"Burglar!"
The voice hit Damon like a bolt of lightning.
"Uh oh!"
He spun around with widened eyes and spotted the guy who had just burst into the dorm.
And then the guy reached for something in his pocket.
Damon was scared of being pepper sprayed so he instantly moved.
Within a second, he closed the gap, grabbed the stranger by the collar, twisted, and slammed him into the wall with a thud that rattled the shelf above the microwave.
"OW—ow, OW!" the guy screamed. "Dude! Chill! My spine isn't made of vibranium!"
Damon's hand was pressing into the guy's chest with unexpected pressure that he felt his heart might implode.
Damon didn't even realize just how hard he was holding him down until the guy started squirming with genuine discomfort.
"I was just trying to take a picture with you!" the guy cried. "What the hell, man?!"
Damon blinked.
"Wait… what?"
The guy raised his phone weakly with his free hand.
"I thought it was, like, a cosplay or something. That mask? Totally villain vibes."
Damon eased up slightly with a still confused look.
"I'm not a burglar," he said quickly while letting go of the guy.
The stranger brushed off his shirt while wincing. "Could've fooled me, Rambo."
Damon yanked off the ski mask in frustration before rubbing the bridge of his nose.
The guy stared.
"Wait a second… Damon?!"
Damon groaned. "Yup. It's me."
"Bro, what the hell? You looked like you were about to dropkick me out the window."
"I was just… testing something. For a costume. Theater club. Halloween. Whatever."
The guy squinted at him.
"I don't buy that, but okay."
Damon stepped back and finally looked at the guy properly.
He was tall with a Mohawk, Piercings and clad in a T-shirt with a flaming skull that said "Anti-Justice League."
He suddenly recalled...
"You're… my roommate," Damon muttered.
"You forgot me already? I leave for one month and you replace me with crime sprees?"
Damon stared. "Where the hell have you even been?"
"Vacation," the guy said proudly before throwing his bag on his bunk. "Toured the Trench Zones in Sector 9. Watched an underground villain duel. Hunted a mimic-slug that disguised itself as a vending machine. It was glorious."
Damon grimaced. "Of course it was."
His roommate—Dex, if Damon remembered right—grinned and flopped on his bed like he owned the place. Which he kind of did.
His side of the room was covered in villain stickers, graffiti posters, and a glowing decal that read:
> "HEROES ARE NARCISSISTS WITH SPONSORS."
It was like he worshipped chaos.
Which was exactly why Damon had never gotten along with him before. They had argued so much during the first week of semester that they both silently agreed to just… stop talking altogether.
After all, Damon used to love heroes.
"Dude," Dex said rolled over, "that mask? Honestly? You looked sick. Menacing. I felt like I was meeting a mid-tier villain with delusions of grandeur. Loved it."
Damon awkwardly chuckled. "Thanks… I guess."
Dex sat up. "You hiding anything else under that bed? Smoke bombs? Grappling hooks?"
Damon immediately kicked his shopping bag full of black clothes and gear out of view with his heel.
"Nope. That was it. Just a little test. For, uh, research."
Dex tilted his head. "You've changed, man."
"No, I haven't."
Dex shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just know—if you were doing villain stuff? I'd totally cover for you."
Damon raised a brow. "You say that now, but I bet if I actually robbed someone you'd fold like origami."
Dex pointed a finger. "Wrong. I'd ask for pictures and help with your outfit."
Damon rolled his eyes and flopped onto his bed, face down.
---
Having Dex back in the dorm changed things.
It made things… riskier.
Damon couldn't just leave and come back with bruises anymore. He couldn't stash equipment under the bed. He had to lock his closet, use burner bags, and even swap out masks.
Still, he couldn't stop.
Because the System didn't.
> [New Tasks Available]
"Shove someone's scooter into a public fountain – 50 AP"
"Spill red dye into a laundry machine full of white clothes – 50 AP"
"Ruin a workplace by activating the sprinklers - 100 AP"
"Make the day hell for a hero trainee – 200 AP"
Each task required more than just guts now. It required concealment.
And so Damon adopted the ski mask. Again.
He began striking at night. In alleyways. In the shadows between streetlights when the tasks demanded it.
He was slowly becaming a rumor.
---
<[ Total Aura Points Gained This Week: +1195 AP ]>
Combined with the over a thousand he already had, Damon had decided he would get an ability this week.
...
...
The System had been quiet for two days. Damon almost thought it was giving him a break—until the new task hit his screen during lunch.
> [Task #017: Ruin the Routine]
Objective: Sabotage your school's dorm water system.
Reward: +450 Aura Points
Bonus: +175 if it affects over 200 students.
Damon stared at it mid-chew with a half-eaten chicken nugget hanging out of his mouth.
"…You really are trying to get me expelled," he muttered under his breath.
---
That night, Damon got dressed in all black and wore a mask before slipping into the maintenance tunnel beside the chemistry building.
The System had given him a basic blueprint of the piping system and the filtration control panel that served the dormitories. Apparently, his criminal evolution now came with tutorials.
He poured a harmless but highly irritating powdered agent into the water intake valve—something he bought from a shady online vendor called ItchWitch, who marketed it as "chemical chaos in a bottle."
> "Non-toxic. Not deadly. Just extremely itchy. Great for weddings."
He didn't stick around. He was in and out in under four minutes.
'I better not forget to avoid using the school water for the next one week...'
...
...
By morning, the school was in an uproar.
Boys and girls stumbled around the dorms like zombies, scratching their necks, arms, and legs.
Red blotches, puffy bumps, and full-blown skin rashes broke out across campus like a cursed plague.
The showers had become danger zones. The sinks were off-limits. Even wet towels caused sudden outbreaks.
"I swear to God, I'm gonna peel my own skin off!"
"What the hell is this? Did someone nuke us with poison ivy?!"