Chapter 5

In the midst of cherry blossoms dancing in the wind, Misaki opened the old diary and read the words of the promise written there.

In fact, Chenxian had also pleaded with her mother, a senior physician with many connections, to inquire, but her mother gently and tenderly patted the girl's head.

"Damn... Bastard dad, I was planning to have a good fight with him after I grew up. How could he just leave like this... Isn't it said that villains live for a thousand years... Dad... sniff sniff." The thirteen-year-old boy, in the warm yet awkward embrace of his childhood friend, his shoulders trembled, and hot tears streamed uncontrollably from his eyes.

Despite Li Pu's subsequent unwillingness to give up, he personally went to take a look, but after that one glance, he realized that even rescue efforts were meaningless in the completely devastated disaster area.

The boy always thought he hated his father, who often beat him. But at this moment, he was just like the other children who lost their families in this disaster, wandering, sad, lonely, with red-rimmed eyes, tears dried up, and still sitting alone, sniffing.

This low mood lasted for several days before gradually improving.

Fortunately, he was naturally optimistic and resilient, and with Xiao Xian always by his side, Li Pu's mood gradually recovered.

Dad is gone, but I'm still alive. If he saw me crying like a girl for several days, doing nothing, he would probably laugh to death.

So, I have to do something I can do, the boy thought, regaining his spirits.

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Five days later, Li Pu, like many male citizens, voluntarily joined the search and rescue team, while Xiao Xian helped her mother, a doctor, take care of the injured refugees.

"Is anyone there? We are the rescue team! Hold on, don't give up!"

In a collapsed residential area, Li Pu and several search and rescue team members spread out, shouting loudly, trying to find survivors. It was the afternoon of the fifth day after the disaster, and the 72-hour golden rescue period had long passed. The current search efforts were increasingly becoming a matter of doing everything possible.

Li Pu held a shovel in one hand and shouted at a half-collapsed apartment building, but there was no response. He turned to leave, but suddenly noticed a brilliant silver glow under a white poplar tree that had broken and fallen.

This dazzling silver glow could only be seen at a specific angle when the sun was at a certain height. If Li Pu had stood a little to the side, his view might have been blocked by leaves. If he hadn't walked here at this time, the sun might not have shone on the object at all.

—If Li Pu weren't a teenager, he might have ignored the glow and focused more on searching for survivors.

A series of coincidences led Li Pu to the source of the glow. He squatted down, crawled under the leaves, and extended his right hand to touch the object.

When his fingers grasped the object and pulled it out, Li Pu found it was a strange silver metal emblem. The emblem was about the size of his palm and had a symmetrical, radiating crystal-like shape.

"Is this a foreign car emblem? The design looks like the transformation emblem in 'UFO Robot Grendizer.'" Li Pu couldn't tell what it was.

Li Pu had little pocket money since he was young, leading him to be self-reliant. In third grade, he started collecting and selling trash and scrap to buy comics and play games. In the 1990s, there was a rumor that "Audi car emblems could be sold for a lot of money," which led many delinquents to look for Audi cars and break off the four-ring emblems. Although Li Pu hadn't personally broken off a car emblem, he knew about this urban legend.

However, the broken car emblems would have damage marks at the bottom, while this emblem was a single, seamless piece, shining like a work of art.

"Maybe it can be sold for some money." The boy raised his eyebrows, tossed the emblem, and his childlike heart stirred. He held the emblem high and shouted, "I am the Cosmic Knight Dibowei, transform!"

Li Pu was just a thirteen-year-old boy. At this age, boys, to some extent, all have a dream of being a superhero. Mischievous elementary school boys would shout "Pegasus Meteor Fist" or "Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms" while play-fighting with each other, and junior high school boys weren't much better.

Whether it was Christopher Reeve as the visitor from Krypton, Liu Xiao Ling Tong as the Monkey King, the cosmic giant He-Man raising his divine weapon to transform, the Flame God Li Ao in the "Emperor of Light" armor, or the Kamen Rider shot from a human cannon, Li Pu knew they were all fictional heroes—well, perhaps Bruce Lee beating up the Japanese in "Fist of Fury" was real, but that was a different kind of "hero," like the daredevils in "Garrison's Go-For-Broke."

So, as a junior high school student, he was just joking around for his own amusement. Except for a tiny, tiny part of him, a part he wouldn't even admit to himself, still held a bit of belief and hope for something beyond the ordinary reality.

Many years later, when Li Pu occasionally recalled the past, perhaps it was this tiny bit of coincidence and this tiny bit of belief that completely changed his future, making it more magnificent than he could ever have dreamed.

