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[Step into Fame]
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| The next day |
…
Inside a room filled with all sorts of music-themed decorations—including a few guitars and a drum set—a certain black-haired girl with earlobes strangely resembling earphone jacks sat at her desk, yawning lazily as she closed her notebook.
"That's enough studying for now. My brain's gonna fry."
Tossing the notebook onto her bed without looking, she picked up her laptop and plugged it in. The device let out a small chime before coming to life.
For the next few minutes, the girl stared at the screen with a bored expression, scrolling through random videos online. Sometimes she darted to other pages to check various things before returning for more doomscrolling.
That was, until she came across it.
{"What's that guy doing?!"}
The video began with someone filming themselves, their face twisted in shock, before they turned the phone around and tried to capture the bizarre scene unfolding in front of them—despite the shaky camera and poor video quality.
But from what the girl could make out, it seemed that—just above the typical skirmish between a hero and a villain—some weirdo was sitting on top of a building with… a guitar?
That caught her attention.
Was he about to—?
—CHA-KA-CHAN!—
The thunderous sound of the electric guitar confirmed her suspicion.
'He's actually going to play at a place like that.'
A slight smile crept onto her face. The sheer boldness of using a hero-villain battle as a stage for your own performance was pretty impressive, she had to admit.
But would he actually be good enough to make it worth it?
She leaned back in her seat, arms crossed, giving the video a smirk and an expectant look.
He had the guts, now all that was left was to see if he had the skills.
...
After that, she proceeded to binge nearly three minutes of the four-minute video.
'It's good…' she thought, sweatdropping slightly.
The song was actually good. And after a while, the hero and the villain resumed their fight, which only made the song sync better with the action below.
But…
"It sounds like it's incomplete…" she muttered, squinting and leaning in closer.
For some reason, it felt like a song meant to support other instruments. But since the guy was doing a solo, that was probably why it felt that way.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder… how would it sound completed?
The video went on. It was about four minutes long, so she figured there was just a minute left before the song ended—or before the guy got interrupted.
Either way, she kept watching, wanting to see the performance to the end.
But then something happened that pulled her attention away from the music.
The villain won.
About thirty seconds from the end, the hero received a devastating blow and was knocked out cold.
The sight sent a chill down her spine. Like many others, she wasn't used to seeing heroes lose. Justice was supposed to always win.
So what now?
With the hero down and no reinforcements in sight, the villain was free to do whatever he pleased.
What would happen to the people?
"Hold on…"
That's when she noticed—the music hadn't stopped. The guy on top of the building was still playing like nothing had happened.
Did he not see the chaos going down there? Was he blind?
If he kept playing—
Sure enough, after a strange stumble, the villain turned his attention to the guitarist, lashing out his tongue at him, while the masked guy just kept playing.
Her pupils shrank.
What was he doing? He had to dodge!
The one recording was just as shocked. People watching from afar seemed to panic, too.
{"Watch out!"}
Someone even tried to warn him. But the masked guy didn't flinch, entranced by his own performance—even as the villain's attack closed in.
However, just when it looked like things were about to end horribly—the result was the exact opposite.
The villain's tongue was suddenly caught midair by an invisible force, making her and the crowd gasp.
That's when it hit everyone.
From that point on, it wasn't a battle anymore, but a beating.
Soon, the chameleon-like villain was being swung around like a rag doll, all to the rhythm of the song.
A full minute of relentless chaos played out as the music reached its climax. The villain was slammed into buildings, cars, the ground. It was a bit pitiful.
And then, the finale arrived.
The song ended with one final, powerful note—and so did the fight.
The villain was slammed into the ground with one last mighty swing.
—CHAN!—
-BAM!-
Vexingly, that's where the video ended, snapping the girl out of her daze. She bit her lip in frustration.
"What's with that ending? What happened after that?!"
Annoyed, she dove into the comments.
Most were rambling about the music, the guy's Quirk, or arguing about whether interfering in a hero fight was illegal—none of which she cared about.
Until finally, she saw something that mattered.
[I found his channel, he made one after the incident where he's uploading his videos!]
She opened the link without hesitation—and sure enough, there it was: a channel full of videos apparently from the same guy.
Allegedly.
He was wearing a dark hoodie and a black mask, so it was hard to be sure.
But it seemed like him.
She dove into one of the videos, and sure enough, he was playing the same song from the original clip.
However, she was quick to notice a difference.
For some reason, he seemed more skilled with the guitar than before.
Not only that, but the song itself had changed slightly—it felt more polished, more refined. Still lacking other instruments, sure, but closer to completion than it was in the video she had just watched.
The channel was fairly new, so there weren't that many videos uploaded yet.
But without much thought, she went straight to the follow button.
"I wonder what weird thing this guy's gonna do next?"
…
°
°
°
...
"I wonder what I'm gonna do next?" Taka muttered as he stared blankly at the ceiling of his room.
A day had passed since his crazy stunt with the chameleon guy, and it had definitely been worth the risk.
His aura had shot up from around 400 to 700.
A gain of nearly 300 aura.
He'd also gotten a new skill—and while it didn't boost his power directly, it definitely helped with farming aura online.
But that was not all.
Yesterday, he ended up with 738 points.
Today? 744.
And how?
<[+1 Aura]>
Exactly like that. The count had just gone up to 744 now.
These kinds of notifications had been popping up every so often since yesterday, probably because people at the scene had recorded and uploaded footage of his mini concert. Add to that the new channel he created, using his masked persona as the face—and sure enough, it worked.
Aura began falling from the sky like the system had said.
In small droplets, spaced hours apart… but it was falling from the sky nonetheless.
It might seem like a tiny amount, but 5 points a day would mean 150 by the end of the month.
And with ten months left before he applied to U.A., that could mean 1,500 aura gained passively by then.
Of course, that was assuming people didn't forget about him in a week.
Which… they probably would.
So he had to come up with something new before his fifteen minutes of fame were up.
"But what would it be?"
Ideally, something that wouldn't put him on the police's radar.
So far, it didn't seem like he was wanted for anything—probably because he hadn't really interfered with the fight until the villain had already won and directly attacked him.
Still, he had a feeling he was already walking on thin ice, and that if he pulled another public stunt, the police might come knocking on his door.
Then again, playing the badass anti-hero vigilante could earn him a ton of aura…
But for now, he preferred to avoid that path.
His eyes drifted to the guitar leaning against the wall.
'I could always try uploading new songs,' he thought, grabbing his chin. 'It may have been hard for the me from two days ago, but with the Connoisseur skill now, it won't be half as bad.'
His gaze shifted to his pc.
'I've also already racked up a decent number of subscribers. 3,000… Not massive, but definitely something. Way better than my old channel ever managed. If I upload more songs, I could probably milk some decent aura from them.'
Yeah, that seemed like a solid plan.
'But… I need more power.'
He couldn't just coast on music videos for the rest of the year. There was still a huge power gap waiting to be made between him and the crybaby protagonist.
When U.A.'s exam arrived, he needed to have absolute power. Thus, he needed tons of aura and more skills too.
And that meant heading out, risking his hide, and grinding like hell.
The online aura farming would just be supplementary.
If he wanted the good gains, he'd have to crash a few more hero-villain fights over the course of the year.
…
But that could wait. Just a little.
'I don't want to end up a hunted vigilante or something.'
…
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-To be Continued…-
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(A/N: Here it is, folks. The extra chapter for reaching the 100 stones.
Don't ask for more, as I don't have that many chapters stashed. I'm a rather slow writer.)