Yiping – POV
The first rule of survival in a world with a known plot was simple.
Never act like you know the plot.
Yiping had repeated that rule to himself ever since he woke up in this world three years ago.
Marvel.
Or at least… something close enough to it.
At first, he thought it was a blessing. A familiar universe meant predictable dangers. Predictable dangers meant preparation. Preparation meant survival.
That was the theory.
Reality proved messier.
The timeline was already wrong.
Tony Stark was sharper than expected. More cautious. Less reckless in small decisions. Some technologies appeared slightly earlier than they should have. Others were missing entirely.
Butterfly effects.
Or worse.
Other variables.
Yiping leaned against the glass wall of Stark Tower, watching the city lights below. New York looked peaceful from above. He knew better.
Aliens would come. Gods would descend. Artificial intelligence would rebel. Half the universe would vanish.
Unless someone fixed it first.
He exhaled slowly.
He did not want to be a hero.
Heroes died.
What he wanted was stability. A world where catastrophes were prevented before they escalated into apocalyptic events. A system that did not rely on flawed individuals making emotional decisions.
The Avengers were impressive, but they were also unstable by design. Strong personalities, conflicting ideologies, unchecked power. It only took one mistake.
Ultron, in the original timeline, had been that mistake.
Tony Stark's mistake.
Yiping's eyes narrowed slightly.
This time, things could be different.
If development was guided carefully… if certain technologies appeared earlier under safer conditions… if the right safeguards were installed from the beginning…
Then maybe Sokovia would never happen.
Maybe the Snap would never happen.
Maybe—
He stopped himself.
That line of thinking was dangerous.
Every transmigrator story he remembered shared one common failure. The protagonist believed knowledge equaled control. They pushed too hard, changed too much, and triggered outcomes worse than the original timeline.
He would not make that mistake.
Small adjustments.
Subtle influence.
No sudden leaps.
Tony Stark, however, was a problem.
Too perceptive.
Yiping replayed their conversation in his mind. The pauses. The questions disguised as jokes. The casual probing.
Tony suspected something.
Not everything.
But enough.
That meant Yiping had to accelerate slightly.
Not visibly. Never visibly.
Just enough to stay useful.
Useful people were kept close.
And being close to the center of power meant safety.
At least, that was the plan.
He smiled faintly.
"Let's see who adapts faster," he murmured to himself.
Behind him, unseen by Yiping, a small inactive diagnostic drone in the ceiling silently recorded everything.
Tony Stark had never trusted coincidences.
And somewhere far beyond this world, forces neither of them were aware of had already noticed that the timeline's flow was beginning to deviate.
The game had started long before either player realized it.
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