[Edward POV]
The makeshift lab stood quiet, the cloning chamber humming in the corner.
I heard footsteps behind me as I jotted notes on my clipboard. Without turning, I asked, "Tiga, are you done picking the tomatoes—"
She dropped the basket in front of me, the red, crisp tomatoes bouncing against each other.
"Hmph!" She turned her face away and floated off, her telekinetic power lifting her with ease.
Suna came in, lugging a sack of potatoes. "Wow. She still hates you, huh?"
I shrugged, pretending indifference.
A few days ago, Tiga had slipped into my chamber and peeled off her fallout shelter uniform, claiming the seed storage was running low. I remembered Sage's warning—that my saliva and other bodily fluids could kill them all—and rejected her advances.
I told her as much. She was furious. For days now, she's done her work without complaint, but she won't even look at me.
That stings more than I'd like to admit.
And it wasn't just Tiga. Others had tried the same thing.
Behind the research lab, a small village had risen. Six hundred survivors from scattered fallout shelters migrated here, clinging to the safety and health I promised them.
Many more shelters had been discovered, but most were xenophobic, unwilling to welcome strangers. Those who came were the desperate ones, the ones who had run out of options in this godforsaken world.
"Beek." A bleat snapped me from my thoughts.
A black adolescent goat nosed toward the basket of tomatoes.
"Oh no you don't!" Suna's arms whipped forward, trapping the goat in a miniature sandstorm.
"BEEEKKK!" the creature wailed as she spun it back into its enclosure.
Ten goats, thirteen chickens, two cows—all cloned from salvaged, unmutated DNA. Livestock reborn for survival.
The cloning technology came from another shelter—the scientist there had worked on the research for decades. Sadly, he died before he could complete it.
His breakthrough was in artificial aging, allowing clones to be mass-produced quickly.
There were still many genetic defects in the clones born this way, but the researcher hypothesized that the cores—what he called evolution seeds—could be used to fix those defects.
Only one level 1 core each was needed, and the clone's aging process would stabilize, letting them live as long as an ordinary human. The catch was that they had to ingest the core immediately after leaving the cloning chamber.
"Hmm… This tomato is really good. I should make pizza today," I muttered, taking a bite out of it. I already had milk from the cows, which meant I could make cheese. The farm also had wheat, so I had flour too.
"Pizza?" Suna muttered, drool already forming at the corner of her mouth. She'd been spoiled by the food I'd made over the past ten days. She even jotted down all the recipes so she could cook them herself after I was gone.
Suddenly, the alarm wailed.
I dropped the clipboard and sprinted out through the broken window, Suna close on my heels.
At the town square, a massive shadow loomed. A floating behemoth battered the energy shield surrounding the village.
"The Petranodon…" a child whispered, collapsing to the ground, eyes wide with terror.
One wing could cover the entire settlement.
Construction robots, running off the AI programs I carried, deployed instantly, railguns rising into formation.
"Ready!" An albino commander barked.
"FIRE!"
Ten railguns thundered as one. The Petranodon reeled, crashing onto its back. Blood seeped across its scales, but without a direct hit to a vital organ, it would not die.
I hovered at the battlefield's edge, watching the girls move into position. No need to interfere—unless they failed. Another perk of my evolution: flight.
The evolution seeds– the cores… They were pushing me closer to the Otsutsuki bloodline. Perhaps I had reached the level of Asura or Indra themselves. That's why my Mangekyo started with an Eternal Mangekyo.
The Petranodon shrieked, its form flickering as the bombardment whittled away its life.
Suna, a level 5 sand controller enhanced by my esper fluid, collapsed the ground beneath its talons.
Tiga, a level 6 telekinetic warrior, carved into its wings with her saw, grounding it for good.
The beast's throat glowed orange. Lava welled up.
"NO!" Suna cried, throwing up a wall of sand. However, the defense was too weak.
I surged forward, stepping in front of the girls at the last second.
The lava struck—then dissipated against a massive ribcage of crimson chakra.
The ribcage grew. Towering into the sky, a one-hundred-meter titan took shape– my Susanoo.
Three horns crowned its head. In one hand, it gripped a colossal black sword; in the other, a violin bow.
