"You okay?"

  Crk looked at Azuma Shoyo, who'd frozen mid-handshake, and instinctively tried to pull his hand back—only to find he couldn't break free!

  This realization made Crk's eyes widen in disbelief as he stared at Azuma.

  "Sorry!"

  Azuma snapped out of it, quickly releasing Crk's hand to avoid any weird misunderstandings.

  "You two chat. I've got something to do, so I'll head out," Azuma said with a grin.

  He was in an amazing mood. He'd gotten what he came for, and he wasn't particurly interested in Crk and Lois's upcoming conversation.

  Instead…

  He was itching to test just how powerful this incredible strength in his body really was!

  With that, Azuma turned and walked out of the cemetery, ignoring Crk and Lois.

  Lois didn't try to stop him.

  Though she was curious why this obviously underage boy was searching for Crk just like she was, interviewing Crk took priority.

  As for Crk?

  He did want to hold Azuma back, maybe ask how he'd managed that kind of strength. Sure, Crk hadn't used much force, but it wasn't something a normal human could resist—yet he couldn't pull his hand free.

  That was insane!

  But then he gnced at Lois Lane, the reporter standing in front of him, and decided to deal with her first before tracking Azuma down for answers.

  …

  Leaving the cemetery, Azuma suppressed his bubbling excitement. He drove off, heading to a secluded spot. Once there, he pulled the car over to the side of the road.

  Then he stepped out.

  "Bio-force field… this should be it, right?"

  Azuma instinctively activated his bio-force field. Small pebbles and debris around him slowly began to float off the ground.

  Next…

  He bent his knees slightly. With a boom, the ground cracked beneath him, and he unched forward at subsonic speed!

  In midair, his velocity spiked again, breaking the sound barrier in an instant—going from subsonic to supersonic!

  Within a blink, his speed exceeded Mach 20.

  Boom!

  The sky roared with sonic booms, white shockwave clouds blooming like a princess's skirt. His speed hit Mach 200—an extreme velocity!

  This was a speed Crk had dispyed in the movie—when he returned to Metropolis from the other side of the pnet after destroying the World Engine. Crossing 20,000 kilometers in under ten minutes!

  And now, Azuma was matching it.

  He soared over mountains, streaked across pins, and skimmed the boundless ocean, kicking up towering waves.

  Then…

  He broke through the atmosphere, entering outer space.

  Spreading his arms, he faced the distant sun, basking in the warm, fulfilling sensation as every cell in his body absorbed stelr energy!

  "This feeling… it's incredible!!!"

  Azuma opened his mouth, ughing silently in the vacuum of space.

  He was obsessed with this sensation!

  With power like this, what were wealth or authority?

  They'd be his for the taking!

  In a world without superhumans, he'd be a god among men—utterly invincible!

  Even humanity's mightiest weapon—the nuclear bomb—couldn't touch him.

  For one, his defense could shrug off a 10-megaton nuclear bst without a scratch.

  In the movie, Crk had tanked a nuke head-on with Doomsday. Sure, the extreme heat had evaporated his body's moisture, but that was it—no real damage, not even a scrape. A quick sunbath, and he was back to full strength!

  That kind of durability made nukes a joke.

  Second…

  Mach 200 speed—what missile could catch him?

  Even an intercontinental ballistic missile topped out at Mach 20-something. Chase him? Fat chance!

  "No, I can't get too full of myself. This is a multiverse anime world. Who knows if there are angels, gods, or demons out there? Just [Man of Steel] isn't nearly enough!"

  Gaining such immense power so suddenly would make anyone cocky, and Azuma—being human—was no exception. The thought of膨胀 (getting carried away) crept into his mind.

  Luckily…

  He knew how terrifying this multiverse could be.

  Forget everything else—just the ghosts and spirits around Miko Yotsuya gave him pause. Could he, with [Man of Steel]'s power, even handle them?

  In theory, ghosts and spirits weren't fazed by physical attacks.

  800,000 tons of strength? Even 8 billion tons wouldn't matter—they didn't have physical forms!

  It'd be like punching air.

  But [Man of Steel] came with heat vision, and Superman's power stemmed from the sun. Azuma wasn't sure if those spirits feared sor energy.

  If they did, great.

  If not…

  That'd be a problem!

  Whoosh!

  In space, Azuma's figure vanished in an instant.

  In a vacuum, he moved even faster than on Earth. In less than 0.1 seconds, he was back on the ground.

  He stood amidst a range of mountains, surrounded by a desote desert ndscape.

  This was the American West—wild, barren, untamed.

  Hovering in midair before a mountain peak, Azuma shot forward like a bullet!

  Boom—

  The upper half of the mountain exploded as he punched through it. Spinning around, he unleashed a bst of heat vision at the shattered peak behind him.

  Rumble…

  The ferocious heat vision obliterated everything in its path. The mountain fttened! The ground split into scorched bck scars!

  After a minute or two, a slight ache tingled around his eyes, and he finally cut off the heat vision.

  The crimson glow faded…

  Where the mountain once stood, nothing remained but a field of charred streaks across the earth!

  Closing his eyes, the ache vanished in under a second.

  Azuma opened them again, grinning at the wreckage below.