Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Revenge Is Sweet (Part 1)
It was easier said than done.
"Still thinking about those guys?" Don asked, pretty sure that it was the reason Donald was looking so nervous and tired.
Donald sighed again and nodded, his posture a bit slumped though his gaze was alert as he kept looking side to side for anyone approaching. "I can't help it; I'm an overthinker. Hell, even just being late makes me anxious, dammit. What was I thinking? I should've just gone with it and saved us the trouble."
Though he could understand Donald's sentiment, Don shook his head. "That's just setting yourself up to become their bitch. It always starts with small stuff like that, but once it's known that you can be walked all over, they'll either keep doing it themselves or introduce more people to do it to you."
Donald sighed. "You have a point, but only in the case that they're not psychos. Those guys look like they could do far worse. Santos City homicide rates have been up every year for the past five years. Most of it gang-related."
Don tilted his head at this information. "You keep track of those statistics?"
Donald looked back at Don with an expression as if what he said was quite obvious. "Why wouldn't I? I'm in the superhero course. Of course it's necessary for us to know weird statistics like those. Wait, you haven't even checked out the city's statistics on crime rate? You're one bold guy.
You don't plan on being a hero in the city now, do you?"
When Donald replied with this, Don found that it was he who had said something quite wrong. This trend would follow for as long as he continued to learn more about the world, but it wasn't something he could avoid. At most, he would come across as simply being a bit weird or strange, and so long as he didn't overdo it, he wouldn't raise much suspicion.
Like now, as he quickly replied by saying, "I'm not sure which city I'll end up being a hero in. I'm just going with the flow."
Though Donald couldn't relate to the mindset, he simply shrugged it off. "Fair enough. I'm also not sure I want to be a full-time hero yet. If I can manage to reach the Legends bracket of the FPS League in this province, I'm definitely going pro. Who knows, I could become the next big league idol."
"It's always good to aim high," Don replied just as they arrived at the VR FPS League stand. The queue of students was quite long, but there was no helping it, so Don and Donald got in line.
Thankfully, the line moved relatively quickly. While waiting, Donald shared stories of his FPS League experience at the high school level. When they were 44th and 45th in line, he was on a long rant about a particularly sour experience he had.
"So imagine this. We were playing Strongpoint, right? It was a random lobby. I went in alone, so surprise, surprise, I was given shit teammates. There was this especially audacious one from Nexico, but I don't want to get into that right now.
Anyway, for the entire game, I kept running to the strong points and clearing out the guys, but my fucking teammates couldn't keep the fucking point, like not even for one second after I died because I kept dying a lot."
"Every time I cleared the point, I had to go into it because everyone else was posted up, which wouldn't have been bad if they were actually getting kills, but they were also just getting killed despite being behind cover and hiding. This all happened around the professional rank. I climbed it very slowly because of such shit teammates.
It doesn't help that Macrosoft's grading system at the high school level is bullshit. At university, you have real-life analysts and dedicated AI algorithms to take note of valuable data matches like that where I do a lot of work but my teammates are shit and get awarded accordingly."
From the way Donald passionately talked about the VR FPS League, Don could see that this was a true passion of his. It wasn't at all strange to see this; in his former life, he had numerous friends who were passionate about certain careers that were idolized in his world—youth football, acting, and so on.
For this particular world, VR FPS League seemed to be especially big. As Don reached this understanding, a system prompt appeared.
———
**Potential Idol Path Found: FPS League Legend Path**
**Perks:**
- Vanguard Skill Tree
- Tactician Skill Tree
- Ability Upgrade: Enhanced Senses>>>Superhuman Senses
**Accept Path or Reject Path?**
———
Don showed an unsure expression as he looked at this prompt. Like anyone given a choice like this, he wondered if down the line he would be able to encounter other paths with maybe even better path perks.
However, this would be a gamble. He needed to make a choice, as it was also possible that the more paths he encountered in the future wouldn't have path perks as good as this. Having learned his lesson numerous times in his former life about not pushing his luck, he chose to accept it, reassuring himself that the FPS League seemed like something anyone could learn.
"If it's anything like those VR MMO stories I read in my former life, then it should at least be moderately balanced. Even if it's not, Donald seems very knowledgeable and plays a lot of FPS games, so this isn't a bad gamble."
"Accept," he thought.
Shortly after, the prompt in front of him changed:
———
**Path Accepted**
**Idol Objective:** Sign up and successfully create a VR FPS avatar
**Time Limit:** One week
**Rewards:** 5 Idol Points
———
As Don read this, he felt a bit of excitement.