even want to be a mentor. Now suddenly I have someone who wants to be my student just because a magical card told her to.

Well let us see. Did it work?

Rebecca's card will glow and the words will change: "Congratulations! Your rank has increased!"

 

[PlusUltra]

As the sudden rush of power hit her system Rebecca instinctively tossed the card in her hand away as it had just electrocuted her, backing up slightly not fully able to understand what just happened for several moments as her eyes flashed between Axel and the card. Flexing her hand slowly she finally turned her attention back to him.

"Ok so not a complete scam, but did you actually ask the question who you're talking to? You asked what, but not who or where they are from" She kept her eye on him as her hand continued to open and close steadily "Furthermore, What happens now your little tests have gone over presumably well?"

SleepyConley

 

[SleepyConley]

╰──╮ ❇ ╭──╯​

She makes a good point... Who or what am I talking to? "System, who are you?"

The card says: "I am curated by the Overlo- I was created when the Overlo- Simply put AAxxell, I was created just for you, I am nobody."

Strange. I can't believe it actually powered her up though... and I wonder... does it work on me too? "System, can I rank up to?"

Another card: "Increaser, Axel Lee, wants to RANK UP. To RANK UP, you need to rank up people 2 more times."

Okay, so Jolly and Rebecca have ranked up. I guess I should try ranking them up again?

"Rebecca, are you interested to see just how far we can go?"

 

[PlusUltra]

She nods while idly waving her hand "Seeing how far I can go has fit me to a T so far, So don't see why not. Heck might even be able to get some cash from those damn dungeons if this works. Its likely part of what this Overlord wants anyway so makes sense to take advantage of that".

This guy seemed just as lost on all of this as she was to be honest, its hard to take cluelessness like this so she was going to assume it was mostly genuine, which also meant he was playing this by ear with no real plan. No plan also meant no manipulation for now at least.

SleepyConley

 

[Spoiled Bread]

Eclair
Location: McRonald -> Axel's place

Scrolling through craiglist, there's not many customer currently so she used this opportunity to do some browsing. This current job of her didn't pay much so she wanted to look for something better. One of the post piqued her interest, someone claimed they had been re-gifted and was looking for someone to try their new power on. Re-gifted? Was that even possible? Nevertheless, she decided to take the request.

"Mark, is there anything that needs delivery?" She asked one of her co-worker.

"Well, there's some fries in the making, should be here soon. James would handle it."

"I see, I'm taking it. Tell James to switch with me in the cashier." Wasting no time, Eclair immediately put her delivery jacket on and took the finished fries inside the delivery box. The engine roared as it ran across the city. The delivery itself wasn't actually that far but she just need an excuse to buy time. After dropping the fries to the intended customer she headed towards the address on the ad. She saw there's a;ready a few people gathering on the place.

"Name's Eclair, come here for the power ad." She introduced herself with short no-nonsense manner to everyone present, she didn't know which one posted the ad afterall.

SleepyConley PlusUltra SolsticeArcanum

 

[SolsticeArcanum]

After Joe hears Axel’s words he thought it was a joke until what happened with Rebecca. “So this is real? Alright…” Joe takes a better look at his card. Joe think; ‘Win a fight, huh? Easy enough.’ Joe takes out his phone and looks at the time. “Sorry, but I gotta go! I’ll get back to you if this thing works!” Joe changes his music to metal, preparing to go past the animal shelter again then rushes to the door. “Seeya!” Joe goes out the door and slams it shut. Joe sprints to his apartment.

Once there Joe gathers some of his fighting gear into a black duffel bag. Joe sprints out of his apartment and to a run down warehouse. Joe knocks on the door and someone responds. “Who is it?” Joe yells; “It’s me fool!” The man makes a snarky response; “Sorry, ‘fool’, but no entry.” Joe gets mad; “Just open the damn door, Greg!” The man behind the door responds while snickering; “You gotta tell me your name.” Joe groans, he then says, in an annoyed voice; “The Beast..” The man behind the door laughs. He slowly stops laughing. “Ah~ Why didn’t you just say so~” The man says. Joe could hear him smiling. The door to the warehouse door slide open. Inside was a big space housing a fighting ring, tons of seats surrounding the ring, lights, and even a second story. It was completely empty since he had gotten there early. Joe says to Greg quickly; "I'm going to the back to change my outfit, come get me when it's time." Greg responds, "Alright.. 'The Beast.'" Greg bursts out laughing. Joe sighs, "If you weren't my friend, I'd kill you."

(Less muscular than in the photo.)
Around half-an-hour passes by. Joe has now changed into some shorts and jacket(that is barely on), and Joe is now lacking his shirt. Greg knocks on the door, "It's showtime." Joe sighs and walks over to the door to exit the room, he can hear an introduction for him being told to the audience. He puts his head against the door, Joe takes a deep breath before opening the door. Joe walks out the door and down a row of seats he looks at the roaring crowd smiling. Joe stops half-way down his walk, he raises his hands up causing the crowd to scream louder, he then lowers his hands causing the crowd to scream quieter. Joe gets into the ring and turns looking at all of the betters and waving to the few women. He takes off his jacket then throws it to Greg. Joe turns back to the ring looking at his opponent, Joe looks at them shocked. It was a kid, no older than 18. Joe looks back at Greg with a worried expression. Greg looks at Joe confused about what has him so worried. Joe turns back to the kid and thinks; 'Please just don't try to keep going. I don't want to have to kill you..'

