Time passed by like a blur for Braun as he alternated between traveling from the city into the mountains and vice versa, and over two weeks went by in a flash.
As of right now, he was walking back home with a plastic bag in hand. Inside the plastic bag, there appeared to be some sort of box, and looking through the transparent film on top would reveal a chocolate-flavored cake with a couple of strawberries on top.
Braun walked through the streets humming a joyful tone with each step and soon arrived in front of a multi-story apartment complex. He greeted the attendant on the first floor as usual and hopped on the elevator.
Waiting for others to fill in the elevator, he pressed a button to go to the 6th floor and stepped out, greeted by an empty hallway with doors lined across the walls. Dim lights lit up the long hallway, with Braun stepping into one of the numerous rooms.
He took off his jacket, hung it on a nearby rack, and proceeded to the kitchen. Taking out his phone along the way, he played a random song on his playlist while placing the box on the table.
Opening it, the delightful scent of chocolate cake wafted into the air, causing a smile to blossom on Braun’s face.
A month has officially passed since the meteor shower incident along with him forging a connection to the Zenithral Force, granting himself access to the ever-mysterious zenithral power.
During this short yet long month, a lot has changed for Braun, from him becoming a famous artist online, to killing tens of humans, turning into a cannibal, and even transcending his limits as a mere human.
Gazing at the box, Braun appeared to be expectant as threads extended out of his fingertips, with each individual strand dexterously maneuvering around to slowly cut the cake into chunks.
He licked the chocolate bits left on his threads, his eyes sharp and focused as he looked around his empty apartment. It was as if he was waiting in anticipation for something, but after a short while, nothing happened.
Braun shrugged his shoulders, dismissing the results of his little experiment to instead place his attention on the cake.
“Happy one month to me,” he murmured with a grin and sat down on his chair. Using his threads to grab a couple of cake chunks, he enjoyed the sweet, chocolaty taste of the cake, enjoying each bite to savor the flavor as much as possible.
Besides his superpowers, his progress in his other businesses had made significant growth during the past two weeks.
His following as an artist had reached hundreds of thousands of followers, pushing his monthly revenue to over 30k. On the other hand, his singer/guitarist following had just reached over a hundred thousand, and he could already qualify for monetization.
By his expectations, combining the revenue from those two sources, he’d reach 50k a month starting tomorrow.
While exciting, it wasn’t as exciting as his progress with his superpowers.
Through the two weeks of constant training, Braun had greatly increased the strength of his ability. If he were to observe the crystal inside the metaphysical space in his body right now, it would have already grown much larger than before, going from just a bit over the size of his hand to now reaching a meter in length.
While his hands may be larger than average, it was still a significant increase in size, and it was a significant power boost as well.
Before any of the mystical aspects, my body alone had undergone significant changes, and I’m capable of harnessing greater levels of zenithral power already. I can bend metallic beams, regenerate from a serious wound in under a minute, run as fast as a car, and my senses have sharpened to superhuman levels.
My threads can now lift over a thousand kilograms, cut through metal, and even block the explosion from a grenade. The number of threads I could control increased to almost a thousand already, and my fine control had explosively increased. I could wield a hundred threads akin to controlling a hundred limbs.
Braun smiled as he observed his growth, and couldn’t help but imagine just how far more he could increase his strength in the far future.
But zenithral power truly is monstrous.
There was a reason why Braun’s surge in strength didn’t get slower, and instead got faster the stronger he became, and that was due to the way his connection with the Zenithral Force deepened.
For his connection with that seemingly almighty power to deepen, he has to develop himself in any aspect. From gaining new knowledge, new skills, greater strength, profound insights into life, etc, any sort of improvement would act as another link to the Zenith.
It was honestly so absurd that even if he were to just let time pass, his zenithral power would grow without him doing anything.
This didn’t mean that it was easy to deepen the connection though. It still took a lot for him to reach this level in just two weeks, but since superpowers signify an improvement in so many aspects ranging from power, skills, and knowledge, it gave rise to greater zenithral power—and zenithral power signifies ‘greater talent’ for Braun, allowing his already enviable learning curve to turn all the more monstrous.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
In essence, the stronger he gets, the faster he can get stronger.
It was a system of progress that defied any sort of common sense, where the weak got to grow stronger faster and progress would slow down the greater one was.
Braun smiled. This is straight-up defying the way of the heavens. If I was in some sort of cultivation world, the Heavenly Dao would have struck me with countless tribulations already.
Fortunately, the universe Braun lived in wasn’t that sort of place, and as long as he continued to train, he’d grow stronger at an increasingly monstrous rate.
He’ll turn one into two, two into three, and three into infinity.
Enjoying the last bits of his cake, Braun grabbed a protein shake from his fridge using a thread and chugged it all down in one go. Feeling a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach and his developing body, Braun grinned and returned to his bedroom to finish his commissions for the day.
