Mark of the Multiversal Pretender

*Swiiish!* 

Surprising Leo with very fast speeds, Leo could only cross his arms instead of evading before Master Shifu launched a kick on him again.

*Boom!*

'Fuck! This is stronger than the previous one! Cursing the old red panda in front of him, Leo wanted to get back at him only to be stopped.

"That's for our training today, I've already analyzed all of your strengths and weaknesses. I just got the perfect training set for you so don't be late tomorrow." With that as his last words, Leo only blinked once before Master Shifu was already gone.

'Did he just pull a Batman on me?' Leo's face twitched slightly as his sharp senses silently picked up Master Shifu's figure rushing out of the forest.

'It's almost getting dark, I should probably cook dinner early for them before embarking on my journey back to the Valley as the Black Panther.'

***

"Today's dinner! Tagliatelle Al Ragu!" Placing 7 bowls on the table, the Furious Five including Po himself showed no manners and grabbed their own bowls before munching on them.

"Nom! Nom! Your food tastes good as usual! Seriously, where did you learn these recipes from?" Monkey remarked with praise, however his question caught Leo off guard.

"....I'm......from the land of Wakanda." Although Leo looks like he answered just fine but if someone sharp with trust issues were to look at him, they would no doubt notice something odd about him.

"Wakanda? Even though I don't know it but I think I've heard it somewhere, that Black Panther that became famous for being a vigilante hails from the same hometown, I think. It sounds like something not from china." Monkey then resumed his munching.

Leo sighed in relief once they didn't dwell any more longer towards his hometown, obviously Wakanda really doesn't exist, he just said that he came from Wakanda because of Po, who knows that he's from Wakanda from Mr. Ping.

If he says that he's from America or something instead, Po would definitely unknowingly put him in trouble. So it's better to just tell the 'truth' and let nature take its course.

It's not like they could put any suspicions on him, after all, he has already become one with the Furious Five, almost like their close comrade, so the trust has already been built and hard to destroy unless Leo did something so drastic like killing one of them or something.

Unknown to Leo, Tigress was the only one who wasn't munching on her food, instead her eyes were squinted on Leo's face, slightly detecting the deception on his face earlier.

'What are you hiding, Leo?' Tigress muttered to herself while eyeing the man who was about to leave when he suddenly turned around and faced Tigress, quickly forcing her to look away.

'That's weird, I feel like someone was watching me and not in a good way.' Leo muttered to himself before shrugging his shoulders.

'I must be gathering fans by now, I mean I just became one of the Dragon Warriors, so I should expect it.' Just like that, Leo unconsciously ignored Tigress's stare

***

As soon as the night falls. Leo, who was laying on his bed with Po snoring loudly on his side, Leo's eyes suddenly snapped open.

'It didn't take long for him to sleep.' Leo was glad for it, if Po didn't sleep, perhaps his night endeavor would unfortunately have to be moved to tomorrow.

'Haah~ time to grind.' Leo then grinned as he took out the Black Panther Ceremonial mask, which he made as his temporary mask to hide his identity whenever he embarked on his secret identity, Black Panther.

Opening the sliding window, Leo felt the strong winds smash against his face before quickly getting out to close the window, afraid that the strong winds might wake Po up. Though he's a heavy sleeper, Leo won't take any chances.

After living for almost a month, Leo already had the entire Jade Palace memorized like the back of his hand, so it didn't take long for him to start rushing through the stairs.

Thanks to his sharp senses, flexibility and fighting style, Leo was very fast in his feet when it came to the long stairs. Instead of walking down the stairs one by one on each step, Leo was jumping and skipping several steps and landing smoothly like a nimble cat.

"Hahh~ hopefully, there are still bandits and thugs out here, or else I will be forced to travel to the neighbouring valley." Leo prayed in his mind before resuming his journey and finding some bandits.

His first target would obviously be the dark places and such. According to Villain 101, always use the dark alleys to transact or initiate your villainous doings.

It's basic knowledge.

