[New book-asking for all kinds of support, especially bookmarks! All support welcome, thank you!]
The autumn air was slightly cool, stirring faint ripples.
In a corner of New York, inside a rundown courtyard with a crude sign reading "Mary Orphanage" hanging over its gate, withered yellow leaves blew up in the wind and drifted slowly past a window, creating a tranquil beauty untouched by time.
Just then, a handsome boy with a slightly pale face slowly approached the window, gazing out at the unfamiliar city with a complicated expression.
The little boy was about five or six years old, with soft, short black hair and an East Asian face. But there was something special about him: he had a pair of unusual eyes, because they were different colors, also known as heterochromia.
His left eye was platinum-gold, and his right was amethyst-purple.
Born with different-colored eyes, gold on the left and purple on the right!
These eyes were unlike those of ordinary people. Both were exceptionally clear, flecked with starlight and as brilliant as the stars. They looked dazzling and deep, irresistibly drawing people's gazes.
"The world has changed, and so have I."
The little boy spoke with a complicated expression, his words carrying a maturity that did not match his age.
Like something out of a melodramatic story, the little boy named Xia Zuo was not from this world. A few days earlier, he had still been a student in China, but after waking up, he had become an abandoned child in an orphanage, and his age had reverted to five or six.
It was a terrifying experience. After all, no one could remain unmoved after discovering that they had woken up with a different identity. Xia Zuo had been lost, bewildered, and afraid, too, but over the past few days, he had gradually accepted the reality.
The first thing to do upon arriving in an unfamiliar environment was to learn about the world. Xia Zuo understood that, so he had spent the past few days doing just that, and after some investigation, he had gained some understanding of this world.
First of all, this was Earth, and countries such as China and the United States still existed. However, he was in the United States, and it was the United States in the 1990s.
This world was very similar to his original one, but there were some differences. At first, he had thought it was simply a parallel version of Earth, and since he had arrived in late-1990s America, it went without saying that he had already prepared to plagiarize works from his old world.
In the United States, comics under the name Marvel had been very popular, and he had happened to discover that no comics called Marvel existed in this world...
Xia Zuo had already imagined recreating Marvel's comics, then adapting them into films and games, achieving fame and success, reaching the pinnacle of life, and living in extravagant luxury.
Until he heard that during World War II, a superhero named Steve Rogers, known as Captain America, had appeared.
"Motherfucker!!!"
"It's not that there are no Marvel Comics here-this is the Marvel Universe itself!"
He had thought this was a world with an underdeveloped entertainment industry, where he could make a fortune from Marvel's comics and enjoy a decadent life of luxury. Instead, he had landed directly in the Marvel Universe. The sheer contrast...
Xia Zuo had no words, but what followed was an intense sense of danger.
This world was utter chaos, filled with every imaginable kind of monster: technology, magic, gods, demons, aliens. It could not have been more chaotic. Villains capable of destroying the world appeared from time to time, and even if you were resting at home, an artillery shell might come crashing down. It could not have been more dangerous, so he needed some power to protect himself.
"You brought me here, so I believe you wouldn't leave me without any way to protect myself, would you?" Xia Zuo murmured. The room was empty, yet he seemed to be speaking to someone.
Xia Zuo slowly lifted the hair over his forehead. An ancient totem gradually emerged in the center of his smooth forehead, and a sense of age, steeped in the passage of time, slowly spread throughout the room.
The totem consisted of twelve circular patterns, like cycles of reincarnation. It somewhat resembled a type of eye called the Rinnegan in an anime called Hokage that he had seen in his previous life, but there were differences.
The Rinnegan was purple all over, with three overlapping concentric Eye Rings, while this unusual eye totem had twelve. The Twelve Eye Rings overlapped in layers, and the strange patterns on them looked exceedingly mysterious!
Moreover, this eye totem was also the reason he had come to this world!
In his previous life, he had seen a round, eye-like stone with twelve circular patterns on a street stall. Out of curiosity, he had bought it, only to wake up in this world. The pattern on that eye-like round stone had appeared on his forehead, becoming an eye-shaped totem, so his arrival was inextricably linked to it.
Xia Zuo had a suspicion: his different-colored eyes were very likely caused by this eye totem. Being born with different-colored eyes was not normal; only a tiny number of people could have such a condition.
In his previous life, he had been from China, and in this life, he was also of Chinese descent, so naturally, he had black hair and black eyes. Yet now his left eye had turned a noble platinum-gold, and his right a deep amethyst-purple, so he could not help connecting it to the eye totem.
"This might have something to do with the eye totem, though that's not certain. It could be some kind of mutation, such as the X-Gene. If it is the X-Gene, that wouldn't be bad either. It might give me some special abilities."
Xia Zuo murmured to himself. He felt that his eyes were connected to the eye totem, but it was not a certainty. After all, Mutants existed in the Marvel Universe, so this could also be some kind of X-Gene.
Xia Zuo was not ignorant. He had no aversion whatsoever to the X-Gene, because power was extremely important in this dangerous world. As long as it gave him the ability to protect himself, he considered it a good thing.
"Totem, little Totem, Totie, stop playing dead. Say something! What exactly is going on with the changes in my body?"
Xia Zuo murmured, calling out to the eye totem on his forehead. Although he had guessed that the changes in his body were related to the eye totem, it gave no response no matter how he called to it. But Xia Zuo understood that this was definitely no mere symbol, but a mysterious existence, so he had to establish contact with it and obtain power from it.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Just as Xia Zuo was actively trying to contact the totem on his forehead, footsteps slowly approached, heading toward the courtyard.