"Who are you?!"

Somehow, the man's grin grew wider, "Name's Hardcore Leveling Warrior."

Several seconds of sileince passed before either said anything and it was Midoriya who broke the tension, "Who?"

The red-haired man looked shocked, "Seriously, you don't know who I am. I'm the strongest player in the world. Everyone has heard of me. I'm awesome."

This guy reminds me of Kacchan, thought Midoriya. "Anyway, Why are you in my room?"

HLW shrugged, "Don't know, I just remember waking up to you sleeping. I need some information so that's why I woke you up." He hopped off the edge of Midoriya's bed and began to inspect the All Might merchandise around the room. "So where are we kid? Someplace in Yopi Land or are we in one of Gaia's Cities. Might have to raise a little hell if that's the case. And who is this guy 'All Might'? Is he a ranker or something?"

Ok, at the very least, he doesn't seem like a villain, Thought Midoriya, analyzing the strange person. He would have attacked me already if that were the case. But what is Yopi Land? Is that a place or some forgien country? And how does he not know who All Might is? Guessing that was what the man was asking, Midoriya said, "Umm… We're in Japan. Musutafu to be exact."

Midoriya could see HLW's body stiffen for a moment in surprise as he turned around. But before the red haired man could say a word, the Bedroom door swung open. "My baby!? Are you Ok?" Armed with a pot lid and wooden spoon, Inko burst through the door. "I heard you scream and I came as quickly as I could! Is everything ok?!"

His mother's eyes were trained on him like a hawk rather than the gold-clad man in the room. She's not even looking in his direction, noted Midoriya. It can only mean one thing. She can't see him. He looked over to HLW and he was looking at the woman as well, his expression calculating and observant. "I'm ok mom," lied the teen with the wave of his hand. "Just had a bad dream is all."

Inko walked over to Midoriya and embraced her son, "Aww my baby boy. It's ok."

Normally, Midoriya didn't mind his mother's doting nature but the fact there was another person in the room made him blush. He looked over to HLW and saw that he was trying to hold back his laughter. "Mom, I'm fine. I have school tomorrow, so can I get back to sleep? "

"Oh, of course, baby," She gave her son one last hug then made her way out of the room. "Have a good night sweetheart."

The door closed with a thud and HLW turned to Midoriya with a big grin on his face, "Someone's a mama's boy."

Midoriya's face turned red but he shook his head and focused on the information he had just learned from his mother. "She couldn't see you, could she?"

"Doesn't look like it," nodded HLW. "And you said this was Japan, right? As in the real world, Japan?"

"Yeah," Midoriya threw the covers off his bed and hung his legs off the edge. "I'm going to need more details of who you are. I'm sorry, but I've never heard of someone named Hardcore Leveling Warrior."

The gold-clad man seemed to understand what the teen was saying and slumped to the ground. "Alright then, looks like it's storytime," he said rolling his shoulders. "So I'll start by asking, have you ever heard of a game called Lucid Adventure."

Lucid Adventure. Every kid or teen Midoriya's age had, at one point or another, looked into the history of the game and he was no exception. It was a game that could be played in your dream via a smartphone app. A fantasy sandbox where you could literally do anything you wanted: go on a quest, socialize, fight, cook, or could do anything and anything you wanted was possible. For a young person, some in their adolescence, it sounded like a dream world… Sadly, the game no longer exists. After the sleepwalker incident, several cases of insomnia that were believed to have been caused by the game, and an unknown event, the game was shut down and the company that ran it, Gaia, went out of business.

Many theories float around the internet about what happened to the game behind the scenes but nothing could be proven since the game's history has been lost to time. Soon after the game shut down, Quirks began to appear for the first time, and any resource that companies put into researching Lucid Adventure-like technology went to researching Quirks. These two facts lead to most of the game's history being lost to time.

Midoriya nodded, "I've heard of it. It was a game from the Pre-Quirk Era."

HLW raised an eyebrow, "Not sure what 'Quirks' are, but let's put a pin in that for now. In my prime, I was the number one Ranker in the game."

"You mean you were a player in the game?" The teen's question received a nod and that only made him more confused than ever. There's… there's no way I can believe what he is saying. That he's a player from that game. That's Impossible…. Anyone who played that game would be long dead by now…

"You're not the only one who's confused here," interrupted HLW. "For one, I really don't remember anything before waking up here. I remember who I was, and a few other things, but at some point, my memory gets all hazy. Like there's static or something in my head."

So he has amnesia, thought the teen.

"Plus there's the fact you're telling me this is the real world." HLW stood up and inspected himself. "If this is the real world, then why do I look the same as I did in the game."

Midoriya shrugged, "Something weird is going on."

"I agree," nodded HLW. "Let me try something," the red haired-man got into a wide stance stretching out his right hand as if calling something to it. After several seconds of nothing happening, he sighed in defeat. "Great, I can't even use any of my skills, not even Lucky Coin is working."

His words caught Midoriya's attention, "What did you say?"

"I said I couldn't use my skills."

"After that, You said Lucky Coin."

"Yeah, Lucky Coin was my signature skill that helped me get the title of number one ranker," HLW proudly boasted of his previous achievements with a cocky grin.

