I checked the System again, hoping I had missed something, but it was painfully simple. Just a shop and a small interface explaining the conversion rate. One point cost one thousand dollars. It could have been worse, much worse, but it still made my stomach sink. I would have preferred a hundred dollars. Maybe even less. But wishing did nothing. The real question was how I was supposed to earn that kind of money.
A few ideas came to mind. Inventing things. Playing the stock market. Knowing the future definitely helped. But the idea that stuck with me was something far less noble. Plagiarism. A lot of things from my original world did not exist here in the MCU. Harry Potter was one of them. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was cheap. But I also knew I had no other way to get money quickly.
So I started typing.
It took me two weeks to make "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Mostly because my mother in my previous life had been a die hard Harry Potter fan. She talked about it constantly when I was a kid. I never heard the end of it. Annoying back then, but now it was the only reason I remembered the story well enough to rewrite it.
When I finally submitted the draft to a publisher, I expected rejection. I was a complete nobody on paper. No experience. No credentials. Nothing that should have made anyone take me seriously.
But they loved it.
The editor's enthusiasm caught me off guard. It made me bold in a way I did not expect.
This has potential. I could even guarantee a decent advancement.
How much, I asked.
Fifteen hundred dollars.
I want three thousand. This is guaranteed to be a hit.
The editor hesitated. I could hear the gears turning. Then he sighed.
This is really pushing it, but I can do twenty five hundred.
I agreed before he could change his mind. Royalties would take a while to arrive, but the advance alone would give me two points. Not much, but enough to buy something I had seen in the shop. Something that was shockingly underpriced for what it offered.
I shook his hand.
Deal.
__
I opened the shop again, letting the screen settle in front of me as I tried to steady my breathing. This time I forced myself to slow down, to actually read instead of skim. If I was going to gamble with my life, I needed to know exactly what I was choosing. Only two items sat at the very bottom of the list, but they grabbed my attention the moment I saw them.
[Minor Super Soldier Serum – 1 Point] The description was short, almost clinical. Half the strength of the original serum. Not enough to turn me into some unstoppable icon, but enough to give me a real edge. Enough to make me faster, stronger, harder to kill. Enough to matter in a world where people could throw cars like baseballs. It felt like a small spark of hope, the kind that whispered maybe I wouldn't die the moment something weird crawled out of a portal.
[Untrackable – 1 Point] This one was even simpler. A toggle. On or off. And when it was on, nothing could track me. Not satellites. Not magic. Not S.H.I.E.L.D. Not anyone. It was the kind of ability that made my skin prickle, because it wasn't flashy or dramatic. It was quiet. Subtle. The kind of thing that kept you alive without anyone ever knowing why.
I stared at the two options, feeling my heartbeat thud a little harder in my chest. They were cheap. Suspiciously cheap. But then again, this was the MCU. A place where gods walked around like tourists and billionaires built weapons that could level cities. In a world like that, a half strength super soldier serum was practically a warm up. And the ability to vanish from every radar on Earth was just basic survival.
Still, seeing them laid out in front of me made something tighten in my chest. These weren't just upgrades. They were choices that could change everything about who I was. Who I would become. How long I would live.
I imagined S.H.I.E.L.D. watching me from every angle. Files. Cameras. Background checks. People who could erase my existence with a single order. Untrackable suddenly felt less like a convenience and more like a lifeline. A way to breathe without someone's eyes on the back of my neck.
Then I imagined the serum. The strength humming under my skin. The speed. The resilience. The ability to stand my ground instead of being the first one to die when something went wrong. The idea of not being helpless… it was intoxicating.
Both options were tempting. Both were dangerous. Both were exactly the kind of thing someone like me would need to survive in a universe that treated normal humans like background noise.
I exhaled slowly, feeling the weight of the decision settle on my shoulders. Two points. Two choices. And only one chance to get this right.
For the first time since waking up here, I felt the world pause around me. Like the universe was waiting to see what I would do next.