MCIM Ch. 145

"Sorry, force of habit."

Mario sheepishly tucked the blood-drawing kit back into his inventory. First impressions mattered, and scaring someone with medical equipment probably wasn't the best way to start a working relationship.

Though judging by the wary look in Quicksilver's eyes, he'd already blown that.

Settling into one of Tony's ridiculously expensive sofas, he put on his most disarming smile. "It's great to meet you all. Don't worry, I'm not a good person."

Everyone stared at him.

"Uh... I mean, I'm not a bad person."

The awkward silence stretched out like taffy. Mario reached under the nearby coffee table, pulled out a glass, then retrieved a bottle of Coke from his inventory and poured himself a drink.

"Okay, look. I'm not gonna pretend to be some kind of saint. Scarlet should've already told you about me."

Wanda's face flushed with embarrassment. "Actually, before you arrived, Tony only mentioned your name..."

Mario wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out.

"Right. Anyway, that's not important." He turned his attention to her. "What are your plans for the future? Any interest in scientific research? The pay and benefits are pretty competitive."

His real target was Quicksilver. As for Wanda's chaos magic, Mario probably knew more about its potential than she did. Plus, he already had Scarlet Witch on his team, who was far more experienced and powerful than this younger version.

Before Wanda could respond, Quicksilver spoke up. "You want to study our abilities, don't you?"

Mario didn't bother hiding it. Honesty was usually the best policy, especially when dealing with people who'd already been screwed over by liars.

"That's right. And you're the primary subject of interest."

He gestured toward Wanda. "Your sister is more of a... bonus package. Or rather, I want to provide her with protection. Enhanced individuals like you aren't exactly safe in this world. Take Baron Strucker, for example. I assume you saw other powered people while you were with him. I don't need to spell out what happened to them, do I?"

Sometimes the truth was the most effective weapon.

Quicksilver's expression darkened as memories surfaced. He'd seen what Strucker did to enhanced individuals who didn't cooperate. Most were dragged in by force, and their fates boiled down to two options: death, or being brainwashed into weapons for Hydra.

Mario sipped his Coke and waited. Patience was key here. Thanks to his arrival in this universe, the timeline had completely derailed from the original script. By all rights, Wanda and Quicksilver should have appeared around the time Ultron was created. But looking at Tony now, it was clear that particular nightmare had been aborted before birth.

Speaking of aborted projects...

"Tony, is Dr. Helen Cho still working with you?"

Tony blinked, caught off guard by the sudden subject change. "Yeah, She's on my payroll. How do you know about her? Another one of your mystical prophecies?"

Mario grinned and raised an eyebrow. "Send her my way. Let her come work at my company instead. You're her friend, right? You know she'd have way better prospects with me than staying in your shadow."

Tony immediately pulled out his phone, looking like he was about to make a very specific call. "Hey, Mario, want me to ring up Skye? Have her come over and keep an eye on you?"

Mario rolled his eyes. "If she found out I was interested in another woman, she wouldn't need me to say anything. She'd figure out a way to drag Dr. Cho back to me herself."

He shrugged with an exaggerated sigh. "You know how it is. Sometimes being too virile is a problem."

"Oh, for fuck's sake. You're gonna end up with no friends."

Tony looked like he wanted to smash his phone into Mario's face. His own body had been enhanced with serum from Mario's biotech labs, so he understood perfectly well that Mario wasn't the type to play games over something trivial. If Mario really wanted to deal with him, he'd just show up at his bedside in the middle of the night and end it with one swing. Even with enhancement, he had never once thought he could match Mario in combat. That would just be asking for trouble.

"Since you're clearly not after Helen romantically, why do you suddenly want her at your company? And in terms of pure tech expertise, you've already got Rocket."

A knowing smile spread across Mario's face. "Ivan's still single, isn't he? I'm thinking if those two hit it off, their kid would be something special. Then the child could eventually take over their work. Another investment in the company's future."

Tony's mouth fell open. He stared at Mario with an expression that clearly said: please be human.

His mind was completely scrambled. He didn't know what to say.