Connecting some of the details, Midoriya asked, "Does the coin have a slime as the heads side and a number one as the tails side?" HLW's eyes grew wide as he nodded slowly. Reaching into his nightstand he pulled out his Lucky Coin. "Here," he tossed it over to the man.

The man reached over to catch the coin that was tossed at him but was surprised to see the coin go right through his hand. "What," he said surprised. HLW tried to pick up the coin but his finger couldn't grasp the coin. Instead, they phased right through it. "What am I, A fucking ghost?"

Midoriya had to stop himself from asking more questions he knew neither of them had the answer to. Instead, he got up from his bed and picked up the coin, and showed it to the other man. "Is this what your Lucky Coin looked like?"

"Yeah," sighed HWL. He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "So not only is this the real world, some kid in Japan has one of my Lucky Coins, and I'm essentially a ghost," He went over to the wall and stuck his hand through it to emphasize his point. "Where did you get that anyway?"

"It's a family heirloom. It's been in the family for a generation."

"And I assume you don't know HOW it got into the family?"

"No, sorry," Midoriya said with a shake of his head.

HLW placed his hand on his chin and began to think and Midoriya waited patiently for the gold-clad man to say something. "Alright, Kid. As much fun as it's been to play detective with you, I work better solo. Seeing as I can pass through walls and shit, I'm going to go look for details on my own," Before Midoriya could say anything, HLW walked through the door of his room.

"What the hell?!" he heard HLW say from the other side of the door. "Why can't I move?!"

"Are you ok?" Midoriya moved towards the door and as he did he heard the man yelp in pain, presumably tripping.

"What the hell," said the man on the ground.

"Are you okay," Midoriya asked.

HLW growled, "I'm fine." He got up and tried to walk away again but something stopped him. The teen watched as the redhead tried to move forward but instead walked in one spot, as if he was walking on a treadmill. Again, Midoriya took a step forward and HLW tripped from his own speed. "Damn it."

He wasn't able to move forward until he took a step closer to him. "I think you might be connected to me somehow. When I took a step towards you, you were able to move again. It's like there's a radius around me and you can't travel beyond that."

"Seriously!?" HLW growled in a mix of anger and frustration. "Not only am I a ghost with no memory of how I got here. But now I've got a chain around my neck forcing me to stay close to some mama's boy."

Midoriya wanted to offer some words of support to the man, but there was nothing he could think to say. "Listen, Hardcore Leveling Warrior. As much as I want to help you look for answers, at this time of night, there is not a lot we can do. For now, I think we should wait till tomorrow."

While the man seemed irate and wanted to argue, he conceded. "Fine. Not like I can go anywhere without you anyway." Angrily, HLW followed Midoriya back to his room and the teen climbed back into bed. He laid down on the floor and turned away from the teen. "We'll talk more tomorrow."

With his head full of questions that appeared to have no easy answer, Midoriya closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep once again.

"I am here. I am here. I am here."

The sound from his All Might alarm clock awoke Midoriya from his sleep. He lazily hit the sleep button as he rubbed his eyes. Remembering the events of last night, he looked over to the spot HLW was laying last night and to his surprise, the man was not there. Where did he go? He can't go that far without me. Looking around the room revealed that the man was indeed gone. Was… it all a dream?

Before he could think more on the subject, a knock came at his door, "Izuku honey, Breakfast is almost ready."

"A-Alright mom, I'll be ready in a second."

Without anything better to go on, Midoriya went through his morning routine like it was any other morning. Getting ready for school and eating breakfast with his mother just like always. Before long he was out the door and off to school. As he walked to school, he thought about the stranger he met last night. Mom didn't mention anything about her bursting into my room last night. Maybe it was all a-

"So where are we heading too?"

Looking to his left Quickly, Midoriya saw HLW walking alongside him, seemingly appearing out of thin air. "AHHH!"

HLW recoiled at the scream of fear from the teen, "Jesus kid, turn it down a notch. You're getting weird looks."

Sure enough, Midoriya noticed several people giving him strange looks so he quickly made his way down an alley so he could talk to HLW without people thinking he's insane. "S-sorry, you just scared me. But where were you…" Now looking at the man, Midoriya noticed something. Rather than the gaudy armor, the man had worn the previous night, he was wearing a tan T-shirt under a jacket. The jacket was divided into two colors, purple on the top with white along the bottom. His pants appeared to be a pair of sweatpants and her purple sneakers on his feet.

"How did you change clothes," Midoriya asked. "Where did you get that stuff?"

"While you were sleeping last night, I messed around to see if there was anything I could do. Of course, I tried multiple times to leave, but that went up in smoke. And my attempts to use my skills didn't work." His tone was filled with a mixture of annoyance and frustration. "So I tried to do some other stuff. The two big discoveries being that I can change my clothing whenever I want." HLW snapped his fingers and his clothing changed instantly back to the armor he had worn last night. "Since I can't use my skills or anything, my babies don't do anything. So I'm changing it up just for looks." He snapped again and went back to the jacket and T-shirt.

