NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: Pip-Boy
Moving on down the list again, we have agility. Man, do I hate cardio, so that's probably the primary reason why it's lagging slightly behind my strength by 1. That said, an increase of 3 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to a total of 4 is still a pretty good number nonetheless for the amount of time I've invested in training it.
The increase in my agility has increased my maximum speed, my jump height, and my flexibility by quite a significant margin from my previous 1 agility. Though I am still slightly behind what a normal human adult can physically achieve. But for a 10-year-old, those numbers are basically prodigy-level. I know that to be so because any time I'm on the track running or doing just about any other agility-based activity with anyone my own age, I always leave them in my dust without fail.
Okay, time to look at the last S.P.E.C.I.A.L. on the list, luck.
So I've tried to train my luck via multiple luck-based activities. However, after about a year of trying, it has not increased by even a single damn point. As a result of that, I decided to cut my losses while I was ahead and discontinue dedicating any further time to training it.
Besides having no luck with improving my own luck, I have noticed my luck in this life is noticeably better than I had in my previous life. One such effect of that better luck is me somehow tripping over nothing and falling face-first into an attractive, well-endowed woman's chest. I sure hell thought I was going to get into a heap of trouble, but thankfully she didn't make a big deal out of it and let me off scot-free.
I can't with absolute certainty attribute it to that sole S.P.E.C.I.A.L. since me ending up in that situation and getting out of it without any sort of trouble whatsoever was certainly not possible in my past life. Maybe it's because of my increased luck in combination with the sex appeal trait I took years ago, and me being 10.
She was blushing and treating me quite well after the incident, so Sex Appeal might be why she didn't take issue with what happened. Though I don't know how much sex appeal a 10-year-old boy could have, even if I am a bit ripped and look older than I am.
Well, whatever I shall see, if the result remains the same in the future or if their reactions change. And while I'm at it I could also try to do some experiments with it, such as trying to control my luck to prevent that sort of outcome from occurring in the first place. Since any time it does happen, it makes things a bit awkward and uncomfortable, or at least for me it does.
Now that luck has been covered, I'm done with my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s.
Other than my S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s generally improving minus a few exceptions, I managed to get my hands on quite a few microfusion cells about 200 so far that I can use as ammo for when I acquire a laser rifle. If not that, I can simply modify them and turn each of them into makeshift grenades at a moment's notice if the need arises.
Though I doubt one such need will occur because for the nine years I've been living down here, I haven't encountered a single real problem that would require violence to resolve it. Despite it's nice to have the option of turning my enemies to ash via a corona of energy.
Returning to what I've been able to loot over the years, I scrounged up a good amount of scrap metal, electronics, duct tape, wonderglue, and all sorts of other miscellaneous components. All of which I have all stored and locked away in my toy box along with the previously mentioned microfusion cells.
With all that stuff I've collected, I nearly have all the components I need to build a laser weapon. All I'm missing at this point is a few laser weapon parts, thus my current goal is to find and secure some laser weapons parts, which I can easily find in the vault armory. I'll eventually sneak in there unnoticed and when I do and finally obtain those parts, I can build my very own laser weapon since I found out how to make them and put them together from the vault library.
And while I'm going through the vault armory, I'm going to search the place for recharger laser weapons. If the armory has any of those, I'll snag a few microfusion breeder cells for myself to study and reverse engineer, possessing a limitless power source such as that would be huge. Hopefully, the armory has them and I can replicate the technology, otherwise I'll have to wait till I'm out of the vault to locate some.
Moving on from that, I used a bit of the scrap metal that I obtained recently to make several lockpicks specifically to practice with and use to break into certain areas of the vault to get my hands on even more material and gear like the armory. Sadly, I discovered access to it is blocked by a terminal and not a traditional lock after the fact.
Therefore, my plan to lockpick my way in has failed right out of the gate. That's what I get for presuming and not collecting enough intel. But that's alright, I'll just have to hold off on raiding the armory till I can increase my hacking skills so I can go in and out undetected.
