MCIM Ch. 150

"Skye, want to drink a bit more?"

After multiple experiments, Mario had finally calibrated the perfect dosage of soul essence for Skye. No more accidental fever spikes or concerning temperature fluctuations. Mainly because he had become something of a human thermometer when it came to monitoring her condition. Overly sensitive, perhaps, but better safe than sorry.

Skye lay sprawled across the bed, completely drained of energy but radiating a mental clarity she'd never experienced before. Her consciousness felt sharp, like someone had turned up the resolution on reality itself.

Hearing Mario's question, she shook her head gently. "I feel... saturated. Like my mental capacity is completely full. The absorption rate is slowing down. I need time to process what's already there."

"Fair enough."

"You want to get out of here? Go explore somewhere new?"

"Where?"

Skye propped herself up.

"Erik opened two more portals. No idea where they lead. Thought you might want to come check them out with me."

That immediately captured Skye's attention. "Portals? To other dimensions?"

Mario shrugged. "Not sure. I went through one earlier. It led straight to Hell."

Skye's expression shifted to confusion. "Hell? The Nether?"

"Nope. Mephisto's Hell. That soul essence you've been drinking? It was a gift from him."

Skye looked like her entire worldview had just been upended. She couldn't reconcile those two concepts no matter how hard she tried. But when it came to Mario, the impossible happened with alarming regularity. If she couldn't understand it, why waste energy thinking about it?

---

An hour later, Mario brought Skye to Endstar. After greeting Erik, who was still absorbed in his measurements and calculations, Mario led Skye to a cleared area and pulled out a Lucky Block from his inventory. She already had totems of undying and teleportation scrolls on her at all times, so he didn't bother handing her new ones.

"Try this. It can open all sorts of interesting stuff. Sometimes dangerous stuff too. But I'm here, so don't worry too much."

Skye nodded and examined the block. Following Mario's instructions, she stepped forward and began tapping it. Cracks spread across its surface with each strike.

CRACK.

A glass tumbler spun through the air and landed on the ground.

Mario stared at it. "Why does that cup look familiar?"

Skye picked up the glass and turned it over in her hands. "It's identical to the ones I have at home."

The second useless item in the collection.

Mario didn't comment, just pulled out another Lucky Block and placed it on the ground. Skye continued the same tapping process. When the block shattered, a metal lighter flew out and clattered to the ground.

Mario had a sudden realization. "I get cola and cigarettes. You get cups and lighters. Hahahaha."

He decided not to place any more Lucky Blocks.

"Let's stop for now. We'll check out the new dimension, but you'll wait here while I scout it first. If there's no danger, I'll come back for you."

Skye actually wanted to open a few more blocks, her curiosity was definitely piqued, but she trusted Mario's judgment and nodded.

Walking toward the remaining portals, Mario found Erik already waiting. All the standard data collection was complete. Now all they needed was the test subject.

"Which one do you want to try first?"

Mario looked at the two remaining portals, one blue, one green, and considered for a moment. "Green. Green feels healthier somehow."

Erik didn't comment on that logic.

The moment Mario stepped through the green portal, it vanished completely from the testing site, leaving only Erik, Darcy working on measurements, and Skye standing off to the side.

---

"A forest?"

Mario emerged from the portal into surroundings that felt immediately familiar. After examining the landscape, he quickly figured out exactly where he was.

Central Park.

The place was unmistakable. He could see the lake not far away, the same spot where he'd spent countless hours fishing in his original reality. No way he'd forget this location. A quick check of his mini-map showed none of his previous modifications. This was definitely a brand-new universe.

"Why did the portal open in New York? Is New York the center of the Marvel multiverse or something?"

The city held massive significance across both movies and comics. This wasn't coincidence, New York was important to Marvel's cosmic geography.

"I'll set up a base first. If it's safe, I'll bring Skye over for some sightseeing."

Mario navigated to a familiar spot, pulled out his tools, and started digging downward.

Seeing those familiar skeletal remains, he couldn't help but smile. "This time I won't need you to donate any bones, friend."

Even across different universes, apparently some things remained constant. Like ancient burial sites under Central Park.

Accompanied by rhythmic thunk-thunk-thunk sounds, a temporary underground base quickly took shape.

Looking at his handiwork, Mario thought, My abilities really are perfect for wilderness survival. Though if I ever went on one of those survival shows, would it count as cheating?

He dismissed the random thought and pulled out a waystone, placing it in the center of the chamber.

---

Fifteen minutes later, Mario stood on a Manhattan street corner, staring at the skyline where Stark Tower should have been. His expression shifted to confusion.

No Stark Tower? Is this the X-Men universe?

He pulled out his phone and connected to this world's internet. After searching for several minutes, he found no information about mutants or Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

That left him puzzled. He found a bench, sat down, and began searching for any Marvel-related information.

Hulk... nothing. Blade... well, you can't exactly Google for vampire hunters, can you? But I've been walking around for a while and haven't smelled that distinctive vampire stench, so probably not Blade's standalone movie universe either.

After more than an hour of research, there was zero information about Marvel heroes on the internet. This was deeply confusing.

He finally came to a tentative conclusion: Could this be a 'normal' world? Just regular Earth without superheroes?

