Superpowers Unlocked

It was the dead of night.

The bedroom door closed softly, and Becca slipped out, weighed down by her worries.

Ryan lay in bed with his eyes closed, breathing evenly. He looked like a well-behaved child who had already fallen fast asleep.

[Daily roleplaying experience +13 (settled daily / amount varies)]

[Emotional performance breakthrough, experience +2000]

Ryan's mind was calm as he first checked how much experience he had gained during the day, when he and Homelander had reunited as father and son.

He was very pleased.

As expected of Homelander. The experience he'd earned was enormous.

It was nothing like before, when he had to put his heart and soul into playing his part every time Vought International's monitors came around, only to earn at most a few hundred experience points.

Besides...

Ryan thought about Johnny, the man who had once slapped Becca. Homelander had probably taken him out by now.

Thoughts of Johnny passed in a flash. Ryan then focused his mind, and his gaze fell on the skill panel created by his cheat.

One row after another of unlocked and inactive skills appeared.

[Heat Vision · Level 1] (Naturally Awakened)

Experience required to upgrade: 1/5000

Level 1 effect: Controlled low-temperature burning // minimum power warms milk; maximum power can penetrate a wall ten centimeters thick and effectively harm carbon-based lifeforms.

[Steel Body · Level 2]

Experience required to upgrade: 172/10000

Level 1 effect: Skin and muscles take on the properties of steel. Can withstand armor-piercing rounds, but the impact causes internal shock damage.

Level 2 effect: Skin, muscles, and bones take on the properties of a high-strength alloy. Immune to conventional firearms and effectively resistant to impact and shock damage.

[Super Vision · Level 1]

Experience required to upgrade: 1/3000

Level 1 effect: Extreme long-distance vision; clear sight within one hundred meters; limited x-ray vision (clothing, thin wooden boards, thin walls, and so on). Metal and thick concrete are impervious. Zinc is the only substance that can completely block vision!!!

[Super Hearing · Level 1]

Experience required to upgrade: 1/3000

Level 1 effect: Hearing far beyond that of an ordinary person; can clearly make out whispers within one hundred meters and distinguish faint environmental sounds; automatically pinpoints the direction of sounds.

[Abilities available to unlock: Super Smell, Super Strength, Super Stamina, Self-Healing, Flight, Minor Bio-electric Field]

[Total experience: 21213]

Ryan understood. The requirements to unlock each superpower and the experience needed to upgrade them were completely different.

Abilities like Super Vision and Super Hearing needed only a thousand points to unlock their Level 1 effects.

But Steel Body, which was a defensive ability, had cost him a full three thousand points to unlock. He'd done it for peace of mind.

After eight years of playing the role of a good little boy day in and day out, he'd accumulated a satisfying amount of performance experience. But spending it was even more exhilarating.

"Unlock Flight!"

[Flight · Level 1]

Experience required to upgrade: 1/5000

Level 1 effect: Stable flight. Can take off on the spot, hover, rise and descend freely, and turn nimbly. Resists light winds. Maximum flight speed: 50 m/s (equivalent to 180 kilometers per hour).

Ryan's lips curled into a slight smile as he maintained his sleeping position.

That was already pretty fast. For comparison, his top speed far exceeded that of an ordinary car on the highway, and came close to the takeoff speed of a regular passenger plane.

He couldn't compare with Homelander, but Flight's Level 1 effect reaching this level was a stroke of luck.

[Total experience: 19213]

Unlocking Flight had cost two thousand experience points—not too expensive.

Next, Ryan set Flight aside and began upgrading Steel Body.

He'd unlocked Flight so he could use it when he got to spend time with Homelander.

He remembered that scene clearly. In the original story, Homelander had taken Ryan to a rooftop to build up his courage. Confident that his son could fly too, he'd pushed him off.

The result spoke for itself.

Little Ryan had hit the ground hard.

Daddy Homelander's smile had frozen.

So, to keep Daddy Homelander from being disappointed, Ryan had decided long ago to unlock Flight.

He'd keep giving Homelander the emotional affirmation he craved, just as he always had—like soothing a child—and occasionally feed him a little adoration and sense of belonging born of their blood ties.

Little Homelander, you're eating out of my hand!

Of course, Ryan was doing all this mostly for the experience points.

For eight years, he had mulled over his plans countless times. He didn't care about The Seven and The Boys' tangled grudges, or the political struggles between supes and ordinary people.

He had only one aspiration in this world.

To become Homelander—and surpass him.

His cheat, the Best Actor System, was the means to become a true Superman.

To earn experience, he had to become a true actor recognized by the public.

Vought International's formula for creating superheroes didn't serve his interests.

But he was only a supe kept under the company's thumb, with no power to resist. So to achieve his ultimate goal, he needed Homelander's protection.

Later, he'd use Homelander's power to put together a film crew of his own.

Ryan had already decided what his first movie would be. It definitely wouldn't be some idiotic story about a superhero saving bystanders and defeating a bank robber.

The performance would feel insincere, and the experience he earned would surely be meager.

Besides, that kind of story didn't fit his values.

So he'd adapt Spider-Man and put himself in the role.

People in this world were used to superheroes who stood above them. Every one of them was righteous in the public eye, as if they'd been born as gods meant to look down on mortals.

But when the camera filters were stripped away from the flawless image of justice behind those fake stories, what was left? Cruelty, hypocrisy, obsession, and disgrace.

Weren't people sick of the same old stories about heroes saving the day?

So Ryan would show the human side of a superhero.

Spider-Man's story was perfect for that.

But it would need a lot of adaptation, and he'd also need to find a few people to play supervillains.

"Supes would be best for the roles, but I'll need Daddy Homelander's support for that. He's the only one who can shut down every objection."

After all, the supes Vought International created were always pure and righteous, without a single blemish.

Ryan rolled over, still pretending to be asleep.

Homelander hadn't completely fallen out with Vought International yet. Ryan didn't know whether the people watching behind the cameras were still there, so it was better to be careful.

He couldn't let any movement that didn't fit his current persona give him away.

But now that he'd made contact with Homelander, he could gradually and naturally change how they interacted over time.

Before that...

Ryan's gaze returned to the skill panel and finally settled on Steel Body.

No matter what schemes he had, in a world full of strange and varied superpowers, survival always came first.

Steel Body was the skill he most wanted to max out. That was why he'd been saving his experience.

Ryan suspected that Steel Body at max level might reach the same level as Soldier Boy.

Soldier Boy was a special kind of being who had been held captive by the Russians for decades. No matter what kind of harm he suffered, no one could truly kill him.

"So, Steel Body—upgrade!"