Who knew how much time had passed.
Leon, dumped at the bottom of the sea, gradually regained consciousness.
Most of the wounds on his body had fully healed.
Only a few bullet scars exposing raw muscle remained on his face, slowly squirming as they repaired themselves.
“What the fuck?!”
“Where the hell did this throw me?!”
Gazing at the dark ocean floor around him, separated by a pale blue energy membrane, Leon’s brain couldn’t quite process the situation.
A flood of past-life memories forcibly rushed into his mind.
[Detected that the Host’s consciousness has recovered.
Novice Protection will terminate in three seconds.]
[Three, two, one.]
“What??”
As the system countdown ended, the pale blue energy membrane covering Leon’s body instantly vanished.
The terrifying, crushing pressure of the deep sea enveloped him from every angle, leaving him gasping for air.
“I’m gonna die!
I’m gonna die!
I’m gonna die!”
Not yet realizing how insanely powerful he had become, Leon swam upward with all his might, driven purely by survival instinct!
With a sharp *CRACK*, the two-finger-thick iron chain binding him to the rock snapped effortlessly under his pull, like pulling apart cotton candy without feeling a thing.
“*Gasp!
Gasp!*”
Having finally managed to swim back to shore and escape the threat of asphyxiation, Leon panted heavily, greedily gulping down fresh air.
Lying spread-eagle on the beach, Leon took a long moment to recover before he finally had the mental bandwidth to check what had happened to his body.
So that was it.
In his past life, he had been a Chinese international student in America.
While walking down a New York street rewatching the season three finale of *The Boys*, he had been so infuriated by “Oi Man” backstabbing his own teammates at the critical moment that he actually laughed out loud from sheer anger.
Failing to pay attention, he ran a red light.
Then, right on cue, he was slammed by a fully insured Dayun semi-truck and transmigrated into this Marvel world, born as Leon Stark, the twin brother of Iron Man, Tony Stark.
What happened after that went without saying.
Through a twist of fate, he got hit by another Dayun truck in this world, thereby unlocking the Daily Sign-In System.
The effect of this Golden Finger was pretty self-explanatory: through daily sign-ins, he could earn random rewards that spanned virtually anything imaginable.
From the high heavens above to quantum dust below.
Everything was included, containing infinite possibilities—provided he was lucky enough.
Clearly, Leon’s luck wasn’t half bad.
The Novice Gift Pack had pulled out the Soldier Boy Template.
In a universe that seemed to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Soldier Boy—as the absolute combat ceiling of *The Boys*, a world that parodied multiple famous superhero universes—was at least a force to be reckoned with.
At the very least, he was vastly stronger than Captain America, his original archetype.
Scooping up a handful of sand from the ground, Leon hurled it toward the ocean surface with a flick of force.
*BANG!
BANG!
BANG!* The sand struck the water, generating an effect like a shotgun blast.
And that was nowhere near Leon’s full power—it was utterly terrifying.
Afterward, Leon conducted various tests on his defense and strength, like shattering boulders on his chest and pulling up trees by their roots.
To summarize it in one sentence: he was basically a walking Superman right now, insanely overpowered.
In the original show, Soldier Boy demonstrated crazy feats like brushing his teeth with a machine gun, washing his face with laser beams, and inhaling halothane gas like air.
His physical defense and toxin resistance were absurdly high.
In his prime, his physical strength could comfortably edge out Homelander.
Not to mention the chest beam that could effortlessly obliterate a hundred-story skyscraper and strip or completely erase superpowers derived from physical mutation.
Leon didn’t dare test that blast carelessly.
In short, he was now a walking, talking human nuclear reactor.
Against anyone below divine status, he could execute an instant kill.
(Note: “gods” here referred to Asgardians represented by Thor, rather than cosmic entities like Eternity or Infinity.)
The chest beam’s only drawback was that it required charging up, but it still served as a solid trump card for long-range combat.
Having it was better than not having it—at least it kept him from getting kite-built with nowhere to complain.
Still, Leon didn’t let the power go to his head.
Although this world wasn’t as utterly insane as the comics, there were plenty of people stronger than him.
Without looking too far ahead, just taking the Sorcerer Supreme, Ancient One—Leon was nowhere near her level yet.
If he caused trouble, he could be insta-killed in a heartbeat.
However, Leon wasn’t worried about the Ancient One coming after him.
After all, he wasn’t a villain; he just liked making friends a bit too much.
Why would the Ancient One look for him?
To grab a drink?
Focus on leveling up in the early game.
In the late game, he would protect Earth and eat good food.
[Prompt: Perform today’s sign-in?]
“System, let me see your limits!”
[Ding!
Today’s sign-in complete.
Congratulations, Host, on obtaining “Super Self-Healing.”]
[Super Self-Healing: Rapidly regenerates from any injury in an extremely short time.
As long as a single cell remains alive, a full recovery is possible (recovery takes longer in this state).]
[Description: I hear the echoes of endless life—defy death!]
“Oh damn, a winning hand right off the bat!”
Leon’s smile nearly split his face open.
This ability was practically an open invitation for him to run wild without consequences.
Deadpool: *Let me see what’s going on here!*
In an instant, the deep bullet scars on Leon’s face healed back to perfection, leaving no trace of his prior injuries whatsoever.
[Ding!
First sign-in complete.
Character Panel unlocked.]
As the system finished speaking, a simple, semi-transparent pale blue character panel appeared in Leon’s field of vision, visible only to him:
[Host: Leon Stark] [Abilities: Soldier Boy Template, Super Self-Healing] [Items: Soldier Boy Set] [Note: Items produced by the system are automatically stored in system space and can be freely retrieved or stored within a hundred-meter radius.]
*Hmm…*
*A hundred meters?
That’s more than enough.*
Pondering for a moment, Leon suddenly looked down at the tattered rags hanging off his body, looking downright miserable.
Always conscious of his image, he quickly retrieved the Soldier Boy Set from the system space and put it on.
He instantly leveled up to a whole new height of badassery.
The heavy shield, which ordinary people couldn’t budge an inch, felt like an extension of his arm in his hands.
That was the gap in absolute power.
“I am fucking Soldier Boy!”
…
As the excitement of acquiring power gradually cooled off, the wild grin on Leon’s face slowly faded.
He hadn’t forgotten that his big brother, Tony, was probably still locked in a miserable Afghan cave by those Ten Rings savages, hammering away at iron.
“Obadiah, you fucking bastard.
Just wait till I bring Tony back—you’re going to pay!”
After awakening his past-life memories, Leon could guess with his eyes closed who had sent the assassin in the Dayun truck to ram him.
In order to completely swallow Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane—who viewed Tony and Leon as his biggest obstacles—had completely discarded his humanity.
Now, running at full speed, Leon moved faster than most standard passenger cars.
Since the accident site was relatively close to home, he made it back to the seaside villa in no time.
Pepper didn’t seem to be around.
She was likely rushing all over the place trying to handle the fallout regarding Tony and Leon.