S.H.I.E.L.D?

{A month later}

In the middle of nowhere, a car could be seen driving on a lonely road that stretched on for miles. The car sped down the road as it headed for the only thing at the end, a small facility located in the middle of nowhere.

As the car approached the facility, it was stopped by the gate just before the entrance. The driver identified himself, and the gate opened, allowing him to drive in. With no clear spot for actual parking, another gate in the area opened.

The gate seemed to be embedded into the side of a mountain and camouflaged to look just like the mountain itself. As it opened, the driver proceeded down another road.

Several minutes later, the man arrived at the parking lot, picked up a few documents, and walked into the building, just like many others in the parking lot. He passed by several armed guards as he walked down the hallway into the busy workspace.

"Hello, Barry," a woman greeted him as she passed by into an office.

"Hi, Miss Natasha..." the man started to say but was blocked by a closed office door.

Standing in front of the office for a few seconds, the man finally walked away. However, inside the office, the woman could be seen standing before a dark man with an eyepatch over his left eye.

"Any news?" the man asked.

"Not really… only God knows the kind of means available to the mystery man. Somehow, the image of his appearance before the fight has been altered, and the team hasn't had any luck finding an unaltered one," Natasha said as she took a seat.

"So basically, we are chasing a ghost with enough power and might to put Magneto in the hospital and enough technology to repair that level of damage in just seconds," the man said.

"Yeah."

"So, any clues at all?" the one-eyed man asked.

"Well, witnesses say that the man saved a woman from a stray metal pole during Magneto's attack on the X-Men, and after that, he turned her into some robot and sent her away."

"Well, no video shows that, so it may as well be just an added story to the witness account."

"Have you tried the X-Men? They seem familiar with the mystery man," Natasha suggested.

"You know damn well why we can't communicate with them."

"That just makes things harder," Natasha said as she stood up to leave.

"Tell me about it."

---

**Deus Headquarters**

Richard was in a meeting with a few people who were all dressed in suits and looked as serious as one could be. Each one was sent by some major company or something like that. Basically, this was a demo for his investors. Deus Corporation was, in extremely basic terms, a real estate company, but unlike normal real estate companies, it dealt mostly with virtual space.

Richard was bringing an incredibly advanced version of the Metaverse to this world, so many companies were rushing to bring their products into it. Deus Corp was named a corporation because it worked with various companies to bring their products to the virtual world.

Ordinary game companies could partner with them to turn their normal PC or other games into versions compatible with the virtual space. Since everyone wanted virtual reality so badly, it was his company's job to make every product available in the virtual space.

"This is nice. I never really thought that a realistic version of our game would look this awesome," one of the representatives said as they walked around a damaged and broken-down street with tanks and weapons lying around everywhere.

"Well, the goal is to make it feel as real as possible. Though I would like to comment that while our servers can handle many users at the same time, your map is a little too big for the players to enjoy."

"I get what you mean. The point of the game was for players to team up or fight against each other, but they wouldn't be able to do so if they don't meet each other at all," the representative said, agreeing with Richard.

In normal games, big maps are a good thing because the characters don't exactly feel how big they are, and they can traverse that area of land easily. But in virtual reality, that same map begins to feel redundant.

"You say the goal is to make it feel as real as possible, right?" another representative asked.

"Yes, you can touch any of the things here. They work just the same as the real ones and feel just like the real ones."

"I work for the big mouse, and I wanted to ask if it will be possible for us to work together to bring forth a virtual version of the park we already have," the man said with a smile as he shook Richard's hand.