Though still only half the Petranodon's height, the Susanoo radiated a power the beast could never match.
Red wings burst from its back, carrying me into the sky. With one swing, I slit the monster's throat, destroying the organ responsible for its lava attack.
It shrieked in pain, wanting to flee, but its wings were too damaged for escape.
I didn't finish it. Instead, I floated to the side and called down to the girl.
"He's all yours. Don't disappoint me."
Their eyes glittered with worship as they looked at me. The albino girl—Rust—ordered another bombardment while charging her railgun cannon.
The girls continued their assault. Tiga controlled her saw and slashed at the monster's eyes, driving her chain blades deeper and deeper into its skull.
The beast wailed pitifully. I started to pity it, just a little.
After an hour of relentless attacks, the monster finally collapsed to the ground. The girls cheered, and Tiga cut the core from its body. It was silver, signifying a level 7 beast.
As Tiga raised the core high in triumph, everyone applauded.
I nodded in satisfaction, secretly thinking, Once I'm gone, I believe they can fend for themselves.
I had ten more days left in this world. I had already found the cure for Alien-pox, and I wanted to leave. But seeing the survivors fight so hard to live, I felt compelled to do more for them.
The applause stopped as all of us heard clapping from the other direction.
"Wow. You're all really strong." A young man applauded loudly, eyeing the girls in a childish manner before looking upward at me.
His dark pupils made the alarm in my mind ring.
Suna approached him and asked, "Who are you?"
"Me? I'm a survivor. I was wondering if I could join your camp," he said politely. Suna and Tiga exchanged a glance, then looked toward me.
My senses went on high alert. 'Suna and Tiga are too close to him.'
He could kill them both in an instant, and his eyes warned me that he was about to.
"No. You can't," I said.
Suna and Tiga were confused. The man shrugged in confusion, "Why? Are all of them part of your harem?"
Tiga blushed slightly before glaring at me. But I used a trump card to change the situation—Amenotejikara, Uchiha Sasuke's space-time swapping technique.
In the blink of an eye, I switched places with Suna and shielded Tiga as the man nearly thrust his armored hand into her skull.
*CLANG.*
The metallic clash reverberated across the battlefield. I kicked Tiga away from the confrontation.
"Ugh, what are you—" Tiga started, but fell silent as she lost sight of both me and the man, our movements too fast to follow.
"You're really strong," I muttered in shock.
The man smiled politely. "So are you."
We both retreated, and I glanced at my sword—it was covered in cracks.
He smirked. "Your weapon's too weak against my adamantium skin."
"Ada—ADAMANTIUM?!" My eyes widened.
He chuckled. "You really are an other-worlder. You knew what I was talking about instantly."
His hand morphed, transforming into armored plating shaped like a medieval knight's gauntlet.
"My ability is Consume," he explained. "I can consume anything and integrate it into my body. But the last two other-worlders I killed—" his tone soured "—their bodies turned to light particles before I could devour them. I hate that. A lot."
His eyes sharpened. "I wonder if you'll scatter too. Or maybe… if I eat you alive, then—"
"Yeah, that's not happening," I interrupted, taking a stance with my sword.
He snickered. "Don't rush. I want to savor this. In seven days, I'll bring my armies here, and you'll bring yours. We'll fight to the end. The winner will become the sole owner of Genesis."
That was what this universe called Earth.
"Fight for supremacy?" I asked.
He shrugged and said, "Isn't this what it's all about? If you run away, then, I will slaughter everyone in the camp, and every single human beings in this continent–"
"I'm not running away." I interjected decisively.
He smirked and vanished after declaring war, leaving me to finally catch my breath.
He was strong—way stronger than me, even. However, he made a mistake of giving me some prep time.
'I guess he was watching the fight from afar to figure out our combat capability'
Tiga and Suna approached me, their faces pale and distressed.
"Don't worry. He's not going to come back for now–"
"Is it true? You're not from this world?" Tiga asked quickly.
"What?" I widened my eyes, stunned by her words.
Suna added, "He said you're an other-worlder. Are you an alien from space?"
"I'm…"
I couldn't reply for a while. Maybe I was afraid that I would break their trust.
