Hooded Man: I'll win.jpg

The hooded man had never felt so light.

Ever since awakening his superpower, he had considered himself the master of dreams. When he invaded the depths of someone else's consciousness in spirit form, he figured he should only have to unleash his imposing aura for their consciousness to kneel and surrender.

In reality, the differences in human mental strength were generally not that great, especially between people who had both awakened superpowers.

As a result, every dream invasion forced him into a fifty-fifty matchup. He could only provoke his opponent with filthy insults and doxxing before slowly wearing down their mind until it collapsed completely.

But if he ran into someone as unreasonable as Chen Xiao, who opened with a flurry of punches and kicks, his spirit form could only trade wild haymakers with them in the dream.

And his chances of losing were pretty high.

That was why, while taking jobs all over the world outside Shenzhou, the hooded man had also been searching for ways to strengthen his ability.

Until one day, a man named "K" approached him and introduced him to a superpower enhancement experiment conducted by a corporate giant in the Alabachia Federation.

The results were very encouraging. After the enhancement, he could not only bring his physical body into the dream world but also briefly shape his mental energy into things like flames, lightning, or blades to attack with.

Though, for some reason, his grasp of math had slipped afterward. Even when he went shopping, he sometimes paid too much or too little...

But at least he had grown stronger, hadn't he?

Even after coming this far, however, the hooded man was not satisfied. Deep in his heart, he still held on to the wish he had made when his superpower first awakened-

To become the master of dreams!

Now, after drinking that bottle of enhancer from the Federation's corporate giant, he felt as though that wish was almost within reach.

"Things are different now!!!!"

The hooded man now felt he could do anything!

With a mere raise of his hand, he could transform his mental energy into a thunderous storm, controlling the weather of this dream like a god!

"Heeheeheehee~!!!! Amazing! This feeling! This feeling of controlling everything... what an incredible high!!!"

Seeing him so utterly ecstatic, Chen Xiao struggled to keep a straight face. For a moment, he thought the hooded man might imitate a certain hundred-year-old British recluse in Egypt and jab a finger into his own temple.

"Now it's my turn to fight back! Blue-Eyed Monster!"

Having finished his little fit, the hooded man slowly crouched, gathering strength to leap.

His words, however, offended Chen Xiao.

"Hey! Who are you calling a monster, you villain? My Black Rock is cool and cute!"

Black Rock Shooter: ... (bashful)

Naturally, the hooded man could not hear Chen Xiao's objection.

Then the hugely swollen muscles in his legs suddenly flexed.

The next moment, the ground beneath him shook, and his body shot toward Black Rock Shooter atop the black-and-white mosaic platform like a cannonball.

"So fast!"

Without the boost from possessing Black Rock Shooter, Chen Xiao would not even have been able to react.

Fortunately, Black Rock Shooter could dodge the hooded man's attack herself without needing his warning.

If he had been controlling Black Rock's body just then, he would have been able to see the attack and keep up with its speed, but he would never have dodged in time.

BOOM-!!!

The hooded man smashed through the platform, sending black-and-white mosaic stones flying and raising a cloud of dust that obscured their vision.

"That enhancer gave him such a huge boost?"

Chen Xiao could not help marveling.

Fortunately, his strength was still within manageable limits. Even this lightning-fast strike had been easy for Black Rock to evade.

"Hahaha! Look at this speed! Look at this destructive power! I'm practically Superman! All the Federation's superheroes combined aren't as strong as me!"

Without realizing what his failure to hit Black Rock Shooter meant, the hooded man stood on the shattered platform and laughed wildly at the destruction he had caused. His mouth stretched into a huge grin, his expression even more grotesque than DC's Batman Who Laughs.

His power had swelled to a level that defied reason even in the dream world. At this moment, he feared nothing!

Would he win?

Hooded man: I'll win!

Then black lightning flickered around the hooded man's right hand, finally forming a spear of white light edged in black.

Having proclaimed himself a god, he naturally had to attack like one.

Supposedly, a certain king of the gods in Europa's mythology used just such an attack to rain ultimate punishment upon mortals!

"And next... this!"

He aimed at Black Rock below and hurled it!

Black Rock Shooter: ... (tilted her head)

RUMBLE----!!!

The thunderous lightning spear passed beside Black Rock Shooter's face and struck the ground a short distance behind her, erupting into a brilliant pillar of white light.

Its destructive radius, however, was only about that of a hand grenade.

"That's it? All thunder and no rain. I thought it'd pack as much punch as Ulquiorra's Lightning Spear."

Chen Xiao relaxed a little.

If that was the strongest attack his opponent could muster, defeating Black Rock Shooter would be utterly impossible.

"Oops! My aim's a little off on the first try! But this time! Heehee~! This time I'll definitely hit! Get fried to a crisp!"

