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"So, I've transmigrated, and I've lost over a billion. Where's my cheat?!"
After a significant internal struggle, Wei Wen… Kevin, who had finally somewhat accepted his transmigration, began searching for his cheat.
According to normal tropes, shouldn't a cheat be common knowledge for a transmigrator?
Kevin didn't need any special cheat; as long as it could get rid of those damned gills on his chest, it would be a good cheat!
As he was thinking this, Kevin felt a blue light spot appear before his eyes. When his gaze focused on the blue light spot, a blue tree, growing from the light spot, appeared in front of him.
This was a tree that looked very much like a skill tree from a game.
Starting from the light spot at the root, various different skills extended upwards to the crown of the tree.
"Indeed! I knew a transmigrator couldn't be without a cheat! Let me see what this cheat is… Hmm? Why are so many boxes invisible…?"
Kevin excitedly examined his cheat.
However, he found that on this skill tree, apart from the skill boxes at the root and a portion of the trunk, some higher-level skill boxes were obscured by mist.
No matter how Kevin looked, he couldn't see the skills behind the mist.
"I get it. conditions aren't met, so they're not unlocked, huh? Heh, classic game trope."
Kevin vaguely guessed the reason why those skills were obscured by mist.
If the conditions for a skill aren't met, higher-level skills can't be seen. Many games follow this trope, and Kevin, being an experienced gamer, was very familiar with it.
So, for now, he would ignore the locked skills and first look at the illuminated and activatable skill boxes.
The first thing Kevin looked at was the only illuminated light spot at the root of the skill tree.
This was a basic skill icon. The icon showed Kevin's cartoon avatar, wearing the Deep's hero uniform.
Next to the icon was the name of the skill.
[Profession: Supe]
"Uh, is this a profession? What about these three below?"
After confirming that the root represented Kevin's current 'profession,' similar to a 'Mage' or 'Blade Master' in terms of identity, Kevin stopped focusing on it and turned to look at the three skills extending from it.
[Passive: Supe Physique Lv3]
[Passive: Water Breathing Max]
[Passive: Aquatic Affinity Lv4]
"Goodness, three passives!"
Upon seeing the descriptions of these three skills, Kevin exclaimed in his mind.
He had never seen a profession that didn't give a single active skill upfront, but instead immediately provided three passive ones.
However, upon closer thought, these three passives did encompass all of the Deep's abilities.
A physique that could resist underwater pressure, a special ability to breathe freely underwater, and an affinity that allowed him to converse with and be liked by aquatic animals.
These three abilities constituted the entirety of the Deep, the Superhero.
And they were also the only three skills illuminated on the current skill tree, apart from the basic profession.
Among them, except for Water Breathing, which seemed to be maxed out at level one, the other two passive skills appeared to have room for improvement.
What particularly intrigued Kevin was the '+' sign glowing next to the [Supe Physique] and [Aquatic Affinity] abilities.
It indicated that Kevin… could allocate points to them!
"No rush yet, let's see what the derived skills are."
Suppressing the urge to allocate points to these two skills, Kevin's gaze followed the skill tree upwards.
Behind the three passive skills, there were extended gray boxes. These gray boxes also had glowing '+' signs, forming a stark contrast with the dark '-' signs next to them, proving that Kevin could also allocate points to these skills and learn new abilities.
Among the three abilities, [Supe Physique] extended into two abilities: [Accelerated Healing] and [Super Lungs].
One active skill and one passive skill.
[Water Breathing] also extended into two abilities: [Water Manipulation] and [Form Shift], both of which were active skills.
[Aquatic Affinity] only extended into one ability: [Aquatic Summon], which was an active ability.
Kevin clicked on the skill descriptions, read them carefully, and then used the plus and minus signs to test how many skill points he had, before falling into contemplation.
Since he couldn't see the exact number of skill points, Kevin could only estimate based on a general feeling.
Firstly, Kevin's skill points allowed him to raise a level 4 skill, which was Aquatic Affinity, by one level.
He could also raise Supe Physique by one level, from Lv3 to Lv4.
However, he couldn't raise Supe Physique from Lv4 to Lv5; he didn't have enough skill points.
And after upgrading Physique from 3 to 4, Kevin could then raise one of the subsequent skills to level 3, which would also light up another skill.
Alternatively, he could distribute them, raising two skills to level 2, which would then light up two other skills.
"So, if that's the case, I have 15 skill points right now? Lighting up level one requires one skill point, upgrading to level two adds two skill points on top of that, and then upgrading from level two to level three adds four on top of that…
"Understood, it's a proportional increase, right?"
Having roughly figured out the number of skill points and the points required to light up skills, Kevin quickly made a decision.
Based on the skill descriptions, Kevin first decided to raise the [Form Shift] skill to level two.
This skill was the ability Kevin had been yearning for to remove his gills. Once this skill was lit up, Kevin would have a 'Merfolk Form'.
His gills would be tucked away into his Merfolk Form, and Kevin would appear normal when not in that form.
This skill wasn't very useful at level one, and the gills would still be present. Only at level two would Kevin be able to grow webs on his hands and feet after shifting forms, helping him move faster underwater.
At the same time, the gills would completely disappear, integrating with Kevin to become an internal organ, no longer visible externally.
At that point, both of Kevin's forms would be able to breathe underwater, the difference being that Kevin's other form would be faster and stronger underwater.
If this level were raised to the maximum, Kevin would transform into a true Merfolk in the water, and his appearance would also be beautified to a certain extent.
However, whether it was beautified or not was a matter for later; the disappearance of the gills on his chest was what Kevin truly cared about.
He put three skill points into [Form Shift] to raise it to level two. Estimating his remaining twelve skill points, Kevin first used eight to raise [Supe Physique] to level four.
There was no other way; the The Boys world was truly dangerous.
Homelander's heat vision, which he unleashed at will, would pierce through anyone with weak defenses.
In the second season, there was also Storm… wait, wrong show… it was the Superhero 'Storm.' The lightning she unleashed could also severely injure Supes with weak physiques.
The Deep's physique… he hadn't really shown it off in the show, which left Kevin feeling uncertain.
Therefore, improving his physique was crucial. At least if he couldn't win a fight later, he could endure a couple more hits and escape.
After doing all this, Kevin estimated his remaining skill points and allocated three to [Water Manipulation], lighting it up and raising it to level two, and then one level to [Accelerated Healing].
Since he had decided to be durable, he would see it through to the end.
As the saying goes, only by living can you output damage. In this perilous The Boys world, you can never have too many life-saving measures!
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