It had been just over three days since the roster for the new Guardians of the Globe had been finalized and announced to the world.
While the public celebrated the formation of this new team of heroes, Todd had remained out of the spotlight, secluded in his room.
He sat cross-legged on his bed, his gaze fixed intently on a plain, sealed cardboard box resting on the floor before him.
“Alright,” he muttered, his blue eyes focused.
“Moment of truth.”
He opened the box.
Inside, cushioned carefully, sat a glass container filled with white liquid, housed within a small, insulated cooling unit that hummed softly to keep its contents fresh.
“Huh. Neat,” Todd said, a slow grin spreading across his face.
This was no ordinary milk you could buy at a grocery store or convenience mart.
This was a… Mother’s Milk.
Over the last seventy-two hours, Todd had been working relentlessly to push his template progress to completion.
He had been grinding, hunting, and eliminating targets he deemed worthy or necessary to satisfy the ambiguous requirements of the system.
His path to perfection had been paved with violence and moral flexibility.
He had tracked down and executed a notorious rapist in a back alley, lasering the man’s dick off first before slicing him cleanly in half from groin to skull.
The brutality had felt… necessary.
He had also flown to a remote cannibal tribe untouched by modern society and declared himself a god, performing small miracles with his powers to cement their worship.
It raised the bar significantly, bringing him to 99%.
There it had stalled.
The final requirement, as far as Todd had deduced, was either to impregnate a woman or to consume milk produced by a lactating mother.
He had chosen the latter.
Kidnapping and forced pregnancy carried too much risk and hassle.
What’s more he can’t bring himself to do something like that, but buying milk?
That had turned out to be surprisingly easy.
A quick search on the internet had revealed a thriving, unregulated market.
Even on places like Facebook Marketplace, women were selling excess breast milk, many simply because they disliked the physical sensation of nursing or had more supply than their babies needed.
It was a commodity that is why Todd had ordered a fresh batch, paid extra for speed and it was delivered right to his door.
Todd sighed, reached into the cooler, and lifted the glass.
He uncorked it, sniffed the fresh, creamy scent, and without a second thought, tilted his head back and drank it all down in one long gulp.
“Hmm… that’s actually pretty tasty,” he remarked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
[Homelander Template: 100%]
[Congratulations on completing your first template]
[Reward: 1x Template Roll, 1x Compound V]
Todd’s eyes lit up as he read the notifications.
He let out a low whistle, genuinely impressed.
“Well, look at that. I didn’t think finishing a template would give me extra loot besides just the powers. Nice.”
Suddenly, a faint distortion warped the air above the small table next to the box.
A vial materialized out of nowhere, dropping softly onto the surface.
It was filled with bright, vivid blue liquid, and printed clearly on the glass was the logo he recognized so well from his memories: Vought.
“Compound V, huh?” Todd picked up the vial, rolling it between his fingers.
He knew exactly what this was.
It was the substance that created the Supes.
He recalled the facts clearly: If injected into an adult, the mortality rate was between seventy and ninety percent.
The body couldn’t handle the genetic rewriting; organs liquefied, blood vessels burst, and death was usually instant.
Those few who survived gained powers immediately, but the results were unstable, painful, short-lived, and the abilities were often weak or mutated.
That was why Vought only ever used it on infants.
For babies, it was safe, stable, the powers developed over years, and the effects were permanent and perfect.
He set the vial aside.
It was valuable, but useless to him right now.
He wasn’t a super-genius capable of reverse-engineering it to mass-produce powers, nor did he have anyone he trusted enough to risk turning them into a supe or a corpse.
Todd turned his attention back to the floating interface in front of him.
He had earned a roll.
[Ding! Would you like to roll for your next template?]
Todd’s lips curled into a confident smirk.
“Yes.”
The air in his room shimmered.
A large, glowing digital wheel materialized before his eyes, its surface divided into dozens of segments, each bearing a name or a symbol.
It spun rapidly, a blur of colors and text, spinning faster and faster until the individual names were indistinguishable.
Then, slowly, with dramatic, heavy tension, it began to slow down.
Click… click… click… Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
It ground to a halt.
The panel zoomed in, shining with a bright, golden light
[Template Acquired: Splinter]
A second later, a wave of energy slammed into Todd.
It felt like liquid fire being poured directly into his veins, spreading from his chest to his fingertips and down to his toes.
He gasped, his body arching slightly as new instincts, new muscle memories, and a new understanding of his own biology flooded his mind.
The sensation was intense, but his body absorbed the change effortlessly.
Once the energy stabilized and the feeling subsided, Todd read the name again.
His eye twitched visibly.
“It’s the human centipede guy…”
He knew the character well.
Splinter had a unique ability, similar in concept to Dupli-Kate, allowing him to create copies of himself, but it came with a laundry list of limitations.
First, the replication wasn’t instant.
Unlike Kate, who could pop in and out of existence in a blink, Splinter’s duplication took five to ten seconds of focus to complete.
Second, there was the Prime Dependency.
None of the clones possessed the ability to replicate further; only the original could do that.
Worse, every single clone was biologically linked to the Prime.
If the original Todd died, every single copy would drop dead instantly.
And finally… splitting was painful.
It felt like tearing yourself apart, though Todd could handle that.
He opened his status panel to see the full update.
[Name: Todd Williams]
[Age: 18]
[Species: Human]
[Powers: Superhuman Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability, Vacuum Adaptation, Heat Resistance, Superhuman Immune System, Superhuman Stamina, Superhuman Speed, Superhuman Senses, Heat Vision, Flight, X-Ray Vision, Regenerative Healing Factor, Immortality, Self-Replication, Hivemind]
[Splinter Template: 5%]
[Note: Powers that overlap with other templates will stack and strengthen]