It’s two weeks after the incident of the failed commercial spaceflight project. The authorities have declared that the failed shuttle was not out of simple accident, but rather from sabotage. The suspects were former LexCorp engineers who were fired several months ago due to incompetence.
Next was the appearance of a man flying and rescuing the shuttle from its imminent crash, saving the shuttle’s crew members, pilots, and a Daily Planet’s reporter, Lois Lane. The masses have been openly calling this flying man as “Superman”; some considered him as a savior of mankind, some considered him a god, some considered him as a threat.
Superman had also been openly helping the people of Metropolis. For example, just two days ago, saved the entire families trapped in a burning apartment from faulty electrical wiring, and just flew away towards the sky after his deeds were done.
And about the LexCorp Tower’s break-in? There was no news regarding that matter, which is a good news for Matthias, but deep down Matthias also need to have his action to be acknowledged, since he needs the extra relevancy to increase his powers.
“Haaaaa,” Sighed Matthias. Matthias is lying down in his bed, watching the news via the 120 inch television on the wall in front of his bed (must be nice to be rich, yeah?).
Matthias has been feeling lethargic lately. He’s been spending the last two weeks studying and researching the knowledge he stole from Lex Luthor. On top of that, he’s been working to use the crystalline Kryptonite as part of his resource.
The glass container that contains the small piece of Kryptonite he stole from Luthor was actually made from a Kryptonian design; which is why Luthor can keep it in a metal safe without extra precautions. With this fact, Matthias can now study the glass container for his own to upgrade his gears, but...
... Right now, he’s bored to the death.
“I can feel my stealth abilities slightly increasing, and for some reason, I seem to have developed a new ability...”
After his gig at LexCorp Tower, Matthias felt his relevancy increasing. Though only a small bit, he can feel himself capable of moving stealthier. But this is not above Matthias’ expectancy; in fact, he expected his stealth capability to increase at some point after he completed his mission at LexCorp Tower, until he found out that his body can somehow turn into black smoke, albeit only slightly.
Matthias has tested this ability. The level of how many parts of his body can turn into black smoke without being boosted is only minimal; he can only produce small amount of smoke at best. But after boosting this ability by spending all the other stats to this ability, he can actually change his entire body into black smoke that can envelope his entire secret room, which is actually quite huge amount considering the spaciousness of his secret room.
“I guess some of the guards in LexCorp thought I could vanish and appear in the form of black smoke, huh? Weird ability, but acceptable, nonetheless.”
The more ability Matthias can have, the better.
“This gave me an idea; perhaps I need another persona to gain more abilities, and to gain more relevancies in the world since this persona I currently have is not suitable for something public.”
The “Wraith” persona is perfect for stealth ops, but it’s not a good persona for Matthias to use to increase his relevancy, especially when he needs to have his actions acknowledged.
“Hmmm, what should I do...?”
...
“Hey Matthias! Have you heard the news about Superman, yesterday?” Robert said with his face all lit up with excitement. He had his arms flailing in front of Matthias as he said that.
They were both in the classroom when Robert approached Matthias.
“No..? What’s the news about?” Matthias confusedly asked.
“What? Do you not have a TV in your place? Dude you’re damn rich but you can’t afford a TV?” Said Robert as he had the most confused look on his face.
Matthias exaggeratedly frowned, “Just spill it out, dude, what’s the news about?” Matthias said as he crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“Dude, it’s all over the media! The sightings of Superman have been the hot take in Metropolis! Just yesterday, people saw Superman saving a kid on the street nearby!”
Robert was being loud, but it’s fortunately at the end of the lecture, so the classroom is about half-empty, and most are about to head home.
“Oh? And..?” Matthias uninterestedly asked as he listened to the story.
“What do you mean ‘and’? Superman flew to save a kid from getting hit by a speeding truck! And it was super quick too!”
Apparently, on the day before, there was a speeding truck with its driver half drunk on the area nearby. A young boy was running on the street to catch a ball his friends threw when they were playing, and the truck was almost about to struck the boy... until Superman showed up from the sky above, land in front of the truck, stopped the truck with his hands, and then picked the boy and his toy ball back to his friends. Lastly, Superman checked on the truck and its driver to see if they’re fine, and it turns out; the truck is filled with some empty beer cans and bottles.