Tonight will be a night to remember! Braun remarked with a mysterious grin.
…
Deep into the night, on the periphery of the city, inside an abandoned warehouse, Braun walked out of the shadows with his eyes glowing green.
This is gonna be one scary experiment, but if I play my cards right, I will gain a lot and then some more. Braun extended out multiple threads, each holding a camera that he placed in strategic spots inside and outside the warehouse.
Might as well collect data while risking my life. Braun chuckled and finished his preparations.
Unfurling his fingers, threads began to spread out from the tips of his fingers, with a distinct burst of energy from the crystal inside his body, but as the leak of energy tried to escape his body, it was blocked by his body, keeping it hidden from the rest of the world.
My body’s adaptation truly is wondrous. It subconsciously knew letting the energy leak out would alert the organization back then when I just received my superpower, so it evolved in a way to prevent the energy from leaking out.
The energy leak would remain inside his body if Braun willed it so, but tonight was a little different.
Like opening a damn, the air around him quivered with a burst of energy leaking out of his body.
He quickly got into position, with a barrel and a tire being lifted by his threads as if he were practicing and training as usual.
Soon enough, he heard a low hum outside the warehouse, and a card tore through the air at breakneck speeds, cutting through his incredibly durable threads like it was nothing.
Card Guy… Braun squinted his eyes and turned around, his eyes locking in on the five figures in the distance.
“Oh damn.” He hissed.
Throughout the one month he had stayed in the city, he had spent the majority of his time wandering around the southwestern part of the city due to one simple reason, they were the group he encountered the most and had the most data on.
Usually, the southwestern group of supers would operate in groups of three to handle any rogue supers causing a ruckus, well any ruckus that Braun found through the cameras of the city. Maybe there were supers apprehended inside private locations, like their houses and such which didn’t cause much disruption to the public.
During this, he had profiled five different supers in their team.
The strongest was coined as Card Guy, a strong super capable of manipulating cards that seemed to have been augmented by his powers. They can cut through his threads like air just like before, and possess strong durability as well, managing to block a burst of flames by some rogue super a week ago.
Another one was a muscular guy capable of hardening their body and probably had defense rivaling the card guy’s cards. Their strength was nothing to scoff at too, as they could even lift up a car and hurl it.
Thirdly, there was this slim man who could create an energy barrier that could be manipulated at will. The barriers can change shape, turning from a spherical shield to a giant pillar that can be used as a weapon.
Fourth was a woman who could create ten clones of herself, each exhibiting martial prowess and weapon mastery at a master level. While her body may be just at the peak of humanity, her skills make her a strong threat even without her clones.
Lastly, there was a woman who could transform into some sort of humanoid raven. They hold great physical strength, regeneration, and partial to complete transformation. They can create wings on their back for flight, transform their skin for greater defense, and morph their arms and legs into sharp claws as weapons.
They were a strong group with each member posing great power. They had long- and close-range fighters, tanks, and even support.
In all honesty, even Braun was intimated by this group and there was a significant chance he’d even be defeated, but in addition to his fear, there was an undeniable feeling of excitement budding in his heart.
For over two weeks, he had been restraining himself and only practiced his abilities out in the mountains. Even though he had the ability to block his energy leakage and escape the organization’s detection, he still forced himself to train outside of their radar to ensure his safety, but tonight’s operation wasn’t for his safety.
Tonight, he was going to fight them.
In the month he spent inside Nuwesca City, no one had truly posed much of a challenge to him, and the last blood-pumping fight he had experienced was with Christopher in Civer Forest. Unknowingly, he had already been longing for such an experience, to hang between the borders of life and death, with a single mistake potentially costing him his life.
Only under such strenuous conditions could he experience explosive growth.
In addition to that, Braun wasn’t doing this just to enjoy a fight. He was doing this to, if everything goes according to plan, join the organization.
He had long known going solo in the early parts of his development was just stupid, and making an enemy out of an organization spanning the entire world was just pointless. Rather than avoiding them and working in the shadows, he’d much rather use them to his advantage and work under them until his strength reaches a desired level.
Maybe he’d be working with them till the end and eventually take over as the new leader, or go rogue and rule the world as some tyrant. Whatever happens in the future, it was a necessary part of his development to join this organization.
Resources, knowledge, technology, they have it all. Even with powers, humans can’t possibly hope to control the world with their own hands, only by working with others could they achieve great feats.
Who cares if I’m restricted by the organization’s rules, only a dumbass wouldn’t make use of such a useful behemoth. I’ll stand on the shoulders of giants, suck them dry, and exploit them to my advantage!
Braun grinned, with threads fluttering out of his fingertips.
Come! Let’s see just how strong this fearsome organization truly is!