Babies? Midoriya didn't ask about what he meant and instead continued, "What was the other thing you figured out."

"I can fly," HLW jumped into the air and remained there. "Well, when I say fly I really mean float since I can't go that far away from you. But it beats walking, that's for sure." He did a few flips and loops in the air before landing back on the ground. "Now, your turn to answer my question. Where are we going?"

"I-I have school. And I need to go there or I'm going to be late."

HLW groaned as Midoriya began to walk towards Aldera. "Seriously, We have more important things than going to school. Like finding out what the hell is going on with me."

"I-i know. I want answers too, but I can't just skip school. I could get in trouble then it would end up being counterproductive. Once school is over, we can start by looking online for clues."

Reluctantly, the man nodded, "Fine." As the two walked HLW floated next to Midoriya, he noticed the people walking along the street with the teen. "Hey, What's up with some of these people?" he pointed to a crowd of school students in front of them. "That girl has a set of ears like a rabbit and that guy has lots of eyes."

"It's because of their Quirks," answered Midoriya.

Now intrigued he continued, "You mentioned these 'Quirks' last night. Care to elaborate on what they are?"

I forgot, he said he's from the Pre-Quirk Era. He wouldn't know what they are. "I can. There is a lot to cover with the topic of Quirks so I think we should stick with the basics." HLW nodded and Midoriya cleared his throat. "A Quirk is a superhuman ability that a person can have. It can be something as small as being able to attract small objects or create explosions in the palm of your hand. A long time ago, Quirks began to appear in the population en masse with the first reported case being a baby in Qing Qing City, China who radiated light. Now, about 80 percent of the population has some sort of ability."

HLW listened intently in order to learn as much as he could. "What's your Quirk," he asked.

The teen fell silent as he remembered his lack of ability. "I don't-" he stopped himself as he remembered the events of the previous day and how All Might had promised to pass on his Quirk to him. I almost forgot about what happened yesterday. Everything with All Might and him telling me about One for All. "It's complicated."

HLW chuckled, "So even the mama's boy knows how to keep a secret." His teasing made the teen blush and he continued, "Hate to break it to you kid, but if you're hoping to keep secrets from me, it's not going to happen. Remember, we're connected for one reason or another, so it's going to be hard for you to keep secrets with me always with you. Plus, It's not like anyone can see or hear me."

As much as he wanted to refute the man's point, he was right."I'll tell you in private later. It isn't just a secret that involves me, so I don't want someone to overhear us."

Although skeptical, HLW shrugged "alright, fair enough kid. Anything else I should know about these Quirks?"

Midoriya opened his mouth but he heard a girl scream just ahead of them. The duo rushed ahead to see a group of fangirls crowding around a familiar wooden hero. "We love you Kamui Woods."

"I'm sorry Ladies but I have duties to attend to," The hero extended the wood on his arm and grabbed a stoplight just above him. "I appreciate all the support. But duty calls!" With those final words, Kamui Woods flipped down the street swinging from building to building.

"Who was that prick?"

Looking to his left, Midoriya saw that HLW's face was full of annoyance and a hint of jealousy. "That was Kamiu Woods. A pro hero."

"Hero?"

The teen nodded and continued to walk with HLW towards the school. "Pro Heroes are people who are able to use their Quirks to help people. They gamble with their lives, trying their best to protect people from villains and Disasters. When Quirks first began to appear, society was cast into chaos as people abused their Quirks. It wasn't until people started to act on their own as vigilantes that society began to adapt. Eventually, laws were passed to limit the usage of Quirks and the profession was legitimized, and Pro Heros were born." This is really summarizing it, but I get the feeling that HWL isn't in the mood for a full history lecture.

HLW nodded his head as he took in the new knowledge of this era, "I take it that becoming a pro isn't as easy as signing your name on a piece of paper, Right?"

"No. You have to pass an exam issued by the Hero Public Safety Commission. From what I know and have read online, they test you on your combat and rescue skills. Since the test is so difficult, Hero academies were established to teach people on how to be heroes."

"HAHA." HLW laughed out loud, surprising Midoriya. "Going to school to become a superhero. That sounds like a complete fantasy or something out of a comic book."

Midoriya understood HLW's reaction, I guess coming from the past, that would be the same reaction for just about anyone.

As the school came into view, HLW nodded. "Ok, I think I got the gist of it all. Quirks are a superpower people have. You go to school, pass an exam, and then BAM, you're a Hero." HLW clapped his hands together to emphasize his statement.

"Y-yeah," Midoriya nodded.

Before HLW could add anything else to the explanation, the duo approached the school grounds. The hushed whispers of students could be heard as Midoriya walked to his classroom. Everyone must have heard about the sludge villain attack yesterday.

"Everyone's whispering about you," HLW observed. "Don't tell me that the Mama's boy is actually the school delinquent."

Once again, the Mama's boy comment made him blush but he answered in a whispered tone, "No. Yesterday I was involved in a villain Attack and… everyone must have heard what happened."

After a quick walk up the stairs, Midoriya stood outside the door to his classroom moments before the bell rang for class to begin. "U-um… I know it might seem obvious, b-but when we're at school, we have to keep the conversations to a minimum. Don't want to draw attention to us." Not that anyone was giving me attention in the first place, grimaced the teen.

