68 LXVIII: King.

What do you do when you are so powerful that you get bored? That's what Jack always asked himself, who was perhaps one of the most powerful reincarnates in this macabre 'show', to the point that he had to limit himself to stopping time during fights to a few seconds to give his encounters some difficulty, although his abilities had grown far beyond that.

Saitama could perhaps understand the feeling of emptiness that Jack had right now, only at least they both found something to do, Saitama being a hero, something that might be the greatest stroke of luck that humanity will ever have in their world and Jack... he liked to draw.

Ironically, when you can stop time as one of your main skills, you have all the time in the world to practice, even if it's only for a few minutes, but nothing a good restorative potion wouldn't fix, if one won't do, take two.

He was lousy at drawing at first, but with practice, lots of practice, his drawing improved. Then he began to draw the world. Yes, he liked to draw landscapes, streets, people, plants, animals, etc. 

To do this, he was given a magic book that could create new pages when supplied with raw materials, so he already had thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of different drawings in his book. He also annotated his drawings, and with the self-exploration that the magic element possessed, he made himself a kind of Wikipedia by hand.

He didn't like to talk about his deep emptiness with others, so he hid it well, maybe too well. But it wasn't something that bothered him too much, it was he who didn't want to affect them with it. Still, he showed them the things he drew always, especially Alex and Seone, who liked his art very much.

"I don't know why Seone keeps telling me that furry porn is the future of art, I don't get that joke," Jack said, walking in a black and white world where everything paused, a classic vision, but if you weren't used to it, it would be extremely creepy. 

 "Because it is, furry porn is the future of art, as well as NFTs and AIs, in fact, why don't you buy me some NFTs?" a female voice full of mockery sounded in this silent world, making Jack sigh in exhaustion.

Turning around, he saw a masked woman, the masked woman who kidnapped 50 people and almost dropped the moon on his head. He and she knew each other, she was one of the few people immune to his power, along with Monic and possibly some stand users on the vast continent. He knew that someone with certain special abilities could withstand her ability to stop time, so he wasn't surprised.

"I don't understand, it doesn't make me laugh," Jack said, feeling a little tired from stopping time for so long, he was training his limit again, he wanted to reach 10 minutes so he would have time to draw, but he felt he wouldn't make it this time.

With a simple mental command, the world became colorful again, but the masked woman didn't disappear, she just looked at Jack with fascination, but he ignored her, he was used to the eccentric side of his friend. 

Yes, they had become friends several months ago, along with other powerful reincarnates. There were only five of them, but they were undoubtedly the most fortunate of them all, with abilities that surpassed the rest.

"Noelle said that this super-evolved Damien Bat can reach the power level to join us, something that your friend Seone might not like," Venus finally spoke, causing Jack, who was drinking a bottle of potion, to look sideways at her.

"I didn't think she or all of us would be interested in atoning for a vampire," Jack joked a little, feeling refreshed, then paused again, turning everything gray again.

"You know, ever since she and Liam fought over the pudding, they've been uncomfortable. I don't know why Shuri didn't stop it, but now they're getting more and more annoying, you have to bring order to the group," Venus said annoyed, she was a lazy one who preferred to look at interesting things, she didn't want to get involved in her friends' sentimental problems, but here she was.

"Liam needs to learn to express his feelings and Noelle needs to understand that not everyone is like her. Shuri... would you seriously expect her to do anything coherent? I have a feeling she may have contributed to the reasons the other two fought," Jack said, not wanting to get into too much trouble, the worst thing anyone could do was get into a couple's problem.

"Well, you'll have to, Liam went all the way to this forest, he'll show up in a few days... along with some interesting surprises on the way," Venus mentioned carelessly, showing a picture of the Rinnegan boy, a silver nine-tailed fox, a pink-haired woman and Liam, who seemed to notice the spying.

Liam was a young man, not yet 25. His hair was a purple similar to Jack's, only much lighter, and his eyes were vacant, his walk a little unkempt, as were his baggy clothes, but the sheer power he exuded drew everyone away from his presence.

Small sparks of purple energy shot out of him, shattering everything, but he just ignored them and kept walking, even in the gray world, time dared not stop him because it might destroy him. 

"Honestly..." Jack shook his head as he looked at the decaying state of his companion, who was now a threat not only to him but to everyone. 

"Fine, take me to him," the boy demanded and Venus approached him with a huge smile on her crimson lips.

"I knew you would accept, after all, you are someone who cares about us, you are... a king" She took Jack's arm and soon they disappeared, even if time stood still, her power was still as unreasonable as ever.

They both appeared in front of Liam, who had stopped to wait for them. The troubled man didn't look at them, he just stood still and watched the void as the wild energies around him tore at everything, even the ground he was standing on, but he didn't care, floating anyway to avoid falling.

