Demons

Meng Zu carried the other box into the bedroom, put the clothes inside into the wardrobe, then went to the basement, took out his tools, and began making a few hidden compartments around the room to store things.

By the time he finished, it was already past five in the afternoon. Seeing that the refrigerator was completely empty, Meng Zu drove to the supermarket.

Since he had just moved into a new home, there was quite a lot to buy. Not only was the trunk packed full, but even the back seats were stuffed to the brim. On his way back, Meng Zu happened to glance into an alley. Though it was dimly lit, he could still see two people stuck to the wall by a white substance, while a red figure rapidly crawled across the wall before leaping onto the rooftop and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Peter Parker had already started being Spider-Man?" Although he recognized who that figure was, there had not been any reports about Spider-Man so far, especially not in the Daily Bugle.

After returning home and putting everything away, Meng Zu changed clothes and went to the basement to work out. Once he had sweated thoroughly, he took a shower and went to sleep.

At three in the morning, Meng Zu suddenly opened his eyes from a deep sleep. Danger Sense had been triggered in his mind. Without turning on the lights, he got out of bed without even putting on slippers, took out a handgun and a silencer from his Storage Space, attached the silencer, then quietly opened the door and stepped outside.

"No one is in the rooms downstairs."

"Then he's on the second floor."

Someone was speaking quietly in the darkness, but in such a silent environment, it made no difference to Meng Zu whether they spoke softly or loudly. The people downstairs began coming up.

"Three people!" Meng Zu could tell their number from the sound of their footsteps on the stairs.

Although he did not know who these three people were, the fact that they had triggered his Danger Sense meant they had come with ill intent. Meng Zu did not rush over to deal with them directly. Instead, he intended to wait until they came upstairs and give them a little surprise around the corner.

Meng Zu waited quietly. The moment all three came up and turned toward him, bang, bang, bang! Three muffled gunshots rang out, and red-and-white matter splattered from the backs of their heads.

Meng Zu frowned as he watched the three collapse instantly. He had clearly seen surprise on their faces just now. No lights were on in the house, yet like him, they could see clearly in the darkness using only the faint light filtering in from outside.

That alone showed that the three were not ordinary, but judging from their movements and reactions just now, they had been nothing more than regular people. Looking at the three whose heads had been blown apart, Meng Zu had no intention of approaching to inspect them. Instead, he kept his gun trained on their corpses, because Danger Sense had yet to deactivate.

Although he did not know what was going on, Meng Zu believed Danger Sense would not trigger for no reason. Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded: in the darkness, Meng Zu stood holding his gun at the three corpses lying on the ground, while neither side moved.

Time passed little by little. Ten minutes later, Meng Zu suddenly sensed a dark, chaotic aura appear nearby. The instant it appeared, disgust surfaced on his face, because it inexplicably stirred an urge to slaughter within him.

Though the urge flashed by in an instant, it was obvious that his mind had been affected. His mental strength was more than three times that of an ordinary person.

Meng Zu looked toward one of the corpses. That aura was coming from him. Although he did not know what was wrong with the man, the aura clearly belonged to a dark creature.

Without another word, Meng Zu transformed the bullets in his handgun into Holy Light Bullets and fired at him. In the darkness, a bullet glowing with golden light flew toward its target. Just as the Holy Light Bullet was about to hit him, the corpse beside him suddenly sprang up and threw itself in front of him, blocking the bullet.

At the same time, the other corpse also jumped up and charged at Meng Zu. Meng Zu swung the muzzle around and hit it with a Holy Light Bullet. The corpse immediately fell to the floor and went still.

In the instant Meng Zu was distracted by those two corpses, black mist surged out of the remaining corpse and lunged at him. Meng Zu hurriedly fired several Holy Light Bullets at it.

Although the black mist shrank considerably after being struck by the Holy Light Bullets, it was not destroyed. The mist instantly rushed into Meng Zu's body.

Panic flashed across Meng Zu's face, but before anything strange could happen to him, his Danger Sense deactivated. At the same time, he received a system notification in his mind: a Lesser Demon had been detected devouring the host's soul. The system protection function had been triggered. The Lesser Demon had been erased. The host had gained 500 Contract Points.

Meng Zu: [・_・?]

Meng Zu quickly understood. So this thing was a demon. It had entered his body to devour his soul and take over his body, but it had not expected his soul to be bound to the system. It had been directly wiped out by the system and had even gifted him five hundred Contract Points for free.

This demon had practically delivered itself right to his door. What a talent! After silently mocking it, Meng Zu turned on the hallway lights and inspected the three corpses. He discovered that they were rapidly decomposing, their faces already unrecognizable, while a foul stench spread through the air.

Meng Zu hurriedly opened several windows to air out the house. By the time he returned, the three corpses had completely turned into pools of foul-smelling liquid, leaving behind only their clothes.

"Looks like there's nothing to investigate."

Meng Zu went downstairs to get his tools, cleaned everything up, sprayed an entire bottle of air freshener, and only then went back to sleep.

When he got up the next day, there was no longer any foul odor in the house. Meng Zu drove to the company, but Frank and Uncle Yang were both absent, having gone out to take on a contract.

The moment Yang Hai saw Meng Zu, he said, "Brother Zu, Stark Industries' stock went up."

Meng Zu was startled. Tony Stark had not even unveiled his new energy source, so why had the stock risen? He immediately thought of the reason. "Was it because he admitted that he was Iron Man?"

Yang Hai smiled. "Yeah. Everyone said Tony Stark would sell that Iron Man armor someday, so a lot of people started buying Stark Industries stock. The price shot up, and it's still rising every day. We're going to make a fortune this time."

"As long as it's rising."

Yang Hai asked, "Brother Zu, do you think Tony Stark will sell the Iron Man armor to the military? Should I buy more stock?"

"Tony Stark would never sell his Iron Man armor, even if the military tried to force him." Meng Zu shook his head. "But once Tony Stark puts that thing he invented into use in the future, his company's stock will rise again. I don't have any spare money left, though. As for you, decide for yourself."

Hearing that, Yang Hai pondered it. "Let me think about it."

Meanwhile, Peter Parker was taking a group photo with his classmates, teachers, and principal. Today was the day he graduated from high school.

(Peter Parker had originally been a high school student, but the Maguire version of Spider-Man really did not look like a high schooler. Considering that Peter Parker would work part-time at the Daily Bugle, as well as Spider-Man's later enemies, he was set to graduate from high school now.)