~ 3 months Later ~
After my midnight incident, the day after, Diana contacted me about the job. Nothing big, but it paid decently a week, around $425 at its base salary and up to $750 at its highest. I was currently getting the highest due to my performance and skills during the job. I carried, placed, and did all the usual things a regular construction worker did, but far more efficiently.
What can I say? I'm simply just that guy.
Continuing, while earning a decent enough pay and not needing to eat or really spending to get a change of clothes. Everything went smoothly. Though I had to bother Diana if she could get a private space for me to create my own place, a thirty-minute drive from her home.
Initially, she was against the idea, and told me should chill with her, but she broke through when I told her. "Please... do it for me?", and it worked like a charm.
Ichigo knew what he was doing.
That took another day to finalize and get done. My base was coming along. But right now, I'm currently working at the site, while everyone is most likely still shocked at my just strength, and how I seem to never tire. I couldn't blame them, to be honest. I carried twice what the strongest guy does, while moving three times faster.
I am about to finish up with everything. I decided to finish up my required amount of work, which is a plus, since in this AU, construction workers had to fill a certain criterion before leaving, which was why I got a maximum salary within my first month here. Since I knew how Oscorp worked, I was careful not to go above peak human capabilities, so that they wouldn't bother to investigate my strength.
Clocking out, I went to the site manager to tell him I was finished for the day.
" I got everything done, sir. I'll be taking my leave. "
" How do you do it Johnathan? I swear you break a world record a day, you're half an hour faster than a month ago. At this rate, we might have to double your income based on your impressive display. "
I go by Johnathan now, for obvious reasons. I needed a new alias for the job/s I would be potentially doing.
Chuckling, I responded. " Hahaha, thanks sir, I appreciate the compliment, but all I really do is eat, sleep and workout religiously. Sorry that I have to cut the conversation short, but today I really have something urgent planned. "
With that said, I left quickly.
Murmuring under his breath, the manager responded, " Of course, with a body like that, it's obvious that you do nothing, BUT exercise... "
Hearing what he said with my super senses, I chuckled at his response. The manager was a kind-hearted person, almost too kind for his own good, but that's a story for another day. With that said, I went to the home-supply store to get what I needed, then I teleported home. I was almost finished with it. My first ever self made home, practical and compact for what I need.
That's right, I built a decent sized flat with the money I made throughout my time working for Oscorp. I am proud of myself.
With my intellect and abilities, I rendered the effort close to null. It was about a 15x15 meter flat. Surrounded by concrete covered hardwood and complete with a standard strip-foundation set up. Just a bit more concrete to the back-side wall and I would have this place decked out for the future, which was for my upcoming experiments and tools.
Entering. I quickly got started with completing the project. While setting up my stuff, I heard a humming noise from nowhere. It sounded robotic in nature, obviously artificial...
Turning around, I see a glowing yet not glowing blue ball in my home? It was hard to explain. it was luminescent, yet it had no signs of producing light anywhere. I felt the sheer pressure it exuded. Although it wasn't inherently threatening, it wasn't completely harmless in nature, either. I had felt that I knew what this being was... silent and unmoving. I felt it peering into my very being as I stood still.
It was probably the (balance)...
What else could it be? There was no being in this multiverse that could sneak up on me with my new abilities. Not even the ONE ABOVE ALL or PRESENCE can do that, especially with my transformation used.
It was finally here. I knew it would come some day. But it came on the worst one... I had literally just started finishing my home. And now it was going to change my abilites and most likely remove most of my power. This sucked, but it wasn't totally unexpected.
In the next moment, I felt my body being constrained, then lifted into the air towards it. It was making changes already, I could tell. I just had to pray it was going to take and rebalance certain abilities, making them a little weaker at most, but the probability of that happening in my favor is next to literal 0.
'Fuck!' that's all I could say in my mind.
In the next moment, I felt all my power wash away. My energy leaving my body. I felt infinitesimally weak, far weaker than I expected to be than predicted. I quickly called for my status screen, only to see various abilities being nerfed to oblivion. Having a (+) phrase beside some of them. I felt my ever-increasing strength fade away. My "passive transcendence" perk, being changed to "reactive evolution" to its highest level, with it moving on to my black-light virus, giving it alterations.
I could no longer gain power/energy from my enemies, only their genetic traits and abilities. It was 100% guaranteed. That sucked, but what could I do? It seemed like I have to make my own all-consuming virus, that was the only answer to this problem. My transformations remained the same, and my stats regarding intellect and luck also stayed the same.
My perception has capped to being 10x higher than my base as of the moment, its stats most likely reset from losing all that power, as well as my speed-force being only 100 times my base speed. My enhanced durability perk went down to 15 times as well.
I was not liking this, but I could only watch in horror. But that's when an epiphany hit me. If reactive evolution is exactly what it's supposed to be, I could more than make up for the loss of power here, and I could truly earn it all this time, without worrying about a scenario like this transpiring again.
It seemed to have stopped going through my abilites; it didn't take any of my active abilities from Barmes or the Black-light's mutative effects on bloodlines either, and the other perks... Though, my absorption rate of solar energy dropped to about a measly 5x. That sucked, but seeing the effects of reactive evolution. I had no problem. I had more than enough time to surpass myself in the future.
