Rebirth

New York, Queens.

In a remote, abandoned factory, a group of dark-skinned thugs dressed in hip-hop attire were kicking and punching a poor soul lying on the ground.

"Trying to play the hero? Take a look at yourself! What makes you think you can go up against us?"

The leader of the thugs shouted, his eyes bruised and swollen, clearly the result of a punch he'd taken earlier.

"You really don't know your place. We work for Boss Frank's gang—even the cops don't dare mess with us! And you actually had the nerve to throw a punch at us?!"

The thugs raining down blows chimed in with wild, mocking laughter. The Boss Frank D'Amico they spoke of was rumored to be a major drug lord on the West Coast with terrifying influence, and these thugs were nothing more than low-level lackeys.

"I was kind enough to let you join us, Sean, and you're so ungrateful. How stupid!"

The leader spat on the ground. Because Sean had refused to sell drugs for them, he had been marked, cornered on the street, and dragged here for a brutal beating.

"What? Still not convinced?"

The boy called "Sean" had his eyes bulging, his black hair plastered to his forehead, his face covered in blood. His limbs were pinned down tightly by several thugs, leaving him unable to move an inch.

"Looks like we need to make you suffer a bit more so you know we aren't to be trifled with!"

The leader let out a twisted laugh, raised his foot, and stomped hard on Sean's head, pinning him firmly beneath his boot.

As the kicks continued, the stubborn boy's breathing grew weaker and weaker until he finally stopped moving altogether. The light in his eyes faded, much like a dying flame.

"Boss... I think the kid stopped moving." A black man with a nose ring whispered after a while.

The leader paused. The boy was covered in bruises and blood, his face a crimson mess, and his body lay motionless, as if life had left him.

"F*ck! He couldn't even take a beating. Whatever, let's go..."

The leader tried his best to mask his inner panic. He talked big about being a subordinate to a West Coast drug lord, but in reality, he was just a small-time thug. As long as he didn't get caught by the police, he was fine, but killing someone was a different story—those damn cops would throw him in prison.

The thugs fled in a panic, forgetting even to dispose of the body. In the blink of an eye, the long-abandoned factory was left with only the boy named Sean lying on the ground, his once-vibrant young body gradually growing cold.

The sun dipped below the horizon, and the night began to shroud the city.

Suddenly, a streak of white light tore through the night sky. It looked like a massive ball of lightning, spinning and emitting a halo. As if guided by some mysterious force, it dove straight toward the abandoned factory, circled the area a few times as if locking onto a target, and then plunged into the boy's body.

"Ugh..."

The cold body on the ground suddenly twitched and let out a faint groan. The eyes snapped open, the pupils flashing with a brilliant white light.

"Where is this?"

The boy who should have been dead slowly sat up. His dizzy brain gradually cleared as a certain force organized his chaotic thoughts, and the fragmented, trivial memories began to sharpen.

"Sean Sipes, parents died in an accident... Captain America, Stark Industries, Peter Parker... What kind of mess is this?"

The blood-stained boy frowned. He seemed to have found some strange things in the memories of this body's previous host, giving him a vague sense of foreboding.

"Damn it! Don't tell me I've come to a world where perverts run rampant and overpowered freaks are a dime a dozen?!"

Sean cursed. Thinking it over, it was entirely possible. He had been at home playing a virtual character fighting game; after clearing the final level, a white light had flashed from his computer screen, and he had been reborn into this unlucky guy named Sean.

"This is a headache. Any other world would have been better than this. Mutants, superheroes, evil villains, extraterrestrial life, exotic gods... This is a hell-level starting difficulty!"

Sean couldn't help but complain. If things were as he suspected, then living a peaceful life as an ordinary person in this world was nothing but a pipe dream.

Not to mention the supervillains who tried to destroy the world every other day, even just having bad luck and running into superheroes fighting or starting a civil war could make him an unfortunate bystander caught in the crossfire. After all, an ordinary person like him wouldn't even get a chance to show his face; at most, he'd appear as one of the casualties in the newspaper obituaries.

"This is just too unlucky."

Just as he was feeling frustrated, Sean discovered something interesting. A ball of white light hovered in his mind. Through the hazy glow, he saw a familiar interface. Countless virtual characters appeared on a list; some were gray, which in the game meant they were unselectable, while others shimmered with colorful light. As his consciousness reached out, various data points appeared clearly on his retina.

"Heaven never shuts all doors. The ups and downs of life are truly full of surprises."

A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Sean's face. The virtual interface in his mind was exactly the game he had been playing—a comprehensive fighting game featuring classic characters from various comics and movies. By constantly fighting and accumulating victory points, one could redeem powerful equipment unique to those characters. It was strange, though; before he crossed over, the final boss he had defeated was a character from this very world, and he hadn't even collected the final reward before he inexplicably ended up here.

"Respected player, you have unclaimed victory rewards. Would you like to claim them?"

A line of clear text appeared.

Sean was overjoyed and nodded quickly; this was exactly what he needed right now.

The ball of white light flickered incessantly, cycling through one powerful reward after another. Sean's eyes widened, his heart pounding with a mix of anticipation and anxiety.

"Mark Armor (upgradable, model-swappable), a brilliant creation by Iron Man Tony Stark..."

"Super Soldier Serum, pushes human physical attributes to the limit. Effects vary by user; the only successful subject is Captain America..."

"Vibranium Armor, forged from an indestructible, powerful metal capable of absorbing massive damage..."

Sean watched as various rewards from this world flashed before his eyes, his mood riding a roller coaster. It seemed that because he had crossed into this world, some of the powerful equipment and weapons from other worlds were grayed out and temporarily locked.

"How about you just give me the Infinity Stones?" the reborn traveler fantasized.

Ding!

With a crisp sound, the white light finally stopped flickering and settled on a potion. The liquid inside emitted a golden glow, shimmering with a brilliant, dazzling light as it flowed, seemingly containing immense energy.

"Star Potion (Fragment)."

Sean was stunned. After all that, he got a golden potion without even a description?

He forced himself to swallow the urge to curse, reached into the game menu, and pulled out the golden bottle. A soft light condensed, and a warm sensation filled his palm. Looking at the final reward, Sean hesitated for a moment before tilting his head back and drinking it in one gulp.

Since he had arrived in this world, which was filled with constant danger, he could not let any opportunity to grow stronger slip by. He no longer wanted to be an ordinary person. Those powerful heroes with extraordinary abilities—they flew through the skies, saved the world, and basked in the light of universal adoration...

Sean did not want to be one of the millions looking up at the Superheroes. When danger loomed over his head and enemies appeared before his eyes, he could not simply wait for those Superheroes to save him.

"Ah!!!"

The moment he drank the golden potion, intense pain drowned his consciousness. His entire body felt as if it had shattered in an instant; his blood vessels, nerves, and even every single cell were crushed by a powerful force. He opened his mouth as wide as he could, yet he could not let out a single sound.

Golden light, resembling flames, surged from Sean's eyes. An unimaginable energy flowed slowly, coalescing and thoroughly seeping into his body, reshaping his fragile and thin human frame.

The sky had turned completely dark, and the human youth in the abandoned factory was undergoing an unprecedented and massive transformation.