Chapter 2410 - Ch: 56-60

Chapter 56 Egghead: "I reasonably suspect that you, Arthur, are just a jerk!"

After obtaining the crude directional coordinates of South America compiled by Fury, Arthur didn't waste any words, gave a heads-up to the Director, and directly took Gwen's hand to leave the main command room.

Following the intricate steel corridors inside the S.H.I.E.L.D.Helicarrier, the two made their way all the way to the vast and boundless open-air flight deck outside.

Overhead was intense sunlight, and underfoot were thick white clouds.

Arthur stopped in his tracks, turned around, and faced Gwen.

Without discussing with her what transportation they would use to go to South America later, he directly and very skillfully bent down, sliding his right arm under the back of Gwen's knees.

Supporting her back with his left hand, in an extremely standard and forceful bridal style, he steadily lifted her completely off the ground and folded her into his wide, thick embrace.

Suddenly picked up, Gwen very obediently wrapped her hands around Arthur's neck, resting her head comfortably against his chest.

The next second, Arthur directly awakened the Rabbit Talisman and Rooster Talisman in his mind.

Intertwined by two completely different forces, the two of them instantly turned into a phantom that was almost invisible to the naked eye, suddenly rising from the flat deck of the Helicarrier, soaring straight into the clouds, and flying through the air toward a destination half an Earthaway.

To prevent Gwen's frail body from suffering the impact of high-altitude cold currents and terrifying air pressure under such extreme speeds, Arthur, the moment they took off, unhesitatingly activated the Horse Talisman hidden within his body.

As an invisible fluctuation covered both of their bodies, all the dizziness, hypoxia, and intense bodily rejection that should have occurred during high-speed flight were stripped away cleanly in an instant.

Leaning in Arthur's embrace, Gwen didn't feel even a shred of airflow turbulence; she only felt that although the sound of the wind by her ears was very loud, her body was warm and secure.

Spending almost not even a second, Arthur relied on that unreasonable movement method to take Gwen across half an Earth, landing very precisely in a certain alley in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The moment the two walked out of the alley entrance, the humid heat and bustling worldly atmosphere unique to South America instantly rushed at them.

The streets were everywhere filled with locals of various skin tones wearing cool summer clothes.

The shops along the street played rhythmic carnival music, and the rich aroma of meat emanating from the grill nets of roadside vendors drilled straight into people's noses.

The scenery here formed a stark contrast with New York, which was always wrapped in tall buildings.

Since he had explicitly told Fury that this was a publicly funded trip, Arthur naturally wouldn't be stupid enough to run off to the desolate mountains and wild forests to look for some Hulk the moment he landed.

He casually threw the task of finding Bruce Banner to the back of his mind, completely putting on the demeanor of a tourist who came here for a vacation.

"Let's go, forget about those damn matters for now; since we're here, let's have a good meal before considering anything else." Arthur directly took Gwen's hand and squeezed into the snack street with the densest crowds.

In the next few hours, the two of them completely unlocked an unbridled mode of eating, drinking, and having fun.

Arthur led Gwen shuttling everywhere through the bustling neighborhoods of Rio, stopping to take a group photo whenever they saw novel street graffiti, and stepping forward to buy two portions whenever they passed a pushcart selling South American specialty food.

At this moment, Gwen didn't look like Ghost Spider at all, who fought crime alone swinging by Web-slinging in the nights of New York; she had completely cast aside all her guards and burdens.

She was holding a freshly split iced coconut in her hand, while chewing on a piece of sizzling, oil-dripping Brazilian barbecue she had just snatched from Arthur's hand.

Whenever she saw someone dancing passionate samba on the roadside, she would excitedly tug at Arthur's sleeve and point, her entire person exuding the vibrant aura of an ordinary little girl in love.

The two strolled leisurely on the street like this for a long time. Until they were full and well-fed, and their steps began to slow down, Arthur finally stretched contentedly and remembered the serious business.

While holding Gwen's hand for a walk by the roadside, Arthur sized up the bustling urban street scene around them.

Putting a little thought into it made it clear that with so much foot traffic on this street every day, any unfamiliar face appearing would be very easily remembered.

Banner was a fugitive who was constantly dodging the radar tracking of the United States Military; he could never swagger openly into such a bustling commercial district and parade through the streets.

If he wanted to hide seamlessly, either he would run off to deep mountains and old forests where not even a ghost's shadow could be seen, or he would shrink into the three-noes zones with the most chaotic order like the slums.

Looking at the dense crowd of heads on the street, Arthurdid not show any impatient emotions.

At the corner ahead, he found a dead end piled with discarded cardboard boxes where absolutely no passersby walked.

He pulled Gwen in, then blinked at her, a somewhat cocky smile curving at the corner of his mouth, and spoke.

"Watch closely, your man is going to perform magic for you."

Finishing this sentence, Arthur did not pay attention to Gwen's curious gaze.

With very fluid movements, he reached his hand into the long pocket of his hoodie, fumbled for a moment, and pulled out the brass two-finger Sling Ring given to him by Ancient One, leisurely slipping it onto two fingers of his left hand.

Although the expression on his face was as steady as Mount Tai, Arthur had long started sweating secretly in his heart.

He quietly took a deep breath, frantically cheering himself on in his heart, silently praying that this gadget would definitely give some face today and absolutely not drop the ball at this moment when showing off was most needed, making him lose face in front of his girlfriend.

After sorting out his mindset, Arthur raised his left hand and fixed it in front of his chest, raised his right hand, and began to hover in mid-air, slowly turning in circles based on a tiny bit of faint feel.

And at the very moment his fingers had just traced half an arc, he suddenly sensed a very obvious reaction deep within his body.

That Tiger Talisman belonging to the Chinese zodiac unexpectedly activated automatically under this completely unheralded situation.

In the past when practicing at home, no matter how Arthurconcentrated his mind to activate it, the ability was like a stone sinking into the sea; but at this moment, it seemed to have been completely smoothed and cleared out by this talisman.

The instant the Tiger Talisman operated, a series of extremely dazzling sparks suddenly burst forth along the mid-air trajectory drawn by Arthur's fingers.

These sparks were no longer the intermittent tiny stars from before, but instead, like a living fire serpent, quickly connected into a ring along his fingertips.

In the air, a faint yellow halo quickly appeared.

Accompanied by the highly rhythmic circular drawing motion of Arthur's right hand, this halo, which was originally only the size of a fist, began to grow larger bit by bit, gradually stabilizing into a complete gateway big enough for a person to crawl through.

Gwen, who had been standing quietly watching to the side, had her pair of pretty azure blue eyes uncontrollably widened slightly at this moment.

Looking at this cool magic gate floating beside the trash can, and then turning her head to stare at Arthur's profile, her tone was full of unsuppressable shock and surprise.

"Yu, what other abilities do you have that I don't know about?"

Opposite this Portal was not any other street or deep mountain; the scene coming into view was precisely the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier command room they had left not long ago.

Viewed from the perspective of the halo, it happened to face Fury's back.

At this moment, Director My Lord was standing with his hands behind his back, intently watching the rolling intelligence data on the big screen in front of him, completely unaware that behind him, a sparking yellow halo had appeared out of thin air, nor did he notice any unusual commotion.

Hearing Gwen's praise, Arthur secretly felt ecstatic in his heart.

He stopped the action of his right hand continuing to turn in circles, letting this sparking halo honestly stabilize at its current size.

Looking at Fury's shiny, dark, and rounded back of the head, truly unable to suppress the bit of mischievous humor in his heart, he directly reached his hand through the halo, curled his fingers, and flicked Fury right on the head.

With an extremely crisp "pa" sound.

Fury, who was pondering major international affairs, shivered all over from this sudden flick.

He vigilantly covered the back of his head in an instant, his other hand almost instinctively touching the sidearm at his waist, and abruptly turned around like a startled old cat.

Until this moment, Fury's single eye finally saw clearly the face of Arthur floating in mid-air, as well as this mysterious yellow sparking halo he had never seen before.

His hand resting on the holster froze in mid-air, and the usual cold expression on his face of remaining unfazed even if Mount Tai collapsed before him completely shattered. His single eye widened to its maximum, unable to believe what bizarre scene he was actually seeing.

"My goodness, Mr. Lin, what other abilities do you have left unrevealed?"

Fury swallowed a mouthful of saliva, feeling that the World view accumulated over decades of his Agent career had once again suffered a crushing critical strike.

Arthur retracted his hand that had been lingering in mid-air, coughing twice as if nothing had happened to mask his awkwardness.

He did not answer Fury's question, but instead stretched out a finger and flicked it casually in the air, controlling the spark-filled Portal like a floating camera to make a full circle around the surroundings.

Through the Portal, he completely and clearly revealed the streetscape outside this dilapidated dead end in Rio de Janeiro, the blinding sunlight of South America, and the noisy samba crowds not far away to Fury, who was thousands of miles away.

After Fury understood their current situation, Arthurbrought his face close to the Portal again, spread his hands with a righteous expression, and began to complain.

"Tap away on your keyboard on the Helicarrier and help us figure out which rat hole that big guy Banner is hiding in over here."

"Anyway, I'm too lazy to look for him."

"Although if I really put in some effort, I could try running through every corner of all of Rio, that process is too troublesome, and I'm too lazy to move my legs."

