Maya hadn't been in this world long before she figured out which universe she'd landed in.
Howard Stark was plastered on every TV screen, newspapers, and news outlet in New York. That alone was enough of a hint.
And then there was the time she and Magneto had their little encounter. Well — "encounter" might be generous.
It happened a few years back. Maya was on the school bus heading home when the whole vehicle suddenly lifted off the ground and hung in midair. The other kids immediately burst into tears. Maya did not cry. The figure nearby — clearly Magneto — must have heard the children's screaming, because the bus was eventually set back down.
Unfortunately, Maya had been leaning out the window to sneak a look. When the bus hit the pavement, her chin slammed against the window frame and knocked out a tooth that had already been halfway loose. Her eyes filled with tears she hadn't planned on shedding.
After the bus landed, the driver didn't shout. He didn't curse. He just focused intently, started the ignition, and floored it away from the scene — completely ignoring the police sirens wailing behind them, the dense, chaotic gunfire, the bursts of flame and smoke from burning cars, the screams of officers and civilians alike. The man acted like he couldn't hear or see any of it. Only once the bus had cleared the block did Maya see him raise a trembling right hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
After crossing paths with Magneto, little Maya became much more high-profile at her school. Every competition, every performance, every public event with any kind of audience—she entered every single one.
Her academic record was a clean sweep of top marks in every subject. Even in gym class, she consistently outperformed her classmates. Starting in second grade, she'd applied to join the student council. By third grade she was a senior officer. By fourth grade she was school-wide Student Council President — a position she'd held ever since, right up to eighth grade.
A quick note on the American school system(TL: Not sure if the author got all of this right — if anyone's actually based in the US, feel free to confirm!):
Since education in the US falls under state jurisdiction — which is further delegated to local school districts — grade structures vary significantly. The dominant model in cities and developed areas is the 6-3-3 system (six years of elementary, three of middle, three of high school), which mirrors the structure used in China. A 6-6 system appears in smaller districts; the 8-4 system tends to show up in rural or economically underdeveloped areas.
The pattern is consistent: the poorer and more remote the region, the longer the elementary school years. And given that high school resources dwarf those at the elementary level, students who spend more years in secondary education tend to develop stronger intellectual interests and career awareness.
Maya had been born in Manhattan — hardly underdeveloped — but Hell's Kitchen had always been notorious as a rough neighborhood with its share of criminals and gang bosses. Given its proximity to Midtown, the city had always seemed to wish it didn't exist. For an area of that size and population density in Manhattan, there were exactly two schools — both operating under an 8+4 combined model, meaning students spent all twelve years of compulsory education in the same building.
Her family couldn't afford private school. She was stuck in the public system. But she absolutely wasn't staying for high school — the teaching quality and resources were abysmal.
And what was the first thing she'd done after becoming Student Council President in fourth grade?
She banned students from smoking weed on school grounds. Maya sometimes thought to herself: back home, we'd never see this in elementary school. Even eighth graders were only thirteen or fourteen — and yet the teachers seemed completely desensitized to it. Banning it had nearly gotten her jumped by a group of older kids more than once. That she'd made it to thirteen with all her teeth intact (the one Magneto had knocked out aside) was largely thanks to her system.
In his past life, Jia Baoyu had been working overtime to build a mobile game.
The game was called 2D All-Out Brawl — an obviously generic title. The concept was simple: mash together skills and characters from popular web novels and anime, then let players mix and match abilities for either RPG solo play or 5v5 MOBA-style battles. As for the copyright issues involved in borrowing from dozens of IPs at once — that was the boss's problem. The boss certainly wasn't going to admit he was planning to cash out and disappear once the initial hype died down.
Now Jia Baoyu had become Maya Hansen. But the game system had followed him here.
On the subway home, Maya sat with her eyes closed — seemingly lost in thought. In reality, she was pulling up her system in her mind's eye.
System, she called.
A pale blue screen appeared:
Character: Maya Hansen (Age: 12 years and 5 months) Influence Points: 20,165
Power System: None (You have no power path yet.)
Kekkei Genkai / Bloodline: None (You are a baseline human.)
Skills:
① Kunai Throw Technique(Taught by Itachi to 5-year-old Sasuke) Trash Lv. 10 (This is currently your ceiling.)
Talents:
② Marvel Sage Knowledge: Bronze Lv. 8 — (Top-performing US middle schooler — keep reading, kid!) Mind: Gold Lv. 6 — (Original spec was Diamond Lv. 7, but your mediocre past-life soul dragged it down a full tier.) Expression: Trash Lv. 10 — (The shelf of trophies at home? Worthless by Marvel genius standards. You're deadwood.)
Items: Second Ninja War era Leaf Village Genin physique ×12 (Colorless equipment) Bloody Mist era Rain Village Genin physique ×3 (Colorless equipment) Basic Soldier Pills ×8 (Colorless equipment) Explosive Tags ×2 (Bronze Lv. 1) Hunyuan Scripture — Mortal World · Yunfeng Sect · Outer Disciple · Foundation-Building Volume ×1 (Bronze Lv. 7)
Overall Assessment:
You're weak. Go roll the gacha. The 2D Unlimited Spin Wheel is waiting — 10 points per Bronze pull, 1,000 for Silver, 50,000 for Gold, 200,000 for Diamond. Guaranteed rewards. 5% rebate on 10-pulls, 10% rebate on 100-pulls!! What are you waiting for?!
This was the sum total of thirteen years of Maya's hard work. And after transmigrating into the Marvel Universe, the system had shifted in one key way.
At age two, little Maya had quietly swiped $100 from Tom's wallet and shouted "PAY TO WIN!" into the empty air — in both English and Chinese, several times over.
The system didn't respond at all.
She'd initially assumed it was broken. Then one day, Jennifer carried her to the grocery store and neighbors along the way kept saying "What a cute little girl" and "So well-behaved." The label that had previously read Gold Coins slowly transformed into Influence Points, and a small "1" ticked into existence behind it.
Slowly, Maya understood: her system wanted her to make things happen.
And so, armed with an adult's experience and her naturally gifted Gold-tier mind, she'd spent years steamrolling her schoolmates. Drawing, singing, dancing, instruments — she mastered them all. She'd swept every academic and extracurricular competition available to her at this age. The New York education community had taken note. There was a prodigy in Hell's Kitchen.