Divine Celebrity 75 (Patreon)

When the next morning arrived, I was driving a beautiful, jet-black convertible out of the garage, a huge smirk on my lips. 

It took the full application of my Traits, as well as using a great number of the parts on the corner, but I managed to finish repairing the car in exactly a day. 

Certainly a great achievement, I thought as I drove it, enjoying the sensation of wind flowing through my hair. A beautiful flow. 

Even better, there were no shadow assassins all night, making me hope that, whoever was responsible for that lacked the ability to send another one — or at least, lacked the ability to summon it back, and just assumed that I was dead. 

As I drove back, I could feel the hints of exhaustion, but I had no intention of even shutting my eyes, not before I could awaken my guide — or at least, I could push things under control.

Luckily, I had the chance to do so. I drove back to the college first, and uploaded the video to my computer. 

And while the computer was busy with it, I opened my computer, and started working on the tools I developed. My first target was the news crawler. As my fingers danced on the keyboard, I changed significant portions of the code, cutting, modifying, or even erasing completely. 

Earlier, Pattern Recognition allowed me to write cleaner and more efficient code, but its benefit was nothing compared to what Design trait gave me, allowing me to make big, conceptual changes about the nature and the functionality of the program. 

I was tempted to reveal my increased coding abilities as well, but after some thought, I decided against it. 

I had already used my programming capabilities in several illegal tasks, and there was no guarantee that it was the end of it. 

It was for the best if people didn’t know my prodigious capabilities didn’t extend to the digital space. 

I spent the next hour making the necessary changes in the code to improve its distinguishing capabilities several times, even adding some basic machine learning principles to add some automatic improvement of capability. 

Then, when it was done, I turned my attention to the video, aggressively editing it to turn it into something that could be watched in less than fifteen minutes. I also prepared the full-length version — after a few cuts to remove some absurd moments — for comparison, but didn’t post it yet. 

I wanted to wait until people started to complain I didn’t repair it on my own. 

And even if they didn’t, I had my bots to do that exact fight. 

Either case, I wanted to maximize the controversy around the repair as much as possible. “So, who’s ready to watch the first test drive of my new ride,” I posted to the people. It was already almost twelve, meaning most of the students were already up and bored. 

After I posted that, I went to my new car, and quickly drove toward one of the more challenging roads near campus, one that had been usually leveraged for illegal racing.

Rich kids, rich hobbies. 

After I arrived there, I placed my phone on my dashboard, and turned on the live stream. Yet, this time, the feed was coming from two sources. One of the dashcams — as I put three of them after what happened to my last car, in case a genius tried to replicate his earlier trick — provided one source, while my face was the second source. 

“So, Kevin, do you mind having a race? Maybe you’re interested in losing another car,” I said with a chuckle as I looked at the camera, but this time, I waited until the number of watchers had reached mid-three figures first. “Oh, I forgot, you’re not allowed to own one.” 

It was hardly the greatest show. It was childish and mean, but it gave me more Intent than anything I could collect through local chess tournaments and other adventures. 

More importantly, it maintained my name in connection with the football team. Even if childish, the more my name was talked about, the more impact it would have once they lost their game spectacularly. 

Maybe to the point of total collapse. 

Yet, as I pressed the gas and challenged the car to the limits, I abandoned those concerns, enjoying the challenge. Agility was not only useful for footwork. It also helped boost hand-eye coordination, which was the primary component of driving. 

A classic car was not slow, but it lacked many of the simple features that modern cars possessed, making their steering a more challenging affair. 

Luckily, as the people watching my feed enjoyed the show, I received a reward for it. A meager one compared to yesterday’s win, but I appreciated the increasing flow of ability. 

[Control I, acquired]

More importantly, it gave me the chance to actually enjoy myself. 

Enough that, I almost missed the sudden crawling of my skin once more. As I felt that familiar sensation, I reached by two ways. First, I reached and shut the streaming, before the shadow appeared visibly. 

I had no idea whether they were visible on the camera, but if they were, I didn’t want to deal with the advanced scrutiny it brought. 

Clearly, I was not the only one that was aware of the supernatural, and posting a video of my own would be waving a flag to get their attention. 

Instead, I managed to throw myself out of the car before it could even fully stop, rolling on the floor to turn deadly into just painful. 

Then, just as I came to a stop, I had to throw myself back as I felt crawling around me once more, this time a second shadow appearing around me. 

“Holy hell,” I growled as I tapped onto the intent flow, which came much easier as I coated my hand, and stabbed it in the chest even as it tried to skewer me. It disappeared, but this time, along with its blade. 

Just in time to turn and avoid the attack of the first one. Even as I prepared to retaliate, I noticed the blade in its hand was different. Less substantial, flickering like the shadow, only with reduced intensity. 

Curious, I grabbed a rock and threw it to the blade, only for the blade to be pushed back rather than cutting it through the ease. 

Still, considering the deep mark it left on the rock, it wasn’t exactly comforting. It was still capable of easily killing me like the previous knife. 

Even as I killed the shadow, three others appeared, doing their best to surround me. 

I was so glad that, whatever was responsible for the shadows made the grand mistake of just sending one of them at the beginning — my best guess, trusting the capability of the blade the shadow was equipped with.

That made me consider — even as I stabbed another shadow in the chest, destroying it as two others appeared — whether I should go and pick the blade, but, after some consideration, I decided against it. 

I didn’t trust the energy radiating off it. 

Even as I had thought, another shadow appeared, only to be destroyed by me, with a much more significant ease now that I knew the secret of their destruction. 

Yet, it stopped only after the count reached two dozen, my breathing desperate. I didn’t want to think what would have happened if all of those shadows appeared at the same time, preventing me from escaping. 

I sagged down as the great exhaustion hit, but my rapid breaths, while resolving my exhaustion, didn’t resolve my horrible mood. 

I needed even more intent, and I needed it as soon as possible. 

But for once, luck was on my side. When I returned, I saw a lot of mentions about a video, and clicking, I saw it was a rebuttal from Kevin.

The video itself was useless. It was boring and childish, but it gave me what I wanted. 

‘I can beat you in everything, including quarterbacking,’ I posted on his video. ‘How about a duel, tonight at nine, and the loser quits the school.’

The chaos it triggered was incredible.