Listening to Arthur's reluctant rhetoric filled with complaints, the shock on Fury's face gradually turned into speechlessness.

He lowered the hand that had been covering the back of his head, let out a long, soft sigh, tinged with a hint of helplessness in his tone, and replied across half the Earth.

"Is there any possibility that I also have no idea where he is at all?"

Fury pointed to several strings of encrypted data on the big screen.

"The rough location of Banner that I learned over here was only because he accidentally exposed his information earlier, and our interception system caught a little tail of it."

"But after this online exposure, given his spy-like vigilance, he will definitely move to a more remote place and carefully hide."

"Now all the tracking signals on the network are cut off, and I have no good way to help you find him."

After listening to Fury's brutally honest words, Arthurcompletely disregarded the other person's face and began to exclaim loudly right in front of the Portal.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is so useless."

These simple few words were like precise darts piercing right into Fury's minefield.

A mouthful of old blood almost gushed out of Fury, and his dark face instantly turned blacker than coal. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and was about to unreservedly hurl curses back through the door.

As a result, Arthur was quick-eyed and quick-handed. A second before Fury's first word popped out of his throat, Arthur flipped his wrist and cleanly closed the connection channel in advance.

The sparks instantly gathered and disappeared, leaving only Fury roaring at the air on the Helicarrier.

After resolving this nutrient-poor long-distance call, Arthurturned his head to look at Gwen standing beside him.

He shrugged his shoulders and put on a helpless expression.

"There's no other way. Come on, the two of us will just slowly take a walk here and look for someone."

"Anyway, we have plenty of time, just treat it as taking a stroll through a few more streets."

Gwen naturally had no objections. She nodded obediently, walked over to Arthur in a few steps, gently brushed her shoulder against his arm, and honestly followed him out of the alley.

While leading Gwen to wander aimlessly, Arthur's brain began to spin rapidly in thought.

Piecing it together according to the surviving plot memories in his mind, he indeed remembered that in this Hulk solo movie, because Banner had nowhere to go, the first stop of his escape was chosen in a remote slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where even the Police were unwilling to go, and he rented a small room that leaked rain all year round.

As for which slum in Rio it specifically was, Arthur twitched the corner of his mouth. How could he have that perverted, copy-machine-like memory to remember every street and number? The only way was probably just for a blind cat to run into a dead mouse and slowly inquire about it.

Just as he walked to a crossroads and was about to turn, his footsteps suddenly paused.

Arthur touched his chin and thought, since Banner chose to hide in this unfamiliar country to survive, and had to keep it secret from everyone while researching the antidote to suppress the transformation,

then his minimum condition for sustaining life was that he had to get money to eat.

But like him, an international fugitive without a legal identity, if he went to find a regular job to make money, he would definitely be required to sign a formal labor contract. As long as he went through social security procedures, his information would be exposed immediately.

Therefore, Banner's only way out was to go to the lowest-level factories to work as a coolie doing odd jobs.

As long as he took Gwen to check the nearby factories one by one and grabbed those foremen to ask if there were any White men who had escaped from the United States to work illegally, he would always be able to get some results.

Just as this logical plan took shape in his head, Arthurraised his head, glanced at the dense and endless residential buildings around him, and suddenly started to get cold feet in his heart.

He asked in despair in his heart, could it be that he really had to climb walls factory by factory to find someone, and screen them all like a coolie?

Thinking about it, Arthur slapped his forehead fiercely, feeling that he was an absolute idiot.

Why was his train of thought stuck? He refused to take the shortcut and instead insisted on splitting hairs.

Didn't Fury just say that Banner was exposed in Brazilbecause he used his account information?

Even though he didn't know which factory Banner finally ran off to work illegally at, couldn't he directly ask S.H.I.E.L.D. for the specific location coordinates when Banner's information disappeared?

As long as they went near that exposure point and slowly inquired, the range would be narrowed down a lot.

As soon as this idea was settled, Arthur didn't say another word and directly had Gwen step aside.

He raised his left hand wearing the Sling Ring once again, and once again stimulated the power within his body.

As his right hand traced a perfect circle, another yellow, sparking Portal instantly formed.

This time, having had a successful experience once before, Arthur did not hesitate at all and directly opened the Portalaccurately on Fury's back once again.

He didn't greet him at all. His hand directly passed through the Portal, familiarly bent his knuckles, and once again flicked Fury on the forehead with a loud snap.

Fury, who was feeling depressed in the command room because of that earlier stunt, was once again attacked in the head by that familiar dull pain.

This time he didn't even pull out his gun, and very skillfully covered the back of his head, turning around with a dark face.

Looking at that smiling face that appeared once again, Furywas so angry that the veins on his temples were throbbing, and his face was full of resentment, wanting to curse.

"Mr. Lin, I now have every reason and very reasonable suspicion that you bastard are simply deliberately playing with me here for fun!"

Looking at Fury's expression that looked like he wanted to eat someone, Arthur didn't take it seriously at all.

He withdrew his hand, waved dismissively at the exasperated Fury across the Portal, and replied in an extremely irresponsible tone.

"Oh well, we are all big men, don't care about such minor details as being hit once."

Arthur tucked his hands into his hoodie pockets and directly ordered the other person, "Old Black, hurry up and go into your system to pull out the location information where Banner's account was last active right before going offline."

"When I finished watching it on your spaceship, I was too busy arguing with you and completely forgot such a long string of neighborhood names."

Fury was completely defeated by this willful ancestor.

With a belly full of fire and nowhere to vent it, he had no choice but to honestly turn back around and frantically hammer away on the keyboard.

Soon, he sent over the exact location and street name of a dilapidated slum with complex terrain on the edge of Rio de Janeiro, letting Arthur use his phone to take a picture of the screen.

Arthur took the phone with the photo taken and glanced at it, confirming that the address on it was correct.

He didn't say a single polite or thankful nonsense word to Fury, leaving only one sentence:

"The slums of Rio de Janeiro, right? Remembered, your Grandpa I will be right there."

As soon as his voice fell, Arthur gave Fury no chance to respond at all, cleanly hanging up the Portal once again and completely erasing the sparking Portal from the air without a trace.

Looking at the empty street, Arthur quickly exited the photo-taking interface, his fingers clicking rapidly on the phone screen to search for that extremely out-of-the-way location on the map, roughly confirming the distance and his current direction.

Locking his phone and tucking it into his pocket, Arthurdidn't need to walk over slowly anymore.

With a long stretch of his arm, he directly wrapped his arms around the soft waist of Gwen, who was still standing obediently in place waiting.

As his thoughts shifted, the power of the Rabbit Talismanwithin his body instantly maxed out, and the two of them vanished into thin air, instantly disappearing from this graffiti- and sunlight-filled Brazilian street corner.

Chapter 57 Gwen: Brain, brain, behave! Stop thinking nonsense!

The streets of Rio de Janeiro were much noisier than Brooklyn, New York, and the air mixed with the smell of sea breeze and cheap spices made those accustomed to the North American climate somewhat uncomfortable.

Arthur, holding Gwen's hand, walked around several crowded commercial streets, then directly asked local street vendors or car repairmen about the location of the nearest slum with the worst security and the densest immigrant population.

Relying on gestures and simple word exchanges, Arthurquickly pinpointed a cluster of buildings built on the mountainside.

He directly took Gwen through the bustling main road and walked up along those steep dirt roads that were not even paved with asphalt.

Along the way, the houses gradually became dilapidated, with electric wires tangled like spider webs in the air, and the walls were covered with graffiti and water stains left by wind and sun.

The two stopped in front of a seemingly huge attic-style shared apartment building.

The building had an extremely messy structure, like an illegal construction made of randomly piled blocks. The doorway was dimly lit, and there wasn't even a proper door lock.

Arthur stared at the building for a few seconds.

Banner was a wanted man who desperately needed concealment and low living costs. If he was staying in this area, this kind of no-man's-land attic without even a manager was definitely an excellent hiding spot.

But this building was too large; it was crowded with at least dozens of rooms.

If they really had to knock on each door to search, it would probably take until dark just to finish one floor.

"We start here." Arthur directly took Gwen's small hand and walked into the corridor on the edge of one floor of the building.

The corridor was filled with an indescribable musty smell.

Gwen quietly followed Arthur, wondering what kind of Agent or hero methods he would use to locate the target.

As a result, Arthur directly came to the first paint-peeled, blackened wooden door.

He had no intention of knocking on the door or pressing his ear against the door to listen.

Arthur stood in front of the door, without even raising his hand. He just slightly moved his mind and precisely threw the power of the Monkey Talisman, representing transformation ability, from his body onto the object in front of him.

Under an invisible fluctuation that could not be explained by any scientific principle, the originally solid and lifeless wooden door, in a tooth-grinding twist and deformation, rapidly shrank in size and changed in texture. In just half a second, the entire door, over two meters tall, directly turned into a large, rough-shelled turtle.

This newly transformed turtle lay on the threshold, motionless.

As the door turned into a living creature lying on the ground, the originally closed room directly opened a completely exposed gap to the corridor.

Arthur naturally poked his head in and glanced around the room.

Inside was a worn-out single bed, a few stinking garbage bags piled on the floor, and a foreign strong man covered in sweat was sleeping spread-eagled on the bed, snoring.

This was a completely ordinary tenant room, with no clues related to Banner at all.

