I walked away from the Training Facility before the Aegis containment team arrived. I didn't want to deal with the paperwork or answer questions. That was Captain May’s job.
I checked my phone as I walked toward the subway.
A notification popped up from my banking app.
Transfer Complete: $10,000.00 from Aegis Defense.
I smiled. My bank account was over twenty-one thousand dollars now. Plus, I had three stolen Training Cores in my pockets. Those sold for about five hundred dollars each on the open market.
I had made over eleven thousand dollars in less than an hour and I hadn't taken a single punch.
I got on the train to head home. The car was mostly empty. I sat by the window, watching the city blur by.
I thought about the fight with Moby. He was Level 15, strong, fast, and had a powerful defensive Blessing. But he was stupid. He relied entirely on his physical stats. He thought being tough meant he couldn't lose.
That was the problem with most people in this world. They treated the System like a video game. They thought higher numbers meant an automatic win. But the System isn't a game; it's a tool. If you use it smartly, a Level 5 can crush a Level 15.
My phone buzzed again. This time it was a text from Captain May.
Great job today, Shay. Take the rest of the week off. I will contact you on Monday with your next assignment. Enjoy the bonus.
I put my phone away. A whole week off. No quotas. Just relaxing in my apartment with my new money.
When the train stopped near my neighborhood, I decided to take a detour. I wanted to sell the Cores.
I walked a few blocks away from the main street, heading toward an unmarked electronics shop. I knew the owner bought System Cores under the table. He didn't ask questions about where they came from, and he didn't report the sales to the HRC.
I opened the door. The bell jingled.
The shop was dark. The owner, an old man with thick glasses, was sitting behind the counter fixing a broken tablet.
"I have some Cores to sell," I said, walking up to the counter.
The old man didn't look up. "Put them on the glass."
I reached into my pockets and pulled out the Training Cores. I set them down.
The old man picked one up and examined it closely.
"Clean," he muttered. "No cracks. Training Zone quality. I'll give you four hundred each. Twelve hundred total."
"Deal," I said immediately. I didn't care about haggling for the extra hundred.
The old man opened his register and counted out twelve crisp hundred-dollar bills. He slid them across the counter.
As I reached for the money, the bell on the front door jingled again.
"Leave the money, kid," a voice said from behind me.
I turned around slowly.
Standing in the doorway was a man wearing a ragged black coat. He had a hood pulled up over his head, hiding most of his face. But I could see his eyes. They were completely black, with no white in them at all.
"Who are you?" I asked.
The man stepped into the shop. "I am a scout for Black Hole."
Black Hole. They were an anarchist faction that believed the Hero industry was corrupt and that Heroes who worked for money were fake. They were famous for hunting down and killing corporate Heroes.
"I saw you fight in the alley yesterday," the scout said. "I saw you take down the blood manipulator but you didn't do it to save the woman. You did it for the bounty."
"So?" I asked, slipping my hand into my pocket, ready to use my Blessing.
"So, you are exactly what is wrong with this world," the scout said. "You have power, but no ideals. You are a fake Hero. And Black Hole purges fake Heroes."
He raised his hand and a swirling ball of dark energy formed in his palm, crackling.
I looked at my Status Screen.
BP: 120/120.
I had my money on the counter.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
I wasn't going to let some crazy anarchist take it from me.
"I'm not a fake Hero," I said. "I'm just an opportunist."
I focused my mind. It was time for another fight.
The scout from Black Hole stood in the doorway, blocking my exit. The energy in his hand buzzed loudly, making the glass cases in the shop rattle.
The old man behind the counter slowly dropped to the floor, hiding behind the register.
"You think you're clever," the scout said, his eyes locked on me. "I watched you use the wind and the cold. You rely on tricks. But tricks don't work against pure destruction."
He threw the ball of energy at me.
It moved incredibly fast, tearing through the air with a screeching sound.
I knew instinctively that if that energy touched my ice, it would just shatter it and keep going.
I focused on the air directly under my own feet and created an explosive updraft of wind.
Cost: 10 BP.
The wind launched me straight up into the air, pushing me toward the ceiling just as the energy ball slammed into the spot where I had been standing.
The explosion was deafening. It blew a massive hole in the floor and shattered the glass counter. The twelve hundred dollars I had just made fluttered into the air, caught in the shockwave.
