For a moment, the S-Class heroes just stared at Jovian—standing on the table under the lights, looking like he'd been plated in holy radiance—and none of them could get a word out.
They were genuinely shaken by what he'd just said. More than one world. Endless crises. A multiverse-scale Hero Association…
It was simply beyond what most of them could process.
"Jovian," Atomic Samurai said after listening carefully, gripping his katana as his blood started to surge, "you're saying the gates to the multiverse are going to open. That means I can go to countless other worlds and keep honing my swordsmanship—keep getting stronger. Right?"
Jovian just looked at him in silence.
He stared long enough that Atomic Samurai felt a chill crawl up his spine, his body trembling—until Jovian finally withdrew that crushing gaze.
"Mm."
Just one quiet hum.
But to Atomic Samurai, it felt like infinite hope.
"Perfect," Atomic Samurai said, almost exhilarated. "Then I'm in."
Unexpectedly, he was the first to agree.
"Huh?!" Tatsumaki, who'd been smirking at everyone's stunned faces, immediately stopped smirking. Her expression collapsed. "How are you agreeing before me?!"
Right as she puffed her cheeks in irritation, Saitama raised his hand.
"I agree."
Tatsumaki glared at him so hard it could've set him on fire, then raised her hand immediately, like she refused to lose to him on principle.
She became the second "yes."
Saitama glanced at Tatsumaki, exhaled slowly, and decided—like an adult—that he wasn't going to argue with a tiny floating gremlin today.
"I don't really know what Jovian's talking about," Saitama said blandly, "but if it's coming from Jovian, it's probably fine. So yeah, I'm in."
Saitama became the third "yes."
"Mr. Saitama agreed…" Genos thought, instantly dissatisfied with himself. "He chose that fast, and I'm still hesitating. That's pathetic."
"But if Mr. Saitama agreed, then I don't have anything to think about."
Genos raised his hand.
"I agree!"
Genos accepted Jovian's proposal.
"Genos and Saitama both agreed?" King watched them, swallowed, and cautiously raised his hand too. "Then… I agree as well."
"And even King agreed?!" Superalloy Darkshine and Child Emperor—two of the biggest King believers in the room—stopped wavering the moment they saw his hand go up.
Jovian looked at the majority of raised hands and chuckled.
"Relax. Don't rush," he said. "I can give you time to think. Just tell me before I end this meeting."
With that, Jovian walked out of the conference room—dog in one arm, tablet in the other—leaving behind a room full of heroes whose brains were still trying to reboot.
He found a quiet spot, set the tablet down, and studied the black dog in his arms—dark as a lump of coal.
"Right," he said. "I never gave you a name."
Then, like he'd just solved a major strategic problem, Jovian nodded decisively.
"From today on, your name is Fuck."
Jovian's affection for the dog rose immediately. Superman had a dog. Batman had a dog. What made it even worse was both dogs could star in a movie as the main character.
So how could he—as Freeborn—possibly not have a dog?
And look, his brother's name was Mark. His kid brother's name was Jack.
So naturally, the dog's name was Fuck.
Completely logical. Not a single flaw.
"Woof?!" Rover widened its eyes like it had just been personally insulted. Even if it couldn't speak, it had enough intelligence to understand that "Fuck" was… not exactly a respectful name.
"Fuck," Jovian said, rubbing the dog's head, utterly satisfied with himself, "if anyone messes with you, you go fuck them up."
Ring ring ring…
A tone sounded beside him.
Jovian glanced down. The tablet was lighting up—Dr. Bofoi and Dr. Kuseno.
"You two made it," Jovian said, tapping to accept the call.
On-screen appeared a middle-aged man and an elderly man with a deeply aged face.
"I already got the details through Child Emperor's equipment," Bofoi said, legs crossed, speaking straight at Jovian. "And that idiot next door has probably learned everything through his idiot cyborg, so let's skip the useless parts."
"I only want to ask one question: is everything you said true?"
"True or false," Jovian replied calmly, "you already have an answer in your head."
"Heh." Bofoi didn't deny it. He just smiled faintly.
"What do I get," Bofoi asked, "and what do you want from me?"
He was quick. Efficient. Pure self-interest.
"You'll get far more than anything you're imagining," Jovian said.
"That's too vague," Bofoi said, waving it off. "I'm not here for inspirational speeches. Give me something real."