After confirming that the target was wrong, Arthurimmediately withdrew his gaze.

With another thought, the turtle on the ground stretched and deformed again, instantly reverting to that paint-peeled broken wooden door, firmly stuck in the door frame without leaving a single gap.

Gwen, standing beside him, watched this miraculous operation that took less than five seconds and was completely dumbfounded.

Her beautiful azure blue eyes were wide with astonishment, her cherry lips slightly parted, and she was so shocked that she couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

She knew Arthur was not an ordinary person, and she had witnessed his terrifying strength of killing a berserk lizard monster with one punch and his super speed of flying with people. But this kind of outrageous operation of turning inanimate objects into animals with just a glance completely exceeded all her cognitive systems.

But Gwen quickly put this astonishment behind her.

She didn't even ask Arthur what the principle was.

Looking at this man walking half a step ahead of her, Gwenfelt an indescribable sense of security.

Whether he possessed Superman-like strength or hid many such outrageous rule-based trump cards like magic tricks, Arthur was her boyfriend.

In this World, the stronger he was, the safer she felt.

Arthur didn't think his method was shocking at all.

He pulled Gwen and continued deeper into the corridor, sweeping through each room one by one in this simple and crude way.

After the second room's door turned into a turtle, Arthurpoked his head to look.

Inside was a plump Brazilian middle-aged woman, sitting cross-legged on the sofa, watching a local comedy TV show with great interest.

The sudden disappearance of the door let the corridor light shine in.

The woman's peripheral vision sensed something wrong, and as she turned her head to see clearly, Arthur, with quick eyes and hands, immediately cut off the power and turned the door back.

The woman didn't even have time to scream; she could only stare blankly at the reappeared door, probably wondering if she was seeing things from watching TV.

Continue moving forward.

After the third door disappeared, inside was an empty room.

There was no bed, no tables or chairs, and even the light bulb wire was hanging directly in midair. It seemed that the landlord had not rented it out yet.

Arthur shook his head and casually turned the door back.

But Arthur's reckless blind box opening behavior soon led him into a very embarrassing situation.

Walking to a room in the middle of the corridor, Arthur did the same as before.

The wooden door again turned into a turtle lying on the ground.

However, as soon as Arthur poked his head over, a burst of extremely rapid panting and the creaking of an overburdened fabric sofa rushed into his ears.

Arthur's gaze suddenly froze.

On the not-so-spacious old sofa in the room, a young South American couple was entangled, engaging in unreserved indescribable activities.

The two were like dry wood and fire, at a state of selflessness.

But the sudden disappearance of the door directly pulled them out of their intoxication.

The girl subconsciously turned her head and saw Arthurpoking his head in. She was so scared that she let out a piercing scream, frantically grabbed the nearby sofa blanket, and covered herself tightly.

And the boy even fell from the sofa to the ground. Ignoring everything else, he pulled up his pants while cursing out extremely offensive local swear words.

Arthur, caught red-handed, also blushed with embarrassment.

He never imagined that his room-sweeping operation could uncover such a high-definition uncensored live show.

He extremely awkwardly cleared his throat, immediately exerted his power, and turned the door back to its original position at the fastest speed, completely blocking the ongoing cursing inside.

Arthur turned his head and looked at Gwen beside him with some headache.

Sure enough, Gwen's little face was already as red as a ripe tomato.

Even her neck was tinged with a lovely pink.

As a high school student, where had she ever seen such a straightforward scene? At this moment, she could only lower her head, her eyes darting around, one hand nervously clutching the hem of Arthur's hoodie, like a child who had done something wrong.

Arthur, seeing her about to steam, couldn't help reaching out to touch her soft pink-gold gradient short hair.

"Forget it, forget it, just pretend you didn't see it. Quickly clear that unclean stuff from your mind, okay?" Arthurcoaxed softly, his tone full of helpless laughter.

Gwen lowered her head and responded with a very small 'Mm.'

Although she verbally agreed not to think about it, human thinking is like that: the more you tell her not to think, the more those stimulating images she just saw uncontrollably flash through her mind repeatedly.

The girl's scream, the boy's urgent reaction, like a switch, directly touched some secret feelings in Gwen's heart.

Under this extremely irrational mental association, Gwen's gaze uncontrollably slowly moved along Arthur's arm, sweeping over his broad shoulders and his tall, straight posture while standing.

AI Model: gemini-3.5-flash-lite

Although Arthur was wearing a long-sleeved hoodie and his abdominal muscles couldn't be seen, she had once leaned into Arthur's arms, and she was very well aware of how toned and firm the muscle lines were beneath that layer of fabric.

He was tall, slender, and explosive, coupled with the powerful, absolute strength he had demonstrated time and time again that could easily suppress everything... If the kind of scenario on the sofa just now were to be replaced by herself and Arthur...

Oh my! I'm going crazy!

Gwen suddenly snapped back to her senses about what she was daydreaming about, and her entire body trembled violently as if she had been electrocuted.

She screamed frantically at herself in her heart: "Gwen Stacy, what kind of garbage are you daydreaming about!"

"Throw it away, throw it away! I absolutely cannot keep thinking about this!"

Once this inexplicable thought arose, it spread wildly like weeds.

Gwen felt that her face was already so hot it could fry an egg, and she didn't even dare to raise her head again, only pulling Arthur forward with a muffled sound.

Fortunately, the awkward interlude did not last long.

When they were nearing the end of this corridor, they finally found the highly recognizable target.

When this door turned back into a turtle again, Arthur saw an extremely special room.

Although this place was equally cramped and dilapidated, the room had been forcibly converted into a crude, small-scale laboratory.

The table in the corner was covered with high-speed centrifuges and constant-temperature equipment manually disassembled and assembled from waste household appliance parts.

Several glassware stood on the research bench, filled with unknown liquids of bizarre colors.

The most crucial evidence was that on the wall beside this crude research bench, a woman's photo was taped with transparent tape.

That was Betty Ross.

With these elements superimposed together, there was absolutely no mistake; this was undoubtedly the room where Bruce Banner was currently hiding.

Seeing that he had found the right place, Arthur did not continue to open blind boxes.

He looked at the sky outside the window, which was beginning to reveal a yellowish twilight, and turned to discuss with Gwen, whose emotions had calmed down a bit.

"Found it is found, but judging by the time, he should still be working at the factory and hasn't come back yet."

"Should we wait for him to get off work directly in this room, or go out and find a place to stroll for a while before coming back?"

Gwen did not consider for long.

She looked at this somewhat empty and chilly room, thought for a short while, and said, "I think we can just stay here and wait for a little while."

"Running back and forth is too troublesome."

Arthur would never reject his own girl's opinion, so if she said stay, they stayed.

With a thought from Arthur, he immediately turned the turtle crouching at the door back into the tightly closed door it originally was.

Then he simply pulled Gwen's hand and swaggered directly into this crude room.

There was only a wooden chair in the room that was about to fall apart, and neither Arthur nor Gwen intended to sit.

The two simply walked to a relatively clean corner against the wall and sat directly on the ground.

Waiting against the wall was always a boring thing.

Arthur casually brought up a topic and looked at Gwenleaning beside him.

"By the way, Gwen, do you usually like animals? Pets like cats and dogs?"

Hearing this question, Gwen's azure blue eyes instantly lit up, as if they were hiding starlight.

She had completely no resistance to furry little creatures.

She immediately nodded hard, with anticipation written all over her face.

Arthur smiled, stood up from the ground, and quickly swept his gaze across this cramped and messy room.

Soon, among the debris behind the door, he rummaged and found a dusty, dilapidated small canvas bag that had been abandoned for a long time.

This bag could no longer tell its original style, and the zipper was broken.

Arthur picked it up casually, gently patted the dust on it, walked back in front of Gwen, and squatted down.

This time without any concealment, Arthur directly activated his power in front of Gwen.

The first to take effect was the Monkey Talisman.

The ability of transformation ignored the common sense constraints of material structure, and this lifeless canvas bag rapidly contracted and expanded within a few seconds.

The rough canvas on the surface visibly grew a large amount of dense and soft hair, and the entire contour rapidly stretched and shaped into the shell of a Maine Coon cat with an extremely long torso and a fluffy tail.

Although it already had muscles, bones, and fur completely matching a Maine Coon cat, at this moment it was still just a sculpture without any vital signs.

Immediately afterwards, Arthur unhesitatingly invoked the Rat Talisman within his body.

The rule of imparting life to inanimate objects was instantly poured into this Maine Coon cat's shell.

As if a switch had been pressed, the lifeless plush ornament from just now instantly came alive.

Its belly began to rise and fall rhythmically with breathing, and that tail, as fluffy as a duster, swept leisurely in mid-air.

The kitten slowly opened its eyes, revealing a pair of clear and lively pupils.

Looking at Arthur and Gwen in front of it, it had no sense of unfamiliarity or fear at all, but instead lazily opened its mouth, dragging out a soft and tender "Meow~".

"Goodness!"

Gwen covered her mouth in pleasant surprise.

How could she resist such a trick of creating a small life out of thin air.

She immediately reached out and carefully hugged the Maine Coon cat turned from the old bag into her arms.

The revived cat was warm to the touch, its fur unbelievably soft, and it even made a "purr-purr" sound with great enjoyment in her arms, its little head rubbing hard against Gwen's wrist.

