A Gift for Fury

On some highway in New York.

Don't ask where this was or which highway it was. Li Feng had no idea. He had merely driven toward the suburbs along the roads with the fewest people. As for where he was going, he had not decided yet.

Maybe he would find somewhere scenic to digest the gains from his recent travels—practice the spells in The Key of Solomon, or the dark spells Ancient One had modified, or find some desolate place to interrogate the Demon inside the scroll and see if he could extort a few Demon spells from it.

Humming a song without a single note in tune, Li Feng parked the RV at a roadside gas station, picked up the Shoulder Bag from the passenger seat, and walked into the gas station convenience store.

He could not help it. He had not eaten lunch after leaving the restaurant in Chinatown, and now that he had driven out of New York City, he was starving.

If this convenience store did not have food, he would open a Portal to a place called Bei Ming. There was a creature there called Kun, and Li Feng felt like he could eat one whole in a single sitting—raw, without even seasoning.

Just as Li Feng entered the convenience store and began stuffing himself like a starving ghost reborn, May, who had driven the car with the grace of a fighter jet, finally spotted the RV parked at the gas station.

May pointed at the RV and asked, "Sir, what do we do now?"

Fury pushed open the car door and straightened his collar as he pointed at the communicator in his ear. "Stay in the car and prepare to provide support. If anything seems wrong, contact headquarters immediately and have them send fighter jets for backup. If necessary, carry out an airstrike on Austin."

May froze for a moment. As she drew her pistol, the corner of her mouth twitched. "Sir, isn't that a little exaggerated? Fighter jets? Why not send in a tank division while you're at it?"

Fury turned to look at May, his lips curling slightly. "If necessary, contact a tank division."

May: That's not how this works, is it? This feels like World War III is about to break out.

Fury did not care what May thought. All he knew was that if Austin truly was an alien—an alien with invasion on his mind—then a war really could break out. A planetary-scale war. By then, forget tanks; they would be throwing nuclear weapons around like dumplings.

Walking straight to the RV, Fury skillfully picked the lock with a pin, let himself into the vehicle, and quietly waited for Li Feng to return.

At that moment, the table in front of Li Feng was a complete mess. Before leaving, he even burped contentedly and deliberately carried a case of canned beer back to the RV, planning to catch a chicken or rabbit or something that evening and have a wilderness barbecue.

Opening the door, Li Feng casually tossed the beer and Shoulder Bag onto the passenger seat. Before he could start the vehicle, he felt a pistol pressed against the back of his head.

As Li Feng quietly gathered Mana and prepared his defenses, he looked into the rearview mirror to see which blind fool dared rob a Mage.

In the mirror, Fury held up his pistol and said with a half-smile, "Long time no see, Austin. A Green Skin asked me to send you his regards."

Once Li Feng realized it was Fury pointing a gun at him, he relaxed. He raised his right hand, gave Fury the middle finger, and said, "Keep your hand steady. What if it goes off by accident? Wouldn't I die for nothing?"

Li Feng understood that Fury had mentioned Green Skin because he was afraid Li Feng was not the same Austin he had met before. With the same half-smile, he said, "Which Green Skin are you talking about? I know plenty of Green Skins. Speaking of the one who left the deepest impression on me, it would be the one who modified an airplane with a hammer and screwdriver. I remember you saying he really lived up to being a researcher."

Hearing that, Fury knew he had found the right person. However, he had no intention of lowering his pistol so easily. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs from behind his waist and gestured for Li Feng to cuff himself. "When I asked about your identity before, you said it was not the right time. Now it should be time to tell me who you are, shouldn't it?"

Li Feng took the handcuffs and casually hung them from the rearview mirror. "You're really polite. You could've just come over, but you even brought me a pair of connected Silver Bracelets. I'll gladly accept them."

Seeing Li Feng use such a terrible excuse to change the subject that he could not even be bothered to mock it, Fury pressed the pistol against Li Feng's head. "Please answer my question. As for gifts, I really did prepare one for you, but it's still on the way."

Li Feng turned toward Fury in surprise. What had he just heard? Thinking he might have misheard, Li Feng dug at his ear and asked uncertainly, "You said you prepared a gift for me?"

When Fury nodded, Li Feng instinctively shook his head. "I remember Fury as the kind of guy who opens his mouth and says, 'Gimme, gimme, gimme,' whenever he sees something good. So there's no way you'd give me a gift. Who are you? Why are you pretending to be Feiqiu?"

Fury's eye twitched. He knew Li Feng was joking, but for some reason, he felt as if his gun hand was no longer under his control. It seemed to have thoughts of its own. It wanted to pull the trigger!

Gritting his teeth, Fury said, "I am Fury. Talos asked me to send his greetings."

