Ability Wielders - 23 Next Step
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23 Next Step

Snapping his fingers, five sets of portals appeared in the room he was in. He was calling the Limang Daliri for a meeting.

"Yo, what do you think?" Blood King arrived the earliest. He already heard of what happened to Blade Dancer. Laughing, Blood King continued, "That kid is a worthwhile person, why not invite him?"

"No!" Black Devil roared, losing control of himself. Taking a deep breath, he calmed down instantly. As the key figure of the Limang Daliri, he cannot lose himself here. "That guy is a part of Puting Araw, you think such a talented person can be s.n.a.t.c.hed that easily?"

"Well, I did tell you already to recruit him," Blood King shrugged, going to his seat. "So, what is your plan?"

The other three arrived at this moment, wearing grave expressions, except for Crimson Enchantress, who still had the visage of a succubus.

Sitting, Black Devil started the meeting of the Limang Daliri. Such a large organization was actually having a meeting regarding a Level 1 wielder, one can grasp the seriousness of the situation and the threat that Hayden was imposing upon them.

"We'll lose face if we personally take action." Black Devil's eyes had a sharp glint, if one gazes into his eyes behind the mask, they will see an endless abyss. "As the Limang Daliri, we cannot possibly take action personally for a mere Level 1 wielder. On top of that, what if the Puting Araw is protecting Hayden closely, we cannot bear the brunt of the consequences of losing such significant people in our ranks."

Black Devil stated the thoughts of the other four. Indeed, they were all more powerful than Hayden, so why should they be the one to make a move personally? Plus, other than that, they had their own responsibilities to the Kamay ng Lagim, adhering to the requests of their sponsors, on top of their own personal affairs and businesses, they simply didn't have time for someone such as Hayden.

"Send your division's most powerful Level 2 wielders, make a team. I will also make 'him' move along with yours." Black Devil a.s.severated. The four were shocked when they heard this.

They didn't dare to stand up against Black Devil, nodding their heads to agree. For Black Devil to give out an order such as this, it was clear how much of a threat Hayden was for them. Sadly, they were underestimating Hayden too much, ignorant that Hayden was evolving as they were speaking.

"Dismissed." Black Devil spoke, creating five portals behind them. When the other four exited, he ma.s.saged his temples. "This is such a disaster. Blade Dancer was one of the strongest, yet, he was defeated due to carelessness. You won't escape this, Hayden Emperador."

...

Reaching for his phone on the nightstand, Hayden checked the time and saw it was only 3:10 AM. Rising up, Hayden stretched, wondering what he's going to do to pa.s.s the time.

Checking his Streamlink account, the rise of his account is steadily rising, but slowing down as the day pa.s.ses.

"It seems that I have to proceed with the next step." Hayden muttered, wanting to do the next step of his money-making plan before going to South Korea for a vacation.

"By then, once I enter the Pro a.s.sembly once, I'll have much more opportunities." Hayden nodded. For now, there was no one who knew of Supremacy's true ident.i.ty, and when he reveals himself to the world, there would definitely be more business opportunities for him. "The downside of this is getting invited to talk shows and doing interviews. Basically the popularity that comes along with it…."

Hayden s.h.i.+vered. Becoming a superstar was no joke, his schedule would be packed, and his days as a wielder could very well may come to an end. That reason alone was enough for Hayden to hesitate whether to release his ident.i.ty to the world or not, even if he understood that he was overthinking it. The thing was, being a wielder was a money-burning occupation, especially for his guise as a master of weapons using Divine Perception.

"To proceed, or not to proceed, that is the question…" Hayden had the energy to make a 'joke' in his situation. "Well, there's no other choice. In what world would a person of great capabilities stay hidden? I mean, I already garnered unwanted attention during the National Youth Tournament in basketball, why not make the influence larger, eh?"

With this, Hayden made up his mind to reveal the ident.i.ty, that not even his family knew, to the world. Setting up the camera to face him and not his keyboard anymore, along with a green screen set-up, Hayden cracked his fingers.