“Ahhh, poor kid... He didn’t get to get ‘isekai’d...” ‘And what a cliche! A young kid running on the street, chasing a ball, and is about to get hit by a speeding vehicle only to be saved by a hero.’ Matthias muttered inwardly.
“Hmmm, what did you say? He didn’t get the-sky-ed?”
“No~ no~, I’m just talking to myself... anyways; it seems that Superman has been helping many people, nowadays.”
“Amazing, isn’t he? I wonder if he’s some sort of a guardian deity, maybe even God himself! Maybe he’s sent here to become the protector of America.”
“Well, if that’s true, that would be great, wouldn’t it?” Matthias kept humoring Robert just by following the flow of the conversation and react by asking and answering at the proper place and time.
“It would be good if Superman can help us fight the war against those global terrorists and dictators and the like. The world would be so much better without violence.”
“Right? If only Superman can do that.” ‘Well, he could, but if he did so without a boundary to keep himself from doing something out of the line, then the ‘INJUSTICE’ timeline might just be around the corner, and we don’t need the Joker to nuke Metropolis to do that.’ Thought Matthias.
“Well, speaking about terrorists, I also remembered about the latest attack in middle east. Those Qurac militias have been bombing the military base station in Saudi.”
“Oh~.” Matthias sounded surprised, not because of the piece of news Robert just threw, but rather the fact that Robert somehow changed topic so abruptly, when he’s being excited by the news about Superman.
“Listen, Matthias, who the heck would openly admit on bombing military bases? It’s those damned terrorist, ya hear! I mean, those bases were being bombed without anyone ever noticed until it’s already too late, and somehow the Qurac militias just boasted about being able to silently bomb our military bases, and just stated that they will do the same? Hmph, their arrogance will one day end them with the help of the American military forces.”
Robert’s patriotic statements echoes in the quiet classroom they are in, and Matthias was flabbergasted... not because of Robert’s patriotism, but something else.
“That’s it! Rob, you’re a genius!” Matthias abruptly stood up.
“Huh? I am?”
“Yeah, I found the answer to my problem thanks to you!”
Matthias then gave a bro-hug to Robert, and then quick-walked away from the classroom.
“ ... what the hell just happened to Matthias..?”
...
Matthias went back to his safe house, entered his secret room, turned on his computer, and then started accessing the internet.
He started to full-boost his stat to his intelligence, enhancing them by many times, and started working on something on the internet. Thanks to his talking and humoring his friend, Robert, he has finally found a way to increase his relevancy.
“I’ll make myself an organization... a fake one, something that I can use to spread my persona’s name without the need to show myself in public. To do that, I need to create a fake organization, and then I may need to create more personas as its members. I’ll make myself stronger much easier and much quicker this way.”
Now, his mission to increase his power via relevancy will proceed.
Truck-kun almost made a cameo.
I like it so far, keep up the good work.
Good to see you and personally i think you could do a double organizacion wicht is famous for its inventions to tje public and for its hackers, fighters ecc. In the Underworld
As in creating two organization at once; one for public, second for underworld stuff? Hmmm, a fine idea.
well for the wraith part: if he can activate the smoke thingie all the times, even if it is a little bit around his shoulders or hair, it will probably increase his skill in it as more people witness it. Also, i personally think acting and theater lessons would help him immensely in honing and aquiring new skills, he would be amazing with a short shadow teleport and develop a fighting style similar to nightcrawler. this would need a bit of setup with dummies, technical skills and acting, but once it gets coing.... ;D (and it would be easy to balance this power by making it so he can only warp into shadows he can see "well" or something, and long range teleports being doable by changing his stats around into his shadow warp skill and vision, effectively lowering his other stats for mobility, creating a balance imo)
for the organization: it could work, but being a one man organization will be very limiting, even if manages to create multiple identities and personas (since only 1 person of this organization is seen in places at time). ofc he could eventually learn to clone himself with his powers, but that would utterly break the balance i imagine.... BUUUT kage bunshin no jutsu from naruto IS a popular technique... so maybe something still related to shadows? A "shadow themed" organization?
