Marvel: The Imposter Inventor

Chapter 216 The Faustian Hat and the Time-Stopping Hand
The red explosion and flames that filled the scene quickly froze in time.

Immediately afterwards, the whole world seemed to shatter like a dream, turning into nothingness.

Heaven and earth turned upside down, memories flowed back.

Lucana's previously somewhat bewildered eyes quickly regained their sparkle.

When I came to my senses, I was still in the familiar laboratory.

'Just now... was I killed directly by the impact of the meteorite I released?'

Upon returning to the Marvel universe, Luca, who has just begun to receive his memories, finds his mind filled with the final scene from the Devil May Cry world.

However, before Luca could continue recalling all his memories...

The dreamlike bubbles in front of them had quickly coalesced.

Upon seeing this familiar scene, Luca immediately froze, his whole body tensing up slightly.

After all, the last time Sherry experienced the end of the Conan world, it was this kind of illusion that brought her into the real world.

'Who will it be this time? Nico? Agnas? Uh, it can't be that brat Nero, can it?'

However, just as Luca was thinking this, he suddenly realized that the form that had materialized in front of him seemed somewhat...
"Isn't this too small?"

Before Luca could finish speaking, the light and shadow that was clearly not human had completely disappeared, and what followed was a cowboy hat that he knew all too well, which appeared out of thin air in front of Luca.

"Huh? What's that? A Faust hat?"

Luca, who had been ready to welcome the newcomer, caught the cowboy hat that was slowly falling from the sky, but his expression was strangely odd.

'But...this seems pretty good too!'

I lifted the hat and flipped it over, and sure enough, there was an 'L' clearly embroidered on the inside of the brim.

This [Faust Hat] was originally a prop that Luca and Nico researched and created together in the Devil May Cry world. As the first user of the hat, Luca's name was naturally printed on the inside.

Let's get back to the hat itself.

This cowboy hat is entirely beige and looks very similar to an ordinary cowboy hat, except that it has a finger taken from a demon named 'Faust' wrapped around it, and a red crystal is also embedded in this finger.

In addition, there are two eye-like patterns on the hat.

Well, saying it resembles something else is a bit inaccurate, because this hat does indeed imprison the soul of 'Faust', and the hat itself also possesses a certain degree of autonomy.

However, because of the other party's demonic nature, Luca and Nicole erased most of its consciousness when making the hat, so it could not possess the same sentience as the 'Sorting Hat'.

As for the hat's inherent capabilities, and the reason why Luca was so delighted to be able to bring it back, that's another matter.

If we were to represent it using something like a cheat code panel, then...

Faustian hat

[Creators: Luca Orange, Nicoletta Goldstein]

[Item Description: A magical artifact crafted by two human weapon masters. The wearer can attack and kill demonic creatures, absorbing their demonic blood and storing it as red magic stones within the Faust Hat. These stored red magic stones can be fired like bullets to attack enemies, or released to circulate around the wearer and deflect ranged attacks. They can also serve as energy to power the 'Soul of Faust' within the hat, allowing it to float near the user for cover and launch attacks autonomously. When the user presses the brim to actively charge up, they can mobilize the red magic stones stored within the Faust Hat to condense a giant meteorite to strike the target; the power depends on the amount of red magic stones stored in the hat and the charging time.]

[Friendly Reminder: Due to a certain self-proclaimed clever creator, the maximum charge limit of the meteorite was forcibly increased during the manufacturing process. This means that although the meteorite can be charged indefinitely, its power will affect the user after a certain charging time.] Indeed, Luca's final meteorite attack in the Devil May Cry world was the result of releasing all the Crimson Stones he had accumulated over nearly a year of fighting demons alongside Nero.

Its power was in no way inferior to a small nuclear bomb. Whether it could destroy the Demon Tree in one hit is hard to say, but Luca himself was taken away directly, ending his Devil May Cry journey.

In fact, when this thing was first created, Nicole intended to set a power limit for it, so that the excess power in the Faust Hat could protect the user from the impact of the meteorite explosion.

However, Luca added a 'restriction mode' on top of that, which led to him being engulfed by the explosion.

"It's a pity that the last wave completely depleted the Red Magic Stones. I wonder when we'll be able to store so much demon blood again."

Somewhat moved, Luca carefully put away the [Faust hat].

He's recently gotten himself into big trouble with Mephisto, and this [Faust hat] might just be his weapon against Mephisto in the future.

Afterwards, I briefly sorted out the knowledge and memories I had brought back from the world of Devil May Cry.

Our gaze returns to the laboratory in front of us.

The first thing that catches the eye is the mechanical arm [Mercury Time] that was 'just' completed earlier.

Yes, although Luca destroyed several mechanical arms in order to unlock the new recipe in order to experience the '5/5' Devil May Cry world as soon as possible.

However, since Luca entered the dream world directly after synthesizing the last mechanical arm, there was no need to damage this mechanical arm named [Mercury Time].

'That's good; it saves me the trouble of searching for materials.'

By this time, Luca had fully absorbed the memories of the Devil May Cry world and was already capable of independently creating the mechanical arms he had previously created.

Although Luca never actually created [Mercury Time] because he 'cleared the game' too early, he still possessed the technical skill.

However, compared to the previous Conan world, this is an 'ordinary' modern society, where all the materials used to make the props are common items that can be purchased regularly.

Many items in the Devil May Cry world require materials from demons to craft.

Like a newly acquired [Faust hat].

If it weren't for his own cheat ability that brought it to life, even if Luca knew the complete manufacturing process, he might not have been able to find another Faust demon in the Marvel universe.

Perhaps in the end, all they can manage to produce is a prop that is neither fish nor fowl.

Similarly, items like [Mercury Time] that can manipulate time may require even more rare demon materials than [Faust's Hat].

Preserving it would be a huge boost for Luca.

Mercury Time

[Creator: Nicoletta Goldstein]

[Item Description: Nico created this prosthetic arm for Nero using fragments of Magruion's Time Stop as raw materials. Through the prosthetic arm, it can release its remaining magical power to generate a magical magnetic field. Within the area covered by this field, the passage of time slows down significantly. The wearer of the arm is not affected by the time slowing effect.]

[Friendly reminder: Forcibly overloading the robotic arm can cause the time-decelerating magic within it to erupt all at once, multiplying the degree and range of time slowing down, but it can also lead to complete damage to the arm.]

(End of this chapter)