Marvel's Number One Genius

Wang Khan woke up one week after being declared brain-dead, causing quite a stir throughout Osborn Private Hospital. Even Norman Osborn, the Chairman of Osborn Industries, came to visit him personally and brought along many gifts.

However, just two days later, not only was Wang Khan discharged, but he also submitted his resignation to Osborn Industries, leaving the top-ten super-conglomerate in New York.

When Norman Osborn signed Wang Khan's resignation papers, he wore a look of regret and handed over a check for 1,000,000 USD as compensation.

This was not a severance package, but rather compensation for a workplace injury. The reason Wang Khan had suffered a brain injury and been temporarily brain-dead was entirely due to a laboratory accident, in which Dr. Shi, Osborn's chief scientist, had died and several others were injured.

Sitting in his Audi, Wang Khan slammed the car door shut.

"Talk about bad luck. Not only did I transmigrate into the dangerous Marvel world where villains run rampant, but the moment I woke up, I ran into the big villain who had already turned into the Green Goblin. I really am unlucky."

That's right, Wang Khan was not from this world. In his previous life, he had been a severe ALS patient who had lived in a wheelchair since the age of 20. After ten years of struggling in agony, he passed away at the age of 30 due to complications.

It could be said that death was a release for Wang Khan, but he never expected fate to give him another chance. At the moment of his death, his soul crossed the dimensional barrier and arrived in the Marvel Universe, successfully possessing this Chinese-American who shared his name.

At the moment of possession, the soul of the Chinese-American Wang Khan merged with the soul of the Chinese Wang Khan.

Because the Chinese Wang Khan's soul was complete and had been tempered while crossing dimensions, it had become much stronger. Consequently, it took the lead after the merger, and the Chinese-American Wang Khan's soul became mere nutrients, fully absorbed. Thus, in terms of personality, he remained the Chinese Wang Khan; he had simply inherited the memories of the Chinese-American Wang Khan.

As a lab assistant at Osborn Industries, his income was firmly middle-class, so he rented a studio apartment in Brooklyn. Upon returning home, he turned on his computer to check the latest news.

"Tony Stark announces the closure of the weapons division, causing Stark Industries' stock price to drop by 47 points. Stark Industries shareholders have called a meeting, publicly announcing that Tony Stark is likely suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder..."

"Osborn Industries' Super Soldier Program with the military has stalled. According to internal sources, the Super Serum developed by Osborn has massive side effects and will likely need to be returned to the equation stage for re-research. This means the hundreds of millions of USD invested in the early stages have gone down the drain..."

Looking at the news headlines one by one, Wang Khan gained a general understanding of the current timeline.

"It looks like this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Tony Stark looks exactly like that big Hollywood star, Downey. But the orthodox Marvel Cinematic Universe shouldn't have a Green Goblin, right? Does that mean anything with a Marvel logo counts? That implies the timeline will have conflicts."

During those ten years in a wheelchair, surfing the internet was almost Wang Khan's only joy, so he had watched every movie Marvel had released over the last decade or so.

Among them, there were several involving the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and based on the current situation, it was highly likely he was in the first installment of the Original Spider-Man Trilogy.

"The previous lab accident must have been caused by Osborn taking risks with the Super Serum under pressure from the military, resulting in his personality change. This means it won't be long before Osborn's original personality is replaced by the Green Goblin persona, turning him into a supervillain. Staying at Osborn at a time like this is no different from suicide."

As a Marvel fan, Wang Khan knew exactly how terrifying the Green Goblin was. The Super Serum he created comprehensively enhanced his strength, stamina, intelligence, and reflexes. Combined with his status as a chairman of a major corporation, the Green Goblin was a villain who could be ranked among the best even across the entire Marvel Universe.

In some Marvel universes, the Green Goblin had even become an opponent for the entire Avengers, proving too much for Spider-Man alone to handle.

