The System rewarded popularity.
I looked down at my hands.
My strategy since joining Aegis Defense was simple. Stay in the background. Wear a plain hoodie. Let Genevieve take all the kills on camera while I secretly did the heavy lifting from the shadows. I wanted to collect my paycheck and go home to sleep.
I thought staying out of the spotlight kept me safe.
I was wrong.
If Black Hole attacked again, or if a mission went really bad, Aegis Defense wouldn't hesitate to throw me under the bus. If they needed someone to blame, they would pick the quiet guy in the hoodie. They wouldn't touch Genevieve because she had sponsors. She was too popular to punish.
If nobody knew who I was, I was expendable.
I looked around my apartment. At the silk sheets and the room service cart.
I just wanted to be comfortable for the rest of my life.
But if I wanted to keep this life, I couldn't hide anymore. Being a secret weapon wasn't good enough.
I needed armor. Corporate armor.
Millions of fans, sponsors. I needed to be so famous and so loved that the HRC would be terrified to ever write me a ticket.
I had to stop fighting the system and start playing it.
I stood up from the couch.
I was going to play their stupid game, smile for the drones and become the biggest, brightest, most fake Hero this city had ever seen.
I was going to become untouchable.
I took the elevator to the fiftieth floor of the Aegis Tower.
It was the Public Relations department.
I walked into Captain May’s office and sat down in the chair across from her desk.
May didn't look up from her tablet. "What do you want, Shay?"
"I'm throwing the hoodie away," I said.
She stopped tapping on her screen and looked at me. "Excuse me?"
"I want a rebrand," I said, leaning back in the chair. "I’m going to do interviews, sponsorships. I want to be the face of Aegis Defense."
May stared at me for a long time trying to figure out if I was joking. When she realized I was serious, a smile spread across her face.
"Finally," May said.
She made three phone calls. Ten minutes later, I was in a bright room surrounded by the Aegis design team. They had measuring tapes and fabric samples.
"What kind of vibe are we going for?" the lead designer asked. "Dark and brooding? Mysterious?"
"No," I said. "Flashy. I want people to see me from a mile away, like a walking advertisement."
We picked the colors. Brilliant gold, pure white, and bright crimson red. It was the most obnoxious combination I could think of. It looked like a sunrise and was perfect for the cameras.
"We need a Hero name," May said, looking at a clipboard. "Shay Fawn doesn't pop on a billboard. You need something catchy."
I thought about my Blessing. Master of the Elements. I controlled wind, temperature, and pressure. I basically controlled the weather.
"Seasons," I said.
May wrote it down. "Seasons. I like it. It sounds friendly."
A few days later, the new suit arrived at my apartment in a black box.
I took it out and put it on. It was made of high-tech armored fabric, but it was tight and a little uncomfortable. The gold and white panels caught the light from my window and glowed.
I walked into my bathroom and stood in front of the large mirror.
I looked at my face. My natural expression was bored. My eyes were usually half-closed, and my mouth was flat. If I went on TV looking like this, people would think I didn't care about them. Which was true, but I couldn't let them know that.
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I needed to look like I loved my job.
I pulled the corners of my mouth up. It felt weird.
I tried again, opening my eyes wider. I showed my teeth and forced my cheeks to lift.
I stared at the guy in the mirror. He looked happy and energetic. He looked like a guy who couldn't wait to go rescue a cat from a tree.
It was completely, one-hundred-percent fake.
I held the smile. My jaw started to ache after a minute. I practiced waving at the mirror, pointing, like I was pointing at a news drone.
"Have a great day, citizens!" I said to the mirror.
My voice sounded way too cheerful. It made me cringe.
I dropped the smile and rubbed my face. My cheeks hurt.
Faking a personality was going to take a lot of effort. But smiling for a camera was still a lot easier than getting shot at by terrorists.
I looked back at the mirror and forced the golden smile onto my face one more time.
Seasons was ready for the cameras.
I couldn't just look the part. I had to be strong enough to survive.
