Multivers, Leveling Up in the World I Created

Chapter 397: 397 MCU 72

We kept pushing forward, dealing with Hydra along the way.

At one point, the Dora Milaje tried to kill some Hydra operatives, so it took us some time to hold them back as well, but we quickly arrived at the location where Rumlow and Bucky were.

Rumlow was looking flustered, unable to do anything, while Bucky just stood there silently, waiting for orders.

"Hold everyone off for a moment. Don’t let anyone interfere."

"Got it."

I immediately opened an Eldritch Gate behind Bucky, quickly grabbed him and pulled him through, then shoved him into the Mirror Dimension.

This completely isolates him from the real world, so no matter how many self-destruct signals they send, it would be useless.

"What the... Damn it!"

Rumlow was startled by the sudden turn of events and looked around frantically for Bucky, who had vanished.

But when he couldn’t find him anywhere, he began pressing a small remote device attached to his arm repeatedly.

That was probably the remote detonator for the bomb implanted inside Bucky.

Beep! Beep!

"Why isn’t it exploding..."

Rumlow began to panic when the detonator didn’t work.

So I kindly explained it to him.

"That’s because I sent him to another dimension. No matter how many times you press that, the signal won’t reach him there."

"Wha, what!? Is that one of your strange abilities?"

From his reaction, it seemed Hydra had some understanding of the Avengers’ abilities.

Probably because the Avengers were the most threatening group to them.

"Yeah. Last time I couldn’t use it because we were too close, but this time you were far enough away, so I could."

Actually, that was a lie.

I could have used my abilities to save him back then too, but I deliberately didn’t.

I was trying to keep things roughly aligned with the original storyline as much as possible.

Even now, so much had already changed that I couldn’t even guess what kind of future lay ahead.

So I wanted to keep things within a manageable range.

Because of that, I had allowed some conflicts to happen, but now that things had become this much of a mess, I couldn’t just stand by any longer.

Rumlow then aimed the Chitauri weapon he was holding at me and tried to fire.

Bang!

"Ugh!"

But I sensed it first with my [Observation Haki] ability and threw a card I’d turned into an energy bomb, detonating the weapon before he could fire.

In the explosion, Rumlow dropped the Chitauri weapon and clutched his wrist—several of his fingers had been torn off and he was bleeding.

"Grrr... Damn it..."

"Stop wasting your energy. I have a lot of questions for you."

Just then, Vision and Myo Myo said to me,

"Now that we’ve captured Bucky and Rumlow, we’ll go help subdue the other Hydra operatives."

"Alright, go ahead."

With that, Vision and Myo Myo flew off quickly to the other battlefields.

Seeing that, Bruce also said to me,

"Then we’ll go help subdue Hydra too. I’m worried about the others who are still fighting. We’ll leave Rumlow and Bucky to you."

Bruce was probably worried about Jess—he kept glancing that way while we were pushing through.

Even if they’d had disagreements, it seemed their feelings hadn’t cooled completely.

"Got it. I’ll join you soon."

"Hey, that guy’s running."

As Bruce said, Rumlow was clutching his injured hand and desperately fleeing.

But I immediately created ropes with Eldritch Magic and sent them flying, wrapping around both of his legs in an instant.

Losing his balance, Rumlow tumbled to the ground ungracefully.

"Urgh!"

Thud!

"I told you, stop wasting your energy."

Relieved that I’d recaptured Rumlow, the others scattered to their respective battlefields.

I approached Rumlow and tried to read his memories.

The relationship between North Korea and Hydra was playing out differently from the original, and I needed to find out what they were planning.

But this bastard, pretending to be down, suddenly flipped over and fired a pistol at me.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Naturally, I blocked this attack too with an Eldritch Magic barrier, so it didn’t work at all.

"Damn it!"

Smack!

"Gah!"

Before he could try anything else, I kicked him in the face and knocked him out cold.

Then I searched him, and sure enough, he had a bomb wrapped around his chest.

It seemed they’d prepared for self-destruction in case of mission failure, just like in the original.

So I disarmed the bomb, grabbed his head, and began reading his memories—and the situation was more serious than I’d expected.

Hydra had approached North Korea using super-soldier serum as bait and built relationships with key insiders.

Since then, they’d been brainwashing people one by one and mass-producing super-soldiers at the cost of many lives.

Moreover, through this operation, they had secured alien weapons and obtained various technologies, and were preparing for weapons production.

Resources seemed to be flowing secretly into North Korea from various countries.

The reason Hydra had targeted North Korea was simple.

North Korea was a dictatorship, and because it was so closed off, they could easily seize control of everything by brainwashing just a few key insiders.

The problem was that if North Korea gained power, there was a risk of the Korean War breaking out again.

That was no small matter.

Considering that China also had one foot in due to technology, it could escalate into World War III.

’Wow... If this goes wrong, it could turn out just like reality...’

While I was doing that, Spider-Man suddenly dropped from the sky and landed.

Looking at his suit, it was no longer a shabby hoodie but a proper suit—Tony must have made it for him in the meantime.

"Jin! I came to help! What on earth is going on?"

From the way he said that, it seemed Tony hadn’t called him like in the original.

"Huh? How did you know to come here?"

"Hydra attacked Damage Control, and the news is broadcasting that the Avengers are stopping them. They said the National Guard would be deployed soon..."

"What? Really?"

"Yes."

Well, it had been very noisy, and with three Avengers ships floating in the air, there was no way the outside wouldn’t notice.

"So, what should I do?"

"Hmm... First, help capture the Hydra operatives. They’re super-soldiers, so be careful when fighting. And watch out for the Wakandans. They came here for revenge, so they’ll be very aggressive. If possible, subdue them too."

