Early 2008, Flushing, Queens, New York.
Cold.
A biting chill jolted Leon Hall awake from his stupor.
His stomach was completely empty, and he was dizzy with hunger.
Supporting himself against the wall, he stood up unsteadily, looking around the dilapidated, unheated rental room.
His gaze finally landed on the unfamiliar Asian face in the mirror.
Three days.
He had to admit he had transmigrated.
He had crossed over into the peril-ridden Marvel Cinematic Universe, right at the beginning of Iron Man.
It had happened just after he finished reading *Lord of Mysteries*, cursing the author for being heartless over Klein’s slumber.
Stomach cramps hit him in waves, and he felt like he could pass out again at any moment.
And right at this moment of extreme mental weakness, an endless, grayish-white fog rolled out before his eyes without warning.
High above the fog, a grand, ancient palace hovered, looking as though it had stood there since the dawn of time.
At the highest point of the palace, at the end of the bronze long table belonging to “The Fool”, a figure shrouded in thick gray fog sat quietly, seemingly asleep.
Sefirah Castle?
It was Mr.
Fool!
Leon’s heart pounded wildly.
A surge of near-pilgrim ecstasy washed through his limbs.
Immediately after, countless complex symbols and texts poured directly into his brain, etched indelibly into his memory.
[Sequence 9: Seer]
[Potion Formula: 1.
Main Ingredients: 10 ml of Lava Octopus blood from the deep sea, 50 grams of Stellar Crystal from a core crater; 2.
Supplementary Ingredients…]
[Potion Consumption Requirement: Consume the potion in an absolutely quiet environment and guide it with spirituality.]
It really was the Seer formula!
Leon’s breathing grew heavy, his fists clenching tight instinctively.
This wasn’t a dream!
This was Mr.
Fool’s “favor”!
The sleeping Klein Moretti was guiding him!
In an instant, he connected all the dots.
His transmigration was likely caused by the unconscious leak of Mr.
Fool’s power.
And this formula was the assignment given to him!
In this new world, he had to be His anchor and spread His name!
Perhaps when the beliefs of a different world gathered, they could cross the world barrier and help that sleeping idol wake up sooner!
This thought was like a spark, igniting all of Leon’s hope in this strange world.
He suppressed his surging emotions and decided to first test if this “cheat” actually worked.
Closing his eyes, he imitated the method from the book, channeling the faint power from the gray fog, and muttered 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 eviction notice sitting on the corner of the table.
The dream shattered.
Leon snapped his eyes open.
A sharp headache made him groan, and a warm trickle flowed down his nostrils.
He wiped it with his fingers, finding them stained bright red.
The price.
Before even becoming a Beyonder, his “spirituality” was pitifully weak.
Each use was an overdraft on his life.
But compared to overdrafting his life, the things he saw in the dream made his blood run cold.
Bank account balance: $48.50.
The rent on the notice at the corner of the table, due in three days: $300.
He looked back at the “sacred” formula in his mind.
[10,000-meter deep-sea Lava Octopus blood].
[Stellar Crystal from a core crater].
He turned the two terms over in his mind.
The wild joy from earlier deflated like a punctured balloon.
“Ten thousand meters deep…
Lava Octopus?”
Leon racked his brain for geographical knowledge.
Ten thousand meters deep—that was a hellhole on the level of the Mariana Trench.
With the technology of 2008, even the most advanced submersibles going down there had to be prepared for a one-way trip.
Not to mention the name “Lava Octopus,” which sounded like it lived in an underwater volcano.
Was that even a real creature?
Darwin would turn in his grave.
The other material was even more ridiculous.
“Stellar Crystal from a core crater?”
He almost laughed in frustration.
The Earth’s core?
And a crater?
What kind of fantasy land was that?
Even sci-fi wouldn’t make that up!
These were simply not things that belonged on Earth!
Just as he was on the verge of despair, a deeper, more mysterious wave of information, carrying the distinct aura of the gray fog, surged from the depths of his soul.
It wasn’t concrete words, but a feeling that made him understand.
These materials indeed did not belong to this world.
But they would soon exist.
His arrival was like a drop of ink in clear water.
His very existence was enacting a slow and irreversible [erosion] on the underlying rules of this world.
The pathway of The Fool came from another universe, and its laws were inherently incompatible with Marvel’s physical laws.
As the anchor of the Fool’s pathway in this world, Leon’s advancement needs would forcibly bend reality, forcing this world to “grow” extraordinary Beyonder materials that did not exist before.
The Lava Octopus and Stellar Crystal were not things he had to “find.”
Rather, they were new things that would be born after this world was eroded!
This reality left Leon completely dumbfounded.
He wasn’t a player in a game, following a pre-designed map.
He was a walking source of contamination, a mobile reality-warping field!
The truth sent a shiver down his spine, but what followed was a morbid excitement of having grasped the world’s deepest secrets.
This also meant he couldn’t buy the materials with money, nor could he hire anyone to retrieve them.
He had to personally stand in the center of the fiercest “eye of the storm” of this erosion, catching the exact moment the Beyonder materials were born during major events that changed the course of the world!
With this, his situation became even more dangerous, but his goal was clearer than ever.
Leon curled up on the bed, hunger and cold making his mind race.
After some time, the voice of the news anchor on the beat-up, secondhand TV on the wall pulled him back to reality.
“…Famous billionaire and genius inventor Tony Stark has gone missing in Afghanistan after displaying Stark Industries’ latest weapon, the Jericho missile, following an attack by unidentified terrorists…”
On the television screen was Tony Stark’s arrogant, punchable face.
Leon’s pupils shrank.
An idea exploded in his mind, connecting all the clues!
He sprang out of bed and rushed to the television.
Tony Stark!
That name was synonymous with a series of world-changing events!
He was the biggest, most unstable eye of the storm of this era!
A bold—even insane—plan instantly took shape in his mind.
Relying on his foreknowledge, he would give Tony Stark a “prophecy” he absolutely couldn’t refuse, forcing himself into Stark’s destiny!
This wasn’t just to get some starting capital; it was to stand on the front lines of the erosion and wait for that damn Lava Octopus blood and Stellar Crystal to appear!
This was his only option right now, and the best one!
Light returned to Leon’s eyes, but for this plan to work, there was a fundamental prerequisite.
From Tony’s disappearance to his rescue by the military, there was a gap of about three months.
He felt his empty wallet, glanced at the notice on the table, and finally looked down at his hands, which were shaking slightly from hunger.
The plan was beautiful.
But first…
he had to survive.
Before hitching a ride with the billionaire, he had to rely on himself to earn enough for tomorrow’s bread.