The Newspaper Owner Is an Ultraman

"God Descends? Silver Giant Appears in Brooklyn!"

One defining feature of the information explosion age was that news always spread with incredible speed—especially major international stories. Fiber optics served as their expressways, while wireless signals gave them wings. In less than twelve hours, news of what had happened in Brooklyn, New York had spread across the entire planet. People all over the world knew.

This might have been the biggest news of the century—perhaps even of all time.

Earlier that night, when the beast officially designated "Abomination" had utterly crushed a U.S. military unit, everyone who knew about it had thought that was shocking enough.

A lot of people liked to make jokes about the U.S. military, saying things like the military was getting restless again, some country's satellite technology had surpassed it, or another country's missile technology had surpassed it... But the fact that everyone liked to use the U.S. military as the benchmark was itself an acknowledgment of its combat strength.

Yet even a heavily armed U.S. military unit like that had been utterly powerless before the beast officially designated "Abomination." The creature possessed seemingly limitless brute strength, astonishing jumping ability, and skin so tough that even depleted uranium rounds seemed like plastic toys against it... At least at the time, the monster had appeared completely invincible.

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

Now, even if someone really came forward and pointed at that giant, claiming he was the true god of the universe, people would believe them.

Even if gods truly existed, they probably... couldn't possibly be any more badass than that, right?

The next day, just as expected, every major newspaper and media outlet had the incident plastered across its front page. Yet among New York's major newspapers, only a newly established paper called the Daily Planet had been most thoroughly prepared for the story. The Daily Planet also had the best accompanying photo in the industry—a shot of the giant's back as he stood among the city buildings after instantly defeating Abomination. With the flames lighting up the sky and the ruined streets behind him, the image somehow carried the grand visual impact of a movie poster...

Naturally, the Daily Planet sold like crazy the next day, with multiple newsstands selling out.

What? You wanted to say the Daily Planet belonged to DC next door, and didn't exist on Marvel's side?

Of course it didn't.

Because this Daily Planet was not that famous newspaper from DC next door. This Daily Planet was merely a new newspaper established within the past few years. Its owner was a young Chinese American man, Richard—and, just as everyone had guessed, a transmigrator.

As for the process of transmigration... there did not seem to be much worth mentioning. Compared with all the transmigrators who came before him, there was nothing particularly original about it. He had merely been digging through some pirated discs from his childhood and, on a whim, found an old TV show to rewatch for nostalgia. Then the computer playing the disc went bang and exploded, and somehow he had transmigrated into Marvel...

No, it could not really be called somehow. After all, if a computer exploded, wasn't transmigration exactly what was supposed to happen?

Oh, and one more thing worth mentioning—the old television series had been Tsuburaya Productions' 2004 tokusatsu show, Ultraman Nexus.

So, just like the predecessors who received cheat abilities when their computers exploded and sent them to another world, Richard had received a cheat ability of his own. Compared to the many predecessors who had arrived in Marvel, Richard felt his luck was not bad. Though he had not received a system, he had started out with Ultraman Nexus's transformation device, the Evolution Trust...

Well... to be honest, Richard had entertained some strange thoughts when reading transmigration novels before. Those predecessors who transmigrated while playing games often received game systems as cheat abilities, while those who transmigrated after watching movies often gained the abilities of movie characters. His luck had been good; he had happened to be rewatching Ultraman when he transmigrated, so he had received a transformation device. Going by that logic, if some unlucky guy happened to be watching porn when he transmigrated...

Ahem. That was getting off topic.

In short, although he had transmigrated into the Marvel world, where powerful figures were everywhere, having the power of an Ultraman should have made things relatively safe—as long as no absurdly overpowered characters from the comics showed up.

Based on his observations so far, this world mainly followed the Marvel movie continuity. If it operated according to movie settings, then the universe's threat level really was not that high. At the very least, across all four phases of Marvel films, no truly godlike big shots had appeared. Comic-book god-tier figures like the Grandmaster and the Collector just seemed like two goofy clowns in the movies...

Star-Lord's father called himself a Celestial, but as a villain who had been dealt with by a single bomb, he did not seem all that impressive either.

So one possibility was that the Marvel Cinematic Universe did not contain a whole host of beings capable of destroying star systems at a whim like the comics did. That was undoubtedly the luckiest possibility.

Of course, it was also impossible to rule out the possibility that more high-level powerhouses were hidden somewhere in the universe, merely not covered in the films.

Another difference between Nexus and many other Ultramen was that he had the potential to evolve into Noah. In Ultraman lore, Noah was the first ray of light at the beginning of the universe. Legend said he possessed infinite power, and calling him a god among Ultramen would not have been an exaggeration. Unfortunately, because he had only made limited appearances, fans could only speculate about his level of power through various setting materials and indirect comparisons. His true combat strength had always remained a mystery.

At the same time, Richard understood perfectly well that possessing the power of an Ultraman did not mean he could rest easy in the Marvel Universe. First and foremost, his greatest weakness was that he could not maintain his Ultraman form indefinitely. The mechanics of Ultraman Nexus were relatively unique; unlike most other Ultramen, he did not have a three-minute time limit, but maintaining the Ultraman form placed a severe strain on the Deunamist.

Of course, as long as the Deunamist refrained from using their power for a while, their expended stamina would gradually recover on its own. But if he maintained Ultraman form for too long and fought too frequently, then once his stamina was completely depleted, the Deunamist would have no choice but to burn away his life force in order to continue fighting. That was practically slow suicide. The two main Deunamists in the Ultraman Nexus TV series had both eventually been worn down by excessive combat and accumulated injuries, nearly dying of exhaustion.

So if his predecessors' experiences had taught him anything, it was that he absolutely had to exercise restraint. Otherwise, he really would die.