# Chapter 3
Three days had passed since I'd broken free from Hydra's captivity. At first I wandered through Sokovia's dense forests, searching for a way out — but I wasn't in any hurry to leave the tree line. The city was almost certainly blanketed with the organization's agents, and disappearing into it while on their wanted list was a nearly impossible task.
In the end, I made my base in a network of shallow but spacious caves, turning them into a temporary den. Food wasn't an issue. My new body, augmented by the Genesis serum, could go without food or water for days with minimal discomfort. That didn't mean I'd become some kind of spirit creature feeding off the energy of nature — prolonged starvation would still weaken me, draining the body dry. To keep my edge, I turned to hunting the local wildlife.
Over those three days, I spotted Hydra patrols several times, prowling through the forest. I made no move to reveal myself or engage them. Let them search as long as they liked. My main objective right now was to stay hidden and build a plan for getting out of the country.
For that, I had the power of Singularity to work with — and I'd learned quite a bit about it. As it turned out, once a month a portion of energy accumulated inside me that I could spend on a gacha pull. By default, that gave me ten attempts. But there was an alternative: pool the entire month's energy into a single spin. That guaranteed a useful skill, but it came with a serious drawback — afterward, the energy built back up extremely slowly, and the next pull wouldn't be available for two to three months. And if something above B-rank dropped, the waiting period could double. Meaning I could find myself locked out of pulls for half a year or more. A frightening prospect — but if something truly worthwhile came out of it, I could learn to be patient.
I'd also sorted out the inventory. It turned out I couldn't put anything in it except items obtained through the system. Right now it was empty: all the trash — the flyers, the poster — had gone toward starting a fire. That was the extent of what I knew. All that was left was to get comfortable with my new capabilities and survive in the world of Marvel.
---
Deep, dead silence filled the forest that night. I lay on the cold stone floor of the cave, staring into the dark, and thought about the future.
From Marcus's memories, the year was 2008. The kid had been taken prisoner by Hydra three weeks ago. They'd subjected him to horrific experiments that ultimately awakened his latent X-gene.
That meant only one thing: the world was about to start changing. Somewhere out there right now, Tony Stark was probably already building his first iron tin can in a cave, and a frightened Bruce Banner was running down some American highway.
2008. The year world history would jump the rails and rocket straight into madness. Soon the sky above New York would be pierced by beams of alien portals, gods would begin falling to earth, and somewhere deep in the cosmos, a purple titan was already trying on a golden gauntlet.
For an ordinary person, this world was maybe a bright comic book they'd read as a kid, or a movie they'd watched before falling asleep. For me, this world was one enormous meat grinder, where only those with iron fists and skin tougher than tank armor survived. Being "special" here wasn't a privilege — it was the biggest target imaginable strapped to your back, drawing everyone toward you. Magneto, S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra — all of them would want either to use me or to dissect me.
Remembering the cold touch of latex gloves and the dead gleam of scalpels in the laboratory, I felt my jaw clench until it cracked. I was never getting back on that table. Never.
Let Sokovia burn to ash, let Hydra throw its entire army at me — I didn't care. I was getting out of this hole. If I had to eat raw dirt to build up Singularity energy, I'd eat it. If I had to cut through an entire checkpoint for one chance to cross the border, I'd do it without blinking.
I had the system. I had strength that grew with every passing day. And now I had something the old Marcus never had — knowledge of the future, and an absolute, furious determination to claw my right to live out of this world with my bare hands.
I closed my eyes and listened to the steady hum of energy in my chest. The power churned inside me, and I liked the feeling.
Tomorrow I'd start moving. Sokovia would become my perfect training ground, and the enemy's patrols would serve as whetstone for my skills. Survive at any cost. Become stronger than any god. And finally become the one who dictates the rules of this universe himself.
---
Exactly one month passed. For some people, thirty days is a fleeting moment. For me, they were long days spent living in the mode of a hunter.
In that time I'd thoroughly claimed the forest as my own hunting grounds. I needed information to survive, so I made several trips to the outskirts of the city. Wearing an old cloak I'd found in an abandoned shed, I moved silently through narrow backstreets, gathering rumors and reading fragments of newspaper headlines. Sokovia was tense: people were protesting against foreign forces, crime was flourishing, and Hydra was strengthening its presence in the region under the guise of peacekeepers.