***

"HarHarHar! Looks like the night side of the Valley is ours!" Laughing in the most cartoonish way, a wolf holding a hammer with an eye patch grinned as he looked at the small group of 20 wolves that he has been gathering for the past few weeks.

Some are also bandits like him while some are just simple wolves trying to find a living or trying to make a living for their loved ones.

As someone who has been serving the banished prince of Gongmen City, Lord Shen. He would need men, lots of them to swiftly finish the tasks that are being assigned to him, such as stealing metals in different villages they come across.

In this case, he had set his eyes on the Valley of Peace, the home of the Great Kung Fu Founder Master Oogway, Kung Fu Teacher Master Shifu and the Furious Five. He has even heard rumors about two Dragon Warriors in the Valley of Peace.

But does he care?

No!

He knows that the Furious Five only operates in daylight, not night.

So, Boss Wolf licked his lips, knowing full well that they would be able to steal many metals tonight and gain recognition from his Lord Shen.

As long as they keep quiet and don't make a ruckus, everything will be fine.

That is until they heard a voice right at the entrance of the dark alley they were staying in.

"Hello gentleman, quite a party we're having here." In the entrance, a dark tall figure can be seen standing alone, facing them as its eyes glow in purple.

"Who....are you?" Raising his huge hammer, Boss Wolf pointed his weapon at the unknown newcomer that interrupted them.

Although he was stunned by the eerie appearance, but as long as it's not one of the Furious Five, then everything will be fine.

"You can call me.....Black Panther." At the pause in the middle, the dark figure finally stepped forward, showing its stone mask face that resembles a roaring panther, beneath the mask was the purple eyes that were glowing before.

"Black Panther? HarHarHar! You look nothing like those cats!" Boss Wolf laughed out loud before turning around, expecting his fellow newly recruited wolves to laugh along with him, however he was met with nothing but shaking figures.

"B-Black Panther. T-that legend was true?" One of the wolves gulped his saliva hard, stepped back while speaking which was loud enough for the Boss Wolf to hear.

"Legend? What Legend?" Boss Wolf raised an eyebrow in confusion.

As a matter of fact, he's not the only one confused here as the said 'Legend' was also confused by the words of the pawn wolf.

'How the fuck did I turn into a Legend? I just roamed the Valley of Peace for a few nights disappeared for a whole month and now I turned into a Legend? What kind of Batman bullshit is this!?' 

While Leo was having a malfunction in his mind, the Wolf Boss just got informed by his subordinates about the 'legend' of the Black Panther that only appeared for a few days but managed to instill terror among the thugs and bandits that thought that the night in the Valley of Peace is their safe haven.

"But he's just one man! There are 21 of us here! And he only fought Hyenas! We, Wolves are much stronger than those stupid hyenas!" Wolf Boss yelled, trying to raise his subordinates' morale, which seemed to work as their gloomy and scared faces turned into determination.

"So I'm fighting 20? Good." Leo grinned under the mask.

"No, you're fighting 21." Boss Wolf corrected him before licking his huge hammer.

"Sorry, I don't consider you as a fighter. You'll be a messenger for me." Leo said with a huge grin.

'I finally remember this guy! It's Lord Shen's subordinate wolf.' Leo said to himself. The reason for his excitement was simple.

Since it is still early in the first movie of Kung Fu Panda, that means Lord Shen isn't that strong as portrayed in the second film for now. What he meant to say was that Lord Shen probably doesn't have his infamous cannon yet, or maybe he only has one but that's not Leo's point here.

What Leo is eyeing is the Major Villain reward in the Passive Sub-Quest.

5% of Black Panther Template might seem small compared to the recent Main Quests that he's been getting but it's still a huge increase to his Black Panther Template. He would be an idiot to pass up this opportunity of getting an almost free 5% template increase considering that Lord Shen's manpower is still null.

"Messenger? How dare you!" Getting angry at Leo's words, Boss Wolf thought Leo was simply provoking him, so he rushed forward and twirled his hammer.

"Taste my hammer!"

"Phrasing!" 

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 31 - The Great Pretender was discovered!]