Multiverse , Leveling Up in the World I Created

Chapter 407: 407 MCU 82

’Found it.’

Thanks to Isisphol being so well-made, it didn’t take long to locate the Red Room.

But I didn’t announce this fact right away.

It was late, so I thought it’d be best to rest for a day and head out tomorrow.

If I told them, Natasha would definitely want to go immediately.

Just then, Natasha and Melina came out, having finished their talk.

Natasha’s eyes were bloodshot—she must have cried upon learning the truth.

"Let’s go. We should rest too."

"Yeah."

Yelena also came out of her room just then, so we all returned to the ship and rested.

The next morning, since we’d been treated the day before, I woke up early, prepared breakfast, and brought it to Melina’s house.

Everyone seemed to still be asleep, so I set the table and sat down to wait.

But after a long wait with no one coming out, Natasha and Yelena got up and opened the door—and immediately started shouting in chaos.

"Oh, come on! My eyes!"

"OH MY GOD!!!"

Then came the sound of something crashing inside the room.

"Sorry, can you close the door and wait a moment?"

"Hah..."

SLAM!

Natasha frowned, slammed the door shut, and came back to us.

"What happened?"

"You don’t want to know. It’ll rot your ears."

From Natasha’s reaction, I immediately understood what they’d seen.

Alexei and Melina had apparently had a passionate night.

Natasha and Yelena had walked in on the aftermath.

’It must be rough seeing that side of your family so vividly.’

Anyway, after a short wait, Alexei and Melina came out dressed.

"Oh~ This looks good. Who made it?"

Alexei asked, and Natasha sighed before answering.

"Jin made it. He’s a good cook."

"Breakfast made by our son-in-law—how nice?"

"Stop with the nonsense and just sit down and eat!"

At that, Alexei and Melina cautiously sat down and began eating.

"About earlier—"

"Stop! Enough! I’ll throw up if we keep talking!"

"O-okay..."

After we finished eating and were relaxing with tea, I told them I’d found the Red Room’s location.

"Wow... You really are fast with information."

Natasha said in surprise.

"Well, yeah. I’m the best in this field."

"What should we do—hit them now?"

"No, we need to prepare. Like Melina said, if Dreykov goes to extremes, he might kill all the Widows."

"How are we going to do it?"

I showed them a small device with a bottle filled with red antidote attached to a detonator of appropriate size.

"I made this quickly—it’ll release the antidote in a 5-meter radius when thrown. It detonates 5 seconds after pressing the button."

"Oh~ That’s impressive?"

"Thanks to the large shipment of antidote we received. There’s only one for now, but it doesn’t take long to make more."

"Got it. Let’s start making them right away."

From then on, I kept supplying bottles, and the Widows began assembling the bombs. Alexei and Melina helped too.

In no time, we had 20 units.

"With this many, we could saturate the entire Red Room with antidote."

"Yeah, that’s enough. We’ll split them three per person."

Then Melina said,

"We’re coming too, so make it two per person. Carrying three on your waist would get in the way during combat. You’re coming too, right?"

"Of course. I can’t let my daughters go into danger alone. It’s time for the Red Guardian to shine again."

Alexei flexed his muscles as he said that, but with the weight he’d gained, it wasn’t very impressive.

I handed out two each, plus five spray-type antidotes per person.

Then we listened to Melina’s explanation of the Red Room’s interior and began planning the operation.

The Red Room had two known entrances, so we split into two teams.

Natasha and I would each lead a team to handle any variables.

Team A—me, Alexei, Melina, and one Widow—would take Entrance A.

Team B—Natasha, Yelena, and two Widows—would take Entrance B.

"Besides the Widows, the Red Room also has guards. We’ll need to subdue them quickly, push inside, and neutralize Dreykov fast. That way, we can safely secure the information on all the Widows operating worldwide. Speed is the key to this operation."

Melina asked,

"Can we get to the Red Room without being detected?"

"Yes. As far as I know, nothing on Earth can penetrate the Aurea’s stealth systems—except another ship with the same specs. There might be tech I don’t know about, but it’s highly unlikely. So rest assured. Any other questions?"

No one had further questions.

"Then prepare and move out."

We geared up with weapons and suits, checked our equipment, and were about to leave—but Alexei took extra time putting on his Red Guardian suit again, so we were slightly delayed.

