Hell's Kitchen

Luo Xia had gotten part of his salary in advance from Tony, but it wasn't much. In a city as expensive as New York, it wouldn't buy him anywhere decent.

And the salary from S.H.I.E.L.D.? Ha. They held it back for two whole months before paying it.

An advance? Not a chance.

Hell's Kitchen sat right in Manhattan, the busiest part of New York, yet it was like a slum, completely out of place amid Manhattan's luxury. It stood out like a shadow beneath the sun.

"Sir, I can't go any farther. You'll have to get out here." The taxi driver wasn't discriminating against Luo Xia for being Asian. He was just a little spooked by the tattooed toughs up ahead.

Anyone trying to make a living around Manhattan had to know about the infamous Hell's Kitchen. It was a chaotic place with cheap rent and little else to recommend it. Of course, if you could protect yourself, it wasn't a bad place to live. You just had to get used to seeing a corpse lying dead on the roadside every few blocks. Anyone with a weaker constitution might end up depressed.

Luo Xia didn't give the driver a hard time. He paid the fare and got out of the taxi.

When the tattooed toughs saw an unfamiliar Asian man, they smiled maliciously. In this country, even in more civilized places, Asian men were practically seen as easy targets. That was all the more true in a chaotic slum crawling with gangsters.

Luo Xia carried his briefcase. He wasn't afraid of the gangsters, but he didn't want to stir up trouble. After all, he'd already attracted plenty of attention by returning from Afghanistan with Tony. If he caused a major incident now, he might catch S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention.

S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't someone Luo Xia wanted to provoke for the time being. At least until he could protect himself completely, he didn't want to get too involved with them.

Fortunately, before the tattooed toughs could make a move, a rather portly young blond man made his way through the crowd and came over to Luo Xia.

"Hello, I'm Foggy, Foggy Nelson. You're Mr. Luo Xia, right?" The kind-faced, heavyset man held out his right hand.

"Hello, Mr. Nelson." Luo Xia shook his hand politely.

"You can call me Foggy." The young man had a warm smile and an easygoing manner that made him seem trustworthy.

"Foggy, I didn't expect a lawyer to come all the way out just because I'm renting a room." Luo Xia feigned a little surprise.

In the United States, lawyers were practically synonymous with expensive. He'd just searched online, found an apartment that seemed suitable, and decided to rent it.

He'd never imagined a lawyer would be there to meet him. Hiring one to draw up a contract for a mere five hundred dollars a month would cost him several years' worth of rent.

In response to Luo Xia's question, the portly lawyer explained, "The landlady is elderly and doesn't speak English very well. I'm just helping out."

"For free? That doesn't sound like a New York lawyer." Luo Xia remarked.

"Not entirely free. She treated me to a homemade Brazilian meal." Foggy smiled.

"Foggy, you're a good person," Luo Xia said approvingly.

"That takes me back to the first time I confessed to a girl," Foggy joked.

Luo Xia liked the humorous, chubby lawyer, and Foggy seemed to have some standing in Hell's Kitchen. At the very least, after the tattooed toughs saw him, they didn't seem interested in giving Luo Xia any trouble.

With Foggy leading the way, Luo Xia soon arrived at a somewhat run-down apartment building and met Mrs. Cardenas, who was from Brazil and didn't speak much English.

The outside of the building was a little shabby, but inside it was quite tidy. Mrs. Cardenas was only a tenant herself, but lately she'd been struggling to afford the high rent, so she'd decided to sublet the first floor and basement.

Luo Xia took a look around. The place was reasonably clean and quite private, and the basement suited his needs.

"This place looks good. Let's draw up the contract," Luo Xia said to Foggy.

Foggy immediately took a prepared contract out of his briefcase. Luo Xia looked it over, saw no problems, and quickly signed his name. He also paid three months' rent in advance.

After the deal was done, Mrs. Cardenas thanked Foggy profusely, looking extremely grateful.

Mrs. Cardenas hugged Foggy tightly. He gave Luo Xia a helpless look that said, "I'm just too popular."

"By the way, Luo Xia, we're having dinner at Mrs. Cardenas's place tonight, along with one of my colleagues. You've just moved in, so why not celebrate with us?" Foggy invited him.

Luo Xia didn't mind getting along with his neighbors. And since Foggy seemed to fit right in around Hell's Kitchen, having a friend like him could save Luo Xia a lot of trouble.

"That'd be great. I just came to the United States from Afghanistan, and I don't have many friends here yet," Luo Xia agreed.

"Were you in the military?" Foggy asked curiously.

"I used to be, but I've changed careers. I work at Stark Industries now," Luo Xia introduced himself.

"That's not bad. Making it home from a battlefield alive is a blessing," Foggy said sincerely.

They chatted a little longer, then Luo Xia made an excuse about needing to unpack. Foggy and Mrs. Cardenas took the hint and said their goodbyes.

After closing the front door, Luo Xia carefully locked the bolt. Only then did he go down to the basement and open the briefcase he'd gotten from Tony.

The palladium pieces were sealed in lead containers. Luo Xia took one out and held it in his hand.

[Palladium piece, one of the nuclear raw materials. Consume 1,000 units of AllSpark energy and ten equivalent palladium pieces to create an Energy Activation Device.]

The prompt appeared directly in Luo Xia's mind, surprising him a little.

A single piece of palladium was enough to power an Arc Reactor for a long time, yet it took ten pieces just to make one Energy Activation Device. This wasn't just expensive—it was a bottomless pit.

Still, no matter how costly it was, Luo Xia couldn't give up.

There were twelve pieces of palladium in the briefcase, enough to make just one Energy Activation Device. Luo Xia didn't mind. He immediately got to work.

As the AllSpark's energy continued to drain, the ten palladium pieces in Luo Xia's hand all turned into blue light. It was as if they'd been broken down in an instant into pure energy.

The magnificent blue specks of light swirled together and condensed into a perfect hexagonal crystal. It looked like the purest blue sapphire in the world, without a trace of any metallic components. All the energy seemed to be perfectly contained within the crystal, with not a hint of radiation escaping.

Luo Xia picked up the hexagonal crystal, which looked like a work of art, and immediately received the corresponding prompt.