Marvel: The Sole Player

Although the human before him was sharp-tongued, vengeful, devious, and despicable...

Black Sky had to admit that the other party’s body was indeed very excellent, far stronger than Elektra’s, not even on the same level.

More importantly, this guy was clearly a mage from Kamar-Taj, yet his body was as clean as a blank sheet of paper, without a single trace left by a Dimensional Demon God.

One should know that in the circle of mages, almost no one can avoid getting involved with Dimensional Demon Gods.

When they cast spells, they often have to use themselves as a price to borrow power from Dimensional Demon Gods; their bodies or souls would be tainted with the other party’s aura, which was like being labeled as "owned."

When other demon gods saw this, they knew someone had already laid claim to it and usually didn’t bother to snatch it to avoid conflict.

But Darian was different.

He was clean, without a trace of any Dimensional Demon God’s aura, not looking like a mage at all.

The more Black Sky thought about it, the more excited he became.

Isn’t this the most ideal perfect vessel!?

He hadn’t been targeted by other Dimensional Demon Gods, and his physical quality was so strong.

If he could take over Darian’s body, he could bring more of his own power to Earth, and he could stay on Earth openly using Darian’s identity. Unlike his current vessel which was smuggled in, even if the Sorcerer Supreme investigated, she might not necessarily find anything unusual.

Anyway, this vessel of his was already unable to hold on. Instead of failing like this, he might as well take a gamble.

"Let’s do it!"

A greedy light flashed in Black Sky’s eyes. Ignoring his nearly collapsing body, he forcibly stopped the self-repair.

He grabbed Darian’s arm, and black energy surged out instantly like a floodgate being opened, pouring continuously into Darian.

The next second, a notification sound rang in Darian’s mind.

[NPC Black Sky is voluntarily gifting you the Beast Power. Do you accept?]

Darian raised an eyebrow, instantly guessing Black Sky’s thoughts, and the expression on his face became a bit subtle.

Does this demon have a hole in his brain?

Without even thinking, he clicked accept.

[Attributes: Strength 104→105, Agility 63→64, Constitution 63→64, Spirit 63→64]

The moment Darian accepted, his various attributes began to skyrocket.

Darian’s breath hitched for a moment. He quickly retracted the energy output from his eyes and put on a terrified look: "Damn it! What are you trying to do?"

Black Sky didn’t notice anything wrong at all and laughed wildly: "You destroyed my vessel, so pay me back with your body!"

"Bastard! Stop it!"

Darian raised his voice, his inner Best Actor possessed him. His voice carried three parts fear, three parts panic, and four parts terror.

"Hahaha, give up struggling!"

Seeing Darian’s reaction, Black Sky became even more smug. He immediately accelerated the speed of the energy invasion, pouring all his remaining power into Darian’s body.

As long as his power successfully entered Darian’s body, he could completely control Darian’s body just like he controlled his current vessel.

Under the infusion of black energy, Darian’s whole body was emitting black gas, and his body began to tremble violently, as if he were desperately resisting.

"Wait, no..."

"Hahaha, it’s too late to beg for mercy now!"

"No, don’t, don’t stop!"

"???"

Black Sky suddenly felt something was wrong.

After his power was poured into Darian’s body, there was actually no reaction at all, as if it had been sucked into a black hole, disappearing without a sound.

Oh no, it’s a trap!

Black Sky’s heart skipped a beat, and he reacted instantly, desperately trying to take back his power, but it was already too late.

That warm power of his had all turned into cold numbers on Darian’s attribute panel; there was nothing left.

"How can this be!?"

Black Sky’s expression froze instantly; this was not how the plot was supposed to go.

Seeing Black Sky stop, Darian urged: "Keep going, why did you stop?"

Keep going my ass! His power had been sucked dry, not a single drop left!

Black Sky was exasperated: "Cunning human, you actually deceived me!"

Seeing this, Darian stopped pretending and said cheerfully: "How did I deceive you? You were the one who took the initiative to give me your power."

"Bastard!!"

Black Sky was shaking with rage.

Back then, he had been deceived once by that bald mage. After lending his power out, he still hadn’t gotten it back to this day.

He never expected that he would fall into the same pit twice, and this time he had jumped in voluntarily.

Black Sky wanted to curse a few more times, but his power had been sucked clean by Darian, and he couldn’t even maintain his basic form.

Seeing that no more oil could be squeezed out of Black Sky, Darian grinned: "To thank you for your big gift, I’ll send you back home."

Where else could Black Sky’s home be? Hell, of course.

Without waiting for Black Sky to reply, Darian’s chest burst with dazzling light, Charging up and blasting out!

The energy beam enveloped Black Sky completely. Without the support of power, his body dissipated bit by bit in the energy beam.

