Marvel: Starting as a Time Criminal, Stealing Powers

Chapter 21: 021 Start Cracking The Time Tablet!



Although they were both newcomers, the battle that night was fierce!

Wolverine gene vs. Spider-Totem + Super Soldier Serum + Extremis!

The former had insane regenerative abilities—

But the latter had overwhelming charge power and stamina!

Every clash was explosive—armor shattered, cries of surrender echoed!

Even though the enemy was cunning and kept fighting after healing…

In the end, the combined force of the three enhancements proved superior!

Russell emerged as the undisputed winner!

Early Morning

The defeated one lay exhausted, still asleep.

Russell, full of energy, had already gone out to gather supplies.

The location wasn't far.

In just three hours, he returned with computers, servers, arc reactors, mechanical parts, micro-engines, alcohol, medicine, daily necessities, and more.

Laura had woken up by now. Stepping outside and seeing everything piled up on the ground, she was stunned!

She knew Russell planned to bring back some things—but this much!?

"Whose house did you rob?"

After surviving like a fugitive for three years, she'd never seen such a haul.

Especially the arc reactor. As a stable energy source, it was a rare treasure in the Void—like something out of a wasteland.

While assembling the computer and stabilizing the voltage from the reactor with a transformer, Russell casually replied:

"The HYDRA captain tried to trick me, so I took care of him—along with his teammates, Spider-Man and Iron Man."

"Everything they'd hoarded is mine now."

Laura's eyes widened again.

She definitely knew who he was talking about.

Those variants had terrifying reputations and had killed countless people.

Technological genius, magician, and superpowered mutant—the trio was feared across the Void.

No one dared to avenge the dead.

And now they'd been killed quietly, just like that?

After the shock wore off, Laura couldn't help feeling… proud.

Resting her chin on the table, she stared at her boyfriend with admiration and said:

"Russell, you're amazing."

Russell raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you already figure that out last night?"

Laura was not one to act bashful. She jumped up.

"That was just a temporary ceasefire!"

"Let's go another round tonight if you've got the guts!"

After more than ten hours of recovery, she was confident she'd win this time!

Can a young man back down from a challenge!?

Russell put down his tools and pulled the feisty little wolf girl into battle!

He declared right then—

One of them was going down tonight!

No mercy. No retreat. No begging.

Two hours later...

Russell emerged, drenched in sweat.

It had been another intense battle.

And maybe that "exchange of experience" from last night had paid off—Laura's strength had noticeably increased.

But she still lost. Defeated. Armor shattered once again!

There was no helping it.

With the Heart of the Forge running nonstop, Russell was a stamina monster!

After grabbing a bucket of water for a quick rinse, he got back to work.

He stabilized the power supply, mounted the computers and servers, then used Baron Mordo's spell knowledge to create a layer of magical vines that enveloped the house.

From the outside, it just looked like a vine-covered mountain. The building was completely hidden.

This place was now a safe base.

He even planned to build a meditation room so he could start practicing magic regularly.

With his "Knowledge Curse" ability, he was a natural at it.

Time flew, and night fell.

Russell didn't wake Laura.

He ate some canned food, then sat down and began trying to crack the Time Tablet.

Tony Stark's computer was high-end, boosted with additional hardware from his armor. The computational power was amazing.

After connecting the Time Tablet, Russell began digging for its lock protocols.

The TVA's system was completely tech-based. If he was patient, he could find the lock.

And if he couldn't? Then Stark's tech wasn't worth a damn.

He was confident.

As the program ran, Russell leaned back and let his mind wander, reviewing magical knowledge.

There were still three spells from Baron Mordo he hadn't fully mastered, though he remembered their training methods:

[Astral Projection]

[Ixaron's Ice Vine]

[Form of the Archon]

Astral Projection was used to separate soul from body. Mordo had mastered it. But after using soul-extraction techniques, it became unreliable—sometimes failing entirely.

Russell suspected his soul had been marked—possibly by Mephisto, who had tampered with the extraction spell to hide Russell's abnormalities. That was probably why projection didn't work anymore.

Ixaron's Ice Vine was a powerful binding spell created by the great mage Ixaron—not reliant on approval from dimensional entities like Mephista. It was a solid offensive and control-type spell.

As for Form of the Archon?

Russell had already figured it out, even without Mordo's direct teaching.

On Titan, Doctor Strange used it to summon thousands of clones to fight Thanos—it was a high-tier spell.

Russell believed that given time, he could master it too.

Just then—ding!

A prompt appeared on the screen. The program had located the Time Tablet's lock protocol.

Russell grinned… until the next prompt popped up:

[Insufficient computational power. Cannot proceed.]

"What?"

Frowning, he got up and rummaged through the pile of Iron Man armor parts.

Thanks to his [Armor Mastery] trait, he quickly identified a specialized GPU—a high-performance computational module.

He got to work, connecting it to the computer.

If Tony Stark could rig this setup, so could he.

He increased the arc reactor's voltage, restarted the system, and reran the operation.

Soon, a new prompt appeared:

[Decryption progress: 0%. Estimated time: ** seconds.]

[Begin operation?]

Good news: The program could be cracked.

Bad news: It would take three whole years to finish.

And the system had to run non-stop.

Russell groaned.

The computer might not last three years under these conditions. The environment was too unstable.

This pace was unacceptable.

But he had a solution—add more computing power!

Back in his original world, supercomputers were just stacks of powerful hardware. This method should still apply here.

Although he didn't have more GPU modules on hand, there might be some in the black market.

Russell decided to try his luck.

Now that he had teleportation magic and Flight from the Siren ability, even if things got dangerous, escape wouldn't be a problem.

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