The morning of the UA Entrance Exam did not feel like a beginning; it felt like a New Game Plus.
Kenji stood before the towering gates of UA High School, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of a worn hoodie. Around him, the air was thick with the electric hum of a thousand different Quirks. To his left, a girl was vibrating so fast she was a literal blur; to his right, a boy with engines protruding from his calves was performing high-speed lunges.
A year ago, Kenji would have felt like a ghost among gods. Now, as he blinked, his Focus HUD flickered to life, a translucent holographic ring centering over his right iris.
[SCANNING AREA...]
[THREAT LEVEL: LOW]
[TARGETS DETECTED: 412]
[DATA OVERLAY: ACTIVE]
Small, amber triangles hovered over the other examinees. With a thought, Kenji "clicked" on the boy with the engine legs.
> NAME: Tenya Iida
> QUIRK: Engine
> WEAKNESS: Exhaust Port Clogging / Overheating
>
Kenji smirked, a dry, tired expression he'd inherited from a hundred deaths in the Age of Cinder. He didn't feel superior—he just felt like he was looking at the source code of the world. While everyone else was preparing to fight, Kenji was preparing to execute.
Part I: The Starting Line
The examinees were gathered in front of the massive reinforced gates of Battle Center B. Present Mic, the Voice Hero, was screaming instructions from a high podium, but Kenji barely heard him. He was focused on the internal prompt scrolling across his vision.
[SYSTEM ALERT: MULTI-THREADING ACTIVE]
[CURRENT ENERGY RESERVES: 100% (SOULS/MANA/STAMINA MERGED)]
[LOADOUT SELECTED: "THE PIONEER"]
* Primary: Dragonborn Physical Scaling
* Utility: Horizon Focus Scan
* Passive: Dark Souls Weapon Memory
"RIGHT! START!" Present Mic roared. "There are no countdowns in real battles! Run! Run!"
The crowd surged forward like a tidal wave of meat and superpowers. Iida was a streak of chrome; others used flight or brute strength to clear the gate. Kenji didn't rush. He took a single, deep breath, pulling air into his lungs in a way he had learned in the frozen heights of High Hrothgar.
He felt the Dragonborn-tier scaling kick in. It wasn't a visible transformation; it was a fundamental shift in his density and output. His muscles didn't bulge, but the ground beneath his sneakers cracked.
With a single leap, Kenji cleared fifty feet. He didn't fly; he simply output more force than a human body should be capable of surviving. He landed on the side of a building, his sneakers gripping the concrete thanks to the Nora-style parkour logic he'd integrated from Horizon.
[TARGET DETECTED: 1-POINTER (GIMEL)]
A green, tank-treaded robot rounded the corner, its red eye-sensor locking onto him. It began to raise a machine gun arm.
In the "Old World," this would have been a boss fight. For Kenji, it was a trash mob.
He didn't pull a weapon. He didn't need one. He landed in front of the robot, his hand reaching out. He used Weapon Memory: Greatsword of Artorias. He didn't manifest the sword—that would cost too much Mana—but he manifested the weight and the swing path.
His arm moved in a blur, a heavy, overhead vertical chop delivered with his bare palm. The air itself seemed to sharpen into a blade.
CLANG.
The 1-Pointer didn't just break; it folded. The reinforced steel buckled as if struck by a ten-ton mallet. The robot's internal battery sparked and died.
[SOULS ACQUIRED: 10]
[TOTAL POINTS: 1]
"Too slow," Kenji muttered. He looked up. The sky was filled with laser fire and ice. "I need to increase the tick-rate."
Part II: The Rhythm of the Raid
As Kenji moved deeper into the faux-city, the Focus HUD became a chaotic map of opportunity. He saw three 2-Pointers cornering a girl with purple hair.
He didn't run to them. He simply stood still and drew in a breath that felt like it was pulling the oxygen out of the street. This was his first time using a "Shout" in the real world. He had to be precise.
"FUS...!"
The air in front of his mouth distorted into a visible ripple of blue-white energy.
"...RO DAH!"
The shockwave wasn't a Quirk; it was a command to the universe. The three robots were caught in the invisible fist of the Thu'um. They didn't just fall over; they were launched backward through a brick wall, their chassis twisting into scrap metal before they even hit the ground.
The girl stared at him, her jaw dropping. "What... what kind of Quirk is that? Sound?"
Kenji didn't answer. He was looking at his status bar.
[THU'UM COOLDOWN: 15 SECONDS]
Logic Lock is a pain, he thought. If I were in the 'Dive,' I could spam this with an amulet. In the real world, the physics engine forces a reset.
He pivoted, his Focus highlighting a 3-Pointer hiding behind a billboard. He reached into the small pouch at his belt and pulled out a handful of metal scraps he'd scavenged from the first robot.
[NEPHILIM FORGE: ACTIVE]
[CRAFTING: SHOCK TRIPCASTER BOLT]
His fingers moved with the unnatural speed of a crafting menu. In three seconds, the scrap was reshaped into a glowing, electrified projectile. He didn't have a bow, so he simply threw it with the force of his Skyrim-tier strength.