The forest, however, wasn't about to let me settle without a fight. Hydra showed remarkable persistence. Their patrols combed the area with the methodical precision of a wound-up machine, leaving no square meter unexamined.
We crossed paths four times.
The first time, my hands were still trembling when I closed them around an operative's throat. By the fourth time, everything had changed. I killed them quickly, almost mechanically, as though carrying out routine but necessary household chores. A bullet to the back of the skull, a broken cervical vertebra, a precisely thrown knife… After each encounter I'd pause and wait for nausea or guilt to hit me, but inside there was only an icy, ringing emptiness.
It wasn't cruelty by nature. I was aware that my new abilities were having an effect on me. The Singularity energy in my chest and the Genesis serum weren't only reshaping my body — they were restructuring my psychology as well. Rationality was drowning out unnecessary emotions, reducing fear and compassion to unwanted noise. Besides, I wasn't taking the lives of innocents. In everyone who wore the skull insignia, I saw the people who had put Marcus in a tank of water, who had injected him with compounds and laughed at his screaming. These people were my enemies. And enemies needed to be eliminated.
Over the past month, my cave shelter had changed considerably. I'd set up a proper sleeping space and built up a stockpile of jerked meat and canned goods I'd picked up in the city.
And now, the day had arrived.
I sat in a lotus position with my eyes closed, feeling something heavy and hot rolling around in the region of my solar plexus. A month of waiting had come to its end. The Singularity reservoir was filled to the brim.
The interface flared to life before my eyes.
---
**[ SINGULARITY ENERGY: 100% ]**
**[ MONTHLY SUMMON AVAILABLE ]**
*Select mode:*
*Standard Summon (10 attempts).*
*Concentrated Summon (1 guaranteed skill of rank B or higher).*
*Warning: Selecting "Concentrated" will increase energy recovery time to 3 or more months.*
---
***POV: Baron Strucker***
The office carved directly into the rock of Sokovia's mountains smelled of expensive tobacco and old leather. Baron Strucker slowly turned a glass of heavy crimson wine in his fingers, staring at the monitor screen. The images on it showed his men. Or rather, what was left of them.
"Twelve men," the Baron's voice was deceptively calm. "Elite operatives, trained in the finest Hydra camps. And all they managed to do was die in the mud without making a sound."
The head of security standing before him snapped to attention, trying not to look at the photographs.
"My Baron, we discovered the last group's bodies two hours ago. Death was instantaneous. Broken cervical vertebrae, precise knife wounds… one was killed with his own weapon." He hesitated. "We believe we're dealing with a professional saboteur, or… a mercenary group operating in the forest. The kill patterns are disturbing. This isn't just shooting. It's snapped necks, blades through cardiac zones via armor joints. Clean work."
Strucker set his glass on the desk and pulled up a file on the main screen. From the yellowed electronic page stared the face of a pale, haggard young man. Subject No. 924. Marcus Eisenhardt.
"Three weeks ago, this 'saboteur' couldn't lift his own head when they dragged him to the cell." Strucker jabbed a finger at the screen. "Common refuse. One of the hundreds we used for standard stimulant trials and irradiation. According to the reports, his body should have failed as early as the second phase of testing."
The Baron rose and clasped his hands behind his back. A cold, predatory interest lit his eyes.
"We thought he was a corpse that had wandered off by mistake. But corpses don't cut down patrols one after another. Which means something happened during that incident in the laboratory. Something my idiot scientists failed to notice."
"We'll comb the forest again, sir," the captain said quickly. "We'll deploy thermal imaging and aircraft."
"No," Strucker said flatly. "If he's eliminating groups this efficiently, it means he senses your approach. Standard sweeps will only keep costing us men. I don't need more meat — I need answers."
He turned to the window, beyond which the dark mass of forest spread out in the night.
"Subject 924 clearly mutated under the pressure of stress. Possibly a latent potential, or a rare genetic anomaly that our injections awakened. If he survived where thousands have burned out — he has become a valuable resource. But if he thinks these forests belong to him…" Strucker let the pause hang. "He is deeply mistaken."
He cast a brief glance at the officer.
"Reinforce the perimeter around the city. If you encounter him, do not attempt to kill him. Use tranquilizers — the kind meant for large predators. I want him back on my operating table. This time, I'll personally open his chest cavity to find out what devil inside him is making my soldiers die so quickly."