Game Over : Marvel Reboot

The ride back to the warehouse was thankfully, uneventful, the streets of Queens quiet under the dim glow of the streetlights. My mind, however, was anything but quiet. The events of the night replayed in my head like a broken record—the alleyway, the thugs, the young woman, Daredevil, and the cold, calculated way I had ended it all, this world is truly stayed true to its nature. I shook my head, trying to push the thoughts away, but they lingered like a shadow I couldn't shake, after all in YGGDRASIL, my action can be considered as having lighter consequences, but here, the story Is a bit different.

Before I head back home, I stopped by Rodrigo's food stall on the way, the familiar aroma of seasoned chicken and rice pulling me in like a magnet. Rodrigo was there, his sombrero tilted at its usual jaunty angle, his mustache twitching as he grinned at me. Even at the late of night, my man was as vibrant as ever.

"Amigo!" he called out, waving me over. "Back so soon? You must really love my cooking, eh?"

I forced a smile, though it felt hollow. "Yeah, it's… it's good. Really good."

Rodrigo's eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze lingering on my face. "You look like hell, my friend. Rough day at work? Working on double shift, eh"

I nodded, my voice quiet. "Something like that...got to work hard, you know how it is..."

He didn't press further, instead packing up a generous portion of Arroz Con Pollo and handing it to me. "Here. On the house. You look like you need it."

I hesitated, my pride warring with my hunger. "I… I can't. You've already been too kind."

Rodrigo waved me off, his smile warm. "Nonsense. You're a hardworking man, just like me. We immigrants gotta stick together, eh? Besides," he added with a wink, "you look like a strong breeze could knock you over. Eat. Get your strength back."

"Thanks man, oh! And pack me 2 more bowl, this time…here, just don't refuse me this time" I thanked him, the words catching in my throat, and took the food.

Then I ordered 2 more bowl, He even packed some leftovers, citing that I was now a "potential regular." This time I shoved the 16 dollars on his hand, making him laughs out loud.

A few meters away from the warehouse, I spotted a large blue water barrel outside one of the abandoned buildings. It was old and slightly rusted, but it would do. I hauled it back with me, my arms straining under the weight, but the thought of having a steady water supply kept me going.

When I finally reached the warehouse, I parked my bike inside and locked the door behind me. The place was as I had left it—dusty, dim, and eerily quiet. I set up the water barrel beneath the dripping faucet, the rhythmic "plink plink" of water hitting metal a small comfort in the silence.

"Hah~. At least now I can get my long-awaited shower" I smiled as I watched the water trickled slowly at the bottom of the barrel.

I lit up the office room with a portable camping light, its soft glow casting long shadows across the walls. The camping chair I'd looted from the rich townhouse was surprisingly comfortable, and I sank into it with a sigh, setting the table with my food and the laptop.

As I ate, I pulled up my System Status, my eyes scanning the screen. There it was—a change. I had leveled up. Level 11. A small, bitter chuckle escaped my lips. "Of course," I muttered.

"The way to get stronger is to kill. How… poetic… that is how it I going to be"

It was ironic, really. In YGGDRASIL, leveling up had been a game, a way to grow stronger and conquer challenges. Here, it was a grim reminder of the life I was now living. A life where survival meant taking lives.

I also noticed a new skill had unlocked: Computer Specialist (R). The description was straightforward—expertise in all thing's computers, from programming to hacking. It was a skill I knew I'd need in this world, where information was power and anonymity was survival. Also, this skill can be grown, by adding more knowledge about technological stuffs, and it would grow steadily. This Is how YGGDRASIL skills work.

Any skill can be upgrade as long as they were something new that can be added on top of the existing knowledge and information originally obtained to earn/create those skills, and let' just say that in the marvel world there were all sort of technology in this world that could be compounded into my Computer Specialist skill and grow them into a much advance and powerful skill in the future.

After finishing my meal, I leaned back in the chair, staring at the leftovers. "I really need a refrigerator," I muttered. "Can't waste food. I hate wasting food." I don't like wasting foods, especially when I really need them.

