MARVEL: CARD EXTRACTION SYSTEM

In the corridor of room 161, the distinctive smell of pure alcohol dominated the air, making it extremely uncomfortable for anyone who spent a lot of time there. Unfortunately, the only person who fit that description was me.

Beep...

The heart monitor next to my bed emitted a constant beep, indicating day after day that my life still persisted, even if by a thread.

That morning, like all the countless other mornings I spent in that room, my eyes were fixed on the dull ceiling when I woke up. Every day it was the same, the same view. It felt like I was living in a loop created by some entity of dubious humor.

Until a few months ago, I was a typical geeky teenager, a fan of online games, and also a notorious fan of comics of all kinds.

However, all this became just a bunch of distant memories.

A sneaky disease had taken hold in my body. At first, there were signs, such as headaches and extreme nausea. But I neglected it and, in the end, it drained my life force little by little until I could no longer ignore it. It was a rare disease with no known cure. "At least it wasn't cancer," you might have thought. Yes, it wasn't cancer. But it was just as bad.

Despite numerous attempts at experimental treatments, I felt weaker and weaker. In addition, I had been lying in that bed for so long that my lower muscles had atrophied and a series of problems began to appear in my body. It felt like I was cursed.

The gap between the sounds of the machine that monitored my heartbeat was getting bigger and bigger. Sometimes I begged myself never to hear it again.

After all these months, lying in bed, I could barely move my fingers, as my body reserved most of its nutrients for trying to fight the disease immunologically. So I couldn't even read my favorite comics.

Maybe I could use a screen, a smartphone or a tablet, but my eyes burned whenever they were open for a few seconds. The doctors said it was because of the disease too.

Shit. Closing my eyes soon after waking up, I let out a tired sigh.

"Ah, if only I could live in a world like that... virile, idiotic protagonists..." I allowed myself to think aloud, as my room was empty. "I'm sure I'd become a god or a harem owner in no time. Maybe both."

Beep...

I knew it was an impossible dream, but at that moment, dreaming was all I could do.

Suddenly, when the monitor next to my bed emitted a continuous, high-pitched sound, displaying a straight line on the screen, I felt a strange wave of happiness. These were my last moments of life. How could I not be happy?

Piiiiiiiiii....

And then, at the moment when the hospital room alarms were supposed to start ringing to alert the nurses to my cardiac arrest, everything fell silent for me. I was completely enveloped by a floating sensation and found myself in a completely dark world.

Looking closely, I could see my hands and my naked body, but I was translucent, allowing me to see through myself into the darkness that surrounded me.

"What's..." I was about to ask when I abruptly stopped talking, swallowing those stupid words. "Really, was I really about to ask that? Come on, Lucas. You're better than that. Of course you're in the afterlife."

So I put a hand on my chin and started to analyze my surroundings.

Honestly, I had always hoped that when I finally died, I would see a light at the end of the tunnel and then a goddess with a warm smile, like in most of the stories I knew. But there was none of that. Just darkness, a sea of darkness where nothing made sense.

Where was the guide who was supposed to explain everything to me? Where was the escalator that would take me to paradise or hell? Where were the angels and demons who would fight over my soul?

"This isn't fair," I muttered to myself. "The rolling school I understand, but there isn't even a goddess with a pair of generous breasts to hug me..."

Suddenly, an idea began to weigh on my mind: what if I was trapped between life and death, in an endless limbo? Could this be the real afterlife? A vast nothingness? These theories made me shudder. Being trapped, going nowhere, with no chance of a final judgment, was even worse than burning in hell or spending months and months in hospital.

To my relief and surprise, I suddenly felt a tug on one of my ankles, as if an invisible hand was grabbing me and pulling me down.

"Huh?" I looked down and saw nothing but darkness. "Am I starting to get delirious?"

In response, I felt another tug. This time, stronger than the first. Immediately, I knew it wasn't my mind playing tricks on me.

My heart raced, and I instinctively began to fight it, trying to swim upwards.

"No, no! Forget what I thought! I'm happy here! Stop pulling me down! I don't want to be sent to hell!!! I swear I didn't really like those siscon mangas!!! "

As desperately as I tried to struggle, that mysterious force grabbed me and I went hurtling with brutal force towards a dimensional rift. But I hit what seemed to be solid ground at last.

The impact hurt a little. It wasn't unbearable, but it was throbbing.

"Argh... Damn... where am I?" I muttered, struggling to sit up from where I'd fallen.

My head was still spinning, and I would need a few seconds before trying to stand up.

