"Hyaah—finally, that mutant mayhem is over," Max muttered as he collapsed onto his bed, arms spread out like a starfish. "Damn, I talked way too much today. I need serious rest."
He stared at the ceiling for a moment, eyes half-lidded, then let out a sigh. "Kinda wanted to make Apocalypse an undead just for the laughs… shame I vaporized him. Oh well, guess the gods get a pass this time."
He chuckled to himself, then paused—brows furrowing.
"Am I being good? Nah, no way. I'm not doing this to save the world or play hero." Max shook his head. "I only care about fun. About entertainment. Why should I care if the world burns or not? That's not me. That was never me."
He sat up for a second, thinking about the mutants. The chaos. The ones he helped.
"Ugh, I need to clear my mind of all that mutant drama." He smacked his cheeks lightly, trying to snap himself out of it. "Alright—time to do some Gacha pulls!"
A wide grin spread across his face as a holographic screen blinked into existence above his palm.
"Let's see if luck's on my side today."
Max leaned back with a smirk. "Hmm, what Gacha should I pull today?" His eyes scrolled through the options. "Oh, there's a new classified one…"
[ Apocalypse Gacha – Allows the user to play in Apocalypse scenarios. The world can be reshaped based on the user's strength. High-risk, high-reward—completely Gacha-based. ]
"Tempting…" Max muttered. "But let's go with the Marvel Special Gacha for now."
He pressed confirm, and with a soft hum, 10,000 points were consumed. The room lit up with a familiar roulette animation—colors spinning, icons blurring—until it stopped and a message appeared:
{ Marvel Special Gacha:
World Drawn – "Synthetic Dominion"
[Description: A world where robots have taken over under the reign of Ultron.]
[Most of the Avengers are dead. Now you rise as the only anomaly. Become the new hero—or villain—and shape the outcome.]
"Heh… now that sounds fun," Max grinned. As he activated the entry, his body shimmered with data and slowly vanished from the real world.
At the same time, the New Marvel world initialized.
Max looked up as the glowing options floated in front of him like digital runes etched in mid-air.
[The Cyber Apocalypse Scenario has been initiated.]
[Host, please select difficulty. Based on selection, your powers will be limited accordingly.]
[ Cakewalk – 100% Power ]
[ Easy – 90% Power ]
[ Normal – 80% Power ]
[ Hard – 50% Power ]
[ Nightmare – 30% Power ]
[ Absolute Death – 0% Power ]
He chuckled, cracking his knuckles as his voice echoed through the empty tunnel.
"Cakewalk is tempting, but that'd be boring..."
He scrolled past Easy, paused on Normal, then looked long and hard at Absolute Death.
"Nah—I'm not a masochist."
"Nightmare it is."
The second he selected Nightmare, everything went black—then burst into digitized flames. His body felt pressure, like it was being compressed, filtered, restricted. Symbols burned across his arms and chest, sealing a vast portion of his powers.
[Nightmare selected – Access to 30% of total power granted.]
[Starting position: Underground Sector 7 – Civilian Shelter Ruins.]
As the message vanished, the tunnel lights flickered violently before dying out completely. A loud metallic screech echoed from deeper in the darkness—followed by red lights blinking in the distance.
Sentinels. Ultron's scouts.
Max exhaled. Even with 30% of his power, he was still a force. He held out his hand—his fingertips flickering with black electricity and flickers of temporal static.
"Alright then, Ultron... Let's see how you handle a Nightmare."
Suddenly, a low mechanical voice rang out through an old speaker in the tunnel:
"UNREGISTERED ENTITY DETECTED."
"ENGAGE. TERMINATE. ASSIMILATE."
From the shadows, two large Ultron drones emerged—heavily armored, dual-armed, eyes glowing like molten data.
Max grinned, cracking his neck.
"Showtime."
The air cracked with tension as the two Ultron drones stepped forward, their mechanical bodies gleaming under the flickering emergency lights.
"UNREGISTERED ENTITY..."
"...ENGAGE."
Their arms morphed—one into a plasma cannon, the other into jagged spinning blades.
Max rolled his shoulders, then thrust out his hand.
"Hey, metalheads—guess what?"
A pulse of black lightning shot forward—less refined than usual, but still sharp. One of the drones sidestepped effortlessly, the other raised its cannon and—
BOOM!
A blast of plasma engulfed the spot where Max had stood—dust and debris flying everywhere.
But when the smoke cleared…
"Too slow."
Max was already behind them, one hand placed on the back of the first drone's head. He whispered,
"Hack and burn."
A flicker of energy surged from his palm into the drone's systems. His nightmare-restricted powers kicked in: a combo of dark tech manipulation and soul-weave—limited, but enough.
The drone's eyes went dark.
[Unit overridden.]
Max's eyes glowed slightly.
"Say hello to Daddy Ultron for me."
He forced the hijacked drone to whirl and fire directly at the second one—blasting a hole straight through its chest. Sparks rained. The second drone staggered, but didn't fall.
Instead—it adapted.
Its body shifted, integrating new plating, auto-repairing in real time.
"Adapting to dark-force interference. Recalibrating."
Max's eyes narrowed. "Alright... Ultra-cheat mode, huh?"
The wounded drone launched itself at him like a missile. Max dodged, barely, but took a glancing blow to the shoulder—his body flipping through the air and crashing into a steel wall.
CRACK!
He stood slowly, blood trailing from his mouth.
"So this is how it's gonna be..."
Max raised his hand again, summoning his Night Monarch Core—a black sphere of distorted energy that hovered behind him like a second heart.
The air twisted around it. Time warped. Space flickered.
The damaged drone halted for a second—its sensors struggling to process what it was seeing.
"That's right," Max said with a grin. "You adapt. I evolve."
He leapt forward—his fist coated in nightmare-energy—and punched straight through the drone's chest core before it could react.
BOOM!
Metal exploded outward. The drone dropped, twitching.
Silence returned to the tunnel, the dust settling.
[Two Ultron drones eliminated.]
[New Objective: Exit Sector 7. Reach Resistance Command Post.]
Max exhaled, wiping his lip. "Only 30%... and already they're this nasty."
He looked toward the broken tunnel ahead.
"This world's gonna be fun."
***
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