"Have you figured it out yet? Ambition isn't the problem. The problem is letting desire blind you..."
Jovian looked at Grand Regent Thragg, whose face was twisted in pain and whose forehead was beaded with sweat, then slowly lowered the hand that had never physically touched Thragg and yet had so effortlessly closed around the throat of his fate from a distance.
"Hah..."
Once Jovian lowered his arm, Thragg finally got a chance to breathe. He sucked in air in huge, ragged gulps. The moment he thought back on that invisible power that had gripped his throat like it meant to snap his neck, fear ran through him all over again. He could not understand why a being this terrifying existed in this universe, especially when that being was also a Viltrumite. He had never heard of any Viltrumite possessing such power.
"Tell me, why are you so strong?"
Thragg staggered up from the ground and looked at Jovian's imposing back as he asked the question.
"Strong? I don't think I'm strong at all. I only seem strong because you're too weak."
Jovian shook his head at Thragg. Strength was always relative. Jovian, who had long treated the true omniversal heavyweights as his goal, knew very well how small he really was.
"Viltrumites, my people, I am Jovian Sebastian Grayson, son of Nolan Sebastian Grayson, grandson of the great former emperor of Viltrum, the new Emperor of Viltrum!"
"I will lead the Viltrumites to reclaim everything that should rightfully be theirs! In this universe, nothing remains that can stop me!"
Jovian ignored Thragg after that. He floated lightly in front of the gathered Viltrumites, spread his arms wide, and spoke in a loud, stirring voice full of excitement and conviction.
...
The Viltrumites looked at one another. They all had plenty of questions, but after seeing Grand Regent Thragg, a man they all feared, beaten with casual ease by Jovian as though he were little more than a toy, they knew perfectly well that they were no match for him. And following Viltrumite custom, the strong deserved obedience and only the strong had the right to decide anything, they chose submission without hesitation.
"We pay our respects to the Emperor of Viltrum!"
The Viltrumites dropped to one knee in unison and offered Jovian their loyalty.
"Your Majesty, how do you intend to deal with Grand Regent Thragg?"
"According to our traditions, the loser should..."
Among the Viltrumites, each of them attractive in that almost unnaturally perfect way their species seemed to produce, one young woman with a pretty face and neat short hair asked Jovian how he intended to deal with the defeated regent.
"There's no need to follow tradition. Every Viltrumite is precious. As for Grand Regent Thragg..."
"Take him away and use him for breeding. He is to contribute at least one hundred high-quality Viltrumite genetic samples to the species every single day."
Jovian looked at the defeated Thragg the way a man might look at a prized stud horse. Grand Regent Thragg? No, in Jovian's eyes he was just a breeding machine now. If the iron pestle still had not been ground down into a needle, then it would keep grinding.
"We obey."
After hearing Jovian's order, the Viltrumite woman cast a faintly pitying glance at Thragg, who stood on the ground looking utterly miserable.
She did not think there was anything wrong with Jovian's command. On the contrary, she approved of it. The Viltrumites had no room for useless people. Even criminals could still contribute something to the race. So she fully supported turning Thragg into a glorified walking breeding unit for future generations.
Even though she was Thragg's own daughter.
...
After fully bringing the Viltrumites to heel, Jovian handed the task of managing them over to his father Nolan and turned his own attention elsewhere.
He began reviewing the results produced over the years by the scientists working under him.
"After years of research, Compound V 5.0 is now nearly perfect. It has almost no side effects and grants users multiple superpowers. In other words, we'll be able to create countless warriors whose physical abilities rival Homelander's."
Stillwell introduced the little purple vial in her hand to Jovian. The Compound V 5.0 version. More accurately, this thing barely had anything to do with traditional Compound V anymore. At this point, calling it Compound X would be more appropriate.
"Excellent."
Jovian nodded, satisfied with the Compound X produced by her scientific team.
"And according to our research, Compound X can be used not only on ordinary humans. It can also be administered to Viltrumites who already qualify as super-soldiers, improving their genes further and compensating for certain weaknesses in their biological structure."
Seeing that Jovian seemed pleased enough, Stillwell finally relaxed a little before continuing her explanation.
"Oh?"
"Compound X works on Viltrumites too? Which means you experimented on Viltrumites?"
What interested Jovian was not that Compound X worked on Viltrumites, but that Stillwell knew it worked on them in the first place. That meant she had tested it on Viltrumites. Jovian found that amusing, because before Grand Regent Thragg brought the Viltrumites to Earth, the number of Viltrumites Stillwell could have gotten her hands on was extremely limited.
"Uh..."
The moment Jovian said that, panic flashed across Stillwell's face. She did not know whether he would be angered by what she had just revealed.
"Speak freely."
Seated on his throne, Jovian looked at Stillwell deeply and spoke in his low, rough voice.
"Your Majesty, we... we ran experiments on your younger brother Mark. But we didn't force him. We only proceeded after communicating with Mr. Mark and obtaining his consent. The experiments were carried out with his full cooperation."
Stillwell hurriedly explained the whole thing.
"Why are you panicking?"
Jovian shook his head when he saw how flustered she was. It was not as if he had ever forbidden them from experimenting on Mark. As long as they did not kill him and make Debbie and Nolan sad, they could do whatever they wanted. That foolish younger brother of his was useful for little else anyway.
"How effective were the results?"
Jovian asked about the use of Compound X on Mark.
"The results were excellent! Mark gained laser vision, enhanced senses, and more. Not only that, his strength, speed, and endurance all increased dramatically. The current Mr. Mark could defeat Homelander with ease."
