"Dad, can you bring the Grand Regent to Earth now?"
Jovian looked at Nolan, who had flown back up in front of him, and asked.
"All right! I admit you've already surpassed me by a huge margin. But that still doesn't prove you've surpassed Grand Regent Thragg!"
"Jovian, you need to learn caution. A qualified warrior must be cautious enough. Just look at me. To figure out this planet's power level, I stayed undercover for decades."
At this point, Nolan had already accepted that Jovian had surpassed him. In fact, deep down, he was already starting to believe that Jovian might really have surpassed Thragg and become the strongest Viltrumite. But he felt like he had lost too much face, so he still put on the air of an elder lecturing the younger generation.
"..."
Jovian said nothing. He simply opened the backpack at his side and pulled out a white fur coat.
"Hm?!"
"That is...?"
Nolan stared at the snow-white coat in Jovian's hand, his eyes filled with both confusion and a strange sense of familiarity. He felt like he had seen something like it before, but couldn't place it for the moment.
"Oh?"
"You mean this coat?"
"Actually, this is just a little reward I got after defeating Battle Beast. You know who Battle Beast is, right?"
After hearing Nolan's question, Jovian smiled lightly and explained where the coat had come from.
"You..."
Nolan's eyes trembled. He snatched the coat out of Jovian's hands and spread it open.
"..."
After examining it carefully, Nolan confirmed where it had come from.
"Jovian, you killed Battle Beast?"
Nolan looked at Jovian, not entirely sure he had heard him correctly.
"Yes. Don't tell me you didn't know I killed Battle Beast?"
Jovian looked at Nolan with an expression that clearly said, What? You seriously didn't know your son pulled off something this big?
"How was I supposed to know you killed Battle Beast? If I'd known you killed Battle Beast..."
Nolan felt a fire building in his chest. If he had known even Battle Beast had died at Jovian's hands, there was no way he would have said something as catastrophically stupid as, let's spar...
"Wait. Jovian, why didn't you take this out earlier?"
Suddenly, Nolan seemed to realize something, and he looked at Jovian as he asked.
"Haha..."
"Who knows?"
Jovian just smiled and said nothing. Was he supposed to pat Nolan on the shoulder and say, Dad, no big reason, you've just been way too cocky lately, so I wanted to remind you there's always someone stronger?
"Son, I think we need to have a serious talk. Maybe with Debbie too. A real family discussion."
Nolan had clearly figured it out by now. He looked at Jovian, the corner of his eye twitching.
Nolan had always been smart. Looking at Jovian, he basically guessed in an instant why Jovian hadn't shown him the white fur coat right away.
"By the way, Dad, I've still got some things to take care of! You keep up the good work here!"
Jovian casually patted Nolan on the shoulder like he had no respect for seniority at all, then vanished in a blur right in front of him.
"Jovian..."
Nolan watched him leave, and for a moment his eyes looked like they might spit fire. But in the very next second, he relaxed again. Looking at Jovian, who was so outstanding that he had already surpassed every Viltrumite in history, Nolan's eyes filled with affection.
After all, that was his son. His most exceptional son.
"Hah..."
After leaving the base, Jovian stretched his body. The Great Expansion was just ahead...
Everything was already on the right track.
Now all that remained was to keep devouring power and growing stronger.
He, Jovian, was a hardworking man. Everything he had achieved today came entirely from his relentless day-and-night effort.
"System!"
Floating in the sky, Jovian opened up his system.
In an instant, countless worlds appeared before him.
Jovian didn't even glance at the lower-tier ones. His eyes locked onto three high-level universes.
The MCU
Warhammer 40,000
Star Wars
"Open the MCU..."
Without hesitation, Jovian directly opened the MCU multiverse.
MCU was short for Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Interestingly, after Doctor Strange opened up the Multiverse of Madness, and after the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four returned to Marvel, the MCU became stronger and larger than before.
But it also became more dangerous.
Still, danger and opportunity always came together.
Jovian had never planned to get involved in the MCU's major events. That would make it too easy for the beings at the top to notice him. His targets were people who had almost nothing to do with the big events. Put simply, he was planning a guerrilla campaign.
"Note: The system cannot lock this universe's timeline..."
"This universe may split into entirely new parallel universes because of the host's actions. After any such split, the consequences will be the host's responsibility."
"Note: Some smaller sub-universes under this universe may collapse if the host kills certain key individuals. This may draw the attention of the Celestials and other cosmic gods. Host is strongly advised to proceed with extreme caution. Extreme caution. Extreme caution."
Just as Jovian finished warming up and was preparing to begin his mad hit-and-run campaign to grow stronger, the overly timid system began giving its report.
"You really are kind of useless for a system..."
After hearing the report, Jovian shook his head helplessly. He had already guessed that his system probably wouldn't be able to use all the same cheat-level authority in the MCU that it could in a few lower-tier worlds, but he hadn't expected it to be this cowardly. It was only the MCU, wasn't it? What was it so afraid of? It wasn't like he was planning to solo a fully equipped Thanos, Infinity Stone Ultron, or Doctor Strange at his most broken...
"Pull up the MCU timeline..."
Jovian manipulated the system with a light wave of his hand, and countless points in time immediately appeared before him.
"All MCU stories begin with Iron Man, but entering at Iron Man wouldn't help me that much."
"The first world I've set my sights on is one that was brought back in 2018 and successfully folded into the MCU: the Fox film X-Men: First Class."
"System, send me into the world of X-Men: First Class."
Jovian traced back along that timeline and quickly locked onto the world he was preparing to enter.
"System is discreetly deploying anchor point..."
"Coordinates locked..."
"Beginning transfer..."
The system's voice echoed in Jovian's mind.
