Chapter 669: Return and Settlement
[You have opened the Drop Card · Candlelight]
[You have obtained 6,000 Dimension Points.]
[You have obtained Authority Fragment · Yang.]
[You have obtained Material: Candlelight Dragon Scale.]
...
[You have opened the Drop Card · Shadow]
[You have obtained 6,000 Dimension Points.]
[You have obtained Authority Fragment · Yin.]
[You have obtained Item: Dark Cloud Garment (Incomparably Rare).]
The twin Drop Cards dissolved into a scattering of luminescence within Kaito Shirogane's palm, leaving behind two distinct, mote-like creations—one pitch-black, one brilliantly white. Kaito rubbed his fingers against them; the texture was smooth and warm, composed of a substance he had never encountered before.
[Authority Fragment · Yang]
Classification: Special Creation.
Utility: Can be independently refined within the Space to forge a standalone Authority, or fused directly into a conceptually aligned Authority.
One black, one white. One Yin, one Yang. Kaito deduced that if he merged these two fragments, he stood a high chance of reconstructing that terrifying Authority: [The Inversion of Yin and Yang] directly within the Space.
According to the intelligence resources gathered by top-tier Reincarnators like Solar Flare, whenever an interloper was deployed on a mission to engage "external enemies" invading the grid, the Space terminal almost universally pushed the drop rates to their absolute maximum thresholds.
Kaito noted the absence of any Bloodline items from the haul; the system's analytical matrix had likely concluded that these two aberrant dragons failed to represent a stable, inheritable genetic lineage.
He shifted his gaze to the weightless black robe draped over his arm.
[Item: Dark Cloud Garment]
Quality Classification: Incomparably Rare.
Narrative Profile: A specialized garment woven from the nocturnal clouds of a high-tier world, imbued with unique effects.
Defensive Rating: Standard.
Durability: Exceptionally High.
Equipment Requirements: Spiritual Focus and Physique attributes must both clear 35 points; alternatively, the user must possess a Dragon-kin Bloodline or a conceptually aligned Authority.
Effect 1: Flight. Equipping this item grants the user the capability to levitate and fly. Flight speed scales directly with the Reincarnator's baseline movement speed.
Effect 2: Cloud Body. Upon active deployment, grants the Cloud Shroud effect, providing a 35% damage reduction against physical and positive-energy attacks.
Effect 3: Draconic Majesty (Low). Equipping this item emits a low-tier draconic aura, generating a continuous intimidation effect against targets with lower biological tiers.
This item was an exceptionally solid asset. Its attributes and utility offered immense versatility across multiple combat grids.
Kaito casually tossed the garment into his inventory before lifting his gaze to evaluate Tony Stark, who had fully disengaged his Iron Man armor.
Seeing Tony's heavily lined face give a rigid nod of acceptance to the strategic blueprint, Kaito executed a sweeping motion with his hand. The massive legion of yin spirits immediately scattered, violently spilling out into the city to commence their large-scale tactical operations.
Simultaneously, Tony Stark prepared to extract back to his corporate headquarters to compile his counter-measures and calculate exactly how he would frame the incoming global cataclysm to the politicians.
But the thought was brief; he quickly realized he owed no explanations to the bureaucratic swine. He had long since mapped the fundamental divergence separating his logic from Steve Rogers's ideology. At a critical nexus of this magnitude, concepts like freedom and democracy offered absolutely zero structural leverage to help humanity weather an apocalypse.
Quite the contrary... pinned against a world-ending crisis, humanity had to forcibly and tightly bind themselves together!
Although a mere one-sixth of Kaito Shirogane's internal organs retained any biological utility, and his physical retinas had been completely burned into blindness, the boundless reach of his Mind Web still allowed him to flawlessly perceive every microscopic shift in the surrounding environment.
He felt quite satisfied tracking the structural pivot in Tony Stark's psychological baseline.
Before executing his extraction, he didn't neglect to leave a final, carefully planted "eye drop" for the Scarlet Witch.
"By the way, Tony. Do ensure you relay a message to Wanda for me: I harbor absolutely no strategic motive to deceive her. Everything she witnessed... was explicitly, flawlessly real~"
Kaito's original blueprint had dictated executing Vision to violently stimulate Wanda's emotional core, forcing her premature awakening as the Scarlet Witch. This maneuver was designed to simultaneously shatter Solomon's localized preparations while artificially cultivating a much higher-value target for his own future harvest.
He simply hadn't calculated that the sudden orbital entry of the Black King would drive the entire board into a state of total collapse. Consequently, Kaito could only plant a final seed today—a seed engineered to force Wanda's curiosity, hatred, and unyielding resentment toward the hidden cosmic forces manipulating her world to violently take root.
He fully intended to witness the absolute, unadulterated power of Chaos Magic upon his return to this worldline!
The Marvel cinematic universe was an exceptionally massive treasure trove. An infinite concentration of intertwining world lines and character narratives occupied this grid; merely ceding it a marginal amount of deliberate cultivation would yield an unimaginable threshold of rewards.
Half a day later, the United States officially plummeted into a state of total collapse. The yin spirit legion launched a non-discriminatory, wide-area saturation assault against major political institutions and military facilities. Tony Stark proactively rallied the remaining Avengers roster, issuing a grim prophecy detailing the terrifying structural changes bearing down on the planet.
