Marvel Universe Earth March 9, 2013.
Seven months had passed since the Battle of New York.
It was a Saturday.
London.
Mike, who had just celebrated his twenty-first birthday the previous month, sat inside a Honda he had rented from a car rental company in the city.
After parking in front of the abandoned factory, he raised his eyes and looked at himself in the rearview mirror.
He had well-defined features, sharp eyebrows, and a pair of deep blue eyes as clear as the ocean.
To be honest, Mike was quite satisfied with how he looked in this life.
After all, even in the Marvel Universe, this was still a predominantly Western world.
Having an Asian face would have caused him quite a few inconveniences.
As the saying went, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
So when Mike awakened the memories of his previous life at the age of eighteen, he took only a short time to accept his appearance in this life.
Putting his skin color aside, he was actually quite handsome, just like all the distinguished readers currently reading this chapter.
Yes.
Mike was not a native of this Marvel Universe.
He was a transmigrator.
No.
More accurately, Mike had lived in New York City for eighteen years before awakening the memories of two previous lives on the night of his eighteenth birthday.
That’s right.
Two previous lives.
The first was where all his memories began.
He had lived on a version of Earth where various Marvel movies were released.
He had simply been an ordinary person with an ordinary nine-to-five job, as ordinary as they came.
His memories of his second life were from the Sanctuary.
Yes.
The Sanctuary.
The very same Sanctuary from the Saint Seiya universe.
Its full title was the sacred land protected by Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.
Its central area contained the temples named after the twelve Zodiac signs, each guarded by a Gold Saint.
It was known as the last sanctuary protecting peace on Earth.
Mike had been incredibly excited back then.
After all, having been born in the Sanctuary, he naturally had the opportunity to become a Saint and serve Athena.
But…
Just after Mike awakened his Cosmo, before he had even obtained the Cloth belonging to his constellation, the battle for the Sanctuary broke out.
As everyone knew, in the Saint Seiya universe, the Gold Saints were the true constants.
The Silver Saints were mostly supporting characters, while the Bronze Saints, aside from the five main protagonists, were practically background characters.
As for Saints who had not even obtained their own Cloths, they could only be considered apprentice Saints.
They were basically cannon fodder who would be sent into battle without even having a proper Cloth.
Mike clearly remembered the scene from before his death in his second life.
He had joined his companions in sealing off the entrance to the Sanctuary.
He had originally thought it would just be a formality.
He never expected a golden arrow to come flying toward them.
He did not even get a chance to see the Sagittarius Gold Saint before he and his companions were reduced to ashes beneath the golden arrow.
And then…
Mike discovered that he had lived a third life.
This time, he had been reborn in the Marvel Universe.
The good news was that he had transmigrated again.
After awakening the memories of his two previous lives and discovering that he had been reborn in the Marvel Universe, Mike was actually quite happy.
Compared to the Saint Seiya universe of his second life, he was much more familiar with the Marvel Universe.
He only vaguely remembered the events of Saint Seiya, but when it came to the Marvel Universe, he could not claim to remember everything perfectly.
Still, he remembered the general timeline fairly well.
In this life, Mike had once again started out as an orphan.
After gaining consciousness, he had lived in a foster home in Manhattan, New York.
Because of his poor health, he frequently had to go to the hospital.
As a result, even when he was still an infant, very few families were willing to adopt him.
Even when one or two families did take him in, he would usually be returned to the foster home before the adoption process was even completed.
After all, if someone was going to adopt a child, why choose a healthy one only to instead take in Mike, a sickly child who had to visit the hospital every few days?
It was not until Mike celebrated his seventh birthday at the foster home that he was finally adopted by his current family.
They were an ordinary family living in a normal neighborhood in Manhattan and working ordinary jobs.
The man was named Nick, and he was a bus driver in New York City.
The woman was named Meni, and she worked as a nurse at New Amsterdam Hospital.
The couple also had a daughter who was five years older than Mike.
She was twenty-six years old this year and was named Heidi.
She currently worked for the FBI in Washington, D.C., as an FBI agent.
Mike grew up in this adoptive family.
His life was completely ordinary, without any major twists or disasters.
That was until he turned eighteen and awakened the memories of his two previous lives.
And then…
Actually, after recovering from the initial excitement of having lived a third life, Mike never really thought about what would come next.
Although he had transmigrated once again, just like in his second life, he still had no cheat, system, or anything of the sort.
He was simply an ordinary person who had been given a third life.
He clearly remembered the Saint cultivation methods he had learned during his second life in the Sanctuary.
But!
Could a sword granted by a former dynasty be used to execute officials of the current dynasty?
Of course not.
Likewise, because this was a different universe, the Saint cultivation methods simply could not be replicated in the Marvel Universe.
Mike had tried.
It was not that he could not sense the Cosmo within his body.
He could sense it.
But no matter how hard he tried, he could not awaken his Cosmo.
It was as though an invisible barrier was preventing him from doing so.
Later, Mike understood that it was because the two universes operated under different rules.
Saints did not exist in the Marvel Universe.
Naturally, the power of the Saints could not simply be reproduced here.
However, Mike was not overly discouraged or unwilling to accept reality.
After all, counting this life, he had already lived three lives.
His mental resilience had long since become incredibly strong.
So after discovering that Saint cultivation would not work in this universe, and that he had neither a system nor a cheat, Mike quickly accepted the situation.
Besides, there was nothing wrong with being an ordinary person.
Who said that just because you transmigrated into the Marvel Universe, you had to become a superhero?
An ordinary person could still live an interesting life.
After confirming that the path of Saint cultivation was impossible in this universe, Mike quickly changed his plans.
He accepted that he would remain an ordinary person in this life and began thinking about what he wanted to do in the future.
He would simply become an ordinary person with a little money.
He did not need an extraordinary life filled with danger and excitement.
He just wanted to live his third life peacefully while still making it a fulfilling one.
And then…
The Battle of New York happened.
Just like how Mike and his companions had been reduced to cannon fodder during the battle in the Sanctuary in his previous life, his adoptive parents in this life, Nick Ametra and Meni Ametra, became casualties of the Battle of New York.
They died.
They died during the Battle of New York.