First Superpower

If you get a superpower, how will you live your life?

I believe that many people have such a dream, a dream about getting a superpower and dominating the world, surrounding themselves with beauties and all sorts of debaucheries.

Of course, this was also Li Yue's dream. Why is it in the past tense, you ask? Because a dream that had been realized is no longer a dream.

It all started a year ago. On a morning that was no different than any other morning, Li Yue was awakened by an urge to pee. Still half asleep, he thought to quickly go to the bathroom before returning to sleep.

"Buzz," it was as if a strong wind or thunder had struck right beside him. Li Yue was shaken out of his daze, his eyes open wide in shock at the sight of the bathroom around him, including the familiar toilet. As a veteran of countless "battles" on that very toilet, he would not mistake any other toilet for it.

"Wasn't I still sleeping on my bed? How did I come to the bathroom before even opening my eyes?" With another 'buzz' in his head, Li Yue was returned to his bed, almost as if he had never moved at all.

Li Yue pinched himself. The pain told him that he wasn't dreaming. Could it be? "I am in front of the computer desk now." Li Yue concentrated his thought.

The same buzz rang in his head, and Li Yue immediately found himself sitting in front of the familiar computer desk, as if he had always been at that desk.

Li Yue turned back to look at the bed. He found weird blue lights flickering on it, slowly dissipating before they disappear entirely.

"Could it be...I have the ability of the protagonist in the movie 'Jumper'?" Li Yue had watched the movie 'Jumper' just before he went to bed yesterday, so he still remembered the abilities of the protagonist. It seemed to be rather similar to his current situation.

The movie begins with a scene of the protagonist giving the girl he liked a crystal ball. However, a hooligan student happened to see them and threw the crystal ball onto a frozen river. The protagonist could only go to the frozen river speechlessly to pick up the crystal ball. The thin ice of the frozen river could not withstand his weight and suddenly shattered, dropping the protagonist into the river. In the moment of crisis, the protagonist's ability to teleport was awakened, and he was instantly sent to the library. After discovering his ability, the protagonist went to go through all kinds of adventures, traveling across the world, even stealing the vault of a bank and sleeping on the pile of US dollar bills.

While the protagonist was up and doing all these mischiefs, a black uncle was hunting people that have the ability to teleport. This uncle believed that the teleportation ability was something that only God should possess, and no human should have it. He and his organization had been hunting people with such ability according to that faith. The uncle had noticed the protagonist's ability during the protagonist's stint with the bank vault, so he began hunting the protagonist. In the end, the protagonist and other ability users had to work together to defeat the black villain uncle and get the beauty.

The movie's plot was honestly lackluster, but the main character's ability was an enviable one. Li Yue had imagined how awesome his life would be if he had that ability. But when he actually obtained the ability, Li Yue was a little afraid. What if there was an organization that secretly hunted people with abilities like in the movie? What if he returned home one day to find a bunch of big men waiting for him in the house? Just thinking about it sent a chill down his back.

Even if there was no other people with abilities on Earth and there was no organization that hunted such people, if his ability were to be discovered, a group of people in lab coats would soon flock to him—the thought of their greedy grins chilled his heart. With his new ability, escaping them would be easy enough, but he still had relatives and friends. Also, his ability might look cool, but it doesn't have any offensive power. If he encountered any danger, the only thing he could do was jump away, unable to fight back.

But it was no use worrying over spilled milk. It would be more productive to spend his time familiarizing himself with his new superpower. If push comes to shove, it would be better if he could protect himself—or, at the very least, run away as fast as possible.

With that in mind, he tested his ability in the room. After confirming that he actually had the ability and not just having some memory problem or paranoia, Li Yue washed and dressed up, leaving the house to his workplace.

One year later...

Somewhere deep in the forest, a figure was constantly flashing all over the place. He was standing still a moment ago, but it moved a hundred meters in the blink of an eye. He returned to the same place before disappearing again. For a moment, the figure looked as if he had multiplied, moving faster than the eye could follow throughout the forest.

"Hah-ha! Not bad. I could hold for a few more minutes than last time. If I concentrate, I should be able to break through an hour. Well, it's already evening; time to go back!" The figure took a few deep breaths and looked at his wristwatch. He muttered something before disappearing, leaving the forest silent and calm as if nothing had happened moments ago!

Li Yue returned to his apartment. He washed in the bathroom and then disappeared, to reappear in the blink of an eye in front of the computer desk. He then picked up his phone from the table and ordered a takeout.

