"Where am I?"
Aaron looked around in confusion, seeing an unfamiliar place that resembled foreign architecture.
He lowered his head, looking at his right palm, where a dark, deep black hole was embedded between the lines. It seemed to rotate continuously, expanding and contracting at times, making him dizzy.
Just looking at it sent an inexplicable chill down his spine.
Aaron was a twenty-two year old. Just after graduating from university, as he was preparing to start working, a black hole suddenly appeared and sucked him in.
There, he seemed to witness the birth and destruction of the universe.
The explosion of the endless universe was incredibly spectacular and captivating. And as the explosion struck, just when Aaron thought he was about to die, he arrived in this unknown world.
As he inquired, he received some messages.
The black hole was the primal furnace, newly born from beyond the true fourth wall.
A conceptual furnace that can smelt all beings and also create everything.
It can devour everything, extract its concepts or characteristics, and then return them to Aaron as abilities or objects.
The primal furnace transcends everything, even time and space. It melts everything, yet creates everything. Theoretically, it transcends the concept itself.
Of course, the primal furnace had just been born. It needed to acquire enough data and information to complete its initial accumulation.
And Aaron became its host.
"If that's the case, then why did you send me here?"
Aaron was speechless. Why didn't you say so earlier? Why did you just swallow me upon meeting?
He was sitting at home, and a black hole appeared from the sky, like an abyssal monster.
[That world was too boring.]
It replied coldly.
"Boring? So this universe is interesting?"
Aaron was somewhat dismissive, but then he looked up, and his pupils constricted.
"Holy crap! Stark Tower? You threw me into Marvel?"
Stark Tower stood out in New York, its unique structure and emblem unforgettable at first glance.
Aaron was anxious, this was a world where gods walked everywhere.
[I know you're anxious, but don't be. Now that we are one, we will transcend everything once we complete the most primitive accumulation.]
Aaron's expression changed slightly. "Am I still me?"
[You will always be you. Your soul and flesh have been reshaped. You and I will both be full of infinite possibilities.]
Sounds good, but who knows if you're lying to me?
Aaron thought to himself, wondering if this thing had self-awareness and was quite intelligent.
[You are me, and I am you. I cannot lie to myself.]
Aaron breathed a slight sigh of relief.
If that's true, am I currently asking and answering myself?
He shook his head. Thinking about these things was useless now.
New to Marvel, he was completely undocumented. His main priority now was to make money. In a capitalist world, money equals everything. But before that, what he needed most was to gain power.
Money was the foundation, but power was the root.
According to the primal furnace, I need to feed it things to make it grow? So I'm raising a pet?
Aaron shook his head, looked around, and rummaged through his pockets.
A smartphone, a wad of paper, and nothing else.
In modern society, other things might be left behind, but a phone must be carried. Otherwise, one cannot move an inch.
Considering the Marvel Universe's peculiar tech tree, Aaron didn't expect his phone to be very advanced, so he casually tossed it into the black hole in his right palm.
Almost instantly, after absorbing the phone, the primal furnace spat out several rays of light, which flowed into his body through his palm. These light points quickly strengthened his body.
They flowed into various parts of his body, with more pouring into his brain.
A faint message appeared in his mind.
[Super Brain: Includes absolute memory, powerful retrieval, super processing, parallel computing, and many other abilities.]
[Super Vision: Can clearly see a basketball-sized object hundreds of meters away.]
[Super Perception: Can sense various signals and movements that humans cannot detect, including wireless signal fluctuations, human heartbeats, breathing, or object sizes...]
[Energy Control: Can precisely control energy and calculate and allocate energy consumption for different areas.]
[Lightning Control: Can store and release lightning.]
[Network Manipulation: Can access the network world at any time and easily manipulate it to a certain extent.]
[Super Agility: Gain powerful flexibility, able to easily perform extreme movements previously impossible, and better control your own body.]
[Electromagnetic Control: Can create a magnetic field of a certain strength and control it.]
[Vibration: You can vibrate.]
[Flash Body: You can glow and shine.]
...
Aaron carefully sensed his body, which had undergone tremendous changes.
