After recalling that bitter ending, Rilley's expression shifted ever so slightly. Not even in his final moments had he been granted the right to speak a few last words.
His mind drifted back to that moment.
It had been like a dream in which you close your eyes, feel yourself carried away by something unseen, and little by little exhaustion consumes you. Then, after who knew how long, you finally open your eyes and awaken in a strange and completely unfamiliar world.
In that state of confusion, he tried to move forward and begin a new life, putting his thoughts in order so he could think clearly and lay down solid plans for the future. Things might have been normal. At first, he had naively believed this to be an ordinary world. But it did not take long for him to realize he was mistaken. Fortunately, he understood soon enough that this was not just any world. It was not a reincarnation or rebirth within the same world he had originally come from. Somehow, he had ended up in an extraordinary one.
He was in nothing less than one of the universes akin to those he had once seen in Marvel comics.
He had realized it because he heard a famous name, one he would never forget even if he died a second time.
Tony Stark.
Owner of Stark Industries, heir to a wealthy family of industrialists, and one of the most brilliant geniuses in those stories he knew so well.
That name had come from his father's mouth. He had sounded extremely irritated while speaking about Stark with his mother. From the tone of the conversation, it was clear that his father and Tony Stark had a poor relationship. Strangely enough, it sounded less like personal hatred and more like rivalry. That surprised him more than anything. He had never imagined his father could even compete with Tony's company, but apparently he could.
Trying to remember, he thought about what other characters or companies might be able to stand on equal footing with Stark Industries, or at least try to compete with it. No one came to mind. His father's surname was Glass, and the idea of a complete unknown trying to challenge an industrial giant sounded almost ridiculous. Yet, following the thread of that conversation, it seemed his father had truly come close to beating Stark Industries to a major military weapons contract.
Other than Hammer as Stark's direct competition, he had never heard of any other company involved in weapons manufacturing and innovation serving as a major army supplier. In front of a small child playing nearby, his parents had not bothered to hide their conversation. His mother had even picked him up in her arms while continuing to listen to his father speak.
At last, he managed to piece together the situation. It seemed his parents owned a company whose expansion into certain sectors had been remarkably successful. After seeing such promising results, they had tried to break into the monopolized field of military technology as suppliers to the army, with the recommendation of one of their closest collaborators at the time, Lieutenant General Thaddeus Ross. To have reached the level of confidence needed to compete with the giants of that sector, they must have trusted their technology greatly.
It was a real shame that those plans never had the chance to materialize. Through his conversations with General Ross, his father learned that Tony Stark had used his influence to snatch away the contract. If things had ended there, perhaps his father would not have been so angry. Most likely, he would simply have waited for the next contract to open in the future. For a chance at expansion, patience was always possible.
Unfortunately, things escalated further. Both Stark Industries and Hammer Industries signed an exclusive long-term contract of more than fifteen years to serve as the military's sole suppliers. With only General Ross on his side, it was impossible to prevent such a strategic move, especially given the interests of other senior military officials.
That brilliant maneuver completely destroyed any chance his father's company had of expanding into the military sector. He could not wait more than fifteen years, and even then there was no guarantee he would win the contract if Hammer and Stark chose to repeat the same tactic. Entering the foreign military market was not an option either. It would have sent the wrong message and created even more problems with domestic industry and government departments.
So, with resignation, every plan involving the military industry had to be abandoned. At that point, the company was forced to divert into other sectors, ones even more competitive. In time, however, this proved to be the right decision. Their influence within the country took deeper and deeper root, strengthening the company until it eventually became the industrial giant it was in the present day.
Rilley had then tried to investigate which universe he had ended up in, searching through news reports and any other information that might give him a clue. But every attempt proved useless. It was impossible for him to determine with certainty what kind of universe he was living in. He thought he would already be fortunate if it turned out to be a relatively stable one. He fantasized that it might be the main universe, Universe 616. At the very least, if things grew complicated, there would still be heroes capable of stepping forward. Or perhaps, just perhaps, it might be Universe 65 or Universe 982.
The truth was that in Marvel, there was no such thing as a universe that was strictly peaceful or truly calm. But there was a vast difference between universes that were relatively stable and still left time to prepare for future disasters, and those apocalyptic universes already drowning in catastrophe.
If this were the Ultimate Universe 1610, he could still hold on to some hope, though the thought of that universe's future sometimes consumed him with doubt. If it were Universe 807128, he could still implement countermeasures against the villain uprising. Even if it were Universe 811, he would still have some confidence. But if he were forced to face the horrors of Universe 58163 or Universe 295, then surviving it would be terribly difficult, almost hopeless.
And that was not even mentioning the universes that seemed to have been born only to be destroyed, like Universe 2149, overrun by zombies, death, and despair, or Universe 9591, where desperation itself formed the very foundation of that world. At times, Rilley felt chills just imagining that he might be living in a place like that, or that one wrong decision might eventually turn this world into such a destination.
So much information did nothing but overload his mind. Little by little, doubt and fear began to consume him. Rilley was not worried for his own sake. After dying once, his personal well-being had already fallen into the background.
His true concern was his family.
Those parents who had raised him with such devotion, showing him love at every moment.
