Non-sacred timeline.
Beneath the ink-blue night sky, the neon lights of the modern city shone brilliantly, making it look even more prosperous and lively than it did during the day.
A golden figure fell diagonally from the top of a skyscraper. Like lightning, yet straighter than lightning; like a meteor, yet smaller than one. It streaked past billboards and giant screens suspended hundreds of meters in the air before crashing heavily onto the rooftop terrace of a five-star hotel below.
"Ow, ow, ow!"
The hard floor tiles had been smashed into a shocking crater, but the figure at its center merely groaned a few times. His body and clothes were unharmed as he slowly rose, supporting himself with a Silver Longsword in his right hand.
Facing the cold night wind tinged with frost and snow, Xi Nian watched as the dust dispersed, revealing a pair of bright black eyes.
A round shield on his back, a longsword in his hand.
Xi Nian wore a dead-inside expression, the corner of his mouth twitching as he looked down at what he was wearing.
His upper body was clad in a small, form-fitting crimson-gold battle armor. It left everything from his neck to his shoulders bare, and there was even an obvious raised structure over the chest, clearly designed to accommodate certain anatomy.
His lower half was covered by a dark blue skirt connected to the upper armor. It revealed more than even the trendiest miniskirt or hot pants, forming an absolute zone with the golden kneepads at his knees.
A pair of silver bracer bracelets covered his wrists, and then there was the silver Starlight tiara above his forehead...
This was a sexy outfit that would make even the most elite model feel ashamed from the bottom of their heart, desperately wanting to pull down its scanty skirt with both hands. It should have been the exclusive superhero attire of Wonder Woman!
And Xi Nian, who was currently wearing it, was undeniably male. Fully equipped, at that!
"What... am I even doing?"
Xi Nian felt like crying without tears. This morning, he had still been an ordinary high school student who thought that all things extraordinary and supernatural had nothing to do with him.
Yet now, he had practically become the embodiment of the extraordinary!
Before Xi Nian could come to his senses—
Clack, clack, clack!
A tremendous roar reached his ears as the air a hundred meters above the city trembled. A police helicopter closed in, its powerful searchlight sweeping toward him.
The fierce wind kicked up by the helicopter blades made Xi Nian feel even colder beneath his skirt, and he instinctively wanted to tug the hem down.
But there was no time for that!
If the helicopter caught him on camera looking like this, Xi Nian felt he might as well move to another city overnight—or even another planet!
"Damn it!"
Xi Nian gritted his teeth and raised the Retro Longsword again. Ignoring the terrifying ground below, he pushed off hard with his toes. Since he still could not properly control his strength, he directly crushed the hotel rooftop beneath him!
Just before the searchlight landed on him, Xi Nian leaped high into the air again, charging toward another building dozens of meters away!
The reason all this had happened dated back to half a day earlier.
Twelve hours earlier.
Washington, United States. A residential district beside Central Avenue.
Xi Nian yawned as he climbed out of bed. Through the door separating his room from the living room outside, he could faintly hear the clear diction of a female news anchor on the television:
"Washington time is currently seven o'clock in the morning. Today will be cloudy with light snow, and outdoor temperatures will range from five to three degrees Celsius. We advise all viewers to bring snowproof coats and rain gear when heading outside..."
Xi Nian slapped off the electronic alarm just before it rang and glanced at the time. It was exactly 07:00 on December 21, 2011.
Christmas was coming again.
"Time really flies."
Xi Nian sighed. He found his slippers on the rug not far from his bed, changed into the winter school uniform he had prepared in advance, and left his room.
Opening the door, Xi Nian habitually called toward the living room, "Morning, Auntie!"
His greeting received no response.
Outside in the living room.
Cool morning light streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling balcony window, where the curtains had been drawn aside. The already plain pale floor looked like a sheet of drifting sea ice. The television, which had not been turned off, continued broadcasting the local morning news. On the other side, a clean modern dining table held a breakfast already prepared: the same old simple combination of milk, eggs, and toasted bread.
In the stagnant chill of the living room, a faint scent of violets lingered, but its owner was nowhere to be seen.
"She went out this early?"
Xi Nian muttered. He did not think much of it and turned into the bathroom beside his room.
There were not many items in the bathroom. There were only face towels, rinsing cups, toothbrushes, and the like, all in plain colors and simple styles, basically arranged in two sets: one large and one small.
Naturally, Xi Nian used the smaller set.
Although he had repeatedly and strongly asked to switch to the larger one, someone had always refused on the grounds that he was underage.
Xi Nian began washing up, and the mirror above the sink reflected the face of a teenage boy.
Black hair, brown eyes—obviously Chinese.
A trace of youthful immaturity remained on his delicate face. His skin was excessively fine and fair, making him look like the sort of student who always went straight home after school.
His white gauze hoodie and plain long scarf made his overall appearance somewhat androgynous.
Xi Nian pursed his foam-covered lips. There was nothing he could do about it; this was also the aesthetic preference of the woman who ran the household.
Fortunately, he was not short. Still in the midst of developing at sixteen, he had already easily crossed the life-or-death threshold of one meter seventy.
