Recaps

After surviving a gang delivery job, Ling Yi prepared to launch his Diablo dungeon and recruit players, but Brock warned him that they had been framed before gunshots cut off the call. Ling Yi hid in a secret compartment and activated the dungeon, bringing ten players into the game.

• Ling Yi and Brock Mason delivered a shipment for the Timberwolf Gang and received six thousand dollars each.
• Ling Yi asked Brock whether he wanted to leave gang life, then decided to let him enter the Diablo dungeon to level up.
• Ling Yi configured the dungeon, chose ten initial players, and created Player Marks for them.
• Brock called to warn Ling Yi that the shipment was gone and they had been made scapegoats, then gunshots abruptly ended the call.
• Ling Yi destroyed his written plan and hid in a secret compartment stocked with food and weapons.
• Ling Yi activated the dungeon and deployed the marks, and the system confirmed that ten players had logged in.

Nick Fury and the others were pulled into the Rogue Encampment instance, where Tony Stark’s group tested its monster-fighting mechanics and Steve Rogers thawed from the ice. The chapter ended with Steve ready to level up and Nick’s group preparing to test a health potion.

• Nick Fury, Natasha, Barton, Coulson, Pepper, Happy, Tony Stark, Helen Cho, Peggy Carter, and Steve appeared in the Rogue Encampment instance, where they learned its rules.
• Tony Stark led Pepper, Happy, and Helen Cho outside the camp and killed a spiny rat, gaining experience, coins, and a health potion.
• Ling Yi received experience and unlocked the System Shop while hiding from the people involved in a criminal conspiracy.
• Steve thawed from the ice, reunited with Peggy Carter, and agreed with Nick that they should level up.
• Barton showed Nick’s group a health potion, and Steve handed it to Peggy to test its effects.

Peggy drank a health potion and returned to youth as Steve and the others prepared to explore the game world. Tony’s group reunited with them, and everyone agreed to level up and gather supplies before fighting Blood Raven, while Ling Yi reached level 7 in the real world and chose a powerful, varied set of skills.

• Peggy drank the small health potion, regained her youth and strength, and agreed with Steve to finish their long-delayed dance.
• Barton explained the game’s monsters and experience system, and Steve summoned his shield as the group prepared to leave the encampment.
• Tony, Pepper, Happy, and Helen Cho returned after dying while fighting monsters, and Tony explained their failed attempt to challenge Blood Raven.
• Nick introduced Tony to Steve, Peggy, Natasha, Barton, and Coulson, and Tony recognized Peggy from his childhood.
• Tony and the others agreed to level up, find equipment, and save for potions before facing Blood Raven together.
• Ling Yi reached level 7, distributed his attributes and skill points, and gained heightened senses and a broad set of combat and scouting abilities.

Nick Fury and the others defeated Blood Raven, gathered equipment, and returned from the instance to test how its items and portals worked in reality. Nick discovered that a town portal could be set outside the instance and saw the new power as a chance to confront the hidden force inside S.H.I.E.L.D., while Alexander Pierce began questioning his brief disappearance.

• Steve, Natasha, Barton, Peggy, Helen Cho, and the others killed Blood Raven, then assigned her equipment to Steve, Natasha, and Barton.
• The group returned to camp, received archer mercenaries from Kashya, and decided that most of them would leave the instance while Steve and Barton stayed to level up.
• Nick returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters with a mercenary, confirmed that his equipment could appear in reality, and discovered that a town portal scroll could designate a real-world destination.
• Nick considered using the instance's power to strengthen his control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and counter the unknown force he suspected was operating inside it.
• Alexander Pierce called Nick about his disappearance and invoked the World Council of Elders, but Nick rejected his explanation and ended the call.

Tony, Pepper, Happy, Steve, and Nick adapted to their growing powers from the game instance, while Ling Yi investigated Brock’s death and uncovered a plot involving the Hand. The chapter ended with Ling Yi identifying the Japanese ninja group behind the shipment theft as the Hand.

