Mark was going crazy.

Crazy!

Was Feng Shen a robot? An advanced AI the Guardian System had put in the tutorial so everyone could have him as a role model? The guy did nothing but train and kill enemies in silence; he had been like that for all twenty waves!

Most people yelled between islands to talk a little. In fact, it was even a little good for the mind to scream their terrible near-death experiences out loud. It made them feel a little sillier, too.

But that guy...

How could Mark create a hero out of a cold-blooded machine?

The Terminator was the main character of the movies, not the cold android that came to destroy humanity. People wanted emotion! Human connection! Most teenagers couldn't study for one hour straight these days without checking their phones, so how could that guy just keep going? It was unreasonable! Seeing him only made Mark feel inadequate.

He tried to ignore it for now. He could deal with it later. There had to be a group stage, and then they could talk in private.

But after six hours of non-stopping training before the final boss, he just couldn't hold it inside anymore.

"Hey!" he yelled.

Shen had been waving his spear around as usual. It was daunting to see how fast the guy improved, too. Mark had barely, very barely, survived the last wave. He was doing much better with sword and shield than in the beginning, but he had still lost over half his health in the last fight.

At least he had killed the monsters; only about half the people in the surrounding islands remained.

Anyway, the system was clearly assisting them in learning how to fight. He felt how he could make split-second decisions and recall his prior experiences much faster than he should.

But Shen?

Shen was a damn monster. The guy had almost gotten cleaved in half when the middle boss first appeared, but the last wave had looked like a walk in the park for him. It was frustrating, really, to see talent, hard-work, and opportunity synergize so well.

But that wouldn't do. A hero had to have charisma. Momentum. Shen had to make some waves so he wouldn't be remembered as just the strong silent guy no one paid too much attention to.

Mark had to intervene.

Upon hearing Mark's yell, Shen looked back and crooked his head a little to the side, as if asking what was going on. Mark was at a loss on what to do or say at first, but then he had an idea. The boy had said something about clan secrets, hadn't he? That might be a cool thing to explore: the cool martial background of the hero. He was a using martial arts robe and knew how to fight, after all.

"Can I join your clan?" he yelled.

As he had expected, his first shout had attracted the nearby people's attention. His question gathered even more interest. Everyone loved gossiping, especially when it might strengthen them in the face of an apocalypse.

Shen squinted when he heard the question. What was the fool planning now?

He activated the Lion's Roar to reply, "No."

"Of course not," Mark yelled back. "I bet it's a lie, isn't it? You just want an excuse to not teach us, and what better way than saying your superiors don't let you teach outsiders? And when we ask to not be an outsider, you just deny us entry in your group."

As much as Shen wanted to ignore the lies that were obviously just cheap provocation, he couldn't. After killing the middle boss, he had already kept quiet because of potential injury to lungs and throat, and it had been bad enough. Now, the boy was claiming the Feng Clan didn't exist.

Was his clan so worthless that Mark could dismiss its existence like that? Were they so weak a random mortal could disregard them? Was their honor so small that they would let random passersby offend them?

He had a duty to his clan; he needed to clarify the truth to everyone who was hearing such lies.

"The Feng Clan occupies the Third Seat of the Eternal Empire," he said. "Under our rule, the Sun Province has prospered for millennia. Under our mercy, justice is dispensed fairly, and prosperity is brought swiftly. To doubt my clan’s existence or prestige is to doubt the air you breathe and the ground you stand on. The Feng Clan is real, and should you keep sullying our honor, I'll have no choice but to demand a duel. Cease your stupidity at once or face my righteous fury."

Shen felt good about his discourse. Most of it had been copied from a book about increasing army morale that he had read in the past. They sounded good enough and should shut up the idiot.

The duel of honor was pure bullshit, of course. He was a cultivator, Mark was a mortal. A cultivator asking a mortal for a duel was like a human asking an ant for a duel; it would just make him look silly. If Mark were one of their subjects, Shen could've denounced him to the punishment squad, and they would have him flogged for the blatant, targeted disrespect. Since he wasn't their subject, the proper way of dealing with him was raising the issue with his cultivator overlord, and if nothing happened to Mark, demand a duel from the overlord.

A mortal wouldn't know that, so Mark should get intimidated by it. He had stepped back in the face of a threat before. Shen was even going back to training already when Mark proved his expectations wrong.

