"My liege!"
"Sheriff."
SK had entered the training field right around the time when Platiknight and Tin Star were going to begin their seventh sparring session.
He had initially wanted to interrupt them and make his presence known, but figured it would be better to stay quiet and see how their sparring match panned out instead.
A part of him had wanted to be able to give them advice on how they could improve their moves or how to exploit the other's weaknesses, but he knew he was unqualified to do so at this moment in time.
As the old saying went, a wise man knows when to say nothing, while a dumbass never learns to shut up.
Which is why SK, after he had walked up to the superhero duo as they were getting off of the ground, simply shared some words of praise.
"Remind me to take fighting lessons from you two later. I get the feeling I'm going to have to learn how to fight on my own sometime in the future."
"Of course, my liege," Platiknight nodded.
"What brings you to our neck of the woods, anyway?" Tin Star followed up.
"Not much, trying to finish my daily exercise quest," SK answered. "Just wanted to check on you guys before doing so."
"Makes sense to me," Tin Star nodded.
"Did you want us to provide assistance?"
"Nah, I'm good," SK politely declined. "I exercise at my own pace."
"Of course."
"Understandable."
"Now then, I think I can go do my run over there?
"Oh, wait, my liege," Platiknight interrupted. "After you finish your exercises, can you accompany us to the strange portal room that blocks us with a literal text wall that says we need your explicit approval to enter?"
"Say what?"
"We'll tell you more about it after you finish exercising, Sheriff," Tin Star answered. "Healthy habits and all that; we'll see you back here."
"I...fair enough."
And with that, SK went off to finish his daily quest.
...One exercise montage later...
[Ding! Daily Quest has been completed and rewards will now be distributed.]
Strength: 35->40
Endurance: 40->45
Agility: 25->30
[One item box has been credited to the inventory; please open at your earliest convenience.]
...Followed by a short walk from the training field to the inner parts of the castle...
"Oh wow, you guys weren't kidding about the text wall," SK commented as soon as he saw the aforementioned portal room's entrance.
"I am not one to exaggerate, my liege," Platiknight replied. "I only emphasize."
"I don't think you're using those words correctly, partner," Tin Star commented.
When SK was informed about the wall of text, he was assuming it was just a weirdly large system window with an unnecessary amount of information typed in.
Instead, he was greeted by a shimmering blue forcefield that was literally made of text.
"Huh...I'm noticing scratch marks and bullet casings on the floor...did you guys try to break through this barrier with brute force?" SK asked as he rubbed his fingers against the ground.
"Indeed, my liege!" Platiknight proclaimed with pride. "However, this barrier proves to be surprisingly strong against the forces of justice."
"I will not lie, one of bullets ended up ricocheting off this barrier and almost brained me," Tin Star nonchalantly admitted. "Accidental suicide is a hell of a way to go."
"Huh..."
SK stared at the two superheroes with a perplexed look on his face, a little shocked at the sheer simplicity of their plan.
'I swear I wrote them smarter than that,' SK thought to himself as he approached the barrier himself. 'I get the feeling that this is one of those things that requires me to be—"
Ding!
'There it is.'
As soon as SK was close enough to throw a punch at the barrier, the literal wall of text suddenly began to change in front of his eyes and rearrange itself into a set of readable words.
[User presence has been acknowledged.]
[Activating the Hero Dispatch Feature, now.]
"Oh, the other things I unlocked after the quest. Right."
After displaying this message, the wall of text began to crumble and disappear into floating letters that then winked out of existence.
With the way to the portal room now open, SK, Platiknight and Tin Star were soon washed over by a wave of strange energy that quickly disappeared.
"Huh...that felt weird. Shot in the dark, but did either of you recognize whatever just washed over us?"
"No."
"Nay, my liege."
"Figured. Alright, let's go."
Once they had gotten over the novel tingling that washed over their skin, the group entered the room to take a closer look at this so-called portal.
From the entryway, one could see what appeared to be a swirling mess of energy floating within a strange metallic frame that seemed to be a slapdash mix of scientific and magical principles. However, once the group had gotten closer to the metal frame, they soon learned that it wasn't actually a portal they were staring at this whole time.
In reality, it was a map.
"Hmm. On the one hand, I am disappointed that this isn't a portal," Platiknight commented as he stared at the swirling map before him. "On the other, this is a very well-made map of the galaxy. My liege, may I explore the capabilities of this map?"
"Yeah, sure," SK answered non-committaly, as most of his focus was directed towards the metallic frame the map was built into.
"The Hero's Map: Milky Way Galaxy Edition," SK read off of a label attached to the frame. "That...that bit after the colon scares me for some reason, and I'm not entirely sure why."
"To be fair, Sheriff, you do have a bit of a panicky personality," Tin Star pointed out, his interest in the map waning after learning it wasn't a portal.
"That's not wrong, but I do not appreciate being called out like this."
DING!
"Bah!" SK exclaimed while ducking out of intrinsic fear from the sudden chime ringing over his head, before noticing the System window before him. "Oh."
"See?"
The amount of text and information being presented at this moment was rather absurd, necessitating the usage of three separate windows, but the general gist of what was written is as follows.
...
[The Heroic Dispatch Feature allows both the User and his Familiars to travel to other parts of the multiverse via the Hero's Map Gateway.]
[For a small amount of compensatio, the User and his Familiars will be able to travel, train, plunder and resolve quests in locations that are inaccessible through normal means.]
[The gateway in its current state can only access worlds in the user's immediate galaxy, as well as any realms that have anchored themselves to the user's homeworld.]
...
"Okay, I think I know how this works now," SK concluded after looking through the third and final System window. "Travelling costs money, travelling to quest locations doesn't cost anything but can reward money instead, repeat ad nauseum. For now, I guess we should probably travel to somewhere safe as a means of testing the map and see where it can—"
[Superhero Quest location has been selected. As this is the first time the User or his familiars have made use of this feature, all available familiars and the User will be teleported.]
"Huh? How did that happen?!" SK cried in alarm, getting his answer a couple moments later.
"That would be because of me, my liege!" Platiknight answered. "The map showed me that innocents were in danger and that they were on a timer to despair. As such, I pressed my finger against their world on the map and well...you just heard the System explain."
"I was going to stop him," Tin Star added. "But I figured that since we were going to another world anyways, it didn't really matter who pressed it."
"Y'all..."
SK couldn't even get all that made about the situation, since he has as going to activate the dispatch anyways, but he was still justifiably annoyed.
"Can I at least get information about where we're going and what we're doing?"
Ding!
"Thank you!"
...
Emergency Quest: Alien Invasion
Description:
The planet of Bendana-7, home to the Lumenlithic people, is being attacked by an armada of warriors from the Salbanbo Empire of a neighboring star system.
The Salbanbo have sent a mix of slaver and wreckers to try and capture as many members of the populace to sell on black market
Failing that, the Lumenlithic people have been known to have a special, unique crystal in place of a heart made of flesh and blood.
These crystals are sometimes worth more than the Lumenlithic themselves.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to stop this invasion and save the people of Bendana-7.
Time to show the universe what a real superhero can do.
Rewards:
Calculated based on what deeds are accomplished.
Opportunity to contract external alien as a superhero.
...
"Huh...alright, let's do this thing."