Chương 5: A Mess Of A Timeline
(Nathan POV)
Reaching for my phone, I began to search through various events that had occurred. While the previous Nathan did live through the Red Hood Gang, and now Batman's first year of vigilantism, he was rather closed off and was a very introverted person.
Scrolling through various news reports, I saw that heroes have started to become more active in recent years, such as Superman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan based on the facial structure and skin tone), Wonder Woman, and The Flash (Barry Allen Not Jay Garrick) have already made their debuts.
Well, for Wonder Woman, it is a re-debut as she did fight with the Justice Society Of America during World War 2, but only for a short while, it seems. Checking more reports, I saw that the Apallaxians had already invaded a year prior, and that is when the previously mentioned heroes were first sighted. Other than Batman, who most likely knows of their existence, none of them have seemingly met each other yet.
After checking that, I researched whether or not a certain Cadmus facility existed in Washington D.C., but I did not look it up directly as there may be some web crawlers for anyone trying to learn of Cadmus, so I researched the addresses around the building and saw it did exist. Taking a breath to calm myself, I then looked up at pictures of the heroes, and while some were spotty at best, their costumes were that of the New 52.
Based on the fact that while the Appalaxians were taken care of, Darkseid had not yet invaded, and now the invasion is going to occur next year, but if Young Justice continuity exists in this world, his agreement with Vandal Savage should keep him away. But then I remembered that this may be the Comic version, and he would have definitely never made a deal with a normal mortal. That New God's ego could fit an entire multiverse in it and then some.
The possibility exists that it may have simply been a temporary truce, a form of ceasefire, as Vandal Savage's forces may have forced back the New God in the past. So, there is the possibility that I may be in some unholy love child between the New 52/Animated Movie Verse and Young Justice. My day truly cannot get any better as the proverbial weight starts to build on my shoulders.
The metaphysical weight is not one of worry for the planet itself but for my own Survival. While my essence of the inviolate self may make me immortal and a singularity, I can still die to physical disintegration or simply physical force, and as I am now, a flick from Darkseid could kill me. Never mind the fact that if the movie continuity is to be believed, not only will Doomsday show up eventually or already exist, but Trigon and Darkseid will try to invade.
Not to mention, groups like The Light, The Kroloteans, and The Reach may exist as well, and if they have been buffed to their comic levels, I may be in over my head. If there was any good news, it was that while the New 52 is plenty powerful, it is nowhere near the ridiculousness of the Silver Age with Superman casually ending worlds with a sneeze. However, again, the fact that this may be the New 52 means Superboy Prime may exist somewhere in this universe.
It's almost laughable how confident I felt earlier after getting Taskmaster, Robot, and Palpatine. So, after that depressing thought, I continued my research and found that Wally West exists here as well in his Young Justice form, which may be awkward as there may be a version of Wally West stuck in the Speed Force right now. But it seems that this Wally has not become Kid Flash yet.
I'm definitely going to have to find him and get him some real therapy so he doesn't kill anyone due to having an existential crisis/mental breakdown, as we already have enough of those here. Now, after that little tidbit, all that remains is one last question.
"Where is Dr. Manhattan and Barbatos in all of this?" I think to myself, not daring to say their names aloud. I truly wonder if it is too late to ask God to erase me from existence simply.
Seeing that my phone was almost dead, I seemingly did not notice that the Sun had begun to rise in the sky, and after looking at the broken clock, I saw it reading 8:00 am and realized that I had been sitting in this chair for hours and felt no time pass by. Since it was now Sunday, I gained my points for today on the gacha, and I now had 72 points to spend. So, needing a boost in my own confidence, I rolled on a random item generator.
This is my life now, but if there is any recompense for this, it is that I could get a ticket that can get me out of this literal hell hole of a city and Multiverse, for that matter. So I put my faith in the gacha lords and spun again for my life.
Ten new cards appeared before me and showed:
1. Lightsaber X2 (Star Wars) (Color Red) (Color Blue)
2. Avatar Roku (Avatar The Last Airbender) (No Raava Needed)
3. Emiya (Archer) (Become The Bone Of Your Salt) (May Come With Harem Protagonist EX Skill)
4. $50,000 (U.S. Currency) (Show Me The Money!!!)
5. Weakness Removal Card X3
6. Background Customization Card X3
7. Muramasa Blade (Marvel Comics: Earth-616) (Makes Permanent Paper Cuts Look Like Pokes)
8. Phasing (Marvel Comics: Shadow Cat) (Try Not To Fall Through The Planet)(Toggleable)
9. Feather Falling (Minecraft) (You Can Skip Leg Day) (Heavily Reduces Fall Damage)
10. Kevin Levin's Car (Ben 10: Omniverse) (Put The Pedal To The Alien Metal) (Has Infinite Gas)
Is it strange that I feel like I am selling away my luck every time I spin this thing? As this haul is amazing! Shadow Cat's phasing is only limited by certain materials, magic, and her ability to hold her breath. And if I remember correctly, I do not need to breathe.