"No—!"

Black Sky let out an unwilling roar.

Without any surprise, under the destruction of the energy beam, his body completely dissipated.

Darian checked his personal panel.

[Attributes: Strength 111, Agility 70, Constitution 70, Spirit 70]

Thanks to Black Sky’s generous contribution, his attributes had undergone a surge, increasing by a full twenty-plus points.

This wave was a huge profit!

Darian was both surprised and delighted, thinking to himself: "No wonder Ancient One often borrows from those Dimensional Demon Gods; it’s practically a business with no capital!"

Unfortunately, this path couldn’t be imitated.

Firstly, those Dimensional Demon Gods aren’t suckers. Except for someone like Black Sky who came to the door himself, people won’t just lend you power casually.

Secondly, Ancient One can be a deadbeat because her fists are hard enough, plus she definitely has other trump cards, so she’s not afraid of those Dimensional Demon Gods settling scores later.

If any other mage dared to play like this, the grass on their grave would probably be several meters high by now.

Just then, the system’s voice rang out again.

[Task "Five Shadows’ Plot" settlement complete!]

[Reward obtained: Level 9 S.H.I.E.L.D. (HYDRA) Agent Clearance Qualification]

[Your S.H.I.E.L.D. (HYDRA) identity clearance has been upgraded to: Level 9]

[New functional modules unlocked!]

[Function 1: Employment System activated]

[Function 2: Interaction System activated]

[Employment System: You can hire NPCs to help you take or complete tasks]

[Interaction System: You can add NPCs as friends, send private messages, create chat groups, send locations, etc.]

It was truly a pillow for a sleepyhead.

Darian was just worrying about having to report to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters every day to pick up daily tasks for the X-Squad and then having to personally go back to turn them in after finishing; it was too much of a waste of time to go back and forth.

Now with the Employment System, he could just throw these matters to the X-Squad to handle themselves. No matter where he was, the rewards for daily tasks would come to him.

As for the Interaction System, this function was common in other games, but mostly used in multiplayer games to interact with other players.

Interacting with NPCs in a game like this was indeed rare.

After dealing with Black Sky, Darian retracted his ultron armor and walked over to the few Superheroes who had been watching the show for a long time.

Daniel looked at Darian cautiously: "Are you okay?"

Darian waved his hand: "I’m fine."

Daniel looked at Darian’s body emitting black gas; he looked like he was almost catching up to Luke Cage.

This didn’t look like he was "fine."

Darian knew Daniel was worried about him being influenced by Black Sky’s power and explained: "Don’t worry, my heart is full of a sense of justice; this kind of evil power can’t influence my will."

No one present really believed it.

More than that, they were more willing to believe that Darian’s own evil had suppressed this power.

However, Darian indeed didn’t look like he was being controlled, so they were slightly relieved.

Anyone present could turn dark, but Darian alone could not.

They had all seen Darian’s strength just now. If he had a problem, all of them combined wouldn’t be enough for him to fight alone.

Darian didn’t care what they thought. He scanned the people present and first looked at Jessica: "I think we get along quite well. How about we add each other as friends?"

Luke Cage’s face turned green on the spot, thinking Darian had some designs on Jessica.

If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have to worry, after all, Jessica’s strength wasn’t something an ordinary person could withstand, but Darian’s constitution was clearly not within that range.

However, Darian didn’t just stare at Jessica alone, but sent friend requests to everyone present one by one.

The few didn’t know what Darian was up to, but they still agreed. Even Frank, who had a face that said "keep away," didn’t refuse.

After all, Darian was someone from above, with an official position. Maybe he could ask for some information to see if his wife and children were up there. If they were, he could see if he could ask for a favor to help take care of them.

Soon, a string of Superheroes’ names appeared in Darian’s friend list, all showing as online, and he could even click on their avatars to see their detailed information.

Out of curiosity, Darian sent a private message to Matt.

"Are you there?"

Matt was stunned for a moment and asked Darian: "Are you the one speaking?"

Darian didn’t answer directly but sent another sentence in the private chat: "It’s me. I’m trying out a new ability."

Matt frowned.

He clearly felt that Darian’s mouth didn’t move, but the voice indeed appeared in his brain.

Then, a picture suddenly appeared in his mind.

In the photo, he was lying in Luke Cage’s arms like a little daughter-in-law, and Jessica was next to him like an incompetent wife, covering her face and crying.

This was exactly one of the silly photos Darian had taken after defeating them back then.

Matt’s face turned black: "What kind of photo is this? Delete it quickly!"

But he immediately came to his senses.

Isn’t he blind? Why could he see the photo?