• Tony, Pepper, and Happy tested their increased strength, then leveled up in the game and reached level 10, choosing their respective classes and skills.
• Steve escaped the iceberg with his Paladin skill Holy Fire and met Nick, Coulson, and Natasha, who took him through a town portal.
• Ling Yi investigated the Pigeon Gang and learned that someone had stolen a Kingpin Group shipment and framed him and Brock.
• Ling Yi confronted Babuke Neil and Nick at the Timberwolf Gang headquarters, where NieR admitted that Japanese ninjas had ordered them to take the shipment.
• Ling Yi concluded that the ninjas who had set up Brock and him belonged to the Hand.

After confronting the consequences of Stark Industries’ weapons sales, Tony realized his uncle Obadiah had betrayed him. A convoy ambush killed his soldiers, and Tony used his ice magic to slaughter the attackers before confronting their frozen leader.

• Ling Yi left Hell’s Kitchen for Queens after NieR’s death went unnoticed by the Timberwolf Gang.
• In Kamar Town, an old man showed Tony a Stark Industries bullet and accused his weapons of killing his family and the town’s residents.
• Tony questioned General Morris about his weapons deal, then rejected Morris’s plan to use them for slaughter.
• On the return journey, Tony’s convoy was attacked with Stark-marked missiles, and the blast killed all the soldiers.
• Tony survived the explosions with his shield and Ice Armor, then destroyed the attackers’ vehicles with Ice Bolt.
• Tony froze the bald attack leader and recognized the betrayal as Obadiah’s doing.

Tony had Obadiah arrested and joined Steve’s group to explore the Dark Passage, where Ling Yi secretly watched them fight. After seeing their progress, Ling Yi decided to expand the player roster by selecting four new players, including villains and other powerful figures.

• Tony fired Obadiah, whose paralysis device failed to stop Happy, and had him taken away; Obadiah’s shares went to Tony.
• Tony, Pepper, Happy, and the others joined Steve’s party and entered the Dark Passage after reaching level 10.
• The group defeated a pack of Dark Hunters using curses, poison, buffs, and coordinated attacks, while Steve and Hawkeye sensed they were being watched.
• Ling Yi observed the party from an invisible projection, gained experience, and left without revealing himself.
• Ling Yi decided to add selected players and chose Ivan Vanko, Bruce Banner, Wilson Fisk, and Steve Strange.

Ling Yi selected the second batch of Marvel players, weighing each candidate’s abilities, flaws, and potential to change their fate in the game. After choosing ten heroes and villains, he considered whether Thanos might also be worth recruiting.

• Ling Yi chose Loki, hoping to see what choices he would make when given a chance to change his fate.
• Ling Yi selected Bucky Barnes to see how he, Steve, and Tony would interact in the game.
• Ling Yi chose Norman Osborn because he wanted to change Norman’s future and the futures of Harry Osborn and Spider-Man.
• Ling Yi selected Mindy Macready, Eddie Brock, and Matt Murdock, hoping to see Mindy’s potential, test Venom in a game instance, and help Daredevil grow stronger.
• Ling Yi finished choosing ten players and considered recruiting Thanos, but doubted he could change Thanos’s firm belief that wiping out half of all life would save the universe.

Ling Yi invited young Peter Parker to lunch, easing some of his loneliness in the unfamiliar world. Bruce Banner joined the Rogue Encampment instance and chose to erase Hulk's soul while keeping a controllable transformation ability, and Ling Yi's system used the collected soul and gene data to complete the Barbarian skill tree.

• Ling Yi abandoned the idea of recruiting Thanos and spent experience to create ten new Player Marks.
• Ling Yi invited Peter Parker to lunch, and Peter called Aunt May before accepting the offer.
• Peter enjoyed Ling Yi's pork ribs and sent Aunt May a video from Ling Yi's phone.
• Bruce Banner received three choices for dealing with Hulk's soul and chose to erase it while retaining a controllable transformation.
• Banner arrived in the Rogue Encampment and learned about the instance and the Chosen Ones.
• Ling Yi received a system notice that Hulk's soul and mutated gene data had completed the Barbarian skill tree.

