Ren sat up fast on the bed, his heart pounding hard in his chest. The room was empty. The voice had not come from the TV or through the thin walls.
"What the—"
He grabbed his phone off the bed. His thumb shook as he scrolled through his contacts. He needed to call someone. He needed to hear a normal human voice and make sure his brain was not broken.
『Something’s wrong. Something is fucking wrong. 』
『B. Bishop. 』
He found the contact and froze. At the edge of his vision, a glowing blue interface lit up in the air. The voice came with it.
[User chosen for the Villain Streaming System.]
『What?』
A notification popped up on his phone screen. [Accept | Decline.]
"What the hell is going on?" Ren said it out loud to the empty apartment. His voice cracked with confusion.
[You’ve made five hundred and forty-one attempts to expose the weaknesses of the hero industry. All five hundred and forty-one failed.]
"No way." He spun around in place, eyes scanning every corner of the messy room like the voice had to be hiding somewhere.
[A supe pissed on your head.]
『Really? That’s a bit below the belt. 』
He had almost forgotten that one. Thirteen years old, walking home from school, some hero he did not even know taking a leak off the side of a building. Direct hit. That memory flashed bright in his mind now.
『You got to be kidding me. 』
[A hero stole your best friend’s girlfriend.]
[Red Balls was involved in the death of your mother.]
"Stop."
Ren cut it off before it could dig any deeper.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
[I’m here to give you what you’ve spent years trying to get: an audience.]
"And what exactly are you?"
[The Villain Streaming System.]
"No way." Ren shook his head hard. "I hate heroes, sure. But there’s no version of this where I want to be a villain."
[You won’t be the kind of villain who hides in a lair and blows up buildings.]
[You’ll be a streamer. You’ll expose the Hero Body for what it is, and I’ll help you get your revenge while you do it.]
Ren straightened up on the bed. This tracked. Of course tonight would end like this. Of course his shitty day would find a way to get even worse.
He looked around at the wreck of his apartment. Clothes on the floor, broken action figures everywhere, old food containers on the table.
"I’ve been through enough shit." He said it flat. "Find someone else."
[This is your only shot at the hero industry. You have nothing left to lose.]
[If you don’t accept within twenty seconds, the system will search for a new host.]
Ren looked down at his phone. The notification was still there, and now a countdown ticked in front of his eyes too, glowing in the air.
He looked around the messy room again. He thought about every failed attempt, every ignored complaint, every time he had screamed into the void and got nothing back.
[10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4...]
『Fuck it. 』
He hit accept. The phone went dead in his hand.
[System booting.]
He sat back against the wall and waited to see what came next. Nothing could be worse than the life he already had.
The phone powered back on in Ren’s hand. A bright white light spilled up from the screen and lit up the ceiling above him. He stared at it while the system finished booting up behind his eyes. The screen suddenly jumped on its own and opened straight to Twitch Tak.
『What’s going on. 』
A brand new account was already set up on his profile.
[Username: @Glitch. You can change it if you want.]
He stared at the name. He had no plans to change it. Mostly because he could not think of anything better right now anyway. His eyes scrolled down the page. No profile picture. Fifty followers had popped up out of nowhere. Zero posts. Then one line caught his eye.
[User info: A villain.]
『No way. 』
He tapped it fast, trying to delete or edit the words. The field would not budge.
[That one’s permanent.] The voice spoke again.
"What do you mean it’s permanent?" Ren asked, his voice rising. He caught himself and took a breath. He could still just walk away from the whole thing. Easy.
A new notification popped up on the screen. He tapped it.
[Reminder: you’re going live in fifteen minutes.]
"What?" Ren muttered to himself. "No way I’m going live tonight."
[You’ve always wanted the world to see the truth. Streaming is simply the fastest way.] The system answered right away.
[And this isn’t just some stream. It’s your shot at taking down a classified hero on your eighteenth birthday.]
"Okay, yeah. This is where you lose me," Ren said, shaking his head. "There’s no way you’re talking me into this."
[You’ll do it at Jake’s Convenience Store.]
『Fuck! 』
"Who’s the hero?"
[Flamebird.]
Ren paused.
"Okay, that’s a little tempting,"
He stood up from the bed.
"But how am I supposed to pull that off? The guy’s a real supe. You get that, right?"
[I’ve already done the math. You just need to follow the plan.]
"Okay," Ren said, half convinced even though he knew he shouldn’t be, "There’s no way I’m putting my face on TT. Not when I’m messing with an actual supe. I’ve never done anything this crazy."
[We’ve got gear for you. Your identity stays a secret.]
The system laid out a full readout right in front of his eyes. Stats, options, and a starter kit ready to claim glowed blue in the air. Ren looked it all over. He had hated the hero industry for years, but this level of crazy had never crossed his mind.
『...What kind of birthday present is this?』