Hope

Gamer System or not, some things were never going to change, such as the torture that came with doing cardio willingly.

Souta wiped the sweat from his brow, a grimace glued to his face as he found a bench and sat down with a pronounced thud. As he rested, he surveyed the park around him, noting the countless children his age running around doing random things while their guardians watched them from afar.

It was Yugana park, a fairly open area with plenty of trees, hedges, colorfully bright playground equipment, and a small creek off to the side glistening in the morning sun.

Utapa city was beautiful, safer than most places, and was honestly just a town where those too poor to live in Tokyo stayed because the commute was only thirty minutes to an hour away.

Utapa was a fair distance from Mustafu where the main two characters of the My Hero Academia lived, in another prefecture entirely to be exact, and was also another piece of concrete evidence on how real the world was.

Sitting back and resting his head against the backrest of the bench, Souta greedily devoured as much air as he could, aimlessly staring off into nothing as he did so.

Once he garnered some semblance of stability, he removed the small drawstring backpack he wore and produced a water bottle that he instantly downed in a few mighty gulps.

Releasing a long exhale of relief, Souta relished in the coldness of the liquid, letting his thoughts wander without supervision.

Honestly, being seven sucked. His stamina was somehow both infinite in small bursts but also extremely lacking at times as he never failed to take naps on drives home or while laying on the couch watching a mind numbingly boring yet interesting reality show. It was frustrating to say the least, and there was also the fact he was still under five feet, meaning it would be a while till he truly gained the independence he desired.

Luckily, he had a good Quirk, so he would soon overcome his childish biology in due time.

With that particular thought, a blue screen appeared, and Souta smiled slightly upon seeing it.

[

Name: Souta Sasaki

Occupation: Hero

Lvl: 8 (10/400)

AP: 30

-

HP: (278/280)

SP: (90/240)

-

Strength: 17

Speed: 12

Constitution: 10

Perception: 13

Stamina: 14

Instinct: 8

Skills(3)

Buffs(1)

Abilities(0)

]

It had been three years, three long years for Souta to figure as much as he could about the system and its hidden strengths and more obvious faults.

To start off, the first of many negatives was that the system itself was built for him to be a hero, not a kid. He had realized that there were no dungeons, no easy quests to farm AP, and that training his regular attributes naturally was a lot harder for a kid his age to do than he initially realized. In any of the gamer fics he read, most had enormous growth at the beginning and then a plateau of sorts when attributes hit the hundreds or thousands.

It was the opposite here. The main way for a hero to gain experience was too well… to be a hero. It was an oversight on his part, something so obvious that he should have realized it from the start. If he was in a fantasy world, perhaps he could have simply gone on adventures, beat dungeons, slay monsters, and fight wars.

Here, he was just a child, nothing more and nothing less; limitless potential be damned.

Souta just assumed if he kept doing push ups every day, ran enough to tire out, and pushed himself to the limit, eventually his strength and speed would be high enough to propel him to city level and possible outpacing cars by the time UA rolled around.

He had been obviously wrong, because his parents were not going to allow him to buy heavier weights, go to a gym in any possible way at his age, nor could he bullshit his way into convincing anyone to help.

So, he had his body as weights, an occasional time to go to the dumpster and look for things heavy and then drag said heavy things to a conspicuous alley close to his house that he used as his "gym".

Well, that was until a homeless man squatted there and Souta had no means to force him away. He had to start over because of him, but again, he was a kid.

So back to destroying his body in a shady spot he went.

Souta had also gotten his Quirk registered, and it was not a cause for celebration, both of his parents were Quirkless afterall. Souta was guaranteed in everyone's eyes to manifest a weaker power like most first generations did almost a hundred years ago. So, with the fact his evolutionary skill [Wood Skin] was exposed by the doctor during tests, and that Souta exhibited muscle mass befitting a ten year old child at time while being only four, his Quirk was boringly called [Body Enhancement].

During these three years, he assumed it would be smooth sailing, he played his fair share of video games after all.

Do ten more pushups here or squats there every day until he gained more -Strength-, do more laps to up his -Stamina-, sprint harder to get faster for -Speed-, meditate a little bit longer to grow his -Perception-, and simply eat healthier and stay in shape to boost -Constitution-.

The previous was working, but because his baseline was that of a child, it was abysmal. If he was an adult with the system then he would have made leaps and bounds in his attributes by now.

