32 Future Plans and Another Power Up

"Anyway, let's meet up with them in the EPD building first."

Rogue nodded, still a bit shocked by what Benjamin just revealed to her, and simply followed him back absentmindedly.

By the time they returned, Natasha and the others are already there.

"How's Sergeant Barnes?"

"In deep sleep. For now."

Natasha answered and Benjamin nodded.

"I'll visit him later then."

Natasha looked at the little shadow following Benjamin from behind and raised a brow.

"New girl?"

"Uh, this is Anna. Or as she is better known, Rogue. She's an X-Men who assisted me with cleaning up the HYDRA bases along with a few others. Stuff happened and she wanted to join the EPD as well but has no place to stay yet."

"So she'll live with us?"

"Well, her powers aren't exactly quite stable yet so it isn't really a good idea to leave her in a hotel or any place alone. And I…or rather, we, are the only ones who can't get affected by her power."

"Huh?"

Both Natasha and Rogue looked at Benjamin in confusion.

What did he mean by…both him and Natasha not being affected by her power?

"I told you that I had a thin skin-like film covering me so you don't affect me with your powers right? Natasha has the same thing."

"I do?"

"The symbiote."

"Ohhh!"

Natasha understood and immediately willed the symbiote in her body to cover her as Benjamin showed her.

Benjamin also explained to them how Rogue's powers worked and immediately, Ophelia and Felicia took a step back in caution.

Natasha, knowing the symbiote can protect her, didn't mind it and even stepped forward to hug Rogue.

"You poor thing. It must've been hard huh?"

"I…"

Rogue didn't know what to say.

Just a while ago, she was unable to feel the warmth of human touch. Now, all of a sudden, there are two people who she can touch without worrying that she might harm them. Or worse, kill them.

She thought she already exhausted all her tears earlier but soon found she was wrong. Tears couldn't help but fall again from her eyes as she embraced Natasha tightly while crying silently.

Benjamin didn't interrupt the two but moved a bit away with the others to continue their conversation.

"All good on your end as well?"

"No problems. Although Zola was annoying us with his 'talks' till the end."

Ophelia rolled her eyes to show her annoyance.

"I got the money too."

"Money?"

"Yeah. Since I was there, might as well suck all their money dry before destroying the servers."

Benjamin was amazed. Felicia…really likes money too much.

Well, he didn't have a problem with it so he just shrugged.

"What are you even gonna do with all that money though?"

"I don't know…buy a mansion, cars, boats, or stuff?"

Felicia waved her hands and answered without much thought.

She likes hoarding money but as for using it…she didn't have many ideas at the moment.

"How about we start a company or something?"

"What kind of company?"

"A gaming company. But more on developing a Full Dive VR game."

Felicia tilted her head and asked.

"What are you making a game company for?"

"There are many reasons really. One, a steady supply of money. Two, a platform for virtual training. Three, entertainment for the more normal people. And such."

Benjamin continued to explain.

"You see, the world's just gonna get weirder and weirder. We have a billionaire playboy in a metal suit, an alien god from the myths, a soldier from the past, mutants, demon cults, more aliens, and many more. Eventually, normal people would feel smaller and smaller. The VR game is a way for them to feel 'super' in another way. Keep them satisfied and they won't make any fuss in the future. It might even drop the crime rate all over the world."

While Felicia remained confused, Ophelia was stunned.

"You're already thinking that far ahead?"

"Had to start somewhere."

Benjamin chuckled.

When he saw that the System Store had several pieces of knowledge he can buy, this idea had already formed in his mind back then. However, this required a huge capital of both money and MP so he didn't act on it just yet.

Now though, the money part is somewhat covered and he can also start an initial plan for the game with his current capabilities.

Benjamin even considered working with Tony as well. He was sure that he would be interested.

Speaking of Tony…

Benjamin remembered Wanda and Pietro who he saved earlier. He asked them about their powers and the experiments done on them by Strucker.

He knows that HYDRA had gotten hold of Loki's Scepter from the Battle of New York. But since it wasn't in the base anymore, it should've been returned to SHIELD in order to avoid suspicions of them.

And if SHIELD has it…there's a chance that Tony got a hold of it as well to 'study' it…

…Which means, there's a high chance that he's making Ultron right now…

Benjamin felt the need to visit him soon.