Another benefit is definitely the feather-falling ability; I can not worry about jumping from rooftop to rooftop or to the street now. While I can phase now, I will sometimes need to take off running, and not having to worry about damaging my legs when I do a superhero landing is a definite boon.
In regards to the character cards, while having Roku will give me access to a form of Elemental manipulation as well as possibly energy bending, the main card I am focusing on is the Emiya (Archer) card as his ability to trace and project swords would be a great asset.
However, I am also tempted to summon him rather than assimilate him, as he has had millions of years of experience. And he's also willing to do what is necessary, given the fact that he essentially worked for an entity that was simply Humanity's will to survive.
But a small part of me is somewhat afraid of assimilating Emiya because he is a servant, and I am somewhat afraid of what will happen to me when or even if I become a demi-servant. That could introduce possible weaknesses as well. I don't need to worry about spiritual or mental weaknesses as well as poison. My body can still take damage from mystical and physical sources.
After assimilating the two new abilities, I focused the feeling on my right hand and, taking a small knife near me, I placed it against my hand, and it went right through. I have a feeling that having a skull mask is influencing the gacha to make me some sort of ghost or wraith. In addition, the fact that this specific phasing ability allows me to disrupt electronics will make me the near-perfect infiltrator.
The possibilities have now definitely risen, and with 99,900 dollars in my inventory, I can afford to buy a new place. So another objective shall be added, that is finding a good place to live. But even though I know that I cannot rely on the money I get from the gacha all the time, it is enough. Honestly, I feel somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that I now own such a decent amount of money, as even from the fragmented memories of my previous life, I was always living paycheck to paycheck.
But even I know that eventually, there shall come a time when money shall literally have no value, and I shall simply be able to create what I desire by merely thinking of it. Whether by gaining powerful magic or divinity, there are many ways to gain power in this Multiverse.
Suppose I am able to travel the Multiverse using this system. In that case, I should try to go to the D.C. animated universe as that necklace of the first magic would be an amazing artifact to have, but it shall be added to the list of desired items.
Now, for my next move, I needed some space, so I spent the next few minutes clearing the room. I then placed my phone on the table near me and began to search for various martial arts videos to test my mimicry ability. As I set up a basic karate video, I saw the man performing basic katas, and as I got into position, I began to parrot his movements.
I could tell, due to my low proficiency with the Taskmaster template, that I am not copying his moves 100%, but it is enough for me to start improving. Later, I will go over that Scroll of Chinese Martial Arts that I got, but I need to get my foot in the door before I go on to anything advanced.
So for the next few hours, I spent that time practicing various forms of martial arts, from karate to judo to aikido. With each hour that passed, I felt my skills improving due to my mimicry ability and my unlimited potential. Then, after watching a karate master fight an opponent, I tried to use thousand image defense to create him as an opponent, and as the man appeared, he bowed and then began to try to trip me using a leg sweep, to which I dodged, recognizing the pattern.
Thousands of moves began to cross my mind. In one scenario, he then tried to kick me in the stomach and would follow up with a kick to the face, and another would show him trying to palm strike me on my chest and using that opportunity to elbow me in the face. But as I studied the possibilities, I had forgotten to be in the present and got smacked across the face and tripped.
He would then bow to me and disappear as I groaned in pain on the ground as I felt those hits. Such is the issue with this form of image training: I do physically feel the damage as my mind essentially believes that I was hit to the point where it actually creates physical damage.
As I got up and stretched myself after the small spar, I went over what I did wrong. In addition to my positioning being sloppy, I had fallen into the pitfall of trying too hard to anticipate and not truly react to the punches. It is a classic dilemma of living in possibilities rather than in the moment.
Although it is slightly embarrassing to lose to my own imagination, I took it as a learning experience for the future as that karate master is less than nothing in this universe unless you are the Karate Kid, that is.
Then, as I got up, I checked the assimilation progress on my two templates and saw that they had risen by a decent amount, with Taskmaster at 17% and Loid at 20%. As I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw that my previously malnourished state was recovering at a decent rate as the pale skin began to gain some healthy coloring but remained very pale.
My blank expression still remained as my eyes, which were once blue, were now a dark brown and seemed almost black in color. It was by no means as drastic a transformation as when Spider-Man got bitten by the radioactive spider, but I was developing good physical features for my age, at least. I also made a silent prayer to the presence that I would not become a raging mass of muscles after assimilating enough people.
As while people like Arnold Schwarzenegger can pull off the ripped look, I would not be able to. Considering my build, I hope to eventually learn how to develop pink muscles from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. That would help me blend in as my muscles, while incredibly strong, would not bulge like Apachai Hopachai. But for now, I decided to take a break as after five hours of training, it was now 1:00 pm in the afternoon, and I needed to go to work to keep up appearances.
I most likely will not end up keeping the job at the convenience store for long as it is in Joker's territory or at least at the edges of his influence, and I will need time to deal with him. Whether or not it will be fast or slow depends on my mood, but regardless, that clown will need to die, and if there are three of them, well, that is just simply more target practice.
Truly, the life of a comic book character is full of such philosophical inner monologues.
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