An example would be two cars who need to drive a certain distance, both have unlimited gas to use though, but one of them has to stop every five seconds to fill back up the small tank it had.

Plus, he did not have the -Gamer's Body-, so fatigue built up, muscles soreness stopped him from pushing his limits sometimes, and just mental exhaustion ate away at his determination every waking hour. -Gamer's Mind- had the passive to shield him from mental Quirks, but only when he was in battle did the calming effect take place. Low and behold, what battles did a seven year old child regularly partake in?

Although, he did get a single point to every attribute upon leveling up, so in reality if you subtract eight from most of them, he had not even gotten more than the natural level up points added to any of them except -Strength-.

-Instinct- had not even naturally grown, Souta having no idea how to do so, but he had not given up and experimented to the best of his ability.

Bribing a random kid to throw rocks at him with candy had been easy, the fact the rocks hurt when they hit him despite his skill, not so much.

Even then, Instinct had not grown, and with the few context clues he gathered for the last few years Souta assumed the attribute was something that only grew in combat.

Bringing him back to the problem of him being a child.

Thankfully, in this Quirked society, any and all children were given sixty free hours of Quirk counseling they could use at their leisure. You could of course pay for more, but Quirk Counselors and Advisers were booked for entire years. The higher tiered one's personally bought out for their entire careers by rich families.

There was also the fact kids would be permitted to healthily grow their Quirks depending on countless factors such as destruction capabilities, possibility of self harm, effects on the economy, and a psych test. The last part made Souta wonder how Bakugou got the go ahead, but then again he could have just put on an act or ignored it and trained it anyway.

Also, one got their Quirk Growth Permit only when they reached the age of ten, so Souta had three more years before he did not need to sneakily do things no parent should allow their child to do.

In due time he would grow stronger, but with it came the fact that with the passing of said time, he grew ever closer to canon.

He currently had the strength of a fit eighteen year old, just on the cusp of one's physical prime, but still not able to do feats befitting of the peak of human possibility or to surpass human limits.

Although, for all the -Gamer System-'s apparent negatives, there were countless positives. He had literally unlimited potential, and unless he died somewhere in the future Souta would become unstoppable. Secondly, his path of progression was laid bare for him, no second thoughts on certain decisions, no need to over think if the way forward was correct, and no thoughts of fear of maybe he didn't have the talent to rise.

None of it.

Thirdly, and lastly, was the -Quest Log- he obtained after leveling up to one.

[

-Power Quest Line-

Climb the Mountain: reach the peak of human limits by growing all attributes to 25.

-Rewards: EXP, Ability Creation Token or Permanent Buff

Superhuman Prodigy: become more by growing all attributes to 50.

-Rewards: EXP, Skill Creation Token or 50 AP

Ascendant Rise: power comes readily by growing all attributes to 100.

-Rewards: EXP, Another Attribute or 100 AP

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Demi-God: take step into the heavens by growing all attributes to 5,000.

-Rewards: ???

Ascended: shred all mortality by growing all attributes to 10,000.

-Rewards: ???

]

This was just the -Power Quest Line-, and he had others he had to focus on, but they were not any easier. The second most important and difficult definitely went to the -Hero Quest Line-.

With just a thought, a screen of the quest line appeared, and Souta read it slowly for the hundredth time.

[

-Hero Quest Line-

One in a Million: save your first life.

-Reward: EXP, Permanent Buff, 10 AP or Free Simulation Token

A Hundred in a Million: save a hundred lives.

-Rewards: EXP, 1,000 EXP or Skill Creation Token

A Thousand in a Million: save a thousand lives.

-Rewards: EXP, 5,000 more EXP or Another Attribute.

.

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]

The -Hero Quest Line- continued as one might think, and Souta found it a little disheartening that lives were nothing more than experience to the system. It made sense, it had no personality or will and was just a measure of his growth. His occupation was a Hero after all, there were only so many ways to show his worth as one, and saving lives was definitely toward the top of the list.

Unsettling yes, but nonetheless a necessary part, it was modeled after a game after all.

Souta exhaled, finally having rested enough from his short run to walk without wobbly legs but nowhere near ready for another bout of torture. He was exhausted, and honestly he was also realizing just how hard it is to wake up early everyday and work out. He had failed countless times to do it through the last three years, enough to make him want to punch himself in the face.