"So cute! I really like it!" Gwen gently scratched the Maine Coon cat's chin with her fingers while looking up at Arthursquatting in front of her.

Her eyes were full of undisguised adoration and amazement, "Yu, ever since you exposed your identity, I find that I understand you less and less."

"How can you possibly have so many abilities."

Facing the praise from his own woman, Arthur had no intention of keeping a low profile.

He stood up, raised his head very proudly, and let out a smug little hum from his nose.

"This doesn't count as much, just twelve rules."

"If you really think it's good and want to watch it, in the future at home, I'll perform these abilities one by one as daily show programs for you to watch."

Gwen was amused by his cocky look and curved the corners of her mouth.

She happily let out an "Hmm", and then once again obediently sat back on the ground, holding the kitten that was already dozing off in her arms, resting her head steadily on Arthur's shoulder.

Time passed minute by minute.

The sky outside had completely darkened.

Arthur and Gwen waited quietly in this crude attic room for a long time.

Finally, a very heavy and dragging sound of footsteps came from outside the corridor, sounding like someone who had just finished heavy physical labor and was about to collapse from exhaustion.

Those footsteps stopped in front of the door.

Followed by a burst of rustling rummaging sounds, a metal key was inserted with extreme precision into the keyhole of the door lock.

Accompanied by the spring click sound of turning the keyhole, the door was pushed open from the outside.

Bruce Banner, who had done heavy manual labor illegally all day at the local Rio soda processing plant, dragged his body that was about to fall apart and walked in.

He closed the door with a backhand, reached for the switch on the wall with extremely natural movements, and turned on the dim pendant lamp with a "click".

However, when the light refilled the room, Banner's entire body was as if immobilized by a binding spell, completely stiff in the hallway behind the door.

He saw at a glance the two young faces sitting intimately snuggled together in the corner of his room, and even in that girl's arms, a super-sized Maine Coon cat taking a lazy nap was being held very comfortably.

Following a brief daze was an outbreak of extreme panic, and Banner, who was already in a state of nervous tension all year round, was so scared that his voice directly cracked.

"What the fuck! Who are you! How did you get in!"

Chapter 58: What do you mean by kidnapping the protagonist before the plot has even started?"

The difference in latitude between Brooklyn and Rio de Janeiro made the humidity in the air feel completely different.

In this narrow and cramped attic room, Bruce Banner was frozen like someone had pressed the pause button, maintaining his posture of turning on the light, staring intently at the two uninvited guests sitting in the corner, as well as the huge Maine Coon cat snoring soundly in the girl's arms.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

The instinctive reaction brought by years of running for his life caused his emotions to instantly slide toward the edge of panic after a brief moment of numbness.

Banner's voice was somewhat distorted due to excessive tension, demanding to know how these two people had gotten in.

Facing this tense atmosphere, Arthur didn't even change his posture.

He still lazily leaned against the wall, one hand resting casually on Gwen's shoulder, and waved at the tense Banner.

"Oh, don't worry about so much ~ Look, didn't we both come in?"

Arthur's tone was as relaxed as if he were greeting guests in his own living room.

Banner had truly never seen such an absurd scene in his life.

Trespassing into someone else's hiding place and actually telling the owner not to mind.

He breathed heavily, subconsciously raising his left hand to glance at the cheap electronic device worn on his wrist specifically used to monitor heart rate.

The numbers beating on it were very dazzling, and the heart rate index had now skyrocketed all the way to just over a hundred.

This was completely scared out of him just from turning on the light earlier, plus being angered by Arthur's insincere words.

Banner was very clear about what terrible consequences would happen if his heart rate continued to skyrocket; the big green guy hidden inside him didn't know what a joke was.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to look away from the heart rate monitor, and tried to calm his violently heaving chest.

After several rounds of breathing control, Banner felt that his heartbeat had stabilized a bit.

He stared closely at Arthur and Gwen.

The two of them looked like ordinary college students traveling in South America, without even carrying a decent weapon on them.

But he knew very well in his heart that anyone who could stealthily evade all surveillance and sneak into his room could definitely not be an ordinary tourist.

"Are you people from the Military?"

Banner gritted his teeth and asked in an extremely certain tone, his mind already conjuring the face of that constantly haunting General Ross.

Arthur shook his head very decisively.

"We are people of Li Yuanfang."

(Making abstract jokes, never mind)

As soon as these words came out, the tense atmosphere originally filled with a sense of being ready to transform and run away at any time suddenly jammed.

Banner had already prepared for these two people to pull out guns or communicators to call in a large force, but instead, he heard such a completely incomprehensible term.

A clear look of utter bewilderment appeared on his slightly vicissitudinous face, and his brows furrowed into the shape of the character "river", obviously struggling to search his vast knowledge base for the meaning of this word.

Not only Banner, but even Gwen, who was quietly leaning beside Arthur, had a look of confusion on her face.

She stopped scratching the kitten's chin, raised her head slightly, her large azure-blue eyes filled with thirst for knowledge, and softly asked Arthur what kind of special code name this actually was.

Looking at the two big and small faces in front of him covered in question marks, Arthur helplessly slapped his own forehead and scratched his hair with his fingers.

"As expected, you can't just make abstract jokes casually in the World of ACG; absolutely nobody understands."

Arthur muttered softly.

He gave up the intention of livening up the atmosphere, put away those terrible memes from his past life, and his expression returned to a relatively serious state.

"I won't mess around with you anymore.

Listen up, we are official personnel, and this time we came specifically to invite you to join the Avengers."

Arthur said, looking into Banner's eyes.

The bewilderment on Banner's face grew heavier.

He stood in place, nervously pinching the corner of his clothes with both hands.

"The Avengers."

Banner repeated the name.

He had been fleeing all over the World for several years, hiding every day, and had never heard of this organization that sounded a bit edgelord-ish.

Arthur cleared his throat and continued to patiently explain.

"Actually, it's just an organization composed of super-powered individuals dedicated to protecting Earth.

Our boss tracked down your location, so he specifically sent the two of us over to talk to you in person and see if you're interested in joining us."

Banner was just about to open his mouth to say something, but Arthur didn't give him the chance to interrupt.

Like a multi-level marketing boss making grand promises, he continued to quickly spill out the welfare conditions.

"As long as you nod to join, you will be a person with an official government establishment and status."

"The higher-ups will help you clear all wanted records.

As long as you don't casually go crazy and harm the people, you can do whatever you want normally."

"They will even allocate top-tier private laboratories for you in downtown New York.

Whatever equipment you want, you'll have; all of it will be in unlimited supply."

These words accurately struck Banner's vulnerability.

After listening to Arthur's explanation, his originally guarded heart indeed uncontrollably produced a trace of yearning.

These years of fleeing were simply too painful.

Living like a rat in the gutter every day, not daring to use his real name, not daring to surf the internet, and even having a slightly decent meal was an extravagant hope.

As a former top dual doctor in physics and biology, he really needed a place where he could showcase his skills and do research quietly.

If it was truly as this young man in front of him said, with this level of official identity protection, General Ross and the people behind him would definitely not dare to pursue him so blatantly anymore.

However, years of being betrayed and plotted against made it impossible for him to easily trust two empty-mouthed strangers.

Banner hesitantly took a small step forward, still somewhat uneasy as he spoke.

"Then—"

Before he could finish what came after that "then", Arthurdirectly activated an unreasonable mode of cutting him off, dumping out all the remaining chips in one breath.

"You can bring relatives, those dog-skin plaster pursuers who chased after you before will definitely not dare to bother you again, and money and equipment are fully guaranteed to be enough.

There's also a bunch of researchers with intelligence similar to yours to act as your assistants, letting you squander those homeless brain cells of yours to your heart's content in the laboratory."

These machine-gun-like words completely blocked the questions Banner wanted to ask right in his throat.

Arthur had already stated the benefits in such a detailed and tempting manner that even if he wanted to pick faults, he couldn't find an entry point.

If all of this were true, this was simply a retirement life he wouldn't even dare to dream of.

Banner was silent for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and asked the final and most important question.

"Since the conditions are so good, then please contact your superior right now.

Matters concerning my future freedom like this, I must discuss the specific details directly with your superior in person."

Seeing him relent, Arthur didn't find it troublesome at all, and immediately and readily nodded.

Arthur, who had been sitting on the ground, patted the dust off his trouser legs and stood up.

He didn't pull out a mobile phone or any communication equipment, but right in the center of the dilapidated attic room, he extended his right hand and nonchalantly drew a circle in mid-air.

Tiny golden sparks emerged out of thin air as his fingertips swept across the air.

Those sparks quickly connected into lines, and then violently expanded outward.

A miniature Portal with edges flickering with golden magicsparks opened up so abruptly under the gazes of Bannerand Gwen.

Opposite the Portal aperture was a spacious control room full of high-tech metallic texture and various holographic projection screens.

And right in the center of this space, a bald, dark-skinned man wearing a long black windbreaker was standing with his back turned this way.

As if some sensitive sixth sense belonging uniquely to a super Agent perceived something unusual, the S.H.I.E.L.D.Director Nick Fury, who was originally turning his back to the Portal, subconsciously clutched the back of his head and turned around.

When he used his only single eye to see Arthur on this side through the aperture, the expression on his face instantly became somewhat distorted, and even across space, he glared fiercely at Arthur.

