Isaiah stood in the center of his now-barren room, moonlight spilling through the window. The bare walls created a perfect canvas for his thoughts, more useful than the shrine to heroism they once held. His eyes darted to the digital clock: 9:43 PM. Inko had gone to bed after taking her sleep medication. The apartment sat quiet, save for the distant hum of the refrigerator.
"Time to work," Isaiah muttered, moving to the closet.
『This is still a terrible idea.』
"Noted. Now shut up and help me find something useful."
He pulled open the closet door and rifled through the remaining clothes. Most of Izuku's wardrobe belonged to a boy who wanted to blend into walls—neutral colors, plain designs, nothing that screamed individuality. At the back, something caught his eye: a royal blue hoodie with red and white accents.
"You've got to be kidding me."
It was an All Might hoodie, complete with the hero's signature smile stretched across the chest and tiny bunny ears on the hood meant to mimic the man's distinctive hair tufts.
『Oh, this is rich. The Opportunist dressed as the Symbol of Peace while hunting for AP.』
Isaiah yanked it off the hanger. "Nobody looks twice at an All Might fanboy. Perfect camouflage."
He pulled it over his head and dug deeper, finding a plain black beanie at the bottom of a drawer. From the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, he snagged a white surgical mask.
『You look like a sick kid who got lost on the way to Comic-Con.』
He slipped into the hallway, moving silently toward a storage closet near the front door. Inside, he found what he needed—a wooden baseball bat, its finish worn at the grip from years of disuse.
The wood had started to splinter near the middle. He ran his fingers along the grain, testing its weight.
"The hero industry is a business," Isaiah whispered, twirling the bat. "And business requires capital investment."
He pulled up his hood, adjusted his mask, and looked at himself in the hallway mirror. The bright, smiling face of All Might stretched across his chest made a mockery of what he planned to do.
A symbol of justice paired with a tool for assault.
"Perfect."
===
The night air hit his face with a sobering chill as he slipped out the apartment's back entrance. The suburban neighborhood lay quiet around him, streetlights casting pools of yellow on deserted sidewalks.
Isaiah broke into a light jog, heading toward downtown Musutafu. A notification appeared:
[Daily Quest: 「Stop Being So Pathetic」 - 10km Run INITIATED]
Distance: 0/10 km
Current Pace: 15.2 km/h
Required Pace: 15 km/h
『Multitasking, are we? Your pace is nowhere near fast enough.』
"I'm warming up," he replied, increasing his speed. "Two birds, one bat."
He kept to the shadows, avoiding main streets. Even with his enhanced Agility, his lungs burned after the first kilometer. This body truly was pathetic. The bat, hidden in a drawstring bag slung across his back, thumped against his spine with each stride.
As he moved deeper into the city, the scenery changed. Clean suburban streets gave way to narrower alleys smelling of garbage and stale cooking oil. Neon signs buzzed overhead, casting pools of electric blue and red across puddles from an earlier rain.
He wasn't looking for a dramatic showdown with a costumed villain. Those were for the spotlight-hungry pros. He needed what every experienced RPG player knew to hunt: low-level mobs. Muggers. Purse-snatchers. Drunks looking for a fight. The kind of trash that heroes considered beneath their pay grade.
Isaiah slowed his pace, scanning each alley and side street. His heartbeat pounded in his ears, but the streets remained frustratingly peaceful. After forty minutes of prowling, he'd covered nearly five kilometers without finding a single target.
『The problem with safe societies is there's not much XP to farm.』
"There has to be something," he muttered, breath fogging in the cool air. "This body won't last much longer at this pace."
He approached a fire escape hanging from a five-story building and jumped, his fingers just catching the bottom rung. With a grunt, he pulled himself up, climbing until he reached the roof. The bat scraped against the metal ladder as he moved.
From his new vantage point, the city spread out like a circuit board of lights and movement. He scanned the streets below, looking for any sign of trouble. Instead, he found the opposite.
Two blocks away, a crowd had gathered. Camera flashes popped like tiny lightning strikes. Isaiah moved to the edge of the roof for a closer look.
