Marvel: Killing Makes You Stronger

Chapter 1: Killing Makes Me Stronger

In the civilian or impoverished district of Queens, New York, inside a certain house.

Bi Xiao was in the cramped bathroom, shirtless, his thin physique fully visible in the somewhat worn-out mirror reflection. Frankly speaking, he looked like a thin dog, his only advantage being his somewhat handsome appearance, with delicate features and bright black eyes, though his skin appeared quite pale.

This paleness wasn't due to naturally fair skin but rather from lacking sufficient nutrition, which gave his skin an unhealthy paleness.

Bi Xiao still remembered after work, following the normal routine of eating, bathing, and browsing his phone, how he fell exhausted into sleep, only to wake up and discover he had assumed a different identity.

The same name, yet a different life.

His previous unremarkable life contrasted sharply with his current existence in New York, USA. The reason a not yet eighteen-year-old Asian could live in New York was simple; his parents were immigrants.

Foolishly yearning for the so-called freedom and democracy, they had fled from China to the USA.

At the age of ten, they took him to this place, and after several years of struggle, his mother was unfortunately killed in a street gang shootout, an accidental victim. A year later, while working hard, his father died from a heart attack brought on by overwork.

He was left alone, a teenager with an old house of less than seventy square meters and some savings.

The inheritance wasn't much, just about five thousand dollars. His mother, involved in the accidental shooting without insurance, and with the shooter never caught, meant no compensation was ever received.

His father's sudden death at work, without a signed labor contract, these few thousand dollars were compensation from the employer; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have received even that small inheritance.

After all, it had taken years of struggle just to buy this house, so naturally, there wasn't much savings left.

After accessing the memories of this body, Bi Xiao felt somewhat numb.

More numbing was the terrifying information he gathered from these memories.

Tony Stark.

A billionaire well-known across the entire United States, Tony Stark, along with a group universally despised and condemned by mainstream world opinion, the Mutants.

Upon accessing these memories, Bi Xiao immediately thought of how to flee back to his homeland. The phrases United States, New York, Marvel Universe, when put together, meant only one outcome: Doomed.

It was too damn dangerous, and he was still a child under eighteen. He wanted to go home.

Moreover, even without the Marvel Universe buff, just being an Asian without identity and financial backing in a city like New York was a daunting prospect.

From the memories alone, he had "seen" countless instances of bullying.

What else could he do but despair?

Bi Xiao sighed. Life was hard.

At this moment, he noticed a small black figure leisurely crawling on the not-so-clean sink counter. Bi Xiao casually picked up the nearly empty shampoo bottle and threw it down.

With a "bang," the bottle hit with precision. The "old friend," comrade cockroach, couldn't even scream before it was smashed into a pulp.

Before Bi Xiao could pick up the shampoo bottle again, he was suddenly stunned by the appearance of a suspicious, blood-red glowing orb just a few centimeters in size floating in front of him. In the next instant, this blood-red orb violently rushed into his chest, merging with it.

Frightened, Bi Xiao frantically patted his body, fearing that some dirty, alien-like creature would start an egg-hatching process inside him and end it all.

Fortunately, as Bi Xiao was still reeling from the shock, he suddenly felt a warm current originating from his heart, spreading throughout his body.

It felt as if he were soaking in a hot spring, very warm and distinctly pleasant.

The entire process didn't last long, barely a second. If Bi Xiao hadn't been so certain of the reality of this sensation, he might have thought the previous experiences were just hallucinations.

Bi Xiao furrowed his brow, gradually calming down. He raised his hands, looked at the palms, then raised his head to look in the mirror. From the reflection, he could see that his previously unhealthy paleness had turned rosy.

"What's this?"

After a moment's thought, his gaze fell on the shampoo bottle still pressing down on the corpse of comrade cockroach. He reached out and picked it up.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head.

"It's lighter~~~"

Bi Xiao was certain. Although the shampoo bottle had felt light before due to being nearly empty, the weight he was holding now felt completely different.

He was certain that the weight he was holding now was even lighter, as light as holding cotton.

