A Lot of Thoughts

"I'll miss you, cute thief." Zeta said his goodbyes.

"I won't miss you, stupid alien." Despite her harsh words, Felicia still hugged Zeta.

Their relationship hadn't gone any further than just friends. However, considering Felicia's extreme disgust towards any male, physical contact is a massive step-up.

Her life had gotten quite boring being stuck in the same old routine. She'd go through her day, doing anything she could to entertain herself. Then, go out and dress up while robbing people. Every now and then, she might have a thrilling encounter with the spider-people or someone she's trying to steal from, but it was mostly monotonous.

Therefore, when a handsome man in a gas mask and WW2 soldier clothing appeared in her bathroom one day, her life had gotten a lot more enjoyable. And despite his glances being definitely lustful in nature, for some reason she was able to endure it unlike with most men.

"I'll be sure to repay the favor in the future." Zeta told her.

"What can you give the girl that has everything?" Felicia smiled.

"More." The two of them lightly laughed.

To Zeta's surprise, he actually felt like Felicia was somewhat of a friend of his. This was something that he was completely foreign to in his previous life.

'Did the system change me? Or did she?' He questioned himself. It was something he'd find out later whether he wanted to or not.

Regardless, the two of them bid their farewells. Recently, M'Shen had finished establishing herself as the new president. Michelle Obama was successfully assassinated by an unknown figure and the grieving president had a policy change half-way through his presidency. Barack Obama was fixing issues that many had been pointing out for years but had never been fixed.

Issues such as homelessness and murders have dropped as much as 10% in some states (New York didn't decrease) because of protection laws. The minimum wage has increased and with it, employee wellbeing.

There are many issues that M'Shen intends to fix in this garbage country along with Zeta's assistance. And of course, the president has transferred a couple dozen million to a random citizen although only the secret service knows that.

All in all, in only a couple of days, America has changed. The people are grateful to see such changes, the companies and politicians are not. But no worries, an anonymous assassin takes out important politicians and the companies are simply ignored.

Companies are usually exempt from large amounts of tax because of the economy's dependence on their presence. If McDonald's suddenly disappeared from America, the economy would by negatively impacted. Therefore, to keep them around, the government takes a smaller percent than they should. It's still higher than most, but not by as much as it should.

Therefore, when M'Shen simply increased the taxes, the companies joined the politicians whose money was all of a sudden being funneled into good causes instead of their pockets.

However, America was one of the largest countries in the world. If a product was being rapidly consumed by them, then it simply was too healthy. Therefore, companies would rather have their tax rate double in the country than retreat entirely. They'd definitely fight all the changes though.

Of course, there wasn't enough time for M'Shen to do anything further. It'd take some time for people to calm down about the laws she just forced upon America before she gets ready to do something else.

Of course, the system couldn't forget to reward Zeta for taking over a country.

[Hidden Mission Accomplished!

Description: Take over a country!

Reward: 50 points]

[Bonuses Apply!

Bonus: Conquered in the Sol System!

Reward: 50 points

Bonus: Conquered on Holy Terra!

Reward: x2 to base reward]

[150 points added!]

[Balance: 200 points]

Zeta soon arrived at his new house. His new 2-story house.

What? Did you expect a large mansion that would take a couple of minutes to get from one side to the other? One that would most definitely get robbed or somehow destroyed in big battles in the future?

He happily walked in his new home. The only piece of furniture he owned was a bed that he planted in his bedroom and he filled his fridge and cupboard with food so he wouldn't starve for the day.

Of course, he'd already bought a bunch of furniture that would arrive sometime today or tomorrow so Zeta was left with an empty house for now.

There were many things that Zeta could do if the MCU explicitly spoke of dates and locations. However, not only would that be completely out of place for a film, it'll also make his life too easy. However, thanks to knowledge of the future, the couple of news reports lately about terrorist behavior and Captain America jumping out of a building, Zeta was ready for an encounter with the Winter Soldier.

He was very excited to see what kind of mission he'd get when he confronts Bucky. However, there's a decent chance he'd have to wait a couple of days.

That means annoying peace and quiet for a couple of days...

Unless a sparky orange ring appears in his near-empty bedroom.

"I've been expecting you, bald lady." Zeta laughed.

"I've been watching you, 'alien'." She spoke with a telling tone.

