Ordinary

Silence...

With the appearance of the naked man, everyone near the Manhattan Stock Exchange fell into a tense silence.

That silence lasted for more than twenty seconds, until Heisenberg struggled to move, finally breaking it.

Heisenberg raised a hand stiffly, like a walking corpse.

In an instant, more than seventy rifles and twelve grenade launchers were aimed at him.

Iron Man aimed the cannons in both hands at Heisenberg as light continued gathering in his palms.

Brilliant arcs of electricity flashed across Black Widow's right glove, dangerous yet beautiful.

As for Coulson...

He looked at the pistol he had raised and aimed, then lightly curled his lip.

Why did it feel like this pose was completely useless?

Cough, cough!

Coulson shook his head, tossing all those distracting thoughts out of his mind before cautiously asking,

"Can you understand me? Who are you, where did you come from, and what do you want?"

As soon as the words fell, Heisenberg frowned. Wasn't that life's three big questions?

Who was I, where did I come from, and where was I going?

"I am Heisenberg, the 64th Supreme Elder of the Council of Krypton. I... ngh, aaahhh!!!"

Before he could finish, overwhelming pain abruptly cut him off.

Sounds—restless, turbulent sounds—came flooding directly into his mind!

It felt as though tens of thousands of huskies were howling madly beside his ears.

It was also like hundreds of thousands of women chattering inside his head.

Or like a thousand nuclear bombs exploding in his mouth and nose!

Air—every wisp of it seemed as sharp as a bayonet. Every breath took all his strength, yet no matter how much air he inhaled, his lungs only felt unbearably dry.

And most importantly!

Radiation!

Heisenberg knew it was radiation from the sun—the yellow sun unique to Earth, naturally strengthening Kryptonian cells.

But this strengthening was anything but gentle. Heisenberg's cells were like a riverbed dried up for hundreds of years, while solar radiation was like a rushing river.

The instant that river of radiation nourished Heisenberg's body, it transformed into a raging mudslide, tearing recklessly through every corner of him!

"I... ngh, aaah, fuck, fucking aaahhh!!!"

He could no longer speak. With a bang, he collapsed to the ground face-first onto the asphalt, his entire body convulsing like a shrimp being boiled alive.

His agonized display instantly stripped the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents of their hostility.

Coulson rushed to Heisenberg's side.

"Damn it, some elder from an alien planet seems to have landed on Earth carrying some kind of disease. I really don't want him dying here!"

As Coulson spoke, he gave orders to the others around him.

"Evacuate the Manhattan District completely. The target is suspected of carrying a deadly illness. We can't rule out contagion. Anyone with children, as well as field agents under twenty-five, are not to approach. The rest of you, get a few people to help me take him back to the branch!"

"Yes!"

"Copy that!"

"I'll do it!"

Three or four people immediately stepped forward. Before long, Heisenberg had been carried into a Humvee and settled inside.

The Humvee sped away, leaving Iron Man standing there alone, staring wide-eyed through his faceplate.

Watching the convoy disappear into the distance, Tony Stark felt utterly helpless.

"They move fast. Fine, J.A.R.V.I.S., notify Pepper. Have her send over two samples of the virus-testing equipment Stark Industries developed two years ago and has since discontinued. And make it clear to Pepper that she is not to come within half a step of the stock exchange!"

After thinking for a moment, Tony added another instruction.

"Oh, and acquire another two hundred thousand hazmat suits and one million masks. Keep them ready for the people of New York."

"Certainly, Mr. Stark."

J.A.R.V.I.S. immediately got to work.

After that, Tony looked at the patch of ground where Heisenberg had fallen. He seemed to have noticed something.

He walked over, bent down, and examined the road.

"This... was there a hole like this in the road before?"

At the spot where Heisenberg had just fallen, a strange crater stood in the middle of the road.

The crater appeared to consist of three parts: two shallower holes surrounding one deeper hole...

