Alex had never understood how people romanticized exhaustion. There was nothing poetic about stumbling into his apartment at 6:17 p.m., suit wrinkled, shoulders aching from hunching over spreadsheets for nine hours straight. Being a junior accountant was supposed to be a "stable career," the kind adults praised with stiff smiles at family gatherings. To him, it was a slow suffocation in fluorescent lighting.
Dinner was leftover stir-fry, cold, because he didn't care enough to microwave it. The real reward was collapsing into his bed, sinking into the worn mattress with the practiced heaviness of someone who'd been doing exactly this routine since college. He unlocked his phone, thumb scrolling automatically to where he'd left off in a Marvel fanfic.
A multiversal empire, cosmic warfare, an empire-building protagonist with enough charisma to split suns,the kind of escapism that made the world soften around the edges. Alex felt the tension slip from his body as he read, the familiar rhythm easing the monotony of his day.
Then his chest clenched.
At first, he thought it was indigestion. But the pressure grew sharp and violently sharp. His fingers trembled, phone slipping from his hand. His heart hammered once, twice, and then seized like someone had wrapped barbed wire around it and pulled tight.
He gasped.
The world tilted.
His lungs scraped for air.
He was twenty-seven. He was too young for—
The thought cut off as darkness crushed him.
Not peacefully. Not gently. It was abrupt, final, unceremonious.
He died.
──────
A cold wind touched his cheek.
Alex jolted, grabbing grass and soil with both hands as though he might fall through the earth. His breath came fast too fast and he scrambled backward until his back hit a tree trunk.
A forest.
A real one.
Towering pines. Damp earth. The faint cry of distant night birds. He could smell moss. He could feel the chill.
"This… this isn't right."
His heartbeat thudded unevenly as panic surged in his chest. His last memory was a fanfic and then the crushing squeeze in his ribs, and now,
A forest.
Not a hospital. Not a morgue.
He pressed a hand to his sternum. No pain. No tightness. His breathing was steadying, but his mind wasn't. He dragged shaky breaths into his lungs, trying not to spiral.
"Okay," he whispered. "Okay okay, I'm dreaming, or dead, or… something."
Then the world froze.
A sharp, metallic chime tore through his skull like a blade of sound.
SYSTEM ONLINE. BOOT SEQUENCE COMPLETE.
Information surged into him raw and unfiltered.
MARVEL COMICS EARTH — ONE YEAR BEFORE THE CHITAURI INVASION OF NEW YORK.
Alex's breath hitched.
Marvel.
Before the invasion.
Before everything went to shit.
More data slammed into his mind: system mechanics, gacha rules, shop functions, point limitations. The impossibility of it all only made it more real, because no dream could have delivered information with such brutal precision.
When the flood slowed, he sagged forward, palms on his knees, panting softly. "Marvel. I'm in fucking Marvel."
It took several minutes to force the chaos of his thoughts back into something resembling order. Only when the ringing in his skull softened did he manage to pull himself upright.
Then another chime echoed, softer this time.
YEARLY GACHA ROLL: 10 ITEMS ACQUIRED. DISPLAYING RESULTS.
He swallowed.
Common Brick
Bucket full of Sand
Thrag (Peak)— Assimilate or Summon
Sword of a common soldier from the armies of Genghis Khan
Wuxian (Legend of Hei) — Assimilate or Summon
Eight Battle Maids — Summon
1billion System Points
A common Samsung smart Tv remote
Amaterasu (DxD) — Assimilate or Summon
One-Time Assimilation Boost Card (Instant 10% Boost)
Alex stared blankly.
Then he laughed. Not loudly. Not hysterically. It was a thin, disbelieving type of laughter. "ok a brick and a bucket of sand obviously usuless but that lineup of characters? I actually hit the flipping jackpot."
As he sat there marveling at his luck he heard hurried footsteps aprauching him, it sounded like at list 3 people. He could hear their murmurs clearer and clearer the closer they got. Then one phrase registered, "Hail Hydra."
He definetly didn't need to think long before making a choice. After all he had to be an idiot not to know what was waiting for him if fucking hydra of all groups got their hands on him. "Assimilate Thrag. Assimilate Wuxian. Assimilate Amaterasu. Use boost card." He probably didnt need to say it out, but the urgency of the situation didnt allow for any sudlety.
