Viltrumite, Is Your Mightiest Chat Group Fake or What?

[Skill Obtained: Demon King Art—Emotion Amplification (Beginner)]

[Effect: Once per day, the user may amplify any one of their emotions for three minutes, by approximately 10%]

Leon's gaze swept back and forth over the effect.

In the end, he decided to temporarily withdraw his earlier doubts about the chat group.

The skill might seem a little underwhelming, not even as useful as the well-known adrenaline rush.

But he was a Viltrumite.

And the most insidious thing about them was called Intelligent Atom.

It was like Superman's bio-electric aura, encompassing nearly all of the Viltrumites' absurd abilities.

And among that pile of abilities, the most insidious were their combat-related traits.

First, their emotions and bursts of willpower could bring them more than a 30% increase in strength.

Second, it could record and preserve the state in which they surpassed their limits.

This even included Leon's training.

There were also claims that taking a beating helped accelerate growth, and that the older they got, the stronger they became.

It was precisely because of these traits that the Viltrumite civilization was destined to develop the way it had, in a sense.

One person was a conquest starship, and they only grew stronger through battle. What was the point of harmonious development or rational research? Just fight.

All in all, this reward meant—

In every battle to come, as long as Leon used [Emotion Amplification], he would gain additional permanent growth.

Just think about it.

Aside from the battles in this world, how many fierce fights awaited him in the chat group, especially in the worlds of Warhammer and DC?

The numbers might look small, but once stacked up, they would be unimaginable. And this was only the beginner level!

Leon immediately felt invigorated and promptly buffed that emotion.

With a light tap of his toes, spiderweb cracks spread across the concrete paving. He shot straight into the clouds and began his daily mission.

Some time later, he descended breathlessly beside a high school track field.

Under the effects of Intelligent Atom, Viltrumites received an extremely strong sense of feedback from training.

Especially after using the skill, he still wanted more.

Leon then took a selfie with the track behind him and sent it to the group chat.

[Viltrumite Honor Student: Daily mission complete. Ten 100-meter shuttle runs. You should give it a try too.]

[Kansas Farm Boy: I hadn't looked at it yet. It was that easy?]

[Yellow Weasel, Neither Man nor God: He's fooling you, Clark. Even if everything can be explained, we all know that rescue earlier was far from simple.]

[Orange-Haired, Golden-Eyed Evil Human: Mr. Leon is joking again. Even an ordinary high school student like me has to run ten kilometers.]

[West China Tiger: This seems pretty easy, doesn't it?]

[Orange-Haired, Golden-Eyed Evil Human: Athletic students, get out.]

After joking around with the group for a while, he flew to a pawnshop to exchange the pearls for cash.

Upon hearing the offer, he could not even be bothered to consider how much the owner was skimming off him.

After squeezing several coins into balls and helping the owner test the reliability of a shotgun, he got a pretty good price.

What a successful exchange. He had already exceeded Nolan's orders and integrated himself into this place.

After checking into a hotel, Leon took a quick shower and drifted into bed.

Viltrumites did not need rest, but Leon very much did.

Morning sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, and the alarm buzzed.

Leon's fist only stopped the instant it struck it.

After a quick wash, he officially began the first step in pretending to be an Earthling—

Getting used to walking.

This was a little difficult. Flying was as natural to a Viltrumite as eating and drinking.

In order to survive, Leon had carved it into his bones.

Even his instructor had been quite impressed, viewing his instinct to use flight to offset impacts whenever he was hit as proof of his talent.

And from that day onward, the instructor's punches became heavier.

Sigh, a fallen Dou Emperor clan's genius, possessing ninth-stage Dou Qi at the age of ten.

Yet the clan elders oppressed him like this. The reason was actually—

Ahem. In any case, although stretching something that originally took seconds into several minutes felt a little strange—

The blonde woman sharing the elevator with him left her number after glancing at him a few times.

He was not particularly interested, but this sense of human normalcy still put him in a good mood.

Admiral Craig, there's wood all over this place. Get here, quick!

Following the map, he slipped all the way to a Chinatown breakfast shop.

Relying on his mixed-race appearance and an authentic accent he had secretly practiced for a long time, he ordered breakfast and quickly hit it off with the customers at the next table.

Dunking fried dough sticks into soy milk, he propped up his face and admired the scene around him.

"I really don't understand how Nolan put up with this place for so long. You can sleep until you wake naturally, there are buns, there are fried dough sticks, no war, no slaughter—"

Bang!

Before he could finish, something dressed like an elephant crashed through a brick wall and ran out.

Then, sirens blared from the street corner, while someone sped toward the scene at high speed.

In less than a second, Elephant Man was knocked unconscious by a red blur passing him by, and the police immediately rushed forward with their guns drawn.

Global Guardians. Red Rush.

Leon watched the direction he vanished in and took a sip of soy milk.

The image of the guy's head being crushed was still fresh in his mind. Sorry to meet you this way.