Tony reached out in confusion and lightly probed the edge of the crater.

"This is a main road in the Manhattan District. There couldn't possibly be damage this obvious here. So this hole is..."

Tony could not help reconstructing Heisenberg's fall in his mind. The next instant, his expression turned awful.

He shot upright and backed away more than a dozen steps in disgust.

With a strange expression, he glanced down at his crotch before looking back at the hole in the ground.

"This is fucking miraculous. An absolute miracle. So damn jealous. Fuck...!!!"

With that, he flew away without looking back.

He needed to change suits. This Mark II had to be discarded—he had no intention of wearing armor that had indirectly touched another man's thing.

That was far too un-Tony!

About forty minutes later.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York Branch.

Nick Fury stood behind the one-way bulletproof glass in the wall, continuously studying Heisenberg in the room.

More than twelve medical scientists were gathered around the bed where Heisenberg lay, endlessly discussing something.

"Damn it, our existing scanners seem unable to penetrate his skin and reach his internal organs. His muscles are somehow denser than the thickest metal!"

"This is unbelievable. Even the best scalpel I have can't cut a single strand of his hair!"

"Not just his hair. I even tried using a laser scalpel to take a sample from his eyeball for testing, but our laser couldn't damage his lens at all!"

"What kind of lifeform is this? Even Thor, the last one to come to Earth, didn't have a body this strong!"

"I suspect he could survive independently in space. He absolutely could!"

"Don't talk so much. He's awake, just apparently being tortured by pain. Even if he may not understand our language, don't reveal too much information to him. After all, he is..."

"After all, I'm an alien, right!"

Heisenberg, who had seemed to be asleep, suddenly spoke as he opened his eyes.

Just moments ago, this body of his had been strapped directly onto S.H.I.E.L.D.'s operating table. If he had not been a Kryptonian, he would probably already have been turned into scattered, mangled organs!

He was somewhat irritated.

When he opened his eyes, the scene before him was still blurry. At first glance, Heisenberg did not see humans, but more than a dozen human skeletons.

His powerful vision allowed him to see through every disguise on the doctors.

So he stared for a couple of extra seconds at one doctor's rear.

After all, the butt plug wedged between that doctor's cheeks was simply too eye-catching...

The doctors did not notice his gaze.

On the contrary, they were stunned by Heisenberg's fluent English.

During the few seconds they remained silent, Nick Fury outside the isolation room directly roared into his earpiece.

"Ask him about his condition! What disease is it? Is it contagious? Ask him now!"

"Pah!"

The moment Nick Fury finished speaking, Heisenberg sat up decisively.

"Don't insult me by calling it an infectious disease!"

As Heisenberg cursed, he raised his arm.

The specially made ropes binding him to the bed snapped instantly. The sound of those metal-reinforced ropes breaking made several doctors cover their ears.

As for Heisenberg, looking at the countless blades and lasers trained on him, he wanted to kill someone.

But in the end, he avoided the doctors and casually leaped down from the bed.

The instant he landed, his legs seemed to weaken. He staggered and rapidly reached out to grab the examination equipment beside him.

Crash!!!

His grip crushed a dent more than ten centimeters deep into the machine. Sparks flickered in the depression for several seconds before the equipment went completely dark.

Looking at the damaged machine, Heisenberg showed no remorse. He casually tore a bedsheet from the bed and covered everything below his waist.

Then he looked at the mirror he should not have been able to see through and walked straight toward Nick Fury beyond the one-way glass.

Nick Fury's brow furrowed tightly as sweat quietly appeared at the corner of his forehead.

Fortunately, Heisenberg stopped before the glass.

"You are... well, you aren't carrying a business card, but I seem to have heard someone mention your name from more than seven hundred meters away. You're the director of some S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, right?"

"I can hardly believe it!" Nick Fury exclaimed upon hearing Heisenberg's words.

