Buying My Way Through the Multiverse

Gray stood in the prison courtyard, forcing his racing pulse to slow down. He immediately engaged his Wraith Sight, his eyes flaring with that signature supernatural white glow as he systematically scanned the dense tree lines surrounding the fences. Seeing no hostile blue or gray signatures lurking in the immediate distance, he deactivated the power and took a deep breath.

He pulled up his system interface to check his wealth. Thanks to his astronomical 46-million-per-hour passive income, his balance sat at a staggering 655,318,621 Gold. It was time to evolve from a survivor into an absolute nightmare.

He opened the shop and purchased the Servant’s Blackened Armor for 75,000,000 Gold, followed immediately by a dark, terrifying Nazgûl Mask for 30,000,000 Gold. Realizing that the intricate, medieval armor required precise fitting, he brought the crates into the courtyard and called over the Dixon brothers. Daryl and Merle stepped up. They helped him fasten the reinforced, pitch-black metal plates over his frame. Once fully decked out in the ominous armor, Gray picked up the jagged Nazgûl mask and slid it over his head. He half-expected the dark visage to restrict his field of vision, but to his amazement, the mask allowed him to see the entire world with absolute, crystalline clarity.

Next, he spent a massive 200,000,000 Gold to acquire Mid-Range Teleportation, granting him the power to shift up to 200 feet every 4 seconds. He then scrolled and dropped 50,000,000 Gold on Angel Wings from Terraria. The moment the wings bound to his inventory, a system prompt flashed before his eyes.

[Would you like Angel Wings to remain visible when not in use?]

YES / NO

Gray selected NO, opting to keep them completely invisible until called upon. To his surprise, the system integrated the utility flawlessly, allowing him to summon their power directly from his inventory without permanently cluttering his back. To finalize his aerial mechanics, he spent a final 5,000,000 Gold to purchase the Hawks Flying Experience from My Hero Academia, instantly flooding his brain with the instinctual, aerodynamic reflexes of a master apex flyer.

Gray stood motionless, looking like a menacing, god-like wraith of dark metal. He willed the Angel Wings to manifest, and a pair of massive, radiant white wings erupted from his back, creating a staggering, terrifying contrast against his blackened armor.

Daryl and Merle stared in absolute awe. Merle actually stepped forward, his jaw practically on the concrete as he reached out a trembling hand to touch the pristine feathers just as Gray extended them to test the muscle memory.

To test his new movement kit, Gray willed the massive white wings to fully expand, bent his knees, and leaped into the air with explosive force. The instinctual reflexes from the Hawks’ flying experience took over immediately. He tilted his feathers, caught a powerful updraft, and rocketed into the sky until the prison courtyard looked like a tiny playset below him. He soared through the air for a moment, thrilled by the absolute, effortless control he had over his altitude and speed.

Ready to test his coordination, Gray locked his eyes on a precise target far below, the flat, reinforced roof of the nearby INKAS Huron APC. He angled his body into a steep dive, and just as he hit the range, he activated his shift.

In a split second, a mild wave of spatial discomfort washed over him. One moment, he was high in the air, navigating a high-speed descent, and the next, with a quiet, localized pop that sounded exactly like the jumpers from the movie Jumper. His momentum instantly halted, and he stood perfectly balanced atop the military vehicle without making a sound.

Gray retreated to his RV and waited patiently until the afternoon sun finally dipped behind the thick Georgia tree line, plunging the world into darkness.

Rick, Shane, and Merle ran over to the base of the RV, their weapons drawn and ready for a fight. ”We’re rolling out with you, kid,” Merle barked, looking up. ”We’re gonna turn that little town into a parking lot.”

”No,” Gray’s voice echoed darkly out from behind the Nazgûl mask. ”I am going by myself. I’m going to have a talk with the Governor. A lot of the people living in that town are completely innocent civilian families, and I’m not going to launch a blind massacre. I’m flying over, mapping out their entire base layout, and systematically taking out the worst of their guards before giving the Governor his absolute final warning.”

The men stared at the looming, armored figure, realizing there was no arguing with him.

Gray extended his massive white wings, caught the air current, and launched himself straight up into the pitch-black sky. He engaged his Wraith Sight, his vision piercing cleanly through the atmosphere as he cruised effortlessly above the clouds. After five minutes of high-altitude flight, the glowing lights of Woodbury materialized below. He angled his wings and executed a silent, sweeping descent, landing perfectly on the rooftop of an abandoned three-story brick building directly across the street from the town’s main walls.

Perched in the shadows, Gray opened his system menu one more time to arm himself for silent close-quarters combat. He purchased a Valyrian Steel Dagger for 50,000 Gold and a matching Valyrian Steel Sword for 150,000 Gold. To handle threats at a distance without making a sound, he scrolled to Middle-earth abilities and purchased the Wraith Bow for 50,000,000 Gold. Unlike the video game mechanics, the system granted him an infinite number of arrows.

Looking down into a dark alleyway near the perimeter, Gray spotted a lone walker shuffling through the trash. Testing his new weapon, he summoned the ethereal Wraith Bow, pulled back the glowing string, and released.

Thwip.

The arrow tore through the night air, executing a flawless, pinpoint headshot that dropped the walker instantly. Gray smiled beneath his mask. Deadshot’s marksmanship translated perfectly to archery, making him just as lethal with a bow string as he was with a trigger.

Gray dissolved into the shadows, took flight once more, and glided silently over the high wooden barricades of Woodbury. The guards stationed at the main gate caught a faint flash of movement out of the corner of their eyes, but they saw nothing in the darkness as Gray shifted, teleporting cleanly onto the roof of a central building inside the town.

