Chapter 129: New Characters and Items

Chu Cheng was completely distracted, thinking about the new feature he unlocked last night. He had no intention of going to class, so he texted his good buddy Wei Futong to cover for him and sign in. Then he turned on his computer and picked up where he left off yesterday.

Ever since Chu Cheng realized how rigged this B-level card pool was, he started to suspect there was some insider trickery going on.

As expected, this round of pulls turned out to be another set of weird, useless items. The B-level card pool was better than getting the dreaded "thank you for participating," but it was still full of strange, pointless stuff.

Sometimes he pulled items like wrist guards or goggles that were just junk, and sometimes even random superheroes popped up, making him wonder how large the summon pool is.

But every once in a while, the system delivered. The odds of getting something good seemed low, but the quality of heroes did improve as the pool level increased. This time, the first hero Chu Cheng got was Bucky Barnes, Captain America's good friend, also known as the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier, like Captain America, was created by the supersoldier serum. However, he was brainwashed by Hydra and turned into a villain until he was later redeemed and joined the heroes. He's skilled with all kinds of weapons, has top-notch combat abilities, and a powerful, enhanced mechanical arm.

In the later Marvel movies, his arm was upgraded to vibranium in Wakanda, but it seemed like the arm kept getting lost or stolen. Chu Cheng expected this version to be more like RoboCop, with awesome upgrades. But instead, it felt like a downgrade, with the Winter Soldier constantly losing his arm.

Still, the Winter Soldier was useful—a super soldier with a mechanical arm. Chu Cheng was surprised to pull him from the B-level pool since Captain America, with similar stats, was in the C-level pool.

Maybe the heroes' strengths fluctuate depending on their stage in life. Perhaps the Captain America in the C-level pool was the young rookie from World War II, while this Winter Soldier was the seasoned fighter who had joined the Avengers. Their experience and skills were on totally different levels.

After six rounds of pulling strange items, the seventh round gave him a weapon.

The silver sword of Blade.

Blade is known for hunting vampires, so his weapons are specially designed to fight them. For regular people, this sword might just be a decent blade, but against vampires, it becomes a deadly weapon, capable of turning them to ash with just a scratch.

But considering there aren't any vampires on here, its value was uncertain—it might be a powerful artifact or just a fancy-looking sword.

Chu Cheng continued to spend his hero points, and after a few more draws, he hit another jackpot with special effects. He looked closer and was stunned when he saw the new hero: Batman.

After a moment of surprise, he realized this was the upgraded version of Batman from the B-level pool.

He quickly logged into the game, selected Batman, and entered the Batcave to check it out. Sure enough, the Batcave had more equipment options, including tanks and vehicles of different versions and a showcase full of various Batsuits.

There have been many versions of battle suits over the years, like the reinforced armor Batman used in *Arkham Knight* and some exoskeletons he's worn a couple of times in the comics.

Of course, there's no high-tech armor like the Hellbat suit here—these are mostly standard models designed for specific situations. For example, there's cold-resistant armor, heat-resistant armor, anti-poison ivy armor, and solidified armor for dealing with villains like Clayface. 

These specialized armors might not work in every scenario, but they're great when facing an enemy with specific powers.

Now, let's talk about the next big surprise: Iron Man's Suitcase Armor, Mark 5.

When this thing appeared on the screen with its flashy special effects, Chu Cheng nearly jumped out of his chair. Seeing it was even more thrilling than winning pulling a 5-star on mobile games. 

The Mark 5 is the portable armor that showed up in Iron Man 2. At that time, Tony Stark didn't have the fancy armor that could assemble automatically or the nanotech suits he could wear at any time. The Mark 5 was his go-to for emergencies when he was away from home.

To make it portable, the performance and defense of the Mark 5 were scaled down compared to his other suits.

The only weapon it has is the repulsor cannon in the palms, and it's designed for quick escapes, not heavy combat. Its defense can withstand standard weapons, but it's a single-layer design and can't handle heavy firepower like other models.

But still, this was the first set of Iron Man armor Chu Cheng had ever seen, even after two lifetimes. It may be a simplified version, but it's a complete Iron Man suit, far beyond anything modern human technology can create.

Chu Cheng tried deploying the armor in his house, and the process was almost exactly like the movie. The suitcase transforms, metal parts lock into place, and the core pieces fit perfectly onto the body. The assembly is incredibly cool, but it has a downside—it's slow.

It takes over ten seconds to fully assemble, during which the user can't move. They're basically a sitting duck, just like in the movie where a skilled shooter could turn them into Swiss cheese.

So, even though it's portable emergency armor, transforming into the suit in front of others isn't the best idea.

Seeing how much Chu Cheng loved the suit, Friday (his AI assistant) offered to block all nearby signals so he could test-fly it in a blind spot.

Chu Cheng was tempted but declined. As awesome as the Iron Man armor is, his main strategy is still to stay safe and out of harm's way.

Instead of taking the risk just for fun, he decided to keep playing it safe and remain in command from behind the scenes.

So, even though he was itching to try it out, he only suited up in his living room. Afterward, he carefully packed the armor back into the suitcase and stored it in his backpack for emergencies.

Before his points ran out, he decided to make a final spin and see what else he could get. As another wave of dazzling lights signaled the arrival of a new hero, he saw a figure in a white bodysuit—a petite but curvy form wrapped in black and white, with a white mask featuring big, expressive eyes like Spider-Man's and a cute hood.

It was Spider-Gwen.

Gwen Stacy is the tragic girlfriend of Spider-Man in the main universe, but in a parallel world, Gwen was the one bitten by a radioactive spider, becoming Spider-Woman. She has all the same powers as Spider-Man, basically a female version of him.

Even though her abilities are identical and the role is redundant, another hero with Spider-Man's level of power is a valuable addition to his team. Plus, Gwen's sleek figure in her form-fitting suit was both strong and striking—a definite asset.

Then Chu Cheng had a thought. So far, only a few heroes have been summoned from this B-level pool, but already two were Spider-Man variants.

Two might be fine, but what about three? Or four, five—even more?

Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most popular heroes, with countless versions in different parallel universes. With so many Spider-Man variants, they could all potentially show up in this B-level hero pool.

Chu Cheng suddenly realized the potential problem.

He might just end up with a whole nest of Spider-People.