5: Somebody's watching me
"In other news, the famous billionaire Tony Stark is missing. The genius and philanthropist who has dominated the military industry in recent years was last seen at his presentation in Afghanistan, since then-"
Daniel watched the morning news. After his little trip around the world, he returned to his farm; he still had some things to do.
Since he decided to try to be a hero, he should try to create a proper hero suit.
His trench coat was fine, but honestly, it didn't give off the heroic image he thought he should have.
Following in the footsteps of All-Might certainly wouldn't be easy, but nothing worth having was easy to get.
At least that's what his brother always said.
Daniel looked at the coffee cup in his hand.
"Here we go, test number 57," He had been looking for the exact combination of pure coffee and sugar that would allow his taste buds to taste the glorious flavor of coffee again.
The boiling liquid went down his throat without causing any discomfort. His tongue savored the sugar and coffee beans in perfect combination for a few seconds before a smile formed on his lips.
"Perfect!" He raised the cup high as if it were the discovery of the century.
He finally had his morning coffee back!
In good spirits, he sat down and watched the news. These days, he mainly watched to know the state of the world and if there was any natural or unnatural disaster to pay attention to. He knew, after all, that this world would have many fantastic things appearing at some point, so staying alert was the right thing to do.
Although for now, the disappearance of Tony Stark seemed like a somewhat important topic for this world, as every news outlet was covering it.
Daniel certainly felt it was a pity; a genius of that caliber had not existed in his previous life.
His company had dominated the military and technological sector of the world, and when he tried to find out why, despite it being the year 2007, the technology of this world almost seemed to match that of his old world in 2023, he realized that it was mainly due to Stark Industries.
Of course, there were many other companies that competed with it and even seemed almost equal, but it was undeniable who led the sector.
And all this was because of just one person.
Tony Stark had made this world advance much faster than his old world. He had wanted to talk to the man when he found this out, but it seemed that would be very difficult now.
For a moment, Daniel considered the impact this event would have on the world. He was not a financial expert or a market analyst, but he certainly knew that without Tony, Stark Industries would face very difficult days.
Probably many jobs would be lost.
For a second, he considered whether he should try to find the man, but he quickly dismissed that idea.
As good as his senses were now, they weren't that good. The desert was a very vast place, and trying to find a person there was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
Too much sand. Flying or running at high speed would bring a great disaster, and without that, the search could take a long time.
Besides, it was an active war zone at the moment. Going there now could be very disastrous. He didn't want to fight with any government or antagonize them if he could avoid it.
Not that he thought they could harm him, of course; it would just be too bothersome.
He could only leave it to Stark's own luck. He hoped he would come out alive, but it probably wouldn't be so.
He looked at the television, and an image of Tony Stark appeared. He was young, shouldn't be more than 25 years old, exuding confidence and arrogance, as well as wearing a smile and a gleam in his eyes that seemed to say, "I know something you don't."
Daniel narrowed his eyes; there was something familiar in his appearance. Unconsciously, he raised his hand, his thumb touching his middle finger as if he were about to snap his fingers.
"I am Iron-" his words were cut off as he couldn't remember the complete phrase. He furrowed his brow and looked back at the screen.
"Tony Stark, huh... seems like I don't have to worry about you, you'll definitely come back, right?"
The news continued, but nothing caught his attention, so he got up and went to his "workshop," which was nothing more than the farm's garage adapted to become his "secret base."
Perhaps it was a sorry excuse for the "world's first superhero" secret base, but he couldn't help it. He didn't exactly have many places to his name at the moment.
But he hoped that would change soon.
Inside the workshop, he saw a makeshift 3D printer. Gone was the modern design, replaced by a tangle of cables and connections for which it wasn't designed.
He had to make many adaptations to make the printer suitable enough to work as he wanted.
Definitely, he had to read a lot and learn a great deal about mechanics, electronics, coding, and engineering in general to achieve this.
It had taken him many days and nights. Fortunately, he didn't need to sleep and didn't tire, and his new Viltrumite brain could process information much faster, which helped him learn at a great speed.
But probably the most important factor was his core. With it, he could keep every neuron in his brain in the best condition, which technically endowed him with perfect memory.
To understand this, you simply have to know that there are several factors that can affect how memories are preserved.
