One month later.
Fu Qinghai sat in his cubicle by the floor-to-ceiling glass window, looking at the busy traffic of New York outside with a look of utter frustration.
Bullshit Stark Industries intern recruitment!
He looked up at the gleaming, iron gray building in the distance; he was at least three full streets away from Stark Tower!
In his previous life, Fu Qinghai had heard of this situation: subsidiaries or small companies under large groups, because they weren't famous enough to attract sufficient applicants, would falsely use the parent company's name for recruitment. The actual entity signing the labor contract would be an obscure small company. Many large state-owned enterprises and private companies loved to play this trick.
He just never expected that the dignified Stark Industries would also resort to this trick!
The company where Fu Qinghai was currently interning, called Beckhart Light and Shadow Special Effects, wasn't even a subsidiary of Stark Industries; at best, it was a supplier with close cooperation and mutual shareholding.
And they still dared to recruit under the name of Stark Industries?
Fu Qinghai recalled the unusually smooth interview process, thinking his forged documents were flawless and his statements watertight.
It turned out they didn't care if he was real or fake at all.
Society is simple; people are complicated.
It turns out I was the clown all along!
Looking at the computer screen and piles of documents before him, these simple, dull, and repetitively boring tasks—did they really require the efforts of "Dr. Stanford," this Fu Qinghai? A graduate from Galliton University could do this.
Fu Qinghai's mood was extremely complicated right now.
He was one step further away from becoming the CEO of Stark Industries.
The only consolation, perhaps, was that the internship salary was decent enough for Fu Qinghai to barely survive in New York, rather than having to line up with the homeless for federal unemployment relief meals.
His instant coffee had gone cold. Fu Qinghai, bored to death at his desk, stared fixedly at the entrance of Stark Tower in the distance, as if gazing at a goddess just out of reach.
The midday sun was as scorching as on the day of his interview, and light spots shimmered on the glass curtain wall.
Suddenly, Fu Qinghai seemed to see a blurry shadow flash across the glass curtain wall.
"Huh?" Fu Qinghai focused his gaze to look carefully, but it was too far away to see clearly.
"Am I seeing things?" The reflected sunlight was too intense; Fu Qinghai wasn't sure what he had actually seen.
"Probably just my eyes playing tricks. Well... I've been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for over two months now, and I haven't spotted any other suspected Reincarnators, nor has that voice in my head reappeared." Fu Qinghai calculated internally how long it would take for him, this fake doctor, to infiltrate Stark Industries.
Not only had he failed to steal any Black Technology from Stark Industries, but the legendary Assimilation Points also seemed far off.
"Tsk..." After thinking for a moment, Fu Qinghai clicked his tongue, stood up, and prepared to get another cup of hot coffee.
Suddenly, a Huge sound, "Boom—," echoed, and Fu Qinghai quickly turned to look out the window.
He saw a large opening ripped open halfway up Stark Tower in the distance, with thick black smoke gushing out.
The sound of the explosion was so loud that Fu Qinghai, three streets away from Stark Tower, felt the floor vibrate.
A commotion and uproar broke out in the office as Fu Qinghai's Colleagues stood up one after another to look out the window.
"What happened?"
"A terrorist attack?"
"Look! That's Stark Industries! It's smoking!" a Colleague pointed.
"Oh God, I hope those Aliens haven't come back." Some employees began to pray; these might be Survivors of the Battle of New York against the Chitauri.
"Quiet! Quiet! Get back to your seats." A short, stout Director was also alerted, emerging from the office to maintain order.
However, the employees ignored his shouts and crowded around the floor-to-ceiling windows to observe Stark Tower in the distance.
The New York Battle from a year ago was still vividly remembered; many ruins in New York had not yet been fully repaired.
Fu Qinghai stared deeply at the chaotic scene in the distance: traffic jams, people fleeing in panic, police officers in black "NYPD" Uniforms rushing over, and the Alarm Sound of the fire department already audible in the distance.
I must go over there. A voice in his heart seemed to remind him.
"I have to go see!" Fu Qinghai made up his mind. Although he didn't know the situation, he felt this incident was extraordinary. He had experienced the security at Stark Tower; it was exceptionally strict. Anyone capable of causing an explosion in the middle floors of the building could not be an ordinary person.
Thus, following the inexplicable urge in his heart, Fu Qinghai pushed past his Colleagues, ran down the stairs, and reached the street.
People on the street were fleeing in panic away from Stark Tower; no one wanted to watch the excitement. Having lived in the disaster-ridden city of New York, this was basic safety awareness.
Fu Qinghai, moving against the flow of people, looked particularly conspicuous. Police were maintaining order by the roadside, and several cars had rear-ended each other due to the earlier explosion.