Being the Rank 1 Apex Rank player that he was, Hayden had to come up for a plan to milk the War of Honor industry for more money. Of course, Hayden has long made a plan for that, which was to buy a smurf (1) account and use that account to climb up to the rankings once more. However, it's not as simple as it seems because Hayden planned to climb up the ranks out of his top lane expertise, and with trying to go for the mid-lane, easily the most important lane in War of Honor and essentially other MOBA games.

The reason for this is that the mid-lane players can roam the map more easily, able to help the other two side lanes, the top and bottom lane, more easily. In addition, the player taking on the role of the so-called 'mid-laner' is that they are the ones that makes the most impact on the map whenever they helped the jungler or any other lane, and the fact that most of the mid-viable superhumans are the energy damage dealer of the team makes it much more important.

Why is Hayden going to do this? There are three reasons for this. The first one is to, as aforementioned, milk his Streamlink by making it more interesting. One must know that climbing with a role unfamiliar to you is much harder, making the videos more interesting. The second reason is that, by doing this, Hayden could gather more popularity and prove his skills further. If he's going to fight for the top, why not go all out, right?

Finally, the last and most important reason yet is that this was going to be his ticket to the Pro a.s.sembly. Getting into the Pro a.s.sembly could be said to be almost impossible, the reason being there was merely one team for the Pro a.s.sembly for each country, and players fight hard against each other to win a single spot. Hayden was going to go mid for this purpose and that Ares challenged him, who was a mid-laner.

Ares was the main reason Hayden was so popular, thus, Hayden was going to thank him by going to the Pro a.s.sembly at any chance he got, fighting him in the mid-lane, which was what he asked in his stream, a 'battle of the G.o.ds,' or so he says.

"I mean, Ares would, without a doubt, lose to me, lest…" Hayden wished for it to be otherwise. He didn't view War of Honor as a simple money-making machine after all, he held it in regard higher than that. Of course, unless Ares, considered the king of War of Honor, was a person who would be able to defeat him, then there was nothing that could stop Hayden from winning this Pro a.s.sembly. Yes, he was that confident in his skills. "Well, let's get this done with. I'm coincidentally out of videos after that last attempt of trying to make money for the s.p.a.ce Ring."

Finis.h.i.+ng the set-up, Hayden sat down on his gaming chair, and started recording. First, Hayden revealed himself for the first time in his recording. He had to play on his main account for this one and, while waiting, Hayden greeted the people of the world.

"h.e.l.lo, guys. Umm, Supremacy here. I am a Filipino War of Honor player, and the Rank 1 Apex Rank general. As I see, there is no use in hiding my real-life ident.i.ty further. My name is Hayden Emperador, a 16-year-old high school student. Yes, I am Supremacy." Hayden talked to the camera as if talking to an audience amidst waiting for the queue to put him in a ranked game.

Hayden's words were true. He had no use in hiding his ident.i.ty as he was popular in his school, War of Honor was popular in his school, hence, sooner or later, his cla.s.smates and schoolmates would post pictures of him, bragging that they were cla.s.smates with him, or any of the sort. If it was inevitable anyways, why not hasten this inevitable and use it as a publicity stunt, right?

Subsequent to introducing himself in English, Hayden spoke in Filipino, Malay, j.a.panese, Korean, Chinese Mandarin, Vietnamese, Spanish, Russian, and, lastly, German. These languages were the main nationalities of the members of his fanbase was, and introducing himself in these languages are of utmost importance.

Needless to say, Hayden was holding a blank piece of paper, not showing to the camera its front. This was to indicate that he was merely holding a script. It was weird for a 16-year-old to be able to speak these languages. Though, now that Hayden thought about it, the fluency he showed during his introductions may incur suspicion.

He didn't show this worry of his on camera and appeared unbothered. It was not like he planned to keep his polyglot status as a secret. He can just use the excuse that he's a genius or something, putting on an act when the press questions him about this matter. Moving on, Hayden's game actually put him into a ranked game. He was a little stunned that there were people playing at this time of the day, expecting to be queued for at least half an hour.