As soon as the words came out, he felt
Something wrong.
His blood froze.
The boost activated before he could brace himself.
ASSIMILATION PROTOCOL: COMMENCING. WARNING — BODY LIMIT EXCEEDED. PAIN THRESHOLD SURPASSED.
Agony detonated inside him.
Not pain like a broken bone. Not even pain like a heart attack. This was the ripping, wrenching, searing overload of three entire beings,thousands of years of battle instinct, divine knowledge, spiritual cultivation slamming into his fragil mortal frame.
His vision whitened.
His ears screamed with too-sharp sound.
His mind fractured under the deluge of memories, instincts, killing intent, divine intuition and then snapped back together in the wrong shape, still forming, still reorganizing.
He didn't stay conscious. He couldnt even if he wanted.
The way the system's assimilations works is that it gives him all the skills, memories, experiences and abilities of the assimilating character from the star. It's just that the abilities are limited at what his current self at the time of the assimilation can handle, in other words if he were assimilating a 15 year old, it would be completely at 100% straight away because his body is already physically more powerful than that of the 15 year old. But 10% of thrag, Wuxian and Amaterasu all together compared to his current body is like a drop of water in an ocean.
Even though the system was working to bring it all together while still preserving him, it still needed time and his mind needed even more to adapt.
-----------------
" interlock your fingers behind your head, get on your knees and identify" of them barked.
The first Hydra soldier didn't even see him move.
One moment Alex was collapsing forward, body convulsing. The next, he blurred space cracking around where he had been standing. He appeared before the soldier with no warning, fingers hooking into the man's skull.
A wet, catastrophic sound echoed through the forest.
The soldier's head exploded,bone shards, brain matter, and blood painting the trees in a grisly arc.
The others shouted, raising rifles.
But shadows moved first.
Three soldiers froze mid-step as obsidian tendrils burst from the bases of trees, coiling around their limbs. Wuxian's qi seals pulsed coldly, binding them like puppets.
More gunfire erupted.
The bullets ripple on his body like rain drops, his clothes got torn but his skin only had black stains from the gun powder.
Alex rose off the ground, hovering a few inches above the soil, golden flames curling around his hands.Amaterasu's Solar Authority blazing with sunfire.
He lifted a palm.
A stream of golden flames erupted, swallowing two Hydra soldiers whole. Their screams were brief cut off by the fire vaporizing flesh, armor, and bone.
Alex drifted toward the three bound soldiers, head tilted slightly, movements smooth and eerily silent. His hand sliced once cleanly.
Three heads fell to the ground almost simultaneously.
His mind was still half-broken, drowning in the assimilation. He wasn't fully aware, not really. But something older, deadlier, infinitely more experienced was piloting his body.
His ears could pick up Whispers. Radio chatter. Footsteps farther away in the forest.
more Hydra.
An entire outpost.
His instincts sharpened into a single directive.
Eliminate all posible threats.
His eyes started glowing golden as he turned toward a distant point.
He shot into the air, cracking branches, ripping through the forest canopy as he accelerated toward the base, body still on autopilet.
The forest tore open around him. The night air screamed past his ears not that he consciously registered it. His body moved with the unthinking certainty of something ancient and perfected, guided entirely by instinct carved from eras of battle.
Below him, the dark mass of the island emerged through drifting fog. Lights. Steel. The angular geometry of a Hydra black-site bunker half-buried beneath the earth. Even before he descended, the sensory onslaught from Thrag, Wuxian, and Amaterasu carved the world into perfect clarity: he counted bodies through walls, felt life signatures pulsing, felt their weapons by the faint metallic vibrations they emitted.
104 soon to be dead hydra agents.
He dropped from the sky like a meteor.
The first impact pulverized a concrete tower, flattening it in an eruption of dust and shrapnel. The shockwave ripped outward, blowing Hydra operatives off their feet. Sirens wailed an instant later, sharp and frantic.
"Hail Hy—!"
The cry cut off when Alex blurred forward. His elbow crushed through a ribcage, splintering bone as the soldier folded around the blow like wet paper. Before the corpse even hit the floor, Alex had already vanished again.
A scientist barely had time to turn.
A hand closed around his throat.
The next moment, his body smashed against a reinforced wall hard enough to leave a deep crater, spine snapping with a muted crack.