"You've got to be kidding me."
There, in the middle of the street, stood Kamui Woods. The wooden hero had wrapped his extendable arm around a scrawny teenager who couldn't have been more than fifteen, holding up a stolen purse like a trophy. Next to him, the giant form of Mt. Lady leaned against a building, waving to the cameras.
Even from a distance, Isaiah could appreciate her figure. Those curves would sell a lot of merchandise.
Off to the side stood Death Arms, arms crossed over his massive chest, looking as though he'd rather be anywhere else. The muscular hero checked his watch and said something to Kamui Woods, who nodded without taking his attention from the cameras.
"It's all theater," Isaiah spat. "They caught some kid who probably stole lunch money, and they're milking it for all it's worth."
『Welcome to heroics in the modern age. It's not about saving people; it's about who looks best doing it.』
Isaiah watched as Mt. Lady shrunk down to her normal size and blew a kiss to the crowd. His lip curled under his mask. These peacocks were scaring away all the small-time criminals he needed to farm. No wonder the streets were empty—who would commit a crime with this circus in town?
"This is bullshit," he growled, backing away from the edge. "I'm wasting my time."
He returned to the fire escape, climbing down with more force than necessary. His feet hit the alley floor with a splash, landing in a shallow puddle.
Distance: 5.2/10 km
Current Pace: 7.8 km/h
Required Pace: 15 km/h
Quest Progress: FAILING
"Great. Just great." He adjusted his hood and prepared to head home, defeated.
Then he heard it—a muffled cry from the connecting alley.
Isaiah froze, his ears straining in the darkness. Another sound: a gruff voice, low and threatening. He moved to the corner and peered around it.
Twenty meters away, a man had a woman pinned against the brick wall. He stood nearly two heads taller than her, his skin a mottled gray that looked like concrete in the dim light. A minor quirk, nothing flashy. The woman clutched her purse to her chest while the man pressed his forearm across her throat.
"Just give me the damn bag and you can go," the thug growled, his voice rough like sandpaper.
Isaiah pulled the bat from his bag and slid into the shadows. His heartbeat slowed, a familiar calm washing over him.
He moved silently, his improved Agility making his steps light as air. The thug never turned, too focused on his victim's frightened eyes.
No dramatic entrance. No heroic one-liner.
He wasn't strong enough to be able to do something like that yet.
Isaiah swung the bat with every ounce of strength in his scrawny arms, aiming not for the head, but for the back of the man's right knee.
CRACK!
The sound was wet and hollow. The thug's leg folded sideways with a sickening pop as ligaments tore. He roared in pain, releasing the woman as he began to fall.
Isaiah was already moving to phase two. He dropped the bat and pivoted, channeling all his momentum into a single, vicious kick directly between the falling man's legs.
It's nuts or nothing!
The thug's scream cut off abruptly, replaced by a strangled, high-pitched wheeze. His hands clutched uselessly at his groin as he collapsed face-first onto the wet pavement, body rigid with shock.
A notification flashed bright blue in Isaiah's vision:
[Foe Defeated! +100 AP Earned!]
Current AP: 100
The woman stared at him, eyes wide with shock. Her gaze fixed on the All Might logo stretched across his chest, then at the twitching man on the ground, then back to Isaiah's masked face.
"Th-thank you," she stammered, clutching her purse tighter. "Should I call the police or—"
Isaiah bent down, picked up his bat, and backed away without a word. He turned and broke into a sprint, his footsteps echoing off the brick walls. Behind him, the woman called out something he didn't catch.
He ran faster than before, his lungs burning but his spirit soaring. Another notification appeared:
[Pace Increased: 17.2 km/h]
『Look at you go. Nothing like violence to motivate exercise.』
Isaiah grinned beneath his mask, adrenaline pushing his tired muscles. "One down. More to go. The night's still young."
He had four kilometers left to run and a city full of opportunities. For the first time since waking up in this world, he felt truly alive.
One hundred points. Not a bad start at all.