Chapter 248: The Marvel Card-Collecting Mini-Game
Ethan opened the Bond Module and started digging into exactly how it worked.
A minute or two later, once he'd finally parsed the mechanics, he let out a low laugh.
This is just a trading card game. Bonds instead of cards, stat boosts instead of rarity tiers. Thank god I don't have to pay real money to pull for them.
The Bond Module worked something like a Marvel-themed collectible card game — except instead of spending money, all Ethan needed was to already know the Family members or friends involved, and the corresponding Bond would activate on its own.
Activating a Bond gave every member attached to it a stat bonus — and sometimes, if the Bond was strong enough, a full combo ability.
Scrolling through row after row of them, Ethan found himself genuinely entertained. He'd already completed a decent handful without even trying.
He tapped one at random to check it out.
[ The Original Avengers (★1): Iron Man (Family), Captain America (★1), Hulk (★3), Hawkeye (★1), Black Widow (★2), Thor (Family) ]
[ Bond Effect: Activates when two or more Avengers members are present on the same side in a battle. Grants +5% combat power per member, plus an additional +1% for every member beyond the second. Damage taken is also distributed evenly across all active members. ]
[ Note: Where it all began. Avengers, Assemble! ]
Ethan frowned slightly at the description, but he'd already gotten the gist of it: this Bond system was, in all likelihood, another layer of protection for his Family and friends — the System clearly didn't want any of them falling behind, so it had cooked up an epic-tier group buff to keep them relevant.
And of course, Ethan wasn't left out either. Completing any Bond earned him 50 Friend Points, and maxing a Bond out to full stars netted him a full Family Point on top of that.
He'd worked out by now that each Bond leveled up according to his existing Friendship Levels with the members involved, capping out at ★6.
Curious what happened at the top tier, he pulled up one already maxed out.
[ Three-Spider Frame (★6 · MAX): Garfield-Spider-Man (★6), Holland-Spider-Man (★6), Tobey-Spider-Man (★6) ]
[ Bond Effect: When all three Spider-Men are present together, +30% combat power, +20% defense, +40% talkativeness. ]
[ Exclusive Skill (Three-Spider Fusion!): When all three Spider-Men are present together, any two of them may channel their full power into the third simultaneously. The receiving Spider-Man's combat power spikes by 300% for two and a half minutes. Cooldown: two and a half days. ]
[ Note: With great power comes great responsibility — and these three are all carrying the weight of three different Uncle Bens. When the three of them stand together, does it take you back? ]
Ethan's first reaction to the Exclusive Skill was simply: this is absurd. A flat +300% combat power was already terrifying with just one Spider-Man attached to it — this was the genuine, honest-to-god Three-Spider Frame come to life.
Then he noticed the duration and cooldown numbers again and made a face. Two and a half minutes... this System isn't secretly some kind of fan of a certain someone, is it?
And then there was the +40% talkativeness. Ethan didn't even want to imagine how loud three Spider-Men in one room would get — especially with Holland-Peter in the mix. That kid could probably talk an enemy to death through sheer verbal barrage alone.
He also noted that Exclusive Skills only ever showed up on fully maxed Bonds — and even then, not every maxed Bond got one. Some of the smaller, more casual Bonds had none at all.
Scrolling further, he found a batch already fully assembled, like:
[ The Maximoff Siblings ][ X-Men ][ Wolverine & Deadpool ][ The Fisk Family ][ Sorcerer Supreme ][ Professor X & Magneto ]
Most of these small ones capped at two or three members and didn't come with fancy Exclusive Skills — but one in particular caught his eye.
[ Professor X & Magneto (★2): Magneto (★6), Professor X (★2) ]
[ Bond Effect: When Professor X and Magneto are both on the same side, mutants under their command gain +7% level-up success rate, all mutants on the battlefield gain +5% combat power, and there's a chance to cause hesitation or defection among enemy mutants. ]
[ Note: Two mutant leaders who've loved and clashed for a lifetime, each devoted to a different vision of mutantkind's future — one its light, one its shadow. Lifelong friends. Lifelong rivals. ]
This was the first Bond Ethan had seen that provided a passive, non-combat bonus. Mutant power levels were normally locked in place — fixed for life in most cases, with some mutants never breaking past their starting ceiling no matter how hard they trained.
A Bond like this meant Hell's Kitchen's mutant population had real room to grow going forward. And 7% wasn't a small number, either — that was already a substantial boost, one that would likely climb even higher as the Bond leveled up further.
That got Ethan genuinely eager to start collecting. He immediately started scanning for which Bonds were close to unlocking.
[ Sinister Six (Upgradeable to Sinister Twelve): Doc Ock (★6), The Lizard (★6), Vulture (★6), Sandman (★6), Green Goblin (★6), Mysterio, Rhino, Kraven the Hunter, Electro, Mister Negative, Venom... ]
Looking at this one, Ethan felt a genuine flicker of anticipation — followed immediately by a stray thought about what exactly his own world's little Peter Parker was going to do once he'd rounded up every single one of these guys and stuck them on the Hell's Kitchen Community School faculty.
There were plenty more Bonds he recognized by name alone, like:
[ The Defenders ][ Fantastic Four ][ A-Force ][ The Illuminati ][ Young Avengers ][ Frightful Four ][ The Ultimates ][ Spider-Society ]
...and more besides.
Beyond the team-based Bonds, Ethan noticed a separate category — smaller, more personal ones tied to specific moments rather than rosters. Like:
[ I'll See You in a Minute: Black Widow (★1), Hawkeye (★1) ]
[ Bond Effect: When both are present, +5% evasion. If one sacrifices themselves, the survivor's power is permanently boosted by 1000%. ]
[ Note: I waited through a thousand minutes. I never saw you again. ]
Ethan knew exactly which line that was referencing. See you in a minute — and then never seeing each other again.
Black Widow had thrown herself off that cliff for the Soul Stone. Ethan had never been her biggest fan, personally, but watching that scene unfold the first time, he'd still felt genuine respect for what she'd done.
He kept finding more Bonds built around iconic lines, too:
[ I Am Groot! ][ I Am Iron Man! ][ Don't Call Me Raccoon ][ On Your Left ][ I Love You 3000 ][ For You. For All of Us. ]
Ethan looked over each familiar line in turn. Every single one of them was a whole story unto itself.
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