A sleepless night

Night fell.

The Ancient One gave Mercer and Galacta a room each. Neither of them intended to leave, after all, and sleeping in the living room was out of the question.

Fortunately, the Sanctum Sanctorum had plenty of empty rooms, so there was space for both of them.

Bright moonlight spilled through the window. Mercer left the lights off, letting the faint glow of the moon illuminate the room.

After gazing at the moonlit view outside for a long while, Mercer raised his hand and pinched his thumb and forefinger together in midair. The Item Card he had obtained from the system earlier appeared in his hand.

He examined the card for a moment, then held it between his fingers and lightly slapped it forward. A line of text appeared before him.

Item obtained: Sharingan, one-tomoe!

"The Sharingan? Really?"

Even though it only had one tomoe, it was still a powerful ability for Mercer.

It reminded him of his Kotoamatsukami Battle-Damaged Card. He clenched his left hand and summoned it.

Looking at the two cards in his hands, Mercer hesitated for half a second before touching them together. Another line of text immediately popped up before him.

The current Sharingan has not reached the level required to fuse with a Battle-Damaged Card!

Fuse?

Mercer was a little surprised. He knew Kotoamatsukami was one of the Sharingan's abilities.

That was precisely why, upon seeing that his newly acquired item was the Sharingan, he had taken out the Kotoamatsukami Battle-Damaged Card he had already used once.

He had never expected a Battle-Damaged Card to be an item that could fuse with an Item Card.

"But this whole 'hasn't reached the required level' thing might be a little tricky..."

To use Kotoamatsukami through the Sharingan, he would have to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Before the Mangekyo Sharingan came two more levels: two-tomoe and three-tomoe. With only two levels between them, upgrading it seemed easy enough.

But the Sharingan had an utterly twisted requirement: it needed a certain kind of emotional shock, the intense anguish of something terrible happening to family or friends.

If Mercer had to endure that kind of pain, he would rather not upgrade the Sharingan at all.

"Oh well. I'll take it one step at a time and see whether I can upgrade it. If a friend or relative really has to die, forget it."

Mercer chuckled wryly. That was what he said, but there was hardly anyone in this world he cared about.

His former foster family had done nothing to help him. They had left him to fend for himself all this time, not caring whether he lived or died.

Evolving the Sharingan would be far too difficult.

With a soft sigh, Mercer used the Item Card anyway, slapping it forward.

The Item Card turned into a burst of red light that surged into Mercer's eyes, making him instinctively squint.

After a moment of silence, Mercer opened his eyes. His formerly blue-green irises had turned blood-red, with a tiny tomoe at the lower left of the black dot in the center of each eye.

This was the one-tomoe Sharingan.

He looked around. Having the Sharingan did not seem to make much difference. If he had to name one change, it was that he could see more clearly in the dark.

"I'll have to try it in an actual fight to see how it works."

His body was already incredibly powerful, after all. The Sharingan offered superhuman perception, allowing its user to observe the flow of chakra, cast and see through illusions, and copy taijutsu and ninjutsu that did not involve bloodline limits.

Of all those abilities, casting illusions was the only one that would be useful to Mercer.

He had no use for the rest. No one in the Marvel Universe had chakra, let alone used ninjutsu.

As for enhanced perception, he had possessed that ever since the Blacklight Virus entered his body.

Unless it evolved into the Mangekyo Sharingan, a Sharingan with one, two, or three tomoe would be of little use to Mercer.

"Oh well. Having it is better than nothing. If only I had someone to test it on..."

Mercer murmured to himself. Although this one-tomoe Sharingan did not count as a powerful ability by his standards, he still did not dare use it casually on ordinary people.

The Ancient One was out of the question; he could not possibly ask her to spar with him. Mordo and the other sorcerers were no better as options. Mercer might consider the one-tomoe Sharingan weak, but that did not mean it would have no effect on them.

If something went wrong, he would have a hard time explaining it to the Ancient One.

Suddenly, Mercer looked toward the window beside the outside walkway, his expression turning resigned. He had spotted a small head cautiously peeking out there, secretly watching him.

Their eyes met. Startled, the girl immediately turned to run.

A streak of lightning shot in front of her the next second, blocking her path. The lightning reassembled into Mercer.

"Galacta, did you see all of that?"

The peeper was none other than Galacta. Realizing she had been caught, she awkwardly rubbed her head and lowered her gaze, barely daring to look at Mercer.

"I was bored! I don't need to sleep like you humans do. Staying in that tiny room was really boring, so I came out to wander around and see what you were doing..."

Faced with her innocent expression, Mercer felt that getting angry would be like punching cotton candy. Helplessly, he asked, "So what exactly did you see?"

"Huh?" Galacta froze, then quickly answered once she gathered herself. "I just saw two cards suddenly appear in your hands. Then one disappeared, and the other turned into red light and floated into your eyes."

As she spoke, Galacta suddenly raised her head and stared curiously into Mercer's eyes, trying to see whether anything had changed.

Looks like she can't see the text. So I'm the only one who can see the words that pop out of the cards, Mercer thought.

"Oh well. If you saw it, you saw it. You came at just the right time. Get in here!" Mercer grabbed Galacta and pulled her into his room.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? Hey..."

Before Galacta could finish, the door shut.

The next day.

Mercer's room.

Drenched in sweat, Mercer leaned against the headboard. Galacta gazed at him excitedly, her eyes suggesting she still had not had enough.

"That was so much fun! Your eyes are amazing. Just one look can trap me in an illusion. It's pretty weak, but an ordinary person definitely wouldn't stand a chance."

Galacta marveled. Mercer had spent the entire night using her to test his Sharingan.

At first, Mercer had thought he had found himself a free test subject. After a few rounds, however, he realized he was the one in trouble.

The Sharingan could indeed cast illusions, trapping its target without them even noticing.

Even Galacta could not escape that. But while she could not avoid being caught, she still possessed godlike mental strength.

Mercer's ability might be powerful, but it could not truly affect the mind of a god like her.

To her, Mercer was merely taking her on a swinging pirate ship ride. She might get a little dizzy, but she was always safe, and her life was never in danger.

After a few attempts, Mercer had wanted to stop. Galacta, however, found it so entertaining that she used helping him train as an excuse to keep him at it all night.

After using the Sharingan for an entire night, Mercer felt as though his eyes were no longer his own.