Life's Great Ups and Downs

[An old man, typed entirely by hand, no AI

Welcome, all you Daniel Wus and Liu Yifeis. Please support me.]

Houston, Texas

As usual, after lunch, Lin Xu went down to the underground parking garage and picked out the spotless Chevrolet, the same model Nick Fury drove, from among a fleet of dust-covered luxury cars.

In Marvel's disaster-prone America, sports cars were for the sentiment; bulletproofing was for real life.

Even if this was Houston, the least noteworthy city in Marvel.

Half an hour later, Lin Xu arrived at his destination, Houston Stark Tower, the city's new tallest building. It stood right next to Williams Tower.

That competitive choice of location was pure Stark.

This was where Lin Xu came to work—or slack off—every day.

Eight years had passed since he transmigrated in 2008. Back then, he had burned his bridges, sold his predecessor's house in New York, and plunged into the stock market. After repeatedly buying and selling Stark Industries stock over the years, he had become one of Stark's major shareholders, with a full 9.5 percent!

It wasn't as though no one had considered getting rid of him, but throughout his time as a shareholder, he had steadfastly supported every decision Tony Stark made. That had given many people pause.

After all, there was a fundamental difference between an ordinary capitalist and Iron Man, the whole country's idol.

His various actions had also attracted the attention of the "relevant department." Until it had uncovered everything about him, that "relevant department" would help shield him from all outside scrutiny.

Of course, that didn't include the department itself.

Ding-dong~

"Come in~"

"Sir, your coffee."

"Mm. If there's nothing else, you can go."

"All right."

All the while, Lin Xu kept his eyes on the window, his back to his assistant.

Lu Xun once said that the best way to eliminate fear was to face it, and the best way to eliminate suspicion was to turn your back on it. As long as you couldn't see my face, what the hell could you analyze?

The main reason was that Lin Xu wasn't sure whether this level-ten S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was the TV-series version, the comics version, or simply an ordinary agent with no superpowers.

Only five minutes after she left did Lin Xu slowly turn around. First, it was to avoid looking deliberate under surveillance; second, his coffee had cooled, and there was the morning news.

"At 18:00 local time yesterday, 12:00 noon New York time, U.S. Air Force Colonel Rhodey fell from a great height and was injured while pursuing a superpowered criminal. Efforts to save him are still underway. This has once again shown us the destructive nature of superpowered crime. The implementation of the Sokovia Accords..."

Listening to the censored version of the midday news, Lin Xu curled his lip.

The report mentioned only a superpowered criminal, not Captain America or any of the others by name. And the only people capable of covering up the truth were either Thaddeus Ross or Tony Stark.

Lin Xu leaned toward the latter~

He sprawled on the sofa without a care for appearances. He didn't plan to do anything with the time ahead, and without superpowers, there wasn't much he could do anyway.

All he could do was take his chances on the fifty-fifty odds two years from now: either nothing would happen, or he'd be offline for five years.

He had died young in his previous life. Now that he'd been reborn in Marvel, he was already ahead.

"At 19:00 last night, world-renowned surgeon Stephen Strange was involved in a car accident while driving..."

The sound of the news pulled Lin Xu from his thoughts.

Was Doctor Strange born?

"His girlfriend, Christine, died at the scene. Miraculously, Doctor Strange escaped without a scratch..."

Hm, hm~, HMMMM??????

What the hell?

"What the hell do you mean, without a scratch? Wait, who the fuck did you say died???"

After his thoughts stalled for a moment, Lin Xu shot to his feet.

Something was wrong. Twelve parts wrong out of ten!

Lin Xu's face turned deathly pale, his composure vanishing completely. If it really was what he thought, this world probably wouldn't last another two years.

According to the plot of What If...?, after "persuading" Dormammu to leave, Doctor Strange would try to use the Time Stone to bring Christine back, ultimately destroying the entire universe.

"Fuck!"

Still unwilling to give up, he looked at the gold-and-red briefcase in the corner. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.!"

"Level-three access granted. Good afternoon, Lin."

"Confirm whether the report about Stephen Strange is true."

"...The report is true."

"Fuck!"

"Is there anything else?"

Lin Xu had no attention to spare for F.R.I.D.A.Y. now. Anxiety and a trace of anger filled him.

When he had first transmigrated, he had considered becoming a superhero, whether by gaining abilities through technology or mutation. In the end, he had backed down because he valued his hard-won life; those frighteningly low success rates had deterred him.

To sum it up in two words: "afraid to die."

After several years, he had finally prepared himself mentally: being an ordinary rich man wasn't so bad.

And now?

Couldn't even that little wish come true...?

Should I kill Strange right now?

No, the Ancient One will definitely be watching him. Or I could just tell her about the future.

That's not right either. As the Sorcerer Supreme who keeps the Time Stone, she must have seen the possibility of this future. But why wouldn't she intervene...?

There are so many parallel universes. Maybe the Strange in this universe isn't that crazy...

Fuck!

Lin Xu walked to the window and looked at the fiery red sun on the distant horizon. The more he thought about it, the more troubled he felt, until he even had the urge to jump.

Ha! Who doesn't go crazy?!

Then let's go completely crazy~

He turned and pressed the assistant call button on his desk. Less than ten seconds later, the doorbell rang.

Ding-dong~

"Come in!"

With the clatter of high heels, a woman entered. Her hair was cut short at shoulder length, and her black-and-white office attire perfectly showed off her figure. Unfortunately, a pair of black-framed glasses completely concealed the heroic air of her face.

"Sir~"

"Mm, I have a task for you. Doctor Palmer at Presbyterian Hospital is dead. Switch her body out. I don't need you to bring her back to life; it's been almost twenty hours, after all. But you need to do everything you can to keep her cells viable."

"Huh?"

Lin Xu had no time to observe his assistant's stunned expression. He put on his coat and headed out. "Oh, and tell your superior this is very important. If Earth's technology won't do it, use the Skrulls' technology. If anything goes wrong, that old pager won't help either."

Only then did Daisy realize she had been exposed. Watching Lin Xu leave the office, she immediately touched the side of her glasses. "Nick..."

"I heard everything. Don't worry about any of it; I'll follow up on my end. Act as if nothing happened and stay by his side. Also, forget what he said at the end!"

"Understood!"

In the basement of an estate somewhere in New Jersey.

Nick Fury frowned deeply as he stared motionlessly at the freshly printed documents, an old pager clutched tightly in his other hand.

"Christine Palmer..."

Lin Xu, male, 182 centimeters tall, weighing 75 kilograms, born in 1988. His mother died young, and his father ran a Chinese restaurant in Clinton before dying in a gang shootout.

In 2008, he sold his family's properties in Clinton and Brooklyn, then bought and sold Stark shares on numerous occasions...

He had been watching this man for a long time. A newly wealthy man who had risen with almost no missteps, going from middle class to a capitalist tycoon worth hundreds of billions in just a few years.

At first, he had only wanted to invite him to be his financial adviser, but what happened afterward had completely exceeded his expectations.

Ivan, Dr. Selvig, Killian, Scott—before the events involving these people took place, Lin Xu had investigated them all in advance.

Even more chilling was how he knew about the Skrulls and Carol. At present, only Fury and Hill knew about them in all of S.H.I.E.L.D.; even Coulson had had that part of his memory erased after Project TAHITI "brought him back to life."

Prophecy? Or a prophet?

Should I bring him into the reorganization of S.H.I.E.L.D. too? He knows too much!