Li Yue never brought his phone while training. His phone had a GPS, so it might reveal his teleportation ability.

The takeout arrived half an hour later. After eating his dinner, Li Yue turned his computer on and played games for the next few hours.

Ever since Li Yue obtained a superpower and through years of continuous training, his mental strength has greatly improved. When he concentrated, it was as if time had slowed down—though it was actually his mind that had become faster. It had conversely made playing games less fun.

On top of that, Li Yue's physical body also improved. It was as if he had attained the legendary "Golden Bell" and "Iron Shirt" technique. Not only he became stronger, his skin couldn't even be scratched by an ordinary knife anymore. These abilities weren't shown in the movie, but if you think about it, teleportation must have burdened the body with great stress. There's no way he could withstand it without exceptional physical strength.

"Oh, huh. It was already 10 PM. Ugh, I re-watched the fourth Avengers movie yesterday. Iron Man sacrificed himself by snapping his fingers to save the universe. Black Widow died on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. I still can't accept that outcome. Movie director bitch, return my Iron Man and Black Widow!" No matter how many times he watched the movie, Li Yue still felt that the ending was unacceptable. After ten years of glory that spanned all his youth, the first-generation Avenger had fallen, ending Li Yue's youth along with him. From now on, he would have to work hard and earn money to support his family.

"But that life is for ordinary people, a life that gets further and further away from me since I got my superpower. I have no idea what my future would look like, but I felt that it won't be ordinary. It would definitely be exciting." Li Yue sighed in his heart. He felt like his peaceful life was on a precipice. He had known that his life wouldn't stay calm forever since obtaining the ability a year ago; the current serenity was merely a prelude to a raging storm.

But Li Yue wasn't afraid. He had trained his ability as much as possible in the past year. With a focused mind, he could teleport more than ten times in a second and continuously teleport through an hour. He had faith that nobody could hit him with a gun. His ability to escape was invincible.

Li Yue's ability was precisely the same as the one in the movie: he could teleport to somewhere he had been or somewhere within his line of sight. He could also teleport to a location in a photograph; he had tested it by teleporting into a photo of the North Pole. The Northern Light was beautiful, and the Polar Bears were cute, but it was too freaking cold. Li Yue caught a cold after returning and swore never to go there again.

Li Yue also developed some offensive abilities. He could use the force of teleporting forward to double the strength of his punch. He could also teleport to a place with a lot of heavy objects to then drop them on the enemy. Li Yue had found through experimentation that he could bring along any object below 50 tons within a ten-meter radius from him, which was more or less the same as in the movie. But the best technique in Li Yue's opinion was to teleport the enemy up high to the sky and demonstrate free-falling movement to them.

Back to the topic...

"I re-watched Avengers 4 yesterday. I guess I'll re-watch the Marvel universe from the beginning, Iron Man 1," Li Yue thought in his heart. Li Yue had spent the past year training his superpower during the day and watching movies or TV dramas during the night. He focused specifically on movies and dramas that heavily feature supernatural powers. It wasn't hard to guess his motivation, considering the circumstances when he obtained his superpower.

Throughout the year, Li Yue had watched all the movies he could dozens of times each, but unfortunately, he had not gained any other ability other than teleportation. But Li Yue didn't give up and kept going on, despite the lack of results and the abysmal chance.

As for why he chose Iron Man 1... wasn't an obscene amount of money a superpower in and of itself?

Iron Man 1 had already started playing. Tony Stark was kidnapped by the terrorists, and then he made a heavy Mark 1 prototype machine in the cave to escape. The movie ended after Tony Stark said the iconic line at the press conference: "I am Iron Man."

"No matter how much I watched it, the moment when Tony Stark flew in his Mark 2 still made me excited. His heartfelt smile was infectious, like a child that had found his most beloved toy. It was rare to see him smile in the armor after that. In the end, he even sacrificed his life and snapped his fingers... if there was a chance to fight with him, I would be so happy!"

"Sigh, what am I thinking about? The movie was over; let's go to sleep." Li Yue turned off his computer. With just a thought, his body disappeared from the computer desk and reappeared on the bed.

"Superpowers are so convenient!" Li Yue went to sleep with such thought.

Unbeknownst to Li Yue, right after he fell asleep, blue energy slowly gathered around him and wrapped his body as if a cocoon of light. Time slowly passed. An hour later, the blue light suddenly became brighter, the energy sending a ripple through space itself. The blue light suddenly shrank, before fading away, revealing an empty bed.