But Red Rush's strength could not be underestimated. Even if Leon's dynamic vision could keep pace with flight speed, he still could not immediately follow his figure.

"No wonder Nolan chose to kill him first. I'd pick him too. Sacrificing the speedster first is always the right move."

After finishing breakfast, Leon began planning his next steps.

The turning point of the story was when Mark awakened his superpowers.

But there was no sign of Invincible in any media right now.

So, he should first find the version of him in this world and confirm the situation.

If he was an evil old man, he would act early. If he was a good guy, he would make friends.

Then there were Leon's own problems.

First was his identity. He had fooled his way into the hotel using a robber's ID, but if he wanted to keep living here, he needed legal identification.

Second was income. For now, he could not openly work as a hero and collect a salary, and getting a job was out of the question.

Even if he could move every steel coil in one trip, how much could the boss possibly pay him?

But he quickly got an idea.

Being a superhero was hard, but finding supervillains was easy.

They were all known figures in the underground world. If he picked someone familiar and contacted them, he might even be able to pinpoint the city where the protagonist lived.

"Finding people just got easier, the identity issue can be solved, and I can make some money too... Looks like the Viltrumites' wisdom genes haven't disappeared after all."

Just as Leon was pleased with his plan, he received a group message.

[Spicy Donkey Head: @All Members Thank you all for your help. If it weren't for you, I would never have seen my mom and dad again.

I can't imagine what it would be like to never see them again. I really don't know how to repay you.]

It seemed Amiya had woken up.

[Kansas Farm Boy: Helping each other is how it should be. When you have the ability, you'll help us too, won't you?]

[West China Tiger: Just thank Leon and Neos. Fujimaru and I didn't really help at all.]

[Orange-Haired, Golden-Eyed Evil Human: Couldn't agree more.]

And at a moment like this, the Emperor remained the Emperor. Skipping the pointless chatter, he went straight to the next topic.

[Yellow Weasel, Neither Man nor God: Since Amiya has awakened, it is time to discuss the issue of time flow in our respective worlds.]

The Young Man's Fate Began to Turn

[West China Tiger: Huh, time flow? What does that mean?]

[Yellow Weasel, Neither Man nor God: @Viltrumite Honor Student At the very least, you should have noticed it too.]

Perhaps because of the way Leon had conducted himself, the Emperor trusted him quite a bit. He actually expected a Viltrumite to keep up with his earth-shattering wisdom.

But Leon had indeed noticed a few details.

[Viltrumite Honor Student: Neos is right.

Do you remember our video call when we first joined the group? Judging from the view outside little Amiya's window back then, at least half a day had passed for her.

But only a few hours at most had passed for me, so time flows differently in our worlds.]

[Orange-Haired, Golden-Eyed Evil Human: Whoa... I get it now. But how did Mr. Neos discover that?]

[Spicy Donkey Head: Because Mr. Neos is amazing?]

[Yellow Weasel, Neither Man nor God: Because the difference is too great. You were discussing things that happened within a single day. There were no greetings, no catching up, no traces of time passing at all.

But where I am, dozens of days have already passed.]

In front of the screen, Neos leaned back in his chair and looked around the brand-new room he was in.

Over these past few days, while the group members had still been rescuing the girl with rabbit ears, he had already set up a dedicated chat room in reality.

The equipment here allowed him to quickly look up whatever information he wanted and begin research at any time. There were also measures in place to prevent prying eyes.

[West China Tiger: Then only an hour has passed for me. Doesn't that mean Mr. Neos will grow old the fastest among us?]

[Yellow Weasel, Neither Man nor God: Is it possible to look at it the other way around? Maybe I can simply live for a very long time.

Don't be too surprised. As far as I can see, if we were able to gather here, perhaps we're all fated to work ourselves to the bone without dying.]

[West China Tiger: Really? Will I live that long too? That can't be right. My body is only a little stronger than other people's.]

[Viltrumite Honor Student: Hard to say.]

Based on the final count, the slowest passage of time in the group belonged to Itadori.

First he was the top dog in high school, then he became the top dog in the jujutsu world. The most miserable half-year in between became a manga. That was the weight of his pedigree.

And the fastest, naturally, was the Emperor.

Of course, that was normal. Warhammer's story spanned thousands, even tens of thousands, of years.

Since they had promised to improve together, there was no way they would wait several years for the others to become the strongest before the Emperor had only just begun his unification process.

Amiya, Clark, and Leon were in the middle when it came to the flow of time, with no obvious difference between them.

But Ritsuka Fujimaru was a bit unusual.

Just like last time, her understanding of her own situation seemed extremely strange.

Whenever time came up and the era she lived in was mentioned, she referred to the years 1994, 2004, and even later years.

It sounded as though she were in a world that constantly shifted.

But considering the possibility that exposing it could cause unpredictable changes, Leon chose not to mention it for now.