The Game.

That’s what the heroes and villains called it during the Golden Age, when the first generation of heroes and villains came into the public’s imagination. It was a crazy, innocent time when villains tried their best not to hurt innocent bystanders and heroes were only interested in doing good. There was even a certain amount of respect between the two camps. Things were different now. According to Candice, everything nowadays is about endorsements, media fees, and publicity. Victor knew things would be different after twenty years, but this…

No. Victor knew he had to be objective about it. Things didn’t change overnight. Twenty years was a long time, and they had already begun to change before Victor went in. He was just out of the Game for too long. Perhaps that was why he was more than a little unsure about H.A.V.E. From what he gathered from Candice, one of the aims of H.A.V.E was to help villains keep up with the times. Victor was a fossil from an earlier era.

Victor went down to the basement and activated the summoning circle. His vision turned dark, then the light of the magic shop appeared. Victor heard the thumping sounds of someone walking towards to him. Victor turned to the direction of the sound. He saw a huge figure walking towards him. Wearing metallic armor, he was well-over two meters tall. His entire head was covered by a menacing-looking helmet that had twin sharp edges protruded out of its sides. The giant was wearing a long black cloak and a pair of heavy boots.

“Reunion?”

The giant laughed. “No! Not Reunion. I am…” He raised both arms and struck a front double biceps pose. “Captain Reunion! Master of Prizes!” The giant changed his pose. He put a hand behind his head and pointed the other towards the ground. “System Extraordinaire!”

Victor put his head in his hands and murmured. “My fault. My fault. Walked right into that one.”

“Uniter of families! Bane of deadbeats! Joy of-”

“Shut up Reunion!” Victor growled. “What are you doing?”

“What? I’m in a superhero world, so I thought I’ll get into the action. What do you of my outfit?”

“Terrible. I have been meaning to ask; just how old are you?”

“Time works differently for us. Or to be more exact, time works differently in different dimensions.”

“In my world then. How old are you if you had live your whole life on Nexus?”

“It doesn’t work that way.” However, Reunion did take a moment to consider the question. “In your world’s time, I would be around fifty?”

“Fifty? Then why do you act like a kid all the time?”

“Oh, I am a kid.”

“Uh?”

“Different species age differently. Surely you know that. Systems can live for thousands of years!”

Victor tried to do some quick calculation. Fifty out of a few thousands was…Reunion was a twerp! No, it was worse. Reunion was a baby! Victor had a baby system!

“Are you okay host?” Reunion asked in concern. “You don’t look so well.”

Victor felt a headache coming on. He rubbed the sides of his forehead. Maybe he should have stayed in prison. Thing were so much simpler in there.

“Host, are you okay? Wait, don’t answer that. I know what you need. You need a prize!”

The light that represented the magic shop came towards Victor. The light turned into a shop list before transforming into a wheel. Victor noticed that the wheel was much smaller, most probably because saving Jennifer was a side task. Victor listlessly stopped the wheel.

“Sorry host, you got a lower prize this time.”

The wheel disappeared and the prize appeared before Victor. It was a ring with a blue stone. It did not look impressive, but Victor know better than to judge things on how they looked.

“What is this?”

“It’s a magical item called the Blue Dive.” Reunion explained. “On its world, people used it mainly as a diving equipment. It transforms your body and covers it with blue scales. It allows you to breath underwater for up to an hour. The ring also strengthens your body so you can dive up to five hundred meters without any protective gear. It also gives you the ability to move freely in the water like a fish.”

“Doesn’t sound so bad,” Victor said. “How long can the item last?”

“Oh, it doesn’t that way. I noticed that in your world magical items has a lifespan. After a certain period, the enchantment on magical items would run out. The wizards in the world this ring comes from work enchantments differently.”

“There’s more than one way to enchant an item?”

“Oh, there’s countless ways to do it.” Reunion replied. “On that world, wizards placed enchantments along with a curse.”

“A curse?”

“Yup. The curse basically works in tandem with the enchantments, thus making the enchantments last longer. Don’t ask me about the magical theory of it, I don’t really understand it myself. Just know that this ring basically has no lifespan and can last forever.”

“Really? That’s amazing. Wait; what the curse on this item?”

“Nothing too serious. Once you put it on, you need to submerge yourself in water within ten minutes.”

“What happen if you don’t?”

“Then the ring will take the water from your body and make it a lifeless husk.”

Victor gave Reunion a look. “It kills you! That’s your idea of ‘nothing too serious’?”

“Only if you are stupid about it.” Reunion scoffed. “Just don’t put on the ring and you will be safe. What’s so hard about that?”

Victor thought about it and realized that Reunion had a point. The ring was basically an item that gave the wearer a set of powers. There were limits, but extra toughness and the ability to breath and move underwater were not powers to scoff at. The curse was bad, but the wearer can work around it. He just needed to be careful. There wasn’t much use for the item in landlocked city like Velocity, but someone out there would find a use for it.

“Not bad. This ring will be useful.”

“Glad you like it. Now, for the main event!” The dark void lighted up. For a moment, Victor was blinded. Then he heard Reunion shouting in glee.

“Level up!”