8 Just What is Chaos
The Chaos...
It began when his small interaction with Peggy's team made Captain America a few seconds late than in the original, it caused Phillips to speed up more than he would originally have, and Peggy's slightly longer kiss didn't help.
The car had more momentum and couldn't stop at the cliff at the right moment, it fell. They didn't have the main character's buff, nor was their life protected by any sort of 'Absolute Point'. Both Phillips and Peggy Carter died in that accident.
Arthur could predict what happened next... Without Phillips and Peggy's presence even if S.H.I.E.L.D was formed, Zola must have gotten a little too much freedom. He must've ensured Chaos in place of him.
He fast-forwarded it to the future to see what sort of chaos was unleashed...
Zola finds Captain America and brainwashes him! It made sense, Marvel's plot armor to main characters isn't absolute protection. There were universe where every hero became a zombie or where every hero and even villain were killed by a psychopath named Deadpool.
Tony still becomes Iron Man.
But due to military politics Ross could never be a General nor motivated enough to channel Bruce Banner's research to create super soldier serum. And due to that no Hulk's roar was ever heard in this universe.
Neither did was there any blonde arrogant Captain Marvel.
Avengers was still formed but without a soldier of the past and a raging green monster.
Loki in New York also happened... but in a much different way than in the original. Since one of the infinity stones were no where to be found. He had to use different means and this time he was sent to retrieve the Time Stone.
The chaos was ongoing.
But... the events of Captain America the winter soldier... erased all the threats to Hydra, i.e, the heroes. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Steven Strange, and many more. Phase 2 predicted and eliminated every threat whether from the present or future.
The one who was supposed to stop it... Captain America... helped it instead.
This caused the Chaos to settle into an Evil Order.
It was hopeless.
And hopeless times give birth to strong people. The World Willed and new heroes were assembled, better and stronger...
The fight between Evil and Good continued.
The Chaos continued.
.
.
.
Arthur sighed, "So, this is how, huh..."
Arthur understood one thing from reviewing his mission.
Chaos isn't an endless pit... it is an infinite ladder.
It has to go both ways.
Internally, he was berating himself. What happened during the last few minutes of the mission, shouldn't have happened.
It could've ended up in the failure of the whole mission, it was reckless and foolish.
He facepalmed, "Man, it was so stupid of me. If I could go to past I would slap my self twice."
The last mission was riddled with blunders upon blunders.
"You know you don't need to go to the PAST to slap yourself." The Penguin seemed to smile.
Arthur just deadpanned, this fat blue bitch...
Barnes laughed at his scowl.
'Any normal person wouldn't even be sane right now. Losing everything, experiencing death and a near-death experience, more so, in less than just five hours is just too much for an average man. And here he is berating himself...' Barnes mused, 'He sure has some over-the-top standards for himself. He's lame...'
After that, Arthur borrowed Barnes's 'reward'. Managers have a choice to receive a reward after the accomplishment of the trial mission, most choose to decline or simply hold it for later as they really don't need anything but Barnes did.
He asked for the novel of Arthur's world.
And Arthur was adamant in borrowing Barnes rewards.
Initially, Barnes was heavily against that, he said that Arthur should ask every question from him and he would answer. The penguin was too enthusiastic about his job and took pleasure in answering Arthur's question, and this irritated Arthur.
But it wasn't something that he couldn't resolve with slight mental manipulation.
The penguin was too defenseless to hide his weaknesses, and Arthur took full advantage of those.
.
.
.
Arthur's face grew grim as he read his world's information. A sense of anxiety rose before he sighed and calmed his heart. The real enemies were far more powerful than he had expected. He could never be too prepared, that's all he could say.
And the worst thing was, his world's Main Character died forty years ago!
That guy was a South Korean.
He can't risk using the world ticket now... it would definitely end up in failure.
And so, he just waited in the black void for the next mission.
Hours passed into days, days into weeks with no missions and no growth in his powers.
It was boring.
A lot.
Sometimes he talked with Barnes, at others he maneuvered his enhanced body but in a zero gravity space, it didn't feel like it yielded any results.
He couldn't even train his muscles but the good thing was inside Black Void his physical state won't deteriorate as in this dimension he was self-sustained.
He sometimes also arranged his inventory, naming and grouping the items he stol— retrieved from hydra's base.
In it, there were 56 Tesseract-powered Heavy Assault Riffles.
107 dead mixed with unconscious hydra soldiers with Tesseract-powered guns and ammo attached to them.
4 medium-sized tanks with tesseract powered canons.
1 giant-sized (about 3 stories tall) tank. Many things are unknown about it.
And finally, the aircraft Valkyrie with a Tesseract-powered engine and Tesseract itself loaded inside it. Though the stone was just a useless decoration now, but at least the aircraft would work if he replaces the power source to use in the next world he travels to.
Inside his inventory, time doesn't pass, so he didn't have to worry about the decay of the dead Hydra soldiers corpses.
There was something he didn't like in the Black Void, he can't take out the items from his inventory here or they'd get devoured by the darkness, never to be found again.
The Black Void is supposed to be his new home now, but it is in no way comfortable enough, he can't even have furniture. Barnes told him that in the future he might get the ability to alter this space according to his will.
Such boring boring weeks turned into months and about three months passed before Arthur got approached for a mission from a higher being.
[ Mission ]
Contractor: DeLeTeD__UsEr@52 ( A/n: Press F, to pay respect to the late Legendary Author of HOTD)
World: High School Of The Dead
Objective 1: Survive in the Apocalypse without becoming Undead.
Reward: Self-Sustenance in the whole Omniverse.
Time limit: 5 years
Objective 2: Build a shelter that could last for at least 50 years. The shelter must contain at least four people from the main cast.
Reward: Undead Manipulation - Control limited unowned Undeads.
Time limit: 5 years
Objective 3: Kill Koichi Shido.
Reward: Unlimited access to the High School Of The Dead World.
Optional Objective: Change the Main Character of High School Of The Dead world.
Reward: ???
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Drop Point: The Z-day at Fujimi High School.
==============
[ ]
Not minding the weird name of the contractor, Arthur carefully read the objectives and rewards, and their time limits. Everything else was fine but he had some doubts related to the optional objective.
"In the Optional Objective, will killing the Main Character, Takashi Komuro, suffice for the objective's completion?" Arthur wondered out loud.
He worried that the world might turn against him. Like it did in the previous mission.
But, the next moment another screen popped up in front of him...
[ That's one of the ways, yes. But if you intend to kill the World's main character, it will label you as a hostile external entity and will give its all to eliminate you. I guess you already experienced that. If you consider yourself powerful enough to bear the wrath of the World's Will, sure go ahead. ]
Arthur hummed at the explanation, this Being seemed chatty.
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