Speed Ranking?
Tony frowned as a virtual panel flickered into existence before his eyes, its translucent blue interface casting a faint glow over his face. Lines of data scrolled rapidly, detailing names, numbers, and a constantly shifting leaderboard. His eyes darted to the top of the list, where one name stood out among the rest.
[Tony Stark, Kill Score: 100]
[Rank: 1]
[Black Widow: 67]
[S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents: Various]
[...]
"I knew it! I'm in first place!" Tony smirked, satisfaction clear in his voice as he leaned back slightly.
The result was unsurprising. Between his highly advanced repulsor systems and AI-guided targeting, mowing down hordes of zombies was hardly a challenge. With the relentless barrage of firepower bombarding the battlefield, it would've been strange if he wasn't leading the scoreboard.
"That's right~" "Just like that!"
However, as his gaze lingered on the screen, he noticed something troubling—the speed at which the scores were shifting.
His brows furrowed. The rapid jumps in numbers weren't from standard zombie kills.
Lickers.
The realization hit instantly. Unlike mindless zombies, these creatures were different. Faster. Deadlier. And judging by the ranking system, they were worth far more points.
"Focus fire!" Tony barked, his voice carrying an unmistakable edge. "Blast those monsters to hell! Let them know who's their daddy!"
His command was met with a chorus of acknowledgments.
"Yes, sir!"
The response came not from human soldiers, but from his AI, J.A.R.V.I.S., who immediately redirected the targeting protocols. Within moments, the chaotic, scattered gunfire from his drones and turrets honed in on a single point—turning the advancing Lickers into a rain of shredded flesh and ichor.
Under the AI's precise calculations, every ounce of firepower was utilized to its maximum potential.
From a tactical standpoint, it was a flawless display of technological superiority.
From Black Widow's perspective, however, it was an infuriating sight.
"Damn it—" Natasha's eyes darkened as she glanced at the leaderboard.
Tony's kill count was climbing at an insane rate, the gap between him and second place growing wider with each passing second.
Before this, she had been able to keep up, relying on teamwork and strategic execution alongside her fellow agents. But now?
Now, she was being left in the dust.
As another wave of zombies collapsed under the onslaught of Stark's machines, it became abundantly clear—
The dust had settled. The first-place winner was decided.
Military Headquarters
The tense atmosphere in the command center was palpable.
High-ranking officials and analysts stood huddled around a massive digital screen displaying the live battlefield data. Names, kill counts, and heat maps of enemy movement covered the display in a cascade of ever-changing numbers.
One name dominated the ranking.
"First place is Tony Stark?"
A grim-looking officer muttered, his expression unreadable.
The murmurs of his subordinates were filled with uncertainty.
"Then..."
"What exactly is this so-called 'unknown reward' for the top-ranked player?"
General Thunderbolt Ross sat in silence, his fingers interlocked as he processed the implications.
Having dealt with enhanced individuals for years, especially the Hulk, Ross was no stranger to the emergence of new superhuman threats. But this was something different.
The sudden appearance of mutated creatures had already thrown the military into a frenzy, but what disturbed him the most was their uncanny resemblance to classified biological experiments.
Experiments that were never meant to see the light of day.
Within the underground research division, scientists huddled around secured containment units filled with grotesque samples.
Their faces were ghostly pale.
Then, suddenly—
A scream.
"Oh—my God!"
"Damn it! The reward is that?! How could he dare?"
Eyes locked onto the screen, disbelief and horror flashing in equal measure.
Ross, sensing the shift in mood, immediately turned toward the display.
His pupils shrank.
A cold sweat ran down his spine.
[T-Virus Enhancement]
A vial filled with an eerie, fluorescent glow materialized before Tony.
It hovered in the air, seemingly weightless, as system notifications rang in his ears.
[Ding!]
[Side Mission 'Zombie Attack' Completed!]
[Iron Man has received a special reward: T-Virus Enhancement!]
Tony's expression twisted.
T-Virus?
His mind raced. The very thing responsible for the outbreak—the biological weapon that had turned an advanced society into a living nightmare?
His instincts screamed at him.
He had built countless machines, fought against impossible odds, but this?
This was something entirely different.
"Damn it, you son of a—!"
Before he could react, the vial shot forward—
Directly into his chest.
His world exploded in pain.
"ARRGHH—!"
Every nerve in his body ignited. It felt as though molten lava had been injected into his veins, boiling his blood and breaking him down at a cellular level.
Sweat poured down his face in torrents, his muscles spasming uncontrollably as his mind was consumed by an overwhelming force.
He fell to his knees.
His entire being was undergoing a transformation.
Then—
Silence.
His breath was ragged, his vision blurred. His heart pounded so violently it felt like it would burst from his chest.
And yet—
Through the haze of agony, he realized something.
He was stronger.
Faster.
More alive than he had ever felt before.
His fingers twitched, his senses expanding beyond their previous limits.
The world around him had shifted.
No. Not the world.
He had changed.
He no longer needed to rely solely on his suit's capabilities.
For the first time—
He could fight a Licker head-on.
Military Headquarters
Ross's expression was unreadable as he watched the data stream in.
The readings were undeniable.
"Speed increased by 200%..." "Neural response increased by 1000%..." "Strength increased by 180%..." "Enhancements still ongoing. Body continues to evolve. Duration: unknown..."
It was beyond superhuman.
One vial had turned Stark into something monstrous.
Ross tightened his grip on the table.
"This is beyond the Super Soldier Program."
The realization spread like wildfire across the room.
"No..." Ross whispered. "The Super Soldier Program is nothing compared to this."
