Ethan heard the footsteps of someone quietly slipping away behind him, but he had no mind to dwell on it.
Time travel—how could he have time-traveled?!
And worse, why did it have to be to America of all places?
"I've got to find a way back!" After all, in the land of the free where shootings happened every day, Ethan didn't want to end up randomly gunned down one day—that would be such a pointless way to go!
His original world was out of reach for now. Even if he wanted to return, no one here would help him. He'd have to figure it out himself—maybe find a way to reveal his time-traveler status and superpowers to someone who'd take him seriously. Perhaps a government somewhere might allocate resources to study the secret of his Transmigration.
"Oh right, the superpower!" Just as he reached for his phone, Ethan suddenly remembered—it was 2008!
The Huawei Mate 40 in his hand was undeniably futuristic tech—an absolute anomaly here!
He couldn't just pull it out carelessly!
Luckily, the street was lined with shops, though most of them seemed to be restaurants.
"Is this some kind of food street or something?" Ethan muttered as he walked, taking in his surroundings. A flood of English chatter filled his ears, and bit by bit, fragments of memory began to resurface.
He'd started learning English in third grade—three years of middle school, three years of high school, and four years of college.
Though he'd forgotten most of it from disuse, the knowledge he'd once studied was still buried in his subconscious.
For most people, that knowledge would stay dormant forever. But Ethan was different now. His brain felt like it had shifted into overdrive. Words he'd memorized—or even just skimmed—from the Oxford Dictionary began flashing through his mind.
And as he walked, he suddenly realized he could understand what the people around him were saying!
Not that it mattered much right now.
Ethan stopped in front of a clothing store and stood before the full-length mirror at the entrance. He stared blankly at his reflection.
6'1", tall and lanky, pale skin, messy hair, dark circles under his eyes. He wore a white T-shirt with bold text that read "Working a job? Never gonna happen," paired with loose sweatpants.
He was kind of good-looking.
This was him—almost identical to the version of himself who'd been slumped over a desk streaming last night.
The only difference was his eyes!
He was a typical northern guy with brownish-black irises. But now, the eyes staring back at him in the mirror were an impossibly deep black.
So black that they swallowed everything—no reflection of the world around him, no light, nothing. It was like gazing into an abyss. Even Ethan felt a shiver run through him as he met his own gaze!
"It's like… black holes!" he murmured, then froze. He might've just hit the nail on the head!
His kinda-handsome face, paired with these dark, fathomless eyes, felt like a dragon given its finishing touch. His charm shot up several notches—from "kinda handsome" to "strikingly captivating"!
With a slight flick of his hand, the mirror in front of him wobbled faintly!
"Back when I dodged that bullet earlier, I noticed there was this… field-like thing around me!" Ethan focused, sensing the range he could control. He grabbed a ruler from the counter, placed it on the floor, and measured it.
"0.93 meters!"
"A sphere with a diameter of 0.93 meters, centered on my eyes! I can manipulate the gravitational forces within this range!"
And that wasn't all!
He focused entirely on the ruler, and it seemed to zoom in before his eyes. The millimeter markings stretched out as if they were a meter wide!
And that wasn't even the limit!
"Microscopic vision!"
With a thought, his sight pierced through the ruler's surface, diving into the plastic less than a millimeter thick. He could see the neatly arranged plastic particles inside!
"Gravity can penetrate everything. In scientific theory, it can even reach higher-dimensional worlds. No material known can block it!" Ethan muttered. "My vision carries the properties of gravity—it can scan anything!"
Gravitational detection!
And there was the most basic ability of all!
What's a black hole known for?
Swallowing everything!
Within his gravitational range, the plastic particles broke down into molecules. Under the immense force, chemical bonds shattered, reducing them to atoms—then they vanished into the ruler's plastic material.
The amount was so small Ethan didn't feel a thing, but he was certain: his eyes had absorbed those tens of thousands of plastic particles!
He'd only used the ruler as a test. In reality, he could absorb anything within his 0.93-meter gravitational sphere!
"So that's why everyone else seems to move in slow motion—gravitational time dilation!" Ethan realized with a jolt.
Gravitational time dilation meant that time sped up for someone in a stronger gravitational field.
The greater the gravity, the faster time flowed.
Imagine a race living on the Sun. With its gravity far exceeding Earth's, they'd perceive Earthlings as moving at lightning speed under the same sense of time.
But for Ethan, watching the outside world in slow motion meant his eyes' black-hole gravity was warping his own time. Earth's gravity was weaker than his eyes', putting him in a low-gravity zone where his time flowed faster than everyone else's.
From what he could tell, the time ratio was about 1:2!
If he kept this up long-term, a normal person's 50-year lifespan would equate to 100 years for Ethan—cutting his life expectancy in half!