Black Hole was still out there. My new flashy suit would make me a giant target. If a terrorist attacked me on live TV, I couldn't just freeze and hope a tank saved me. I needed real power.
I went back to Captain May.
"I need a Private Training Zone," I told her. "Exclusive access. Every single day for the entire month of June."
May raised an eyebrow. "Every day? You hate training, Shay."
"Seasons loves training," I said, flashing my new smile.
May rolled her eyes, but she tapped on her tablet. "Fine. Room 4B is yours for the month."
I took the elevator down to the private facility and walked into Room 4B.
I walked over to the control panel on the wall.
Usually, I just hit the quick-start button. The System would throw dumb stone dogs or slow iron giants at me. But dumb monsters wouldn't prepare me for real people. Real Villains were smart. They flanked you, used tricks, and wanted you dead.
I started digging through the advanced settings on the screen.
I found what I was looking for. I changed the enemy type from "Basic Construct" to "Advanced Humanoid."
Then, I went to the Blessing settings and selected B-Tier and A-Tier Blessings. Fire, super speed, gravity, and ice.
Finally, I scrolled down to the safety settings.
Auto-heal was already turned off but there was another slider. It was labeled "Pain Feedback."
Normally, Training Zones dull the pain. If you get hit, it feels like a heavy punch, but it doesn't feel like your bones are actually breaking.
I stared at the slider. I hated pain, like really, really hated it.
But if I got used to fake pain in here, I would panic when a real Villain hit me out in the city. I needed to know exactly how much a real fight was going to hurt. I couldn't afford to be surprised.
I reached out and dragged the slider all the way to maximum. One hundred percent real pain.
I stepped away from the wall and walked to the center of the room.
"System," I called out. "Start simulation."
The gray blocks on the other side of the room shifted and three human-shaped Constructs stepped out. They spread out quietly, watching me, their hands starting to glow with energy.
I took a deep breath and raised my hands.
A fireball hit me right in the chest.
I flew backward and slammed into the floor. The pain was blinding. It felt like my ribs were cracked and my skin was melting. I gasped for air, rolling on the ground.
One hundred percent pain feedback was a terrible idea.
I gritted my teeth, pushed through the pain, and stood up.
The Constructs were already moving, working together. The fire Construct stayed back to shoot at me. The ice Construct tried to freeze the floor to trap my feet. The speed Construct blurred forward to punch me.
I checked my BP. I had plenty.
I activated my Spell. Wings.
I pushed off the ground and shot twenty feet into the air, just as the speed Construct swung at my head, missing.
I hovered near the ceiling as the fire Construct aimed its hands up at me.
Before it could shoot, I activated my Skill. Burn.
I looked right at the fire Construct's head. The air around it instantly superheated. The Construct's head melted into sludge, and its body dissolved into pixels.
One down.
The ice Construct shot a freezing beam at me. I banked hard to the left, dodging the ice easily.
I dove straight down at the speed Construct. He tried to run, but he couldn't outrun the wind pushing me. I flew right past him and activated Burn on his legs. His knees melted, and he crashed to the floor before dissolving.
I landed softly on my feet, turned, and used Burn on the last Construct.
The room went quiet.
[Constructs Defeated. +150 XP]
I dropped to my knees, panting heavily. My chest still throbbed from the first fireball. I was covered in sweat. It was gross and exhausting.
"System," I called out, wiping my forehead. "Spawn three more."
This became my life for the next four weeks.
Wake up. Go to Room 4B. Fight. Bleed. Sweat. Sleep. Repeat.
I got beaten up a lot. Frozen, punched, and burned. But every time I hit the floor, I got back up. Every day, I got a little faster.
I learned how to use Wings perfectly. I could stop in mid-air, spin, and dive without thinking about it. The wind felt like an extra set of muscles.
I learned how to use Burn with lethal precision, aiming for the eyes, the throat, the joints making it quick and efficient.
As the days passed, the Constructs stopped hitting me. I was moving too fast and hitting too hard.
I was turning into a weapon.