Transmigrating to Marvel

Between biochemical zombies and interstellar xenomorphs, who is stronger? Between Ultraman and Saiyans, how many rounds could they last? If heroes from Dota faced off against Honor of Kings, who would reach godlike status?

Such questions can likely only ever end in keyboard-warrior bickering.

Luo Xia had just finished a round of arguing on a forum, debating whether the AllSpark from Transformers or the black technology in Marvel was more powerful.

Halfway through, a few fanatical mutants crashed the thread, claiming that any technology was trash compared to mutants. The two sides traded barbs for hundreds of posts without reaching a conclusion, but it successfully helped Luo Xia pass a rather spirited afternoon.

Life after retiring from the military was too leisurely, forcing him to kill time with such trivial matters.

Just as Luo Xia was about to shut down his computer to go eat, a dialog box suddenly popped up on his monitor.

"Are you tired of those unruly trolls? Do you want to shove logic and hard facts into the mouths of people who only know how to spew profanity? If so, why not use facts to prove your argument?"

Below the dialog box were two options—Yes and No.

"A virus? Whatever, it's a net cafe computer anyway." Driven by curiosity, Luo Xia clicked the button.

Immediately, the world spun, and Luo Xia felt as if everything before his eyes was being viewed through a funhouse mirror—infinitely stretched and distorted, leaving him with a nauseating sensation.

In his daze, Luo Xia heard a voice: "What kind of interesting performance will the power representing the pinnacle of mechanical civilization have in the Marvel world? Please, give me a surprise."

The moment the voice faded, Luo Xia felt a surge of scorching energy burrow into his hands.

Before Luo Xia could process the sensation, he felt his body sink, followed by a violent jolt.

Shaking his slightly dizzy head, Luo Xia finally saw his surroundings clearly.

Yellow sand stretched endlessly in every direction. Luo Xia's hands were bound behind his back, and he was sitting in the bed of a truck, surrounded by a group of men armed with live ammunition.

These fierce-looking thugs looked exactly like militants from the Middle East, which made Luo Xia's heart tighten.

"You're finally awake. I thought we were going to have another patient. You're Asian—how did you end up in a war-torn place like this?" A thin Middle Eastern man sitting opposite Luo Xia spoke to him.

"Who are you?" Luo Xia vaguely felt the man looked familiar, but he couldn't place him.

"I am Yinsen, a doctor. You must have been knocked out by the shockwave of a rocket explosion; you're lucky. He didn't have your luck—shrapnel entered his chest. I can only use a magnet to hold the shrapnel in place; otherwise, if it reaches his heart, he's a dead man." Yinsen pointed to a person lying on a stretcher in the center of the truck bed.

The man was about thirty or forty years old, with a face full of stubble and a massive metal component resting on his chest—likely the life-saving magnet.

The moment he saw the man, Luo Xia recognized him instantly.

"Tony Stark?"

"Oh, you know him too?" Yinsen asked curiously.

Luo Xia had no time to answer; his brain began to race at high speed.

The unconscious man was Tony Stark, the most famous superhero in the Marvel movies, Iron Man. That meant he had actually transmigrated into the Marvel world.

Looking at Tony Stark's current state, Luo Xia realized he had arrived at the opening of Iron Man 1, when Tony was kidnapped by criminals—the very beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Luo Xia had barely sorted out his situation when the truck came to a halt.

Luo Xia and the others were roughly shoved off the truck and led to the entrance of a cave.

As they disembarked, Yinsen whispered to Luo Xia, "They only keep the useful ones: the wealthy, the technicians, and the women."

At first, Luo Xia didn't quite understand what he meant, but when they were all herded into a line, he realized what was about to happen.

A man who appeared to be the leader of the criminals picked up a list and began calling names one by one.

"Horakov, it seems your family was completely slaughtered a few days ago," the criminal leader said to a cowardly-looking middle-aged captive.

"No, I still have sports cars and villas in the United States. I can mortgage them for a loan—just let me go, and they're all yours," the middle-aged man pleaded.

"Sorry, we don't have time to wait."

Rat-tat-tat! Gunfire erupted, and the man was riddled with holes.

Seeing this bloody scene, one of the captives suffered a mental breakdown and, ignoring the guards, ran away like a madman.

Unfortunately, he didn't get far before a machine gun shredded his legs, sending him crashing to the ground. What was truly heinous was that the criminals didn't give him a quick death; instead, they released several vicious dogs to tear him apart alive.

The poor man was reduced to a bloody mess under the dogs' jaws, but he still wailed for a full minute before falling silent.

Devoid of any humanity. Luo Xia clenched his fists, sentencing these criminals to death in his heart. The moment he had a chance, he would kill them all without hesitation.

"Next! Who are you, you yellow-skinned monkey? A tourist? Or a smuggler?" The criminal pointed his gun at Luo Xia and demanded.

"I am an engineer," Luo Xia said calmly.

His past military experience allowed him to keep his emotions in check. Now, with a dozen guns pointed at him, he could only try to stall for time and look for a chance to strike back.

"An engineer? Go on, fix that truck for me. Just make it run," the leader said, pointing his gun at a heavily damaged desert off-road vehicle near the cave, a mocking smile on his face.

"I am not a mechanical repair engineer," Luo Xia explained.

Although he had learned to fix vehicles in the military, this off-road vehicle had clearly been blown in half by a rocket; it was ready for the scrap heap, and there was no possibility of repair.

But the criminal gave Luo Xia no room for negotiation, pressing the muzzle of his gun against his head. "I told you to fix the car!"

Luo Xia understood that they were just treating him like a toy, like a mouse thrown into a cat's den—to be killed once they grew bored of playing.

But with no room to resist, Luo Xia could only walk over to the completely wrecked vehicle.

"Listen up, you have thirty seconds to make this car move."

The sound of a countdown came from behind Luo Xia—a death sentence. Even without looking back, Luo Xia could sense the gun barrels aimed at his back, ready to fire at any moment.

Luo Xia took a deep breath and strode toward the off-road vehicle, calculating how he could vault over it to dodge bullets and buy himself a moment of buffer time.

But as his left hand touched the heavily damaged vehicle, a stream of information flashed through his mind: Four-wheel drive desert long-nose off-road vehicle, gross weight... A series of vehicle specifications appeared before Luo Xia's eyes in the form of glowing text.

More importantly, beneath this information was a line of green text.

[Mechanical integrity 70%, activation requires 915 points of AllSpark energy, current energy 1000 points.]

Luo Xia had his back to the criminals, so no one saw the surprise on his face, nor did anyone notice him channeling an energy resembling an electric current into the wrecked desert off-road vehicle.