The Artificial Heaven Project...
A purely technological heaven built by four top-tier minds—Jack, Dr. Genus, Bofoi, and Dr. Kuseno—based on humanity's image of Heaven in the New Testament. Its foundation was religious faith, and its goal was to forge the strongest human empire.
The only change was that God had been removed and replaced with Jovian, while the angels were replaced by those chosen by Jovian.
This was an era of religious replacement. Once the god of one faith stepped out of the pages and began walking the earth while the gods of other scriptures remained nowhere to be found, the followers of those other faiths were destined to disappear. In time, their sacred texts would become storybooks, or vanish into history altogether.
When all the believers had gathered, Jovian simply used his system's time-space travel ability and let those faithful souls witness a great miracle. He showed them the Kingdom of Heaven.
Just one minute was enough.
These people had already believed Heaven existed. The moment they saw it, they immediately dropped to their knees before Jovian. They believed that in this world, only Jovian could lead them forward, free them from the suffering of the flesh, and guide them into spiritual immortality.
"I will not abandon a single one of my followers!"
"I will not abandon anyone. As long as you believe in me, trust me, I will lead you away from suffering and toward immortality!"
Jovian's words struck every believer straight in the soul. Countless people broke down in tears. They swore themselves to him from that moment on, believing only in Jovian and no one else.
"What the hell is this...?"
Stillwell sat in her office, staring at the television as Jovian loudly declared that he now ruled Heaven, had led all of his believers up to Heaven, and then brought them back to Earth. She felt like her entire understanding of reality was being challenged. At this point, she was completely lost. Could Compound V really grant a power like this?
Stillwell had begun to suspect that Vought had never truly understood Compound V at all.
Boom!
Just as Stillwell's doubts about Compound V and Jovian's powers were spiraling, a thunderous roar came from the television. Under the watchful gaze of countless believers, Jovian shot into the sky.
Knock, knock, knock...
Barely ten seconds later, someone knocked on Stillwell's office door.
"Come in."
Hearing the knock, Stillwell shut off the TV, straightened her appearance a little, and then allowed the visitor inside.
The door opened.
A sharply built, handsome man stepped through.
It was none other than Jovian himself, the very same man who had been displaying divine power to his followers just ten seconds earlier.
The instant she saw him, Stillwell rose from her chair.
"Did you watch the broadcast?"
With his hands behind his back, Jovian walked up to Stillwell.
"Uh..."
"I did. I have a completely new understanding of how powerful you are. But I still want to ask one thing. What exactly was that power? And where did you take all those believers?"
Stillwell could not hide her curiosity. She had truly never seen anyone awaken such a bizarre ability from Compound V.
"To Heaven."
Jovian turned slightly and smiled at her.
"Heh, you can stop joking with me..."
"Heaven?"
"Where would a place like that even exist?"
Stillwell did not believe him for a second. She had always been an atheist, especially after watching so-called gods get manufactured with Compound V.
"Gather a team for me. I want the best publicity crew this company has."
Jovian did not care whether Stillwell believed him or not. A worker only needed to listen.
"All right. But please tell me what you need them for."
Stillwell nodded, then instinctively asked why he needed so many staff members.
"Don't you think you're asking too many questions?"
Jovian turned and looked straight into her eyes.
"Uh..."
Under his gaze, Stillwell felt her body tense. Sweat began to gather on her forehead. The feeling of being watched by him made it feel like her heart was being crushed in her chest.
"S-sorry..."
"I spoke out of turn."
Stillwell immediately lowered her head and apologized in a quiet voice.
"You only need to listen to orders and do your job."
"As for why I'm telling you to do something, that has nothing to do with you."
Jovian looked coldly at Stillwell's bowed back.
"I understand..."
Stillwell bent lower as she answered nervously.
"Good."
"Then go do what you're supposed to do."
"Gather the entire PR team. You don't need to worry about the rest."
"Oh, and those thirty senators who disappeared..."
"Tell the public that the great true god Jovian saw that they were too overworked, so he sent them to Heaven."
"And if anyone has doubts..."
"Heh. My followers will persuade the doubters for me."
Jovian turned his back to her, not even looking at Stillwell as she stood there bent over, his eyes full of amusement.
"Yes, sir!"
Stillwell had no idea what Jovian had done to those followers, but since he was this confident, she could not very well argue. Just as he had said, it was not her place to question him. What she needed to do now was obey.
After bowing respectfully to Jovian, Stillwell left the office.
Jovian turned around and watched her leave, smiling softly without saying a word.
Under Stillwell's orders, more than three hundred employees were quickly assembled. These were the true backbone of Vought. They were experts at filming, publicity, and selling hype.
Vought's heroes had all become famous through the scripts these people wrote and the promotional films they shot. And it was through these same people flooding the internet with spin and manufactured legend that children and hopeful dreamers had been convinced that Vought's heroes were true gods.
"What's going on?"
"Even those big-name directors got called in?"
"Is there some major event happening?"
The more than three hundred employees stood in the plaza, looking around in confusion. Most of them had been pulled straight off the job and still had no idea what was happening. Even the top directors had been dragged in without any explanation.
"All right, everyone. You've been called here today because there's something important we need to announce."
Once she saw that almost everyone had arrived, Stillwell stepped forward and addressed the crowd.
