Kael woke the next morning feeling strangely rested. Not physically stronger or noticeably faster—nothing dramatic like the heroes that filled this world—but clear. Clear in a way he had never felt in either life. His mind was steady, organized, almost… spacious. Like someone had cleaned out a cluttered room and opened all the windows.
He blinked up at the ceiling of his small bedroom in Queens. Early sunlight spilled across his desk, cluttered with notebooks and old papers from school. A faint pulse of calm energy hummed inside him, as quiet as a heartbeat. It wasn't power, exactly. More like a new sense—something on the edge of awareness that hadn't existed before.
The system.
Not a dream. Not a hallucination. Not a side effect of stress.
Real.
The Market of All Things.
Trade.
Value.
Awareness.
He could feel the system waiting, patient and still, as if seated somewhere deep behind his consciousness.
A small, glowing notification flickered across his vision as he sat up.
Trade Sensitivity Active
Potential low-value opportunities may appear
He closed it quickly. He needed time to think.
Last night, his life had changed forever.
Last night, the white and gold lights returned.
The One Above All.
The Presence.
Or… perhaps they were two faces of one being in this merged world.
Either way, they had spoken directly to him.
Walk.
And he had accepted.
A shiver ran through him, half fear and half excitement. In his past life, he had been ordinary—not weak, but not remarkable. A normal twenty-year-old whose biggest worries were passing exams and paying rent. Now, he lived in a world where gods walked among mortals, where alien invasions were yearly events, where a single unstable psychic could break continents.
And he had been given a role no one else in existence had.
The Omniversal Trader.
He didn't know what that meant yet. But he knew one thing:
He needed to survive long enough to find out.
Kael dressed and headed downstairs. His parents were already eating breakfast—scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee for them, orange juice for him. Ordinary. Calm. Safe. He cherished that for a moment.
"Big day today?" his mom asked.
Kael shrugged, keeping his voice neutral. "Just school. Nothing special."
His father laughed. "You say that every day."
Kael smiled, but his mind was elsewhere. Every day in this world had the potential to be anything but ordinary.
When he stepped outside, the morning air was cool, filled with the faint smell of the bakery down the street and the distant honk of traffic. Kids walked toward the school buses or down the sidewalk in groups. Teenagers complained about tests, teachers, and their parents—not knowing that in a year or two, half of them would live through world-ending threats.
Kael walked quietly, hands in his pockets, eyes scanning.
It was instinctual now. A habit born from both lives. Watch. Learn. Notice.
Most people saw a city.
Kael saw a battlefield waiting to happen.
Queens was safer than Gotham, but danger wasn't picky about zip codes. Mutants awakened at random. Metahumans triggered by stress or accidents. Villains tested their devices on civilians. Aliens sometimes landed in the wrong neighborhood.
He needed power. Skill. Awareness.
And the Trader system would give him that—if he used it correctly.
Kael reached Midtown High just as the first bell rang. Students crowded the sidewalk outside the front gate, some rushing, some stalling to avoid going in.
Peter Parker stood near the fence, half-distracted as he fumbled with the zipper on his backpack. A small screwdriver slipped from his fingers and clinked onto the concrete.
Kael stepped forward, picked it up, and handed it over.
"You dropped this."
"Oh—thanks," Peter said, adjusting his glasses. "I really need to stop doing that."
Kael turned to leave—but something prickled at the back of his mind. A warning. A tiny twinge from the system.
A new window blinked into existence.
Trade Opportunity Detected
Value: Low
Type: Preventive, Informational
Kael blinked. The system was reacting to something around him.
He scanned the crowd.
Nothing unusual at first.
Then he saw it.
A man—late twenties, scruffy, wearing a battered jacket—moving too close behind Peter. His posture was wrong. Too focused. Too deliberate. His eyes fixed on Peter's backpack zipper.
Pickpocket.
Kael's mind sharpened. Peter, pre-spider-bite, had no danger awareness. He was focused on his tools, his thoughts, the next science project.
He wouldn't notice until it was too late.
Kael didn't hesitate. He brushed past Peter and said, low enough that only he could hear:
"Someone behind you is trying to grab your bag."
Peter's shoulders stiffened. He turned quickly just as the pickpocket's hand was halfway inside the zipper.
"What the—?!" the man hissed, and bolted before anyone could react.
Peter's face flushed with shock.
"Woah. That… that could have been bad. Thanks! I had no idea."
Kael nodded. "Just be more careful."
Before Peter could say anything else, the system flashed again.
Trade Initiated
Offering: Protection, warning, prevention of loss
Receiving: Minor cognitive skill from target
Several options appeared, floating like translucent text in Kael's vision.
