I am truly foolish. Really. I knew full well the Marvel Universe had a supreme powerhouse like Ancient One guarding it, yet I still dared to cross over.
Luke sat in an antique hall, occupying a chair while nervously sipping the infinitely refilling tea in his hand.
Right before him sat the renowned Marvel Sorcerer Supreme, the bald Ancient One.
Ancient One sat there with her eyes closed, as if no one was in front of her.
Had the Eye of Agamotto on her chest not been open, Luke would have already wanted to slip away.
Looking at the Time Stone exposed inside the Eye of Agamotto, Luke had a sudden flash of inspiration. If he snatched the stone right now, could he use the Time Stone to escape?
Yet looking at the table between himself and Ancient One, Luke abandoned this magnificent method of dying.
Remembering why he had come to the Marvel Universe, Luke could not help wanting to slap himself twice.
At the time he was working overtime, and during a break, he picked up his phone and opened an AFK game.
After all, as an office drone, he only had that tiny bit of fragmented time in a day, and could not play shooter games or Honor of Kings.
As for the ad icons popping up on the game interface, Luke simply bypassed them.
What a joke, with just this little bit of free time in a day, would he still watch ads for you?
Looking at the AFK rewards he obtained, Luke continuously planned how to allocate points to get the maximum return, and then brainlessly chose to max out the highest-tier Dark Realm.
Then, when Luke added 1e+6 points to this Dark Realm all at once, he truly entered the Dark Space.
Upon arriving in a pitch-black space, Luke was still dazed, and then an AFK System popped up before his eyes, randomly giving him a few worlds to choose from.
However, of those few worlds provided, Luke only understood Marvel a little bit; as for others like some StarCraft, Overwatch, and the legendary Ocean-Watching, he did not understand them much at all.
And so he logically chose Marvel, logically came to the Marvel Universe, logically flew toward Earth, and logically was invited by Ancient One to drink tea.
If I had chosen another universe, I wouldn't have come to this one, Luke inwardly regretted.
Watching Ancient One with this appearance of clearly observing spacetime using the Eye of Agamotto, Luke did not dare to make the slightest rash move.
After all, who was the strongest in the Marvel Universe? He who lacks hair is king.
The white egg in front of him was the king of kings; compared to it, a certain Egghead was just a little brother to little brothers.
Seeing Ancient One remain silent, Luke suppressed the urge to use the restroom and simply opened the system he obtained from his transmigration to see what the situation was.
The Dark System-the name sounded formidable, but the function was poor. Just like the AFK game Luke played, this system was an AFK system.
This system gave him a Dark Space at the start, and this Dark Space was composed of Dark Energy Crystals. The more energy crystals there were, the larger the space.
Moreover, Dark Energy Crystals could be used to purchase mining units within the system. The initial purchase price for a unit was 10 points, and purchasing each unit would increase that unit's price by 0.1, with no upper limit.
As for what the size of the Dark Space was useful for, well, Luke did not quite understand yet.
However, this familiar routine.
Was it the AFK game he played before his transmigration?
Luke carefully studied it for a while, acknowledging the 10 points of Dark Energy Crystals the system initially possessed, and looked at the only thing available for purchase at present.
It was a ninja mask with crimson eyes.
Luke felt this thing looked very familiar, but couldn't remember for a while. He guessed it was probably from some anime, but the last time he watched anime was ages ago, and he had long since forgotten those things completely away.
Putting this doubt aside for the moment, the initial purchase price of this unit happened to be ten points, and Luke clicked the plus-one button behind that unit without a second thought.
The ten points of energy gifted by the system dropped to zero, the price for the next unit plus one changed from 10 points to 10.1 points, and the Dark Energy Crystal at the very top became +0.1 per minute.
It seemed this unit's mining speed was 0.1 Dark Energy Crystals per minute. Luke was not very surprised by this; after all, numbers in AFK games started out small anyway, and in the later stages they directly used units like jing, gai, and zi.
Instead, the other thing that concerned him was the note behind the mining of energy crystals.
This system actually did not increase currency second by second like ordinary AFK games, but came minute by minute.
It only added currency once a minute; was it really this slow?
