Zeroth

The Jade Stream

The broad side of an axe met a firm palm that pushed ever so slightly, guiding it just off the angle of attack. The elbow of the opposite arm came around as Dai Xin slid into extreme close quarters, and the man's jaw was shattered, his teeth flying as the sheer force tore skin from his cheek.

"Twenty Five Basic Movements--Elbow Strike."

The sliding, spinning motion continued, placing the bandit between himself and a sword blade. Then he let go as steel sank into flesh, and turned his wrist. Explosive power over just a few inches was augmented by focused Qi--it left every other channel and instead traveled to the tendons of the forearm to control that rotation, then the tricep as his hand came down.

"--Knife Edge Palm--"

A collarbone didn't just break, it collapsed, shards of bone puncturing the neck as the man screamed. Dai Xin let his torso bend slightly with the downward force, enough that he could raise his leg and thrust straight backwards without losing balance. A raised sword dropped as the impact went through the gut, rupturing organs before the spine barely stopped it.

"--Reverse Hammer Kick--"

Dai Xin pulled his leg back and stood up straight, looking ahead then turning his gaze over one shoulder. His arms reached out to intercept the wrist and elbow, stopping the club's path, while the same leg he'd kicked with earlier shot out again.

"--Side Hammer Kick--"

Another attacker took the kick in the throat, and surprisingly he did not die immediately, as Dai Xin had to spend too much power blocking the attack while balanced on only one leg. But with his windpipe spasming and enough force to knock him to the ground, the bandit wouldn't be a threat for the moment. Dai Xin twisted his body as he brought his leg back, so that he could drag the man with the club forward and bury his knee in the foe's groin.

"--Battering Knee Strike--"

Something burst. Two somethings. A high pitched, keening scream could be heard for quite a distance. Then another punch silenced it.

Two turned and began trying to run. A red demon loomed behind them, claws reaching out and snagging them by the scruffs of their shirts. He didn't have to use a vice grip or a yank of the arms. He just let their own momentum reach its end, and as they found themselves jerked backwards like a dog jumping at its chain, their feet left the ground. Now Dai Xin did put force into it, slamming them against the earth hard enough to shatter bone and crack stone.

He straightened, shaking drops of blood from his hands. Then he turned to the two who stood watching. His exchange with their underlings had taken about as long as their own verbal one.

"Ah. Then these bandits were indeed part of something larger." he said simply. "Good. I was not satisfied with my match with Five Wheel Striking Style."

He took up his stance, and the cold gust of wind grew warmer as translucent power began to waft around his body.

"This one is Dai Xin, of the Fist of the Sky, pupil of Grandmaster Wu Ji. Be grateful I respect your strength enough to name myself honorably, though you are naught but dogs in the guise of men."

The Jade Stream

If I do need to tone it down, let me know. Oddly enough it seems he's the only one using any Qi abilities so far, so I don't want to set any bad precedents.

The Jade Stream

As Xin pursued, now on foot on the ground, he heard Kyang's shout of warning. If the bandits wished to lure him into a trap...

For the first time Dai Xin gave an actual genuine smile. It was terrifying.

As arrows flew from the trees, whether from actual bowmen or traps the bandits had rigged to protect their territory, Dai Xin simply flooded his legs with Qi and kept moving. Traps couldn't lead a target, and an archer who could still could not change the speed of an arrow after it had left the string. Faster and faster he went, the projectiles thudding into the ground or the trees mere seconds after his passing, as he charged through the foliage and into a blinding light...

Several men, armed with all manner of axe, club, and blade suddenly surrounded him in the clearing. As the martial artist blinked in the light, three more dropped down from the trees, cutting off his escape.

"Watch him fellas, he knows how to fight!"

"Won't matter, when we've got the weapons!"

One charged forward and brought down his sword with a battle cry. Dai Xin lifted his knee, smoke trailing from the bottom of his foot, and snapped out a blow.

"Fist of the Sky, Twenty Five Basic Movements. Front Kick."

The bandit's strike carried all the way through, the swipe passing clean from Dai Xin's shoulder down to his hip. The man smirked...then realized most of his blade above the hand guard was missing. He looked up at Dai Xin, eyes growing wide. The red haired man pointed upwards. The broken blade was embedded in a tree branch just above them, having gone all the way through the wood. Slowly the bandit lowered his gaze until he met Dai Xin's eyes again.

