Marvel Cinematic Universe?

After calming down, Xia Yu knew he needed to gather more information. He had taken a quick look outside earlier, and judging by the writing, he was probably in some country's Chinatown. There were only a few places where English was used, and taking that pack of cigarettes into account, he was probably in the United States!

There was too little information for him to risk going out, and Xia Yu didn't dare pick up the phone after what had happened. So how could he find out more useful information? After thinking for ages, he suddenly slapped himself and cursed inwardly. Idiot! I've been sitting right in front of the TV this whole time. Why didn't I turn it on and watch?

Xia Yu was incredibly glad he'd made friends with several exchange students in college and become very proficient in English. Otherwise, if he couldn't understand the language either, all he could have done was stare helplessly!

He turned on the TV just as the morning news came on. After watching for a few minutes, Xia Yu confirmed that he was in the United States, though he still didn't know which city. As he watched the news, which offered nothing useful for the time being, he thought about the various works involving transmigration he'd seen, from recent transmigration webnovels all the way back to A Step into the Past, a TV series he'd watched as a child!

Just then, a news report on the TV caught Xia Yu's attention!

A new missile developed by Tony Stark had once again secured a two-billion-dollar order from the Department of Defense!

If the announcement had left Xia Yu dumbfounded, the footage that immediately followed made his brain crash!

Tony Stark? Robert Downey Jr.? Iron Man? Marvel movies?

This time, Xia Yu didn't shout "Fuck." He suddenly remembered Louis Koo's line in A Step into the Past when he had just transmigrated and saw Zhao cavalry: "Oh, shit!"

After watching the news, Xia Yu sat on the couch and considered the situation, recalling what the flyer had said:

Do you want to become an immortal?

Do you want to soar through the heavens and burrow into the earth?

Do you want to live forever?

Do you want to live a life like the ones in movies?

Do you want to become a superhero?

Do you want to rule over a world, surrounded by goddesses?

Wait, isn't this the kind of situation where I should get a cheat or something? Forget becoming an immortal or soaring through the heavens and burrowing into the earth—at least give me some divine martial arts to protect myself! This is Marvel! I know the plot well enough to avoid a few major disasters, but who knows if something might change? While he was still mulling it over, an electronically synthesized voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

"System binding with host complete! Host can use the system by calling it in his mind!"

Xia Yu smiled. With a cheat, things would be much easier!

"System, come out!"

"I'm here, Master. Please call me by my full name!"

Xia Yu was amused. This thing sounded just like Tmall Genie!

"What's your full name?"

"The Intimidate the Barbarians and Show Them That Our Huaxia Has Divine Martial Arts Transmigration Assistance System."

"Whoa, that's long. Aren't you called Qingfeng?"

"I'm not Qingfeng. I'm the Intimidate the Barbarians and Show Them That Our Huaxia Has Divine Martial Arts Transmigration Assistance System, Master!"

"Uh... Can I change your name?"

"Yes, Master! Please give me a new name!"

"You sound so much like Tmall Genie, so I'll call you Tmall Genie. Actually, forget it. Just Tmall!" Xia Yu thought, I've helped Jack Ma expand his reach into the Marvel Universe!

"Very well, Master. Tmall is at your service!"

"Tell me what you can do and give me an overview of my current situation!"

"Certainly, Master. To save you time, I'll transmit it directly to you!"

A flood of memories poured in, giving Xia Yu a basic understanding of the situation.

He was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, movies only, not including the TV series. He was in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York, in August 2007, half a year before the plot of Iron Man 1 began. The identity the system had given him was still Xia Yu, a Chinese American whose parents had both died and who had been raised by his grandfather. His grandfather had been an exceptional practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, with masterful acupuncture skills. Unfortunately, he had returned to China to visit family last month and died there, returning to his roots!

So the system had made Xia Yu a homebody with no family or close ties. Xia Yu strongly suspected the system had done it to save itself trouble, because the memories it had transmitted to him were very basic: a general idea of what his relatives looked like and their usual habits. Besides that, there were his grandfather's traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture skills, and the system had also given Xia Yu an English proficiency suited to his identity. Although Xia Yu was fluent in English, the way he spoke was different from that of someone born and raised in the United States.