He knew every moment counted, and if he wanted to stop All for One he had to keep his foot on the pedal, but it was difficult; far more than anything he had ever done in his life.

Souta for the majority of both life's combined had been a slob and a nobody. Habits he thought he could simply do away with would rear their ugly heads in moments of weakness. Times where he collapsed from exhaustion and could barely move or when his thoughts gravitated to the idea of giving up.

He would have to force himself to stop them, to silence the doubt that seeped into his body and constantly whispered how worthless he was and that he should stop his wishful thinking.

Someone like him, not chosen by fate, just another face in the crowd, had supposedly wanted to do great things?

As if he could be a good Hero.

Why should he, a mob, have one the greatest powers in this world, especially when he hadn't done anything to merit it being given to him?

He killed himself. He never did anything remotely heroic in his old life, and if he was being honest he was more of a villain than anything in the way he treated people because of his insecurities and anger. The excuses he made for every little thing, and the first four years he had lived in this world being a nuisance to parents who loved him. He had been an adult, at least in age, so why did he wallow in self pity for so long and acting like a child?

Souta gritted his teeth in frustration at those thoughts, hopping off the bench he was sitting on, and heading back home with a shake of his head.

He wished he could be a dense main character sometimes, one who ran into the thick of things without hesitation, was motivated by some lofty goal, or at least maybe with the thought of revenge.

Perhaps even a calculating one, cold blooded enough to kill if needed, brutal enough to take what they wanted, and precise enough to do exactly that.

He was none of those things sadly, just some guy from another world, one who had no potential for anything really worthwhile.

No hobbies besides porn and Japanese culture, no true honest friends besides those that tolerated his presence and because he owned the D and D table they used, and no happy experiences that willed him to do good.

Hell, he did not even have a girlfriend, one of his biggest failures in his old shitty life.

The only reason he was pushing so hard was because of what he held, the -Gamer System-, and how it was quite possibly the final shield against whatever fate had to offer.

Sometimes, Souta wished he had read more My Hero Academia before the apocalypse, had ordered more future volumes, and had been more interested in it so he knew everything that was to come.

He was afraid, scared of the unknown, and not sure if his involvement will be for better or for worse.

Damn him for being stubborn in his old life, because for all he knew how happy-go-lucky the My Hero world was, he had seen a few pictures and heard a few mentions of what was beyond volume eleven.

Mentions of how the story took on darker tones, had major character deaths, and how there was nationwide destruction for the country.

Watching it was cool, but now he was here, a seven year old with probably the greatest Quirk simply power wise.

There was no running away.

Perhaps he could convince his parents to leave the country, but would All for One, or whoever came next, stop at just Japan? How certain could he be that everything would end up alright? Maybe when this world was simply images on paper Souta could shrug and say the protagonists would win the day with plot armor, but did that even exist when it all became real?

Those questions ate at him, biting down harder and harder as time marched on, no remorse given for how much dread it caused him.

With a grunt, those questions were shelved begrudgingly for another time, because maybe he would eventually get his answers. Now though, Souta found himself in front of his house, and also looking on as the pure white dog he had spent more time with as of recently was happily waiting for him.

Onigiri, a German Shepherd, was wagging his tail profusely while begging for Souta to unlock the gate. When he finally did, he was assaulted by licks and yips of joy.

For someone who had never owned a pet because he didn't want them to inhale any fumes from his parents' constant use of cigarettes, it was nice to have one now. The unconditional love of something where you didn't have to second guess it and assume ulterior motives was definitely nice.

One of the bright spots in his life for sure, and when he managed to get past Onigiri and opened the front door, the brightest of those spots was shown before him.

His Mother Hina Sasaki, a woman with long pink colored hair he had inherited from her, violet eyes that glistened like amethyst, and a smile that could extinguish the fiercest of fires.

Although, she was currently without her trademark smile, instead loudly cursing Souta's Father who had the remote and was using one of his bare feet to push her away.

"We are watching the Quirk Discover channel dammit, and that's final."

Sora Sasaki had a head of white hair that was never neat, always seemingly disheveled and thrown to the whims of the world despite people pointing it out. He had light blue eyes, the same Souta had, and a usual stern face that spoke of his maturity and patience.

Of course, he was anything but the latter two at the moment, more so akin to a person of Souta's age as he stuck his tongue out at Souta's Mother and spoke aloud.