"Twenty Five Basic Movements. Straight Punch."

It happened too fast to even see the transition; the next instant Dai Xin was in his stance, arm extended, and the bandit was doubled over, his feet lifting clear of the ground. His chest literally caved inward, a crater that rippled outward like a pebble thrown in water. When time resumed he flew backwards, a comet's tail of blood flowing from his mouth and nose as translucent smoke rose from Dai Xin's fist.

Not quite understanding what had just happened, the other bandits had already started to charge, and even as they began to realize it, many of them were too committed to their swings as they closed in on Dai Xin from all angles.

He was still smiling.

Dice

As he watched the four dice appear in a bloom of light, Mark shivered. This was...

Amazing? Impossible? Awesome. Terrifying. There was seemingly incredible power at his finger tips. Could he become stronger and faster, more durable, more intelligent, than any other human being? He could...he could finally BE the absolute best. He could finally be perfect, and be worthy of all the praise that had been heaped on him. He could finally satisfy his parents. He could fix every problem life threw at him. If his lack of skill--social or technical--was holding him back from getting a job, he could change it. If his lack of good looks was keeping him from being able to talk to a smoking hot girl, he could change it. Money, power...he never cared much about fame, most celebrities seemed like idiots, but influence, hell yes he cared about influence. Maybe he could finally feel like he was making a difference in the world. Maybe he could somehow use the power of the dice to change things. Could he fix the economy? Could he fix the corrupt government? Could he fix society?

Society is the reflection of the humans who created it. All humans are flawed creatures, even me. But unlike me, most other people don't bother trying to fix their flaws. And there are some people...

There are some people who would be better off wiped from the earth.

"No. Dr. Robert taught me better than that."

All his life, his parents had pushed him to be better than anyone else. He hadn't always met their expectations...but to the average person, even a little bit of competence was often seen as a big deal. In school, teachers had congratulated him for high scores and merits. In karate, his classmates and sensei had praised his skill, his diligence, his passion. And he had begun to see himself as superior. He was smarter than others, even if he wasn't the strongest. He'd told himself that he just wasn't a neanderthal, that he was better than the jocks and the preps. And he could still improve his physical strength through his martial arts. But then he got his first taste of the real world and had learned that he wasn't any better than anyone else. It had almost destroyed him.

His therapist had been one of the three people in his life--his older sister, and then his sensei--that he felt "got" him. And Dr. Robert had opened up entirely new routes of thinking for him. He didn't have to be like that anymore. He didn't HAVE to be the best, and even if he wanted to, he only had to be as good as he WANTED to be.

"Forget changing the rest of it. I'm going to change me. Like Ghandi said. Be the change you wish to see in the world."

He suddenly remembered he wasn't alone anymore. Boy, his usual habits of thinking out loud were going to get embarrassing. He looked at the phone and saw X's new message.

"The dice like me? You speak as if they're sentient." He rolled all four of the dice. "Anyway...I suppose I should just shower and then go out and about or something. But another question occurs. Every game has rules, right? And given the "Big Brother" vibe you give off, and the potential for misuse of the power of the dice, I'm assuming something bad happens if a Player breaks the rules for this particular game. Does this app come with a manual or something?"

Dice

So it could hear what I was saying with the phone's speaker and receiver smothered against the floor. Mark's eyes darted around his room. His window was closed. He didn't see anything that looked like it had been tampered with to install a camera or hidden microphone. It says it's not a god, but there's definitely some supernatural crap going on for it to be near-omniscient like this.

He stood up, still holding his phone, and began to pace again.

"For the sake of being productive and not frozen with paranoia, I'll assume you're not outright lying to me." he began. "But you've also confirmed that I'm not the only one with this app. And that there's apparently no background check to keep someone who's "crazy" from getting their hands on these dice that can probably be used to make themselves superhuman. I'm guessing you don't really care if somebody decides to go on a crime spree with the power you've handed out seemingly at random."

He scrolled through the list of quests. He could knock out some of these pretty quickly, just for the sake of grabbing a few points that he might need if he came into contact with another Player.

