New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters
Independent Training Room C9.
A young man in a white tight-fitting T-shirt and black loose quick-drying pants furiously pounded a punching bag.
Sharp blows from his fists cut through the air.
The punching bag swayed wildly from the impacts, and only because it was a special S.H.I.E.L.D. design could it withstand the powerful blows.
This high-intensity series of blows, without regard for fatigue, continued for a full seven to eight minutes before the young man finally stopped, breathing heavily.
His sweat soaked the white tight-fitting T-shirt, perfectly outlining the muscular contours of his upper body.
Standing approximately 185–190 centimeters tall, with short-cropped dark brown hair, distinct facial features, deep and clear eyes with black pupils and icy blue irises, he looked like a handsome guy of mixed Eastern European descent, although a youthful tenderness still showed on his face.
Clearly, this was just a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy, but with excellent physical conditioning.
Taking a clean towel from a nearby shelf, Rowan wiped the sweat from his face.
Glancing at his watch, he realized that today's training time had been reached.
So he swung his arms, stretched his legs, and began to stretch.
After finishing his stretches, Rowan looked at the north wall of the training room.
There was a punch force measuring device there.
It had a display that was dimly glowing now. On the left side of the display, a series of previous results were shown:
174 kg
179 kg
181 kg
193 kg
These were obviously the results of previous punch force tests.
Given his weight of about 82 kg, such punch force was already considered extremely outstanding.
However, looking at the historical data on the display, Rowan frowned and shook his head slightly.
—It's already been seven years since my transmigration, seven years of continuous training, and I've only been able to achieve such physical attributes. Not to mention becoming a superhero, even joining S.H.I.E.L.D. will be problematic.
As he spoke, Rowan cracked his finger joints, producing a series of distinct clicks, and sighed.
Yes, Rowan was actually a transmigrator.
About seven years ago, he came to the Marvel world and became the younger brother of the beautiful S.H.I.E.L.D. special agent Maria Hill.
Realizing that he was in the Marvel world, Rowan felt a strong sense of danger.
After all, the Marvel world was notoriously dangerous.
And New York, where he was located, was the place where disasters occurred most frequently.
Even if he avoided a series of minor and major disasters, in the end, he wouldn't be able to dodge Thanos' snap.
Furthermore, Rowan had read the comics and knew that Hill would eventually disappear as a result of that snap as well.
Rowan had inherited the memories and feelings of his predecessor and absolutely did not want to see Hill disappear before his eyes.
Under the influence of a strong sense of danger, Rowan had made unremitting efforts to become stronger all these years.
Physical training was the most important part of this.
However, despite seven years of hard training, his physical attributes were still significantly behind the human peak.
With a feeling of frustration and annoyance, Rowan squatted down, spread his arms like a bow, and forcefully punched the wall!
A dull thud sounded, and the numbers on the display began to rise wildly until they finally stopped at 199 kg.
Looking at these three digits, Rowan took a deep breath and remained silent.
Such punch force would be considered very cool among ordinary people.
But it was still far from the limit of human capabilities.
He couldn't even surpass Tyson; how was he going to contend with superheroes and supervillains?
—Training alone definitely won't make me successful; it seems it's time to put the plan into action.
After a minute of thought, Rowan muttered.
There were many opportunities in the Marvel world. Two months ago, Tony Stark declared himself Iron Man at a press conference, and Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk half a month ago and caused a commotion in New York.
Perhaps in New Mexico, Thor had already been banished by Odin.
Many Marvel storylines were gradually unfolding, and with careful planning, it was entirely possible to catch up with and surpass many superheroes.
Rowan had developed many plans over the years, a full seven backup options, each of which could give him superhuman abilities.
However, unlike technology and mutations, he hoped more to become stronger through his own efforts. Besides, he was still young, so he was in no hurry to act.
—Let's check the speed as well.
Turning off the punch force meter, Rowan turned on a device that looked like a projector.
This was a S.H.I.E.L.D.-developed instrument for accurately measuring 100-meter sprint speed.
Rowan walked to one end of the training room, tensed slightly, and sharply dashed towards the opposite end, twenty meters away.
At that moment, he was like a cheetah, his entire body tensed and then maximally relaxed, and he shot forward.
In just a few moments, he reached the other end of the training room.
—Beep!
A red dot on the speed meter blinked, and then a series of numbers appeared on it.
8.7 m/s
—8.7 meters per second…
Looking at this number, Rowan was even more disappointed, because yesterday his measured speed was the same—8.7 meters per second, no progress.
He was actually quite fast, but the further he went, the harder it became to increase his speed.
The highest recorded human speed to date is 10.438 meters per second.
It seemed he was already close to this speed, but it would probably take him another ten years to reach it, let alone surpass it.
After finishing the speed test, Rowan took the towel, pulled a card from his pocket, swiped it across the display by the door, and the door automatically opened.
Rowan exited, the training room door automatically closed with a click, and the display by the door changed from red to green.
This meant that training room C9 was currently free, and S.H.I.E.L.D. employees in need could use it by swiping their card.
Rowan looked up and saw a long corridor, on both sides of which were about thirty similar independent training rooms, most of which had a red "occupied" indicator light.
As the largest S.H.I.E.L.D. branch after the Triskelion headquarters, the New York branch boasted the most advanced auxiliary facilities.
At the same time, the agents of the New York branch were the most "diligent," which was evident from the fact that the training rooms were often almost completely occupied.
Rowan walked down the corridor, not using the communal shower, but went up one floor to the residential complex for high-ranking agents.
These apartments could only be requested by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with at least a Level Seven clearance. Rowan's sister, Hill, was Nick Fury's right-hand woman and had Level Nine clearance, so she naturally managed to get an apartment here.
Swiping his card, Rowan entered the apartment. Inside, it was very clean and bright.
The floor was covered with white oak parquet, and the overall decor style was minimalist with elements of Scandinavian design. Thanks to the large floor-to-ceiling windows, standard for S.H.I.E.L.D., there was a beautiful view and excellent lighting.
Although the apartment's area was only about ninety square meters, there were no common areas, and it had three rooms, each of which was quite spacious.
One room belonged to Hill, another to Rowan, and the third was a guest room, but currently it had become Natasha's personal room, where all her belongings were kept.
Actually, Natasha, as a Level Ten agent, could have requested her own apartment in the New York branch, but after she tasted the food cooked by Rowan a few years ago, she seemed to stick to this place and absolutely refused to move out.
Hill and Natasha were on good terms and fully approved of this. Rowan resisted in vain and could only accept it.
Rowan entered the bathroom and undressed. Next to the sink were a washing machine and a dryer. Putting his dirty clothes into the washing machine and pressing the start button, Rowan turned on the shower and began to wash away the sweat and fatigue.
Fortunately, Natasha had left for a mission a few days ago, otherwise she would probably be teasing him again now.
Having transmigrated, he was at his most vulnerable age, and it was truly difficult for him to resist Natasha's flirting.
After quickly rinsing off, Rowan put on loose shorts and a white T-shirt, wiping his hair with a towel, and entered his room.
As soon as he entered, Rowan saw a flickering, ghostly blue glow on his bedside table.
—Hm? Energy full?
Seeing the blue glow, Rowan's face instantly lit up with joy.
Following Rowan's gaze, one could see a black magnetic levitating stand on the bedside table, connected to a wall socket via a powerful converter.
On the magnetic stand, a ring floated up and down, emitting a bright blue glow.
The ring was entirely silver, with two mysterious runes entwined around it, and between the runes was a ring of blue stones, resembling diamonds.
At this moment, all ten tiny stones were enveloped in a blue luminous mist.