I hit the ceiling hard, scraping my shoulder, but I kept the wind pushing against me, hovering near the ceiling lights.
The scout raised both hands, forming two more energy balls.
"You can't fly forever," he sneered.
"I don't need to," I said.
I looked at my BP. 110/120.
I had plenty of power. But I couldn't fight him normally. His destructive Blessing was too dangerous in this small room. If I threw an ice spear, he would blow it up. If I tried to suffocate him, he would just blast the walls down and escape.
I needed to be efficient and use the environment.
I looked down. The explosion had destroyed the floor, exposing the old pipes running under the shop.
I focused my mind on the air inside the shop. It was full of thick dust from the explosion, floating everywhere.
Dust is highly flammable if it is concentrated in the air.
I rapidly increased the air pressure in the room, pushing all the floating dust tightly together into a dense cloud right around the scout.
Cost: 15 BP.
The scout coughed as the dust swirled around him. "What is this? A smokescreen?"
"Science," I said.
I didn't have a fire Blessing which meant I couldn't create a spark but I didn't need to.
I focused on the exposed pipes under the floor and found the main water line. I froze the water inside it, causing the pipe to burst.
Cost: 5 BP.
The pipe exploded, sending a shower of water and metal shrapnel upward. One piece of metal struck the exposed electrical wiring hidden under the floorboards.
A bright blue spark jumped from the broken wire.
The spark hit the highly pressurized, concentrated cloud of dust surrounding the scout.
A massive dust explosion ripped through the front of the shop and a fireball erupted, blowing the front windows out into the street. The force of the blast slammed the scout backward, throwing him out the door and onto the sidewalk.
I canceled the wind holding me up and dropped back down to the floor, landing carefully, avoiding the burning debris.
I walked out the front door.
The scout was lying on the sidewalk, his black coat scorched and smoking. He was unconscious, his face covered.
He was strong, but he didn't understand how the world worked. He just threw energy around.
A gold notification popped up in my vision.
[Target Defeated: Black Hole Scout (Level 18)]
[Reward: +800 XP]
Another notification flashed immediately.
[Experience Points (XP) threshold reached.]
[Level Up!]
I felt the warm rush of energy again. The scrape on my shoulder healed instantly. My mind felt even clearer.
I was Level 6.
I stood on the sidewalk, looking at the unconscious anarchist while sirens wailed in the distance. The police were coming. The explosion was too loud to ignore.
I turned around and walked back into the shop. The old man was still hiding behind the counter, coughing from the smoke.
I looked around the room. The twelve hundred-dollar bills were scattered on the floor, slightly singed but still intact.
I bent down and picked up my money. I stuffed the bills into my pocket.
"Sorry about the mess," I told the old man.
I walked out the back door of the shop and slipped into the alley before the police arrived.
I walked all the way back to my apartment.
When I finally got home, I sat on my bed and pulled out the money, adding it to the stack on my kitchen table.
I dumped the points into Wisdom and opened my Status Screen.
Name: Shay Fawn
Level: 6
Title: [Opportunist]
BP: 145/145
I had started this week as a Level 1 cashier who couldn't afford rent.
Now, I was a Level 6 Pro Hero. I had a corporate sponsor, defeated a Zone looter, a Black Hole anarchist and had over twenty-two thousand dollars in the bank.
I lay back on my mattress and stared at the ceiling.
My parents wanted me to be a noble Hero. Chloe wanted me to fail. Mr. Graves wanted to exploit me. Black Hole wanted to kill me.
They all expected me to play by their rules. To work hard, fight fair, and care about their stupid ideologies.
But I didn't care. I was just going to keep doing things my way. Using my brain instead of my fists.
I was going to climb to the very top of this world and I wasn't going to break a single sweat doing it.
I smiled, closed my eyes, and went to sleep.
Name: Shay Fawn - End of Volume 1
Age: 19
Level: 6
Title: [Opportunist]
Blessing: Master of the Elements (S-Tier)
HP (Health Points): 220
BP (Blessing Points): 145
Attributes:
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Constitution: 5
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 29
Charisma: 5
Specializations: None
Skills: None
Spells: None
Bank Account: $22,500
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