Youth really was a wonderful thing.
You blinked, and an entire day was gone.
By the time Leon woke up, another day had passed.
Beside his bed, Tony was sitting backward on a chair, resting his arms on the backrest.
He kept his large, gorgeous eyes fixed on Leon while sipping a cup of dull green vegetable juice.
“Hey, skinny boy, you’re finally awake.”
“Do you have any idea you just set a Guinness World Record?”
Seeing Leon wake up, Tony chugged the remaining vegetable juice from his oversized beer mug, pulled out an ultra-thin tablet, operated it rapidly, and displayed a heart rate chart that looked crazier than a roller coaster.
“Peak heart rate: 315.
Kid, you’re invincible.”
“And your weight is completely out of whack.
You’re over two hundred kilograms now.
I guarantee no girl would ever agree to lie under you if she heard that number.”
“Moving you into the medical bay took every ounce of strength I had.”
“Care to tell me what on earth happened?” Tony asked, watching Leon put on his clothes.
“Just a little test of my superpowers, nothing major.”
“Bottom line: I got stronger again.”
Leon answered with a relaxed, easygoing expression before hurriedly changing the subject.
“By the way, if I weigh over four hundred pounds now, how could someone with your skinny arms and legs possibly move me?”
“Hmph, good question!”
Tony automatically filtered out Leon’s slander and eagerly led him down to his workshop.
However…
“Watch out…”
*BANG!*
Just two steps past the living room—
“Holy crap!”
With a sharp cry, Leon stepped onto empty air and crashed straight down.
“…There’s a hole there.”
Tony’s belated warning made Leon laugh out of sheer exasperation.
“To~ny~!
Did you awaken some inner husky trait and decide you love tearing the house apart or what?!
Why is there such a massive hole here?
And covering it with corrugated cardboard—thank you *so* much!”
“Just like you, I was only doing a little test,” Tony said, making the “tiny galaxy” gesture with his fingers and imitating Leon’s tone from before with a mischievous shrug.
“Dammit!”
“You definitely did that on purpose!”
“I’m keeping score!”
After telling JARVIS to note this down in his little black book, Leon patted his pants, stood up, and looked around.
The first thing that caught his eye was the silver-white Iron Man armor surrounded by dozens of mechanical arms not far away—the Mark 2.
It was worth mentioning that inside a transparent display case against the wall stood Tony’s maiden creation, the Mark 1.
JARVIS had brought it back via the Jet Glider.
Because Leon had chosen to take the plane back with Tony instead of riding his beloved motorcycle, the cockpit of the Jet Glider had been left empty for transport.
“So, what do you think?”
Tony looked at Leon—who was stroking his chin while pacing around the Mark 2—with a blend of excitement and slight arrogance.
“Although the technical content is roughly similar, the performance gap between the Mark 2 and the Mark 1 is like night and day,” Tony said. This story is hosted at g.com.
“The most important function, flight, has been perfected.
Watch me fly it for you.”
Without waiting for Leon’s response, Tony walked over and began donning the armor piece by piece with the help of the mechanical arms.
Once it was fully assembled—
*Whoosh—BANG!*
Tony took off.
Tony crashed.
Another hole opened up in the ceiling.
Looking at Tony, who had just flattened another ten-million-dollar supercar, Leon twitched his mouth and said with disdain, “That’s it?
That’s your excuse for leaving a hole unrepaired and making me fall?”
“Uh…”
“That was an accident.”
Tony awkwardly scratched the non-existent nose on his armor helmet, then asked JARVIS, “JARVIS, what about the flight stabilization system?”
“Sir, you disabled the flight stabilization system yourself during your first test flight.”
“Uh, right.”
“Looks like the flight control system still needs optimization.
I also need to fix the high-altitude icing issue I ran into earlier.”
Tony grimaced, remaining sprawled on the wreckage of the supercar as he pondered solutions to the issues encountered during testing.
Leon sighed helplessly at the sight, but he didn’t disturb Tony.
Tony was always like this—when he encountered a problem, he solved it, often forgetting what else he was supposed to be doing.
Perhaps that was what it meant to be a genius, Leon thought.
He then reached out and gently touched the Mark 2 armor.
[Prompt: Would you like to complete today’s sign-in?]
‘System, I’m hungry.
Feed me.’
[Ding!
Today’s sign-in complete.
Congratulations, Host, you have obtained the “Starlight Template”.]
[Starlight Template: Superhuman physical attributes biased toward defense and stamina; energy absorption, energy conversion, and energy release.
