The narrow corridor at the stadium entrance was supposed to be nothing more than an ordinary running route. However, when more than a hundred superpowered teenagers crowded in with overflowing ambition, that corridor transformed into a grinding machine.
Nabiel had just taken a breath, cursing how clichéd a running competition was, when the air temperature around him dropped drastically. Ice crept forward at a terrifying speed from the front, freezing the legs of dozens of students in seconds.
'Todoroki,' Nabiel thought. His body, trained for months, reacted faster than his complaint. He leaped just before the ice locked his ankles, landed on the slippery surface, and used the momentum to slide out of the tunnel.
Sunlight struck his face again, yet the scene before him was far from peaceful.
"Multiple targets detected!" a heavy mechanical voice echoed.
Nabiel looked up. Towering before him stood the giant Zero-Pointer robots from the entrance exam, blocking the path like steel walls. Todoroki coldly froze the robots while they were off balance, creating gaps, while Bakugo rocketed through the air with his explosions, ignoring gravity and obstacles alike.
Nabiel paused for a moment and stared at the mechanical horror with his half-lidded black eyes. Suddenly he realized a fatal flaw in the scenario he had written himself.
'Damn,' he cursed inwardly.
To avoid drawing Aizawa's attention on the first day, Nabiel had invented a very specific limitation for his fake Quirk: his ability could only activate when he faced an opponent with full awareness and intent to kill. It was the perfect excuse to slack off during ordinary physical tests. But now? Robots had no awareness, and land mines had no intent to kill.
In the eyes of this world's system, Nabiel was essentially a Quirkless youth.
A rumbling sound rose as one of the robots Todoroki had frozen began to collapse. Students ahead screamed and scattered. Nabiel clicked his tongue softly. No magic, no reality manipulation, and no stat buffs. He had only his mortal physical body, still recovering from severe burns and wrapped in layered clothing that left him unbearably hot.
"This turned out... more troublesome than I expected," he muttered.
Nabiel ran. When the giant steel wreckage slammed into the ground, he did not use super strength to shatter it. He used the falling debris as stepping stones. With efficient, low-effort parkour movements he leaped from one metal plate to another, dodging snapped cables and slipping through narrow gaps beneath the toppled robot's legs.
His actions drew no attention, produced no explosions or flashes of light, yet they were perfectly precise. He cleared the first obstacle, though his breathing had already grown heavy. The tight turtleneck beneath his gym uniform was soaked with sweat and chafed uncomfortably against the scars on his arms.
The transition to the second obstacle tortured his lungs. Nabiel kept running at a steady rhythm, letting high-mobility students like Iida, Asui, and Sero pull ahead. When he reached The Fall, a deep ravine connected only by ropes, he wasted no time on doubt.
While other students crawled across cautiously, Nabiel climbed onto the rope and balanced himself. He walked the tightrope like a gymnast, arms slightly outstretched to keep his center of gravity. His eyes stayed fixed forward, ignoring the abyss below. His trained body calculated wind direction and rope tension perfectly. He crossed the ravine quickly and held his place in the middle of the pack.
Yet the real test of the Observer's patience only began at the third obstacle.
A vast stretch of ground lay before him, dotted with suspicious mounds. The Minefield.
In the distance Nabiel could see Todoroki and Bakugo locked in fierce combat for first place, attacking each other while dodging mines. The sight looked like a perfect shounen manga panel.
Nabiel stepped into the area. His sharp eyes easily distinguished the slightly different soil colors and the deliberately visible mine placements. 'If you stay calm and read the pattern, this is just a deadly version of hopscotch,' he thought.
He began leaping from one safe spot to the next. His steps were light, rhythmic, and confident. He even overtook several confused students from Class 1-B. His plan was proceeding smoothly. He would finish the race calmly, place around the teens, and slip back into the background.
But Nabiel had forgotten one absolute rule of any narrative: chaos always comes from panicked background characters.
Just as Nabiel landed in a clear safe zone, a general department student ran blindly from his right. The boy tripped over his own feet, face deathly pale, and his foot slammed hard onto a pink-colored mound.
Nabiel's black eyes widened slightly. 'You idiot—'
BOOOM!
A pink dust explosion erupted with deafening force. The shockwave slammed the surrounding air. The foolish student flew skyward with a comical scream, but the side effects were anything but funny for Nabiel.
The powerful blast swept his body from the side and destroyed his balance. His left leg lifted off the ground and his body was thrown backward, straight toward a row of unexploded mines.
Time seemed to slow. If he used his Outer authority he could alter gravity or cancel the blast. But he had promised himself, and indirectly Momo, that he would face this as a human.
Gritting his teeth, Nabiel twisted his hips violently in midair. He forced his abdominal and back muscles beyond their limits in an unplanned backward somersault. His still-bandaged burned hand touched the ground for a split second, sending a sharp spike of pain through his nerves, before his feet finally landed hard on a patch of ground barely a few centimeters wide and free of mines.
Thud!
Nabiel slid backward, breathing hard. He was safe, but his legs felt numb and his chest heaved rapidly. Sweat dripped from his chin.
"Damn it..." he hissed softly, staring at the rising pink smoke. "An unexpected plot twist from a mob character really is the worst."
At that exact moment a far more massive explosion shook the entire stadium from behind. Nabiel turned and saw Izuku Midoriya soaring through the air, riding a giant metal plate propelled by the explosive power of stacked mines. Midoriya flew past Bakugo and Todoroki, seizing first place in the most dramatic and insane way imaginable.
Nabiel could only snort. A tired yet amused smile curved his lips. 'Now that's what you call a protagonist.'
Unwilling to fall further behind, Nabiel forced his aching legs to run again. He ignored the discomfort of his clothes, ignored the heat on his arms, and poured every last bit of his pure physical stamina into crossing the rest of the minefield.
The roar of the crowd grew deafening as he entered the final tunnel toward the stadium. Blinding light welcomed him once more.
"FIRST PLACE, IZUKU MIDORIYA!" Present Mic shouted over the speakers.
Nabiel kept running and crossed the finish line just as several other Class 1-A students did. He slowed, then stopped, hands on his knees while gasping heavily. His lungs felt like they were on fire.
He looked up at the giant screen that had begun displaying the arrival rankings.
1. Midoriya Izuku
2. Todoroki Shouto
3. Bakugo Katsuki
...
18. Nabiel
The Observer straightened slowly and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He had made it into the teens, exactly as planned. He had stayed out of the main spotlight yet still advanced to the next round.
Even so, as he felt his human heart pounding hard against his ribs, Nabiel had to admit one thing. Complaining that something was "boring" from a god's point of view was one matter, but struggling through it with a frail mortal body full of limitations was an entirely different story.
And for the first time, Nabiel felt truly alive in his exhaustion.