A single injection had completely rewritten Stark's physiology.
And if this technology could be mass-produced...
His heart pounded. His mind raced. His lips curled into a slow, insidious grin.
"This belongs to us."
S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters
The air inside the dimly lit operations room was thick with tension, a palpable weight pressing down on every agent present. A dozen pairs of eyes remained locked onto the cascading streams of data flashing across the massive holographic display, each line of information painting an increasingly impossible picture.
"Speed increased by 200%..."
"Neural response increased by 1000%..."
"Strength increased by 180%..."
"Enhancements still ongoing. Body continues to evolve. Duration: unknown..."
Fingers clacked feverishly against keyboards as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top analysts scrambled to make sense of what they were witnessing. The hum of high-powered servers filled the room, processing an incomprehensible stream of biological changes occurring within Tony Stark's body.
The deep green glow of the holographic projections bathed Director Nick Fury's face in an eerie light, accentuating the sharp furrow of his brow and the unyielding grip of his hands behind his back. He wasn't one to be easily shaken, but what he was seeing now—
This was beyond anything he had ever encountered.
"An unknown world..." Fury muttered, his voice a low growl, barely above a whisper.
"An unknown power..."
He exhaled slowly, eyes scanning the rapid data influx with a calculating gaze.
"A system?"
A heavy silence settled in the room, save for the beeping monitors and the constant chatter of analysts feeding calculations into the system, their expressions oscillating between confusion and disbelief.
"Invading the multiverse?"
Fury turned his attention to Maria Hill, who stood at his side, arms crossed, her face equally grim. She, too, had seen the absurdity of the figures being recorded. Not even S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most advanced Super Soldier projects had produced such numbers.
Tony Stark was evolving before their very eyes—
And they had no idea when it would stop.
"What the hell is this?" Fury muttered once more, his mind racing with possibilities and dangers.
Tony's transformation before their eyes had shattered any possibility of dismissing this as some mere technological trick or elaborate hoax. The Iron Man suit itself was a marvel, a symbol of human ingenuity and engineering at its peak—but this?
This was different.
A mere hacker couldn't possibly achieve something like this. This was something more fundamental, more primal.
The numbers didn't lie. The data streams continued to flood the monitors, showing progressive enhancements that were not plateauing but accelerating. It was as if his body had tapped into some endless reservoir of potential, rewriting itself at the cellular level.
Tony's current abilities were already approaching those of a Level 3 Mutant—
And the process wasn't stopping.
Hill's lips tightened. "Sir, if this continues…"
Fury knew what she meant.
What if there was no limit?
What if Stark was no longer human by the end of this?
He didn't want to say it out loud, but the thought gnawed at him. Tony Stark—genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist—was already among the most unpredictable elements in their world. If he continued to evolve beyond human limitations, there was no telling what kind of being he would become.
And that terrified him.
If this thing could turn an ordinary human into a Level 3 Mutant...
Mass-producing such individuals…
The sheer unprecedented power at play was beyond imagination. It threatened to change the very structure of global power overnight. Governments, superpowers, organizations—
None of them would remain the same.
A sharp intake of breath from one of the analysts broke the room's tense silence.
"Director... the energy signatures in his neural pathways are still increasing. If these readings are correct, his brain is now processing information at speeds even we can't measure. He's already far beyond anything recorded in human history."
A chill settled over the room.
Hill spoke first, her voice lower than usual. "So, it's not just physical."
The analyst swallowed hard. "No, ma'am. His cognitive function is accelerating at an unprecedented rate."
Fury's mind raced.
Tony Stark was already one of the most intelligent men on the planet.
If his mind was evolving along with his body—
What would he become?
He clenched his jaw. "Keep monitoring. I want everything tracked. Every fluctuation, every anomaly. I don't care how impossible it seems—if it's happening, we document it."
Hill nodded sharply, relaying his orders to the team. Agents moved with urgency, their fingers dancing across touchscreens and keyboards, running calculations and simulations at breakneck speed. The AI systems were working overtime to predict the trajectory of Stark's transformation—but every model came back the same.
Inconclusive.
The variables were too unstable.
Fury turned to the enormous screen, the cascading green digits reflecting in his single eye. He didn't move, didn't blink.
"Invading the multiverse... Could this actually be real?"
He never considered himself a superstitious man. He dealt in facts, in intelligence, in the cold, hard reality of the world.
But now—
Even he was beginning to question the nature of their reality.
The mere suggestion of the multiverse had always been a fringe theory, one that only the most ambitious minds dared to explore. But Tony's transformation had shattered every conventional rule they had about human limitations.
If something this impossible had just happened before their eyes—
Then what else was possible?
Fury clenched his fists, the weight of the unknown pressing down on him like a vice. He didn't like mysteries. He didn't like unanswered questions.
And most of all—
He didn't like not knowing who—or what—was pulling the strings behind all of this.
In a Small Apartment
While Nick Fury wrestled with his doubts, theories, and worst-case scenarios, someone else was experiencing a very different reality.
Far away from the high-tech, nerve-wracking operations room of S.H.I.E.L.D., in a cramped apartment dimly lit by the glow of a single computer screen, Su Xiu sat with his feet propped up on his desk, a wide grin splitting his face.
He only knew one thing—
This time—
He had struck gold.
Truly struck gold.
On his screen, numbers and progress bars filled the interface of what looked like a game, though he knew better. His fingers twitched with excitement as he watched the world react to his work. The transformation, the chaos, the uncertainty—
It was all part of the plan.
He took a slow sip from his coffee mug, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction.
"This is only the beginning…"