But in truth, he wouldn't be shortchanged. In his own timeline, he'd still experience a full 100 years.
Still, who'd want to live half as long as they could?
"I need to expand my gravitational range. If I can get it to two meters, my time should sync up with Earth's!" Ethan reasoned.
It didn't seem too hard. To grow a black hole, you just… devour stuff, right?
As for his improved vision and hearing, that was simple too. His black-hole eyes amplified his absorption of light and sound waves through gravity.
And why had his brain gotten sharper?
No idea…
"But why did my eyes turn into black holes? Did crossing time and space compress something?" Ethan used to hate overthinking, but now that his brain worked so well, he couldn't help himself.
After mulling it over for a while with no answer, he gave up.
Setting the ruler down, Ethan turned, ready to head into an alley and maybe get jumped again.
He'd gone out to grab breakfast, only to end up time-traveling instead. His stomach was still growling!
But with no way to pay digitally here, he'd have to rely on someone's kindness to spot him some cash.
"Hey, why's this ruler so flimsy? It snapped as soon as I pulled it!" a loud woman with a four-foot waist bellowed behind him.
Ethan scratched his ear, scanning for an alley. Suddenly, two guys flanked him, grabbing his arms.
"Buddy, you're coming with us!" The one on the left—a burly Latino with a scruffy beard and dark skin—whispered in his ear, then licked it!
"You're done!" Ethan shuddered, goosebumps exploding across his skin. In an instant, his gravity lashed out, sweeping over the man. A third of the guy's blood vanished!
The man's face went pale, his head spun, and he crumpled to his knees!
"Hey, bro, what's wrong? You tweaking or something?" The other guy, a Black dude, jumped in alarm and rushed to help him.
From a distance, someone must've seen the commotion. More people closed in fast. This time, they didn't mess around—they hauled Ethan up and shoved him into a van parked nearby.
Onlookers chatted and laughed, pretending not to notice.
Inside the van, two rows of spacious seats held four or five guys already. Ethan's spot? A cramped, narrow bench—uncomfortable to sit on, impossible to stand up from.
And these five or six foreigners all reeked of BO, mixed with a thick stench like overripe flowers. Ethan nearly passed out!
"Swallow it, swallow it all!" The odors were just chemical molecules—he could devour them easily.
That's when he realized his sense of smell was ridiculously sharp too.
Plus, this devouring ability seemed tied to his will. He could choose to swallow the stench molecules while leaving the oxygen, so he could still breathe normally.
If he ate everything indiscriminately, he'd probably kill himself!
"Is it him?" the driver asked.
"That's him!" The guy in the passenger seat—a Black dude Ethan recognized as one of the three he'd let slip earlier—nodded.
"Who are you people?" Ethan demanded. "Why'd you grab me?"
"No chit-chat!" A hulking guy raised a massive hand to slap him, but as it neared Ethan's face, an overwhelming force struck!
Boom!
The guy's arm slammed into the van's wall, denting the door outward!
"You've got some nerve!" Ethan snapped. He hadn't done a damn thing—first robbed, now kidnapped. Did he look like an easy target?
With a pulse of his black-hole power, the rubber ties on his hands vanished. The group panicked, lunging to pin him down. Ethan waved a hand, and all six collapsed instantly.
A third of their blood gone—anyone still standing after that would be a legend.
"Su-superpowers?" The Latino driver gaped. "W-who are you?"
"I should be asking you that!" Ethan clapped a hand on the guy's shoulder. "Who are you people, and what do you want with me?"
The Latino felt an eerie force coursing through him. He didn't know if the six in the back were dead or just out cold—could he risk finding out?
"We're with the Gray Rat Gang. I'm Ryan Daring. It's him—he came back saying he spotted a guy with what looked like a crazy advanced phone!"
The Latino pointed at the Black guy next to him.
The Black dude stammered, "I-I just… I only…"
Ethan slapped him, and he slumped over too.
"Absorbing seven people's blood—probably 20 kilos worth—and still no progress?" Ethan's senses were razor-sharp, down to the nanoscale, but even there, he couldn't detect any growth in his gravitational range.
Guess 20 kilos of blood was just a drop in the bucket for his black-hole eyes.
"Ah…" The driver, Ryan, started to panic. Ethan patted his shoulder. "Take me to your boss. I won't hurt you."
"Okay, okay…" Loyalty meant nothing in this game—Ryan sold out his boss without hesitation.
Their base wasn't far. After less than five minutes of driving, they stopped.
"Our boss is inside!" Ryan Daring climbed out cautiously, then scurried to open the back door for Ethan.
If it were just some regular thug, he might've thought about earning brownie points. But a superpowered guy?
Better play it safe!
Besides, if this superpower freak flopped, Ryan could just say he was biding his time, right?