"I still can't believe it." As he spoke, Li Feng looked up through the windshield at the sun in the sky. Confirming that the afternoon sun hung in the west, he rubbed his eyes. "Or am I dreaming? Is it morning? Did the sun rise in the west?"

Through Fury's communicator, May heard Li Feng's words as well. She could now be certain that Fury and Austin were very familiar with each other. After all, someone unfamiliar would not know how stingy her superior was. Yet she was also deeply confused, because she had clearly heard Fury asking Austin what his identity was.

What was going on? Was Austin serving some secret organization, and Fury wanted to figure out his identity?

But Fury definitely hadn't looked like he was joking when he mentioned sending fighter jets...

May felt a headache coming on. Though analyzing useful intelligence from fragments of conversation was basic practice for an agent, her brain hurt. She simply could not make sense of any of it.

"Speaking of gifts," Li Feng said, ignoring the pistol at the back of his head as he dug a USB Drive that looked as though it had been soaked in strong acid from his Shoulder Bag. "I have a gift for you too."

Fury looked at the finger-sized USB Drive in Li Feng's hand and narrowed his eye. "Didn't expect a slob like you to own high-tech gadgets. This wouldn't be..." Fury pointed at the sky. "Something brought back from out there, would it?"

Fury knew that USB Drives, expensive gadgets like these, had not been on the market for long. In any case, he did not believe Li Feng, who supposedly belonged to Earth, would be using high-tech equipment. So this was most likely contraband that the alien Austin had brought back from Outer Space.

Li Feng blinked blankly at first, then realized that "out there" meant Outer Space. Speechless, he said, "You don't think I'm an alien, do you?"

Rolling his eyes dramatically at Fury, Li Feng pinched his cheek and said, "This skin is native to Earth—one hundred percent natural, no additives, no modifications."

Worried that Li Feng might casually mention something like the Kree, Fury quickly turned off the communicator in his ear. "Since you're a completely natural Earthling, then please tell me how you returned to the ground from Earth orbit. Don't tell me you just jumped down."

Li Feng shrugged and tossed the USB Drive in his hand to Fury. "Then I would've been smashed into a meat patty—the kind you could steam straight in a pot."

Glancing at the communicator Fury had crushed, Li Feng looked at May in the car. "By the way, you're pretty bold. As the director, you didn't send agents to meet me—you came in person. Should I feel deeply honored, or should I worry that some sniper I can't see is aiming at my forehead?"

Director? I want that position, but I'm not the director yet...

Fury took the USB Drive and examined it. "Was this soaked in sulfuric acid, or did you put it in your mouth and let your bad breath corrode it?"

Li Feng scratched his head. This thing really had been in my mouth. Was it easy testing whether ordinary items wrapped in Mana could travel with me?

"This contains the experimental data of a Mad Scientist who resurrected corpses. There are idiot-proof instructions inside. As long as you can repair the USB Drive, you can resurrect anyone's corpse. But it has a small side effect. The resurrected corpse is like an amnesiac—even to the point of forgetting whether they're male or female."

Fury stared at Li Feng with his one eye and shook the USB Drive in his hand. He sneered, "If the data in here is really what you claim, then I'd be sure you're an alien. Resurrecting corpses? You might as well say this piece of junk contains the secret to Evolving into a god. It's corroded beyond repair anyway, so you can say whatever you want."

"You don't believe me?" Ignoring Fury's pistol, Li Feng stood up and walked directly to the RV's Locker. Using his body to block Fury's view, he took out the matchbox-sized Magic Book from his pocket, enlarged it inside the Locker, and removed it.

Turning back to Fury, Li Feng flipped the Magic Book to the page containing Frankenstein's experiment notes and pointed at the writing. "These are written records. It depends on whether you can understand them."

"And," Li Feng said helplessly, pointing at the pistol, "can you stop pointing guns at me all day? It's annoying to look at, you know?"

Fury glanced at Li Feng. He was, after all, a veteran agent, and he believed he could tell that Li Feng genuinely was not afraid of the pistol. After considering it, he put the gun away and looked at the Magic Book.

Fury could tell whether the experiment notes were nonsense or credible. But he had only taken one look when the RV door suddenly opened. May raised her pistol and aimed it at Li Feng. After glancing at Fury and confirming that he had no visible injuries, she asked, "Sir, are you all right?"

Will this ever end? Feiqiu just put his gun away, and now another gun-toting person pops up and points one at me. Do they really think I'm that easy to bully?

Before Li Feng could speak, Fury lowered his head to study the Magic Book and gestured for May to put away her pistol. In a grave tone, he said, "Melinda, have Coulson bring several medical experts here. The sooner, the better."

May looked at Fury in confusion. Fury usually called me May. He only called me "Melinda" during urgent or important missions.

Realizing that the situation was serious, May put away her pistol, took out her phone, and made a call. "Yes, sir."