Marvel: The Sole Player

The two Pietros chatted back and forth, making Darian, who was lurking on the screen, quite amused.

As expected, the collision of the same person is always fun.

In the future, he would surely go to more instances and cross different servers; it would be inevitable to run into different versions of familiar faces.

If he added all the different versions of acquaintances to his friends list and pulled them all into one group, the scene would be interesting just to think about.

But that was all just for fun.

The truly powerful thing about the chat group is its ability to facilitate cross-realm communication.

There are barriers between the two servers, and Darian currently has no way to freely transport living people between them.

Even a spatial item like the devouring pouch would forcibly wake up any life forms inside during the crossing process and then directly expel them.

As for Max, he is Darian’s Pokemon, and his main body is a bunch of electric currents; he had long since ceased to be within the scope of a normal human.

Therefore, it was very difficult for people on different servers to communicate unless Darian personally acted as a messenger, running back and forth between the two Worlds.

But that was both a hassle and a waste of time, with incredibly low efficiency.

But now, things were different.

With the chat group, this barrier simply ceased to exist.

Darian could completely pull the Hank from the X-Men Universe into the group and have him remotely serve as a technical consultant for HYDRA’s scientific research department.

Although Darian had already equipped Hank with the best research team, the researchers of that era were limited by their level of knowledge and simply couldn’t keep up with Hank’s progress; they could only do odd jobs, while the true core research was basically all carried by Hank alone.

Now, with HYDRA’s top researchers to cooperate, Hank’s research progress immediately picked up.

Speaking of research, the development of Compound Five had already entered the preliminary direction confirmation stage.

Once this project succeeds, ordinary people will have a certain probability of activating the X-Gene in their bodies, thereby transforming into Mutants.

But following that was a thorny issue.

That is, the awakening of Mutant abilities depends entirely on luck; the randomness is too great.

Don’t be fooled by how strong and cool Charles’s group’s abilities are; in reality, after a small portion of Mutants awaken, the Mutant abilities they obtain are completely useless.

For example, things like being hermaphroditic, being able to swap one’s mouth and anus at will, making one’s head pointy, and so on; in short, the Mutant abilities are each more bizarre than the last.

Furthermore, many Mutants’ appearances undergo obvious mutations after awakening; even Aliens look more human than they do, making them exceptionally conspicuous in a crowd and making it hard to integrate into society.

Besides that, some Mutants simply cannot control their abilities, not only hurting others but also hurting themselves.

These Mutants can be said to feel utter Abomination toward their own abilities, only wanting to be normal ordinary people.

So even if Compound Five is successfully developed, how to handle these uncontrollable awakening results afterward is also an unavoidable problem.

Based on this, research into eliminating the X-Gene was also put on the agenda.

Of course, this type of research carries no small risk for the Mutant community.

Once leaked, it could easily be exploited by people with ulterior motives, so the confidentiality work must be done properly.

Everyone involved in this project must first undergo psychological screening by Charles, plus the Seal of Tongue-Root Eradication left by Darian, providing double insurance against the leakage of secrets.

"Agent Darian, this is your Level 9 Agent badge. From now on, S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 9 clearance is officially open to you."

In the Director’s office, Hill handed an eagle-shaped badge to Darian.

A S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 9 Agent—the weight of this title was not low.

In the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. system, the number of people who could hold Level 9 clearance could be counted on two hands.

Even the veteran S.H.I.E.L.D. employee Coulson, who worked his way up from the grassroots to management until his hair was gone, was still only a Level 8 Agent to this day.

Just looking at this comparison, one could tell how heavy the weight of Level 9 clearance was.

However, with Darian reaching this level, no one could really find fault.

From street-level capture operations to large-scale crises involving Alien invasions, not a single mission under his name had failed; he still maintained an astonishing 100% mission completion rate.

No second such record could be found in the entire history of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Add to that Darian’s ridiculously strong power—he could even suppress the Hulk in a berserk state—in terms of combat power alone, he was the undisputed number one; all the other Agents tied together wouldn’t be enough for him to fight alone.

Most importantly, Darian was loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Other Superheroes either kept their distance from S.H.I.E.L.D. or simply didn’t bother to pay attention, and cooperation always carried a hint of reluctance.