The bolt pierced the 3-Pointer's head. Electricity surged through the machine, causing it to override its own programming.
[OVERRIDE PROTOCOL: SUCCESSFUL]
The 3-Pointer's eye turned from red to a friendly, holographic blue. It turned its Gatling gun on two other 2-Pointers coming down the alley, shredding them in seconds.
[POINTS ACCRUED: 12]
[TOTAL POINTS: 28]
Kenji leaned against a streetlamp, checking his "Stamina" bar. It was barely depleted. "This is just a grind," he whispered. "I've faced Midir. I've faced the World-Eater. These tin cans don't have an AI script deep enough to catch me."
Part III: The Zero-Pointer Event
In the observation room, the UA staff watched the monitors in stunned silence.
"Who is that kid?" Snipe asked, leaning forward. "He's using a sonic Quirk, some kind of tech-interfacing Quirk, and... is he just hitting things really hard?"
"His file says Quirkless until two months ago," Nezu chirped, his beady eyes gleaming. "A late bloomer. It calls his power 'The Emulator.' It seems he doesn't just have a power—he has a system."
"He's too efficient," Aizawa grumbled, crossing his arms. "He's not fighting like a hero. He's fighting like he's checking off a grocery list."
"Then let's see how he handles an environmental hazard," Nezu said, his paw hovering over a large red button.
Back in the city, the ground began to heave. A skyscraper-sized shadow fell over the streets. The Zero-Pointer—the "Gimmick"—had arrived. It was a mountain of treaded steel and malice, designed to be avoided, not fought.
The examinees turned and fled. It was a programmed stampede of terror.
Except for Kenji.
He stood in the middle of the street, the massive robot's shadow swallowing him whole. His Focus was frantically painting the Zero-Pointer in a mesh of red lines.
[WARNING: LEVEL DISPARITY DETECTED]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: RETREAT]
"Retreat?" Kenji laughed, a jagged, wild sound. "I've spent forty hours learning the parry windows for a god of sunlight. You're just a giant hitbox."
But then, he heard a cry. Beneath the rubble of a collapsed building, a girl—the one with the round face and brown hair—was pinned. The Zero-Pointer's massive tread was inching toward her.
The "Efficiency" of the gamer died. The "Heart" of the hero flickered.
"Fine," Kenji muttered. "Let's use the high-cost stuff."
He planted his feet. He wasn't going to shout. He wasn't going to craft. He was going to use System Synthesis.
He tapped into his Soul Pool, the dark, cold energy he'd harvested from the smaller robots. He fed that energy into his Skyrim physical scaling, overclocking his muscles. Then, he layered the Weapon Memory of a Greatshield over his own skeletal structure.
[WARNING: PHYSICAL STRAIN AT 85%]
Kenji didn't move toward the girl. He moved toward the robot.
As the Zero-Pointer brought its massive fist down to clear the path, Kenji met it. He didn't dodge. He stood under the fist, his arms raised in a "Parry" stance he had practiced ten thousand times in the Dark Souls dive.
BOOM.
The impact shattered the pavement for thirty yards around him. Dust obscured everything. The examinees who had been running stopped and turned, eyes wide.
When the dust cleared, the impossible was visible.
Kenji was holding the robot's fist. His hoodie was shredded, revealing skin that hummed with a binary, golden light. His feet were buried six inches deep in the asphalt, but he hadn't buckled.
"I've got the frame data on you now," Kenji hissed, his teeth gritted against the pressure.
He channeled his remaining Mana into a single point—his throat. This wasn't just a shout. This was a Max-Level Thu'um powered by a Soul-Transposed battery.
"YOL... TOOR SHUL!"
A torrent of dragon fire erupted from his mouth. It wasn't a campfire spark; it was a localized sun. The fire hit the Zero-Pointer's head sensor, melting the reinforced glass and slagging the internal processors.
The robot groaned, its systems failing. As it began to tilt backward, Kenji didn't stop. He jumped—higher than anyone thought possible—and touched the robot's chest.
[OVERRIDE: EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN]
The blue rings of the Horizon override spread across the Zero-Pointer's torso. The massive machine froze mid-fall, locking its joints so it wouldn't crush the girl below.
Kenji landed softly next to the pinned girl. He reached down and, with the casual strength of a man picking up a pillow, lifted the concrete slab off her leg.
[TOTAL POINTS: 28]
[RESCUE POINTS: (CALCULATING...)]
The buzzer sounded, ending the exam.
Kenji sat down on a piece of rubble, his HUD flickering and dying as his energy depleted. He looked at his shaking hands. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel like a background character.
He looked up at the hidden cameras, his eyes flashing one last time with a pixelated glow.
"Game over," he whispered.
Post-Exam Status Report
* Total Villain Points: 28 (Efficient, but not the highest)
* Rescue Points: 60 (For neutralizing a Zero-Pointer to save a single examinee)
* System Status: Exhausted. Requires "Bonfire Rest" for recovery.
* Next Objective: UA High School Enrollment.