Multiversal Manifestation System

Somewhere in New York...

In an apartment, if it could be called that, stood a man with disheveled black hair. He had an ordinary face that would be easy to miss in a crowd, green eyes and thick eyebrows. His most distinguishing feature was his extremely toned body, which was a complete mismatch for the anime-related clothes he was wearing.

"Ugh, finally finished Naruto... Might Guy's 'Night Guy' move was insane! Truly the king of taijutsu! Fillers aside I have to say it was a solid 8/10 overall, but some moments were truly hype!"

The young man's name was Wang Zi, currently 37 years old. However, anime wasn't always his thing.

Wang Zi was fascinated by strong men ever since he was young. Even though he spent most of his early days outside playing, like any young kid would, that one day changed him... forever.

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22 years ago, still a little boy, Wang Zi got a tv from his father. And that was the beginning of his fall.

The first few things he watched were news and some shows about reuniting lost family members together, and he quickly lost interest. That was... until that show came on.

Dragon Ball.

The show that swept the young audience of the world with its comedy and insane fighting scenes. Wang Zi was also swept off his feet by the show. Every single day he watched it, fascinated by the world view, the martial arts, the supernatural powers... He was obsessed. 

He even tried, as many did, shouting with all his heart to try and become a super saiyan. Unfortunately... that didn't happen.

Wang Zi however craved for the powerful martial arts, the muscled bodies, the super powers that the show depicted. And so...

At 16, still in high school, Wang Zi started training.

"I can do it." Wang Zi muttered to himself. "I might not be able to fly, or shoot energy beams, but I can also be the strongest, just like Goku!".

Weightlifting, calisthenics, nutrition. Until 25, Wang Zi trained relentlessly, following both a strict diet and exercise plan, and his beloved Dragon Ball.

At 25 he had a body shape similar to Broly, less streamlined than Goku, but more buff. After he achieved this he started getting into martial arts. 2 years for karate, 2 for judo, 2 for muay thai. He trained and fought. Trained and won. But... It wasn't the same.

You see Wang Zi had a particular talent when it came to fighting. His reaction time was off the charts. A normal human's reaction time is around 250 milliseconds, the highest recorded around 120 milliseconds - and Wang Zi boasted a staggeringly low 20 milliseconds reaction time, very close to a cat's!

However as it turned out, that wasn't such a good thing.

"This isn't it." Wang Zi was depressed. He couldn't get what he truly wanted. The fights were boring, his opponents couldn't keep up. With his insane reaction time and delicate control of his body despite his size, nobody could stand up to him.

"No thrill in the fight at all. This is nothing like what I wanted. There's no hype - no bloodboiling close fights." At this point Wang Zi had done it all.

He fought world champions in different martial arts, but didn't find a match.

At this point in time he truly did resemble Broly - the Legendary Super Saiyan. He had a body packed with muscle, but not streamlined like the chinese novels' young masters. No, he - Wang Zi - he wanted power. Power to blow up mountains with a punch, power to blow away everything - not aesthetics.

And at 33 years old - he felt it.

"This world... This body... I've hit my limit. There's no Ki on Earth, no Saiyan bloodline for me to improve... In the end I'm just a normal human with slightly faster nerves huh. What a pity. A stupid child's dream." Wang Zi clenched his hands, calloused from continuous training and fighting, and felt he couldn't get stronger anymore. This was the limit of his body. The limit of the humanity of earth.

Depressed and forced to accept the truth of reality he tried to escape and deny it all. And he did find his escape. In anime... And novels.

For 4 years he delved into the fictional world of anime and novels. Demon Slayer, One Piece, My Hero Academia and his most recently finished anime Naruto. Bodyguard novels, chinese xianxia and xuanhuan, almost everything that had power beyond humans - he read it.

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"Phew... Naruto was truly great. I wonder what I could watch next. Maybe I'll read a novel instead hmm." Wang Zi pondered as he made his way to the biggest room in his apartment.

The room was his personal gym, fully kited out with expensive machinery bought with money he made from fighting. Everything you could wish for working out was in this room. The wall was even studded with grips to climb so he could train his fingers.

As he got into the room, he made his way to the window, looking outside to the bustling city.

"I wonder why I still exercise even though I already gave up. Habits truly are hard to break huh." Wang Zi said as he watched the people below, "If i was born 100, or even 1000 years from now, would I be able to go further? Would there be superpowers? Maybe even immersive VR where you could wield them even if not in reality..."

Wang Zi knew however it was all in vain for him though. He was already getting weaker, past the prime of the human body. With all the fighting he had done, and how much he pushed his body he knew he wouldn't even make it to 80, maybe not even 70 and the world wouldn't have time to change that much.

"Even at this age I still like to dream, hahaha! Well dreams keep you living don't they? Who knows if transmigration or reincarnation is actually a thing? At least it gives me the drive to keep going!"

"Yosh, 50 more kilos to the bar today, I feel a new personal record coming!"

Wang Zi made his way to the bench press, his favourite machine.

"Hmm 700kg last time? Or was it 750kg? Whatever, let's go for 800kg." And so he started adding weight to the bar.

700kg...725kg...775kg...

"There we go, I got this... New record! Youth!"

But he didn't have it. As he lifted up the bar the machine suddenly gave... And the last thing he saw was an 800kg bar heading straight for his head.

"FU-!"

CRUNCH.