"Hey, kid, you can't go past..." The police officer manning the cordon stopped Fu Qinghai and was about to speak.
"Boom!!!" Another Huge sound erupted.
This explosion occurred near the top floor of Stark Tower. Thick smoke billowed out, and countless shards of glass and concrete fragments rained down like raindrops, causing people on the street to duck and cover, holding their heads.
The moment the explosion happened, Fu Qinghai and the police officer beside him instinctively ducked to avoid the debris. Fu Qinghai took this opportunity to suddenly stand up and run toward Stark Tower at an even faster speed.
As Fu Qinghai ran, he could hear his own heart pounding "thump-thump."
His rationality was warning him: this is dangerous! This is extremely dangerous!
But the gambling nature deep in Fu Qinghai's bones overpowered his rationality. He had been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a full month and achieved nothing. In his previous life, he was a corporate drone in a private enterprise; did he have to be a mediocre drone for half his life even after entering a Reincarnation World?
"Besides, according to the hint in that piece of Information, shouldn't I have three lives?"
Fu Qinghai rushed to the building entrance. Injured and bleeding people were constantly running out crying. Fu Qinghai sidestepped and slipped inside. He saw that the usually busy first-floor Hall was a mess: collapsed pillars, unconscious people on the ground, and Security Personnel busy treating the wounded who were losing blood.
"This isn't the time to save people, and besides, I don't know first aid." No one paid attention to Fu Qinghai. He stepped over the debris and rushed toward the elevator.
The explosion had spread close to the top floor; there was no time to take the stairs. Fu Qinghai pulled an access card from the chest of a half-severed Corpse wearing a blue security Uniform on the ground. He dared not look at the bloody lower half of the body and held his breath to avoid smelling the nauseating Scent of Blood. Following the location he remembered from his interview, he swiped the card to open the elevator door.
"Ding-dong!" This elevator was still operational.
Fu Qinghai pressed the buttons starting from the highest floor, going down, and the 45th floor finally lit up.
"Hoo... It seems this security guard's access level only goes up to the 45th floor." Fu Qinghai took a deep breath. The elevator door closed, and it slowly began to ascend.
Standing in the slowly rising elevator, Fu Qinghai forced himself to calm down and consider the situations he might encounter next.
"Someone has violently invaded Stark Tower. What is their goal?"
In the original Plotline of the movie, this was Thor's time; there was no information about what the other Avengers were doing.
Then it's very likely not a Plot Character, but a Reincarnator like me! Fu Qinghai's heart tightened. A Reincarnator daring to violently invade the Avengers' New York office must possess strength far beyond a weakling like him who had just entered the Reincarnation World.
Moreover, judging by the situation, their chosen Faction was likely the opposite of his own.
Another explosion came from the upper floors. The elevator shook, and the light tubes flickered on and off.
Fu Qinghai quickly grabbed the handrail to steady himself.
At this moment, he remembered the blurry shadow he saw flashing by from afar earlier. Could it be related to this incident?
"Ding-dong!" The elevator door opened.
Fu Qinghai first cautiously peeked outside. Damaged furniture and decorations, bullet holes in the walls, and a couple of scattered Corpses—fewer than on the first floor—but there were many radial bloodstains on the walls. Apart from signs of a fight, the entire 45th floor was deserted.
Compared to the chaos on the streets outside the building, there was an eerie silence here.
Having reached this place, Fu Qinghai was no longer in a hurry. Rushing up to the high floors on impulse earlier, he could now observe and think properly here. Fu Qinghai approached a headless Corpse in a suit lying on a sofa. The cut on the Neck was neat and smooth, and semi-congealed blood hung down the back of the sofa like a Waterfall. The Head had fallen behind the sofa. Judging by the Corpse's relaxed posture, it hadn't realized the danger before death. On the chest of the suited Corpse was a Stark Industries name badge stained red with blood.
Another Corpse lay near the entrance to the stairwell: a bearded white man in a shirt and jeans, wearing a GEN2 bulletproof vest with Desert camouflage over it. He was still tightly gripping an AR-15 Assault Rifle covered in modifications and personalized paintwork. His intuition told Fu Qinghai that this was not the attire of a Stark Industries Security Personnel.
Furthermore, the scorched hole about ten centimeters in diameter on the bearded Corpse's chest hinted at something.
Could this be a penetration wound caused by Iron Man's palm repulsor? Fu Qinghai thought to himself. Then this bearded man was likely another Reincarnator.
