5

An important step in Lucas' journey was becoming a superhero. With his current strength, he felt safe enough to deal with most of the lesser villains and remain unharmed. He felt it was time to fight crime and become stronger through it.

There was one thing he needed before he could start fighting crime, and that was his superhero costume. He had the perfect idea.

Finding Art Rosenbaum's store wasn't hard, it was right there on Google Maps. It made sense because it was a daytime clothing store.

Getting there was the fun part. Lucas hadn't flown outside the training chambers before, this was his first time flying outside. It was a unique experience, every man's dream come true.

He still couldn't exceed 200km/h, but it was a liberating feeling all the same.

He visited the shop at night, which was probably when the superheroes visited and placed their orders.

The shop appeared to be closed, but an attentive eye could see the small green button hidden in a crack in the wall. Ordinary people wouldn't notice it in the dark, and Lucas was sure it wouldn't show up during the day.

When he touched the button, the doors opened and a small bell rang inside the shop. A slightly balding man who looked to be in his 50s or 60s came out of the back of the store.

"Ah, a new visitor. I guess you're here for your first purchase, huh?"

He seemed quite friendly.

"Yes, I hear you make the best suits. I need a sturdy one."

He didn't expect the suit to withstand the impact of monsters and villains, but he did hope that he wouldn't be naked every time he got into an extreme fight.

"Alright, come with me, I'll show you some of what I have here."

Before Lucas could answer, the old man had already gone down to the basement, leaving him no choice but to follow.

Downstairs, some costumes were displayed in a glass case. Some of them were probably souvenirs of superheroes he had already made costumes for.

Art showed him several costumes that were already finished, but he had already gone there with an idea in mind.

"Actually, Art, I already have something in mind that would suit me very well."

Saying this, Lucas showed the design he had made on a few sheets of paper.

After getting so much stronger, he had discovered that not only had his reflexes improved, but so had his motor coordination. These were qualities that helped immensely in combat, but also in his ability to draw.

"Hmm, interesting. Quite different from what they usually require. These white parts need to be flexible and resistant? That's easy, similar to what I usually do here. These yellow parts don't need to be flexible at all, which gives me more leeway to increase their strength. These gray parts are the easiest part. Consider it done, it'll be done in a week."

Lucas had designed a full suit of Saiyan armor, similar to Vegeta's at the beginning of the Frieza saga. However, instead of blue underwear, he opted for gray clothing.

In this universe, there was no Dragon Ball, so he could walk around dressed as a Saiyan and no one would think he was cosplaying.

Meanwhile, he would take the opportunity to complete his social network based on Tiktok. He thought it would take a full 6 months to have a stable, usable version, but he managed it in just 4 months. The difference was that he wasn't developing from scratch, he already had all his experience with the design and usability of the app's interface, and even had a rough idea of what Tiktok's algorithm looked like.

The algorithm was the key. All the big social media companies in his past life were jealous of Tiktok's algorithm. It was a tool that could keep its users engaged for hours without them noticing or even getting bored. It was simply a dopamine machine gun and a source of endless money for its owners.

Now, apart from a few final tweaks to the servers, there was very little left to do before he could launch his own social network.

A few days later, the app was in all the app stores. Lucas had spread the word to his family, former co-workers, and even paid some influencers to use and promote the app. He had also done some paid traffic on other social networks. Now all he had to do was wait for things to happen on their own.

Once he had enough users, he would sign deals with record labels and music companies to include their music on the platform. In this way, the app would become more and more like the original.

It didn't take long for the first ads to appear on the platform and the first revenue streams to be generated. He was then able to expand the servers and hire more and more people to manage the company.

As soon as all the investments he had made in advertising and promotion started to pay off, he had thousands of users in the first few days. The trend was only up.

While his social network was showing small successes, his superhero costume was ready.

"This turned out better than I thought, Art, it's time to put it to the test!"

He was really excited to go around beating up bad guys and being arrogant like Vegeta. Well... Maybe not so arrogant.

"Go test it out, kick some bad guys. And come back when you need a new one, haha."

Lucas shuddered at the mention of a new costume, these little beauties were absurdly expensive. But they were worth it.

Before he went out to beat up villains, he had one last thing to do.

Since he realized that the reason his reflexes and motor coordination were absurdly improved was because of his own ki acting on his midbrain and cerebellum, he tried to do the same on his prefrontal cortex.

The midbrain was responsible for his reflexes, the cerebellum for his motor coordination. If he could produce similar effects in the prefrontal cortex, there was a good chance that his intellectual capacity would increase to absurd levels.

He suspected that geniuses like Bulma and Dr. Gero naturally had this effect of Ki on their brains.

So far, he had achieved some satisfying results. His thinking was clearer and faster, but he wouldn't call himself a genius yet.

