Marvel: The Opening Scene Features a Flurry of Snaps, Leaving Thanos in Tears
Chapter 51: The More You Give Me, the Happier I Am
In mid-air, the dark matter transformed into a hundred-meter-wide black tsunami.
The tsunami rolled backward and downward, heading straight for Lin Yi in the deep underground pit.
The violent wind flattened the surrounding snow, and a thick layer was scraped off the rock strata on the ground.
Lin Yi did not dodge.
He loosened one hand, wrapped the iron chain around his right forearm twice, and spread his arms wide against the descending black tsunami with his left hand.
Boom!
The black tsunami crashed into Lin Yi's chest.
The space inside the deep pit directly collapsed.
Gray-white space fragments mixed within the black energy, frantically cutting Lin Yi's body.
The dark red magic runes on his body flickered under the torrent of energy.
Hundreds and thousands of tiny bloody cracks split open on the surface of his skin, and the blue-black blood was evaporated by the violent energy the moment it seeped out.
In front of his retinas, the translucent white characters welcomed the highest-frequency refresh since he started cheating.
[Sustained Dimension Lord-level Origin Impact — Triggered Reversal!]
[Physique + 50000!]
[Strength + 30000!]
[Mental Strength + 20000!]
[Sustained High-pressure Space Collapse and Cutting — Triggered Reversal!]
[Physical Defense + 10000!]
[Spatial Law Affinity + 1500!]
Lin Yi's feet slid backward on the rock layer, plowing out two half-meter-deep gullies.
The impact force of the tsunami was shockingly huge.
But against Lin Yi's soaring physique attributes transformed into substantial vitality, it was completely useless.
Those purple-black energies attempting to assimilate him drilled straight through his open pores and into his body, transforming into the purest nutrients.
"Die." Dormammu increased his energy output.
The volume of the tsunami doubled.
The surrounding cliffs began to collapse, and tons of boulders rolled down, being ground into nothingness by the dimensional energy in mid-air before they could even crash into the deep pit.
Lin Yi stood in the center of the energy torrent and raised his head.
The dark red iron chain left faint marks on his arms, yet he grinned.
"Awesome!"
"As the dignified Dimension Lord, I thought you had much more capability. Is that all your strength?"
The star phantoms within Dormammu's pitch-black void froze for half a second.
Why hasn't this bug turned into ashes under the dimensional origin, and instead, its aura is growing stronger and stronger.
[Sustained Lord-level Origin Infusion — Triggered Reversal!]
[Dark Dimension Control Degree Broke Through the Limit!]
[Obtained Passive: Origin Devour (Advanced)!]
Lin Yi felt the container within his body that held the dark power completely explode at this moment.
There was no longer a capacity upper limit, no longer an absorption bottleneck.
He gripped the iron chain with both hands, exerted force with his legs, and took a step forward against the black tsunami.
He moved upstream against the waterfall.
"The more you give me, the happier I am." Lin Yi stared at Dormammu in mid-air and laughed wildly, "Continue! Don't stop!"
He violently jerked the iron chain toward his embrace, dragging Dormammu straight down from mid-air and heavily slamming him onto the edge of the deep pit.
The black tsunami lost control and smashed into the surrounding ruins, completely overturning the ground within a radius of one kilometer.
Lin Yi walked toward Dormammu step by step.
His skin shimmered with a dark golden luster, and his upper body was filled with sharp-angled muscle lines.
Dormammu stood up from the ground, hesitation appearing on his three-meter-tall body for the first time.
He looked down at his own body wrapped in iron chains.
"You are not human." Dormammu's voice turned deep, "What dimension's monster are you?"
"What business is it of yours what I am." Lin Yi walked up to Dormammu, raised his right fist, and said, "I only know that you smell so good."
Lin Yi pulled back his right arm, and a dazzling black light lit up on his fist.
He punched toward the void on Dormammu's face.
Lin Yi's arm directly penetrated that layer of dark barrier and reached into the core of Dormammu's projection.
There was a chaotic energy vortex.
The projection of a Dimension Lord did not possess physical vital points in the conventional sense, and physical attacks were completely meaningless to him.
"Foolish." Dormammu sneered, "Do you think you can hurt me with brute force?"
He urged the dimensional laws within his body, attempting to directly twist and break Lin Yi's arm that reached into the void.
The violent spatial turbulence formed inside the void, cutting Lin Yi's skin like countless spinning chainsaws.
[Sustained Deep Dimensional Strangulation — Triggered Reversal!]
[Physical Defense + 5000!]
[Physique + 8000!]
Lin Yi's arm was as steady as Mount Tai inside the void.
"Hurt you?" Lin Yi twitched the corner of his mouth, "When did I say I wanted to hurt you?"
Lin Yi opened his five fingers deep within the void, tightly gripping that swirling chaotic energy.
"Behold my divine might."
The [Origin Devour (Advanced)] that had just broken through the limit was directly activated by Lin Yi.
His arm turned into a thick water pumping pipe.
Those extreme-purity dimensional origins inside Dormammu poured crazily backward along Lin Yi's five fingers into his body.
Purple-black mist overflowed from Lin Yi's arm and circled around his shoulders.
The pitch-black void on Dormammu's face trembled violently.
He finally discovered that something was wrong.
The energy he released did not destroy Lin Yi; this was already abnormal enough.
But now, the origin power maintaining existence inside his own projection was being forcibly drained away.
It wasn't passive defense, but active plunder.
"What are you doing?" Emotional fluctuations appeared in Dormammu's voice for the first time.
Lin Yi did not reply; his left hand also reached out, directly inserting into Dormammu's chest cavity position.
With both hands working together, the suction speed doubled.
Dormammu's three-meter-tall body began to shrink.
Cracks appeared on the dark purple crystal armor covering the surface, and large chunks of energy fragments peeled off, being sucked into Lin Yi's body before they even hit the ground.
[Actively Devour Lord-level Origin — Triggered Reversal!]
[Mental Strength + 30000!]
[Dark Dimension Affinity + MAX!]
Lin Yi closed his eyes, feeling the turmoil of power inside his body.
This thrill of directly extracting the origin of high-dimensional gods far surpassed absorbing those stronghold crystal towers before.
Every mouthful was a concentrated essence, and every second elevated his life hierarchy.
Dormammu raised both hands, attempting to push Lin Yiaway.
Lin Yi's feet were nailed to the ground as if rooted, and the dark red iron chain automatically tightened, binding Dormammu's wrists tightly to Lin Yi's arms.
"Audacious!" Dormammu roared.
He mobilized all the remaining magic power in Kaecilius's physical body, forcibly opening a dimensional crack beneath their feet.
The aura of the Dark Dimension gushed out from the crack, attempting to swallow Lin Yi entirely.
"Want to go back home?" Lin Yi opened his eyes, "Did you pay for the ticket?"
Lin Yi raised his right foot and heavily stamped it on the edge of the crack.
The black magic array forcefully sewed the dimensional crack back together.
With his retreat cut off, a trace of panic finally appeared in Dormammu's consciousness.
"What on earth are you?!" Dormammu roared.
He had traversed the Universe for countless years, devoured hundreds of thousands of dimensions, and seen countless powerful mages, gods, and even Celestials.
But he had never seen such an existence.
Ignoring cause and effect, ignoring laws, treating destructive costs as nutrients, and even plundering the Dimension Lord in reverse.
"Me? You know the sweeping monk!"
Chapter 52: Conclusion and Last Words
Lin Yi violently pulled outward with both hands.
The crystal armor at Dormammu's chest was directly torn open with a large gap.
Large amounts of dark matter liquefied into viscous black water, which Lin Yi swallowed entirely in one gulp.
"Kaecilius is treating, how could I have the face to leave without eating my fill?"
Lin Yi swallowed that mouthful of energy and let out a burp.
[Obtained: Dimension Origin Fragment!]
[Physique breaks through the 500,000 milestone! Physical body level transition!]
A muffled roar came from within Lin Yi's body.
His bones transformed from dark gold to pure black, and tiny dimensional runes flowed in his blood.
His physical body now could hard-resist conventional nuclear weapons as nothing more than an itch.
Dormammu's projection had shrunk to just over two meters.
The large clusters of stellar illusions within the void on his face went out.
He realized that if this entanglement continued, this bug would not only suck dry this projection, but might even trace the soul connection and inversely suck from the main body in the Dark Dimension.
This absurd guess flashed through Dormammu's mind, making him shiver with cold dread.
The arrogance of the higher-dimensional deity was completely shattered in front of survival instinct.
