Marvel: Master Of Role-Playing

While Reid was pleased to acquire the Martian Manhunter role-playing card, it wasn't without its challenges.

In the comics, Martian Manhunter's only weakness was fire. But it wasn't something Reid needed to worry about.

His fear of fire wasn't a biological weakness but a psychological scar unique to J'onn J'onzz, born from witnessing his wife and daughter burn to ashes. That trauma led to his powers going out of control whenever he got too close to fire, causing him to self-combust.

But as long as Reid was the one playing the role, this weakness wouldn't exist. He had no such psychological burden.

What truly troubled him was that, while he knew Martian Manhunter was powerful, versatile, and one of the founding members of the Justice League, he wasn't actually familiar with his story.

He had no idea how to play this role.

And that was the real problem.

'Let's see what the other card is.'

With that thought, Reid set aside the Martian Manhunter card and picked up the second role-playing card.

But the moment he laid eyes on it, his expression darkened.

"Arthur Curry... I knew I wouldn't be able to avoid you."

From the beginning, Reid had a feeling that if he started drawing Justice League cards, Aquaman would be the first to appear.

Aquaman was undoubtedly a powerhouse in the Justice League, but that depended on who he was compared to.

The Justice League was full of monsters.

The ever-scheming Batman, always plotting against his own teammates. Superman whose strength needs no explanation. An Amazon warrior and literal demigod, Wonder Woman. The strongest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. The complete freak that was Martian Manhunter. And of course, the Flash, who could rewrite the entire timeline on a whim.

Compared to them, it was no wonder Aquaman was often looked down upon.

Still, after carefully examining the Aquaman card, Reid nodded slightly in approval.

Even though Aquaman seemed a bit redundant in his quest to collect the entire Justice League, the system had at least made sure the card wasn't weak.

This wasn't the goofy Aquaman from old cartoons. This was the one strong enough to shift tectonic plates.

If nothing else, once the inevitable conflict with the Mad Titan began, he could leave Aquaman on Earth to guard the place.

Unlike the rest of the Justice League, whose power ceilings were unknown—Superman's ever-growing strength, Green Lantern's reality-warping potential—Aquaman had a clearly defined limit. Even at his peak, all he could do was move continents.

At least he was stable.

Reid put away both cards and checked their character missions.

As expected, they matched the system's usual style. Aquaman's mission was to establish Atlantis.

'So does that mean Atlantis doesn't exist in this world?'

As for Martian Manhunter, his mission was much simpler—protect Earth once.

Considering it was already 1994 and Captain Marvel's storyline would begin in 1995, this mission was practically a freebie.

That gave Reid some relief.

He really had no idea how to play Martian Manhunter properly, nor did he have the time or patience to integrate into human society like in the comics, working behind the scenes to maintain peace between different governments.

For Reid, playing superheroes was far more difficult than playing villains like Lex Luthor.

But for these heroes, saving the Earth should increase his role-play progress.

In the end, Reid decided to start with Martian Manhunter.

As the role-playing card fused into his body, his appearance changed—his entire skin turned green, and he transformed into an alien that looked eerily similar to the Skrulls from the Marvel universe.

There was no denying it. The resemblance was uncanny.

But there was another important reason he chose Martian Manhunter first.

Reid closed his eyes, absorbing the superpowers that came with the card. The next moment, his body rippled, and in an instant, he had reverted to his original appearance.

The ability to use a role-playing card while still maintaining his own form—that was why Martian Manhunter was his first pick. That was also why he started thinking about increasing his role-play progress.

Martian Manhunter was difficult to play, but his variety of superpowers was too tempting to ignore.

"Now... I can finally do what I've been wanting to do."

Reid lifted his head, looking beyond the Earth and into space.

A few years ago, the United States had a Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., but for certain reasons, the project was eventually shut down.

In reality, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. was started by a Kree scientist, Mar-Vell, who had disguised herself as a human after arriving on Earth.

Her goal was to create a Light-Speed Engine to help the Skrulls escape the Kree's one-sided slaughter, allowing them to reach a part of the galaxy where the Kree couldn't pursue them.

Reid didn't care to judge a traitor who had turned her back on her own race, dismissing years of war and sacrifice just to help their sworn enemy. Her reasoning didn't matter to him.

But the energy source for the light-speed engine was none other than one of the six Infinity Stones—the Space Stone, now encased in the Tesseract.

Even an incomplete engine powered by the Tesseract's energy had exploded, granting immense power to Carol Danvers, an ordinary Air Force pilot.

Reid's system had never explicitly mentioned it, but he had a feeling that Infinity Stones, as the fundamental forces of the Marvel universe, could trigger some kind of reaction within the system. Even if the system was built on the DC universe's rules, the power of the Infinity Stones had to influence it in some way.

Mar-Vell's lab, hidden in orbit, wasn't difficult to find. With Martian Manhunter's powers, it was a trivial task.

Reid's body gradually faded, turning into an invisible breeze. He phased through the walls of the building, then shot straight into space.

It didn't take long for him to reach orbit. Spreading his telepathic abilities, he immediately detected several mental fluctuations that were distinctly different from humans.

'Those must be the Skrulls Mar-Vell sheltered in her lab.'

With that in mind, an invisible wave of psychic energy swept through the ship. Every Skrull aboard fell unconscious in an instant.

Still in his intangible state, Reid passed through the ship's hull and entered the interior. The moment he stepped inside, his eyes locked onto a deep blue cube resting within a containment unit.

"There it is. The classic moment every transmigrator goes through—obtaining an Infinity Stone to trigger a system upgrade."

Muttering to himself, Reid stepped forward and reached out, gripping the Tesseract in his hand.

The next moment, a surge of immense energy poured into his body.

Or rather, into the system.

[High-level energy detected. System upgrading.]

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