Evening.
Manhattan, New York.
Inside a three-story building bearing the sign "Na Du Tong Express Logistics Company New York Branch," a light suddenly flickered on in the top-floor storage room.
The room appeared ordinary, but its contents were anything but.
The most striking item was a circular shield painted in vibrant red, white, and blue, with a silver five-pointed star at its center. Anyone would recognize it at a single glance—Captain America's Shield.
Resting below it was a double-bladed cleaver resembling a massive propeller. This was the Tyrant's Blade, the primary weapon of the Cosmic Tyrant Thanos, famous for the staggering feat of having once shattered the very shield resting above it.
Beyond the shield and the great blade, various other artifacts lay scattered throughout the room.
"Still no Thor's Hammer…" Samuel muttered, sighing as he opened his backpack and transferred his latest scavenging haul into a safe.
Inside was over thirty thousand U.S. dollars in cash, several gold necklaces and rings, and various pieces of jewelry of undetermined value. Like everything else in the room, Samuel had scavenged these items from the Void.
The Void is the ultimate terminus of the time stream—the universe's "junkyard." All time variants and alternate branches pruned by the Time Variance Authority within the Sacred Timeline are discarded here like trash, destined to be devoured by Elios.
Elios is a living storm of immense proportions, a creature that consumes matter and energy, specifically devouring everything pruned into its domain. Aside from the various Lokis from different universes and timelines, almost no one can survive in the Void, let alone escape it.
Currently, Samuel is the only one who has ever achieved that feat.
In his early twenties, Samuel had once fantasized about punching the Ancient One, kicking Thanos, and defeating every superhero and villain in the Marvel Universe.
Black Widow? Scarlet Witch?
Mine. All mine.
To hold the power of the world in his hands by day and rest in the laps of beauties by night—only then would his transmigration not be in vain.
However, reality had cast him into the Void, a place far more perilous than any doomsday survival scenario. If not for the System—and the ability he had inexplicably gained during his transmigration—his best hope would have been a life of constant hiding. He would have had to wait for Loki and the female Loki, Sylvie, to arrive in the Void to settle scores with He Who Remains just to catch a ride out.
[Omniscient and Omnipotent System]
By spectating or participating in battles, there is a chance to obtain the target's abilities, equipment, or System Points.
Note 1: For each battle spectated or participated in, each target can only provide a drop reward once.
Note 2: The stronger the target, the higher the chance of dropping high-quality rewards.
Note 3: The detection range can be increased with System Points.
[Character Panel]
Host: Samuel
Points: 35
Abilities: Dimension Teleportation (Incredible Man)
Equipment: None
Detection Range: 100 meters
Dimension Teleportation was the ability Samuel had gained during his arrival, originating from the obscure, god-level Marvel character, Incredible Man.
Incredible Man possesses the power to transform into any Marvel character and wield their abilities—even those of the Marvel writers and narrators. Aside from OAA (One Above All), he can mirror characters of the caliber of the Living Tribunal and the Beyonder. If he were to transform into an editor or narrator, he could alter the very fabric of reality, turning Thor's Hammer into a plastic toy or stripping the Beyonder of his powers entirely.
Incredible Man starts with Omniverse-level combat power.
Samuel's strongest impression of Incredible Man was the time the character traveled to the DC World and brought Superman back to the Marvel Universe. He had used Dimension Teleportation to do it.
Samuel speculated that during his transmigration, he must have coincidentally observed Incredible Man fighting or perhaps was even caught in one of his attacks, which triggered the Dimension Teleportation reward.
Although he hadn't inherited the full extent of Incredible Man's powers, this "newbie gift package" of Dimension Teleportation had instantly lowered his survival difficulty from "Hell" to "Easy." Using this ability, Samuel had turned the Void—that cosmic junkyard—into his own exclusive treasure trove.
The Na Du Tong Express Logistics Company New York Branch was the fruit of his diligent scavenging. Although it was currently an empty shell with no employees, and the supposed "headquarters" existed in name only, Samuel had already purchased the entire building.
A single thread does not make a cloth, and a single tree does not make a forest. True power comes from having a foundation.
If Kingpin weren't an underground emperor with vast wealth and influence, the Police would have caught him long ago. Without the Black Order and his massive army, Thanos could never have massacred half of all life in the Universe to earn his title as the Tyrant. Even He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conqueror, needed the Time Variance Authority to sit peacefully at the end of time and control the free will of the Multiverse through the Sacred Timeline.
Speaking of the Time Variance Authority, their existence was a double-edged sword for Samuel.
The advantage was that their constant pruning of time variants and branches ensured a steady supply of "trash" for him to scavenge in the Void. The disadvantage, however, was that the "free will" of everyone in the Multiverse was stripped away; every life, from birth to death, was a predetermined script.
Take Loki, for example. In the Sacred Timeline, Loki was destined to be killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. However, during the events of Avengers: Endgame, when the heroes traveled back to the Battle of New York via the Quantum Realm to borrow the Space Stone, Loki seized the opportunity to steal the stone and escape.
This escape altered his fate, diverging from the path where he was escorted back to Asgard by Thor. Consequently, the Time Variance Authority labeled him a "time variant," apprehended him, and pruned the branch he had created. They reset the stream, forcing the Loki of that timeline to return to his predetermined path.
Samuel had no intention of letting his own branches be pruned. He didn't want the timeline reset only to have his past self caught in an endless loop of being pruned.
Therefore, his first major goal was clear: become the Void Lord and take command of the Time Variance Authority.