The rules of the System were crystalline: for every battle spectated or participated in, a reward could only be dropped once per target.
The operative phrase: each time.
In other words, even if Jessica Jones and the Black Captain America fought for twenty-four hours straight, Samuel would only receive one set of rewards. To truly exploit the System, he had to stop the fight, exit the "battle state," and then re-engage. That was the secret to "farming" rewards.
Currently, Samuel lacked the absolute strength to force powerful beings into a cage match. Otherwise, he would have simply recreated the Marvel events Avengers Arena or the Contest of Champions—capturing heroes and villains and forcing them to clash while the rewards rained down like confetti.
Samuel and Jessica had arrived in Baltimore in the morning. By the time they prepared to leave, the sky was already bruised with the colors of dusk.
Whoosh—
Back at the Na Du Tong building in New York, Jessica Jones turned to him, her face dark and her tone foul. "This is the first and last time! I'll work for you, and I'll crack skulls for you, but—fuck, I am not some Joker here for your amusement!"
Her fury was justified. Fighting was one thing, but the repetitive nature of the day—fighting for a few minutes, resting for an hour, then fighting for one minute more—had been maddening. For someone as volatile as Jessica, the physical exhaustion was minor, but the blow to her pride was immense.
"I'll give you one chance to rephrase that," Samuel said calmly. He pulled out a thick stack of U.S. dollars and met her gaze with a smirk.
Jessica's expression twisted, but she fell silent. Ten thousand dollars was a powerful sedative.
She thought of her foster sister, Trish. Trish might be signed to a record label and releasing singles like a star, but if she were asked to produce ten thousand dollars in cold, hard cash on the spot, she'd struggle. Jessica realized that if she just treated the day like a weirdly structured boxing match—long breaks, short rounds—it was actually the easiest money she'd ever made.
Under Samuel's knowing gaze, Jessica reached out and snatched the money. "W-what are we eating?" she muttered, looking away.
"Chinese food."
"I'll go get it," she said, turning and hurrying out the door.
Samuel watched her go. Her pride wasn't quite thick enough yet, but in this world, when money talks, the truth stays silent. There was no shame in getting paid.
Samuel turned his attention to the System's character panel.
[Character Panel]
Host: Samuel
Points: 63
Abilities: Dimension Teleportation (Incredible Man), Super Strength (Jessica Jones), Isaiah Bradley (Super Soldier Serum Enhancement), Super Endurance (Jessica Jones), Super Jump (Jessica Jones), Physical Damage Resistance (Jessica Jones).
Equipment: Super Soldier Serum (Vial)
Detection Range: 100 meters
In a single day, the panel had been revolutionized. He had secured ten dropped rewards, including all of Jessica's powers and Isaiah's serum-enhanced physiology, plus an additional 28 points.
What caught his eye was the Super Soldier Serum listed under "Equipment." He hadn't expected the serum to drop as a physical item. With a thought, a vial of the blue liquid appeared in his palm out of thin air.
If Isaiah's serum could be dropped as an item, then it stood to reason that the serums used on Steve Rogers, the Winter Soldier, the Black Widows, and even the Extremis virus could be farmed. He could create an endless supply.
The implications were staggering. It meant he could build an army to rival—and eventually replace—the Time Variance Authority.
A Winter Soldier Corps. A Black Widow Corps. An Extremis Corps.
The TVA wouldn't know what hit them. If he could find a way to make the serums coexist—combining the physical peak of a Super Soldier with the healing factor of Extremis—his forces would be unstoppable.
"I'll need to test the success rate and see if the effects vary by individual," Samuel mused, returning the vial to his inventory.
Soon after, Jessica returned with bags of food. She claimed it was from a high-end restaurant serving "authentic" Chinese cuisine, though Samuel remained skeptical. After a few uninspired bites, he set his chopsticks down and handed Jessica a set of keys.
"I'm leaving for a few days," he said. "Keep the place clean. Buy whatever you need for the building, and I'll reimburse you when I get back."
Jessica took the keys, her eyes wide with shock. They had known each other for less than twenty-four hours. Was he really trusting her to house-sit? Wasn't he afraid she'd steal everything or simply vanish?
"I know I say some shitty things sometimes," Jessica said, her voice uncharacteristically serious. "But... I won't betray your trust."
"You could have left out the first part," Samuel muttered. He stood up and gave her head a light, affectionate pat before activating his Dimension Teleportation.
Jessica touched the spot where his hand had rested. It didn't hurt; instead, it left her with a strange, lingering sense of belonging. Like family.
The sky was a brilliant, clear blue. A figure in a star-spangled cape and a blue bodysuit streaked across the horizon, leaving a trail of cheers and applause from the crowds below.
Standing behind the floor-to-ceiling window of a luxury hotel suite, Samuel watched the "Superman" replica disappear into the distance. Billboards of various superheroes plastered the city buildings, their smiles bright and artificial.
Samuel wasn't in the Marvel Universe anymore. This was the world of The Boys.
His strategy was simple: act as a law-abiding citizen in the Marvel Universe to accumulate resources, and strike ruthlessly in other worlds to gather power. To become the Void Lord and rule the TVA, he needed to exploit every corner of the Multiverse.
He hadn't expected his first jump to land him in a world as dark as this one. Here, "superheroes" were corporate products managed by Vought International. They were celebrities with carefully crafted personas and dark, depraved secrets hidden behind the spotlight.
The man he had just seen—Homelander—possessed powers that rivaled a god's, but his soul was a void. He was the leader of The Seven, and the living embodiment of the darkness hidden beneath a heroic mask.
A smile spread across Samuel's lips. In a world full of "heroes" who were actually villains, a man like him would have no trouble finding targets to farm.