Just a Guy and a Gate to the Multiverse - Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16 - Gamechanger

When I woke the next morning, sunlight was pushing through the curtains.

For a few seconds, I did not know where I was. Then I felt the cool air of the room, the softness of the bed, and the warm body beside me.

Chloe was still there.

She lay on her side, blonde hair spread across the pillow, one arm tucked under her cheek. The sheet covered her shoulder, and the morning light made her look softer than she had at the party. Less like the confident girl who had crossed a crowded kitchen to flirt with me, and more like someone real who had chosen to stay.

I did not move at first.

I just looked at her, admiring that beautiful body and tried to understand how the night had gone from music and strangers to this quiet morning.

Her eyes opened slowly.

She blinked once, then smiled.

“Morning,” she said.

“Morning.”

She studied my face. “You’re smiling.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“Can you blame me?”

Her smile grew. “Good answer.”

She shifted closer, resting her head briefly against my chest. For a moment, neither of us said anything. There was no awkward rush to pretend the night had meant less than it did. No immediate regret. No panic.

Just quiet.

Then her phone buzzed on the desk.

She groaned. “That’s probably my roommate checking if I’m alive.”

“You should answer.”

“I know.”

She reached for it, read the message, then laughed.

“What?” I asked.

“She wrote, ‘If he’s weird, send a pineapple emoji.’”

I laughed. “A pineapple?”

“I don’t know. We made it up last semester.”

“Should I be offended?”

“Only if I send it.”

“Are you going to?”

She looked at me, pretending to consider it.

Then she typed something and set the phone down.

“No pineapple.”

“Good. My reputation survives.”

“For now.”

She sat up, holding the sheet around herself, and looked toward the window. “What time is it?”

“A little after nine.”

“I should probably go before my friends start planning a rescue mission.”

“Yeah,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed.

She looked back at me and noticed anyway.

“Don’t make that face.”

“What face?”

“The face that says you think I’m about to disappear forever.”

“I don’t know what face you mean.”

It was not like I could say that I was actually feeling unsure about how I should feel. My situation was far too complicated for this. I had really enjoyed last night, yet I knew it could not be more than some fun.

Even if I could take her with me, she was just a normal human who did not have access to my abilities. There were no World Attunements for her. She would be in constant danger.

How would I even explain something like that? What if she decided I was crazy? What if she just said no? What would I do then?

Just great, Matt. Now you are already thinking about possibilities that are not happening either way.

Accept what it is and enjoy yourself. That is it for now.

Her words pulled me out of my thoughts. “You absolutely do.”

I smiled a little. “Maybe.”

Chloe leaned closer and kissed me. It was slower than I expected. Not a goodbye kiss exactly, but more like a reminder.

When she pulled away, she said, “I had fun.”

“Me too.” I couldn't help but to admit. It had been great, if not outright breathtakingly amazing.

“A lot of fun.”

“Same.” Once again, I had to agree.

She climbed out of bed and started gathering her clothes. I looked away at first, trying to be polite, a gentleman, but she caught me in the mirror and laughed.

“Matt.”

“What?”

“You’re allowed to look a little. We’re past that point.”

My face warmed. “Right.”

She shook her head, amused, and finished getting dressed.

“Clean out the minibar. They’ll refill it later,” I added as an afterthought.

A few minutes later, she stood near the door with a plastic bag filled with the contents of my minibar and her purse over one shoulder, looking almost like the same girl from the party, except her hair was less perfect and her smile was less dangerous.

Or maybe more dangerous.

She took my phone from the table, typed in her number, then sent herself a message.

“There,” she said. “Now you have no excuse.”

“No excuse for what?”

“For not texting me.”

I looked at the new contact on my screen.

Chloe.

Conflicting emotions swelled inside me.

“So I should text you?” I asked not sure if for confirmation or just hoping she would say no, making things less complicated for me.

She stepped closer, kissed my cheek, and whispered, “Yes, Matt. That was the hint.”

I laughed, unsure of what else I should say.

At the door, she paused and looked back at me.

“Spring break looks good on you,” she said.

Then she left.

I stood there for a moment after the door closed, still holding my phone.

A message arrived a few seconds later.

>No pineapple emoji. Congrats.

I laughed and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Taking a deep breath, I let myself enjoy the moment for a while.

Suddenly, a feeling spread through my body. The cooldown for my World Attunement was over. I could use the Skill for a second time.

What an convenient timing...

Honestly, while traveling all over the world, I had stopped thinking about it. Instead, I focused on what mattered at that moment. I toured the major cities in the United States and did a road trip through the country.