The Red Room was floating over the Siberian region of Russia, and fortunately, there were no civilian settlements nearby, so even if it crashed, there would be no casualties.

The base was substantial—a long cylinder standing upright with cross-shaped extensions in four directions from the center, likely housing propulsion units for balance and levitation.

We arrived and immediately tried hacking through the Aurea.

"Hmm... The internal network is isolated, so hacking is impossible. That means we need to infiltrate to extract key information. The good news is that the external cameras and doors can be hacked with simple devices."

"So we have to install devices on every camera?"

"No, not like that. I can use my abilities to install them quietly—just wait."

I didn’t need to go myself.

I could just use Eldritch Magic to open small gates and install them remotely.

These hacking devices were standard Avengers equipment, always stocked on the ship.

I used [Keen Eyes] to survey the base and installed hacking devices at every camera junction, including the entrance we’d use.

"Done. The footage will loop, so even if we infiltrate, they won’t notice for a while."

"How long is the loop?"

"Could be an hour, but 30 minutes should be enough."

"Plenty. Alright, let’s begin."

I quietly dropped Natasha’s team at their entrance and began infiltrating through the opposite side with my team.

THWACK! SMACK!

THUD! THUD!

I took down visible enemies with bearing balls and advanced.

"Son-in-law, this looks like the external surveillance control room."

"Yeah. Hold on—I’ll connect the hacking device."

I plugged in a USB with a backdoor installed; the Aurea’s AI would handle the rest.

"Good. Now no matter what happens, we won’t get locked in, and alarms won’t go off."

"Now I can fight more comfortably."

Alexei relaxed and said that, but I immediately corrected him.

"Not yet. We haven’t gotten the information yet, and we don’t know what Dreykov might do. The longer it takes them to realize we’ve infiltrated, the better."

"Hah... I’m not cut out for this..."

Alexei grumbled but followed quietly—he knew the stakes.

As we went deeper, we finally started encountering Widows.

I engaged them immediately, but they were highly trained and difficult to subdue quietly.

Even with bearing balls, they dodged enough to avoid fatal blows and kept coming.

I could have thrown harder, but that would risk killing them.

When the Widows drew pistols and fired, I created an Eldritch Magic shield to block.

Melina, Alexei, and the freed Widow then quickly subdued them and sprayed antidote on their faces.

Thanks to the hack, no alarms went off—but gunshots had definitely been heard, so the entire Red Room would know someone had infiltrated.

FSSSH—!

"Huff... Now it’s going to be a real fight."

I said, and Melina reassured me,

"Getting this far inside the Red Room undetected is impressive enough. Now we just need to reach Dreykov quickly."

"Yeah."

We gave the newly freed Widows the ship’s location and told them to go there—they weren’t in any shape to fight right away.

We kept pushing forward.

When Widows were grouped together, we neutralized them with antidote bombs; when they were scattered, we subdued them one by one.

"Huh? That one looks different."

As we progressed, Taskmaster suddenly appeared before us.

It seemed they’d been alerted to our route.

Taskmaster raised a shield and prepared to fight the moment they saw us.

"Finally, my time to shine!"

Alexei, thinking he could finally show his stuff, cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck.

THWACK! BAM! CRASH!

"GAH!!! Help me!"

He charged in confidently, so we just watched from behind.

But against Taskmaster’s flashy, unpredictable movements, Alexei was getting pummeled without landing a single hit.

He did have good endurance, so he held on.

"Whoever that is, they’re not just using the standard Widow fighting style—they’re mixing in various other martial arts. Can one person really do that?"

Melina was impressed by Taskmaster’s movements.

"Right. Mastering even one is hard."

"Alexei, you need to lose some weight. Your movements are too slow."

THWACK! POUND!

"Gah! Ugh! Ow! Stop talking and help me already!"

Since Alexei kept calling out, I finally decided to help.

"Then why did you even step in..."

I quickly moved in and landed a kick to Taskmaster’s chest, separating them.

The impact sent Taskmaster sliding back, heels scraping the floor.

They nearly fell but extended the sharp claws on their fingers to dig into the floor and barely regained balance.

"I’ll handle this one—you go ahead. Rescuing the other Widows and neutralizing Dreykov is more urgent."

