The next day, Elric stared in absolute astonishment at the small tiger cub that was currently rubbing against his leg. Well, calling it "small" wasn't exactly accurate anymore. The little guy had grown almost twice its original size in just twelve hours. Twelve hours! That was completely insane.
But what really caught his attention was the huge amount of chakra he could feel radiating from the cub. Sure, it was still small compared to his own reserves—but honestly, comparing anyone's chakra to his was pretty unfair.
Still, even accounting for that unfair comparison, the amount of chakra this tiger cub could produce was definitely very large compared to what its body should be capable of. In the Naruto world, creatures there had twice the cell count of normal animals, which allowed them to produce better quality chakra. But this was just a normal tiger cub from Earth. Or at least, it had been normal before he'd shared his chakra with it.
Did something unexpected happen during the process? He'd have to observe it carefully to understand what was going on.
The next day brought even more surprises. The cub didn't grow quite as dramatically as it had the previous day, but it still grew by a considerable amount. More importantly, its chakra reserves also grew at an abnormal speed—way faster than should be possible.
Okay, definitely some kind of mutation had happened here. Because even though Leo—that's what he'd decided to name the tiger cub—had stopped growing as fast as he used to, his chakra growth didn't stop at all. It just continued increasing at that same abnormal speed.
Did he accidentally create a tailed beast or something? The thought was both amusing and slightly concerning. He couldn't help but muse to himself about the possibilities.
Anyway, he wasn't smart enough right now to figure out exactly what went wrong. Or maybe what went right, depending on how you looked at it. Perhaps Leo recognized him as the one who saved its life. Or maybe the cub could feel a sense of familiarity with Elric because they now shared the same type of chakra.
Whatever the reason, Leo was incredibly obedient to him. And his IQ also seemed to be increasing along with his chakra reserves, which was another unexpected bonus. This guy should definitely prove very useful in the future.
In the blink of an eye, one week passed.
Click.
With a satisfying click, Elric assembled the last part of his photon computer.
Looking at the machine jungle that was now just waiting for a power source, a smirk escaped his mouth. This baby was finally ready.
Now, this wasn't the fastest computer in the Overlord world—that honor would go to the current generation quantum computers that could even fit inside a human brain. But to make something like that, he'd have to create entirely new parts and components from scratch. He simply didn't have the time or energy to bother with all that right now.
So he'd just settled for this setup instead. With Zola's AI already existing in this world, his own AI definitely wouldn't be the most advanced. But with just raw computing power alone, it could play around on Earth's networks freely. Hell, it could even compete with some of the more advanced AIs in the universe.
He'd been keeping a close eye on his potential energy source. It wasn't like he couldn't make one himself, but when a better option already existed, there was no need to bother with anything else.
Two days ago, a fighter jet had crashed in Afghanistan. That should be Tony's doing, which meant the main events of the Iron Man storyline were getting closer and closer.
He was planning to take the Arc Reactor from the Iron Monger suit before it exploded. That piece of technology would be perfect for powering his setup.
After coming out of his underground base, a thick smell of blood immediately entered his nose.
Before he could react—or maybe he just didn't want to react fast enough—a huge body tackled him straight to the ground.
"Leo! How many times have I told you to take a bath after hunting?" he said in a complaining tone, though there was no real anger in his voice.
Almost completely ignoring all his complaining, the huge tiger intensified his licking even more, his rough tongue scraping across Elric's face.
In the end, Elric had to forcefully remove the overly affectionate tiger from on top of him. It took more effort than he cared to admit.
In just two weeks, this guy had shown absolutely astonishing growth. Leo was now bigger than Elric himself while standing on all fours. His growth rate had slowed down considerably compared to those first crazy days, but still—it was hard to imagine just how massive he'd be in the future.
Mental note: he'd have to be way more careful in the future before sharing his chakra with other people or animals. The results were clearly unpredictable.
"Okay, I have some work to do, so I'll be leaving for sometime," Elric said, scratching behind Leo's ears. "So behave yourself and take care of the house. Don't let anyone approach here. Did you get it?"
Leo looked a little sad hearing that Elric would be leaving, but he still obediently nodded his massive head. His intelligence had clearly grown along with his body—he could understand complex instructions now.
The fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger shouldn't be too far away from now. Elric was planning to go to New York and wait for the right moment.
If his AI was already built and operational, there wouldn't be any problem keeping eyes on the incident remotely. But since it wasn't ready yet, he'd have to do it manually.
It was quite a headache, honestly. But some things were worth the trouble.
With one last pat on Leo's head, Elric grabbed his prepared gear and headed out. Time to witness some superhero drama firsthand—and maybe snag some advanced technology while he was at it.