"There are plenty of things you can't believe. For example, there's nothing you can do to me. Also, I don't particularly enjoy talking to you in an isolation room like this. It makes me feel like some rare creature on display."

As he spoke, Heisenberg continued walking forward.

As Heisenberg gradually approached, Nick Fury and Hill immediately retreated nervously.

Just as Heisenberg's forehead touched the glass, he suddenly stopped.

"You haven't backed up far enough. Take another twenty steps, to that corner over there!"

He gave the reminder, and after thinking for a moment, Nick Fury immediately did as he said.

Twenty steps away, Nick Fury and Hill stood beside the corner, nervously staring at Heisenberg's relatively handsome yet intensely masculine face.

Heisenberg continued slowly forward.

Without making any motion of exertion, Heisenberg passed straight through the glass and wall.

The blastproof glass that had been forcibly breached shattered in an instant. The violent impact sent glass shards sweeping across an area twenty meters wide.

Heisenberg stood amid the wreckage, clutching the bedsheet that had nearly been crushed apart in both hands, and raised one hand at Nick Fury.

"You look like you have a lot to say, but get me a set of clothes first. Something like that black trench coat you're wearing will do. Hurry up!"

"I can meet your request, but please don't act rashly. Please come to my office. Clothes will be prepared there," Nick Fury cautiously urged.

"Mm!"

Heisenberg nodded, then followed Nick Fury all the way to his office.

On the way, Hill split off from the two of them.

By the time Heisenberg followed Nick Fury into the office, Hill had already been waiting there for some time with a full set of black clothing.

Taking the clothes, Heisenberg inspected them and nodded.

"You have good taste, a little better than my planet's. I've long grown sick of our uniforms, which haven't changed once in hundreds of thousands of years!"

As he spoke, he put on the clothes in a single instant.

Because he moved too fast, he even created a small storm inside the office.

The fierce wind made Nick Fury struggle to close his eyes. When he looked at Heisenberg again, Heisenberg was fully dressed and sitting on the sofa that should have belonged to Nick Fury.

"Sit. It's been a long time since I've experienced what sitting feels like. Ask whatever you want."

That was how Heisenberg invited him from the sofa. His attitude made Nick Fury's heart sink halfway.

Dominance—that was the feeling Heisenberg gave Nick Fury. And the astonishing power Heisenberg had displayed earlier gave that dominance inexhaustible confidence.

So Nick Fury quietly sat across from Heisenberg as though a subordinate facing a superior.

After a brief silence, Nick Fury glanced at Hill and ordered,

"Please bring some drinks for this gentleman and me. The best-tasting kind!"

"Yes!"

Hill nodded and immediately left. She understood Nick Fury's meaning.

To guard against Heisenberg in the office, S.H.I.E.L.D. needed to bring out the strongest thing it could currently deploy.

That was the Hulk, far away in India!

And after Hill contacted Coulson and Black Widow, issuing orders to recruit the Hulk,

Nick Fury softly asked in the office,

"Before the drinks arrive, please allow me to ask an impudent question. What exactly is your identity?"

"Ha!"

Heisenberg laughed. Who was he?

Was he still the ordinary man he had once been? Was he still that powerless ordinary man whose only skill had been bowing and scraping?

Now, he truly had no desire to keep pretending—especially when his Kryptonian strength meant he had no need to fear this so-called S.H.I.E.L.D. at all!

So he spoke calmly.

"Who am I?

I am the 64th Chief Elder of the Council of ancient Krypton, the only leader in Kryptonian history whom the people defined as a traitor.

I am also a so-called criminal sealed in temporal matter and buried for more than eighteen thousand years.

More than that, I am a dried skeleton in a grave who must painfully crawl back to his feet, even after missing his era!

Hatred, resentment—do you think my heart is filled with such boring emotions?

Rest assured.

Perhaps I can sense your wariness toward me.

But in truth, after setting aside everything I once possessed and then lost, I am now...

Just an ordinary Kryptonian."