Assimilation

A tall figure stood before Fu Qinghai, staring at him coldly.

He wore a massive, grotesque metal mask, with thick, black, dreadlock-like appendages hanging down around it. His iron-black armor—shoulder guards, breastplate, arm guards, leg guards, and codpiece—exhibited a bizarre alien style, while the skin exposed outside the armor was rough and ugly, resembling crocodile hide.

Yautja!

Fu Qinghai finally understood what the blurry shadow he had seen earlier was: a Yautja that had cloaked itself to infiltrate Stark Tower.

Two thin, sharp wrist blades extended from the gauntlet on this terrifying alien warrior's arm, blood still dripping from their tips.

Fu Qinghai's eyes widened, but before he could react, a tremendous force grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up. He felt his body lift into the air, the world spinning around him.

Then, with a heavy "thud," he was slammed onto the floor, his gun skittering away to the side.

Fu Qinghai had been grabbed by the Yautja with one hand and hurled into the center of the living room.

That "thud" startled the people who had been in a standoff, and everyone turned to look at Fu Qinghai lying on the floor in the center of the room.

Ignoring the pain in his back, Fu Qinghai quickly scanned the situation in the room.

Tony Stark, clad in his Iron Man armor, sat slumped on the floor, his back against a shattered liquor cabinet. The gold-and-red armor was riddled with finger-wide cracks, sparks flickering within them, and his helmet was completely destroyed, leaving his face exposed.

Sitting not far from Tony Stark was Colonel James Rhodes, wearing the silver-and-black War Machine armor; his condition was much the same as Tony Stark's.

However, a bizarrely shaped metal spear had pierced through a gap in the armor on Colonel Rhodes's shoulder, pinning him to the wall behind him; he, too, was on the verge of death.

So that's why the Yautja wasn't carrying his signature folding spear—it was pinned into poor Colonel Rhodes.

Fu Qinghai looked to the other side.

A black-haired woman in a black tank top and camouflage pants held a classic silver Desert Eagle, holding a terrified Pepper Potts hostage.

In the middle, a white-haired young man floated in mid-air. He was exceptionally handsome, looking like a person of mixed heritage, wearing white dress pants with his muscular upper body bare. Strange black patterns pulsed on his chest, and he was not very tall.

He was frowning as he looked down at Fu Qinghai lying on the floor. The area around his eyes was an unnatural, flushed red, making him look somewhat deranged.

On the other side stood a bald, white, muscular man holding a bulky American-made M32 Grenade Launcher. Seeing the weapon in his hand, Fu Qinghai understood the source of the explosions and the destroyed fire door in the stairwell he had seen earlier.

Excluding the corpses on the ground and Fu Qinghai himself, there were four villains and three heroes present.

"What's going on?" The white-haired young man frowned at the Yautja. "Musa, who is this?" In the middle of his grand monologue, he was clearly unhappy about an unknown disruptor.

"Eavesdropper." The muffled, standard English came from the Yautja's disproportionately large helmet.

Then, a red light shot from a circular hole on the side of his helmet, scanning Fu Qinghai from head to toe.

"Ordinary human." The scan complete, the Yautja reached his conclusion.

"An ordinary human? Here to die?" The white-haired young man glanced at Fu Qinghai with some confusion.

The three heroes also looked on, equally bewildered.

This... this is a bit awkward... What to do? What to do? Facing such a hopeless situation, Fu Qinghai's brain raced, frantically recalling movies, anime, and novels—how did the weak protagonists in those stories manage to turn the tables?

Talk-no-jutsu! That's right, they all relied on talk-no-jutsu.

"Cough, cough!" Although he didn't know what to say, Fu Qinghai, lying on the floor, gave a light cough. "Everyone, could you please hear me out first?"

"No." The white-haired young man, who had just been in the middle of a grand speech, was exceptionally blunt.

"Bang!"

"Ah—" Fu Qinghai let out a miserable scream as a mist of blood erupted from his thigh.

A wisp of white smoke drifted from the barrel of the black-haired woman's gun. She aimed the muzzle back at Pepper Potts's head and said indifferently, "When Lord Murakami is speaking, no one should interrupt him. This is the first lesson you need to learn upon entering the Reincarnation World, newcomer."

The Reincarnators present had already defined Fu Qinghai as one of their own; otherwise, his inexplicable behavior would be hard to explain.

Ah, ah... damn it... He said he wouldn't listen, so why did you shoot me! Are you a sycophant? Fu Qinghai felt a heart-wrenching pain and wailed in agony. He felt as if his thigh had been shattered, and bright red blood gushed out, quickly forming a pool on the living room floor.

After silencing the ignorant disruptor, the attention of everyone in the room returned to the standoff.

At this moment, no one noticed that in the clear blue sky outside the glass wall, a large black bird seemed to flash past.

"Just do it already... stop the damn chatter. I've seen countless deaths in Vietnam; you think I'm afraid of a damn mutant sissy... ptooey!" The dying Colonel Rhodes lifted his head and spat a mouthful of blood at the white-haired young man.

After Fu Qinghai's interference, the white-haired young man seemed to have lost his patience for negotiation. His red-rimmed eyes stared fixedly into Tony Stark's, and Iron Man returned the gaze with equal coldness and fearlessness.

"Good, very good..." The white-haired young man nodded with a sinister grin. "You've got guts!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he took a sharp breath and flicked his hand forward. A pitch-black ripple appeared out of thin air and spread toward Iron Man on the ground.

