Please Begin Your Performance

It was not that William was intentionally making trouble; that was simply how things were.

When speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D., one must mention Hydra. S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra are like the two sides of a coin, representing freedom and order, justice and evil.

During World War II, Red Skull founded Hydra by following the ideologies of its predecessors. To counter the formidable Hydra, the Allied forces created the Strategic Scientific Reserve, the predecessor to the modern-day S.H.I.E.L.D.

After the war ended, Hydra splintered and vanished from sight, while the Strategic Scientific Reserve evolved over several decades into the S.H.I.E.L.D. everyone knows today.

People assumed Hydra had long since been destroyed, but in reality, Hydra had been secretly lurking within S.H.I.E.L.D. all along, using the agency's hand to incite panic and chaos across the world to further their own interests while waiting for the day they could emerge into the light once more.

In other words, the current S.H.I.E.L.D. is effectively equivalent to Hydra—though, of course, Coulson could not possibly know that now.

Coulson did not understand what William meant, wondering how the conversation had drifted so far off course. "Wait, I came to see you today not to discuss the philosophy of our organization, but..."

"Listen, buddy, I don't have the time to chat with you," William said, switching to a serious tone. "Whatever secrets or crises you're talking about have nothing to do with me. I'm just an ordinary person; I'm just a delivery guy, understand?"

Before Coulson could say anything, William had already turned and walked away, waving his hand as he left.

"We will meet again," Coulson said, taking a sip of his coffee. This person seemed fine on the surface, but in reality, there was something very wrong with him.

Don't let William's tough tone and righteous demeanor fool you; it was all an act. He had detected a hint of tension in the agent's firm gaze—though it was well-hidden, he had still caught it.

This guy... is definitely trouble.

William hurried into the kitchen, his tough expression vanishing instantly. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, never expecting that someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. would actually track him down.

Why exactly did Agent Coulson come here? Had his secret already been exposed?

The Overwatch System was his secret, a secret that belonged only to him. He didn't want anyone to know the truth, and he had no way to explain the ins and outs of it because no one would believe him.

How could he explain it? That he was from another world, that he had been electrocuted while playing a game, transmigrated into the Marvel world, and gained the power of the Overwatch System? Would anyone believe that?

People would surely treat him like a lunatic, the kind suffering from delusions brought on by playing too many video games.

William had originally thought that once Coulson was rejected once, he wouldn't come looking for him again. To his surprise, the very next day, he saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the restaurant again. William had no choice but to deliberately avoid him, pretending not to see him.

However, on the third day, Coulson was still sitting at the same booth, leisurely drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. It made William wonder: are these agents really that idle? Don't they have a world to save or aliens to catch instead of monitoring him?

This continued until the fourth day, when William could no longer take it. He sat down in front of Coulson and said, "Fine, fine, I give up. If you have questions, come to my place tonight. Since you've been stalking me for so many days, you should know where I live."

Coulson picked up his coffee and said, "Very well, Mr. Lister. See you tonight."

Watching Coulson's retreating back, William finally let out a sigh of relief. The guy had finally left. But what was he supposed to do now? Run away?

But in the Marvel world, he would likely be found by S.H.I.E.L.D. no matter where he ran. Hiding forever wasn't a solution; facing S.H.I.E.L.D. was only a matter of time.

On the surface, S.H.I.E.L.D. was an organization dedicated to maintaining world justice, but behind the scenes, they did things that were far from public knowledge. S.H.I.E.L.D. was not a charity, and the people inside were no saints.

If they truly found out that he had a powerful system inside him, they might resort to coercion or bribery to get their hands on its secrets.

No, he absolutely could not tell the truth. If it came down to it, he would just have to bluff.

Tonight would be the ultimate test of his acting skills!

Returning to his apartment that evening, he expected Coulson to have arrived early and be waiting at the door. But he scanned the area and didn't see the agent anywhere.

He walked inside and pushed the door open. The room was pitch black. Just as he reached to turn on the light, a figure emerged from the darkness. "Apologies, it was a bit too dark in here."

"Holy crap!" William was startled, thinking, You just walk into someone's house like that? Do you even know that's trespassing?

But on second thought, Coulson had been quite polite to him; if it had been any other S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, he might have already been hog-tied and thrown into a dark room.

"Find a seat. I'll get you some water." William turned on the light and went to pour a glass.

Coulson looked around the room and couldn't help but curl his lip. Although he had already investigated William's background and family situation and knew he was poor, he hadn't expected his living conditions to be even more dilapidated than he had imagined.

The sofa in the living room was covered in dust. He patted it for a long time before finally sitting down, just as William walked over with the water.

"Do you know about the bank robbery?" Coulson asked, getting straight to the point.

"I do." This time, William didn't lie. "I was there at the time. I had intended to withdraw some money, but I never expected to run into bank robbers. Tell me, isn't that just my luck..."

"Stop." Coulson didn't let him continue. "According to witnesses, the situation was extremely critical, and someone stepped forward to save everyone. Do you have any impression of this person?"

Just as William was about to answer, Coulson pulled out a tablet and played a video—it was traffic surveillance footage.

In the video, a figure rushed out of the bank. He moved so fast that the camera couldn't capture his features clearly.

Before William could explain anything, Coulson played another clip. In this one, the appearance of Soldier: 76 was quite clear. He ran all the way to a roadside phone booth and ducked inside, but when he emerged, it was as if he had become a different person.

Indeed, it was William in his ordinary guise.

William almost couldn't help but cover his face. He remembered that Superman always changed in a phone booth, but he hadn't done it to imitate him; his transformation time was simply running out, and that was the only place he could find.

He never expected that every move had been caught by the roadside cameras.

"Do you have any explanation for these two videos?" Coulson looked at William with a hint of triumph. These surveillance clips were essentially the smoking gun; William was definitely the one who had defeated the bank robbers.

However, he knew that given this guy's personality, he wouldn't admit it right away and would surely try to argue his way out of it. No matter, he had other evidence.

"There's no explanation needed. I admit it—that person is me."

Coulson was slightly surprised. By all logic, shouldn't the other party be denying it to the death and making a scene? Why admit it so quickly? This didn't follow the script at all.

"Is this your special ability?" Coulson had just taken a sip of water, but William's next answer made him spit it all out.

"No, this is high-tech. To tell you the truth, I come from the future, two hundred years from now!"

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