"We'll talk about this inside." I told the two.
…
"So you come from another world," Tiga muttered, eyes full of disbelief and awe.
Suna said, "Your world is on the brink of becoming like ours, so you came here to find the cure?"
"Basically, yeah," I replied.
Suna pouted. "I'm a little jealous of your world now. They have someone like you to fight for them."
She turned to Tiga and said, "Isn't that right, sis?"
But Tiga didn't answer. She seemed lost in her own thoughts.
"Sis?" Suna called again, softly.
"What—oh, y-yeah… Um, I think I'm going to help the others with the cleanup first."
"No." I stopped her. "I know you need a moment to gather your thoughts, but honestly, we don't have that luxury right now. There's an attack coming in seven days, and I have to help you all become stronger than you are now in order to survive."
"I know—I know—I just…" Tiga's eyes grew misty before she turned to me with an accusatory look. "I realized you said you won't be here long. But I thought that if we made this a home for you, you'd stay."
The room fell into heavy silence.
I sighed after a while and said, "Sorry, Tiga. But I can't stay."
She bit her lip, her chin quivering as she looked at me with shaky eyes.
"But I will help you survive. I promise. Right now, we can't follow our feelings—we have to think about what's best for everyone here. You might resent me—"
"I don't resent you—I'm disappointed—I'm depressed—I'm JEALOUS…" Tiga broke into tears.
"I finally found something I could count on in this fucked-up world. But it turns out, even he… is temporary." Tiga ran away crying.
I let her go this time. It was useless to discuss defense strategy while she was still coming to terms with her feelings.
Suna didn't react the same way, but she said something worrying: "If you're from a different world, I think you should impregnate as many girls as you can so we can study the genetic differences when you're gone—"
"Shut up, Suna. Call everyone. Rust, Tyre, Jacinta—everyone."
Soon, the squadron leaders gathered. Tiga had already calmed down and joined the meeting through sheer willpower.
Suna and Tiga didn't tell anyone else about the Otherworlder remark, keeping the secret between the three of us.
"Listen up," I said. "The reason he declared war instead of just killing us is because our combined strength is a threat to him. That means he has executives in his ranks strong enough to tip the balance."
I spread out a map my drones had created and laid it on the table.
"We have to assume they're on the level of the commander ant—or stronger. So all of you need to be at least level 7 when the war comes."
The girls nodded, their faces pale with worry.
"We also need to scout ahead to gauge their numbers. Jacinta, you can see up to thirty kilometers ahead. You'll be my scout. Find the enemy's strength."
I pointed to a Filipino-looking woman with a blue streak in her hair.
She straightened, hands stiff at her sides, and nervously replied, "R-Roger!"
"Tyre." I turned to the black woman. "You still have that storage skill, right?"
"Yup. I still can't bring people into the subspace, so we can't use it for guerrilla warfare," she replied.
"It's fine. I have another idea. You'll work with my duplicate on this."
"Rust." I turned to the albino woman. "The railgun cannon is strong, but you need to grow your ability to be more flexible in battle. You have electromagnetic powers, but they're stuck at level 4."
I floated a coin in my hand, and then shot it through the wall. "It's time for you to upgrade. My duplicate will train with you until you can fire the railgun without relying on the cannon as auxiliary support."
Rust nodded calmly.
In the next few days, they trained harder than ever before. I, too, went searching for the remnants of other agents who had come to this world.
We could bring items here—my armor, and another agent's adamantium metal. If I found their traces, maybe I could uncover more items hidden in their storage.
It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, considering the vast area I had to cover. But I had just the ability in my collection for that.
"It's my dear old friend's ability… Davy Jones—Tia Dalma's compass."
All I needed was a compass. I'd pour the ability into it, and it would lead me to whatever my heart desired most. And right now, what I desired most were the items left behind.
"If only my mangekyō ability had awakened, I wouldn't have to try so hard."
Both of my eyes' powers were still blank. Mangekyō reflected one's deepest personality and desire, so I had no idea what mine would turn out to be.
The search for the items didn't take long with the compass. I flew at a high speed and then found the broken knapsack that the previous agent brought with them.