Afterwards, Fury's gaze shifted slightly, landing steadily on the shocked, down-and-out man standing next to Arthur.

Banner was truly shaken at this moment.

His worldview built upon traditional physics experienced severe shaking when he saw this spark Portal appearing out of thin air.

He saw that the scenery opposite the Portal was incomparably clear, and he could even hear the beeping sounds of the electronic equipment over there.

All of this made him understand that the organization composed of super-powered individuals that the Asian youth in a gray hoodie just mentioned was actually really not telling a poor joke.

Suppressing the shock in his heart, Banner shifted his gaze to the one-eyed black man opposite the Portal.

He greeted the other side of the aperture somewhat constrainedly and modestly.

"Hello."

Fury on the other side of the Portal immediately adjusted his facial expression.

He put away his dissatisfaction with Arthur, revealed a very standard official smile, and responded in a deep and steady voice.

"Mr. Banner, hello, nice to meet you."

Arthur stood between the two of them, leaving them no opportunity to continue exchanging polite pleasantries or probing each other.

He directly and bluntly brought up the topic, shouting to Fury on the other side of the door.

"I've already settled things on my end, letting Banner join the Avengers.

I've laid out all the conditions, so just give me a straight answer and say whether you agree or not."

Fury was choked up quite a bit by Arthur's baffling and domineering words.

The whole bunch of polite nonsense he had prepared in his stomach about soothing Banner's emotions, making grand promises, and showing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sincerity was forcibly pushed back down.

Fury's single eye twitched slightly, clearly finding Arthur's unconventional reporting style giving him a massive headache.

But faced with a strategic resource of Banner's caliber, Fury could only helplessly nod.

"That's acceptable, S.H.I.E.L.D. completely agrees.

Dr. Banner, your intelligence, far surpassing ordinary people, is precisely what S.H.I.E.L.D. urgently needs right now, so if..."

Fury was only halfway through his sentence.

Arthur didn't even bother to greet anyone, just very casually waved his hand.

In mid-air, that Portal flickering with golden sparks instantly vanished without a trace, its light dimming as if its power had been cut off.

Fury, who was still trying hard to display official affinity, had his voice instantly cut off.

The entire attic room in South America returned to dimness and quietness.

Meanwhile, in the command room of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier, Fury looked at the empty air in front of him and his unfinished half-sentence, so angry that his back teeth were almost clenched to pieces.

His dark face was so gloomy it looked like it was about to drip water, and in his heart, he fiercely cursed Arthur with every dirty word he could think of several times over.

At this moment, Fury even deeply doubted whether this kid Arthur was specially sent down by the heavens to be his nemesis.

Every time he dealt with him, his blood pressure never came down.

On the other side, Banner, far away in Brazil, was also left somewhat baffled by Arthur's swift and decisive operation.

He stared blankly at the place where the Portal had existed, his mind in a complete mess.

He even began to wonder whether this Asian youth was the superior, or if that eyepatched black man from just now was the superior.

How was Arthur's speaking attitude so effective?

Not only could he directly make the final decision, but he even dared to hang up on his superior's magic phone right to his face.

This kind of superior-subordinate relationship was even more deformed than his mutated genes.

However, Banner only dared to keep these doubts in his mind and think about them casually.

As long as that black Officer made a promise, other workplace relationships were not within his consideration.

He turned his head to look at Arthur, speaking somewhat impatiently.

"Since it's already settled, may I ask when we are setting off to leave this place?"

"Immediately, right now," Arthur replied very decisively, "as long as you pack your things, we can leave right away."

Hearing this affirmative reply, the emotion that Banner had long suppressed in the depths of his eyes finally had a glimmer of excitement.

He could finally stop living a life of fear and uncertainty in this lousy place, and finally reconnect to the internet to read the most cutting-edge academic papers.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately turned around and walked towards the simple workbench in the corner of the room, starting to pack up the little belongings he had put together during this period.

He first reached out towards the high-speed centrifugation apparatus modified from various scrap items.

"Don't take the apparatus," Arthur spoke up, interrupting his action of moving junk.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has plenty of those heavy equipment.

Once you go there, they will prepare a full set of the World's most advanced top-tier models for you, so don't bring your hand-assembled second-hand instruments to take up space."

Banner paused for a moment upon hearing this.

He nodded, feeling that what Arthur said made a lot of sense.

Thus, he unhesitatingly put down the heavy centrifuge in his hand, turned around to take the special medicinal solutions he had personally formulated, stored in jars and bottles on the shelf.

These experimental data and reagents were truly his valuable items.

After carefully holding the several small bottles in his hands, Banner turned his head to look at the corner of the room where the sundries had been placed just now.

"Huh?"

Banner uttered a sound full of confusion.

He put down the medicine solution bottles in his hand, walked quickly to the corner of the wall, bent down, and searched carefully several times, even opening several empty cardboard boxes to look inside.

"Where's my bag?

I definitely packed that ragged canvas bag right here."

Watching Banner look for that old bag in the corner like a headless fly, Arthur, who had been standing to the side all along, suddenly felt the scene was quite awkward.

He raised his hand, scratched a small patch of skin behind his ear with his index finger, and cast a somewhat guilty glance at Gwen, who had been sitting quietly to the side all along.

To be precise, he glanced at the huge Maine Coon cat sleeping soundly on its back in Gwen's arms.

Gwen received Arthur's eye hint.

She first looked down at the furry little fellow in her arms, then sighed somewhat helplessly.

Although she really liked this little cat whose temperature was just right to serve as a hand warmer, she also knew that using magic to turn someone else's things had to be returned eventually.

She stood up very obediently, and reluctantly handed the cat in her arms over to Arthur.

Arthur reached out both hands to take the small cat, which was somewhat dissatisfied from changing embraces and let out a short meow.

He cleared his throat and purposely coughed twice.

Banner, who was still rummaging through boxes and cabinets, heard the commotion and turned back to look at Arthur with a face full of confusion.

Right under Banner's watchful gaze, Arthur calmly and directly removed the two special powers blessed upon this cat.

The fluctuations of the Monkey Talisman and the Rat Talisman were instantly extracted from within the Maine Coon's shell.

The living creature that was still lively and full of life the second before, with its limbs hanging loosely in Arthur's hands, underwent a visual confusion in less than a second: its fur rapidly receded, and its soft flesh and bones once again became withered and rigid.

In the blink of an eye, that huge Maine Coon disappeared, replaced by a ragged old canvas bag with a bit of dust stained on its edges.

This was precisely the one Banner couldn't find anywhere in the corner just now.

This outrageous skill of instantly turning a living animal into a lifeless backpack was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, smashing the very last bit of physical law cognition built on a scientific foundation in Banner's heart into powder.

Banner's lips trembled uncontrollably, his gaze switching back and forth between Arthur's nonchalant face and that ragged bag.

"This... it was a cat just now.

How did you do that?"

Banner couldn't even speak a complete sentence fluently anymore.

Arthur spread his hands, weighed the ragged bag in his hand twice, and said in a tone as ordinary as eating and drinking.

"Isn't this a very simple matter?"

To prove that his words were not false, Arthur simply continued to demonstrate in front of this poor scientist.

Without even moving his hands, just looking at the bag with his eyes, he began to use the Monkey + Rat combination.

Under Banner's horrified gaze, that canvas bag suddenly distorted again.

Within seconds, it turned into a giant old turtle with a hard shell, slowly kicking its short legs on Arthur's palm.

Before Banner could react, the turtle instantly melted and reshaped, turning into a brightly feathered colorful little bird, flapping its wings trying to fly away.

Before the little bird even left his hand, it directly shrank and changed in mid-air, turning into a dark brown poisonous spider as big as a plate, its slender, hairy legs crawling on Arthur's fingers.

Arthur touched his chin and thought about it.

He originally planned to turn this thing into an elephant, but after glancing at this shabby attic with an area of less than ten square meters, he realized that if he really made an elephant, this room would probably be crushed to collapse on the spot.

In order not to cause trouble for himself, Arthurimmediately dismissed this unrealistic idea.

He very decisively withdrew the power of the talismans, and for the last time turned the baring-its-fangs-and-claws poisonous spider in his hand back into that ragged old canvas bag.

After the continuous, outrageous visual impacts, Banneractually gradually calmed down.

These few transformations completely dispelled the very last bit of doubt in his heart about whether this might be a trap.

He was a smart man, and his brain turned extremely fast.

The facts were clear: someone who possessed this completely unreasonable magic ability would find capturing him even easier than pinching to death an ant.

The other party had no need at all to condescendingly stand in this shabby attic and talk nonsense with him for half a day using such good treatment to draw a grand blueprint.

Having figured this out, Banner no longer fussed over things that exceeded his scope of understanding.

He walked up to Arthur and reached out both hands to take the backpack that had just experienced a magical journey.

Banner pulled open the somewhat stuck zipper, turned around with peace of mind, packed those jars and bottles of experimental solutions from the table into it one by one, and very steadily began the final luggage packing.

Chapter 59: Introducing Character: Stephen

Arthur noticed Gwen's somewhat empty hands, as well as the trace of disappointment the girl revealed when she lowered her eyes.

He knew very well that this rock drummer of his, who always liked to put on a cold and cool facade in front of outsiders, actually had zero resistance to fluffy little animals in private.

