In the time that followed, Orochimaru split his focus between adapting to the brand-new vision brought by Hawkeye and studying the abilities of the Black King's physiology.
The former was relatively straightforward. After all, aside from the hours he spent sleeping, he used his eyes constantly. The latter, however, required a substantial investment of Orochimaru's energy.
The ability of the Black King was to absorb all external energy, including kinetic energy, nuclear energy, and magical energy.
In the X-Men universe, what the Black King loved most was manipulating kinetic and nuclear energy. Any physical attack had its energy absorbed before it could even harm him, effectively granting him an invulnerable body.
This setting was absurdly overpowered, but that was only the baseline application. If one continued to expand the boundaries of his abilities, he should theoretically be able to control the fundamental energy of all matter.
In that case, he could absorb the energy of any object down to absolute zero.
It was just that the Black King had not yet developed his abilities to their absolute limit; his progression always pursued changes in quantity rather than a qualitative leap.
Yet there was still room for growth beyond this point. Mass and energy were mutually convertible, so logically, the Black King could reverse the process of material degradation into energy and convert energy back into matter.
He could even elevate energy from low to high, or raise temperatures from cold to hot, directly defying the second law of thermodynamics. Naturally, this would allow him to evolve into a Level 5 mutant.
That meant creating something out of nothing, controlling energy fields, and even absorbing the nuclear energy of a star.
This was precisely why Orochimaru had gritted his teeth and resolved to fuse with this ability the moment he learned the system had rewarded it to him.
If this ability were properly developed, techniques like the Eight Gates and creatures like Tailed Beasts would be mere child's play—he could simply absorb their energy and step all over them.
Even with this ability, however, ninjutsu could not be neglected. After all, techniques such as Transformation, Sealing Techniques, and Genjutsu still had their uses.
Until he grew strong enough, these auxiliary abilities remained quite necessary.
Particularly when it came to Genjutsu and the like: despite possessing such a freakishly powerful ability, the Black King had ultimately had his mind controlled by Professor X and was finally killed by a single coin—truly a lamentable and tragic end.
Orochimaru in this world also had very low resistance to Genjutsu. Despite the Third Official Databook rating Orochimaru's Genjutsu at 10, he was still no match for Itachi in a single clash.
One could only say that the maximum score on the written test was 10, but other people's upper limits went far beyond that.
Coupled with the fact that he went around planting his marks everywhere, embedding fragments of his soul within the Heaven and Earth Cursed Seals, while this granted him numerous opportunities for resurrection, it also drastically lowered his resistance to Genjutsu. One could only say that every gain came with a loss.
Now that he knew this in advance, naturally he would not let such a thing happen again.
The Black King's ability had already opened the door to a new world for him; from here on, he just needed to find a way to improve his defense and resistance against Genjutsu.
As for the study of the human body, Orochimaru had no intention of giving that up.
After all, his body was still mortal flesh and blood—it would bleed when injured, and it could be overloaded and burst to death if he absorbed too much energy.
Not only could research in this area not be stopped, but it had to be treated with great importance. He needed to understand the limits of his physical strength, where the ceiling of his energy absorption lay, how much energy his cells could store and accommodate, and so on.
Similarly, he still intended to follow the original storyline by studying the cells of the Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan, especially Hashirama Cells.
If possible, he would still fuse their genes. It was not that he wanted to learn Wood Release; rather, he had his eyes set on their powerful Sage Body.
Every member of the Uzumaki clan possessed a massive pool of Chakra, but looking at the Senju clan, apart from Hashirama, the reincarnation of Asura, everyone else in the clan was thoroughly unremarkable.
By Tsunade's generation, they had degraded to such a degree that even her Strength of a Hundred Technique was merely a passive skill compared to Hashirama's.
By comparison, the Sage Body traits of the Uzumaki clan were far more pronounced, which formed Orochimaru's next course of action.
He believed that increasing cellular vitality would also benefit his abilities; the mere ability for rapid cellular regeneration alone was immensely useful.
Even if he absorbed an overload of energy, he could rapidly regenerate and avoid instantly blowing apart.
In the Marvel universe, the Black King began developing his powers during World War II and still required decades to reach that level.
Orochimaru did not have that much time, so he could only accelerate his growth through alternative methods.
"This research can wait; I need to develop the abilities of this body first."
With that thought, Orochimaru formed a hand seal and breathed flames directly onto his own hands.
At the same time, his hands absorbed the flames. If an outsider were to witness this scene, they would undoubtedly assume he was engaging in self-harm.
That was correct; Orochimaru's current actions were indeed self-harm, except that these attacks were incapable of actually hurting him.
This self-sufficient method was something he had just devised. Using ninjutsu consumed the chakra within his body.
It was not the same type of energy as what he absorbed and stored, but this process would still consume the energy within his cells.
Once he finished absorbing the flame energy, Orochimaru discovered that the energy he released was not equal to the energy he absorbed back.
The conversion rate between energy and energy output was still too low; this was simply an exhausting effort with little reward.
"Sigh, a self-sufficient path to invincibility really doesn't work out!"
Sighing softly, Orochimaru switched to another method. Since thermal energy wasn't cutting it, he would try a different kind.
Soon, much like the Black King in the Marvel universe, Orochimaru made a decision that defied his ancestors.
Bashing into walls, jumping from buildings, roasting in fires—all sorts of bizarre behaviors were put on display by him.
Such masochistic actions actually proved effective, though anyone who saw him would certainly misinterpret him as having self-destructive tendencies.
This momentarily reminded him of someone who shared his behavioral patterns: Hidan.
Only, at this point in time, Hidan's father probably didn't even exist yet and wouldn't be born for another seven or eight years.
After slamming into walls an untold number of times, Orochimaru suddenly had a thought:
"Right, why don't I find someone to spar with me? I'm really overcomplicating things!"
If he had someone beat him up every day, wouldn't his energy be gathered effortlessly? This method of getting stronger simply by taking beatings saved both time and effort!
At this thought, the figure of one person suddenly surfaced in Orochimaru's mind: Tsunade.
Just thinking about her terrifying Monstrous Strength, having her punch him once a day would be more than enough.
"Hmm, I haven't caught sight of her these past few days; I wonder how she's holding up?"
Ever since Orochimaru returned from the cemetery that day, he hadn't stepped outside, partly because he was intentionally avoiding her.
After all, as fellow Sannin, being savagely beaten in broad daylight was a huge blow to one's dignity, and since Orochimaru was in the wrong first, he hadn't even felt it right to fight back.
Still, now that he considered having this free sparring partner to recharge his batteries, taking a blow or two didn't matter—everything was for the sake of a bright future.
According to Orochimaru's memories, Tsunade was still going to stay in the village for another nine years, only setting out to wander the world after Shizune was promoted to Chunin.
During this period, not only could he have Tsunade keep him company for training, but he could also conduct some academic exchanges with her. After all, she was proficient in Medical Ninjutsu and possessed a deep understanding of the human body, which happened to complement Orochimaru's research.
With that thought, Orochimaru dusted off his clothes, pushed open the courtyard door, and walked out.