"Roast chicken tonight? And authentic German pan-fried sausages?"
On a summer night filled with the chirping of cicadas, the bright moon hung high outside the window. A soft breeze drifted through the house, gently brushing against their faces.
Russell and his cousin Mark had just returned from their part-time jobs at the hamburger joint. The moment they opened the door, a mouthwatering aroma hit them.
Unlike his usual introverted, nerdy self, Mark had both hands in his pockets, a smug look on his face as he tried to act nonchalant. While checking out the dishes, he kept sneaking glances at his mom, Debbie, like he was bursting for someone to ask what had happened.
Russell, pulling out a chair and sitting down, couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.
Mark looked like he'd just won the lottery—but the truth was, what happened to him was far more worth celebrating than any lottery.
He'd hit the genetic jackpot.
You either have it at birth—or you don't.
"Mom, something pretty interesting happened today," Mark finally blurted, unable to wait any longer when he noticed his mom hadn't looked at him. He glanced proudly at his cousin Russell, ready to announce it officially.
"Oh? What is it?"
Debbie looked up while finishing setting the table.
"I—"
Before Mark could get the words out, a tall figure appeared beside the dinner table almost like he'd teleported, moving so fast he nearly knocked over a wine glass with the gust he brought in.
Debbie, clearly used to this, calmly caught the glass without looking.
"A dragon attacked Hong Kong. I went to help out," said the man—fair-skinned, deep blue eyes, neatly trimmed hair and beard, a towering, muscular build.
He kissed his wife and offered a casual explanation for his late arrival.
"A dragon? Cool."
Gods, robots, monsters—Debbie was long used to her husband fighting all kinds of supervillains. She gave him a perfunctory compliment and turned back to their previous conversation.
"Perfect timing. Mark was just about to tell us about something interesting that happened today."
"You ran into it alone?" she asked, glancing at her nephew Russell, who went to the same school and worked the same job as Mark.
"Wait, Cousin—" Mark quickly waved his hand.
This was the biggest moment of his life. He had to be the one to say it.
"Mark wants to tell it himself," said Russell, shrugging.
"What is it?" asked Omni-Man—the strongest superhero on Earth—eyeing his son Mark, who looked like he was about to take off from sheer excitement. Something about the moment gave him a faint sense of unease.
"I... I awakened my powers!" Mark shouted, unable to hold it in anymore.
He had waited for this night for nearly eighteen years.
"What?" Debbie blinked in surprise.
"You sure?" Omni-Man's expression remained calm, but his eyes darkened slightly.
"Definitely sure. At work today, I threw out a bag of trash—and it vanished. It might be floating in low orbit now. Or maybe already in space."
If Russell hadn't already been expecting Omni-Man's reaction, he might have missed the subtle shift in his eyes. Mark, meanwhile, was still going on excitedly, completely unaware.
"Cousin saw it too. He can back me up. Ask him."
"Russell?" Both Debbie and Nolan turned to their reliable nephew, whom they had raised since his parents died in a car crash when he was eight.
"Mark's power awakening was sudden," Russell said. "We were closing up as usual, taking out the trash. One moment, he was struggling with a garbage bag just like me. The next, he hurled the next bag into the sky—it turned into a little star and disappeared."
He nodded, still finding it hard to believe, even though he saw it with his own eyes.
It was hard to imagine that just that morning, at school, Mark had tried to imitate his heroic father by stepping in to help a girl being harassed by a football player—only to get punched in the nose and start bleeding.
If Russell hadn't stepped in to block the next punch, Mark might've ended up humiliated, on his knees in front of everyone.
But that very night, while taking out the trash, Mark suddenly gained power on par with the gods of this world—or perhaps even greater.
"Nolan, is this... normal?" Debbie asked, not knowing how abilities usually manifested in Viltrumite descendants. She looked at her husband, who was staring off into space, only snapping out of it after being nudged a few times.
"Totally normal. This is how we Viltrumites awaken our powers. His strength is still weak, but it'll grow steadily."
If other superheroes on Earth heard Omni-Man call casually tossing a heavy bag into orbit "weak," they'd probably be ashamed enough to slam their heads into a wall.
Russell's mouth twitched slightly.
"That's a Viltrumite for you—able to take a nuclear explosion point-blank, fly around the Earth in seconds, and punch through any mountain on the planet.
A walking cheat code."
Lying in bed later that night, Russell had his arms behind his head, staring up at the ceiling.
From his window, he could see Mark outside wearing nothing but sleep shorts, practicing flight with burning enthusiasm. After a while, he shot into the sky and disappeared.
To be honest, when Russell saw the news that morning about the Mauler Twins attacking the White House, he had already guessed Mark would awaken his powers that night—just like in the original storyline.
"Now that Mark's powers have awakened... the plot's about to begin."
This world, filled with superheroes and supervillains, was about to become far more chaotic and dangerous.
Before, something like buying a cup of coffee could end with your brand-new car being flung by a superhero at a supervillain.
Or your house—still under mortgage—getting destroyed in a battle between capes. Or coming home from school to find your entire family gone.
Things were about to get worse.
Tens of thousands dying in a disaster? Normal. A city getting wiped out? Unremarkable. Global destruction? Entirely possible.
Even Invincible Mark—the seemingly unstoppable protagonist with godlike powers—would be beaten bloody over and over, constantly brushing against death.
That's the world of Invincible.
In the future chaos, what role would he play?
Too bad he was only Mark's cousin, not a blood relative—no Viltrumite genes, no godlike powers.
Born without hacks.
But luckily... he unlocked a cheat of his own.
Ding!
Conquest System
Host: Russell Hansen
Conquest Points: 8
Recorded Templates:
John Bruce, Owen Clinton, David Jackson…
Current Template: David Jackson
Abilities: Peak Human Physique
Linked Universe: The Boys Universe.
Other universes: Scanning…
A simple system interface.
The system had appeared when Russell turned eighteen, just a few days ago.
Its least useful feature was traveling between different worlds.
Its main feature: allowing Russell to record the ability templates of those he defeated—and apply one at a time. Each template granted all the skills and power of that person.
Conquest Points were emotional responses—genuine admiration, respect, fear—that occurred when others were deeply moved or impressed by him.
He could spend points to permanently fuse a template to himself, freeing up the application slot.
During his casual boxing class at school, he had sparred and defeated several juniors, recording their templates and earning some points.
By permanently fusing two templates and combining them with his own training and the one active template, Russell had pushed every part of his body to the peak of human potential—far beyond Olympic champions.
"With this kind of strength, grinding my way up to Viltrumite levels is going to be a long, grueling road."
"Luckily... there's a loophole I can exploit."