I aimlessly walked the streets of New York as the sun began to set.
The city bustled with the populace of the Marvel world, with me just being another face in the crowd.
I hoped to see Spider-Man swinging around, but Peter Parker was currently a young child.
Anyway, when I said aimlessly, I meant it.
I'm homeless.
I mean, what would you expect when I had been dumped in this world so suddenly?
It's not like this system gave me any background or whatever, so I had no apartment, no social security, no identification, nothing.
Honestly speaking, I was probably worse off than an undocumented immigrant right now.
Obviously, from a certain perspective, it could be seen as an upside, like "Oh, I'm completely invisible in the eyes of the law," something like that.
But right now, considering I'm completely powerless, I didn't really receive any benefits from being 'invisible', just downsides in the form of not being able to get a proper job.
Well, I had been able to get a sleazy construction day job in which I got paid slave wages under the table, but the earnings I got from that were far from being enough for me to rent an apartment in the oh-so-expensive New York City.
That money was basically just enough to get food, and anyway, as soon as I got my first ability, I planned on quitting.
Shifting my thoughts from my depressing homelessness, I thought about my plan of getting my last twenty points.
So far, I had been doing petty things, like scaring babies by making weird faces, or using the candy van line wth kids, but I had suspected that scaring people more intensely would lead to greater point yields.
There was no way I'd receive the same amount of points when it came to scaring a baby and making someone think I was going to kill them, right?
Well, I'd find out today.
I visited a few more playgrounds, scaring off the few kids I could find in the evening.
I promise I'm not a creep, I just memorised the locations of playgrounds for maximum fear efficiency...
Those actions managed to net me four more points, a decent number, but now that night had set, I had a new plan.
Have you ever heard of guys saying stuff like "When I'm walking alone on a street with a woman, I always move to the other side of the street so she knows I'm not a threat?"
Well, I would be doing the opposite.
I felt bad about doing this, but it was technically legal, right? Probably.
I loitered outside a random cafe on the outskirts of the city, which was closing up.
The employees left one by one, and a few noticed me, but didn't care to say anything. That's just how NYC is, I guess.
After a while, the final employee left, a young woman who was smaller in frame than me.
I felt bad about doing something so creepy, but uh... it has to be done? For power!
She began walking, presumably back to her apartment, and I tailed her.
I made sure to follow her at a noticeable distance, not at all hiding my presence.
After a while, she sped up her pace.
[You scared a woman trying to make her way home! +3 FP]
As I had expected, the fear she felt was more intense than anything before.
Of course, since she had sped up her pace, I also sped up mine.
[You scared a woman trying to make her way home! +3 FP]
Every time I saw that notification, my eye twitched.
'I guess this is what I wanted...'
"P-please, I'll give you my purse, I have money! Just, please stop following me!" After a few minutes of speedwalking, she finally broke and turned around to confront me.
Seeing her scared face, I initiated the next step of my shameless plan.
As she stood still, I started sprinting at her at full speed.
"A-ah! Please! Someone, hel- huh?"
[You scared a woman trying to make her way home! +10 FP]
...And I passed right by her.
Literally, I just pretended like I was stalking some random lady so that I could extract fear.
'This probably counts as some form of harassment, right? Well, anyway, once I become a billionaire or whatever, I'll give her a cool half mil."
Running away for a while, I finally slowed down when I neared my base.
I called it a base, but it was really just the underpass of a small bridge.
It offered more privacy than the homeless shelter I was staying at, so it was at least something.
Whatever. If I say it's a base, it's a base. My base.
I sat down against the cold concrete wall, the black leather jacket I had spawned in with doing very little to shield me from the cold.
[Fear Point Balance: 100]
Thankfully, the feeling I felt upon seeing my balance was enough to warm me up.
[Beginner Package - 100 FP]
Without hesitation, I purchased the beginner package.
With that action, a bright roulette screen appeared before me.
'Really?'
[Spin!]
I stared at the roulette wheel that had materialised in front of me like some kind of fever-dream gameshow.
It was genuinely ridiculous. I was sitting under a bridge in the cold, homeless, having just terrorised a random woman on her way home, and now I was watching a cartoon wheel spin in front of my face.
'Whoever wrote my life needs to be fired.'
It ticked past abilities I didn't recognise, some I did, and a frankly concerning number that I absolutely did not want.
[Boku No Hero Academia - Mineta's Quirk - 110 FP]
'Not that.'
[Naruto - Rock Lee's Inability To Use Chakra - 150 FP]
'That's not even an ability, that's a disability.'
[One Piece - Buggy's Chop Chop Fruit - 2,000 FP]
'...Okay, that one's actually not terrible, but I'd want a better fruit later on, so no.'
[Dragon Ball - Yamcha's Combat Record - 500 FP]
'PLEASE no.'
[Sword Art Online - Kirito's Gaming Ability - 900 FP]
'Come on, fuck, how is this shit more valuable than Mineta's quirk?'
And then-
Click.
[One Piece - Basic Conqueror's Haki - 80,000 FP Value!]
[Congratulations! The host has received an ability valued at 80,000 FP]
I stared at the notification for a long time.
'...Conqueror's Haki.'