"Did you hear? Tony Stark's been kidnapped!"
"Who hasn't? The fucking stock's tanked!"
The voices beside him made Li Ang open his eyes. His wide eyes were full of confusion. Tony Stark? What the hell was going on?
Of course he knew who Tony Stark was.
But the problem was, right now he should have been like most people, nursing a headache after a night of heavy drinking and swearing never to drink again.
Why did it look like he was about to shoot some exploitation flick instead?
He tried to raise his hand, only to discover that his hands were strapped to a hard bed fitted with restraints.
His body and limbs were firmly secured, and the lingering smell of blood in his nose made his heart race.
He struggled to turn his neck and look around. By the light coming through the crack in the door, Li Ang made out the dim room.
It was an operating room that looked like an illegal workshop. Surgical instruments lay on an iron tray beside him, stained with dried blood.
Clearly, the doctors here had little concept of sterile procedure.
"They're going to cut out my kidneys!"
At that thought, memories flashed through his mind. In an instant, two different sets of memories merged completely.
Li Ang's eyes widened. He confirmed that he had arrived in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at the point when Iron Man had been kidnapped and was playing Handy Geng in a cave, cobbling together his armor.
This body was also named Li Ang, a clerk at a small company nearby.
His parents had both been overseas Chinese. Not long after he was born, a home invasion had claimed their lives, leaving him alone to struggle along the kill line on the other side of the ocean.
And now he had been abducted!
His predecessor had come to Hell's Kitchen for an appointment with a lawyer named Matthew Michael Murdock.
He hadn't expected to get clubbed from behind while passing an alley!
So much for the land of the free. This was way too fucking free!
Li Ang took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Whatever happened, he had to escape first before he had time to reflect on life.
Just as he thought this, a line of text appeared out of thin air before his eyes.
It was like a black speck on a pair of glasses that he couldn't ignore.
[Host awakening detected. Host possesses no superpowers. The system will randomly select a character template to copy. Refuse?]
"Yes... my ass!" Li Ang had nearly refused out of habit.
This system wasn't playing by the usual rules either!
"Copy it!" Li Ang shouted.
[Drawing...]
As code kept running before his eyes, footsteps outside the door arrived before the character template did.
The iron door a short distance away was pushed open with a bang.
As the door opened, the glaring light made Li Ang squint.
Two tall, burly black men walked in, one with red hair and the other with green hair. They had round noses and thick lips, and one had a cigarette in his mouth.
"All right, hurry up and harvest every usable organ from this guy, and we'll have met today's quota."
As they spoke, the two entered the room. Neither looked surprised to see Li Ang awake. They were long used to it.
"Kennedy, go get the fridge. We'll take the corneas first, then the internal organs."
[Character template confirmed. Homelander-V5 (Homelander): 70% of abilities copied. Full copying will be completed after the first mission!]
The instant the text vanished, Li Ang felt tremendous strength welling up inside him, accompanied by a tingling sensation throughout his body.
Just then, the red-haired man, now wearing gloves, walked up to the operating table.
He held a scalpel, his gaze less like someone looking at a person than at livestock awaiting slaughter.
He grinned viciously, filled with excitement.
When he saw Li Ang's eyes narrow slightly and his whole body tremble, he grew even more excited!
Oh yeah, that was the look of fear!
People who killed their own kind, harvested their organs, and could keep doing it had long since become twisted inside.
When the sharp scalpel pressed against his skin, the expected blood failed to appear.
The black man made a puzzled noise. When he looked up, all he saw was Li Ang's mocking expression.
Fear? No, Li Ang had never felt so refreshed in his life!
The copying of Homelander's abilities was complete. The tingling vanished, and the power filling his body made him want to do something.
Like going up to a rooftop and having a quick wank at the moon... or crushing the black fuck in front of him to death!
"What the fuck are you standing there for?" Seeing the red-haired man stop moving, the green-haired man frowned and approached.
Before he could ask anything, Li Ang abruptly raised his hand. The three-finger-wide restraint snapped as easily as spider silk.
The instant his hand touched the black man's head, pop!
Under that grab, the black man's entire upper body, from his chest to his head, burst apart. Red and white sprayed everywhere like exploding fireworks!
Blood splattered amid the sharp explosive crack!
He had only just gained his strength, and he had struck in anger. At full force, he could have smashed a hole through an armored vehicle, let alone flesh and blood!
Li Ang froze. The green-haired man beside him froze in place too.
"Holy shit, used too much force!"
"What the fuck!"
Li Ang and the green-haired man cried out simultaneously. Li Ang was disgusted by the blood all over himself, while the green-haired man was completely stupefied with fear.
What happened? Where was my buddy?
My buddy was so big just a second ago. How had he suddenly been reduced to half a body? Talk about losing your head.
Before the green-haired man could figure it out, Li Ang wiped blood off his face and sat up.
"Holy shit!" Only then did the green-haired man react. He hurriedly pulled a pistol from his pocket. "Put your hands up!"
Li Ang looked at the dark muzzle. Before, he would certainly have raised his hands and cosplayed a Frenchman, but now...
Scorching energy gathered in his eyes. Two red laser beams shot out, hitting the black man's arm with pinpoint accuracy.
Hiss!
His arm and the pistol melted instantly.
"Ah!" The black man howled, clutching his arm as he collapsed to the floor!
Li Ang exhaled, filled with delighted surprise. This meant he now had the foundation he needed to establish himself in this Marvel Universe!
He wouldn't die in some shootout or become a casualty statistic in some incident.
"You motherfucking freak! My hand!"
The black fuck was still wailing. Li Ang frowned. His enhanced hearing amplified the noise, making him feel very irritated.
"Shut up! You're going to answer my questions now." Li Ang walked over to the green-haired man and picked him up, holding back his strength.
The green-haired man was too frightened to speak. Then he remembered an old saying: you don't hit a smiling face.
So he spread his lips in a smile. When Li Ang saw it, he said, "You still dare to smile?" He raised his hand and slapped him!
With a sharp smack, half the green-haired man's face swelled up!
The green-haired man looked utterly bewildered. Before Li Ang could question him, his super hearing picked up a group rapidly approaching the front entrance, up the corridor.
The man leading them had a full beard and wore a jacket, with several armed guards following behind him.
"Where's today's merchandise?"
Hearing the voice, Li Ang raised his head and activated his X-ray vision. He saw that he was in a place resembling a small food factory.
It seemed to be a factory on the surface, but an organ-harvesting workshop behind the scenes.
And with his X-ray vision activated, he also spotted someone interesting: a hero wearing a red bodysuit and holding a white cane.