The main one is the health of the neurons. Over time, the synaptic connections between neurons weaken or break. With his core, he could make those connections return to their best state, which allows the associated memory to come to his mind with extreme detail whenever he needs it.
The core was truly incredible. It was connected to his body and yet independent of it.
There were many more things he still had to discover about the core, as he hadn't yet tested all its capabilities.
Returning to the topic.
Daniel approached the printer and watched as a long strip of light gray fabric slowly formed. The printer worked slowly, much slower than a traditional 3D printer.
This was because it was interweaving each fiber in a special way, one that increased the already great monstrous durability of the fabric even more.
It was a slow process but one that was worth it.
So far, Daniel had managed to create ten meters of fabric. He had used some to make three sets of trench coats and still had a little over 6 meters left, which he hoped to use for his suit.
He would probably let more meters be made; having more than one set would be ideal.
He carefully watched the process and made sure the machine was working well. He was already thinking about a second, more practical and advanced version, but for that, he had to study more. Learning at super speed had great benefits when you needed to improve your things.
He hoped to soon create a version for mass production because, while he wasn't rich, no one said he couldn't enter the global fabric market with the knowledge he now had.
Of course, he wouldn't start with the civilian part; there were already too many monsters in that market that would be difficult to handle.
But the police? The firefighters? Rescuers? Which of them wouldn't want a fabric capable of securing their lives?
The medical sector was also not out of the question.
Even the military market would beg for Viltrum fabrics.
"Viltrum! Viltrum Industries! Or maybe Viltrum Tech? I have to think about it," As he pondered this, he sat down at his worktable and took out a notebook, pencils, pens, and erasers.
Time to design his superhero suit!
Or at least a first version of it.
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"If you look at it so closely, you could go blind," Chloe's voice made Carol raise her eyes slightly from her cell phone.
She looked at her best friend for half a second before lowering her gaze again. Chloe sighed at this, the blonde girl sat next to Carol and looked at what she was seeing.
"Are you still watching those fake videos?"
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The question made Carol pay real attention, which was certainly what Chloe wanted and the reason she had emphasized "fake videos" when she spoke.
"You know that I know you don't believe they're fake," said Carol, her eyebrows furrowed, sky-blue eyes looking at Chloe before returning her gaze to the phone.
"Until I find something that indicates they are." Chloe replied.
"I've seriously analyzed those videos a thousand times, and every new video that comes out too, and I still don't see anything that indicates it's fake. I almost start to believe that there's a guy saving people all over the world with a cloth over his face," Chloe said with clear excitement.
"I believe it..." Although Carol's voice was somewhat low, it contained a firmness in it that Chloe hadn't heard before, which surprised her a little and made her speak with some hesitation.
"I don't know, Carol, although it would certainly be something incredible... the things he does, what people say he has done, and even the little that there is on video just seems... impossible? For God's sake! We even had a super soldier in World War II, and I certainly don't think he could have done half of the things people say about Defiant," and if this were an ordinary world, Chloe would be right.
It simply should be impossible.
But Carol knew better, she herself was something impossible, since she could remember she was able to do things beyond all logic.
Strange things, things for which she had never been able to have a normal life.
Things that for a long time made her feel alienated from everything, as if the world in which she lived and the world in which the rest of humans lived were two completely different things.
Making her feel like an uninvited guest, someone who shouldn't exist, an anomaly, something that made her feel completely alone for a long time.
But now... looking at the images on her phone.
Maybe there was someone else out there living in the same world as her after all.
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Seeing the bullet coming in slow motion was a surreal experience... not long ago, he would have been panicking just by hearing the sound of the shot, seeing the gun itself would have made him nervous, and being shot at would probably have flooded him with fear.
As a human, being shot at was almost a death sentence after all.
Now?
The bullet impacted his eye, and the metal crushed against his pupil until it turned into scrap.
Then time returned to normal, and the bullet fell to the ground along with fragments of his goggles.
The thief looked at him with his mouth open as he began to tremble uncontrollably.
"I liked those goggles," that was the last thing the thief heard before he lost consciousness.
After dealing with the thief and tying him to a nearby pole, Daniel rose to the top of a building and looked at the city.
Crime in this world... was insane!
Well, maybe it had been the same in his previous life, he just didn't know it, but now that he was dealing with it firsthand, he could see it.
Still, he doubted it. There was something about the crime in this world that felt different from his previous life.