Playing a game, he chuckled here and there, commentating, talking to the viewers, speaking of random stuff. 15 minutes into the game, their opponents… were utterly destroyed, with Hayden getting about 12 kills in that timeframe, along with 11 a.s.sists. That means to say, Hayden already proved himself to be the real deal.

Turning off the recording, Hayden bought a smurf account that can play ranked games, changed name, and turned the recording back on. Hayden showed that he was on a new account, buying all of the mid-lane mages and a.s.sa.s.sins, along with Downpour, his main superhuman, as he explained the situation to the camera.

He explained how he would be climbing up the ranks as a mid-laner for this new series, saying that he wanted to experience more challenge. This way, Hayden could possibly appear as an arrogant person, yet also someone honing his skills. This event was the mark of the true start of his career in the Streamlink business.

…..

More than an hour of recording, it was now 5:00. Efficiently, Hayden edited all of the footage for about 30 minutes, split them into eight videos, and uploaded them, and set its publis.h.i.+ng time as usual, 10:00 AM, Philippine Standard time, in different days.

The videos were easily published within 30 minutes as, back in August, when Hayden stated his independency, he changed the plan of their internet connection to the fastest one and opted to be the one to pay it.

At first, he was met with resistance from his father with this decision of his, who stood down once he saw the amount of money Hayden was making with his new Streamlink career. Fortunately for Hayden, his skill spoke for itself, unable to be bashed at all these past six months, almost having no deaths in-game. Even when he dies in-game, it was always meaningful, with the enemy team shortly following after him, typically all of them.

This was Hayden's life for six months, without any other social media platform. Along with the revelation, Hayden would also open up his social media accounts to the public, adding it into the description of the video.

When Hayden finished that, he took a shower, cooked food for himself, ate, and recorded for about two more hours. At 8:00 AM, Hayden dressed up. Following that, he set out to go to their academy. Today was their Christmas Party, which was from 9:00 to 1:00.

If given the choice, Hayden wouldn't attend and would rather record here in his house so that, for their vacation in South Korea, he wouldn't have to worry about this matter. He was just being polite. Grabbing the wrapped gift he bought for the cla.s.smate he would have an exchange of gifts with, he walked to school.

Hayden wore regular tight jeans, a black polo, and simple sneakers. Although Hayden's get-up was pretty simple, the muscles that his polo could not hide, combined with his sharp appearance, were enough to attract the attention of women.

Ignoring them, Hayden walked leisurely to school. A few minutes later, he arrived at the academy, presented his ID, and went up to his cla.s.sroom. Inside the cla.s.sroom, there were already a few people, talking with each other.

Sitting on the side, he ignored everyone, emitting an aloof aura. The party was incredibly dull to Hayden. Playing some games, putting on an act of having fun, exchanging gifts, Hayden directly noped out of there the second the party finished.

He couldn't see how this was considered even remotely fun. In Hayden's eyes, these kind of parties were a waste of time, and that a simple 'goodbye, have fun on your vacation' would be enough.

Walking home, Hayden was thinking that the concept of the law stating 16 year olds as adults all around the world (2) was pure stupidity. Just because of some good statistics, does it mean that they, including himself, should already be considered adults? To h.e.l.l with that!

'Those people are still acting as if they were children, so why?' Hayden shook his head. He cannot read the mind of these politicians, and that this also benefited him, so he dropped the matter. Wanting to go home, Hayden had a bizarre gut feeling, turning Divine Perception on.

His Heavenly Sense began to show its wonders, sensing five people not far from him, bundled up, walking to his direction. Outside of those five people, there was no other life around him at all, not even a single dog or cat.

Not jumping to conclusions, Hayden turned into an alley. With his Heavenly Sense, the five people started running towards the direction he was previously in. Snorting, Hayden ran at an extreme speed, albeit, controlled it so as to not cause a sonic boom, stopped, and took out his Sinukuan.

Affirming that it was loaded, Hayden infused essence energy into the bullets. The moment the five people appeared in his scope, a woman held out her hand clearly attempting to do something.

Hayden presumed that this was an Ability. Sensing a powerful force going to his mind, he fired immediately towards the woman's eyes. Unable to react, the bullet shot through her eyes and killed her immediately.

