I spent the rest of the day in the hospital undergoing examinations and was only released the following day.
"Here. Sign here and here," the nurse said, handing me my discharge papers.
I took the pen and reached out to sign when I noticed I was doing it with my left hand, even though I'm right-handed. It seems that having two lives has made me ambidextrous. After signing, I was finally able to leave that place. And, of course, a black Bentley with a driver was already waiting for me in the parking lot. You really wouldn't think that a man who cares for his son—even if he doesn't show it often—is capable of wiping out 20-30% of the people on Earth.
Sitting in the car, I reflected on how unusual all of this felt.
Once I reached home—if you can even call it that, as this mansion is hardly smaller than Xavier's house, and its appearance doesn't scream that it's centuries old; everything is quite modern—and entered the house, I immediately thought of the Stark residence. They have similar styles. Using my memories, I found my room and sat down at the computer to check the differences between this world and mine in terms of books, music, and the rest. My agony knew no bounds; I fell to my knees, and tears streamed down my face when I discovered that almost all of my favorite bands or songs simply don't exist here! Why do they treat me like this?! System, answer me!
Ding!
Quest Received: "Pity"
Due to a slight sense of guilt on the part of the system for your psychological instability and, just a tiny bit, due to your reluctance to participate in the plot of the first Iron Man, you receive a new quest. You must influence the film's plot and deal at least 10% of the total damage to the suit or Obadiah himself. Complete this before the end of the battle between Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane.
Reward: Access to a new system function: "Playlist."
Failure Penalty: Loss of the opportunity to obtain new system functions in the future.
"Thank you, thank you," I said, looking at the ceiling while still on my knees as tears of joy now flowed down my face. This was exactly the position one of the maids caught me in.
"Um... Mr. Pierce, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were back already. I'll clean up later."
I have a feeling that when this is reported to my father, he'll have a few questions for me and the doctors who assured him that I was perfectly fine.
After that, I decided it was better to engage in one of the more pleasant aspects of this reincarnation: testing my superpower. I went down to the martial arts training hall, where I had spent a considerable amount of time over the past four years. It was located in the basement and equipped with everything necessary, but right now, I needed nothing but a training dummy. I took a stance and willed the ability to activate, and it worked. I felt something shift, and to test it, I took a coin from my pocket and tossed it. Just like in those slow-motion scenes Hollywood loves, it fell very slowly. Then I landed several blows on the dummy, and the results amazed me: the strength I demonstrated was half of what the coach used to show Rain. It should be noted that the coach is only 32, has served in numerous hotspots during his military service, and has pushed his physical capabilities to the highest level. He's no Captain America, of course, but I think he has 50-60% of his strength. I simply can't wait to spar with him, because according to Rain's memories, he took quite a beating in every training session, and Brooks clearly enjoyed it—after all, what could be better than beating a kid and getting paid for it? Let's just say this will be my gift to Rain, who left this body all too soon.
The evening went normally, though I noticed the strange looks the staff was giving me, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the chef's expertise.
When I woke up, I drew up a plan of action and decided how I would influence the coming events, because there's no way I can live without my favorite music. First, I decided to check if I could increase my stats without using free points. I decided to push myself to the limit, and the result pleased me. Even though I had to sacrifice lunch, after 20 hours of push-ups, the treadmill, and other exercises, I managed to increase my strength, agility, and endurance by 1. Having finished this hell, I was disappointed that I hadn't received a "Gamer's Body," because I felt like I wouldn't be able to get out of bed tomorrow. I decided that while my body could still move, I should find out how much time it would take to level up skills. Fortunately, there was a place to practice shooting here, even if only for clay pigeons.
After replenishing some strength with something between lunch and dinner, I went to get a shotgun and ordered targets to be set up. To my surprise, in four hours, I managed to raise my shooting skill by 2 levels. While at the beginning I only hit every tenth clay, by the end of the session, I was hitting two out of every ten. Also, receiving 50 experience points was a cause for joy. Although leveling the skill wasn't very difficult, I noticed that the time required for each subsequent level increased significantly, and I don't know if I'll have time to level it up before it's time to execute the plan. It's a pity, of course, that I had to cut the training short, but I don't have night vision, and the lighting doesn't reach the height where the clays fly.
Having finished my tests, I went to sleep, first turning on time acceleration in the hope that in 14 hours, I could recover.
How foolish I was to think that 14 hours would be enough! When I woke up, I couldn't move without experiencing severe pain, so I stayed in the accelerated time flow for another 10 hours and spent them productively: I decided to learn all the differences between this world and mine and what I could plagiarize... ahem, bring anew into this world to make millions of people happy—and, of course, my pockets. By noon, I was able to move normally and decided to continue my shooting practice.
After two weeks of these training sessions, I obtained:
Name: Rain Pierce
Level: 3
Experience: 550/750
Parameters:
Strength: 27
Agility: 25
Endurance: 30
Intelligence: 26
Intuition: 14
Free Points: 10
Traits: "Rich Kid," "Lab Rat," "Traveler."
Skills: Martial Arts – Lvl 9, Shooting – Lvl 17, Polyglot – Lvl 5, Psychology – Lvl 6, Strategist – Lvl 5, Stealth – Lvl 3, Gamer's Mind – MAX.
Superpowers: Time Acceleration.
I've managed to significantly boost my stats, and considering the buff I get from time acceleration, I think I'll be able to give my dear teacher quite a pleasant surprise when he resumes my training today.