No one expected that at this moment, Fu Qinghai, who had been groaning in the pool of blood on the floor and curled up like a shrimp, would suddenly spring up with all his might, using his last bit of strength to prop himself up on one hand and one foot to block the path of the black ripple.

"Bang!" Fu Qinghai was struck in mid-air, sent into a state of paralysis, and fell like a pile of mud in front of Iron Man. He felt his chest cavity shatter and his internal organs turned to mush. An overwhelming wave of pain flooded his nerves, leaving him unable to even scream.

Tony Stark, who had been prepared to die, stared blankly at the scene before him.

Everyone present was stunned.

"Damn it, you self-righteous ant... your life is truly cheap!"

Seeing that some piece of trash dared to block his attack, the white-haired young man was furious. Perhaps the battle to dismantle the two Iron Man suits had exhausted him; he gasped for air, unable to unleash another similar strike.

[You have saved the life of Iron Man Tony Stark, achieving a stage milestone event!]

That cold voice suddenly appeared.

[Calculating Assimilation Points... 7136 points]

[Reincarnator detected near death, preparing for retrieval. Please select items within your control or abilities already acquired to begin assimilation as soon as possible.]

"Control... items..."

At this moment, Fu Qinghai's consciousness was scattered by the agony of his shattered body, his vision blurred. Yet, the voice in his mind remained cold and clear, unaffected by any pain. A wheezing sound escaped his throat, accompanied by blood foam and chunks of flesh. He slowly extended his right hand, grabbing at everything within reach with his remaining strength.

Iron Man stared blankly at the blood-soaked man spraying gore before him, who had reached out and grabbed a large hard drive plugged into the electronic equipment nearby.

[Selection confirmed. This assimilation will consume 7012 Assimilation Points. Starting assimilation... 1%, 15%, 30%...]

Suddenly, the hard drive Fu Qinghai was clutching tightly was gently pulled out by a pale palm.

[Assimilation aborted.]

"So..." The white-haired young man floating in the air toyed with the hard drive in his hand, examining it. "You risked your life for this thing?"

He chuckled softly. "Then I'll give it to you." With that, he slammed the connector end of the hard drive into Fu Qinghai's skull with force.

"Squish—" The hard drive, cast from hard alloy, was driven into the back of Fu Qinghai's head. The metal connector tangled deeply with his brainstem. Fu Qinghai stopped twitching and kicked the bucket for good.

The white-haired young man slowly stood up, shook the blood splattered on his hand, and smoothed back his sweat-dampened white hair.

"Interlude over. Now... it's time to send you on your way, Mr. Stark."

Before he could finish, the floor-to-ceiling glass nearby shattered with a bang. A dark shadow with retracted steel wings burst through the glass curtain wall, whistling as it slammed into the white-haired young man, knocking him down from his hover. The two figures rolled into a heap.

Before he could scramble to his feet, Falcon Sam Wilson shouted into his headset: "Captain, now!"

A muscular man in blue burst from behind the door. He swung the Vibranium Shield with all his might, the sharp edge striking the Yautja hard. Caught off guard, the Yautja hurriedly raised his arms to parry, but having lost the initiative, he was forced into a retreat by Captain America's follow-up combo.

The black-haired woman witnessing this scene felt her eyes split with rage. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, a "whoosh" sounded, and an arrow from an unknown source pierced her temple.

Her hand holding the Desert Eagle dropped limply. Pepper Potts scrambled to break free, crawling toward Tony Stark.

The bald, burly man holding the grenade launcher dove behind the bar to avoid the ghostly arrows flying from nowhere. Crouched among the debris of the furniture, he ripped off his ear-mounted microphone and roared into it: "Banks! Didn't you say you had Captain America pinned down?"

There was a silence on the other end of the microphone, followed by a scoff: "Sorry, Grant. Actually... I never chose the same faction as you guys from the start."

"Damn it... Traitor! You son of a..."

"Whoosh!" Another arrow pierced the bald head of the white man.

"Enough!"

"BOOM—" A massive, sky-piercing blue-white pillar of light erupted from the floor. The shockwave blasted the Falcon, who was about to grapple with the white-haired young man, as well as the fighting Captain America and the Yautja, to the side.

As the light faded, the white-haired young man, his face hideous and eyes blood-red, hovered in mid-air. His previously bulging muscles had withered and collapsed, and black veins spread to his neck, as if he were overdrawing his life force.

Steve Rogers, Captain America, stood up in silence. Without a word, he threw the Vibranium Shield. The shield spun toward the white-haired young man. At the moment of impact, the young man's figure vanished and reappeared, barely dodging the flying shield, only to be met by a fist the size of a sandbag.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Captain America's punches landed with brutal impact, one after another, giving the white-haired young man no chance to retaliate.

The white-haired young man pushed his palms out with all his might, manifesting a honeycomb-shaped shield of blue-white light, barely blocking the Captain's combo.

He failed to notice, however, that the shield just thrown, after smashing through the glass and flying outside the building, was spinning its way back.

"Thud!" The Vibranium Shield slammed into the white-haired young man's waist. The Power of Orochi, sustained by his overdrawn life, could no longer be maintained. He spat out a mouthful of black blood and collapsed to the ground with a crash.

Seeing this, the Yautja, who had hidden by the door at some point, took one last deep look at everyone in the room before his figure slowly turned transparent and vanished.

Yet, no one noticed that on Fu Qinghai's corpse, tiny electric arcs were flickering between the hard drive embedded in his skull and his brainstem.

[Regaining control, starting assimilation... 78%... 99%... Assimilation complete. Retrieving Reincarnator soul.]

[Reincarnation Life -1]