Chapter 1
In the middle of the day, in one Manhattan Chinatown's many docks, laying against a shipping container was a man with short black hair, thin body build, pale skin, and bright gray eyes. He was short at 5 foot and 5 inches with no shred of muscle, in fact he looked—no, he was—homeless, and with the number of needle marks on his hands, anybody could guess who he was. But despite the man looking dead, his dull, lifeless gray eyes suddenly brimmed with life as the memories of the current body that the new soul reincarnated into flooded the soul.
along with another piece of memory of a conversation, bringing the soul back up to speed on what his current situation was. "So a world full of demons, aliens, humans, mutant humans, and gods, Goldie really does have a taste," he thought as he took a deep breath. He held his breath for 5 seconds before inhaling deeply and holding that for 5 seconds, and in those short 10 seconds, small white particles were absorbed from the surrounding into his mouth.
This was done intentionally, as the white particles were mana, plain attributeless mana. The mana then travels through the circulatory system along with his blood and oxygen, then it gets pumped around his body, where it anchors itself in muscles, nerves, and tissues, slowly refining his body. "It doesn't really concern me for now anyways, since I already started the first stage, which is sensing mana and absorbing it into the body. All I have to do is accumulate so much that it overflows from the body and secretes out,
forming a second skin, then I would know if I reached the second stage, and if danger comes," he paused as he smiled. This was his boon as a champion of Goldie and reincarnator; after all, what would a reincarnator be without any special gift in a new world? His gift as a reincarnator was the ability to manipulate mana to grow stronger. Although his ability was divided into 10 stages, right now he was in stage one, called internal enhancement.
"I can just activate the dormant mana, it will flood my body with energy, heightening my physical traits like strength, agility, reflexes, endurance, and perception to a noticeable degree. The more dormant mana stored, the greater the boost when it's activated." This was Ash—well, the body was named Ash. Ash was a normal 23-year-old human, with a happy family, a loving girlfriend,
a promising career as an aspiring model and a writer. But all of that went down the drain when aliens invaded the world four years ago in 2012, which resulted in the death of Ash's parent. So Ash went into depression, and the proven existence of aliens didn't help either, so he resorted to drugs, leading to his girlfriend giving up on him, his career vanishing, and he continued to abuse drugs until he died of overdose. But the new Ash was different—after all,
he was a different soul with a clear goal and future. Sighing to himself, Ash thought about the life of the previous Ash before he shook his head. "The plan is quite simple: absorb mana which lays dormant in my body and passively and permanently enhances my physical traits, accumulate more mana to reach the second stage, and of course earn money," which was a pressing matter.
Since the previous Ash was a drug addict, he spent both his parents' money, and he even borrowed from his girlfriend which he blew on drugs, not to mention he owed money to his suppliers—yes, plural—hence why the previous Ash ended up dead. "This is going to be hard," he thought as the smell of the sea assaulted his face, before he smiled, "but not impossible, I can turn this around," he thought as he closed his eyes to meditate while inhaling,
holding his breath for 5 seconds, and then exhaling then holding for 5 seconds, which was one circle which earned minuscule mana particles. But he didn't mind the small amount; the reason he was meditating was because when he was in a meditative state, the amount of mana particles he absorbed in each circle doubled.
So while he had to maintain his strange breathing pattern, he also had to cast aside all of the distractions and focus solely on his heart. This was meditation, and it was going to speed up his progression, so he continued to meditate, accumulate double the mana until the sun set, and even then he was awakened by the burning hunger in his stomach.
"Gosh, I am hungry," he thought as he tried to move, only to experience the mother of all cramps. "Oh God, oh God, that hurts." His muscles squirmed like a worm as he was in the most excruciating pain in his life before the muscle cramps went away. Even then he was limping,
"Okay, I need to find something to eat," he said to himself as his stomach continued to growl, which he clutched. But he smiled suddenly as he felt the amount of dormant mana in his body, "Oh, this feels nice," he thought, although he didn't feel any of the supposed passive permanent enhancement from the dormant mana.
After walking for a couple of minutes with his stomach growling in pain, Ash arrived at the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown. The scent of fried dumplings, roasted duck, and soy-filled noodles lingered in the air, making his hunger worse. Lanterns dangled from thin wires across the street, fluttering slightly with each breeze.
Wooden stalls packed tightly beside each other sold vegetables, jade trinkets, herbs, and incense, filling the area with rich color and smell. Ash looked around desperately, ignoring the decorations and traditional music playing faintly in the background.
"I really hope there are some kind people who can offer food, I'll even work," he thought while forcing his legs to keep moving forward. The ground was slightly damp, and his shoes scraped against uneven pavement. Steam rose from nearby manholes,
briefly fogging his vision as he passed. Children ran past him laughing with bubble tea in hand while elderly men played Chinese chess on plastic tables near shop doors. But Ash didn't have the luxury to sightsee—his focus was locked on food, on survival, on anything edible.
Suddenly, someone yanked him into a narrow alleyway, slamming him into the cold brick wall out of the public eye. The noise of the street was instantly muffled, replaced by the hum of a buzzing light overhead and dripping water somewhere nearby.
Ash groaned, his back stinging from the impact. "Who the fuck is it?" he thought, pain seeping into his voice as he looked up to see his assailant. His dull eyes narrowed once he recognized the face. "Of course I had to bump into one of the dealers that Ash used to owe money to," he sighed as he tried to get up.
The dealer was a large Chinese man, bald, with a thick neck and wide shoulders bulging beneath a tight black tank top. His face was round with small cruel eyes, a broad flattened nose, and a permanent sneer. A tiger tattoo curled around his forearm and stretched over the veins in his hand like it was ready to pounce
. "You got my money, junkie?" he growled, his voice thick with venom. Ash opened his mouth to speak, but a fist slammed into his ribs, forcing the air out of his lungs. "Oh fuck, that hurts," he wheezed, crumpling to the floor.
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a/n: hello, author here. welcome to my fanfic. it's an MCU fanfic, mostly focusing on the tv shows. so, tell me—what do you guys think so far? this fanfic is an experiment, but if you like it (i certainly do), then i'll focus more on it.
ps: as for main female lead(yes, only one, i don't like harem, no can i write one) i am torn between carol Danvers and Shuri.