Chapter 7

H City, a man staggered out of a glasses shop, a brand new pair of spectacles perched on his nose.

Gazing at the endless stream of people, he couldn't help but tear up.

"I'm finally back... waaah!" the man sighed emotionally.

The man crying in the street was none other than Glasses: "I finally made it out of that damned Underworld!"

Watching Glasses weep and shout on the street, passersby mostly looked at him with an expression that said: 'What a moron.'

'My king, congratulations on passing the arduous trial. The Brave Glasses hereby pledge our loyalty to you.' A voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

"Thanks to you, I was able to escape that hellhole," Glasses said. "From now on, we'll fight together to the end."

As he spoke to the Brave Glasses on his nose, Glasses failed to notice that the crowd around him had vanished.

A massive monster was wreaking havoc in his neighborhood.

"When did that show up!" Glasses stared in shock at the creature before him. "Perfect timing, let's test out the power we gained in the Underworld."

A fighting spirit surged within Glasses. He raised a hand to push up his glasses. At that exact moment, a hand slapped down on his head from behind, and he instinctively sent the glasses flying off his face!

"Isn't this Glasses? I knew Thirteen was just messing with me." Lin Jie patted Glasses on the head and said, "When did you get back? Why didn't you contact me?"

"Just got back," Glasses said. "Ah!! My glasses!"

With that, Glasses ran toward his glasses, which had fallen to the ground.

"We'll talk after we deal with this guy." Lin Jie picked up his Wolf Fang Club and charged at the monster.

"There!" Glasses caught a glimpse of the Brave Glasses and dashed toward them. But someone else was faster.

"Master!! Wait for me!! I want to fight alongside you!" A man with a face handsome enough to make countless girls scream stepped right on the glasses as he ran past.

"Brave Glasses!!" Glasses rushed frantically to his glasses' side.

By now, visible cracks had appeared on the Brave Glasses.

"Hang in there, comrade! Don't worry, I'll fix you." Glasses looked at the Brave Glasses and said, "Doesn't that damn bastard watch where he's going?"

'My king... I can feel my life slipping away. I think my time is almost up.'

"Don't talk! I'll find a way to save you." Glasses said sorrowfully.

'This must be fate's design. But rest assured, there are countless glasses in this world waiting to serve you.'

"You're my partner! Don't say things like that." Glasses cried out mournfully to the glasses on the ground.

'It seems my mission is nearing its end. Before I die, I hope you can deliver a message for me—to the Lady Glasses from Rack 20, Shelf 3, Position 3 at the glasses shop. Please tell her...'

Before the Brave Glasses could finish, a foot came crashing down from above, stomping right on them...

"Ah! Brave Glasses!" Glasses wailed in grief.

"Oh, sorry I stepped on your glasses." Lin Jie scratched his head sheepishly.

"You again! Last time it was the Sage Glasses, now it's the Brave Glasses! You glasses killer!" Glasses glared bitterly at the man before him. If he weren't outmatched, he'd have punched him senseless by now.

"It's just a pair of glasses, right?" A handsome guy ran over—it was Ten Gods. "Here, I'll buy you a premium pair to make up for it, on behalf of Master."

"What do you know? These were my brothers-in-arms, through life and death!" Glasses roared.

"Forget the small stuff for now, let's grab something to eat. You look like you haven't eaten in days." Lin Jie took in Glasses' disheveled state. "You probably need some therapy too."

"Master, I know a great upscale restaurant. We can eat there," Ten Gods said.

"I've told you a hundred times, stop calling me Master! And I'm not planning to eat with you." Lin Jie said. "I can't afford a place like that."

"Don't worry, Master, this one's on me. Eat whatever you want," Ten Gods said.

"Oh? Then let's go."

"So, what exactly happened to you during this time?" Lin Jie asked Glasses. "When Thirteen came back, he only brought a pair of glasses."

The three of them were now seated at a table. Glasses was shoveling food into his mouth like his life depended on it. On his nose sat a premium pair of glasses, which Ten Gods had bought for him on the way past the shop.

"Don't even get me started!" Glasses said. "On my very first day there, a piece of equipment malfunctioned and I got thrown into some bizarre world."

"A bizarre world?" Ten Gods perked up with interest.

"Yeah, it was almost identical to the real world. The only difference was that it was like a rotten version of reality," Glasses said.

"The Underworld?" Lin Jie asked.

"You actually know that name!" Glasses looked at Lin Jie in surprise. "I ran into a few heroes there, and they called it the Underworld. Honestly, it was crawling with monsters and souls everywhere."

"Souls too?" Ten Gods exclaimed.

"Yeah, I traveled all the way to H City in that world. There were hardly any people in the cities, and the ones I did find were barely scraping by." Glasses said. "The buildings were all decayed, and the rivers looked like heavily polluted sludge."

