ch.5

Days where I wake up happy and content are rare. I mean, there are days where I wake up normal, meaning wanting to go back to sleep and there are days where I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, wanting to just turn around and give up on life.

So as sleep lost its grip on me I was pleasantly surprised I didn't want to curl up and go back to sleep. I woke up feeling good...great even.

It felt like I hadn't slept on a bed for years.

'which I haven't' I thought as the events of the previous day came back to me.

It wasn't a dream.

I sighed slightly leaning forward a bit, I really reincarnated in dc.

Dc, just thinking about it gives me chills.

Leaning back into the fluffy hotel pillows, I sight louder this time, realistically this might not be that bad.

Dc is a world that ranges from street level fighting with barely above average levels of strength to universe level threats.

I just need to keep my head down, and not attract any of the bigger universe destroying threats until I'm ready.

Lex Luthor?

Cares more about his hate/love boner for Superman to truly use his brains.

Joker?

Almost never leaves Gotham unless it has something to do with Batman.

Brainiac and Darkseid will probably show up for the earth sooner or later, but that isn't my problem, at least not yet.

A lot of the villains and threats I can simply…ignore. If I don't attract their attention to myself, then they aren't my problem. There are as many Heroes as there are Villains in this world, there is no need for me to get involved…then again with what I have planned I doubt I will stay anonymous for long, and will make both Villains and Heroes come after my ass.

But until then, I will just lean back and watch them battle it out, and only getting involved in those situations that I know the Heroes can't handle without a lot of casualties. Not that I want to be a Hero or something but well nobody wants to live in a dystopian world where people die by the tens of thousands with every fight, or god forbid where the Justice Lords are a thing.

I know what you're thinking…the good guys always win, there is no need for me to get involved, but this is no comic book…at least not anymore, this is real life and in real life people die. There is no way that Superman battling the Villain of the week in the middle of downtown Metropolis doesn't end up with a few casualties.

Superman might be the personification of rainbows, unicorns, and the American way but he certainly wasn't perfect.

First things first, I need to figure out in which DC Universe I am in, and then make a plan.

My previous life has taught me that.

There were a lot of times where I rushed around like an idiot without a plan, that may have worked back then, but in a world as dangerous as DC that meant death…if I was lucky.

I should take my time and plan my steps carefully without attracting unnecessary attention from things that can kill me.

Well, that's for later…as for now I need to get ready and sneak out of here before my time was up and the manager came to kick me out.

Soul number one had refilled itself sometime in the early morning, but I don't want to waste energy on an illusion just to get out of here if I don't have to.

I want to keep my energy usage to a minimum until I have more souls…a lot more.

The first thing I did was take another long shower even though I took an hour long shower yesterday, I still felt filthy for having gone days without showering.

Getting some clothes and shoes for myself ended up being a surprisingly simple task, at first I wanted to just conjure them but I got the feeling that altering already existing material would cost a lot less energy.

I ended up turning the bedsheet into clothes and shoes for the low cost of 10% of soul energy.

After making clothes and shoes for myself, my stomach made itself known again, expecting a good meal like yesterday.

Last night I had counted the money I had stolen from the rich douchebag, I ended up stealing a little more than 20.000 yuan from him, so money wasn't a problem.

Finding food would be a bit more difficult, the hotel I was staying at was a love hotel, which is good for when you don't have an id and didn't want any questions asked.

The unfortunate side effect of that was that breakfast wasn't complimentary. Not that I would have been able to get some without putting up an illusion but still it would have been a lot more convenient than going outside and buying food at this time.

I didn't look like a street rat anymore. I looked like an elementary student, people will start asking questions like why I wasn't in school and where my parents were, which could end up with the police getting involved.

Something I didn't want.

"Grooowl!"

Screw it, I just need to make up a convincing lie.

Getting out of the hotel was easy, there were no people around, no one was looking to hook up at 9 o'clock in the morning and those that had stayed the night still had 2 hours before checkout.

Looking up at the sun shining down on me I let out a smile. I felt like a whole new person, it's incredible what being clean and in new clothes that fit can do to someone's self confidence.