He sighed and shook his head.

"Well, enough of that. That's a discussion for another time."

Benjamin turned to Ophelia and asked her.

"Do you still want to be Madame HYDRA? Now's the perfect time to collect the remaining members and consolidate your position."

"I don't really like to do it anymore but if it's necessary, I will."

"Uhh, if you don't like it then it's fine. I'll find someone-"

"I'll do it."

"But you just said-"

"I was just ranting. I'll do it."

Ophelia stressed.

Since she was adamant about it, Benjamin no longer said anything and simply nodded.

He then looked over at Felicia.

"Have you heard of the Thieves Guild?"

"Thieves Guild? I've heard rumors."

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in going undercover and joining their group. Of course, you are free to refuse."

Felicia raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms as she leaned on the wall beside her.

"What's in it for me?"

"What do you want?"

"Hmm…"

Felicia thought for a moment while tapping her foot.

She looked over to Natasha and Rogue who were having a heart-to-heart talk at the side and her eyes lit up.

"I want that. That thing the Black Widow has."

"The symbiote?"

"Yeah. Or something similar. I want actual powers."

Benjamin was slightly surprised.

Seeing his expression, Felicia rolled her eyes.

"Look, I'm not an idiot okay? You said that the world is about to get weirder and weirder. I don't want to remain as some chick in a cat outfit without any real power."

"It's not something I can get all the time…what kind of powers do you even want?"

Benjamin thought.

Saying that I can give her whatever powers she wanted might seem too shocking so I can't reveal that just yet…well, I do still need MP anyway so I might not be able to grant 'anything' just yet.

"Hmm…"

Felicia fell silent again as she thought for a while.

"Something…awesome?"

"As I said…what even is that?"

Benjamin was speechless and shook his head.

"Well…I'll see what I can do about it…if all else fails, maybe you can learn magic from me."

"Magic huh? That seems fun."

"So you'll go undercover then?"

"Fine. But if I see any signs of danger, I'm bailing."

Benjamin nodded.

"If you are in any danger, just call out my name."

"Huh?"

"It's a…magic thing. Anyway, I'll be there to save you. Don't worry."

"If you say so…"

After having finished talks with both of them, the three approached Natasha and Rogue again who had already calmed down.

Natasha turned to Benjamin.

"Done talking?"

"Yeah. Just so you know, Viper will be picking up the remaining members of HYDRA but she's still working for me. It's easier to control HYDRA from within than cutting them all off. Who knows how many contingencies they have? Besides, they did the same thing to SHIELD right? They deserve it to happen to them."

Benjamin informed Natasha in case any misunderstandings happen in the future.

Natasha turned to Viper who gave her a snarky look with a smirk.

"Are you sure we can trust her?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I'm sure."

"Well, if you trust her, then I trust her. Doesn't mean I have to like her though."

"As long as you two don't start fighting or killing each other, that's good enough for me."

Benjamin sighed in relief.

"So."

Natasha continued.

"Are we gonna do a fivesome now?"

"...No!"

Benjamin was speechless.

"Come on~ I know you were thinking about it!"

Natasha laughed and dragged Rogue away after teasing Benjamin.

Following her, Felicia also started walking away. Not without giving Benjamin a look of disgust.

"..."

In the end, she didn't say anything and just sighed while shaking her head before walking away.

Lastly, Ophelia turned to look at Benjamin.

"So were you really thinking about it?"

"T-that's not it okay!? Why do you all think I always think about sex!?"

"Do you not?"

"I…"

Benjamin paused and didn't know what to say.

Dammit! It's all the fault of the Ultimate Stud System!

[...Host, can you not always blame the System? This System is the Ultimate Stu- err The Ultimate Marvel System okay!?]

The System got so used to being called that by Benjamin that it almost mistook itself…

After all that banter, Benjamin could only sigh helplessly and ran to catch up with Natasha and Rogue who were heading home.

Rogue ended up living with them as Natasha had decided. The two had really hit it off. It was a combination that Benjamin didn't consider possible.

The Black Widow and Rogue.

Thinking about it now, the two share some similarities in that they couldn't fall in love with anyone easily in the past due to circumstances.

