A warm beam of sunlight streamed through the cabin window, landing gently across the face of a boy buried beneath a mound of tangled blankets.
He stirred.Slowly.Reluctantly.
With a tired groan, his eyes fluttered open, squinting at the light with a face full of pure annoyance.
"Tch… damn sun…"
Elric—though he hadn't heard that name in a long time—raised one hand lazily to shield his face from the golden rays invading his sleep. His expression was the picture of irritation, like someone whose day had already been ruined before it began.
He turned over.
Then again.
And again.
A few more stubborn rolls later, he realized the inevitable truth—sleep wasn't coming back. Defeated, he groaned dramatically and forced himself to sit up, tousled hair sticking up in all directions. For a full minute, he sat there in silence, as if debating whether life was truly worth engaging with today.
Eventually, with all the grace of a zombie, he stood up, shuffled to the kitchen, and grabbed a large water drum. He took a long swig, then let out a refreshed sigh.
Outside, the morning chill waited for him.
The moment he stepped out of the cabin, a cold breeze greeted him like a slap to the face. The drowsiness was gone in an instant.
"...Aah, that's better."
Stretching with a yawn, Elric began his morning routine—push-ups, sit-ups, light stretches, and a short jog through the clearing around the cabin. It wasn't anything intense, just enough to get the blood flowing. The sounds of the forest accompanied him: birds slowly returning to the trees, leaves rustling softly, the occasional crack of a twig underfoot.
When he finished, he wiped his forehead, breathing calmly. It was quiet again.
Too quiet.
He stepped back into the cabin and began preparing for the day's hunt. He checked his bow, his quiver, the simple tools he'd come to rely on over the past months.
Today marked nearly six months since the last time he'd gone to that place.And even now... he couldn't help but wonder.
"How long until I can return again?"
"Will I even get the chance...?"
His gaze drifted toward the window, toward the distant skyline of a city in ruins.
Elric...That was the name he'd once gone by.
But truthfully, he wasn't from here.
Not from this cabin.
Not from this city.
Not from this country.
Not even from this planet.
Hell—not even from this universe.
At least... not his soul.
He had been born here, sure.But in his past life, Elric had lived on another world altogether.A planet called Earth.
A place startlingly similar to this one.
There, he'd lived a normal, boring life.Nothing special. Nothing heroic.
Just a guy craving something sweet on a hot day.The day he died, he had been heading out to buy an ice cream.
And then—
BAM.
Truck.
Not just any truck.
An ice cream truck.
Falling from the sky.
From the fifth floor of an apartment building.
He remembered it vividly: Standing at the door, keys in hand, eyes wide as a brightly colored vehicle crashed through the ceiling and flattened him on the spot.
"Ah... so this is how it ends, huh?""Truck-kun... why must you take even the innocent sweet-tooths?"
He wasn't even surprised. It was such a ridiculous way to go that he knew immediately—he was getting isekai'd.
And sure enough, he was.
Only... not in the way he expected.
Apparently, when he got hit by the flying frozen-dessert death machine, his soul had shattered—splitting into countless fragments and scattering across different worlds.
And each piece of him lived a different life.Each one forged by its own world, shaped by its own fate.
He lost his memories—completely.
Until six months ago.
Something strange had happened.
He'd been pulled into a strange, endless white space.There, he encountered... himself.
Or rather, another version of himself.
A version who had grown up in a world of pirates, Devil Fruits, and seas that defied logic—the One Piece world.
They didn't speak much. They didn't need to.The moment they connected—Power, memories, knowledge... it all merged.
Everything came flooding back.
His life on Earth.
His death.
The absurdity of his isekai.And the terrifying truth of where he had ended up.
This wasn't just a fantasy world.
This was the Marvel Universe.
And not just any part of it—he was born in Sokovia, one of the worst places to exist in the Marvel timeline.
A place consumed by a ten-year-long war.
A country without rest.
Missiles, bullets, and chaos filled the skies.
To make matters worse, he wasn't some chosen hero. He didn't have superpowers at birth or a mystical item passed down through generations.
No, he was just a normal kid——born into a poor family, in a war-torn land.
And his parents?
Killed in the early stages of the civil war.
Since then, he'd lived in the slums—barely scraping by, eating maybe once a day if he was lucky. Some days, not at all.
His life had been a slow crawl through misery.
And this world?It was lethal.
He had three bullet wounds.
And not because he was a gangster.Not because he got into fights.
No—just random stray bullets.Wrong place, wrong time.
Twice, he was hit by two bullets.The third time, by one.
Just walking home.
Just existing.
That was enough.
In this war zone, death didn't need a reason.
It was a miracle he had survived this long.
But ever since that day six months ago, things had started to change.
Because now—he had a cheat.
His soul was connected across dimensions.Each fragment could share strength, experience, skills.
And that pirate version of himself?
He was strong.Skilled.Free.
That encounter had changed everything.
"Hah... my luck really sucks," Elric muttered, adjusting the bow on his back as he glanced out at the forest."Marvel of all places... and I get born in Sokovia..."
He let out a long sigh.
But behind his weary expression...Behind the scars and silence...
A spark had been lit.
The boy who once had nothing...
...wasn't so powerless anymore.