He could no longer stay here.
"Human, I remember you."
Dormammu's voice was no longer grand, instead revealing an unmaskable urgency.
Lin Yi sensed that the energy flow in his hands was starting to weaken.
"You really want to run?" Lin Yi grabbed Dormammu's shoulders tightly with both hands, "Do you live up to your identity as a Dimension Lord!"
Dormammu made an extremely decisive decision.
The mental channel connecting the Earth projection and the Dark Dimension was unilaterally and forcefully severed by him.
The purplish-black pillar of light piercing straight into the clouds in mid-air broke from the middle.
The upper half retracted into the void, and the lower half dissipated into light rain in the air.
The pure black void on Dormammu's face contracted violently, finally making a soft "pop" sound and closing completely.
Losing the support of higher-dimensional consciousness, the dark purple crystal armor covering Kaecilius's body lost its energy source and turned into powder all over the sky.
What Lin Yi was holding in his hand turned back into Kaecilius's shriveled physical body.
He let go of his hand, and Kaecilius fell into the pile of rubble like a broken sack.
He panted heavily, his chest rising and falling violently.
The vitality originally maintained by Dormammu's power completely collapsed at the moment the connection was severed.
Kaecilius's hair turned gray at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then fell out in large handfuls.
His skin lost moisture, clinging tightly to his bones, covered in brown age spots.
He had overdrawn all his lifespan, soul, and potential in exchange for that brief divine descent.
Now, the bill had arrived.
Lin Yi stood in front of him and withdrew the dark red iron chains.
He flexed his fingers, feeling the terrifying power within his body that was enough to punch through the Earth's crust.
"What a pity." Lin Yi curled his lips, "This old fellow ran pretty fast."
Kaecilius on the ground rolled his turbid eyeballs, looking at the unscathed Lin Yi.
He saw the fading dark gold luster on Lin Yi's body and the shattered space under his feet.
Kaecilius parted his shriveled lips, and a leaky, hoarse laughter came from his throat.
"I lost..." Kaecilius coughed up a mouthful of black blood, "The Ancient One... found a monster..."
Lin Yi looked down at him from above.
A person like Kaecilius was not worth sympathizing with.
For his own obsession, he had stuffed countless people into petri dishes and exposed Earth to the Dark Dimension.
"But you... can't change anything." Kaecilius stared fixedly at Lin Yi, raising his voice as if experiencing a flash of lucidity before death, "You can't suck dry the entire dimension... Dormammu has already locked onto the coordinates here."
"He will eventually descend... carrying the weight of the entire dimension..."
Kaecilius raised his withered and thin fingers, pointing at the sky.
"By then, this vessel of yours... will be completely blown apart..."
His hand drooped powerlessly, and the light in the depths of Kaecilius's eyes completely extinguished.
That shriveled shell turned into a pile of flying ash, blown away by the cold wind of the Himalayas into the ruins, leaving nothing behind.
Lin Yi looked at the puddle of ash on the ground and sneered.
"Blow me up? Then he'd better bring more in stock."
Lin Yi turned around and looked at the snowy field in the distance.
After the inverted pyramid's barrier shattered, the wind and snow outside poured in again.
A few kilometers away, three figures were supporting each other and walking towards this side.
They stopped at the edge of the deep pit, looking at the shirtless young man at the bottom of the pit whose surrounding space was still slightly distorted.
The coercive pressure of Dormammu's descent just now had pinned them tightly into the snow.
They didn't see clearly what had happened, only seeing Dormammu's projection being forcibly torn down, then the pillar of light broke, and the pressure dissipated.
"Lin Yi..." Wong swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Has that thing... been resolved?"
Lin Yi leapt, jumping directly up from the bottom of the pit dozens of meters deep, and landed in front of the three of them.
A violent wind blew past, and the muscle lines on Lin Yi's body exuded a beast-like oppressive feeling.
"Of course, who do you think I am." Lin Yi patted the ash off his hands, "Kaecilius didn't even leave a trace behind, work's done."
Alexander looked at the completely flattened mountain tops around, opened his mouth, and couldn't speak for a long time.
"Old Wong, open the door. I'm going back to find the old bald head to settle accounts."
Wong nodded blankly, raising his hand to draw a golden portal.
Before stepping into the halo of light, Lin Yi looked back at the devastated ruins and nodded with satisfaction.
The portal closed on the bluestone plaza of Kamar-Taj.
Nepal's sunlight fell on his shoulders, and the scent of joss sticks drifted in the air.
Shirtless, Lin Yi walked at the very front, his muscles bulging, a dim luster flowing across the surface of his skin.
Passing apprentices stopped in their tracks and bowed their heads in salute.
Lin Yi ignored them, walked straight through the corridor, and pushed open the wooden door of his room.
Lin Yi walked into the room, pulled over a wooden chair, and sat down.
With a slight thought, he summoned the system panel.
[Host: Lin Yi]
[Lifespan: 7,350 Years]
[Physique: 512,000]
[Strength: 450,000]
[Mental Power: 395,000]
[Physical Defense: 28,500]
[Spatial Law Affinity: 2,250]
[Ancient Magic Affinity: 1,815]
[Reality Affinity: 950]
[Frost Resistance: 1,000 (Arctic Environment MAX)]
[magic Resistance: 1,500]
Lin Yi's gaze swept downward, looking at the skill bar.
[Passive Skills: Origin Devouring (Advanced), Limb Regeneration (Intermediate), Reality Affinity, Void Perception, Physical Strangulation Reduction (Advanced), Mind Control Immunity (Advanced), Strong Acid Resistance (Advanced), Toxin Immunity Resistance (Advanced), Fire Resistance (Advanced)]
[Active Skills: Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation(Extreme Perfect State), Void Sealing Technique, Shadow Step, Black Flame Enchantment]
Chapter 53 Ancient One's Proposal
Lin Yi clenched his right fist, and he could clearly perceive the changes inside his body.
His bones had turned pitch black, and minuscule dimensional runes surged within his flowing blood.
The system had prompted that his physical tier had transitioned, and his current immunity threshold was directly raised to B-level magic and physical attacks.
This meant that ordinary firearms hitting him wouldn't even leave a mark.
Lin Yi reached out and grabbed the brass paperweight on the table.
As his five fingers closed, the hard brass squeezed out from between his fingers like dough, turning into a pile of golden scrap metal.
He loosened his hand, and the copper chunk smashed onto the desk, denting it.
Wong pushed the door open, carrying a tray holding a pot of hot tea and two teacups.
He happened to see Lin Yi crushing the paperweight, placed the tray on the table, and pulled over another chair to sit down.
"It's such a pity you aren't a blacksmith with that kind of grip strength."
Lin Yi poured a cup of tea, gulped it down, and licked his lips.
"Tell me, when will Dormammu come next?"
Wong was stunned for a moment.
"I... how would I know!"
"Hehe, it's better if he comes sooner."
Wong sighed and didn't want to say anything more.
Lin Yi tapped the table. "By the way, when will the old baldy fulfill the vault key and the Time Stone she promised me? Let's keep accounts clear. Debts need to be repaid, and the rules can't be broken."
Wong was taken aback, didn't understand the second half, and only answered the first half.
"The Ancient One is waiting for you in the quiet room. She said to go find her directly after you rest."
...
Kamar-Taj infirmary.
Sunlight passed through the wooden window and fell on the white sheets.
Griffin stared at the wooden ceiling for a while, and Alexander stood by the bed.
"Are young people nowadays always so violent in how they do things?" Griffin said with a hoarse voice, his Adam's apple rolling up and down.
"Teacher, the times have changed."
...
Kamar-Taj main conference room.
Twelve high-backed wooden chairs surrounded a huge round table.
Sunlight spilled from the dome's glass, illuminating the dancing dust on the table.
The senior sorcerers sat in their chairs, and the atmosphere dropped to freezing point.
The bearded Russian sorcerer slapped the table, with a copied parchment report placed in front of him.
"One person, in less than two weeks, uprooted five main strongholds? Pushed back Dormammu's projection?" The bearded sorcerer flew into a rage of spittle. "Are you guys writing a novel? Can such an outrageous report even be submitted?"
Daniel sat in the corner, picked up his coffee cup and took a sip.
"When I said he blasted a lord barehanded back then, you guys had the same reaction."
Alexander and Chen Jie walked in side by side.
Alexander walked to the table, took out a shattered dark purple crystal from his bosom, and threw it right in the middle of the round table.