In the blink of an eye, Jovian vanished from the skies of the Invincible universe.
During World War II, inside a concentration camp where the Nazis imprisoned Jewish people.
Inside a laboratory, a doctor named Klaus Schmidt sat behind his desk, a small round pair of glasses resting on the bridge of his nose, as he looked at the boy standing before him.
"Show me your power. I know better than you just how strong you can become."
"Come now. Crush that bell in front of me."
Doctor Klaus Schmidt looked at the boy before him and spoke softly, guiding him, trying to draw out his powers.
"Mm..."
After hearing the doctor's words, the boy raised both hands toward the bell, gritting his teeth as he tried with all his might to crush it.
But no matter how hard he strained, the bell did not move at all.
"Sigh..."
Klaus Schmidt let out a sigh and waved to the soldier standing behind the boy.
The soldier understood the order immediately and left the room. Not long after, he returned with an ordinary-looking woman.
"Child, it seems you need a little more motivation."
Klaus Schmidt smiled faintly at the boy, raised the pistol at his side, and fired a shot straight into the woman.
Bang!
With the gunshot, a beautiful red flower of blood bloomed across her body, and then she collapsed to the floor.
"Mother..."
The boy stared at his fallen mother with wide eyes. His face was full of disbelief. For a moment, his mind went completely blank.
"This is your fault, child. If you had been strong enough, you could have saved your mother just now. But you failed."
"To be honest, I'm deeply disappointed in you, my dear boy."
Klaus Schmidt looked at the trembling child before him, each word like a knife carving into the boy's heart.
"No! No!!!"
The boy clenched his fists. He was furious. Rage swallowed up his heart. His eyes and his soul were filled with hatred.
Clang!
The metal bell in front of Klaus Schmidt was crushed into a lump in an instant.
Before Klaus Schmidt could even react in surprise, every metal object in the sealed lab beside him rose into the air and was crushed flat.
"My God!"
The soldiers restraining the boy stared in horror at the scene before them. It was the first time they had ever seen anything so terrifying, and it had come from the hands of a Jewish boy they despised and looked down on.
Clang!
Before the soldiers could recover from their shock, the helmets on their heads suddenly contracted and clamped down hard around their skulls.
"Aaaah!!"
Terrible screams burst from their throats. They could feel the overwhelming force of the metal twisting and deforming their skulls.
"Aaah!!!"
The boy was still roaring. He was angry. He hated these people. He hated everything in this place.
"Yes! That's it! That's it!"
"Hahaha..."
The doctor known as Klaus Schmidt burst into laughter as he watched the enraged boy and the metal being manipulated around him. This was exactly the power he had always wanted to witness.
"Remember this anger. This power is what will make you strong!"
Klaus Schmidt kept encouraging the boy. His gaze was soft, almost as if he were looking at a priceless treasure.
"Hah... Hah... Hah..."
As the boy gradually calmed down, he looked at Klaus Schmidt standing before him. He did not continue venting his rage. Instead, he burned that man's face into his memory.
He swore that one day he would have revenge. Sooner or later, the man who killed his mother would pay for what he had done.
"That look! That's the look!"
"Hate me. Keep hating me! Only then will you grow even stronger. You can control metal. You will become the god of a new age."
Klaus Schmidt raised his right arm as he stared at the boy in front of him, his voice filled with excitement. He could already imagine the boy laying waste in the future to a world built from steel and concrete, a world where every weapon made of metal, every tank, rifle, aircraft, and submarine would be as meaningless before him as toys.
Klaus Schmidt knew that the boy before him possessed the power to end a war all by himself.
Rat-tat-tat-tat...
Just as Klaus Schmidt was standing there, consumed with excitement as he stared at the boy and imagined the future, the sound of machine-gun fire suddenly reached his ears.
"Hm?!"
Klaus Schmidt frowned. He had no idea what was happening outside his office.
"Ah!"
"Kill him!!"
"Monster..."
Countless voices overlapped, but from the agony in those screams, Klaus Schmidt could clearly tell that a brutal battle was unfolding outside.
He gripped his pistol and rose to his feet with extreme caution, his eyes fixed on the metal door.
Five minutes later...
The chaos outside vanished completely.
The only sound left was a measured set of footsteps, steadily approaching.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"Damn it!"
Klaus Schmidt cursed under his breath and raised his pistol at the door.
Sizzle—
But under his horrified gaze, a blazing beam of heat vision shot through the metal door, melted it apart, and came straight at him!
"fuck!"
Klaus Schmidt shouted as he raised both hands, trying to block it.
In the next second, he felt a massive force beyond the limit of what he could absorb slam into his body and send him flying backward.
Boom!
At the same time, the metal door to Klaus Schmidt's office was blown apart by a violent punch, and a tall, powerfully built man in a white bodysuit drifted lightly into the room.
"You have superpowers too?!"
Klaus Schmidt staggered back to his feet and stared at the floating Jovian as he demanded an answer.
"How about working with me? I can absorb energy, and you can release energy. You can even fly. If we join forces, ruling the world would be entirely possible..."
Klaus Schmidt extended an olive branch as he looked at the hovering Jovian.
"You? You're not worthy."
Jovian appeared in front of Klaus Schmidt in an instant and punched the watermelon right off the top of his shoulders.
In that instant, the great doctor Klaus Schmidt, the future Sebastian Shaw, was decapitated on the spot. The future main villain of First Class became the first headless horseman in the X-Men universe.
"You okay, kid?"
After finishing all that, Jovian turned to look at the boy crouched in the corner of the room.
No, more accurately, he was looking at the future Omega-level mutant, the one and only Magneto, Erik Lehnsherr.
// 20 chapters today! 15 now and 5 more later. I hope you enjoy it. As always, thanks for the Power Stones!
//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810