Homelander: New Legacy

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The deceased author went by the pen name "Sweet Alyssum."

Though it sounded like a feminine alias, the author was, in fact, a man.

Sweet Alyssum was a fan of Luna's work and had written many fanfictions based on the characters she created, most of which were short stories.

When Luna created Andrea, Sweet Alyssum had discussed the rights to create works about the character with her, and, as usual, Luna had agreed.

Although Luna handed over the fanfiction rights to her characters, she didn't actively read Sweet Alyssum's fanfictions.

Initially, she would read them, but as time went on and real-life responsibilities grew, she didn't have the energy to keep up.

It wasn't until Roger's recent arrival that Luna began to suspect that the key to Roger's dimensional travel might not lie with her, but rather with other people. This prompted her to revisit Sweet Alyssum's works.

She eventually confirmed that Roger's experiences involving Andrea closely resembled the fanfiction plots described by Sweet Alyssum.

However, in the final chapters of Sweet Alyssum's stories, aside from briefly mentioning Luna's new character design, Roger was not mentioned at all.

"So, does this count as a prequel?"

Roger skimmed through the novel and asked Luna.

Sipping her coffee, loaded with sugar cubes, Luna replied:

"I'm not sure, but according to your description, it could be considered a prequel. It tells Andrea's earlier life and hints at the newer character designs I later created. But as for what happens after… we don't know."

"So… the trail goes cold?"

Roger raised his head and asked.

With Sweet Alyssum deceased, no one knew where the story was headed. Finding a way back to the Marvel Universe through these stories seemed unlikely.

Luna took a small sip of coffee and said:

"Not necessarily. If your goal is to return to the Marvel Universe, we first need to figure out one thing: did the character designs come first, leading to your existence, or did you exist first, influencing the creation of our works and character designs?"

"How do we prove that?"

Roger asked, puzzled.

Proving whether the relationship between reality and fiction was cause or effect seemed impossible without understanding the link between the two worlds.

While Roger had the powers of Superman, he wasn't an omniscient, omnipotent god capable of understanding everything.

Luna, however, seemed intrigued. She slapped the table and exclaimed:

"Let's do an experiment!"

"Experiment?"

"Yes! I'll post my character designs online, adding some new, reasonable abilities. Once your powers recover, we'll see if you gain similar abilities. If you do, we'll know if the designs came first or if you came first!"

"Why post it online?"

"Have you seen the anime Re:Creators?"

Instead of answering Roger's question, Luna posed one of her own.

Roger thought for a moment and replied, "I think I've heard of it."

"You should check it out. If it turns out that characters are created from designs—no, if the characters you embody come into existence from designs—then posting the designs online becomes crucial."

Draining her coffee, Luna added, "Anyway, that's all for today. I suddenly have an idea for my art! This time, I'm sure I'll create something amazing! See you!"

Unlike her earlier, despondent state in the hospital, Luna was now bursting with energy, her face alight with excitement.

Her physical condition seemed to reflect this newfound enthusiasm, likely because she'd genuinely found inspiration.

Roger watched her leave, quietly paid the bill, and left the café for a nearby internet café. There, he began searching for the anime Luna had mentioned.

Although Roger had been a bit of an otaku, enjoying movies and anime, he mostly spent his time gaming. While he had watched plenty of anime, he hadn't seen everything.

So, it wasn't surprising that he wasn't familiar with this one.

After finding and watching the anime, Roger's expression shifted into one of realization.

The premise of Re:Creators revolved around fictional characters entering the real world, with the story unfolding as they interacted with reality.

One core concept stood out to Roger:

The abilities and powers these fictional characters wielded, as well as their strength, were closely tied to their popularity.

More specifically, their powers were influenced by the degree of public recognition and acceptance.

Take Superman, for example. Everyone knows he has heat vision, a steel body, flight, super-hearing, super-sight, etc.

These abilities are etched into people's minds, so if Superman entered the real world, he could use all these abilities.

However, abilities like "space manipulation," "mind control," or "time reversal" aren't typically associated with Superman. Even if fan-made stories granted him such powers, they wouldn't manifest in reality unless widely accepted.

Thus, the level of recognition and acceptance was the main factor allowing fictional characters to wield supernatural abilities in reality.

This was what Luna had been trying to convey to Roger.

If the characters Roger embodied truly stemmed from pre-existing designs, then amplifying those designs with more powerful abilities could potentially enhance Roger's powers.

"But it's just a theory," Roger mused after fast-forwarding through the entire anime.

