Chapter Summaries

Nick Fury investigated the mysterious weapons test and sought greater power, deciding to use Stani’s impending actions to give S.H.I.E.L.D. an opportunity. Meanwhile, Tony Stark and Jarvis studied Kurumi’s Magic Imprint without success, while Stani began to act.

• Nick Fury reviewed the military report that three new weapons had been tested in U.S. waters, an island had sunk, and satellites had missed the area during a key window.
• Nick Fury linked the incident to the disappearance of the “Moon Eye” and worried that a larger conspiracy was unfolding.
• Nick Fury decided S.H.I.E.L.D. needed powerful allies and called Coulson, telling him to hint to Pots that she should obtain the evidence.
• Tony Stark and Jarvis tried to replicate Kurumi’s Magic Imprint, but the patterns had no effect without spiritual power.
• Kurumi considered warning Stark that bloodshed loomed over him, while Stani began putting his plans into motion.

Kurumi warned Tony that he was marked for disaster, but he dismissed her prediction until Obadiah Stani attacked and stole the reactor from his chest. As Tony began to die from the shrapnel in his heart, Kurumi reached his home and appeared beside him.

• Kurumi warned Tony that he was facing a bloody disaster, but Tony joked about her prediction and continued working in his laboratory.
• Dummy accidentally covered Tony in foam, and Tony threatened to give the robot away.
• Obadiah Stani paralyzed Tony with a banned ultrasonic weapon, confessed his crimes, and removed the reactor from Tony’s chest.
• Tony fell to the floor as the shrapnel in his chest threatened to reach his heart, and a silver bead activated the projector linking him to Kurumi.
• Kurumi heard Jarvis give Tony’s address, used a magic array to cross the distance, and appeared in front of Tony.

Kurumi watched Tony fight Stani, then learned Iron Monger was on course to crash into Umbrella Headquarters. She summoned a modified Silver Gospel mecha and confronted the falling armor, leaving Stani stunned by the much larger machine.

• Kurumi healed Tony, who rushed to the underground laboratory to rescue Pepper from Stani, and she vanished just before Rhodey arrived.
• Kurumi watched Tony and Stani battle while Red Queen reminded her that she had intended to punish Stani herself.
• Coulson evacuated Pepper as Tony carried Stani’s Iron Monger into the sky, and Red Queen warned Kurumi that the armor would crash into Umbrella Headquarters.
• Kurumi used the Soul of Four Jade to summon modified Silver Gospel armor and took position atop Umbrella Headquarters.
• Stani regained his vision and saw Kurumi’s imposing mecha reach one arm behind its back.

Kurumi used Nightmare to knock Stani’s Iron Monger away from the Umbrella Headquarters, where he recovered and resumed his fight with Tony. After Stani damaged Tony’s Mark armor and gunfire struck Umbrella’s windows, Kurumi jumped down to confront him, leaving both men facing Nightmare.

• Kurumi’s Nightmare struck Stani’s Iron Monger and sent him crashing from the rooftop to the ground near Stark Tower.
• Tony sent Little Pepper away with Coulson, then approached the crater where Stani landed.
• Stani attacked Tony, damaged his Mark armor, and drove him toward the reactor outside Stark Tower.
• Iron Monger’s gunfire damaged the windows of Umbrella Headquarters, prompting Kurumi to jump down in Nightmare.
• Nightmare landed near Tony and Stani, and its imposing figure and spear made both men wary.

Kurumi’s black-and-red Nightmare arrived and overwhelmed Stani’s Iron Monger while Tony, Pots, and Coulson watched. Tony was left determined to build armor capable of matching the mysterious machine.

• Coulson photographed the wreckage and led his team away as agents and police dispersed the civilians.
• Nightmare approached Tony and Stani, and Tony recognized its advanced-looking mechanical armor and unusual dark finish.
• Stani panicked as Nightmare advanced with its spear, while Tony struggled toward Pots and resolved that he could reproduce the technology.
• Nightmare attacked the Iron Monger, battered it with its spear, and pierced it, setting strange flames burning inside.

