Two days of smooth travel flew by, the floating island drifting into a secure holding pattern a few miles outside the perimeter of Steel Armor Shelter.
Leaving the now-cloaked floating island safely above a nearby forest, Max walked with his people and eventually neared the shelter's outer walls and main entrance.
"Alright, gather close," Max commanded, "[Electromagnetism]... Photon Camo, initiate."
With a soft, localized hum, a distortion wave rippled through the air. Light began to bend near their bodies, perfectly refracting the textures of everything around them.
To the naked eye—particularly the eyes of the patrolling guards from the Son of Heaven gang—the space they occupied became entirely vacant. They were completely invisible ghosts now.
"Holy crap..." Wang Wei whispered, staring down at his hands, which were now completely see-through.
"Quiet," Max chuckled, leading the invisible train straight through the main gates as a group of unsuspecting hunters walked out.
"Just follow my lead. We've got a front-row seat to something amazing."
The 'something amazing' was actually the 'Ass Freak' incident from the beginning of the Super God Gene novel. Max had been waiting for this day for 5 years.
Max led his curious crew up onto the roof of a high-rise tower overlooking the bustling main courtyard and connected roadways.
He reached into his sea of soul, pulled out his trusty backpack and reached inside for his current pack of smokes, lighting one with a flicker of electricity produced at his fingertip. This was one item that Max had discovered was capable of holding non-Beast Soul items inside of his sea of soul.
He had tried making a pack of smokes into a Beast Soul years ago, and had rolled his eyes when the package disappeared into his sea of soul, but the cigarettes' themselves had not, falling towards the ground before being scooped mid air in his massive palm.
After taking a long drag and puffing out a cloud, Max noticed a silver haired beauty exit a Beast Soul shop with a pleased look on her face. This was one of the people Max had dragged his men here to watch.
And right on cue, just like in the novel, Qin Xuan, the leader (and absolute smoke show) of the Steel Armor Special Squad, entered a nearby alleyway to test out the new Beast Soul she had just acquired.
She activated the Mutant class Beast Soul, shapeshifting into a magnificent, white, wolf-like monster.
But Max's eyes weren't on her anymore.
They were fixed on a dark haired young man with smooth, unblemished skin and bright amber colored eyes, dressed in worn, hand-me-down black combat pants and a rugged, mid-length black jacket draped over a plain white shirt, with stylish looking combat boots.
'Very edgy looking...' Max thought to himself.
The boy with dark hair looked almost too young to have entered the 1st God's Sanctuary already, too—most humans gained entry at sixteen or later.
The seemingly ordinary youth passed through the shadows of a certain alleyway, glanced into said alleyway briefly and then stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes had become huge upon noticing the massive, savage looking form of the now transformed Qin Xuan.
This young man was Han Sen, the protagonist of Super God Gene, and it was his first day teleporting in to the Sanctuary from the Alliance, and now, he had already run into a creature!
Or so Han Sen thought.
What happened next in Max's eyes was pure, unadulterated, canon gold.
With a sudden burst of desperate, normal human agility, Han Sen bolted into the alley.
He didn't realize the huge wolf with a horn on its forehead was in fact a transformed human, not one little bit, and that ignorance caused Han Sen to unsheathe his weapon immediately.
Mistaking her for a wild, high-tier creature of the Sanctuary, he lunged directly behind the white and fluffy Qin Xuan's tail, raised a basic alloy dagger, and drove it home brutally, directly into her backside while shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Damned beast! This is for running into the city so arrogantly! Eat my blade!"
"Pppffffttt!"
Max and the rest all stifled their laughter while watching Han Sen take a poke at the poor wolf's butt.
"EEEEEEEAAAAAOOOO!"
The white wolf let out a furious, agonized screech, instantly transforming back into a thoroughly humiliated and enraged Qin Xuan, the knife still lodged in her now plump and firm—yet damaged—human backside.
Han Sen face turned dark and his lips trembled, realizing what he had just done, while the entire street erupted into absolute chaos.
The shelter certainly was not empty at this time of day, the howling of the perforated victim had drawn a lot of attention too, and the blushing, pissed off woman was certainly already known by everyone who inhabited Steel Armor Shelter.
Comments started flying left and right immediately.
"Isn't that Qin Xuan? No way! Did she just get stabbed in the ass!?"
"What a good, brave lad. He dared to stick it into Qin Xuan's butt... I wonder... where did this dead man walking came from? Haven't seen him before."
"Haha! Doesn't this noob know about Beast Soul transformations?.. I guess we're going to get to watch a good show!"
'You said it...' Max thought while chuckling softly, agreeing with what had just been said by one of the passerby's who had stopped to gawk and laugh at Han Sen's misfortune.
