"The mental control commands no longer affect my consciousness; there are only some subconscious reactions, but largely, it's not an issue."
In the motel room, John had finished his examination. Yet, he still stared at the strange yet familiar face in the mirror, remaining silent for a long time before murmuring to himself, "Although I am still me, in this world, I am you, Winter Soldier, Bucky. Wish me luck."
In this world, only he knew he was John; to others, he was a completely different Winter Soldier, a completely different Bucky Barnes.
"So… I am the Winter Soldier."
Now that it had come to this, whether he liked it or not, he had to accept the fact that he had transmigrated into the body of the Winter Soldier and had to inherit the identity and past of Bucky Barnes. The struggles he had faced since transmigrating were finally suppressed deep within him, allowing him to quickly embrace his new identity.
The man who entered the bathroom was still the transmigrator John, controlling the Winter Soldier's body. The one who emerged was Winter Soldier Bucky, who had buried the past of his transmigration deep in his heart, turning it into a secret known only to himself, fully immersing himself in the role.
He walked to the single bed, sat down, and casually picked up the folder beside him. Opening it, he gazed at the photo clipped inside – an elegant Caucasian old man with white hair – and once again fell into deep thought…
At the HYDRA secret base in Siberia, upon first seeing the photo of Howard Stark, his immediate thought was, "Well, well, well," and he almost failed to maintain a bewildered expression. The time he had transmigrated to was actually the past of Captain America 3: Civil War...
Which meant, right at the beginning, the Winter Soldier Bucky was unfrozen and then sent to assassinate Howard Stark and seize the Super Soldier Serum he was carrying!
Howard Stark, the father of Marvel's most flamboyant superhero, Iron Man Tony Stark, was himself a super-rich, super-genius, and great inventor who once led the project to create Captain America. The core of Iron Man, the Arc Reactor, its concept and prototype were precisely from Howard's hands. He was also a patriot, fighting against the evil Third Reich alongside Captain America and Peggy Carter, opposing the notorious HYDRA led by Red Skull.
After World War II, he became one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D. and undertook many secret missions with Peggy Carter. Even now, in 1991, Howard was still active; this time, he was secretly transporting the Super Soldier Serum used to create Captain America and the Winter Soldier to a certain location.
However, due to "Operation Paperclip," after World War II, S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited a large number of scientists and technical personnel, many of whom were HYDRA agents. HYDRA had already infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and was growing stronger in secret. Howard's whereabouts were thus exposed, leading to this assassination and snatching plan.
But assassination was impossible; neither the original Winter Soldier nor John had any grudge against Howard. Instead, both had a grudge against HYDRA. After having just transmigrated and suffered so much, this grudge was immense!
If anyone was to be killed, it should be HYDRA. But he couldn't just suddenly burst out and kill all the HYDRA troops in front of him. Not to mention that he was still the soul of a modern-day wage earner, and killing people was something he couldn't accept for the time being.
Even if he wanted to, he couldn't. He hadn't even gone through Bucky Barnes's past memories, let alone his combat experience, combat skills, or even his body's muscle memory. All of that would take some time to master.
And even if he dared to kill and could kill, if he truly went on a killing spree, then what? This was Siberia; besides HYDRA, no one knew the exact location. If he couldn't get a helicopter in time, even if there was a car, he wouldn't dare drive it directly, fearing getting lost in the vast snowy plains.
So, he could only pretend to still be a proper Winter Soldier, obediently taking the equipment, devices, forged identity, funds, and so on prepared by HYDRA, boarding the helicopter, then going to a secret airport, crossing the ocean, and secretly arriving in New Jersey in the United States.
And the Winter Soldier was a tool, but since he was a "person," he had the ability to act independently. The Winter Soldier was only stripped of his memory and free will, but his intelligence was still intact. HYDRA also fully trusted their perfect creation.
So, upon arriving here, the Winter Soldier switched to solo operation mode. This gave him an opportunity to change the usual mode of operation; instead of directly proceeding with the mission, he first came to this inconspicuous, old motel.
"I can't become the fierce killing machine I once was. In less than 72 hours, there's simply no time to merge memories or get used to the body. But thankfully, I don't need to for now."
Closing the mission folder, the Winter Soldier fell into deep thought again. Not executing HYDRA's mission and not killing Howard didn't mean not meeting Howard. The hatred from suffering after transmigration, combined with Bucky's memories, meant that now, no matter what, he would not let HYDRA off the hook.
