After the leg bone fractured, creating a wider opening due to the pain, Maximilian caught Dragon Fist's arm and heavily slammed him to the ground with a shoulder throw.
Crack!
"Argghhhh!" Dragon Fist cried out once more as his right arm immediately dislocated from the force Maximilian used in the shoulder throw. The move left Dragon Fist completely incapacitated, leaving him to wince in pain and lie down, waiting for a paramedic.
"Don't you dare get up and follow me, or I'll make sure you stay in the hospital for at least two months," Maximilian said in a cold tone before walking back to his bicycle.
Maximilian then rode back to the motel, no longer concerned about the commotion in Chinatown. Amidst the shock and fear of the people in the Chinatown.
Unknown to Maximilian, a man watched him with a calculated gaze from the balcony of one of the buildings in Chinatown. The man was bare-chested, wearing only boxers, with a half-lit cigarette in his hand.
He exhaled a puff of smoke. Behind him, inside the room, a naked woman slept on the bed. Their clothes inside the room were scattered, and the bed bore traces of their nightly activities. The man took out his phone, dialed a number, and kept his eyes trained on Maximilian, who was riding his bicycle into the distance.
"Leader, I found someone interesting. Check the footage I've sent you. His ability is fascinating," the man said into the phone, then waited for the other side to respond.
"From the look of it, he should be unregistered, Leader." The man paused, listening. "Yes, I'll stay here as planned." He then hung up the phone as the other side had already ended the call. Returning to the room, he continued his bed room activities with his partner.
— Motel —
At the Motel, Maximilian stay in his room and immediately research about this world. While eating youtiao with soy milk, he open the official site about the history.
Maximilian typed the words "History" into the search engine and hit enter. After a brief moment, hundreds of results appeared. Maximilian scanned the first page of results and clicked on the one that looked more official than the others.
He began to read the article about history, and the phrase that caught his eye the most was "Alien Invasion."
"What the hell? Alien Invasion?" Maximilian muttered under his breath in disbelief.
Keeping his cool, Maximilian continued reading, investing his time in understanding the world he now found himself in.
The article stated that the world had been invaded by an extraterrestrial force. The aliens arrived with two motherships and immediately unleashed hell on Earth with strategic precision, targeting military, political, and economic centers such as New York, Washington D.C., Beijing, London, Moscow, Paris, and many other capital cities across the globe—every country that could pose a threat to their invasion effort.
Earth's forces united and fought bravely, but the technological gap was too vast. In the end, they decided to use nuclear weapons to strike one of the motherships hovering over Washington D.C.
The nuclear option worked. Despite the mothership's heavy shielding, it was severely damaged by the nuclear strike and lost most of its offensive and defensive capabilities, creating an opening for a counterattack by the world's combined forces.
The first mothership was downed and crashed in Washington D.C. However, the second mothership retreated to orbital range and began its counterattack. The aliens, realizing humans had used weapons of mass destruction against them, decided to return the favor.
They launched a bio-bomb into the atmosphere. The bomb detonated in the air, and the wind carried its effects across the globe. Within the first hour, two-thirds of Earth's population died instantly due to the nature of the weapon. The rest writhed in agony; some wished to die but couldn't, as the substance in the bomb caused their bodies to regenerate from the self-inflicted wounds.
The bomb's effects were catastrophic on a global scale. Only leaders and a select few hiding in bunkers were spared.
Strangely, the bomb didn't harm anything other than humans. It seemed the substance inside the bomb had been specifically designed to target human life.
Resistance crumbled, and the aliens began claiming their reward, building strange structures across Earth.
But… a week later, something unexpected happened. Half of the survivors who hadn't died outright mutated into abominations. Their bodies grew larger, their behavior became more aggressive. They attack any nearby humans. They wreaked havoc on Earth, even turning on the aliens themselves.
As for the other half of the survivors, they began to develop new abilities. On average, each person gained one ability, but in extraordinary cases, some gained multiple abilities, such as super speed, super strength, or the power to control electricity or metal.
Historians called the bomb the "Evolution Bomb," and the abilities humans gained were referred to as "Evolution Factors." or "EF" in short.
Humans with the strongest abilities became like living gods, leading the rest of humanity in a counterattack against the aliens. The aliens, unaware that their bomb would cause such an unpredictable outcome, were caught completely off guard.
Their weapons became useless as many "Evolvers" had abilities to nullify or destroy them outright. For example, some could control metal, while others could create spatial distortion shields to redirect alien weapon fire back at them.
Victory finally shifted to humanity's side. The aliens were eliminated. Survivors, including former leaders who had hidden in bunkers, emerged and began rebuilding the world. By studying alien technology, humanity advanced by leaps and bounds.
However, most of the technology deemed too dangerous was restricted for internal use only.
A new world order was formed. After the invasion, the concept of countries was rendered nearly obsolete, and the remnants of alien technology were used to establish the United Earth Committee (UEC).
From what Maximilian researched, The UEC, similar to the United Nations of old but with real authority, replaced the old system of nations. With only a billion people left, maintaining the scale of countries and their infrastructure became impossible.
Instead, the world was reorganized into Metropolises—city-states governed by City-Governors. These governors wielded significant authority, no different from kings, but were still bound by the laws and oversight of the UEC.
He researching further about the map and found out that. Most of the landmass, including old city centers such as Manhattan, Beijin, or Tokyo was declared wildlands due to heavily infested with mutants and monsters. And it's not worth the cost in both resources and man power to reclaim it.
These areas are deemed dangerous, as mutant creatures still roam the Earth and breed like any other living beings. Some roam as nomadic packs, while others have formed primitive tribal societies.
These mutant creatures need to sustain themselves on the flesh of Evolvers to maintain their bodily functions; otherwise, they would die. That's why, despite some mutant tribes showing signs of intelligence, they have never integrated into human society and remain at odds with humanity to this day.
Moreover, the effects of the "Evolution Bomb" seem to be more long-lasting and catastrophic than human had initially thought. Animals and plants appear to have mutated and evolved, making transportation between city-states difficult, costly, and requiring several Heroes to protect convoys traveling between them.
However, the exact reasons and the situation outside the city remain unclear to Maximilian. He couldn't find any detailed or specific information on the network as to why that is. Perhaps this information isn't publicly available for free, or it's considered too sensitive to share.
Maximilian delved further into the history of this world, including pop culture such as movies, anime, and also historical events. He discovered that, for the most part, this world's history wasn't drastically different from his own. The Axis still lost in World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still bombed, and the Soviet Union still collapsed. Many of the same events had occurred.
The key difference, however, was that in 2022, the world was invaded by extraterrestrial forces. This event shaped the world into what it is today. Now, in 2072—exactly fifty years after the alien invasion—the world is still recovering. The war with the aliens lasted only a year, but it was the most devastating conflict in human history.
Maximilian wanted to search for more information about Heroes and Villains, but a notification sound from the System interrupted him.
[Ding! Task complete! You've succeeded in wearing a toga for two days. Reward: System basic UI and GPS map feature unlocked. Congratulations! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧]
"Basic UI… GPS Map? seriously, System?" Maximilian let out a wry smile. "Are you sure you're not scamming me?"
[Try using the new feature first, then see if you should complain. Now, think in your mind or will it to open the System UI. (￣^￣)]
Following the System's instructions, Maximilian willed the UI to open in his mind, and a holographic-like interface immediately appeared in front of him.
Maximilian turned his head to the mirror nearby and noticed that the holographic UI didn't show up in the reflection. He realized that this UI could only be seen by him.