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'Inner dialogue/thoughts'
"Normal dialogue"
[System]
[Diary entries]
(Word count: 1,240)
~ A few hours after ending the entry, with Luke ~
Looking at the current trust rating of the diary holders, Luke could only sigh helplessly. 'I put so much effort into this third entry, yet their ratings did not increase by much. Even Fury, who in the beginning had the highest value of 57%, had gone up to 60% now. Only 3%! But that is to be expected from this one-eyed pirate. If his trust rating goes up too much in such a short time, then he may not be a true Nick Fury, the paranoid spymaster who only ever trusts Hill with his life in the MCU. But then Natasha, who had the lowest, now sits at second place with 64%. And Wanda, who had 40%, is still sitting at 90%. All that hard work in writing about clues to tickle Fury's bone and also about my relationship with Natasha, and no rewards for it, where is my justice. . .'
[Ding! Host has achieved 60% trust rating across all con-current diary holders. Distributing rewards.]
'WHAT?! There's still such a thing?! I knew I would get my justice!' Thought Luke excitedly.
[Congratulations host for obtaining an enhancement to host's body.]
While reading the system prompt, Luke felt a warm sensation spread throughout his body. And in the next moment, nothing happened. 'What in the? All that tingly stuff and nothing? Did my body even get enhanced?' Luke wondered. Luke clenched his hands, patted the obvious muscle areas of his body, did a vertical jump, and did almost everything he could think of to see if he had really gotten any sort of enhancement.
The conclusion that he had gotten to had left him deflated. Indeed, there was an enhancement, though it was a minor enhancement. Luke had thought he could gain super strength, super speed, and even the super body of Captain America. Unfortunately, reality, as it always has been and will be, was unkind to him. From what Luke felt, his body should be in the optimal condition that a normal human body could be in. However, this did not gain him any positive emotions as he had already experienced the same feeling in the simulation. Moreover, for the past two months, Luke had not just been resting idly. He had been training and conditioning his body to prepare himself for the future of this Marvel world.
'If this is the case, then my first priority on the diary holders would be to increase Natasha's value up to 90%. When Wanda had hit that threshold, I was awarded the complete mastery of my water manipulation ability. But before that, I had gained initial mastery of said ability as a reward for my first diary entry. If my conjecture is right, then since I had gained a minor enhancement for achieving 60% with Fury, Natasha, and Wanda, then the next person to hit the threshold of 90% should give me an increased enhancement, maybe even comparable to the Super Soldier Serum! If I am right anyways. But if not, then I should still be awarded with something good.' Luke monologued internally.
Luke did not entertain the idea of increasing Fury's value to 90% ahead of Natasha's as he knew that from this point forward, Fury would be the hardest one among the three to increase the value for. Moreover, he did not know if Fury's value would even reach 90%, 'And if he ever does, then the rewards for getting him there had better be in proportion to the effort it would take, because it would take me a monstrous amount of effort to do so!' As he finished concluding his thoughts, Luke began making his way to his room in order to start the next part of his current action plan.
~ At the covert HYDRA base of operations in Sokovia, with Wolfgang von Strucker ~
"Care to repeat that again, Sitwell?" Strucker, commonly known as Baron Strucker, spoke into the phone. He had been just about to enter a meeting with some of the Hydra scientists to discuss their recent findings in the latest batch of orphans, when he had received a phone call from Sitwell, a deep undercover agent of HYDRA within SHIELD, who had given him some troubling news.
"You need to give up these two teenagers, Strucker." Sitwell repeated, to which Strucker asked, "And why should I do that?"
"Because the one leading the team is Agent Maria Hill." Sitwell finally revealed. Sitwell was one of the few members of a made-shift team formed by Hill. During the mission briefing, Sitwell was surprised to see that Hill had formed a retrieval team to find and retrieve two teenagers. He was even more surprised when he had learned who the two teenagers were. As someone who had gone through the HYDRA Preparatory Academy with Strucker, and someone who was relatively high up in SHIELD, Sitwell was made aware of the operations in Sokovia thanks to his close relationship to Strucker. In this way, they could cover off any surprises by SHIELD through Sitwell. And today, that notion had come to fruition.
Sitwell was currently only a level 7 agent, whereas Hill was a level 9 agent. So, when Hill was conducting the briefing, Sitwell could not raise his questions on why they were going on this mission. At this moment, he could only inform Strucker of the mission details that he knew of.
Thinking of the different scenarios that could happen from this sudden visit from Hill, Strucker could only lament at his upcoming loss. Wanda and Pietro were prime candidates to be brain-washed into HYDRA. However, now that Maria Hill herself were coming to get them, he could only let them go. Sitwell could not risk exposing the covert Hydra base here just for two potential Hydra members.
Moreover, he also needed to start preparing to move their current base to a different location. There would not be enough time for him to brainwash Wanda and Pietro into not revealing to Hill, or whoever was looking for them, of the things they had gone through in the orphanage. And while it may not cause SHIELD themselves to directly investigate them, it may raise some questions to the authorities in Sokovia. It was better to be safe than sorry.
~ With Luke ~
Arriving in his room, Luke made his way to lay on his bed, his mind made up to enter the simulation world once again. He needed the experience he "had" with Natasha. If he wanted to increase the trust value with Natasha, he thought that the best way in doing that would be through real life connections.
'System, begin simulation!'
- End of Chapter 21 -
Next time on C22 - First meeting with the Black Widow!
"So. . . Hi. I'm Luke, Luke Sullivan by the way." Luke said, attempting to engage in small talk. Natasha only replied, "Widow."
E/d note: That marks the end of C21! MTL 22 was actually one of the easier ones to translate/adapt! My chapter, while different from MTL 22, had followed the same guidelines as the MTL! Actually, in MTL 22, the MC had undergone the simulation of the third entry. However, we only got a 4 liner simulation. Like, ew. only 4 lines?
So in C22, get ready to see the simulated life of Luke and Natasha!
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