Chapter 21: The Second Marvel Journey
After the familiar opening sequence, the subtitles began to scroll slowly.
[July 1, 2006 — You stood penniless and alone on the streets of New York, right beside Flushing, an area densely populated with Chinese and other Asian immigrants. You earned your first $300 through a few rounds of shell game tricks, then decided not to fleece the locals any further.]
[July 2, 2006 — You spent $170 to buy a Glock handgun. As a cautious and "honest" man, you thought it wise to prepare for the worst. You headed to Clinton, on Manhattan's west side—a place also known as Hell's Kitchen. There, you resumed your street shell game hustle and made $400.]
[July 3, 2006 — You finally attracted the attention of local thugs. In just one day, you were robbed seven times—but earned $3,200 in the process. Tch, how poor!]
[July 4, 2006 — You continued your "bait-and-bust" hero routine… er, delivering justice. That night, you were robbed four times, earning $1,600. On the last encounter, a pervert in a blue spandex suit calling himself "Super Awesome Man" mistook you for a mugger. You couldn't be bothered to explain—so you beat him up too.]
[July 5, 2006 — Still running your bait game, but the crime rate was oddly low tonight—only one robbery. Finally, you scraped together $5,000. At least you could say you helped improve neighborhood safety. (Wealth +1)]
[Late July 2006 — You managed to track down John Wick. With deliberate effort, you befriended him. Though you didn't have much money, you urged him to keep a closer eye on his wife's health. A few days later, John found you, hugged you, and thanked you. You had saved his wife—she'd been diagnosed with early-stage cancer, which was treatable. You didn't know how John fared after your unexpected death in your previous life, but you smiled and said, "It's enough that she's okay."]
[August 2006 — At your request, you continued to train in marksmanship under John Wick. By the end of the month, you located Martin Li in Chinatown and paid $3,000 for an SSN. You now had a legal identity in the U.S.]
[September 2006 — Using your $5,000 startup fund, you placed carefully calculated bets at a dozen or so casinos around Long Island and Queens. Thanks to your superb gambling skills, you quickly amassed a considerable fortune. At the end of September, you set up a small research lab and began studying energy technology. (Wealth +2)]
[October 2006 — After careful consideration, you decided to pursue the smartphone industry. Following a period of research, you published a paper on graphene materials in Nature, which caused a sensation in the scientific community. You believed graphene batteries would be a revolutionary upgrade over lithium-ion batteries.]
[November 2006 — You registered a phone company with $2,000 and named it "Pineapple Inc." This time, you quickly produced a prototype. The real focus of your research was on the process of lithium ions embedding and releasing on graphene surfaces and electrodes—creating a battery that would lead the world's tech by 15 years. Since you'd seen similar products back in 2021 before your transmigration, you had concrete references. For a genius like you, this was no challenge. After more than a month of work, you succeeded in creating a graphene battery.]
[December 2006 — You published your research results in Nature again, announcing that smartphones equipped with graphene batteries would soon hit the market. In addition to their innovative design and cutting-edge specs, the battery capacity was three times higher than the best on the market, and they charged in under 15 minutes. Your declaration shook the world.]
[January 2007 — The Pineapple Phone launched. All the specs were based on data from your past life. It featured a Retina display and IPS screen tech, with PPI three times higher than contemporary phones. Its battery was the graphene type. As expected, despite launching four months earlier than its past-life counterpart and having two months less advertising, the futuristic tech and your two Nature papers created overwhelming buzz. Public attention was immediate.]
[February 2007 — Your startup succeeded once again. The Pineapple Gen-1 sold even better than in your past life. Even with a 20% price hike, it crushed Nokia, which held 75% of the U.S. market. Your phone became a luxury item—a true piece of future tech. (Wealth +8)]
[End of March 2007 — Your business exploded. Like every lucky soul riding the crest of a wave, your wealth grew at an astonishing rate. In the U.S., your phone became a symbol of style and status. Even tycoons like Norman Osborn and Tony Stark were using it. (Wealth +11)]
[March–April 2007 — You tracked down a destitute Ivan Vanko in Russia and bought the Arc Reactor technology from him at great cost. In mid-March, you built a larger lab and began secretly recruiting scientists to work on AI and refining the Arc Reactor. With no shortage of money or equipment, nothing could stop you—not even God.]
