The Newspaper Owner Is an Ultraman

"Gods Among Us? A Silver Giant Appears in Brooklyn!"

One of the defining features of the information age was how quickly news spread—especially major international stories. Fiber-optic cables were their expressways, and wireless signals their wings. In less than twelve hours, news of what had happened in Brooklyn, New York, had spread across the globe. Everyone knew about it.

This might have been the most explosive news of the century—and it might not have been much of a stretch to call it the biggest story of all time.

Earlier that evening, when the beast officially named "Abomination" had completely dominated a U.S. military unit, everyone who knew about it had thought that was shocking enough.

A lot of people liked to make fun of the U.S. military, saying things like, "The U.S. military is getting restless again," or "Some country's satellite technology has surpassed theirs," or "Some country's missile technology has surpassed theirs." But the fact that people liked to poke fun at the U.S. military in the first place was itself an acknowledgment of its combat strength.

And yet, even with heavy weaponry at its disposal, that U.S. military unit hadn't been able to fight back at all against the beast officially named "Abomination." The beast had seemingly limitless strength, incredible leaping ability, and skin so tough that depleted uranium rounds might as well have been plastic toys. At least at the time, the monster seemed invincible.

Before people had even had time to process the fact that such a terrifying monster existed, a giant suddenly appeared out of nowhere and punched the supposedly "invincible" monster into a stupor...

Now, even if someone stepped forward and pointed at the giant, declaring him the true God of the universe, people would believe it.

Even if gods really did exist, they probably couldn't be much more impressive than that, could they?

The next day, just as expected, the front pages of all the major newspapers were filled with coverage of the incident. Yet among New York's many newspapers, the newly established Daily Planet was by far the best prepared to cover it. Its accompanying photo was also the best in the business: a shot of the giant standing with his back to the city after instantly defeating Abomination, with flames lighting up the sky and ruined streets in the background. Somehow, it had the grand visual impact of a movie poster...

Naturally, the Daily Planet sold like hotcakes the next day, and several newsstands sold out.

What? You want to say the Daily Planet belongs to DC next door, and there isn't one on Marvel's side?

Exactly.

Because this Daily Planet wasn't the famous newspaper from DC next door. It was just a new paper founded a few years ago, owned by a young Chinese American named Richard Lee—who, as everyone had probably guessed, was a transmigrator.

As for how he'd transmigrated... there wasn't much to say. Compared to the stories of the transmigrators who'd come before him, his wasn't especially original. He'd been flipping through bootleg discs from his childhood on a whim, looking to reminisce with an old TV show, when the computer playing the disc had suddenly gone "bang" and exploded. Then, for some inexplicable reason, he'd transmigrated to the Marvel Universe...

Actually, "inexplicable" wasn't quite right. The computer had exploded, hadn't it? Wasn't that how transmigration was supposed to happen?

Oh, one other thing worth mentioning: that old TV show was the 2004 tokusatsu series produced by Tsuburaya Productions in Japan, Ultraman Nexus.

And so, just like the transmigrators before him who'd gotten a cheat ability when their computers exploded, Richard had received one of his own. Compared with the predecessors who'd visited the Marvel Universe over the years, Richard thought he'd been pretty lucky. He hadn't gotten a system, but he'd started off with the Evolution Trust, Ultraman Nexus's transformation device...

Well... to be honest, he'd had some strange ideas while reading transmigration novels before. The ones who transmigrated while playing games often got game systems as their cheat abilities, while those who transmigrated while watching movies often got the powers of characters from them. And since he'd been pretty lucky, transmigrating while rewatching Ultraman, he'd gotten a transformation device. By that logic, what if some poor guy transmigrated while watching a porno...

Ahem, that was beside the point.

Anyway, although he'd transmigrated to the Marvel Universe, where powerful people were everywhere, having Ultraman's power should make him relatively safe—unless some of the overpowered characters from the comics showed up.

From what he'd observed so far, this world was mainly based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If the movies were anything to go by, the threat level in this universe wasn't all that high. At least across the first four phases of Marvel movies, no truly godlike powerhouses had shown up. In the movies, comic-book god-tier characters like the Grandmaster and the Collector seemed more like a pair of jokers...

Star-Lord's dad claimed to be one of the Celestials, but as a villain who'd been taken out by a single bomb, he didn't seem all that impressive.

So one possibility was that the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn't have a bunch of powerful beings who could casually destroy star systems, unlike the comics. That was certainly the luckiest possibility.

Of course, he couldn't rule out the possibility that the universe held even more powerful beings who simply hadn't appeared in the movies.

Another thing that set Nexus apart from many other Ultramen was his potential to evolve into Noah. In the Ultraman universe, Noah was said to be the first light at the dawn of the universe. Legend had it that he possessed infinite power, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to call him a god among Ultramen. Unfortunately, because he'd appeared so rarely, fans could only speculate about his power by looking at various statistics and making indirect comparisons. His true combat strength remained a mystery.

Richard also understood perfectly well that possessing Ultraman's power didn't mean he could rest easy in the Marvel Universe. His biggest weakness was that he couldn't remain in Ultraman form indefinitely. Ultraman Nexus had a rather unusual setup: unlike most Ultramen, he didn't have a three-minute time limit, but maintaining his Ultraman form still took a heavy toll on his host.

Of course, if the host refrained from using his powers for a while, his depleted strength would slowly recover on its own. But if he remained in Ultraman form for too long and fought too often, then once his strength was exhausted, he would have to burn his life force to keep fighting. That was practically a form of slow suicide. The two main hosts in the Ultraman Nexus TV series had both been worn down by excessive fighting and accumulated injuries in the later episodes, nearly dying from exhaustion.

So if the experiences of those who'd come before him had taught him anything, it was that he had to know his limits. Otherwise, he really would die.