The system's main function was to help Xia Yu become a superhero in Marvel. Its primary method was to let Xia Yu earn points through certain actions and exchange them for martial arts, physical attributes, and so on. It would also issue random missions as needed, with rewards for completing them and point deductions as punishment for failure.

It had also given him a beginner's gift pack, which included a storage ring with twenty cubic meters of space, the physical attributes of a special forces soldier, fighting mastery, firearms mastery, and so on!

Since Xia Yu had played a great many games, the system had thoughtfully provided a minimap that could be displayed directly in his field of vision. He could adjust its angle, zoom in and out, and even see enemy positions in combat mode.

"Sys... I mean, Tmall, can I ever go back?" Xia Yu suddenly asked, a little sadly.

"You have no family or close ties, and no close friends either. Why go back?"

Hearing Tmall say that in its electronic voice, Xia Yu felt as though he'd been insulted by an AI. Thinking back on it, though, it really didn't matter. His circumstances weren't very different in the two worlds, except that his parents in that world had died when he was eighteen.

"Since I've come to a world like this, I'll live a good, exciting life. Being a superhero wouldn't be bad either!" Xia Yu told himself, as though making a vow.

"Tmall, how do we start? With my current abilities, I'd definitely be impressive among ordinary people, but this is Marvel! I'll have to deal with Thanos someday!"

"Don't worry, Master. I'll arrange for you to grow stronger step by step. First, we need to fit into your current life and reopen the studio your grandfather left behind."

"I'm supposed to be a superhero! How did I end up becoming an old Chinese medicine practitioner right off the bat? That's way too different!" Xia Yu refused!

"Don't worry, Master. At the beginning, you need to follow the arranged steps. Once you're strong enough, there won't be so many restrictions. For now, just concentrate on practicing Chinese medicine. There's a surprise in store!"

"All right, all right. I really don't know what else to do anyway. A superhero starts out as an old Chinese medicine practitioner!"

The building in Chinatown was Xia Yu's family's private property, purchased with the savings his grandfather had accumulated over a lifetime of hard work in the United States. It had three floors: the first had originally been his grandfather's clinic, the second had been his parents' marital home, and his grandfather had lived on the third. His parents had both died in a car accident not long after he was born. Fearing the place would remind him of them, his grandfather had rented out the first floor to a pharmacy and converted the second into his own studio. He rarely treated patients, instead taking jobs providing wellness care and physical conditioning. He charged high fees, but over the years, he had become fairly well known in Manhattan. He had originally planned to live off the rent from the first floor and spend more time looking after his grandson, but unexpectedly, his work had become a high-end business. He saw only three or four clients a week, yet his income had increased considerably. So Xia Yu was a rich second-generation heir here, with money, property, and rent to collect!

Xia Yu readily followed Tmall's advice and went downstairs to open for business. The downstairs area was elegantly furnished, with many Chinese-style items: a tea table, display shelves, and a rosewood sofa. This was the reception area in the entrance hall. Beside it were a treatment room, a restroom, and a storage room filled with medicinal wines, cupping jars, and many other traditional Chinese wellness and therapy supplies.

The studio his grandfather had left behind had few clients, and they always needed appointments, so there was usually hardly anyone around. Xia Yu went over and sat down at the tea table. When he saw the various teas on the display shelves beside it, he was genuinely delighted. Young as he was, he had been influenced by his father in his original world and had begun brewing and drinking tea with him in middle school. He couldn't help making a little heart for the system in his mind for being so thoughtful!

But after sitting there all day, drinking three or four pots of tea and ordering takeout twice, he didn't get a single customer. Eager to become a hero, Xia Yu asked Tmall again and again, only to be told each time to wait patiently because a surprise was coming!

It was already getting dark, and he hadn't even had dinner. There hadn't been a single appointment, and he hadn't seen any surprise either, so Xia Yu planned to go out, get some dinner, and take a good look around this city where heaven and hell coexisted.

He had just gotten up when someone knocked on the door. He opened it and saw that the surprise had arrived!