At the same time, countless forum sites were frantically making new threads and piling up replies. People talked about what abilities they had gained. Even when it was just glowing, there were differences between powers. For now, the biggest difference was color—some glowed red, some green. There were no rainbow-colored ones, though; once the spectrum mixed together, it became some other color.
There were differences in brightness, too.
Thus, in an incredibly short time, a hierarchy of contempt had already formed online. Or rather, a bunch of people had been chatting away until they started fighting.
Some said that abilities like glowing, generating heat, and producing electricity were useless. Glowing could not compare to a powerful little flashlight, heat could not compare to a flamethrower, and electricity could not compare to a stun baton. They were nowhere near as useful as body-enhancement abilities, which were genuine, solid increases in strength.
Before long, others refuted them. Skin becoming tougher could not compare to body armor; if you became stronger, were you more useful than a crane for moving things? And as for nails becoming hard and sharp, were you planning to use them to chop vegetables? As for fighting, I'd wager that within seven paces, you still won't outrun a bullet.
Whether you're strong only matters for a while. Whether you're cool matters for a lifetime. Don't look down on the fact that I can only produce a little flame—I can light cigarettes with my bare hand. There's no one cooler than me...
As they argued, though, the whole tone began to go crooked. People started letting their imaginations run wild, thinking up ways to develop their abilities. For instance, glowing could become the manipulation of interference light, achieving invisibility. If it reached a sufficient intensity in the future, it could