January 2010.
In a high-rise apartment, the young man lay sprawled on the leather couch. His world returned in a pounding, nauseous haze. His suit jacket was crumpled beneath his head, and a shard of morning light cut through the blinds, piercing his skull with the force of a thousand tiny needles. His mind felt like a radio filled with nothing but static.
In the quiet agony of his hangover, his own memories started to return. They are sharp and detailed: the grueling legal meetings, the long nights at the Stark Industries office, the bitter satisfaction of a case won on a technicality. But as these memories click into place, a separate, impossible reality shimmers beneath them. He knows these names, these faces—they are characters he once watched on a screen. The full weight of the truth sinks in: he is a mid-level corporate attorney inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and his name is Arthur Steele.
His mind reels from the sheer impossibility of it, grasping for something to make sense of the chaos. And as if on cue, a clinical screen materialized in the air before him.
[Player Condition: Debilitated. Recommend Restoration Protocol. Would you like to accept? Y/N]
The pounding in his head is all that matters. The nausea, the pain—it's overwhelming. The glowing screen promising "Restoration" is the only thing in the world that seems to matter. He doesn't question it, he doesn't think. Driven by pure instinct, he instinctively accepts the prompt, desperate for relief.
The moment his finger makes contact with the screen, an electric shock, not of pain but of pure, crystalline energy, surges through his body. His vision goes white. He feels a hundred tiny needles prickling his skin as every cell in his body begins to hum. The crushing weight of the hangover, the years of accumulated stress, the lingering fatigue—it all melts away instantly, replaced by a clarity and lightness he hasn't felt in his life. The throbbing in his head vanishes, and his lungs fill with an impossibly clean breath.
When his vision returns, the screen is gone, but a new, translucent window is floating in the air before him, a simple menu.
[Name: Arthur Steele]
[Title: None]
[Level: 1]
[Stats]
Strength: 8
Endurance: 9
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 25
Charisma: 15
Luck: 10
[Skills]
Legal Insight (Passive)
Rhetoric (Passive)
[Log]
Event: Player Transmigrated.
Event: Restoration Protocol accepted.
[Inventory]
Starter pack (1)