(Brain storage area, free storage)
(Fortune God arrives, reading is beneficial)
(Full book title: Marvel Comics: Starting as a Seer, I Spread the Fool to the Avengers. Rookie didn't know Tomato restricts titles to 15 characters, only found out after signing the contract. Can curse the dumbass author here. Dear esteemed readers, after you're done cursing, please leave a footprint.)
Early 2008, Flushing, Queens, New York.
Cold.
A bone-chilling cold jolted Lin Huai awake from his stupor. His stomach was empty, aching with hunger.
Leaning against the wall, he shakily sat up, surveying the shabby rented room that didn't even have heating. His gaze finally settled on the unfamiliar East Asian face in the mirror.
Three days.
He had to admit it: he had transmigrated.
He had transmigrated into the perilous World of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, right at the starting point of "Iron Man 1."
Just as he had finished reading "Lord of the Mysteries" and was cursing the author for being inhuman over Klein's slumber.
Waves of stomach cramps assaulted him; he felt he could pass out again at any moment.
And at this moment of greatest mental weakness, an endless expanse of gray-white mist suddenly spread before his eyes.
High in the mist, a magnificent, ancient palace hung suspended, as if it had stood there since the dawn of time.
At the highest point of the palace, at the head of the bronze long table belonging to the "Fool," a figure shrouded in thick gray mist sat quietly, seemingly asleep.
Sefirah Castle?
It's Mr. Fool!
Lin Huai's heart pounded wildly, a surge of ecstasy akin to pilgrimage washing over his entire body.
Immediately after, countless complex symbols and words poured directly into his mind, etching themselves firmly into his memory.
[Sequence 9 · Seer]
[Potion Formula: 1. Main Ingredients: 10 milliliters of blood from a Lava Octopus in the deep sea, 50 grams of star crystal from a heart-of-Earth meteor crater; 2. Supplementary Ingredients...]
[Requirements for Consuming the Potion: Consume the potion in an absolutely quiet environment and guide it with spirituality.]
It really is the Seer potion formula!
Lin Huai's breathing suddenly became heavy, his fists instinctively clenching tight.
This wasn't a dream!
This was Mr. Fool's 'favor'! It was the slumbering Klein Moretti guiding him!
In an instant, he connected everything.
His ability to transmigrate here was probably due to power unconsciously leaked by Mr. Fool. And this formula was the 'task' assigned to him!
In this new World, he was to act as His anchor, spreading His name far and wide!
Perhaps, when faith from another World gathered, it could cross the barrier between Worlds and help that slumbering idol wake up sooner!
This thought was like a spark, igniting all of Lin Huai's hopes in this unfamiliar World.
He forcefully suppressed his surging emotions, intending to first test whether this 'cheat' worked.
He closed his eyes, imitating the method from the book, mobilizing that faint power from the gray mist, and silently recited in his heart: "My current situation."
His mind buzzed, and he entered a dream.
In the dream, he saw the pitiful few bills in his wallet and the rent notice on the corner of the table.
The dream shattered.
Lin Huai's eyes snapped open. A splitting headache made him grunt, and a warm trickle flowed down from his nostrils.
He wiped it with his hand; his fingertips were stained crimson.
The price.
Not yet a Beyonder, his 'spirituality' was pitifully weak. Every use was an overdraft on his life.
But more chilling than the life overdraft was what he saw in the dream.
Bank account balance: $48.50.
On that rent notice on the corner of the table, the rent due in three days: three hundred dollars.
He looked again at that'sacred' formula in his mind.
[Blood of the 'Lava Octopus' from the ten-thousand-meter deep sea.]
['star crystal' from the heart-of-Earth meteor crater.]
He mulled over these two terms repeatedly. The earlier elation deflated like a pricked balloon with a 'hiss.'
"Ten-thousand-meter deep sea... Lava Octopus?"
Lin Huai scoured his geographical knowledge. Ten thousand meters deep—that's the level of a hellhole like the Mariana Trench. With 2008 technology, even the best submersibles would have to be prepared not to return. And 'Lava Octopus'—the name alone suggests ties to undersea volcanoes or something. Is this thing even a proper creature? Darwin would sit up in his coffin if he heard.
The other ingredient was even more ridiculous.
"'star crystal' from the heart-of-Earth meteor crater?"
He almost laughed in exasperation. Heart of Earth? The Earth's core? And it has to be in a meteor crater? What kind of mythical place is this? Even science fiction doesn't write it this way!
These things simply shouldn't exist on Earth!
Just as he was on the verge of despair, a deeper, more mysterious piece of information, carrying the unique aura of the gray mist, emerged from the depths of his soul.
Not specific words, but a... 'feeling' for him to figure out himself.
These materials indeed did not belong to this World.
But they would soon [have] them.
His arrival was like a drop of ink in clear water. His very existence was slowly and irreversibly [eroding] the underlying rules of this World.
The 'Fool's' Pathway originated from another Universe; its laws inherently clashed with Marvel's physical rules. And Lin Huai, as the 'anchor point' for the 'Fool's' Pathway in this World, his advancement needs would forcibly warp reality, making this World 'grow' Beyonder substances that originally did not exist.
[Lava Octopus] and [star crystal] were not for him to 'find.'
They were new things about to be 'born' after this World was eroded!
This fact stunned Lin Huai completely.
He wasn't a player in a game, following a designed map.
He was a walking source of pollution, a mobile reality distortion field!
This truth sent chills down his spine, but what followed was a sickly excitement from grasping the World's underlying secrets.
This also meant he couldn't buy the materials with money or hire someone to retrieve them.
He had to personally stand at the center of the 'eye of the storm' where the 'Erosion' was most intense, within those major events that could change the World's course, and seize the moment when the Beyonder materials were born!
This made his situation even more dangerous, but his goal was also unprecedentedly clear.
Curled up on the bed, hunger and cold made his mind race.
After who knows how long, the voice of the news anchor from the broken second-hand TV on the wall dragged him back to reality.
"...Famous billionaire, genius inventor Tony Stark, after demonstrating Stark Industries' latest weapon, the 'Jericho Missile,' in the Afghanistan region, was attacked by unidentified Terrorists. His whereabouts remain unknown..."
On the TV screen was Tony Stark's infuriatingly smug face.
Lin Huai's pupils constricted sharply. An idea exploded, connecting all the clues!
He sprang up from the bed and rushed to the TV in two steps.
Tony Stark!
That name equaled a series of World-changing major events!
He was the biggest, most unstable 'eye of the storm' of this era!
An audacious, even crazy plan instantly formed in his mind.
Using his foreknowledge advantage, give Tony Stark a 'prophecy' he absolutely cannot refuse, and force his way into his destiny!
This wasn't just to get some startup funds, but to personally stand on the front lines of the 'Erosion,' waiting for that damn [Lava Octopus blood] and [star crystal] to appear!
This was the only path he could take now, and the best one!
A light reignited in Lin Huai's eyes, but for this plan to work, there was one most basic prerequisite.
From Tony's disappearance to his rescue by the Military, there was about a three-month window...
He touched his empty wallet, glanced at the rent notice on the table, and finally his gaze fell on his own hands, trembling slightly from hunger.
The plan is beautiful.
But first... he had to survive.
Before hitching a ride with that billionaire, he had to earn tomorrow's bread money by himself.