“O-Oh god!” Erika moaned as the hot water cascaded over her, rinsing away the suds covering her body, her muscles loosening from the heat of the shower. Her skin still stung slightly from the hard scrubbing, but it was worth it after a day in a portal. Shutting the water off, she got out of the shower and toweled off, dripping water on the floor as she padded over to the bed. The cold air of her AC left goosebumps on her skin after the hot shower, but it felt amazing as she flopped onto her bed, her wet hair clinging to her back and neck.
Her body sunk into the cheap foam mattress, the soft material perfectly cradling her despite being its age, and the siren’s song of sleep whispered to her, inviting her to close her eyes and drift off. She was sorely tempted after the day she had, but something nagged at her, telling her she had more to do before she could go to sleep.
“Status,” she murmured sleepily, marveling as the screen popped up again.
Name: Kira Nakamura (Alias: Erika Sato)
Age: 22
Race: Meta-Human
Power: Super System (Class F)
Available EXP: 16,645
Purchased Powers: Sturdy Bones (Class F)
Strength: 6
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 11
Willpower: 9
Conditions: Minor Bruising (Healing); Minor Scrapes (Healing); Moderate Muscle Fatigue
Skimming the screen, she focused on the Available EXP section, her eyes widening a bit at the amount she was sitting on. Despite telling Pinpoint about her power so she might be able to upgrade again in the portal, there hadn’t actually been time to do so. Especially with Pinpoint’s warning not to try it in a dangerous place. But, now that she was home, she could figure things out. Erika started to reach for her phone, only for her memory to catch up to her. It’d been destroyed that morning. Fuck, there went her plan to time things. She’d have to do it the hard way.
It took some time, but she eventually found an old pad of sticky notes and a pen, and the digital display on her stove was working, though from the way the numbers flashed it was obvious she hadn’t bothered to reset it after the last time the power went out. Jotting down the time, Erika went back to her bed and flopped into the middle of it as she mumbled “Shop.”
EXP Balance: 16,645
Upgrades:
>Shop Upgrade (Class E) - Upgrade Super System Shop to Class E. Unlocks additional options. 25,000 EXP
>Strength Point (Class F) - Raise Strength Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 8/10. 250 EXP
>Vitality Point (Class F) - Raise Vitality Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 8/10. 250 EXP
>Dexterity Point (Class F) - Raise Dexterity Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
>Intelligence Point (Class F) - Raise Intelligence Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
>Willpower Point (Class F) - Raise Willpower Statistic by 1 point. Repeatable Purchase. Limit: 10. 250 EXP
Skimming through the screens with her EXP burning a metaphorical hole in her imaginary pocket, Erika fought the urge to just start buying things and instead focused on stat points first. She had nearly 17,000 EXP, which seemed like a lot until she did some quick math. Each stat point cost 250 EXP, and she could get up to ten of each, eight more for strength and vitality. Across all five stats, that meant it’d cost her 11,500 EXP to buy out the stats, leaving her just over 5,000 EXP for new powers. Not that any of the powers really grabbed her though. They all just seemed weak. More interesting was the Shop Upgrade, which she hoped would let her buy better stuff, but that was over 8,000 EXP out of reach, and who knew when she’d have another chance to earn more.
It wasn’t like she was diving into portals every day. That was superhero stuff. Wait. You are a superhero now. You awakened and registered, she thought to herself. Excitement and regret at the thought ate at her. Being a superhero meant she could earn money from the government, but only if she fought monsters and villains. Her muscles still ached from the frantic fighting against hordes of zombies. Swinging a weapon around in hand to hand combat was exhausting. The scenes she saw of Pinpoint fighting came to mind. The C Class hero was definitely stronger than her, and even she used guns until she ran out of ammo. Ugh. Erika closed her eyes and shook her head, though she could still see the screen. Good to know, she thought to herself. Now focus!
Chastizing herself for getting ahead of things, Erika went back over her options before remembering what she’d planned to do. Figure out how long a purchase knocked her out. Sighing, she got back up and checked the time on the stove again, noting a few minutes passed as she let herself get off track. Writing down the new time, she returned to her bed, her muscles aching as she made a purchase. Just a single point of vitality. And waited. Just like the first time, it didn’t hit immediately and took what felt like a minute to kick in, then she felt a surge of electricity shooting through her entire body, like painful tingles. Not so bad that she couldn’t function, but bad enough that she couldn’t ignore it. After what felt like only a few seconds, the tingling passed, leaving her feeling both more tired and feeling better than she had. Her muscles ached noticeably less. Checking the time again, she noted that only about a minute had passed since the time she wrote down. “1 stat point = 1 minute” she wrote down on the sticky note under the new time, before ripping it off and sticking it to her fridge.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Writing the new time down, Erika went back to her bed and spent more EXP. A single point of vitality wasn’t terrible, so it was time to push it.
***
Erika angrily slapped a new sticky note to her fridge, her naked skin covered in a sheen of sweat. Her towel still laid abandoned on her bed where it’d come off as she thrashed about after her latest purchase. She’d been overconfident.
She tried doing a single point of strength first, and like vitality it’d been unpleasant but doable, and also only took a minute and left her feeling stronger than ever. Then she did a point each in the other stats: dexterity, intelligence, and willpower. Dexterity left her feeling more graceful and smooth. Intelligence seemed to make her brain faster. Willpower, she wasn’t sure what it did. Maybe it helped her focus a bit better? She wasn’t sure, but each individual point only left her feeling that unpleasant tingling sensation for about a minute before it went away.
