It happened right at the start of the year 2001.Right on dot with the clock striking midnight and heralding not just a new year but a new century and a new millennium.Huge crowds gathered across the world to celebrate modern human history graduating to this new age.It was a time of new beginnings.and a time of new disasters.Even now, nobody really knows how it happened or what it was that came from space.Not aliens; nothing as dramatic as that. Something far, far less personal At least if it were aliens, humanity could have rallied together. Maybe they could have brought their scattered pieces, all their different ideals, borders, and peoples, together to make something whole if only there had been some definite target they could see and hate together properly.But whatever happened in this new year, well, there was no rhyme or reason for it.It was just pure chance. Pure chaos.The incident is known as the "Altering."A solar flare, maybe. still a topic of debate even now, a hu

Today was the big day.The day that Aldrich would leave for Blackwater Academy was the very first step of a long and, no doubt, hard journey to avenge his parents.Aldrich woke up at 5:30 in the morning, thirty minutes before an officer was scheduled to pick him up.Precisely as the clock struck six, an academy officer showed up at his apartment door, making his presence obviously known by slamming his fist into the door several times in what was the most violent knock Aldrich had ever heard before.Aldrich was ready and packed. His apartment, the house he had lived in for his whole life, was cleaned out to complete emptiness, ready for another renter to move in. Blackwater would provide food and board for the four years it took to graduate, so what he packed was mostly personal stuff that had some kind of emotional weight to it.Memorabilia from his late parents included a family picture with Aldrich and some trinkets from their hero costumes. His birthday letter was what had gotten

The training grounds were quite impressive, to say the least. They were largely located outdoors and consisted of several five-hundred-meter-radius rings lined with towering metal walls that served as arenas.The walls were made of thickly reinforced metal, but their design was sleek and futuristic, with blinking lights of various colors dotted around their surface, indicating the status of various moving pieces of technology within the walls.Aldrich stared at the arenas while standing in a single-file line with the rest of the Frame students. They were, as expected, separated from the rest of the main student body, but a cursory glance gave Aldrich an estimate that there were approximately two hundred or so "normal" students.In terms of numbers, Blackwater was small, as most decently ranked hero academies operated with student bodies numbering well over a thousand, with only the highest tier academies like Shield and Invictus having small student bodies due to the difficulty of get

“Holy shit, it’s Seth Solar in the flesh,” came the awed voices of Alter students as they looked up at the cocky, slick-backed creep like he was the second coming of Jesus.Aldrich observed carefully.Of the dozen Alter students that had circled around him, six were preoccupied, staring in awe at Seth and gawking at him. The other six immediately turned tail and started to run, not caring to break Aldrich apart and take his points.This meant one thing: Seth Solar was dangerous.as predatory and dangerous to his fellow Alter students as he was to the Duds, like Aldrich.Aldrich carefully assessed what he could do against Seth, and in all likelihood, he realized he could do nothing.The "Solar" surname was one that almost everyone knew. Alter organs and their powers had some hereditary component to them, and the descendants of strong heroes would likely get similarly strong powers from their parents.As a result, powerful top heroes formed dynasties where their descendants took up thei

October 30, 2117—One year later“This game is way too hard!” complained Adam as he sat in front of Aldrich’s gaming ring, an immersive VR helmet on his head as he played through Elden World.Adam had chosen a warrior barbarian quite fittingly to play, but even the warrior’s simple skill set confused him, making him die to a basic mob of level 20 trolls after fumbling a defensive shield-based skill.“Keep at it, you’ll get there,” said Aldrich as he watched from his tiny dorm bed. “Make sure to coat your sword in Flame Oil before fighting trolls, or else their rage is going to be way too hard to deal with.”“But your character just goes like, 'boom,' and then they all die,” said Adam.“Because mine is a necromancer." "I use death magic, and since these trolls are low-level enough, they instantly die to my [Anti-Life Shell] aura,” said Aldrich.“That’s ridiculously overpowered." "I should’ve chosen your class,” said Adam.“You get confused juggling like five skills; how do you think you