Midtown High. Dismissal.
Vincent walked out of the school gates, his expression serene.
Gwen Stacy stood nearby, her face cold. She didn't spare him a glance.
Vincent didn't care. If it weren't for the System mission requiring her involvement, he wouldn't even bother engaging with someone so ideologically rigid.
He climbed into his Lincoln Navigator, started the engine, and peeled out of the lot. As he passed Gwen, the massive SUV hit a perfectly placed puddle.
SPLASH.
A wave of dirty water drenched Gwen from her knees to her headband.
"SHIT!!!"
Gwen gasped, her eyes blazing as she watched the black SUV speed away. Her pristine outfit was ruined.
"That was Vincent Hall's car," Hannah whispered, stifling a giggle behind her hand. "It's brand new. First day he drove it to school."
Gwen clenched her fists, her teeth grinding together.
"That guy... I am going to have a serious talk with him."
Park Avenue Penthouse.
Vincent sat before his dual-monitor setup, oblivious to the vendetta he had just inadvertently fueled.
He opened his Interactive Brokers (IB) trading dashboard.
Stark Industries (SIA)
Daily Change: -18%
The red arrow pointing down was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
It had started plummeting from $12. Yesterday, it crashed 40%. Today, another 18%.
"The margin calls are hitting," Vincent muttered, eyes scanning the volume bars. "The long positions are liquidating. Wall Street bet the farm on Tony's return, and now they're being slaughtered."
"Yesterday's dual circuit breakers didn't give the brokers enough time to sell. Today, the floodgates opened. This is the perfect entry point."
Current Price: $5.90
"I bought back 156 million shares at an average of $5.63 when it bottomed out at -23%. The market rallied slightly to $5.90 at close, but the damage is done."
Vincent leaned back. He could have waited. He knew the stock had room to fall further. But greed killed the cat. He had already made a killing.
He had returned the 73.4 million borrowed shares to the broker to close his short position.
Net Profit: ~$460,000,000.
(After deducting interest and fees, and excluding his $44 million principal).
Now, he held a long position of 83 million shares in Stark Industries.
This time, no leverage. Just pure ownership.
He knew the future. Once Tony survived the Obadiah Stane betrayal and announced "I am Iron Man," the stock would stabilize. Once the Arc Reactor tech went public, the valuation would punch through the stratosphere, eventually hitting the trillion-dollar mark.
"I'll wait a few days. If it dips lower, I'll use my cash reserves to buy calls on the futures market."
"The turning point is the press conference," he noted. "And Obadiah's hostile takeover attempt."
[System Profile Update]
Wealth Points: 484,000,000
Desire Points: 2,380,000
Ability: Ice-Ice Fruit (Mastery - Stage 1), Psychic Immunity (Passive)
Skills: Mizong Boxing (Novice), Baji Quan (Novice)
[Mission Log]
A Whiff of Fragrance (Infinite Loop): Establish intimate relations with special female heroes. (Blue Blind Box - Stackable).
Spider-Verse Shift: Steal Peter Parker's destiny and create Ghost Spider. (Blue - Rolling Mode).
"Wealth is up to 484 million," Vincent noted. "And Desire Points increased by 80,000."
He tapped the log. The source of the Desire Points?
Intimacy with Jessica Jones: +20,000 points.
Vincent raised an eyebrow.
"So, in the Marvel Universe, conquest is a currency?" he mused. "The System is encouraging me to be... proactive."
"Interesting."
A predatory smile touched his lips.
He shifted his focus to the Spider-Man mission.
"If Gwen gets bitten, will the System force the mutation to work? In the comics, the Spider-Totem usually requires a specific genetic marker. But if the System makes it a mission, it implies the outcome is guaranteed."
He didn't need to overthink it. If he failed, he lost nothing but the bonus.
"Now, for upgrades."
"I need 5 million Desire Points to Awaken the Ice-Ice Fruit. I'm only halfway there. Unless I have a sudden epiphany, my cryokinesis is capped for now."
"But my Skills... those I can max out."
His Psychic Immunity was a passive max-level trait. But his martial arts? Those were dangerously low level.
Vincent had re-learned his family's Mizong Boxing and the Baji Quan he picked up from a master in Chinatown after transmigrating. They gave him a foundation, but against superhumans, "Novice" level was a joke.
"I'm Chinese. I should know Kung Fu. It's a stereotype, but a useful one," Vincent thought. "If I reveal my Ice powers, SHIELD will tag me as an 0-8-4 or a mutant. I'll be watched."
"But a martial artist? That's just 'peak human.' Less heat."
"System, upgrade both skills to the limit."
[Consuming 100,000 Desire Points. Mizong Boxing upgraded to: Transcendence (Realms: Novice, Proficient, Expert, Pinnacle, Transcendence).]
[Consuming 150,000 Desire Points. Baji Quan upgraded to: Transcendence.]
BOOM.
A shockwave of energy exploded within his body.
"Transcendence" wasn't just knowing the moves. It was the realm of Jin (Internal Power).
His bones cracked and re-knit. His muscles grew denser, not larger.
His physical stats, already boosted by the Devil Fruit, jumped another 60%.
He could feel the Dark Jin flowing through him.
Mizong gave him ghost-like unpredictability.
Baji gave him earth-shattering explosive power.
His senses expanded. He entered the state of "The Cicada feels the autumn wind before it blows." Pre-cognition via heightened awareness.
Without using a single ice shard, Vincent felt confident he could beat Daredevil into a coma and go toe-to-toe with Kingpin.
[System Query: Skills have reached Transcendence. Fuse them?]
"Fuse," Vincent commanded.
[Consuming 40,000 Desire Points. Fusion Successful.]
[New Skill: Baji-Mizong Art (Transcendence).]
Hard and Soft combined. Yin and Yang.
His stamina was now boundless, fed by the internal breathing techniques of the internal arts. This would drastically increase the endurance of his Devil Fruit usage.
[Final Profile]
Wealth Points: 483,750,000
Desire Points: 2,340,000
Ability: Ice-Ice Fruit (Mastery), Psychic Immunity (Passive)
Skill: Baji-Mizong Art (Transcendence)
Vincent exhaled, his breath forming a white mist even though the room was warm.
"Now," he whispered, clenching a fist that could punch through steel. "I'm ready for Oscorp."