Marvel Universe.
June 15, 2012.
Friday.
New York City, Midtown High School.
Hawk, seventeen this year, was sweating profusely in the old gymnasium.
Bang!
Bang, bang, bang!
One heavy impact after another rang out. As Hawk continually struck the black sandbag hanging in midair, every time it swung up, the iron chain suspending it let out a piercing screech.
Hawk's hair had long since been soaked through with sweat.
Sweat ran down his prominent cheekbones, across his taut jawline, and finally dripped onto the collar of his old T-shirt, which had also long been drenched.
But Hawk's gaze never left the sandbag.
He was utterly focused.
At that moment, the sandbag before him was his entire world.
Nine thousand nine hundred fifty-one!
Nine thousand nine hundred fifty-two!
*...*
Hawk adjusted his footing. As he silently counted in his heart, he nimbly twisted aside to evade the sandbag's backswing, then followed without pause with a left hook, a right swing... Every punch landed solidly. Under his storm-like assault, the sandbag swayed violently, while its leather surface became even more worn and torn from the repeated blows.
Punch.
Retract.
Punch again.
With every punch he threw, Hawk's movements seemed to gradually accelerate.
Faster and faster.
Until...
Ten thousand!
Bang!
The flames in Hawk's eyes abruptly flared. His fist, which had just retracted, shot out like lightning, striking the newly fallen sandbag with the precision of a snake's tongue. The sandbag violently caved backward with a pained muffled thud, and the chain connecting it finally gave out and snapped.
Freed from the chain's restraint, the sandbag flew backward. After letting out a mournful cry in midair, it slammed heavily onto the floor with a deafening crash.
Boom!
Huff!
Having completed today's ten thousand punches, Hawk looked at the torn sandbag on the floor and finally exhaled the stale breath he had been holding in. His chest rose and fell slightly as he steadied his breathing.
Sweat streamed freely down his face, gathering at the tip of his chin before dripping onto the legs of the cheap sweatpants beneath him.
Of course.
Cheap was relative.
To others, these twelve-dollar pants might have been cheap—extremely cheap, even.
But that was not the case for Hawk.
After all...
In this life, he was an orphan, and an orphan who had transmigrated and been reborn into the Marvel Universe at that.
If his grades in this life had not been fairly outstanding, allowing him to receive a scholarship from Midtown High School, then to put it bluntly, he could never have afforded the school's tuition, which ran into the tens of thousands every semester.
But even with a scholarship, Hawk still lived frugally.
It was not because he had developed some admirable habit of thrift, but because although he had received a school scholarship, it was not the highest tier.
At the very least, it was nothing like the one received by Gwen Stacy, the student assistant in his grade.
Gwen Stacy's scholarship was the highest tier.
Not only did she attend school for free, but the school even gave her money every semester, not to mention the various academic competitions with their exceptionally generous prizes.
Hawk's scholarship was the most common kind: one that waived tuition.
After all, his grades could only be considered outstanding, not exceptionally outstanding.
Still, Hawk was satisfied with that.
Midtown High School waived his tuition, while federal orphan citizens like him—without foster families and between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, a period known as the "independent transition period"—received an eight-hundred-dollar monthly subsidy.
Then, because Midtown High School was an elite school in New York State, New York State also gave him a five-hundred-dollar monthly subsidy.
All told, he had an income of thirteen hundred dollars a month.
That might not have been enough for an adult living in New York City, but for Hawk, who still received federal orphan assistance and attended school tuition-free, it was enough for now.
More than enough, even.
After all, he ate at school and slept in a federally subsidized low-cost apartment.
From his monthly thirteen hundred dollars in subsidies, after subtracting five hundred dollars to maintain his basic living expenses, he could still save eight hundred dollars every month.
What?
Five hundred wasn't enough?
Same answer as before.
It might not have been enough for an adult, but it was enough for Hawk.
Every afternoon, he completed his Daily Ten Thousand Punches routine in the gym. After showering there, he washed his clothes as well, then took the school's last free bus home. Once home, he slept, then took the earliest bus back to school the next day.
He did not even have utility bills, much less phone or internet bills.
He was an orphan.
Once he was fed, the whole family was fed.
Who could he call, and who would call him?
As for internet bills?
Heh.
He did not even own a computer. Whenever he needed the internet, the school library had public computers, and even printing was free.
So...
Although he had started this reborn life as an orphan again, Hawk felt that he was doing fairly well.
He could save eight hundred dollars every month, and every so often, he could even visit an equally cheap fried chicken joint and order a huge bucket of fried chicken to replenish his energy.
By now, he had saved more than thirty thousand dollars.
Life was sweet.
Of course.
It would have been even better if the fried chicken joint had fewer Black people.
After a while.
Hawk, who had been standing still with his eyes half-closed, slowly opened them and stared blankly at the sandbag lying on the floor.
Because he was not actually looking at the sandbag, but at a prompt window floating before his eyes.
More precisely, at his cheat.
'Cosmo Cultivation!' 'Current Status: "Inactive"' 'Activation Requirement: "Throw ten thousand punches a day for a thousand consecutive days"' 'Activation Progress: "999/1000"'
Soon!
Soon.
It'll activate tomorrow.
Seeing the activation progress displayed in the prompt window that only he could see, Hawk's heart burned with anticipation. He wished time could teleport straight to tomorrow.
This cheat had come online when he was fifteen in this life.
More precisely, it had come online on September 10, 2009.
He remembered it especially clearly.
Because that day happened to be the day Hulk and Abomination battled in New York City.
So he had not slacked off in the slightest.
The cheat had arrived, so he trained!
He had no choice.
After all, the world he had transmigrated into was the Marvel Universe, where "superheroes walked the streets, superhuman lives were worth less than dogs, and cosmic gods roamed everywhere."
Before he had a cheat, lying flat was one thing.
But now that the cheat had arrived, was he still going to lie flat?
Wouldn't that mean the cheat had come for nothing?
So...
From the day the cheat came online, Hawk had maintained the habit of throwing ten thousand punches every day.
Not a single day missed.
Rain or shine.
Unshakable as thunder.
In short.
Food could go uneaten.
Training could not be skipped.
By now.
He had maintained his habit of throwing ten thousand punches a day for nine hundred ninety-nine consecutive days.
And now...
The dawn of victory was finally about to arrive!
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