Jovian watched the greed and hunger in Bofoi's eyes and smiled slightly.
"You want something real?" Jovian said. "Interesting."
"Fine. It's all right here. Read."
He sent the materials he'd prepared—uploaded them and forwarded them to both men.
"..."
Bofoi and Kuseno went quiet as they read.
The document laid out a massive blueprint: a New Humanity Era, and a Great Crusade spanning worlds.
Bofoi skimmed it, then smiled like he'd just found buried treasure.
"I'm in."
The moment Bofoi joined, the old man followed immediately.
"I'm in too."
Jovian blinked.
"Bofoi joining isn't surprising," he said. "But Dr. Kuseno, you agreeing… that's the part I didn't expect."
In Jovian's mind, Kuseno didn't seem like the type who cared about conquest or resource-grabs. So either Jovian had misjudged him… or the old man was better at hiding his nature than he looked.
Bofoi snorted.
"Haha. He only joined because I joined."
"He knows that anyone who reads your plan and still says yes probably isn't a good person. So he's joining as the 'one good guy' under you—so when we decide to do something he thinks is wrong, he can step up and try to stop us."
Kuseno's eyes carried a faint pity as he spoke, calm but firm.
"Some things can be done. Some things can't."
"The more power someone has, the more they should respect life—not keep marching down the wrong road. That only piles up corpses."
Bofoi laughed again. "Oh, really?"
Jovian simply smiled.
"Either way," Jovian said, "since you both chose to join me, let me welcome you in advance."
As for Kuseno's ideals—Jovian didn't care. Ideals or not, if Kuseno had the ability to do work nobody else could do, Jovian would still use him.
Of course, that was assuming Kuseno wasn't the kind of guy who built nothing but budget-burning tin cans.
That would be awkward.
"Soon, the universe will only have one voice," Jovian said pleasantly. "Humanity's voice."
Then he held the dog up toward the camera.
"Alright, Fuck—be polite and say goodbye to your two uncles."
"Woof, woof," Fuck barked, sounding extremely polite for a creature whose name was absolutely not polite.
After the dog "said goodbye," Jovian ended the call and headed back toward the meeting room.
At the same time, the vote tally among the S-Class heroes came in.
Twelve S-Class heroes chose to stand with Jovian and "defend the multiverse."
Blast was absent, and Zombieman was missing, so neither of them voted.
That left three "no" votes:
Silver Fang (Bang) crossed his arms and shook his head. "I'm old. I'm not dealing with multiverse nonsense. I'll focus on running my dojo."
Watchdog Man also declined. "I only want to protect my city."
He glanced at Phoenix Man, who'd been silent the whole time, and seemed to categorize him as "the same type."
Metal Bat shrugged. "I'm not interested. I don't care about anything except my sister."
So in the end, the twelve who joined were:
Tatsumaki, Metal Knight, Child Emperor, Genos, King, Superalloy Darkshine, Tanktop Master, Flashy Flash, Puri-Puri Prisoner, Pig God, Drive Knight, and Atomic Samurai.
The moment the choices were finalized, a Hero Association staffer rushed the result to Jovian.
"Good," Jovian said, flipping through the list. "Now pick out some promising A-Class and B-Class heroes too."
"Yes, sir," the staffer said, bowing quickly before hurrying off with the files.
Jovian didn't say anything else. He simply reached across worlds and contacted Jack.
"Jack, I'm sending you a list of names," Jovian said. "Generate clean, legal identities for all of them."
"I understand," Jack replied. "But there's one thing I need to highlight, great Mr. Jovian—no, I should say, my Emperor…"
"I can create a lot of legal identities instantly. I can pump out hundreds of airtight documents."
"But if the Guardians of the Globe suddenly has this many powerful new people show up overnight, Cecil is going to notice something's off."
For Jack, generating paperwork was trivial. He could create a thousand "American orphan" identities in ten minutes—names, records, histories that looked believable on paper.
But paper wasn't the only problem.
Data could lie perfectly. People couldn't.
If someone was patient and dug deep enough, they'd find inconsistencies.
"Cecil?" Jovian laughed. "Don't worry."
"If that many heroes suddenly appear, he'll be thrilled."
"And as for where they came from? He doesn't care. Not even a little."
Jovian knew exactly what kind of man Cecil was—someone who would use anything and anyone to reach his goal… even if he knew that "tool" was also his enemy.
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