The Tesseract Was Stolen

"So... this was what you meant by face-to-face?"

"You could see my face, and I could see yours. Wasn't that face-to-face?"

"Yeah! On a fucking computer!!!"

Looking at Fury's big bald head on the monitor, Jack really wanted to drag him out of the screen and beat the crap out of him, then give his skull a nice polish and wax treatment while he was at it.

So this whole face-to-face thing had turned out to be a video call?!

Then they could have done this back when they were on the mountain!

Seeing Jack about to go off-topic again, Fury stopped him in time, preventing their serious secret conversation from turning into pointless nonsense.

"Alright, let's talk business. What do you want?"

"I want the Avengers Initiative to proceed in full. I want to see it succeed. Satisfied?"

Jack's unexpected answer caused a slight change in Fury's expression, which had always been as solid as stone. Somewhat incredulous, he asked, "The Avengers Initiative? Who told you about it? Oh... I understand... You people... you're impressive."

Jack thought, What do you understand... I only just remembered that in 2011, hardly anyone even knew about the Avengers Initiative...

Seeing that Fury had already filled in the entire story in his own head, Jack wisely chose to shut up and silently gave the Goodwill Delusion Debuff a thumbs-up.

With the Goodwill Delusion Debuff around, Jack had a very enjoyable conversation with the dumbed-down version of Fury.

Of course, that was mostly because Jack's demands were fairly simple.

He merely wanted to touch the Tesseract and see whether he could find any clues, as well as make sure The Avengers could be successfully formed.

"Alright, I'll arrange it right away... Wait, the Dark Energy Research Facility... motherfuck?!!"

Seeing Fury's ghostly expression on the monitor, Jack's heart skipped a beat. He had a feeling this had something to do with Hela.

Sure enough, the next second Fury said, "An extremely powerful woman broke into the Dark Energy Research Facility and took the Tesseract... Jack, I... I have to assemble The Avengers now."

Jack thought, Brother, it's not even 2012 yet. Even when it is 2012, you'll still need to sacrifice a Coulson before this bunch of problem children can work together...

After saying that, Fury vanished from the screen.

Looking at the completely black monitor, Jack knew things had fully spiraled out of control.

From the moment Hela entered the Dark Energy Research Facility and stole the Tesseract, the timeline Jack knew had been completely thrown into chaos.

From now on, Jack would no longer have the advantage of a transmigrator who knew the future.

Hill stood up as well. As she walked outside, she turned back and said to Jack, "What are you standing around for? The Tesseract has been stolen. Get over here and provide support!"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Remembering that he was still an active S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Jack rushed out with Hill. Once they got into the car outside, they headed straight for the nearby airport.

A large aircraft, almost identical to the one Coulson used when leading a small team on his own, was waiting for them on the runway.

"This thing is meant for flying around the world, isn't it..."

As soon as Jack and the others boarded, the plane took off. A large number of agents threw themselves into frantic work, while Jack was assigned the opportunity to hand out boxed lunches... Ahem! To sit on the sidelines!

Although Fury had realized that someone within S.H.I.E.L.D. had malicious intentions, he still needed to stabilize the situation for now and could only suppress certain matters temporarily.

But distrust was distrust. Jack could no longer interfere in this matter, even though his Level Six Agent clearance still allowed him access to the S.H.I.E.L.D. database.

After being busy for an entire day and night, Jack did not go around meddling. Aside from the massive amount of electronic equipment, this airborne command plane also had a few small rooms for resting, so Jack found a place to lie down and began recalling everything that had happened today.

"Today, I delivered a hammer to the Dark Energy Research Facility. On the way back, I went to Kingpin to take on a job. While collecting a debt, I ran into Luke Cage. On the way to find Kingpin, I got a call from Daredevil. After realizing Captain America really had a major problem, I wanted to talk to Fury, only to run into Hela stealing the Tesseract."

"So much happened in one day, yet I didn't have a breakdown. I really admire myself..."

"What should I do next..."

"Thanos and Death, one man and one god, finally gave me thirty million Evil Points. I currently have around 26.2 million. If I can hold out until next month, paired with my Undying Curse, I'll basically be unstoppable."

"But I'm determined to make The Avengers appear just like they did in the script. That'll probably cost me quite a few Evil Points. Hiss... Have I been too kind lately?"

Jack snapped awake as if from a dream. He felt that his heart had become too soft, and he even vaguely showed signs of becoming weary of life.

That was not a good sign.

His former self might not have been an optimist, but he had at least been someone who enjoyed stirring up trouble everywhere.

For example, during the first month after obtaining the system, whenever he encountered trouble, he would provoke it. Like when he clashed with Colonel Ross, only for that middle-aged old man to suddenly come to his senses and realize that family came first...

Ahem! That was a failed example!

But Jack realized that ever since this month began, his initiative had started declining. He had become a bit like a salted fish.

"Could it be that the Goodwill Delusion Debuff included me too?"

"Plus, Ross turning from evil to good made me a little afraid of the butterfly effect, so I started becoming timid and overly cautious?"

Realizing that he had fallen into a mental prison, Jack sat upright in bed. He knew that if this prison trapped him, then for the rest of his life, he would have to constantly struggle against his own thoughts.

"This won't do..."

"This won't do..."

"If this keeps up, I'll be ruined!"

"I've already stopped thinking about Homelander!"

"I'm fucking falling into depravity!"

When Jack realized that even his Homelander thoughts from after obtaining the system were beginning to disappear from his mind, he decided to save his own life.

With conscience and desire intertwining, Jack decided that while multiple forces fought over the Tesseract, he would seize it as an independent party for the sake of his own selfish desires!

As long as he got the Tesseract, he could practically do whatever he wanted.

Hadn't Thanos, after obtaining the Tesseract—actually the Space Stone—basically teleported all over the universe, going wherever he pleased?

Anyone who wanted to pursue him first had to figure out how to keep up with him. Otherwise, they would not even be able to catch him, so how the hell were they supposed to fight him?