That was good news, but I had to implement a massive change of plans to fix the virus, to upgrade it. I was intelligent enough to do so. I just needed more knowledge on specific things to pull it off.
However, seemingly done boring a hole into my soul. I looked towards it a little upset.
In the next moment, I fell to the ground, weaker than ever. Far weaker than even superman at this point. This was fucked. All I could do now was to 'earn' my strength, this time at a steady enough rate... or earn it fast enough to where the (balance) cannot affect me. The thought of the latter sounding far better to my liking.
After a while, I saw space distort to an unimaginable degree... before it went away, as if it wasn't even there. I got back up on my feet with new goals, but before that, I looked around my house.
" At least it wasn't destroyed. "
With my power now, I was most likely around a small solar level in pure power, with forms that weren't sealed, such as the god forms and the ssj5 forms. I was about large galaxy level, possible small universal. It was ok, but I expected to be universal at the lowest. I shrugged inwardly at this, but it's ok. I might have gotten something far better out of this than the (balance) thought.
That very thing being "reactive evolution" especially to the highest degree...
Let me explain... In theory, passive transcendence gives its user more power to battle against hax and such, only giving them resistance to anything that potentially harms them, then granting them a high enough level of strength to where it seems like they are immune to said effects, which is technically true as well as it being always active.
But reactive evolution is gaining a permanent high resistance to even immunity to an attack forever once the person survives a dangerous situation or in need of survival, and allows them to grow the more they get hurt or train, and this effect is exponential as it is with transcendence, while reactive evolution perk is only when the user needs a boost, passive transcendence is ALWAYS active. Allowing the user to gain power, seemingly without end.
However, while most think that the tradeoff is good, it really wasnt if one ruminated on about it.
Passive transcendence, though good, becomes irrelevant when its user has reached the highest power possible. With no room to grow, it basically stops while giving the user nonexistent amounts of strength every moment. While reactive evolution is as much as the user can take, developing them according to new heights, exponentially faster depending on how much the person trains, never truly ending or dropping in rate of growth.
Essentially, "passive transcendence" is a quick and constant influx of power but slows after your peak, while "reactive evolution" is a 'slow' and steady yet exponential growth in power, with additional benefits and a much more stable foundation, while never slowing depending on how hard you train after your peak.
So even though you start off weaker with "reactive evolution", you get stronger in the long run. A speed-run to strength leads to an unstable foundation. A lesson I never forgot, but I truly never heeded. But now that I have this perk, my future is set in stone, but to test its effects, I will have to wait until tomorrow.
With my home complete, I rested. I needed it now after that explanation and events prior to my 'nerf' even if it's a temporary one after everything I lost. My body was no longer able to go without rest because of the (balance) tampering with the virus as well as my regeneration too, but that could be fixed quickly. I am a kryptonian, viltrumite and saiyan after all multiple other races. I will regain what I lost quickly... but for now, I needed this.
With that, I slept like a deadman.
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The next morning. Waking up, I yawned, something I hadn't done in a while. Getting up I went outside to feel and absorb the sun's energy. I felt my thought process increase a little as well as my perception. Checking my status, I saw my radiation meter rise exponentially. Its effects being quick
5.1...
5.3...
5.7...
6.2...
6.8...
8.2...
The rate was rising every three seconds while the increments kept increasing too, its effects getting larger and larger each moment, and unlike the black-light mutating my kryptonian bloodline, this will never stop or slow down as long as I was exposed to the sun, it would continue to endlessly. And it would most likely get much faster if I was exposed to a blue star or even the purple star... .
With that, I used my weights again. After the second month of coming back here, I saw no need for them. But now, I could put them to good use. I selected the auto-adapt feature, which made the weights adapt to my growing power.
Checking their screens, I saw how weak I had truly become. I could lift just about 183 tons with each limb added up, but it was rising as I spoke. It was impressive by DBZ standards. I am still far stronger than ssj3 Goku to potentially even vegito in raw power with certain transformations. But the (balance) was harsh.
Continuing my daily exercise, I felt as if my growth rate should be much faster, but I feel like its 1000th of what it initially was. Almost like my potential was sealed... .
Checking the weights again, I could lift 267 tons equally now, after only about ten minutes of training. This was indeed fast. Don't get it twisted, it was simply nowhere near as fast as it should be. However, this rate was incrementally growing. The faster and harder I trained, the greater my potential would inevitably become, hence faster rate of growth... .
For the first time in a long while, I was sweating. But strangely, I wasn't upset. I was happy, NO. I was ESTATIC about how I was sweating. My saiyan instincts wanting me to push myself. Sure that strength loss was immensely disappointing, but now. I don't regret it, I could train again and it would be difficult this time!
I wouldn't adapt to these changes almost instantly anymore. I had to put in effort like I was before I got the black-light virus. But I could still feel my rate of growth increasing every moment. My strength rose steadily as I started increasing my pace and repetitions each second. Soon every ten seconds I would gain a +5 in tons, but that became +6, then +7 then +9. Showing that my growth was increasing and was slowly getting exponential as time went on.
But... I was still a long way from infinite, much less infinite squared.... but that's a topic for another time. For now. I was back on the path of grinding. With struggle comes a greater respect for strength and when its earned. The more I trained my perception, the higher it went, and the same goes for speed and such.
Unknowingly, a smile grace my face. I was excited of the future, exhilarated about the prospects of getting challenged once more...
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END