In conclusion.
If this was S.H.I.E.L.D., then everything could be explained and made to make sense.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had the ability, and it also had a certain reason.
Everyone knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. was a secret organization, but just look at Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the later period.
Hydra was packed with capable people.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had only a few strays.
How many of the strongest fighters later on were actually from S.H.I.E.L.D.?
Iron Man? He was a capitalist first and foremost.
Thor? He was a second-generation god.
Black Widow? She was from the Soviet Red Room first and foremost. Because of Hawkeye, and because she had no other choice, she had joined S.H.I.E.L.D.
Hawkeye? I didn't know much about him, but he had learned his skills from ninjas. Unless S.H.I.E.L.D.'s higher-ups included someone from an island country, he wasn't trained by S.H.I.E.L.D. either.
What about afterward?
Mockingbird Barbara Morse?
Phil Coulson?
Those two could at least be said to have come from S.H.I.E.L.D.
After that, there was no one left.
By contrast, although Hydra didn't have many figures who could hold their own, every single one of them had been trained by Hydra itself—and with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources at that.
So...
Sometimes, it wasn't frightening for an organization to be stupid. What was frightening was when an organization was unbelievably stupid yet thought itself incredibly clever.
Its own system for producing talent had developed a problem, but instead of trying to fix it, it planned to poach people from outside.
Heh.
If that was the case, why build a S.H.I.E.L.D. academy? Was it to build one for Hydra? Or did they think S.H.I.E.L.D. was so powerful and invincible that they wanted to create a wonder to boost their own morale?
So.
If all of this had been a test by S.H.I.E.L.D., and they had used this method to socially destroy Lake, then changed his name and recruited him into S.H.I.E.L.D. for them to use as they pleased, everything would make sense.
An ordinary Lake might not have been worth recruiting for S.H.I.E.L.D.
But Lake, who had wiped out The Assistance with his bare hands, was worth it.
Only...
I hope it wasn't you!
After returning to his apartment in Starlight Tower, Lake took out a glass of bourbon and downed a large gulp. Then he narrowed his eyes and spoke expressionlessly.
He had started dating Maureen before the incident involving The Assistance. So, although Maureen's shadow seemed to hang over the matter, Lake still held on to a sliver of hope that she hadn't been the one behind it.
What if she was?
Lake sneered. There was one thing he hated most: someone scheming against him. Whoever schemed against him would die.
Without exception!
In the afternoon!
Lake, who had been lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, opened them.
**Use!** **Copy Card!** **Please select the card to be copied!** **Select Tracking Card for copying.** **Copy successful!** **Use Tracking Card!** **In use. Please enter the target's name or visualize their appearance.** **Maureen Hand!** **...Tracking successful. Target's current location: New York City...**
Manhattan.
Upper East Side.
Lenox Hill Hospital Street.
Wearing sunglasses, Lake sipped the coffee he had just ordered at a café on the street corner. From the corner of his eye, he watched an unremarkable building diagonally across the intersection.
Lenox Tower.
The outer wall of the tower was nearly peeling away, and several tall scaffolds had been erected outside. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought it was a dangerous building under renovation.
Who could have imagined that the most mysterious spy organization at present was hidden inside this utterly ordinary building?
The city lights had just begun to come on.
Around the time night slowly descended, two people finally walked out of the building.
One redhead.
One brunette.
Black Widow, Natasha Romanov!
Lake raised his brows and shook his head inwardly. He had clearly decided from the start not to deal with these law-enforcement agencies that were full of talk about justice but rotten inside. Yet somehow, he had still ended up dealing with them in such a muddled way.
Was this the fate of a protagonist?
But...
I don't get protagonist treatment either.
At the thought of the prizes from his previous four consecutive draws, Lake's heart bled. It was still the same old saying: ten thousand dollars in 3030 might only buy a stick of fried dough, but here, obtaining it through legitimate means would take him at least a month.
The roar of a sports car rang out.
It appeared on the streets of New York like a streak of red light and vanished from the street in the blink of an eye.
Lake got up and walked toward a blue family car parked nearby.
He got in.
Started the engine.
Expressionless, Lake drove while watching the extremely fast red dot that had appeared on the map of New York, following it unhurriedly.
An hour later.
The fiery-red sports car stopped outside an upscale French restaurant in New York.
Lake stopped his car two blocks away and lowered his head with a smile.
The last supper?
Inside the restaurant on the fifteenth floor.
After Natasha placed their order, she said to Maureen across from her, "Our plane takes off in an hour."
Maureen said, "I bear primary responsibility for this mission. I didn't investigate thoroughly enough."
The operation had been a complete failure.
As the planner of the operation, Three Feathers had demanded that she return to headquarters to report.
Everything had clearly been under control. In fact, after S.H.I.E.L.D. saw Lake's service records and the NYPD's files, it had already taken an interest in recruiting him. That was why they had deliberately arranged for Maureen to approach him.
This time, they had planned everything perfectly. Once public opinion was stirred up by the incident and Lake was socially destroyed, S.H.I.E.L.D. would step forward and take him in. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s influence, changing his name would be easy. If everything went well, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have a respectable agent five years later.
But the assassin Black King had appeared out of nowhere.
And...
His relationship with Lake seemed extraordinary.
That was something Maureen, and even S.H.I.E.L.D., hadn't anticipated. Black King's appearance had completely disrupted Maureen and the others' arrangements, leaving them able to do nothing but react to each development.
Who would have thought Black King would be faster than them, directly choosing the simplest and most violent solution—stopping schemes with murder?
At first, Maureen and S.H.I.E.L.D. suspected that Lake was Black King. But the first time, there had been numerous witnesses from the bar, and the second time, Maureen had seen it with her own eyes. The facts proved that Lake and Black King were two different people.
And afterward, Lake had proposed breaking up.
The mission had therefore completely fallen apart and reached its end.
Just then.
A cute little child brushed shoulders with a man in a suit. After a while, the child walked to Maureen and Natasha's left. The child looked at Natasha, then at Maureen, and held out the phone in his hand. "Miss, someone asked me to give this phone to you."
Maureen froze slightly.
A while later.
Maureen watched the child leave the hotel. Hearing the phone in her hand ring, she frowned and looked at Natasha across from her.
Natasha swept her gaze around the surroundings, especially the building opposite that window.
There was no building overlooking them, nor any building that could serve as a good vantage point.
Maureen answered the call.
"Hello!"
"..."
Before you continue