The moment Wonder Man opened the door, he was met with something that made him react with, “What is this?!”

In front of him, there was a room filled with silence as people stared up at the large screens with various information changing constantly. He was quite confused, so he walked in, closed the door shut and headed towards where he someone familiar.

“What’s going on here?” He asked them.

“Oh!” Pina exclaimed upon laying her eyes on him. “Wonder Man! What did we do to deserve this honour?”

This made him raise an eyebrow while letting out a light chuckle before asking, “What does that mean?”

Pina stared at him in surprise before letting out a disgruntled sigh and saying, “Why did you come here?”

“I came here to check up on that young man’s super human assessment.”

“Young man?” Pina asked curiously.

“Isn’t he.”

“That’s not it. Why call him that when he has a perfectly decent name?”

“I wonder what it is…” he muttered with a sheepish smile.

“You’re always like this,” she said with a sigh. “It’s Zayden.”

“Ah. Zayden,” said Wonder Man, and he nodded his head in understanding. Then he repeated by saying, “I came to check upon Zayden’s super human assessment, but… what’s this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why are you all just standing around?” He asked with a confused look. “Also, why is he sleeping?”

He pointed at one of the monitors, which showed him sleeping peacefully for reasons he could not think of.

“He said he’ll take a light nap while we conduct the assessment,” said Pina with a wry smile. “He even joked how the bed was too comfortable to stay awake for too long.”

“I can understand that sentiment,” smiled Wonder Man as he knew about the absolute comfort of those assessment beds, “but I don’t get why there’s nothing happening here.”

“You think so?” Pina asked him with a raised eyebrow.

“Well…” he began and gestured with his hand all around. “Everyone is inactive. Did you even begin the assessment yet?”

“We already concluded the assessment, Wonder Man,” replied Pina in a matter-of-fact tone much to his surprise.

“Wait? Already?”

“Yes.”

“And… you didn’t see anything… strange?”

Pina was momentarily taken aback by surprise from his unexpected words. Then she responded somewhat hesitantly, “Well, when we started the program to begin the assessment, there was blinding light.”

“A blinding light?” He asked with a confused look. “That’s vague. What’s the strength of the light since that usually defines the super human status of the person undergoing the assessment.”

He knew how the super human assessment was conducted, which was to depict by exhibiting a brilliant light based on the level of the capabilities of the super human they were testing. The brighter the glow, the more powerful that person is and they could evaluate what kind of super power that person possessed.

“It was… very bright…” said Pina with a nervous look.

As he stared at her in confusion, Pina elaborated by saying, “The light was so bright that the equipment began to go out of control.”

This made him blink twice in surprise and ask to their surprise, “Really?”

His smile even widened as if he was expecting something like this to occur, which baffled them.

“Yeah, it was wild. We were even worried that the dome might explode from the intensity.”

This took Wonder Man aback as he was not expecting such a level of comment from her.

“Really? It was that powerful?”

“Yes but…” she began and hesitated with a puzzled look on her face.

He waited for a moment for her to continue and when they remained continuing to look lost in her own thoughts, he asked, “But what?”

Pina looked back at him and replied, “The light dimmed rapidly until only a fraction of what appeared was shown.”

This startled him so much that he exclaimed loudly, “What?! The light decreased?!”

“Yes. Yes, it did,” said Pina with a nod of her head with a puzzled look.

“That doesn’t make sense,” he remarked with a bewildered look.

“Of course!” Pina chimed in indignantly. “Generally, the light was supposed to last for a while until we depower the assessment and return things to normal. However, after just blinding us for five seconds, five whole seconds, it dimmed rapidly and became very dim. It was like everything we witnessed was never true but it certainly left its marks.”

“Marks?”

“Just look out there,” she said and began to point out the damage done inside the assessment room.

He shifted his eyes to follow in the direction she pointed and was startled to find several equipment damaged outside. Things like cameras and other odd items that he did not know the purpose for, but they certainly looked like they had seen better days.

“It must’ve been incredible,” he said his thoughts out loud.

“It was, but what was more incredible was that it nearly exerted the limits of the assessment unit,” said Pina with a deep sigh. “Like, you know the reason why we built something like this, right?”

He nodded as he knew very well the entire reason why they created this thing was for him. During the time that he had took his super human assessment, his power was so strong that the entire equipment exploded and he appeared out of it covered from head to toe in smoke and sooth.

“Ha,” he said and tried containing his laughter from remembering what had happened to him back then.

“It’s not funny! Do you know how dangerous it is?!”

“I wasn’t laughing about this,” he reassured her. “I was just laughing at myself at how wild my assessment was back then.”

She linked at him in surprise before she too smiled and stated, “You’re right. It was pretty funny. I remember you walking out of the whole mess coughing and covered entirely in blackened sooth. Do you remember what the first thing you said?”