Having had no choice but to return that Maine Coon with its excellent tactile feel just now did make Gwen feel a bit regretful.

Arthur turned slightly, naturally reached out, and pressed his palm against Gwen's signature pink-gold gradient short hair.

He gently stroked down along the texture of her hair, and the soft strands brushed through his fingertips, bringing a slight tickling sensation.

Arthur leaned in a little closer and spoke in a gentle voice that only the two of them could hear to comfort her.

"It's okay. When there's a chance in the future, I'll personally conjure a better-looking one for you, definitely more obedient and endearing than the one just now."

Hearing this promise, the corners of Gwen's mouth finally couldn't help but curl up into a tiny arc.

She nodded obediently, and her shoulders relaxed along with it.

The hard protective shell in front of outsiders was completely stripped away at this moment. She just rubbed gently against the palm of Arthur's hand, completely treating herself as an ordinary girl who only needed to rely on her boyfriend.

During the short while the two were whispering, Bruce Banner in the corner had already used the fastest speed to stuff all those bottles and jars containing experimental liquids on the table into the tattered canvas bag.

His years of fleeing career gave him astonishing efficiency when it came to packing luggage.

Banner zipped it up, hung the canvas bag securely over his shoulder, turned around, and nodded at Arthur, signaling that he was completely done on his side.

Arthur didn't waste time; he withdrew his hand from atop Gwen's head and instead took hold of the girl's slender fingers.

He raised his other hand, and relying on the experience figured out during those leisure days, his fingers drew a circle very casually in midair.

Accompanied by a rustling friction sound, golden magicsparks instantly flashed brightly in the midair of the dim attic.

The sparks quickly connected into a continuously rotating aperture, directly and crudely connecting the stuffy room in a Brazil slum with the interior of the distant North American Helicarrier.

Arthur held Gwen's hand and walked in front, with Bannerfollowing closely behind with a look of astonishment on his face, and the three of them successively stepped across the threshold shimmering with magical light.

The environmental transformation took place in merely a split second.

The originally stuffy, humid, and mold-smelling air was instantly replaced by thoroughly filtered air conditioning.

The wooden floor beneath their feet also turned into a hard deck gleaming with metallic luster.

This was an exclusive area inside the S.H.I.E.L.D.Helicarrier.

Nick Fury had evidently received the news through some channel long ago, and at this moment, he was standing upright at the end of the corridor with his hands behind his back, waiting for them.

This Agent leader, who wore a long black leather trench coat year-round, forced out a smile that could be called amiable on his dark face—which usually always looked very serious—at the moment he saw the three step out of the Portal.

Fury's single eye very naturally swept past Arthur, who was walking in the very front, and directly locked onto the down-and-out man who carried a tattered canvas bag and looked somewhat constrained.

"Mr. Banner, welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Fury proactively stepped forward, his tone steady and exuding a reassuring official strength.

"I will take you to your exclusive room right now. It is completely safe here, please follow me."

Banner subconsciously glanced at Arthur beside him, and only after seeing the latter nod casually did he let out a slight sigh of relief.

The exhaustion of fleeing for many years finally received a trace of substantial relief at this moment. He silently followed behind Fury and walked towards the depths of the corridor.

Arthur stood in place, watching the departing backs of the two, when the figure of Sorcerer Ancient One, who always wore bright yellow monastic robes, suddenly flashed through his mind without warning.

Speaking of which, ever since he was taught how to introspect and meditate in Kamar-Taj last time and perceived the existence state of the talisman within his body, it had been a while since he last visited that Sorcerer Supreme who guarded Earth.

Since matters were settled now, it was a good time to drop by and visit.

Thinking of this, Arthur turned his head to look at Gwenstanding beside him, shaking the hands that the two had been holding together all along.

Then, he raised his hand once more, and the Sling Ringtraced a brand-new golden trajectory in the air.

This time, the opposite side of the Portal was no longer a metal corridor full of high-tech texture, but a courtyard permeated with a faint scent of incense and primitive architecture.

Arthur pulled Gwen and stepped directly into this secluded magic sanctuary.

The air of Kamar-Taj carried a slight chill unique to high-altitude regions, and a breeze blew past the wooden flying eaves, bringing a few crisp wind chime sounds.

Gwen curiously rolled her big azure-blue eyes, sizing up the apprentices around her who were wearing dark training uniforms and diligently practicing drawing circles in the distant open space.

She pressed closely against Arthur's arm, and this bizarre scene that completely did not belong to daily scientific cognition made her feel somewhat shocked.

The two walked a distance in the spacious courtyard, and everything that met the eye consisted of unfamiliar faces; there was no sign of Sorcerer Ancient One.

Arthur slightly knitted his brows and stopped walking with a bit of confusion.

At this moment, the corner of Arthur's eye captured a very stocky figure.

That was the librarian of Kamar-Taj, Wong.

At this time, Wong was holding several heavy ancient books, wearing his signature round face with a straight expression as he walked over from the other end of the corridor.

Seeing this, Arthur immediately pulled Gwen to greet him, opening his mouth to ask the other about Sorcerer Ancient One's current whereabouts.

Wong stopped in his tracks, glanced calmly at Arthur, and replied in his unique, deep voice devoid of any emotional color.

"Sorcerer Ancient One happened to go to the New YorkSanctum today to handle some affairs. If you have an urgent matter to find her, I can put down my work at hand and take you there immediately."

After hearing this, Arthur gently shook his head, indicating a refusal.

He originally just had a sudden whim to come over and go through the motions; since the person was not locally present, he didn't want to toss back and forth.

He figured he would just specifically find a time to visit when he had free time in the future.

However, at the very instant Arthur was about to turn around and leave, a faint humming sound belonging to spatial folding sounded without warning in the open space behind the two.

Accompanied by the slowly dissipating golden aperture, the figure of Sorcerer Ancient One, which always exuded a temperament of seeing through the vicissitudes of years, appeared there very abruptly.

She was still wearing that slightly worn bright yellow monastic robe, with not a trace of the years on her signature bald head, and her hands were very relaxed and crossed in front of her chest.

Arthur turned around, and upon seeing the newcomer, a relaxed smile immediately replaced the expression on his face, greeting her very familiarly.

"Hi, long time no see."

Ancient One's calm gaze swept across Arthur.

Those eyes that seemed capable of penetrating everything only paused for a short two seconds before she saw the huge changes that had taken place inside the young man's body.

Those special marks that were originally in a low state now already began to have a trend of being reorganized and controlled.

"You've gotten a lot stronger since we last met." No emotional fluctuations could be heard in Ancient One's voice; she was merely stating an established fact.

Arthur accepted this evaluation very calmly and attributed it to the other's guidance.

"This is all thanks to you. If you hadn't given me pointers last time to let me introspect and meditate, how could I have today's achievement? I'd probably still be wandering around blindly."

While speaking, Arthur exerted a little force with his hand, pulling Gwen, who was standing beside him looking slightly restrained, in front of himself, and solemnly began to make an introduction.

"This is my girlfriend, Gwen."

Arthur turned his head to look at the girl, his tone turning very soft.

"Gwen, this is my teacher. She's the one who helped me thoroughly develop the potentials in my body; otherwise, I still wouldn't know how to control that ability of mine by now."

Upon hearing Arthur's introduction, Gwen's already somewhat nervous mood immediately transformed into full respect.

Toward anyone willing to help and protect Arthur, she would never stint on giving all her favorable impressions.

She completely put away the cool posture she usually had when drumming in the band, and very earnestly and properly bowed slightly to Ancient One to salute.

"Thank you very much for your help to my Yu. He always encounters all kinds of situations outside; having you teach him, I am really relieved."

Gwen's words were very straightforward and sincere, and every line was filled with her protectiveness and deep care for Arthur.

The Ancient One looked at the young girl in front of her with clear eyes, whose heart and eyes were entirely filled with her partner, and slowly a very gentle smile appeared on her face.

She nodded slightly, accepting this sincere gratitude from the junior.

Seeing the atmosphere was so harmonious, Arthur's habitual tendency to push his luck popped up again.

He took a small step forward, with a somewhat half-joking tone, and boldly made a guarantee to the Ancient One.

"Hey, Ancient One. If you have any requests or run into any trouble in the future, just ask me directly. For the sake of this favor, even if you asked me to go straight up and fight that Dormammu right now, I would definitely bite the bullet and get it done for you without a second word."

Facing Arthur's boundary-less grand words, the Ancient One did not get angry, but just gently shook her head.

Her eyes became a bit deeper, her gaze passing over Arthur, as if seeing through the timeline trend before her eyes.

"You don't need to do these things."

The Ancient One's voice returned to that unfathomable calm.

"As the biggest variable on this timeline, you just need to be yourself and live your current life well. When the time truly comes for you to step forward, things will naturally find you."

Since this big shot who could observe time had put words to this extent, Arthur tactfully put away that redundant curiosity and stopped continuing to ask about the future.

He took Gwen's hand and prepared to leave, but just a second before turning around, an important person's name suddenly flashed through his mind.

Arthur abruptly stopped his movement, turned his head to look at the Ancient One, and threw out a question he thought was very crucial.

"By the way, Teacher. Is that guy named Stephen still alive and well? And are his hands currently completely intact?"

The Ancient One's wise eyes stared at Arthur for a moment, then nodded very slightly, confirming his guess.

