Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story. Worm is the property of Wildbow. I do not intend to offend anyone and only wish to entertain readers.
Note: Bonus points for those who understand the meaning of the title.
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(Ren POV)
I looked at the TV in front of me as news began to play of Teacher's death. There were many reactions, including blaming the PRT's incompetence, joy over a villain's death, and a range of mixed reactions.
I could understand why everyone has mixed feelings; in the book, it wasn't really explored what people felt about villains and Parahumans in general. It was all about Brockton Bay and Taylor's adventures.
Turns out people have mixed opinions on the death of villains: some cheer, some want proper justice, and some don't care because it doesn't bother them. Which, to be fair, makes sense, though I'm not fully sure, as Contessa with her OP ability, Path To Victory, she might have created a path to help parahumans integrate into society. While it has limitations on not seeing, it helped when the original Protectorate Team came out as heroes, got recognized the the U.S government, and formed the Protectorate.
From what I remember of Canon and my knowledge of fanfiction, Contessa cannot ask for the physically impossible. Example: she can't ask how to avoid the heat death of the universe, or the entities would have less need for the cycle, or wouldn't need the cycle at all. She cannot directly overcome perception blocking powers--e.g., Mantellum. Anything about the shard network, as described above. It encompasses the vials, trigger events (but not, interestingly enough, "I want to make this person have a second trigger"), Eden's superweapons, and the shard that controls the superweapons (i.e., Eidolon's shard).
Despite these limitations, she's still one of the strongest capes in the world.
I eventually turned off the TV and turned to my batcomputer, I was monitoring potential targets of whom I should take out. I was still years before canon starts, and I figured that I could make this time to make Earth-Bet a better place than the shithole it was in canon.
As I think about what I'm doing more deeply, I really am not the hero I'm believing myself to be, no matter how much I try and gaslight myself. I always admired Batman for being the pinnacle of what humans can genuinely achieve, mastering nearly every field of study and using it to make the world a better place.
I, however, am just some regular guy who just slept one night, then woke up in another body in another universe. I'm not some saint, as Alfred said in Batman: Arkham Origins, "You're not some hardened vigilante. You're a young man with a trust fund with too much anger."
Though in this case, I'm a person with too much ego and pride. After all, I literally trained to become Batman because I wanted to be a famous hero. Sure, there were other motivations, such as defeating Scion, making Earth-Bet a better place, and other stuff, but it was mostly to live out my fantasy of being an actual superhero.
I always imagined what I would do if I were reincarnated. I would come up with a bunch of what-if scenarios in my head and what I would do in a given situation. Luckily, I managed to hit the jackpot in my reincarnation.
Sure, Worm was a dangerous setting with beings like Scion, the Endbringers, Cauldron, various organizations, gangs, powerful parahumans, and more. Though it's not as dangerous as those large settings, such as Marvel, DC, and certain anime, where there's magic, gods, cosmic beings, and more.
Worm is much simpler; there's no magic, gods, there might be some aliens, but they were never talked about. Powers are science-based, but they look like magic. Clarke's Third Law States, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." All the things that Entities do, such as travel across the galaxy, be multi-dimensional in nature, and spread their shards across alternate Earths, are just science.
Though since my world is an AU where supernatural creatures do exist, it's different, but surprisingly, there's not too much interference from those gods or divine beings.
I shook my head from all those thoughts as I focused on my current plan. It was still 2005, and so there were many Endbringer battles that I could participate in. The thing was that after the attack on Newfoundland, Canada, on May 9, 2005, the data wasn't recorded, so I'm not sure where or when the next attack will be.
Obviously, I was going to attend as that's a great way to build up my credibility and reputation. I obviously can't go head-to-head, so I will most likely rely on my gadgets and tech to help beat Endbringers or be on search and rescue. Though if I do this, I will get even more attention, but I guess that's alright.
One of the biggest things about Worm is that it's not just about heroes, villains, and morals, but also the life of the average civilian. Sure, in those fanfics, the civilians serve their purpose of reacting to the MC's exploits, and some fanfics do analyze what life is like for the average civilian on Earth-Bet, but not too deeply, as it will derail the main story.
In America and other Western nations, it's a pretty decent life. It's not perfect because of the Endbringers, villains, terrorists, and more, but it's okay. Though if we talk about, let's say, South America, then it's pretty bad. It's ruled and controlled by Drug Cartels and corrupt politicians, and the "heroes" there are wanted vigilantes.
Africa is a battleground for warlords wanting more power, and they literally enslave the non-powerful population and treat them like dirt. China is an absolute monarchy ruled by the Emperor and his Imperial Family, though there are just puppets for the Yàngbǎn. The Yàngbǎn are a dedicated force of militarized parahumans. They kidnap and brainwash other parahumans from other countries to serve in their military.
Germany has a neo-nazi organization called Gesellschaft, and they are pretty much a terrorist group, and they were causing a lot of damage to the point that Number Man actually sabotages them. That's also not counting those roaming S-Class threats out in the world, the other dangers in the other alternate Earths, and the possibly hundreds of gangs.
Life sucks for the average human on Earth-Bet, and that's what I want to change. I genuinely do want to make this world a better place, and who doesn't feel good when they make the world a better place and the bad guys get beaten?
I began to think of various things to do, but I knew that my goal was simple: I just wanted to be a hero, make the world a better place, and maybe prevent Gold-Morning, though that's going to be incredibly difficult.
Though for the next 6 years, I'm content with slowly making the world a better place, improving my reputation, and running my company.
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The Final Chapter of the Batman Zero Year Arc is finished! I'm so sorry it took a long time to publish this chapter, but because of school, the other books, and more, I just let this one off by the side.
The next chapter will be a massive time-skip.
Also check out my other novels Douluo Dalu World Modulation Mode and Douluo Dalu II: The Soul Wishing Tree, Wang Dong is addicted.
I might remake this into not an AU, but we'll see.