Qin Xiao did not understand why the system had given him such an identity.
Nor did he know why it had dumped him here.
When he asked the system, it only told him to explore on his own.
But judging by his current identity and experiences, the system had not done all this for nothing.
To better settle into this role, Qin Xiao kept reviewing his memories of Isaiah along the way.
After walking roughly a block, Qin Xiao arrived in front of an old house.
He hesitated, but still reached out and rang the doorbell.
"Who is it?"
An elderly Black man with plenty of gray in his hair and beard came out, though his appearance gave no hint that he was already eighty-eight.
He looked sixty-something at most.
As a side note, Qin Xiao had arrived in 2008, before Tony Stark was kidnapped.
"Oh! Qin Xiao, my boy! How have you been?"
Upon seeing Qin Xiao, Isaiah warmly opened the door and gave him a hug.
Qin Xiao hesitated, but still placed his hands on Isaiah's back and hugged the old man.
"What's wrong? Boy, did something happen?"
Isaiah sensed a little unfamiliarity from Qin Xiao and asked in confusion.
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that you've looked like this since I was little. Now I've already graduated from college, and you still haven't changed at all. It just made me a little wistful!"
Qin Xiao answered cleverly.
"You know, I age a little slower than most people, and my body is a little stronger than most people's, so..."
Isaiah spread his hands and spoke with some helplessness.
To him, the abilities the Super-Soldier Serum had given him had brought nothing but harm.
Those thirty years spent shut away from daylight, being subjected to human experimentation, tormented him every moment.
"Come on in. Let's not talk about those unhappy things!"
Isaiah pulled Qin Xiao inside.
In the backstory arranged by the system, Qin Xiao had witnessed Isaiah's superhuman side as a child.
For a long time after Qin Xiao's parents had died, he had lived with Isaiah. There were no secrets between them.
Later, afraid that Hydra's people would return, Isaiah had sent him to a welfare home for his safety.
He had only provided Qin Xiao with some financial support in secret.
"Didn't you say you were going to look for work in Los Angeles? Why did you suddenly come all the way to the East Coast to see me?"
It was clear that Isaiah was happy to see Qin Xiao, but he did not approve of his sudden visit.
Because of safety concerns.
"I got an internship opportunity at Stark Industries. I thought I should come tell you!"
Qin Xiao tried hard to make his expression look a little prouder.
"Oh! My God! Stark Industries! That's wonderful. I knew you could do it! We need to go out and buy a few things. We're having a good drink tonight!"
Isaiah stood up and said happily.
Bang!
The two of them had been sitting face-to-face. As soon as Qin Xiao finished speaking, Isaiah suddenly stood and took two steps to the side.
Just then, a gunshot rang out. A bullet passed through the window and whistled through the spot where Isaiah's head had just been.
It went straight through the area between Qin Xiao's chest and abdomen at a downward angle.
Caught completely unprepared, Qin Xiao only felt his chest go numb before blood slowly began spreading through the fibers of his clothes.
"Fuck, am I really that unlucky?"
Qin Xiao muttered, then his head slumped to one side and he lost consciousness.
In the darkness, Qin Xiao felt every cell and all the blood in his body begin to boil.
An itch, deep in his bones, as though thousands upon thousands of ants were crawling back and forth inside his body.
Then came pain, the kind of pain that felt as though an enormous hydraulic press had crushed his entire body into minced meat.
And Qin Xiao's own consciousness seemed trapped in endless darkness...
He experienced two extremes of suffering, alternating between pain and itching, yet had no physical vessel with which to even struggle.
After an unknown amount of time, Qin Xiao slowly opened his eyes again.
The first thing he saw was Isaiah's face, his eyes red.
"You're finally awake, boy. God bless. Damn it, I told you that you shouldn't have come back to see me."
Isaiah's face was filled with surprise, joy, guilt, self-reproach, and all sorts of other emotions.
"What happened? I got shot?"
Qin Xiao struggled to raise his upper body.
It was a dim room, more like a basement or somewhere similar.
A heart rate monitor sat on the bedside table, along with a tray.
Inside were a scalpel, forceps, and some bloodstained gauze and cotton.
There was also a bloodstained bullet.
"Looks like I'm all right now!"
Qin Xiao pushed with both hands, trying to sit up fully.
Strangely, the expected pain did not come from his body.
"Huh?"
Qin Xiao looked down at himself. His wound had actually closed and scabbed over.
There was no pain at the wound, only a slight itch.
This was the state of a wound that had almost completely healed.
"I... how long was I unconscious?"
Qin Xiao asked in surprise.
"Less than three hours!"
Isaiah raised his hand, glanced at his watch, and answered.
"Then what about this wound?"
Qin Xiao pointed at his chest and asked.
"You'd lost too much blood. By the time I'd dealt with the killer, there wasn't enough time to get you to a hospital. I could only take the risk and save you myself. Luckily, I'd prepared some basic medical equipment."
"As for your wound, like I said, there wasn't time to go to the hospital. I remembered that you and I had the same blood type. I knew it was dangerous. Thank goodness you did it. You successfully endured the serum's modifications!"
Isaiah said with some guilt.
Joy rose in Qin Xiao's heart. Didn't that mean he had effectively been injected with the Super-Soldier Serum?
With his emotions stirring, his control over his strength inevitably slipped a little, and he exerted a slight amount of force.
Qin Xiao discovered that he had actually flattened the metal railing beside the makeshift hospital bed with an inadvertent squeeze.
"I... I've become a super soldier?"
Qin Xiao stared at his hands in disbelief as he spoke.
I hadn't prepared anything, got shot right off the bat, and woke up as someone like Captain America?
"I'll get you a glass of water!"
In contrast to Qin Xiao's excitement, Isaiah merely sighed, then silently got up and went out to get water.
"System, system? What exactly is going on? Don't tell me none of this had anything to do with you!"
Qin Xiao called to the system in his mind.
"A beginner's gift pack. This world is so dangerous that this system had to give the host a little something to survive with. Isn't it a surprise?"
"I... %&!"
Qin Xiao nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. Becoming a super soldier was certainly good, but couldn't it have told him in advance?
And did it have to do it this way?
Qin Xiao voiced his thoughts directly, questioning the system.
"This was to allow the host to integrate perfectly into this world, and to better explain the origin of your abilities. I hope the host will appreciate my painstaking efforts instead of biting the hand that feeds you!"
"You fucking... come out here if you've got the guts, and see if I can hack you to death!!!"