The crystal smashed onto the wood, gouging out a dent and exuding a nauseating aura of dimensional corrosion.
The surrounding sorcerers leaned back one after another, pulling away their distance.
"These are the crystal fragments of the final stronghold." Alexander pulled out an empty chair and sat down. "Kaecilius is dead."
"Dormammu descended upon Kaecilius, and was also hammered to pieces by Lin Yi."
The whole venue was utterly silent.
The bearded sorcerer opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
Chen Jie took out a projection stone and placed it on the table.
magic power was injected, light and shadow intertwined, recreating a corner of the final stronghold in mid-air.
In the footage, a hundred-meter-high black tsunami rolled backward downward.
Lin Yi opened his arms and walked toward the tsunami.
He tore open the chest cavity of Dormammu's projection, thrust his hands inside, and purplish-black energy poured backward along his arms.
The footage ended, and the projection stone turned into powder.
Only heavy breathing remained in the conference room.
A female sorcerer swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "This doesn't comply with the law of conservation of energy, right? How could his physical body withstand assimilation at the Overlord tier?"
Alexander looked at her: "You can go ask him in person."
The sorcerers fell silent.
The shift in attitude was completely accomplished at this moment.
...
Kamar-Taj backyard, independent training room.
Mordo was bare-chested, holding a wooden sword, and his right wrist was still wrapped in bandages.
Standing in front of him was a wooden stake wrapped in iron sheets, covered with defensive runes.
Mordo swung his sword, hacking at the wooden stake.
Wood chips splattered, and the iron sheet dented.
"Pushed back Dormammu..." Mordo gritted his teeth and swung his sword again.
The blade hacked deep into the wooden stake, stuck in the gap and unable to be pulled out.
He loosened his hand, took two steps back and leaned against the wall.
Sweat dripped down his chin onto the ground.
"If the rules can be ignored, what are the bottom lines that Kamar-Taj has guarded for a thousand years worth?" Mordo looked at the sword stuck on the wooden stake.
He stepped forward and punched the hilt of the sword.
The wooden sword snapped in half and fell to the ground.
...
Early morning.
Ancient One's tea room.
In the distance were snow-capped peaks.
Ancient One sat before a low table, holding a purple clay teapot in her hand, as boiling hot water washed over the tea leaves in the cup.
The fragrance of tea rose along with the water vapor.
Lin Yi sat cross-legged opposite her, having changed into a clean linen robe.
"Where's my reward?"
Ancient One poured a full cup of tea and pushed the teacup in front of Lin Yi.
"The vault is already open to you 24/7. You can go pick whenever you want." Ancient One's voice was calm.
Ancient One put down the teapot, untied the knot on her neck with both hands, and took down the eye of agamotto.
The brass-textured pendant was placed on the wooden table, making a dull collision sound.
"Time Stone, three days." Ancient One looked into Lin Yi's eyes. "But I must remind you, the cost of manipulating time is more dangerous than dimensional energy."
Lin Yi stared at that pendant, his eyes shining.
"Rest assured, I know what I'm doing." Lin Yi reached out and grabbed the eye of agamotto into his hand.
The metal shell carried a hint of coolness, feeling heavy.
Ancient One picked up the teacup and blew on the floating tea leaves on the surface.
"Dormammu shouldn't covet this place for a short time. But the enemies Earth faces are far more than just the Dark Dimension."
"What do you mean?"
Ancient One raised her hand and gave a gentle swipe above the table.
A holographic magic projection unfolded between the two of them.
In the footage, a blue planet was slowly rotating.
Beside the planet, a glowing blue cube appeared.
"Space Stone."
"It is the materialized form of spatial laws. The energy contained within it is enough to tear apart the entire solar system."
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes.
The footage switched, and a scepter embedded with a yellow gem appeared in mid-air.
"Mind Stone. It can distort wills and rewrite cognitions. The holder must endure continuous oppression on a mental level."
Finally, the footage froze in a vast starry sky.
At the end of the starry sky, a golden divine realm was faintly visible.
"Asgard. Their combination of technology and magic walks at the forefront of the Universe. And in the farther deep space..." Ancient One paused, her gaze turning profound.
"Old man, what on Earth do you want to say?"
Ancient One looked at Lin Yi.
"You should go out and take a walk."
Lin Yi stood up and patted the hem of his robe.
"Are you sure?"
Chapter 54 S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Attention
Washington, D.C., on the banks of the Potomac River.
Top-floor office of the Triskelion.
Nick Fury stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, his single eye staring at the endless stream of headlights outside.
A desk lamp was lit on the desk, and six folders stamped with red top-secret seals were neatly arranged.
Maria Hill pushed the door open and walked in, holding an encrypted flash drive.
"Director, the aggregated data from the Geological Survey and global low-Earth orbit satellites is out."
Hill walked up to the desk and inserted the flash drive into the holographic projection terminal.
The blue beams of light intertwined into a suspended global map.
Six glaring red dots flickered on the map.
Fury pulled out a chair, sat down, and picked up the first folder.
Inside was a high-definition overhead satellite image.
At a cliff on the Himalayas, where an abandoned ancient temple should have been, it has now turned into a huge, smooth cut.
The strata and rocks within a radius of one kilometer were directly turned upside down by a tyrannical force.
It was as if a hundred-meter-wide shovel had forcibly leveled that mountain peak.
"This wasn't caused by a meteorological disaster." Furytossed the photo onto the desk. "Even explosives couldn't blast such a smooth stress surface."
Hill slid her fingers across the terminal.
The holographic screen switched.
The thermal map of the Amazon basin showed a large area of ice blue, which represented the complete extinction of vitality.
There was a bottomless collapse in the center of the basin.
The sonar detection map of the Arctic ice cap was even more outrageous; hundreds of meters of solid ice broke from the middle, and the remaining high-radiation energy reaction directly overloaded and burned out the probes.
There were also the ruins of buildings on the streets of London and the huge underground void in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
"In just half a month." Fury crossed his hands and rested them under his chin. "Six locations experienced energy shocks that exceeded conventional laws of physics."
"Even if Hulk goes crazy, he can't cause this level of destruction."
Hill pressed a button.
"We intercepted the last few frames of footage sent back by the satellite before it paralyzed over the Himalayas."
On the holographic projection, an extremely blurry static image popped up.
In the image, wind and snow were raging.
A bare-chested young man was jumping outward from the bottom of a pit dozens of meters deep.
Twisted light and shadows were entwined around his body, and his muscle contours exuded a beast-like sense of oppression in the wind and snow.
Due to the interference of the strong energy magnetic field, his facial features were blurred into a blob.
"When this energy peak was monitored, the lens of the military satellite located in that airspace suffered physical crystalline corrosion." Hill added.
Fury's single eye narrowed.
A person, just standing there releasing energy, could cause material transformation in satellite probes in outer space?
This completely subverted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s existing dangerous species assessment system.
"Has his identity been found out?"
"Found it." Hill brought up a thin electronic file. "No superpower record, no special criminal record."
Two Chinese characters and their corresponding English spelling popped up on the right side of the screen.
Lin Yi.
Fury opened the last folder.
At the opening of the paper file bag, an extremely eye-catching label was stamped: Extreme High Risk.
After the Avengers initiative was launched, the number of people who could make S.H.I.E.L.D. stamp this label was countable on one hand.
Tony Stark was just a thorn in the side, and Bruce Bannerwas an unstable powder keg.
But the guy named Lin Yi in front of him seemed to be a walking natural disaster capable of tearing the Earth's crust apart.
It seemed that the water on Earth was much deeper than imagined, and those entities hiding in the dark usually didn't even make a splash.
Fury picked up the encrypted desk phone on the table.
"Phil." Fury leaned back in his chair. "Stop what you're doing."
"Come to my office. Go to the intelligence database and pick up this newly filed top-secret data."
"I want you to investigate every detail of this guy named Lin Yi from childhood to present clearly."
...
S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion, basement level three intelligence analysis center.
Phil Coulson held a cup of black coffee and stood in front of a full circular display screen.
Twelve senior data analysts sat behind their consoles, the sound of keyboard typing merging into one.
"Officer, the entry and exit records have been retrieved."
Coulson took a sip of coffee and looked up at the big screen in the center.
An electronic form printed with Nepal customs stamps popped up.
The time showed three years and one month ago.
Attached next to it was a surveillance screenshot of the airport security checkpoint channel.
In the image, an Asian young man wearing a yellowish-grey T-shirt had an old canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
His figure was thin, his shoulders were somewhat drooping, and his eyes revealed the fatigue of a long-haul flight.