It was too common, and the criminals tended towards violence more quickly than he expected.
He didn't even bother to count the number of bullets that had been fired at him. It had only been three weeks since he arrived in this world, and he could already see why the existence of heroes was needed.
He thought about whether he could handle everything alone and quickly dismissed it. No, covering the whole world by himself would be too difficult.
He wasn't an idealist. Although he had great goals, he knew that there were things that even with his current power were simply impossible.
He wasn't a god.
He wanted to be a hero, but he also knew that there were moments and places where his presence was more necessary.
Protecting everyone or protecting a few.
He decided then to protect everyone he could.
He couldn't save everyone, but he could try to save those within his sight.
Perhaps such a mindset wasn't entirely suitable considering his goals, but it was all he could give.
If only there were more heroes...
His search had moved to the internet, following the trend that technology was more advanced than it should be, the internet didn't lag far behind.
Although the same networks and forums weren't present, their own versions of them existed in this world.
He had searched through each of them with little success. Although there were hints and clues, as well as rumors, there was nothing concrete.
But he hoped that there would be soon. He hadn't traveled the world giving hints of his own existence in any other way.
Although it didn't seem like it, Daniel had let his existence be almost known in that way to see if anyone else would reveal themselves, whether a potential ally or an enemy.
The common people still doubted him and his existence, but those with extraordinary abilities would be the ones to take it as true more quickly.
At least they would be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and try to see if he was real.
Or so he hoped. It was truly just one of the many attempts he had been planning to find "allies."
After all, one of his advantages was completely useless without having them.
And honestly, even without his advantage, Daniel would have wanted allies. Maybe he couldn't save everyone, but surely if many people worked on it, they could.
Or get close to it.
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Walking through Smallville had become a common occurrence for Daniel in recent days.
There was something important here, he knew it, he just hadn't found it yet, which left him a little annoyed.
He remembered many things and at the same time forgot so many others that it was difficult to see the big picture.
As he walked absentmindedly, he entered the local supermarket in the town center. It was a bit small compared to supermarkets in big cities, but it was still well stocked enough to meet the demands of the townspeople for everything they needed.
This time he came to find some paint. His superhero suit would need it after all, and it required a type of paint that wouldn't easily come off the fabric, a paint that didn't exist in this world, so he would have to create it.
Fortunately, those extra-strong fabric dyes that he could make were within the knowledge that the being had given him.
As he walked through the aisles and absentmindedly scanned the shelves, he felt his shoulder bump into someone. He stepped back a little, and the other person stumbled back even more surprised than he was.
Daniel quickly helped her straighten up.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
Dark blue eyes met light blue eyes. Daniel wasn't a mind reader or someone who could read people's expressions with just the slightest hints.
But even he was able to see the surprise and disbelief in the eyes of the girl who had stumbled into him.
"Uh, are you okay?" he asked, looking at her.
She was tall, very tall, almost as tall as he was, which was surprising considering he now stood at 1.86 meters.
She was probably around 1.80 meters tall.
Her physique was also a surprise, although she was dressed in loose, thick clothing, Daniel, with his new superhuman vision, was able to notice a well-defined and proportioned body.
Did country girls have such a good figure these days?
Perhaps the most shocking thing was that she didn't have that healthy wheat-colored skin for which country girls were known.
Given her physique, Daniel would have assumed that the girl spent a lot of time working in the fields, but despite that, her skin was fair and flawless.
In fact, when he looked more closely and overlooked the thick bottle-bottom glasses on her face, he realized that she had supernaturally beautiful features.
An average person wouldn't be able to notice this due to the slight distortion in her features caused by the lenses, but for Daniel, it was easy to see.
She was too beautiful.
With black hair down to her shoulders, eyebrows that seemed to have an elegant arch that highlighted her expressive eyes, and long eyelashes as well as full, well-defined lips with a smooth texture, that in fact they had a pinkish tone that might seem to have a bit of makeup to the inexperienced eye, but if you looked closely, you would realize that was her natural color.
Even if he were still a normal human, Daniel could have spent hours staring at her face, fortunately, he only needed a second to notice every detail of it thanks to his thoughts now processing every detail extremely quickly.
The girl seemed to snap out of her astonishment at his question and hesitantly nodded.
"Yeah, I... I'm fine," her gaze was intense, and if Daniel had lived as a Viltrumite for much longer, he would have known why.