With a sigh, I Cleared the table, then turned my attention to the loot I'd taken from the thugs. Five flip phones, all with data connections. I connected them to the laptop, my fingers flying across the keyboard as I slipped into the service provider's network. Within minutes, I had created a ghost phone with full access. A secure line to the internet. One less thing to worry about.

"Those assholes were loaded…the pervert is the riches among all of them…I guess, they were just Bonafide bad folks" I complained to no one, I counted the cash—500 dollars in total. The guy with the gun had been carrying the most, 300 alone.

There were drugs with them as well, but I left those behind. Planting them on one of the bodies had been a calculated move, a way to muddy the waters and make the scene look like a drug deal gone wrong. One guy has a lot of drugs on him and then the others were none, so it would look like there were fights happened because of the drugs and all of them died. Also, the disappearance of the money and weapons, could imply be attributed by some looters that decided to loot the body and ran away, should be a plausible conjecture for anyone that were looking at the situations.

"heh~ who would've thought watching all those cop shows could helped me in this kind of way…."

Moving on, I set up the camping gear—a tent and an inflatable bed that felt like a luxury after sleeping on the cold warehouse floor—I took a moment to reflect on the day. It had been a whirlwind of activity, from breaking into the library to gathering supplies and, yes, taking lives. None of it was normal. None of it was something I could have imagined doing in my old life.

"From the moment I got here," I murmured, staring at the ceiling of the tent, "nothing's been normal. Not a single damn thing."

The money I had now—$7,700—was more than I'd ever had in my old life. It was a strange feeling, knowing that a single break-in had netted me more than a year's worth of savings. But it wasn't just about the money. It was about survival. About adapting to a world that demanded more from me than I ever thought I could give.

I sighed, the weight of the day pressing down on me. "Enough reflections for tonight," I said aloud, as if the words could banish the thoughts from my mind. "Tomorrow's another day."

With that, I lay down on the inflatable bed, the softness a stark contrast to the hardness of the world outside. Sleep came quickly, but it was far from peaceful.

"Uaa~ …. that was some good night sleep…". The morning light filtered through the cracks in the warehouse walls, casting long, golden streaks across the dusty floor.

I woke up feeling more refreshed than I had in days. The inflatable bed had done wonders for my battered body, and for the first time since arriving in this world, I felt like I could breathe. The water barrel, now three-quarters full, sat quietly in the corner, its surface rippling faintly as droplets from the faucet continued to fill it.

I set up the camping stove and boiled some water, the soft hiss of the flame a comforting sound in the otherwise silent warehouse. Breakfast was simple—leftover Arroz Con Pollo from Rodrigo's stall, reheated and devoured with the kind of hunger that only comes from days of deprivation. But the real luxury came afterward: my first true shower in what felt like an eternity.

"SPLASH~ brr~ Fuhh~ that's cold" using a makeshift pail from just a cut out water bottle. I started my true shower Using the water from the barrel, I scrubbed away the grime, dirt, and dried blood that had clung to me like a second skin.

"Yuck! That is on me? Nah…this needs more soap," The water ran brown at first, but by the end, after hard scrubs with soap and brushes, the water that washes down finally clean. I was clean, truly clean, for the first time in days. I felt like a new person, the weight of the past few days sloughing off me along with the filth.

"FUH! Finally, I smelled how a normal human should smell like," As I dried off and dressed in fresh clothes, I noticed something else—my body was healing. The malnourished frame was still there, but the hollowed-out look was fading. My muscles were beginning to rebuild, my skin less pale and sickly. It was a slow process, but it was progress.

Then it hit me. A sharp, searing pain that radiated through every inch of my body. I doubled over, groaning as I collapsed to the floor, my muscles contracting and twisting as if being remade from the inside out. My bones felt like they were being shattered and reforged, my cells screaming in agony as they were restructured. It was the skill—Combat Ascension—kicking in.

"Damn it," I hissed through gritted teeth, curling into a fetal position as sweat poured down my face. "Why does it always have to hurt so much?"

