"Leon, I hope you can take care of yourself in the future. I don't know if I can successfully break through tomorrow…"

Another early morning.

Leon woke up to the sound of a voice in his ear.

Golden sunlight bathed his entire body, illuminating him like a slumbering knight under holy light.

His straight black hair framed his face as his eyelashes trembled slightly. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and a bright light seemed to flash in his dark pupils, dazzling like the sun itself.

"Tony!" Leon instinctively called out.

Tony Stark—his adoptive parents' biological son and his older brother—had just spoken to him in a farewell tone. But Tony was nowhere to be seen.

Something was wrong.

"Something happened to Tony! No way… He still went to Afghanistan, didn't he? Damn it! That arrogant idiot—I warned him so many times!"

Leon sighed, reached out, and tapped the electronic display beside him.

The intelligent system responded instantly.

With a soft click, the belt securing him released, and in the next moment, he floated gently into the air.

Not just him.

Around him, tissues, plates, tapes—various scattered objects drifted weightlessly, like plankton swimming aimlessly in water.

But this wasn't water.

It was the interior of a manned spacecraft.

His "bed" wasn't a bed at all but a titanium alloy plate bolted to the cabin.

For half a year, he had been strapped to that plate, facing the unrelenting sun.

Hunger? He had fruit purée and meat paste.

Thirst? He had nutrient solutions.

Even bathroom needs were managed by the intelligent system.

It was as if he had grown onto the titanium alloy itself.

"Half a year under the sun may not be the full two and a half years I planned, but it's enough."

Leon clenched his fists, feeling an overwhelming surge of power.

Every cell, every drop of blood in his body pulsed with energy.

The sun's rays cascaded over his bare skin, tracing along his muscular frame, sinking deep into his core.

He could almost hear his cells cheering, his blood rushing like thawing glaciers breaking into rivers.

"This is… the power of a Kryptonian!"

Leon stared through the two-meter-high space porthole at the colossal sun, hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

For nineteen years, he never imagined he'd gain the power to overthrow the world so easily.

As he gazed into the endless void of space, memories of his past surfaced.

Leon Stark. A transmigrator.

In his previous life, he was just Li Ang—an ordinary office worker living an unremarkable life.

Until one day, on his way home, he stepped in to stop a knife-wielding madman on the subway… and paid the price with his life.

Then, he opened his eyes again—inside the body of a nearly one-year-old infant.

It took him a year to regain his past memories.

Before that? Nothing. His infant brain simply wasn't developed enough.

In this new world, he had been abandoned as a baby—until Howard Stark found and adopted him by chance.

The first thing he saw upon regaining consciousness was Tony Stark's tear-streaked face.

A crying Tony, his eyes swollen and red, held him tightly without a word.

Later, Leon learned the truth.

The day his memories returned was the same day the Starks died in a car accident. He had been the sole survivor.

Rescued from the wreckage, he had been wrapped tightly in a baby blanket and left on the roadside, while, just meters away, the car blazed in flames.

Doctors called his survival a miracle—one final gift from the Starks to the world.

Tony seemed to believe it too. He saw Leon as their legacy and raised him like a younger brother.

In reality, though, it was more accurate to say Tony had been both his father and mother.

…Not that he was particularly good at it.

After all, what kind of responsible parent takes a two-year-old to a cocktail party, hooks up with a cover girl, then dumps the kid on the sofa to enjoy the night?

Fortunately, Tony met Pepper Potts.

With Pepper around, Leon no longer had to suffer through sleepless nights caused by Tony's escapades.

Still, Leon had quietly taken note.

"When you go to Afghanistan, let's see if you still have time to chase cover girls."

He knew Tony was destined to go there.

After all, he had seen all the Marvel movies in his past life.

The moment he heard the names "Howard Stark" and "Tony Stark," he knew exactly where he had landed.

And Marvel?

Marvel was dangerous.

Supervillains constantly popped up, causing mass destruction. Civilian casualties were the norm.

And if you were unlucky enough to appear at the wrong time?

The Time Variance Authority (TVA) might erase you before you even learned to walk.

Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Leon made it to eighteen.

He suspected the timeline had been disrupted. The Sacred Timeline no longer existed.

A perfect opportunity for a transmigrator.

Still, that didn't make Marvel any less deadly.

Especially since he was so closely tied to Tony Stark—one of the story's main protagonists.

And in this world, villains lurked everywhere.

For eighteen years, he had waited for his golden finger.

But it never came.

No genius intellect like Tony.

No Spider-Man mutations.

No system.

Nothing.

He consoled himself that at least he had been given a second life. That was a blessing in itself.

And, at the very least, Marvel wasn't as relentlessly dark as Lord of the Mysteries, Daogui, or Perfect World.

So, he decided to make the best of it.

In 2006, at sixteen, Leon gave up waiting for the TVA and took action.

Using his knowledge of future events, he tried to change fate.

He guided Tony into developing new civilian technologies—smartphones, tablets—things that shouldn't have existed until 2007.

The impact was massive.

Stark Industries was no longer just an arms manufacturer.

It had evolved into the world's number-one technology conglomerate.

Leon also pushed Tony to develop the Arc Reactor.

But Tony dismissed the idea.

"The technology isn't feasible yet," he'd say.

Bullshit.

The truth? Tony was just lazy.

This was the same man who had invented entire industries on a whim.

Once, Leon casually remarked, "Wouldn't it be cool if we had phones that were just screens, and you could tap them?"

Tony had shrugged and invented the smartphone.

But the Arc Reactor? He just didn't feel like putting in the effort.

Leon had no choice but to let it go. You can't force a stubborn donkey to move.

Two years passed.

Leon kept searching for fates he could change.

He tried to track down Bucky Barnes, hoping to avenge the Starks.

He tried to expose Obadiah Stane.

He failed on both counts.

Obadiah was too cunning. He kept his true nature hidden—only revealing himself a year ago, when he almost got caught.

Even then, Tony—ever sentimental—chose to believe in him.

A simple conversation was all it took for Tony to drop his suspicions.

Frustrated, Leon kept warning him.

"Never lower your guard. Never go to Afghanistan alone."

As for tracking Bucky?

Leon couldn't act openly.

HYDRA was deeply entrenched in this world.

An ordinary person like him wouldn't stand a chance.

Even telling Tony was out of the question.

If Tony suspected something, he'd hack into government databases without a second thought.

That would only lead to both of them being targeted for assassination.

Maybe even by Bucky himself.

And then, the Winter Soldier would add another Stark to his kill count.

In Marvel, ordinary people were powerless.

Leon was no exception.

His wealth meant nothing. At best, he was Justin Hammer with a smarter brother.

But everything changed on his eighteenth birthday.

...

Next 20 chapters are available at: Pat reon. com (slash) LordMerlin