In the Marvel Universe, the date was June 15, 2012, and the background system F.R.I.D.A.Y. existed as part of this world. The location was New York City, specifically Midtown High School, inside an old school gym. The setting was ordinary, but the routine taking place there was not.
Seventeen-year-old Hawk was soaked in sweat as he trained inside the aging gym. His fists drove forward again and again, each strike landing on the suspended Black Punching Bag.
The bag swung wildly, and the metal chain above it shrieked with every violent pull.
"Bang!"
"Bang, bang, bang!"
His hair was already drenched, and sweat slid down his sharp cheekbones, crossed his tight jaw, and soaked into the collar of his worn T-shirt. His eyes never left the punching bag, and his focus did not waver.
At this moment, the bag was the only thing in his world.
"Nine thousand nine hundred fifty-one!"
"Nine thousand nine hundred fifty-two!"
He adjusted his footwork as he counted in his head, twisting his body to avoid the bag as it swung back. A left hook followed by a right swing landed without pause, each punch heavy and solid.
The bag shook hard under the storm of blows, its cracked leather tearing further with every impact.
Punch out, pull back, then punch again. His movements gradually sped up as the count climbed higher and higher. His breathing stayed controlled even as his arms blurred.
"One thousand!"
"Bang!"
The moment the final count left his mouth, something flared in Hawk's eyes. The fist he had just withdrawn shot out like lightning and struck the falling bag dead center.
The bag caved in with a dull thud, and the chain finally snapped under the strain.
Freed from the chain, the bag flew backward and hit the floor with a heavy crash. The sound echoed through the empty gym as the torn bag lay still. Hawk finally let out a long breath, his chest rising and falling as he steadied himself.
Sweat streamed down his face, gathered at his chin, and dripped onto the legs of his cheap workout pants. Cheap, of course, was a relative word. To others, twelve-dollar pants were nothing, but to him they mattered.
In this life, Hawk was an orphan, reborn into the Marvel Universe with no family to rely on. If not for his solid grades and the scholarship he earned at Midtown High School, even the school's high tuition would have been impossible for him to afford. Even with the scholarship, he lived carefully and watched every expense.
His scholarship was the most common type and only covered tuition. It was nothing like the top-tier scholarship earned by the student assistant Gwen Stacy, which paid living costs and rewarded competition wins. Still, Hawk was satisfied with what he had.
As a federal orphan between sixteen and eighteen with no foster family, he received eight hundred dollars a month in support. Because Midtown High School was an elite school in New York State, the state added another five hundred dollars each month. That gave him a total monthly income of thirteen hundred dollars.
For an adult living in New York City, that amount might be tight. For Hawk, who paid no tuition and lived in low-cost federal housing, it was more than enough. After basic expenses of about five hundred dollars, he could still save eight hundred each month.
He ate at school, slept in a welfare apartment, and spent every afternoon in the gym finishing his daily ten thousand punches. After showering and washing his clothes there, he took the last free school bus home, slept, and returned on the earliest bus the next morning. He had no utility bills, no phone plan, and no internet costs.
He was alone, and that made life simpler. There was no one to call and no one calling him. When he needed the internet, the school library computers were free, even the printing.
Despite starting over as an orphan again, Hawk felt his life was going fairly well. He saved eight hundred dollars each month and occasionally treated himself to a large bucket of fried chicken from a cheap shop to refill his energy. By now, he had saved over thirty thousand dollars.
If only there were fewer dark-skinned customers at the fried chicken shop, it would be even better.
After a while, Hawk stood still with his eyes closed, then slowly opened them and looked at the ruined punching bag on the floor. His attention was not on the bag itself, but on a translucent prompt floating in front of him. It was something only he could see.
"Mini Universe Cultivation!"
"Current status: Not Activated"
"Activation requirement: One thousand consecutive days of ten thousand punches"
"Activation progress: 999/1000"
"Almost there."
"Almost."
"Tomorrow, it will activate."
As he stared at the progress number, heat rose in his chest, and he wished time would jump straight to the next day. This system had appeared when he was fifteen years old, on September 10, 2009. He remembered the date clearly because it was the same day Hulk and Abomination fought in New York City.
From the moment the system appeared, he never allowed himself to slack off. In a world where superheroes were everywhere, powerful beings were common, and gods wandered freely, effort was not optional. Without a system, lying flat was one thing, but with one in hand, doing nothing was unacceptable.
Since that first day, Hawk had never missed his daily ten thousand punches. Not once in nine hundred ninety-nine days, no matter the weather or circumstances. Food could wait, but training could not.
Now, the final day was in sight. Victory was finally within reach.
One thousand days. Two years, nine months, and five days. After finishing today's task, Hawk was showering in Gym Shower when he called up the System Interface that only he could see, staring at the progress bar that was just one day short of completion and the activation of Cosmo Training. It still felt unreal, like a dream he might wake from.
After all, throwing ten thousand punches every day for a thousand days straight sounded simple, but doing it was not. Even Hawk sometimes did not understand how he had endured it. Maybe it was his refusal to lose, or maybe it had something to do with this being the Marvel Universe. He did not know, but one thing was certain.
"One day," he said quietly. "Just one more day." Once today passed, tomorrow he could activate the System.
"Cosmo Training," he murmured. "I wonder if it is what I think it is." In his memory, there was only one thing that could be connected to Cosmo Training. If it truly was that, then the future looked bright.
According to the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus, everything was made of atoms, and the human body also contained a miniature Universe. That was Cosmo. Training Cosmo meant constantly awakening one's life energy, activating the hidden Cosmo within, strengthening it through practice, and then burning it to gain power beyond physical laws.
Hawk remembered an anime from his past life that described Cosmo. Its name was Saint Seiya. Bronze Saint Seiya mastered the first five senses and touched the sixth, Silver Saint Seiya grasped the sixth and reached toward the seventh, and Gold Saint Seiya fully controlled the seventh. Beyond that were the eighth and even the ninth senses.
Fragments of that series flashed through Hawk's mind. The next moment, he shook his head and smiled. He was not even sure whether the Cosmo from his System matched his memories, so there was no point thinking too far ahead.
Besides, he had no ambition to trade blows with Odin or kick Zeus. More importantly, he had lived in this world for seventeen years, and even before the System came online when he was fifteen, he had already prepared himself to face this harsh world without any system. Because of that, he believed mindset mattered. The higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment if it proved false.