"Got it."

"Oh, and there are members who don’t know you, so if they ask, tell them I called you here. As an intern hero."

"Huh? Intern? So I’m not a full Avenger yet?"

"Yeah, not yet. You’re still young and a student. So don’t push yourself too hard."

"I’m not that young... Anyway, okay."

With that, Spider-Man immediately used his web-shooters to fly back and join the battlefield.

I put special super-soldier restraints on Rumlow and teleported him to the brig on the Odyssey.

If I left him alone, T’Challa might kill him out of revenge, so I had to do this.

Then I immediately entered the Mirror Dimension to deal with Bucky.

Bucky was just looking around in the Mirror Dimension, staying in the same spot, so I didn’t need to search for him.

"Bucky."

I called out to Bucky, but he didn’t respond at all—he just glared at me.

Because of the brainwashing, he was still just waiting for orders.

"Hmm... No choice."

There was no need to hide my power here, so I moved quickly, got behind Bucky, and struck the back of his neck to knock him out.

Thwack!

Thud!

Then I used my [Keen Eyes] ability to check where the bomb was installed on Bucky.

Fortunately, it wasn’t inside his body—it was attached to the shoulder area of his mechanical prosthetic arm.

So without needing surgery or anything, I just detached the mechanical arm from his body, and that took care of the bomb.

I could have completely cured the brainwashing using [Mental Penetration] or magic, but considering the connection with Wakanda, I chose not to.

Instead, I only restored enough of his memories so he wouldn’t remain unconscious, then put special restraints on him and stored him in my inventory.

I couldn’t keep him in the Mirror Dimension forever.

After that, I came out and began to organize things.

Outside was still a mess, but thankfully, after hearing that Rumlow and Bucky had been captured thanks to our team, Tony’s team and some of the Captain’s team had stopped fighting each other and focused solely on subduing Hydra.

I first started looking for T’Challa.

I needed to make a deal with him.

"Wow~ Are you a super-soldier too? Your strength is no joke! Wait, this isn’t the time! Shouldn’t we be catching Hydra? We barely have enough people as it is—why are you fighting me? Oh, but that suit is cool. The black one. But isn’t it hot? It looks a bit... gloomy too..."

"Can you just shut up and fight? I didn’t know the Avengers had someone like you."

T’Challa was fighting not far away, so I found him easily—but he was in the middle of a fierce battle with Spider-Man.

Spider-Man was acrobatically dodging T’Challa’s attacks, using his web-shooters or kicks to try to subdue him, but T’Challa was just as agile, using his vibranium claws to cut the webs and counterattack.

The interesting thing was that Spider-Man kept talking to T’Challa nonstop throughout the fight.

Because of that, T’Challa seemed quite annoyed.

Thankfully, unlike Deadpool, there were no sexual jokes or curses.

I quickly moved in and blocked T’Challa’s hand as he swung his claws at Spider-Man, stopping the fight.

Then I said to Spider-Man,

"This guy is an intern, so excuse him. Anyway, go help elsewhere. I’ll handle this person."

"Okay."

With that, Spider-Man went off to fight other Hydra operatives.

"It’s been a while, Jin."

"Long time no see, King T’Challa. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve captured Bucky and Rumlow."

"Hand them over to us. We will deal with Rumlow in our own way."

"I’ll hand him over. But not the other Hydra operatives. They will be judged by the UN. And I’d like you to treat Bucky. If you agree to these two conditions, I’ll hand him over right now. Treating Bucky was a promise made by the former king."

At that, T’Challa thought for a moment, then relaxed his combat stance and nodded.

"Fine. I promise in the name of the King of Wakanda. Then, as agreed, hand over Rumlow immediately."

"Alright."

I immediately opened an Eldritch Gate connecting to the prison where Rumlow was held.

T’Challa seemed momentarily surprised, having never seen magic before, but he briefly hesitated, then came out carrying the unconscious Rumlow over his shoulder.

"The Avengers will officially announce that Wakanda has taken Rumlow. That way, our position won’t be compromised. I’ll take Bucky to Wakanda separately."

"Handle it as you see fit."

With the deal concluded, T’Challa ordered the Dora Milaje to withdraw with him.

For now, the Wakanda issue was resolved, and I had also created a connection point to Wakanda.

After that, I moved to where the other members were fighting.

"Thor, stop this. This only makes things more complicated."

"I fully understand Steve’s heart—he doesn’t abandon his friends. So I have no choice."

I first headed to where Thor and Rhodey were locked in combat, but their fight felt somehow awkward.

Neither of them seemed to be going all out.

Instead of using powerful weapons like missiles, Rhodey was trying to subdue Thor with a strange electrified baton, and Thor, despite being able to overpower him, was only defending with Mjolnir.

They were probably holding back, concerned for each other’s safety.

I stepped in between them and started trying to calm them down.

"Both of you, calm down. We’ve secured Bucky. Now isn’t the time to fight—we need to capture the super-soldiers first. It seems North Korea is involved."

At that, Rhodey looked shocked and asked me,

"Wha, what? North Korea?"

"Yeah. I thought it was strange that so many of the super-soldiers were Asian. So I tried speaking Korean, and some of them understood it. They’re definitely from North Korea. This is a serious problem. So to gather more evidence, we need to subdue the super-soldiers quickly."

"Damn..."

But Thor didn’t understand and asked me,

"Is that ’North Korea’ the country Steve mentioned?"

"So the Captain knew about it too?"

"Yes, I heard that Hydra was making moves in some country. Since I don’t know the details of Midgard’s affairs, I just listened."

"Then it’s confirmed."

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Rhodei cursed under his breath.