Call Me Collector (WORM)

I rubbed my eyes feeling angry and annoyed. Did I forget to draw my curtains yesterday? I groaned and rolled in my… Wait! This isn't my bed! My eyes snapped open as I shot up and immediately stumbled. 

"Fuck!" I cursed loudly as I tried my best to regain my footing and failed. With my ass firmly planted on the ground, I looked around and realized that I was in some kind of park and I was apparently sleeping on a bench like a homeless bum.

How the hell did I end up here?

I clearly remember going to sleep on my bed. Did I get evicted while I was asleep? No, that wasn't it. I felt like something else was at play here. I pushed myself off the ground and sat down on the bench I was occupying until I woke up.

If this was a dream, then this was probably the weirdest dream I have experienced. I pinched myself before rubbing the sore spot. So, this is not a dream. I rubbed my chin and started to wonder how I ended up here. I don't remember drinking last night and I remember going to bed completely sober.

None of my friends had a spare key to my apartment, which meant it was highly unlikely that any of them were responsible for my current predicament…

After taking a deep breath, I finally decided to inspect myself. I was wearing nice enough clothes, but these clothes were not mine. I was this close to start panicking, but I have always been a calm and collected person, so I decided that I could always panic later.

Right now, I needed to know what the fuck was going on with me…

I almost cheered when my hands brushed against a thick wallet. I pulled out the said object and found a few thousand dollars stacked inside. It was both a good and a bad sign. The money was good, but I was not from America. I was a fucking Canadian. 

Then my eyes finally found my ID tucked inside the wallet… 

Aaron Shaw? What kind of name is that? It sounds cool, at least. Whoever he was, he was from Philadelphia. Sounds good, but meant shit to me. Did that mean I was in Philadelphia? I decided to put it away for the time being as I continued to scour through the wallet. 

A bus ticket? I asked myself as I found another piece of paper. My breath hitched when I read the destination written on the ticket…

"Brockton Bay…" A mumbled involuntarily. A gust of wind blew the ticket out of my hand, but I was way too stumped to do anything about it. Remember, I said I was a calm and collected person, but I think it is about time to start panicking…

***

So, I was in Brockton Bay, which probably meant little without context. However, those who have read Worm, knew that the place was a hellhole. Brockton Bay is a fictional City in a fictional world known as Earth Bet, which was a part of a fictional multiverse.

However, now that I was here, the whole thing felt pretty real…

At first, I wanted to deny the reality, but a mirror was all I needed to prove myself otherwise. The face that looked back at me from the mirror was not mine. It was the face I saw on the ID. A part of me was already expecting that since I found the ID in my pocket.

The problem was that I simply did not want to believe it at that time, but now that reality had slapped me in the face, I needed to find a way to deal with it.

Not that it was going to be easy… After all, I was on Earth Beth and you can't have anything nice on Earth Bet. If you do then the whole world would start conspiring against you…

I sighed in defeat before running my hand through my hair in frustration… Well, it could have been much worse. I could have Isekai'd into Warhammer. 

I closed my eyes and decided to take stock of my situation. I was not in Warhammer, which was a good thing, but I was in the world of Worm, which was not that good. It was a shitty hand, but it was the only hand I had… Worm was a grim dark death world, but there was still some time.

Maybe, I should slink away into the shadows and let Taylor have a go at it. In canon she killed a fucking god with bug powers and a can-do attitude, I was sure that she could do it again. 

*BANG*

I flinched and felt something wheeze past my head. Moments later, I was on the ground. That was a bullet, wasn't it? Fuck Brockton man! I was expecting the gunshots to stop, but they did not. Instead, the firefight was growing more intense.

I could see them… Two groups of people shooting at each other. Where the fuck did they come from? Is this kind of thing normal in Brockton Bay? It is just morning and they are already shooting at each other? Fuck that! I don't want to stay here!

"Fuck…" I whispered furiously as I heard another bullet fly past me. A part of me wanted to simply stand up and run away, but the more calmer and collected part of me was telling me to keep hugging the ground.

I decided that they might shoot me if they saw me moving… It was better to crawl from this place. Yeah… That sounded like a much better idea. So, without giving the two groups shooting at each other another look, I started to crawl away. 

I froze in my tracks as a bullet came and lodged itself only a foot away from me in the ground… I was in Brockton Bay only for a couple of hours and the Universe was already trying to get me killed, or it was the ROB who brought me here.

After all, watching someone he brought here for entertainment disappear into the shadows would be kind of boring… So, do I have any powers? ROB? No answers! Yeah, I kind of expected that.

Thankfully, the fighting finally stopped, but I could hear the cops driving me. Should I stay or should I make a run for it? Considering I looked like an Aryan, I decided it was better to skedaddle the fuck out of here, but I did not get far.

"FREEZE!" A cop stopped me and I stopped. There was no reason to be stupid and win stupid prizes. However, this was going to be a long day, I could already tell…

***

"So, you have no connection with the gang named Empire 88?" The cop asked me. Thankfully, I was not arrested. However, they had to ask me some questions, 'It's just formalities, sir' was what they said.

"No, I recently came to Brockton" I answered honestly.

"Your reason for visiting?" The cop asked, looking at me suspiciously. Like I said, I have blonde hair and bright blue eyes, your typical Aryan or what the Empire 88 would like to call the superior race.

"I wanted to see the Capes" I answered, hoping he would believe me. In the canon, it was mentioned that Brockton attracted a lot of tourists who just came here to see the Capes, or I was at least hoping that it was canon.

The cop gave me a knowing look and I knew that my answer worked. "Then you should head towards Broadwalk instead of hanging around these places" He said with a huff, but there was no heat in his voice. "You can go, but be careful. Some parts are not welcoming to kids looking like you" The cop reminded me. 

I would have called him racist, but I was in Brockton Bay… Since I was dismissed, I decided not to dally around. I had no idea which way the Broadwalk was, but I owned a smartphone and maps were already a thing even though Google wasn't.

I was about to open maps, but something else caught my eye… There was an app called Gacha is Life and that was the only non-stock app on my phone. Everything else looked completely stock, so like a good boy, I decided to open it while licking my lips in excitement.

I wasn't a fan of Gacha, never had been, but if it was what I thought it was, then I might have a chance of surviving this hellhole.

[You have rolled…

BLINDSPOT: You are a Blindspot to all the Thinkers around the world. It is a good thing you have this or the Lady wearing the fancy hat would have shot you in the back of your head and left you to rot in a ditch.]

I felt a chill run down my spine… At least, I would not have to worry about the boogeyman coming after me, but I never pressed the roll button. Did the ROB roll this for me?

I closed my eyes and decided to thank the ROB… Yes, I was angry at them for dropping me in the hellhole, but my mama raised me to always thank anyone who would leave gifts for memories. 

I closed the pop-up and saw that I still had two free rolls left. I wanted to press the roll button right away, but I had no idea how to earn more rolls. A part of me wanted to roll while another part of me wanted to save them until I knew more.

It was a bit of pondering, but it was a no-brainer for me. While [Blindspot] was a good power, I was completely defenceless in a city filled with various gangs. There was the Empire 88, they were literal Nazis, so enough said. Then there was the ABB otherwise known as the Azn Bad Boys. They would shoot me on the spot since I wasn't Asian enough for them.

Then there were the Merchants. They were a bunch of druggies. There was not much to say and finally, there was Coil. He did not have a gang name, but he was probably the most dangerous person in the city. If he knew [Blindspot] could affect his powers, then he would have me killed without a second thought.

So, after taking a deep breath, I pressed the roll button…

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