The choice wasn't nearly as hard as Adrian had pretended it was.
Sure, turning invisible was cool. It was the ultimate hide-and-seek cheat code. But invisibility had a cooldown. Fear? Fear was constant. In Derry, fear was the currency, the marinade, the main course. If he wanted to survive Pennywise or whatever cosmic horror show was running this town, he needed to make sure he didn't taste like a terrified victim.
He needed to be stale bread. Tasteless, rock-hard, unappealing bread.
'Iron Will,' Adrian decided, mentally slamming his finger on the button.
[ PURCHASE COMPLETE ]
Skill Acquired: Iron Will (Level 1)
Cost: 80 Points
Effect: Passive resistance to fear and mental intrusion. Keep calm and carry on.
A sensation washed over him instantly, like a cool bucket of water dumped over a burning engine. The ambient anxiety of being a helpless meat-sack in a hospital vanished. The crying baby in the room next door? Annoying, but not distressing. The looming uncertainty of his future? A logistical problem, not an existential crisis.
His mind felt... armored.
'Nice,' he thought, testing the mental walls. 'Solid investment.'
He glanced at his remaining balance. 20 Points.
He could save them. He should save them. Prudence was key to survival. But then his eyes drifted to Professional Side-Eye (15 Points).
He looked at his father, Thomas, who was currently making a series of humiliating cooing noises and wiggling a teddy bear in Adrian's face.
"Who's a little bear? Are you a little bear?" Thomas asked in a voice that was three octaves too high for a grown man.
Adrian felt a deep, spiritual need to express his disdain.
'I'm buying it. I don't even care. Take my money.'
[ PURCHASE COMPLETE ]
Skill Acquired: Professional Side-Eye (Level 1)
Cost: 15 Points
Effect: Your judgment is now palpable. Targets will feel a vague sense of shame or guilt when looked at peripherally.
Points Remaining: 5
The transaction closed just as Thomas leaned in closer, his nose practically touching Adrian's. "Goo-goo ga-ga?"
Adrian didn't blink. He didn't gurgle. He simply tilted his tiny, newborn head slightly to the left, narrowed his eyelids, and unleashed the full force of his new purchase.
'Really, Thomas? "Goo-goo ga-ga"? Is that the best you've got? You're an accountant, have some self-respect.'
The effect was instantaneous.
Thomas froze. The smile faltered on his face. He pulled back, clearing his throat awkwardly. He looked around the room, then back at Adrian, shifting his weight.
"Uh," Thomas mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Right. I, uh... I should probably go check on the car seat. Make sure it's... secure."
He practically fled the room.
'Money well spent,' Adrian thought, a satisfied smirk touching his gum-filled mouth.
The ride home was less amusing.
Being strapped into a car seat was essentially a straightjacket experience, combined with the motion sickness of being placed backward in a moving vehicle. But it gave Adrian his first real look at Derry.
Through the rear window, he watched the town roll by. It looked normal. Aggressively normal. But the cars looked... older. Rounder.
'Wait,' Adrian thought, analyzing the passing vehicles. 'That's a 1949 Ford. That's a Hudson Commodore. We aren't in the 60s yet. We're early.'
The car turned onto a quiet suburban street Witcham Street, maybe? Neibolt? He couldn't read the signs fast enough. They pulled into the driveway of a modest, two-story house. It was painted a pale yellow that was probably meant to be cheerful but just looked like old butter.
"Home sweet home," Elena whispered from the front seat.
Thomas carried Adrian inside in the car seat, treating it like a bomb that might go off if jostled.
The house smelled of Lemon Pledge and old wood. It was clean, sparse, and completely unthreatening. Yet, as they crossed the threshold, the System decided to chime in.
[ NEW LOCATION DISCOVERED ]
The Marsh Residence
Safety Level: Moderate
Current Threat: Dormant
Map Explored: 0.01%
'Zero point zero one,' Adrian scoffed internally. 'Rough crowd.'
They brought him upstairs to the nursery. It was painted a soft blue, with clouds on the ceiling and a crib that looked like a wooden jail cell. Thomas set him down in the crib, and for the first time, Adrian was alone.
Well, "alone" in the physical sense.
He stared up at the mobile spinning above him which were little stars and moons.
'Okay,' he strategized. 'Game plan. I need to figure out the timeline.'
He did the mental math. If the cars were from roughly 1950, that meant he had been born significantly before the events he knew from Welcome to Derry. The story of the "Pre-Losers" takes place in the early 1960s.
'That means I'm the same age as them,' Adrian realized. 'Lilly Bainbridge, Will Hanlon, Ronnie Grogan... they're all being born right around now, or they're toddlers. We're in the same generation.'
The realization hit him with a mix of excitement and dread.
'I have roughly twelve years. Twelve years until the 1962 cycle kicks off. Twelve years until I'm in middle school with the kids who are supposed to die.'
He flexed his tiny, useless fingers.
'That's twelve years to grind stats. Twelve years to unlock skills. By the time I meet them, I need to be strong so I don't get fucked like them. Step one: Learning the basics. Step two: Information gathering. Step three: figuring out where the hell that Beretta is in my inventory.'
He closed his eyes, intending to test the Nap Anywhere Protocol he didn't buy, but fatigue took him naturally.
He woke up hours later. It was dark.
The nursery was bathed in darkness, the moonlight filtered through the blinds casting long, barred stripes across the floor.
A new panel flickered into his vision, silent and ghostly in the dark.
[ STATUS UPDATE ]
Name: Adrian Marsh
Age: 3 Days
Current State: Alert
Points: 5
Cycle Countdown: ~12 Years
[ NEW MISSION AVAILABLE ]
Development Milestone: Learn to roll over.
Reward: 10 Points.
[ DAILY OBJECTIVE ]
Survive the Night.
Reward: 2 Points.
Adrian let out a long, weary sigh.
'Roll over,' he grumbled internally. 'I used to deadlift 300 pounds. Now my biggest challenge is rotating my own torso. This is going to be a long twelve years.'
He closed his eyes, as he casted one last look at the screen then went back to sleep.