You Didn't Even Know You Had a Ghost in Your House

Lu Xi was both annoyed and amused, and he could not help letting out a scoff.

"Are you really that certain you've already monitored every Skrull?"

Nick Fury barely needed to think about the question before answering as if reciting from memory.

"Of course. There were 559 surviving Skrulls back then. Including the newborns in recent years, their current population is 1,278!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Lu Xi nearly laughed himself breathless.

"You're exactly the sort who spends all day hunting geese, only to get pecked blind by one. You've got ghosts living in your own house and don't even know it!"

Lu Xi finally managed to stop laughing and said,

"Your sworn brother Talos secretly sent signals throughout the universe, calling for every displaced Skrull to come to Earth for refuge."

"Once there are more people, there will be more demands and conflicting interests. Is it really surprising that a rebellion would break out?"

Fury's eye twitched furiously. Talos's actions already counted as a betrayal of him.

ヽ(#`Д▼)ﾉ

Talos, screw your whole family!

Lu Xi raised a hand, and vast Divine Power instantly condensed into a screen of light before him.

It displayed scenes from the Secret Invasion series he had watched back on Blue Star.

On the screen, high-ranking officials and political leaders from various countries were imprisoned in a secret base.

Green-skinned Skrulls who resembled goblins were stealing their memories, transforming into their likenesses, and replacing them.

Inside an abandoned nuclear power plant, densely packed green goblins lived in the facility. At a glance, there were at least tens of thousands of them.

In the final scene, a much older Nick Fury raised his gun and fired.

Before him, Maria Hill looked utterly disbelieving as she slowly collapsed into a pool of blood.

Seeing this, Maria in the office immediately shot to her feet and looked at Fury in shock.

"Fury, you..."

Fury's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief as he said resolutely,

"No, this must be fake. I would never do something like that. I would never lay a hand on Agent Hill."

Lu Xi nodded lightly, his expression calm.

"It is fake. The you in that scene was a Skrull."

Fury first breathed a sigh of relief, but then he immediately realized something. His face turned incomparably grim. The nature of this was still damn serious.

The Skrulls had dared to impersonate him and shoot Maria. That rebellion was absolutely confirmed.

Lu Xi followed up with another blow.

"Even if they don't rebel, once all the remaining Skrulls in the universe gather on Earth..."

"What do you think the Kree Empire will do then? Could they decide to save themselves the trouble and blast straight through Earth with a planet-killing cannon?"

At that point, Lu Xi could not help asking,

"Hey, Black Egghead, can I interview you for a moment? What exactly were you thinking?"

"With your own technology, you can't even leave the solar system. How did you dare shelter the Skrulls? Did you think S.H.I.E.L.D. had grown stronger than the universe's three great empires?"

Hearing that, Fury felt as if his entire conviction was on the verge of collapse.

He lowered his head, gritted his teeth, and his clenched fists trembled faintly from the force.

At that moment, Maria Hill stepped forward, gently patted Fury's shoulder, and said softly,

"Fury, we still have a chance to change all this."

Fury slowly lifted his head. His eyes were full of desolation as he said hoarsely,

"I need to know how to prevent this from happening."

Lu Xi spread his hands and replied casually,

"Simple. Those who are not of our kind will never truly share our hearts. Just drive every Skrull off Earth."

Fury nodded after hearing that. The desolation in his eyes was replaced by resolve, and he gradually regained the bearing of the king of spies.

Since the Skrulls would bring about such a terrifying disaster, they truly could not be allowed to stay.

As Lu Xi looked at Maria Hill, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

Every day, a crowd lined up outside his villa, all wanting to make deals with him. It annoyed him endlessly.

But he also worried about missing valuable deals, so he could not simply drive them all away.

Lu Xi had long considered finding someone to filter those people's requests first.

Yet none of the people currently in the villa seemed particularly suitable.

Although Daisy had obtained the power of an Angel and could manage as a city vigilante,

she clearly could not handle all those forces and their bizarrely varied transaction requests.

Wanda and Pietro were even less suitable. The two were complete newcomers to the world, and they would probably help count the money after being sold off.

After thinking it over and over, he had never found a reliable candidate.

But as he looked at Maria Hill now, Lu Xi felt that she was rather suitable.

Lu Xi narrowed his eyes slightly and said with a smile,

"Agent Hill, would you be interested in working for me?"

Maria froze briefly and asked in confusion,

"Does Your Excellency want to make a soul deal with me as well?"

Lu Xi hurriedly waved his hands and explained,

"Not this time. You probably know that the people wanting to make deals outside my house are already lined up beyond two streets. I need someone to screen the information and organize it before giving it to me."

Maria's face darkened as she could not help saying,

"Lord Lucifer, I am the dignified deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D., a Level Nine agent! Are you asking me to work as the receptionist at your home?"

Lu Xi shrugged, looking as though it were only natural.

"Why not? First of all, you're beautiful, and you're pleasing to look at."

"Second, as part of the agency's management, you're capable enough to handle these complicated and tangled transaction requests."

Upon hearing Lu Xi praise her appearance, Maria's face flushed slightly, a rare sight.

As if he had suddenly remembered something, Lu Xi continued,

"Oh, right. S.H.I.E.L.D. still owes me one favor from that blank check. I think I'll use it for this."

Maria instinctively looked toward Fury, seeking his opinion.

Black Egghead considered it for a moment, weighed the pros and cons, then slowly nodded.

Although losing Maria, his capable assistant, would make it more troublesome for him to misappropriate public funds in the future,

if it gave S.H.I.E.L.D. a chance to get close to Lucifer, it might be even more beneficial to the agency.

Seeing this, Maria sighed helplessly and said,

"Fine. Since this is your condition, we agree."

Lu Xi stood up in satisfaction, preparing to leave.

"All right, now that everything has been explained, let's go home."

He had already scanned S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters with his mind earlier.

Other than the two people before him, he had not found any souls worth making contracts with for the time being.

Maria's face reddened slightly again as she reproached him,

"Could you not make it sound so ambiguous?"

Fury hurriedly said,

"Your Excellency, please wait. You still haven't told me how to deal with the other two disasters."

Lu Xi shook his head gently, his expression turning serious.

"If you learn the future too clearly, you will make changes that lead to even worse disasters. That is the price of tampering with time. You cannot bear it."

Lu Xi paused, then continued,

"I can only give you two pieces of advice. First, the idea of forming the Avengers is correct."

"Second, stop always thinking of dealing with crises using S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strength alone. Think more about how to reduce civilian casualties."

Fury pondered this, then asked with a frown,

"If knowing the future and changing it could trigger more severe consequences, why can you tell me about the Skrulls but not the details of the other two events?"

Lu Xi gave Fury an approving look and said,

"Good question. In the East, there is a term called [cause and effect]. Here, you would probably call it [Karma]."

"I can tell you about the Skrulls because the karma of changing this matter in the future will be borne by me."

"If it creates a butterfly effect, whether it draws the universe's three great empires or dimensional demon gods here, I will personally deal with them."

Lu Xi looked deeply at Fury and said seriously,

"This is the true value of this transaction. Do you understand?"

Fury suddenly understood and slowly nodded.

Lu Xi turned around and gestured with a wave. "Agent Hill, let's go."