In an apartment building, a 22-year-old unemployed man lay on his sleeping mattress, living alone after his father's death. To cover the sadness and emptiness he felt, he scrolled through his phone with no intention of stopping.
Then he came across an interesting video. It was an Inferno Jae video about choosing between the powers of four fictional characters: Peter Parker, Midoriya Izuku, Mark Grayson, and Bruce Wayne (Absolute), with the catch that you would have to fight their villains.
He started thinking about the best choice based on the ceiling of power he could get, as well as the risk of fighting each character's villains.
After a few minutes, he decided Mark Grayson was the best choice in his opinion. You get the basic Superman package (without any Kryptonian-specific abilities) plus Smart Atoms, which grant the user reactive adaptation.
Compared to the other three, they were either too underwhelming or too risky, even with the powers given to fight the villains.
With that thought in mind, he began leaving a comment under the video.
[HanmaBaki: I'd rather choose Mark since you could train yourself to get stronger with time and survive all those fights.]
Right after leaving the comment, he decided to read a few of the others. He nodded as he read them, then opened the newest comment. He noticed a comment so idiotic he felt the need to reply, and he did.
[SpiderGod8: I'd pick Peter because if Peter could handle it, I can. And most of the experience can be handled by killing his enemies.]
[HanmaBaki: Bro, are you for real? You can't handle it. You're forgetting something: his villains consist of herald-tier villains and cosmic beings, i.e., Knull.]
After that comment, he decided to scroll again. But then a notification appeared. He checked it. It was a reply to his message. As he saw it, he felt heated up, and the comment replies began.
[SpiderGod8: And?]
[HanmaBaki: You're delusional, bro.]
[SpiderGod8: No, I'm not. I'm pretty sure I can survive as Peter Parker.]
[HanmaBaki: Do you even understand the hypothetical we're having? We choose their powers, not become them. Bro, you're dumb.]
[SpiderGod8: And? I'm still confident I can survive his villains. They're not that strong.]
[HanmaBaki: Morlun? Knull? Venom? Carnage? Mephisto?]
Then the guy suddenly went silent. Notifications didn't come as fast as they had before. He smirked and let out a small chuckle, already knowing he had won the argument.
'Haha, he backed down. He's got no counterargument.'
Suddenly, notifications popped up again. The guy replied, not finished with the debate, and even challenged him this time.
[SpiderGod8: If you're so confident, I bet you can't survive in Mark's place.]
[HanmaBaki: I can survive even better in Mark's place and get far stronger than Mark ever could, and faster.]
[SpiderGod8: Let's see about that.]
He stared at the comment, confused. Why did the guy say it like that, like he could do something to him? But in the back of his mind, he felt slightly worried that the guy might track him. Then he glanced at the time on his phone and saw it was currently 3:35 AM.
'It's too late. I need to sleep and find a job.'
He decided not to scroll anymore after the debate he had just had with a random person. He shook his head, having gotten heated with someone so idiotic in his opinion. He closed his phone and went to sleep peacefully, not giving the conversation another thought. This was just a normal day for him, like any other person currently reading this.
. . . .
"Why is it so bright? Who the hell opened the fucking light?"
A 17-year-old young man with Asian features, and black hair muttered as the sun kissed his face through the window. He began covering his eyes because the light hurt, then started wiping them.
"Argh."
He sat up, annoyed, now unable to go back to sleep after being hit by the sun. Then he finally noticed something wrong: the whole room felt cool, since his house only had a fan.
As he looked around, he was confused as hell. He was somewhere he didn't recognize. This was not the living room. He was sitting on a bed with a blanket on it. Next to the bed was a bedside table with stuff on it. In front of the foot of the bed was a drawer cabinet. Posters hung around the room, and most importantly, the room was messy.
"Where the hell is this?"
His current situation baffled him because it seemed impossible. Every logical reason he thought of couldn't explain why he was here. He felt like this was one of those fanfics he used to read.
With that epiphany, there were only a few reasons left to explain his situation. So he quickly ran to the window on his right to check his reflection. He instantly noticed the difference in his face and his body.
"This is not me."
He began touching his face, his hair, and his body in surprise. One fantasy setting had just happened in real life, something he had imagined in the past.
'I'm not fat anymore, and most importantly, I don't have a receding hairline.'
He smirked, but then worry seeped into his mind. If this was really happening, what world was he in? Who was he? He didn't know what kind of danger he would face in the future.
So in a hurry, he began checking for a wallet to find an ID of the body he currently inhabited. He quickly started searching and, at the same time, cleaned the room so it would be easier to find things.
"Found it."
He pulled out the wallet he found in a pair of pants, then took out the ID to see who he was. He felt a bit anxious about who he had become in this world.
"Markus Sebastian Grayson."
He tilted his head, eyebrows scrunched, and began thinking which fictional character had this name. Before he could find the answer on his own, the door to his room was opened by someone.
It was a woman who had similarities to his face. It was the body's mother. She had black hair tied up in a bun, wearing earrings. It was Deborah Grayson, known as Debbie.
"Oh, Mark, you're already awake? Get ready. You'll be late for school," Debbie reminded him as she headed back downstairs.
The name she called him instantly clicked in his mind. He now knew who he had become, and he also knew who the likely perpetrator was that sent him here.
"This can't be happening."
He smiled. This was the best gift he could have. His body was shaking slightly with excitement.
'Thanks. I'm glad I had that debate with you, even if you are an idiot. Now I can have a new life and an easy life. But first, I have to handle the villains before I can have that.'
"I can live with this and become Mark."
He sounded a bit too eager, regardless of the future that would depend on his hard work and discipline.