【Loading conditions met, basic "War God Armor" module deployed.】

The conversion of the material back into two-dimensional symbols and the loading of the module onto the biological body was completed in the blink of an eye. As an ordinary human, the boy's eyes could not capture the process, and his nerves and muscles could not react in time. The unknown emblem in his hand suddenly flashed, split, recombined, and transformed into countless star-like energy particles, passing through every corner of Li Pu's body, every cell, and even every segment of deoxyribonucleic acid.

【Symmetrical carbon-based organism. Body size: medium-small. Form: single head, vertebral column, four limbs, multiple joints, bipedal, no flight capability, no exoskeleton...】

The comprehensive investigation of the genetic material of the Earth primate species did not take much time, just a few blinks. The "War God Armor," like a radiating invasion, thoroughly scanned Li Pu's body and finally gathered at the center of his chest, the Huang Ting.

"Wow!?" The boy, briefly losing consciousness, stumbled and fell to the ground with a thud.

What the hell just happened? Li Pu felt goosebumps all over his body. A strange voice kept emitting indescribable sounds in his ears, like a brainwashing chant. He covered his ears, but it had no effect. After a while, the voice suddenly disappeared.

At the same time, Li Pu's chest felt slightly hot, as if on fire. He pulled down his T-shirt collar and saw a silver abstract tattoo on his still undeveloped, flat chest muscles.

—A tattoo very similar to the "car emblem" he had just picked up.

"..." Li Pu stared at his chest for a while, and his unfocused eyes gradually brightened, darting around.

The boy sat cross-legged on the dirty grass. What the hell is this? Why did the emblem suddenly disappear and appear on my chest? Let me think! I picked up this emblem, had a sudden idea, and shouted, "Cosmic Knight Dibowei, transform!" Then... Then I don't remember. It seemed like my eyes were playing tricks on me or something, and the emblem suddenly flashed and disappeared... Then I heard some foreign language babbling, and finally, the emblem turned into a tattoo on my chest.

He rubbed his chest with his fingers, and it felt like his own skin, clearly not painted on—there wouldn't have been enough time to paint it.

Li Pu swallowed, and logically, he could only think of one answer. But this "answer" was a bit too much for a boy who grew up under the red flag, received materialist education, and was a member of the Young Pioneers, even if he often forgot to wear his red scarf.

"Am I overthinking this? This is really unlikely. Tsk, I'm not a kid anymore. But..." Li Pu scratched his head and stood up suddenly.

Although he might have read too many comics and cartoons, the saying from "Big Variety Show" is right—what would the world be like if humans lost their imagination?

If what just happened wasn't an illusion—this tattoo on my chest proves it wasn't an illusion!—then it really only resembles one impossible situation that has already happened.

A boy who accidentally finds a magical item becomes a superhero fighting against dark forces. Li Pu had read and seen this plot countless times, but he never thought it would happen to him. His usual fantasies about the future were just learning Mike Tyson's boxing, Bruce Lee's kicking, and Jackie Chan's dodging. But finding something like a "Kamen Rider" or "UFO Robot Grendizer" seemed a bit too much.

Regardless, there is only one truth (by Edogawa Conan)! Experiment is the only way to find the truth! Li Pu took a deep breath, his imagination running wild, and stood awkwardly, a bit nervous as he raised his hand.

"Cosmic Knight Dibowei, transform!!" Li Pu closed his eyes and shouted, mimicking the earlier momentum.

The boy held his hand up for several seconds, but nothing happened. He awkwardly lowered his right hand, "Ah, I must be overthinking it."

He had tried, but giving up felt a bit unsatisfying. Maybe the transformation method was wrong? Li Pu tried several different poses and lines: "Kamen Rider, transform!" "Eagle's eyes, wolf's ears, leopard's speed, bear's strength..." "Kamen Rider, visiting!" "Ocean, vast and boundless!" "I am She-Ra... no, He-Man, grant me power!" "Frieza, I'm angry!" "Decepticons, retreat!"

In a certain sense, Li Pu was quite "well-versed." He tried over a dozen transformation-related lines, even saying "I represent the moon and will punish you," but none of them worked, and there was no reaction.

"..." Finally, the boy idly shouted at his chest, "Mickey?" (Note 1) When there was still no reaction, he shrugged self-mockingly, "At least it's not a parasite."

"Hey! Kid!" A displeased voice suddenly called from a distance. Li Pu looked in the direction of the voice and saw the captain of the civilian rescue team who had brought him to this neighborhood.

The middle-aged man seemed to have been watching Li Pu for a while. He frowned and shouted from a distance, "Brat, are you here to find refugees or to have fun? If you don't want to help, go back early!"

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Note 1: "Mickey" is the monster from the manga "Parasite" by Iwa Akira, which parasitizes the right hand of the protagonist, Izumi Shinichi.

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