It was inside an abandoned base, with a bed and a fridge, also powered with solar power. It seemed to have been abandoned for years.
I saw traces of the battle a few hundreds meters away from the base. I guess that was where the agent got ambushed and died, and their weapons stolen.
"Noice!" I yelped in elation as I saw something in storage. A vibranium ore, and an adamantium sword. There was also a sling ring, and a few books from Kamar Tag in there.
"Did the other agent come here from the Marvel universe? That's awesome. Even more awesome if they have Uru– No, I should be grateful that they even left this– What is this?"
I picked up a gun and checked the ammo, and it turned out to be Tesseract energy ammo.
"Ado can use this." I picked up everything and searched for remnants of another agent by flying away. I practiced with the sling ring for some time, and after I found the other agent's backpack, I could already open a head-size portal.
"The ring used my energy instead of the dimensional energy. I guess that's fine."
The energy it used was barely negligible. With this ring, I had another trump card to use in the battle.
One day before the war.
"So, you see it?" I asked Jacinta as she peeked on the army from afar.
"A-Around 3 million beasts and zombies." She muttered with a shaky expression.
"Damn… Wait, 3 million? Noice!" I was elated instead of rattled by the numbers, like everyone else did.
"Are- Are you sure you want to take the battle to them?" Suna asked worriedly.
I smiled and said, "Yeah. You know what the best strategy in a war is? It's the element of surprise."
At the stratosphere. Tyre, the girl with the storage skill, wore an astronaut helmet as my duplicate flew her into space.
Tyre opened her storage, and a cut out, top of the mountain came out from the opening.
"HMMMPHHH!!!" Tyre continued to push it out. The duplicate was confused and asked, "Why does it take so much pressure for you to get it out?"
"It feels like this thing is inside me, and I need to push it out of my body." Tyre continued struggling.
"Like a baby?" The duplicate was in disbelief.
The 'baby' finally fell from the sky, and the duplicate said, "More More No Mi– Multiply weight x100."
It was one card in the storage. The mountaintop suddenly fell at high speed.
"Hmm?" The Ant King turned to the sky as he saw a red streak coming into his direction.
…
[General POV]
Back in the normal world, Woo-Jin found Hargrave—the man who had created the alien pox virus.
However, he wasn't the only one who had tracked him down in Africa.
The KGB, CIA, Interpol, and numerous other intelligence agencies were all searching for him in the town. One of them found him first.
With a thick Russian accent, the KGB agent said, "We will bring you to Russia. Grant you asylum, like you asked. In return, you give us the formula."
Hargrave shrugged. "I don't have the cure."
"We're not looking for the cure," the Russian replied.
Hargrave smiled maniacally. "I like you. I think we will make a great ally."
"And I think you're late for your plastic surgery." The Russian smiled evilly.
*CRASH!*
Woo-Jin smashed through the window and slashed the Russian agent's throat before he could react. He immediately pointed his dagger at Hargrave.
"Wait—wait! I surrender." Hargrave raised his hands, still smiling. "You'll bring me in, right? To whoever your boss is—"
"My boss doesn't need your abilities or your knowledge. It's all useless compared to what he already has," Woo-Jin said coldly.
Hargrave frowned. "I can kill the world. No one knows more about the Aliex virus than I do—"
Before he could finish, Woo-Jin's dagger flashed, separating Hargrave's head from his body.
"What…?" Hargrave muttered in disbelief. He was certain they would take him alive.
But Woo-Jin decided it was best to cut off the source of future trouble. He tossed a time bomb onto the floor and left the house.
Other agents, already rushing toward the sound of the breaking window, surrounded the building. By the time Woo-Jin slipped away, nearly fifty men had stormed inside to capture Hargrave.
BOOOOM!
The bomb detonated, killing everyone in the vicinity. Woo-Jin felt no guilt. He knew every operative here was working off the books.
He glanced at his watch. "Six more hours until the boss gets back. I should clean up more."
(Can you help me vote for my other story? I missed out on the initial chapter dump, so I lost momentum there. It's a major mistake on my part. And please help me review it too.
The story is titled, 'My 10th Transmigration. Destination, Hollywood' . It's in both the original novel section and the fanfic section.)