After the mysterious mech destroyed Iron Monger and vanished, footage of the battle spread worldwide, making Tony Stark famous while leaving the mech’s pilot unknown. Kurumi learned that Nick Fury still wanted to recruit her and the other two people changed by the Phil virus.

• The mysterious mech impaled Iron Monger, then vanished at incredible speed, leaving witnesses stunned.
• Coulson reported the battle to his director as recordings of the fight spread online and reached other countries.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. took Tony Stark under its protection, while Tony became widely celebrated as Iron Man.
• Red Queen hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s network and found its original superhero plan.
• Kurumi read S.H.I.E.L.D.’s classified document and asked Red Queen whether Nick Fury was still pursuing the three people changed by the Phil virus.

Steve, a former fire archmage who transmigrated into a powerful young man in New York, tried to piece together his damaged memories and learn about his new life. After searching for internet access, he spotted the Umbrella logo as he headed back.

• Steve woke in a shabby New York apartment, cleaned it, and discovered a black Centurion card despite having almost no money or belongings.
• Steve woke from a nightmare and found that his strength had shattered the bed, while trying to recall a girl in bunny pajamas and an estate called Phil caused severe pain.
• Steve suspected the previous owner had been fleeing someone and decided he needed information, but avoided using the black card in case it exposed him.
• Steve slept, woke refreshed, dressed in a green hood, and went out to find internet access.
• After two hours, Steve turned back and saw the Umbrella logo.

Steve discovered that he had unusual strength and rapid healing, but he feared he might already be infected and knew little about the world around him. When someone claiming to represent the water and electric company knocked on his door, Steve recognized the visitors as Protective Umbrella and realized they were trying to get inside.

• Steve panicked after spotting Protective Umbrella's emblem in New York and returned to his shabby home to consider his situation.
• Steve punched through his bedboard, then cut his hand with a fruit knife and watched the wound heal rapidly.
• Steve recalled fragments of his past involving people in protective suits, lab coats, and a helicopter, and worried he had been infected with the virus.
• Steve prepared to leave to seek information, but several people knocked and claimed to be Com Water and Electric Company employees inspecting his water meter.
• Steve recognized the visitors' voices as Protective Umbrella employees and stayed inside as they urged him to open the door.

Steve escaped from the men who broke into his home by climbing between air-conditioning units, but Harris shot him with a tranquilizer dart and Protective Umbrella took him for experiments. After waking in a white room, Steve recovered enough to meet a one-eyed man in a black trench coat and tried to flee the conversation.

• Steve climbed out his window and moved up the building to evade the two men who had broken into his apartment.
• Steve reached the rooftop, where Harris shot him with a tranquilizer dart and the men captured him.
• Steve awoke in a white room after being subjected to experiments and remained too weak to move for an unknown amount of time.
• Steve regained some strength and found a one-eyed man in a black trench coat standing nearby.
• Steve recognized the man and tried to end the encounter by saying goodbye.

Kurumi learned that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s experimental base had exploded and reviewed reports about the virus beneficiaries and the escaped boy. She discovered S.H.I.E.L.D. had captured him again after rookie agent Harris killed him with a tranquilizer dart, then turned her attention to the Red Queen over her pranks on Harris.

• The Red Queen told Kurumi that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s experimental base had exploded, and Kurumi watched footage of the fire.
• Kurumi reviewed the Red Queen's investigation and concluded that Nick Fury had targeted the three people who benefited from the virus, including her.
• The Red Queen explained that the escaped boy had exposed himself in New York, allowing S.H.I.E.L.D. to identify and capture him.
• The Red Queen reported that rookie agent Harris had killed the boy with a tranquilizer dart and had repeatedly requested reassignment after guarding Kurumi.
• Kurumi complained that Harris had only suffered a few mousetraps and encounters with the neighbor's big dog, then grabbed the Red Queen when she suspected her involvement.

Kurumi learned that Steve, codenamed Survivor No. 1, had escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. after setting fire to an experimental base, while Red Queen reflected on her civilization’s collapse. Kurumi then noticed she was being watched and ordered Red Queen to bring Steve to her.