(Quick explanation, at Greg's warehouse where the fighting events has being held, illegally, there is are three rules that have been set. One: Only people of the same rank can fight or else it is deemed unfair. Two: No matter what, powers are not allowed to be used in fights. Three: The fight will go on until one of the contestants concede, or are forced to concede, via being knocked unconscious. But when contestants aren't knocked out or when they choose not to concede fights will go to the death. This has happened before. Now back to the fight.)

The crowd roars as the two contestants get ready to fight. Joe's plan for the fight is to stop the kid from being able to fight, without having do to much damage. The fight begins. The kid makes the first move, he rushes towards Joe taking a boxing stance. Joe watches the kid's movements thinking they were sloppy and predictable, so he prepares to block a straight forward attack, but the kid does a quick hook to the area below Joe's ribs. The attack lands. Joe is taken aback, now knowing that the kid actually has some experience. Joe takes a quick kick at the kids shoulder to bruising it limiting his punch's strength, Joe holds back his strength when he makes the attack. The kid jumps back grabbing onto his shoulder wincing in pain. Joe rushes towards the kid planning to take a punch at the kid's chest. The kid responds with dodging which Joe wasn't expecting. The kid then goes for another hook below Joe's ribs, but Joe was now prepared for this attack. Joe grabs the kid's arm and flips the kid onto his back, but not slamming him down. The kid get's the wind knocked out of him. Joe goes for final hit into the kid's gut. But unexpectedly the kid gets the upper hand on Joe by kicking his face. The kid the springs up and delivers a blow to Joe's ribs. The kid has developed a pattern. Take Joe for surprise and punch him at the same place. Joe realizes that the kid is actually a inexperienced in fighting, that the kid probably just picked up something off of YouTube. Keeping his cool, Joe takes another punch at the kid's chest, but when the kid tries to dodge he messes and Joe punches the kid straight in the throat. The kid gets knocked back into the ropes of the having the wind fully forced out of his lungs and his throat crushed.

Joe looses his composure and rushes over to the kid to check on him. The kid tries to take breathes, but it becomes really difficult for him. Joe yells; "Greg call for an ambulance!" Greg gets scared and stutters; "B-b-but.." Joe yells again; "He's a kid! Call a damn ambulance!" The kid looses consciousness. Joe yells: "Greg!" Greg quickly takes out his phone and calls 911 for an ambulance, but for a few blocks away from the warehouse. Joe collects his jacket from Greg and wraps it around the kid, he slowly picks up the kid and rushes out of the warehouse. Greg keeps all of the betters in the warehouse. He also collects the money bets were placed on he split the winnings in 2 halves. Half for him and Joe, and half to give out to everyone who made bets on Joe winning.

Joe is still carrying the kid and running down the three blocks, luckily Joe got there before the ambulance. Joe paced back and forth waiting for the ambulance. The ambulance arrived at the scene and the kids heart wasn't beating. The EMTs were confused about the situation and tried to ask questions but Joe kept telling them to focus on the kid. After a while they had gotten the kids heart to start beating again, but the kid didn't wake up, he was in a comatose state. Joe was asked to wait for the police to come by and get some answers out of him. Joe did his best to tell the cops everything he could without incriminating himself or the kid. Joe had returned to his apartment after being questioned. Joe left the rank up card beside his bed in his apartment when he went to the warehouse. Joe was hesitant to even take a look at the card but did anyway.

 

[Lady Moldoma]

Gifting. Everyone received some gift of some kind, it was just the nature of what the world had become. Like some sort of anime. And of course picking on people below you became the common-most past-time among those between the ranks of C and B. If you were A rank though, you probably didn't bother with that sort of stuff. And S rank had the ability to destroy entire nations with ease. The system that had been created disgusted Alice. If people were prejudiced against her already because she was transgender, things could only go downhill when they found out she was F-Rank too.

She wondered what the point to it all was. Why she even bothered to wake herself up every morning. Sometimes she wished her power was just to go to sleep and not wake up. At least that'd be more interesting than having a slightly stretchier body than the average person.

What can you even do with a flexible body? Touch your toes easier? lick your elbow easier?

It didn't help that stretching herself often hurt because her body hadn't fully developed its ability due to a conflict with her hormone therapies.

When she got an ad on her computer about someone who wanted to test a new ability on those D-Rank or lower after being "Re-gifted" there were two things that filled her head.

One, that it was probably just a trick that someone had set up to lure in low level gifted for target practice; two, if it were true, she was incredibly jealous of this person, but could only seem to muster crying in bed after reading it. Too demoralized to get angry.

After 13 minutes crying she decided that she would get up and maybe try and go to meet this person. The concept of re-gifting had just pushed them a little over the edge, so if it really was someone in A-Rank or S-Rank wanting to sadistically test their power on others, she decided that she could at least end up dying with dignity and putting a permanent stain on said persons record.

She arrived soon enough after eclair. Well, nobody was covered in blood or horribly disfigured yet. So that was a good sign.

"Y-You made an ad on craigslist?" She called over to Axel, holding up a screenshot of the webpage with the ad. "I-If you're an A-Class or an S-Class who just wants target practice... Then fine... Just... Please have someone address my belongings to my pet cat if whatever power you have kills me..." Her tone was overly melancholic and dramatically depressed. She genuinely did feel all of what she said though. And wasn't simply just playing up her pain for sympathy or anything.