"More and more this seems to be a Ring of Gygas scenario, in which case I've already failed it." He sighed and sat down at his computer, placing the phone face up on the desk before his fingers began to fly across the keyboard. "But if other people have these abilities, and I don't know anything about them, then--ignoring all the philosophical and logical conclusions I could probably come to about the safety and nature of this situation if I thought about it long enough--I should focus on grinding the shit out of these quests in order to power myself up and get a little security in case something happens."

He had opened up his email, and now was preparing a group message. He added his mother and father's addresses, then his brother's, then his elder sister, the one who lived out of state. She had always been the one he felt understood him the most, as up until he had been born she had been the one under the burden of his parents' perfectionist tyranny. He stopped for a moment when he considered his other older sister--the younger of the two. He didn't really like her. Hated her, really. Her and her bratty kids and her stupid boyfriend. But, what the hell, it was for the sake of a quest. He also included his grandmother--his grandpa didn't have one, and neither of them really used a computer that often, but it couldn't hurt.

"This is the manuscript I've been writing for my novel. I haven't hit the hundred page mark yet, but tell me what you think." He attached the document with his rough draft in it to the email, and hit send. He didn't actually have much hope for the responses--they probably would respond, but he'd stopped asking for their input a long time ago because none of it was ever helpful, save for his oldest sister's.

Then he picked up his phone, found his karate teacher's number, and hit the call button. After three rings it picked up.

"Hello?"

"Master Williams, it's Mark. Are you busy at the moment?"

"Hey, buddy! Uh, not really...what's up?"

There was the sound of paper shuffling and something made a distinct thumping noise. More than likely his teacher had probably been taking care of some of his usual business--outside the Karate school, his primary form of income was personal training. But as long as he wasn't directly involved with a client at the moment, their relationship had been good enough that he would probably make time for Mark. Mark's own social ineptitude had prompted him to send a text message, after the dojo had closed down, but he hadn't received a response for a whole day. Honestly, he felt too much like he was bothering the man, but with the prospect of finishing the quest spurring him on, he was able to swallow a little bit of his anxiety.

"Well, I wanted to know if you would be available for a private lesson any time soon? I know it's kind of short notice, since the school just shut down, but I sent you a text yesterday and--"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just got busy yesterday and forgot to respond. Anyway, this weekend's too hectic for me, but I should have some time next week. Would you mind if I called you back later when I know what my schedule's going to look like?"

"That's fine, sir. I'd just...really like to be able to at least finish up my third dan under you, sir..." He wanted to stress how important this was. He knew his teacher didn't really mean anything by it, but the guy had tendencies in the past to say he was going to do something and then get distracted by something else.

"Don't worry man, we'll work something out. I'll call you back later, all right?"

"Hai, sensei. Thank you very much."

As they both hung up, he heaved a deep sigh. He hadn't noticed how tense he was...talking to other people was always so stressful when he didn't have a computer screen to hide behind, or something to talk about that didn't make him feel like a loser. But he swallowed it down, and opened up the app again.

"Alright, X, how much of that counts towards my first two quests?"

Dice

Great manhwa, right? In case you're reading it on Webtoons, go over to dicescans.com once you've gotten to the last webtoons chapter - dicescans has more recent chapters.

In case you still want more after that, there's another similar manhwa called The Gamer. Have fun =)

@fourtimesnine

I actually kept up with the Gamer for a while, but it felt to me like the MC spent too much time just grinding and going on long mental monologues about how broken his power was. Then when the action finally started the fight scenes seemed terribly drawn/choreographed.

Warriors of Hyrule [A Fantasy Drama Odyssey]

"Ah? You seem real smart, Gramps!" Seeker said, sitting up and grinning at Victor. "Go back to the fish thing, I actually thought that was interesting--"

Lydia's sudden stop and hand motion made Seeker shut up and look where she pointed. She asked if he could scout ahead...but they could already see the Gerudo woman, and the camp meant there was probably more than one...

"I could get up there, but what do you actually want me to do?" he asked Lydia, making a token effort to be a little serious now. "Just kill 'em? I don't know how many there are, but I could do it easy enough." If over confidence could make one's nose grow, Seeker's would have been longer than his horse's. He looked over at the dark-skinned man in their own party, who he was now sure was Gerudo after seeing another one to compare him with. "Oi, you over there. Think you could just walk up to 'em without getting shot? In a plain like this with little cover, having a distraction is about the only way to get the drop on somebody. Unless...maybe you know 'em?"