Natasha was afraid of loving someone knowing she couldn't start a family because of her surgery in the past.

Rogue was afraid of getting close to someone and end up hurting them because of her powers.

It's a bit of a stretch but they share a common feeling which led to the two becoming closer to one another.

In a way, Natasha sees Rogue as someone like a little sister.

She reminded her of another 'little sister' she had in the past, Yelena.

Speaking of which, I wonder how she's doing nowadays.

Natasha thought about it and decided to look for her when she was free.

After dinner, the three of them enjoyed some small talk and finally, it was time to sleep.

Just as Benjamin was about to head to the bedroom, he was pushed back by Natasha.

"Nope. You're sleeping on the couch tonight."

"Huh?"

"Tonight is girls' night. No boys allowed!"

Benjamin was pushed out of his own room by the two…

He wondered if it was a good idea to bring Rogue here…it seems…the two can now gang up on him!

Silently crying about himself, Benjamin went to the couch to sleep.

"...I should probably buy a proper house tomorrow…with plenty of rooms!"

[A house for your harem?]

No!

Benjamin sweated.

Just in case he was evicted from his room again, he can sleep in another room. It's definitely not to have free rooms for any future lovers or anything!

Definitely!

Benjamin convinced himself that for a while then focused on the system once more.

The popups had appeared a while ago but he was too busy to take a closer look at them.

Now that he had the time, it was time to check it.

When he looked at the long list of notifications, Benjamin was stunned.

"Well shit…I'm rich…"

All of them were completion of emergency quests for when he cleaned up all those HYDRA bases, captured Baron Strucker, and even being involved with stopping Project Insight and eliminating Arnim Zola had provided him with some rewards!

Benjamin grinned.

"As I thought. I can't completely eliminate HYDRA…they're such good exp farms!"

Well, he's not exactly getting any exp but he's gaining a lot of MP…not to mention all those free gacha draws…!

"A total of 540,000 MP…and 32 Free Gacha Draws…damn!"

Benjamin was completely shocked and felt a bit overwhelmed.

"Hehehe…let's start pulling some gacha!"

And so he did.

The result left him completely stunned once again.

"Holy shit…"

First of all, the highest Red rarity appeared trice as expected.

The Necklace of One…The original Staff of One was made from transmuting a powerful warlord sorcerer known as The One. As for how this necklace existed…well, it's only just one more thing to add to the weirdness of the system…

Still, much like the staff version, the Necklace of One can allow him to use a spell of his choosing only once in exchange for blood. It was a sort of reality-bending artifact with the way it uses its magic.

Just this thing alone had increased Benjamin's overall power by multiple folds!

Then there's the Soul Dagger. A dagger form of the Soulsword. Capable of creating portals to a pocket dimension called Limbo and also capable of manifesting a Promethium armor on the user.

Promethium being a magical metal found only in Limbo and contains demonic properties. It is also said to greatly amplify a symbiote's powers…

Finally, the last Red rarity…Infinity Crown.

Yep. It's basically a crown version of the Infinity Gauntlet.

Of course, the sockets are all empty so it doesn't have any use at the moment.

Other than that, Benjamin also gained a few more abilities and knowledge.

Telepathy, Telekinesis, Master Bio-Engineering Knowledge, Advanced Energy Knowledge, and Master Language Comprehension.

As for the rest, they were mostly miscellaneous stuff that didn't need to be mentioned.

Benjamin then directly spent 10k MP each on Telepathy and Telekinesis to upgrade it further which should put him on the same level as an Alpha-class mutant.

After thinking for a moment and seeing as he had a lot of MP at the moment, Benjamin decided to spend 40k MP each to upgrade it further into an Omega-class ability.

This was his biggest splurge yet but to gain an Omega-class ability, it was still worth it.

This won't necessarily be worse than a red rarity pull in gacha.

While he was at it, he also upgrade the Electric and Earth Manipulation abilities to Body tier…meaning, he could now transform his body into either an electric form or earth form.

It's just like eating a logia devil fruit of One Piece.

This cost him 40k MP each as well.

Satisfied with his power-up, Benjamin smiled in contentment and started to sleep.

He'll test the new things he got later on. For now, it was time to rest.