At the same time that he was testing the effects of his own ki on his brain, he was also studying a lot of subjects that he thought would be needed in the not too distant future, from mechatronics to computer engineering. While he had a lot of knowledge in software development, he was still in his infancy when it came to hardware development. If he achieved the desired effects with the Ki in his brain, all this knowledge would only be the basis for working on alien technologies that existed in this world.

But that was for the future. What he really needed was his scout.

But in the last weeks, he had managed to add some functions to it. Now, if he wanted, the latest news about disasters, villains and monsters would be shown on the Scouter's display. He discovered that this was possible because of the Scouter's connection to networks. It could connect to any wireless signal it had access to, from Wi-Fi networks to radio and TV signals.

With that in mind, he made some changes to the software that allowed the device to collect the news he wanted through these connections.

Back at home, he took his Scouter and headed downtown.

In addition to the news that appeared on the display, he was able to listen to the radio news through the Scouter.

One news item soon caught his eye. Apparently, the Teen Team was fighting lava monsters in the central park.

By this time, they must have been active for at least two years. Less experienced and probably in need of help.

It was the perfect time for their debut.

Lucas flew quickly towards them. There was no time to hesitate.

Even before he reached the scene of the confrontation, his scout was picking up the vital signatures of the Teen Team members. Tracking those signatures was much more difficult than tracking ki, which made the scout a little less effective.

When he was able to see the battle, he noticed that some of the heroes were struggling under the onslaught of the lava monsters.

Atom Eve was fending off several attacks from the monsters, some of which were even spitting lava jets in her direction.

The others snaked through the monsters, launching attacks and blasting the monsters, which wasn't entirely effective since there were so many of them.

The first thing he did was to unleash a multiple blast of Ki at the monsters. Several rays of Ki exploded on the monsters attacking the heroes. It was enough to give the heroes a moment of relief.

"Hey, you need some help over there?"

He came down with his best smile.

"Man, I don't know who you are, but that was quite a blast you made there..."

Rex was the first to greet him.

"That's just one of my specialties... And you can call me Supreme."

Lucas had heard of another Image Comics hero with that name, but he hadn't found any information about him in this universe. He couldn't think of any better names, so he settled on this one. Besides, if Mark could be invincible, he had to be more than that. He had to be supreme.

"That's a pretty presumptuous name you've got there... But a little help would go a long way, Supremo."

Eve joined the conversation.

Lucas was almost distracted. He had noticed that the women who were heroines looked much prettier than usual, maybe it was an effect that this universe had.

He couldn't help but smile when he heard her say that his name was presumptuous.

"I'm confident in my strength, and I'm going to get even stronger. But enough talk, the monsters are coming back."

The monsters came back with rage in their eyes.

Lucas quickly accelerated towards them. The other heroes regrouped and continued their attack.

If he had time, he could unleash a Ki attack with all his might and destroy all the monsters at once. However, considering the damage it could cause, Lucas refrained from doing so. It would be stupid to use such a big attack in the middle of the city, and the monsters wouldn't be the only things that would be destroyed.

Lucas ran, dodging the lava attacks while punching the monsters. With each blow, one of them exploded into pieces.

It didn't take long for the number of monsters to decrease.

He was having fun. Hitting the monsters while dodging the lava was like playing a video game. These monsters still didn't pose a serious threat to him. But the sheer number of them exposed one of his weaknesses. He had strength, but he wasn't efficient enough because he lacked a martial art. This would be one of his main priorities in the near future.

Lucas was sure that Viltrumites and other enemies would fight with their own martial arts and centuries of fighting experience, he couldn't be left behind.

When the last of the monsters was destroyed, he smiled. Although he was not as efficient as he could have been, with the help of the Teen Team, he had managed to prevent the destruction from spreading beyond the area that had already been damaged when he arrived.

"Damn, you're damn strong... And you didn't even use those explosions."

Rex said impressed.

"Those monsters were weaker than I thought. I didn't need more than a few blows."

Lucas had no intention of being modest.

"Thanks for your help, without you it would have been difficult to resolve this situation so quickly."

Eve thanked him, seeming relieved that no one had been hurt.

They all thanked each other, Kate undoubtedly looked very relieved and grateful. Of course, every clone that died was a death she had experienced. Lucas even felt a little sorry for her.

"No need to thank me, it was nothing more than my duty. But I have to go now, see you later."

Before either of them could say anything else, he turned and left.

He could stay and do some networking, but coming into contact with an official team of heroes would expose him to the authorities, and he didn't want too much contact with Cecil before he was strong enough.

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What's up guys... What do you think about the MC's hero name? It's not final, I'm open to better suggestions.

And his hero costume isn't final either. I like the Saiyan armor, but I don't know if it's something you can wear as a superhero all the time. I'm also open to suggestions for better suits.

Leave your opinions and suggestions in the comments!

See you next time!