Ling Yi discovered that the barbarian skill tree had gained transformation skills as ten new players entered the Rogue Encampment and tested the game’s rules. The players split into pairs to explore, while Ling Yi wondered how their real-world abilities would interact with the game.

• Ling Yi inspected the barbarian’s new Transformation and Enhanced Transformation skills and wondered whether the Game System could alter other classes’ skill trees.
• Kingpin recognized several players, dismissed Mindy’s desire for revenge, and left the Rogue Encampment; Ivan Vanko and Loki also departed to test whether the world was real.
• Strange accused the players of staging an elaborate prank, while Loki showed him the system interface and vanished using invisibility.
• Mindy discovered that players lost HP and respawned by kicking Norman Osborn, then invited him to party up; Eddie Brock and Matt Murdock also teamed up and left.
• Bucky Barnes and Bruce Banner discussed their painful pasts, formed a party, and left the encampment; Strange eventually followed them out alone.
• Ling Yi watched the new players disperse and wondered why Bucky’s metal arm and Brock’s Venom carried over while Loki’s magic did not.

Kingpin returned from the game with the assassin class and used his new skills and a game weapon to confront the Hand in Hell's Kitchen. After matching Madame Gao in strength, he used his boosted speed to kill her with one punch.

• Kingpin reached level 10, chose the assassin class, and allocated most of his free attribute points to agility before being logged out.
• Kingpin rejected the shadow double's independent decisions and summoned Lester, who reported that Madame Gao and her ninjas had overwhelmed him.
• Kingpin gave Lester a lightning javelin from his game inventory, and Lester learned its properties when he took it.
• Kingpin and Lester attacked Madame Gao's lair, where Kingpin confronted her over the Hand's control of Hell's Kitchen's Southern District.
• Kingpin's fist clashed evenly with Madame Gao's, but his assassin acceleration let him evade her attack and kill her with a punch.

Banner and Bucky chose Sorcerer and pushed through the dungeon until they reached level 18 and unlocked Teleportation, while Mindy, Norman Osborn, and Loki also advanced their classes. After the second batch of players returned to reality, Loki watched Thor receive the warriors’ admiration and reflected on his envy and ambition to inherit Asgard’s throne.

• Banner chose Sorcerer for its escape skills, and Bucky chose the same class to pursue revenge and make up for the seventy years he had lost.
• Banner and Bucky fought through the monastery dungeon, reached level 18, and put their attribute points into intelligence to use Teleportation across distances of up to fifteen kilometers.
• Mindy returned as an Assassin, Norman Osborn as a Druid, and the second batch of players left the game dungeon after three hours in reality.
• Loki returned to Asgard as an Assassin, valuing its combat-capable Clone skill and imagining how he could use it alongside his illusions.
• Thor defeated Sif on the training grounds and received cheers from the warriors, leaving Loki resentful and convinced that he was better suited to rule Asgard.

Loki resolved to prove Odin wrong by pursuing his own path, while Strange discovered that leveling up in the game improved his real-world abilities and returned to play. Ling Yi watched the players develop their builds and hoped someone would clear Act I so he could enter the instance and exploit its remaining opportunities.

• Odin named Thor heir to the throne, and Loki vowed to prove Odin had made the wrong choice by leveling up in the game instead of joining Thor's invasion of Jotunheim.
• Strange tested his improved strength and dexterity in a difficult surgery, then logged back into the game, eager to gain more power.
• Ling Yi judged Strange poorly suited to heroism and noted that Ivan Vanko chose a Druid shapeshifter while Eddie Brock chose an Amazon archer and agreed to erase Venom's consciousness.
• Ling Yi redeemed an optimized Venom for 200,000 experience points and reached level 19, while the experience needed for level 20 rose to one billion.
• The second batch of players completed their class changes, and Strange reached level 10 as a Sorcerer with skills spread across fire, cold, and lightning.
• Ling Yi reflected on the players' slow progress through Act I and waited for someone to clear it so he could enter the instance and grind monsters.