Mario continued as if Tony's existential crisis wasn't happening. "He's my guy, after all. He's already forty and shows no interest in settling down. Sure, his lifespan is probably around two hundred years now, but being alone every day still gets lonely. I'm a conscientious employer. I worry about more than just work performance. And I care about my employees' love lives too."

He paused thoughtfully. "Actually, we should probably adjust the retirement age from 120 to 140..."

Tony looked at Mario seriously. "I can mention this to Helen, but you can't force matters of the heart. Honestly, I really admire Ivan's skills and dedication to research. But his looks..."

He trailed off. The truth was that when Ivan didn't smile, he looked like a serial killer. When he did smile, he looked like something from a horror movie. It was an exaggeration, sure, but it reflected the unfortunate reality that Ivan wasn't conventionally attractive.

Mario waved dismissively. "That's not my concern."

"Besides, if Dr. Cho were really that shallow, Ivan wouldn't be interested in her anyway. And if they do end up together, with the technology we have now, I can just inject Ivan with Raven's genes. At that point, even if she had a thing for Lee Dong-wook or King Kong, it wouldn't matter."

Tony nodded slowly. He'd seen Raven's shapeshifting abilities himself. He'd tried to recruit her once, but Banner had literally transformed, dragged him out of the lab, and had a very persuasive conversation that killed the idea.

Just as Mario was about to go track down Helen and make his pitch, Quicksilver spoke up suddenly.

"Can you guarantee Wanda's safety?"

He didn't ask about himself. Experiments always came with risks. All he wanted was for his sister to have a safe environment where she could live like a normal person. He didn't want her to become Scarlet Witch. The power was incredible, but he really didn't want his future brother-in-law to be a robot. To him, that felt about as appealing as a lifetime relationship with an inflatable doll.

"Of course. And I can also let her freely choose her own life path. Whether she wants to be a superhero, scientist, sorceress, career woman, teacher, or stay-at-home mom... that's entirely up to her."

Quicksilver's expression shifted as he made his decision. "Fine. I'm willing to accept your experiment."

The moment those words left Quicksilver's mouth, a voice that had been silent for what felt like forever echoed in Mario's mind.

[LUCKY BLOCK (MODDED) MOD LOADING...]
[LOAD COMPLETE]

Mario froze, his hand moving unconsciously to stroke his chin. So the mods really are given randomly...

He glanced at Quicksilver and thought wryly, If there were any connection, it should've given me a superhero mod or something.

"You guys keep talking. I've got something to handle real quick."

Without waiting for a response, he opened his crafting interface and started examining the Lucky Block recipe.

A modded mod? What kind of version is this? Some insanely overpowered variant?

A grin spread across his face as possibilities ran through his mind.

Quicksilver watched this display with growing concern for his sister's future. He turned to Scarlet Witch. "Is he always like this?"

Scarlet Witch hesitated. She hadn't known Mario for very long. In her mind, he was a good person who'd saved her and Vision. But this was the first time she'd seen him act like this.

"He should be... fine?" she offered uncertainly. "He's a good person."

Without realizing it, Mario had just received a "good person" card. Fortunately, everything he did with his crafting interface only required mental commands. Otherwise, everyone present would've seen him waving his hands around and randomly tapping at thin air.

Tony stepped forward and explained on Mario's behalf. "Don't worry about him right now. His abilities are very special. He's probably communicating with people from another dimension or something. So, what do you all want for lunch? I'll have it arranged."

Mario could hear their conversation perfectly fine. His crafting interface didn't make him deaf. But right now, all he wanted was to see what kind of bizarre items this modded Lucky Block could produce.

Still, he filed away Tony's words. The '10-minute home renovation' prank I mentioned before? Yeah, forget that. Tony's actually being pretty helpful here.

The Lucky Block mod was purely an entertainment addition to Minecraft. Though it only added a single block type, that block contained endless possibilities. Break a Lucky Block, and it would drop something completely unexpected. Items, blocks, mobs, even entire structures. It guaranteed surprises every single time.

