Level Up

Ky, wearing a jacket and a medical mask over his mouth, walked down the street with his hands in his pockets, looking for any sort of crime he could stop. Most of the crimes were in Manhattan, though since he was from Forrest Hills, getting to Manhattan wasn't an easy feat with his current skill set.

Looking online, he could see that those who chose a path of villainy had already leveled up multiple skills. Becoming a villain was tempting, even for Ky and it seemed to be the easiest path to strength. He glanced over at a woman walking alone in the park, her purse looked rather expensive. As his eyes followed her, it was as if the game knew what he was thinking and text appeared over her head.

[Robbery - One Skill Point + One Villain Point]

'I've been searching for a crime to stop for the last hour... Other players have already leveled up, but here I am stuck at level one.'

He found himself lusting for strength as anyone would in a video game. The goal, no matter who the gamer was, has always been to get more powerful as quickly as possible. At the same time, he wanted to do what was right. In an actual game, he'd have no qualms doing an evil playthrough, but this was technically still real life which meant real-life consequences. 

Feeling himself falling behind, Ky weighed his options. 'If I were a villain, I'd become stronger faster, and with my skill set, I'm sure I could evade the cops; especially once I unlock more abilities...' Ky's mind then shifted to the heroes he'd idolized in comics growing up.

'I want to be like them but how can I do that without the strength? What if I just do a few small crimes to get just a little stronger? Once I'm strong, then I can focus on saving people.' Before his desire for power could drive him to do something he'd regret, he saw a young man walking toward the woman, hunched with his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. He had long hair and wore a beanie; his skin was pale as if this was the first time he'd ever stepped outside.

Above the boy's head, Ky could see the boy's Alias, 'Celsius'. 

Celsius stepped in front of the woman, blocking her path before saying something to her that Ky couldn't hear from where he stood. The woman, however, appeared frightened and clutched her bag. The young man extended his hand outward and a blade of ice formed from the palm of his hand.

The woman started trembling, holding her bag tighter as the boy threatened her with the blade of ice held up to her throat. Ky looked on, his eyes widened as a crime was being committed right in front of him.

[CRIME REPORTED]

In his visual field, a red circle appeared over the young ice manipulator, as did his level. He was a level three, two levels above Ky who was at level one.

[Stop the robbery from taking place - Two Skill Points + Two Hero Points]

[PvP Bonus: Two Skill Points]

For a moment, Ky was stunned, frozen in place as if Ceclius had already struck him with ice. He didn't expect to run into another player so soon, especially since there were only one hundred players in his region. 'It's like a fighting game... A one-on-one fight with no friends or teammates to back me up.' 

Internally, Ky could see a construct of himself in his own consciousness panicking. 'Man... fighting games always made me anxious.'

Ky considered looking the other way, saving his own life over the woman's. Celsius, the ice user, was stronger than him, and he didn't want to take the chance. Besides, Ky didn't have a single attack or anything that enhanced his own power. All he could do was reverse time by a single second. In his mind, this matchup was unwinnable. Despite having these feelings of fear and inferiority, Ky could also sense a part of himself that wanted to save her. 

Like the heroes he'd always idolized and dreamed of becoming one day, his back was against the wall. But like ******-man and ***man, he too could always find a way to save the day, even against those more powerful.

"Stop!" he shouted, causing the ice wielder to slowly turn his head toward Ky with an offended grimace. "What'd you say to me, kid?" Ky nearly went back into his shell upon hearing Celsius's chilling voice, but he stood his ground.

"Help!" the woman looked right at Ky as she pleaded for his assistance, though Celsius threw her to the ground and shot an ice shard right next to her face, scraping her cheek. "You shut the hell up."

The ice user scanned Ky, his stats appearing in his visual field. "Level one? This noob doesn't even know how to change his name yet. It's still default!" he laughed as a new objective appeared on his end. 

[PvP Bonus: Two Skill Points]

The ice user pointed his palm at Ky and began firing shards of ice at him. These shards moved like bullets and the ice user had the aim of a trained sniper. Thanks to Ky's ability to warp time, he was able to move time back by just a mere second, giving him the chance to react and dodge. 

Ky hid behind a waist-high brick wall and regained his bearings. 'Ice bullets! Seriously! How the hell am I supposed to beat this guy?' Ky could hear the young man's footsteps getting closer, each one sounding like crackling ice. 'It's no different than those level one speedruns those guys do on Twitch, right? This is just a real-life boss fight from a souls-like. Just don't get hit. Yeah, I could beat a souls-like if I had a constant reset button.'