Yeah, I've made decent progress in the overall short amount of time I've been here... Alright, that's enough ruminating for now, I best get a move on since it's my 10th birthday today and I need to make my appearance as the surprised birthday boy.
As soon as I finished that thought, I started stretching and seconds later got up from my bed and changed into a black t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. Ready to go, I made my way over to the dining area of the vault, passing by the occasional vault dweller on my way there.
A short walk later, I arrived in front of the dining area's door and pressed the button to open it. As the door for the dining area was opening, I got ready to act surprised that there was a party for my birthday. Who would've thought.
"Surprise!" Everyone hiding in the room said loudly while I was somehow blinded again, even though my eyes were already adjusted to the lighting in the hallway. It also wasn't any brighter in the dining area as well.
"Stanley, you turned the lights on too fast. You blinded the poor kid!" A light-skinned man in his vault security armor said who I knew as officer/uncle Gomez, my very chill uncle.
"Happy birthday!" Everyone said loudly while clapping.
First, giving them a big smile, I said to everyone here for my one day out of the year. "Thank you, everyone. You all really got me good."
"Happy birthday pal! I can't believe you're already 10 years old. I'm so proud of you, son. If only your mother was still here with us." Dad said after walking up to me.
"I'm sure she's watching over us, dad." I responded, causing his already bright smile to brighten further.
Once I was done talking to my dad, he patted my shoulder before walking off.
When I turned back around, Amata's dad, vault 101's overseer, approached me and started speaking to me. "Congratulations, young man! I don't have to tell you how special this day is, do I? Down here in Vault 101, when you turn 10, well, you're ready to take on your first official Vault responsibilities but this would probably be your 3rd or 4th since you've already been assisting your father James with his research and helping him out administering medical attention to the many vault residents."
Amata's dad paused for a second for dramatic effect, I suppose, before continuing the rest of his spiel. "So here you are. As the Overseer, I hereby present to you your very own Pip-Boy 3000! Get used to it. You'll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow."
I give a mortified look after hearing that since my plate is already so full before he continues jokingly. "Just kidding, Ha ha ha ha ha!"
Phew, I dodged a bullet there. I would've had to cut my precious sleep back if he wasn't joking.
I thought while wiping the nonexistent sweat from my forehead.
After Amata's dad was done laughing at my expense, he handed me the Pip-Boy 3000 he was holding and as soon as I had it in my hands; I started fiddling around with it and getting the device fitted onto my left forearm.
It took me several seconds, but I got the thing equipped. The very second I did, I excitedly turned the Pip-Boy 3000 on and a split second later, everything began to freeze up and slow down.
Ah shit, here we go again.
Before I knew it, everything came to a complete stop and once it did, a holographic screen popped up in front of my vision, listing quite a bit of information which I found to be slightly overwhelming at initially.
Pip-Boy
Name: Harold Todd Woods
Age: 10
Height: 5,5 (in feet and inches)
Race: Human
Level: 1
Experience Points: 0/200
Total Experience Points Earned: 0
Experience Rate: 165%
Health: 320 | Formula: Base of 90 + (Endurance x 20) + (Level# x 10) |
Carry Weight: 3/200 | Formula: (150 + Strength x 10 and will go up to 500 at full maturity) |
| S.P.E.C.I.A.L. |
Perception: 10
Endurance: 11
Charisma: 5
Intelligence: 13
Agility: 4
Luck: 7
| Skills |
Barter: 31
Energy Weapons: 47
Explosives: 34
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 35
Medicine: 46
Melee Weapons: 25
Repair: 53
Science: 49
Sneak: 22
Speech: 25
Survival: 33
Unarmed: 35
Traits: |Gifted|, |Sex Appeal|, |Skilled|, |Take Another Rank 1|
Perks:
Mutations:
Loot: 200 Microfusion Cells, 200 Scrap Metal, 100 Scrap Electronics, 50 Duct Tape, 20 Wonderglue, 109 Other Misc. Junk.
Quests: 1 Ready to turn in, Many in progress
If you want something else to read, that's similar to this, check out my other webnovel Wasteland Conqueror. It has a lot more chapters released.