Chapter 475: The First Avenger

....

[LIE Studios]

It was past midnight.

And while the talks in Japan were happening about the anime adoption of [Naruto]-

Regal is working on multiple things, before he could fully dive into the filming of [Train To Catch].

He sat at his desk, the blueish light of his dual monitors reflecting off his face.

Sprawled across his desk were three locked screenplay treatments bound in heavy white cardstock:

[Spider-Man: Homecoming], [Iron Man 2], and [Superman: The World’s Burden].

They were polished, finalized, and secure.

The agencies were already clamoring for schedules.

Agents from CAA and ITA were ringing Samantha’s phone every morning, trying to decipher whether LIE Studios was preparing to launch a unified press campaign to announce the immediate sequels for Peter Parker and Tony Stark.

But Regal knew better.

If you build a house too fast, the weight of the roof will collapse the foundation before the mortar has even cured.

If he rushed into the sequels, the MarvelDC Multiverse (MDCU) would turn inward, becoming a self-indulgent loop of familiar faces rather than a living, breathing universe with expansive boundaries.

He stood up, his joints popping slightly in the quiet of the room.

He walked slowly over to the massive, clean porcelain whiteboard that covered the western wall of the office. [cite: 406, 736] He picked up a dark blue marker, uncapped it, and stared at the clean, reflective surface.

In his mind, the translucent blue interface of the system hummed into existence.

....

•-----[INDEX]-----•

[Name:] Regal Seraphsail

[Items]

[Skill Slots]

[Bulletin Board]

ⓘ [EP Available : 3.7 Million]

ⓘ [Bulletin Board] ([┘]- 04:12:35)

•----------------•

....

•-----[SKILL SLOTS]-----•

» [Slot-1:] Director (Rank – World-Class) [In-active]

» [Slot-2:] Writer (Rank – World-Class) [In-active]

» [Slot-3:] Cinematographer (Rank – World-Class) [In-active]

» [Slot-4:] Drawing (Rank – World-Class) [In-active]

» [Slot-5:] Actor (Rank – Master)

•--•

Ⓘ [Unique Skill:] Insight

Ⓘ [Unique Skill:] Polyglottery

Ⓘ [Unique Skill:] Eyes On Me

•----------------------•

....

Yes, his [Drawing] skill had been pumped to [World-Class] rank, while he deliberately left the last one, [Actor], at Rank [Master]. He knew he might need to swap it out for something else eventually, well aware of the system’s hard limit of five active skill slots.

With a quiet mental swipe, Regal shifted the translucent blue screen over to the system repository, his gaze locking onto two specific unproduced titles he had kept pinned in reserve.

•-----[BULLETIN BOARD]-----•

[Refresh Time] ([┘]- 04:12:35)

....

[Web Novel:] ▲

[Books:] ▲

[Private Music Album:] ▲

[Manga:] ▲

[Movie Scripts:] ▼

| Captain America: The First Avenger (Rank: S-, Price: 400K EP) – (⚲)

| Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Rank: S, Price: 800K EP) – (⚲)

| Wonder Woman (Rank: S, Price: 1.5M EP) – (⚲)

....

[Force Refresh:] 100K

[Pins Available(⚲):] 3 (in use)

•------------------------•

There was a massive backlog of books, novels, and music albums, but ignoring all the clutter, his eyes landed straight on the pinned scripts he had been saving all this time.

For a while, Regal had barely paid attention to the [BULLETIN BOARD]. With a steady reserve of [Title Tokens] and [Search Tokens], he rarely needed to rely on the daily listings.

Still, that didn’t mean he had stopped checking it altogether.

He made a habit of visiting every single day, ready to snap up anything promising the moment it caught his eye.

The system had also rewarded him with an additional Pin (⚲) after [The Incredible Hulk] became a success, bringing his total to three.

...and the constant shopping was the exact reason his EP reserves remained in a slump, even after churning out blockbuster after blockbuster over the years.

Regal didn’t hesitate and tapped the interface mentally

•---•

「Ding! Purchase Complete: Movie Script [Captain America: The First Avenger]」

「Your total EP is now: 3,700,000 - ↓400,000 = 3,300,000」

ⓘ The purchased item will be stored in the [Items] slot.

•---•

•---•

「Ding! Purchase Complete: Movie Script [Captain America: The Winter Soldier]

「Your total EP is now: 3,300,000 - ↓800,000 = 2,500,000」

ⓘ The purchased item will be stored in the [Items] slot.

•---•

•---•

「Ding! Purchase Complete: Movie Script [Wonder Woman]」

「Your total EP is now: 2,500,000 - ↓1,500,000 = 1,000,000」

ⓘ The purchased item will be stored in the [Items] slot.

•---•

....

•-------[ITEMS]-------•

» [Web Novel:] ▲

» [Books:] ▲

» [Private Music Album:] ▲

» [Manga:] ▲

» [Movie Scripts:] ▼

» [Captain America: The Winter Soldier] x 1

» [Captain America: The First Avenger] x 1

» [Wonder Woman] x 1

....

....

....

» [Transformers] x 1

» [John Wick Chapter - 2] x 1

» [Kung Fu Panda - 2] x 1

» [How To Train Your Dragon] x 1

....

» [Title Token] x 3

» [Search Token] x 4

•---•

Immediately, he consumed the scripts he wanted to focus on.

Which are–

[Captain America: The First Avenger], and [Captain America: The Winter Soldier].

