A Small Invention

"Luca! Luca!"

Looking at the hellish scene outside the window, even Luca, who had seen his fair share of storms in his previous life, could not help but feel a surge of terror when truly faced with an alien invasion.

However, the anxious shouts of his parents downstairs made him realize immediately that he had to do something.

Yet, before Luca could even respond to his parents' calls, a deep purple beam of light streaked rapidly toward their home from within his field of vision.

The next moment.

"BOOM—"

The violent shockwave of the explosion instantly sent Luca flying.

Blazing fire filled his vision, and the entire building trembled incessantly from the blast.

As his body slammed into the wardrobe behind him, the first thing Luca felt was not the pain of the impact, but a piercing ringing in his ears and an intense sense of faintness flooding his brain.

Dazed, Luca braced himself against the overturned desk beside him and struggled to stand upright.

Looking up, the most striking sight was the massive hole blasted through the outer wall of their duplex apartment, tearing through both the upper and lower floors.

Including the bedroom where Luca stood, nearly half of the second-floor flooring had shattered and collapsed into the first floor.

Dust and smoke billowed everywhere.

The thick, acrid smell of gunpowder filled his nose and mouth.

Large chunks of brick and debris continued to slide down.

Luca, his hearing not yet fully recovered, ignored the grit in his mouth and immediately shouted his parents' names at the top of his lungs.

"Gina! Herman?! Are you okay?!"

However, no matter how much Luca called out, there was no answer from the ruins of the house.

Although Luca was merely a transmigrator who had inherited the original owner's memories and perhaps didn't share a deep emotional bond with his parents, he did not want either of them to come to any harm—whether for his own sake or for the sake of this family.

With no time to overthink, Luca quickly opened the wardrobe behind him, grabbed his backpack, and slung it over his shoulders.

He then slid rapidly down the slope of the collapsed floor.

Upon reaching the first floor, Luca faced the devastated ruins. Before he could even begin to search, he saw two Chitauri soldiers, hissing as they crawled out from the massive hole in the wall, charging straight at him.

At this moment, it seemed too late for Luca to reach into his backpack for the [Pencil Missile] or to crouch down and activate the [Power-Enhancing Shoes].

However.

"BANG! BANG!"

Two thunderous gunshots rang out from behind him.

Immediately after, the heads of the two Chitauri soldiers exploded like watermelons, spraying flesh and fluids everywhere.

Watching the two headless corpses collapse to the ground, Luca finally turned around.

He saw his mother, Gina, lying near a doorframe amidst the ruins, straining her upper body to look at him.

In her hand was the high-powered firearm that their family company was still testing.

"Mom! Where's Dad?"

He rushed over to support his mother.

Only then did Luca notice that behind the doorframe Gina was clutching, her entire lower body was pinned beneath a collapsed wall.

Fortunately, the collapsed wall had formed a small angle with other debris, which had prevented Gina from being crushed to death instantly.

However, on the other side of the ruins, his father, Herman, had also been struck by the rubble; when Luca reached out to check on him, he found he had already stopped breathing.

Ignoring whatever his mother was saying, Luca immediately leaned down, using both hands to try and heave the wall off Gina.

But his mechanical prosthetic arm, which he had only recently installed, was not some military-grade limb like the Winter Soldier's.

Its output wasn't even as strong as a normal person's healthy right arm, let alone capable of lifting such massive stone blocks.

"Luca! Luca! Listen to me!"

"Take this gun! Dad and I taught you how to use it!"

"Don't worry about me! Find somewhere to hide! The storage room at home is specially reinforced—stay there! Don't you dare come out!"

Watching Luca futilely trying to move the stones, Gina, who had just regained consciousness from the blast and was still somewhat delirious, urged her son with rapid-fire speech.

Looking at the strangely shaped pistol handed to him, Luca finally noticed that it emitted the same faint white glow characteristic of "core components."

However, Luca didn't take the gun immediately; instead, the white light on the weapon triggered a thought.

The Power-Enhancing Shoes might not just be for boosting instantaneous explosive power!

The thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Luca immediately crouched down, using his left hand to twist the white dial on the outer side of his right shoe.

Following this, a visible arc of electricity flashed across the red and white sneaker, and the entire right foot seemed to be plated in a layer of iridescent, flowing light.