The other four were surprised as they each took a cover in one of the dumpsters. Hayden muttered as he grasped the approximate position of the four people.

Aiming at one of the dumpsters, Hayden fired with pinpoint accuracy, killing another person, and shredding the dumpster to bits. He merely needed to keep one of them alive, so he didn't hold back on killing. The other three were startled, planning to attack instead of hiding ineffectively.

Keeping his Sinukuan, Hayden was satisfied of its performance. The speed of the bullet was, without a doubt, faster than normal, and it was stronger than normal. Seeing that the three people would start attacking, he licked his lips and hardened his forearms using Indestructible Devil.

One woman, behind a dumpster, created a large fireball, another turned into an enormous eagle, and another conjured huge knight's armor to cover himself. Adopting a boxing stance, Hayden rushed in.

Dodging the fireball fired at him by a small margin, he threw a liver shot to the person in the knight's armor. This one was enhanced by essence energy and Indestructible Devil, due to that, a small sonic boom was heard.

Hitting the armor, the man inside it went wide-eyed as he flew backwards due to the immense force. The portion where the armor was. .h.i.t was destroyed, all of his internal organs were shattered from the immense force that Hayden's punch carried. That was the last moment of his life as his organs failed to function.

Another fireball approached Hayden at an amazing velocity. He reacted by erecting a huge essence energy s.h.i.+eld in front, weakening the fireball, prior to punching it, dissipating it.

The woman who threw a fireball was shocked and started fleeing. Bursting with speed, Hayden found the eagle diving towards him. Snorting, he retracted his tail, did a backflip, then used it to smash the eagle into the ground, creating cracks on the cement.

Landing in front of the eagle, his back facing it, Hayden chased towards the woman trying to throw fireb.a.l.l.s at him. a.s.sessing the woman's speed, he didn't need to surpa.s.s the speed of sound to chase her.

Shortly, he caught up to the woman, jumped towards her, and tackled her into the ground. He materialized handcuffs in his hands, and, a few seconds of violent struggle later, he handcuffed the woman.

"Tsk, I should not use my Sinukuan next time." Hayden sighed. This battle was too easy for him, ending it within a minute. Carrying the pet.i.te woman over his shoulder, he walked towards the eagle.

"Let me down! Let me the f.u.c.k down!" The woman complained, which was disregarded by Hayden. Arriving in front of the eagle, he put down the woman, and karate chopped her neck, making her faint.

Abruptly, the eagle awoke, attempting to fly away, which was stupid because Hayden can simply snipe him down. Being careful, Hayden didn't reveal his wings yet, instead, he gathered energy into his legs and jumped towards the eagle, grasping its legs.

Falling down, Hayden brought with him an eagle and smashed him into the ground again. Retracting his claws, he killed the eagle by piercing its eyes.

"Tsk." Hayden rolled his eyes, taking out his phone and calling Anthony while at it. He didn't collect the Origin Crystals as Puting Araw was involved. "I've been ambushed by five wielders. I don't know what their levels are."

"What?" Anthony bellowed. "What happened? Tell me the situation. Where are you?"

"I'm somewhere…" Hayden told Anthony his location. "I left a person alive, we can question her there."

"Good," Anthony approved of Hayden's actions. Leaving one person alive was for the best, allowing them to interrogate that person. "Well, do you have any suspicion of who sent these guys to you?"

"Kamay ng Lagim." Hayden stated his direct opinion. Who else would send these goons to him? "Oh, by the way, I'm Level 2 now."

"What!?" Anthony was speechless of what Hayden said. On that note, multiple SUVs started appearing nearby.

"I'll talk to you later," Hayden bade his goodbyes, leaving a dazed Anthony on the other end of the phone as the call was cut.

…..

1 MOBA terminologies used:

Smurf – Smurf means a high-ranked player created an alternate account and hara.s.ses lower-ranked players. Can apply to other games.

Lanes – I think I've explained this before. There are commonly three lanes in the map of MOBA games, Top Lane, Mid Lane, and Bottom Lane, in between, there's the Jungle. Players who play on lanes are called laners, i.e., mid-laner, top-laner, and bot-laner, and the player who plays on the jungle is called the jungler.