Hearing Matt’s words, Darian thought to himself that this function was quite something, even a blind person could see the picture directly.

He was quite satisfied with this.

This was equivalent to having a simple Telepathy channel. In the future, even eye contact would be unnecessary; they could just send messages privately in secret.

The incident in Hells Kitchen soon spread.

There were many people who saw Darian and Black Sky fighting that night, and it spread through half of New York overnight.

Some said they saw an Angel and a demon fighting. The Angel couldn’t win at first, but later put on a suit of high-tech armor and directly pinned the demon to the ground and beat him.

When the news got out, many people’s first reaction was that it was fake.

What the heck?

An Angel wearing high-tech armor?

Is Heaven already this cyberpunk now?

Major online platforms directly exploded with constant discussion.

"Holy crap, are there really Angels and demons?"

"Is that one in the armor really an Angel? To me, he looks like a relative of Iron Man."

"Could it be that Angels are Aliens, and that armor is actually Alien technology?"

"You guys are all missing the point, right? The point is there really are demons in Hells Kitchen!"

The gang members in Hells Kitchen also received the news and curled up one after another, not daring to show their faces, for fear that the big shot Angel might pass by and, seeing them as unpleasant, conveniently one-shot them with a basic attack.

The underground World of Hells Kitchen rarely had a period of peace.

But another group of people swarmed in like they were on stimulants.

A large number of outsiders suddenly appeared on the streets of Hells Kitchen, just to find that mysterious Angel.

This was a chance to go to Heaven; who wouldn’t want to strive for it?

As for Darian himself, who was at the center of the storm, he didn’t take these things to heart at all.

He teleported to several places, even returned to the X-Men Universe, and added almost everyone he knew.

The friend list went from just a few to a dense, long string.

There were all kinds of people.

Superheroes, gods, Mutants, and even a few who weren’t human.

In terms of the richness of the friend list, probably no one could beat Darian.

After adding friends, Darian began to study the chat group function.

He opened the interaction interface, clicked on create group chat, and found that he could pull friends into the chat group at will, without any restrictions.

Darian scanned the friend list and suddenly noticed an interesting situation, immediately pulling two friends into the chat group.

[Pietro Maximonov has joined the chat group]

[Pietro Maximonov has joined the chat group]

Pietro: ???

Pietro: ???

The two Pietros looked at the semi-transparent chat interface in front of them, completely dumbfounded.

Especially the Quicksilver from X-Men; the timeline he was in was quite early, let alone chat groups, he didn’t even have a smartphone, how would he know what this was.

However, Darian sent the basic operation instructions of the chat group to the group announcement. Quicksilver read it twice and roughly understood what this thing was for.

But he soon discovered something was wrong.

Pietro: Who are you? Why is your name exactly the same as mine?

Pietro: I should be the one asking you that. Why is your name the same as mine?

Pietro: Funny, I’ve been called this name since I was a kid.

Pietro: What a coincidence, so have I.

Pietro: ...

Pietro: ...

Just as the two Pietros were dumbfounded, Darian popped up.

Darian: Let me explain to you. You are the same person from different Worlds. Both are named Pietro Maximonov, both have the code name Quicksilver, and both have the ability of high-speed movement. It’s just that you live in different Universes and have experienced different things.

Pietro: ???

Pietro: ???

Both of them were stunned. That silly person on the other side was actually himself from another World?

This was a bit much information; both Pietros took several seconds to digest it.

However, their personalities were naturally carefree, and plus this was said by Darian, they soon accepted this setting.

After accepting it, the two Pietros instead became interested and started chatting.

To make it easier to distinguish, they changed their names for each other. The Marvel Pietro kept his original name, and the X-Men Pietro was called Quicksilver.

The two chatted for a while and slowly figured out each other’s backgrounds.

Quicksilver: So, you’ve been locked up in a HYDRA Base, accepting training every day?

Pietro: Yes. Quicksilver: Sigh, me too, I have to accept training every day.

Pietro: Oh? You also accept ability training?

Hearing this, Pietro felt much more balanced in his heart; at least someone was as miserable as him.

Quicksilver: Ah? No, no, what I train in is not my ability.

Pietro: Then what do you practice?

Quicksilver: Image Management training for Superheroes.

Pietro: ???

Quicksilver: Now I’m a new Superhero launched by Marvel Company, with hundreds of thousands of fans. I must do a good job of Image Management. Every day is either training or attending commercial activities. My ability is completely useless; it can only be used to count money. It’s simply boring to death. I really envy you for still being able to train your ability.

Pietro: ...

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Thoughts on where the plot is heading? Let me know in the comments! If you’re enjoying the ride, please leave a quick review and toss a few Power Stones my way. Every bit of support means the world! 🙌