"Ah, I knew it..." Fang Bie sighed. He found that nearly all the electronic devices he'd brought back had stopped working. "Wait, this miniature Arc Reactor he gave me seems to still work..."
Although they'd anticipated this from the start, seeing it happen right before their eyes still left him disappointed.
Back when Tony and the others had first brought guns into this world, they'd taken them back to study for a while.
To their surprise, as soon as the guns entered this world, they turned into piles of scrap metal. They still looked like guns, but their insides had been altered beyond recognition by this world's rules.
All the iron in the guns had become the same kind of iron he used in his crafting. Some of the various metal components inside had vanished outright, while others had been replaced with different materials. Though they still looked like guns, they'd lost their ability to pose a threat.
So when they brought these things back, they'd already expected that many objects would become unusable after entering this strange world again.
Still, Fang Bie had held on to a sliver of hope. Their clothes and the small amount of food they carried hadn't been affected by these laws, so he wanted to find out what exactly determined how the rules worked.
"Yinsen, is anything you brought with you still usable?" Fang Bie asked, turning to the doctor, who was quietly sorting through their things.
"All the electronic devices have stopped working, but the batteries seem fine. The clothes and food haven't been affected much. Some of the basic materials seem to have been changed into different substances, but they're still usable. I don't think there's anything else..."
Yinsen sorted everything into boxes. He was clearly used to this kind of work. He'd also volunteered to come to this world.
As he put it, "I never had any family to begin with, and I don't plan on looking for any. I'd already lost all hope and interest in living, but your world gave me hope again. So let me come back with you!"
Fang Bie would never turn down a doctor he knew well who also had formidable scientific skills. With Fang Bie's agreement, the doctor became the first Villager in his world.
"Ah, never mind!" Fang Bie shook his head slightly, putting the matter aside. It hadn't shaken him too badly. He'd expected this, so at most he was a little disappointed.
He looked up at the screen that had appeared before him once again. Nothing had changed; it still looked like the screen from a game.
But when he faced Yinsen, an intelligent prompt appeared on the screen: "Would you like to designate this member as a permanent resident?"
Fang Bie gently tapped the square below marked "Yes." A soft green glow surrounded Yinsen, and the abilities he'd only been temporarily granted became his for good.
Fang Bie could clearly sense that Yinsen could no longer harm him in any way. Instead, Fang Bie could see all of Yinsen's attributes.
"Oh, Fang Bie, did you do this?" Yinsen clearly felt the change too. He looked up in surprise and asked.
"Yeah." Fang Bie nodded. "Since you want to live here permanently, this gives you permanent resident status!"
Fang Bie now saw Yinsen as no different from a Villager, though Yinsen was somewhere between an ordinary Villager and a player. He had all the boosts players received, while also holding Villager status in this world.
"Write all of this down. We can use it as a reference the next time this happens." As he spoke, Fang Bie couldn't help letting his thoughts wander.
It seemed that this world's level really was higher than he'd imagined.
Nothing from his world changed when it was taken to Tony and the others' world, but many things from their world were forcibly altered by the rules when brought here. Aside from MC's rules being stronger, Fang Bie couldn't think of a more reasonable explanation.
It had been morning when they'd just left, but now the sky was nearing dusk. That meant the issue they'd previously identified with the flow of time being synchronized had now been resolved. For the time being, Fang Bie sealed the stone portal.
Only when Tony stood by the portal could Fang Bie sense, through the screen before him, something like the disorientation of a player trying to join a game. Anyone else who came up to it would probably mistake it for a few ordinary stones.
Besides, before leaving, he'd filled the entire area with stone, leaving no chance for anyone to mistake it for a doorway. From this moment on, his time in the Marvel Universe had come to an end.
But some deep instinct told him that this wasn't really over. That strange, disaster-prone world still had countless bizarre events waiting for them.
And as Iron Man's friends, neither of them would stand by and let him fall into danger.
But that was for later. For now, they needed to figure out what to do next.
"Yinsen, since you've decided to settle down here, tell me what you have planned for the future." Fang Bie casually took a piece of cake from a nearby box.
Of course, he hadn't made it in this world. He hadn't even found any cows, so how could he make cake?
It was one of the foods they'd brought from Tony's place. Since they'd already guessed that many electronic devices wouldn't work, they'd packed plenty of tools, but brought even more household supplies.
Things like blankets, changes of clothes, toiletries, all kinds of food, and ordinary tools.
Money really could get you anything. Fang Bie couldn't help thinking that even after they'd filled both their Inventories to the brim, they still hadn't used up the 110 coins Tony had loaded onto his card.
"I need to build myself a house—a place where I can live and study this world!" Yinsen still knew very little about this world, and his eyes were brimming with curiosity.
"Fang Bie, you're an extraordinary person, and this is an extraordinary world. I'll stay here, as long as you don't kick me out. I'll stay as long as you'll have me!" His tired face broke into a sunny smile.
Fang Bie smiled. "I should be thanking you for choosing to come with me. Why would I kick you out? From now on, you're the doctor in my village. Nice to meet you, Dr. Yinsen!"
"Nice to meet you, Chief!" Yinsen smiled and shook his hand. The scene seemed to freeze in that moment.
And so Fang Bie gained the first permanent resident of his village.
Before you continue