Stillwell continued using Homelander as her standard for measuring Mark's combat power.
"Heh..."
Jovian chuckled after hearing Homelander brought up again and again. Homelander was dead, but he still lived on in everyone's hearts.
"Activate Plan A. Inject every person across all four Earths with Compound X."
"The Superhuman-for-All Initiative begins now..."
Jovian walked up to Stillwell and spoke in an almost cheerful tone.
"Mr. Jovian, should we also administer enhanced doses of Compound X to death row inmates and violent criminals?"
Stillwell thought for a moment, then looked at him and asked.
"Of course. Give them Compound X and send them to the front lines of the Great Expansion. Let those parasites contribute at least a little to humanity."
Jovian answered without hesitation. The combined population of all four Earths was only a little over twenty billion. That was still far too few people. Though he could use Dr. Genus's cloning technology to mass-produce clones, the time still was not right. In Jovian's view, Dr. Genus's cloning methods were still far from perfect and needed improvement.
More importantly, he still had not decided whose genetic template to use as the base.
There was still a long road ahead.
"Understood..."
After receiving Jovian's orders, Stillwell accelerated the Compound X vaccination program.
Over the next six months, the people of Earth completed their Compound X injections almost without realizing it, the same way an entire population might quietly be vaccinated.
Robert was fourteen years old. Like most kids his age living in the Free Zone on Earth One of the New Solar System, he was utterly ordinary in appearance, from an ordinary family, living an ordinary life. A perfectly ordinary edgy teenage kid.
But after receiving a vaccine meant to protect against alien viruses, he discovered that everything had changed.
His brain worked better than ever. His body had become unbelievably tough, so tough that his father's hunting rifle could not even leave a mark on him. He was incredibly fast, fast enough that he had no idea where his upper limit even was. Even a speeding train looked slow to him. His senses had sharpened to an absurd degree. From over a hundred yards away, he could clearly see a mosquito's wings beating.
Robert was sure of it.
Without question, he had awakened superpowers.
And not just any superpowers, but incredibly powerful ones. Stronger than those weaklings in the Guardians of the Globe, stronger even, he believed, than Earth's greatest hero, Omni-Man.
He was the strongest person in the world.
He knew it. He had always known he was born different.
And yet, after awakening his powers and becoming the strongest person in the world, he did not brag about it. He kept a low profile and continued acting like a normal person. Because according to the calculations of his brilliant mind, he probably was not the only awakened one.
Until he confirmed that no one else in the world had awakened powers, he needed to lie low.
But once he found out that he really was the only one, then everyone else would just have to accept it. The strong devoured the weak, the fittest survived, and nature belonged to those capable of ruling it. He would replace Omni-Man and rule all of Earth.
So Robert waited patiently.
For half a year.
And then, on that day six months later, Robert looked at the red alert on his phone, widened his eyes, and shot into the sky.
"It's finally here!"
"This day is finally here! I am..."
He tore through the air and flew ten thousand meters into the sky, shouting in excitement.
"I am God!"
But before he could finish, the words he was about to say echoed in his ear from somewhere else.
"Who are you?"
Robert froze in shock and turned toward the voice. At some point, without him noticing, there was another person in the sky at that same altitude, a boy who looked a few years older than him.
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
The older boy frowned at Robert.
"I'm the god of the human world!"
Robert answered without hesitation.
"What a coincidence. So am I..."
The boy nodded. The god of the human world? Join the club.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you that."
Just as Robert and the boy were speaking, several more people flew up into the sky.
"What the fuck?!"
"Are superpowers really this cheap now?"
Robert and the boy stared at the increasing number of people filling the sky, both of them wearing the same huge question mark on their faces.
The situation, as it stood, came with one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
The good news was that he had awakened superpowers. He really was special.
The bad news was that he was not the only one. There were already dozens of awakened people, and that number was still rising.
"So all these people awakened too?"
Everyone in the sky looked at one another, and for a while no one dared make the first move.
"So you're the ones scheduled to awaken today?"
"I'm here to pick you up..."
Just as the newly awakened group cautiously stared each other down, a graceful figure flew up in front of them.
"Who are you supposed to be?"
The awakened people looked at the newcomer and asked bluntly.
"Who am I? I'm the one in charge of you."
The woman had a beautiful face, sharp short hair, and a white skintight combat suit that perfectly outlined her gorgeous figure. She looked down at the awakened group with a faint trace of disdain in her eyes.
"In charge of us? Arrogant!"
One awakened person after another roared in anger. They refused to believe that one little woman could take all of them down.
"Heh..."
The woman laughed softly, turned into an afterimage, and charged straight into the group. Instantly, the newly awakened superpowered people were beaten apart like vegetables under a chef's knife.
"No, this is all wrong. Completely wrong."
Robert's eyes widened as he watched the woman tear through everyone. A nagging feeling of unease finally rose in his mind.
First, why had he spent six months hiding in the first place? That did not fit his personality at all.
Second, why had he not gone to do what he actually wanted the moment the day arrived? Why had he come to this place instead?
Third, why was there a woman here, clearly far stronger than any of them, calling herself the one in charge of them, appearing the moment all the awakened people gathered and beating them down?
Fourth, why were the people knocked unconscious immediately being loaded onto pre-positioned medical machines? And according to his calculations, there were exactly as many medical robots as there were awakened people. How had the enemy prepared the exact number of robots in advance?
Taken together, there was only one conclusion.
This was a trap.
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