"This is the last time his image appeared in the public social system."
Coulson took the tablet computer beside him and brought up the satellite snapshot of the Himalayas that Fury gave him earlier.
He placed the two photos side by side.
Three years.
From an ordinary backpacker with no strength to truss a chicken, into an energy monster capable of smashing a meteorite crater in the snow mountains with bare hands.
"Have you checked his local activity trajectory in Nepal?" Coulson put down his coffee cup.
The female analyst shook her head: "This is the weirdest part of the entire investigation process."
"After he left the airport, he bought a bottle of mineral water on a commercial street in Kathmandu, walked past two intersections, and then the whole person evaporated from the surveillance network."
"Evaporated?" Coulson frowned.
Grid screens of more than thirty street surveillance probes popped up on the console.
The image froze in front of a handicraft shop selling prayer wheels.
Lin Yi turned into a narrow alley.
There were probes at both ends of the alley, but the exit surveillance never captured his figure again.
"Late last night, we contacted the field Agents stationed in South Asia to conduct an on-site survey of that alley."
The female analyst switched to a first-person perspective law enforcement recorder video.
In the video, two heavily armed Agents walked into the alley.
Barely ten meters out, the image began to show severe water-wave distortion.
The communication channel was full of harsh static noise.
The two Agents circled around the alley a few times, their steps stumbling, and finally inexplicably retreated from the entrance.
"Magnetic field abnormality, GPS failure, infrared thermal imager full of snow, even the gravity sensors on the Agents showed inverted readings." The female analyst gave her conclusion.
"What do locals call that area?" Coulson asked.
"There is no registered place name." The female analyst pulled up a yellowed scanned copy. "But in several old military intelligence files from World War I, that place was called Kamar-Taj."
Coulson silently recited the pronunciation again.
In S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database, there were only a meager two lines about this name.
An extremely closed ancient monastery.
Detached from secular regimes, not interfering in wars, not participating in politics.
No one knew how many people were inside, nor did anyone know what they were researching.
"An ordinary person with no background walked into a secret organization whose front door even S.H.I.E.L.D.couldn't find." Coulson pinched his brow.
"Three years later, he directly blasted several big craters on Earth within half a month."
Chapter 55: Give Me Some Money
Coulson pulled over an office chair and sat down, opening the supplementary report at his hand.
When the underground cave-in incident in Tokyo's Shinjuku occurred earlier, the local police department cordoned off several blocks.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network intercepted a cell phone video taken by a passerby.
In the footage, Lin Yi was standing on a snack street near Senso-ji Temple.
He was clutching a handful of grilled squid skewers, sauce stained around his mouth, chatting and laughing with a fat man.
"Officer, after the Shinjuku incident subsided, this Lin Yistayed in Tokyo for four days."
The female analyst projected a series of bills onto the screen.
"He drank two bottles of aged whiskey at a lounge bar in Roppongi, drew a supreme fortune slip at Senso-ji Temple, and bought a set of limited-edition anime figurines in Akihabara."
Coulson looked at the long list of daily consumption details on the screen.
Uprooting an extremely dangerous underground stronghold, releasing enough energy to destroy half a city, and then turning around to buy grilled squid on the street?
This completely defied the destruction logic of a supervillain, nor did it match the behavior style of a superhero.
Completely random and doing as one pleases.
"People like this seem the hardest to deal with."
Coulson tore off the consumption list and clipped it into the folder.
He wasn't afraid of the other party having ambitions to rule the world, but rather of them having no goals at all.
"Call back those two field Agent in Kathmandu."
"Seal all the data just found, and do not allow anyone to try to trace Kamar-Taj from network ports again."
He picked up a thick stack of files and walked toward the elevator.
...
Director's office.
The blinds filtered out half of the sunlight, casting several parallel shadows on the desk.
Coulson stood at the junction of the shadows and pushed the three reports to the center of the desk.
Nick Fury sat in the leather chair, hands folded against his chin.
He stared at the consumption list, reading it once, and then reading it again.
"Bought a figurine, ate grilled squid, and drank three whiskey." Fury put down the list, tapped the desktop, "Coulson, you've been doing fieldwork for so many years, have you ever seen a terrorists go to an anime convention afterwards?"
"No, Officer." Coulson shook his head, handing over another tablet.
"We retrieved all his external communication records during those three years in Nepal."
"He hasn't contacted anyone, had no financial transactions, and left no electronic device traces."
"Until half a month ago, when he suddenly started wandering randomly around Earth."
Fury took the tablet, and the screen scrolled with a three-dimensional model of the cliff in the Himalayas.
Coulson pulled out a chair and sat down, adjusting his sitting posture.
"The good news is that his behavioral pattern has no anti-social tendencies at all."
"According to the conclusion of the criminal psychology profiling team, the five locations he destroyed all possessed some kind of energy source beyond our cognition."
"As for the surveillance on the streets of Shinjuku, passersby reported that his attitude was gentle, and he even left a generous tip for the roadside vendor."
"That organization named Kamar-Taj, you couldn't get in?" Fury asked.
"Couldn't get in. All electronic instruments near that alley failed, and the Agent could only spin in place." Coulsonreplied, "We have set up three fixed observation points on the periphery, and currently no personnel have entered or exited."
Fury stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked at the pleasure boats on the Potomac River.
"An uncontrollable moving natural disaster." Fury turned around, "He has no political demands, no national allegiance, and doesn't care about rules. People like this cannot be treated as enemies."
"The squad sent out was originally on standby, I had them withdraw."
Fury walked back to the desk, pressed a red button, revealing an independent encrypted communicator.
"Facing this level of target." Fury picked up the communicator, "We need to establish contact."
"Who to send?"
Fury dialed a number.
"Natasha." Fury spoke into the microphone.
"Director." The woman's lazy voice came from the other end of the phone, accompanied by the dull sound of fists hitting a sandbag.
"There are still two days of vacation. If you are going to send me to Siberia to freeze, I refuse."
"A new mission has been sent to you." Fury glanced at the report on the desk, "The target is a young man."
"He might appear anywhere. Your mission is to find him, and then drink some coffee and chat."
The punching sound stopped.
The sound of a zipper being pulled came from the phone, followed by a few seconds of silence.
"A deep pit with a diameter of over a kilometer?" Natasha's voice put away its laziness, "You can't figure out what weapon he used?"
"He used his fists."
The other side fell silent again.
"Evaluate his danger level. Figure out what he is thinking, what he likes, what he wants." Fury issued instructions, "Remember, do not provoke him."
"What if he sees through my identity?" Natasha asked.
"Then just confess directly. Tell him we are only responsible for household registration."
Fury hung up the phone.
Coulson looked at Fury: "Director, what if this Lin Yi really has hostility towards Earth?"
Fury's single eye looked at the photo of the cliff on the tablet.
"Then pray that the person from Kamar-Taj can lock him in a cage."
S.H.I.E.L.D. New York Branch, underground training room.
Natasha Romanoff was wearing a black tight vest, and her short hair was stuck to her neck, covered in sweat.
She was holding a tablet computer.
The screen displayed a screenshot of Lin Yi's profile while eating squid at Senso-ji Temple.
...
New York, 177A Bleecker Street.
An antique three-story brick building stood in the center of the street.
The tall buildings on both sides cast shadows, surrounding this Sanctum Sanctorum.
Passersby walked in a hurry, and no one gave a second look at this somewhat aged house.
Space rippled.
Lin Yi stepped out of the portal and stood in the hall of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
The decoration here retained a medieval style, and the wooden stairs exuded the scent of rosin.
Sophia walked down from the second floor holding a feather duster in her hand.
Seeing Lin Yi, she quickly stopped and saluted with her right hand over her chest.
"Master Lin Yi, Daniel from the London Sanctum just sent a batch of materials to repair the magic circle. Do you want to check them?"
"No need, this matter has nothing to do with me." Lin Yiwaved his hand.
He stayed in Kamar-Taj for a few days and took a stroll around the vault.
He took three millennium-old lightning-struck woods, two pieces of meteoric iron containing starlight power, and a piece of mage's soft armor that could adapt to his body shape.
Things that couldn't be eaten could also be worth some money if sold.
As for the Time Stone, the Ancient One said she was still readjusting the sealing sequence and would hand it to him in a couple of days.
Lin Yi was bored, so he decided to take a stroll in New York.
"Give me some money." Lin Yi turned to look at Sophia, "U.S. dollars, cash and credit cards are both fine."