Then I headed to Europe and did the same there. I enjoyed nice food, visited all the famous places I had always dreamed of seeing, took souvenirs, and just explored what this world had to offer. I lived in the moment.

But that was not all there was to me. There were many more places waiting for me.

Not wasting another moment, I activated my Skill. But this time, I focused on using its modifier effect too. I wanted to adapt to a Human subspecies living on this Earth instead of just the average Human.

While on the surface, this Earth was no different from my own, there was somehow a group of Humans born with a special ability. It was a random trait that appeared in some Humans of this world.

I wanted to become a Jumper.

The moment I completed that thought, I felt that strange suction force appear once again, drawing something out of the world around me and pulling it right into me. But this time, it felt far more intense.

The warm feeling that had spread all over my body last time manifested this time as burning heat. I could feel every nerve and every cell of my body burning, causing a moment of intense pain.

Fortunately, it stopped the moment it appeared.

Note to myself: changes that affected my entire biology end up being more intense. Last time, I had only got a Gate of Truth. That did not happen in my body, but on a metaphysical level.

Being a Jumper, on the other hand, seems to be directly related to my biology. To my entire body.

As for what a Jumper was, well, Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, was a joke compared to them. At least, if they had physical abilities comparable to his.

This world was a fictional universe with several novels and a movie. I choose to visit the movie continuity. I had never read the novels after all, but the movie was good enough for my purpose.

Jumpers were Humans born with the ability to teleport. Yes, just like that. They could teleport to whatever location they wanted, and in every other aspect, they were just Humans. But they were still Humans who could freely teleport to any location they could form a clear image of.

Not only could they teleport themselves, but they could also take other people or objects with them. And by objects, I meant large moving ones too, like a car, for example. Maybe even Objects as big as passenger planes, but I had not seen an example of that in the movie. At least none I could remember.

Been a while since I watched it, and I didn't pirate a copy before jumping trough my Multiversal Gate. Of course it isn't a movie in this Universe.

Those Jumpers could not teleport large stationary objects like buildings because the strain would kill them. Although, I believed that was more a matter of strength than an actual impossibility. The main protagonist, played by Anakin Skywalker... I mean Hayden Christensen, barely managed to teleport his entire apartment, but the strain almost killed him, and he had plot armor.

Honestly, Jumpers were implied to be pretty overpowered, or at least their teleportation ability was. The film directors hinted during an interview that there were Jumpers who could travel to other planets. That was just overpowered in the right universe. Imagine being in Star Wars, not needing a spaceship. No need to follow those Hyperspace lanes.

Of course, I was just an average Jumper, which probably limited the size of the things I could teleport maybe even the range. Hard to tell, since every Jumper in the movie could freely teleport on earth besides the object limit. But overall, that teleportation ability had no cost and no cooldown beyond the stamina I used up from moving around either way.

Now, just imagine those Jumpers had superhuman strength, speed, and reaction speed like Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. How overpowered would that be? The ability to freely teleport without any markers?

The Flying Raijin made Minato pretty much unbeatable in his own era, with his only weakness being his kunai markers. They had to make the endgame Villains in Naruto, invulnerable by different means, so he wouldn't one hit kill them. Which forced Kishimoto to nerve those Villains again in his final form, so somebody else could beat them. Fucking Obito and his Kamui.

Well, this was still a movie universe. There had to be some kind of conflict for the plot. There is this group called Paladins, who hunted them for pretty much bullshit reasons. Because obviously, if you discovered some kid with the ability to teleport, you decide you need to kill him because only God should have that power.

I don't like that version of Mace Windu, Anakin must have really pissed him off... sorry I mean Samuel L. Jackson.

Yeah, if that was not dumb. It made some sense in the Middle Ages, when we had witch burnings and all that, but those Paladins were still around today. And they were brutal.

There was no asking questions. They sadistically tortur Jumpers for information before killing them without mercy.

That was where the Human reaction speed screwed the Jumpers a bit. If they did not have Human limits, they would be unbeatable in this universe. Paladins would have been a joke.

Those Paladins have developed some methods to hunt Jumpers, like electrocuting them with nets and weapons. I am pretty sure that would also work on Minato if they caught him. Focusing while under electric shocks was pretty damn hard. Not speaking out of experience here. But Jumpers could still overcome it if they managed to focus enough.

Happened in the Movie.

Oh, and being pinned to a solid object worked too, since teleporting a building would kill you after all. They combine it with those electroshock nets and wires.

But as long as you could avoid that, you could pretty much teleport however you wanted.

The moment I saw that modifier effect on my World Attunement Skill, I thought about this movie. Markerless Flying Raijin, for doing nothing more than chilling on Earth for a while. That's a freebie.

...

Huh, what was that?