"What Eternal Empire, bud?" the redhead yelled. "Aren't you a little too old to be a chuunibyou?"

The fool dared to disregard the Eternal Empire as something edgy teenagers—he got the meaning of the chunnibyou word from the translation magic—would make up to look cool? Shen had to admit the guy had more guts than he gave him credit for. The Eternal Empire ruled over the entire world. Though the tutorial had teleported them elsewhere, no matter where the boy was from, as long as he wasn’t an alien, he lived under the rule of the Immortal Emperor. Even here, among mortals, some would be spies of the Dark Hand. Mark wouldn’t get killed for saying such things, but his life would be scrutinized and he would be in for a great deal of trouble if they found he had ever disrespected even a single of the empire’s rules.

Shen ignored that last offense. Everyone should have a clear idea of what was going on now that Mark even said the Eternal Empire was made up. It was pathetic, really.

Mark wasn’t done though. "What, you can only lie about your make-believe clan? Not gonna defend your fictional empire? Why can't I join your clan, huh? Who are you to determine that?”

When one asked for another’s identity and background, it was good form to reply, no matter how offensive the way of questioning was. In cultivator culture, attacking the wrong person could prove a great disaster when their strong backers came for revenge, and it was considered someone’s own fault if they hid their true identities. It didn’t prevent the revenge from happening, of course, but it changed public perception and might cause someone else to intervene, sometimes even the Golden Guard.

Shen had to admit he was having trouble behaving properly, but he reminded himself he was a true cultivator now. Gone were his days of screaming at the heavens for their unfairness. In the broad world, he needed to be strong and behave with the dignity of a cultivator of the mighty Feng Clan.

So he answered, "I am Feng Shen of the main family of the Feng Clan, Foundation Establishment cultivator, Keeper of Knowledge in training. You're right, I have no authority to accept or refuse your application, but no clan in the world would be stupid enough to let someone who offended them into their ranks."

"Says the Foundation Establishment cultivator. I bet you're probably just a nobody in the clan anyway."

The martial artist got even more annoyed. What was that guy trying to accomplish? Why was he questioning Shen's position in a clan he denied existing?

It made no sense.

Still, he answered again. "I am the son of Feng Yang, Ethereal Harmonization cultivator, clan head of the Feng Clan. I can't claim to be important, but I do claim to be loved by my father, and he is important."

It felt petty to use his parent's identity to intimidate a mortal. He wanted to be respected, feared, or admired by his own ability, not his father's name. Yet, not revealing his father's identity properly after being asked directly would dishonor his progenitor. After all, everything he had in the clan was thanks to his father, and hiding it was the same as hiding his father's accomplishments.

"So you're claiming to be the son of the leader of a secret clan of cultivators?" Mark yelled. "Like martial arts and qi and all that?" Shen thought he heart something akin to glee in the man's voice, but that should've been his imagination.

"We're not a secret clan," Shen corrected.

But Mark seemed to not have heard him. He had already turned to the nearby islands. "You heard him! He has all this backing and power, but he doesn't care about helping us at all!" He then started yelling mockingly, "Oh, I'm so mighty, a real life cultivator of a powerful martial clan in the apocalypse. Look how cool I am, I'm a martial artist who hasn't died even once until now. Look, I can use qi to make my voice be heard all around me. Look at me, I'm about to kill the final boss with ease." Then he turned his voice back to normal. "Arrogant! Egoistical!"

Shen's right eye twitched from anger.

What was that? Had the Mark made it his life goal to mock him? And he had never said he was cool! He was just killing his monsters in peace! He had never claimed he would kill the final boss easily either!

"Who is your cultivator overlord?" Shen demanded. "I'll report you to him."

"Ha! Cultivator overlord! So you want to rule over us all? Is that it, mister imperial?"

The boy refused to reveal his overlord's name! That was good, in a way. It meant Shen now could punish him without worry. Unfortunately, they were too far for a good flogging, so he wondered if he should just throw a javelin to kill Mark.

He had once heard a mortal complain about cultivator’s ruthlessness, but they didn’t understand that cultivators aimed at eternity. As they pursued immortality, they valued things differently from a mortal. They hoped for their names to echo throughout the ages, to be remembered for their glory, and that meant they had to act adequately. To sully their dignity with lies when they were doing their best and to disrespect the clan that supported their path was like spitting on their efforts, dreams, and goals.

