He got out of bed and slowly walked toward the window.
Outside, people walked along the streets of Queens as if it were any normal day.
"Year 2005 of the Marvel Universe, huh?" he said quietly.
At this point, most of the major events had not happened yet. Heroes were still unknown to the public, and the world looked completely normal.
"What are you doing? Get back into bed."
A nurse entered the room just in time to see him standing by the window.
"I'm perfectly fine now," Zayden replied.
The nurse shook her head.
"You're fine when the doctor says you're fine."
She gently grabbed his arm and guided him back to the hospital bed.
Zayden didn't resist.
She helped him lie down and adjusted his pillow.
"You were in a coma for more than half a month," she said. "Your body still needs rest. Just stay in bed for a few more days. You'll be discharged soon anyway."
Zayden simply nodded.
"Alright."
A few days later, the doctor gave Zayden one final checkup before signing his discharge papers.
"You've recovered well," the doctor said. "Just avoid doing anything too strenuous for another week."
"I will," Zayden replied.
After leaving the hospital, he took a bus back home.
About an hour later, he arrived at a cheap apartment building in Hell's Kitchen.
He unlocked the door and walked inside.
The apartment was small and messy.
Empty bottles, dirty clothes, and old pizza boxes were scattered across the floor.
The original Zayden hadn't exactly lived a good life.
According to his memories, he had become addicted to drugs at a young age. He had borrowed money from the wrong people and eventually got into an argument with a group of drug dealers.
They beat him badly and left him on the roadside.
He was found just in time and taken to the hospital, but after spending weeks in a coma, he died.
That was when the current Zayden had taken over his body.
Looking around the apartment, he let out a sigh.
"Couldn't I have been reborn as some billionaire heir or something?"
Still, complaining wouldn't change anything.
He rolled up his sleeves and started cleaning.
For the next few hours, he threw away the trash, washed the dishes, swept the floor, cleaned the bathroom, and organized everything in the apartment.
Once the place looked decent, he closed the curtains.
"Time to test this."
His body was covered in green light before transforming into Upgrade.
His skin became black with white on the front of his body as his whole body turned liquid like. Bright green circuit-like lines glowed across him, and his single green dot like eye looked around the room.
He walked over to his old smartphone and placed a hand on it.
The phone dissolved into his body before coming back out a few seconds later.
It looked the same, but it was much faster, had a larger battery, stronger security, and far better hardware.
"It actually worked."
He spent the next hour upgrading everything he owned.
His television became clearer and more efficient.
His old computer became several times more powerful.
Even a few broken appliances around the apartment started working again after he repaired and upgraded them.
Of course, he could only improve them within reasonable limits since he didn't have extra materials to work with.
After returning to his human form, he stood in front of the mirror.
"Upgrade is definitely a cool power," Zayden said with a smile.
"It might not be the strongest ability, but it's incredibly useful."
"But how do I level up my Random Super Gacha?" Zayden muttered.
As soon as the question crossed his mind, a new stream of information appeared in his head.
"I see..."
The ability could be leveled up by earning Karmic Rewards.
As long as he did things that had a positive impact on the world or helped other people, he would gain Karmic Rewards. Once he collected enough of them, his innate ability would level up and unlock new features, including additional Permanent Slots.
"So that's how it works."
Zayden nodded, finally understanding another part of his ability.
"That can wait for now. First, I'm broke."
He picked up his newly upgraded phone and checked his bank account.
Balance: $0.00
"Hmm... I need to find a way to make money."
He sighed.
"Not to mention I'm still a student."
According to his memories, he attended Midtown High School, the same school as Peter Parker.
"Peter hasn't become Spider-Man yet."
From what he remembered, Peter was still just the quiet nerd everyone ignored.
"And judging from these memories, I'm also on the edge of being expelled."
Zayden rubbed his forehead.
"The original owner really lived a terrible life."
After changing into some old clothes, he left the apartment.
"Well, at least I should get some revenge for the original owner since I'm using his body."
Using the memories he had inherited, Zayden headed toward the place where the gang was hiding.
About half an hour later, he arrived near one of the old wharfs.
Rows of abandoned cargo containers were stacked on top of each other.
From the outside, everything looked abandoned.
In reality, the middle of the container yard had been hollowed out and turned into a secret base for a local Mexican gang.
Zayden looked at the containers calmly.
"I guess I can earn some money and maybe find a few machines for Upgrade to improve."
He walked to one of the container doors and knocked on it.
Two knocks.
Then four.
Then three.
It was the code.
A small sliding window opened.
The man behind it looked surprised.
"So you actually came back."
A few seconds later, the heavy door opened.
The gangster stepped outside with a grin.
"Haha, so you finally came to pay your debt?"
He laughed as he walked toward Zayden.
"You know, if you couldn't pay this time, we were just going to kidnap you and sell your organs."
Zayden simply shook his head.
At that moment, his eyes flashed.
Today's daily reward was the Graviton Template, granting him the power to manipulate gravity.
With a single thought, gravity around the gangster increased dozens of times.
The man's body instantly collapsed under the pressure.
In less than a second, he was crushed into a fist-sized ball of flesh.
Zayden looked at it silently.
"...Gravity powers are scarier than I expected."