Dice

Dammit you guys I only just figured out this cool idea is based on a manwha and now I've been reading it for like five hours straight.

Dice

"HO-LY SHIT."

Mark couldn't believe it. He'd just blinked, and it was like he was looking at a different person. He rubbed at his face, pulled at his ears, just to be certain. He ran back into his room and grabbed his phone again, and saw that there was a new message. As he opened the home screen, he also noticed the new app. It seemed like, rather than a text response, he could have just used the app to assign points on his own. But the person replying had done so so quickly, and he was seeing these results in real time without any waiting period...

He sank down to the floor, slowly, his back against the wall. His head was spinning.

"There's no way this is possible. But it happened. So it's real." he said, still talking to himself. "But...implications...consequences..."

Though it probably went under "intelligence," in terms of stats, another thing Mark prided himself on was being a logical thinker. Even when writing his book--no, perhaps especially when writing, given that he wrote fiction--everything had to have an internal, consistent logic. If A, then B.

"Okay, so. Unknown entity, tied to this die. Rolling the die was the trigger...for this series of events, anyway." he began. He put his phone face down on the floor and tilted his head up at the ceiling. "Possibility that the entity is only active when die are rolled, points are used, and quests are given or completed. But also possible that the entity has been active all along, and for some reason has only just now begun to interact with me. If this is God's way of trying to make up for how shit my life's been, he waited an awful long time..."

He looked back down at his phone's back, and shook his head.

"No. Gods work on divine providence. Not luck and random events. Whatever you are, X, you're no god. If you were, I still wouldn't follow you."

He picked up the phone and turned it over.

"Alright, here's a question for you, assuming you're somehow aware of what's going on around me. You knew about my new goal, so I guess you can hear me. My life has suddenly become like a video game. By doing these quests I can change whatever I want about myself. Awesome. And entirely too good to be free." He looked once more at the status screen on the app. He saw stats, and quests, and skills...He did not see "equipment."

"Question one: I walk in tall grass. Do monsters, or some other enemies, attack me? Question two: I meet another person who is in this situation. Do we have to fight each other? Question three: By using the power of the die already, have I sold my eternal soul and/or years off my life, anything like that, to a demon or other malignant entity? I've got more, tons more, but I have a feeling you're gonna be a cryptic asshole about it. In the books and games, faceless figures behind supernatural games tend to be like that."

The Jade Stream

Xin nodded slightly as Kyang pointed out that the bandits would want to surround someone, and that there might be some who had taken to the trees like themselves. He broadened his field of view further...

On the other side of the road, just as Kyang had suspected, something too large to be an animal moved in the treetops. There was an almost reflective quality to parts of it--exposed skin on the hands and face, something that in monochrome vision caught the light of the sun in a way that plant matter and fur didn't. Dai Xin focused on the movement, memorizing the body shape as color rushed back and time's natural flow resumed...

In the few seconds it took to reorient himself, Liu fended off an attack but took a wound. Dai Xin's already stony face became as hard and sharp as flint as the younger man bore the pain in his shoulder. Liu pointed and shouted.

The main body of the tree behind Dai Xin let out a sharp crack. The red-robed man flew like an arrow himself, his footprint leaving a deep imprint in the wood. He soared in an arc over the road, pulling his legs up to his chest and throwing his arms back as if he were flapping wings. He came down on another branch across the way, landing on all fours and scurrying along its length for just a moment, to get his feet under him, then shot off again at an angle. He landed, and stood straight this time, along the length of another branch--the same one the fleeing archer had just jumped to himself. He saw the man's eyes widen in fear even as honed reflexes drew the bow and let loose a shaft. Dai Xin ducked under it and darted to the side, leaping again and this time stepping off of the trunk of the tree. In mid air he twisted and kicked the man across the face. The man's head spun as his jaw let out a loud crack, and the bow dropped from limp hands as he began to tumble off the branch.

Dai Xin's hand shot out and caught him. Then the world suddenly became a rush of wind and color as they returned to the road. Dai Xin landed with a loud thump, a cloud of dust shooting away from the point of impact. As he stood, he held the stunned thief fully off the ground by the collar, like a kitten, with a single hand.

"Young master, there were too many arrows for one archer." he said quickly. "Keep this one for questioning or as a hostage--I shall pursue!" He dropped the man to the ground in a tumble, and turned back towards the forest...