Once Celsius's footsteps were close, Ky stepped out from his hiding place and started rushing the ice user. 'I'm useless at range. I need to close the gap!' Using his ability the moment the cooldown wore off, Ky dodged all of Celsius's ice shards until the two of them were point blank.

"What the hell!? Is this kid hacking!?" Celsius could not see whenever time was being reverted by Ky. From his perspective, Ky was dodging every single attack as if he were predicting them. Clumsily, Ky threw a punch at Celsius, but the ice user dodged it with ease. "Should've installed auto-aim too, cheater!"

Ky had never thrown a punch at another man in his life, however, due to his powers, none of that mattered. Ky warped time backward by just a second, just before the moment he threw the punch at Celsius. Celsius dodged in the exact same direction, but this time, Ky was ready.

With his fist balled tightly, Ky delivered a haymaker to the ice user's face, destroying his jaw with a single well-aimed punch. The ice user fell to the ground, holding his face as he writhed in pain and cried in his hands like a newborn baby. Like Ky, he'd never been in a fight before in his life, nor had he ever taken a punch like that before.

It was then that Ky realized something about the game. 'Right. Most of the people who signed up for the open beta are nerds, right? Most of these guys don't have any combat experience. All of our knowledge comes from video games.' All of Ky's fears and feelings of inferiority had vanished. Prior to this quick exchange, Ky imagined every other player like a boss fight, but in reality, these guys were nothing more than fodder before the real boss fight.

"Thank you!" the woman got back on her feet and ran away from the scene, leaving Ky and Celsius behind.

[Objective Complete]

[Reward - Four Skill Points + Two Hero Points]

[Level up!]

[Ability Upgrade - Time Warp - Warp time forward or backward for five seconds. Warp length can be upgraded.]

[Cooldown: 1.5x the amount of time that has been warped.]

Seeing his visual field lighting up with rewards was so intoxicating, that Ky grew excited to level up even more. He realized then that those who were leveling up through crime and villainy must have been feeling this exact same sensation of ecstasy, that same hit of dopamine. 'This is dangerous. If I were to have robbed her, would I feel the same way as I do now? Would I grow a hunger to commit more crimes?'

[Use the Hero x Villain Online App to access the skill tree]

The words in Ky's visual field interrupted his thought process and he found himself once again immersed into the game. What would have happened didn't matter, not anymore. What mattered was growing more powerful.

As sirens approached from a distance, Ky fled the scene and eventually found himself inside a coffee shop where he began scrolling through his options.

'For the most part, it seems the early skills are all neutral, but the more powerful ones require alignment.' Ky's eyes locked onto the meter on the top right of the skill tree, which showed his current alignment level. This meter was divided into ten progress bars, which went from white to either blue or red depending on which side of the scale the player was working toward. Already, Ky could see his progress inching toward the blue section. 

'So it's impossible to obtain both heroic and villainous abilities... You have to choose. As of now, I'm on my way to becoming a hero.' Ky's eyebrows furrowed as he read through the abilities exclusive to being a hero. 'But these abilities are so much weaker in comparison. It's unfair. Why would anyone choose to be a hero? It's like playing on hard mode with a handicap.'

[Senescence - (Requires level 40 + Level 4 Villainy) Touch any object or organism to simulate instant aging and deterioration.]

'This sounds broken... Yet the hero equivalent to that is this...'

[Mend - (Requires level 40 + Level 4 Heroism) Touch any object or organism to restore it to its most ideal state.]

'I'm getting ahead of myself. I should focus on what abilities I can unlock now.'

[Time Slow - (Requires level 2) Slow down for both the user and the world around them. Lasts five seconds.]

[Cooldown - 10 Seconds]

[Cost - 2 Skill Points]

'This one could give me time to think. Why not.'

[Ability unlocked!]

'How about this one too.'

[Psychometry - (Requires level 2) Touch any object or person to look into its past.]

[Cooldown - 1 minute]

[Cost - 2 Skill Points]

'Yeah, that seems pretty useful as well. I'll take it.'

[Ability unlocked!]

With new abilities, Ky was ready to venture out into the city once more. 'Let's give these new skills a spin. But before that, I need an Alias.' Ky switched over to his profile tab before clicking the blank section that was labeled 'Alias.'

'From here on out, my name will be...'

[Alias - Tempo]

[Are you sure you would like to change your alias to 'Tempo'? Yes/No]

With a small grin, Ky clicked yes, and from that moment on, he would be known in the world of Hero x Villain Online as Tempo.