A tall figure stood in front of Fu Qinghai, staring at him coldly.
A massive, grotesque metal mask helmet, surrounded by dense, thick black hair-like strands, and iron-black, bizarre alien-style shoulder pads, chest armor, arm guards, leg guards, and a groin protector. Exposed outside the armor was rough, ugly skin like that of an alligator.
Predator!
Fu Qinghai finally understood what that blurry shadow he had seen earlier was—it was a Predator that had infiltrated Stark Tower in stealth!
From a box on this terrifying alien warrior's arm guard, two slender, sharp wrist blades extended, their tips still dripping blood.
Fu Qinghai's eyes widened. Before he could react, a colossal force, pulling him up by his collar, lifted him entirely. Then, he felt his body ascend, and the world spun.
Then, with a "thump," he was heavily slammed onto the floor, and the gun in his hand flew to the side.
Fu Qinghai was grabbed by the Predator with one hand and violently flung into the center of the living room.
That "thump" also startled the people confronting each other inside the room. Everyone looked in unison at Fu Qinghai, who was lying on the living room floor.
Ignoring the pain in his back, Fu Qinghai quickly assessed the situation inside the room.
At this moment, Tony Stark, clad in Iron Man armor, sat slumped on the ground, leaning against a shattered wine cabinet. His golden-red armor already had finger-thick cracks, and electric sparks flickered within the cracks. His helmet was completely shattered, leaving his entire face exposed.
Not far from Tony Stark sat Colonel James Rhodes, War Machine, in silver and black armor. His condition was similar to Tony Stark's.
However, a bizarrely shaped metal spear, having pierced through a crack in the armor on Colonel Rhodes' shoulder, had pinned him to the wall behind him. He, too, was on his last breath.
I wondered why the Predator wasn't carrying his iconic folding spear; it turns out it was pinning the unfortunate Colonel Rhodes.
Fu Qinghai then looked to the other side.
On one side, a black-haired woman in a black vest and camouflage pants held a classic silver-white Desert Eagle, holding the terrified Pepper Potts hostage.
In the middle, a white-haired young man floated in mid-air. He was exceptionally handsome, like a mixed-race individual, wearing white trousers and a bare, muscular upper body. Strange black patterns shimmered on his chest, and he wasn't very tall.
He was currently frowning, examining Fu Qinghai lying on the ground in front of him. The area around his eyes was unnaturally flushed, making him appear somewhat deranged.
On the other side was a bald white strongman holding a massive American M32 grenade launcher. Seeing the grenade launcher in his hand, Fu Qinghai understood what had caused the explosions and the broken fire door in the stairwell earlier.
Excluding the other corpses on the ground and Fu Qinghai himself, there were currently four villains and three protagonists present.
"What's going on?" The white-haired young man frowned, looking at the Predator. "Musa, who is this?" He was clearly very displeased to face an unknown disruptor while giving a lengthy speech.
"An eavesdropper," a muffled, standard English voice came from the Predator's disproportionately large helmet.
Then, a red light shot out from a circular hole on the side of his helmet, scanning Fu Qinghai entirely.
"A normal person," the Predator concluded after the scan.
"A normal person? Coming here to die?" The white-haired young man looked at Fu Qinghai with some confusion.
The three protagonists also looked puzzled.
This... this is a bit awkward... What to do? What to do? Faced with such a desperate situation, Fu Qinghai's mind raced, frantically recalling how the weak protagonists in movies, anime, and novels he had seen before managed to turn the tide against adversity.
Tongue-fu! That's right, they all relied on tongue-fu.
"Ahem!" Although he didn't know what to say, Fu Qinghai, lying on the ground, still coughed lightly. "Everyone, could you please listen to me first?"
"No," the white-haired young man, who had just been giving a long speech, was exceptionally decisive now.
"Bang!"
"Ah—" Fu Qinghai screamed in agony, and a mist of blood erupted from his thigh.
A wisp of white smoke rose from the black-haired woman's gun barrel. She re-aimed the gun at Pepper Potts' head and said indifferently, "When Lord Murakami speaks, no one should interrupt him. This is the first lesson you need to learn in the Reincarnation World, newcomer."
The Reincarnators present had already defined Fu Qinghai as one of their own; otherwise, his inexplicable behavior would be difficult to explain.
Ah ah... Damn it... He said no, so why did you hit me! Are you a female lapdog! Fu Qinghai was in excruciating pain, screaming in agony. He felt his thigh was shattered, and crimson blood gushed out, quickly forming a pool on the living room floor.
After temporarily silencing the ignorant disruptor, everyone's attention in the room returned to the previous standoff.
At this moment, no one noticed that in the azure sky outside the glass wall, a large black bird seemed to flash by.
"Just get it over with... Stop talking nonsense, I've seen countless deaths in Vietnam, why would I be afraid of a damn mutant sissy like you... Ptooey!" The dying Colonel Rhodes raised his head and spat a mouthful of blood at the white-haired young man.
After Fu Qinghai's disruption, the white-haired young man also seemed to have lost his patience for negotiation. His bloodshot eyes stared intently into Tony Stark's eyes, and Iron Man returned the same cold, fearless gaze.
"Good, very good..." The white-haired young man sneered, nodding. "Such backbone!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly took a deep breath, swept his hand forward, and a pitch-black ripple appeared out of thin air, spreading towards Iron Man on the ground.
No one expected that at this moment, Fu Qinghai, who was moaning softly in the pool of blood on the floor, curled up like a shrimp, suddenly sprang up with all his remaining strength, propping himself up on one hand and one leg, blocking the path of the pitch-black ripple.