Standing high above the streets, Gray activated his Sin Vision, sweeping his gaze over the various guards patrolling the rooftops and barricades. It painted a vivid picture. Some of the guards were completely clean, possessing no innocent human kills to their names, merely regular people trying to protect their homes. But a few others bled with a horrific, dark crimson aura, revealing multiple counts of cold-blooded murder and brutal, repeated rapes that dwarfed even the Governor’s current list.

Gray waited with predatory patience, hunting the corrupt guards the exact moment they isolated themselves from their patrols.

He spotted a sadistic guard stepping into a dark alley for a smoke. Pop. Gray teleported directly behind him, the flawless edge of his Valyrian steel dagger slicing cleanly through the man’s throat before he could even let out a gasp. On a distant watchtower, a guard raised his rifle. Gray pulled back his Wraith Bow, letting fly an ethereal arrow that pierced the man’s skull from a hundred yards out.

By the time he had systematically executed five of the town’s most monstrous guards, Gray tracked the Governor’s movement through the walls, watching him exit his primary office and head toward the medical infirmary.

Seeing his opportunity, Gray teleported directly next to the office doorway and slipped inside the darkened room. He sat quietly in a heavy leather chair in the corner, melting into the shadows as he waited.

Fifteen minutes later, the door handle turned. The Governor walked into his office, closing the door behind him. He took exactly three steps into the room before noticing a strange movement in the dark.

But he was far too late.

Gray lunged forward with explosive speed, delivering a brutal, full-force punch directly into the Governor’s stomach. The sheer kinetic force of Batman’s peak physique folded the dictator completely in half. The Governor collapsed to his knees, violently throwing up fluid and gasping frantically for oxygen as his lungs seized.

Gray didn’t give him a single second to recover or breathe. He grabbed the man by his hair, pulled him up, and delivered a succession of vicious, heavy slaps across his face. The cold, jagged metal gauntlets of the Servant’s armor tore cleanly through skin, leaving his face a bloody, battered mess.

The Governor was completely paralyzed with fear. He couldn’t see his attacker’s face, all he saw was a demonic shadow and then absolute, agonizing pain. When he finally managed to clear the blood from his eyes and look up, he stared into the visage of a person clad in full, medieval black armor, his face entirely concealed behind a terrifying, faceless mask.

After letting the Governor endure the thorough, terrifying beating, Gray finally felt satisfied. He reached up, unlatched the heavy Nazgûl mask, and pulled it away.

The Governor’s eyes widened in absolute, staggering shock as he recognized the familiar face beneath the metal. ”You...?” he wheezed, coughing up blood.

Gray gave a slow, rigid nod, his eyes ice-cold. ”I told you to stay away from our borders, didn’t I?”

Gray leaned down, grabbing the Governor by his blood-soaked clothes, dragging his face inches from his own. ”Listen to me very carefully, Philip. Next time anything happens to my people, I won’t just come back to kill you and every single one of your corrupt soldiers. I am going to start by walking into your back room and killing your turned daughter right in front of your face.”

Gray violently threw him back onto the floor, turned around on his heel, and walked out of the office. He gripped the heavy oak door and slammed it shut with a thunderous boom that echoed through the entire sector, leaving the broken leader weeping in the dark.

Before Gray turned to make his final exit from the building, his Wraith Sight locked onto two distinct blue silhouettes resting inside the Woodbury infirmary wing. Realizing exactly who they were, he decided to create a massive, chaotic diversion to clear his path.

He took flight right out of the office suite, his massive white wings beating silently as he glided in the exact opposite direction of the medical building. Landing gracefully on a secluded rooftop, Gray pulled out his legendary silver M16A2, leveled the barrel toward the main street, and engaged the specialized underbarrel grenade launcher.

THUMP!

A high-explosive grenade arched through the night air, slamming directly into one of Woodbury’s wood and metal barricades. A massive, thunderous explosion ripped through the sector, blowing the reinforced barriers to absolute splinters and twisted metal shards. Shrapnel rained down, and smoke billowed into the sky. Every single guard in the area panicked, shouting frantically into their radios as they bolted toward the blast zone to check it out.

With the entire town’s attention diverted, Gray activated his shift.

Pop.

He teleported across the rooftops, slipping through a high window directly into the shadowed corridors of the infirmary. He moved through the quiet facility until he pushed open a heavy set of doors, stumbling right into Tomas and Andrew looking out the window toward the commotion.

Gray stood in the doorway, his blackened medieval armor casting a long shadow across the room. He slowly unlatched his Nazgûl mask. ”Well, if this isn’t a welcome surprise,” Gray said softly, his voice cutting through the silence.

Hearing that familiar voice, Tomas and Andrew snapped their heads around. The moment their eyes locked onto Gray, their faces went completely pale, their chests heaving with a sudden, suffocating wave of pure terror. But before they could even take cover, draw a breath, or utter a single word to beg, Gray swiftly raised his silver M16A2 rifle and fired two precise shots.

BANG! BANG!

Two kinetic rounds erupted from the magical rifle, punching devastating, lethal holes straight through their chests. They died instantly where they lay, their chests collapsing from the raw force of the impact.

Gray lowered the rifle, looking down at their lifeless eyes. He intentionally left their heads completely intact. He planned on letting both of them reanimate right here, leaving their walking corpses as a brutal, unmistakable final warning for the Governor to discover in the morning.

If the Governor finished cleaning the blood from his face, looked at his dead scouts, and still truly failed to see that he was catastrophically outmatched, then Gray would gladly return to put him down once and for all. Leaving the trap fully set, Gray slid his terrifying mask back over his face, extended his massive white wings, and vanished into the night sky, flying back toward the prison.