Chapter 193: 193 | The Moral High Ground Was Not Available For Purchase
The notification hovered in my peripheral vision like an impatient waiter.
〘 The System awaits the Host’s decision. What is your strategic rollout for the first arc of your Hero Academy career? 〙
I sat up on the bed and pulled up my full status display. The numbers glowed in the air before me, a complete accounting of what the System had made me into over the past three months.
〘 Status 〙
Name: Lukas Belmont
(DP) 0
(SP) 10,432
[ Attributes ]
〘 STR: 80 | AGI: 80 | DEX: 80 〙
〘 INT: 80 | END: 80 〙
ACTIVE SKILLS (3/4):
Spectral Reach (Rare)
Blitz (Rare)
Lightning Cloak (Epic)
PASSIVE TRAITS (6/6):
Boundless Stamina (Epic)
False Data (Uncommon)
Sexercise (Common)
Musk (Uncommon)
Sadism (Epic)
Demigod (Legendary)
QUEUED:
Ecchi Logic (Epic)
Devotion’s Echo (Legendary)
I stared at the display for a long moment.
The passive trait slots were full. Six out of six. Boundless Stamina and Sexercise had been with me since the beginning, two of the earliest abilities the System had granted. They’d served their purpose. Boundless Stamina had let me train at intensities that would have killed a normal person, pushing through exhaustion barriers that should have been absolute limits. Sexercise had turned every intimate encounter into a training session, converting physical pleasure into actual attribute growth.
But now I had Demigod.
The twenty-five percent multiplicative bonus to all physical attributes. The three hundred percent recovery rate. The five hundred year lifespan. The immunity to disease. The body that would continue developing toward its theoretical maximum regardless of training regimen.
Boundless Stamina was redundant.
With Demigod’s recovery rate, I didn’t need an ability that let me ignore fatigue. My body would simply recover faster than fatigue could accumulate. The edge case scenarios where Boundless Stamina would matter over Demigod were so narrow they barely existed. Maybe a fight that lasted literal days without pause. Maybe a situation where I needed to sprint at maximum output for forty-eight hours straight. Real scenarios that would never actually occur.
Sexercise was worse than redundant. It was actively limiting.
The ability converted intimate encounters into training sessions, yes. But the conversion rate was garbage compared to what Demigod provided passively. My body would develop toward its maximum regardless of what I did. Sexercise was optimizing for a variable that no longer mattered. And more importantly, it was taking up a slot that could hold something actually useful.
I had two queued abilities waiting for installation.
Ecchi Logic, which would restructure probability around romantic and sexual tension. Devotion’s Echo, which would give me permanent emotional awareness of Sloane regardless of distance.
And I had something else.
Something I’d pulled weeks ago and never had room to equip.
〘 The Host is reviewing his trait architecture. I note that the current configuration includes two abilities of diminishing utility given recent acquisitions. 〙
"I’m thinking about removing Boundless Stamina and Sexercise."
〘 An unexpected suggestion. Both abilities have provided significant value over the Host’s development period. Boundless Stamina alone enabled training regimens that would have been physiologically impossible otherwise. 〙
"That was before Demigod."
〘 The Host’s reasoning is sound. Demigod’s recovery multiplier does render Boundless Stamina largely redundant except in extreme edge cases. However, the System notes that removing a trait is permanent. The ability cannot be re-acquired through Gacha once discarded. 〙
"I know."
〘 Sexercise has a different utility profile. The ability converts intimate activity into measurable attribute growth. This function is not replicated by Demigod. 〙
"The conversion rate is terrible. I’d need to fuck someone for eight hours straight to get what a single morning training session provides. And with Demigod’s passive development, I don’t need to optimize every possible input anymore. My body will reach its maximum regardless."
〘 The Host’s analysis is accurate. Sexercise provides marginal gains that become increasingly irrelevant as baseline attributes rise. The opportunity cost of the trait slot exceeds the trait’s contribution. 〙
"So I’m right."
〘 The System does not assess choices as right or wrong. The System assesses choices as optimal or suboptimal given stated objectives. Removing both traits would free two passive slots for abilities with higher expected value. The Host has queued abilities that would occupy those slots. The math supports the decision. 〙
I pulled up the trait I’d been sitting on for weeks.
〘 Usurper 〙
Legendary · Active
What you take becomes yours. What was theirs becomes nothing.
Description: Upon defeating an opponent in single combat where the Host’s victory is decisive and undeniable, the Host may choose to permanently absorb a portion of that opponent’s primary Aspect. The absorbed portion manifests as a weakened but permanent secondary Aspect accessible to the Host. The original owner retains their Aspect but at permanently reduced potency proportional to what was taken.
Conditions:
Victory must be acknowledged by the defeated opponent, either verbally or through complete physical incapacitation
The Host may only hold three absorbed Aspects at any time
Absorbed Aspects manifest at approximately 40% of original potency
Taking an Aspect is irreversible for both parties
Note: This ability was designed for a different kind of protagonist. The System recommends the Host consider carefully before using it. Some enemies deserve to keep what makes them powerful. Most do not.
Usurper.
The ability that could literally steal pieces of other people’s Aspects and make them my own.
I’d pulled this thing during a Gold Gacha session three weeks before the academy entrance exam. It had been sitting in my queued abilities ever since, waiting for a slot to open up. Every time I looked at it, the implications got more disturbing. Every time I considered what it could do in the right circumstances, the potential got more staggering.
Forty percent of someone’s primary Aspect. Permanently.
If I beat someone with a Legendary-tier Aspect and took a piece of it, I’d have a weakened version of a Legendary ability on top of everything else I already had. Stack three of those and I’d be walking around with a toolkit that no single person should be able to access.
The original owner would keep their Aspect, sure. But at reduced potency. Forever.
This wasn’t just winning a fight. This was breaking someone’s potential. Capping their growth. Taking what made them special and making it mine while leaving them with a diminished version of themselves.
The System had said it was designed for a different kind of protagonist.
I was starting to understand what that meant.
〘 The Host is reviewing Usurper. This ability has been queued for twenty-three days awaiting installation. The System notes that the Host has expressed hesitation about the ability’s implications on multiple occasions. 〙
"It’s a villain ability."
〘 The System does not classify abilities as heroic or villainous. The System classifies abilities as effective or ineffective. Usurper is extremely effective. 〙
"Taking pieces of people’s Aspects. Permanently reducing their power. That’s not something a hero does."
〘 The Host is attending a Hero Academy with a forged registration based on an Aspect that does not exist, pursuing romantic relationships with multiple women simultaneously while a goddess-tier beauty waits for him at home, and operating under a System explicitly designed to optimize scumbag behavior. The moral high ground was not available for purchase. The Host never had it. 〙
I laughed despite myself. The System had a point.
What was I pretending to be, exactly? Some kind of righteous protagonist who would never cross ethical lines? I’d crossed ethical lines before I ever got to this world. The transmigration itself was an ethical violation. Every day I spent pretending to be Lukas Belmont instead of whoever I’d been before was a lie that affected everyone around me.
Usurper wasn’t the thing that made me morally compromised.
It was just the thing that made moral compromise useful.