"Splat!" Fu Qinghai was struck rigid in mid-air and fell like a lump of mud in front of Iron Man. He felt his chest cavity had shattered, his internal organs churned into a bloody mess, and an overwhelming wave of pain assaulted his nerves, leaving him unable to even scream.
Tony Stark, who had already prepared for death, stared blankly at the scene before him.
Everyone present was also stunned.
"Damn it, you self-righteous ant... Your life is truly cheap!"
Seeing that any random thing dared to block his attack, the white-haired young man was furious. Perhaps the intense battle of dismantling two Iron Man armors had already exhausted him. He took a breath, unable to unleash a similar attack again.
【You saved Iron Man Tony Stark's life, achieving a milestone event!】
That cold voice suddenly appeared.
【Calculating assimilation points... 7136 points】
【Reincarnator detected to be on the verge of death, preparing for retrieval. Please quickly select items within your control or acquired abilities to begin assimilation】
"Control... items..."
At this moment, Fu Qinghai's consciousness was already fading, and his vision was blurry due to the pain of his shattered body. However, the voice in his mind remained cold and clear, as if unaffected by any pain, presenting itself in Fu Qinghai's thoughts. He made a "ho ho" sound of air from his throat, accompanied by blood foam and flesh chunks, and slowly extended his right hand, using all his strength to grasp anything he could reach around him.
Iron Man stared blankly at the blood-soaked figure in front of him, who was gushing blood all over, and reached out to grab a large hard drive plugged into an electronic device nearby.
【Selection confirmed. This assimilation will consume 7012 assimilation points. Starting assimilation... 1%, 15%, 30%...】
Suddenly, the hard drive that Fu Qinghai was gripping tightly was gently pulled out by a fair hand.
【Assimilation aborted】
"So..." The white-haired young man floating in the air toyed with the hard drive in his hand, examining it. "You risked your life for this thing?"
He chuckled softly, "Then I'll give it to you." With that, he forcefully plunged the entire hard drive's interface into the back of Fu Qinghai's head.
"Pfft—" The entire hard drive, cast from hard alloy, was inserted into the back of Fu Qinghai's skull. The metal interface and his brainstem were deeply intertwined. Fu Qinghai stopped twitching and completely kicked the bucket.
The white-haired young man slowly stood up, shook off the splattered blood from his hands, and then ran a hand through his sweat-drenched white hair.
"The little interlude is over. So... now it's time to send you on your way, Mr. Stark."
Before he finished speaking, the nearby floor-to-ceiling glass shattered with a bang. A black figure with retracted Iron Man wings broke through the glass curtain wall, whistling as it slammed into the white-haired young man, violently knocking him, who was originally suspended in mid-air, to the ground. The two figures rolled into a tangled mess.
Before he could roll up and get to his feet, Falcon Sam Wilson shouted into his headset, "Captain, now!"
A muscular man in a blue suit burst out from behind the door, vigorously spinning the vibranium shield in his hand. The sharp edge of the shield struck the Predator fiercely. Caught off guard, the Predator quickly raised its arm to parry, but having lost the initiative, it was beaten back step by step by Captain America's subsequent combination punches.
The black-haired woman, witnessing this scene, her eyes splitting with rage, was about to pull the trigger when she heard a "whoosh," and an arrow, shot from an unknown source, was precisely embedded in her temple.
The hand holding the Desert Eagle dropped powerlessly. Pepper Potts quickly broke free from control and scrambled, rolling and crawling, to Tony Stark's side.
The bald strongman holding the grenade launcher hastily dove behind the bar to avoid the ghostly arrows shot from who-knows-where. He lay prone amidst the furniture debris, tore off his ear-mounted microphone, and yelled into it, "Banks! Didn't you already hold off Captain America?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the microphone. Suddenly, a scoff came through: "Sorry, Grant, actually... I never chose the same faction as you guys from the start."
"Damn... traitor! You son of a b—"
"Whoosh!" Another arrow embedded itself in the bald white strongman's slick head.
"Enough!"
"Boom—" A thick, towering blue-white pillar of light erupted from the floor. The shockwave pushed Falcon, who was about to wrestle with the white-haired young man, Captain America, who was in the thick of battle, and the Predator all to the side.
As the light pillar dissipated, the white-haired young man, with a ferocious expression and bloodshot eyes, floated in mid-air. His originally bulging muscles had now atrophied and collapsed, and black markings had spread to his neck, seemingly overdrawing his life force.
Captain America Steve Rogers silently got up. Without any wasted words, he flung his vibranium shield. The shield spun towards the white-haired young man. At the moment of impact, the white-haired young man's figure disappeared and reappeared in an instant, having just dodged the flying shield, only to be met by a fist the size of a sandbag.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Captain America's punches landed with solid impact, one after another, giving the white-haired young man no chance to retaliate.
The white-haired young man forcefully pushed with both palms, and a honeycomb-shaped light shield made of blue-white illusory light appeared in front of him, barely blocking Captain America's continuous attacks.
However, he didn't notice that the round shield he had just thrown, after smashing through the floor-to-ceiling glass and flying outside the building, had spun back around.
"Thud!" The vibranium shield violently struck the white-haired young man's lower back. The Great Serpent's Power, gained by overdrawing his life, could no longer be maintained. He spat out a mouthful of black blood and collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Seeing this, the Predator, who had somehow hidden by the door, took a deep look at everyone in the room, and its figure slowly became transparent until it vanished.
However, no one noticed that on Fu Qinghai's corpse, between the hard drive inserted into his skull and his brainstem, tiny electric arcs flickered.
【Regaining control, starting assimilation... 78%... 99%... Assimilation complete, retrieving Reincarnator soul】
【Reincarnation Life - 1】