What? You're Wanda!

"Let go of that girl!"

"No killing!"

"Take this!"

Ever since knocking out those two soldiers, Hawking had barely had a moment of rest.

Whenever he saw someone doing evil or someone in danger, he could not help but rush forward to lend a hand. Even when reason told him not to, his body simply would not listen.

He was now completely certain that this was an effect of loading the Protagonist Template.

He knew himself very well. He was definitely not someone with such a strong sense of justice, nor was he someone who enjoyed fighting that much.

It could only be said that loading the Protagonist Template came with both benefits and drawbacks.

The benefit was that he could instantly gain strength as powerful as that of the protagonist he loaded. The drawback was that, during that time, he would be influenced by that protagonist's personality and habits.

"Almost there, almost there."

To avoid wasting any more time, he chose secluded routes whenever possible, reducing the number of incidents he encountered. At last, he ran out of the city center, where the fighting was most intense, and gradually reached the outskirts.

Of course, there was not much left of his one-hour Protagonist Template time either.

"Seriously? Again?"

Just as Hawking raced across the rooftops and was about to leave the city, a miniature missile suddenly appeared overhead and flew toward a two-story house not far from him.

More importantly, he could clearly see a terrified couple in one of the rooms on the second floor.

"Fuck your ancestors!"

Hawking pulled the Ruyi Golden-Hooped Rod from his back and leaped toward the house. He commanded the rod to rapidly extend, then swung it and knocked the missile away just before it hit the house.

He landed on the second-floor balcony.

"Oh, God!"

Having watched Hawking split the miniature missile with his staff from start to finish, the middle-aged couple could not help letting out a cry of amazement as they stared at him standing on their balcony.

Unfortunately, before they could recover from the thrill of escaping death, their faces changed again.

From another direction, an even larger missile was flying toward them.

Given the missile's size, if it hit the house, not only would the couple die, but even the two children in the basement downstairs would likely be unable to escape.

Hawking noticed the missile as well.

If he were hit by a missile that large, he felt that even Sun Goku's body might not be able to withstand it.

So he brought his hands together and began gathering energy.

"Ka-me-ha-me-ha!"

The Turtle Hermit Style's ultimate move, the Kamehameha, erupted with force. A powerful pillar of energy shot straight toward the incoming large missile.

"Boom!"

With a thunderous explosion, the missile was utterly destroyed by the Kamehameha, leaving not even scraps behind.

"That should finally settle it."

Lowering his hands, Hawking was about to leave and continue escaping the city when his body suddenly went limp. It felt as though he had fallen from heaven into hell; all the strength drained from his body in an instant, and he passed out the moment his eyes closed.

Damn it, time's up.

Hawking had not expected the end of the Protagonist Template's effect to come with such a side effect.

The middle-aged couple, whose jaws had nearly dropped from witnessing Hawking destroy a missile with a single Kamehameha, saw their savior collapse on the balcony. They hurried over, picked him up, and rushed into the basement.

Dazed and groggy.

Hawking, whose entire body ached and felt weak, gradually regained some consciousness. His eyelids twitched slightly.

Then a little girl's concerned voice sounded beside his ear.

"Are you okay?"

"Hello, thank you, thank you very much..."

Hawking instinctively sang the words aloud, then immediately realized something was wrong and quickly opened his eyes.

Before him stood two children with confused expressions, a boy and a girl who both looked to be around ten years old.

"What are you saying? We can't understand you."

The little girl tilted her head, then turned to the boy beside her.

"Can you understand what he's saying?"

The boy decisively shook his head as well.

The two had learned spoken English from their parents since childhood by watching discs, yet the boy's response had left them thoroughly confused.

"Oh, sorry. My mistake.

May I ask who you are? Where is this?"

Hawking came to his senses, looked around the room, and then asked the two children in English.

In his Previous Life, he had worked in foreign trade sales. Though his salary had not been high, his spoken English had been quite good.

His last memory was of using a Kamehameha to blow up the missile, after which the Protagonist Template ended and he collapsed on the balcony. So, he planned to first draw some information out of the two children.

"My name is Wanda Django Maximoff. You can call me Wanda."

"My name is Pietro Django Maximoff. You can call me Pietro."

After introducing themselves one after the other, they answered in unison.

"This is the basement of our home. Mom and Dad went out to buy food and told us to stay here."

"Pietro, Wanda, and they're siblings... This..."

A terrible feeling immediately rose in Hawking's heart. He asked cautiously.

"Do you know what country this is?"

"Sokovia."

Wanda and Pietro exchanged a glance, blinked, and answered again.

The two thought that the older brother their parents had brought home yesterday seemed a little dim-witted. He did not even know the name of the country he was in.

"It really is Marvel... I actually transmigrated into the Marvel World!"

After confirming it again, Hawking nearly cursed aloud.

Though he was not a hardcore Marvel fan, he had watched most Marvel movies, including some television series, though he had never read the comics.

So he was fairly familiar with the Marvel World.

It might have been possible to explain away two children having the same names, but Sokovia did not exist in reality. It was a fictional Eastern European country created by Marvel.

Marvel was far from a safe world. Not only were there countless universes, but most of them were dangerous. A single major event could destroy dozens of universes.

Even the Main Universe from the movies he had watched faced no shortage of chaotic crises.

"I'll just have to do my best to survive."

After giving it some thought, Hawking could not help sighing.

If Marvel had not been so dangerous, he would not have been particularly opposed to transmigrating.

His parents had divorced early in his Previous Life. They had each started new families and had other children, while he had always been an unnecessary presence in both families. He had long since stopped feeling attached to them.

Living in any world was still living.

"I can't believe I saved Scarlet Witch's parents right at the start. At least this wasn't a loss."

Hawking looked up at Little Wanda in her red coat, and a trace of comfort rose in his heart.

She would one day become a Multiverse Level existence, an absolutely overpowered backer. As long as he stuck close to her and kept his wits about him, his safety would at least be guaranteed.

The prerequisite was that Wanda could not be Blackened.

But since he had saved Wanda's parents, the gears of fate had begun to turn. Wanda would surely have a happy childhood, greatly reducing the chance of her becoming Blackened.

"Now, I need to consider how to survive in this world."

His current body was only eleven or twelve years old, and he did not have any identity. Though his cheat ability was powerful, he could normally only use it for one hour, and its side effects were considerable.

After talking with the two innocent children for a while, Hawking gradually formed an idea.