It's a character flaw.

“…And now we are finally arriving at the marketplace level,” Serena said, leading Nate and the Contestants off the Contestants Elevator. She’d differentiated the Contestants Elevator and the Master Elevator in the first minute – anyone could use the former for any floor, but the Master Elevator required the Master’s permission to access anything above the recreational floor. They’d toured the lower floors on the Master Elevator first – the various ‘date venues’ that were available to them. Serena made sure to highlight that the tower was mutable – should one of them require a venue not currently available, it could be added to the tower at any time. For Nate, her display earlier in the day had made such a concept easy to understand, but the others had grilled her until she finally got fed up and created a go kart track level to illustrate the point.

They’d skipped the upper levels of both Elevators, Serena handwaving them away as the Master Suite and Contestants’ rooms. Interestingly, although the Contestants couldn’t enter the Master suite uninvited, Nate had no such barrier when it came to the Contestants’ rooms. They’d breezed past the few training levels, since they’d be returning later shortly for the private training sessions.

Now, as they stepped off on the first floor on the Contestants elevator, Nate and the girls took in the sight of a veritable mall inside their tower. Nate had thought he’d dismissed the absurdity of spatial continuity from his mind that morning, but seeing a mall surely ten or more times the size of what the Contestant’s tower could contain still boggled his mind.

The marketplace was two levels, with an escalator about fifty feet ahead on the left. It had a huge variety of stores, and though most focused on womens’ fashion, Nate was pleased to see a video game store and even a Wetzel’s Pretzels as he took in the options around him.

It was to this Wetzel’s Pretzels that Serena first directed their attention, moving over towards it so that they could examine the being that staffed its register.

“This,” she said, motioning to the bland creature, “Is a shmoop.”

The ‘shmoop’ in question was vaguely humanoid, looking much like a human would under a blank white sheet that clung to their form. They had a vaguely feminine shape, though no individual breasts could be discerned, simply a bust-like bulge in the white fabric. The shmoop’s head was blank of features, a flat plane lacking a nose or eyebrows to give it shape, only broken up by the simple black circles located where its eyes might go.

“A shmoop,” Serena continued as the aforementioned creature waved at them, “Is not a human being, it is a construct. It possesses no soul, and cannot perform past its assigned role. Shmoops will play the part of your cashiers, though they cannot recommend products or perform other services beyond ringing you up on the cash register.

“Additionally, shmoops will be playing the part of civilians in our Challenges, so get used to seeing them. And, get used to seeing this,” she snapped, and a gun appeared in her hand. As everyone flinched away from the deadly weapon, Serena turned and unloaded a full mag into the shmoop.

Those present screamed in horror at the action, but the shmoop’s reaction was far from expected – it almost seemed to ham up its reactions, overacting its flinches and pain from each bullet, and as Serena finished her barrage, it spun around in place, put the back of its right hand to its forehead, clutched at the holes in its chest, then fainted backwards.

The surrealness of the shmoop’s reaction to being shot twelve times in the chest left Nate and the Contestants speechless, unable to judge how best to react. They watched as Serena turned back to them, snapping away the pistol in the process. Taking in their faces, the demoness finally turned back towards the pretzel stand and said, “Alright, that’s enough.”

And the shmoop popped back up behind the cash register, acting good as new. The holes in its torso were still there, but it seemed unbothered by that fact. As they took in this sight, Serena snapped, and suddenly the holes were gone.

“The point,” Serena said, “Of this demonstration is twofold. Firstly, the villains you will be going against will be normal people like yourselves, required to perform villainous acts for this game. You may hate them for standing in your way, but don’t hate them for harming innocents. The shmoops will react like a human might during the challenges – put a hole in them and they will play dead – but they will not actually be harmed.

“Secondly, for some of your powers, you may need live targets to experiment on. Take, for example, super strength, a basic power which none of you got this first round but might in future rounds. Shmoops will be involved in your early training so you can learn to control your strength enough to, say, give a handshake without shattering a man’s bones. They are of similar durability as regular humans and as such may be used reliably to test such limits.

“In short, get used to shmoops, and don’t feel bad about them getting injured. They don’t have souls, and weren’t given the capability to feel pain in the first place. Capiche?”