Sophia walked up to the counter, pulled open the drawer, and flipped out a black bank card and a thick stack of green paper bills.
Chapter 56 Encountering Natasha
Kamar-Taj had many hidden asset accounts globally, and the sorcerers in charge of this business were never short of money.
Lin Yi took the money, shoved it into his pocket, and pulled open the wooden door of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Pushing the door open, the hustle and bustle of the street hit him head-on.
New York carried its unique restless aura, isolating all the serenity of ancient magic.
Lin Yi tugged at his clothes.
He walked north along Bleecker Street, calculating the timeline in his head.
...
There was a Starbucks at the intersection.
Lin Yi pushed the door open and walked in.
There were not many people in line.
Lin Yi walked up to the cash register and ordered an Americano.
He turned around and walked toward an empty seat by the window.
He placed the paper cup on the table, pulled out a chair just to sit down, and a woman walked over from the opposite side.
The woman had burgundy shoulder-length short hair, wore a beige trench coat, and a fitted turtleneck sweater inside.
She was holding a latte in her hand, looking at her phone screen while walking, her brows slightly furrowed.
When she reached the table of Lin Yi, she stopped.
"Excuse me." The woman raised her head, revealing a deceptively pretty face.
Her blue-green eyes carried just the right amount of apology.
"The seats by the window are full, do you mind sharing a table? I am rushing a project proposal and need a sunny spot."
Lin Yi looked at her face; it was indeed quite pretty. He withdrew his gaze, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
"Of course."
Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow.
The main storyline was delivered right to his door like this? That one-eyed dragon Fury moved fast enough.
Lin Yi took a sip of the Americano.
He did not expose her. Since S.H.I.E.L.D. was willing to play house, he would play along with them.
Natasha pulled out a chair and sat down opposite Lin Yi.
She placed her phone on the table, the screen glowing with a chart file, and everything looked flawless.
She lowered her head to drink coffee, her peripheral vision locking onto Lin Yi.
This man sat very relaxed, without any defense.
Was this really a person who wiped out the entire Amazonbasin?
"Autumn in New York always comes so suddenly." Natashaput down the cup, looked at the plane trees with falling leaves outside the window, and naturally cut into the topic.
"I was still basking in the sun in California yesterday, and today I have to slip into a trench coat."
"Are you also here in New York on a business trip?"
"No." Lin Yi looked into her blue-green eyes, "Just strolling around here. To experience the prosperity of a big city."
"Sightseeing?" Natasha showed a just-right smile, with a hint of curiosity at the corner of her eyes.
"It is more suitable to go to Yellowstone National Park to see the snow scenery in this season."
"Other than traffic jams and that flashy Stark Building, there is nothing nice to look at in New York."
"The Stark Building is indeed quite ostentatious. Hanging a name so high makes it easy to get struck by lightning." Lin Yi followed her words, his tone carrying a bit of teasing, "I have seen enough snow scenery. The bottom of the Arctichas frozen into ice holes, it is boring."
The heartbeat of Natasha skipped a beat.
The ice holes of the Arctic.
This was one of the six locations detected by S.H.I.E.L.D., belonging to top-secret clearance.
He seemed to know who I was.
Natasha took a deep breath.
"The Arctic is indeed too cold." The smile on the face of Natasha did not change at all, "The Amazon rainforest is a good choice, with lush vegetation and full of vitality."
Lin Yi smiled.
"There are too many bugs in the rainforest, and they are quite toxic."
"I heard some trees grow all crooked and weird, specifically eating living creatures. If you really want to go, you better watch out."
Soothing jazz played in the café.
Natasha picked up her cup, concealing the ripples deep in her eyes.
...
The background music in the café changed to a slow rock song.
Natasha sat upright in her chair, the collar of her trench coat open, revealing her fair neck.
"Where did we just talk about?" Natasha raised her eyebrows, "Tropical rainforest."
"Actually, I have always wanted to go look around South America. I heard that the landform features there have changed drastically these past few years, and some places even had their terrain changed overnight. The news says a meteorite fell?"
"Most things in the news are written for people who want to see the news." Lin Yi let go of the straw, and the plastic tube bounced back to the rim of the cup, "A meteorite hundreds of meters thick fell, and it did not even smash out a fire pit, yet it happened to grow a field of crooked-necked trees."
"You believe this thing is called a celestial body fall?"
Natasha tightened her left foot under the table.
"True, the explanations of experts always lack imagination." Natasha picked up her phone, her thumb swiping twice on the screen.
"However, there are always many strange things in this world."
"For example, a few days ago I read a tabloid saying someone photographed glowing human figures in the Himalayas."
"Do not believe rumors, do not spread rumors!"
Lin Yi smiled and blinked.
Natasha was stunned for a moment, then recovered her composure.
"Hehe, I guess it is just some gimmick made up by people online." Natasha changed her posture, propped her elbows on the desktop, and shortened the distance between the two.
"Have you ever been to Nepal? I heard that public security there is not very good." Natasha stared closely into the eyes of Lin Yi, "Some monasteries hidden deep in the mountains have terrifyingly many rules."
Lin Yi fiddled with the paper cup.
"Been there. The food there is just too terrible, and you cannot even order takeout."
"As for that monastery or whatever... the rules are indeed many."
"But now it is much quieter over there, those lunatics who think about causing destruction all day long have all become fertilizer in the ground."
The eyelid of Natasha twitched.
She just wanted to continue digging deeper along this topic, but Lin Yi stood up.
"The coffee is good, it is just that there were too few ice cubes." Lin Yi tugged at his collar, took out a twenty-dollar bill from his pocket, slapped it on the table, "This meal is on me. The prices in New York are really not cheap."
Natasha looked up at him.
"Leaving just like this? My proposal is not finished yet, and I wanted to hear your suggestions on travel."
"I do not understand proposals. But I know, is it quite tiring to come out for coffee with a mission?" Lin Yi put his hands into his pockets.
Sunlight passed through the floor-to-ceiling window, obliquely striking the side of the face of Lin Yi.
He lowered his eyelids, looking at the woman in the seat.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, pulling out an unmasked smile.
He did not speak again, turned around and walked toward the door of the café, pushed the door open and merged into the bustling crowd of New York.
Natasha sat in her original seat.
The twenty-dollar bill on the table was blown up at one corner by the air conditioner wind.
She did not chase after him, because chasing out was meaningless.
That smile just now made a fine layer of cold sweat ooze from her back.
Two hours later, Washington, D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D.Headquarters.
Triskelion top-floor office.
Nick Fury sat behind the desk, his hands clasped together against his chin, his single eye reflecting the blue light emitted by the holographic projection screen.
Natasha stood in front of the desk, placing a sealed folder on the table.
Inside were all audio band analyses and facial expression snapshots from the café within the past two hours.
"He knows who I am. From the very second he sat down, he has been playing along with my act."
Fury raised his head: "Reason."
"Are you questioning my professionalism?" Natasha said with annoyance.
Chapter 57 Fury Makes a Personal Move
Fury stood up, walked over to the desk, and opened the folder.
Inside was an enlarged photo, a snapshot of Lin Yi's face at the moment he looked down at Natasha before leaving the cafe.
The office fell into a long silence.
Fury's single eye narrowed.
A young man in his early twenties with a completely blank file sat in Starbucks drinking an Americano, and in just a few words, pinned this trump card onto the poker table.
"He is releasing some kind of safety signal." Fury turned and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the ripples on the Potomac River.
"He even actively paid for the coffee."
"What does this mean?" Natasha asked.
Fury stood with his hands behind his back: "This means that currently, he has no hostility towards us. Not only that, he might still be waiting for us to come knocking."
Fury turned his head back, his single eye revealing a kind of extremely solemn light.
"I am going to see him in person."
...
Queens, New York, an underground pool hall.
The rolling iron door was pulled halfway down, and three of the neon tubes on the sign were broken.
It had been closed for two years, and the storefront looked dirty and dilapidated, exuding a mixed smell of urine and rotting cardboard boxes.
A taxi stopped at the street corner.
The car door pushed open, and Lin Yi stepped out.
He threw two ten-dollar bills into the passenger seat window and walked straight toward the rolling iron door.
He bent over and ducked through the rolling door.
Inside, there were no pool tables, only a concrete staircase extending downward.
The sensor lights on the wall lit up one by one following his footsteps, emitting a pale, cold light.
Walking to the second basement level, at the end was a heavy steel door.
A red surveillance camera was flashing in the upper right corner of the door.