If he wanted to develop to the later stages, wouldn't he have to wait until the Year of the Monkey? I'm afraid this thing wouldn't necessarily reach the tens of millions before he died, right?
Exasperated, Luke picked up the tea in front of him, wanting to gulp it down in one go to calm himself down, but he did not expect Ancient One to think so highly of him. The tea inside was nearly infinite, and it directly gave him a face-washing. The scalding hot tea flowed straight down his neck and into his clothes.
Subconsciously loosening his grip, the teacup shattered on the ground, and Luke also instinctively stood up and shook his clothes, his movements inevitably becoming a bit large.
The opposite Ancient One suddenly opened her eyes, looking straight at him.
Luke froze right there, forgetting there was still this supreme powerhouse in front of him. Seeing Ancient One stop her observation and look at him as if she had been disturbed, he hastily sat down obediently.
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Cold sweat streamed down Luke's back. Would the boss think I'm not giving her face? Would I just instantly feed a free kill? No way! I finally shook off the office drone life, and I haven't even gotten to properly enjoy it yet. At least let me watch some anime for a while!
Ancient One gazed steadily at him for a moment, and a dark mark suddenly appeared between her brows.
This much Luke actually knew: in order to maintain her life and power, Ancient One openly fought Dormammu while secretly absorbing dark energy.
Yet Luke could not well speak of this matter either; after all, the waters here ran too deep, and he could not handle it.
Actually, it was just that when watching the movie, everyone looked at the special effects; who the hell pays attention to the plot behind the movie!
Seeing Ancient One display the dark mark, Luke panicked even more. Why did it feel like the big boss was going to silence him?
Ancient One looked at Luke's limited-edition obedient.jpg, saying not a word. Remembering the future she had just observed, Ancient One could not help feeling somewhat shocked. Could such a person in the future crush Dormammu's fingernail universe to death?
Although she had plenty of thoughts, Ancient One's expression didn't change. Dormammu was simply too powerful. Even with the Time Stone, she wouldn't dare claim she could defeat him, yet the person before her would one day be able to destroy Dormammu.
He cast spells using Dark Energy. Ancient One could see that there was indeed a little Dark Energy on the person before her, and it was even purer than Dormammu's. That made her feel the possibility was real.
Ancient One lifted her teacup and gestured to Luke.
Luke thought Ancient One was trying to make things difficult for him, but then he noticed that the cup, which had been broken, had somehow reappeared intact in front of him.
He took a sip. The refills were still unlimited.
The familiar taste put Luke at ease. It seemed the big shot wasn't going to hold his earlier mistake against him.
"There's Dark Energy on you," Ancient One said suddenly, taking a sip of tea.
Luke had been gulping down tea. At that, he immediately spat it out. He'd just arrived in Marvel-how could he have gotten mixed up with Dormammu?
Ancient One wouldn't tolerate even a trace of Dark Energy in plain sight. So this really was a setup to frame him, kill him, and make his body disappear!
Someone had clearly forgotten the units of currency in the system, just as you'd never remember whether the currency in an idle game was gold coins or regular coins.
"Don't panic. I won't kill you to keep you quiet," Ancient One continued.
Holy crap, she's got me figured out. How does Ancient One know how to read minds? Luke's expression tightened as he remembered all the talk about eggs from earlier.
Ancient One recalled how Luke had "honestly" confessed his thoughts in one timeline, and couldn't help feeling a little helpless. "I won't hold your earlier thoughts against you, either. And I can't read minds."
Baldy, you're still going to say you can't read minds?!
Luke didn't dare think about anything now. He emptied his mind, trying to let his soul roam free and take in the Multiverse.
"You won't be able to observe the Multiverse that way. But I can help you. First, though, you need to take care of a bodily need, or an embarrassing scene might occur." Ancient One waved her hand, and a circle crackling with sparks appeared. The middle opened straight onto a bathroom.
Only then did Luke realize just how much he'd been holding in. He was very full indeed. He hurried over to take care of it.
Ancient One closed the portal, waited a few minutes, then opened it again.
When Luke came out of the bathroom and didn't see the sparks, he thought he'd been let off. But just as he was about to make a run for it and retreat strategically, the portal suddenly appeared.
