On the steps of a flower bed opposite Stark Tower, Ling Yi ate a hamburger as he watched Black Widow, who had just walked out of the building.
Ling Yi had returned to the Marvel world, but this Marvel world clearly wasn't the one he had transmigrated to before.
In fact, this Marvel might not even be this world's main world.
A glance at the system panel said it all.
Host: Ling Yi Laws controlled: 1,362 (law of space, law of time, law of wind, law of water, law of thunder, law of souls, law of life... law of darkness... law of light... law of samsara, law of destruction...) Law analysis: The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (65%), Resident Evil (100%), The Myth (12%), Train to Busan (100%), Myriad Worlds Chat Group (2%). Points: 7.6 million. Plot progress: The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (35%), Xia Luo's Special Troubles (50%), Seven Dragon Balls Z (29%), Avengers 1 (51%), The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (98%), Resident Evil (100%), The Myth (85%), Train to Busan (100%), Myriad Worlds Chat Group (0%). (Other entries omitted...)
This was a greater world.
Of the 1,362 laws Ling Yi controlled, the overlap with this world's laws was only 2%.
This world was called Myriad Worlds Chat Group... clearly, this wasn't a movie or television world. It was a novel world.
Transmigrating into a novel world was what Ling Yi worried about most, because whether it was a movie world, a television world, or a game world, there were trails to follow, and power had an upper limit.
But in a novel world... there was simply no upper limit to power.
The author could have the protagonist fight his way from Earth to the universe, from the universe to the myriad worlds, and from the myriad worlds to the gods of dimensions... you never knew how many pits the author had dug or how many bosses lay hidden in a novel world.
Myriad Worlds Chat Group-the name alone told him how terrifying this world's main storyline setting was.
This Marvel was probably just one of the myriad worlds.
Of course, Ling Yi had read plenty of novels like this in his previous life and was familiar with the general progression.
The protagonist obtained a Myriad Worlds Chat Group System and successfully became the group owner.
The members were all major plot characters from their respective worlds, while the protagonist spoiled the plot all the way and freeloaded in every way imaginable.
There might also be points, quest, and shop modules. Those who joined the chat group helped one another and grew stronger together, and could visit each other's worlds to help members solve all sorts of problems.
In novels like these, even the Primordial World might not be the ceiling.
And in the Marvel world, which character would become a chat group member?
There was no need to think about it. It would absolutely be Iron Man, Tony Stark.
Of course, none of that mattered. What mattered was how he could make contact with the chat group.
If he couldn't make contact, his plot progress would stagnate.
But that raised another problem. The chat group must have been created by some big shot. Would an outsider like him be discovered by that big shot and wiped out with a wave of the hand?
Or should he contact Tony Stark directly and start with him?
Ling Yi felt neither option was safe. He should look for a passive aura that could solve the problem at hand.
Opening the system's aura list, Ling Yi began searching from top to bottom.
Soon, Ling Yi's eyes lit up. He had discovered a rather entertaining passive aura.
Passive Hostility Aura (costs 500,000 points to activate): senses any target harboring hostility toward the host and locks onto the target's location. By spending points, the host can control the target's actions and even will. The stronger the target, the more points are consumed.
As expected of a cheat, every aura's functions were unbelievably heaven-defying.
The moment he saw this aura, Ling Yi thought of a way to use it. Other things might be beyond him, but making everyone in the chat group, especially the group owner, hostile toward him would be simple.
Still, he would have to come up with a few tricks for exactly how to play this.
Tony Stark had been riding high lately. Ever since joining the Myriad Worlds Chat Group, his strength had undergone a fundamental improvement.
Not only had he exchanged for large quantities of cultivation techniques and medicinal pills, becoming a martial arts expert, but he had also learned how to create a new element from the group owner, completely resolving his palladium poisoning.
The shadow of death that had hung over him had been swept away.
In the underground laboratory of Stark's seaside villa, Tony was designing the Mark V, a foldable Mark suit.
The group owner had told him that putting on a Mark suit was too inconvenient. He could try designing a smaller suit he could carry with him, so that if an emergency arose while he was out, he wouldn't be left utterly defenseless without his armor.
The group owner's idea had given him tremendous inspiration. To thank him, Tony had already promised to give him a suit once the Mark V was finished.
"So you really were the problem, Tony Stark." A voice suddenly rang out behind Tony.
"What?" Startled, Tony looked back and found a young man in a suit watching him with an indifferent gaze.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., have you been hacked again? Looks like your defense systems need another upgrade," Tony said with a frown.
"You have touched a domain you should never have touched. Your changes will send this spacetime's trajectory in an unknown direction. Anyone who alters spacetime's original course will be punished."
Tony froze, instinctively connecting the young man's words to the chat group.
"It seems you've understood what I mean."
"Who exactly are you? I have no idea what you're talking about. Besides, you're trespassing. Do you know what happens to trespassers in good old 'Murica?"
As Tony spoke, he slowly edged toward the suit-up area, ready to put on his Iron Man armor at any moment.
"I am an enforcer from the Time-Space Administration Bureau. Rest assured, since your participation was passive, you will not be erased. I will return in three days, erase your memories of this period, and correct and reset the distorted parameters."
"What if I refuse?" Tony frowned. The man didn't look like he was bluffing, and Tony knew perfectly well that he had indeed changed the future because of the chat group.
"Eradication!"
As the word fell, the young man in the black suit began to fade, finally disappearing before Tony's eyes.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.!"
"I'm sorry, sir. I detected no signs of life, nor did I find any data about this individual in the database."
Tony knitted his brows. He certainly couldn't count on J.A.R.V.I.S. The man was far too bizarre, and Tony lacked confidence in his armor. It seemed he could only turn to the chat group for help.
Outside the villa, the invisible Ling Yi opened his system panel. Seeing the information under his new aura, he couldn't help smiling.
Passive Hostility Aura lv1 (0/1 million): senses any target harboring hostility toward the host and locks onto the target's location. By spending points, the host can control the target's actions and even will. The stronger the target, the more points are consumed. The host can edit the target's actions and submit them to determine the points cost. Once confirmed, the edited actions will be executed automatically. Current hostile target: Tony Stark.
A dozen or so minutes later, the number of hostile targets rapidly increased. Ling Yi saw many familiar people among them.
Current hostile targets: Tony Stark, Whitebeard, Vegeta, Cao Mengde, Sasuke, Zhang Sanfeng, Xiao Huohuo, Ye Hei, Lin Feng.
Judging by these names, the chat group still didn't have many members, and this Lin Feng was most likely its owner.
But this alone wasn't enough. These people's hostility wasn't what he needed. Even the hostility of Lin Feng, the group owner, was of little use to Ling Yi.
What he needed was for the chat group system to become hostile toward him.
Ling Yi didn't know whether this system had a will, so he needed to test it. If it was like his own system, without consciousness and merely an auxiliary system, he would have to join the group first and go from there.
This was Ling Yi's first time transmigrating into a novel world, and his first encounter with a protagonist who had a system. Whatever the outcome, it would be an extremely valuable experience for him.
Because Ling Yi knew that he would definitely transmigrate into novel worlds more and more often in the future, and protagonists in novels almost all had golden fingers. Some of those golden fingers were truly heaven-defying.
Ling Yi didn't stir up trouble in this Marvel world. Instead, he entered the Ling Realm.
The ratio of time between the Ling Realm and the outside world was different. It currently didn't even qualify as a lesser world. Whenever new laws were added, it needed to undergo a process of automatic absorption and integration, much like a program running self-checks and updates...