Feeling an unprecedented sense of power surging through his entire leg, Luca carefully inserted the tip of his foot into a gap in the rubble.

As he slowly exerted force with his right leg.

The collapsed wall, which he hadn't been able to budge an inch despite using all his strength, was lifted with ease by that single foot under the sheer force.

Throughout the process, Luca barely felt any pressure or discomfort on the top of his right foot.

Even his left foot, which hadn't been "powered up," seemed to have its grip and support increased several times over, leaving him with no need to worry about balance or similar issues.

In Gina's astonished gaze.

With a "boom."

The massive pile of stone rubble was flipped entirely to the side.

Luca reacted quickly, grabbing his mother and pulling her away from the spot.

"Luca? What was that?"

Gina, still somewhat shaken, had regained her composure, though her eyes remained fixed in a daze on the massive stone block her son had flipped away with a single foot.

However, when asked, Luca could only offer a vague, awkward response.

"Just a little invention of mine."

He couldn't explain something like a cheat code in the short term, so he simply brushed it off, preparing to take his mother to the storage room she had mentioned earlier to hide.

It was best not to linger here, lest any more Chitauri attacks spill over into this area.

But before Luca could help Gina take more than a few steps.

A figure clad in gold-and-red armor plummeted from the sky, crashing through the hole in the outer wall with a heavy "clang" that shook the room.

The already dilapidated floor was instantly smashed into a shallow crater, and the figure plowed a long trench through the ground, kicking up a cloud of debris before sliding to a halt right in front of the two.

Seeing this Iron Man who had suddenly descended from the heavens, the mother and son, whose nerves had just begun to settle, were both startled and instinctively raised their weapons at the figure lying on the ground.

However, Gina pulled out a prototype pistol developed by her own company, while Luca drew the [Pencil Missile] he had "crafted" and kept in his backpack.

"Whoa, relax, relax, ma'am! I don't think this counts as trespassing, does it?"

Seeing the guns pointed at him, Tony Stark didn't show the slightest tension; he simply stood up, looking a bit disheveled, and spoke in a soothing tone.

Yet, his voice, filtered through the armor's mask, sounded somewhat cold and distorted.

Seeming to notice this, Iron Man's metal faceplate clicked open, revealing Tony Stark's face as he continued to calm the pair.

"Take it easy, you two. Find somewhere to hide as soon as possible. Trust me, those fake Predators outside will be taken care of in no time~"

As he spoke, Tony Stark winked at Luca, flashing what he considered a dashing smile.

"And kid, remember for next time: a pencil case won't be enough to protect you~"

With that, the metal faceplate snapped shut.

Iron Man turned immediately, flames erupting from his palms and feet as he shot back out through the hole in the wall.

But...

"BOOM—"

A violent explosion rang out.

The armored suit had barely flown two meters from the room when a laser beam struck it squarely in the face.

The fire and shockwave of the explosion sent him flying.

In an instant, Iron Man came tumbling back inside, moving even faster than when he had left.

He crashed down in front of the mother and son once more.

Immediately following, several Chitauri hover-skiffs arrived, floating around the perimeter of the house, each carrying two or three Chitauri soldiers.

A dozen laser weapons were aimed directly at the hole in the room.

Startled by the explosion, the mother and son first covered their faces to shield themselves from the dust and debris kicked up by the shockwave.

Then, they simultaneously raised their weapons again, aiming at the Chitauri hovering outside their home.

Gina, firing first, blew the head off one of the Chitauri "drivers" with a single shot.

Luca, holding the [Pencil Missile], was a split second slower.

The covers on both sides of the pencil case in Luca's hands snapped open, revealing the pencil-shaped missiles inside.

At the same time, components resembling a grip and a barrel extended from the bottom and front of the case.

Luca, holding the grip with his left hand, didn't even bother to aim; he simply swept the [Pencil Missile] across all the enemies in front of him.

The "beep-beep" sounds signaling a lock-on rang out in rapid succession, and Luca pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~"

A dozen pencil missiles spat trails of fire from their tails, twisting through the air like agile snakes as they flew toward their respective targets.

In just an instant, every single Chitauri was struck.

However, the violent explosion he had expected never came. The moment the missiles hit their targets, they burst into large globs of sticky liquid, plastering the enemies completely.

Having lost their vision and unable to move while stuck, the hover-skiffs all began to wobble and plummet toward the ground.

"What the f—?"