Guess the cheapest, way to go is nerf guns, if that'll even count, but even then 1,000 will still cost a fortune. Could hit yard sales but that'll take forever to consistently get the same gun. After abit of looking online I decided on the Nerf N-Strike REV, or the most plain looking revolver design that I had seen several times, if it's common enough it'll be at yard sales and tossed aside as garbage. After that I jogged to 3 different goodwill and managed to get 6 from 2 of the stores.I decided to get a $10 coffee maker as well. Then jogged to the abandoned strip mall to work out and practice parkour till it was nearly late then back to my place where I plugged in the pot and started brewing just water to watch it work, I then sipped hot water while disassembling the guns, only two worked but I made 2 work poorly and 2 work better than before when I put them back together, I noticed a lot of air was lost between the firing compartment and the revolving cartridge, so I applied some paint to reduce the gap. This made no noticable different but I felt certain it helped, I think. Completely disassembled the coffeepot and put it back together and brewed another cup of hot water, a tiny bit spilled on the towel and it was noisier now but otherwise worked. After sipping a cup of hot water that...somehow tasted worse? I went to bed.
Waking up in my night city apartment I felt like shit, my vision kept going weird, I was dreading this surgery so bad. Welp let's get this over with, pointless conversation with Jackie, pointless convo with emo/dream girl, and I get to see the doctor, who fixes me for free, oh Lord I'm gonna hate myself when I wake up he literally gouged my eyes and replaced them. Sickness gone I head out and start working out by punching air until I max out athletic again. Next I sought out a car. Thornton Colby C125...sure looks common. Start disassembling it with a crowbar, tire iron, and an adjustable wrench mislabeled a socket wrench..., due to a lack of pliers I used a knife and brute force to disconnect pipes that were clamped down many ways, I mean these are super secure and have metal mesh sleeves, without my enhanced strength and durability it'd be a nightmare, the damn hoses even have metal fiber on the inside. The air filters are...different, very different and there's 5, only 2 are for the cab, it's nuts, the coolant defiantly isn't freon, the radiator is smaller and works very differently. The engine...is not recognizable, I know it looking at it, but I can't infer anything by ripping it apart, plus best I can tell it's 6 little boxes that look more like batteries than engines. So much is miniaturized and different. I find two more which I disassemble more quickly and scrap all the parts. Then head home, God I'm gonna hate myself for getting that surgery.
Waking up in my real bed "AAAAASAAGHAAAAAHAHAWAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! AaaaaaaghaaaaafaekanaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!". Several minutes of this later I realize my panicked roommate is holding me, my eyes are bloodshot and bleeding, slightly misshapen. My bawling and telling her kinda everything or as close to it as I rapidly can in my current hysteric state. She panicked and begrudgingly turns on my Xbox and opens fallout, a couple stimpaks later I can see again, and she tells me she called an ambulance. ..fuck! One confused visit later they leave, I still get billed $200 but whatever, this didn't hurt as bad as my neck breaking but it hurts longer and I was nearly blind, it was terrifying, after a cup of coffee, a shower, and calling in sick to my job and gigs, I sit and talk with my roommate.
"So....". I say... She sits drinking coffee I can't read her emotions but I'm sure it's at least a small flurry
"You said it was weak." She says flatly
"Huh?....It is..." I reply not sure where this is going and struggling to recall precisely what I told her
"You went from blind to find, that isn't weak"
"A thousandth of my eyes all disappeared, healing items in game that restore full health should heal the same amount ...kinda"
"Blind to fine isn't weak"
"I wasn't blind, just, parts of my eye a tiny bit was gone"
"So this is why you've been randomly screaming and doing so many weird hobbies"
"Yeah"
"So a little bit of everything your video games characters get you get?"
"There's a lot of exceptions, like skills that make my character carry more at best give me skills to learn to carry more faster, I know it sounds the same but it's not"
"So you could get a sexy skill and make yourself attract all women?"
"No I've tried something similar with charisma but it just helps me learn skills tied to charisma faster"
"So you did try to get every woman on the planet" She retorts with a grin
"No I tried to get pulled over less, but instead my police interaction skill makes them see me as an less dangerous easy mark for a bribe"
She busts out laughing at that.
"So have you gotten any sex skills?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"I'd rather not get videogame herpes or whatever"
She laughs and we talk all day, I've been living here seven years and it's our first real conversation. She accepts it's a largely worthless system for others but insists I'm underutilizing it for my own gains. We say goodnight and I realize I lost a days worth of grinding but I don't regret it. After disassembling and reassembling my good nerf guns, I do a single level 10 run on fallout 76 eating every stimpak and purified water, then go to bed.
Waking up in night city get back to tearing apart cars, still feel clueless but I upgrade my gear and keep going. Manage to break down and scrap 6 cars before heading to bed. Waking up my eyes still hurts, I use fallout 3 to take another stimpak, using it directly on my head, then sleep in game, both feel like they help a bit but could easily be placebo's. I call out again and focus on recovering, I take some billberry extract and lotsa vitamin E and take a long warm bath with lotsa salt and explosive minerals(magnesium, calcium, potassium). After hours of resting....my eyes aren't magically better, still can see and given time I can see all I need but it's definitely worse and my eyes hurt or get tired easily, hopefully time will improve this. The rest of the day is spent disassembling and reassembling my nerf guns over and over while thinking of small improvements. My roommate checks on me a few times but doesn't press. That night going to sleep I can't help but feel afraid, got hurt once, I was small but major and know I'm acting too scared to move again, this is sane, a healthy rational fear but I've got a tremendous chance and I'm blowing it. Fear of being crippled, fear of the mundane, rational crippling fear. It's awful, and I don't know how to change or if I can, I'll explore and do more, but I'll be safe and slow first, losing so much time, slow reliable growth, or missed opportunities? Either way I have to get better, both my eyes and my personality