1.1 The Noise and the Nudge
Alex Miller was, by his own admission, a connoisseur of the mundane. Thirty-three years old, working a stable but soul-crushing job as a data analyst, he was a creature of habit: black coffee, same desk, and evenings spent lost in the digital worlds of cultivation, superhero lore, and the endless saga of Saiyan power-ups. His life was the definition of 'unremarkable.'
It was a Tuesday afternoon, and the world was bathed in the dull, late-summer haze of a city street. Alex was walking past the local community park, earbuds pumping a theme song from a certain anime about a golden-haired alien martial artist, when the mundanity shattered.
A shrill, heart-stopping scream cut through the music.
Alex pulled out an earbud, his eyes snapping to the road. A small, blonde girl, maybe six years old, was chasing a bright red ball that had bounced into the traffic lane. She was frozen in the middle of the street, directly in the path of a roaring, oversized delivery truck that was clearly going too fast for a residential area. The driver's panicked attempt to brake only resulted in a deafening SCREEEEECH of rubber, thick and final.
Time, that cruel mistress, seemed to stretch. Alex saw the terror in the girl's wide, blue eyes—eyes that reminded him, jarringly, of a young hero he'd once read about, one who'd lost his parents to a similar, sudden violence.
He didn't analyze the physics, he didn't calculate the risk, and he certainly didn't stop to think about his insurance policy or his student loans. The lifetime of reading about heroes, of dreaming of power and purpose, forced his muscles to respond before his brain could protest.
Selfless action. Must save her.
He dropped his coffee and his briefcase. Every ounce of effort he could muster, which wasn't much for a desk jockey, went into a sprint.
THUMP!
He reached the girl, seized her by the shoulder, and threw her with a desperate surge of adrenaline toward the curb. He saw her tumble onto the soft grass, safe.
The truck, however, was now unavoidable.
The last thing Alex felt was not a crushing impact, but a sensation akin to being hit by a freight train traveling at the speed of sound. A flash of blinding, white-hot pain eclipsed all sensation, followed by an abrupt, absolute cessation of existence.
Silence. Darkness.
1.2 The Court of the High Deity
Alex blinked.
The darkness was gone, replaced by an infinite, shimmering expanse of deep indigo, speckled with stars that seemed to sing with incomprehensible melodies. He wasn't lying down; he was standing on a floor of liquid, pearlescent light.
He looked down at his hands. They were translucent, composed of the same shimmering essence as the stars around him. He was a soul, a concept, a ghost.
Then, the true magnitude of his new surroundings asserted itself.
Before him coalesced an Entity. It wasn't human, alien, or even angelic. It was a shifting nebula of pure, concentrated authority and brilliance, too vast to comprehend, yet focused enough to address him. It was a being that effortlessly radiated the feeling of Beginning and End.
"Welcome, Alexander Miller," a voice boomed, resonating not through ears, but directly into the core of his consciousness. "Your mortal life is concluded. Your final act was one of supreme, unalloyed altruism. A spark of true purity."
Alex felt a tremor of awe, mixed with a very human surge of confusion. "Who... what are you? Is this the afterlife?"
"I am what you might call a High Deity, an Overseer of certain sectors of the Multiverse," the Entity explained, the stars around it seemingly bowing in deference. "And yes, this is an intermediary plane. As a reward for your sacrifice, which has ensured a future of pivotal importance to one of the realities I shepherd, you have earned a boon."
Alex felt a tingling sensation of excitement, a feeling he hadn't experienced since he was a kid unwrapping a new comic. "A boon? What kind of boon?"
"Three wishes, Alexander. Three opportunities to craft your second life. You may choose your next reality, your form, and your powers."
His inner nerd screamed. I actually get wishes! This is it! No more data analysis!
"There is one caveat," the Deity continued, a sudden gravity entering its voice. "The reality whose future you saved is integral to the balance of the DC Multiverse. Therefore, to ensure that karma is appropriately distributed within the correct cosmic flow, you must be reborn within the DC Multiverse. Your destination is fixed."
Alex paused, the initial euphoria tempered by the restriction. The DC Multiverse. Gods, aliens, magic, and... Kryptonians.
He grinned. "Honestly, that's not much of a caveat. I'll take it."
He took a moment, channeling years of fanfiction and comic book knowledge, considering the sheer power required to survive among Kryptonians, New Gods, and reality-warpers. His wishes had to be foundational, granting him a baseline of power that could scale indefinitely.
"High Deity," Alex began, his spectral voice firming with resolve. "I have made my choice. My wishes are non-negotiable."
1.3 The Three Foundations
"Speak your wishes," the Deity commanded.
"My first wish," Alex stated, projecting every ounce of his fanboy knowledge, "is for the complete, genetically pure Saiyan bloodline—the ancient, legendary variant. This bloodline must be capable of reaching, and surpassing, all known forms, specifically up to and including the power level conceptually known as Super Saiyan 5."