Gunfire erupted from the south corridor.
Alex floated into view, feet inches above the ground, expression blank and unfocused as golden flame seem to bleed from his eyes.
Twenty soldiers fired as one.
The bullets bent mid-flight as soon as they got within half a meter of him.
qi spread outward as a thin ripple in the air, a subtle distortion that wrapped around the incoming rounds and gently curved them aside. They scattered harmlessly against walls, ceilings.
"Oh shit Its a Mutant!"
Alex materialized in front of the shouting soldier. His hand pierced the man's chest like a hot blade through wax. Fingers wrapped around a still-beating heart, squeezing until crimson pulp oozed between them. The corpse collapsed, twitching.
The rest didn't even have time to scream.
Broken Metal beams surged from the floor, shattering ankles and wrists, slamming bodies against each other with sickening crunches. Some were hoisted upward, bones dislocating as their limbs twisted unnaturally.
A single sweep of Alex's arm unleashed a crescent of shimmering qi, thin as moonlight.
It passed through them like a whisper.
A heartbeat later, the upper halves of their bodies slid off the lower halves, blood spilling in grotesque curtains.
27 down. 77 to go.
He advanced deeper.
The next chamber opened into a long underground lab, white fluorescent lights flickering as terrified researchers scrambled for cover. One scientist raised trembling hands.
"P-please—I'm not—I'm just—"
instinct didn't hear pleas.
The man's head flew upward, landing several feet away with a soft wet thud.
Bodies dropped in rapid succession a spine torn out, a neck twisted 180 degrees, a torso punched through with enough force to leave a gaping tunnel in the body.
The golden flames pulsed violently as Amaterasu's divinity seeped outward. Steel melted. Computers caught fire. Glass warped and dripped down walls.
A squad of elite Hydra troopers stormed in from the far end, shields raised, formation tight.
Alex lifted a hand. Sending a golden fireball at them.
They combusted. Went into a screaming frenzy before turning to ash.
52 remaining.
Hydra's internal automated turrets descended from the ceiling. Heavier caliber bullets.
They tracked him instantly.
Target locked.
The bunker thundered as they unleashed a hailstorm of tungsten rounds and concussive plasma shots. The air tore apart under the barrage.
He crosed both arms to block them from his head. these ones actualy hurt a litle bit.
the where too fast for his qi shield.
He turned a palm towards them.
and curled his fingers inwards muttering "void"causing a small 5 inch wholes to form on each turret. They malfunctioned and blew up soon after.
he could hear Soldiers hiding behind blast doors screaming orders.
"Seal all sectors!"
"Divert power to—"
The blast door exploded inward.
Alex stepped through the cloud of debris.
metal spears erupted from the smoke behind him, impaling three officers in a single motion. Their bodies dangled several feet off the ground, blood dripping down the dark spikes.
Total remaining: 19.
The command center was deeper still. reinforced, shielded, lined with backup generators and emergency protocols.
It took Alex 5 strike.
His fist slammed into the reinforced bulkhead.
The entire wall detonated outward, shredding command personnel who had been standing too close.
A man'commander by the look of his insignia fell to the floor, legs crushed beneath the collapsing console.
"H–hail Hy—"
His skull shattered under Alex's heel before he finished the phrase.
The last group, a cluster of scientists huddled in a corner, stared as he approached with sunfire dripping from his fingers like molten metal. One tried to run.
Shadow chains wrapped around his torso and dragged him screaming back into Alex's reach. His scream ended abruptly his fist shape perfect for killing ripped through his abdomen.
The others fell moments later.
Three by fire.
Two by qi blade.
One by a casual flick that snapped his neck as if it were made of damp clay.
104 hostiles eliminated.
The bunker burned behind him as he rose from the shattered command center, golden flames casting his shadow long across the ground. Smoke curled up into the night sky, dragging the faint metallic scent of blood and molten steel with it.
Above the destruction, Alex drifted silently mind still drowning in the merging tide of three vast consciousnesses, body still acting on instinct, killing patterns still running on autopilot.
The Assimilation wasn't complete.
Not yet.
the forest felt silent
Only fire remained.
And in the flickering gold light reflecting across his unfocused eyes, a new presence stirred inside him,an awareness forming slowly from chaos, preparing to awaken.