Even if characters like him were derived from pre-existing designs, without prolonged exposure and wide public acceptance, additional abilities added by Luna might not manifest in him.

Still, it was worth a shot. Since Luna wanted to experiment, Roger had nothing to lose.

After spending some time gaming at the internet café, Roger was about to leave when his phone rang. It was Dan.

"Hey, Roger. Where are you?"

"The internet café. What's up?"

"Man, you have a computer at home but still go to an internet café? Never mind, send me your location. I'll come to you."

Dan hung up after speaking. Moments later, he sent Roger a text with his location, and Roger responded with his own.

Deciding to wait for Dan, Roger stayed logged in and played a few more games.

About half an hour later, Dan arrived, patting Roger on the shoulder with a grin.

"Man, you've been busy! Haven't seen you in half a month, and now you're a heroic Good Samaritan?"

"Just lucky, that's all. So, what brings you here?"

Roger asked, surprised.

Dan had been busy lately with a critical phase in game development. As the studio's lead, he barely had time to play games with Roger. Why was he seeking Roger out now?

Sitting beside Roger and logging into a computer, Dan replied, "I finally have some free time. Thought I'd hang out with you to relax. But instead of staying home, you're here? What are you playing?"

"Watched some anime and played Overwatch for a bit. Didn't find it all that fun."

"Yeah, games these days are getting boring."

Dan nodded in agreement before suggesting, "How about Naraka: Bladepoint? It's like PUBG, but with melee weapons."

"Sounds fun. Let's try it."

"First, you'll need to buy the game."

"…"

Roger sighed but relented. He'd recently earned some prize money for his heroic deed, so he wasn't short on cash. Splurging on a game to play with an old friend seemed worth it.

They played several rounds, and although Roger wasn't going all out, his superhuman reflexes and hand speed gave him a clear advantage.

Dan jokingly accused Roger of cheating, though it was just his typical banter.

The two spent the night gaming and chatting about Dan's game development.

Dan's project was a text-based game where players, as gods, controlled human lives through written narratives.

Because the concept aligned with Luna's idea of designs influencing characters, Roger couldn't help but ask a few extra questions.

"What if a character from the game came to life?"

"Hand them over to the government," Dan replied without hesitation.

Roger chuckled. "Classic answer. But that's not what I meant."

"What, then?"

"What if the character wanted to go back into the game?"

"Back? Why would they? Do you think players are gods who can just send someone back?"

Dan dismissed the notion, pointing out that players and creators were ordinary people who couldn't possibly fulfill such requests.

Still, Roger pressed on with another question:

"What if the creator or player added new settings to the character, like the ability to travel between worlds?"

"That would ruin the game. It'd flop for sure."

"…So no one would accept it?"

"Not necessarily no one, but it'd definitely lose popularity. Changing core settings midway is a big no-no. If the changes feel jarring, the audience will reject it."

Dan's words made sense. Once a character's design was established, altering it drastically wasn't easy.

Even so, Roger decided to let Luna try her experiment. There was no harm in it.

After gaming until late at night, Dan suggested grabbing some drinks and barbecue, but they ended up so engrossed in gaming that they forgot. A couple of takeout pancakes sufficed as a midnight snack.

By the time they left the café, it was already early morning. After agreeing to meet up the next day for a proper meal, Dan called a cab home.

Roger, however, decided to walk back. The café wasn't far from his place, and a walk would do him good.

As he strolled through the quiet streets, Roger checked his phone and saw a message from Luna.

"Draft's done! I've uploaded the initial design online. I'll fill in more details later. Check it out when you have time!"

The message was broken into several texts. After reading it, Roger replied, "Good work."

She responded quickly:

"No big deal. Even though the fire destroyed a lot, I had backups in my cloud storage. I just revised an old draft."

"Still up this late?"

"It's only 1 a.m. What young person sleeps this early nowadays?"

"Don't you have class tomorrow?"

"Didn't you hear? My family's recent situation got me a month off from my advisor. I'm still on break. Anyway, enough chit-chat. Go check the designs when you can and give me feedback."

...

With that, she stopped replying. Roger chuckled at her energy and put his phone away, continuing his walk home.

Lost in thought about Luna's ideas, Roger's musings were interrupted by a piercing scream that shattered the quiet night:

"Monster!!! Help!!!"

Though the scream came from far away, Roger heard it clearly, along with the content of the cry.

Without hesitation, he avoided the nearby surveillance cameras and used his freshly restored flight abilities to head toward the source of the scream.

The word "monster" caught Roger's attention.

What kind of monster could it be?

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