Chapter 4: Assimilation

A tall figure stood in front of Fu Chenghai, staring at him coldly.

The figure wore a huge and ferocious metal mask helmet, surrounded by thick black braid-like strips.

Iron-black shoulder armour, breastplate, arm armour, leg armour, and crotch armour with a strange alien style were exposed beyond the armour, revealing rough and ugly skin resembling crocodile skin.

It was a Predator!

At that moment, Fu Qihai finally understood that the vague shadow he had seen earlier was a Predator who had stealthily infiltrated Stark Tower!

Two slender, sharp wrist blades extended from the gauntlets of this fearsome alien warrior, their tips still dripping with blood.

Fu Qihai's eyes widened, but before he could react, a powerful force pulled him up by his collar, and he felt his body soaring into the air, spinning around.

Then, with a loud "bang," he crashed into the floor, and his gun fell from his hand.

The Predator grabbed Fu Qihai with one hand and threw him into the middle of the living room.

The sound of the impact startled everyone in the room who were in a confrontation. All eyes turned to Fu Qihai lying on the floor in the centre of the living room.

Despite the pain in his back, Fu Qihai quickly assessed the situation in the house.

At that moment, Tony Stark, wearing damaged steel armor, sat slumped on the ground, leaning against a broken wine cabinet.

The golden and red armour on his body had cracked as thick as fingers, with electric sparks flickering within them. The armour was completely broken, and his face was exposed.

Not far from Tony Stark sat Colonel James Rhodes, the war machine in silver and black armour, in a similar condition to Stark.

However, a peculiarly-shaped metal spear protruded from a gap in Colonel Rhodes' battle armour, pinning him to the wall. He was in a dying state.

Fu Qihai wondered why the Predator hadn't carried his iconic folding spear and realized it was impaled in poor Colonel Rhodes.

Fu Qihai looked to the other side.

There, a black-haired woman wearing a black vest and camouflage trousers held a classic silver-white Desert Eagle. She held Pepper Potts, who appeared terrified.

Floating in mid-air at the centre was a white-haired young man with an unusually handsome appearance, resembling a mixed-race individual.

He wore white trousers on his lower body and had a bare, muscular upper body with strange black lines flashing on his chest. Despite being short, he exuded an air of strength.

At that moment, he furrowed his brows, gazing at Fu Qihai lying on the ground in front of him.

A strange dark circle surrounded his eye sockets, giving him a somewhat deranged look.

On the other side stood a bald white man holding a thick American-made M32 grenade launcher.

Seeing the grenade launcher in his hand, Fu Qihai understood what had caused the explosion and the broken fire door in the stairwell he had witnessed earlier.

Excluding the other corpses on the ground and Fu Qihai himself, there were currently four villains and three individuals present.

"What's going on?" the white-haired young man frowned, looking at the Predator. "Musa, who is this?" He looked displeased.

"Eavesdropper," came the dull standard English from the Predator's disproportionately proportioned helmet.

Then, a red light shot out from the round hole on the side of his helmet, scanning Fu Qinghai's entire body.

"Common man," the Predator said after the scan.

" Common man? Are you here to die?" the white-haired young man questioned Fu Qihai with doubt.

This... this is embarrassing... what should I do? Faced with this desperate situation, Fu Qihai's mind raced, frantically recalling the movies, anime, and novels he had seen before.

How did the weak protagonists in those stories turn the tables? Mouth escape! Yes, they all relied on their wit to escape.

"Cough, cough!" Although he didn't know what to say, Fu Qihai, lying on the ground, lightly coughed. "Everyone, can you listen to me first?"

"Ok," someone replied.

"Crack!"

"Ah!" Fu Qihai screamed as a cloud of blood burst from his thigh.

A plume of white smoke emerged from the barrel of the black-haired woman's gun.

She aimed the barrel at Pepper's head again and calmly said, "When Sir Murakami is speaking, no one should interrupt. This is the first lesson for newcomers entering the world of reincarnation."

The present reincarnated individuals had already classified Fu Qihai as one of their own, as it was difficult to explain his inexplicable behaviour otherwise.

'Damn... I said I just said listen and you shot me! Are you a female lackey? ' Fu Qihai wailed in pain, feeling his thigh crushed. Bright red blood flowed out, quickly forming a pool on the living room floor.

After temporarily silencing the ignorant intruder, everyone's attention returned to the previous confrontation.

At that moment, no one noticed a large black bird swiftly passing through the blue sky outside the glass wall.

"Hurry up and shoot! Stop the nonsense! I've witnessed countless deaths in Vietnam, and I'm not afraid of you, you damned mutant... Bah!"

The dying Colonel Rhodes raised his head and spat out a mouthful of blood, pointing at the white-haired young man.

Fu Qihai's disturbance had seemingly exhausted the white-haired young man's patience for negotiation. With red eyes fixed on Tony Stark, he mirrored Iron Man's cold and fearless gaze.

"Okay, very well..." The white-haired young man smirked and nodded.

"You truly have a backbone!" Just as he finished speaking, he took a deep breath and extended his hand, causing a dark ripple to appear out of thin air, spreading toward Iron Man on the ground.