Banner demonstrated control of Hulk's power by escaping General Ross's forces on a flying security door, while Betty rejected her father's ambitions. Later, the two batches of players met, and Kingpin used his influence to make agreements with Mindy, Damon, and Matt about Hell's Kitchen.

• Banner visited Betty at Culver University, but she refused to leave with him as General Ross's forces arrived.
• Banner transformed, flew away on a security door at over Mach twelve, and escaped Ross's pursuit.
• Betty condemned Ross's ambition and left him after he ordered Blonsky to capture Banner by any means.
• Nick and the other players met Kingpin and Mindy, who had agreed to peace while Kingpin promised to help resurrect Mindy's mother.
• Kingpin offered Matt control over the illicit businesses in Hell's Kitchen, and Matt told him to keep them strictly business; Kingpin then issued decrees against coercing people into crime.

Bucky revealed that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and was preparing Project Insight, forcing Nick to reconsider his plans and recognize the threat posed by players. Tony learned Bucky had killed his parents while under Hydra’s control, attacked him, then eventually calmed down and left to prepare for a fight against Hydra.

• Kingpin told Nick that Hydra operatives had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and that he would discuss cooperation after Nick dealt with them.
• Bucky reunited with Steve and revealed that Hydra remained active, had infiltrated powerful organizations, and planned to use Project Insight to kill potential enemies.
• Bucky explained that Dr. Zola had uploaded his consciousness to computers and that Project Insight would use three Helicarriers and the Zola Algorithm to target hundreds of thousands of people.
• Bucky confessed that he had killed Tony’s parents while controlled by Hydra, and Tony attacked him repeatedly until Bucky’s level fell to zero.
• Kingpin warned Nick that players and instance-world equipment could reshape power in the world, then agreed to join Nick’s proposed team.
• Tony calmed down, told Nick to contact him when S.H.I.E.L.D. moved against Hydra, and left while Steve offered to help Bucky regain his levels.

After Loki cleared Act One, Ling Yi entered the instance as a level 19 player, and the group unlocked and explored Lut Gholein. Norman and Mindy learned about a divine artifact and reached level 19, while the chapter explained that level 20 would bring class advancement and greater control over skills.

• A game announcement declared that Loki had killed Andariel and unlocked the Lut Gholein instance, and Ling Yi chose to log in as a level 19 player.
• Nick questioned Loki, who revealed that he was Loki Odinson from Asgard and described Asgard as Midgard's protector, angering Nick with his reference to humans as ants.
• Nick and the other players traveled through Warriv to Lut Gholein, where they encountered the desert city and its more lifelike NPCs.
• Deckard Cain asked Mindy and Norman to help clear demons from Lut Gholein and told them about a divine artifact hidden in an underground palace in the Dry Hills.
• Mindy and Norman hunted monsters together, reached level 19, and discovered that advancing to level 20 required one billion experience.
• The chapter explained that level 20 granted class advancement, increased all skill levels by one, and gave players a Class Heart that let them adapt their skills.

After learning that Thor had been exiled to Earth and stripped of his power, Loki reconsidered his desire to claim Asgard’s throne and traveled to New Mexico to see his brother. The chapter ended with Thor asking Loki for money after learning he would not be taken home.

• Coulson told Thor that Loki knew about his situation and planned to visit him.
• Mindy and Norman helped Loki interpret Thor’s exile as a trial arranged by Odin, persuading him not to return to Asgard and stir up trouble.
• Loki used a town portal scroll to travel from Asgard to Earth, drawing Odin’s and Heimdall’s attention to its unfamiliar spatial power.
• Loki found Thor working shirtless with a group of workers and dodged his attempt at a hug.
• Thor asked Loki whether he had come to take him home, and Loki said that no one could do so without Odin’s orders; Thor then asked whether Loki had any money.

