"Gorilla Pretzel Bites, hot and fresh—!"
"If you're interested, come take a look!"
Armored Gorilla wore a hoodie and kept shouting to draw customers in, selling trays of sizzling pretzel bites.
"Ten orders. Extra Carolina Reaper."
Right as Armored Gorilla was barking sales with his ugly mug, a voice reached his ears.
"Mm…"
Armored Gorilla stared at the man in front of him, eyes widening.
"Please, go on in. Dr. Genus is waiting for you inside."
Armored Gorilla stepped aside and spoke quietly to the musclebound man.
"Mm."
The man gave a small nod and walked straight into the shop.
After a quick look around, he pushed open a hidden door, revealing a tunnel.
Once he stepped inside, everything in front of him was nothing like the plain little snack shop outside. It was all heavy metal construction and that trippy, high-tech glow.
"You're here?"
A man in a black suit, glasses perched on his nose, greeted him the moment he noticed someone enter.
"Mm."
"So this is your new base? I'm guessing the Hero Association would never expect that a normal little snack shop has a whole secret world behind it."
Under the lights, the visitor's face became clear.
It was Jovian.
"No. I opened the shop mainly to subsidize my budget."
The man in the black suit—Dr. Genus, founder of the House of Evolution—pushed up his nearsighted glasses with a finger and answered seriously.
"Subsidize your budget… by selling pretzel bites? Are you serious?"
Jovian's eye twitched.
"Completely."
Dr. Genus nodded hard.
"Don't underestimate pretzel bites. And breakfast burritos, too—low investment, high return. It's basically free money."
"Even though I can't understand why people enjoy food made with such cheap ingredients while paying such absurd prices… whatever. If they're willing to fund my operation, I'll graciously accept their generosity."
He pushed his glasses again, talking like he was proud of robbing everyone in broad daylight.
"Whatever. Come look at this."
Jovian sighed at Genus's unhinged confidence. He pulled out a small hard case, opened it in front of Genus, and revealed ten vials filled with a brilliant, deep-blue liquid.
"This is…"
Genus's eyes went wide at the ten vials.
"This is Compound V. A drug that can alter a human genetic sequence and let even the most ordinary person gain superpowers."
"But it has side effects."
"I want you to use your tech to improve it—refine it into something safer and more complete."
Jovian pointed at the glowing blue vials as he spoke.
"A drug that can give humans superpowers… interesting."
Genus took a vial from Jovian. Watching the liquid drift through the glass—shimmering like flowing sapphire—he smiled.
"Also, when you modify it, don't make the users grow some weird extra parts."
"And keep personality control in mind. I don't want another failure like Carnage Kabuto."
"Honestly? In your entire catalog, the only thing that isn't trash is your rejuvenation serum. Everything else is garbage. Failed experiments."
Jovian folded his arms across his sculpted chest and delivered the "friendly advice" with a straight face.
"Failed experiments…"
"Everything except the rejuvenation serum is garbage…"
Each word hit Genus like a knife. For a moment, his vision swam, the room spun, and the whole world went dim.
It hurt.
"Actually… I'm not completely without successes."
"I do have one creation that counts as a success—both in personality and ability."
Genus couldn't stand losing face like this. He looked at Jovian and spoke with forced seriousness.
"What?"
Jovian gave him a skeptical look.
"You probably won't believe it, but you should know this."
"The current S-Class hero ranked eighth—Zombieman—escaped from me. He was Prototype No. 66. The 'immortal body' specimen."
Genus finally revealed one of his deepest secrets—basically screaming, A hero ranked way above you? Yeah, I made him.
"Zombieman…"
Jovian's eyes lit up.
"Well?" Genus puffed up. "Surprised?"
"And honestly, it's not your fault. When I found out that bastard escaped me and somehow became an S-Class hero… even I, his creator, was shocked."
Genus looked smug as hell, practically vibrating with pride.
"No. That's not it."
Jovian waved a hand.
"I'm annoyed because I made a mistake in my decisions."
"A mistake?" Genus froze.
"Yeah."
Jovian didn't bother explaining at first.
He really was annoyed—because his original plan had been to harvest the abilities of monsters.
But in reality, he could harvest the genes of certain heroes too—like Zombieman.
As for other heroes… the only one Jovian truly cared about was Tatsumaki.
Her psychic power looked nice, but the overall ceiling felt too low.
And besides, when Boros eventually came to Earth, a so-called "number-one psychic in the universe"—a giant alien psychic octopus named Geryuganshoop—would show up too.
If a replacement was coming anyway, then Jovian—being the kind of man who cared way too much about looks—would decide who lived and who died based on their face.
And that psychic octopus fit Jovian's preferences better.
"Anyway, research the drug for me."
"And don't do anything stupid. Don't turn it into some weird, out-of-control mess."
Jovian patted Genus's shoulder lightly.
"Have a little faith in me."
"No matter what, I'm still one of the smartest people on this planet."
"And purely in biology, I'm confident that—aside from the gods of legend—I'm the best there is."
Genus spoke with absolute certainty.
Nature on this planet could, at best, produce Dragon-level monsters.
And as the doctor of the House of Evolution, he could also create Dragon-level monsters—
which, in theory, meant he wasn't much worse than a god.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810