Life is a game. In an attempt to save a friend during the Breach, Jaune Arc died. Brought back to life with powers of a Gamer, he must now attempt to beat the game called life. He's not alone though. Every win or lose ends in a Reset, so how will he beat a game that never ends?
Multiplayer
is a RWBY fanfic by NeoShadows. Jaune Arc is blessed/cursed with the powers of a Gamer and becomes a part of the world much bigger and more dangerous than he knew before.
Multiplayer contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Anybody who is a Player becomes this as they relive the lives over and over thus learning new tricks. Jaune himself is a lot more powerful and because of his rising strength, motivates this re-run of RWBY and others to be stronger as well. Of course other Players on the side of bad like Roman Torchwick and Adam are even stronger than him along with Ren.
- Always Someone Better: Even though Jaune is much stronger than he was in Canon, there is still a lot of people he lacks against.
- All the three Players other than Jaune have countless playthroughs under their belts. Adam, according to Ren, could easily take out Jaune with his skills alone.
- Neo is an NPC but she still has enough power to make even Adam/The Body of the Gamer uneasy.
- Awesome, but Impractical: For now, at least, one of Jaune's abilities, Shatter Armament allows him to summon a weapon from another world. But it shatters whatever limb is equipped with this weapon as well as cause significant decrease in Strength.
- Berserk Button: Ren has this when Jaune declares he'll beat the Game on his first try. Angered that Jaune would say that when the other Players including him have tried for a near eternity and always failing.
- Character Development: Cardin is first introduced like his Canon self. After the Trial by Fire Event, he grows more tolerant of Faunus, preferring to focus more on protecting everyone, be they Faunus or not. Also, he develops a rivalry with Jaune.
- Cosmic Plaything: Ren views everyone and himself as such. Deaths, suffering, devastation and pain that everyone around him goes through is nothing more than entertainment for whatever deity controls the world.
- Deconstruction: The story does show how certain aspects of becoming a Gamer. While the array of abilities, skills and other perks are awesome, you are still playing someone's game.
- Ren has been going through the endless cycle of Resets, because he, like the other Players, never reached the True Ending.
- Due to the nature of the Resets and Remixes, the idea of value of life becomes much less relevant — all the ones who died would be later resurrected with no recollection of their deaths. Because of this, Ren is quite nonchalant about killing off Non Player Characters around him.
- Downer Beginning: Jaune dies at the beginning of the story at the hands of the WF Lieutenant while the Beacon falls. Sure, he gets a kiss from Weiss but it is gone in a Reset.
- Determined Defeatist: Ren appears to be one throughout most of the story. No matter what route he took, it always ended in another Reset, causing him to lose most of his hope for winning the game. As of chapter 20, Jaune helps him regain some drive to move towards victory.
- Endearingly Dorky: Lampshaded by a "lot" of characters. Nora and Nurse Sprigan point out that, quite possibly, it is one of the main traits that make him such a Chick Magnet.
- Genre Savvy: Ren. Often lampshades tropes like Unwanted Harem. In his battle with Cross Hare, Ren monologues about how such battles are often the time to give a speech about Power of Friendship and the like.
- God Is Evil: While it is still unclear whether who exactly is playing the role of the God in this universe, his/her deeds are less than stellar. Locking people in the neverending cycle of repeating their lives over and over again, with only a select few aware of it. Not to mention, in Jaune's case, taking away his entire life and giving it away to another version of him.
- Multiple Endings: Unlike video games, where you have several but limited amount of the outcomes, the possibility for Endings is unlimited as in real life, with only one of them being the True one.
- Unwanted Harem: Many girls are now pining for Jaune after seeing his bravery and loyalty with only a few like Nora not attracted to him. Of course, Jaune sees many of their unnatural quirks with some girls including grown woman trying to force themselves on him, thus making him not want their affections.
- World's Strongest Man: Roman Torchwick of all people is this. He is not only the first Player to be born, but has experienced countless lifetimes of battle long before the others. Both Adam and Ren, other Players, see him as the strongest among them and during the dock fight of Black and White, he proves it by beating everyone despite having a useless arm, outnumbered, and facing powerful foes. One of the OC's Tsuki herself states he was stronger than she could see with Ren adding he wasn't even serious.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Despite the fact the Players can change things aside from a remix, Ren notes that some things can't change like the Fall of Beacon and other 'events'. This also sadly includes Pyrrha's death.