The information surged into his mind, with the cool, familiar clarity of a composer recalling a complex piece of sheet music he had forgotten he wrote.

Every block, every camera setup, and every frame of the unified screenplay mapped itself perfectly onto his mental timeline.

Regal opened his eyes.

However, he simply couldn’t just write exactly what he had absorbed.

There was a specific reason why he had purchased and absorbed both parts of the Captain America story.

And that is–

[Captain America: Sentinel of Time]

Regal planned the same thing that he did for the [Batman] film.

He wants to combine both parts and to deliver the maximum possible emotional and narrative impact. And once again there will be Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, which will be directed by him and Fede.

However, this time the Chapter 1 will be directed by Regal, and the Chapter 2 will be directed by Fede.

....

Suturing two entirely different eras into a single, three hour film was a creative push that would have driven any traditional Hollywood screenwriter insane.

To Regal, whose [Writer] and [Director] skills were both honed to the pinnacle of [World-Class] rank, it was an exercise in finding the right narrative frequency.

He stood up, walking slowly toward the massive whiteboard lining the west wall of his study. He held a black marker in his hand, tapping the cap against his chin as he stared at the blank white surface.

"Should I just start in 1942?" Regal muttered to himself, drawing a small timeline mark on the left. "The traditional origin route... Brooklyn, the ninety-pound kid getting beat up in the alley, recruitment booth, serum, and then the war..."

He paused, shaking his head slightly.

"No... if we do that, it’s just a standard period piece for the first ninety minutes. The audience knows he eventually ends up in the modern day. There is no mystery in that. What if we subvert it?"

He tapped the marker against the board, drawing a circle on the far right.

"What if the film opens right in 2014?" Regal murmured, his eyes narrowing as the visual language began to take shape. "In the Arctic. Blinding white permafrost, deep ice-shelf drilling rigs, a recovery crew uncovering a colossal, frozen bomber wing buried for seventy years... and inside, an unmoving man encased in glacial ice with a star-spangled shield."

He jotted down a quick note: Spherical prime lenses, desaturated blues, grays, tight 90-degree shutter.

"They extract him." Regal continued, pacing back and forth as he built the puzzle piece by piece. "Bring him straight into a S.H.I.E.L.D. recovery bunker in New York. But... How do they wake him up? If he opens his eyes to digital monitors, LED lights, and touchscreen telemetry, the sheer shock could send his brain into panic."

Regal smirked faintly, the pieces clicking together.

"Fury builds a containment room, a psychological buffer, and they reconstruct an authentic 1942 Brooklyn hospital recovery room. Vintage floral wallpaper, an old radio playing a classic Dodgers game broadcast, an agent dressed as a 1940s army nurse. The audience will be completely confused. They just saw a frozen body pulled out of Arctic ice in 2014, and in the very next shot, he wakes up in what looks like the middle of World War II."

He gestured with the marker, mapping out the scene beats in the air.

"Steve opens his eyes and looks around, completely calm at first, but his senses immediately pick up something wrong as he listens to the radio broadcast and realizes the inconsistency. ’I was at that game.’ He sits up, growing suspicious, and walks toward the window..."

Regal’s eyes lit up.

"And right there at the window, we make the transition with a seamless visual and acoustic match cut, letting the vintage radio broadcast on the cot bleed into the rumbling sound of a 1940s elevated train outside as the blue color grade gradually melts into warm amber anamorphic light, rich film grain, and the streets of 1942 Brooklyn."

He began scribbling the middle Chapter rapidly across the board.

"Now the origin story unfolds. They see the frail, asthmatic Steve holding up a garbage can lid in the mud... ’I can do this all day.’ They see Bucky Barnes standing beside him after Sarah Rogers’ funeral, giving him the promise: ’I am with you till the end of the line.’

"They live through the European trenches, the mountain train where Bucky plummets into the snowy abyss three frames before Steve can reach him... and then the final sacrifice."

Regal paused, his voice dropping to a whisper as he visualized the tragic end of the flashback.

"Steve pilots the Valkyrie into the Arctic ice, speaking to Peggy over the radio and promising her a dance that will never happen before the crash buries him beneath the ice, sealing him away as the loop finally snaps shut."

He drew a sharp arrow connecting the Arctic crash straight back to the 2014 fake hospital room.

"Cut back to the present. Steve recoils from the nurse, tears through the drywall, and races into the steel-and-glass corridors of modern S.H.I.E.L.D. before bursting into the neon chaos of Times Square, surrounded by digital billboards, hovering drones, and roaring traffic, where Nick Fury steps out of an SUV."

Regal smiled softly, writing down the iconic line:

"I had a date."

"And that’s where the real contemporary conflict ignites." Regal said, leaning back to take in the whiteboard–

"...with Project Insight, S.H.I.E.L.D. compromised by Hydra, Steve realizing his country has traded freedom for control, and Hydra’s ultimate ghost assassin, the Winter Soldier, until the mask comes off on the highway and Steve recognizes him with a stunned, ’Bucky?’ only to hear, ’Who the hell is Bucky?’ before everything builds to Steve dropping his shield aboard the falling Helicarrier, taking the beating, and echoing Bucky’s own words back to him, ’Then finish it.’ Cause I am with you till the end of the line.’"

Regal set the marker down on the tray, folding his arms as a quiet, satisfied breath escaped him.

The uncertainty had evaporated.

What started as an experimental pitch had become an airtight, emotionally devastating cinematic loop that seamlessly fused the past and present into a single three hour masterwork.

.

....

[To be continued...]

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