In a dim stone corridor.
Dozens of dark blue-black tubes pierced the red-and-gold body armor, siphoning streams of golden energy into the four-eyed, fearsome humanoid monster at their ends.
The woman, suspended in midair by restraints, kept opening and closing her lips, but her congenital deafness and muteness left her unable to make a sound.
Her struggles grew weaker and weaker. An unnatural blue-gray pallor crept upward from her feet... Before long, the woman opened her mouth one last time, exhaled her final breath, and tilted her head to the side.
She was "dead."
The restraints released automatically, and the woman's body fell heavily to the ground. Yet when it struck the stone floor, it rang out like metal hitting stone.
The tubes quickly retracted into the humanoid monster's back. It collapsed to the ground in agony, letting out repeated beastlike howls. The muscles and bones in its limbs and torso trembled and contracted horribly, as if it were undergoing some kind of mutation.
As golden light surged through its body, the monster gradually shrank. Its bones and muscles were reshaped, becoming tighter and more resilient...
Patches of smooth skin covered the bloody muscles, while strands of dark blue-black hair sprouted from the follicles on its head. The four narrow eyes vanished, replaced by a pair of human eyes with golden double pupils.
The howls gradually faded, and the sound of a human gasping for breath filled the dim stone corridor.
In place of the monster now lay a completely naked Western man, his muscles sleekly defined, his features extraordinarily handsome, his hair shining dark blue-black, and his eyes closed.
"Whoosh!"
The man's eyes snapped open. His double pupils contracted and dilated a few times before settling, and a distinctly human look of utter bewilderment appeared on his devastatingly handsome face.
"I'm human again at last."
"This is Earth, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Iraq."
"I'm a Mutant who was wiped out by the Eternals."
"My current appearance is that of a mercenary I killed. His name is Yuri Ambrosius."
"..."
The man lay dazed on the ground, digesting several sets of memories with wildly different tones.
In one set of memories, he was a creature created by the Gods Group and sent to Earth. After wiping out large animals such as dinosaurs, he had been sealed beneath the glaciers of Alaska by the Eternals, whom the Gods Group sent to Earth afterward.
In another set of memories, he was an Eternal created by the Gods Group. After completing his mission to eliminate the Mutants, he had remained on Earth, only to be killed not long ago by the version of himself from the previous set of memories.
In the third set of memories, he was a citizen of Huaxia in the twenty-first century. He had grown up in peace, encountering war and death only on screens. In those memories, all the terms from the previous set came from the "Marvel Cinematic Universe."
The fourth set of memories was the shortest, yet felt especially real. He knew his name was Yuri Ambrosius and remembered his closest family and friends. Everything else was blank...
The memories were all jumbled, like a bowl of Meng Po's soup diluted with water. Yet to him, they were the only nourishment that could give his soul life.
His dazed eyes gradually came alive, and a succession of complicated expressions crossed his handsome face. The man sat up and looked himself over.
"From now on, I'm a transmigrator on Earth! The leader of the Mutants from the Marvel movies! Yuri Ambrosius!"
A short while later, Yuri appeared beneath a massive triangular aircraft, dressed in a dusty camouflage uniform.
With a few casual taps on the floating orb in his palm, the enormous prehistoric aircraft vanished from sight and rose into the air... At his command, it headed for the far side of the moon.
He remembered that his summer internship as Yuri—his current self—was already finished. But before leaving, he had accepted another mercenary job, this time in Afghanistan:
Find Stark Industries' boss, the village chief of the transmigrator's starter village, the future Iron Man, Thanos's lifelong nemesis—Tony Stark!
He opened the portable computer in his backpack and clicked on the email containing the job description. "Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark, quickly drew people's attention in his youth thanks to his exceptional intelligence."
"He built a circuit board at four, made his own engine at six, and graduated from MIT with the highest honors at seventeen... Devastated by his parents' deaths, he didn't turn his life around until he was twenty-one. He returned to Stark Industries to develop weapons and took complete control of the weapons empire. He brought his father's legacy to new heights, transformed the arms industry, and became a defender of freedom in the United States of America."
"Each person who finds the target will receive one million dollars. Rescuing the target earns an additional ten million dollars!"
His devil-may-care, handsome face was frozen on the screen, while the generous commission gleamed with the promise of wealth.
Yuri's mind raced, and he quickly found the relevant clue in his memories of the movie: Afghanistan, Kurnath Province!
Time to go!
Before sunlight touched Iraqi soil, Yuri made it back to the mercenary base. After casually greeting the brothers he remembered shouldering rifles with through countless firefights, he ducked into his little tent and quickly packed his belongings.
Turned in his firearms and ammunition.
Before leaving, Yuri checked the balance in his bank account. Seeing the long six-digit figure, he reflected to himself: You've got to go somewhere far away for a summer job. The pay's better, and you get to experience life. Best of both worlds!
With his backpack on and suitcase in hand, he headed to the airport. Dust swirled everywhere, and almost everyone wore a head covering and goggles. He gladly put on a pair of black goggles and a tan headscarf, concealing his shining Golden Pupils and unusual blue-black hair.
"Yuri! Over here! The transport plane's about to take off!"
Through the swirling yellow sand, he spotted someone waving to him beneath the transport plane. The man was one of the people who had taken the search job, as well as the leader of Yuri's search team.
Yuri hurried over and secured his suitcase and backpack to the cargo already fastened inside. "Captain, I'm guessing I'm not late, right?"
"Of course not!"
The captain pulled the control lever. The huge cargo-bay doors slowly rose and shut. He leaned toward the radio and ordered the pilot to take off, then walked over to Yuri and gave him a firm slap on the shoulder. "But you're the last one!"
After securing his luggage, Yuri accepted the few pages of mission plans from the captain. As he read them, he discovered that 60 percent of the document described Tony Stark's importance. The rest covered the search team's deployment.
The transport plane shuddered as it climbed into the clouds, its powerful acceleration throwing everyone toward the tail. The captain grabbed onto the cargo to keep his balance. Once the plane leveled out, he raised an identical copy of the mission plan. "Listen up, guys. We're working with the U.S. military, so let's pray to God we find the target first. Otherwise, we won't get the commission, and we'll have to pay for our own trip home!"
"God willing." ×n
Yuri folded the plan and tucked it into his chest pocket. He took the M14 the captain handed him and expertly disassembled it for inspection. His fingers moved, and in less than a second he had put all the pieces back together.
He looked up at his teammates. No one in the jolting cabin had noticed anything unusual.
He slung the rifle over his shoulder, leaned back, and went to sleep. They still had a long way to go before reaching Afghanistan. He hadn't slept a wink the night before, so he might as well catch up now.
I've already talked things over with my editor, and the book will be going on sale next week. It's not doing well, so not many people have invested in it. The fewer the investors, the higher the returns, relatively speaking... There are only a few days left before it goes on sale. I checked, and it's just 32 points. You might as well invest, everyone... It'll only take ten minutes of your time. Even if this book is trash, surely it's not so bad you can't read it for ten minutes, right?
Before you continue