Another Beginning

Once again in all-compassing darkness, I was faced with a blue screen asking for the level of difficulty I wanted to face for the Rumble. Damn, it looked more and more like a game now.

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[Choose your Difficulty-

>Pre Canon: High Difficulty- You enter the world before Canon starts, with you being able to make changes to the timeline and drastically alter the plot, gaining huge rewards. But with great rewards comes great risk.

>Pre Plot Point: Medium Difficulty- You enter the world after Canon starts and the plot progresses, but as an outsider who can contribute to the protagonist and his allies, while directing the timeline to a certain extent. There is a medium risk with medium rewards.

>Pre Climax: Low Difficulty- You enter the world just before the Climax, just before the protagonists face the antagonists in a final showdown.

*Note: The choices of the other Questors will affect the world, but your start is determined on the basis of the original timeline.

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Reading through the given choices, I was somewhat impressed by the thought given to the entire process, the elaborateness of the entire system. But still, this option was unnecessary as it seemed like a no brainer to me. This is the trial ground for fresh blood, like the name itself is 'Rookie Rumble', so the world should supposedly be easy, at least to survive with sufficient wits about yourself, unless the ones behind this entire scheme were sadists, for then we were fucked. So yeah, because this would be the easiest world with an innately low difficulty, I decided to go big, for only with the greater rewards will I be able to survive.

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[Pre Canon: High Difficulty selected. Beginning Transition.

Prepare yourself. May you survive and thrive in the M.Q.A.!!]

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With this last message, I started losing consciousness, and the shadows rushed in like a voracious tide threatening to drown me in a sea of misery, and ignoring the ominous tone of my thoughts, which may seem like a blatant foreshadowing to a grim-dark future, but I was not somebody scared of hardships, and especially when I was getting a second chance at life in a fictional world with a superpower of my own choice. I think I will handle it. You know what, scratch that. I'll own it.

My senses dimmed, my sense of self lost and I lost myself in the river of shadows which gathered me in its gentle embrace, promising to keep me entertained with untold stories of wild adventures and unheard stories…At least that's what I expected, or something like it. But no, there was no light shows, no changes in my surroundings, no Bifrost or any portal. One moment I was surrounded by shadows, floating in a dark void; the very next moment I find myself lying on a bed in a comfy room decorated in dark shades, with my earlier dulled senses back to functioning at full capacity, surrounded by small figurines and action figures on a separate stand which were clearly cared for. There were also multiple posters of super heroes lining the room. Seems like the room belonged to a die-hard fan.

Observing my new body, I won't lie when I say I was a bit relieved to know for sure that my new start didn't have me go through childhood again. Not being a baby, and completely dependent on others for moving around and functioning would suck, especially when it was a grown man in a baby's body. So now I was a 12 year old raven-haired boy with a greenish tinge, and violet irises. I had a lean build, with handsome features and an innocent air.

I was an orphan, who lived with in the house my parents left me along with some distant cousin of theirs, who was not that close to me. He worked as a researcher in some big company, and was pre occupied with his work most of the time. Still, I could live with an absentee guardian as it let me free to do whatever I wanted, while still leaving a path to get adult who actually listened to me. It was mostly guilt for not paying enough attention to me, but it got things done, so yeah. One might wonder, how I knew all this, and how could I so easily accept that I had overtaken an innocent 12 year old's body. Firstly, when I got the body and my senses back, I also got the memories directly implanted in my mind seamlessly, though there were certain gaps in them, like the name of my school, the place where I lived, or the name of the company where my Uncle worked. Secondly, this was a body created purposely for my use only. The face I had now was created according to my memories for my ideal face. The background was randomly generated, but this body was made for me, and such bodies were created for each Rookie taking a part in this Rumble.

Taking a deep breath, I called for my status screen, to see if there were any changes or additions to my status. But one mere look at my Status was enough to freeze the blood in my veins and cover my back in cold sweat.

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[Name: Alexander 'Alex' Crawford

Super Power:

>Innate-Conceptual Card Creation and Manipulation (Hidden)

-Golem Creation and Manipulation

>Gained-Genius IQ (Unawakened)

-X-Gene (Latent)

Mission: Survive the Reaping of half the living life in the universe/

Stop the Blip/

Kill the Mad Titan

Points:0]

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Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the actual flying Fuck. It was Marvel. MARVEL.

Random cataclysms-level villains fucking around Marvel. The world with literal personifications of entities like Death, Infinity, etc living and paying attention to the world. The world where you had a higher chance of dying a dog's death, completely unaware and for no actual reason other than some super powered individual, no matter hero or villain, was having a bad day. I was a 12 year old in that world.

And this was the 'Rookie Rumble', meant to be the easiest level to let the rookies acclimatize to this jig. You know what, I was wrong. The makers of this were fucking sadists, taking joy from other's pain.

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[You correctly identified the world! Gained 10 points.]

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This message sounded more like a death knell than a system notification, further contributing to my panic. But it also acted as a sort of stimulant which cleared out the gaps in my memories, like some test which unlock the memories. I lived in NYC, My Uncle was a researcher under Norman Osborn working at Oscorp, I was going to join Midtown High School next year and I was immediate neighbours with the Parker family.

You know what, I am done. Done being scared, done being forced to flee because of matters out of my control. I finally got a second chance, something out of my wildest dreams, an opportunity to live an adventurous life in a fictional world with a super power. So what if it was Marvel, I'll make this world my bitch and own this Rumble.

Deep breaths! Deep, calming breaths Alex! Breathe in, breathe out. Huff!

Alright! I am calm. Calm as a cucumber! Now I am in Marvel, so to survive it's about time I used my powers.

I {Copy} [Genius IQ] from my body, capturing the concept of Superior Intelligence from my body, which was no activated yet. Then I used {Replicate} on the [Genius IQ] card. Using one [Genius IQ] card, I {Split} that card into two cards- [Exceptional] and [Intellect]. Then I used {Copy} to form cards- [Physique], [Regeneration], [Mind], [Potential] and [Talent] - from my body. Then, to complete this step, I used {Merge} to merge all these cards to form the card which would form a preliminary form of the perfect foundation for me- [Peak Human Condition]. But it was not yet completed. The card was only at <Beginner> Level.

Conceptual Cards usually included items or skills. They could be categorized on basis of levels. These levels were:

Common>Uncommon>Rare>Master>Grand Master>Epic>Legendary>Mythic (For Items)

Beginner>Intermediate>Expert>Master>Grand Master>Epic>Legendary>Mythic (For Skills)

So yeah, the [Peak Human Condition] card was a passive skill at the <Beginner> level, which could be improved for a lot better effects. So the final step, which would give me the foundation- equivalent to my own personal cheat code- grinding my skill level.

Wanna know my cheat code? It's simple, actually. All I did was {Replicate} [Peak Human Condition], and {Merge} it with the already existing [Peak Human Condition] card. While others may not know, but merging the same cards would lead to an increase in the level of the card. So, what I did was-

{Replicate}{Merge}

{Replicate}{Merge}

{Replicate}{Merge}

{Replicate}{Merge}

{Replicate}{Merge}

{Replicate}{Merge}

Now, finally done, I was looking at this one card, my first card floating right in front of me with satisfaction oozing through my eyes.

[Peak Human Condition]<Mythic>level