The distant wail of sirens grew louder. Leon didn't need to be a genius to know that if he was caught standing over a downed supervilin, trouble would follow.
"Nyx, eyes up," Leon whispered.
Recognizing his code words, Nyx took off, banking wide to scout the quickest path into the byrinth of Chicago's side streets.
Leon didn't run away from the scene. Running drew the eye. He moved with a brisk, purposeful stride, slipping into another alleyway just as the first blue-and-red fshes reflected off the shattered gss of the bank front.
His muscles were already beginning to protest. The high-percentage Removal had left his fibers feeling like they'd been submerged in acid.
He walked for nearly forty minutes, putting miles of urban sprawl between him and the crime scene. He eventually found what he was looking for: The Sleepy Traveler, a motel that looked like it hadn't been renovated since the nineties and, more importantly, had a "No Questions Asked" vibe.
The clerk behind the bulletproof gss didn't even look up from his magazine.
"Forty bucks. No smoking and no pets," the man grunted.
Leon gnced at Nyx, perched on his shoulder. "Oh… Okay. I'll be back."
After he returned inside, he peeled two twenties from his mugger-sourced stash. The clerk slid a pstic keycard across the counter.
Room 214 smelled of stale cigarettes and cheap lemon cleaner. But to Leon, it felt like a pace. He locked the door, slid the chain into pce, and colpsed onto the floral-patterned bedspread.
"Finally," Leon exhaled, staring at the ceiling. "A bed! Man, it's been so long."
While sleeping on solid stone was less uncomfortable than he expected, it could never beat sleeping on a bed.
He pulled up the Gacha interface. 3,034 points. It was a staggering amount compared to the pennies he'd been scraping together. He could py it safe, or he could swing for the fences.
If I'm going to survive in the future, I need more than just hands and a crow. I'll only ever be able to take on low street-tiers with what I have. Right now, I doubt I'll be able to beat Doc Seismic, a ReAnimen, or any of the vilins Machine Head hired. I can maybe take on Angstrom, but that was a big maybe.
Now that Leon thought about it—was he even in the Invincible universe he knew as canon? For all he knew, he could be in one of the worlds where Mark was evil.
The thought of taking on Omni-Man and Invincible simultaneously sent a shiver of fear down his spine. That was the worst-case scenario of all worst-case scenarios.
Pfft. As if. Leon smiled at the ludicrous thought. Nothing I've seen points in that direction. I should be safe… Unless I jinxed it alrea—Nope. Didn't jinx it! Nuh uh!
Keeping his eyes in the sky had allowed him to spot two familiar figures before. Once, he had spotted Atom Eve heading to Teen Team's base in the bridge, and Omni-Man soared through the skies of Chicago quite frequently.
So far, Leon has heard nothing about a superhero named "Invincible" or the Fxan invasion. That meant he still had time.
"Now... let's see if the house always wins."
Gacha, give me four Ptinum Tickets and ten Gold Tickets.
[Requested 4 Ptinum Tickets and 10 Gold Tickets. Cost: 3,000 GP. Confirm purchase?]
Confirm. Let's ball.
[Purchase confirmed. You have received 4 Ptinum Tickets and 10 Gold Tickets.]
Leon csped his hands together. Please RNGesus! Bless me once more with divine luck!
He pulled the ten Gold Tickets.
[Light Step]
|Rare Ability|
You can step and walk on anything, water, air, space, you can even treat nothing as a solid surface to walk on.
-x-
[Wardrobe of Mending]
|Common Item|
A wardrobe of fancy clothes and accessories that suit your tastes. When not worn for more than 24 hours, these apparel instantly mend themselves into mint condition.
-x-
[Reinforcement]
|Rare Ability|
Fate - Reinforcement is a foundational yet highly difficult form of magecraft that enhances an object or living being by infusing it with energy, pushing its inherent purpose to its limit. It is easier to apply to oneself than to others due to the natural resistance of living beings. When used on one's own body, it grants superhuman strength, durability, and agility, allows interaction with spiritual entities, and can extend endurance to go without food or sleep.
A more advanced application, Alteration, actively reshapes an object's structure using the magical energy from Reinforcement, enabling repairs or transformations, such as turning a tree branch into a functional bow.
The more energy you pour into a reinforcement, the stronger it is. But the energy efficiency worsens the more you inject energy and it takes more time.
