A Day at the Daily Bugle

"Anton, wake up, Anton!"

Betty Brant was utterly helpless. Looking at Anton, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, she could not understand how J. Jonah Jameson could have made such a mistake.

Handing over the fruits of his life's work so readily to his own grandson—a rich second-generation kid who had dropped out of college and knew nothing?

What a muddleheaded fool!!

"Hm?"

Anton opened his eyes groggily, instinctively wiped the puddle of drool off his desk, then looked up blankly at the young blonde, blue-eyed secretary before him. He could not tell whether he was dreaming or dreaming...

"Anton, this is tomorrow's Daily Bugle front page. It needs your confirmation and signature."

Betty handed Anton the file.

Anton took the file instinctively, signed it, and handed it back. Betty swayed her graceful figure as she left.

As Anton watched Betty's perky backside, a flood of information surfaced in his mind.

The young man's eyes widened involuntarily.

He caught an English name on the file Betty had just handed him, and realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

"Wait, that wasn't my name I just signed... Anton? Anton? I scored seventy in English on the college entrance exam. In four years of college, I only passed CET-4 twice, and my highest score was 364. How can I understand th—"

Suddenly, Anton stiffened.

The front-page newspaper Betty had just handed him—the one set to go on sale tomorrow—had somehow appeared in his mind.

Photographic memory!

Having acquired this essential transmigrator skill, Anton was not excited. Instead, he slumped into the soft executive chair like a salted fish, clawing at his hair in utter speechlessness.

Tony Stark!!

That newspaper had been called the Daily Bugle?

That was enough to explain everything!

Anton was utterly speechless.

It was already the twenty-first century. He knew exactly what kind of story he had stumbled into.

And a story like this came with a cheat.

It could not possibly be something as useless as photographic memory...

"DC Comics templates?"

Anton rubbed his chin and focused his mind.

In an instant, time seemed to stop, and he found himself in a new world.

System space.

It resembled a laboratory, with various DC Comics heroes' armors displayed all around him: Batman, The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Steel Bone, The Atom, Wonder Woman, and more.

Armors of every color were shrouded in transparent light.

Anton reached out to touch one and discovered that the transparent light could not be penetrated. It was like a girl always wearing safety shorts beneath her skirt. Damn it.

"Unlock requirement: increase the hero's fan value!"

Anton saw a line of text drift across the light. He scratched his head as a torrent of complicated information surged into his mind like a downpour, making his head throb.

"So that's how it is."

Anton understood. All these DC Comics heroes' armors had been prepared for him by the system.

The condition for unlocking the armors was to increase the fan value of the hero associated with each armor, then use that fan value to unlock it.

Naturally, each armor contained all the corresponding hero's abilities.

In other words, once he put on an armor, Anton could become Batman, Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman... Wait, it seemed an incorrect gender had slipped in there.

Still, that was not important.

Anton was thrilled. As a movie fan, he had been fascinated countless times by the fantasy universes created by Marvel and DC Comics.

This transmigration had directly fulfilled two of his wishes.

In any case, there was not much about his previous life worth missing. His earlier daze had only come from being overwhelmed by his sudden transmigration.

"This body's nominal father is John Jameson, an astronaut. His grandfather is J. Jonah Jameson, a famous New York businessman and the owner of the Daily Bugle."

Anton's eyes lit up slightly.

As one of New York's famous newspapers, the Daily Bugle was worth several billion and had its reach in every industry throughout New York.

Anton could be considered a rich second-generation kid with status now.

According to his memories, Jonah Jameson had started from nothing. He had gone from being a lowly reporter to establishing a newspaper company now worth several billion. He was growing tired and intended to retire and enjoy life.

So, while stubbornly retaining his position as president of the Daily Bugle, he had installed his grandson to take over the editor-in-chief duties he had previously held concurrently.

No one found this appointment difficult to understand.

