Chapter 1: Crushed By This Awakening
"Ah yes... Jupiter Lady suck it. Yes. Go harder. Haaarderr."
Seated in front of a monitor, several tabs open to pictures of a blonde-haired beauty in a swimsuit, was a boy with his rod in his hands. He kept stroking and stroking it while moaning.
"Jupiter Lady, yes, Jupiter Lady."
He groaned hard as white milky things splashed out of the rod in his hands. At the same time he let out one relaxing sigh and slumped into his chair.
He smiled at the monitor and fisted his hand.
"I will make it into the Elevation Hero Agency and become a Hero Manager. I will become her manager!"
Theo said it with a stalwart determination in his voice.
This had been his dream since childhood, and now, at last, he was ready to awaken as a Hero. Depending on the rank he pulled, agencies would soon come flooding in, all of them lining up to offer contracts.
But there was only one agency Theo had his eye on.
’Even C rank would do. As a C rank Hero who attended the Heroism University and majored in Management Relations, I can work with Jupiter Lady.’
He pulled up his pants, gathered his tissues, and lobbed them onto the mountain of them already piled beside his bed. Then he burst out of the room. And down the hallway.
Not looking where he was going, he collided with two massive balls and landed on his butt. The lady whose breasts he collided with staggered backwards and fell too.
Theo scrambled up and bowed.
"I’m so sorry!"
He bolted away, not waiting for the lady’s response.
She had chestnut hair pulled into a ponytail, and beautiful emerald eyes that were currently glaring at Theo’s disappearing figure. After a moment she raised herself with an irritated hiss.
Theo reached the front of his building and hailed a cab, which carried him to the Hero Association, where the awakening was to take place.
In about twenty-five minutes, he made it there.
The building was one of the tallest in Meteor City. It was a beacon for humanity, especially since the world almost ended in the apocalypse a hundred years ago. Now the Heroes of humanity had raised a new world from the ashes of the old. And the Hero Association was a beacon of that effort.
Inside, several people stood in line, all waiting to be measured.
He could barely breathe, thinking about what waited before him. Many people aspired to be Heroes. Aside from the cool powers, you could sign with an agency and earn more than sufficient royalties. There were earnings that came from sponsorship deals and a dozen other payouts.
Heroes don’t pay taxes, and they receive a percentage of the monthly tax revenue of the public, depending on their ranks.
The possibilities were endless, which explained why so many people had shown up today. Why the queue for testing coiled like a titanic snake, stretching across several rooms of the Association building.
After a couple of hours, Theo finally entered the room too.
A man and a woman waited inside, both clad in black single-breasted suits. The man had slicked-back black hair and a gaze deprived of rest. The lady looked sharp, her hair in a ponytail, her eyes stern.
"Theolyne Chadwick."
Theo bowed respectfully.
"Yes ma!"
The lady frowned.
"Pipe down, this is not some sixth grade classroom."
Theo chuckled shyly.
"I’m sorry ma, I’m just super excited for this opportunity. I’ve waited for this all my life."
The lady gave him an odd look and muttered to herself.
"Weirdo."
The man simply gave instructions with a blank look.
"Place your hand on the reactor. And stand there for three minutes. The reactor will force imbue mana into your system, and in response a mana heart will awaken. Depending on how much mana you eject, your rank will be determined. Oh yea, the awakening already happens once you awaken a mana heart."
Theo nodded, smiling brightly, and walked up to the center of the room, where a waist-high pillar stood on a round, raised platform.
The man held a tablet while the lady turned back to the series of wires that sent mana circuits into the reactor. This was how the mana was moved and powered.
He stood there for a few minutes. Eventually Theo felt a small jolt of electricity run through his spine, leaving his back cold for a moment. But then that was just it. He returned to being the same.
The man stared at the screen. The lady glanced at the man.
"Spill it."
The man spoke in a lazy voice.
"I don’t know what to call this..."
He glanced down at the tablet, and the lady hurried over to examine it. Meanwhile Theo stood there, optimistic, sure he would receive something groundbreaking.
Actually, he didn’t need much. He just needed enough to be Jupiter Lady’s sidekick. To watch her from behind.
"It’s too low to even be classified as F rank? I guess we can create a caliber for it. Let’s say G rank? Or Z rank? Because what kind of mana heart is this?"
The lady laughed, ridiculing whatever she saw on the tablet screen.
It was there that the joy in Theo’s heart died. He blinked, fear creeping in.
The man sighed.
"Stop it Sasha, this is not funny."
He walked closer to Theo and announced it to him.
"You barely awakened. And although you’re not as strong as F rank, I think it’s safe to classify you as F rank until the Association knows what to do with you."
He smiled.
"Congratulations on your Awakening, Theolyne."
Theo’s world shattered right there. He felt like his dream had been stolen from him. He stepped away from the raised platform, walking like his soul had left his body. The woman watched him with a small smile and handed him a card.
"If you ever find yourself needing money, you can contact this number. You’ll be paid well, and all you have to do is be a lab rat and let them perform a few experiments on you."
Theo looked at the card blankly.
The lady grinned and slipped it into his pocket. Afterwards she shouted:
"Next."