Every single native on the board was forcefully compelled to confront a cold reality: this world was on the event horizon of a crisis that far out-scaled any predictive model.
Amidst this chaotic backdrop, Kaito Shirogane toyed with the crude totem Hakumen had submitted, finally confirming his extraction sequence.
[Crude Spider Totem]
Classification: Special Creation / Quest Item.
Narrative Profile: A primitive religious artifact originating from a specific universe.
Utility: Crushing this item establishes a proactive, localized anchor to the Marvel Universe G77 grid, unlocking the Hidden Quest: Faith of the Spider-Totem.
To speak with absolute candor, Kaito harbored virtually zero professional interest in the hidden quest chain and faction alignment Hakumen had been so frantically desperate to excavate. However, the true strategic value of this artifact lay in its utility as an absolute positional anchor, guaranteeing his engine the priority to seamlessly return to this specific worldline whenever the tactical window proved optimal.
That was the singular asset he desired.
...
[Do you wish to execute immediate extraction?]
[CONFIRM]
[Total Biological Restoration]
[Diagnostic scan in progress...]
[Alert: Special Reincarnator EX051 has sustained Severe Existential Damage. Full restoration requires A-Rank Singularity * 1 and 25,000 Dimension Points.]
[Alternatively, you may execute partial restoration. Cost...]
"Execute Total Restoration."
Kaito Shirogane had previously logged the intelligence data: Existential Damage was a classification of trauma that exceptionally few active Reincarnators possessed the biological capacity to naturally heal. Ultimately, relying on the Space terminal's automated systems remained the most optimal route. Given the monumental harvest he had secured across this cycle, Kaito couldn't be bothered to prolong the recovery process, directly opting to finalize his healing.
Accompanied by a massive influx of brilliant silver-white data streams flooding his cellular tracks, the right arm he had legacy-sacrificed to power his attack finally completed its absolute regeneration. Concurrently, the paralyzing, leaden numbness heavily suppressing his eyes and cerebral cortex completely dissipated.
His body had officially returned to an unblemished, peak operational state.
[Alert: Special Reincarnator EX051 has sustained the direct influence of the Life Equation. Please proceed to the Goddess's Residence to query detailed parameters.]
Tch. Kaito let out a sharp click of his tongue. Virtually every single hidden quest or mandate requiring access to the Goddess's Residence demanded an exceptionally exorbitant price tag.
That specific Goddess was so intensely greedy she appeared bent on systematically draining every last Singularity from his ledger.
"Initiate Final Settlement."
Within the stygian expanse of the void, chronological visual frames began to replay across the darkness: from the exact microsecond Kaito breached the hidden military facility, to his lethal assault finalizing the execution of Odin, all the way to the apocalyptic clash in New York where he throttled open his Eight-Fold Kaio-ken to force a continental submersion...
[Reincarnator EX051 has successfully extracted. Initiating Final Settlement.]
[Processing...]
[Worldline: Marvel Universe G77]
[Primary Directive: Team Survival]
[Primary Directive Completion Rating: A+]
[Secondary and Hidden Quests successfully triggered. Rating escalated.]
[Mass execution of High-Priority Focal Characters verified. Rating significantly escalated.]
[Final Mission Rating: SS-] (Note: Lowest possible rating is E, highest is SSS)
[Mission Rewards: 8,000 Dimension Points; Attribute Points * 8]
Kaito evaluated his Attribute Point ledger. His Agility parameter had been acting as a severe structural bottleneck for far too long. Yet, his strategic blueprint dictated waiting for the intelligence reports from his shadow network; if his assets could rapidly pinpoint and liquidate the specific Scarlet Mortal Sin Reincarnator who specialized in Agility, he could seamlessly dump these free Attribute Points directly into reinforcing his Physique.
The Kaio-ken, The Instant, his Limiter, and the [Unmapped Magic]—every single high-tier capability anchoring his engine was currently severely restricted by the absolute density of his physical vessel. Pumping an infinite volume of Attribute Points into his flesh would be a flawlessly optimal investment.
The illusory black void smoothly receded, and Kaito Shirogane re-materialized directly inside his Personal Space. The expansive territory had now stretched to comfortably cover nearly five hundred square meters.
With a subtle shift of his mental focus, the massive floor space systematically began to pave itself with pristine white jade slabs, decorative ornaments slowly manifesting into reality one after another.
Kaito realized that it was likely only the human heart—an organ constantly in flux, seemingly hyper-sensitive to every microscopic environmental shift—that could be so effortlessly stimulated.
Merely executing a minor aesthetic re-engineering of his Personal Space was enough to generate a passing wave of genuine "surprise"?
He turned his head, catching sight of Eclipse, her eyes still carrying the fading traces of shock and astonishment.
Kaito extended a lone hand. Eclipse rigidly froze for a frame, her brow knitting in confusion, completely unable to parse his kinetic intent.
Suddenly, an invisible kinetic force field violently ignited out of thin air. Eclipse's body was involuntarily swept off her feet, pulled forward through the air.
A massive bed materialized into reality.
"Woman. I harbor an intense curiosity... under a localized parameter of this classification, exactly how does that heart of yours execute its thudding rhythm?"
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