Basic Physics Insight
Sharp Eye (Minor)
Pattern Recognition Boost
Gadget Handling (Weak)
Instinctive Observation
Kael didn't have to think long.
Pattern Recognition Boost.
A small skill. Subtle. Useful in almost every situation. It would help him fight, study, negotiate, and avoid danger. And most importantly, it was invisible. No one would look twice at someone getting better at noticing things.
He selected it.
The window brightened.
Trade Complete
Pattern Recognition (Minor) Gained
EXP +15
Kael felt something shift in his mind. Not a dramatic rush of power, but a soft sharpening. The world seemed just a little more ordered. Movement easier to follow. Details easier to notice. His brain sorted patterns and angles with slightly greater ease.
Peter didn't notice anything strange. He simply smiled awkwardly.
"I guess I do owe you one."
Kael shrugged. "Don't worry about it."
He walked away, heart steady but alert. That had been small. Quiet. A test. But the system had worked. Not just with objects. Not with monsters or gods.
With people.
Kael needed more. Not greedily, but carefully. This world was packed with powerful beings and unpredictable dangers. He needed physical skills. Combat awareness. Energy control. And eventually, much more. But these things had to come slowly.
He was only Level 1.
He had nothing flashy yet.
And that was how he wanted it.
Kael made it through the morning classes without incident. History. English. Physics. Lunch. Nothing unusual. But the trade lingered in his thoughts. The way the system flowed through him. The new clarity in his perception. The subtle hum beneath his ribcage.
He was beginning to sense value the same way other people sensed temperature or pitch.
Not logically.
Naturally.
During lunch, he sat alone near the edge of the cafeteria, reading quietly. A few students talked loudly about new heroes appearing on social media. Someone mentioned seeing Robin on a rooftop downtown. Another boasted about a cousin accepted into Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
Kael ignored them.
His mind wandered instead to the bigger questions.
Why had the One Above All and the Presence chosen him?
Why the Trader class?
Why this world—this merging of two universes full of contradictions?
Perhaps the answer was in the title itself: Omniversal Trader. Someone who could move between worlds. Make exchanges. Gain, give, balance, deal.
Someone who worked in the quiet spaces between gods.
He finished his lunch and left early for his next class, using the extra time to walk outside. He needed air, time to process.
That's when he felt it again.
A faint pressure. A touch. Soft, curious.
Jean Grey.
She was on the sidewalk across the street, walking with a group of visiting students from Xavier's. Her eyes swept across the street—and paused on Kael for half a second.
Her brow creased.
She tried to read him.
It wasn't a conscious intrusion. More like a reflex, a psychic instinct reacting to someone unusual.
But the moment her mind brushed his—
Her eyes widened.
She flinched.
Clutched her temple.
Looked away sharply.
Kael felt nothing break inside him. Nothing open or close. Just the faint echo of someone tapping on a gigantic, unmovable door.
She couldn't see him.
Couldn't read him.
Couldn't sense anything inside him.
Not even Professor X could have.
Jean turned quickly, confused and unsettled.
Kael exhaled slowly.
This was why he had to be careful.
If Jean Grey—a young telepath barely beginning to understand her power—felt something wrong with him, what would Raven feel? What would Doctor Fate sense? What would Martian Manhunter see?
He had the most powerful mental shield imaginable—but that didn't mean he should test it.
Keep quiet.
Stay small.
Collect trades.
Grow where no one can see.
The bell rang for fifth period. Kael slipped back into the building, walking calmly among the rushing students.
He didn't notice the two eyes watching him from the rooftop—a dark silhouette with a hood, violet eyes glowing faintly with demonic light.
Nor did he notice the tiny flicker in Jean's aura as she hesitated before entering the school bus.
But the world had begun to notice him.
And none of them understood why.
Kael walked to class with the faint hum of Pattern Recognition pulsing through his mind, his first skill gained, his first step taken.
He had no idea that by the end of this day, he would gain much more.
He also had no idea that someone else—someone far more dangerous and far more curious—had already begun following the echoes he left behind.
Silence settled over Kael as he took his seat.
The first trade had been small.
But it was the beginning of everything.
---
KAEL STATUS – END OF CHAPTER 2
Level: 1
EXP: 15 / 100
Class: Omniversal Trader (Unique)
Physical Stats
Strength: 5
Speed: 6
Endurance: 5
Agility: 6
Durability: 5
Stamina: 7
Regeneration: 1
Mental Stats
Intelligence: 25
Memory: 30
Perception: 15
Willpower: 20
Instinct: 12
Multiversal Awareness: 5
Energy Stats
Energy Capacity: 10
Energy Recovery: 3
Energy Type: None
Energy Compatibility: High
New Skills
Pattern Recognition (Minor)
Slightly improved ability to notice patterns, movements, and details
Helps with learning, observation, and future combat reading