After the guy refused to pay, Silas immediately pounced at him and stole his money. Then he hurriedly but confidently left. He did so because he knew that most of the players in the park would probably defend his opponent in case of a fight.
So, taking the money and leaving was the safe bet.
After getting some money, Silas immediately went to an internet Cafe.
The computers in this world were a few years advanced as compared to his previous world. Also, the look of the computer was completely different.
The computer in front of him had an LCD, a technology that would not be commercialized in his world till several years later. But the CPU, etc was attached to the back of the screen.
It was kind of like the first MAC personal computer. It seemed that nobody in this world thought of actually creating separate modular components.
After about five minutes Silas finally got the hang of the thing. This was in large part thanks to the friendly owner of the cafe.
The first thing Silas did on the computer was to verify the information he had learned in the park.
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After half an hour of browsing, Silas had a rough idea of this world.
This planet was named Terra. The name Terra was also coined by another superhero in the age of information 200 years ago.
The planet was similar to Earth of his previous life in geography except for a few key differences.
In this world, South America never separated from Africa while the Arabian Peninsula had completely broken off from the African Continent. Now it was an independent continent close to the Indian subcontinent.
As for the power structure of this world, this was where things got interesting. In this world, democracy and communism are merely failed concepts. Most of the countries in the world are monarchies.
Silas expected that to be the case. He'd always considered himself emotionally stable, yet the mere taste of superhuman strength had sparked an undeniable urge within him to conquer
How, then, could a world teeming with millions of such beings - many far exceeding his own capabilities - ever genuinely uphold systems that preached universal equality?
It wasn't that superhumans were inherently power hungry, it is just that the idea of equality would generally seem laughable to most when they could pinch a human to death.
Most individuals, super or otherwise, preferred to see themselves as fundamentally good. Yet, as history so starkly demonstrated with the institution of slavery, deep-rooted beliefs born of power imbalances are fiercely resistant to change.
For centuries, countless people who proclaimed themselves just and civilized saw no contradiction in the ownership of another human being, because the truth was that their morality simply sculpted around their beliefs.
A human's morality was tricky like that. They would feel no absurdity in killing an animal for food but the idea of doing it yourself revolts them.
It was a chilling reminder: long before civility and justice are taught or upheld, people absorb the unspoken beliefs of their environment - biases passed down through culture, fear, and survival.
These raw assumptions, formed in the shadows of history and habit, quietly decide what is accepted as truth, even before reason or fairness are given a voice.
So, Silas believed that human's were just cowards, too afraid to face their own core beliefs. This was why they take on the mask of justice and fairness.
In simple words, the environment makes the man. If a staunch republic supporter from the twenty first century was reborn in the eighteenth century Europe without his memories, he will most probably believe republicans to be traitors and that far-leftists like republicans were causing the empire to decline.
Maybe, the man could really keep to the principles etched deep within his soul but study of human psychology suggests the opposite to be the case.
All this was inevitable. As soon as Silas learned that this world had superhumans he knew that there was only two things this world can be, messy or peaceful on the surface but messy inside.
What truly excited Silas was institutionalized paths of advancements. There was actually step by step guides on how to become a superhuman. This showed just how proficient this world was in this field.
What excited Silas even more was MAGIC. This world actually had magic. To be honest, as an avid reader of novels and comics Silas was a big fan of this concept.
Magic was not like other pathways. Most other pathways were based on tribulation and effort.
Let's take the knight/pugilist pathway as an example, to advance on this path, one had to complete a set of goals and maybe reach a certain level of existence and voila, you are now stronger.
It was the same for most magic pathways he read about, but in magic there was another very important factor - Transcension.
A magician when learned enough could theoretically create anything. This meant that if he understood the principles of his own power, he will become the master of it...
The same can't be said for the one on the pugilist pathway, sure comprehension is needed to advance that is another thing, but there is no sure method of ever 'transcending' pugilism itself.
There will most probably never come a time in the pugilist's journey where he can escape the core laws of their path.
A pugilist may one day surpass the stages of the pathway and create a new stage himself. Even something as absurd as containing galaxies and universes in his body but what he can't do is rewrite their path.
He could not invent a new kind of pugilism. You could only go deeper into the one already etched into the world's bones.
And that, Silas thought, was the difference between mastery and authorship.
It's not really a real reason or concern for those that want power but Silas wanted something more.
He wanted knowledge, and these limiting factors of other paths signified the limitations of the paths themselves.