[Combat Ascension (EX)]

[Description: This skill empowers and enhances user's combat abilities, including user's strength, speed, reflexes, and enhanced combat experience. It allows users to grow stronger with every battle, learning from opponents, techniques, skills and power, and allowed the Users to always come out on top in every single battle. Learning combat related skills would be 60% easier to master. And also, fine-tuned user physical body into a perfect specimen, optimized for combat suitability and longevity.]

The pain was excruciating, but I knew what it meant. My body was being remodeled, transformed into a perfect specimen of a peak superhuman fighter. All cells were transformed, my muscle was breakdown, twisted and resettled as it should, bones were aligned again. It was a painful, but it was something that necessary, with this transformation, my body had returned to the body that I should have, the same body that were made by me and used by me in YGGDRASIL, every fight, every battle, every ounce of combat experience I had gained in YGGDRASIL was being engraved into my very being. By the time the pain subsided, I knew that things have become what it supposed to be.

"Back in Yggdrasil, I looked at it and just said, 'neat' and moved on…now…. well, I am glad I'm choosing it…".

I lay there for a moment, catching my breath, before slowly pushing myself to my feet. My body felt different—stronger, faster, more agile. I flexed my fingers, feeling the power coursing through them. This skill made me a natural prodigy in combat, capable of holding my own against anything that was I up against, in YGGDRASIL, I went up against all sort of foe, from a normal goblin to Odin himself, by the way Odin exist in YGGRASIL, the guy was the Asgard last World Boss, that was one annoying boss to fight but, after winning the first fight, since then I literally farmed him for items and materials.

But with great power came great responsibility—or, in my case, great paranoia. I couldn't afford to let my guard down. I needed to get back into shape; My body had been corrected so it was time to give a proper care for it deserved, I also had to hone my skills back and slowly but surely, reclaim the prowess I had once wielded as the High Half-Elf, Shadow Overlord.

"Looking good, hmm~ not bad," I dressed in my new, comfortable clothes—a washed and dried jacket that had become my makeshift uniform. To the outside world, I was just a young garbage man, a hardworking immigrant trying to make ends meet. It was a cover I intended to keep.

My first stop was the local DMV. The process was surprisingly smooth, thanks to my earlier hacking efforts. The ID I picked up read Sai Morvayne, born January 1, 1984. perfect. With the ID in hand, I made my way to a second-hand bookstore, my mind already racing with the possibilities. The shop was a treasure trove of knowledge, its shelves crammed with books on every subject imaginable. I grabbed medical textbooks, physics manuals, cooking guides, and even an introduction to firearms. By the time I was done, I had a box full of books, each one a stepping stone toward mastering this world.

The shop owner, an elderly man with thick glasses and a kind smile, looked shocked as I placed the box on the counter. "All of these?" he asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

I nodded, offering a small smile. "Yeah. I'm… trying to learn. Expand my horizons, you know?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, I can't say no to someone with a thirst for knowledge. Tell you what—I'll give you a discount. How does $300 sound for the lot?"

"Sounds perfect," I said, handing over the cash. It was a steal, especially since I'd intentionally chosen the most worn-out books. I was helping him clear out his stock, and he was helping me in return. A fair trade.

On the way back to the warehouse, I stopped by Rodrigo's stall for another serving of Arroz Con Pollo. The man's generosity was becoming a lifeline, and I wasn't about to complain. I also picked up a small cooler box, a necessary addition to my growing list of supplies.

Back at the warehouse, I dove straight into the books, my Eidetic Mind absorbing the information like a sponge. Hours passed in a blur as I devoured page after page, mastering topics that would have taken years to learn in my old life. Medicine, physics, combat tactics—it all flowed into my brain, reshaping the way I saw the world.

By the time I looked up, 15 hours had passed. The leftovers from last night were gone, along with two bowls of Rodrigo's special. My mind felt sharper, more focused, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. I was adapting, growing stronger, smarter, more capable.

"Thanks, paranoid self," I muttered, leaning back in my chair with a satisfied smile. "You might just keep me alive after all."