As long as there were no superhero shenanigans, it would be a peaceful world. Nice and quiet. But his instincts told him that was too good to be true.

"I'll bring Skye over first. We're in New York anyway, might as well show her around."

He stood up, preparing to head back through the waystone, when a sudden cheer echoed from the sky above.

He instinctively looked up.

A red figure swung through the air between buildings. Mario's pupils contracted instantly.

That iconic tight suit, those visible strands of webbing clinging to building facades, there was no mistaking the identity.

"Spider-Man!"

He'd completely forgotten about Spider-Man. In his mind, the Spider-Man from the Avengers was still a kid, probably in middle school somewhere.

Which made this... awkward.

He pulled out his phone again and typed in "Spider-Man." Sure enough, tons of information about the web-slinger appeared.

"Wonder which Spider-Man this is..."

He searched for "Oscorp" and quickly found news about Norman Osborn's death. But there was no information about Otto Octavius having died yet.

"Looks like the timeline is somewhere between Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2."

He smiled. Compared to other universes, Spider-Man's standalone movie universe was genuinely "peaceful."

Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, all relatively weak compared to cosmic-level threats. And according to Marvel villain logic, even if he eliminated these so-called villains, new ones would just appear to replace them. Better to leave it to everyone's friendly neighborhood Peter Parker.

Though Doctor Octopus might be worth saving at the end. If he were sent to New Krypton to research artificial sun creation... Those Kryptonians would definitely support that project with enthusiasm.

Now that he knew which world he was in, he felt relieved. What he'd feared most was ending up in the zombie universe. That place was pure chaos.

After spending some time retrieving Skye, she looked around at the familiar New York streets with curiosity. "This place feels identical to our world."

"More or less. Just doesn't have as many superheroes."

"Not as many? So this world does have superheroes?"

Mario nodded, looking up at the surrounding skyscrapers. "Yeah. I'd say civilian heroes. New York City's friendly neighborhood hero, Spider-Man."

"Spider?"

Skye's mind immediately conjured an image of an eight-legged spider-person, and she couldn't suppress a shiver.

"Oh god..."

Seeing her reaction, Mario instantly understood what she was imagining. He reached out and ruffled her hair with a laugh. "Not as exaggerated as you're thinking. He's just an ordinary person who gained abilities. Compared to others, he doesn't have that much mystique. He's just a regular guy who swings around the city every day. He just happens to have some special powers."

He wrapped an arm around Skye's shoulders and pulled her close. "Let's not worry about him for now. As long as we're in New York, you'll see him eventually. First, let's go shopping."

Skye nodded slightly, and the two of them headed toward New York's commercial district.

---

Half a day later, Mario sat on a bench watching Skye's satisfied expression with a happy smile of his own.

Internally, however, he was relentlessly complaining. She clearly loved it from the start, but she insisted on visiting every shop in a three-block radius before circling back to buy it. It's only 55 dollars...

Women's shopping logic was incomprehensible to him.

Just as Skye was examining her "spoils of war," a figure caught Mario's attention.

"Darcy?"

He stood up, about to walk over, then stopped himself.

This isn't Darcy. And obviously it can't be Darcy's actress, Kat Dennings. Otherwise this place would already be swarmed with fans.

Looks like this is Darcy's parallel-world counterpart.

At that moment, a blonde woman emerged from a nearby shop and ran over to "Darcy." Mario recognized her as well, and precisely because he knew who she was, he couldn't help blurting out her name:

"Caroline?"

Hearing his voice, the blonde woman immediately turned to look at him with a puzzled expression.

"You know me?"

The "Darcy" beside her immediately laughed. "Caroline, you didn't secretly hook up with someone behind my back, did you?"

Hearing this, Caroline looked confused and examined Mario. "I... I don't remember him at all. Could it have been that time I got blackout drunk?"

"Oh my God! You were so young and he still took advantage? I really misjudged you. And you didn't even call me."

Hearing their exchange, Mario finally realized who they were... the main characters from 2 Broke Girls.

But who the hell knew why the two of them had been merged into the Spider-Man universe? It made no sense.

He asked, "Max?"

Max immediately looked at Mario with an odd smile. "You're not stalking us, are you?"

Mario rubbed his temples with a helpless expression.

Skye stood up and walked over to Mario's side, looking at Max and Caroline with confusion. "Do you know them? Wait... Darcy?"

Skye froze when she saw Max. She'd met Darcy before, and for a moment she seriously wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her. But she quickly dismissed that possibility. Darcy wasn't just younger.

This was intimidating.

Even though the woman was wearing loose casual clothes, you could still sense how well-endowed she was.

A sudden sense of crisis rose in her chest.

Max paused for a moment and asked, "Darcy? Sorry, my name is Max. From the way you're acting, you clearly know us. But I'm really curious how you know us."

Skye looked at Mario. He patted the back of her hand and smiled. "I have a friend named Darcy. She heard that there's a waitress at a restaurant in New York who looks exactly like her, so that's how I heard your name. Seeing you today, I just mistook you for someone else."

As he spoke, Mario extended his hand in introduction. "I'm Mario. And this is Skye. Very nice to meet you both."