"Hey, Ryan, have you been waiting long? Sorry, Professor Connors' experiment ran into a few problems, so I'm late."
"It's fine. I just got here a little early."
"Alright, I believe you. As an apology, I'll treat you to dinner at that Chinese restaurant we went to last time, deal?"
"If this is a date, I agree."
"Then you'll have to work harder! Come on, let's cut through the park."
Midtown Manhattan — next to a park facing the main street.
Ryan looked at Gwen Stacy, whose youthful face still carried a trace of innocence. A gentle smile tugged at his lips.
This was already their third date.
In America, if a girl goes on three dates with you, she's basically already your girlfriend.
Ryan was glad he had transmigrated early — before the key events of the Marvel Universe had even begun.
Before Spider-Man appeared, he planned to snatch Gwen first.
Heh. Perfect.
Casually, Ryan reached out and touched Gwen's hand, intertwining his fingers with hers.
Gwen gave him a playful glance, then pulled him toward the nearby park with a bright smile.
This part of town bordered Hell's Kitchen.
Most parks around here that should've charged entrance fees had long since given up. No one dared to set up ticket booths in this neighborhood.
As a result, these parks became wild, unmanaged gardens.
By day, they served as shortcuts for office workers trying to save a few bucks.
At night, though — forget it. Strangers were strictly unwelcome.
After all, just two hundred meters to the west lay Hell's Kitchen — the ugliest, darkest scar of New York City.
Nights here were even more chaotic than a Middle Eastern battlefield.
Ryan, however, wasn't afraid of Hell's Kitchen.
On the contrary, he felt a strange sense of belonging — almost like coming home.
Because Ryan himself was from Hell's Kitchen.
Three years ago, he'd been just an ordinary guy on Earth — drinking milk tea, listening to music — when he was suddenly kidnapped by a System and thrown into another world.
And during his transmigration, in the boundless expanse of the heavens, he'd witnessed a battle between incomprehensibly powerful cultivators.
A vast Immortal cultivation world shattered before his eyes — only to be restarted by one of those mighty beings.
Ryan didn't even have time to understand what kind of System he had before his vision went black.
When he woke again, he was no longer Ordinary Ryan from Earth — he was Ryan Sullivan, living in the Marvel Universe.
The Sullivan family, as it turned out, was a line of corpse collectors working under the Continental Hotel in New York.
Decades ago, Ryan's grandfather, Leo, had married into the Sullivan family — using both his good looks and a secret Chinese technique for controlling corpses.
Over the years, he quietly wiped out most of the original Sullivans, and after two generations, the new Sullivan line — half Chinese, half Western — was born.
When Ryan first arrived in this world, he was lost.
During that godly battle, his System had nearly been destroyed while protecting his soul, losing ninety-nine percent of its functions.
Fortunately, it had absorbed the World Imprint of the Immortal Realm — transforming into a Cultivation Encyclopedia System, a digital version of the Immortal World's Immortal Cultivation Manual.
As a third-generation heir of the black market — rich, handsome, and now capable of cultivation — Ryan recovered quickly.
Within just two days, he adapted.
Over the next three years, his life rose and fell like the tide, but he finally found his footing.
Still, there was one thing that constantly frustrated him.
This Marvel world wasn't just the MCU — it was a mashup of countless American comic universes and movie continuities.
Before Tony Stark ever donned his first suit of armor to kick off the superhero era, the world was already teeming with strange powers and legends.
There was a drunk "hero" like Hancock in Chicago.
Rumors of witches spread through California.
And right here in New York, the Continental Hotel stood tall — a neutral ground for assassins, a landmark of the underworld.
In this chaotic, power-filled world, Ryan lived by one principle:
"Endure long enough, and you'll win."
During his first year, tragedy struck — his adoptive parents triggered a time bomb while collecting a corpse.
It was a tragic accident, but for Ryan, it also marked a turning point.
After that, he inherited control of the Sullivan family — managing all corpse collection in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Over the next two years, Ryan changed completely.
Using techniques from the Immortal World's White Bone Demonic Sect, he perfected his corpse-handling business.
And after eliminating seventeen ambitious subordinates who tried to overthrow him, no one dared to challenge him again.
Even Kingpin and the Continental Hotel recognized his authority.
Ryan had money, power, and looks.
But he lacked one thing — spiritual energy.
In this Marvel world, every trace of supernatural energy had an owner.
The negative energies of black magic were tied to beings like Dormammu, the Hell Lords, and Chthon.
The positive energies of white magic belonged to the Vishanti, the Heavenly Realms, and the Asgardian Pantheon.
Every form of mystical power — from cosmic energy to chaos force — was claimed by some ancient god or cosmic entity.
This world's power hierarchy was more rigid than even America's capitalist system.
Left with no other choice, Ryan spent a week studying his Cultivation Encyclopedia before choosing the Heaven River True Method as his foundation.
It was one of the top cultivation techniques in the Immortal World — powerful, stable, and capable of channeling the might of the stars themselves.
Even without spiritual energy, by meditating and visualizing celestial bodies, one could communicate with the universe's hidden forces — sunlight, moonlight, and starlight.
These became Ryan's only energy source for cultivation.
Recently, he had reached the Qi Perfection stage, and to break through into Foundation Establishment, he needed a catalyst.
In the Immortal World, cultivators used Heaven and Earth Treasures for this step.
But in the Marvel Universe, such treasures didn't exist.
So, Ryan turned to a special technique — the Yin-Yang Harmonious Union Path, a scripture from the Harmonious Union Sect that allowed one to extract pure Yin and Yang energy from men and women to build a foundation.
And that was why… his eyes were now set on Gwen Stacy.