"Ugh, it's going to be boring but fine, we'll talk more later." Before Midoriya could blink, the red haired man disappeared. The teen looked up and down the halls to make sure he was really gone. It's going to take some getting used to, was Midoriya's final thought before opening the door.

As the door slid open with a thud, everyone in the classroom looked at him and he faltered at their gaze. Several of the others in class began to mutter about the events they had heard about on the news. Don't be nervous Izuku, just keep your head down and walk to your desk. He followed his own advice and shuffled over to his desk, but not before giving Bakugo a quick glance.

Rather than sending a piercing glare his way, he was looking out the window in order to avoid looking at Midoriya. I guess this is better than him getting on my case. He sat down in his seat and the door at the front of the classroom swung open once again.

"Alright settle down everyone." Boba-sensei strode into the classroom with the roll book tucked under his arm. "It's time to start class, but before anything. Bakugo and Midoriya. I understand you two were involved in a villain attack yesterday. While I'm glad to see you two are ok, please don't let this incident affect your studies."

Several students snickered and Bakugo just clicked his teeth while Midoriya nodded, "yes sir."

"Good," Now yesterday we talked about…"

The rest of class went like usual. Midoriya took notes meticulously in his notebook throughout the day while doing his best to ignore the whispers of his classmates. This pattern happened throughout the whole day until it was time for physical education.

"Alright everyone. Today I'm feeling a little nostalgic so we're gonna play a game I used to play in my day. Dodgeball." There was a mixture of cheers and groans from students as Tarkin-sensei announced what they would be doing in class. Tarkin-sensei was Aldera's lead coach for the basketball team and a foreigner from America. He likes to ,every now and again, spice up the class with something he would do in America. "You all know the rules, No Quirks and no hitting below the belt. If you use excessive force, I'll send you to the office ASAP. Understood?"

Everyone nodded and they began to group up into the teams Tarkin-sensei had assigned. Midoriya sighed in relief since he and Bakugo were on the same team today. After yesterday, I don't want to be on the receiving end of anything from him. Although he hasn't talked to me all day, I wonder if he's just brushing me off or is genuinely mad at me. His mind went back to the talk they had after the incident right before All Might showed up.

"And begin."

Midoriya was snapped out of his thoughts by the blow of the whistle signalling the start of the game. As he turned his head towards the enemy team, he saw several balls flying towards him. "AHHH," he cried out as he barely dodged the balls.

"Damn, almost got that nerd," chuckled one of the other students.

"Try to dodge this one Midoriya," with a big windup, another student threw the ball as hard as he could at Midoriya's direction.

However, the student was hit with another ball thrown by Bakugo. "DIE!"

"Nice hit Bakugo, but remember what I said about excessive force!" Tarkin-sensei shouted from the sidelines.

The explosion user ignored the teacher and went over to another ball rolling on the ground while Midoriya got up. Yeah, he may still be angry.

"Midoriya look out!"

One of his teammates called out to him as another barrage came his way and everything seemed to happen next in slow motion. The large ball came his way and was too fast for him to dodge on his own. Then, the message came up…

[Passive skill: Lucky Man]

Midoriya had less than a second to register the message as he tripped on his own leg causing him to barely dodge the ball coming his way. His back hit the ground with a thud while other students stopped to look at him.

Tarkin-sensei blew his whistle signaling everyone to stop. "Midoriya," he called out to the downed student. "Are you ok?"

"Y-yes sir," he nodded while his mind raced a thousand miles a minute. What was that?! That message in my head, I heard it say something. Lucky Man…

"Are you sure you're okay, Midoriya?" Tarkin-sensei could tell the teen was still dazed or at least a little frazzled. "Maybe you should head to the nurses office."

"Hmm," Midoriya came back to reality and nodded his head furiously."Yeahi'mgoingtogotothenursesofficei'llberightback." And in less than a second The greenette was on his feet leaving the gym as fast as he could. While the rest of the students giggled at Midoriya's expense.

Tarkin-Sensei scratched the back of his head. "Ok then," he said with a shrug. "Everyone else line up again. Time for round two."

The door to the boys bathroom slammed open as Midoriya hurriedly checked all the stalls to see if he was alone. Once he was sure he was alone, he went over to the sink and splashed some water on his face while trying to calm himself down. What happened back there, he thought. That ball was definitely going to hit me, then I heard that message and I dodged it.

The teen placed his fingers on his chin as he began to think. It wasn't some dream or a figment of my imagination. I heard it… I Think it said Passive skill: Lucky Man. But what is that? This has never happened before… After a second, Midoriya paused and considered a possibility. Maybe he knows something. This has never happened so it might be connected somehow. With no better idea, he called out, "Hardcore Leveling Warrior?" Several seconds of silence passed again and the redhead did not appear. "Har-"

"I heard you the first time." Midoriya jumped in surprise as the man appeared behind him, leaning on the bathroom wall. "I thought you said we wouldn't talk while you were in school, so I assume this is important."