But HYDRA was a global secret organization, also parasitizing S.H.I.E.L.D., secretive and powerful. No one knew how many agents and spies they had infiltrated, from congressmen and wealthy businessmen to homeless people and street thugs. No one knew how many members they had absorbed.
Neither the original Winter Soldier nor his current self could act rashly. He couldn't get into this trouble alone. And Howard Stark, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders, a wealthy man, a great inventor, a righteous person, and someone who was once familiar with Bucky Barnes, was clearly the Winter Soldier's best point of contact.
"But I can't just go directly. Howard is easy to meet, but HYDRA is hard to guard against."
If he were to meet Howard, and instead of killing him, he were to expose HYDRA's secrets to him… Such a bold move would undoubtedly make HYDRA explode with rage!
So, some preparation was still needed.
"Although I can't reach the Winter Soldier's original combat power in a short time, and might even be inferior to an elite special forces soldier or agent, it doesn't matter. Besides the Winter Soldier, I also have a cheat."
Transmigrating to this world, his greatest reliance was not the Winter Soldier's body; on the contrary, this body had caused him endless trouble. His only reliance was the Cyberpunk system.
Muttering to himself, he stood up and used his Steel Kirin Arm to lift an oversized black travel bag from the floor. He unzipped it, and inside were not guns and ammunition, but… A pile of calculators, staplers, remote controls, digital watches, and other miscellaneous household and office items, which he had acquired from the warehouse of a supermarket he passed by.
Then he yanked off the desk lamp's power cord and simply held the live wire with his Steel Kirin Arm. A tingling sensation flowed through his Kirin Arm and spread throughout his body, making him shiver involuntarily. But there was no pain.
It wasn't because the experience of electroshock brainwashing had awakened some strange hobby in him. It was because the system, activated during the electroshock brainwashing, could itself allow his body to absorb external energy. It wasn't unlimited, nor could it absorb any intensity. For example, with the 110V AC electricity here, he only felt a tingling and slight stinging sensation, which proved that most of it was absorbed, and also proved that this was the limit of his absorption.
And his absorption of energy was for this pile of miscellaneous items in front of him. He held the live wire with his left Steel Kirin Arm and picked up a scientific calculator with his right hand. Then, a red and blue neon-colored speck flashed across the calculator. In less than a second, the calculator clattered and turned into a pile of broken parts.
It was like an old, well-used item that had been smashed to pieces with a hammer and then kicked away, leaving only the remnants.
[System Message: Disassembled one calculator (miscellaneous item), obtained 1 common item component, 1 rare Quick Hack component.]
And in his mind, the system opened the inventory and selected [Show All Items]. In the originally empty inventory, there was now a white-framed icon of disassembled, messy components, showing [Common Item Component]; And a green-framed icon, like a PCB circuit board component of a memory stick, showing [Quick Hack Component].
Clearly, these couldn't be disassembled from a single calculator. But it was a transmigrator's cheat, and it was Cyberpunk, so being a bit punk was very reasonable.
Like in the original game, this system also had two main functions: Crafting and Disassembly. It could disassemble almost any item to obtain [Common Components], which was ridiculous, like how even mineral water could be disassembled in the game. However, since it was Cyberpunk, being a bit ridiculous was acceptable.
It was just that the more mechanical structures an item had and the better its material, the higher the chance of disassembling components, and the better their quality.
And this system, when disassembling electronic products, besides common components, could also disassemble [Quick Hack Components], which were Crafting materials for plugins related to network hacking. They were also needed for the Crafting of some electronic prosthetics.
After all, this Marvel Universe didn't have prosthetic doctors or weapon merchants. Fortunately, the system came with it, so he could DIY directly.
Both types of components and the equipment crafted from them were divided into several grades: white common, green refined, blue rare, purple epic, and orange legendary.
And in this Marvel 1991, where technology was far behind Cyberpunk 2077, 90s electronic products could at most, with a relatively small probability, disassemble the lowest-grade [Green Refined Quick Hack Components], and with a very small probability, disassemble [Blue Rare Quick Hack Components].
This was why Bucky had swept up so many things: to disassemble components, Craft equipment, and arm himself. Not just that one travel bag, with his Steel Kirin Arm, he carried five bags in total, containing not only daily electronic products but also hardware and mechanical tools, such as nail guns and electric drills.
