Daily Planet

Of course, that wasn't to say Richard was completely an ordinary man incapable of tying up a chicken outside his giant form.

First of all, aside from growing gigantic, Nexus, like most other Ultramen, could adjust his height and size while transformed. So far, Richard had discovered that his limit was growing as tall as forty-nine meters, while he could shrink down to the size of an ant—at least for now. Both limits could still increase in the future.

The smaller the Ultraman form he maintained, the less energy it consumed. If he only maintained the size of an ordinary person, the energy expenditure would be greatly reduced. He should be able to handle that form.

But even at an ordinary person's size, it was still the power of an Ultraman, and it remained terrifyingly powerful—or rather, shrinking was simply an energy-saving measure and did not affect his combat ability. A sparrow might be small, but it still had all the vital organs. No matter how small he became, he was still an Ultraman, and his strength could not be underestimated.

Even without transforming, an Ultraman's human host possessed physical abilities far beyond the limits of humanity. Richard had found an opportunity to test himself. In his untransformed state, his physical body currently had Captain America-level fitness—and that was only for now. His body had not yet fused deeply enough with his Ultraman power, so he only possessed this degree of strength for the time being. Even when transformed, he could barely maintain the ordinary silver juvenile form.

Before crossing over, Richard had been a junior reporter in China, and he had quite liked his work. It was precisely because of that influence that he had chosen the profession again after being reborn in this world. Only this time, he was no longer a little reporter running around on the front lines for stories, but the boss sitting in an air-conditioned office, barking orders.

Journalism was a good profession. Gabriel García Márquez had once said, "Journalism is the best profession in the world." The statement might have been overly subjective, but Richard felt he could understand it.

Márquez had said that journalism was a passion that could never be satisfied, one that could only be fully unleashed through encounters with reality. The purpose of journalism lay in exposing, in supervising, and in ensuring that the public could always clearly see the truth as it truly was. News reports could often more easily shape people's thinking, promote proper values, and, more importantly, guide people into thinking for themselves.

But as a reporter in his previous life, Richard naturally understood that journalism had its taboos as well. After all, the industry itself was made up of people, and wherever there were people, interests were inevitably involved.

In many cases, some things were clearly right, yet you simply could not say them out loud.

Sometimes, many things were plainly wrong, yet you had to go against your conscience and twist right into wrong.

Even Richard himself had to admit that he had once been part of it. Sometimes, after finishing an article against his conscience, he would even hate his own work so much that after it was published, he never wanted to look at it again.

But now, things were different.

Now, Richard had his own newspaper, along with a whole group of reporters who feared no authority and dared to stand their ground under any circumstances. Whatever they dared to write, he dared to publish. From Hollywood stars to business tycoons, from high-ranking military officers to political bigwigs—the higher a person stood, the more news there was to dig up.

In just a few short years, the Daily Planet had grown from its founding into one of the largest newspapers in New York City, and its owner, Richard, had seen his wealth soar alongside it. The Daily Planet had also become one of the best-selling newspapers among the city's residents, for one simple reason: they dared to write anything and say anything.

As for the big shots whose dirty secrets had been exposed and who might retaliate in fury?

Heh. He had crossed over and become an Ultraman. What was there to fear?

If he were still afraid of that, Richard figured he might as well bash his head against a block of tofu and die.

Just like in the plot of Marvel's film The Incredible Hulk 2, a lieutenant colonel under General Ross had injected himself with Hulk's serum last night and transformed into a monster like Abomination. Suddenly obtaining such dreamlike power had gone to Abomination's head. For a while, he had truly felt invincible in this world. He had rampaged through the streets of New York, crushed General Ross's troops head-on, and caused incalculable losses.

According to the original movie plot, General Ross's old nemesis, Hulk, should have stepped in, fought a world-shaking battle against Abomination in the streets of New York, and finally subdued him. But who would have thought that Abomination had been running wild for half the night, nearly tearing down an entire street, while Hulk, who was supposed to be the protagonist, still had not appeared to save the world?

Richard had not wanted to act so casually either. Once he acted, it would inevitably be earth-shattering and undoubtedly cause an uproar across the entire world. This world might not yet have been ready to accept the existence of someone like him.

But Abomination had been tearing down buildings all along the street and was nearly at the entrance to his newspaper office. If Richard did not jump out and punch Abomination flat, the next thing to collapse would be his Daily Planet. He had spent years building it...

Then again, Richard thought, this power had to be revealed to the world sooner or later. Whether it happened a little earlier or later did not really matter.

Richard was not actually someone with much of a hero complex. Compared to running around the world every day like a firefighter saving it, he preferred managing his newspaper peacefully and living his own life. Honestly, he found it rather strange that someone as ordinary as himself had received the favor of light, because he clearly did not think he was the kind of great hero who would sacrifice himself to protect the world.

Still, since he had obtained this power, he felt he should at least put it to use. He did not plan to become a full-time superhero like the Avengers, spending every day locked in a cycle of love and hate with supervillains. That would be like a game of cat and mouse, one that would never end.

But if one day, a disaster that even those superheroes could not contend with descended upon this world, descended upon his side... if one day this world truly needed an Ultraman, then he would fight without hesitation.