One thousand days.
Two years, nine months, and five days.
Lucas Kane stood under the hot water in the Midtown High locker room showers, letting the spray wash away the sweat from his training. As always, he brought up the interface that only he could see.
The translucent panel hovered in front of him.
[Cosmo Awakening System]
Status: LockedRequirement: 10,000 punches daily for 1000 daysProgress: 999 / 1000
Just one day left.
Lucas still found it hard to believe.
Ten thousand punches a day, every day, for one thousand consecutive days. Saying it was simple. Actually doing it was something else entirely.
Sometimes he wasn't sure how he had managed to keep going.
Maybe it was stubbornness.
Maybe it was the reality of the world he lived in.
This wasn't an ordinary world. It was the Marvel Universe—a place where gods fought in the streets, monsters leveled cities, and people with impossible powers appeared overnight.
Either way, the reason didn't matter anymore.
"One more day."
Lucas shut his eyes briefly as warm water ran over his shoulders.
Tomorrow, the system would unlock.
Cosmo Awakening.
The name alone stirred a memory from his previous life.
If his guess was right, then the concept behind Cosmo was something extraordinary.
Ancient philosophers once theorized that everything in existence was built from the smallest particles of matter. Within every human being, they believed, existed a miniature universe.
A Cosmo.
To awaken it meant igniting the hidden energy within one's own life force—drawing out that inner universe and refining it through relentless training. Those who mastered it could surpass the normal limits of the human body.
Lucas remembered a series from his past life that explored this exact idea.
Saint Seiya.
In that story, warriors awakened their Cosmo and advanced through higher levels of perception.
Bronze Saints pushed beyond the five senses and reached the sixth.
Silver Saints mastered the sixth and began touching the seventh.
Gold Saints fully controlled the seventh sense.
And beyond that were even greater realms—the eighth, the ninth…
Lucas shook his head with a quiet laugh.
He might be getting ahead of himself.
For all he knew, the system's version of Cosmo Awakening might not resemble that idea at all.
There was no point imagining grand possibilities.
Besides, Lucas had never dreamed of becoming some unstoppable godlike warrior.
He had lived in this world for seventeen years. Long before the system appeared, he had already prepared himself mentally to survive in a dangerous universe with no advantages at all.
Expect less. Avoid disappointment.
That mindset had carried him this far.
Lucas turned off the water and wrung out his freshly washed T-shirt before stuffing it into a plastic bag with his pants. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he stepped out of the shower stall while drying his hair.
The locker room door slammed open.
A skinny figure stumbled inside as if someone had shoved him from behind.
He lost his balance and landed hard on the tile floor.
Lucas glanced over.
"…Peter?"
Peter Parker sat there awkwardly, pushing his glasses up as he looked toward Lucas with an embarrassed expression.
The two of them were in the same grade, but they had barely spoken before.
Peter opened his mouth, clearly about to say something.
Then laughter echoed from the hallway.
A moment later, Flash Thompson walked into the locker room carrying a football, three of his friends trailing behind him.
Flash Thompson—nicknamed Flash, captain of the Midtown High football team, and widely known as the school's resident bully.
The laughter stopped immediately.
Flash had noticed Lucas standing there.
Lucas was still barefoot, towel wrapped around his waist, one hand holding the plastic bag of washed clothes while the other ran a towel through his damp hair.
Flash was tall and broad-shouldered.
But Lucas wasn't small.
Nine hundred ninety-nine days of relentless training had carved his body into lean, functional muscle. His arms were defined but not bulky, built for speed and power rather than show. His abdomen was tight, every line of muscle clearly visible.
The two locked eyes.
For a brief moment, the locker room went completely silent.
American high schools had their own unspoken hierarchy.
Bullies usually targeted the weak—kids with no friends, no support, or no confidence.
By that logic, Lucas should have been near the bottom of that ladder.
He was an orphan, after all.
But reality didn't work that way.
Lucas had never fought the school bullies.
They simply never chose him as a target.
The reason was obvious.
Nothing about Lucas Kane suggested an easy victim.
And since no one bothered him, Lucas had never felt the need to play hero for anyone else.
Everyone survived their own battles.
Lucas broke eye contact first.
He walked over to the bench, pulled on a clean T-shirt and pants, then slid the plastic bag into his backpack. Slinging the bag over one shoulder, he headed toward the exit.
Flash frowned slightly as Lucas approached.
He knew who Lucas was.
Anyone who spent time in the gym had seen the guy who showed up every afternoon and threw ten thousand punches in the corner. Lucas had been doing it for more than two years.
But knowing someone and actually knowing them were different things.
Lucas never joined parties.
Never attended school events.
He moved through Midtown High like someone living in a parallel world.
Flash watched him stop right in front of him.
"Hey—"
"Excuse me," Lucas said calmly.
Flash paused.
Then, almost automatically, he stepped aside.
Behind him, the three guys with him started to say something—but the words died the moment they met Lucas's quiet blue eyes.
They shifted aside too.
"Thanks."
Lucas walked past them and left the locker room.
Flash stared at the doorway for a moment, frowning as Lucas disappeared down the hallway.
Then one of his friends suddenly shouted.
"Holy crap!"
"Flash, Peter ran!"
"What?"
Flash snapped back to attention.
Sure enough, Peter Parker had slipped out of the locker room behind Lucas while no one was looking.
Flash's face twisted with irritation.
"After him!"
He grabbed the football and stormed toward the door.
"Parker! Get back here!"