Having gotten the desired answer, the stone hanging in Arthur's heart finally fell to the ground. He waved his hand readily.

"Thanks to Teacher for clearing up the confusion, then we'll withdraw first and come visit you again when we have time."

Afterwards, the golden Portal lit up once more, and Arthurbrought Gwen directly through the spatial barrier, returning to their familiar, vibrant little home located in Brooklyn.

After their feet stepped onto the soft carpet of the apartment's living room, Gwen casually slipped off the canvas shoes on her feet.

The two of them sat together on that sofa that could make people completely relax.

After sitting steadily, Gwen leaned very naturally against Arthur's shoulder, tossing out the question she had been holding back in her stomach just now.

"Yu, who on Earth is that person named Stephen you asked about just now?"

Arthur pulled out that ordinary smartphone from his pocket, his fingers sliding skillfully across the screen, explaining to Gwen without raising his head.

"He is a Doctor, arguably the top surgeon in the entire United States right now. I suddenly remembered there was such a character in my head just now, and he just happens to come in handy."

Speaking, Arthur directly dialed Nick Fury's dedicated line number.

The call was connected very quickly. Arthur didn't give this spy leader any buffer time at all, directly issuing instructions in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Hey, go find someone for me right now. His name is Stephen Strange, and he should currently be a very famous top surgeon. Once you find out where he is, control him immediately and contact me."

From the other end of the phone came Fury's short and crisp confirmation reply.

Having obtained a positive response, Arthur neatly pressed the hang-up button and casually threw the phone onto the coffee table in front of him.

Gwen, leaning against Arthur's shoulder, heard this phone call full of orders, and her pretty eyebrows furrowed slightly.

She tilted her pink-golden head, her eyes filled with incomprehension.

"However, Yu. What are you going to do finding that Doctor?"

"Find him to perform surgery on Tony Stark, of course." Arthur replied very calmly, "Those shrapnel fragments next to his heart always need a reliable person to take them out."

Hearing this reason, the doubt in Gwen's eyes grew even heavier instead.

With a flash of inspiration, she instantly associated it with those things that happened in the hospital and ruins before, having once displayed that miraculous means of instantly erasing any heavy injuries, even terminal illnesses.

Gwen spoke softly, her tone turning very serious, "Yu, don't you have healing abilities? Since your own ability can directly cure everything, why go to all this great trouble to find an ordinary Doctor?"

Hearing Gwen's rhetorical question entirely based on the current logical system, Arthur sighed helplessly.

He couldn't possibly explain the Marvel Cinematic Universe's hero introduction mechanism to Gwen in this World. He reached out and pinched Gwen's slightly baby-fat cheeks.

"To let this Doctor Stephen come out early to farm some appearance rate, this is his fate."

Gwen listened in complete confusion, completely failing to understand what mystery was hidden in this jumpy sentence.

But she was not the type of person who insisted on getting to the bottom of things. Since Arthur didn't want to elaborate, she couldn't be bothered to keep questioning.

She just very quietly leaned back against Arthur's body, listening to her boyfriend's steady heartbeat, enjoying this moment of warmth and tranquility.

Meanwhile, inside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier in the distant distance.

Nick Fury, who had just ended the call, held the dedicated communicator in his hand, closed his single eye, and took a deep breath of cold air.

In just a few hours, he not only had to arrange for Bruce Banner who popped out of thin air, but now he also had to mobilize national-level resources to find a surgeon on the streets.

He felt that all his decades of spy career combined hadn't received as many instructions as he had in these past few days.

Yet he could do nothing about that young man named Arthur, and could only force himself to quickly adapt to this outrageous work rhythm.

Just as Fury had a headache, the bathroom door of the exclusive guest room was pushed open.

Bruce Banner, who had just finished taking a shower, walked out from the steam.

His body was wrapped only in a pure white bath towel, and he was holding another dry towel in his hand, vigorously wiping his still-dripping hair.

After the dirt accumulated from years of fleeing was washed away, it made his whole person look much fresher.

Banner looked up and saw Fury standing in the outer room with deeply furrowed brows and a somewhat helpless expression. He stopped the action of wiping his hair and tentatively asked a sentence.

"Is it the trouble caused by the boy who dropped me off just now?"

Fury nodded expressionlessly. Looking at this top researcher that S.H.I.E.L.D. had just spent massive efforts to recruit, he decided it was better to give a precautionary warning in advance.

He took a step forward, specially lowering his voice to remind him.

"Mr. Banner, that young man's name is Arthur. He is a fellow with a very complex personality. I must remind you that if you encounter him in the Base or other places in the future, you might find it a bit difficult to adapt to his always willful and arbitrary style of doing things."

In Banner's mind, the outrageous image of Arthur casually turning a cat into various animals or even a broken canvas bag back in the dilapidated attic instantly emerged, along with the other party's arrogant attitude of unceremoniously hanging up on the phone of the Officer in front of him.

He nodded with deep empathy; indeed, that kind of character could by no means be fathomed or approached with conventional logic.

Seeing that Banner understood his implication, Furystopped continuing this topic that easily caused high blood pressure. He turned and walked toward the room's metal door.

Before leaving the guest room, Fury finally gave instructions regarding daily arrangements.

"The top experimental equipment on this floor has all been prepared for you, and the network is also absolutely secure. You can use them at any time. I'll take my leave first; I still have the chores handed down by that ancestor to attend to on hand."

Accompanied by the muffled, light click of the metal door automatically locking, Fury strode away from the corridor.

Chapter 60: Strange: My Normal Life Has Long Since Gone

The smartphone resting on the edge of the coffee table abruptly lit up its screen, followed by a series of muffled vibrations, sending a tiny ripple through the cozy and tranquil atmosphere of the apartment living room.

Arthur reached out, rather lazily picked up the phone, swiped open the screen, and glanced at it.

The message was sent by Nick Fury. This head Agent, who wore a black leather windbreaker year-round, truly had unquestionable efficiency when it came to mobilizing national-level resources to find someone.

However, the few short lines of text displayed on the screen caused the muscles at the corner of Arthur's eyes to twitch uncontrollably a couple of times.

"Found him."

Fury reported crisply and neatly in the message, and the very next sentence exposed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s consistently simple and crude style of doing things:

"Our people have fully locked down the area where he is, the team is in place, and they are ready to go over and detain him."

Arthur's back, which had just been resting comfortably against the sofa cushion, suddenly exerted force under the stimulation of this message, and his entire body sat straight up.

Gwen, who had been snuggling on his shoulder like an obedient kitten, almost slipped off the side because of his sudden, large movement.

The girl slightly opened her pretty azure-blue eyes, her gaze revealing a hint of laziness and puzzlement that had not yet been completely dispelled, and her hands subconsciously clenched the hem of Arthur's oversized hoodie.

She did not voice any complaints, but simply tilted her head up, silently gazing at Arthur's somewhat tightened profile.

Arthur couldn't care less about explaining; he directly pressed the dedicated hotline number and dialed it. The phone had just "beeped" once when the other end picked it up.

"Fury, calm down!"

Arthur shouted unceremoniously into the mouthpiece, his voice revealing obvious displeasure and warning: "I meant control in the sense of stalling for time! Not your S.H.I.E.L.D. style of detaining someone by putting a black hood over their head and shoving them straight into an SUV! This Doctor is extremely important to me, so you better be gentle with him!"

Fury on the other end of the line seemed choked up for a moment by this head-on rebuff, probably having never experienced anyone using a word like "gentle"—which completely failed to match the Agent dictionary—when issuing commands.

"Tell me the location immediately." Arthur didn't give Fury a chance to retort or make excuses, decisively cutting off the nonsense phase with a firm tone: "You don't need to alert him yourselves; I'll go over in person right now."

Soon, a location coordinate representing a top private hospital in Manhattan, New York, was sent to Arthur's phone.

Arthur casually shoved his phone into his pocket, turned to look at Gwen who was still sitting beside him, and his gaze turned gentle once more. He reached out and gently pinched the palm of the girl's hand.

"Let's go, I'll take you to meet a skilled 'mechanic'."

Gwen obediently stood up, not asking anything more. In front of outsiders, she was the rock girl who always kept a straight face and was cool enough to freeze people, but here with Arthur, as long as this hand was held, she only needed to be that ordinary girl who followed along with peace of mind.

Arthur pulled Gwen to a blind spot in the apartment corridor without surveillance cameras.

He raised his right hand wearing the Sling Ring, focused his mind and calmed his breath, bringing two fingers together in mid-air to casually swipe across.

Golden magic sparks burst out from his fingertips out of thin air, and crisp cracking sounds echoed in the quiet corner.

Soon, a spark circle in the micro-contour imaging stage stabilized in front of him, outlining a Portal leading to the back alley near the destination hospital.

The two of them stepped across this magic boundary one after the other, their shoe soles treading on the clean and tidy concrete pavement of Manhattan.

Arthur led Gwen out of the alley and stepped into the lobby of the top-tier hospital, which was filled with a high-end feel and a faint scent of disinfectant, within just a few steps. He held Gwen's hand and walked straight toward the information front desk.

"Hello, I'd like to find Dr. Stephen Strange." Arthur propped one hand on the marble countertop and asked the Nursestanding behind the computer screen in a calm tone.