What did this mean?

Considering the sudden appearance of the blood-red orb after killing the cockroach, and the lightening of the shampoo bottle after the orb merged into his body, a hypothesis quickly emerged in Bi Xiao's mind.

To verify his idea, he immediately began to act.

As one of the most notorious impoverished areas in New York, his neighborhood was characterized by dilapidated roads and buildings, and trash piled up everywhere. The streets were home to numerous homeless people, and at one intersection, dozens of serious incidents could occur in a year. Low-income families had to queue weekly for government aid.

One could imagine the poverty and disarray here. Ironically, just a few subway stops away, about three to four kilometers down the road on Park Avenue, lay one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in New York.

There, one could see grandeur everywhere, in stark contrast to the garbage and vermin—rats, cockroaches, etc.—prevalent in Bi Xiao's living area.

Thus, Bi Xiao's house was never short of "companions." With deliberate attention, he saw many comrades, the cockroaches, in the dark corners of the house. Previously, these were the little creatures that Bi Xiao found most troubling, but now he saw them as a pauper might see money.

Without any hesitation, he immediately stepped forward and crushed them underfoot. Those crawling on the walls were met with a slipper, smashed one by one.

(TL: This is the First Fighting Scene btw. Bi Xiao vs Cockroach)

Sure enough, just as Bi Xiao had hypothesized, the same few-centimeter blood-red orbs appeared in front of his eyes one by one, shooting towards him like shooting stars, and entered his heart area.

The moment the blood-red orbs entered, that comforting sensation, like soaking in a hot spring, reappeared. With special attention, Bi Xiao clearly sensed that his body was undergoing a dramatic transformation.

Bones, muscles, organs, and even cells were changing. This sensation was very clear and quite wonderful.

However, the duration of these sensations was not long, lasting only about a second.

Bi Xiao suppressed his ecstasy. He didn't care about the cockroaches that had become pulp. He took his slipper back to the bathroom, casually threw the slipper aside, and looked carefully at his reflection in the mirror, observing the changes in his body.

Firstly, his vision, hearing, and sense of smell were enhanced. Although his vision had previously been quite good, he now found the world in front of him clearer, and he could see even the minutest details, such as the tiny cracks in the mirror, which he had never been able to see before.

His hearing had similarly improved; under the sound of vehicles outside the window, he could hear the footsteps and conversations of passersby and the vagrants on the streets, and even the noise from neighbors in the surrounding apartment buildings.

His sense of smell was also enhanced; he could smell all sorts of odors in the house.

Mold, dampness, and the resulting foul smells.

However, when he deliberately controlled it, these extended senses could be blocked. Plus, his thinking was also clearer and quicker than before, which let Bi Xiao know that his brain nerves had also been enhanced, as the senses are directly connected to the brain nerves.

If the brain nerves weren't enhanced, he couldn't control these suddenly enhanced senses.

Next, he looked at his shirtless upper body in the mirror reflection. His originally ordinary physique now showed muscle contours. He went back to the living room and tried lifting heavy objects, jumping on the spot, and running circles around the living room.

He concluded that his strength was now sufficient to lift the heaviest object in his house, the double bed, which weighed about a hundred kilograms.

Moreover, he lifted it very easily, and after lifting it, he performed standard squat exercises. It was only after more than ten minutes that he began to feel slightly out of breath.

This meant that his strength and endurance had reached a monstrous level among ordinary people.

Considering that the world weightlifting champion's limit is about 500 kilograms and that they can only sustain this for a second or two, and each of these champions weighs over a hundred kilograms and undergoes scientific training year-round.

But for Bi Xiao, lifting a weight of around a hundred kilograms felt very easy, and he could perform squat exercises for more than ten minutes without feeling any muscle or bone pain.

This meant his own limits were still unknown.

As for speed, he ran around the small living room. Due to spatial constraints, the speed was temporarily unmeasurable, but according to Bi Xiao's own estimation, it should also have been greatly enhanced, as strength and endurance enhancement had already proven to be associated with enhanced speed and explosive power.

