A Joke
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Avatar: Awakened Gamer
🕑 Added 2022-02-01 16:05:09 +0000 UTCChapter 108
***
June was shocked, but she didn’t know how to confront him about this and instead decided to dodge the problem back off first. As she went back, her mind raced.
'How is this possible? By how much blood he coughed out, then the sickness should be in its later stages. He should be close to death.'
As if to prove her point, Sokka fell to his knees and a rumbling cough rang out of his lungs as blood spilled from his nose and mouth. It was a pitiful sight.
'His death will come soon. I am not a doctor, but that would be obvious to anyone who saw him cough so violently.'
She didn't remember Sokka ever showing any sign of sickness. But there were certain people in the world who, no matter the amount of pain they were in, would act normal as if nothing happened. Sokka was amongst them. He did have that kind of persona that you couldn't read easily.
Getting up, Sokka wiped the blood off his lips and acted normally, as if nothing before happened.
'As I thought. He is acting as if nothing is wrong.'
***
Sokka wiped the blood off his lips and got up, stretched his shoulders, and did some light exercise.
There was nothing strange or negative about his body that had been done by the Elixir. But the fight between it and [Gamer's Body] had been quite fierce and he lost 1/10th of his HP due to it. Though with waterbending healing, that issue was solved easily.
Grabbing the stone in his hand, Sokka could feel it as if it was a pulsating heart of energy within his palm.
'This thing feels almost like it is alive. How weird. Since this thing can fight off Gamer's Body, then what would happen if I injured myself with it.'
Sokka put his theory to the test, grabbing the Philosopher's Stone and clenching his hand around it until some of the rough edges slightly dug under his skin.
[Warning! Something unidentified has injured the user. Gamer's Body is unable to resist the divine effects! Injury is reflected on the real body!]
Usually, when he was injured, only HP would be lost and the injury itself would disappear not long after. It wasn't healing, but just damage mitigation which allowed him to fight at his full power even if he had only 1HP.
Staring at his hand, blood dripped down like wine. The injury wasn't mitigated, and while he did lose HP, the injury also reflected in his body.
The blood that was touched by the stone seemed to turn into a golden-colored liquid.
'This thing… is quite strong.'
Sokka wasn't naive enough to assume that nothing in the world would comply with the rules of his Gamer Interface. But seeing it so soon was quite the happy event. Sure, there were some negatives to this situation, but the positives outweigh them.
He cleaned the blood around him and bandaged his hand. Sokka also made sure to get rid of the blood in the ground by using his waterbending.
Whoever the creator of this interface was, Sokka knew that beating them in a fair fight was impossible. If he was the only Gamer and stopped leveling but trained his stats and skills for a long time, he could likely beat them. But Sokka never believed he was special in any way. He didn't have some special background, there were a hundred million people the same as him in his previous world.
So why believe that he was the special one? The chances of that happening were close to zero and while his current Luck might influence the past, he wasn't sure of that. Even if it did, Sokka wasn't going to hold high hopes.
Suddenly he had a thought, remembering the fate reader that he encountered in a village which was almost destroyed due to the volcano. Fate Reading, an ability that he didn't have. At least he couldn't read other people's fates.
But now came his Luck stat. If it came to anything, Luck would be on his side. Like the main protagonist and their cliche wins. For example, during the fight against Ozai, Aang was randomly hit by a punctured rock on his back that connected him with all the Avatars, allowing him to use the Avatar State again just as he was about to die.
'Even being born the Avatar, the chances of that happening are so astronomical that you're literally fate's chosen one.'
Sokka had learned a little about his Luck stat, and one thing he could figure out from it was that it wasn't something consistent. For example, Aang's burst of luck at that moment didn't translate to the rest of the series.
Sokka was somewhat similar too, though with how high his Luck was, his everyday life would always go easy. But when it came to certain parts, he could pinpoint where his Luck came in bursts.
Now he just needed to control the burst of those.
'Those bursts… I can somewhat already control them. Though, unlike my arms and legs, I can't move such a thing so easily. Instead, I need to create the perfect situation for Luck to do its thing.'
As if to prove his theory, Sokka took out a coin. Within his mind, he thought up two conditions. His plans to take out Ozai, should he do it soon or later.
Soon = Tails
Later = Heads
Looking at the flipping coin, Sokka couldn't help but think of how slow it was. Due to his high agility, whenever he tried to observe something, it would usually slow down as his concentration peaked.
As someone who liked to plan things out, and get the perfect ending. What was the use of rushing? Not like there was anything-
His thoughts stopped, staring blankly at the coin that landed in his hand. It was tails… meaning that he had to move faster.
He threw the coin again… tails…
Faster…
…
Thirteen more times was the coin thrown, and each time it landed tails, showing that Sokka should finish things soon. His heart dropped, and a chill crawled up his spine. Sokka had taken account of every scenario out there. At least anything he could come up with.
But seeing this, and how his Luck seemed to peak at the moment and telling him to move things faster. Sokka understood that there was something he wasn't seeing here, something outside of his plans.
"Playing with coins now? Is that your new hobby?" June asked jokingly. She came out of the forest, riding atop her mount.
Sokka smiled. "You know," he shrugged. "I am just counting the time until I die."
His casual joke seemingly didn't hit that good as a sour expression appeared on June's face.
Sokka noticed this and couldn't help but think. - 'Was my joke that bad? Maybe learning something so drastic spooked me out a little. Still, it doesn't matter, for now, I need to hurry things up.'
"In three months, I plan to attack the Fire Lord" he changed the conversation. But after thinking for a bit, he changed the timeline again. "No, in one month, we must deal with the Fire Lord and have Azula on the throne."
Sokka name-dropped Azula. Of course, this was so he could make it clear that he didn't have delusions of grandeur. He knew that he couldn't keep the Fire Nation, even if he took it over.
June swallowed nervously at that. "Why are you rushing things? You're usually careful with these things."
Though she had spent only a small amount of time with Sokka, he didn't bother to hide too many things from her and she somewhat understood just how punctual Sokka could be. He wasn't the kind of guy to rush things.
"Well, some things came up," Sokka muttered, remembering the coin flips.
"Is that so," June didn't ask anymore. But the look in her eyes showed something strange, something that Sokka couldn't quite place his finger on. "Well, hop on," he patted her mount. "You're going back to the town right?"
During this time Sokka would help the local orphans. But today there was a tournament he had to watch, and couldn't skip. As he got ready to speed off, June jumped down and hurriedly put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "You shouldn't push your body so much. Take a ride with Nyla, you aren't in a rush to go there right?"
'Hm? I guess there is no rush as the tournament will start a couple of hours either way.'
"Sure," Sokka agreed, seeing no reason to refuse. Also, he could use this time to think a little more about the future and how he can gather an army faster. Plus, he needed to figure out a way to change Azula's ambition and make her WANT to be the Fire Lord.
***
Sokka regarded her request and agreed to take the slower way. June could see it as clear as day, unlike usually where Sokka's speed was superhuman, he moved faster than most beasts out there and due to his small size, he could maneuver through obstacles easier.
Why would he do something like this? It wasn't as if he would suddenly change his plans and needed to think out of nowhere. That was so ridiculous, June didn't even bother thinking of such a thing. Instead, there was a more logical solution. It wasn't that Sokka didn't want to move fast, but it had become harder to do so.
'Also why would his plans suddenly need to be rushed? Unless… he doesn't have long.'
June felt strange, she somewhat knew how vicious Sokka could be to people who stood in his way. But he wasn't a bad guy, and he also had a line he wouldn't cross. Seeing him like this, someone so strong wither away… it felt… strange...