With a pained look, Luke returned to the tea room, though he wasn't as panicked as before.
Taking advantage of the post-release clarity, Luke carefully sorted through the situation. He concluded that Ancient One really didn't seem intent on killing him, or she wouldn't have given him unlimited refills.
With no immediate danger, Luke's thoughts began to wander.
Looking at the portal crackling with sparks, Luke thought the spell was really convenient-at least, it made going to the bathroom easy.
Just as Luke, feeling wonderfully refreshed after taking care of himself, returned to the tea room, Ancient One appeared in front of him as if teleporting and struck him in the chest with her palm.
A feeling of weightlessness came over him. Luke suddenly realized he could see the back of his own head.
Wait, why was he flying? As he watched himself rise off the ground, Luke suddenly remembered Ancient One's budget-burning palm strike.
Had he just been hit?
Looking at his body sitting in a chair that had appeared sometime earlier, Luke felt dazed for a moment.
"Enjoy your journey," Ancient One said softly, looking at Luke in midair.
Luke suddenly felt a pull. It dragged him off to one side, and then he found himself in a strange space...
Ancient One returned to the tea table. Since this person had a chance of killing Dormammu, she would make use of him.
Thinking of the interrogation of Luke in that timeline, Ancient One knew he didn't have any bad intentions. As long as he was guided properly, he wouldn't go down the wrong path.
After an unforgettable journey, Luke felt as if both body and mind had been remade. When he came to, he realized he had somehow returned to the tea room and to his own body.
He took a sip of tea to calm himself, then glanced at Ancient One.
"How was the journey?" Ancient One asked.
"It was all right. It just felt way too intense," Luke said honestly. Watching hands grow all over his body had been seriously sanity-destroying. He didn't seem to remember anything else. Some of the things he'd seen had left him unable to react at all.
No wonder Ancient One thought Stephen was the greatest Sorcerer Supreme. Stephen had been able to retain his awareness in that kind of environment, which showed just how talented he was in that field.
Ancient One nodded. "I'll be more careful with Stephen next time."
So I'm the guinea pig, huh? Luke complained to himself, but kept it off his face.
"Back to what we were talking about. There's Dark Energy on you." Ancient One smoothly steered the conversation back.
"I can't help it," Luke said aggrievedly. "If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known I had Dark Energy."
I just got to this world. I haven't even had a chance to look around yet.
Luke found it very strange, too. It couldn't be that Dormammu had set his sights on him as soon as he arrived in this universe.
Speaking of Dark Energy, it seemed familiar. Hey, why did it seem familiar?
Luke was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly opened the system and looked at the currency listed there.
Dark Energy!
So the system was the one screwing me over!
Ancient One watched Luke's expression change repeatedly and quietly took a sip of water.
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Luke had no idea what to do now. If he told her he'd brought this lousy system with him to Ancient One, wouldn't that be like lighting a lamp in a toilet-asking for death?
"Please spare me, boss. I haven't done anything bad yet! Ah, no! I won't do anything bad!" Luke looked at Ancient One obediently. If the tea in her hands hadn't kept refilling itself endlessly, he would've wanted to pour her some water.
"Dark Energy is very dangerous, but you don't seem to be affected by it." As she spoke, Ancient One concealed the dark mark on her forehead.
Luke hadn't looked in a mirror since coming here, so he didn't know whether he'd changed. Hearing Ancient One say this, he felt somewhat reassured.
He was thinking of finding a mirror to check later when Ancient One said, "You'll need to stay here for now. I'll observe you for a few days."
What could Luke do? He could only follow the boss's instructions.
Seeing that Luke had no objections, Ancient One waved her hand. Space shifted, and the surroundings shattered like a mirror.
!!!
So they'd been in the Mirror Dimension the whole time.
Luke was stunned. He had to hand it to the King of Kings-he hadn't even known he'd entered the Mirror Dimension.
"I'll have Mordo show you to your room. Over the next few days, I hope you'll have a good experience at Kamar-Taj." Ancient One clapped her hands, and a burly man walked into the teahouse.
Seeing that Ancient One was clearly seeing him off, Luke obediently followed Mordo out.
Before you continue