-x-
[Unknown Mask]
|Rare Item|
A white featureless mask that covers the entire face. Unless the user desires to remove it, the mask cannot be removed except by breaking it. This mask cannot be seen through and gives resistance against mental abilities. The user can see through the mask without a problem.
-x-
[High Roller Suite]
|Elite Item|
Congratutions, you have been given a key to the high rollers' suite. Gambler, take some time off and enjoy yourself. Using this key on any door will make it a gate for the High Roller Suite temporarily. The suite is a luxury hotel room with 3 beds, 2 bathrooms, a fully equipped gym, running water, electricity, heat, and is connected to the local internet alongside other amenities. The room automatically cleans itself perfectly every 24 hours. The Suite exists in the middle of nowhere and cannot be exited without the key; exiting will bring the user back to where they left from. The key cannot be lost or destroyed.
-x-
[Detonation]
|Rare Ability|
Allows you to charge any item you are holding with explosive energy that you can detonate at any time, turning them into what are essentially time bombs. The explosive energy fades over time. The more energy you expend, the stronger the explosion.
-x-
[Iron Man]
|Uncommon Trait|
You are unusually tolerant, can sleep under horrible conditions, endure strain far better, and push through wounds and exhaustion more easily. Overall, you are very hardy and enduring.
-x-
[Void Child]
|Rare Trait|
You are a child of the void, giving you enhanced spatial awareness. You can sense a portal opening a kilometre away. All Space-based abilities are more potent and you master them faster.
-x-
[Great Swamp Ring]
|Uncommon Item|
Dark Souls – A ring said to be chiselled from the bone of a fme samander by blighted Pyromancers living in the Great Swamp. It bolsters fmes wielded by its wearer, increasing the potency of fire-based abilities and spells.
-x-
[Mind Control Resistance]
|Rare Skill|
Batman - Thanks to the teachings of the Tibetan Monks, you have learned how to resist Mind Control and Mind Reading. The amount of resistance you can put up is proportional to your mental strength and overall power level.
The abilities came first.
He felt a sudden, strange weightlessness in his feet, a sensation that the floor was no longer a requirement for standing. Following it was the heavy, cerebral weight of Reinforcement.
A foundational knowledge of magecraft flooded his mind, teaching him the delicate art of infusing objects with energy to push their purpose. He looked at the flimsy motel door and instinctively knew how to make it as hard as a bank vault. Finally, a sharp, flickering heat pulsed in his palms. Detonation hummed in his fingertips, a dangerous potential that told him he could turn a simple pebble into a high-explosive grenade with a single touch.
The mental shift was the most jarring.
Leon clutched his head as a lifetime of discipline he'd never actually practiced flooded his consciousness. He saw fshes of snow-capped peaks and the rhythmic chanting of monks in saffron robes. The phantom sensation of sitting in freezing waterfalls chilled his skin, tempering his mind into a fortress of iron and stillness.
The panic and chaotic "what-ifs" of being an isekai victim didn't vanish, but they were suddenly cordoned off behind high, unbreakable walls of mental discipline. His mind felt like a library where every book was suddenly perfectly shelved and under lock and key.
Then, the world seemed to expand.
Leon didn't move, but his awareness did. He could suddenly "feel" the dimensions of the room with terrifying precision. He sensed the gap under the door, the exact position of everything inside the room retive to him and a strange, prickling sensation that told him exactly where the boundaries of "here" ended and "there" began.
Space around him was now a sixth sense, a fabric he knew as intimately as his own body.
Beyond that, a subtle hardening settled over him. It wasn't something he could point to, but the thin, lumpy mattress of the motel suddenly didn't feel so uncomfortable. The lingering ache in his joints from the cold night air simply became "background noise," something he could push past without a second thought.
In the back of his mind, his connection to the Command Seals simultaneously pulsed with the arrival of new weight.
He could feel them all sitting in the subspace: a featureless white mask, a heavy, ornate key, a ring carved from bone, and a wardrobe's worth of clothes ready to be summoned.
Leon nearly wept with joy, but he let out a long, slow breath instead. Crying wouldn't help.
Thank you, RNGesus. Thank you so much. I don't have to be homeless anymore!