The front desk Nurse was originally still organizing documents, but upon hearing this name, she immediately raised her head, her gaze carrying a trace of obvious respect, even reverence. She quickly tapped the keyboard a few times to check the internal system's work schedule.

"Dr. Strange has a very complex surgery scheduled for today."

The Nurse looked up at Arthur, her tone revealing a hint of business-like apology, intertwined with a pride belonging to this hospital:

"At present, he should be in the operating room doing highly concentrated work, and it will probably take a long time before he comes out. If the patient on your side has an emergency need, I can help you register with other authoritative experts."

Arthur nodded gently, the expression on his face showing not a shred of anxiety. After all, it wasn't realistic to expect a top Doctor to drop life-and-death matters at hand just to come out and take an order.

"If Dr. Strange comes off the operating table and has free time, please help me pass along a message."

Arthur leaned forward slightly to ensure the Nurse could clearly remember every word: "I have a very important surgery on my end that requires him as the lead surgeon. If he has free time, please make sure he gives me a call back."

Having said that, he picked up the sticky note pad and pen by the table, scrawled down his contact information, and pushed it to the Nurse with a smile.

After finishing this, he turned around, very naturally put his arm around Gwen's shoulder, led the girl out of the hospital's bright revolving glass door, and merged into the bustling street outside.

Since they could only wait around, Arthur simply regarded this as an unexpected date.

They strolled through the bustling streets of Manhattan, and Arthur bought Gwen her favorite strawberry-flavored ice cream.

The girl held the ice cream in her hands; although she muttered softly under her breath, "Eating this on the street when we're this big is so childish", the corners of her eyes and brows were hung with an unconcealable satisfaction.

The sleeves of her oversized dark-gray hoodie were a bit long, revealing only half of her fingers. While walking, her other hand would always seemingly inadvertently brush against the back of Arthur's hand, until Arthur turned his hand over to firmly hold hers, whereupon she would shift her gaze away while pretending to look at the scenery around, but her pace became much lighter.

After wandering around the streets for more than four hours, the sunlight had already begun to slant, lengthening the shadows of the streetlamps along the curb.

The phone in Arthur's pocket finally vibrated.

After pressing the answer button, a voice came through the earpiece that carried a bit of exhaustion, but still failed to conceal that arrogance and confidence carved into the bone.

"Hello, sir." That was Strange's voice, steady in pace and clear in articulation: "I am Stephen Strange. The front desk said you left a message; could you tell me what specific type of surgery it is? Do you need me to go over right now to check the patient's condition?"

"There's no need to be that rushed, nor do you need to go over and look, it's fine." Arthur listened to this slightly business-like tone and replied casually: "I can come over to find you. Just wait for me at the entrance of your hospital, okay, I'll be there right away."

Having briefly explained this sentence, regardless of whether the other party had questions or not, he directly hung up the phone.

When Arthur led Gwen back to the entrance of that hospital once more, he spotted the tall man standing beside the steps at a glance.

Strange was wearing a well-tailored dark suit, his hair meticulously combed, and the expensive luxury watch on his wrist flashed with a low-key shimmer under the setting sun.

More importantly, he was exercising that pair of slender, clean hands—which he regarded as the most precious instruments in the World—with a very cautious posture.

Arthur led Gwen to greet him and took the initiative to say hello.

"Hello, Dr. Strange. As I mentioned to you before, the person this surgery serves is very special." Arthur wore an appropriate arc at the corner of his mouth, throwing out a condition with great worldly temptation: "As long as the problem can be treated well, the medical expenses will definitely not be short of yours, fill in any number you like."

Hearing this rhetoric that felt like pelting people with money, Strange's originally calm gaze immediately gained a few more parts of distant scrutiny. He straightened his back, adjusted his cuffs, and raised his tone by half a notch involuntarily.

"Nonono, sir." Strange shook that slender index finger and immediately made a stern correction:

"I think you might have some misunderstanding about me. I am a top Doctor who is extremely principled and highly responsible to patients, not the kind of quack whose eyes turn green the moment they see money. What I value is the challenge in medical science."

"Yes, yes, yes, what you say is right."

Arthur watched this future Sorcerer Supreme putting on the airs of an elite Doctor here, feeling somewhat amused for no reason. He nodded in agreement immediately without hesitation: "Then can we go now?"

Receiving an obedient response, Strange's expression eased slightly. Carrying the arrogance unique to top figures in the industry, he adjusted his tie, gave a soft hum, and said: "Please."

Arthur turned around and continued to pull Gwen to lead the way in front. The three of them did not walk toward the taxis or luxury shuttle cars parked on the road, but instead bypassed the hustle and bustle of the hospital's main entrance all the way, turning along the base of the wall into a secluded alley next to it where basically no pedestrians walked.

The light in the alley became much dimmer with the obstruction of tall buildings, and besides a few large trash cans, the surroundings were completely empty.

Strange stopped walking, the pair of mirror-like high-end leather shoes under his feet tapping out a crisp sound on the floor. He looked left and right at this dead-end terrain where cars obviously could not pass, his Adam's apple rolling slightly as he swallowed his saliva.

"Sir, where on earth are we going now?" The composure of Strange as an elite Doctor began to show a trace of cracks, with obvious doubt and guardedness in his tone: "No matter how I look at it, it seems impossible to hail a cab here. You aren't making fun of me, are you?"

Arthur stopped in front of a white wall and turned around to face the suspicious Doctor.

"No need to hail a cab."

The corners of Arthur's mouth raised without warning, revealing a smile that made Strange feel a bit creeped out. He directly released the hand holding Gwen and slowly raised his right hand.

That ancient-styled brass Sling Ring of Kamar-Taj emitted a faint light in the dim alley. As Arthur's fingers leisurely traced a smooth arc in mid-air, a sizzle sound suddenly came from the air, like old sandpaper grinding against metal.

The next second, countless scorching, golden-yellow magic sparks gushed out fiercely in the void along the trajectory of his fingertips' movement.

These flashing sparks did not fall to the ground, but were instead as if torn by a pair of invisible giant hands, forcibly propping open a circular void that did not belong to this space.

The Portal expanded rapidly, stabilizing into a rotating light ring more than two meters high, illuminating the surroundings brightly.

The muscles on Strange's entire face stiffened completely in an instant, and those eyes that always sharply scanned all kinds of X-ray films suddenly widened to their limit, his pupils contracting violently.

The hands he originally kept behind his back abruptly pulled to the front, staring blankly and pointing straight at the golden Portal in front of him that completely violated the laws of physics and his common sense of scientific cognition over more than thirty years.

The fingers of that top surgeon, which he took pride in and were as steady as a rock, were uncontrollably trembling violently at this moment.

"This... this, this, this!"

Strange's mouth, which usually could scold interns to pieces, could only stutter out a few broken syllables at this moment: "What is this thing?!"

Just before his worldview as an ordinary person, which had been thoroughly shattered, had time to reorganize itself, from across that golden Portal came the clattering sound of tools dropping to the ground.

Immediately following that, a man with a signature mustache, a faint blue shimmer faintly revealing from his chest, and somewhat casual clothing, poked half his body out from the other side of the light ring holding a greasy wrench.

"Hey, I was just saying I was testing down below, how come there suddenly appeared a Strange thing at home that still sparks outwards."

Tony Stark spoke with his signature lazy, teasing tone, scanning the outside of the door in a circle, and finally locking his gaze onto Arthur: "Oh it's Lin, what big project are you messing with again?"

Tony casually tossed the wrench behind him, took half a step across from the opposite side of the Portal, and only then did his gaze fall upon Strange, who was standing to the side and already in a state of system crash.

"And who might this be?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

Arthur turned his head sideways, pointed at the Doctorwho had already turned into a stone statue beside him, and explained in a very relaxed tone: "This is the lead surgeon I spent time specifically finding for you, with absolute top-tier capability in the industry. Taking out those things in your chest is a piece of cake."

Hearing these words, Strange finally managed to drag his line of sight away from that circle of glowing sparks, following the voice to look at this man who had just walked out from the opposite side of the "door".

This time, the shock in his heart doubled once again.

That face—even someone who paid zero attention to gossip news would definitely recognize it.

This was none other than the famous billionaire, playboy, and genius arms dealer Tony Stark! Who in this Worldwatching TV would not know this face!

This overlapping intersection of magic and reality caused Strange's brain to completely stop running, and he even threw off the rhythm of his breathing.

Arthur looked at Strange's current outrageous state of being obviously out of his wits and with his jaw slightly agape. Clearly, he would probably shake even if he held a pair of tweezers right now, let alone performing delicate surgery with a knife on the mega-wealthy tycoon in front of him immediately.

Arthur sighed slightly and took a step forward. He reached out and gently patted Strange's exquisite suit shoulder twice, speaking in a heartfelt tone like an experienced person to comfort him.

"Bro, it's fine, take a deep breath, take a breather."

Arthur looked into those glazed eyes and said sincerely: "I know ordinary people rarely encounter things that break common sense like this. But rest assured, from now on, you might not have any normal days left to live at all."

Listening to this profound yet supremely outrageous comfort drifting past his ears...

Amidst the roaring in his head, Strange barely managed to spare a shred of sanity to engage in a frenzied internal rant:

"What the hell kind of comfort is this?! What do you mean I won't have normal days in the future?! 

Isn't this purely cursing someone maliciously!!"