Mark had a dream.

He had had it from a young age. It had grown into him, seeded by hero HQs, nourished by splendid books, cared for by the best anime. He wanted to be the one who moved history forward, the one who assured everything stayed on the trails, the one who changed the world.

He wanted to be the hero's companion.

Of course, that was stupid. Mark wasn't a child. He could tell reality apart from fantasy.

So he went with the next best thing, becoming a director. He wanted to tell the best stories the right way, to properly highlight all the wonderfulness of the supporting cast. He would run the greatest shows! He had already become an apprentice of sorts to his high school's acting coach!

Nothing would stop him!

That's what he had believed in, but then the system came to Earth, and it changed everything.

He had volunteered as quickly as possible. Superpowers? Becoming a god among men? He was in!

In the tutorial, he saw an Asian dude in Chinese martial arts robes fighting like a true hero. The way he held his spear was unlike how mostly everyone else wielded their weapons. It was firm, filled with purpose. The guy clearly knew what he was doing, unlike Mark himself.

He could tell at a glance that the boy was born to greatness, destined to become a great fighter in the incoming apocalypse.

The only issue was that Feng Shen lacked charisma. The guy wanted to just fight alone and train quietly, and that was it. While that worked in games, an aspiring director like Mark knew that real life was all about building the right public image. The brooding alpha male wasn't trending nowadays. Well, maybe it was trending for supporting cast, Sasuke and Gaara from Naruto proved it, but not for the main character. These days, you had to be the cool guy. Extrovert Spiderman had replaced introvert Spiderman and sold well, no matter how much people claimed not to like it. Anyway, Mark could work on Shen's personality later, but for now, he needed to bring the guy to the spotlight, to make him shine brighter.

It was obvious what he had to do.

Some of the best companions had a mysterious backstory. Sometimes, they even started as a villain, like Magus from Chrono Trigger. So Mark became the villain Shen needed. Everyone would unite in favor of Shen because Mark would be annoying as hell. He couldn't die for real in the tutorial anyway, so it wasn't really dangerous.

He found a flaw in his plan as soon as his first bolt hit Shen:

Feng Shen — 85 / 100 | -15

Mark Williams — 70 / 100 | -30

It wasn't painful, but he took double the damage he caused to the boy. The Guardian System definitely didn't want participants to kill each other. Of course, he didn't stop shooting; he needed to cause as big a commotion as possible.

The good news was that they were far enough from each other that Shen could certainly dodge now that he knew the bolts were coming. The awesome news was that the boy could hit his bolts when they got close enough! What a legend! That would impress the people who were close enough to see it.

The plan was working perfectly. Shen even refused to fight back! He was true hero material! "If you kill an assassin, the number of assassins in the world remains the same" and all that. His glorious future was set in stone as long as Mark did his job well.

That lasted until the middle boss came.

Shen shone as usual, but after the orc died—Mark died quickly to it, by the way—the Asian used his trick with the voice to talk to him.

"Mark Williams," he said, his voice booming, attracting the attention of everyone in the surroundings. "I don't care if you attack me while I'm training. But if you attack me even once while I'm sitting, I'll kill you."

Mark had miscalculated; Shen wasn't all peace and love. That was an issue. A big, big issue. The merciless hero wasn't cool nowadays either! There was just too much political correctness going around—some of which had good reason to be, by the way. Yet the issue remained that such a persona was impractical.

Mark wanted to be the hero's companion, the hand in the shadows that truly moved history forward, so he needed a hero.

There was no one around better than Shen for the hero role.

Mark would be damned if he gave up on the first hurdle.

Getting killed by Shen was a no go after Mark had died to the middle boss, or he would be expelled from the tutorial. Unfortunately, he couldn't just tell Shen to not be a psychopath, so he had to change his plans.

After a moment, he decided on a daring plan worthy of his almost-existing directing skills. He would become the main victim and spokesperson against Shen, who he would turn into a villain. Later, he would unite those who wanted to deal with the evil spearman, but keep them from killing the guy.

Then, in a stroke of genius, he would turn villain Shen into anti-hero Shen, and later, anti-hero Shen would be revealed to have been hero Shen all along!

To start with, maybe Shen's plans were evil but they somehow always saved everyone? A bit too tsundere, but it could work, and it could even bring some comedic relief to the table, which would also help the young anti-hero-to-be. Shen was just incapable of expressing his care for the world; he didn't hate or want to destroy everyone; he was just a misunderstood kind soul! Yes, that was good, misjudged people received a lot of sympathy.

Ah... Mark had always known the support cast was the one that pushed the grand stories the right way. He had never known it was so hard to be the mastermind behind the hero's glory though.

On that note, time to work. The villain was waiting for his reply.

"Showing your true colors again!" he yelled back. "I knew it! You just want to shut me up so I won't tell everyone how you're letting us die to hoard power for yourself!"

'Please admit to it. Please admit to it,' he repeated in his mind.

"The reason doesn't matter," Shen replied. "Obey or die."

Oh, how marvelous! A true wise villain that didn't babble! That was future-anti-hero material right there, ladies and gentlemen! Such a perfect raw gem!

"You heard him!" Mark yelled to the others. "He threatened me! That's his true face! Remember that, everyone! Remember the asshole who wants to let you die!"

It was hard to walk the line between victim and leader against evil when you had to fabricate the villain yourself. Too much suffering and no one would trust him to unite them later. Too much aggression and he would come out as an asshole himself. Still, he had been playing the asshole just a few moments ago, so he couldn't change too quickly. A little over-aggressiveness now was expected.