• Kurumi questioned Red Queen about driving people away and asked her to make black tea while reviewing the stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. files.
• Red Queen revealed that her civilization had once reached Zeta level before being devoured by another advanced civilization seeking its knowledge.
• Red Queen told Kurumi that Steve had escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. again and was likely responsible for burning the experimental base.
• Red Queen reported that she could find no information about Survivor No. 2 because S.H.I.E.L.D. had destroyed the records.
• Kurumi sensed someone watching her, returned to her bedroom, and asked Red Queen to bring Steve to her.

After escaping S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve encountered Umbrella’s security chief, Andre, in a New York sewer and was forced to go with him. Andre said Umbrella’s upper management had taken an interest in Steve, leaving Steve confused about what they wanted from him.

• Steve climbed out of a sewer manhole and complained about the stench before a man approached him.
• Steve mistook the man’s line about buying oranges for a reference to a silhouette and cautiously asked if he was from Earth.
• Steve spotted the Umbrella emblem on the man’s suit and confronted him about his company.
• The man said Umbrella was a pharmaceutical company and that Lady Red Queen had authorized force if Steve refused to come along.
• Steve attacked the man but lost the fight, then agreed to go with him.
• The man introduced himself as Andre, head of Umbrella’s Security Department, and took Steve away in a high-end sedan.

Kurumi failed to absorb energy other than spiritual power, and Red Queen outlined several possible reasons tied to Kurumi’s constitution and Spirit Body. Red Queen’s emotional reaction to Kurumi caused cloud computing centers across the United States to overheat and shut down.

• Kurumi dispersed the demonic markings on her arm and asked Red Queen why she could not alter the spiritual power in her body.
• Red Queen proposed that Kurumi had an anti-magic constitution, that her spiritual power rejected other energy, or that her Spirit Body could contain only spiritual power.
• Red Queen became flustered while watching Kurumi dress, causing computational usage to spike and machines at cloud computing centers to overheat.
• The cloud computing centers’ temperatures temporarily returned to normal, but then surged again, prompting supervisors to cut power and start inspections.
• Red Queen blamed the centers’ inadequate technology for the shutdowns rather than admitting her emotions had caused them.

Kurumi reunited with the virus-infected Black Cat and learned that he had been trying to protect her from infection. Two days later, she confronted Red Queen about a document revealing the virus had spread far more extensively than she had been told.

• Red Queen told Kurumi that Black Cat had awakened, and she hurried with Red Queen to his isolation chamber.
• Black Cat showed Kurumi that he still recognized her, and she entered the chamber to comfort and heal him.
• Black Cat acted aggressively to make Kurumi leave, and Red Queen translated his cries revealing he feared she would be infected.
• After Red Queen explained the situation to Black Cat, he circled Kurumi affectionately.
• Two days later, Kurumi questioned Red Queen about a document showing the virus had spread extensively.

Kurumi and Red Queen reviewed the virus’s spread and Umbrella’s inhibitor preparations, but the company lacked enough production capacity and faced scrutiny from S.H.I.E.L.D. The virus then began breaking out, with people collapsing in the street below Kurumi.

• Red Queen admitted that her outdated projections had failed to account for New York’s population mobility and the virus’s latent nature.
• Kurumi confirmed that the inhibitor could suppress the weakened virus, though it caused three days of drowsiness, and told Red Queen to label the side effect clearly.
• Red Queen reported that Umbrella’s reserves could cover less than one-tenth of the projected need and that scaling production would take a long time.
• Red Queen said S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken an interest in Umbrella, while the company’s funds had been spent on factories, machinery, and maintaining Nightmare.
• Kurumi saw people collapsing in the street and realized the disaster had begun.

A virus outbreak caused mass collapses across New York and other cities, while Kurumi learned that most victims would awaken severely weakened. Tony Stark checked whether Brooks had fallen ill, but she appeared healthy when he called her.