His heart couldn't help but surge with emotion.
All his exclamations converged into one word.
"Awesome!"
A mere mobile phone could give him so many practical abilities, instantly turning him into a "Cell Phone Man."
What about other things?
At that moment, he thought of many possibilities.
Infrared thermal imaging devices, X-ray fluoroscopes.
Of course, there were also various magical insects and animals.
And the various magical items in the Marvel Universe, such as 084.
(T/N: 084 is what SHIELD refers to an object of unknown origin.)
Of course, there were also the mysterious Infinity Stones.
Even super-powered individuals and the Celestials themselves were objects that could be devoured.
...
Aaron, now a Cell Phone Man, adapted to his surroundings and began searching for new objects to smelt.
His gaze swept across the ground, where a swarm of tiny ants crawled. He instinctively flinched, then regained his composure, locking his gaze on the ants.
If even a phone can be smelted, then ants shouldn't be a problem, right?
Hesitating for a moment, Aaron walked over, brought his right hand close to an ant, and with a whoosh, the black hole in his palm sucked in one ant.
Fearing that the primal furnace wouldn't get enough data, Aaron absorbed a few more ants, capturing dozens of ants nearby in one go.
The primal furnace then ejected several rays of light, which flowed up his arm and into his entire body.
[Super Strength: Able to lift objects 400 times your own weight and drag heavy objects exceeding 1700 times your own weight.]
[Super Physique: Your entire physique is further strengthened, muscle density increases, and skin defense improves, sufficient to withstand pistol bullets.]
[Super Perception: You can detect various pheromones in the air and easily distinguish them.]
[Detecting the same ability, merging...]
[Merge complete!]
[Nesting Master: You possess an extremely strong sense of space, capable of flexibly using various materials to easily create vast labyrinthine structures.]
'I am incredibly strong now.'
Aaron clenched his hand, feeling the sudden surge of powerful strength. He felt like he could one shot a cow.
This was not an illusion.
He was originally 1.75 meters tall and weighed 70 kg. Now, after enhancement, he was 1.85 meters tall. Although he didn't know his weight yet, just by looking at his iron-hard muscles, he guessed he was probably over 100 kg.
True Muscle Man!
This meant he could now lift approximately 40 tons and drag heavy objects exceeding 100 tons.
If he were in the Avengers, with his other abilities, he could barely be a named supporting character. Of course, this was limited to the MCU universe.
However, Aaron was still not satisfied.
This was just the beginning. He could still become stronger.
With this level of strength, he might not fare better than Blink. Having a single line would be good luck.
He still needed to be stronger.
First, set a goal: Invincible on Earth.
Aaron, with the combination of Super Sensitivity and Super Brain, after some training, became proficient in controlling his greatly increased strength. Only then did he leave the alley and walk down an unfamiliar street.
Looking at the people everywhere, Aaron felt a momentary daze.
New land and new people.
Aaron walked and pondered.
Now he needed money, a lot of money.
He even needed to build a force?
How long would it take him alone to collect all the things he wanted?
Forget about 084, even collecting the special creatures that exist on Earth would take him a lot of time.
Aaron didn't like slowly building up a force. If possible, he hoped to inherit an existing one.
His gaze constantly roamed.
What's a quick way to make money?
Supermarket? ATM? Bank?
Aaron shook his head.
He had lived as a lawful citizen his entire life. He couldn't bring himself to do those things.
And he hadn't forgotten, this was Marvel.
"So stinky!"
"The smell is so strong."
Along the way, Aaron kept rubbing his nose.
Low-quality perfume, disgusting body odor, and the smell of various mixtures.
And he could even distinguish the subtle differences, for example, the perfume contained different pheromones.
With his Super Perception, he could easily smell the various pheromones in the air. Every moment there were dozens, even hundreds, of pheromones, which was simply torture.
It wasn't that his brain couldn't process it, it was simply stinky.
Aaron instinctively forced himself to ignore it, gradually gaining the ability to selectively shut down parts of his Super Perception.
At this moment, his eyes flickered slightly.
Should I try hacking an ATM?
Or... kidnapping?