Chapter 90: Could Anything Be More Absurd Than This?

The surveillance room went dead silent.

Director Gu rubbed his eyes and stared at the screen again, then at the report in his hand. “What in the world is this? Is some superhero from a cartoon come to life?”

“If the detection image is accurate,” Xiao Liu said weakly, “then I’m afraid it really is.”

“Then what do we do?” the director cried, nearly beside himself.

“Should we send in the military?” Cao Xiu suggested.

“Send in your grandfather! Haven’t you forgotten that in cartoons the military is always cannon fodder?” the director snapped, voice rising in panic.

“But if we do nothing, won’t that be worse?”

The director drew a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. “We have to intervene. If that thing has appeared within our borders, we cannot allow it to cause destruction. You two keep watching its movements and record this entire video. I’ll report it at once to my superiors.”

Far away in the Star Empire, an agent from the Central Intelligence Bureau sprang straight up from his chair and howled toward the ceiling, “Boss! A massive energy reaction has appeared inside the Dragon Empire! Come look at this—what is it?”

“A massive energy reaction? Could it be one of their high-level cultivators fighting?”

“No, no, come see for yourself. I swear this guy is much stronger than those cultivators!”

“My God... is that a superhero? A superhero from the Sun Empire?”

In the Sun Empire, an officer stared at the footage just received from the Dragon Empire and blurted out in disbelief, “Good heavens above, is that... a superhero?”

“I can’t make sense of it either,” his subordinate said. “How could a being from fiction appear in reality and wind up there in the Dragon Empire?”

“Investigate immediately. I’m going to report this to His Majesty.”

On the battlefield, the player Chen Yun had just slain the Snake King, a level sixty-five lord-class boss, and the Snake Queen, a level sixty elite-class boss.

One after another, system announcements rang out. Chen Yun was promoted to level thirteen, then level fourteen, then level fifteen.

Seeing the two enormous serpents dissolve into white light, Chen Yun let out a long breath. He had no time to worry about the flood of notifications. Mimicking the departure pose of the hero from the cartoon, he jumped straight up into the air.

“Hooray! He defeated the monster! Dad, look, the superhero is leaving! He jumped up, he’s about to fly away... huh? Why isn’t he flying? Isn’t that what they do on TV? Maybe he’s tired and can’t fly anymore?”

The little boy muttered to himself, while the corner of his father’s mouth twitched helplessly.

Chen Yun leapt more than ten meters high, then... fell back down.

Damn it.

What an embarrassment. The timer was about to run out, and he had completely forgotten that he did not actually have the superhero’s abilities. Fly? Fly his ass!

“The transformation time is about to end. Countdown: ten, nine, eight...”

Hearing the countdown, Chen Yun broke into a cold sweat. What now? The moment time ran out, he would be exposed, and so many people were watching! He urgently scanned his backpack for anything usable.

At last, he spotted a purple flight talisman.

Flight Talisman: purple-grade item, consumable. Can transform according to the player’s will into various forms for solo flight. Flight duration: two minutes. Flight speed: fifty li per minute.

Damn it, there really is a way out when all paths seem sealed.

“Use the flight talisman!”

“Please choose the flight form.”

“Form... I’ve used sword-riding techniques before, so make it a sword!”

“Sword form successfully transformed. Please step onto the flight talisman.”

What everyone present saw next was a scene so absurd it nearly sent them reeling.

The superhero who had defeated the monster suddenly produced a purple slip of paper out of thin air, tossed it upward, and it expanded at once into a huge sword. It came to rest beneath the superhero’s feet. He stepped onto it, and the sword shot skyward—carrying the superhero away.

In that instant, the bystanders were stunned.

The police were stunned.

The deputy director of the relevant department was stunned.

The Star Empire’s Central Intelligence Bureau was stunned.

The Sun Empire’s intelligence service was stunned.

Damn it— the superhero stood on a sword and flew away?

Was there anything even more absurd than that?

That day, the news that a superhero had appeared within the Dragon Empire swept across the entire internet.

Countless posts, pictures, and videos all revolved around a single topic: the superhero had grown tired of fighting monsters in cartoons and had come out into the real world to do it for real.

“Holy cow, is this real? I opened my computer today and everything was about this. There’s really a superhero in the real world?”

“Tsk tsk... these pictures, these videos, they look so real. I’ve got to hand it to the tech.”

“Mom, I heard a superhero came here to fight monsters. Is it true?”

“Bro, did you see it? A superhero came to our country.”

“I just got off work and haven’t looked yet. You actually believe this nonsense?”

“It’s all over the internet. The videos are out too. It probably isn’t fake, right?”

“Pfft. Video technology is so advanced these days—what can’t be made?”

All day long the Dragon Empire buzzed with discussion of the matter, until a news broadcast that evening abruptly brought it to a halt.

“In order to promote justice and cherish the peace we enjoy today, our nation has joined hands with the Self-Defense Empire to co-produce a television series titled Superhero in Dragon. Filming is currently underway at a real location somewhere within the empire, and the show is expected to meet viewers next year. Please stay tuned. In order to maintain a clean online culture, the Imperial Internet Supervision Bureau will conduct a thorough purge of unhealthy content across the network. The main targets of this cleanup are unverified, illegally spread rumors and...”

The imperial household had no choice but to issue this report after realizing the matter had already spread throughout the land and could no longer be suppressed. They even enlisted the famous director Zhang Yamao, who had repeatedly failed in his assaults on Osaka under the decree, along with the father of superheroes, Soft-Boned Infant, to prepare the production. The announcement was made publicly on the imperial news with one purpose only: what you saw was not a real superhero, but a television drama being filmed. Stop guessing wildly, go home, wash up, and sleep. And don’t keep reposting this stuff online—if you do, be careful or you’ll be invited in for tea by the relevant authorities.