"The toilet scrubber ranked higher than me. How?"
"Something must be wrong with this system."
"Maybe he offered to clean the academy in return for a high score?"
For a full minute, the students ignored their own rankings and instead focused on the Janitor. Everyone wondered how he had done it.
Then finally, the talking was put to a close.
"If you focused more on yourselves, then maybe you would have ranked higher."
The voice belonged to Marbelle, who stood there, hardly phased by the fact she had placed first, and once again with a stern look on her face.
The class went silent, afraid to continue with their mockery. Even if they didn't respect him, they had to respect Nightgirl, who was keen on defending.
"Ahem," Truth cleared his throat. "You're all dismissed. By tomorrow you will have received your first mission. None of you will be made to fight any enemies alone; however, this mission will be your first chance at earning some experience and making a public showing. After all, part of being a superhero is making a name for yourself. The better your reputation is, the more at ease civilians will be when you arrive to save them."
Truth then dismissed the students, and they all left the building in friendship groups.
Antonio was alone as he stood in the busy streets of Central City.
My first mission. What could it possibly be?
His thoughts were cut off as he saw Marbelle standing by the roadside, waiting for her car to arrive.
Antonio couldn't help but approach her. After all, he had questions to ask.
"Marbelle." He called, not too loudly.
The woman turned to stare up at him with her cold, dark eyes.
Antonio felt a shiver running through his body.
"I uhh... I wanted to know why you insist on helping me all the time. It's only going to affect your reputation."
Before he could even finish his sentence, a jet black limousine arrived, and the door was opened by a chauffeur for Marbelle to enter.
Before she did, she turned back to Antonio and gave him her answer.
"That's because I would like to reproduce with you."
Without a single blush in her cheeks, she then shut the door, and the car drove off, leaving Antonio standing frozen in disbelief.
"..."
"What?"
---
Back home, Antonio sat in the bath staring up at the ceiling in confusion.
Why would Marbelle, one of the most popular women in all of the academy, say something so strange?
He dipped his head under the water for ten seconds to clear his mind.
I mean, if she were being serious, then I'd be an idiot to turn it down. Just look at her.
He lifted his head from the water to find that his hero system had pinged. To check it out, he simply had to activate it with a thought.
It was his superhero mission!
Antonio urgently scanned over the contents.
—
Hero Missions:
~ Clean the Central City Sewers. (0% progress)
Reward ~ None
—
"..."
BANG
Ranera heard a loud bang come from the bathroom. Wasting no time, she burst through the door and entered.
There she found her son, Antonio, sitting in the water. His knuckles dripped with blood and his face was filled with anger.
"A-antonio?" She made her way towards him and grabbed his hand. She quickly used the water to clean the blood and checked over the wound. Luckily, it was only split skin.
She looked into her son's black eyes, and she didn't sense sadness, but rather anger.
"Even after ranking tenth, I've been given an embarrassment of a mission. Sewage duty?" He muttered, voice shaky.
For a moment, she didn't know what to say. She was taken aback by the mission.
Usually, a student superhero's first mission would be to aid an official on simple missions, such as stopping crimes or patrolling.
Never had she seen such a pitiful mission.
'Oh, you poor young man.' She thought to herself, wrapping her arms around his bare body and pulling him close.
His head naturally rested between her large breasts. It was always a method of comfort for him, even though he went red in the face every time she did it.
This time, however, his anger must have taken the better of him, as he didn't even wish to lay there. He just wanted to be alone.
Ranera looked down at him, and she sensed the sadness in his eyes.
Afterwards, she left him alone with his thoughts.
---
The next morning...
"37...38...39....40!"
Antonio rose to his feet, tired and out of breath after finishing his final set of push-ups.
Ever since he had become a superhero, he had made sure to train every morning. Heroes were able to increase their physical attributes at a much faster rate than humans, so he decided he would at least try to push ahead in whichever way he could.
After washing and putting on his academy uniform, he ate breakfast alone. Ranera, his stepmother, had left the house for work. She was a teacher at a junior academy for future Superheroes.
Afterwards, with a mop in hand, he exited out into the bustling street of Central City.
Cars zoomed down roads, trains travelled across overground tracks above, and all sorts of pedestrians walked the pavement.
Every now and then, you would spot Superheroes travelling with different methods, utilising their powers.
Being the capital city of the capital state, Central City was filled with over a hundred official Superheroes, and that did not include the student superheroes, and those that had unofficially awakened.
Antonio made his way over to an alleyway, where he found a manhole covered by a metal drain disc, leading to the sewers below.
He let out a sigh, lifted the disc and began to climb his way down the ladder.
His feet eventually landed in a pool of dirty water. Dark tunnels stretched out ahead of him, though thanks to his ability, the smell of waste didn't affect him.
How am I even meant to clean this place?
He travelled down the tunnel, and every now and then, he outstretched his hand beneath his feet.
A weak blast of cleaning waves, which were a cloudy essence mixed with blue, pink, and white, erupted from his palms and tackled the parts of the water that were too grimy to be cleaned by the filtering system of the sewers.
(5% mission progress)
His Sanitation Field Radius was 0.5 meters, meaning he had to be close to the water at all times to clean it.
His Purification Depth was F rank, which meant that he couldn't even purify the water to an optimal standard.
And his Contamination Purge Speed was F rank, which meant that even as The Janitor, his methods of cleaning weren't efficient.
This was going to take him a long time.
Fuck my life.