Anduin and Superpowers

Early July 1980, London, England

It was already past eight in the evening, but a faint light still flickered in a room at the Allens Church Welfare Institute.

"Ugh, I can't take this anymore."

The boy in the room stared at his reflection in the mirror on the wardrobe, rubbing his chin over and over. Every so often, he stretched out a hand, opening and closing his slender yet well-defined fingers as if trying to grasp something in thin air.

Eleven years!

He'd been stuck in this lousy world for eleven years, and in an orphanage in the 1980s, no less. No computer, no phone. It was hard to imagine how he'd managed to get by.

"Anduin, boss, the stuff you wanted..." Before the boy could dwell on it any longer, a loud knock jolted him out of his thoughts.

"What are you shouting for? It's so late. Aren't you worried someone will catch you?" Anduin opened the door, frowning.

"Uh, sorry. It's just that lugging this huge box around wore me out, hehe..." said a boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen. His shirt wasn't too shabby, just wrinkled, and his suspenders held up a pair of trousers that fit him well. His hair was a messy, unkempt mop.

The young man who'd brought Anduin the stuff was called William. He was a few years older than Anduin and another one of the orphans at the institute.

"Alright. What took you so long? Those guys from the North District didn't give you trouble again, did they?" Anduin asked, frowning slightly.

"Of course not. Ever since you taught those North District thugs a lesson last time, nobody's bothered us. The guys and I just came across a bunch of good stuff today, so we got back late." William finished speaking, rummaged in his pocket, and took out a few banknotes. "Here, this is our share for the week."

Anduin said nothing, simply taking the money. "Alright. Thanks for the effort today."

He was about to open the box when he noticed William still standing there, grinning awkwardly and rubbing his hands together.

"What is it? I still have to train."

"Hehe, well, it's still early, and a few of us were hoping to unwind a little..."

"Alright, you want to play Mahjong, right?" Anduin cut him off without another word. He walked over to the bed and pulled a wooden box out from underneath it. "Go ahead and play, but don't gamble. You don't want the matron getting mad and confiscating it again."

"Sure thing. Don't worry, I'll bring it back in a couple of days." William snatched up the box and swiftly disappeared from the room.

"Great, another one's gone crazy. Sigh, I wonder if teaching them Mahjong was a mistake." Anduin closed the door with a wry smile.

Then Anduin rubbed his hands together excitedly and opened the big cardboard box William had brought.

"Hehe, soy sauce, sesame paste, vinegar, cooking wine. Long time no see, my friends! Without a phone or computer, I have to make up for it in other ways. I'm getting sick of eating British food every day."

The box was full of seasonings Anduin had asked William to buy for him in Chinatown.

Anduin Wilson had no idea if he'd been transported to another world or reborn in one. Having been a soldier in his previous life, he'd developed a strong will, which helped him stay calm and think things through.

He didn't know whether this was still the same world he'd come from. He'd been born straight into an orphanage, sometime in the sixties or seventies. But since he was here, he'd have to fit in. Anduin had the memories and experience of an adult, after all, so he didn't make a fuss.

The orphanage Anduin lived in was run by the church. William and his gang of brothers had grown up there too, just like Anduin. They were a few years older than him, but William and the others always listened to him.

Why?

Because they had no choice.

Anduin had served in the military in his previous life and loved martial arts, so he'd made a point of training his body from a very young age. Those memories had become instinctive, and he'd been able to pick them back up quickly.

With such a vast gap in combat will, nine-year-old Anduin had already used force to bring the whole orphanage under his control. William and the others were quite well-behaved around him, and under his guidance, the group of brothers led by William had even started a business outside the orphanage.

"If I keep this up, I'll end up leading a gang of thugs, going around collecting protection fees every day." Anduin poked fun at himself, then put the thought aside. He packed away the seasonings, planning to find some time to cook himself a Chinese meal as a treat.

After putting everything away, Anduin turned around and locked his room door securely.

There was another secret about his life in this world, one no one else knew.

He had superpowers.

Anduin stared at the ten-kilogram dumbbell in the corner and pointed at it slightly. The dumbbell immediately began to float motionlessly in the air, as if held up by some invisible force.

He made the dumbbell hover above his head and left it there, then walked to the desk and quietly opened a book to read.

This was a method Anduin had come up with himself to train his "superpowers." He called it Delayed Training.

When he was seven or eight, Anduin had first realized he was different from other people. Once, after finishing a workout, he wanted a drink of water. The moment the thought came to him, the glass on the table flew straight toward him.

From his observations, Anduin had realized that he was the only one with anything unusual about him, at least in the orphanage. So he was always very careful. If anyone at this church-run institute found out, they might treat him like a monster or a heretic.

Anduin called this special ability "superpowers." Through deliberate testing and practice, he'd gone from being able to use it only "now and then" to slowly gaining a slight degree of control over it.

He found that after finishing his martial arts practice and doing Standing Meditation, he could handle this power better. For the time being, he just called it power. Anduin figured it had something to do with his state of mind. After training, his mind would enter a sort of blank state, and perhaps he could control this power better then.

From that point on, Anduin, who had already been highly disciplined, began following a strict schedule. After all, as far as he was concerned, this was a "special ability"—he couldn't let it go to waste. Every day, he practiced martial arts, meditated, and trained his "superpowers" on schedule.

His initial training method was much like his usual physical workouts: he did strength training. Once he gradually gained control of his "superpowers," he began training them more deliberately, starting with teacups and books, then moving on to chairs and tables. But gradually, he began to notice something was wrong.

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