Chapter 3: Chapter 3
Approaching noon, Wanda's parents, Oleg and Irena, returned to the basement room with several long loaves of bread.
"You're awake!"
Upon seeing Hawking chatting with the two children, awake and alert, they expressed their surprise and delight.
Had Hawking not intercepted the missile, they and their two children would have been corpses by now.
Thus, the couple felt profound gratitude towards Hawking.
"Thank you for saving me."
Before the couple could express their thanks, Hawking preemptively spoke with an ostensibly grateful face:
"I might have hit my head, so I don't remember anything. I heard from Wanda that you saved me and brought me back here. Thank you so much."
The amnesia ruse was set in motion.
Indeed, upon hearing Hawking's words, the couple initially paused, then responded with sympathetic faces:
"No worries, the war ended last night, and the government is organizing rescue and city reconstruction.
You can stay here for now. Once order is restored, we will help you find your family."
By this point, the couple had conjured up a backstory for Hawking in their minds.
Hawking could be a descendant of some immigrants in Sokovia, separated from his family due to the war, then injured and left amnesic.
His displayed special abilities could be understood in this light too.
Recent news had mentioned mutants; perhaps he was a mutant with special powers.
Just as their daughter could sometimes make small objects float, and their son could run faster than normal children.
This young boy had saved their family's lives; naturally, they would take good care of him and do their best to help him find his parents.
"Would that be too much trouble for you?"
Hawking feigned embarrassment.
With the local couple's help, he could settle down for a while and then focus on enhancing his strength.
In the time he had awoken, besides extracting information from Wanda and Pietro, he had also thoroughly examined his Golden Finger.
So far, he could clearly feel that after using the hero template once, although the template had dissipated, some elements had remained.
Firstly, the most obvious was the memory; Goku's thirteen years of memories had not vanished with the template's conclusion but stayed in his mind.
It was just memories, devoid of emotions, like having a thirteen-year-long movie in his brain.
Secondly, he distinctly felt a special change in his body, likely due to the prompt that using a hero template once grants the hero's same lineage.
This meant he now possessed the same Saiyan lineage as Son Goku.
The most direct evidence was the tail that had grown behind him!
Thus, even without using the hero template, he could follow the training methods from the Turtle School in his memories to gradually enhance his strength.
And Goku at thirteen was just the first template. If he continued to accumulate justice points as the panel instructed, he could unlock other hero templates and gain those heroes' physiques and memories.
The panel detailed how to accumulate justice points precisely.
That involved performing acts of justice; every act, depending on its significance, would garner a certain number of justice points. Once enough points were collected, different hero templates could be randomly drawn.
Once drawn, the hero template would be permanently obtained. After each use and a 24-hour cooldown, it could be used again.
His one hour as Goku had included many acts of justice, all of which had been tallied for justice points.
According to the panel, any act he subjectively deemed just, no matter what others said, was considered an act of justice.
For instance, killing a villain to save many was just, as was executing a criminal.
However, if he killed someone out of personal vendetta, that wouldn't earn justice points.
And these acts of justice had to be performed by him directly, not just with money or indirect means.
Giving to a charity or to a beggar did not count, but helping an elderly person who had fallen did.
The condition was that the elderly person shouldn't try to scam him; otherwise, the only just act would be to confront them physically.
One satisfying aspect was that his justice points could only increase, never decrease. He could accrue points through acts of justice, but evil deeds wouldn't detract from his total.
Although not overly righteous, he had his moral limits and wouldn't commit truly evil acts.
"No trouble at all, you're such a considerate child."
Hearing Hawking's mature and polite response, Irena, as a mother, was overwhelmed with maternal affection and hugged the still somewhat weak Hawking.
"Mum, I want a hug too!"
Seeing this, Pietro felt somewhat left out and quickly jumped onto the bed to join in.
Wanda, born twelve minutes after Pietro, wouldn't be outdone and quickly joined the hug.
Their father, Oleg, put down the bread he was holding and embraced his wife Irena, the children Wanda and Pietro, and Hawking in the middle.
"Don't worry, everything will get better!"
Hawking, held in the center, felt a slight stir of emotion.
He had intended to use this family for better survival, but they seemed to truly consider him a part of their family.
"Perhaps, this isn't so bad."
In his previous life, he had grown up amidst endless parental arguments, even violence, never shielded from it.
After the divorce, he became a burden, tossed back and forth between households, neglected once both parents had new families with other children.
So, he harbored some envy for this loving family. They might not be wealthy, but they were always together, full of laughter and joy.
A week later, as Sokovia slowly regained normalcy due to a severe labor shortage following the city's heavy casualties, Oleg and Irena managed to secure modest jobs.
That day, they brought Hawking to a special agency dealing with missing persons.
"Sorry, due to the damn war, city records are missing, and we can't find any data matching him. Moreover, there's no description in the records of those seeking missing relatives that matches him.
His parents and family have likely perished in this war.
You may choose to send him to an orphanage or adopt him."
The plump female worker explained with regret in a room to Oleg and Irena.
Moments later, with teary eyes, Irena and Oleg came out to Hawking, who was playing with Wanda and Pietro, and gently squatted down to ask:
"Hawking, would you like to be our child, to be Wanda and Pietro's brother?"
Hawking looked at Oleg and then at Irena, smiling slightly:
"I would love to."
"I have a brother now! I have a brother now!"
Before Irena and Oleg could speak, Wanda and Pietro were already cheering.
After a week of living together, they had grown very fond of their caring new brother.
(End of Chapter)
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone