Where is Ivan? Shinichi Izumi kept glancing around the lobby, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Meanwhile, Ivan was trailing right behind Goto, watching the monster carry out his massacre without a word.
"You humans really are funny," Goto said up on the rooftop, ripping the head off the last tactical officer and tossing it over the edge like trash. He turned to face Ivan. "Watching your own kind drop one after another right in front of you and you don't even get angry?"
In the Anime, while it initially appears to be a parasite, Hirokawa is revealed to be a human who sympathizes with the parasites' philosophy.
"Just a bunch of pests who only know how to destroy the environment. Only when they're all dead can I build a new world, a new order," Ivan said calmly.
Goto actually looked pleased. "You're not bad. Only someone with ambition like that deserves to live in front of me."
"Then let's change this world together."
Goto spread his arms wide at the very edge of the roof, looking out over the glittering lights of Tokyo like he already owned it.
Until Ivan drove a hand straight through his chest and punched clean through his heart.
Spulch!
"Urg.. Who the fuck are you!!!" Goto roared in fury at the sudden betrayal. In a blur he chopped off Ivan's hand at the wrist. "You think destroying my heart will kill me? Stupid bastard."
"Boom," Ivan said softly, stepping back two paces.
Boom!
The severed arm still buried in Goto's chest exploded violently.
Countless razor blades burst outward from the inside, shredding through muscle, organs, and bone in every direction.
"Today I'll show you what a truly invincible being looks like," Goto snarled. He shoved his own hand into the gaping hole in his chest and ripped out the swarm of blades, crushing them to dust in his fist.
He didn't notice the tiny reflective fragments mixed in with the debris.
His other hand had already turned into a liquid-like mass and was sliding into the wound, trying to replace the destroyed heart.
But right as he thought he'd succeeded, a crushing wave of weakness slammed through his body.
Goto's face skin shriveled up in seconds. His black hair bleached white and fell out in clumps. His eye sockets sank deep into his skull. Every bit of vitality drained away as he felt his tissues breaking down, irreversible and total.
"Wh… what the hell did you…" Goto gasped with his last breath, voice cracking.
Ivan stood there calmly, watching the monster die. "Cyanide, my friend. Mixed with a little something extra. Enjoy the ride down."
He gave a small, cold smile as Goto's body finally collapsed.
"Hydrogen cyanide... No wonder…" Goto's body tumbled off the roof and smashed into the ground far below, landing in a spreading pool of his own blood.
"It's over." Ivan Greevs stood exactly where Goto had been a moment ago, voice calm.
A cool breeze swept across the rooftop. His body broke apart into countless glowing particles and vanished, as if he had never been there at all.
The instant Goto died, Migi's voice cracked in panic. "Goto's gone. I can't sense his brain waves anymore."
At the same time, Shinichi Izumi's phone buzzed.
He pulled it out. The message was from Ivan Greevs.
"Shinichi, this is goodbye for now. Maybe we'll meet again someday."
...
Swerl! Swoosh! Swoosh!
In a brightly lit room, countless light particles swirled together. Ivan Greevs' body slowly took shape again.
"Even after coming back, the injuries don't heal right away? Fuck this trash system!" Ivan cursed, staring at the stump where his right hand used to be.
Still, he had to admit that last fight had been razor-close. One wrong move and he would've been dead for sure.
Luckily he won. For Ivan, the end goal was all that mattered. Only idiots with one-track minds refused to use every dirty trick available and fought fair. Unless you had main-character plot armor, those types usually ended up as corpses.
"Dirty? Sneaky? Shameful? Winning is what matters the most.." A slow smirk spread across Ivan's face.
"Looks like I won't be showing up to work for the next two weeks."
He walked over to his desk, grabbed his phone, and texted his boss, Al, asking for time off.
Al agreed without much fuss, but only if Ivan gave up half a month's pay as the price.
Since the time flow between the two worlds was 150 to 1, this little trip into the fantasy world had only taken one day in reality.
To make sure nobody noticed anything off, Ivan picked out a jacket with deep pockets before heading out.
He shoved both hands in, and from the outside it looked perfectly normal. No one could tell he was missing a palm.
On his way to the Walmart supermarket, Ivan accidentally spotted a couple making out hard against a wall. They were going at it like they were trying to swallow each other whole, completely ignoring everyone walking by.
Ah, it's good to be back.
Ivan slowed for half a second, watching the girl's hands grab her boyfriend's ass while their tongues battled. A lazy smirk tugged at his lips.
"Putain… get a room, you animals." He kept walking, hands still buried in his pockets.
"Old saying's right. Show off your love and you die fast."
Ivan Greevs was about to pick up the pace and walk right past the horny couple when a sudden chill crawled over his skin. He snapped his head around, body already tensing for a fight.
Dummp!
A powerful gust of wind hit him square in the face.
Tiny droplets of liquid splattered across his cheek.
No puddles on the sidewalk, so what the fuck? Then the thick, metallic smell of blood hit his nose.
Human blood.
The next second, the scene in front of him lined up perfectly with a memory he already knew too well.
The woman got smashed head-on by the human bullet train. A red mist exploded into the air. When A-Train finally skidded to a stop, a wet pile of shredded meat and bone fragments slapped onto the pavement with a sickening smack.
"I couldn't stop… I couldn't stop…"
A-Train yanked his goggles back on and bolted away like a coward.
All that remained was Hughie, frozen on his knees, still clutching his girlfriend's severed hand. The poor bastard hadn't even processed it yet.
"Ro.. Robin? ROBIN!"
"Too fucking brutal," Ivan muttered, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his sleeve and shaking his head.
If those two hadn't been sucking face so close to the road, he might've actually recognized Hughie in time. But no, fate had other plans.
He'd been curious, though. How many fantasy points would the system have given him if he'd saved the girl?
Guess he'd never know now.
Ivan continued on to Walmart and grabbed some everyday shit. Almost every product had some supe printed on it. He even spotted an energy drink featuring A-Train's smug face on the label.
When he got to the checkout counter, the TV screen behind the cashier was playing one of Vought's propaganda clips. The one he'd been in.
Queen Maeve looked even hotter on screen than in real life, all glowing skin and perfect tits. Too bad his own part got cut down to just three pathetic seconds.
Ivan snorted under his breath. "My Oscar-worthy acting.. and it got only… three seconds? Cheap bastards."
He paid and walked out, one hand still stuffed in his pocket to hide the missing palm.
"Fucking director."
The second Ivan Greevs finished paying, the cashier slipped an advertising flyer into his bag.
"What's that?"
"Superhero audition flyer. It's blowing up lately. Tons of people are trying out. I went too, but I didn't make it past the interview," the cashier said while bagging the rest of the stuff. "We've got a joint promo with Vought this week. Buy any supe-branded products and you get 10% off plus one of these flyers."
"I see."
Ivan grabbed his bag and walked out of the Walmart.
Vought really had its fingers in every fucking hole in this world.
He pulled the flyer out of the bag and scanned it. The deadline was in two weeks. If things went the usual way, Starlight should slide right into The Seven without any trouble.
"Change the plot or kill major canon characters to earn fantasy points."
To be honest, Ivan was already feeling the itch to put a bullet in Hughie. Compared to the actual supes, a regular guy like Hughie looked like the easiest target imaginable.
But after thinking it over, he decided against it.
If Hughie died, who the hell knew how badly the plot would derail. Until Ivan had enough power to control the whole board, making random moves like that was plain stupid. He wasn't about to risk it. Any real gamble would wait until he was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Homelander.
Ivan stuffed the flyer back into the bag, one hand still buried in his jacket pocket to hide the stump, and kept walking down the street.
___
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69