It took less than 1 second to disassemble an item. Although there were many things, Bucky finished disassembling everything in less than ten minutes. And he also gained 600 experience points for the [Crafting] specialization, which was associated with the [Technique] attribute branch.
And 97 [Common Item Components], 56 [Refined Item Components]; 43 [Refined Quick Hack Components], and 7 [Rare Quick Hack Components].
"My luck isn't bad; it should be enough."
After checking, he was quite satisfied. It wasn't overly lucky, but to get 7 blue rare electronic components, which had a very small chance of appearing, from over a hundred electronic devices, was truly not bad.
[System: Free attribute points +1 Technique.]
[System Message: Character attributes have changed; Technique 4;]
After disassembling, Bucky first added 1 point to Technique and 2 points to Intelligence because the items Winter Soldier wanted to Craft not only required materials but also required a Technique ability of 4 points.
[System, Craft Kiroshi Optics Mk. I.]
[System Message: Consumed 30 Common Item Components, 25 Refined Item Components, 15 Refined Quick Hack Components, 5 Rare Quick Hack Components, to Craft Kiroshi Optics Mk. I.]
[Installing into left eye… ]
Bucky's mind stirred, and he chose to install. There was no pain, but he still felt a bit odd, a distinct and strange sensation of his left eye gradually changing.
Soon, the optical implant was installed. He felt his vision blur for a moment, and the optic nerves of both eyes connected. After adjustment, his entire field of vision changed.
The vision became very clear, and the entire world became incredibly vivid. Moreover, in the upper right corner of his vision, there was a virtual image displaying [Health Bar], marked 170; [Stamina Bar] 135; [RAM Quantity] 6;
The bottom left corner was the quick item use slot; The bottom right corner was the weapon status bar, displaying a virtual image of the Steel Kirin Arm.
The map in the upper right corner was also empty because no database information had been loaded yet.
This was the optical implant, loading intelligent algorithms, and connected to the [Network Access Pod], providing extensive auxiliary support for vision. It was like the HUD interface of Iron Man's mask, and it also had an intelligent learning mode that could remember the user's habits and provide more accurate information to the user more quickly.
With it, Bucky could highlight targets in his vision and automatically track them until they completely disappeared from sight. He could also directly perform hacker operations on the Network Access Pod through his line of sight.
The hacking behavior of the Network Access Pod was equivalent to "magic," and its RAM was equivalent to "mana." "Electromagnetic Short Circuit," which could electrocute a target, and "Contagious Infection," which could make a target feel sick, etc., could all be performed through hacking operations simply by locking onto the target with the optical implant, which was the famous "stare-to-death" in Cyberpunk 2077.
And with the system's enhancement, Bucky no longer needed the target to also have a [Network Access Pod] to hack into them; instead, as long as it was a living organism, he could hack it directly.
He had been considering a problem: although the Winter Soldier was strong compared to ordinary people, he was ultimately just a big-chested Captain America with a Steel Kirin Arm but weakened physical strength. And even with the system, if all the upgraded attribute points were added to [Physique] and [Reflexes] to strengthen his body, he would still need to reach level 27 to have both Physique and Reflexes at 20.
But that would only make him a Spider-Man. And whether facing ordinary people or powerful supervillains, flying gods and demons, the Winter Soldier and Spider-Man seemed to make little difference.
His goal was indeed to deal with HYDRA, but this was the Marvel Universe after all. Here, there were not only ordinary Earthly villains like HYDRA but also Wakanda's black technology, the Hidden Cult's magic, and perhaps even the existence of Mutants.
There were even Asgardian alien gods, and high-tech alien races like the Kree, Skrull, and Nova Empire.
And there was the unavoidable ultimate boss, the director of the Universe's population control office, the Mad Titan Thanos, who was committed to killing half and saving half, intending to eliminate half of all life in the Universe.
Now that he had become the Winter Soldier, he had no interest in being turned to dust by Thanos like in the original plot, waiting for others to save him.
So, compared to physical strength, the Winter Soldier felt that "magic" was more reliable. At least "magic" had saved him from the start, directly eliminating the mental controller in his brain. The "magic" enhanced by the system also seemed powerful enough.
Therefore, Bucky decided that his future enhancement path would primarily focus on "Network Hacker" and "Crafting Master."