He feared the future that might fall upon them. Rilley wanted to give them a happy and fulfilling life, and that was the reason he worked so hard. Just imagining the disastrous futures ahead, the suffering and despair those events would bring upon ordinary people, made his heart ache and formed a knot in his throat as he pictured his parents caught in such circumstances.
One day, under the strain of so many chaotic thoughts and so much constant stress, he simply heard something crack inside his mind.
After that, whenever he questioned what universe he was in, his mind would be bombarded by strange voices that whispered the same words over and over again:
«Ultimate Universe 14672».
It was as if the universe itself had finally given him an answer. For the first time in two lifetimes, the universe had answered him with something.
He tried asking more. About the future of this world. About the destiny waiting ahead of him. He thought that if the world could answer him now, then he should make use of it as much as possible.
Unfortunately, it was useless.
The universe would answer him with nothing except those few words.
At first, he foolishly thought he had awakened some kind of special power. Perhaps a mutant ability, or some gift he had received upon beginning this new life. But all of those assumptions turned out to be wrong. Apparently, all he could do was hear that constant whisper repeating the name of the universe where he stood.
And because those whispers could hardly be anything else, he came to the simplest and most logical conclusion without tying himself up in unnecessary knots:
this universe, the one in which he had been reborn, was the unknown «Ultimate Universe 14672».
He had never read any stories that mentioned such a universe. He could not boast of knowing Marvel's universes from beginning to end, but he had certainly been a devoted fan who knew quite a lot—curious details, bits of supplementary material, even the theories and comments shared by other fans across forums and social media.
He could not say with certainty whether this universe had any relation to the Ultimate Universe 1610. Nor whether it was some branch of the main Universe 616, or of some other known reality.
Before, Rilley had desperately wanted to know which universe he was in.
Now that he knew, he felt even more lost than before.
The pressure was so great that he never allowed himself to relax, remaining in a constant state of alert, with his thoughts working harder than ever. After turning countless ideas over in his mind, he finally arrived at a plan that might allow him to gain greater control over whatever the future had in store.
To achieve his goals, he would need access to a generous amount of resources, both financial and human. But in order to reach that point, he first had to prove that he was no ordinary child. He had to let his parents witness that he possessed an intellect worthy of a genius.
What trust would anyone place in a child?
And in the future, would anyone truly dare entrust the matters or resources of a company to an ordinary teenager?
In his previous world, perhaps none of that would have been realistic, or if it were, it would have been something extremely rare. But here, in the Marvel universe, where geniuses, heroes, and gods existed in overwhelming numbers, gifted young heirs certainly could be entrusted with certain responsibilities. And those responsibilities would carry even more weight if the heir in question were a young genius with extraordinary potential.
That was when Rilley began to display a maturity far beyond his age, revealing a marked change in both attitude and behavior. He devoted himself to reading a vast number of scientific books and studying with relentless dedication. With so many books at his disposal, he was able to reinforce and deepen the knowledge he had once possessed in his previous life, while also updating himself on the new principles applicable to this world.
At that moment, Rilley found himself remembering his academic journey up to the point where he entered the workforce in that past life.
Since high school, he had stood out in subjects such as physics, mathematics, and chemistry. He was certainly not the typical brilliant student, but he made up for any shortcomings with consistency and a natural ability to grasp what was being explained in class. At first, his interest had been focused more on electricity, which led him to delve deeper into the physical principles behind it. It was that curiosity which, after entering university, drove him to choose a degree in physics.
During the first years of his studies, he showed particular interest in areas related to electromagnetism, classical mechanics, and the structure of matter. However, as his training advanced, he became increasingly drawn to phenomena occurring at microscopic scales, especially those that defied ordinary intuition.
That was how he eventually found his way into quantum mechanics and subjects connected to the behavior of materials, discovering in them a field far more complex and fascinating than he had first imagined.
Although his academic performance had been solid, his university years were not marked by extraordinary honors, but by discipline, patience, and the ability to keep learning even in the most difficult periods. He took part in laboratory work, collaborated on internal projects involving material analysis and characterization, and little by little developed a formation that was more technical than theoretical, standing out for his ability to connect physical concepts with practical applications.
After graduating, he considered continuing on to postgraduate studies, but various circumstances prevented him from doing so. Instead, he joined a mid-sized company as a technical assistant, naively believing that this would be the first step toward making his way in the field.
However, that job ended up marking the beginning of his decline, both personal and professional. What had first seemed like an opportunity quickly turned into a long period of stagnation. Forever relegated to the position of a mere technical assistant, he never received recognition for his abilities, nor did he obtain promotions—not for lack of preparation or effort, but because he lacked the right contacts and backing within the company. As time passed, the frustration only deepened. On more than one occasion, ideas and research work he had contributed to, or even developed on his own, were appropriated by others, robbing him of any chance at recognition.
Trapped in a routine with no progress, he watched his dreams and expectations slowly crumble. The hope of building a career in applied physics was reduced to minor, repetitive, and poorly valued tasks. Over the years, that stagnation did not merely extinguish his aspirations—it also shattered the image his family had built of him. The high expectations they had once placed on his future were reduced to pieces, and with them went part of his confidence, leaving him as nothing more than the shadow of the young man who had once believed he could go farther.