Chapter 1
Central City.
Central City is located in Missouri, situated along the Missouri River and neighboring Keystone City.
Many years ago, Central City thrived as one of the most prosperous cities in the Midwest. It excelled in both economy and culture, earning a reputation as a hub for American commerce, architecture, and the arts. Known as the "Gem of the Midwest" and the "City of Gems," it once stood at the forefront of the region.
However, after Keystone City opened up, many factories and commercial activities gradually shifted there. Keystone City soon surpassed Central City in development. Despite this, Central City still held irreplaceable advantages. Central City University ranked among the world's top institutions, rivaling Oxford and Cambridge. Its medical school was equally prestigious, having produced several Nobel Prize winners in Medicine. The city remained a center for medical research, architecture, arts, commerce, and industry. Additionally, an important branch of S.T.A.R. Labs was based here, occupying a prominent position in the city.
Early morning light pierced through the cool, misty air, bathing the quiet, warm city in a gentle glow.
It was late autumn. The red maple trees lining Alman Street had long shed their leaves, leaving only bare branches swaying in the chilly breeze. Crimson maple leaves, bright as flames, scattered across the asphalt road.
A cold autumn wind swept through, swirling the fiery leaves into the air and adding a touch of fierce beauty to the season's chill.
Behind the maple trees stood rows of small wooden villas with spacious grounds and serene surroundings.
Inside one sky-blue wooden villa, the aroma of frying eggs and bacon wafted through the house.
In the backyard lawn.
The grass here had been worn bare from years of intense training. A tall, slender figure stood motionless in the center, wearing only black shorts. His sculpted upper body, packed with dense, defined muscles, gleamed under the early morning light.
The man had a lean, athletic build and fair skin. His eyes were closed as he breathed slowly and deeply. With each breath, his powerful chest and chiseled abs flexed in perfect rhythm, creating a strikingly aesthetic display of strength and motion.
His face was a handsome mix of Eastern and Western features, leaning toward a sharp, marble-like Eastern sculpture — high nose bridge, broad forehead, and well-defined, cold, handsome angles. Yet, a single teardrop mole beneath his left eye added an unexpected touch of seductive charm.
Alex slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of white mist.
The moment his eyes opened, his deep, obsidian-black pupils — enhanced by that alluring teardrop mole — radiated a captivating, almost hypnotic quality that seemed to draw people in.
The next instant, his body exploded into motion.
Muscles tensed from his heels upward, surging through his thighs, tailbone, and spine like a coiling dragon. A powerful aura rose around him.
Bang—!
A violent whistling sound erupted from where he stood. As he performed his daily martial arts routine, his movements were majestic and overwhelming, as if charging against crashing waves and towering tsunamis. His fists blurred into afterimages, unleashing layered, explosive force that tore through the air. His legs vanished from sight with terrifying speed, and his entire figure moved with savage, majestic fury — like a warrior battling nature itself atop a towering mountain.
Moments later, Alex came to a sudden stop. Sweat glistened across his body, steam rising faintly from his taut, veined muscles. His blood surged with fierce heat.
In his hands, he now held a heavy steel spear weighing 50 kilograms — taller than he was. The spear tip glinted coldly under the sunlight.
Without pause, he swung the spear horizontally. Hot sweat flew from his arms, sparkling in the morning light. His muscles released waves of heat as he moved.
He fought as if on an ancient battlefield, sweeping through thousands of troops with his spear. The weapon whistled sharply, creating layered afterimages like a spinning fan. Violent gusts of wind roared outward with thunderous momentum, as awe-inspiring as ten thousand stampeding horses.
More than ten meters away, fallen red maple leaves were caught in the vortex.
As Alex controlled the spear's wind current, one lone crimson leaf drifted directly in front of him.
He abruptly pulled the spear back. The world fell silent for a split second. The gusts exploded outward, sending the leaves tumbling across the ground like a rolling wave of fire.
He held the steel spear at his waist, standing perfectly still like a statue. Sweat poured down his chiseled physique, accentuating every defined muscle in the sunlight.
A single maple leaf fluttered down before him.
His sharp, eagle-like gaze focused. Time itself seemed to slow in his eyes. He could clearly see every vein and intricate pattern on the fragile, dried leaf.
With a powerful twist from his waist, Alex thrust the spear forward.
A single cold glint shot out first.
For a moment, the world lost all color — only that piercing point remained.
The seemingly ferocious strike landed on the maple leaf with the delicate precision of a needle threading silk. Using perfect control and technique, the spear tip gently pierced one tiny section of the leaf's vein without damaging the rest.
The leaf was extremely brittle from dehydration. An ordinary person could easily crush it by hand. Yet Alex had pierced it without harming its delicate network of veins — a feat even more impressive than the legendary "spearing a fly without breaking the mirror."
He had already reached that level years ago. Now, he had advanced even further.
In the next instant, the spear tip transformed into countless flashing afterimages, pouring out like a shower of stars.
The lone maple leaf floated helplessly within the storm of cold glints, like a small boat tossed in a raging sea. No matter how it drifted, it could not escape.
With each precise strike, Alex deliberately flicked out individual sections of the leaf, starting from the base. In mere moments, the entire leaf was dismantled — every tiny piece separated and floating in the air, leaving only its intact, transparent vein network behind.
Whoosh—
The spear stopped instantly, shifting from extreme motion to absolute stillness.
Alex stood tall, eyes as sharp and cold as a hawk's, his muscular body drenched in sweat and radiating heat. The scene looked like a masterpiece of living art under the sunlight.
The transparent skeleton of the maple leaf — beautifully intricate, as if crafted by nature itself — slowly drifted down in front of him.
Alex reached out with two fingers and gently caught the delicate vein structure.
"Sigh…"
He lightly crushed the beautiful transparent remnant between his fingers. As it turned to dust and fell, his thick sword-like brows furrowed, and he couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.
Two years ago, he had already reached the absolute limit of human strength and physique.
Even after two more years of deep meditation on his own body, triggering danger warnings, and meticulously digging every ounce of power and control, he was still just one tiny step away from truly breaking through the human limit.
That final step felt as difficult as ascending to heaven.
He could sense it clearly — his body's magnetic field, strength, bones, blood, and inner force were almost perfectly aligned. Yet something was still missing.
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't figure out what it was.
Suddenly, a cold electronic voice rang directly inside his mind.
"Super System binding in progress…"
"Binding task issued: Become friends with The Flash. Time limit: 24 hours."
"Completion reward: Super System activated."
"Failure: Erasure."
Alex's brows furrowed deeply. He had a feeling this was not going to be simple.