"Stillwell, what exactly is going on?"
"Why were all of us called here?"
One of the leading directors frowned in confusion. He had been in the middle of working on The True God Jovian vs. the Demon Homelander, a blockbuster that was destined to go down in history, when he had suddenly been ordered here to wait. He was furious.
"I know everyone is confused right now. As for the details, Mr. President Jovian himself will explain them to you."
Stillwell said that and bowed slightly toward the person behind her.
Then the tall, broad-shouldered Jovian stepped out in front of the crowd.
"Mr. President..."
The moment everyone inside saw him, they all removed their hats and stood at attention, eyes fixed on Jovian at the podium.
"First, thank you all for coming the moment you were called. Today, I have something important to announce."
"I need all of you to help me make a major film."
Standing at the podium, Jovian stated what he wanted.
"Is it a biopic about you, Mr. Jovian?"
One of the directors lit up at once. A biopic about the President—about the man hailed as the Progenitor of superhumans—what could possibly be grander than that?
"Something even greater than my own biopic."
Jovian shook his head.
"Even greater?"
"The founding of the United States, maybe?"
"Or the future of this world?"
The directors froze. They could not imagine what kind of film could possibly be greater than Jovian's life story.
"I need all of you to help me film my father's biopic."
As the directors continued guessing, Jovian smiled and gave them an answer that stunned everyone into silence.
"Your... father's biopic?"
Every person there widened their eyes.
"Yes. He is a great hero. But I think he can become even greater. That's why I need your help."
Jovian looked at the gaping directors and staff and continued calmly.
"This..."
"This is unbelievable. We've never heard anything about your father before."
"Is he a hero too? Which hero in the company is he?"
One of the directors pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the sweat on his forehead, clearly overwhelmed by shock.
He had not expected Jovian's father to be a hero as well. But if he was a hero, then he had to be one created by Vought. After all, all superpowers had appeared because Vought developed Compound V. So if Jovian's father was a hero, that meant he had used Compound V, and that meant he had to be connected to Vought.
"People online are saying Mr. Jovian was carried down from Heaven by an angel..."
A younger employee pulled out his phone, searched for a bit, and raised a brow at the thousands of upvotes beneath a wild post about Jovian's origins.
Carried down from Heaven by an angel...
That was ridiculous.
No one beside him said anything.
They just looked at him the way people looked at an idiot.
"Heh..."
The young man laughed awkwardly and put his phone away.
"My father is not from Vought."
Jovian looked at the crowd below and shook his head.
"Not from Vought? Then did he get Compound V through some other channel?"
One of them felt both confused and suddenly alarmed.
"Neither."
"My father isn't from this world."
Jovian cut through all of their speculation in one sentence.
"Not from this world?"
The entire crowd sucked in a sharp breath. Jovian's answer went far beyond what their brains were equipped to process.
"Everyone..."
"Welcome to a world completely different from this one."
Jovian snapped his fingers lightly, and a portal appeared in front of them at once.
The white light shining inside that portal was exactly the same as the light people had seen when Jovian took those believers away from the square.
"Another world?!"
Everyone stared at the light with wide eyes.
"You're about to film something in a brand-new world—something you never would have dared imagine before."
"If you're ready, step forward and walk through this Spacetime Gate."
Jovian rose off the podium and floated into the air above the crowd, his voice full of force and passion.
No one moved.
They all stared at one another in silence.
Their minds were racing. Hormones surged through their bodies. Sweat beaded on their foreheads. Nervousness, fear, curiosity—those feelings were battling inside every one of them.
Everyone hesitated.
Everyone waited.
"The first ones through will have the most creative control over the project."
Jovian looked down at the silent, hesitant crowd and added one more sentence.
The instant those words left his mouth, an elderly director with a weathered face, clearly over sixty, charged into the Spacetime Gate without a moment's delay.
"Fuck!"
The moment he rushed in, the other directors of the same stature could not sit still either. They all ran toward the portal.
Seeing the leaders move, the rest of the crowd finally understood what Jovian meant, and they began surging toward the gate as well.
"Hm."
Jovian returned to the podium and smiled as he watched the crowd rush forward.
"You're not from this world?"
Back at the podium, Stillwell looked at Jovian in shock.
"Did I ever say I was from this world?"
Jovian looked back at her and asked in return.
"But... didn't you say you were a citizen of the United States?"
Stillwell remembered that from one of Jovian's earliest recordings.
"Yes. A citizen of the United States from another world. What about it?"
Jovian had never lied to anyone.
To be precise, he had not told a single lie.
"You..."
"Don't tell me you never injected Compound V at all?"
Stillwell stared at him in disbelief.
"You think I'd use that trash with a mountain of side effects?"
"My powers are natural. The reason I'm this strong is because of my relentless hard work."
Jovian looked at Stillwell coldly.
"Don't waste time thinking about things you could never comprehend in your entire life."
"Just do what you're supposed to do."
"While I'm away from this world, you already know what you should be doing."
After giving Stillwell a few final instructions, Jovian vanished into the Spacetime Gate.
"What the fuck?!"
Stillwell stared at the place where Jovian had disappeared, eyes wide open. The flood of information crashing into her mind today had already gone far beyond what her brain could handle. She needed to find somewhere quiet and digest all of it.
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