I found a little food stall that smelled heavenly and went in.

It was a little stall, with only 5 seats, luckily there were only 3 people inside including the owner who was standing behind the divider cooking.

The owner, an old Chinese man in his early 60s looked up as I sat down and frowned at me.

"Why aren't you in school?" he asked.

"I don't have school today!" I told him, smiling cheerfully like a kid that was glad to be missing school "My father told me that he didn't have time to make breakfast for me, and gave me money for food, is this enough?" I asked innocently, showing him 5, 100 yuan bills.

No one blinks an eye at a kid being outside alone if they thought the kid had rich but neglectful parents.

"Yea, it's enough, what do you want?" he grumbled something about rich brats under his breath.

"uhm….a plate of scallion pancakes and 2 steamed pork buns to eat now, and 7 containers of scallion pancakes and steamed pork buns to go," I replied, still smiling at him.

The old man frowned at my order but in the end he didn't care enough to argue about it, taking two of the 100 yuan bills, he gave me my change and started preparing my order, ignoring me completely afterwards.

I pocketed the change and looked around. The only other customers were two men sitting next to each other eating and talking quietly with each other but other than that observation I didn't pay much attention to them and neither did they to me.

Soon enough my food was done and the old man put a plate of scallion pancakes and two pork buns in front of me.

A part of me, the part that was Alexander the street rat, still wasn't used to regularly eating delicious food, so I savored the moment and let the smell of the pancakes and the pork in the buns imbue the air before digging in, devouring my breakfast with all the manners of the kid that I was at the moment.

"Delicious!" I said, after taking the first bite, grinning up to the old man, and I really meant it. I don't know if it's this world or because this body hasn't eaten in a long time but everything just tasted better than in my previous world.

Leaning back in my chair I let out a belch and rubbed my stomach in contentment.

"Thanks for the food old man, see you next time!"

I left the stall with the rest of my order in a bag and walked in the direction of the docks where I could find what I was searching for.

Since it was daytime, I skirted along the street and took some of the more hidden alleyways and dangerous backstreets to get there sooner.

My plan to get more souls was simple. I still had 9 more bags of cocaine hidden and while I personally didn't know any more desperate addicts that would sell their souls, I knew a group that could find some for me…for a price, that is why I bought the extra food. The food itself won't be enough to get the group to work for me but it will at least get me in the door.

When I had just started out as a street rat, one of the members of the group had taught me the rules of the street and shown me how to pickpocket and steal food.

I of course wanted to join them at the time but got refused, they were a tight knit group and didn't take in outsiders. I didn't blame them even though I was a bit bitter about it, blindly trusting people on the streets got you killed…or worse.

The group had taken over an abandoned warehouse by the docks, where some of the older boys worked as off the books laborers.

Finding the right warehouse, I started hammering on the steel door.

It stayed quiet and I waited for a minute.

After a moment I started hearing people moving and low voices talking inside, so I started banging again.

This time I could hear someone coming to the door.

The one that opened the door was Zheng, a 13 year old boy, he had soft Asian features, short black hair and like the rest of us street rats he was too small for his age standing at 4.9 foot, he was also the one that helped me years ago.

"Alex, what are you doing here, are you in trouble?" Zheng asked, as soon as he saw that it was me.

"No, nothing like that, I brought food," I replied, holding the bag of food up so that he could see it.

"Food?" he looked at the bag of food suspiciously, food isn't something you show off on the street and you sure as fuck don't share it if you don't have to.

"You brought food?" he said again, this time in disbelief not that I could blame him, he had met up with the old Alexander 2 weeks ago and Alexander certainly wasn't fortunate enough to buy food for himself let alone for a whole group like this.

"I need to talk with Fang, is he in?" I asked, ignoring his question.

"Uh, yes he is in the back," he answered distracted, still not over his surprise.

"Wait, where did you get those clothes?" Zheng asked again, just now noticing my new clothes as I walked past him.

I grinned at him as answer, making him grit his teeth in frustration.