The white light faded, and Leon found himself back on the rooftop.
The wind no longer carried that Originium dust smell, at least, but the city’s heavy-industry stench wasn’t exactly pleasant either.
He was about to go find somewhere to stay, but first, he wanted to check out his reward.
[Ding — special reward delivered.]
A line of text flashed across the screen.
[Skill acquired: Demon King’s Art — Emotion Amplification (Beginner)]
[Effect: Once per day, the user may amplify one of their own emotions for up to three minutes.
Amplification rate: approximately 10%.]
Leon’s eyes swept back and forth over the effect description.
In the end, he decided to withdraw, for the time being, the complaint he’d been holding against the chat group.
Sure, on the surface the skill looked like a bit of a dud — arguably worse than plain old adrenaline, which everyone already had.
But he was a Viltrumite.
And the nastiest trick up a Viltrumite’s sleeve was something called smart-atoms.
Think of it like Superman’s bio-field — it covered pretty much every unreasonable ability a Viltrumite had.
And the single nastiest trait buried in that whole pile was the one tied to combat.
First: it delivered a power boost of over 30% whenever a Viltrumite’s emotions and willpower spiked.
Second: it could log and lock in any state where they’d pushed past their own limits.
That even applied to Leon’s own training.
On top of that, there was talk that getting beaten up actually sped up growth, and that they got stronger the older they got.
It was thanks to this exact trait that, in a certain sense, Viltrumite civilization turning out the way it had was practically inevitable.
One single person was already a conquest warship in his own right, and he only got stronger the more he fought — so forget harmonious development or rational scientific research, just fight and be done with it.
Putting it all together, this reward meant —
in every fight from here on out, as long as Leon used Emotion Amplification, he’d walk away with an extra dose of permanent growth.
Just think about it.
Setting aside the fights in this world, how many brutal battles were waiting for him across the chat group — especially in the Warhammer and DC worlds.
The numbers looked small on paper, but stacked up over time, they’d be unimaginable — and this was only the Beginner tier!
Leon felt a surge of excitement, and immediately buffed that very emotion.
He tapped his toes lightly against the ground, spiderweb cracks blooming across the concrete, and shot straight up into the clouds to start his daily quest.
Some time later, he came back down, panting, beside a high school’s athletic track.
Thanks to the smart-atoms, Viltrumites got an intensely strong feedback sensation from training.
Especially with the skill in use — he was left wanting more.
Leon then took a selfie with the track in the background and sent it to the group chat.
[Viltrum’s Top Student]: Daily quest done — ten 100-meter round trips.
You guys should give it a try too.
[Kansas Farm Boy]: Wait, I haven’t even opened mine yet — that’s actually this easy?
[Not-a-God Yellow Weasel]: He’s pulling your leg, Clark.
Sure, everything about it can technically be explained, but we all know that rescue wasn’t exactly simple.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: Mr.
Leon’s joking around again.
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: This actually seems pretty easy though?
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: Athletic freaks, get out.
After trading jokes with the group for a bit, he flew off to a pawn shop to turn those pearls into cash.
Hearing the quote, he couldn’t be bothered to work out how much the owner was skimming off the top.
He pulled out a few coins, crushed them into a ball, then helped the owner test the reliability of a shotgun or two — and walked away with a pretty solid price.
What a successful little exchange.
He’d already overshot Nolan’s orders and blended right in.
After checking into a hotel, Leon ran through the bathroom once, then drifted into bed.
Viltrumites didn’t technically need rest.
Leon, on the other hand, badly did.
Morning sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains, and the alarm buzzed.
Leon’s fist stopped right at the moment it hit the clock.
After a quick wash-up, he officially began step one of impersonating an Earthling —
getting used to walking.
That was a bit of a challenge, actually — flying was as natural to a Viltrumite as eating and drinking.
And in Leon’s case, simply surviving had carved it straight into his bones.
Even his instructor had been rather impressed, calling the way Leon instinctively used flight to cushion incoming hits a sign of raw talent.
