American Comics: The Op-Op Fruit
Chapter 18

Pym Particles

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"Lucky me. Good thing Mordo refused to let me use the Holy Temple gate to return to New York before." After slipping the Sling Ring onto his finger, Shen Fei was extremely excited.

Kamar-Taj had gates connected to the three Holy Temples, allowing people to travel freely between them. However, only members of Kamar-Taj could use those gates.

No wonder he was so excited. Having a Sling Ring and not having one made an enormous difference. It could be said that once Kamar-Taj's Sorcerers had Sling Rings, as long as they possessed enough magical power, they could teleport freely throughout the universe.

During the final battle, hadn't Doctor Strange brought Spider-Man and the others directly back from Titan?

"What a waste of plane tickets. The ticket money was wasted." Using the Sling Ring, Shen Fei returned to New York in an instant. With such a convenient method available, he could not be bothered to take a flight that long.

"As expected, money makes the world go round. Having money makes everything easier." Although he had not returned for two years, his home was as clean as ever, and all the furniture was brand-new.

During his two years in Kamar-Taj, his New York house had naturally not been left vacant. While at Kamar-Taj, Shen Fei had remotely instructed a law firm to rent out the house, then had the firm arrange renovations before his return.

"Room." Only after using the Op-Op Fruit's power to inspect the entire house did Shen Fei finally feel at ease enough to practice magic inside.

"Stark spends all day chasing women. Pepper really deserves credit for staying by his side instead of leaving. Seriously, if you have time to chase women, build the Arc Reactor first." Watching Tony Stark embrace women on both sides at the Stark Expo in the news, with Pepper standing beside him and smiling, Shen Fei was speechless.

Stark Group had a massive Arc Reactor that powered the entire Stark Tower and was also meant to be displayed for others to see. Stark Group had always publicly claimed that it was temporarily unable to miniaturize it.

But considering that Stark had built a miniature Arc Reactor by hand in a cave, that excuse was hardly convincing. The only explanation was probably that Stark was lazy now, or lacked sufficient motivation without a life-threatening crisis.

Vanity Fair and Victoria's Secret were the places Stark frequented. Stark hardly ever missed any of Vanity Fair's cover models over the years.

Stark alone had no idea how many gossip tabloids he kept alive.

Who told Stark to be so rich?

"The Stark Expo is worth checking out." The expo passed down from Howard's era had always been a major event in New York. Numerous high-tech companies displayed their products there, most of them companies ordinary people had never even heard of.

And if someone possessed sufficiently advanced technology, they could also directly seek investment from Stark Group.

Now that he had come to this world and had the opportunity, Shen Fei naturally wanted to see it. There was plenty of high technology there, along with forward-thinking ideas.

"Pym Technologies." Before going to the Stark Expo, however, Shen Fei first needed to find Hank Pym's address. As a former S.H.I.E.L.D. High Command member, Hank's address was naturally kept extremely confidential. Ordinary people had no idea where he lived. Fortunately, Shen Fei's hacking skills were now decent, allowing him to find the address through Pym Technologies.

After all, Hank's daughter worked at Pym Technologies.

Pym Particles had always been a target coveted by S.H.I.E.L.D.—or rather, Hydra—because their applications were far too broad. But since even Howard had failed to obtain them back then, and given Hank's standing, not even Hydra dared move against Hank lightly.

It was not because Hydra was kind. Hank was simply too important. If Hydra truly dared attack him, Hydra would likely be exposed before long.

Why was Hydra so powerful? Not because of how many years it had developed or how many forces it possessed, but because it had parasitized S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D. was a United Nations organization, which was why Hydra held such immense authority.

"Alexander is an idiot. A secret organization insisted on stepping into the light, and then got wiped out, didn't it?" As for Hydra, Shen Fei felt that there was something wrong with their brains. They had parasitized S.H.I.E.L.D. and held so much power, yet they insisted on coming out to rule the world and launching Project Insight.

The result was that Hydra died the moment it stepped into the light.

Without S.H.I.E.L.D., without the authority bestowed by the UN Five Bigwigs, what the hell was Hydra? It looked powerful, but it was nothing more than a flower in the mirror, the moon in the water.

And Hydra's Project Insight had been carried out after Asgard and the Chitauri had already been exposed to everyone on Earth.

They had never considered what would happen if aliens attacked again even if Project Insight truly succeeded. Would Hydra just parasitize S.H.I.E.L.D. again?

Even if no aliens attacked afterward, what if Project Insight targeted Kamar-Taj? What if it targeted the Ancient One? Then the outcome would be quite amusing.

"Come to think of it, if I exposed all those Hydra people now, Hydra would probably be finished. But S.H.I.E.L.D. would likely be finished too." After finding Hank's address, Shen Fei stood up.

Exposing Hydra now would bring him no benefit. On the contrary, he could use his foreknowledge to accomplish quite a few things.

Daniel Whitehall, Gideon Malick, and the others were all influential figures with money and power.

"You really can't tell this is Hank's home." It was an ordinary-looking villa. Most people would never imagine that the famous Doctor Hank Pym lived there.

"There are quite a lot of people watching this place. Good thing I have the Mirror Dimension, or this would have been troublesome." Through the Mirror Dimension, Shen Fei easily located the people hidden near Hank's home.

The reason Shen Fei had not feared exposing himself by going to Kamar-Taj was not only because magic was wondrous, but also because he had been preparing for what came next. He could use the Op-Op Fruit to analyze Pym Particles and reproduce them, but that would certainly take a great deal of time. It would be different if he could continuously watch Hank work from within the Mirror Dimension.

People in the Mirror Dimension could not interfere with the real world, but they could observe it. As long as he brought enough food and drink, he refused to believe he would not eventually see Hank manufacture and use Pym Particles.

Without a Sling Ring, Shen Fei would never have dared do this. He could enter the Mirror Dimension without one, but he would not be able to leave. He was not Thanos, powerful enough to shatter the Mirror Dimension.

"Keeping a tank with him at all times—Hank really is impressive." Through the Mirror Dimension, Shen Fei quickly spotted the tank being used as a keychain, as well as a box that seemed to contain numerous toy cars. They were all real cars.

"Is he researching the Quantum Realm?" From within the Mirror Dimension, Shen Fei could see that Hank was constantly studying information related to the Quantum Realm. He also noticed that Hank's relationship with his daughter Hope was currently terrible.

It was genuinely terrible, not the pretense seen in Ant-Man. That was why Hope did not live with Hank. She only came back to visit occasionally, after all, Hank was her father.

Because of her mother's death, Hope had always blamed Hank.

"There really are a lot of cameras, and they're all so tiny." Even clever spies would probably struggle to discover so many cameras. Cameras shrunk by Pym Particles could still function.

Just like shrunken cars.

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