So she tried doing a point of strength and vitality at the same time. The tingling had been worse and seemed to last a bit longer than before, but was still less than a minute according to her sticky notes. Confident, she tried a point each in strength, vitality, dexterity, intelligence, and willpower all at once, and the tingling hadn’t been much worse than two stats at once, and again only took a minute. Which led her to her latest purchase. Two points in each stat all at the same time.
That’d been a mistake. Pain ripped through her like nothing she’d ever felt before. She’d wanted to scream, in fact she tried, but her muscles locked up and muffled it, at least until she blacked out.
“That fucking hurt, dumbass,” Erika whispered to herself, her throat sore from the screaming. Looking at the sticky note, it read “2 each str, vit, dex, int, will. 5 minutes. Bad idea.” But as she flexed her arms and stretched them farther and easier than ever before, she had to admit to herself the pain had been worth it. She felt better than she’d ever had before. Even with the bruises and scrapes all over her body from the portal. She was stronger, more flexible, her brain feeling like she’d actually had a full night’s sleep on top of just the right amount of caffeine. Awake, sharp, and focused, not jittery.
While she could still buy a few more stats, she couldn’t bring herself to going through that pain just now. Plus, she wanted to make sure she had enough for any powers that caught her eye. Pulling up the power section of her shop, she looked over her options again, and just like when she was in the portal, she was entirely underwhelmed.
EXP Balance: 11,145
Powers:
Class F
>Fast Recovery (Class F) - Physical recovery is enhanced to the top 10% of baseline human potential. Cannot repair missing limbs. 1,000 EXP
>Sturdy Bones (Class F) - Bones are enhanced, becoming more resistant to breaking and slightly more flexible. 1,500 EXP (PURCHASED)
>Thick Skin (Class F) - Skin becomes twice as resistant to damage as baseline humans. Includes minor beauty enhancement 2,500 EXP
>Fast Processing (Class F) - Your brain and nervous system are enhanced, increasing the speed by which you process information to the top 10% of baseline humanity. Does not stack with other nervous system enhancements. Decreased effectiveness with higher Intelligence stat. 5,000 EXP
>Enhanced Strength (Class F) - Muscles can exert 10% more force. Does not increase muscle durability. Does not stack with other muscle enhancements. 2,500 EXP
>Enhanced Dexterity (Class F) - Muscles, tendons, and ligaments become 10% more elastic. Does not increase force potential. Does not stack with other elasticity enhancements. 2,500 EXP
>Enhanced Sight (Class F) - Your eyes are enhanced, giving you near perfect normal vision. Does not improve night vision. 3,000 EXP
>Enhanced Night Vision (Class F) - Your eyes become more sensitive to light, better able to see in low light settings. 1,000 EXP
>Enhanced Hearing (Class F) - Your hearing is enhanced, becoming more sensitive to sound waves. You can hear higher and lower frequencies than the average baseline human. Does not increase resistance to sounds. 1,000 EXP
>Pain Resistance (Class F) - Become more resistant to feelings of pain. Does not increase physical durability. 1,000 EXP
Class E
The powers she could buy were just as disappointing as the first time around, but they all seemed at least a bit useful. The enhancement powers all seemed useful enough, but still disappointing. Ten percent more strength or flexibility sounded okay, but not for 2,500 EXP for just one of those. That was ten stat points worth of EXP. Fast Processing for 5,000 EXP sounded a bit better, but she didn’t like how it grew less effective the more intelligence points she had. The more she thought about those powers, the more they felt like trash meant to waste her EXP.
As that thought crossed her mind, she immediately dismissed Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Dexterity, and Fast Processing. She didn’t understand this Super System power very well yet, but from the way her power seemed to hide details about itself from her, she wouldn’t be surprised if there were traps for the stupid. Plus, there was that upgrade that would unlock a new tier of shop, and her gut was telling her better powers would be available then.
Besides, there were some powers she thought would be more useful. Fast Recovery sounded boring at first, barely even a power, since it wouldn’t even heal her faster than a baseline human’s recovery time, but the important thing was that it didn’t say it wouldn’t work with other powers. She didn’t know what she might be able to buy in the future, but the dungeon taught her something very important. If she had an opportunity to get anything that improved her healing, she would take it. Fast Recovery might be weak now, but she couldn’t see any downsides to taking it. Plus, it was cheap.
The other power she was eyeing was Pain Resistance. Whatever else happened, she knew that buying stat points hurt, even if they didn’t seem to do any damage to her. The description didn’t say how much Pain Resistance would help, but even a small reduction would make the upgrade process more bearable. And also cheap.
Flopping back on her bed, Erika selected the two powers and waited for the pain to hit. It didn’t take long.
Name: Kira Nakamura (Alias: Erika Sato)
Age: 22
Race: Meta-Human
Power: Super System (Class F)
Available EXP: 9,145
Purchased Powers: Sturdy Bones (Class F); Fast Recovery (Class F); Pain Resistance (Class F)
Strength: 11
Vitality: 13
Dexterity: 12
Intelligence: 15
Willpower: 13
Conditions: Minor Bruising (Healing); Minor Scrapes (Healing); Minor Muscle Fatigue