And after that, the instructor’s punches only got heavier.
Ugh — the disgraced genius of some fallen Battle-Emperor clan, already ninth dan in Vilt-chi by age ten.
And yet the clan elders kept holding him down — and the reason was—
Ahem, anyway — even if stretching what should’ve been a few seconds into a few minutes took some getting used to,
the blonde woman sharing the elevator with him gave him a few glances, then left her number.
He wasn’t remotely interested, but that little taste of humanity still put him in a good mood.
General Kregg, this place is stuffed corner to corner with good stuff — hurry up and get here!
Following the map, he slipped his way over to a breakfast stall in Chinatown.
Riding on his mixed-blood looks and an authentic accent he’d secretly practiced for ages, he ordered breakfast and hit it off with the customers at the next table.
Dunking a youtiao into his soy milk, he propped his chin on one hand and took in the scene around him.
“Honestly, I don’t get how Nolan’s lasted this long.
You can sleep in here as late as you want, there’s baozi, there’s youtiao, no war, no bloodshed—”
Bam!
Before he could even finish, something dressed up like an elephant came smashing straight through a brick wall.
Right after, sirens blared from around the corner, and someone was closing in fast.
Less than a second later, a red afterimage blew past and knocked Elephant Guy out cold, and the police moved in with guns drawn right behind it.
Guardians of the Globe.
Red Rush.
Leon watched him vanish into the distance and took a sip of soy milk.
The image of the guy’s head getting popped like a grape was still fresh in his memory.
Still, Red Rush’s ability wasn’t anything to sneeze at — even with dynamic vision sharp enough to keep up with his own flight speed, Leon couldn’t track the man’s movement in an instant.
“No wonder Nolan chose to kill him first.
I’d have picked the same.
Taking out the speedster before anyone else is always the right call.”
Once he’d finished eating, Leon started planning out his next move.
The turning point of the story was Mark awakening his powers.
But right now, there wasn’t a trace of Invincible in any of the media.
So his best move was to track down that world’s version of him first and confirm the situation.
If he turns out evil in his old age, better strike first.
If he’s a decent guy, might as well make friends.
Then there was Leon’s own business to handle.
First, the identity problem.
He’d gotten away with checking into the hotel using the mugger’s ID, but to keep living long-term, he needed to get his hands on a legitimate identity.
Second, income.
He couldn’t openly work as a hero and draw a paycheck right now, and taking some regular job was completely out of the question.
Even if he could haul every last coil of steel in one trip, how much would the boss actually pay him for it?
But he quickly landed on an idea.
Doxxing a superhero was hard, but hunting down a supervillain?
Easy.
They all had names and reputations down in the underworld — pick a familiar-looking face to reach out to, and who knew, it might just pin down the city the protagonist was in.
“Finding people, easy.
Identity problem, solved.
And I can farm some gold on the side too…
Guess the smart genes haven’t completely died out in Viltrumites after all.”
Just as Leon was feeling pretty pleased with his own plan, he got a message from the group.
[Mala Donkey Head]: @Everyone Thank you all so much for your help.
If it weren’t for you, I’d never have seen my mom and dad again.
I can’t even imagine a life where I never see them again.
I really don’t know how to repay you all.
Sounded like Amiya was back up and about.
[Kansas Farm Boy]: Helping each other out — that’s just how it should be.
When you’re in a position to, you’d do the same for us, wouldn’t you?
[The Tiger of West Junior High]: Just thank Leon and Nyos, honestly.
Me and Ritsuka didn’t really do much.
[Orange-Haired, Gold-Eyed Menace to Humanity]: Couldn’t agree more.
And even in a moment like this, the Emperor was still the Emperor through and through — he skipped straight past the small talk and cut right to the next topic.
[Not-a-God Yellow Weasel]: Now that Amiya’s awake, I think it’s time we discussed something — the question of how time passes differently across our respective worlds.
To be continued…