Shen didn't even bother replying. He walked to his island's border opposite to Mark, sat down to meditate or something—big wuxia vibes from that guy—and didn't move for a while. Mark made a show of pulling his crossbow's string and aiming at Shen, but in the end, he turned the weapon away and shot into emptiness. Shooting a guy who just wanted to be left alone, even a villain, could pass the wrong message.

He threw the crossbow away and started training with his short sword and shield.

The middle boss had shown that he was horribly unprepared for the final boss, and he needed to defeat it.

If Shen ended up being just too much of a dick, Mark would've to raise someone else to the role, and that would require strength.

"Showing your true colors again!" Mark yelled back. "I knew it! You just want to shut me up so I won't tell everyone how you're letting us die to hoard power for yourself!"

Shen thought about what to reply. Cultivator culture contained verbal battle to keep one's honor unblemished, but he had little experience with that. Moreover, his throat and lungs were already hurting a lot from using the Lion's Roar with qi-exhausted body, and he didn't want to die when they burst open.

The less he spoke, the better.

"The reason doesn't matter," Shen replied. "Obey or die."

He stopped the Lion's Roar as soon as he finished talking and almost coughed blood from the stress to his body. That had been a bit too close for comfort. He should be more mindful of his limits in the future.

"You heard him!" Mark yelled to the others. "He threatened me! That's his true face! Remember that, everyone! Remember the asshole who wants to let you die!"

Shen ignored it. He had done what he could, now it was up to fate whether he would have to kill the idiot. He walked the farthest away from Mark as he could, sat down, and trained until his bones were hurting again.

He wasn't attacked and got two new notifications for his efforts.

Health Regen | 1.2 → 1.3/h

Stamina Regen | 0.52 → 0.53/min

He had just saved more AP by cultivating. Nice.

The Marrow Revitalizing step was about improving his health, so it was natural it would improve his health regen more than his stamina.

After cultivation came physical training. The Gale Footwork had saved him in the last battle, so he focused a little more on it this time. Most of its secrets required qi running through his leg meridians to work, and that would just kill him, but the very basics could be trained without qi.

Mark didn't attack him again. Two hours after the middle boss fell, it was finally the time to fight again.

Shen held his spear and prepared himself.

He got disappointed at once.

After the battle with the middle boss, the Guardian System sent only a weakened green-skinned G-rank orc with two hobgoblin warriors for him to fight. The only thing they added to the battle was that the hobgoblins threw sharp rocks at him while the orc fought in close quarters.

Shen even mentally thanked Mark's antics then, as the practice let him easily deflect a rock from the air, dodge another, and kill the orc with a single spinning thrust to his throat, all without using qi. Spinning the spear properly without affecting the aim was basic, yet hard to accomplish, as it depended a lot on the pulse and arm rotation.

He had just reached that realm.

Weakened Orc (G) | 310 → 311 AP

After killing the orc, he made short work of the hobgoblins, and the next two groups with the same configuration were easily crushed. He even used them to train for a while, missing by a hair’s breadth on purpose so they didn’t die too quickly.

Shen had to admit his growth was a bit too fast. He guessed the Guardian System had also affected his learning speed. That, or besides being talented with qi, he was also a talented martial artist. Some would even say that explained why he had been born with crippled meridians. The heavens were ruthless and jealous, and didn't want anyone to grow strong enough to challenge them.

The Foundation Establishment realm was another example of that truth. His body couldn't deal with the stress of qi, so cultivators had to improve their bodies before using qi in more advanced ways. It was frustrating, really, though the books also claimed it helped build character and temper one's willpower to walk the long road of cultivation.

"Next wave," Shen said after he was done with his enemies.

Next wave in 2 hours (waiting for everyone to finish this wave to commence countdown). 50 enemies in groups of 5.

Oh, things were getting interesting. More enemies meant more AP, so the Guardian System clearly wanted them to improve their stats before the final boss. The big question was whether they would have enough AP to improve their strength, agility, defense, or even rank up before the final boss came.

There was even a longer resting period between challenges. The system could just heal everyone and fill their stamina bars, but Shen guessed it wanted them to feel the pain of their injuries and think about their prior experience to learn from their mistakes and capitalize on their inisights.

Martial growth required both battle and meditation.

Shen was no different. Trusting Mark wouldn't attack him again, he sat down to think about the battle and the strategies he should employ now that he would face ranged attackers together with close range fighters in battle.

Then he trained his techniques until it was time for the next challenge.

The next waves came and went. He won over them all with relative easy as his technique improved. He even cultivated qi once more when the pain in his bones decreased, though it wasn't enough to improve his health and stamina regen.

Even the very last wave before the boss hadn't been an issue. It had contained nothing less than a middle boss aided by two green orcs and five hobgoblins with short bows. He danced in between them, killing the hobgoblins first, then the green orcs, and finally dealing with the red orc.

The huge monster fell turned into motes of light even before his corpse reached the ground.

Weakened Orc Warrior (F) | 980 → 990 AP

He was just short of being able to buy the rank up! How sneaky of the Guardian System! It wanted them to fight the final boss without improving their rank or stats.

Well, it would be a welcome challenge.

"Next wave," he said, wondering if the final boss would also come as soon as everyone was finished with this wave, just like the middle boss, but it was a negative.

Final boss battle in 12 hours (waiting for everyone to finish this wave to commence countdown).

So, enough time to consider their purchase options, to rest, to train, to do whatever they wanted to prepare for the big end.

Shen sat down, thought about his fight, then trained. Every time he considered taking a break, he remembered the terrible sensation of helplessness from when he had been a cripple in a cultivator clan. He remembered he didn't know what had happened to his father. He remembered it was his duty to be as strong as he could be for his clan in the incoming cosmic war.

There was no time to rest.

About six hours later, Mark yelled again.