Quickly collecting himself, Midoriya nodded, "W-well, you see… A few minutes ago I was in P.E. and we were playing dodgeball and since i'm not that athletic, people like to target me since they…" He speech decreased into sheer mumbling and HLW stared at the teen, a mixture of anyone and boredom on his face.

"Midoriya," shouted HLW. "If you're just going to mumble and mess around, I'm going to go."

He waved his hand dismissively and began to disappear but Midoriya stopped him.

"Wait. Sorry…" He shook his head and focused on the main reason he had called his new 'companion'. "Does the phrase 'Lucky Man' mean anything to you?"

HLW's eyes narrowed in curiosity and he said, "What about it?"

"When I was in P.E. just now, a ball was thrown at me and it was going to hit me for sure. Then I heard some weird message in my head saying something like Passive Skill Lucky Man. Then I tripped and dodged the ball." It wasn't hard for Midoriya to understand the look on HLW's face.

The man's eyes were wide, "Are you sure that's what you heard? One hundred percent sure?" Midoriya nodded and HLW just shook his head, placing his hand over his face as he leaned back. "Unbelievable… One thing after another."

"I… take it you know it then?"

"Oh I know it," Laughed the man dryly. "Kid, you just used one of my skills."

"Your skills? Like… from Lucid Adventure?" The teen's question got a nod from the man. "But… How?! T-That should be impossible?"

"There's been a lot of 'impossible' stuff between the two of us, kid," he did air quotes with his fingers and continued. "Lucky Man is a passive skill that I had that let me avoid an otherwise unavoidable attack. Doesn't that describe what happened to you?"

Midoriya was having a hard time processing what all of this meant and he shook his head, "Do you have any way we can double check this. I mean… If I really used on of your skills than-"

"Dude chill," HLW interrupted the teen as Midoriya looked completely frazzled by the implication of this development. "If you want to try and activate Lucky Man again, we could always go look for, what did you call them, villains to fight." The suggestion instantly earned a shake of the head. "But I have a better idea and if I'm right, it means things are more complicated than we thought?" Moving away from the wall HLW moved to stand next to Midoriya. "Try swiping your hand up like this and think 'open menu'." He flicked his hand in the air, as if he was swiping on a large touch screen.

"But what is that-"

"Just try it," interrupted the man.

"Ok ok," Midoriya sheepishly responded. I… really don't have a choice here do I? With no other option but to follow the man's direction, he did as instructed. Swiping his hand up while thinking, open menu.

And before Izuku Midoriya's eyes, something impossible happened.

A screen appeared out of thin air like magic. A semi translucent screen appeared to have several tabs indicating different functions, like character, inventory, log and a few other things that would be normal to see in a video game.

But this was no video game. This was real life for Izuku Midoriya and the teen was speechless at what he was witnessing.

Next to him, HLW hummed as he saw the menu appear. "Yup, looks just like the menu in Lucid Adventure." He tried to touch the screen with his hands but, predictably his hands went right through the screen. "Damn, really hoping I could at least interact with the menu. Try tapping on the character menu tab." A second passed and HLW looked over at Midoriya who was still in shock. "Earth to Midoriya."

"T-this… Should be impossible."

The teen looked like he was about to start mumbling up a storm again and HLW interrupted him, "Look I know how you feel. You're not the only one confused about what's going on but we won't get anywhere standing around."

Although still in shock, Midoriya knew that HLW was right and that freaking out will get the two of them nowhere. I know we just met, but he doesn't seem like that bad a guy. "Ok you're right."

"Of course I'm right. I'm Hardcore Leveling Warrior," the man grinned ear to ear as he placed his hands on his hips.

Maybe not… "So you said something about one of these tabs."

HLW nodded, "Up at the top there's a tab that says character. Just tap it like it's a touch screen."

Hesitantly, Midoriya did as instructed and tapped the screen. Now it displayed an outline of himself. Along that outline were slots which had miniature pictures of his school uniform. Although he never played online games, he guessed this was equipment selection. He moved his finger over the top part of his uniform before HLW stopped him.

"I wouldn't do that. Accidentally unequipping your clothes right as someone comes in here might be a bad idea." The red head's words made the teen shiver and HLW cracked a smile as he pointed with his finger, "Right there, click the skill tree and we'll see if my theory is correct."

Tapping his finger on the screen once more pulled up another menu which appeared to be a long list. Unsure of what to make of the list, Midoriya asked, "What are these?"

"They're my skills," answered the man. "And it confirms what I suspected. You have my skills. All of them."

HLW's phrasing made Midoriya ask, "How many skills did you have?" Rather than give an answer HLW pointed at a part of the screen and the number Midoriya saw almost made him pass out. "999 SKILLS!"

"Yep." HLW grinned proudly.

"I thought games had limits on the number of skills you could learn," Midoriya questioned with his limited knowledge of video games.

"It will take some explaining and we don't have time for that. What matters is that you have the potential to access all my skills."

The teen slowly began to scroll through the list as he asked, "Potential?"

"You don't play that many video games huh. You have to level up before you can start using them. Which leads to my next point, use the back arrow and select stats. That way we can see what your level is."