The Daily Bugle was where Jonah Jameson's dream had begun. Controlled by the Jameson family, it was also the company Jonah Jameson treasured most.

Leaving it in the hands of family was the most reassuring choice.

Was there anyone closer than his own grandson?

If not Anton, was he supposed to count on Anton's nominal father, Jonah Jameson's nominal son, John the astronaut?

Anton's thoughts turned.

[The system will randomly select a primary hero template]

As the thought ended, the surrounding armors flashed past his eyes like a carousel. At last, they stopped on a black silhouette with a billowing cape and two pointed ears.

"Batman!"

Anton was not disappointed. In the Marvel world, blindly picking Superman was the right answer. If he could not randomly get Superman, randomly getting Batman was still an excellent result. Besides, Batman was his favorite DC Comics hero. Superman might have more powers, but Batman was DC Comics' beloved golden child!

[As the primary hero template is Batman, you are granted a premium beginner gift pack—Bone Fracture Card. Batman, originally priced at 50 million fan value, now costs only 9.98 million. At 9.98 million, you can't go wrong and you won't be cheated. You deserve it.]

A pleasant notification sounded beside his ears.

The armor before Anton suddenly blazed with light, projecting scene after scene.

Apart from the standard armor before him, Batman's various armors also appeared: Fenrir Armor, Rabbit Armor, Thrasher Armor, Insider Suit, Anti-Superman Armor, Kingdom Come Armor, Thermal Armor, and more.

In addition, Batman's image kept changing before Anton's eyes.

As a Batman fan, Anton instantly recognized the identities of these Batmen.

They were all Batman after turning dark.

The Red Death, The Dawnbreaker, The Merciless, The Murder Machine, The Batman Who Laughs, The Drowned, The Devastator...

Anton stared in stunned silence.

All his regret over not getting Superman vanished.

If he could redeem all these Batman armors, would he not be able to run wild with impunity?

After an unknown amount of time, Anton left the system space and once again felt time flowing.

A soft, warm breeze blew in through the open window.

At that moment, Anton was ecstatic.

The disorientation of transmigration had been completely buried beneath an enormous surprise.

Of course, redeeming armor required a hero's fan value.

For example, with the help of the Bone Fracture Card, the Batman armor that had originally cost 50 million fan value now required only 9.98 million.

However, the special armors in Batman's template, as well as his special dark forms, could not be redeemed with fan value. They required justice value instead.

Fan value was easy to understand. Simply put, it was fame. The greater one's fame, the more fans one naturally had.

Justice value referred to the reward points determined by the system after doing good deeds or fighting crime, measured in units of ten thousand.

Anton looked at the justice value required for these armors in Batman's template.

The cheapest was Thrasher Armor, requiring five million justice value, followed by Rabbit Armor at eight million. All the others cost more than ten million, while the most expensive, the sixth-dimensional "Ultimate Armor," even cost over a hundred million.

"This is a little difficult!"

Anton pondered for a moment and understood the system's intention.

Fan value meant the system hoped Anton would expand the fame of DC Comics heroes in the Marvel world, perhaps even use the name of DC Comics to conquer Marvel.

Justice value meant the system did not want Anton to use underhanded methods to expand DC Comics' fame. Rather, it hoped Anton would replace the ever-growing Marvel heroes by doing good deeds—or, more precisely, saving the world.

"Interesting!"

Anton chuckled.

Many comments have raised a question: DC Comics exist in the Marvel worldview.

Let me clarify at the beginning: in this novel's setting, there is nothing related to the DC Comics universe in the Marvel world.

This is only a harmless little setting and will not overturn everyone's understanding of Marvel. After all, as things stand, Marvel and DC Comics are unlikely to have a plot crossover in their cinematic universes. At most, there might be some playful banter in dialogue.

I wanted a unique angle that would make things more interesting, so I wrote it this way. I hope everyone will not overthink it!

When in doubt, parallel universes. Please forgive me!

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