After carefully searching the body and finding no other useful Information, Fu Qinghai struggled for a while to pry open the fingers tightly gripping the handle of the Rifle. He familiarized himself with the positions of the Trigger and the safety, then, mimicking how others played CQB, he held the Rifle, crouched low, and cautiously moved upward toward the large opening blasted in the stairwell to the upper floors.
46th floor, 47th floor, 48th floor.
Along the way, Fu Qinghai checked every piece of electronic Instruments and equipment he could find.
"Please enter password."
"Facial recognition in progress."
"Insufficient authority. Access denied."
The electronic devices gave him almost identical replies.
"Fuck!" Fu Qinghai couldn't help but curse.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter the top floors of Stark Tower yielded him no gains. Fu Qinghai was, at best, a white-collar worker with broad knowledge, not a genius hacker, especially since cracking Stark Industries' firewall would likely require more than just an ordinary genius hacker.
While Fu Qinghai was exploring, explosions and vibrations occasionally came from the top floor, indicating the battle was fierce.
"Only a group of Reincarnators looking like mercenaries couldn't fight Iron Man to a standstill..." At this point, going up one more floor meant reaching the very top of Stark Tower, and Fu Qinghai hesitated again.
He had managed to sneak into Stark Tower, but he hadn't gained anything.
One reason was the unwillingness in his heart, but the most crucial reason was that he remembered the main quest he chose a month ago: "A. Avengers Faction Plotline!"
If... if Iron Man were killed on the top floor, even though it was currently Thor's plot point, Iron Man, as one of the MCU's Big Three Avengers, would definitely affect the overall direction of the Avengers Faction's Plotline.
The group of Reincarnators daring to challenge Iron Man clearly hadn't come unprepared...
Fu Qinghai thought again about the "Reincarnation Life X3" that the voice in his head had told him about...
"Screw it!" Fu Qinghai hardened his resolve.
No matter how elaborate your schemes are, no matter how powerful your strength, and no matter how much of a weakling I am... today, this Fu Qinghai must come and lend a hand!
Saying that, Fu Qinghai still moved toward the spiral staircase at a speed that was almost turtle-like.
Fu Qinghai tried his best to mask his sound, moving slowly while holding his breath to listen.
The fighting upstairs seemed to have subsided, and faint sounds of conversation drifted down.
"So, Mr. Stark, even if not for your own life, you should consider the lives of your woman and friends. Now, hand over the Isotope of the Cosmic Cube." The voice sounded like a young man.
A weak voice replied, "I don't know what you're talking about... What kind of nonsense Cube? There's nothing you want here."
"That is the relic left by your father; how could you not know!" The young voice grew angry. "Look at this face, Virginia Pepper Potts, your poor little Secretary. In the next second, this face will be blown to smithereens by a .44 Magnum bullet!"
That was a very typical villain's line.
"You should go find Nick Fury instead of me. Ha... Just do it. I didn't expect to die at the hands of some stupid Mutant after surviving the Battle of New York."
"Mutant? I am not one of those mutated mongrels. Mr. Stark, you know nothing about the Will of Earth, and you know nothing about the power of the great Orochi!" The young voice was filled with arrogance.
The Will of Earth? The power of Orochi? Hearing this, Fu Qinghai started to ponder...
Could it be... King of Fighters?
Hiss... Fu Qinghai sucked in a cold breath. He had been wondering what kind of Reincarnator could fight Iron Man to a draw, but if the opponent was the fully manifested reincarnation of Orochi from the King of Fighters world, based on the power scaling in that world, the current Iron Man in the Mark XLII Armor would be far from capable of dealing with him. At least Tony Stark wearing the Mark XLVI Bleeding Edge Armor would stand a chance.
Conversely, the fact that he could fight Iron Man to a draw now indicated that the opponent was not the complete manifestation of Orochi's Will, but merely a temporary vessel for Orochi. Fu Qinghai continued his analysis.
"Just" a temporary vessel? Listen to how arrogant that sounds.
"Murakami, stop wasting time talking nonsense with him. The other Avengers are about to arrive. Just kill him and collect the Assimilation Points," said a rough voice.
Fu Qinghai had already crept up to the top floor and was now sitting next to the glass door, listening to the voices coming from behind the wall.
"No, the other Avengers won't arrive that quickly. Since we've managed to corner Mr. Stark to this extent, we can take our time playing with him..." The young voice sneered, clearly not satisfied with the huge amount of Assimilation Points gained from killing Iron Man; he harbored greater Ambition and greed.
"No, I have to do something, or Iron Man is done for today." Hearing this, Fu Qinghai decided to quietly peek out to assess the situation.
So, he slowly extended his head past the door.
He saw the scene behind the door.
One glance nearly froze Fu Qinghai's blood.
…………