Midoriya made a mental note to look through the skill list later as several names like Lacerate, Hellfire, and Betting caught his attention. However he did as instructed and closed the skills and selected the stats tab.

[Name: Izuku Midoriya]

[Level: 5]

[Personal Attribute: Absolute Luck]

[Class: Gambler]

[Strength: 17]

[Intelligence: 39]

[Agility: 15]

[Dexterity: 29]

[Luck: 9]

[Stamina:1 16]

"Dude your stats suck," HLW commented as he gazed at the numbers.

Midoriya didn't say anything as just attention fell on the lowest stat of the six. Luck…

The man noticed the teen's gaze and continued on. "You do have some potential. Your Intelligence and Dexterity are abnormally high for your low level so that's a plus. And your luck is being offset by Beginner's Luck and my, well I guess your, Personal Attribute."

The teen heard what HLW said and asked, "Absolute Luck? Does it just increase my luck stat?"

"In simple terms, yes. The down side of Absolute Luck is if you die your stats get set back to zero when you respawn. But this is the real world and if you die you die, so hey silver lining."

"T-that's not what I call a silver lining." Before either of them could add any more to the conversation, the bell rang and Midoriya realized the time. "Man, I'm going to be late for my next class," he said as he hurried out the door.

"Hey kid, wait!" Midoriya stopped in his tracks just before he opened the door. "There is some stuff that we need to talk about and I need to show you. It's important. So do you know a place that is secluded enough?"

The teen contemplated for several seconds, unsure at first thought of places that fit the description. However, he remembered the place All Might had told him to meet him tomorrow morning. "I might have a place in mind."

"Not what I had in mind kid."

The duo stood on the sands of Takoba Municipal Beach Park. Around them, piles and piles of Junk scattered all along the beach And not a soul insight

I wonder why All Might wanted me to train here of all places, Midoriya questioned as he looked around at all the trash.

"Whatever. At least all the trash keeps people away, both on the beach and up there by the sea wall, so it works out for us."

The teen turned to the redhead, who had switched back to the bright gold armor he was wearing before. "You said you wanted to talk to me about the skills, could you please elaborate?"

HLW nodded, "Yeah and listen carefully, this is all very important. I'm going to tell you how the stats and skills work." The man cleared his throat and crossed his arms, "You saw earlier back at the school the five stats used in Lucid Adventure; Strength, Intelligence, Agility, Dexterity, Luck, and Stamina. Some of these are pretty self explanatory and others are more complex. Strength determines the physical damage or your base attack power. Intelligence is used to determine how much mana you have and your capacity to use certain skills. Agility has a lot to do with your long range ability. Like how well you can hit a moving target. Dexterity increases your knowledge of items and your ability to use them creatively. Luck is pretty self explanatory and so is Stamina." Having finished his explanation of the stats, HLW looked up to see Midoriya scribbling notes into a notebook. "Where did you get that?"

"I always have a spare notebook with me," answered Midoriya. "So, If I want to use the rest of your skills I need to raise my Intelligence."

At least he learns fast, thought the man. "Yeah, there's a few ways to raise stats. Leveling up is the traditional way, but that's too slow. I won't go into that stuff now cause it's not important at the moment. What IS important is the one skill you can use; Lucky Coin."

Midoriya looked down at his necklace, "Lucky Coin…"

"Lucky Coin is a simple skill but I was really the only person in Lucid Adventure who could use it to its fullest potential. You flip the coin, if it's head you get a random buff. Tails, you get nothing, a debuff, or the opponent you're facing gets a buff."

"Umm… the risk doesn't sound like it's worth the reward," commented the teen.

HLW grinned, "For the average person yeah, but for us, it's absolutely broken. It's a coin toss so it's 50 percent to succeed. But when I was in my prime, the chances were over 99 percent."

Midoriya's eyes widened in shock, So the luck stat literally affects probability. "That's insane."

"Yup, With my help, I can make you the luckiest person in the world."

A sense of irony tugged at Midoriya's being. All his life he was told he was the unluckiest person in the world. A hero admirer that couldn't, no matter how hard he tried, never be one himself. All because he got unlucky.

Now, he was being told he could be the luckiest person ever. It didn't feel real to him.

"Use it."

He snapped out of his thoughts to focus back on what HLW was saying. "What?"

"Lucky Coin. Take it off your neck and use it."

"A-are you sure?" he asked in surprise. "My Luck stat is really low so-,"

"Do you not want to be a hero?"

The sudden question caught Midoriya completely off guard and he stuttered out, "W-what?"

"Do you want to be a hero? You told me this morning that one of the jobs of heroes is to gamble their lives in order to protect people. Are you saying you can't to take that risk?" Midoriya's jaw was on the floor and HLW continued, "If you want to get stronger with my skills, you're going to have to take risks, sometimes even gambling with your life. But if you take those gambels and win them, you'll become unstoppable. Luck times Effort is OP… So do you want to take that gamble?"

Just then a window appeared in front of Midoriya's eyes and the two jumped in surprise.

[Grand Quest Available: Become the Strongest Hero Ever.]

[Rewards:?]

[Do you accept: Yes/No]

HLW, although surprised that a quest had been issued, said nothing having said his piece to Midoriya.

