The wind howling past the rim of the floating island barely stirred Max's wild, bright-blue hair. Restraining the absolute unit of a pompadour he wore these days took less energy than a minor breeze could manage to ruffle, anyway.
Instead of hair gel, Max had simply used his Swiss-Army Knife-like power, [Electromagnetism], to do the work for him.
Max could easily manipulate his hairstyle by applying micro-magnetic fields to the natural iron and mineral traces in his hair, follicles, or sweat, effectively shaping his locks like a living sculpture.
It would not cost him any significant juice, as his power primarily shaped ambient electromagnetic fields rather than consuming his own cellular energy.
A large hand was held up to his brow, and he squinted, peering far into the distant sky.
Moments later, a smile crept across Max's face. He could see a group of people, all with beast soul wings fixed to their backs, headed towards his island.
'Customers? Awful lot of 'em, so just coming to buy from my super awesome shop? Yea... that's pretty unlikely... that time of the month again, eh? Let's take a peek at what they want, and how strong they are...'
Max fired up [Destiny], causing his eyes to glow for a few seconds before dissipating, and he then stomped and took flight, leaving the ground hard enough to send dirt flying everywhere.
'Ugh, all sent by the Alliance government, huh? All their geno points including Sacred Blood are full, eh? There are twenty-two coming this time. I better make sure my guys don't get too involved and just watch me wreck 'em... poor nosy Alliance idiots.'
Max felt a little sorry for the men and women he was forced to either beat up or put down on some occasions.
Max generally treated each situation individually, giving back what he received most of the time. He understood that, like his three henchmen, most of the people coming to rob him were simply under the influence or being pushed by 'Theft Target'—one of the drawbacks he had taken in this Jump.
Lately, however, he had begun to attract the attention of the Alliance military and government.
People belonging to the military especially had heard legends of Max, as they frequented and usually ran things in human shelters in the First God's Sanctuary.
Normally, he would let people off the hook, for the most part, with a small beating for the robbery stuff.
But if they were truly nasty individuals at heart and tried to kill him first? Well, Max had no problem beating them to death.
He had grown quite accustomed to the 'fuck around and find out' lifestyle of the sanctuaries.
While he flew back towards the center of his island, he wiped a smudge of grease from an earlier jerky snack away from his wide, muscular jaw—Max still possessed a frame that looked like a slightly more compact version of Toriko, but he looked even more imposing than he had in the past.
He now looked extra primed to crack heads or devour mountain-sized feasts with equal enthusiasm; he wasn't as hungry these days, however.
This was because Max had already filled up his Sacred Blood and Super geno point tally two years ago, obtaining everything he could aside from Beast Souls while in this sanctuary.
He was only sticking around to make bank on said Beast Souls, which had been going quite perfectly over the last four and a half years.
That's how long he had been operating, and after visiting countless shelters, he was finally on his way back to Steel Armor Shelter.
It was about time for the real main character of Super God Gene to make his appearance, and Max held a great interest in seeing his unfortunate yet hilarious entry into the First God's Sanctuary.
But first, he had to deal with yet another round of would-be criminals coming to mess with him. He still wasn't sick of it to this day, using every opportunity to come up with new ways to use his powers and equipment in tandem.
It was almost time to stop playing shop; he had made billions at this point.
Max only accepted physical currency, and after the customer left, he had his interface store it the moment he was alone with it—only parting with some to pay his three lackeys-turned-buddies.
After checking out Han Sen, he intended to head to the Second God's Sanctuary, power level himself, and then do the same in the Third and possibly the Fourth. It hadn't been his original intention to go further than the Second God's Sanctuary so that he could insert himself into Han's story. However, he changed his mind after several uses of [Destiny].
In nearly every situation he intervened, the butterfly effect of his actions would cause Han Sen harm or get him killed. And being the super-cool-nerd he was at heart, Max didn't want to sully one of his favorite characters' destinies.
He would do his best to speed-run the next three sanctuaries, to the best of his abilities.
But for now?
Well, for now, Max just wanted to look cool while laying a whooping on these would-be intruders currently headed towards his shop.
Max landed softly near the shop and called out, "My dudes! Come out and watch a show, summon your gear too. This is going to get pretty exciting!"
Three heads poked out the open window of the storefront, grinning at Max and rushing out of the building.
"More dumb shits on the way?" asked one of the men as they came outside.
"You bet your ass, buddy... okay, suit up!" Max grinned back at him while responding.
...
Five minutes later...
The four men, now clad in impressive, intricately designed armor, stood casually, unconcerned despite being surrounded by more than three times their number.
Among them, one man stood out distinctly. He was enormous—his presence alone intimidating—massive beyond the others.
This was our main man, Maximillian Nakamura, quite obviously.
His current armor setup was nothing short of spectacular: the sleek, silver 'Flux' Super Sentai-like suit and helmet from the X-Men Jump Chain, reinforced by the evolved Fairy Queen shape-shifter Beast Soul, now acting as a kind of over-armor.
It made him look like an oversized Power Ranger in a 'Battlizer' form—sleek yet viscous-looking, deadly, and with a clear theme now. He resembled a knight, something that would have fit perfectly into a show like 'Kamen Rider Saber'.
If you could see beneath the helmet, Max's greenish eyes had transformed into a vivid scarlet red, and his blue hair had shifted to a bright blonde—both changes courtesy of the Fairy Queen Beast Soul.