Loki abandoned Thor to his trial, while Ling Yi spent three months farming Diablo equipment before reaching level 20. In Lut Gholein, Steve and Bucky retreated from a lightning-immune elite monster, while Nick Fury, Wilson Fisk, and Mark struggled to fight through the Halls of the Dead together.

• Loki left Thor to continue hauling bricks, and Thor returned to the construction site believing his father and brother had abandoned him.
• Ling Yi farmed monsters for three months, collected four green items and two dark gold items, and leveled from 19 to 20 before deciding he could buy rare gear through the System Shop.
• Steve and Bucky fought an Enhanced, Extra Fast Palace Guard with lightning immunity, then used a Town Portal Scroll to retreat to Lut Gholein.
• Steve told Bucky they should level elsewhere and seek level-20 skills and better boots before returning to the Halls of the Dead.
• Nick Fury and Wilson Fisk argued while Mark directed his skeleton summons against a Greedy Life Stealer, whose ability to revive minions kept the fight difficult.

Nick, Wilson, and Mark spent weeks clearing the Halls of the Dead and found a Horadric Cube that respawned after seven days. In the real world, Ling Yi bought the enhanced infinite synthesis version, tested its fusion ability, and considered what he might synthesize next.

• Nick, Wilson, and Mark cooperated to clear the Halls of the Dead, using portals and their skills to fight through its monsters and maze-like levels.
• After nearly half a month of game time, the three found the chest containing the Horadric Cube and learned it would respawn after seven days.
• Nick examined the ordinary Horadric Cube, found its synthesis function unusable, and the three returned to town to ask Deckard Cain about it.
• Ling Yi bought the Horadric Cube-Enhanced Infinite Synthesis Edition for one hundred million experience points and learned it could store living things and synthesize anything at an experience cost.
• Ling Yi bound the Cube to his hand and synthesized a drinking glass and a teacup into a translucent cup made from a mixture of glass and ceramic.

Ling Yi watched players struggle through Diablo’s Arcane Sanctuary while Nick used the Horadric Cube to briefly take Mjolnir, drawing Odin to Earth. Odin questioned Nick about Loki and the strange powers appearing on Midgard, while Nick guarded Earth’s secrets and began planning against Hydra; the chapter ended with Odin summoning Loki and asking whether he had gone to Midgard.

• Ling Yi checked the players’ progress as Tony’s group struggled against [The Summoner], while Banner and Eddie defeated the boss and reached Claw Viper Canyon.
• Nick used the Horadric Cube to store Mjolnir, prompting Odin to appear before Nick and Coulson and demand its return.
• Nick returned Mjolnir to the ground, refused to reveal Loki’s whereabouts, and watched Odin leave after noticing the unusual power and artifacts on Earth.
• Nick ordered Coulson to monitor Thor and research Odin’s arrival, then confronted Alexander Pierce and resolved to remove Hydra from S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Odin waited for Loki in Asgard and summoned him, then asked whether he had gone to Midgard.

Loki left for Jotunheim without learning that the box he delivered contained the Casket of Sea Ice, while Odin kept his plans to himself. Meanwhile, Pierce tried to have Nick killed, but Nick used his game equipment and lightning powers to destroy Hydra’s attackers and confront Pierce aboard his helicopter.

• Odin told Loki that the dungeon world was an inheritance ground and urged him to grow stronger for Asgard’s sake.
• Odin gave Loki a box for Laufey, but Loki delivered it without speaking to him and immediately returned through a town portal.
• Pierce ordered Hydra agents to kill Nick after Nick slipped out of his control, and Nick survived an ambush by more than a hundred armed attackers.
• Nick returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. and killed Hydra agents who tried to stop him, including Crossbones and Agent Sitwell.
• Nick teleported into Pierce’s airborne helicopter after Pierce tried to flee.