Cultivator culture was one of honor. Honor demanded Shen help protect an innocent if they were under attack. Honor demanded he protect the weak from abuses. And honor demanded he silence anyone sullying his clan’s name.

But in the end, Shen reckoned Mark’s offense was too small to require such an ultimate punishment.

Even the Immortal Emperor’s Dark Hand would look into a mortal’s life in search of real illegal acts, rather than killing them for disrespecting the empire. By setting that law, the emperor was also saying that his dignity was worth exactly that much in the face of a mortal's disrespect. If someone applied a harsher punishment when their own dignity was attacked, it would be the same as saying their dignity was worth more than the emperor’s. That would bring the Dark Hand’s attention upon them instead, and no one wanted that.

For now, Shen could only write Mark’s words in his heart to give a payback later.

“Mark Williams,” he said with unhidden anger. “I publicly denounce your lies. May everyone know the Feng Clan is a real, honorable clan. Pray to the heavens we never meet in different circumstances, for that will be the day you learn the painful consequences of slandering us.”

He then deactivated his Lion's Roar and went back to training, doing his best to ignore Mark’s continued offenses. He would deal with the boy if he had the chance, but for now, he could only write the incoming offenses in his heart to make sure he repaid them properly later.

His mood improved considerably when, after a cultivation session, he got two notifications just in time for the final battle.

Health Regen | 1.3→ 1.4/h

Stamina Regen | 0.53 → 0.54/min

'Yes,' Mark told himself as Shen spoke. 'Yes!'

The boy was almost perfect!

To spout lies so easily like that! Had he caught on the need to be cool? Could he be the Batman to Mark's Robin, after all? Well, Robin wasn't a very useful companion. Shen was more like the Harry Potter to Mark's Hermione, or the Frodo to Mark's Sam. Now, those were companions without which the protagonists would've failed!

But he was digressing. Shen's lies were a bit too inventive, hence the almost perfect.

Keeper of Knowledge? Dude, the popular cultivator stories were all about killing and face slapping, they couldn't care less about such an intellectual sounding position. Well, there was that one story about a cultivator chicken or something that had gotten popular, but it was the exception that proved the rule, nothing else.

Eternal Empire? In the twentieth-first century, empires were on the low. He should've said he was part of the Eternal Republic or something. Even a Fallen Empire would've been better, as it would've given him a more mysterious past. At least it sounded evil, so Mark could make use of that. He already had, though calling someone an imperial was a bit cringy. He felt like a Star Wars fan, and everyone knew Star Trek was better.

To make things worse, what the hell was Ethereal Harmonization? If you're going to make up a cultivation realm, at least choose something that sounds both cooler and more aggressive. Bone Forging, Immortal Ascension, something like that. Harmonizing with the ethereal? What the hell did that even mean?

But well, no one was perfect. Shen's backstory was good enough. A young cultivator, son of the head of a clan who had hid itself from the world, had come out to help protect Earth from the Void Spawn.

Mark could definitely work with that after the villain phase was over.

He just had to make sure everyone around heard it, and that Shen's real parents didn't contradict him when he left the tutorial. They really needed to talk to prepare some things.

'Please, have a group stage,' he prayed to the Guardian System.

He couldn’t care less about the threat when it was obvious Shen was just acting cool to attract attention.

When Shen refused to say anything else, Mark just let it go. He had already set up the guy's cool anti-hero background a little. It was enough for people to not forget it when they went to the next stage.

Building a persona without money wasn't easy, but the perfect companion, aka Mark Williams, could do it.

Should he think of a secret name for himself? Nah, secret identities were on the low too, thanks to Tony Stark revealing his identity in such a cool way in the movies.

Anyway, back to training, because he sure as hell wasn't as confident about killing the final boss as he was about his marketing skills.

Shen stood with eyes closed on the edge of his island, his spear standing proudly beside him, held firmly in his right hand.

He breathed deeply; he would succeed. He exhaled; failure was not an option.

If a somewhat trained Foundation Establishment martial artist like him couldn't defeat an enemy meant to be defeated by mortals, he might as well kill himself in shame.

He opened his eyes.

Final boss battle in 5 seconds.

It was time.