No one expected that, at that moment, Fu Qihai, lying in a pool of blood and moaning softly, suddenly exerted all his remaining strength, springing up with one hand and one foot to block the dark ripples.

"Crack!" Fu Qihai was frozen mid-air, then fell before Iron Man like a lifeless lump of mud.

He felt his chest cavity shatter, and his internal organs were twisted into a pulp. Immense pain flooded his nerves, rendering him unable to make a sound.

Tony Stark, prepared for his demise, stared blankly at the scene before him.

Everyone present was equally shocked.

"Damn it, you self-righteous ant... your life is truly cheap!"

Enraged by the audacity of the intruder who dared to block his attack, the white-haired young man, exhausted from his previous battle against the two iron-armoured warriors, took a breath but couldn't muster another similar blow.

[You saved the life of Iron Man 'Tony Stark' and reached a stage milestone event!]

Suddenly, a cold voice resounded.

[Initiating assimilation point calculation... 7136 points]

[Detected impending death of the reincarnation, ready for recycling. Please select items within your control range or abilities obtained for immediate assimilation]

"Control... items..."

At that moment, Fu Qihai's consciousness was numbed by the excruciating pain of his shattered body.

His vision blurred, but the cold and clear voice in his head remained unaffected by the agony. With a raspy sound of blood foam and flesh, he slowly extended his right hand, gripping onto anything within his reach with all his strength.

Iron Man stared blankly at the blood-soaked man before him, his body gushing with blood.

He reached out and grabbed a large hard drive plugged into an electronic instrument nearby.

[Confirmation of selection. This assimilation will consume 7012 assimilation points. Initiating assimilation... 1%, 15%, 30%...]

Suddenly, the hard drive tightly held by Fu Qihai was gently pulled out by a pale hand.

[Assimilation suspended.]

"So..." the white-haired young man, floating in the air, looked at the hard drive in his hand.

"You gave up your life for this thing?"

He chuckled, "Then I'll give it back to you."

With those words, he thrust the entire hard drive interface into the back of Fu Qihai's head.

"Pfft—" The solid alloy hard drive penetrated into the depths of Fu Qihai's skull, merging the metal interface with his brainstem. Fu Qihai's convulsions ceased, and he fell completely limp.

The white-haired young man slowly stood up, shaking off the bloody residue from his hands.

"The minor interruption is over, so... now it's time to bid you farewell, Mr. Stark."

Before he could finish speaking, the floor-to-ceiling glass next to them shattered as a black shadow with steel wings burst through it.

The shadow collided with the white-haired young man, sending both of them crashing to the ground into a tangled heap.

Before he could rise, Falcon 'Sam Wilson' voice came through the headset, "Captain, now!"

A muscular man in blue rushed out from behind the door.

He vigorously spun his vibranium shield, and its sharp edge struck the Predator with great force.

Caught off guard, the Predator quickly raised his arms to parry, but he missed the opportunity and was overwhelmed by Captain America's successive punches.

The black-haired woman, witnessing the scene, had tears in her eyes. She was about to pull the trigger, but before she could, an arrow appeared out of nowhere and pierced her temple.

Her grip on the Desert Eagle loosened, and Pepper quickly broke free from her control, rushing to Tony Stark's side.

The bald man with the grenade launcher swiftly took cover behind the bar, dodging the mysterious arrows that seemed to materialize from nowhere.

Crawling amidst the wreckage of furniture, he removed the tiny microphone attached to his ear and shouted into it, "Banks! Didn't you have Captain America under your control?"

There was a brief silence on the other end of the microphone, followed by a sneer, "Sorry, Grant, but... I wasn't on the same side as you from the beginning."

"Traitor! You bitch..." he growled.

"!" Another arrow pierced the exposed head of the muscular white man.

"Enough!"

"Boom—" A powerful blast of blue-white light erupted from the floor, propelling Falcon, Captain America, and the Predator into the air. They were thrown to the side by the shockwave.

As the beam of light dissipated, the white-haired young man, with a ferocious expression and red eyes, floated in the air.

His bulging muscles had withered, and black spots spread across his neck, draining his vitality.

Silently, Captain America 'Steve Rogers' rose to his feet, wasting no time on words.

He hurled his shield toward the white-haired young man. In a flash, the young man evaded the shield, but another fist, the size of a sandbag, struck him.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Captain America's punches relentlessly landed, denying the white-haired young man any chance to fight back.

Desperately, the white-haired young man extended his palms, summoning a honeycomb-shaped light shield composed of blue and white virtual light to block Captain America's onslaught.

Unnoticed, the round shield he had thrown earlier, after smashing through the floor-to-ceiling glass made a swift return.

"Boom!" The shield crashed into the white-haired young man's waist and knocked him off balance.

The power he had gained from overdrawing his life force could no longer sustain him. He spat out black blood and collapsed to the ground.

Amidst the chaos, the Predator, unnoticed by anyone, vanished into thin air, gradually becoming transparent until he disappeared completely.

However, nobody noticed the faint flickering of tiny electric arcs between the hard drive embedded in Fu Qihai's skull and his brainstem.

[Regained control. Initiating assimilation... 78%... 99%... Assimilation complete. Reincarnation soul recovered.]

[Reincarnation life -1]

...

[END]