Seeing how firm the other man was, Coulson knew he couldn't rush things, so he set his plan aside for the time being.
As for the director's orders, he could only report the truth once they got back and leave the decision to Nick Fury.
Thinking this, he nodded apologetically to everyone, then hurried off with Natasha, whose identity had been exposed by the incident.
Now that Tony had been rescued, there was no need to stay here. They still had plenty of things to take care of.
Just then, Tony Stark strolled over. Watching the two leave, he casually pulled out a Citibank card.
"There's five million dollars in there. The PIN is six sixes."
He blinked and held out his right hand.
"Let's start over. I'm Tony Stark, president of Stark Industries."
A trace of surprise flashed in Constantine's eyes.
He turned and shook the other man's hand.
"John Constantine. As you can see, I'm a master of magic, nicknamed the Hellblazer."
Tony smiled and made his offer solemnly.
"John Constantine, I'd like to hire you as my magic technology consultant for a million dollars a year."
When Constantine didn't respond, Tony thought he was about to refuse and hurriedly added,
"You don't have to come in every day, and there are no fixed working hours. Unless something comes up, you only need to drop by once in a while."
A million dollars! And he didn't even have to go to work every day?
Bah! Did he think a paltry sum of money could corrupt Constantine's noble principles?
Whoosh!
Constantine grabbed Tony's hand with both of his and shook it excitedly.
"I'm in!"
In a distant dimensional space,
Li Chao watched the emotion points steadily increasing with delight.
```
[Emotion Points: 197320, 11]
"Whoa, 190,000. Cool!"
This haul had already far surpassed the time at the Four Seasons Hotel.
The reason was simple.
The people involved this time were all rich or influential, and the incident had caused quite a stir, even provoking alarm and panic among high-ranking military and government officials.
And this was only the first wave of rewards. Over the next few weeks, he would gain even more.
Li Chao had no intention of saving up until he had two silver chests before opening them. With a wave of his hand, he decided to try his luck with two bronze chests first.
At a thought, a flash of white light appeared.
[D-rank 3-star Character Card: Little Master.
Ability: Glowing Cuisine.
Description: A master chef from the world of Chinese Little Chef. His glowing cuisine is impossible to resist.]
[C-rank Item Card: Healing Gourd.
Description: A treasure from the world of Black Myth: Wukong. Drinking the water inside greatly restores vitality and has miraculous healing effects.]
[B-rank Character Card Fragment *1]
[C-rank 1-star Character Card: Cammy White.
Abilities: Psychic Power, Advanced Military Hand-to-Hand Combat.
Description: From the world of Street Fighter. Her body was modified and enhanced with advanced technology by the Shadaloo organization. Her codename is Killer Bee. As a spare body for M. Bison, the leader of Shadaloo, she carries out brutal assassination missions.]
[D-rank Item Card: Curse—Bad Luck.
Description: A type of curse magic from an unknown wizarding world. The cursed person's luck rapidly drains away, subjecting them to seven consecutive days of misfortune.]
"Ah, my luck isn't so great today."
Li Chao looked at the cards, somewhat disappointed.
"Little Master and the Healing Gourd are both support-oriented.
"Although Killer Bee Cammy White is C-rank, she isn't very strong. She's only one star."
"Looking them all over, the only interesting one is the Bad Luck curse, but its rank is too low. It's only D-rank!"
"It's not completely useless. I guess it'll have to do as a consolation prize."
He lowered his hand, somewhat dejected. He'd originally planned to draw from the silver chests, too.
But looking at how things were going, he decided to try again another day.
With the remaining 170,000 emotion points, Li Chao took 20,000 and poured them into the dimension.
Only when the bathroom had expanded to three square meters did he eagerly conjure a showerhead and a bathtub.
"Hahaha, I, Li Chao, finally have a bathroom!"
He planted his hands on his hips, leaned back, and couldn't help bursting into laughter.
Heaven knew what it felt like to go three whole years without a bath!
In just a few quick moves, he stripped naked, then filled the bathtub with a wave of his hand. ┏(＾0＾)┛ Li Chao leaped in joyfully.
Splash! Smack!
See? Sometimes, a man's happiness really was that simple!
Manhattan, Hellblazer Exorcism Agency.
With a cigarette dangling from his lips, John Constantine hurried out of the agency.
Hidden inside a black car across the street, Coulson lowered his binoculars and gently rubbed his eyes.
"Tony Stark really is something! He just gave him a house like that."
Coulson felt bitter. At first, when they heard Constantine had become Tony Stark's personal magic technology consultant, they hadn't quite believed it.
After seeing this agency, Coulson believed it.
With conditions like that, only an idiot would go work for S.H.I.E.L.D.!
"I don't even know what to say."
On Director Fury's orders, Coulson had led a four-person strike team in monitoring Constantine for a whole week.
They'd already figured out Constantine's routine and habits.
Since opening the agency, he hadn't gotten a single job.
He spent his days either picking up women at bars or on his way to pick up women.
He was a complete old lecher.
The three agents in the back were all looking miserable.
Fair enough. Anyone who watched Constantine enjoy himself day after day while they were crammed into a tiny car with a bunch of other guys would get irritated, no matter how good-natured they were. And jealous, too.
"Goddammit. We want to live like that, too!"
Ignoring their complaints, Deputy Team Leader Grant Ward sat in the driver's seat and made a suggestion to Coulson.
"Captain Coulson, sticking with this isn't going to get us anywhere.
"How about we—"
He pointed at the exorcism agency across the street and made a gesture indicating they should go inside.
Coulson lowered his head in thought, then glanced at the sky and nodded slightly.
"Fine. We'll make our move after dark."
John Constantine was definitely hiding some huge secret.
Using special means, S.H.I.E.L.D. had obtained surveillance footage from the interrogation room at the New York Police Department.
The recording showed that when Constantine was questioned by Officer Tom, his answers had been unusually strange.
For example, the line, "When I first appeared in this world..."
That was a very strange thing to say.
What did he mean, "first appeared"?
Was he saying he wasn't from this world?
And afterward, no matter how they investigated, they couldn't find any trace of Constantine's past.
Yet he claimed to be a detective, and people even called him the Hellblazer.
Someone in a line of work that involved dealing with people so often couldn't possibly have left no trace.
If he was lying, if he'd made up the story, then where had he been before? And who was he, really?
But if he was telling the truth, if he wasn't lying, then...
Coulson rubbed his brow as memories of the discussions between himself, Natasha, and Nick Fury played through his mind.
Was he lying? Was he an alien? Or did he mean it literally?
"Ugh, what a headache. I can't figure it out."
Putting the question aside, Coulson checked the time and sent a few of his men to Chinatown to buy some food.
He'd heard a master chef from East Country had recently appeared there.
He'd opened a restaurant called Chinese Little Chef, and every customer who tried the food had raved about it.
Thinking of how Hawkeye had enthusiastically recommended it to him over the phone last time, Coulson couldn't help swallowing, his face full of anticipation. (●ˇˇ●)
And then they waited for over an hour.
"..." Coulson (ó﹏ò).
I'll try to keep things light and make it enjoyable for everyone to read. O(∩_∩)O~
Before you continue