Lin Yi stood in front of the door, taking out a business-card-sized black card from his pocket.
This was what he found in the crack of the sofa in the hotel lobby last night.
There were no words on the card, only an address and a string of coordinate codes.
He held the card up in front of the camera and shook it twice.
A dull sound of mechanical gears interlocking came from inside the steel door.
The air pressure valve released air, and the heavy door slid open to both sides.
Behind the door was a rectangular room.
The walls were all wrapped in sound-absorbing materials, with no windows.
Exhaust fans were embedded in the four corners of the ceiling.
A silver-gray metal alloy table was placed right in the center, with a hard iron chair without any cushions placed on each side.
The temperature in the room was several degrees lower than outside, and the air exuded a smell of disinfectant and engine oil.
Nick Fury sat on one of the iron chairs.
He wore a black leather jacket and a black eyepatch over his right eye.
On the tabletop sat a transparent glass cup, next to which were stacked two thick kraft paper file bags.
Lin Yi walked over, pulled open the opposite iron chair, and sat down.
He glanced at the hidden probe flashing with red light in the corner of the wall, and then glanced at Fury.
Lin Yi leaned back against the iron chair, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
The spymaster of the Marvel Universe who was best at making empty promises and loved treating heroes as chess pieces was finally sitting right in front of him.
"The location is chosen well." Lin Yi scanned the walls around. "Except for the poor environment, there should be no problem defending against missiles."
Fury picked up the glass cup on the table and took a sip of water.
He put down the cup, interlaced his ten fingers, and placed them flat on the tabletop.
"You don't look surprised." Fury's single eye stared straight at Lin Yi. "Natasha said you are a smart person. I like dealing with smart people the most, because this can save a lot of boring prologue."
"Prologue is indeed useless." Lin Yi stretched. "What is the matter with finding me? Earth has been having favorable weather recently, is S.H.I.E.L.D. having too much idle time?"
Fury did not answer.
He reached out and picked up the topmost kraft paper file bag, untied the string, and poured out a stack of photos from inside.
The photos scattered on the metal tabletop.
One was a snapshot of Lin Yi passing through customs at a Nepal airport three years ago.
Another was a blurry image captured by satellites in the Himalayas a few days ago.
Although the face could not be seen clearly, that terrifying sense of power tearing apart the Earth leaped off the paper.
"Three years." Fury extended a thick finger, pointing at the Nepal photo. "Three years ago, you were just a backpacker who couldn't even afford rent."
The finger moved and pressed onto the crater-like cliff photo.
"Half a month ago, you became a moving natural disaster capable of crushing Earth like a walnut with bare hands."
Fury raised his head: "I don't care what you learned in that place called Kamar-Taj these past three years, nor do I care where you obtained this power that subverts the laws of physics. I only want to know the result."
"The result is that there is suddenly an extremely unstable individual on Earth who is completely unrestrained by any laws and regimes. This makes me unable to sleep well."
Lin Yi looked at the photos on the table and couldn't help laughing out loud.
"If you can't sleep well, you can take more melatonin." Lin Yi reached out and brushed the cliff photo aside. "As for who I am, you guys should have investigated it very clearly."
"What I do, when all is said and done, is also helping you clean up trash."
Fury's body leaned forward, his elbows pressing on the tabletop.
"This is precisely what I can't figure out." Fury's voice was low. "A person possessing extinction-level power has no ambition and no demands. This violates the basic common sense of all criminal psychology."
"Tell me, what do you actually want?"
Lin Yi put away his smile.
He looked at Fury's single eye.
In this safe house, there was less than a meter of distance between the two of them. He could hear the heartbeat beneath Fury's leather jacket.
Seeing that Lin Yi didn't speak, Fury threw out his prepared trump card: "I know you are not an ordinary person, Lin Yi. You also know that we are not an ordinary organization that only knows how to write tickets. We stand at the very frontline of this world, blocking threats that ordinary people cannot understand."
Fury paused for a moment, his tone becoming more instigative.
"I want to know, are you interested in protecting this world? We are drafting a special plan, and we need people with special talents like you..."
"Stop." Lin Yi raised his hand and made a halting gesture.
Fury's words were interrupted, his eyebrows twisting into a ball.
"The Avengers Initiative, right?"
"Gathering a bunch of flawed, short-tempered freaks together and expecting them to save the world while they're completely scattered like loose sand."
"And by the way, finding a few high-sounding slogans for them."
Fury suddenly sat up straight.
The name "Avengers Initiative" could absolutely not be known by outsiders, besides himself, Pierce, and a few high-ranking officials of the world Security Council.
Even Natasha and Coulson only knew a vague conceptual framework.
How could this young man even call out the full name?
"Who exactly are you?" Fury's hand was already pressed on the hidden alarm beneath the table.
"Who I am is not important. What's important is that you think too highly of yourself, Director Fury." Lin Yi crossed his hands and placed them on his legs. "You think you are standing at the frontline of the world? You think you are blocking threats?"
Lin Yi looked at Fury, his gaze calm, yet exuding a penetrating force that made one's scalp tingle.
"You don't even know where the real battlefield is."
Chapter 58: I Have a Few Questions
The temperature in the safe house seemed to drop a few more degrees.
Lin Yi's words, "You don't even know where the real battlefield is," struck like a heavy hammer directly at the intelligence confidence Fury had built up over a long time.
Fury loosened his fingers and brought his hands back onto the desktop.
"It seems the information you hold is even more massive than S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database," Fury controlled his breathing, "Since you say I don't know where the real battlefield is, you might as well teach me a lesson."
Lin Yi shook his head.
"Classes require tuition. Since you want to recruit me, I have to see if your amateur outfit is qualified."
He extended three fingers.
"I'm not interested in listening to your speeches about protecting Earth. I only have three questions for you."
"First, what level has your understanding of extraterrestrial threats reached?"
Fury's single eye narrowed slightly.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has been monitoring abnormal fluctuations in near-Earth orbit."
"We contacted extraterrestrial visitors in the 1990s and established corresponding defense contingency plans. We have a project set up specifically for these threats."
"Project Pegasus?"
Lin Yi sneered, "Relying on a few battered planes and that fledgling energy conversion technology?"
"If tomorrow a fleet of over ten thousand alien ships equipped with antimatter weapons parked above New York, how many minutes could your defense plan hold out?"
Fury fell silent.
He certainly knew the powerlessness of conventional weapons when facing advanced civilizations, which was also the reason he was obsessed with researching super weapons.
"Second."
Lin Yi's voice had no fluctuations, "That glowing blue cube, the Tesseract that you treasure so dearly, where is its current location?"
If the name of the Avengers initiative just now had startled Fury, those four words, "Tesseract", directly made a layer of cold sweat break out on his back.
This was not only the top secret of S.H.I.E.L.D., but also the strongest energy source currently mastered by the entire Earth.
It had been strictly preserved after World War II, and in-depth research had only recently been restarted.
This top-secret project had not even been fully disclosed to the Council.
Fury's lips were tightly pursed, with no intention of answering at all.
"Unwilling to say? It doesn't matter. Anyway, I roughly know which rundown warehouses it's being tossed back and forth in."
Lin Yi lowered his hand and leaned his body forward a bit.
He stared into Fury's eyes.
"The third question. This is also the most important question."
Only the humming sound of the exhaust fan was left in the safe house.
Lin Yi deliberately slowed his speech speed, pronouncing every word very clearly.
"Have you ever heard the name Thanos?"
Thanos.
These two words reverberated in the cramped space.
The air in the room seemed to become stagnant.
Fury's single eye locked firmly onto Lin Yi.
His brain was frantically searching all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s archives, alien race contact records, and materials left behind by the Kree.
Total blankness.
"No impression, right?"
Lin Yi looked at Fury's tightened jawline and leaned back against the chair back, "You don't know him."
"But he knows Earth. He has a fleet under his command that can flatten the Milky Way Galaxy. And he himself is searching the entire Universe for something."
"Or rather, searching for six things. One of them happens to be in your hands."
Lin Yi pointed at the desktop.
Fury's proud intelligence network had turned into a sieve full of holes in front of this young man.
He fancied himself as the shield protecting the world, yet he didn't even know who the enemy was or what the enemy's goal was.
He suddenly realized that Lin Yi's cooperation with Natasha in the coffee shop earlier was releasing a signal—"Your little tricks don't even qualify to make it to the table."
Fury picked up that cup of Water, the surface of the Water shaking very slightly.
He took a large gulp, forcefully suppressing the turbulence within his heart.