“I do,” he replied with a chuckle. “Do I need to pay for the damages?”

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Suddenly, the two of them burst out laughing that caught everyone around them off guard. They stopped what they were doing and looked towards them with curious looks on their faces. Realising they were just laughing, they returned to the tasks assigned to them.

“Ah…! Those were the days,” he said with a grin. “I want to repeat that again.”

“Hell no!” Pina slammed him expectations. “Do you understand how expensive this equipment is?”

“I was only joking,” he told her while continuing to grin. “Relax and besides, I don’t need assessment anymore anyway.”

“True that,” she agreed with a smile. “Anyway, I think you should head down to begin waking him up while we assess his power rating.”

“Yes. Thank you for that,” he told her courteously and respectfully.

She let him one of her persons wearing a white coat and instructed them to lead him towards where Zayden was. With that, they set off in silence and during their journey down a flight of stairs, Wonder Man was thinking to himself.

“A powerful light strong enough to give the new equipment a run for its money and then it suddenly dimmed and became weak. I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”

He thought back to almost an hour ago when he first assessed Zayden on his own to check for his super human status. Despite not being sure what he saw, there was one thing he could vividly remember; a pair of yellow eyes with red crown shapes etched around the pupil staring back at him unflinchingly and without a lack of fear or discomfort.

“It was like I was looking at something that cannot be touched no matter what,” he thought to himself.

Wonder Man did not know why he came to such a conclusion, but from that brief experience, he guessed there was definitely something different about Zayden.

At that time, when Web Raider had charged forward to deliver a clearly devastating attack on Lina, he rushed forward as fast as he could. Even so, he knew he would arrive too late since the villain had a head start, but she was saved by Zayden.

He watched as Zayden grabbed that weapon and held it firmly back, a feat that no ordinary man could perform. In fact, just by coming close to such an attack would result in a terribly injury to a non-super human due to the aura of the super human’s power.

Yet, Zayden was unfazed as he held it back, pulled him away and grabbed his face before slamming him down. There was simply one word that summed up such a choreographic fight.

“Incredible,” he muttered to himself.

“Pardon?” The lady leading forward turned and asked in surprise.

“Oh. It’s nothing,” he reassured her with a smile, and she smiled back before continuing to walk down the stairs.

“Anyhow, I should keep an eye out for him since all of this is quite suspicious,” he thought to himself with determination.

While thinking that, they soon reached the bottom floor and walked towards the assessment equipment where Zayden was. As they grew closer, he could hear voices speaking in a very friendly manner with one another. He arrived to find Zayden and Lina talking to each other while sitting on the comfortable bed.

Zayden was yawning at that time while Lina was saying, “You certainly slept blissfully.”

“Can you blame me?” He asked back with a faint smile. “This bed is just incredible. No. That word isn’t enough to credit this bed truly deserves.”

“You exaggerate.”

“No way. It felt like I actually slept properly after a really long time.”

With that, he let out another huge yawn and rubbed his groggy eyes tiredly.

Lina watched him for a moment before asking, “Why do you say that?”

“Well…” he began and hesitated to explain.

Asura was not sure how he would be able to explain to her that throughout his previous life, he ever only slept for three to four hours a day and even those were fitful due to the constant fear of an attack. This was because his clan were in the middle of a warring time and they were surrounded by enemies all around, so he had been the one that was constantly active and on look out. So, he truly felt like he had a good sleep after going through such a stressful time.

For some reason, Lina looked at him sympathetically and said, “It must’ve been hard.”

“Huh?” Zayden asked her in surprise. “Why do you say that?”

He was very worried as he thought that she probably read his thoughts or something. There was something about her that just made him feel perplexed, like she was seeing right through him. He felt this from the moment she had guessed he never truly smiled and was putting on a fake smile for the sake of smiling when I did not really want to smile.

“It’s because even after receiving such a life-threatening injury and hospitalised, no one that looked like your parents or siblings ever came to visit you,” she explained with a sad look. “In fact, the only two people that came to check up on you were those nasty looking people.”

“W-What?” He asked her, looking startled, feeling both relief and amazement at the conclusion she came to all on her own.

“You don’t need to pretend the pain you feel about the betrayal,” she said with an understanding look. “That woman that used to date you and the guy now she is dating came to visit you. Even though you tried to hide it, I guessed you were in severe pain when you collapsed no sooner had they left.”

“Oh…” he said slowly and looked down at the bed.

Inwardly, he was thankful that she misunderstood that entire encounter with those two. He had collapsed because of the overwhelming feeling when Zayden’s memories rushed into his head all at once. It certainly was not because he felt any kind of lingering attachment to a woman without principles.