He had enjoyed playing with Lucky Blocks before, but he usually went for the extreme versions, Diamond Lucky Blocks, Emerald Lucky Blocks, Rainbow Lucky Blocks, and other wild variations. Regular Lucky Blocks had a very limited loot table, basically just vanilla game items.

Eight gold ingots and one dispenser. The recipe hasn't changed. Let me craft a few to practice with...

Lucky Blocks only required basic materials, all of which he had in abundance. Gold, in particular, was something he always carried. He stood up and walked to a corner of the living room. Pulling out his crafting table, he used cobblestone, bow, and redstone to craft a large number of dispensers. Then he produced gold ingots and assembled two full stacks of Lucky Blocks. Since they could stack, inventory space wasn't an issue.

Seeing Mario stand up and place a strange object on the ground, Tony asked in confusion, "You done with your business?"

He pointed at the crafting table. "What is that thing? Why is there a hammer on it?"

Mario replied with a smile, "Nothing much. Just made some toys to test luck."

He held up the golden-yellow block with a question mark symbol floating on its surface.

[Lucky Block (Modded)]

His smile grew even wider, because he'd already decided that once he finished his own test run, he'd let Tony try it too. As for whether Tony would actually give it a shot, he wasn't worried at all. Even if he explained that Lucky Blocks could be treacherous, Tony's curiosity and spirit of exploration would definitely make him jump in anyway.

Sure enough, just as Mario expected, when Tony heard this, he immediately leaned in close, frowning as he carefully examined the Lucky Block.

"This thing can test luck? How does that even work?"

Testing something as intangible as luck seemed more mystical than magic itself.

"Of course it can."

Mario tucked the Lucky Block away. "Don't you trust me? When have I ever lied to you?"

Since it tests luck, there will definitely be good and bad outcomes. So don't blame me later.

He just didn't know what this thing would drop. Since it was a modded version, it was bound to be especially wild.

Would be great if it dropped a Transmutation Tablet. Then I wouldn't have to carry so much random junk in my inventory.

Tony thought for a moment, then nodded somewhat reluctantly. Mario might mess with him sometimes and often hide traps in his words, but he had never actually lied. In fact, almost everything Mario said eventually came true, and he always fulfilled his promises.

Wait. Something's not right. Why am I always on guard against him? He's never actually lied to me...

"Can I try it?"

Mario looked around. Tony's living room was luxuriously decorated and full of high-tech features. Breaking a Lucky Block didn't just drop items, it could also spawn entire structures. And those structures were code-generated, with absolutely no regard for what was already occupying the space. If a gigantic Lucky Block structure appeared, Tony might as well start planning to rebuild the entire top floor of his tower.

Thinking this through, he raised his index finger and performed a finger-wagging gesture. "Not here. This needs a very open space. Perfect timing. Quicksilver, Wanda, I'll take you to visit my company headquarters. Tony, Scarlet, Vision, you come along too."

There was no waystone at Tony's place. He pulled several teleportation scrolls from his inventory and handed them out to everyone.

"When you open the scroll, a special selection window will appear in your field of vision. Don't panic. Just choose 'Endstar' and mentally recite 'teleport.'"

Aside from Quicksilver and Wanda, the others had all used teleportation waystones before, so they understood what Mario was describing and nodded.

Only Wanda and Quicksilver hesitated slightly. Seeing this, he smiled and said, "These scrolls are perfectly safe. Come on, open them up."

At his words, everyone opened their teleportation scrolls. A semi-transparent window appeared before each of them. The interfaces were individually visible, no one could see anyone else's selection screen.

"Pietro..."

Wanda was nervous, looking up at her brother. Quicksilver reached out and took Wanda's hand, forcing a confident smile onto his face. "Don't worry. I'm here with you. Just follow what he said. We don't really have any other choice..."

Strucker had already been eliminated, and the forces under his command had been purged by S.H.I.E.L.D. Quicksilver and Wanda were now on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s watch list. Coming to see Tony had been essentially a last desperate gamble.

Wanda nodded slightly.

The next moment, everyone in the living room vanished.