"Y-Yo-You, You!" Qin Xuan, still on all fours and bent over from her prior posture in creature form, turned even more red while fighting back the pain from the knife still stuck in her cheek.
Han Sen was absolutely stunned now, with a mix of realization and horror swirling around his head and appearing on his face... he snapped back to reality after a full five seconds and quickly pulled his knife out, carefully trying to now back away from the enraged woman.
Upon seeing the handful of seconds it took Han to 'unsheathe' and then sheath his blade again caused another round of shit talking.
"Holy F man... He dared to stab her butt and then keep it in there... He really must be a butt maniac!"
"Forget maniac, He's a freak! The Ass Freak!"
"Ass Freak? Haha! That's gonna stick!.. oops, too soon? Hehe."
Upon hearing the bullshit being spouted, Qin Xuan's anger far outpaced her pain and she stood up straight while getting into Han Sen's face and shouting:
"Where did you get the courage!? To stick me in the behind! You bastard!"
One bulky, heavily muscled man poked his skinny companion in the arm and whispered into their ear, "Whelp, he's a goner..."
Another man belonging to the Steel Armor Gang berated Han Sen immediately too, "Are you blind?! Why did you randomly stab the strongest woman in Steel Armor Shelter?! Are you seeking death?"
Han Sen looked around as more people pressed towards him, until suddenly he felt a pain in his chest.
"Ooof!"
Qin Xuan's foot had come up and planted itself squarely in Han Sen's chest, causing him to fall to his knees while clutching his broken rib.
"Be grateful I went easy on you, pervert!"
Humiliated beyond belief, and a little bit pissed off that she had to set an example, as someone attached to the Alliance Military-by not outright killing Han Sen for his offence, here and now.
Qin Xuan thought for a few moments for an alternative and then her voice echoed across the courtyard as she issued a furious decree:
"No one in Steel Armor Shelter is permitted to help that man hunt, trade with him, or buy his meat!.. Or even hang out with him!"
This was bad, and to make matters worse, Son of Heaven, who had been desperately trying to court Qin Xuan for years now, saw an opportunity to get in her good graces. Smirking arrogantly as he walked towards his own goons, he ordered them to mess with Han Sen and make his life a living hell from this moment forward.
Thus, the legendary, shameful moniker was born: The Ass Freak.
Max completely lost it on the roof.
He doubled over, muffled laughter shaking his massive frame so hard his 'photon camo' briefly flickered.
"Boss..." Biao Zhang muttered, staring at Max like he had lost his mind. "We snuck into the shelter...even though we could have walked through the front gate... just to watch some rookie stab the Special Squad leader in the butt? How do you always know when weird shit like this is going to happen? What was so funny about what just happened? Poor guy is doomed now."
"You wouldn't understand, Zhangy," Max wiped a tear produced from laughing so hard from under his eyelid, tossing a fresh cigarette into his mouth a moment afterwards.
"That right there is going to be an important piece of history, and you don't know it yet. Don't be too concerned about 'Ass Freak' over there from now on, things won't be great for him for a month or two, but after that? You would do well to stay clear from him... Hey! have I ever told you guys you remind me of the 'Heart Pirates'? Zhang, you're Trafalgar for sure and you two cuties are Sachi and Penguin haha..."
Yang Ming and Wang Wei had their curiosity stoked up even more upon hearing their fierce yet super mysterious leader speak a bunch of what they thought was nonsense, and they joined in as Biao Zhang asked a few more questions about the event they had just watched, but Max refused to answer any of them.
"Penguin? What do you mean by calling Wang Wei a penguin?"
"Shut up fool! Brother Flux was looking at you when he said that."
Once again, Max didn't want to cause any sort of butterfly effect and thus firmly told them to drop it, warning them again seriously to stay the hell away from Han Sen and then left it at that.
After making their way back outside of the city, they walked for a mile or two until the Steel Armor Shelter was far enough away to drop the cloaking, way more guards were near the wall now, seeing as one of the bosses of the shelter had been stabbed earlier, so just becoming visible again outside the walls wasn't an option.
Max promptly summoned the image inducer from his sea of soul, pressed a button on it and he took on the appearance of Sabretooth from his visit to Marvel, the size of the brutish mutant was similar to Toriko's, so this holographic disguise would work nicely.
Max wanted to go back into the shelter to grab a bite, he had noticed several kegs of beer being transported through the Shelter while watching Han Sen mess up earlier and wanted to visit the tavern they had been wheeled into for some grub and drinks.
He felt like celebrating the five-year mark of the Jump. Max would be preparing to move on to the Second God's Sanctuary in the coming days, now that he had seen the main character of the reality he was visiting. So tonight, it was all about partying with the boys.