Chapter 1: Evolve and Gain Power

Peipei City, Republic of Heros

An 18-year-old young man sat on a bench in a park in the middle of the city. The young man had a flat face with shady eyes that seemed to be thinking about his future.

He scratched the back of his head while complaining in a low voice, "Gosh, I still can't believe that rebirth is real. Who would have thought that nonsense actually existed, and it happened to me. I was already quite satisfied with my previous life. Whoever did this must be ignorant."

He complained about his past because he was someone who was reborn after his death. In his previous life he was someone with a comfortable life above the average person. He had a comfortable job, passive income from successful investments, was also a successful author of fiction books, with millions of copies in print. It was a comfortable life until he was mysteriously murdered in his sleep.

His last memory of his previous life was when he closed his eyes to sleep. And he didn't wake up again after that. By the time he opened his eyes, he was a 3-year-old baby in a simple family. Life was good but not enough to fulfill everything she needed, so he started to help earn money after school.

But, he discovered something different about this world, it wasn't the same world as before, but a world with superpowers. A world where superheroes and supervillains exist.

Anyone who became a hero, even at the lowest rank among heroes, would gain fame and a lot of money as they were heavily funded to protect society not only from criminals, but also extraterrestrial beings who came with various purposes.

As someone who often read various works of popular fiction, he naturally expected some kind of golden finger that would allow him to have the power to interfere and become a famous figure. However, it seemed that he was not that lucky, there was no cheat, system or anything that could make him instantly powerful.

He really wanted to get that kind of thing so that he could immediately become a hero and become famous, so that with that he could earn a lot of money so that he no longer needed to restrain himself from buying whatever he wanted.

Even though he didn't get those things right away, he didn't give up hope. He searched for books about where the powers of superheroes and super guards came from.

He then frequented the library for that. Page by page, book by book he read and collected the information contained therein, then he recorded it into his notebook until he understood clearly.

From the conclusions he noted, this world had evolved in such a way due to certain events that caused them to be able to awaken some sort of power within themselves. Generally, the evolutionary phase occurs when a person reaches the age of 18, although not everyone will experience the evolutionary process.

Post-evolution powers also vary in function and usefulness. Research from the Heroes Association notes that 90% of people who evolved or commonly referred to as "Evolutionaries" gained powers with simple uses such as animal communication, bottle cap openers, shirt folding.

Only 10% of evolutionaries gain powers with broader uses. And only those 10% could develop their powers and become superheroes or supervillains.

After noting that, he became curious if he would become an evolutionary? If so, what powers would he get?

He was impatient and hopeful with the desire. The signs of someone evolving are characterized by several marks such as the appearance of a mark on the palm of their hand, the sudden onset of fever and the tendency to sleep more often than usual.

He had yet to experience any of the three marks, but he hoped that one of them would appear soon. Looking up at the blue sky, she was suddenly struck by drowsiness and wanted to sleep.

He wondered in his mind, "Is this a mark...? I feel so sleepy... I want to sleep first... But this is in the park... Ah, let it be..." He eventually fell asleep on the chair, protected by the trees and the flowing wind that made him fall asleep even faster.

After he woke up, a voice source appeared in his head as he recorded.

The source said, "Congratulations, you are worthy and capable of evolving. The process will begin in 3... 2... 1...."

The evolution process began, with the appearance of a bright light from his skin, followed by the feeling that his body was being split apart and reshaped to be stronger than before.

After his body was reshaped, the light slowly disappeared. That was the end of one's evolutionary process. The voice said again, "Congratulations on evolving, and therefore you have gained a power. I am the consciousness of that power." There was a tone of excitement contained within.

"Yes, yes! What power have I gained? Tell me," he asked impatiently after his evolution.

"The power you got is [Stealer]," the consciousness informed.

"Stealer? Does that mean I can steal other people's powers?"

"Yeah, but more to the point is you stole "other people"."

"Stole other people? Can you explain what that means?" He was confused by what his power consciousness meant.

"With this power, you can steal other people's bodies. After that you can access everything that person has, including his power," the consciousness explained to him.

"Other people's bodies? So what stealing means is stealing their bodies in order to gain access to what they have?"

"Yes, but you can only steal the body of someone who is dead," the consciousness said.

He was completely shocked. What? Stealer means stealing other people's dead bodies in order to gain access to what their bodies have such as their powers. It was completely out of his expectation. He had actually hoped to obtain powers such as fire manipulation, or instant teleportation that would facilitate his duties, whether in everyday life or on hero duty.

"People who are already dead? You mean I need to steal people's corpses from the cemetery?"

"No, not like that. It's more like you're killing someone, someone who needs to be killed."

"You mean like a supervillain?"

"Exactly."

"But how to kill them? They are supervillains, they must be very powerful. Whereas I don't have the strength to kill them." He wasn't sure, killing a supervillain? That was desperate and would kill himself instead.

"I can help you," said the consciousness.

"How? Oh, I see."

"Listen to me if you want me to help you."

"Okay, I'll listen." He focused his attention on listening.

"I can help you find and kill your first target, but you must understand that I can choose who the target is, understand?"

"I understand."

"Good, now to facilitate our communication, I need a name, give me a name."

"Name? Let me think about it first..."

He then thought of the right name, but it was a bit difficult because he was a rather poor thinker.

After a while of just thinking about names, he finally came up with a name, he said, "Okay, I'll call you Helfen."

"Helfen? Okay, but I have to be honest your taste is bad."

"Eits, it's a name from me, respect it."

Helfen was silent for a while until he finally spoke up again. "Fine, call me Helfen from now on. And let's get back to our topic...."