Despite the windfall of cash that nded on his p, it wouldn't st forever. He'd been mentally preparing himself to be homeless again after a month or two.
I love gambling.
His eyes tracked back to the four remaining tickets. The Ptinum pulls.
[Total Gacha Points: 284]
"Four more," Leon whispered, his voice steadier now, anchored by the mental discipline of a monk. "Go big or go home, baby!"
He reached out and pulled once more.
[XXI - The World]
|Epic Item|
Tarot Card - Allows you to permanently fuse two Abilities of the same rank to receive an Ability of a higher rank. 240 Hour Cooldown
-x-
[Earthbending]
|Rare Skill|
Avatar - You are an apprentice Earthbender, able to convert your internal energy to interact with the world around you using movements and martial arts. The more experienced and trained you are, the stronger your bending will be.
-x-
[Branding]
|Elite Ability|
You can brand willing targets, marking them as yours. You are able to know the location and condition of the branded targets, and you can even summon yourself to them or them to you with a 24-hour cooldown for each unique individual.
-x-
[Brand of Tzeentch]
|Epic Trait|
Warhammer 40k - You wear the brand of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, greatly speeding up your comprehension and learning abilities. This allows you to improve and master skills, techniques, and magic far faster than before. In addition, you are capable of magic that you otherwise wouldn't be able to learn due to restrictions like racial differences or natural affinity.
Note: Brands DO NOT connect you to the Chaos Gods or the Warp.
Leon frowned in discomfort as a stinging sensation poked his chest. Taking off his worn-out and dirty hoodie, he discovered a symbol stamped across his right pec, the design stark and aggressive against his skin. It was a circur emblem.
Three metallic, crescent-shaped bdes drew his attention first. The rgest one sat at the top, curving upward like a heavy yoke or the horns of a bull. Below it, two mirrored bdes hooked upward and inward, resembling the sharp mandibles of an insect or stylized fangs. They all converged around a small, sharp diamond in the center, leaving just enough negative space to suggest depth.
The circle with dark, swirling filigree had faint, ancient patterns that gave the symbol a weathered, centuries-old texture.
There was a new, frighteningly sharp edge to his thoughts. It was as if a thick yer of cobwebs had been swept off his brain, leaving his mind ready to absorb everything it touched.
Earthbending settled into his muscle memory, but it wasn't the fluid, effortless mastery of a master. Instead, his mind was flooded with the fundamentals of Hung Gar: low, wide stances, firm footwork, "stubbornness" and the determination required to earthbend.
He felt a connection to the earth, but it was narrow and limited. There were no vibrations traveling through his feet that allowed for "sight" beyond what his eyes could see. In his current state, he guessed he was at a simir level as Aang was when he first got the hang of Earthbending.
The weight of the Tarot Card "The World" settled in his subspace. Branding embedded itself into his mind like his other new abilities, though he doubted he would use it anytime soon.
After a short celebration involving a few fist pumps, Leon froze and heaved a deep sigh of relief. Only now did it register in his mind what could have happened if the Brand of Tzeentch didn't protect him.
Thank fuck the brand doesn't actually connect me to Tzeentch or the Warp. That would have been awful for me, but it would've been a catastrophe for the entire universe.
Leon reviewed the rewards he'd gotten and couldn't help but grin. His luck couldn't have been better. He was no longer homeless and he no longer needed to rely on close combat.
If he fought Killcannon again, he wouldn't have as much of a hard time beating the tough bastard.
Too bad I didn't get firebending. It would've been the perfect element for me. I guess Pyromaniac and the ring I just got won't be put to real use anytime soon.
In his head, Leon already made pns for the next ten days. He would have to get the hang of using his new abilities and continuing to improve his older ones. Training his earthbending was going to be a priority of his. With the Brand of Tzeentch boosting his learning and rate of mastery, he wondered if he could improve even faster than Aang or Toph.
Maybe he could even get to Toph's level during the events of ATLA within a few years or less. Now that he thought about it, vabending and metalbending were within reach, too.
Leon took a deep calming breath to dampen his growing excitement. I'm getting ahead of myself.
But he couldn't help himself from wondering. Brand of Tzeentch was Epic, the highest rarity he currently had. The Rares and Elites were already pretty amazing in their own right. He could only imagine how effective the brand was.
But training can wait. Right now, I really, really need a shower and a good, heavy meal.