[May 2007 — It seemed Kingpin had taken an interest in you. You hired John Wick as your bodyguard, and he was happy to help. At a party, you reconnected with Tony Stark. Just like in your past life, your similar personalities and comparable abilities made you both rivals and friends. But friendship aside, you weren't going to go easy on someone who screwed you over before.]
[June 2007 — Pineapple Inc. successfully went public on NASDAQ. On the first day, shares jumped 40%. Your wealth surged.]
[July 2007 — After six months of research, your AI project was the first to succeed. You named it Jeeves. As soon as it was done, you shared it with Tony Stark. Though he wasn't thrilled, he admitted it was at least as good as J.A.R.V.I.S.]
[August 2007 — Thanks to John Wick's presence, several assassination attempts on you failed.]
[November 2007 — After over a year of practice, you made huge strides in marksmanship! You learned: Center Axis Relock (Intermediate) and Mozambique Drill (Beginner).]
[December 2007 — With the efforts of more than 30 scientists, a new Arc Reactor was finally developed. As lead researcher, you designed the miniature reactor in a rectangular form, still using palladium as the core material. You had a vague idea of what element could replace palladium—but you knew you'd need more money and luck to find it.]
[January 2008 — Your business was booming. You hired a massive team to work under you. Pineapple phones had already reached their third generation and were still selling like crazy.]
[February 2008 — The new Pineapple Company HQ, Pineapple Tower, was completed.]
[March 2008 — Based on the Mark II you saw in your past life, recreating a finished product was not difficult for a scientific genius like you. Inspired by what you saw in movies, you even designed a portable suitcase armor. When manually activated, the case would unfold, letting the user grip the gauntlets while the back and chest armor attached automatically. Arm sections would align and snap into place. Once the outer armor closed and the core reactor powered up, the suit would be fully equipped. A true genius idea. You named the armor "Karma Mk.1." Just for fun! You learned the skill: Precision Machinery Crafting (Expert).]
[April 2008 — A man named Weasley visited you again, representing Kingpin to propose a partnership. You flatly rejected him—you weren't about to let him profit off you. Later that month, your retail stores were vandalized, and armed gangsters even riddled your car with bullets. John Wick was injured. One night, at Pineapple Tower, a steel robot blasted into the sky.]
[April 2008 — Kingpin's criminal empire was mostly crushed by your Iron Armor, and he himself fled, seriously wounded. You started doing world-saving work in New York. People began calling you Iron Man.]
[May 2008 — You invited Tony Stark to your place and showed him your Iron Armor. His shocked expression had you laughing so hard your stomach hurt.]
[Late May 2008 — S.H.I.E.L.D. set its sights on you. A beautiful woman named Natalie Rushman applied to be your secretary. You immediately knew who she was—Black Widow.]
[June 2008 — After some hormonal collisions, you slept with Natalie Rushman. Over time, you felt she might have genuinely fallen for you. Then, after one last night together, you exposed her identity: S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff. Her look of contempt toward a playboy stuck in your mind.]
[Mid-July 2008 — Natasha Romanoff returned with a formal invitation from S.H.I.E.L.D., asking you to join the future Avengers. She handed you a script and asked you to deny your Iron Man identity. But when faced with a global press conference, you completely ignored the script and instead told the world: "I am Iron Man!" (Legend +1). You earned the achievement: Iron Man.]
At this point, Zhou Ning couldn't help but slam the table and burst out laughing. Honestly, if it were him who had transmigrated, he'd do the same thing. This was textbook mess with the protagonist behavior. "Take that, Tony Stark! Trying to show off over my grave?!"
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