The Entity pulsed, a surge of power radiating outwards. "A desire for sheer, unadulterated strength. Granted. This power will be latent at birth and must be unlocked through effort and extreme duress, as is the Saiyan way."
Alex nodded, satisfied. A power that scaled with battle. Perfect for a superhero world.
"Furthermore, for this first wish," he continued, "I desire the complete, integrated knowledge and combat experience of Son Goku, specifically covering all his techniques, fighting instincts, and Ki control, up to the conceptual peak of Super Saiyan 5. I want to be able to instinctively use a Kamehameha or an Instant Transmission from the moment I can walk."
"Integrating experience without effort," the Deity mused. "That strains the concept of boon. Very well. Knowledge integrated. You will have the potential, but the body must adapt to wield it."
Alex moved on, his second wish calculated to provide both versatility and an instant high-level threat capacity.
"My second wish is for the Gate of Babylon. Not the simple treasury of a legendary king, but a conceptualized version. I want this Gate to contain Noble Phantasms—conceptual weapons, items, and defenses—from all of my prior existence's fictional worlds, both past and future. If a powerful weapon, armor, or artifact exists in any human narrative, I want its conceptualized, Noble Phantasm equivalent to be instantly accessible via the Gate. I want a legendary arsenal whose contents are limited only by my imagination and what the cosmos permits me to categorize as a 'Phantasm.'"
The starlight around the Deity seemed to momentarily dim, acknowledging the sheer scope of the request. "An arsenal limited by the very fabric of narrative reality. The arrogance of humanity... and the utility. Granted. The Gate shall be yours, its contents boundless, though your mental bandwidth will limit initial access."
Two wishes down. Saiyan power, universal arsenal. The final wish needed to connect it all, guide his growth, and, crucially, satisfy his desire for exploration.
"My third and final wish," Alex declared, his voice full of anticipation, "is for a System. A fully functional, personalized interface. This System must:
Provide mission structures to guide my growth and the controlled unlocking of my latent Saiyan and Gate powers.
Offer training simulations for the integrated combat knowledge.
And most importantly, grant me Chances to Traverse Realities. I want missions that, upon successful completion, grant me a temporary, one-time jump to another fictional world—be it a Marvel Earth, an Ancient Rome of Cultivation, or a Galaxy Far, Far Away—for training, gathering resources, or other critical objectives."
The High Deity was silent for a long moment, the starlight swirling into a focused point of brilliant, cosmic energy.
"The System, the missions, the simulations... these are permissible as a self-regulating growth mechanism. However, the Reality Traversal... the cost is immense. To pierce the veil between realities requires a catastrophic drain on the energy of your host dimension."
"I understand," Alex replied quickly. "Let the cost be high. Let the missions required for a jump be truly difficult, near-impossible even. I accept the risk and the challenge."
"Very well, Alexander Nova. The name I will bestow upon you in your new life. Your final wish is granted. Go now, son of the stars, and face the destiny you have so powerfully crafted."
The brilliant point of cosmic energy exploded, not into fragments, but into a single, accelerating torrent that encased Alex's soul. He felt himself being pulled across unimaginable distances, through the dimensional barrier, toward the familiar, yet terrifyingly powerful, light of the DC Universe. The last sensation was the feeling of his consciousness compressing, simplifying, and then... a sudden, gentle warmth.
[SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
[WELCOME, HOST ALEXANDER NOVA]
[INITIALIZING PRIMORDIAL SAIYAN BLOODLINE: 0.1%]
[ACCESSING GOKU'S COMBAT DATA: 0.05%]
[CATALOGING GATE OF BABYLON: 0.00000001% - WARNING: ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETE: INFINITE]
[MISSION: FIRST STEPS - REACH FIRST BIRTHDAY. REWARD: +5 STRENGTH, +5 ENDURANCE, SAIYAN TAIL MANIFESTATION CHANCE (LOW)]
[NEWLY DETECTED HOST ENVIRONMENT: EARTH-0 (PRIME DC UNIVERSE)]
[HOST STATUS: INFANT. POWER LEVEL: 5 (BASELINE HUMAN INFANT: 5)]
The infant Alexander Nova opened his eyes, now a vibrant, black-haired boy in a crib. The sheer volume of information—from the Ki control fundamentals to the conceptual blueprints of the Gate of Babylon—was an overwhelming, yet strangely organized hum in his baby brain.
A woman with kind eyes and a gentle smile peered down at him. "Oh, my little Alex, you're awake," she cooed, lifting him into a hug.
Alex gurgled, a pathetic sound considering the power he commanded. He instinctively registered the faint, nearly negligible, Ki signature of his new mother, a signature utterly human.
This is it. The DC Universe. I'm a baby Saiyan with the Gate of Babylon. I should probably start by learning to crawl.
He closed his tiny fists, a lifetime of combat knowledge already preparing for the arduous task of moving his limbs. His new life had begun. The System was waiting. And somewhere in the universe, an alien sun was waiting to charge his potential.
—END OF CHAPTER 1—