"You look pathetic," Liam heard, snapping him out of his stupor and he turned his attention to Jack, who had said the sentence to him.

"She got angry and shed some tears, telling me Jack, can I just destroy everything? Even my deception is this power of destruction," Liam's voice was hoarse, it seemed like it had been a long time since he had talked to anyone, in fact, he hardly spoke at all.

"No, they just lack communication. Whatever the reason they're fighting, it's no reason to act like this, they should talk," Jack's words made Liam blink a little.

Liam and Noelle were strange, each with their own very complicated life experiences, and it didn't help that one was very emotional and the other was almost an abyss that wouldn't let his emotions out. 

Jack sometimes regretted meeting these people, he was the only normal one, even with his deep sense of emptiness he had a lot of common sense and could live normally. 

Venus was always traveling and observing things out of boredom, her past game on the moon was Shuri's idea, someone who loved to create chaos, and maybe having Tzeentch's powers was partly responsible for that.

Noelle has the heritage of Lucoa, that peculiar dragoness from Kobayashi-san Chi No Maid Dragon, she was not only an obscenely powerful dragoness, but a goddess of life, a trait that made her somewhat unstable. When a goddess of life tries to make her partner jealous by mentioning a vampire, you know something is not quite right in her head.

And Liam was a God of Destruction, or at least a human God of Destruction, his destructive energy was entirely his own and not dependent on any doctrine, it was his natural power so to speak. 

How did Jack come to know them and be considered a king by them in a way? Because in a way, they were all gods and so was he, only unlike them, he had to train himself. It was this dedication to becoming strong that included the help he always gave them, so out of nowhere they crowned him king, king of four people, but king.

"Talking, I guess that was it, so simple..." muttered Liam, then asked Jack for advice on how to talk to Noelle, because he was a novice at it, even though he and Noelle were boyfriend and girlfriend for some strange reason.

Jack felt that the world he lived in was written by an idiot on a barely functioning computer because then he could vent his feelings by insulting all of this hypothetical author's ancestors. 

...

"I, who wanted to draw quietly today," Jack said, looking at the starry sky, although he felt a presence of immeasurable power in the direction where Seone lived, he did not act because he felt that this being had no bad intentions.

"Looks like Seone knows a powerful being too, worthy of a protagonist," he muttered, not realizing that he would fit perfectly into some wish-fulfillment novel or power fantasy.

"At least the Rinnegan boy will make me laugh if he's as funny as Venus and Shuri say he is. The Nine-Tailed Fox... Will he go after the fox here? That would be interesting.

And that pink-haired girl has a draconic aura similar to Marie, from what Venus told me, interesting things may happen in the interaction of the two women, which means more drawings to be done," the boy popped the bones in his back as he entered his tent and prepared to sleep until he noticed that the inside of it was a strange maze.

"Come on Shuri, I need to sleep, stop turning my tent into an endless glass maze," Jack complained to the air, then he heard a chuckle and the maze disappeared, but now Shuri had appeared, a woman Jack found complicated by her strange 'games'.

"Hmm! You didn't tell me interesting things were going on here~" Shuri jumped playfully, her laughter was charming, it seemed to brighten everyone's soul, if you didn't know of course it was a subtle influence on your psyche and you would soon become a demonic aberration. 

"That's why I didn't tell you, this is not a game, this is serious business, war is serious business," Jack could not help but reproach her, looking at this cheerful girl, he could not help but treat her as his younger sister.

Shuri was a young woman, dressed like a typical fantasy witch, and she even had a staff in her hands. Her hair was blue, like the stars, unlike Monic's blue, which looked like the sky. Shuri was always smiling, even in the most horrible situations, always looking for ways to 'play' with others.

Only Jack could make her calm down, an achievement in itself, no doubt. 

"But I can see some very interesting things happening, like the little sun-eater's fight against that arrogant elf," at Shuri's mention of Seone's fight, Jack knew immediately that the girl before him had been spying for some time.

"What else is going to happen?" knowing that he couldn't stop her, Jack decided to join her, at least he could find good things to draw.

"Well, your friend Alex seems to have a mission with some of your other friends, interesting things will happen there" and so Shuri lured Jack to his doom... no, but because of him, Jack witnessed Alex's 108 cuts.

"That's a nice technique," Jack said as he stopped time and watched a happy Alex, an envious Seone, a fascinated Alex, and an excited John editing the fight he had recorded.

"Your friends are strange, especially that Seone guy," Shuri pointed out to Seone, who was motionless in this grayish world. 

"Yeah..." 

Jack always had strange friends, one of them was Violet by the way, why don't we see something of her in the next chapter?