The system shop hadn't just sold flashy abilities and spooky modes with dramatic names. It sold upgrades. Real ones. Physical augmentation that went way past what Dark Lord Mode gave me for free.
Pills that rewrote muscle fiber density until my body stopped behaving like a polite suggestion and started acting like a weapon.
Elixirs that shaved milliseconds off nerve transmission until reaction time became instinct instead of thought. Treatments that shoved the human body past its manufacturer warranty and straight into experimental hardware territory.
I'd been buying them for weeks. Testing doses. Adjusting combinations. Seeing what broke. Seeing what didn't.
And I'd given them to Soo-Jin too.
Because if this war was going to be real, then pretending to stay human was just cosplay with better lighting.
We weren't superhuman. Not in the comic-book sense. No flight. No lasers. No invisibility cloaks or dramatic theme music.
But speed? Strength? Durability?