"What on Earth do you want to get from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Fury's voice was somewhat hoarse.
He no longer used the posture of scrutiny and recruitment, but instead placed Lin Yi on an equal, or even higher, position to conduct negotiations.
What Lin Yi was waiting for was precisely these words.
After his physique broke through five hundred thousand, magic and physical attacks below C-rank had completely failed, and even fighting ordinary mages could no longer yield decent attributes.
Ancient seals are not easy to find, and dimensional lords do not appear every day.
If he wanted to continue maintaining the high-speed explosive growth of his stats, he had to contact higher-level rule powers.
In the Marvel Universe, what price could be greater than the backlash of the Infinity Stones?
The Infinity Stones, which burned lifespan, tore apart the flesh, and endured the exclusion of the Universe's laws every time they were used, were a death talisman to others, but to Lin Yi, they were the Universe's largest and purest self-service experience pack.
"I don't want money, nor do I want a spot in your lousy alliance."
Lin Yi pulled the black card out of his pocket, held it between two fingers, and tossed it onto the desktop in front of Fury.
"Didn't you want me to help deal with those uncontrolled threats? Sure."
Lin Yi stood up, supporting himself with both hands on the metal desktop, looking down at Fury from a superior height.
"If you are willing to let me see the Tesseract with my own eyes, or even let me touch it with my hand,"
Lin Yi's mouth corners once again curved into the arc that made Natasha feel startled, "I can consider bottoming out for you when your mess can no longer be cleaned up."
Fury looked up at Lin Yi.
Handing over access permissions to the Tesseract?
This touched S.H.I.E.L.D.'s absolute bottom line.
The energy contained within that thing, even a single trace of leakage, would be enough to blow a block flat.
But the information provided by the person in front of him, as well as the terrifying strength he displayed, plunged Fury into a dilemma.
"I need time to consider. This does not comply with regulations, and the risk is too high."
Fury did not directly refuse.
"Take your time considering. I'm not in a rush."
Lin Yi turned and walked toward the thick explosion-proof steel door.
Walking to the door, he stopped his footsteps and glanced back at the glass cup on the table.
"By the way, a reminder. Don't try to use alien-researching instruments to analyze that Tesseract. You won't figure it out through research; forcibly powering it on will only attract a few uninvited guests to Earth."
The big door slid open, and Lin Yi walked out of the room.
The steel door closed again behind him, leaving only Furyalone in the safe house.
Fury sat on the iron chair, looking at the few scattered photos on the table.
He reached out, picked up the dedicated communicator, and pressed a number.
"Hill. Notify the dark energy base over there to suspend all activation experiments on the Tesseract."
"Director?"
Hill's surprised voice came from the other end of the phone, "The Council just approved the test funding for the next stage yesterday."
"Do as I say!"
Fury hung up the phone.
He looked at the empty iron chair, his single eye bloodshot.
Chapter 59: Deduction of the Strategic Chessboard
The backyard of Kamar-Taj was filled with a rich scent of sandalwood.
Portal sparks bloomed in mid-air.
Lin Yi stepped out of the spatial passage, his soles pressing against the bluestone slabs.
Wong was squatting on the steps of the corridor holding a large bowl, slurping noodles.
Hearing the commotion, Wong raised his head.
"Why did you take so long to buy two magical items in New York?"
Wong muttered indistinctly, drinking the noodle soup in the bowl clean.
"Sorcerers need nightlife too."
Lin Yi walked over and patted Wong on the shoulder.
"What is the old bald head doing?"
Wong wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
"The Ancient One is in the quiet room."
"She instructed that unless the sky falls, no one is allowed to disturb."
"That's perfect, I need some private time on my end too."
Lin Yi strode toward his room.
"Do you want a bowl of noodles? There is still some left in the kitchen."
Wong shouted from behind.
"Leave it there, I'll go ladle some myself later."
Lin Yi pushed open the wooden door and walked into his room.
The table was piled with various ancient books of Kamar-Taj and some rough paper brought in from outside.
Lin Yi pulled out a chair and sat down.
He pulled a half-meter-long blank parchment scroll from a pile of waste paper.
With a flip of his wrist, a black carbon pen appeared between his fingers.
He spread the parchment flat on the table, and the pen tip landed on the far left side of the parchment.
Having transmigrated to this world for so long, he had been passively taking blows.
Zealots raid, London dimensional crack, uprooting global strongholds, forcing back Dormammu.
Now his constitution had broken through the 500,000 mark.
Conventional attack methods had completely failed.
If he wanted to continue enjoying the thrill of skyrocketing numerical values, he had to take the initiative.
The pen tip swept across the paper, writing a few neat Chinese characters.
Loki invades New York.
Below this entry, Lin Yi drew a horizontal line.
"This is the closest wave of a bumper harvest."
Lin Yi muttered to himself, tapping the pen tip on the horizontal line a few times.
Mind Scepter might bring a steady stream of mental distortion power.
Tesseract might provide Universe-level spatial cutting backlash.
And those crude yet fiercely powerful energy weapons of the Chitauri army.
Combined together, these things should push his attributes up another notch.
The pen tip continued to move to the right, writing the second line.
Ultron crisis and Sokovia Accords.
Lin Yi recalled the city rising from the ground in the movie.
"Tens of thousands of tons of mechanical legions, plus kinetic meteorites capable of destroying humanity."
"If one stood right in the middle of the city and took a hit, how much would constitution rise?"
He drew a big smiley face next to Ultron's name.
Next to it, the names of Wanda and Pietro were also added.
The disordered distortion of Chaos magic was also a top-notch material.
Afterwards, Lin Yi's pen tip paused for a moment and wrote two words on the far right side of the parchment.
Thanos.
Purple Sweet Potato.
Universe Family Planning Committee Director.
"Six Infinity Stones."
Lin Yi threw the pen on the table, leaned back against the chair back, and let out a long breath.
He looked at those names representing disaster and destruction on the parchment.
In other people's eyes, these were the countdowns pushing Earth step by step toward the abyss.
In his eyes, this was an ultimate buffet voucher following a map to find a treasure.
Physical destruction of the Power Stone.
Rule tampering of the Reality Stone.
Causal tearing of the Time Stone.
Each one represented a pinnacle cost experience.
"Before Purple Sweet Potato snaps his fingers, I have to touch all these six stones."
...
Manhattan Central Exhibition Center.
The huge floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall reflected the afternoon sunlight.
Lin Yi stood on the sidewalk, looking at the five-meter-high LED screen at the entrance of the exhibition hall.
A promotional video of Stark Industries was scrolling on the screen.
Tony Stark, wearing a three-piece suit, stood in the laboratory, raising his middle finger to the camera.
The voiceover was in his signature asking-for-a-beating tone.
"Clean energy? Sounds like the nonsense politicians use to cheat votes."
"But if I, Tony Stark, say so, then it's true."
Lin Yi chuckled and walked into the exhibition hall.
The hall was bustling with people.
Exhibitors, reporters, investors, and a whole bunch of tech enthusiasts joining in the excitement.
Lin Yi walked through the crowd straight toward the center of the exhibition hall.
A circular transparent exhibition stand was set up there.
In the very center of the exhibition stand floated a glowing circular device.
arc reactor.
The second-generation miniaturized version.
Lin Yi stood on the periphery of the exhibition stand, hands in his pockets.
He narrowed his eyes, and Void Perception silently extended outward.
The invisible perceptual tentacles penetrated the glass cover and seeped into the interior of the arc reactor.
The structure of the energy circuit was very precise.
The decay rate of the palladium element was controlled at an extremely delicate equilibrium point.
Lin Yi withdrew his perception, looking thoughtfully at the glowing circle.
"Is Tony Stark studying the energy of the Tesseract?"
"Or did he accidentally replicate some similar energy structure?"
The projection screen above the exhibition stand suddenly lit up.
Tony Stark's holographic image appeared in mid-air.
He wore a black slim-fit suit, with a glowing arc reactorpinned to his chest.
"Everyone, welcome to the Stark Industries Annual Technology Exhibition."
Tony spun around in mid-air and spread his arms.
"I know what you're thinking. Tony Stark is bragging again."
Laughter came from the crowd.
"But this time is different."
Tony snapped his fingers.
A string of data charts popped up on the huge screen behind him.
"arc reactor technology has entered the third-generation R&D stage."
"Energy output efficiency increased by three hundred percent, volume reduced by sixty percent."
Lin Yi stood in the crowd, looking up at the holographic projection.
Tony continued speaking.
"Clean energy is not the future, it is now."