Everyone nodded, still shocked by the sudden display of ****, injury or not. A bit shellshocked, they continued their tour of the marketplace. The stores all had prices in BP, with most pieces costing in the single digits. Clearly, they didn’t want to discourage the Contestants dressing up for the Master.

Their final destination was a single store that dominated the far wall on the first level. It had no discernible brand above its entrance, marked simply as ‘MIGHT & MAGIC’ in large letters above a single door. The front displays were empty as well, an odd feature considering how well-stocked the other stores had been.

“This store,” Serena said, “Is not open most of the day. Nor is it staffed by shmoops, like the rest of the marketplace. Instead, the Runes store will only be open from 1 PM to 2 PM, and will be staffed by the Master.”

“Me?” Nate asked, pointing to himself.

“Indeed. At 1 PM daily, you will be teleported to the M&M store.” Serena moved into the store itself. It was far smaller than the outside would lead one to expect, consisting of a number of seats, what looked like changing rooms, and a counter. Behind the unmanned counter was a chair and a computer, and the counter itself had a number of large tomes sitting atop it. “Here, the Contestants may acquire two things – hero gear and enchantments. Master,” she turned to Nate, “please take a seat.”

Following instructions, Nate moved behind the counter and sat down.

“When you work here,” Serena continued, “a Contestant may come to you and ask for a particular piece of equipment. Let’s roleplay it. Sarah?”

“Uh, sure.” Sarah stepped up to the counter “Do I need to pick from a list or…?”

Serena shook her head. “Not for equipment, simply inform Nate of what you desire.”

Sarah shrugged. “Okay. Yo, bro, can I get a… grappling hook?”

“Woah,” Nate said as information suddenly appeared in his mind. “Uh, apparently that would cost 100 BP for a handheld grappling hook. If you want cheaper, the cost apparently scales with size, less portable being cheaper.”

“Huh,” Sarah said. “So Nate’s not only the Master, he’s our Q.”

“Exactly,” Serena said. “Should you pay the requisite BP for a purchase, the Master will immediately learn the required information to construct the purchased gear. Through that door,” she motioned behind Nate, “Is a time-dilated workshop equipped with everything necessary to manufacture the gear. This way, not only do you get any gear you desire, Master will leave the contest fully qualified to equip you all with any gear necessary in the future, though he’ll have to do any further learning the hard way.”

Nate considered the idea. There was an additional reason that Serena wasn’t saying for his own benefit. This way, any gear the Contestants purchased he could additionally outfit the Villains with, though he’d have to be careful not to leak his involvement in such a setup. He’d been thinking of good ways to differentiate his power set from the Mastermind persona, since he very much doubted he could hide his granted superpowers from the Contestants without a reasonable excuse. Instead, he could treat this as one of the superpowers of the Mastermind – maybe anything she saw she could understand how to create? He’d have to delay gear deployment for the Villains by a round, but that could still work…

“And then there is the second product this establishment offers – enchantment.” Serena moved over to one of the large tomes on the desk. “These books contain all the possible enchantments you could purchase. Enchantments are wonderous effects applied to already existing items.” She flipped open one of the tomes to its first page. “The first page has a number of widely useful enchantments, while later pages contain ones with more niche applications. Personally, I might recommend this one for your supersuits to start with,” she pointed to the top enchantment on the first page.

“Modesty Charm,” Nate said aloud. “300 BP. Applicable to apparel designed to provide modesty. Prevents uncovering of and damage to immodest areas such as the breast and genitals.”

“And just like with gear, the Master will be given the knowledge to perform the enchantment, so that outside of the contest he can still continue to enchant your equipment.

“Now, I must caution you, although Master will have the knowledge of a piece of gear or enchantment after the initial purchase, that does not mean future replication of the gear or enchantment is free. Future replication will still cost a fee, though it is discounted from the initial purchase.”

“Discounted? By how much?” Vivian asked.

“It will vary from item to item,” Serena said, turning her head to look at Nate. “The Master will know implicitly the new cost after the purchase, so you can simply ask him.” She winked at him with the eye the Contestants couldn’t see, and Nate instantly deduced that there was no actual cost for subsequent enchantments – this was simply another lever she was giving him to employ in the contest.

“And that concludes our tour,” Serena said, moving out of the store followed by the rest of them. “It is time for personal training, and superpowers.”

And suddenly everyone was super excited.