[ Space-Time Skill detected… ]

[ Incorporating Skill into existing Space-Time Skill: Multiversal Gate ]

[ Done... ]

[ Multiversal Gate Lvl. 4: This Skill allows the User to open a Gate from their current location to any place and time period in the Multiverse that the User can think of. At its current level, the Skill has several limitations. First, it has a cooldown of one year, and only one person can pass through. The User can now expand the size of the Gate up to a radius of 20 meters.

Sub-Skills:

Teleportation: You are a Jumper possessing the Ability to freely teleport according to your body’s capabilities within a universe. ]

[ Please select one Upgrade for the Skill: Multiversal Gate

Expand the radius of the Skill by 1 km.

Lessen the cooldown when teleporting to previously visited Worlds to 6 months.

Increase the person transportation limit by 5. ]

So that was how this entire thing works! Finally!

To meaningfully improve my Skills, I need to gain or learn Skills related to them. Good to know!

Hmm, I would have to consider that in my future plans. For the Multiversal Gate, it was Space-Time Abilities. That was easy enough to grasp. Although, was it just transportation? Or did different applications of space-time count?

Like a barrier that manipulates space? Or the undetectable extension charm from the Harry Potter universe? Any form of summoning? Like the summoning jutsu from Naruto? Did overlapping abilities count? Apparition from Harry Potter was pretty much the same, just louder, more uncomfortable, and more exhausting.

If I learn something like Space Magic in an Isekai world, would every spell count, or would it only be one Upgrade?

Not so simple at all...

And, of course, I do not get an answer. I am not even sure if that ROB who gave me these Skills is still watching over me. It could have been just a job for him, and he decided to go on to do whatever an omnipotent being does.

That was once again something I would have to find out myself.

World Attunement was even more complicated. What kind of concept fit there? Absorption? Self-improvement? Adaptation? All of them? Who knows?

At least not me.

I will only get my answer once I stumble upon it.

Now, what should I choose?

More radius was out. That has been consistently growing with every level up, pretty much.

The cooldown for already visited Worlds was nice. But 6 months was still pretty long, and I do not have any Worlds yet that I really want to visit again.

If every other option was already out, that only left the third one. Taking five other people with me through the Gate. That would be useful to have.

Now I will not need to be alone anymore, although just taking a normal Human with me was not really a good idea if I do not have a method to strengthen them. Well I do, I can use my World Attunement Skill on them. The Cooldown is still five years, and that is just out of question. I need it myself. But it is always nice to at least have the option.

And lets be honest. If I want someone with me, it should be some named characters. That's the dream after all.

As soon as I picked it, a bit of new knowledge trickled into my brain, as if my understanding of the Multiversal Gate had increased.

Did that mean I could study it myself and upgrade it that way too? I have no idea how to do that right now, but I should keep it in mind. Maybe I should study things like space-time more?

I have a ton of research data, blueprints, and information on how the Teleportation Relay from the Institute works. That could be a decent starting point.

[ Your Skill has leveled up! ]

And, of course, there is that too. I have been waiting for you. I almost expected you to have forgotten me.

[ World Attunement Lvl. 3: This Skill allows the User to adapt their own body or another person’s body to the current Universe they are in. It grants the User the average talent of the people living in that World, enabling them to use its corresponding power systems. This Skill has a cooldown of five years.

Passive Effect: The User understands the local Language of the World he travels to.

Modifier Effect: You may specify a variation of your current race that exists in your current Universe to attune to, but you will still only receive the average talent of that variation, even if they possess special properties.

Passive Effect: The User can freely access the power System of any Universe that doesn’t require a dedicated resource like Mana, Chakra, Ki, or something similar, or a biological disposition like Quirks, Midichlorians, Bloodlines, and so on, while inside said Universe. Warning: To be able to use that power System outside of said Universe, the User still needs to use a World Attunement. ]

[ World Attunement - Cooldown: 4:364:23:56:51 ]

Holy... that is big.

I was able to level up in Fallout because, according to the laws of that World, it was bound to a piece of technology. Not my body. A small but fine loophole.

That same method would not work, for example, in One Piece. I could gain a Devil Fruit Power since it was bound to an item, just like leveling was bound to my Pip-Boy. But I would not be able to use Haki, even though I have willpower. Everyone has willpower, but not the same kind as in the One Piece world.

Now I could learn and use Haki, at least while inside the One Piece world. The people there were still much stronger than me. Even an average person. Their bodies are monstrous, probably the thing that stands out there the most if you think objectively about it.

Hmm, the passive effect should count for anything that uses stamina, life force, or whatever. Every Human has that too.

This was a big level-up!

[ End of the Chapter ]