still on the orgnanization, but if run only by himself: it could be said that they only do especific jobs and dont need more than 1 person for each job... but would make it odd that dunno... Persona C is in X country doing stuff, and suddenly wraith is doing nothing in metropolis...
another way he could increase his "reputation" is by making fake accounts on social media and etc (and somehow make it untraceable back to him ofc) and like spidey, take pics... or just post info about wraith stuff (always using different accounts and text/speech styles), like "f*ck man, i just saw a ghost like guy beating abunch of thugs yesterday" and stuff like that... the only issue would be credibility of such accounts... he also could always feed that info anonymously to news like daily planet.
"calling cards" are also a way to help with this, but dunno if its something that he wants... its a complicated situation since he wants to be "recognized" and "unknown" at the same time.
A actual company/organization created by him publicly like mentioned by Hiperfactor can only help as well, giving Mathias himself some good karma and recognition, but especially if this company does some charity work by helping the poor and sick. in the best possible outcome of this, he could find himself one or more people to help him in the "backend" of his missions like oracle, and maybe even minor healing powers (too much and it becomes op i think?)
but overall i like how this novel is shaping up :D and would be very interesting if he manages to get lex into his side.. maybe by revealing that some big sh*t is coming to f*ck up earth in the future and he better prepare or something... but if not.. its also good, since it would be interesting to see the superman, lex and wraith dynamics happening.
I like to imagine a shadow organization that do missions in the most critical way; like, say, destroying a terrorist group, and then having this shadow organization just openly admit to attacking the said organization, which then gain reputation among the world.
Now, let's try to find out if MC can pull this off, shall we?
Also, yeah I want Lex Luthor as a good guy like in the 'INJUSTICE' series. Maybe if I can show some cosmic level threat and make Luthor help?
I can already see the calling cards:
"This crime was stopped by the
T̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶h̶a̶n̶t̶o̶m̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶e̶v̶e̶s̶
A̶r̶s̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶L̶u̶p̶i̶n̶
The DC Vigilantes, pleased to do business with you"
If he want ppl to believe he have magic, best idea would be putting on wizards robe and hat. Hide some gadgets in sleeves, altered tazer so it makes some flashy arc or mini flametrower . A staff or wizards book can also be disguised gadget.
that could be a good alternate persona for more flashy appearances XD but maybe a more modern styled wizard... else i think it might look a bit jarring compared to the setting... hell i can imagine zatanna suddenly appearing and becoming interesting im him XD
I'm imagining my MC dressing like Gandalf the white but without the beard and is running around in the modern world... so absurd and funny
@Samuel_Spader well rumours would spread fast, if someone dressed as wizard appears suddenly in front of fleeing criminal, blocking his way, rises hand with hidden taser and shouts: You shall not pass.
The truck cameo was a good call. Remember that your protagonist is not stuck behind a 4th wall. They can openly look for the other heroes, and villains in the world. Don't forget to give the readers little pieces of what your characters look like. I fell into the same trap, and you reminded me to do the same.
Oh yeah, sometimes you always forgot to keep reminding the readers about the MC's look.
And yeah, looking for the other heroes is given, which means it's lore research time.
He could go full Homelander with one of his personas.
Imagine Homelander vs Superman
Basically...make a cult and have them view you as God. then you be OP as hell XD
“Amazing, isn’t he? I wonder if he’s some sort of a guardian deity, maybe even God himself! Maybe he’s sent here to become the protector of America.”
I'm being annoying - I know, I know... - Buuut, you're referring to America itself or USA? From what I know aka Geography, America is a continent, not a country.
Thanks for the chapter btw.
I like to think that this is what the people in the U.S.A. would refer their country as; as in they always call their country as 'America'. I mean, I once studied there, and we mostly refer the country as "America" or sometimes just simply "The States" or "The U.S.".
But yea, it's actually USA
@Samuel_Spader I know. It's just that I feel very uncomfortable when seeing someone referring to USA/U.S as America, mind me not.
I look forward to this
Is he going to make captain america and avengers ? XD