Alexei spoke up,

"Son-in-law, this one’s no ordinary opponent. We should take them together..."

Alexei—so eager to show off earlier—had apparently come to his senses after getting beaten.

"No, I can subdue them alone. But it might take a bit, so you should go ahead."

"Oh, okay."

I threw bearing balls at Taskmaster and closed in.

PING PING PING!

Taskmaster blocked the balls with their shield, then threw it at me.

I caught it and used it to push them toward the wall.

THUD!

"Now!"

When I shouted, Alexei, Melina, and the freed Widow passed us and moved deeper in.

"Son-in-law, hold on a bit! I’ll take down Dreykov quickly!"

Alexei called out as he passed, but I didn’t have much faith in him.

One interesting thing was Taskmaster’s strength—it was no joke.

Dreykov must have administered super-soldier serum to them as well.

The Russian super-serum was still incomplete and could be fatal, but he’d used it anyway.

CREEEAK—!

But even with super-soldier strength, it didn’t match mine.

Taskmaster seemed to realize that during our clash and suddenly kicked at my lower body.

I dodged and quickly created distance.

With the shield gone, Taskmaster extended their claws again, taking a stance similar to T’Challa’s.

"Hmph! Cute."

I discarded the shield and created small claws with Eldritch Magic, mirroring Taskmaster’s stance.

When Taskmaster swung their claws, I blocked with my own, then immediately countered, leaving three claw marks on their chest armor like Wolverine.

SHRRREEEK—!

I pulled my strength, so the cut wasn’t deep—just surface scratches.

Taskmaster stepped back, checked their chest armor, then did an acrobatic spin and kicked.

I spun at the same time and met their kick with mine.

I was slightly faster and had better reach, so his attack didn’t land while mine struck his abdomen.

THWACK!

THUD!

The reason this was possible was simple: I’d seen the future with [Observation Haki] and mirrored his moves—plus, even when using the same technique, my level of mastery was leagues ahead.

Taskmaster took heavy damage but still clutched their abdomen and struggled to stand, despite shaky legs.

Normally, that hit would have made them surrender, but under the brainwashing, they seemed determined to keep fighting.

This time, as if mimicking Bucky, Taskmaster drew a dagger with their right hand and took a stance.

I also created a dagger with Eldritch Magic and mirrored them.

Taskmaster attacked first again.

"With that damage, your attacks are pretty weak now."

Indeed, the earlier injury had dulled their aggression.

Deciding to end it, I grabbed their dagger-wielding wrist and twisted it behind their back, hooked their leg to unbalance them, and pinned them to the ground.

Then I pulled off their skull mask and sprayed antidote on their face.

"That was fun, but I’m a bit disappointed."

Their face had severe burn scars, and though it was hidden by armor, it was clearly a woman.

"Ugh... I’m awake now—let me go."

When she said that, I released her wrist.

She sighed, slowly sat up, and leaned against the wall.

"Hah... I knew this day would come... Should I be relieved? At least I’m not dead."

It seemed the Widows all expected a similar end—eventually, due to the brainwashing, they’d meet someone stronger and die.

"Who are you?"

"I’m Dreykov’s daughter, Antonia Dreykov. I was caught in the assassination attempt on my father and severely injured, but I survived surgery. Since then, I’ve been brainwashed and trained in hell, living without free will. I don’t even remember when I last talked to someone of my own will."

Taskmaster’s identity was Antonia Dreykov—whom Natasha had believed to be dead in the explosion.

She had been implanted with a special chip designed by Dreykov, allowing her to replicate any fighting style she saw on video, used as the Red Room’s assassin, Taskmaster.

I knew this from the original, which is why I’d sent Alexei’s group ahead and fought her while holding back.

If I’d fought too hard and seriously injured or killed her, Natasha wouldn’t have been able to close that Chapter of her past.

"So, are you our enemy?"

I asked bluntly.

"I’ve lived a hellish existence as a weapon without free will. So I have no intention of stopping the Widows from doing what they need to do. Everything is my father’s karma."

"Even if he dies for it?"

"Yes... But I want to see his end for myself. He’s still my father."

"Alright. Then come with me."

I sensed sincerity in her words, so I held out my hand and invited her along.

She took my hand and stood up.