The body is a complete component, and each muscle and bone is a precise instrument. With the obvious enhancement of strength and endurance, it's impossible not to enhance speed and explosive power unless it involves some kind of bodily mutation becoming some sort of Cthulhu creature.

After completing these tests, Bi Xiao felt extremely hungry.

The reasoning is simple: the stronger the physical fitness, the more energy intake is required; otherwise, it would be impossible to maintain the nutritional energy needed by the body.

Moreover, his own physical fitness had previously been poor, and his nutrition was insufficient. With the sudden enhancement of his body and the tests he had conducted, it would be strange if he wasn't hungry.

Bi Xiao went to the living room and rummaged through the old second-hand fridge, finding not many ingredients. Reluctantly, he took out the food he had planned for the next day, cooked a simple meal, and started to eat voraciously.

The food was simple: a large pot of rice, some frozen chicken legs, chicken wings, beef, and potatoes.

In the United States, meat is actually cheaper than vegetables, except for potatoes, which are also cheap. Due to his family background and personal reasons, Bi Xiao had planned his three meals mainly around potatoes, supplemented with some cheap meat, limited to frozen chicken legs, chicken wings, and beef.

After all, while meat is comparatively cheap, Bi Xiao still couldn't afford to eat it every meal.

The biggest drawback for low-income groups in the United States is insufficient vitamin intake, which can lead to many diseases. And for someone like Bi Xiao, an Asian boy trying to find a job was too difficult. If he didn't set a low standard for his diet, he would quickly eat himself into poverty.

So this is also why he was malnourished.

Fortunately, the current "owner" didn't care too much. After cooking today's meal, he ate all the rice, chicken legs, chicken wings, and stewed potato beef until he felt full.

After eating and drinking his fill, he washed the dishes while pondering.

"The previous changes led to the conclusion that killing life extracts the life essence of the killed life to enhance oneself, and the enhancement should be comprehensive. A small life form can enhance so much, probably because this body itself was poor enough to cause such a big change."

"Subsequent enhancements from cockroaches might gradually decrease as my body becomes stronger."

"What's this? Cannibalism? Gluttony?"

"And is the size of the life essence related to the size of the life form or the strength of its vitality?"

"Or is it a combination of both?"

"Powerful life forms are not lacking in this world. At least known powerful creatures include humans themselves, not to mention mutants, vampires, werewolves, and demons that abound on Earth. It seems my future path should lean towards a hunter's direction."

Having come to such an exciting and chaotic universe, if he hadn't suddenly gained this golden finger, he might have directly tried to flee back to his homeland, China. But now that he had this golden finger, if he wasted it, Bi Xiao wouldn't forgive himself.

After all, which man doesn't want to become stronger and live a splendid life?

Killing, Bi Xiao was already mentally prepared for this. In his previous life, he was an honest person, and that was because of legal constraints. In this chaotic universe, especially a place like New York, he wouldn't have any moral constraints when it came to killing white, brown, or black people. Even his own people, if it comes down to it.

Of course, he wouldn't harm innocent and kind people. While he might kill, he would only kill those who deserved it.

He wasn't about to indiscriminately slaughter, at least he still had a moral baseline, although it was somewhat flexible.

After all, this world is both heaven and hell, with Olympian Gods, Frost Giants, Dark Elves, and Multiverses. There are plenty of powerful life forms, and he doesn't need to turn himself into a villain chasing power.

Saying he's a cannibal is just a joke; he's really not about to be indiscriminate like a monster.

Now, Bi Xiao first needs to improve his life while finding ways to become stronger. Only then will he have the ability to hunt down more powerful people or monsters.

"Maybe, I should first find a few trash to kill, to test this ability to absorb life essence."

Squeak~~

He turned off the tap, arranged the dishes properly, picked up a dry towel, and wiped his hands. Bi Xiao's eyes narrowed slightly, a cold light flickering. The figures of those who had bullied him in past memories emerged.

Some scum, in such a place, wouldn't draw much attention if killed, and it would also allow him to practice killing, while avenging the original owner of his body.

And he might get some money from those trash to improve his life.