On his eighteenth birthday, Leon casually got out of bed—only to hear a loud crash as the entire bed frame collapsed beneath him.
Everything in his house had suddenly become fragile. Chairs shattered at a touch. Doors fell off their hinges. Tiles cracked underfoot. It was as if, overnight, he had crossed into a world made of hydrogen, where bricks were paper-thin and walls crumbled like dust.
Hearing the commotion, Tony rushed in. Amid the wreckage, he exclaimed repeatedly, "Oh my God!" All plans for a birthday celebration were instantly scrapped. Instead, Tony gave Leon a full-body examination.
Thirty tons of strength. Speed reaching a hundred meters per second. A body impervious to blades.
Leon had undergone earth-shattering changes overnight.
And that was just the beginning.
Leon soon noticed that the longer he stayed under the sun, the stronger he felt. It wasn't just in his muscles—every cell in his body buzzed with new life. Tony, after some research, confirmed it: Leon's cells, when exposed to sunlight, remained hyperactive and underwent quantum-level enhancements.
"This is literally Superman!" Tony exclaimed, stunned. "I wouldn't be surprised if you shot heat rays tomorrow!"
Leon paused, sensing the truth in his friend's words. A sudden realization dawned upon him, and he nodded. "Tony, you're right. I really am Superman now."
Then, a divine message seemed to whisper in his mind:
—Upon reaching eighteen, the original world grants ability unlocking. Kryptonian bloodline awakened. Space-time travel ability unlocked!
The Kryptonian bloodline—there was no need for explanation. It was the signature trait of Superman from the DC universe: drawing strength from the sun. Unfortunately, Leon didn't have the elite lineage of Silver or Golden Superman. He had, at best, standard Kryptonian genes.
So relying on sunbathing alone, he might never reach the heights of true Superman godhood.
As for the space-time travel ability—it was just as the name implied. With enough stored energy, Leon could jump timelines at will.
Whether this included traveling within the Marvel universe or beyond to even larger multiverses remained to be seen.
Still, one thing was certain—his golden finger had arrived.
His joy was uncontrollable. Leon grabbed Tony in celebration.
Unfortunately, the hug broke two of Tony's ribs and a scapula. He was rushed into surgery that same day.
Leon spent the night sitting by Tony's bedside, regretful of his own carelessness.
Why had this golden finger waited until adulthood to appear? Eighteen years wasted!
Had he awakened this power earlier—say at one year old—he might have changed history. Perhaps when Bucky assassinated Howard and his wife, baby Leon could've leaped in and flipped the tables.
"Do golden fingers have anti-addiction protections for minors now?" he mused. "But I've lived over twenty years in my past life! How am I still considered underage?"
Leon couldn't make sense of it.
Three months later, after much discussion with Tony, Leon applied for a three-year university enrollment delay. Then, he boarded a spacecraft custom-built by Tony and launched into deep space.
The ship's orbit was set between Earth and the Sun—an area with no night, only eternal daylight.
Half a year passed. One hundred and eighty days of relentless sunbathing.
Leon spent the entire time tethered to a titanium alloy panel, facing the sun head-on.
Power surged within him like a river of molten energy, rolling in wave after wave. Even his breathing felt thunderous, filled with immense force.
"The original plan was to bask for two and a half years," Leon said to himself, "so I'd be ready for the Chitauri invasion. But at this rate, six months might already be enough!"
Still, caution tugged at him.
He remembered the fear of firepower deficiency that had plagued him for over a decade, living under the shadow of the Time Administration. Back then, he wouldn't leave the house without an armed escort—mercenaries toting machine guns and rocket launchers.
Now, with the Kryptonian bloodline unlocked, he finally had the qualifications to chase power.
He wanted to dive straight into the Sun and sleep for ten years—just to see what heights he could reach.
He wasn't a Dao seeker, but his hunger for strength bordered on spiritual.
Become stronger. Always stronger. Beyond everyone.
Those years of unease had forged an obsession.
"No. This isn't enough. Not even close," Leon muttered, crushing his own growing sense of pride.
He clenched his fists, marble-hard muscles bulging.
"I've only sunbathed for six months and I'm already getting complacent? I should be ashamed."
"The power of Kryptonians alone isn't enough. I've got standard blood, and sunbathing has its limits."
"To go further—I won't just rely on being a Kryptonian. I need more sources of power!"
Magic. Technology. Martial arts. Anything.
"I'll try every path Earth has to offer."
By now, Leon had awakened all of Superman's standard abilities.
Heat vision. Freeze breath. Bio-electric force fields. X-ray and telescopic vision. Super-hearing. And most importantly—a super brain.
With it, he could absorb knowledge at a speed beyond comprehension. Learning became effortless. Reading books or mastering new skills was like transferring data via USB.
From now on, his only limitation would be the speed of input, not understanding.
"The byte-based language system we use to transfer knowledge? It's as slow as a snail," he sneered.
But before diving into Earth's knowledge systems, there was one thing he had to do.
Leon tilted his head. His eyes darkened.
He focused, honing in on Tony's voice, drifting faintly through the void. His vision followed.
Through the ship's reinforced cabin. Through Earth's atmosphere. Through dust and concrete and rock.
Only lead could block his gaze.
In under a second, he found Tony. Lying unconscious in a cave in the Afghan desert.
"Obadiah. Bucky. Hydra…" Leon murmured. "Time to settle accounts."
Eighteen years of timidity. That ended now.
With strength came confidence.
He knew these powers were still far from enough. But for the first time, he had the strength to do something. Even if they were just "small things."
Leon smiled.
"Tony, I'm coming to save you," he said gently.
He reached out and grabbed a pair of pants floating in zero gravity, slipped them on, and drifted forward. One light push of his hand—
Silence.
In the vacuum of space, no sound could travel.
The ship's main hatch—constructed to withstand tens of thousands of tons of pressure—peeled away like a monk's robe, floating silently into space.
Leon stepped out.
He stood between Earth and the Sun.
One half of his body bathed in golden sunlight, the other cast in Earth's blue glow.
He looked upward to the Sun, then downward to Earth. In that moment, he looked like a god—capable of splitting sky and land with a single thought.
But Leon knew better.
This wasn't real divinity. Not yet.
Suppressing the pride threatening to rise once more, he leaned forward. His body hovered for a brief second.
Then—boom—he broke through the void, flying straight toward Earth.