The hooded man had become completely absorbed in his own little world.

He actually thought Black Rock Shooter was standing still because his power had scared her stiff.

"Black Rock, do you feel like, after he drank that stuff, his intelligence got a little..."

Earlier, when he had threatened Chen Xiao, he had still acted like a vicious villain, as disgusting as could be. How had he turned into a little kid who had just gotten an official Bandai toy?

Black Rock Shooter: ... (nodded)

CRACKLE----!!!

The hooded man formed a lightning spear in each hand and attacked Black Rock Shooter below once again!

This time, Black Rock Shooter did not dodge. Instead, she summoned her massive cannon in her right hand and fired individual shots, detonating the incoming lightning spears one by one.

"Hahahaha!!!!"

Yet the hooded man burst out of the exploding lightning and lunged straight at the unprepared Black Rock Shooter. As he laughed wildly, his tongue even flapped out of the corner of his mouth, saliva scattering in the blast's fierce winds.

"Ugh! What a disgusting face!"

Chen Xiao looked revolted.

But he did not make Black Rock Shooter retreat because of it.

Then Black Rock swung her right arm. The enormous cannon in her hand suddenly became a colossal sword made of black rock, and she swept it at the approaching hooded man as though it weighed nothing.

"Puurgh-!"

Those absurdly exaggerated muscles, which would have put even a bodybuilder injected with Nine Dragons' Power to shame, were as soft as pork belly on a chopping board beneath Black Rock's sweeping sword. His entire body bent into a C in midair.

Perhaps the enhancer's boost was powerful enough, because the blow somehow failed to turn the hooded man into two halves of a hooded man.

His body then spun like a wheel, only stopping when he crashed into an area filled with chains and crosses.

"Looks like the fight's decided."

But just as Chen Xiao finished speaking, the hooded man's rather eerie muttering emerged from the distant rubble. As he slowly climbed to his feet, his muscles began expanding and contracting as if breathing. Thick veins bulged across his forehead, and one eye grew larger than the other.

"Ow-hurts! My head hurts! Aaaah!!! Whew... strange? Why am I here? When is this? Who's this woman? An enemy?! I'm the god of dreams! No? What am I? Not human...? Or something else? The great... blood... flesh... so hungry...!"

The hooded man kept shaking his head, mumbling all manner of strange delirious nonsense. It was impossible to tell whether the impact had damaged his brain or whether this was a side effect of the enhancer he had drunk earlier.

Black Rock Shooter: ... (frowned)

"Black Rock, what's wrong?"

Black Rock Shooter's reaction worried Chen Xiao a little.

After all, the hooded man's condition was far too bizarre. He looked as though he still had a fourth transformation phase.

"AOOOOAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

Well, damn. He really did!

The hooded man's body began swelling again. His straight spine curved forward, gradually changing his human shape into that of a beast, while hair rapidly sprouted across his skin.

"Is this... a werewolf?"

The scene before him reminded Chen Xiao of a monster-hunting movie he had watched in his previous life.

It had been called... "Van Helsing," hadn't it?

But the transformation was not over. The bones in his back writhed, and a pair of enormous flesh-colored wings bulged out of his skin. His pointed wolf muzzle grew more upturned and flattened, like a bat's.

"ROAR----!!!"

With another roar, flames actually poured from his mouth!

Only after the flames dissipated did Chen Xiao notice that his tongue had become something like a fleshy tube. The fire had spewed out of it.

"So what exactly did they make that enhancer out of? Werewolf plus vampire? And the fire-breathing part... is that a Dragon?"

Chen Xiao rubbed his head.

Although he had previously considered that this world's supernatural side might involve more than superpowers, he had not expected werewolves and vampires to turn up.

If the fire-breathing ability really was what he suspected, then dragons existed too.

And considering the situation in Shenzhou, there might be more than the demons and ghosts of legend. Even immortals and gods might...

"No, no, no! Now's not the time to think about that!"

Chen Xiao shook his head.

No matter how outrageous this world's setting was, could it possibly outdo his own figurines?

Even if he really encountered those things, that would be a matter for later.

The most pressing concern was the guy right in front of him!

"Hungry... urgh!"

The hooded man, now a hybrid monster, began searching for prey as soon as his transformation finished. Then he looked up and spotted Black Rock Shooter. His bestial mouth had barely split into a grin before it closed again, and he turned and ran.

"Huh?"

Black Rock Shooter: ?

Chen Xiao and Black Rock Shooter both froze, taking a moment to process what had happened.

"Not good! He's trying to escape!"

Seriously, whose first instinct after going berserk and turning into a beast was to chicken out?!

Was he possessed by Muzan Kibutsuji or something?!