A Sudden Moment of Choice

Late at night.

The precinct was quiet.

The walls trembled.

Heavy panting filled the air.

It all ended with two gunshots.

There was no begging, no conversation, no eye contact.

Just gunfire.

Looking at the two corpses on the floor, Jack felt no psychological burden, nor did he feel guilty over the death of one innocent woman.

Before obtaining the system, he had already done plenty of dirty work for Fury. When it came to being hard-hearted, he was no different from Black Widow and the others.

He merely had a bottom line and a little conscience.

Like someone trapped deep in darkness, he was willing to see the light. But if that light threatened him, he would directly erase it.

"Host shot and killed the director of Hell's Kitchen Precinct and an innocent woman. This will cause a series of power redistribution disturbances tomorrow. Evil Points +200,000."

Seeing Jack's two clean, efficient shots, Bullseye praised him. "Nicely done. If you ever consider changing careers, we could partner up."

"Forget it." Jack declined Bullseye's invitation for the future. He holstered his gun and headed for the door. "I'm tired tonight. Everyone, go home. Whatever it is, we'll talk tomorrow."

After going downstairs, Jack drove toward Flushing. Watching Hell's Kitchen recede in the rearview mirror, he sighed wearily.

Ever since coming to the Marvel Universe, Jack had never wanted to come to this damned place. Yet fate's entanglements had made it impossible for him to escape it.

After going in circles, he had returned here again.

And he had even taken down someone he could not afford to provoke before joining S.H.I.E.L.D.

Yes, even though Director House was a lecherous, corrupt old bastard, fat and pale as he was, a few years ago Jack would have avoided not only him, but even an ordinary NYPD officer.

"Ugh, what a place full of freaks and no common sense..."

The one thing Jack could not understand tonight was... how had House dared to try to kill him?

Did he think hiring an assassin meant he could easily kill a Level Six Agent and get away with it?

S.H.I.E.L.D... S.H.I.E.L.D. was not some spineless organization that would offer its right cheek after someone slapped its left.

Just like the DEA, S.H.I.E.L.D. had once faced an attack on one of its agents. Pierce, who had been director at the time, used methods even more brutal than the DEA's and directly erased the attacker from the face of the earth.

Erased for real!

Not only did the person disappear, even every screw in his home vanished!

Including all of his personal records.

The person who filed the report searched every records agency and could not find a single trace of him. He had simply evaporated into thin air.

From then on, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents became truly terrifying outside.

That was why Jack thought House was genuinely bizarre. How much cocaine had the man snorted to come up with the idea of taking him out?

Jack drove past Central Park. When he passed a familiar building and saw lights on at the second floor, he pulled over and walked upstairs.

He unlocked the first door with a key, entered the code at the second, and walked into the New York precinct office located on the lower-right side of Central Park on the map.

Passing several offices where desks had just been set down, Jack saw Marian still working late into the night at the precinct.

Seeing Jack arrive, Marian put down what she was holding and walked over with a smile. "What brought you here? Did you suddenly decide that setting up an office was a Level Six Agent's job?"

After everything that had happened tonight, Jack gave a bitter smile and shook his head. He walked over to the desk, plopped down on it, and told Marian about the events of the night.

After hearing him out, Marian asked with an odd expression, "Isn't your secret operation to infiltrate Hell's Kitchen's criminal syndicate a little too casual?"

"Kingpin gave you a chance to prove yourself, and you immediately sold him out..."

"You even smashed the precinct badge. Aren't you worried that Hawkeye will..."

Jack quickly cut her off. "Worried about shit. Hawkeye can't control me. Even if he wants to cause trouble for me, he has to go through Sitwell first. I'm on good terms with that bald guy in glasses. He'll protect me."

"And then there's the precinct badge. I'm really unhappy about that. They've been monitoring our movements the whole time, guarding against even their own people."

Marian said, "Isn't that what intelligence agencies are supposed to do...?"

After chatting for a while, Marian finished tidying up the place. Seeing that Jack still had not left, she began to feel that something was wrong.

"What's gotten into you tonight?"

"There's something I don't know whether I should tell you..."

"You even handled the hardest thing... Wait! You don't want to propose to me tonight, do you?! If you do this... then I'll..."

Watching Marian panic, Jack smiled, took her hand, and said, "There are some things you need to know... How much do you know about Hydra?"

Half an hour later, Marian stared at Central Park through the window across from her with a complicated expression. Her brows were tightly furrowed, her lips pressed shut, and her heart was in turmoil.

Over the past half hour, Jack had told her everything: how Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., what they planned to do next, and which agents were Hydra members.

The tsunami-like flood of information left her unable to calm down for a long time.

The intelligence organization she had served for three years, this violent institution that even the IRS avoided, was actually controlled by two factions!

S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Fury, and Hydra, led by Pierce, controlled every level of S.H.I.E.L.D. They were like conjoined twins sharing one heart.

Neither could live without the other, and neither could break free from the other.

The blow to Marian was unprecedented.

After a long while, once she had completely calmed herself, Marian looked at Jack's familiar face and asked the hardest question of her life.

"You... I... I joined the military and joined S.H.I.E.L.D. because of you. I've always followed you, so I've always been thinking about one question: am I living for you, or for myself?"

"So this time, I've made a decision. I won't stand on the side of evil."

"Then what is your choice?"

That question brought a bitter smile to Jack's face. As someone who had spent years walking through gray areas, he did not distinguish so carefully between good and evil.

The word "profit" was enough to explain Jack's outlook on life.

Before he had the system, he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. so he could have someone powerful to rely on.

After gaining the system, S.H.I.E.L.D. was no longer so important, and neither was Hydra.

If anyone else had asked Jack that question, he could have said all of this without hesitation.

But Marian was the one exception!

Over the past three years, this woman had already claimed a place in his heart. Besides, the system made him feel that he could have the best of both worlds.

Simply put, only children made choices! Adults wanted it all!