June 5th, 2006.
The Marvel Universe.
Under the pitch-black night sky, a fine mist of rain drifted down, washing over the small town known as Magrave.
In the town cetery, beneath the dim yellow glow of a distant streetlamp, stood the figure of a young man. He held a black umbrella, dressed in a black jacket over a T-shirt and jeans, with a baseball cap pulled low over his head.
His gaze was fixed on the tombstone before him.
Set into the stone was a photograph of a stern-looking man with sharp features, soone who clearly wasn't given to smiling.
Reflected in the dark brown eyes of the black-haired boy was the na engraved beneath it.
Daniel Brown, 51 years old.
And his own na was Matthew Brown.
No one knew that the seventeen-year-old standing there was no longer the sa person he had once been.
Daniel had adopted Matthew when he was young and brought him to live in this small town. A retired soldier, Daniel was a man of few words, but he had poured all of his fatherly love into raising young Matthew. Though reserved, he had taught him many things growing up.
But a month ago, Daniel died.
According to the official police report, he had been shot while pursuing several drug traffickers. When Matthew received the news that day, the grief had struck him so violently that he collapsed on the spot.
Yet perhaps because of that very accident, sothing within him had broken open.
He had awakened the mories of his previous life.
Nas like Tony Stark and mutants, once only familiar fragnts in mory, made him realize at last that he had transmigrated and been reborn into the Marvel Universe.
As the mories of both lives fused together, Matthew matured almost instantly. It was the kind of change that only ca from lived experience.
Because of that, he was able to suppress the overwhelming grief and think calmly. With reason replacing panic, he began noticing details he had overlooked before.
And those details made him question the police departnt's official explanation of Daniel's death.
His eyes shifted slightly, and from the corner of his vision, he glanced toward the woods several dozen ters away. It looked like nothing more than a stretch of darkness—empty, silent, and still.
But Matthew was certain.
Soone was watching him from there.
That confidence ca from the training Daniel had given him since childhood. Firearms knowledge, shooting skills, tracking, and counter-surveillance awareness—these were lessons his adoptive father had drilled into him personally.
And the surveillance hadn't started today.
It had begun right after Daniel's funeral.
There had even been one ti when Matthew returned ho and imdiately realized soone had broken into the house and searched through it. Although everything had been carefully put back in place, it still hadn't escaped his notice.
After sensing he was being watched, he had already set up subtle markers around the house—things only he himself would notice if disturbed.
It was obvious now that Daniel's death was far from simple.
He must have discovered sothing, sothing serious enough that his enemies had no choice but to silence him permanently.
As for the police departnt... there were likely problems inside as well.
The people behind this were powerful. Even Daniel, a battle-hardened veteran, had been killed.
So what could he, a seventeen-year-old boy, possibly do?
A cold light flashed in Matthew's eyes.
Of course, he had his own source of confidence.
It was the system that had appeared alongside the awakening of his past-life mories.
The Sign-In System.
Every day, he could perform a sign-in. The rewards were random. There was a high chance of getting nothing at all, but daily sign-ins could be accumulated. The longer he saved them, the better the quality of the reward would be, and the lower the chance of getting nothing.
From the first day the Sign-In System had appeared until now, thirty-two days had already passed.
He had tried signing in during the first two days, but both rewards had been empty.
So without hesitation, he chose to be patient and continue accumulating sign-in days.
Today marked exactly one month.
He could no longer afford to wait.
He could sense that whoever was behind the surveillance was running out of patience as well.
Waiting was torture.
But Matthew had always been patient.
Soon, the ti finally arrived.
"Ding~ Accumulated sign-in days have reached 30. Would you like to activate the monthly sign-in?"
"Activate!!"
"Congratulations, you have obtained the Glint-Glint Fruit ability. Would you like to rge with it?"
Matthew's pupils contracted sharply, and a storm surged through his heart.
The Glint-Glint Fruit ca from the world of One Piece—a Logia-type Devil Fruit, and one of the highest-tier fruits in existence.
Its user was Admiral Kizaru, Borsalino, one of the Navy Headquarters' greatest military powers.
After consuming it, one beca a Light Human, capable of turning any part of their body into light, moving at the speed of light, launching light-speed attacks, and using that speed to deliver devastating heavy blows. The body could also emit blinding flashes capable of temporarily robbing enemies of their sight.
Of course, whether it was truly "light speed" was still open to debate.
From a scientific perspective, if soone could genuinely move at the speed of light, then even the simplest attack would generate unimaginable levels of energy—more than enough to destroy a planet with ease.
Judging by the level of destructive power Kizaru had displayed with his mastery of the Glint-Glint Fruit, it was still far from planetary destruction.
But regardless of that, this fruit was more than enough to grant him power far beyond that of ordinary humans.
"rge!!"
"Fusion beginning."
As the cold, chanical voice faded, Matthew felt a strange transformation spread through his body.
His flesh, bones, cells, organs—every part of him seed to undergo so indescribable change.
Yet the process lasted only an instant before it was completely over.
It felt as natural as breathing, like instinct itself.
Matthew could clearly sense that he was now able to release a certain kind of power, sothing he could manipulate as easily as moving his own limbs.
Even his already strong physique seed to have grown slightly stronger.
It seed so things could now begin ahead of schedule.
Matthew reached up and adjusted the brim of his baseball cap. He looked at the photo of his adoptive father, Daniel, and after moving his lips slightly—though no sound ca out—he turned and walked away.
Life went on.
Matthew stopped going to school.
For the next five days, he stayed at ho, throwing himself into intense physical training. He had already stocked up on enough food to support the high demands of that regin.
There was a dedicated training area in the house, complete with professional weights and fitness equipnt. Daniel had specifically set it up for both himself and Matthew to train in.
After five days of high-intensity workouts, Matthew could feel his body strengthening at a visible rate. Compared to before receiving the sign-in reward, he had improved by a significant margin.
At the sa ti, he had also spent those days testing his new abilities at ho.
That gave him a basic understanding of the limits of his power.
He could achieve elental transformation, turning himself into light.
He could also fire laser beams—from his fingers or even from his eyes. As for their exact power, he wasn't entirely sure.
He could use Kizaru's Yasakani no Magatama as well, unleashing a dense barrage of shining energy projectiles in a carpet-bombing attack.
He could also perform a light-speed kick.
Of course, it was nowhere near Kizaru's level.
Or rather, the enhancent wasn't limited to his legs—his arms could be empowered in the sa way.
He could also use light energy to create weapons made of light—swords, guns, shields, and more.
He could even transform himself into a beam of light and shoot forward at high speed.
Basically, if it was an ability Kizaru could use, he could use it too.
However—
it was an extrely weakened version.
Clearly, what the system had rewarded him with was the Glint-Glint Fruit ability itself, not the actual Devil Fruit. That ant he had skipped the early developnt phase and started with fairly precise control over the power.
At the sa ti, because his physical body still wasn't strong enough, using these abilities consud both his stamina and ntal energy. He couldn't sustain them for too long, and excessive use would cause him to collapse unconscious.
Still, this was already more than enough.
At least when facing ordinary people, he was already a monster.
Which ant…
it was ti to go fishing.
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