The crownlet that once accompanied the original Sacred Blood version of the Fairy Queen now resembled a crimson halo, floating above his armored head and adding to his intimidating look.
Finally, a long, black cape swept out from behind his shoulders, dancing in the wind kicked up from directly beneath him.
Max sat atop a colossal beast—the Kirin—which was the source of the wind effects.
It was wearing Berserk Super Beast Soul armor of its own, evolved through the black crystal replica, and now the Kirin was also classified as Berserk Super class. The armor shimmered, pulsing in sync with the majestic Beast Soul pet in 'battle mode' beneath him.
The Kirin itself now stood about ten feet tall at its dragon-like head, and its hagoromo was crackling with even more electricity—larger and more intense than before.
Aside from that, it looked almost the same as it had before it became a Beast Soul. The armor on the Kirin was the one Max chose at the start of this jump—an evolved Super pet armor—adding even more jade to its form in the shape of beautiful armor covering parts of its body and face, all the way up its sweeping antlers and the small horn on its horse-like nose, making it look more majestic and fearsome than ever.
The armor and the pet were classified as 'Berserk' Beast souls, But it's important to note that Berserk wasn't a separate tier; it was a rare status modifier. Think of it like a turbo-charged or highly mutated variant of a creature.
When a creature or Beast Soul gained the Berserk status, it experienced a massive power spike—roughly half a tier stronger than the standard version of the same tier—making it exceptionally dangerous and powerful.
Biao Zhang, Wang Wei, and Yang Ming stood fearlessly beside their leader and his mount, shaking their heads and exchanging knowing glances at each other.
They had experienced scenes like this one countless times before. At this point, they found it funny, having accepted their boss's explanation of the countless shakedown attempts as a 'blessed curse.'
For the past five years—excluding his first day there—Max had only permitted his three goons to see his face; anyone who came to purchase goods or attempt to burglar his floating island had no clue what he looked like, leading to rumors circulated in the sanctuary and then the Alliance about him.
A massive, mysterious traveling shopkeeper, far too strong to be human, and thought to perhaps be a spirit like those found in the Second God's Sanctuary and up—or maybe a humanoid creature that spoke the common tongue...
Some important people of the Alliance sent out agents to investigate, pretending to be interested in purchasing one of the hundreds of beast souls for sale at the Silver-Flux Beast Soul Emporium.
The only thing the agents could determine was that he was too powerful to be a human, with his geno points, including Sacred Blood, maxed out, leaving them with a new hypothesis: some of the hard-to-kill Sacred Blood creatures in the sanctuaries might be of a higher, unknown tier entirely.
Some daring enough to ask if he had anything 'special' for sale—better than Sacred Blood perhaps—fished to see if he would let slip a better class of Beast Soul.
Max obviously never fell for this and simply pointed to the notebook full of available Beast Souls sitting on the desk inside the building he had erected in the center clearing of the floating island, after cleaning up the mess he had made of it slaying the Kirin earlier.
A flash of pale, spectral light burst from his palm, solidifying into a sleek, thin knife that hummed with an eerie chill—deathly even—the Cursed Wolf Dagger, which had been upgraded to Berserk class at this point.
He brought his arm up, turning his wrist so the pale blade hovered horizontally between him and the mob.
"Shop is closed today. I'll give you five seconds to turn around and get the fuck out of here." Max said, his voice dropping into a low, rumbling threat. Going through the paces, he already knew they weren't leaving this clearing, whether they wanted to or not. "Or I start writing off inventory costs in blood."
The moment Biao Zhang and the rest saw the Beast Soul Max chose, they knew what he was about to do and immediately started retreating toward the safety of the store.
The leader of the assembly sneered, taking a step forward while summoning a long, solid red Sacred Blood class spear. "You're outnumbered, big guy. Hand over the souls and the meat, or—" Max didn't wait for him to finish.
He summoned another Beast Soul: the God Dust. A cloud of shimmering, ultra-dense metallic particles erupted into existence, hovering in the air around his hand. Rather than dispersing, the metallic dust swirled violently, obeying the absolute command of Max's [Electromagnetism].
"Soul Sword! Ignite!"
Max still relished every opportunity to scream out any transformation or super move at the top of his lungs when given the chance.
No change there over the years.
The dust violently collapsed inward onto the Ghost Wolf Knife. Layer after layer of the special metal blend fused to the weapon, extending the short dagger into a massive, thick katana blade.
The grip elongated, wrapped in dense metallic weave, perfectly proportioned for Max's towering, muscular frame.
Then, the true power of [Electromagnetism] kicked in. Max injected a dense surge of electromagnetic energy straight into the newly forged sword. The metallic dust on the outer edge began to micro-oscillate at thousands of cycles per second—a high-frequency saw edge vibrating so fast it hummed like a roaring chainsaw.
Crackling arcs of brilliant purple, blazing white, and hot pink plasma erupted along the blade, enveloping the heavy iron mass in a blinding aura of electromagnetic light.
It looked less like a traditional sword and more like a colossal, crackling lightsaber powered by pure magnetic fury.
The sheer heat and air pressure radiating from the vibrating katana kicked up a wave of dust, pushing the encroaching mob back several paces as the terrifying hum of the blade echoed across the floating island.
Wang Wei leaned over toward Yang Ming and whispered, "I love it when the boss does that! These guys are so screwed!"
Max rested the flat of the glowing, chainsaw-like giant katana on his shoulder, his eyes locking onto the frozen crowd with a predatory smirk. "Time's up," he laughed.