But Darian, whose personal strength was clearly strong enough to leave the system and work alone, was still willing to stay inside and accept deployment; this attitude was truly rare.

However, what Hill didn’t know was that in today’s S.H.I.E.L.D., from the decision-making level to the execution level, almost all core positions were held by HYDRA people.

This was thanks to Nick Fury, the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who took the few remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and had them all join HYDRA.

At present, in the entire S.H.I.E.L.D., Hill was probably the only pure S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent left.

In other words, the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. was now under the control of HYDRA, and HYDRA was under Darian’s control, so S.H.I.E.L.D. naturally also belonged to Darian.

Isn’t it perfectly normal for a boss to be loyal to his own company?

Darian took the badge and said, "Director Hill, in the future, except for missions with particularly high difficulty, you don’t need to tell me about other missions; just give them to Skye in my squad, and she will complete them for me."

Hill frowned slightly. "But Skye just joined not long ago. Is it okay to leave them to her?"

She had grown accustomed to Darian’s efficiency; as long as a mission was sent out, it was a sure thing. Now that it was suddenly being handed over to a newcomer, she inevitably felt uneasy.

Darian waved his hand. "It’s fine. I’ve outsourced a Superhero team to assist Skye. It’s not a big problem."

Hill: "..."

This is an official S.H.I.E.L.D. mission; can you really find an outsource for it?

Under Darian’s repeated insistence, Hill finally nodded.

There was no other way; who told Darian to be the gold-medal top salesperson? With his performance right there, she had to give him some face.

Next, Darian called Skye over and had her take the mission for him.

[NPC Skye has taken a new mission for you]

[Mission: Steal Intelligence]

[Objective: Go to the designated location and obtain the target intelligence]

[Reward: EXP +500, Random Item *1]

Perfect!

Darian nodded with satisfaction.

In this way, he could completely free up his hands, leaving these daily S.H.I.E.L.D. missions to the X-Squad, no longer needing to worry about rewards being wasted because he didn’t have time to take the missions.

He suddenly remembered something, pulled out a cylindrical metal device, and handed it to Skye.

"Find a safe place to use this thing."

Skye took it, her face full of confusion. "What is this?"

Darian explained, "A Terrigen Crystal device. After absorbing the substance inside, there’s a certain chance of awakening superpowers."

He knew Skye was an Inhuman and had specifically asked for it from the Inhumans.

"Superpowers!?"

Skye immediately became excited, her eyes lighting up. "You mean, I can have superpowers too?"

Since joining S.H.I.E.L.D., she had handled countless superpower-related incidents and had long been envious of superpowers.

Darian nodded. "Yes, but be careful when you use it; there shouldn’t be anyone else nearby."

"Why?"

"Because once a human comes into contact with the energy of the Terrigen Crystal, there’s a high probability they will die directly."

Skye’s hand shook, and she almost dropped the device on the ground. "Then isn’t it very dangerous for me to use this thing?"

Darian comforted her, "Don’t worry, only humans will have issues, and you’re not a person."

Skye: "???"

Why did he suddenly start insulting her?

Darian also realized his expression wasn’t quite right and corrected himself, "What I mean is, you’re not human."

What’s the difference!

Skye’s mouth twitched. "I’m not human? Could I be an Alien then?"

"Pretty much."

Darian said bluntly, "Your race is actually the Inhumans. It’s just that a long time ago, the entire group moved away to another Planet; you are their descendant on Earth."

Skye expressed her disbelief.

She had been a human all her life, and now she was suddenly told she wasn’t a person; no one would believe that.

Darian didn’t explain much, just told her to take the Terrigen Crystal back and try it.

The next day, Darian saw Skye again.

"I really did awaken a superpower!"

"Congratulations. Each Inhuman only has a fifty percent chance of awakening a superpower; it seems your luck is good."

Darian then asked, "What is your ability?"

Skye thought for a moment, her tone carrying a bit of uncertainty, "It seems to be controlling vibrations."

As expected, the ability was exactly the same as in the system evaluation.

Darian was not surprised by this.

The development potential for the ability to control vibrations was not small.

On a large scale, it could trigger earthquakes and tsunamis; on a small scale, it could create localized floods; its range of applications was very wide.