The exact capabilities depend on personal physical traits and proficiency.]
[Description: Good child, if you’re hungry, eat more energy.
Charge up a bit.]
“Oh ho!”
When luck came, nothing could stop it.
It really gave him whatever he was lacking.
Thanks to this sign-in, not only were Leon’s physical attributes enhanced further, making him even tougher, but the biggest flaw of the Soldier Boy Template—the inability to fly—was also compensated for by the addition of the Starlight Template.
Whether he could fly fast was still unknown, but at least he could float now.
(Note: The protagonist died right after watching the finale of Season 3, so he hadn’t seen the Season 4 finale where Starlight accelerated mid-air.
He didn’t know Starlight could not only fly, but fly very fast.)
And based on Starlight’s performance in the Season 3 finale where she “channeled her ultimate to crowd-control Soldier Boy,” even if she ended up dropping the ball, it explicitly showed that she could fly.
Greatness required no further explanation.
…
As a side note:
[Soldier Boy Template: Superhuman physical attributes, near-comprehensive enhancements, leaning heavily toward strength, defense, stamina, and resistance (at peak condition, strength, defense, stamina, and resistance solidly surpass Homelander’s); “I am the nuke”—essentially a walking nuclear reactor, able to release a massive blast of light, heat, and radiation from the chest.
Highly destructive, capable of temporarily suppressing or completely stripping superhumans of their powers.
Limited to acquired mutational superpowers; ineffective against natural-born superhumans.] Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
[Description: There are levels to superhumans.
You’re a supe too, right?]
…
Host: Leon Stark Abilities: Soldier Boy Template, Super Self-Healing, Adamantium Skeleton, Starlight Template Items: Soldier Boy Suit, Desert Eagle with Infinite Ammo (Quality: Unbreakable)
Compared to the excruciating pain of merging the Adamantium Skeleton, fusing the Starlight Template felt almost effortless.
Absorbed instantly, refined in a flash!
After skimming his updated status panel, Leon slapped the deep-in-thought Tony awake and spoke with eager excitement:
*Slap!*
“Bro, check this out!”
“Let me put on a show for you!”
“What??”
Before Tony could react, Leon began absorbing the surrounding electrical energy.
Because his physical foundation was far stronger than Starlight’s, the output of the same superpower was dramatically higher in his hands.
He drew in environmental electricity almost like a whale swallowing water.
He didn’t even spare the power inside the Mark 2.
The miniature arc reactor on Tony’s chest was drawn to the point of slight overload, crackling with visible arcs of electricity.
The sudden shock left Tony scorched on the outside and tender on the inside.
His mouth twitched so hard he couldn’t speak, let alone stop Leon.
As electrical energy was absorbed and converted, a golden light erupted from Leon’s eyes, and his palms glowed with the same brilliance.
He thrust both palms downward, using the reverse propulsion to lift his body into the air.
He wavered slightly as he floated higher, looking as if he might fall at any second.
The scene left Tony completely dumbfounded.
What in the world??
Isn’t this the exact scene from my test flight yesterday??
Leon…
when did this guy learn to fly?
A superpower like this was infinitely more convenient than Iron Man armor that had to be assembled piece by piece!
It mirrored Tony’s test flight of the Mark 2 almost perfectly.
Since it was his first time flying, Leon couldn’t control his movements in any direction properly.
He gritted his teeth and wobbled through the air the entire time.
It gave off the vibe of someone trying to find the perfect angle and height over a toilet to avoid getting splashed.
Under the guidance of Tony, a two-time crash veteran, Leon slowly began to get a feel for directional control.
After all, he was flying via an innate superpower rather than relying on technological armor, meaning there were no electronic systems to assist him.
He had to rely entirely on practice making perfect.
*Beep—*
A fingerprint lock clicked open.
Pepper, dressed in an executive assistant outfit complete with black stockings, pushed the door open while holding two cups of coffee.
“Are you two…”
Before her vision could focus—
*BANG!
BANG!*
Unsurprisingly, two more ten-million-dollar supercars were crushed into metal pancakes.
The four-hundred-plus-pound Leon and the three-hundred-eighty-plus-pound Tony (including the Mark 2 armor) lay flat on their respective “chairs.”
The two brothers looked at each other and burst into laughter, their voices growing louder and louder.
“HAHAHAHAHA!” ×2
Only Pepper, who had dropped her coffee in shock, stood there completely bewildered, having no idea why these two crazy brothers were laughing like lunatics.