Chapter 4: The Halls of Giants and the Sweaty Palms
U.A. High School did not look like a school. To Usopp, standing at the massive front gates on the morning of the exam, it looked like a futuristic military fortress designed specifically to intimidate teenagers. The sheer scale of the glass-and-steel H-shaped building made his knees feel like they were made of overcooked jelly.
Everywhere he looked, there were prodigies. A boy with engines in his calves sprinted past him. A girl with pink skin and horns was chatting excitedly near the entrance. Usopp gulped loudly, tightly gripping the straps of his worn-out backpack.
"Stay calm, Captain Usopp," he muttered to himself, forcing a strained, trembling smile as he walked through the gates. "These people are mere amateurs. They rely on brute strength. You have the ultimate tactical advantage: the ability to see exactly how badly you are going to lose!"
The first hurdle was the written exam. Usopp sat in a massive auditorium, nervously clicking his cheap, bright yellow plastic pen. He had spent weeks studying, fueled by his mother's instant ramen and his own desperation to escape poverty.
When the test began, he attacked the paper. The questions were brutally difficult, covering advanced physics, mathematics, and hero law. Halfway through, a bead of sweat rolled down his long nose. He was stuck on a complex geometry question.
Temptation crept into his mind. Whirrrrr-bzzt. He subtly activated his Quirk. His pupils shifted forward slightly. Without moving his head, he zoomed his vision toward the desk of a smart-looking girl sitting fifteen rows ahead of him. He could read the tiny graphite marks on her paper perfectly. He saw her answer: 'C'.
But just as he was about to copy it, his enhanced vision caught something else. Sitting in the shadows of the high ceiling, perched on a rafter fifty feet above, was a proctor—the Pro Hero Snipe—watching the crowd like a hawk.
Usopp's heart practically stopped. He instantly retracted his zoom, his eyes snapping back to normal. Nope! No cheating! Tactical honesty is the best policy! He gripped his cheap yellow lucky pen, which felt surprisingly warm in his trembling hand, and relied on his own brain, frantically calculating the angles himself.
Hours later, the written portion ended, and the examinees were herded into an even larger orientation hall.
"WELCOME TO MY LIVE SHOW, EVERYBODY! SAY 'HEY'!"
The Voice Hero: Present Mic stood on stage, his voice amplified to a volume that made Usopp's teeth rattle. The silence from the audience was deafening.
Present Mic didn't miss a beat, diving into the rules of the practical exam. A screen behind him illuminated, showing a map of various fake cities and silhouettes of three types of robots.
"You'll be conducting a ten-minute urban combat simulation! You get points by destroying the villain bots! One-pointers, two-pointers, and three-pointers!"
Usopp's jaw slowly dropped. Robots? Heavy, armored, metallic robots? He looked down at his own scrawny arms. He could barely open a tightly sealed jar of pickles without using a towel for grip. How was he supposed to punch through solid steel?
"But wait, there's a catch, listeners!" Present Mic continued. "There's a fourth type! The Zero-Pointer! An obstacle that will go crazy in narrow spaces! My advice? Run away from it!"
Usopp aggressively nodded his head. Run away? Finally, instructions I can follow flawlessly!
As they were dismissed to change into their athletic gear, Usopp felt a cold dread pooling in his stomach. The application fee had taken a chunk of his mother's savings. The yellow pen in his pocket was a symbol of his tiny friends' faith. He couldn't just give up. He had to find a way to cheat the system without breaking the rules.