Skye went silent for a moment, then asked, "So, I really am one of those Inhumans?"

Darian gave an affirmative answer, "Yes, Terrigen Crystals are only effective for Inhumans; humans will only die if they touch them."

Skye took a deep breath, reluctantly accepting the setting that she wasn’t a person.

She followed up, "Then how did you know I was an Inhuman?"

"I guessed."

"..."

Skye’s face turned black.

You can rely on guessing for this kind of thing?

If he had guessed wrong, wouldn’t she have just died?

After helping Skye awaken her ability, the overall strength of the X-Squad had increased by another notch.

Now, even for higher-difficulty missions, with the strength of the few of them, they could handle it completely, without needing Darian to do everything personally.

After entrusting the daily missions of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Skye, Darian stopped managing affairs over there and freed up his hands to start researching the Beast Power within his body.

With the voluntary gift from Black Sky, this power had been completely absorbed by Darian and converted into his own power.

Darian found a place with no one around and tentatively tried to mobilize the Beast Power within him.

The next moment, a surge of black energy immediately poured out of his body, thick like ink that wouldn’t dissolve, rolling and flowing against his skin; the features on his face became blurred, leaving only a faint outline of a face.

Darian looked at his appearance and felt very helpless. "How am I getting further and further down the path of a villain image? I’m a positive character."

But regardless of the look, the power itself was indeed very strong.

Completely different from the power of the Light Spell, which was full of holiness, the Beast Power had an obvious corrosive characteristic; whether it was physical or energy, it would be continuously corroded by this black gas.

"Thanks for the donation, Brother Black Sky."

Darian thanked Black Sky again in his heart.

Big fools... good people who take the initiative to come to the door like this are really rare these days.

Now that he no longer had to manage the daily missions of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the construction of several Bases was progressing steadily, Darian finally had some rare free time.

Free time shouldn’t be wasted.

He decided to do some proper business.

So he teleported back to the X-Men Universe and immediately found Emma, the proper business.

After finishing the proper business, Darian returned to Kamar-Taj and began to neglect his duties, diving into the Library to start improving his knowledge of magic.

Just like that, a few days passed.

[Player please note, a new instance has officially opened]

[Yes/No to enter the instance immediately]

Darian, who had just finished flipping through a classic, suddenly heard the system’s voice in his mind.

"An instance again. What will it be this time?"

Darian did not hesitate and immediately clicked the ’Yes’ option.

The next moment, he disappeared from the Library at Kamar-Taj.

Da-da-da-da-da-da—!

Darian opened his eyes again and found himself slumped beside a black SUV, with the sound of gunfire exploding in his ears.

Clearly, this was a gunfight scene.

He quickly looked around and found a dozen fierce-looking thugs not far away.

They had crazed expressions, holding rifles and firing wildly at the police officers ahead, looking like outlaws.

On the opposite side, five or six police cars were positioned across the middle of the road as cover; a dozen officers were pinned down, unable to lift their heads, only occasionally sticking out a pistol to fire back a couple of shots, the effect of which was negligible.

Darian had not yet received the identity information arranged by the game system, so he could only judge based on the environment; he was likely an innocent passerby accidentally caught up in this gunfight.

After making his judgment, he prepared to find a place to hide and watch the battle, waiting to see the situation clearly.

However, just then, Darian noticed a bald thug moving toward him while firing.

He narrowed his eyes and pulled out his Golden Desert Eagle, preparing to take the other person out with one shot as soon as they got close.

"Darian, you’re actually not dead!?"

The bald thug ran to the side of the car, looked down, and saw Darian, exclaiming in surprise, "Damn, I thought you were killed by those cops!"

Darian: "..."

Fine, I’m a thug too.

Darian calmly put down the Golden Desert Eagle and asked, "What’s the situation now?"

"You haven’t been stunned stupid by a flashbang, have you?"

The bald thug frowned, quickly saying while changing magazines, "Our deal was discovered by those cops from the Gotham City Police Department. That bastard Gordon brought people to ambush us here in advance. Stop talking nonsense; if you can stand up, then hurry up and help!"

Gotham?

Gordon?

Hearing these two words, Darian’s expression froze instantly.

Where have you taken me?

Is this even Marvel anymore?

***************************

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