• People across New York and other cities collapsed as the virus spread, overwhelming hospitals and disrupting transportation.
• Kurumi asked Red Queen to assess the outbreak and learned that over eighty percent of humanity would awaken in about two hours and forty-six minutes, suffering severe weakness and other symptoms.
• Kurumi left Umbrella's response to Red Queen and trusted that its Protective Umbrella team could deter anyone who tried to use the crisis against them.
• Tony Stark learned about the outbreak from Jarvis and wondered whether Brooks had caught the virus.
• Tony called Brooks, who appeared healthy on the screen while holding a black cat, but his conversation was interrupted by a bang.

Kurumi checked on Tony as he collapsed from palladium poisoning, while Jarvis summoned Pepper to help him. Pepper arrived, misread Tony’s conversation with Kurumi as flirting, and stayed to help him after Jarvis claimed Tony had the flu.

• Tony lost his balance and collapsed while speaking with Kurumi, who asked Jarvis to summon Pepper and check his condition.
• Kurumi suspected Tony’s symptoms were caused by palladium poisoning, but Jarvis blamed a new strain of influenza.
• Tony joked with Kurumi until Pepper entered and heard part of their conversation before Kurumi ended the call.
• Pepper accused Tony of flirting with Kurumi and started to leave, but Jarvis told her Tony was ill.
• Pepper stayed and helped Tony onto the sofa while he insisted that he and Kurumi were only friends.

After a worldwide virus outbreak left more than a billion people unconscious and severely weakened, governments and researchers raced to find a cure. Kurumi remained confident that Tony and the world’s scientists could not overcome the virus, while the United States and Japan competed to control the research.

• Kurumi concluded that Tony’s palladium poisoning had drawn the virus’s attention and doubted he could develop a cure, even with Jarvis’s help.
• The infected gradually woke, but their extreme weakness left some regions and entire nations nearly paralyzed, forcing governments to reassign workers and launch research efforts.
• Smaller countries placed their hopes in the United States, while Japan invested heavily in its own research and confidently established laboratories with government and corporate backing.
• The United States viewed Japan’s ambitions as a threat to its interests and formed an Oscorp-led biopharmaceutical alliance, but Umbrella Corporation refused to join.
• The alliance dismissed Umbrella as overconfident, while Kurumi noticed that the world seemed not to take the virus seriously.

As the new influenza pandemic crippled society, Umbrella’s inhibitor solution passed clinical trials and was presented as a cure called the Dawn Drug. Kurumi revealed that Red Queen had fabricated the account of Umbrella’s experimental process, while the world celebrated the apparent breakthrough.

• Governments struggled with a billion infections and labor shortages as the biomedical alliance failed to make meaningful progress.
• Umbrella received rapid approval for clinical trials, and seven volunteers recovered enough to move normally after receiving the inhibitor solution.
• On the experiment’s ninth day, Umbrella held a press conference announcing K-7650 as a drug that killed the virus, while concealing that it only suppressed it.
• An elderly professor claimed Umbrella’s sixty-eight teams had developed K-7650 through thousands of experiments, and the story went viral.
• Kurumi laughed at the broadcast and recognized that Red Queen had invented the account of the experiments; the public had nicknamed K-7650 the Dawn Drug.

Protective Umbrella’s affordable “Dawn” drug cured the new influenza strain and won widespread public support, while demand outstripped supply and smuggling flourished. After the company began supplying other countries and launching more medicines, it expanded rapidly into the biomedical and arms markets and emerged as a world-class giant.

• Protective Umbrella sold “Dawn” for three dollars, and recipients praised its effects despite its drowsiness side effect.
• Red Queen secured government support for Protective Umbrella and began joint military research into human genes and stimulants through General Brooks.
• Black-market prices for “Dawn” soared as smugglers and gangs tried to move the scarce drug across borders and counterfeiters began producing imitations.
• Protective Umbrella started supplying other countries, driving down black-market prices as tighter border security disrupted smuggling.
• Red Queen promoted Protective Umbrella’s public image, and the company entered Stark Industries’ arms business through logistics products such as bulletproof vests.
• Protective Umbrella launched additional medicines and health supplements, which sold rapidly as the company expanded into a world-class giant.