This Is Why I Don't Socialize

A series of mysterious information suddenly emerged in Shen's mind. The spatial ability that had been lying dormant all these years finally revealed its true form to him.

As it turns out, he was quite accurate with his speculations. The actual process that awakened his powers correlated with his own hypothesis:

"The truck incident forced his dormant potential to erupt, which stimulated his mental strength to breakthrough a certain threshold, resulting the manifestation of his special ability."

From the information that flowed through his powers, Shen was also able to discern examples of various other abilities. Throughout history, there has been evidence of individuals exhibiting peculiar abilities, most of which had various limitations. But there were those who manifested extraordinary gifts that went on to accomplish outstanding feats, leaving a permanent mark in history.

Many epic sagas, myths and folklore were derived from the ancient records of these supernatural abilities. [T/N So Jesus really did walk on water with excellent chakra control & Moses water bended the sea]

Shen manifested the unique ability to manipulate the space–time continuum allowing him to traverse through the multiverse. [T/N .... How OP is this shizz?! I mean, even Zelretch's Second Magic only allows him to move through parallel worlds right?]

Like many others, his ability also has certain limitations.

First, traveling through space and times requires enormous mental strength. Shen wasn't anywhere, even close to fulfilling this condition until now.

He could think of two ways to mitigate this. One would be to elevate his state of mind through daily meditation; the other to undergo constant life and death situation to stimulate his brain. [T/N or you could just get high...]

Second, there is a month long cooldown period after utilizing the space-time transversal skill. He could use only the skill again after the cooldown period passes.

The light spots in the void beyond the dimensional space represent all the worlds that he can travel to. Unfortunately, his current mental strength is only strong enough to connect to the light closest to him. And the disastrous situation that he was in right now wouldn't allow him to think about it too much. He knew that any hesitation at this moment would send him to his deathbed.

In a last-ditch effort, he bet his life on the shining ball of light and yelled "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!" [T/N Gotta channel that multiverse energy from somewhere right?]

The ball of light suddenly flashed and Shen instantly disappeared from the seat.

From the tumbling cabin, warping through a wormhole Shen was unceremoniously hurled out into a new world. Stabilizing himself, he took a deep breath and calmed down. After confirming his safety, he looked up at his surroundings.

The narrow streets and old buildings made with red bricks exuded the vicissitude of old American history. The entire neighborhood looked like it was picked right off the set of an old Hollywood movie, which assaulted his sense of the time.

His ability did not give him any information about this new world, so he had to explore by himself. At least he was still on Earth, some version of it anyway.

As Shen was looking around from the entrance of the alley, two degenerate '40s mafia/gangsta wanna-be' who were passing by noticed him. They looked at each other and smiled in anticipation as if there was a fat juicy piece of steak. [T/N Fun Fact - In the original work, the thugs were described as two Black people. Well, not so fun I guess but still a fact. #MessedUp]

At first glance, Shen appeared to be quite wealthy. He was very good looking for a Chink, neatly dressed, and although his fashion sense was pretty strange, they just disregarded it on the account of him being a foreigner. To them, he looked like a wealthy Chink, alone, in an unfamiliar area, like a lost little lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

[T/N The derogatory term here is only used to show the perspective of the soon to be dead men and to portray discrimination prevalent in the society during the specified time period. No feelings or butt were hurt in the making of this novel.]

As the two moved forward towards him, one of them took out a knife and threatened, "Boy! give us everything you have or die!"

Shen was left speechless. The first thing he experienced in this new world is a mugging. He looked around at the pedestrians who pretended to see nothing. So he turned around and walked back into the alley.

"Good, keep walking!" the one whom he dubbed as thug #1 exclaimed. The two degenerates didn't think too much and just followed after him.

Shen walked to the far corner and stopped. He looked back and forth for a bit, and nodded. This was the dead end of an abandoned alleyway, so no one would see what happened here.

Ten minutes later, he walked out of the alley fanning himself with a few dollars bills .

He might have gone a bit overboard just now. Since he didn't have much control over his newly increased strength yet, the two gangsters were punched straight into coma.

On the bright side, he got the information he needed. It was December 10th, 1941 and he was in Brooklyn, New York. They were in the midst of World War II, when the European battlefield was in full swing. It was only a few days ago that Japanese bombers attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor; the act that drove the United States to officially enter the war.

Shen couldn't help but lament his luck. He originally wanted to go to Los Angeles but somehow, he landed in the wrong side of the country. And as if it wasn't enough, he was even sent 70 years into the past.

After clarifying his current situation, Shen first found a hotel and checked in with the money he borrowed from the thugs.

Over the next few days, he visited various libraries and local bars, gathering information and keeping up with current events.

One morning, Shen came out of the hotel and bought a few newspapers from the newsstand at the door as usual.

During this period, conscription propaganda posters were posted everywhere in the streets and alleyways. Even the newspapers were all about the war. National patriotism was at an unprecedented high, so numerous young men enlisted in the army and went to the Pacific and European battlefields.

This scene reminded him of the movies that depicted World War II on his own Earth. [T/N Brad Pitt speaking Italian in Inglourious Basterds cracks me up]

Shen is now facing a new dilemma. He can't stay in this world forever. Sooner or later, he'd have to return. But according to the information in his mind about his ability, no matter how long he stays in other worlds, the time in his original world would stay the same.

In other words, even if Shen were to return now, he would still appear in the aircraft and soon die a very gruesome death. Although his physical abilities have evolved to the peak of a human being's limit, it is still not guaranteed that he would survive that disaster.

Therefore, he had to prioritize and find a way to break past that limit. Judging from Shen's experience during this period, tempering himself in constant life and death scenario should be the fastest way to overcome this limit. In that case, what better way than to join the army and head out into the battlefield? [T/N I say 'special' multiversal edible cookies is surely a better way]

While Shen was contemplating and looking at the newspaper, his gaze constricted as he noticed a familiar name printed in the headlines. "Stark Industries" - 'The largest weapons manufacturer in the United States signed a new batch of weapons procurement contract with the military yesterday'.

Shen was now certain that he was in Marvel-verse. He took a deep breath to calm down and closed his eyes to sort through his memories. He recalled everything he read in the comics and the events in the movies.

Combining the current time-line, the information he gathered during his stay, information about events from his memories and the photos of Howard Stark in the newspaper, he concluded that this world would closely follow the events of the movie 'Captain America: The First Avenger'. [T/N I imagined him doing the Dr. Strange head shaking during this deduction lol]

According to the events of the movie, Johann Schmidt aka 'The Red Skull' has not obtained the Tesseract yet while Steve Rogers is still a weak youth who hasn't been accepted into the army.

Although a bit dangerous, this world is also full of opportunities. After going over the entire movie again in his mind, Shen suddenly had a bold and crazy idea. [T/N So crazy, it just might work]

He couldn't get rid of this idea now that it was stuck in his head. There was absolutely no turning back if he were to move forward with it. Although the risk is high, the rewards would prove their worth twice over. As long as he is sufficiently prepared, with a touch of luck, he knew he would be able to accomplish it. Therefore, he decided to go all out. [T/N Go big or go home son!]

To accomplish this ambition, Shen has a lot to do, but not much time to do them. So he started to take action immediately.

Step one, raise some travel expenses. [T/N Will he achieve Omnipotence by 12 Steps? Find out next time on Drago.. *cough* My Iron Battle Suit]