The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 255

Chapter 255: 255 | The Guy with the Dinner Plate is Waiting

We filed through the east corridor in a loose mob, twenty first-years in brand-new costumes that still creaked and rustled with factory stiffness. The observation deck sat above Ground Beta’s residential block like a sports box overlooking the world’s most dangerous arena, and when the reinforced door opened, the room hit me with the glow of twelve wall-mounted monitors arranged in a three-by-four grid, each one showing a different camera angle inside the target building. Two additional screens flanked the main array, one displaying a tactical overhead of all three floors and the other showing the hostage’s trauma sensor readout, currently all green.

Radiant had handed out equipment before the split. Each team got a pair of wireless earpieces for communication and two rolls of capture tape, a thick adhesive strip that stuck to skin and costume alike and could only be removed by the wearer’s own hand or by faculty override. Wrap it around someone’s wrists or pin them to a wall, the tape activated and locked. That person was captured. Out of the fight.

Simple, brutal, and completely unforgiving of slow reactions.

The observation deck had tiered bench seating and smelled like new carpet. Radiant stood at the front near the monitors with his arms folded across his chest, the crimson costume catching the glow of twelve screens and making him look like a god reviewing footage of mortal failures. Which, given the circumstances, was not far from accurate.

"SETTLE IN!" His voice filled the room without effort. "Watch closely! Learn from what you see! Every mistake your classmates make is a lesson you don’t have to pay for with YOUR body!"

I dropped onto a bench in the second row with Percy on my left, already writing in his notebook. Caden claimed the seat to my right and leaned back with his arms behind his head, the blue accents of his costume catching the screen light.

"So we’re just watching other people fight while we sit here in costumes," Caden said. "This is literally a watch party. Radiant invented the hero watch party."

"Observation provides data unavailable through participation," Percy said without looking up. "Engagement bias distorts tactical recall by approximately thirty-one percent. External observation preserves analytical fidelity."

"Percy, buddy, I love you, but please speak human."

"You see more when you’re not getting punched."

"See, that’s all you had to say."

On the monitors, the H-1 team was entering the building from the south entrance. Theo Park and Eden Wilkinson, moving together down a ground-floor hallway with their earpieces glowing faint blue. Theo’s orange and white costume made him look like a walking construction zone, which was fitting for a guy whose entire combat philosophy involved getting hit until he could hit back harder. Eden had his lighter in his left hand, thumb resting on the flint wheel, the tiny flame already dancing between his fingers as he absorbed thermal energy into his body. His sleeveless black armor left his arms bare for flame manipulation, and the built-in spark strikers on his gauntlet knuckles glinted under the hallway’s fluorescent lights.

Audio crackled through the observation deck speakers. The earpiece feeds were broadcasting to us.

"Left or right?" Eden’s voice came through, low and tense.

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