Nick returned to Old Bridge as Frost Giants advanced on the town, and the players gathered to fight them. After the group gained huge amounts of experience by killing the giants, Loki warned them that the Casket of Ancient Winters was unleashing blue mist and they needed to retreat.

• Nick injected Pierce with truth serum, left him with Hill, and teleported to Old Bridge after Coulson reported trouble.
• Barton brought the other players, including Ling Yi, to Old Bridge, where Nick warned them the Frost Giants might be dangerous and gave Ivan Vanko evidence about his father’s role in developing the Arc Reactor.
• Steve activated Resist Cold and led the fight as Banner, Steve, Wilson, and the others discovered that each Frost Giant kill granted 10 million experience.
• Ling Yi noticed Loki’s invisibility and told him that Mindy had leveled up; Loki then joined the battle with three assassin Clones.
• The players slaughtered the Frost Giants and Ling Yi rose from level 21 to level 25, until Loki saw blue mist spread from the rear of the ice curtain and shouted that the Casket of Ancient Winters had appeared.

Ling Yi’s group defeated Laufey’s Frost Giants after Norman’s volcano weakened them and Mindy seized the Casket of Ancient Winters. Thor reclaimed Mjolnir and ended the battle, but Nick rejected Asgard’s protection; after Thor was taken away, Natasha approached Ling Yi with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s interest in his unexplained background.

• Ling Yi spent his remaining skill points on [Resist Cold], protecting his allies from the Casket’s freezing mist as Loki realized he was an Ice Giant and charged into the Frost Giant army.
• Loki fought Laufey but could not break through his defenses, so Norman unleashed a volcano while Mindy knocked the Casket of Ancient Winters from Laufey’s hand and stole it.
• The loss of the Casket and the volcano weakened Laufey and his army, but Laufey’s ice blast struck Thor, who regained Mjolnir’s recognition and drove Laufey back to Jotunheim.
• Steve, Mindy, Norman, and Loki returned to the dungeon world, while Nick told Thor that Midgard did not need him or Asgard’s protection.
• Odin sent the Bifrost to take Thor away, and Nick returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. before Natasha approached Ling Yi.

Ling Yi planned a controlled full launch of the Dark 2 World while Tony Stark discovered the plan by hacking Ling Yi’s laptop. The chapter ended with Ling Yi realizing Tony had accessed his computer and Tony asking to meet.

• Natasha Romanoff approached Ling Yi, but he vanished and returned home, wary of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Ancient One.
• Ling Yi drafted a plan to distribute Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Player Marks with different limits on experience, playtime, and real-world power.
• Tony Stark used JARVIS to hack Ling Yi’s laptop and read the launch plan, learning about the Ancient One, Kamar-Taj, and nonhuman races.
• Tony watched Ling Yi cook for Peter Parker, then asked JARVIS to identify Peter and order the dishes he saw.
• Natasha visited Ling Yi and warned him that his computer had been hacked; Ling Yi shut the door, discovered Tony Stark’s intrusion, and received Tony’s request to meet.

Ling Yi and Tony finalized a plan to open the game world to more players, and Tony began secretly planning armor against Ling Yi. At midnight, the game expanded into Big Apple City, bringing the Ancient One, Wong, and other sorcerers into the Rogue Encampment alongside 150,000 players.

• Tony advised Ling Yi on the player plan, and Ling Yi sealed Tony’s Player Mark to demonstrate his control over the game world.
• Tony accepted a role as Ling Yi’s planner in exchange for rewards and helped refine the plan over a week.
• Ling Yi awarded Tony one ten-thousandth of all players’ experience points, and Tony began designing Anti-Ling Yi Armor in his laboratory.
• Nick ordered Coulson to investigate Tony’s week at Ling Yi’s home while the Ancient One gathered Wong and more than fifty sorcerers in Big Apple City.
• After midnight, a mysterious energy swept across the city, the Ancient One received a Player Mark, and the sorcerers appeared in the Rogue Encampment among 150,000 players.