Meanwhile, the teen stared at the screen and thought back to the talk he had with All Might the day before. HLW's right. Hero's risk their lives everyday fighting villains and protecting the world. If I want to become a Hero like All Might, I have to take risks and leap forward. I have to go beyond, Plus Ultra! In a flash Midoriya clicked yes and the screen disappeared, "I'll do it," He said with a determined nod while gripping his notebook tightly.

"Alright then," HLW grinned widely. Mental note, superhero style speeches work wonders. At the very least Midoriya, I get the feeling the stronger you get, the more likely we are to find answers to everything. And what happened to me. "Ok then, so use it. Flip it with your thumb then catch it in your hand."

"R-right." Setting down his stuff, Midoriya unclipped the necklace and placed it in his hand. HLW said that he used this skill a lot as a player, so this may be the first of many coin tosses. With one final deep breath, Midoriya flipped the coin and watched it fly up. It felt like slow motion for the teen as he watched the gold coin shine in the air. And finally with the swipe of his hand he caught the coin.

[Use Skill: Lucky Coin]

[Success: Strength Increased]

As soon as Midoriya heard the message in his brain. He felt a surge of power course through his body, Like electricity running through his veins that empowered him. Around his body he saw a gold light be emitted for a second and it surrounded his body for a few seconds. "Wow."

"What buff did you get?" HLW asked from the sidelines.

Midoriya echoed the voice he heard, "S-strength."

"Perfect. Hit that Fridge over there." The gold-clad warrior pointed at a fridge which was partially sunken into the sand

"Um," I don-" HLW glared at the teen and he straightened up. "Ok ok." He did as instructed and walked over to the appliance so he could punch it. In his younger days, Midoriya had watched videos about how to punch correctly, telling himself it was so he could punch like All Might. But this would be the first time he would try to hit something. With a nervous gulp, he railed back his fist and struck the side of the fridge as hard as he could.

He half expected to break his arm with that punch, but rather he was fine. Instead the stainless steel side of the fridge had a sizable dent in it now. "Wow," he said looking at his own hand.

"The stronger you get, the bigger the buff will get. Normally, you don't get access to Lucky Coin until your level 30, but you have it at level 5 so that's why it's weak. If you use the coin correctly, you can use it to close the strength gap between you and any opponent."

"How long does the buff last," asked Midoriya.

"A couple of minutes and it's got a cool down. You can also use multiple Lucky Coins at the same time and stack the effects but only do that if you really have to. Using multiple Lucky Coins in a row will cause your luck to drop so you will be more likely to fail if you do."

He nodded, "Ok." Midoriya opened up the menu out of curiosity to poke around it but something caught his attention. "What's game log," he pointed at a section of the menu.

HLW waved his hand, "It's not really important. It just shows what the system says. Like when your Lucky Coin was successful just now."

Although dismissed by the man, the teen clicked on it and found something interesting. As HLW had said, it displayed the activation of skills as well as time stamps on when they were activated. Of course he saw the one for just now and the one form during dodgeball, however there appeared to be one more and scrolled down on the log. "Hardcore Leveling Warrior. Come look at this." The energy from the quiet teen caught his attention and he stood next to him looking at the screen. "There's a log in here from Yesterday. I think the time was after school when I was attacked by that Villain at the shopping district."

They looked at the top entry of the log and HLW read it aloud, "Ultimate Gamble Taken? That's interesting."

"But what's ultimate gamble," questione Midoriya. He clicked on the log entry and a new text box came up.

[Ultimate Gamble]

[Requirements: Gamble with your life on odds that are less than 1 percent.]

[Rewards: Unlock your full Potential.]

"I only had a one percent chance!" Midoriya almost passed out from shock as he learned how close he was to dying yesterday.

HLW just shrugged, "Don't sweat the details, kid. More importantly, the rewards are what interest me. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that's when you unlocked my skills and abilities."

"B-but you didn't appear until much later in the middle of the night," stuttered the teen still in shock.

"Is there any other log entry?"

"No."

"Then as much as I hate to say it there is nothing we can do. For now, let's head back to your place."

Midoriya raised his eyebrow, "really, we're not going to train or anything like that."

"Normally I would like to start that now, but we still have to look for clues about me and you still have to tell me what the deal is with that Hero guy you mentioned, All Might it think it was. I can only imagine how long that conversation is going to last. So let's go."

Midoriya knew that HLW was right and that the sooner they got home the better. He also had to meet All Might back here tomorrow morning to start his training. As the duo began to walk back to the sea wall, Midoriya realized something about his new companion. "Hey, Hardcore Leveling Warrior?" The man looked back over his shoulder at the teen. "What is your real name?"

He raised an eyebrow,"Why the sudden interest?"

"I, it's just, it's going to be kind of tiring if I called Hardcore LevelingWarrior all the time so and you said it was your character name so I was wondering if you know your real name."

Several seconds of silence passed and Midoriya worried he touched a nerve, but the red haired man said, "Ethan… Ethan Gong. That was my name in the real world."

Happy to see that he hadn't upset the man, he smiled. "Ok, Let's do our Best, Ethan."