The top-laners are usually players that play hard-to-kill characters but still do damage, also called bruisers, or they can play as an actual tank. A truly good top-laner will be able to carry your game with the right balance of power and toughness.

Mid-laners' characters are usually alternative damage dealers (energy damage in War of Honor, ability power in LoL, etc.), but they can also be a.s.sa.s.sin characters that deal the main damage (attack damage, or physical damage). A truly good mid-laner can win you the game by roaming on either sides, as this is literally the purpose of the mid-lane, and by dealing as much damage as bot-laner ranged carries. Mid-lane is also one of the micro-play taxing roles (Micro-play is movement of fingers and revolves around Actions Per Minute).

Junglers can be almost anything, mage, tank, a.s.sa.s.sins, but they should synergize with the players on their team of who they pick because a balanced team has two characters that deal the alternative damage, someone who will tank, and two players who can carry. The jungler needs high macro-planning skill to have precise timing to help their laners win while killing the monsters they can kill in the jungle. Why does the jungler exist? So as to maximize the acquirement of gold sources as there are monsters in the jungle that players can kill. A truly good jungler can carry your game with their ambushes, or what LoL players call 'ganks.'

Support are mainly mages that have a skill set that would support their ranged carries, or the bot-laners. In typical MOBA games, or at least in LoL, supports go with their bot-laner to support them. As said, they mostly deal alternative damage, or they are mages, but their role doesn't expect them to deal damage, on the contrary, most of them are easily killed unless they are tanks. Their role, however, doesn't reflect that as they are important, sacrificing their lives for the better of the team, healing the team, s.h.i.+elding, etc. A truly good support player can indirectly carry a game.

Bot-laners are mainly ranged carries that is literally the embodiment of gla.s.s cannons. If your ranged carry is good enough, they can carry even if the other two lanes lose. Even then, players of this role are commonly said to be 'brain-dead' players because, in LoL, they literally spam right click with rage as LoL uses point and click mechanics.

2 World Lore Time: In 2027-2030, global statistics of teenage pregnancy, delinquency, and others have lowered significantly. In this era, the world observed more and more teenagers making more mature decisions, with the average IQ becoming higher. This phenomenon was called the Early Maturity Phenomenon, and ever since, teenagers were more responsible and more level-headed when making decisions, as conducted by Dr. Kweku Osei and his team in Ghana. Once the World Government has been formed, this Early Maturity Phenomenon has led to the establishment of the Youth Adult Law, which states that 16-year-olds are considered as adults all around the world. The Youth Adult Law states that 16-year-olds can work, be parents, buy alcohol, possess their own property, and sign contracts without the supervision of parents. Even then, the Youth Adult Law states that they can be imprisoned, be judged to death sentences if their crime is heavy enough (****, parricide, ma.s.s murder, etc.), and if they commit even one act of delinquency (cutting school, doing drugs, etc.), their status as adults will be revoked and will be pushed even further until they finish college, that means they will not be able to drive cars, unable to work any further, and all that. The Youth Adult Law also states that, even though they are adults, 16-year-olds are not permitted into strip bars, yet permitted in regular bars, not ent.i.tled to possess guns, even for self-defense, unless they get a permit stating that five adults, one of which is a teacher, grants them access to a tranquilizer gun, cannot run for a position in politics, marry as long as they are in education (and if they do drop school, they have to wait for 4 years before being able to get back), and many more that only true adults, which is the age of 20, is allowed to do.

Additional: In many states all around the world with a population of more than 100,000,000, there is a law that prohibits the usage of AIs for all jobs in a single establishment, called the Robotic Regulation Law, this allows people to be employed more, and it states that they cannot be replaced by a robot. This is an optional law that the World Government has created, meaning, it can or cannot be enforced by the president of the country, and can be removed once enforced. For the well-being of the people of the world, in 2044, when the first true human-like AI, Humanity, has been created, it was banned and the Robotic Regulation Law was enforced all throughout the world.