A strong smell of alcohol and mold invaded my nostrils, which immediately made me feel repulsed.

I tried to raise my right hand to cover my nose, but my body felt heavy, as if I were moving for the first time after years of inactivity.

"Ah, yes... I haven't moved my body in a while... What is this place, anyway?"

My vision was still slightly blurred, but I was able to discern that I was no longer in the hospital because the walls around me weren't blindingly clear.

"I... didn't die?"

If I was alive, where was I? I looked around, frowning and straining my eyes. It looked like I was in a small apartment, a very dirty apartment, with clothes strewn about and dirty dishes piled up in a small sink in the corner. An old, stained sofa was turned on its side, as if it had been kicked over in a fit of rage. The floor, littered with empty liquor bottles, revealed to me the reason for the strong smell that permeated the air.

Was I alive or dead? Did the fact that I was no longer translucent mean that I was alive? I needed answers. But first, I needed to understand where I was.

Walking carefully through the cluttered apartment, I found a cracked mirror hanging on the wall of a corridor. I took a step forward and looked into the reflection.

What I saw made my heart race. The face staring back at me was identical to mine, but much healthier... perhaps? This body had an untrimmed beard and deep-set eyes, as if it hadn't slept for days. However, he was just as young as me.

"Who... are you?" I asked, touching the mirror with trembling hands and barely recognizing myself.

It was then that a flood of memories invaded my mind. Like an uncontrollable wave of images and feelings. I saw flashes of a life that wasn't mine, moments of joy and sadness, of hope and despair. This was definitely not my body, or rather, not exactly... This person's name was Lucas Hayes, just like mine. And the names of our parents were the same. I also had an older sister and... this Lucas's life was similar to mine. No, he was literally me, but from a parallel universe.

I had lots of questions, but something appeared before my eyes to interrupt my thoughts.

[Starting system download...]

[Download completed!]

[Starting Card Extraction System...]

My eyes widened, and I instinctively stepped back, but with a smile on my face.

[Card Extraction System started!]

[Hello, Lucas Hayes! You've been selected to be one of the users of a system for transmigrants.]

"That's... A fucking system! That's what we're talking about!"

[Introduction:

Cards are universal ways of representing material and immaterial things in all universes. Thus, cards can represent characteristics, objects, living beings and skills.

Cards are the basis of the Card Extraction System. Extract cards is the best way.

In this system, you, like a user, can obtain cards that represent things from the entire omniverse.

The cards you obtain can be traded, equipped, assimilated or destroyed. If you choose to trade, you can offer the card you have for X amount of Card Points. If you choose to assimilate the card, you can make the card's power your own. When you equip a card, you can use the card's content without having to assimilate it. Finally, if you choose to destroy a card, you will never be able to get it again, but there is a small chance that you can get an evolved version of the same card by destroying it.

User, do you understand?]

I swallowed. "Cards... Items... Characteristics... Omniverse... Okay, calm down, Lucas. You already know what all these things are. But what are Card Points?" I sat down on the worn-out sofa, trying not to freak out at the avalanche of information.

I had read stories like this before, but only briefly. They were Chinese novels about gachas, novels that quickly turned the protagonists into gods. Unfortunately, this quickly made the novels tedious for me. However, if this was my turn to receive an ultra OP and completely unbalanced system, I obviously wasn't going to complain.

[Card Points are the system points that the user can obtain by completing quests, trading cards and in dozens of other ways.]

"Other ways? Like what exactly?" I asked.

Before acting, I wanted to understand everything so that I could exploit the potential of my new power in the best way.

[Currently, your Card Extraction System is incomplete. There are many important features that still need to be unlocked. Therefore, currently the only way you can get Card Points are the two mentioned above.]

"Okay, okay... And how do I get quests? Is there a board I can choose from or something? It would be nice to be able to choose them as if I were an adventurer!"

[When traveling to other universes, you can interact with characters and get opportunity quests that will give you the chance to get Card Points. The more Card Points you get, the more important and complex universes become available to you.]

"Traveling between universes? Characters? Wait, system, are you broken or are you really telling me that..."

Suddenly, another sharp pain settled in my head, and more images started flashing through my mind. One of these images was of a man in red and gold armor flying through the sky above me, then a man swinging on webbed strings between buildings and even a green giant that I saw literally knock down a pile of buildings on the horizon. Ironman, Spiderman and Hulk, respectively...

These weren't movie memories, they were real-life memories.

"Holy shit, I'm in a Marvel universe…"