Given that this was a composite Marvel Universe, the Green Goblin might not necessarily die by being impaled by his own glider during a fight with Spider-Man as he did in the movie. Therefore, Wang Khan resigned decisively to avoid this supervillain.

Looking at the check in his hand and his own savings, Wang Khan did the math and realized that if he lived frugally, he would be set for the rest of his life. He could just run off to the countryside and lay low; if anything happened, the Avengers would be there to handle it, and he should be able to live out his life in peace. But...

"Not to mention that the Green Goblin is petty and vengeful—once Osborn is fully 'Goblin-ized,' will he come looking for trouble? Even if he doesn't, I've finally obtained a healthy body and I'm a proper transmigrator; how can I just be a couch potato?"

The idea of a lazy life only stayed in Wang Khan's mind for a few seconds before he kicked it away.

"Since I don't want to be a couch potato, I have to find a way to establish myself. The Marvel world isn't easy to survive in. Setting aside supervillains like Loki and Thanos, even low-level 'newbie village' bosses like Kingpin and The Hand are not people a powerless Chinese-American like me can afford to provoke. Add a Green Goblin who could show up at my door at any moment, and I must find a way to become stronger."

As the saying goes, the poor rely on mutation, the rich rely on technology. Being in the Spider-Man timeline, Wang Khan's first target was to intercept Peter Parker and take his place in being bitten by the spider.

But after a moment of thought, he abandoned the idea.

"Setting aside the plot's self-correction, even if I successfully intercepted it, I might not become Spider-Man; it's more likely I'd just die of poisoning."

As a lab assistant for the Green Goblin Serum project, Wang Khan was a top student with a Master's Degree in Biology. He knew very well that Peter Parker's successful mutation was likely a result of "survivorship bias."

In other words, in the entire Marvel Universe, it was highly probable that only Peter Parker would turn into Spider-Man upon being bitten. Even if there were others, the odds were likely one in a million, or even one in ten million. Wang Khan didn't think he was that one in ten million.

"The possibility of becoming Spider-Man is too slim; that's practically Peter Parker's exclusive golden finger. I'd better stop thinking about it. Is there anything else?"

He ran through the profiles of heroes who didn't rely on mutation—Iron Man, Hawkeye, War Machine, Falcon—and realized that with his current conditions, it seemed difficult to replicate their achievements.

"Don't transmigrators usually have systems? Why don't I have one? Do I need a password? Open Sesame~~ Kamehameha~~ I want to be the Hokage~~ I want to be the King of the Pirates~~ Getsuga Tensho~~ There is only one truth~~"

He tried every meme he knew, but other than his throat feeling a bit smoky, nothing happened. Wang Khan had to accept his fate: he didn't have a system.

Lying on the sofa in a "Ge You slouch," Wang Khan grabbed his diary and wrote down an equation.

"If we're talking about becoming stronger, I do have one thing on hand: the Green Goblin Serum that caused Osborn's mutation. The potency of this stuff is no worse than Captain America's Super Soldier Serum. The mutated Green Goblin can even go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man. But the side effects are too great; I don't want to develop a split personality and become a bloodthirsty maniac."

Staring at the Green Goblin Serum equation in his diary, a brand-new idea suddenly surged into his mind. Wang Khan almost instinctively picked up a pencil and began scribbling rapidly. Half an hour later, he had calculated a much more complex equation.

Looking at the newly calculated equation, Wang Khan's face was filled with shock. Immediately after, a wave of intense hunger hit him, as if he hadn't eaten in three days; his vision even blurred.

Realizing this was caused by low blood sugar, he stumbled to the fridge, grabbed a pint of ice cream, and finished it in one go. The symptoms eased, but his stomach was still ravenous.

Wang Khan took out two boxes of fast food and put them in the microwave. Watching the boxes slowly rotate, he finally realized what his foundation for survival would be.

"A super-brain, meditative experimentation! If this is real, then relying on it, I can absolutely become the number one genius in the Marvel Universe, beating Tony Stark with my fists and stepping on Bruce Banner with my feet!"