James dug into his meal with enthusiasm, not even bothering to mind how much of a mess he was making in the process. Though it was already late into the afternoon, one of his favorite meals had always been breakfast and, after purchasing the Oran Berry bushes a while ago, he couldn’t resist the thought of finally trying them out for himself. 

It didn’t help that any and all food was insanely cheap through the Earth store Tab either. The meal he was currently fighting back a moan of pleasure to ingest, would’ve set back the average middle-class family a couple of months at best. 

Eggs Benedict, A5 Wagyu Kobe beef strips, English muffins topped with fresh Oran Berries, and some sliced jamon Iberico de bellota ham on the side, all for less than a hundredth of a percent of FP. Top it all off with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a pot of Black Ivory coffee and you had yourself a meal fit for royalty. Well, more like three meals as his new body was apparently just as starved as his soul. 

“Your mother would be rolling in her grave if she knew that you preferred coffee to tea, sir,” Queen snarked from the newly purchased, futuristic coffee maker from the Halo-universe he’d spent over 3% of his FP reserves on, and didn’t regret in the least. 

James rolled his eyes as he chewed and took a long, satisfied swig of liquid gold to wash it down.

“Blame it on my time in the military,” he said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t have survived all the training without it.”

“Uh hmm,” the AI hummed. “Speaking of training, when do you plan to start getting acclimated to that new body of yours, sir? Gravemind has been constantly pestering me about how eager Forthencho is to start.”

“Can it really be called pestering if he’s only asked you twice?” James asked with a knowing smirk. 

“You know how much I dislike his voice.” Queen’s stated as her face grimaced with disgust. “I feel the need to bathe every time he calls.”

James paused in his eating and laughed at her misery. It always amused him how they were so different in some ways despite the process by which she’d been born.

“Hahh~ thanks for that,” he sighed happily while ignoring his AI’s irritation. “You can tell GM that I’ll be on in about an hour, I still want to take a shower and walk around the island for a bit. Forthencho can wait a while longer, I think he’s just excited about being the first outsider to get access to the For Honor realm more than anything.”

“I’ll let him know then, Master James,” Queen replied with a slight scowl. “Was there anything else or should I leave you to your exploratory ‘shower’ now?”

Just like she’d planned, at her question James sputtered and coughed while drinking his coffee and it was her turn to smirk in victory. Before the man could say anything in protest, she disconnected from the real world and left him with a scowl of his own. 

“Bloody hell, she’s growing into a right cunt in’t she,” James muttered into the now empty kitchen. Slowly, his scowl reverted back into a grin and he wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye, “I’m so proud.”

•••••••••••

As part of the now-altered plans that James had discussed with Queen just before his acquisition of a new body, for the last day the AI had been hard at work integrating herself, and by proxy the whole VR, into every piece of available tech she could on Asgard. 

Sif had long since returned alongside Thor and the Warrior’s Three and, luckily, the small phone she’d snuck back had survived the trip through the Bifrost. Through this new connection, ASTIR had the chance to break free from the shackles of Earth and could finally start its expansion into the wider universe. 

Due to how expensive powers had been revealed to be within the [Shop], James was now more desperate for FP than ever before. To compensate for that, he had to first alter the way he approached his VR’s expansion in the Marvel multiverse. 

One such way was that, no longer would the next tournament’s reward be exclusive right to the UVR Pod blueprints for the entire Marvel reality, but simply Earth itself. The small blue planet simply didn’t possess either the productivity, or the capability to distribute his product at a rate which met his ever-growing standards. 

It was just his luck then, that such a fine opportunity had practically fallen in his lap. 

Asgard had the means to more-than meet both his requirements, given they survive the coming storm blowing their way, it was just a matter of convincing the old, one-eyed bastard to accept his offer. Fortunately, his son and his companions should provide glowing reviews of ASTIR, which should help to encourage good will among both the royals and common folk when news inevitably leaks out.

Unfortunately, James wouldn’t be able to venture to the Land of the Gods for the foreseeable future and could only lay out his terms within the virtual world. Another side-effect of the cost of abilities was that he was nowhere near powerful enough to stand face to face with Odin and receive a deal on favorable terms. 

His only option at the moment was to play the ‘mysterious outsider with unexplainable knowledge’ card from within the safety of his VR and hope the old goat bites. He should as anyone could see the value of such a deal, but you can never place your bets on someone playing on borrowed time. 

This was why Queen had been infiltrating every Asgardian system she could find lately, as they would need all the help they could get to convince the Allfather of the value that such an alliance held. Hopefully, the recent damage done by Loki to the royal family’s reputation and some helpful future knowledge thrown their way will be enough to sway him to his side, but you could never be too prepared for these things.