Ethan gave a nod and the two began to walk in the direction of home.

The next day Ethan and I met up with All Might back at Takoba Municipal Beach Park to begin my training.

"This Fridge makes quite a comfy perch, Young Midoriya," The number one hero's laugh bellowed loudly and he sat atop the fridge Midoriya had punched just yesterday.

"He's really pushing you into the deep end huh," Ethan said while lazing on the sand in his purple hoodie.

Midoriya ignored the man and tried his best to dig in his heels in order to pull the fridge if only a centimeter forward. "A little movement would make it even nicer though! Come on All Might, you're 274 kilos alone…"

"Nah, I've lost some weight. I'm only 255 Kilos. In this form anyway…"

Ethan chuckled, "You know his weight. You're a total fanboy."

Again, Midoriya ignored the man and instead thought back to the talk the two had last night. He had explained to Ethan who All Might was and how he had been asked to inherit the power known as One for All. Ethan seemed skeptical at first, but warmed up to the idea as he thought it might help further the teen's stat growth.

"Hey, Why am I dragging the garbage across the beach anyway…?"

"Because, you're an Ill-suited vessel."

Midoriya turned back to All Might in tears. "What!? But you said I was worthy?!"

"Your body, young Midoriya," clarified the Hero. "It's not suited to take on One for All." The teen looked up from his sobbing and All Might continued. "My Quirk, One for All, binds the physical strength of many people into one. Your limp noodle body isn't ready for it. Your limbs would pop off!"

Midoriya pulled in his arms close to his body instinctively and began to look around the trash on the beach. "So I'm here to train my body… by hauling trash."

"Yes! But that's not all! You see I did some research a while ago and I found out this beach has been this way for years."

"Yeah. Something about the currents. Lots of stuff drifts ashore and people also dump their garbage here even though they shouldn't."

All Might placed his hand atop the fridge. "The young Heros of today only want fame and glory. But being a hero is all about Volunteer work! Serving the community!" With an impressive display of strength, All Might crushed the fridge easily to display the beautiful sunrise, "Let's bring back this Beautiful ocean view!"

"Got to admit, he's strong," Ethan said with a whistle, impressed that a regular human could accomplish such a feat, instead a player from Lucid Adventure.

"This is the first step on your path to becoming a hero!"

"Wait, you mean I have to clean… All of this," a bead of sweat dropped down his head as he looked around the junk pile.

"Yes and do not worry," All Might pulled out a stack of papers from his pocket. "You see, you're not just going to be blindly hauling trash. It's all a part of this. My self-designed 'pass the test, American Dream' plan!" He passed the plan to Midoriya who read it with Ethan at his shoulder. "This training regime is designed to help you clean up the garbage and then some. You can chart your whole life with this."

"He even has all your sleep planned out," commented Ethan.

"To be frank with you young Midoriya, this is going to be super tough, even with the Quirk you awakened. Are you sure you're up to it?"

Before Midoriya could respond, a Quest window opened in front of the teen and All Might looked surprised as well.

[Quest available: Train till you drop]

[Requirements: Meet the deadline in ten months]

[Rewards: Skill Crystal and EXP]

[If you Fail: -100 Luck]

[Do you accept: Yes/No]

Midoriya looked over at All Might who was staring at the window. "So this is one of the parts of your Quirk, huh? A 'Quest'."

Midoriya chuckled nervously, "Yeah." Last night, along with their talk about All Might. The duo talked about how to tell the hero about Midoriya's new abilities. Ethan heavily pushed keeping everything a secret, but Midoriya was fully against it. Expressing that it was only fair since All Might had told him about One for All. After some convincing, Ethan agreed but only if he was the only thing kept from All Might, Along with any bit pertaining to Lucid Adventure. Siting that the two's relationship was new and he might come off crazy if he said a person from a long gone age was living inside his head.

Midoriya agreed and told All Might most of what he could and showed him the log on the day of the sludge villain attack. He understood and believed Midoriya when he was telling the truth about awakening to his powers, which they passed off as his Quirk. However, All Might said that he was not to use Lucky coin during training as it would defeat the purpose.

Midoriya nodded while clicking the yes button. " I'll do my best. I have to work way harder than anyone else to make it… So I'll go beyond Plus Ultra."

All Might smiled, "That's the spirit, Let the training begin."

Authors notes:

I'm sorry this chapter has taken this long to come out. It's been one thing after another with work and school and things have been busy overall. I only just now found the time to settle down and write this chapter. Sorry for the wait.

For anyone wondering, I'm taking all my information about Hardcore Leveling warrior from the wiki and the webtoon as a whole. The best two sources possible.

This chapter mainly serves the purpose of introducing Hardcore Leveling Warrior to the world of My hero. Introducing him to heroes and the concepts of the world was really fun to write since I like him so much as a chater. I look forward to writing about how his and Midoriya's relationship develops in the story. And yes, I'm using the line translation for Hardcore's name. Sue me.

Hopefully my time will free up pretty soon and I will be able to get chapters out more consistently but I can't say for sure. Until then check out my other story One more Shot.

See you next time.