"That really does sound like a terrifying place," Ten Gods said.

"The worst part was, all my glasses were in the Surface World, so I couldn't use teleportation at all." Glasses said as he frantically demolished the food in front of him. "These past few days have been absolute hell."

"The Underworld is an existence that basically can't be explained by modern science." Lin Jie said. "If I remember correctly, it should be a place similar to a magic domain, like hell."

"No way? A magic domain?" Ten Gods said in surprise.

"I can't believe there are still people researching the Underworld these days." Lin Jie couldn't help saying. "I recall the ruler there is a guy called END or something."

"When did you, a slacker student, get to know so much?" Glasses said to Lin Jie.

"I've been there before." Lin Jie said.

"What?" Glasses was shocked. "No wonder you know it so well!"

"As expected of Master, truly a powerful hero." Ten Gods said.

"Don't call me Master." Lin Jie replied.

"I'm serious." Ten Gods said to Lin Jie. "I genuinely want to become a powerful hero. Even if I can't be as great as Zero, at least I want to be like Master, with only justice in your heart, completely unaffected by fame or profit."

"Are you sure you're talking about this guy?" Glasses stared at Ten Gods in shock. "I remember now, aren't you that popular idol from the Ten Gods Family? How did you suddenly start worshipping a scumbag like him?"

"Don't say that, Master is a rare true hero who only cares about justice!" Ten Gods said.

"That's right, there aren't many people left these days with as much sense of justice as me." Lin Jie also puffed out his chest.

"You finally acknowledge me, Master!" Ten Gods said.

"Acknowledge your ass!" Lin Jie said. For the past two days, this Ten Gods had been sticking to him like a piece of sticky plaster. That wasn't the main issue—the main issue was that Ten Gods was clearly way better-looking than him. Walking together always made Lin Jie feel like a supporting leaf.

"Him? A hero with a sense of justice?" Glasses looked at Ten Gods and said, "Are you blind? A guy who idly teaches a little girl 'if you can't figure it out, just cut it all down'—would he be a good person? The master you've acknowledged is already one step away from prison for incitement."

"Tch, what do you know?" Lin Jie looked at Glasses disdainfully. "Mu Mu can't be a normal person in the future anyway. I'm just getting her used to the stuff about so-called superpowered people early. Cultivating a habit of being ready to fight at all times from a young age is a good guarantee for her future safety."

"She's only seven years old, you know." Glasses said.

"I think Master is right." Ten Gods said.

"See?" Lin Jie looked at Glasses.

"You've been completely brainwashed by this guy." Glasses said.

"I genuinely think Master's thinking is very correct. As a hero, even a future hero, we must have the determination to fight evil forces anytime, anywhere." Ten Gods said.

"Don't call me Master anymore." Lin Jie said. "I'm not even a hero at all."

"How is that possible?" Ten Gods said. "Didn't you save a girl just two days ago?"

"But the one possessed by the Shadow Demon, I couldn't save." Lin Jie said. "That person died, and he wasn't a sinner in life."

"Don't think like that." Glasses said. "No one can be perfect. After all, you're not a great hero like Zero."

"That's why I say I'm not even a hero." Lin Jie said. "Even Zero isn't a hero. We're all just garbage cleaners cleaning up messes."

"Even if you say that, Master, I can't agree! Zero is the hero who saved all of humanity." Ten Gods said.

"He didn't save all of humanity. At least he didn't save my parents." Lin Jie said.

"Doesn't that sound a bit selfish?" Glasses said.

"I'm not criticizing him. That's just the reality." Lin Jie took a sip of wine and said. "Zero did save the world, but do you know how many people died before that? Those people were the ones Zero couldn't save when it happened. Why are there so many homeless children used for human experiments? No one saved those people in the new era. Do you remember Mu Mu? She survived, but before her, over two hundred children died because of that damn experiment. Where were we then?"

"That's not your fault at all. It's the criminals' fault." Ten Gods said.

"Then what is a hero's duty?" Lin Jie asked.

"Fight crime." Ten Gods said.

"That's only one part of it." Lin Jie said. "A true hero can lead this world toward beauty, can eliminate discrimination and arrogance, can save those who need saving, not just belatedly fight after things have already happened—because that's already cleaning up a mess. So, even Zero isn't a hero." Lin Jie took another sip of wine. "In my eyes, Zero is more like a weapon used to fight powerful enemies when a crisis occurs. But a weapon can never save people's hearts."

"No, at least Zero saved me." Ten Gods said. "Otherwise, the me now wouldn't exist."

"That's right." Glasses said. "Without him, I couldn't have become a hero. Without him, there wouldn't be the thousands of superheroes today. Zero has always been a hero in our hearts."

"Haha." Lin Jie laughed then. As he spoke, he took another sip of wine. "That's really an unfair statement to those who weren't saved."