It's as I'm making my evening tea that I notice another health bar appear on the top left of my HUD. It's been a long week, but finally ServerMind has found a fourth guy. Here's hoping this one isn't a narc replacment last week. I really need a payday if I'm gonna make it through the month.

/

/

/

I enter the hotel, fox mask already equipped, and approach the receptionist.

"UwU", I greet, "I'm here for the Furry-Fuck-Feast." Jesus Christ, I hate this theme. It does have its upsides though. I watch the receptionist, strong girl that she is, barely restrain her cringe as she gives me a keycard and a room number – guaranteed to wipe this entire encounter from her memory with generous appliance of bleach and alcohol.

"UwU, I'll miss your scent." I make an effort to casually speed walk over to the elevator.

/

/

/

As I open the door and get slammed by the air-conditioning I can't help but tense. I know what's coming but even still, no-one likes getting tackled and having their face punched. "Ow! Shite! Did you really need to punch me that hard Wolf?!"

The bastard just chuckles and mutters "security". It won't leave a mark, mask besides, but it still hurts to get your jaw clocked.

I stand and dust myself off before joining Wolf, Bear, and Komodo by the bed. Half the bed is covered in duffle bags and the other is occupied by a Lady dressed in a blouse and slacks with a blank orange mask – ServerMind.

"Alright then gents", she glances at Bear, "and lady. Before I hand out the info packets, who wants to be the mule? Fair warning, it'll be a full inventory on the way in."

Of course it is. And of course the three bastards have already touched their noses. I raise my hand, "Unwillingly". Full inventories suck. The movement debuff is torturous.

"It'll be a standard job", ServerMind continues, "Go in, break the vault, load a few bags, bite down. This is a commission backed joint, so cause as much damage as you like. No civilian casualties. After last week's clusterfuck we don't need the extra heat."

The narc. Last week one of the hires got picked off by the cops and an undercover was sent in their place. The whole job went tits-up and we only caught the guy when his mask went flying post-punch. You can replicate a lot of things, a quirk is not one of them.

"The respawn point is set a couple blocks from here. I'll meet you when the job's done and divide the take. Any questions?"

Komodo raises their hand, "Why the fuck are we doing the furry theme? I thought you promised we'd never do it again? Why couldn't we do card-suits?"

I can hear Bear mutter "card-suits?". They must have only done a couple jobs then, seeing as the themes are rotated every time.

ServerMind just giggles for a moment before answering, "Because card-suits was last week and I wanted to mess with you – you haven't taken a job in months and I miss your pouting."

"I'm not pouting! And I haven't been taking jobs because my asshole neighbour called the cops on me for 'suspicious outings'. The asshole doesn't say shit about the hero next door beating his wife every night, but the quirkless guy minding his own business? Nah, he's doing some illegal shit, he can't possibly have friends he's hanging out with."

ServerMind must be getting antsy because she steps in, "Yes yes, society is ripe with discrimination and quirkless people get it the worst. Can we please get on with it? I'm renting these rooms by the hour and the mini-fridge is looking mighty tempting."


/

"Robbery in progress at the Swinton Bank, 7th and Tond street. Reports of 4 masked robbers. Confirmed storage quirk, sighted summoning duffle bags and handing out weapons, armour, and equipment. 3 unknown quirks. Estimated 36 hostages. Officers are present and Heroes suited for rescue are requested, over."

/

/

/

Everything has gone to shit. One of the hostages decided to play hero, or they might have just been off duty, and popped a smoke screen. Ended up losing all but one hostage and now we're stuck in the vault.

"Running low on Ammo!" I pause my looting to throw Wolf a mag. Despite having a hostage the cops started a shootout. It's kind of funny. All those Heroes just standing back as the cops rain gunfire down on our position. They're either playing it safe, or waiting for a powerhouse to swing by.

"AAHH FUCKING HOT! Endeavour just got here!" There it is.

"Bear! Show him the hostage!" If that doesn't calm things down, nothing will.

"On i- Oh fuck!" I glance back to see Bear and Wolf shielding the hostage from a wall of flames.

Bear makes a call of "down to a quarter!" before she checks over the hostage.

Everything is even more fucked now. "Why doesn't he care about the hostage?!" Said hostage chose this moment to cough out what sounds like "quirkless", along with half a lung worth of smoke.

Of course he's quirkless and of course Endeavour doesn't give a shit.

/

/

/

It took longer than I would have liked, and a couple position swaps to fill each inventory, but as Wolf zips up his last bag I make the call, "Full load! Pop your pill!"

Each of us grab cover, raise our mask, and pop a pill from a Pez dispenser.

I watch the health bars each grey-out in turn – Bear, Wolf, and finally Komodo. It's with an apologetic shrug to Mr. Hostage that I bite down.

/

/

/

I blink and find myself in another hotel room – the aircon is blaring as usual. We unload our haul and let ServerMind count it whilst we take off our gear and pile it into a couple duffle bags for burning. Wolf and Bear are covered in soot but otherwise look unharmed.

With the count done, boss speaks up, "Job well done people. Just over 50 million. I'll have it processed and wire you each 10 million in a couple days. Masks secure?"

We each hold a hand to our mask and wait for the jolt that comes with losing system access.

[System access has been revoked. Your status as [Player] has been revoked. All abilities have been revoked. Remember to take a break in between play sessions to rest up]

For as much as I hate quirkest cunts lording their special gifts over us, I must admit, having a quirk is pretty fucking awesome – even only temporarily.

"Wolf, you leave first, and please hide your mask before someone see it again." Wolf only huffs a "it was one time" before stepping out of the room.

A minute passes before Bear follows. Another minute and Komodo leaves as well.

"Pleasure working with you again Fox, stay safe."

"Thanks again ServerMind, I owe you one."

"No problem Fox. Let me know how the new job goes though, that took a couple favours."

I nod and walk out, taking off the mask as I hit the elevator button.


/

Author's note;

This was a fun one. I had the idea for a quirk that grants a watered-down gamer system a couple days ago. I'd been slowly building up some ideas before I finally wrote this.

This is a one shot. Intended to be placed after ServerMind has made a reputation for themselves – they hire quirkless people in need of money to do dangerous jobs. Who would suspect a quirkless runt of being a quirked bank robber?

I had some minor ideas that didn't make it in – either didn't fit or the story just wasn't long enough to incorporate them.

Here's my reference I wrote for writing this;

A quirk that makes someone the System. They can grant [Player] status and abilities to people. Giving then respawn, inventory (5 slots, 3 are free, 2 are encumbered), Health Points, a HUD. The inventory allows for equipping a disguise mask which cannot be removed except through the menu – unless destroyed.

The System gains no abilities, except for immunity to the [Player]s and total control over their system access.

Because the System is acting as the lone server, they can only handle a few [Player]s.