[The Tiger of West Junior High]: So hey, so hey, does anyone actually know what “strongest alive today” is supposed to mean?
Strongest athlete?
Strongest exorcist?
I’m pretty confident about my physical stats, personally.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: More importantly, why are those two even in the same sentence?
Can you exorcise ghosts with your fists, Yuji?
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: You never know!
[Mala Donkey Head]: I, Amiya, want to become the greatest pastry chef in the world and make tons of carrot pie.
The three minors chattered away noisily, while the three adults stayed quiet.
Clark, still green around the edges, was in the middle of his whole confused phase about his own powers and his Kryptonian identity.
Nyos figured he’d coast for as long as he could.
He knew his own fate all too well — once the story really got going, he wouldn’t get a moment’s rest ever again.
As for Leon, in front of his screen, he let out a laugh somewhere between exasperation and acceptance.
“Reserves, huh…
I knew it wouldn’t be that simple.”
He’d barely been happy for a few minutes before he realized — sure, there was a heavy-hitter in this group, it just so happened that heavy-hitter was apparently him.
Going by what the group announcement said, it looked like every member here was probably going to run into their own crisis and destiny sooner or later.
But the minors hadn’t even come into their powers yet, and Superman here was basically a Boy Scout — too upstanding, too restrained to be much use, and who even knew if he could fly yet at this point.
As for the Emperor — well, let’s just wish him luck.
So, for now at least, it looked like Leon was the only one cut out to be the group’s go-to mercenary.
Half resigned, half looking forward to whatever rewards the other worlds had in store, Leon said his goodbyes to the group first:
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: Never thought I’d run into something like this, but it’s great meeting all of you from different worlds.
I’ve got something to take care of, so I’ll head out first — catch you all next time.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: Gotta say, Mr.
Leon’s really polite.
Guess that’s what you’d expect from a top student, huh?
You’ll find out soon enough, once you need someone to call in for backup.
Leon thought with a grin.
[Not-a-God Yellow Weasel]: I need to step away for a bit too.
Got research to get back to.
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: Gotta get back to club activities myself.
The rest of the group said their goodbyes one after another, and Leon hit the close button, lifting the time-stop.
He clenched his right fist and stretched it out ahead of him, striking the classic accelerating-flight pose as he shot off toward Earth.
Only as he closed in did he finally slow down, drifting through the atmosphere, the familiar map of the world spread out right in front of him.
But he only spared it a distant glance before flying off toward the Beacon Nation, night already falling over it.
The whole way there, Leon flew along with his hands laced behind his head, face turned up to the sky.
Stars for a blanket, clouds for a quilt — pull up the chat group on top of that, and it felt a lot like the old days of staying up late shooting the breeze online.
With nobody else online right now, he switched over to the quest screen.
[Daily Quest — Strongest Alive Today Training Program: Complete ten round trips of Earth–Moon distance.
Must not fall below the specified speed.]
[Reward for completion: 100 points.
Time remaining: 24 hours.]
So that was his daily quest for the day.
Leon spread his arms and dove through the cloud layer, trailing a few streaks of white before vanishing into the glittering lights of the city below.
A sudden gust of wind kicked up out of nowhere by a newsstand, and somewhere, the window of an empty house flew open.
By the time he reappeared, Leon was sitting on a rooftop, a warm sandwich in hand, several stacks of newspaper piled up beside him.
He’d checked a wall clock a moment ago — midnight.
Looked like the quest timer ran on American time.
He’d already done the mental math on the required average speed — fast enough to actually get a workout out of it.
And thoughtfully enough, it only asked for Earth–Moon distance — otherwise, if Leon really went bouncing back and forth around the Moon, even the sloppiest of Earth’s surveillance would’ve spotted him by now.
Seemed like this chat group was seriously trying to push its members to get stronger.
Which worked out fine, actually — one of the reasons Leon had stood out among the new recruits in the first place was that he actually understood the concept of training.
Not that such a concept existed among Viltrumites.
Or rather, as far as they were concerned, the best — and only — way to train was combat.
What’s that?
You’re saying there’s a way to safely get stronger?
Then you’re just avoiding combat, poisoning the Empire with cowardice — traitor!
Eat my karate chop!
Even back when Leon got caught by his instructor, he’d only wriggled out of it by claiming it was combat visualization, tacked onto one genuinely productive sparring match.
“Hopefully pairing this with the System’s scientific programming will get me twice the results for half the effort.”
Leon took a bite of his sandwich and started flipping through the newspapers.
An Earth with superheroes running around was naturally no stranger to disaster — the papers pretty much all had a dedicated section for it.
As for the whole not-using-his-powers thing — he had zero intention of actually listening to Nolan on that one, but he also wasn’t planning on exposing himself too early either.
So he needed to get a read on how the local heroes performed, so he could make himself look a little less conspicuous.
Lucky for him, there were plenty of straight-up stat-monster heroes around here, and flight was a pretty common ability too.
Take the Guardians of the Globe, for instance — apart from Red Rush and Darkwing, who’re basically homages to the Flash and Batman, pretty much everybody else on the team could fly.
Suddenly, Leon’s ears caught the sound of a gunshot.
His form flickered once, and all that was left behind was a scatter of newspapers, blown into the air.
The next second, he’d arrived at his destination.
A pitch-black alley.
A mugger with a gun.
Two parents down on the ground, and a child standing there all alone.
Right, and pearls scattered across the ground, still rolling.
Gosh, whatever could have happened here?
Such a mystery.
Leon floated silently behind the mugger, who didn’t know what to do with himself, never expecting that the moment he showed up, he’d get to witness a scene this iconic.
Too bad — he could hear both the man’s and woman’s hearts still beating; they’d probably just passed out from the pain.
“Sorry, kid.
Looks like you don’t get to become a hero after all.”
He said, unhurried.
The voice scared the mugger half to death — right as he spun around to shoot, Leon grabbed him by the back of the skull.
Both of them vanished.
The wind in the narrow alley scraped against the walls like a blade, and by the time it died down, only Leon had come back.
By now, he’d already shed his Viltrumite battle suit and swapped into the mugger’s clothes.
Wiping some red-and-white gunk off his cheek, he held out a hand to the kid, who by now had put the pieces together, eyes shining:
“Come on, let me get you and your parents to the hospital.”
The rest of the trip went smoothly enough.
Even amid the most extreme killing, Leon had picked up at least a little experience in handling fragile creatures.
Once the couple was laid out on the gurney a nurse wheeled over, Leon got ready to leave.
Only for the kid behind him to grab hold of his sleeve.
“Mister, are you a new hero?
I’ve never seen you in the papers before.”
“Ha, of course not.
Just think of me as some mercenary passing through.”
Leon waved a hand.
A hero’s rescue experience couldn’t possibly come from a place that dark.
Besides, he’d already lifted the pearls off the ground and whatever cash the couple had on them as payment — call it a perfectly reasonable transaction.
He pried the kid’s hand off him and, using the drone of the ambulance as cover, slipped up to the roof.
Right then, time froze once more.
After a piercing alarm blared, a screen popped up.
[Emergency Quest — Group member Amiya’s life is in danger.]
[A group of thugs has attacked the convoy carrying Amiya’s family.
The rubble from the explosion has buried them.
Amiya’s life hangs in the balance.]
[Quest Requirement: Amiya survives.
Members who can participate: 0/1]
[Quest Reward: 1000 points.
Participating members may receive a special reward from this world.]
Right after that came a call from the group chat.
[Mala Donkey Head]: @Viltrum’s Top Student Mr.
Leon, please save my mom and dad!!!
To be continued…