Back in the living room.
Xi Nian began dealing with the American breakfast laid out on the table, but his attention was quickly drawn back to the morning news on television.
"Yesterday afternoon, Iron Man appeared in Iraq, Iran, and other locations, dealing devastating blows to local criminal organization bases within half an hour. That evening, Tony Stark attended a bar banquet in New York on schedule with his secretary, Pepper Potts. He truly deserves to be called a master of time management."
"According to statistical data, Gotham City's crime rate has dropped sharply in recent years. Investigative experts stated that this was thanks to Batman's powerful and efficient suppression of local criminals, as well as the establishment of Arkham Asylum, which could detain and handle large numbers of dangerous offenders."
"Reporters have discovered that small-scale protests have recently appeared in Metropolis. Some residents have expressed dissatisfaction with Superman, the superhero stationed in the city. The specific reason remains under investigation..."
It seemed that unless a report had something to do with superheroes, it could not be considered trendy news these days.
That was the trend of the current era.
Xi Nian was already used to this kind of news, but after raising his head to drink a mouthful of warm milk and feeling its smooth warmth flow into his stomach, he still could not help sighing.
"What a strange world."
That was right. Xi Nian was a reincarnator.
The exact reason he had died and reincarnated was no longer important. What mattered was the world he had been reincarnated into.
It was an extremely modern, magical world!
Xi Nian had learned this when he was young, while reading geography and history books.
For example, in this world's World War I, an actual god of war had participated in the conflict, and in the end, a legendary goddess had brought World War I to an end.
As for the later World War II, the evil organization Hydra had stirred up chaos and attempted to rule the world in one stroke. In the end, the superhero Captain America brought the long war to an end.
All of that.
Was merely major events within the tide of history. There were also countless unknown conflicts, where righteous heroes and villainous antagonists with extraordinary powers fought almost every day on the hidden side of the world...
This world was somewhat similar to the American comic settings Xi Nian had heard his friends mention in his previous life. Unfortunately, he had not been interested at the time and had barely learned anything about them, so there was nothing for him to compare now.
In the current world, technology ruled as king, magic made gods, mutations dominated, and aliens invaded!
Yet none of that had much to do with Xi Nian.
He was currently just an utterly ordinary person. He had lived in Washington for sixteen years and had never had his daily life disrupted by supernatural events...
Right.
Except for the superpower that had suddenly awakened on his sixteenth birthday last weekend.
"As long as I have physical contact with a female kin and exchange 'liquids' to a certain extent, I can temporarily gain the abilities she possesses."
Simple, direct, and brutal.
Xi Nian named this superpower, similar to those he had only seen in comics in his previous life, "Lord of Kin."
After all, this superpower was practically tailor-made for a villain! Its nature was no less formidable than common abilities like mind reading or stopping time.
Of course, Xi Nian had never considered using this superpower to do evil—or to become a superhero.
Honestly, he found this superpower rather useless. Compared with Mr. Stark's Iron Suit, Mr. Superman's body of steel, or Captain America's super-soldier physique, he could not exactly ask someone to pause before a fight so he could find a girl and get a buff, could he?
And if the girl had an ordinary human physique, it would only raise his combat power a little at most.
Not to mention that Xi Nian had been single since birth in both his current and previous lives.
This so-called superpower was practically the same as having nothing at all!
He soon lost interest in the news report gossiping about which fashion cover girl Iron Man Tony Stark would sleep with that month.
Xi Nian gradually shifted his gaze to the side of the television, where a wooden shelf was filled with photographs of him, from infancy to his current teenage years.
They were basically all solo photos of him. His aunt had never appeared in them, not even as a simple silhouette from behind.
His aunt did not like taking pictures, especially selfies.
Xi Nian knew that much.
It was not because she was ugly or unphotogenic.
Xi Nian could pat his chest and say that his aunt was absolutely a top-tier beauty, comparable to—or even far surpassing—the actresses and models on television. From the day she had found him on Christmas in 1995 onward, her appearance had never changed in his memory. She was unquestionably an ageless goddess.
"No, next time I have to make Auntie take a picture with me."
"If I act more forceful... would acting cute still work?"
Just as Xi Nian made up his mind, the doorbell rang.
Who was it?
Xi Nian frowned slightly. In his memory, his aunt had never once forgotten to bring her keys when leaving the house.
As Xi Nian walked from the living room to the entrance, before he could look through the peephole, a photograph was pushed in from outside through the gap beneath the door.
When he saw the photograph, Xi Nian froze slightly and stopped moving.
The photograph had a rare black-and-white background. From its grain to its natural yellowing, everything indicated that it was an old relic from the previous century. The urban ruins in the background, seemingly from a World War I battlefield, confirmed it.
What made Xi Nian's heart jolt was this.
In that strange old photograph, surrounded by officers and soldiers, stood a figure who resembled his aunt!
Reading note: Even if you have not watched Marvel or DC films or shows, it will not affect your reading of this book. This story contains many heavily altered elements, so please fasten your seatbelt before reading.
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