"Stark Industries will allow every household to use a power grid powered by an arc reactor within the next five years."
Applause rang out.
But Lin Yi did not applaud, only staring at the glowing reactor on Tony's chest.
Void Perception extended out again.
This time, he probed his perceptual tentacles directly toward the source of Tony's holographic projection.
The projector on the ceiling of the exhibition hall.
Next to the projector, a palm-sized sensor was installed.
Just as Lin Yi's perception touched the surface of the sensor, the red indicator light on the sensor suddenly flashed.
Tony's holographic image paused for less than half a second.
He raised his head, his gaze precisely locking onto the direction where Lin Yi was located.
In the crowd, Lin Yi and Tony's holographic image stared at each other for a split second.
Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.
"Quick enough reaction."
Tony chuckled in mid-air and continued his speech.
Lin Yi withdrew his perception and turned toward the exhibition hall exit.
Behind him, Tony's voice continued.
"Energy revolution, starting today."
Chapter 60: Stark Industries Exposition
The open-air cafe outside the exhibition hall.
Lin Yi sat by the window and ordered a cup of black coffee.
He took out his phone and casually browsed the news.
The New York Times headline was an exclusive interview with S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.
Lin Yi glanced at the title and scrolled right past it.
The coffee was served.
Lin Yi picked up the cup and took a sip.
It was bitterly awful.
He leaned back in his chair, looking at the glass curtain wall of the exhibition hall.
Through the glass, he could see the exhibition activities still going on inside.
Tony Stark's hologram had already disappeared.
Now, an engineer in a white lab coat was standing on stage, explaining some kind of nanomaterial technology.
Lin Yi drank his coffee while calculating the timeline in his mind.
"Iron Man 1 has already ended."
"Tony should have just dealt with Obadiah Stane not long ago."
"The palladium poisoning issue of the arc reactor hasn't been solved yet."
"According to the movie plot, he should be dying soon."
As he was thinking, his phone suddenly vibrated.
"See you at the cafe. Five minutes. Don't leave."
Lin Yi looked at the text message and smiled.
"He really is impatient."
He threw his phone on the table and continued drinking his coffee.
...
Three minutes later.
A black Audi R8 stopped at the entrance of the cafe.
The car door pushed open.
Tony Stark got down from the driver's seat.
He took off his sunglasses and scanned the cafe seating area.
His gaze fell on Lin Yi.
Tony walked over, pulled out the opposite chair, and sat down directly.
"Hello."
Tony crossed his hands on the table and stared at Lin Yi.
"I am Tony Stark. But you probably already know that."
Lin Yi put down his coffee cup and looked at him.
"I know."
Tony smiled.
"Then let's skip the self-introduction part."
He reached out and tapped the tabletop.
"You scanned my arc reactor in the exhibition hall just now."
"Using some kind of energy fluctuation that I couldn't detect."
Tony leaned forward.
"Jarvis's sensors captured an abnormal signal, but couldn't analyze the source."
"I had him pull up the surveillance and lock onto your location."
"Then I found that you didn't have any electronic devices on you."
Tony stared into Lin Yi's eyes.
"So... are you a superpower user? A magician? Or an alien?"
Lin Yi picked up his coffee cup and took a sip.
"The second one."
Tony was stunned for a moment.
"A magician?"
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"They really exist?"
Lin Yi nodded.
"They really exist."
Tony was silent for two seconds.
"Then can you conjure up a rabbit for me to see?"
Lin Yi smiled.
"I'm not that kind of magician."
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Which kind?"
"The kind that conjures rabbits."
Lin Yi reached out and beckoned the waiter over.
"Another Americano."
The waiter nodded and walked away.
Tony stared at Lin Yi for a long while.
"You're serious."
Lin Yi spread his hands.
"You don't look like someone who is joking either."
Tony fell silent.
He took out his phone and his fingers slid across the screen.
"Jarvis, pull up the energy fluctuation record from just now."
A string of waveform charts popped up on the phone screen.
Tony pushed the phone in front of Lin Yi.
"This is the energy residue left when you scanned the reactor."
"The frequency is very weird. It doesn't match any known electromagnetic spectrum."
Lin Yi glanced at the screen.
"Because that's not an electromagnetic wave."
Tony's eyes lit up.
"What is that?"
Lin Yi didn't answer immediately.
The waiter walked over carrying the coffee and placed it on the table.
Lin Yi waited until the waiter walked away before speaking.
"Dimensional energy."
Tony frowned.
"Dimensions?"
Lin Yi nodded.
"The Universe we live in is just one of countless dimensions."
"The essence of magic is borrowing energy from other dimensions."
Tony stared at Lin Yi, his eyes revealing a nearly crazy excitement.
"You mean, parallel Universes?"
"Pretty much."
Tony took a deep breath.
He put down his phone and propped his hands on the table.
"Prove it to me."
Lin Yi took a sip of coffee.
"Now?"
"Now."
There was no room for discussion in Tony's tone.
Lin Yi put down the cup.
He looked at Tony.
"Are you sure?"
"On the street?"
Tony looked around.
There were only a few scattered guests at the cafe seating.
"No one is paying attention here."
Lin Yi smiled.
"Fine."
He extended his right hand and spread his palm.
Golden sparks danced on his fingertips.
The sparks rotated, intertwined, and expanded.
A palm-sized circular portal slowly opened above Lin Yi's palm.
Opposite the portal was a row of wooden bookshelves.
The bookshelves were piled with ancient parchment scrolls and heavy tomes.
Lin Yi reached in and pulled a book out from the bookshelf.
He placed the book on the table.
The portal closed immediately afterwards.
The golden sparks dissipated.
Tony stared at the book, motionless.
His breathing paused for several seconds.
"This..."
Tony reached out to touch the book.
The moment his fingers touched the cover, his whole body jolted like he had been electrocuted.
"This is real."
Tony looked up at Lin Yi.
"You opened a spatial passage just now."
Lin Yi nodded.
"Yes."
Tony abruptly stood up.
He pulled out a palm-sized handheld scanner and frantically scanned the location where the portal had just disappeared.
A bunch of garbled code popped up on the scanner's screen.
Tony stared at the screen for over ten seconds.
"Nothing scans."
He looked up at Lin Yi.
"This defies the laws of physics."
Lin Yi took a sip of coffee.
"I said before, this is not a dimension that your physics can explain."
Tony put away the scanner and sat back down.
He stared at the book on the table.
Silence.
A silence lasting half a minute.
Lin Yi waited for him to digest it.
Finally, Tony spoke.
"I want to learn."
Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.
"Learn magic?"
Tony nodded.
"Yes."
Lin Yi smiled.
"Are you sure?"
"magic is not technology."
"It requires talent, meditation, and emptying oneself."
"With a personality like yours, you probably can't even do the most basic meditation."
Tony stared at Lin Yi.
"Let's try it first."
Lin Yi looked at that stubbornness in Tony's eyes.
He put down the coffee cup.
"Fine."
"But I have a condition."
Tony immediately became alert.
"What condition?"
Lin Yi pointed at Tony's chest.
"Your arc reactor has a problem."
Tony's expression changed.
"How do you know?"
Lin Yi didn't answer.
He just stared at the glowing device on Tony's chest.
"Palladium poisoning."
"Blood toxicity has already exceeded fifty percent, hasn't it?"
Tony's hand instinctively pressed against his chest.
"Who on earth are you?"
Lin Yi leaned back into his chair.
"I said it already, a magician."
"I can sense the energy flow in your body."
"The decay products of the palladium element are eroding your blood vessels and nerves bit by bit."
"At this rate, you won't live past three months."
Tony was silent.
His fingers tapped a few times on the tabletop.
"You have a way?"
Lin Yi nodded.
"Yes."
"But it requires your cooperation."
Tony stared at Lin Yi for quite a while.
"Go ahead."
"What condition."
Lin Yi extended one finger.
"First, I will teach you the basic theory of magic."
"Second, you help me research something."
Tony frowned.
"What thing?"
Lin Yi didn't answer directly.
He took a small piece of dark golden metal fragment out of his pocket.
That was a meteorite sample he brought out from the Cairo ruins.
He placed the fragment on the table.
"This."
Tony picked up the fragment and observed it carefully against the sunlight.
"This is... a meteorite?"
Lin Yi nodded.
"It contains a special kind of energy inside."
"I need you to analyze its structure and find a way to steadily extract this energy."
Tony weighed the fragment in his palm.
"Interesting."
He looked up at Lin Yi.
"Deal."