Death News

Wei Xiuming hung up and began to form a theory. The vampires had probably gone after the Parker couple, and there was a very good chance they had succeeded.

As for making excuses about needing the plot to follow the established story, or the writer not knowing what to do with the Parker couple's storyline, Wei Xiuming had no interest in that. The technology the Parker couple possessed had simply gotten in his way.

In the Sea Tiger World, the stronger someone's spirit, the stronger they were. People had to seek their true selves and remain unmoved by distractions to become powerful. The purer they were, the stronger they became—but that purity could come from pure love, pure hatred, or extreme selfishness or selflessness.

After learning the future from The Ancient One and becoming certain it would turn out as he hoped, Wei Xiuming's state of mind—once unsettled by the Infinite Flow protagonist—had stabilized more than ever. Nothing else could sway his decisions.

Standing on a flying skateboard that had been shelved in storage because it demanded too much of its user, Wei Xiuming headed straight to Sector B-2. There, he saw Coulson waiting beside the aircraft they would soon be boarding.

Compared to a few years ago, Coulson was still as approachable as ever, though his hairline had receded a little.

Wei Xiuming had guessed Nick Fury would send him to his destination as quickly as possible, but he had always assumed a helicopter would be enough. He hadn't expected the aircraft waiting here to be a Quinjet.

A plane that could fly through the air and underwater, go supersonic, take off and land vertically, and turn invisible was an undeniable strategic asset. It belonged solely to S.H.I.E.L.D. and was one of the trump cards that let the organization shoulder the task of maintaining world peace. As for other options, like nuclear bombs, there was no need to mention them. Even Black Eggplant probably couldn't count how many aces he had up his sleeve.

After the plane took off and turned invisible, Wei Xiuming looked at Coulson, one of the Marvel universe's "newbie village" leaders, and asked with interest, "Mr. Coulson, I heard you're a devoted fan of Captain America?"

Coulson was surprised that this was the first thing Wei Xiuming had asked him. "Yes. Captain America is a hero to all humanity..."

"Come on." Wei Xiuming sensed little change in Coulson's emotions through his magnetic field abilities. Captain America, that old block of ice, probably hadn't been dug up yet. He cut off Coulson's praise. "The Captain America you know is just a public image created by propaganda. He was an ordinary man—an ordinary man who'd been enhanced. Deep down, he had regrets and felt lonely. Don't hold him to the standard of a perfect saint."

Coulson immediately grew wary. As Nick Fury's trusted right-hand man, he had access to information beyond his rank as an agent. For instance, Fury had told him that Wei Xiuming was a man from the future, then instructed him to remember every word Wei Xiuming said when they were together, because those words might hold clues to what lay ahead.

Wei Xiuming had casually mentioned Captain America, a martyr who had sacrificed himself for humanity's liberation. There had to be a reason for it.

Could Captain America still be alive, and return as a superhero in the near future, only to lose the public's trust because of personal issues? Coulson made a bold guess, then discarded it.

The official story, and what Coulson had always understood, was that Captain America had died heroically fighting Hydra's enhanced soldier, Red Skull. But what if that understanding was wrong?

Coulson didn't treat his conjecture as fact. The real world wasn't a mystery manga from the Island Nation. He simply kept Wei Xiuming's words in mind and planned to report them to Nick Fury when the time was right.

After Wei Xiuming bluntly cut off the conversation about Captain America, the two didn't speak again for the rest of the trip. The usually composed Coulson was restless, partly because the plane's extreme speed made him feel a little sick, and partly because he wanted to find a way to get more information out of Wei Xiuming.

Wei Xiuming didn't mind. He devoted himself to fleshing out every aspect of the "Shocker" organization he'd made up, trying to make it as complete as possible—for example, by slipping in some allusions to Hydra.

At that thought, Wei Xiuming realized he'd fallen into a mental trap, perhaps misled by fanfiction he'd read before traveling here. Hydra wanted to rule the world, and that didn't conflict with his own goal. So why not work with them?

Or, to put it more accurately, why not use Hydra's power to help achieve his goal? It would only take a simple "Hail Hydra."

The Quinjet landed at a military base, not at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters Wei Xiuming had expected—the Triskelion in the United States.

Once they arrived, Coulson didn't accompany him any further. Instead, several staff members in white lab coats took over escorting him. After the familiar decontamination procedures, Wei Xiuming changed into a hazmat suit and passed through several airlocks and security doors. At last, he saw Nick Fury, who was also wearing a hazmat suit.

In the center of the room stood a coffin-like device. Light periodically shone through its transparent lid, brightening the surroundings. Using his abilities to sense it, Wei Xiuming detected the nature of that light: it represented destruction.

The lid had reduced the damage from the light spilling out to the point where prolonged exposure would only cause sunburn. But if Wei Xiuming stood close to it without protection, it would seriously injure him.

The intermittent flashes also indicated that something inside the device was being destroyed over and over—most likely a living creature with exceptional regenerative abilities.

"Clark Kent, you called it. Richard Parker and his wife, Mary Parker, really did meet with an accident." Black Eggplant's voice was heavy. Losing an old friend was hard.

"Can you confirm that?" Wei Xiuming paused deliberately before slowly asking, "Did they go missing, or were they attacked? Are they alive or dead? If they're dead, where are their remains?"

"We've confirmed it. Both died in a plane crash, along with the entire flight crew and all the passengers. That included seven S.H.I.E.L.D. agents assigned to protect them. Their bodies are in the morgue in another area, and DNA tests confirmed their identities." Nick Fury handed Wei Xiuming the folder he was holding. "But most of the people on the plane had already been killed before the crash. The one who killed them is inside the thing in front of us."

Wei Xiuming quickly skimmed the autopsy report, then stepped closer to stand beside Nick Fury and look at the coffin-like device. Inside was a blur of flesh.