"After you." He spoke while looking at the portal she had created.

She didn't reply, simply changing the exit location and walking through.

'How much has she 'watched me'? There'd be no reason to set up a meeting with me should she know the outcome or be able to see the outcome...' Zeta thought to himself. 'The system should be able to mess around with the stones...'

The two of them ended up in a temple-like room. The two of them were completely alone here, no guards, no noise. Looking out the windows, only the abyss could be seen.

"You said you've been expecting me?" She questioned as she materialized some tea for the both of them.

"You said you've been watching me?" He replied.

"Of course, I've been watching you. A supreme sorceress can't lack in her duty to monitor potential threats to humanity." The bald one spoke.

"Well, I can see how you'd monitor an alien then." Zeta replied with a smile.

"It's quite peculiar." She commented.

"What is?" He inquired.

"That you keep calling yourself an alien despite having the appearance of a human." She spoke.

"I'm well aware of the apparent similarity between humans and my race." He replied. Genetic modification was something the Imperium heavily invested to. He'd be surprised if his genes or DNA matched with a modern human in the slightest.

"Well, it's true that you're DNA is vastly different from a human. Vastly superior if you will." She stroked his ego intentionally.

"Of course, it is." He smiled. Even he felt a slight sense of pride from that compliment.

"I'd almost believe you if you didn't possess a mutant's X-gene." She spoke with a serious tone. This was when Zeta started panicking slightly. He had no way of knowing that he had an X-gene and couldn't just assume that a Death Korps of Krieg could have one despite being in a completely different universe.

He also couldn't make any bullshit up about his race previously interbreeding with humans in the past because she could just use the time stone to check. Instead of trying to make a defense, he instead went for an attack.

"And what exactly did you see when peering into the time stone?" He asked.

"...I saw the timeline fragment. Everything is still the same until you somehow influence it. However, seeing you is the last thing I see before the time stone is unable to predict what happens next." She admitted. Perhaps it wasn't the smartest, however, considering she saw pretty far into the future, he wasn't going to end the world any time soon. And the small things changed by his actions like M'Shen's new laws, were still visible to her.

The Ancient One saw the world slowly turning into a utopia. One change after another. Of course, it's not like there was all of a sudden, no violence, or no disagreements. Life just got a lot easier for the common folk.

Not to mention, the man in front of her knew about the fact that she'd been peering into the time stone. Everything about him was peculiar. And it was this peculiarity that bred a small amount of trust.

And lastly, the Ancient One was confident she would win at the moment should this man show any signs of being hostile to Earth. And Zeta would agree, at the current state, he couldn't deal with her magic.

"I see..." Zeta spoke to himself.

"So, I'll ask you. One anomaly to another..." The Ancient One grinned.

"Are you a threat to this planet?" She asked while peering into his soul. Zeta was almost entirely sure that she'd know if he was lying or not. He'd been too animated in this conversation, if he suddenly reverted into the typical Death Korps of Krieg persona, she wouldn't be able to tell. And that would almost certainly tell her that he was lying.

Thankfully, he didn't need to lie.

"This world is beneficial to me for many reasons. As long as I can benefit from this place, I will continue to protect it." Was the answer he gave. She found no faults with the answer. Obviously, he was too logical when concerning the fate of a planet, but it was far better than having to deal with a warmonger.

"...I'll continue watching you. Don't try anything stupid." She told him.

"I'll say the same to you. You don't know my full capabilities yet, don't start something you will fail in. Otherwise, you'll end the world you try so desperately to protect." Zeta replied. He knew that he wasn't a great person. If he needed to randomly kill in the future to satisfy his urges, he couldn't have the protector of the Earth on his ass the whole time because of it.

She didn't stop regular murders and such because it wasn't possible to stop everyone. However, if she saw a world-level threat killing civilians every now and then, she may jump the gun and kill him while she's still certain she can. Giving her a reason to second guess herself would allow him to get away with small things like that and manipulation against his future tools/ women.

And finally, there was no falsehoods in his words. She truly didn't know his full capabilities. He'd only turned into some of his forms, and at the moment, he could buy a couple very interesting weapons or people to do his bidding.

(A.N. Sorry for the chapter that was mainly people thinking and such. I didn't want to leave these types of decisions with no explanation. People will call bs if the Ancient One just let him go without me explaining and such.)