"Bakaaaa."

Souta's Mother frowned, "Fine, be that way."

The woman promptly turned away, arms folded across her chest, eyes closed, and lips pulled into a thin line.

Souta's Father sputtered, "Hey… Don't ignore me honey."

He proceeded to poke his wife's cheek, only for her to act as if he wasn't doing it in the first place.

"I'm sorry honey, maybe we can watch Ice Skating Nationals." Saying the name of the program seemed to physically hurt the man.

"Okay!" Souta's Mother deftly snatched the remote, sticking out her tongue and pressing the buttons on the device.

"You!"

Souta took this moment to close the door, drawing two sets of eyes that locked onto him like heat seeking missiles, which was then followed by the sound of rushing footsteps. He was pulled tightly into a hug by both his parents, his Mother running a hand through his pink hair while his Father checked for injuries.

"Clear honey." His Father spoke seriously.

Souta's Mother smiled, "Good, he knows better than to get hurt on my watch."

Souta just scoffed while remembering the incident with a fellow classmates, "Mom, it was one time. He just manifested his Quirk, there was nothing he could do."

A gruff grunt from his Father, "Yeah, but it would worry any parent to find their child coming back from the park with a literal knife lodged in their arm. No attitude mister."

The group hug was released, smiles all around despite the small quarrel, and his Father slowly trudged back to the couch while Souta's Mother stayed.

"Do you have practice today for um… Katana's?"

Souta sighed, "They are called Katas Mom, and it's Karate firstly."

The woman just embarrassingly scratched her cheek, "You know I'm not good with that stuff."

How could Souta forget? She practically passed out when he started doing said Katas in pairs with other children, some older because his Quirk naturally made him stronger. Despite almost no violence, the thought of him eventually moving up to the point he would be actually sparring drove her crazy, to the point she had cried the entire trip back to the house."

"I just want my So-chan to be safe." She mumbled.

Souta smiled, genuinely, and it unlike those times he would go through the motions with his parents before. It seemed so long ago, but it had only been three years ago, but in his mind he had cataloged it as still being part of his past life.

"I know, I won't get hurt, you know how my Quirk works Mom."

"Yes yes, just let me know when you need to go and I will take you, I don't trust you walking downtown alone."

Souta nodded, watching silently as his Mother kissed his forehead and practically skipped back to the couch. Souta also could not help but chuckle upon seeing her gasp as the remote was seemingly gone and the screen was now showing the Quirk Discovery Channel already in its introduction.

The ensuing shenanigans were all too familiar.

With that settled, Souta went to his room, closing the door and getting on his tiptoes to lock it. He sauntered to his bed, plopped down, checked his status for the tenth time in the last hour, and looked at a part of the -Gamer System- he had been using since last month.

-Simulation-

If he fought someone once or used a Simulation Token gifted by some of the quests, he could simulate a fight with someone three times a week.

Of course, it would not exhibit real emotions, environments and so on. It was just a big empty white room, and the second he clicked a name he would be thrust into battle from the get go till someone was knocked out or dead.

Upon leveling up to five, the system had so graciously given him a Simulation coin, an item which allowed a freebie to select anyone and make a full repertoire or their skills.

The choice was quite obvious, Souta silently looking at the blue screen before him, small hands balled into fists.

[

-All for One

]

For a moment, he was tempted not to click it, knowing how the last few times went. There was a one week cool down for simulating any battle three times, so he would only be able to do it now as it was Sunday so it matched with his off days.

Of course, he would lose, but maybe, there was just a small inkling of a thought he could maybe do something the way he was now. He had eight more years left, time was ticking.

So, while holding his breathe, he clicked the name of the most powerful man on the planet.

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[A/N:

Hello readers,

I apologize for the lack of chapters but after having to rewrite around 30k words of future chapter's because of my own stupidity of making such a blaring plot hole, I got burnt out and didn't feel like posting or editing.

Im a big stickler on quality so I refused to release chapters I hadn't even gone over to edit at least once or twice.

Now though, after a week break, I am back.

I'm publishing this one chapter to push the story to 15k words and to get more views and stuff, then get back to three chapters every Monday if everything works out.

Also, a funny anecdote, the original story name was [ MHA Gamer Fanfic: Fist for All ] lmao.

Alright, that's all for now, PenguinMage out. ]