The Scumbag's Guide To Heroism novel Chapter 55

Chapter 55: 55 | The Crimson Card

I stared at myself in the mirror. My hair was wet and sticking up in seventeen different directions. The scar through my left eyebrow caught the light. My amber eyes stared back, tired but alert.

"This is a date," I told my reflection. "An actual date. Not a quest. Not a manipulation. Just two people going to an arcade."

The reflection didn’t look convinced.

I grabbed a clean hoodie from the closet. Black, like most of my wardrobe. Sloane would probably make fun of me for it. She’d been making fun of my hoodie collection for nine years now. Why stop?

But then I paused, hoodie halfway over my head.

The Epic pull ticket sat in my inventory. Unused. Waiting.

I’d been saving it. Being smart about it. Waiting for the right moment.

Fuck being smart.

I dropped the hoodie on the bed and sat down, pulling up my status screen.

〘 Status 〙

Name: Lukas Belmont

(DP) 0

(SP) 620

〘 Attributes 〙

STR: 28 | AGI: 30 | DEX: 30

INT: 20 | END: 37

ACTIVE SKILLS (2/2):

Spectral Reach (Rare)

Blitz (Rare)

PASSIVE TRAITS (3/3):

Boundless Stamina (Epic)

False Data (Uncommon)

Sexercise (Common)

My stats had jumped significantly. The Sexercise trait had done serious work last night. Six rounds with Diane had pumped my physical attributes by seventeen points total. Add that to the quest rewards and I was sitting at nearly double what I’d started with two weeks ago.

Not bad for a dead kid’s body.

"Alright," I said to the empty room. "Let’s see what we’re working with."

I pulled up the gacha interface. The Epic ticket gleamed in my inventory, radiating that distinctive purple glow that promised power beyond what I currently had.

〘 EPIC GACHA PULL AVAILABLE 〙

〘 CONFIRM ACTIVATION? 〙

"Fuck yes."

The interface exploded.

Not just the standard animation. This was a full production. The purple light intensified until my entire room glowed with it. A circle of golden runes materialized in the air, rotating slowly at first, then faster. The sound that came with it started low, a deep thrumming bass that I felt in my chest.

Then the music hit.

Actual music. Orchestral strings swelling. Brass instruments blaring. Fucking trumpets announcing something important was about to happen.

"Holy shit," I breathed.

The runes spun faster. The purple light shifted, bleeding into gold, then white, then something beyond white. Pure radiance that made me squint even though it was happening inside my own vision.

Voices joined the music. Choir voices. Angelic harmonies that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

The circle of runes contracted, spinning so fast they blurred into a solid ring of light. Then they exploded outward in a nova of golden particles that hung in the air like stars.

A card materialized in the center. Not purple. Not gold.

Crimson.

Deep, blood red that pulsed with power.

The card flipped, and text blazed across my vision in letters of fire.

〘 LEGENDARY ABILITY ACQUIRED 〙

〘 USURPER 〙

The music hit a crescendo. The voices soared. The light flared so bright I had to look away.

When I looked back, the card was gone. The interface displayed a new entry in my abilities list, and the description made my hands shake.

〘 Usurper 〙

Legendary · Conditional Active

"Victory is not the end. It is the transaction."

OVERVIEW: A parasitic ability representing the ultimate expression of dominance in combat. Allows the user to permanently steal a single ability from a defeated foe, absorbing their power and making it their own.

ACTIVATION CONDITIONS:

Target must be conscious and aware

Target must have reached complete psychological breaking point (total subjugation)

User activates Usurper

System initiates 50/50 probability roll

SUCCESS: Proceed to selection

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