Still, seeing the sad look on her face made him say reassuringly, “Please, don’t worry about it. I don’t have a single feeling attached to her. In fact, I feel like this is a chance.”

“A chance?” She asked in wonder.

“Yes,” he said, nodding his head. “That new boyfriend of hers is an A-Ranked super hero. So, if I indeed am a super human, then I’d like to show her what she missed out on.”

“You are a super human,” said Wonder Man, and they turned to look at him in surprise.

“Wonder Man!” Lina said in surprise. “What’re you doing here?”

“I said I would come after you a while back, didn’t I, princess?”

“Oh. Yes, you did,” she said at the sudden realisation. Then she scowled at him and asked, “When will you stop calling me a ‘princess’ like I’m some damsel?”

“I do wonder when such a thing is possible,” he said slowly with a cheeky smile much to her annoyance.

“Why you…?!” She exclaimed with a glare full of daggers ready to strike him down.

He chuckled at her reaction and turned to speak with Zayden by saying, “I’m glad you have such a positive mindset to not allow yourself to wallow in self-pity and rise above and go beyond the pain. I’m very happy for you and would like to see you reach great heights.”

Zayden was taken aback at such a praise coming from Woman Man, whom he barely got to know. Even so, the small exchange they had explained to him completely what kind of a person Wonder Man was. Once again, he was reminded of his cheerful brother that he once had in his past life and for whom he went to war with the entire world.

“What’s wrong, Zayden?” Lina asked curiously.

“Oh. It’s nothing,” he said in surprise, breaking out of the reverie he was in and looked confidently at them. “Thank you for the kind words, Wonder Man. A lot of people have done their best to keep me down no matter what, but I’m not the others. I’m different. I’m not going to give up.”

He resolute words made them look at him with looks of amazement and awe on their faces. Even Asura found himself momentarily wondering about the words he uttered because they were indeed true.

No matter how much he had to struggle, how painful things got, how much he lost and how much suffering he endured, he ultimately kept on going no matter what. He never felt like giving up, he just felt he must keep on moving forward regardless of all that were thrown at him.

Wonder Man smiled and said, “I’m glad you’ve got a strong head on those shoulders filled with burden.” When Zayden looked surprised, he smiled knowingly and said, “Call it a gut feeling, but I feel as though you have a lot of burden that you’re carrying, so I am happy that you’re not giving up.”

Lina nodded in agreement and said, “Yes. I second that.”

He looked at the two of them and nodded in agreement. Just then, a lady wearing a white coat came to them and said, “If you are done, can you please follow me back? Madam Pina requested it.”

“Alright,” said Lina in agreement.

With that, the three of them followed her upstairs and arrived at the monitoring room, where Pina was waiting for them holding an envelope in her hand. Seeing them coming, she smiled and greeted them cordially.

“How’s your sleep? Was it comfortable?”

“Yes,” he said with a nod of his head. “So much so that I wish I could take that bed home with me.”

She smiled back and replied, “You can buy it on your own if you work hard enough as a super human.”

“This means I indeed awoke as a super human?”

“You certainly did, although it’s quite peculiar.”

“How so?”

“It’s… hard to explain,” she said vaguely while he continued to look curiously at her. “Anyway, that paper holds your super human rating.”

“It’s pretty much what category of the super human group you fall into based on the assessment done on you,” said Wonder Man from behind.

“I see,” said Zayden, nodding his head in understanding. “In that case, what is my rating?”

He was about to open the envelop when she grabbed his hand and asked, “Are you sure about this?”

Puzzled, he looked around at them staring at him, which made him ask, “Should I not open it?”

“You can if you like to here but…” said Pina nervously.

“Most tend to open it privately to avoid expressing their feelings if it turned out bad,” explained Lina to him.

“Princess speaks from experience,” added Wonder Man casually.

At that moment, Lina slowly turned her head to look menacingly up at him before claiming, “One more word about me, and I swear I’ll tell my dad to handle you better.”

This made him smile wryly before saying, “My apologies… princess.”

“Wonder Man!” She yelled but before she could do anything, he vanished into thin air. Frustrated, Lina stated, “Dammit! He escaped! No matter, I’ll talk to dad about him.”

Zayden found her reaction to be rather humorous, but he did not say it out loud and instead began to open the envelope. Pina began to protect, but he reassured her he didn’t really mind what rating he was given.

Thus, he opened the envelope and pulled out the piece of certificate and looked at it with a faint smile. The certificate had his name written on it along with small words explaining the purpose of this certificate along with the date of when it was procured and signature of the authorised one. However, the thing that he could not miss was the big large number embossed on the centre of certificate that no one could easily miss.

The thing embossed on the centre of the certificate was the number “5.”