When you possess a strength capable of crushing steel, you don't stumble into people, people stumble into you.
Daniel didn't notice that he had taken two steps back when he bumped into the girl's shoulder.
This was because he had lived as a human for so long, still not accustomed to the strength he now possessed, he didn't realize that it should have been impossible for him to step back unless he collided with something equally or harder than himself.
To him, it was natural that two humans bumping shoulders would cause both to step back, but he was no longer human, and he probably wouldn't know it for the moment, but the girl in front of him wasn't either.
Daniel quickly noticed that some things had fallen from the girl due to the stumble and quickly picked them up before returning them to her.
"Here you go,"
The girl took the items, still looking a bit distracted.
"Yeah, uh, thank you?" was a clumsy response, but Daniel didn't pay attention to it before saying goodbye and continuing on his way.
Strange girl or not, he still had things to do. He would investigate her later.
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Carol watched the stranger's back as he walked away, his mind still running a thousand miles an hour at what had just happened.
For the first time in her life, she had stumbled into someone.
That didn't happen, that didn't happen!, she didn't stumble!
Thanks to her perfect memory, the scene kept replaying in her mind with perfect clarity. She reviewed every moment, making sure she hadn't felt unwell or misinterpreted something.
But she hadn't made a mistake or felt unwell; in fact, she had stumbled, someone had made her body step back.
Someone had managed to touch her without getting hurt.
The disbelief she felt left her in shock until her mother came to get her to go pay.
Who was he? That was the first question that came to her mind once reality caught up with her.
She began to look around; the town's supermarket only had five cashiers and wasn't very large. Finding her target was easy; his face was one she couldn't forget even if she wanted to.
His appearance had been etched into her mind for various reasons beyond having a perfect memory.
He was tall, taller than her; not many guys in the town could honestly boast of that.
He had a well-built figure, which was easy to notice since he did nothing to hide it, unlike her, who usually wore loose, thick clothing to avoid drawing attention.
His short, black hair was styled appropriately for his face.
His dark blue eyes seemed as deep and penetrating as the first time she saw them, which unconsciously made her nervous.
Carol had no words to describe a man's attractiveness since she had never paid attention to those details before, but she could probably compare it to the models in the magazines that Chloe looked at all the time.
No, in fact, those models were full of all kinds of makeup and touch-ups that were easy to detect for her superhuman eyes.
That was the main reason she had never been interested in them; it was like seeing people wearing masks to try to be perfect, but to her eyes, it only highlighted their imperfection even more.
They were fake.
But now she had seen something real, there was no comparison. Now she could understand why Chloe seemed so mesmerized when she saw a "handsome" guy.
No! She shouldn't get distracted! She quickly shook her head, trying to clear those thoughts, but her face was still red.
She had to find out who he was.
She watched him leave and briefly closed her eyes, focusing on a sense that she normally kept as dim as possible due to the headache it could cause her.
Her ears began to buzz as her superhuman hearing started picking up all the sounds around her.
Her intention had been to quickly pick up the sound of her target's heartbeat and focus on it to divert the flood of other sounds, thus avoiding being overwhelmed.
She didn't need to do that; a sound like no other instantly caught her attention, making any other sounds would simply fade away as background noise.
She had heard many heartbeats throughout her life, whether from her parents, Chloe, or just any other inhabitant of Smallville. She usually kept her sense of hearing under control to avoid hearing things she shouldn't and to not be overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds. Gaining the ability to ignore the sounds until they seemed to disappear had taken her a long time, and she had achieved such a degree of control that she could pretend to have the hearing of a normal person.
But this time she felt that she couldn't ignore this sound even if she wanted to, not now that she had heard it, even if she turned off her hearing as much as she could.
Because it was like hearing her own heart, a sound louder, firmer than any other, one that resonated vigorously in a rhythm that sent pulses through her surroundings with each beat as if it sought to flood the world with them, simply impossible to ignore and above all else, it felt real.
It was as if a deaf person heard the voice of another human being for the first time.
At least that's how Carol felt.
She didn't need to see him to follow him now that her ears had caught the sound of his heart.
No matter where he went, she could find him.
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On his way home, Daniel suddenly felt a chill down his back that made him look around with doubt.
"somebody's watching me?" he wondered to himself. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find anything and quickly tried to shake off that feeling.
He couldn't.
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