Demon

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

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

Since he needed quite a lot of things after moving into the new house, not only was the trunk packed full, but even the back seats were stuffed to the brim. On his way back, Meng Zu casually glanced into an alley. Though the alley was dimly lit, he could still see two people stuck to the wall by some white substance, while a red figure crawled rapidly along the wall before leaping onto the rooftop and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"Peter Parker had already started being Spider-Man?" Although he recognized who that figure was, there had been no reports whatsoever about Spider-Man so far, especially not in the Daily Bugle.

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

At three in the morning, Meng Zu, who had been sound asleep, suddenly opened his eyes. Danger Sense had been triggered in his mind. Without turning on the lights, he got out of bed without even putting on slippers. He took a pistol and silencer from his storage space, attached the silencer, then quietly opened his door and stepped outside.

"There's no one in the downstairs rooms."

"Then he's on the second floor."

Someone was whispering in the darkness, but in such a quiet environment, whispers and normal speech were no different to Meng Zu. The people downstairs began coming up.

"There are three of them!" Meng Zu determined 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 hostile intentions. Meng Zu did not rush over to deal with them immediately. Instead, he planned to wait until they came upstairs and give them a nasty surprise around the corner.

Meng Zu waited silently. When all three of them came upstairs and turned toward him, bang, bang, bang! Three muffled gunshots rang out. Red-and-white matter splattered from behind their heads.

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

That alone showed the three men were not ordinary, but judging from their movements and reactions just now, they had seemed like normal people. Looking at the three men whose heads had been blown apart, Meng Zu had no intention of approaching to inspect them. Instead, he kept his gun trained on their bodies, because Danger Sense had yet to subside.

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

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

Though that urge lasted only an instant, his mind had clearly been affected. His mental strength was more than three times that of an ordinary person.

Meng Zu looked at one of the bodies. That aura originated from him. Though Meng Zu did not know what was happening to him, the aura clearly belonged to a dark creature.

Without another word, Meng Zu turned the bullets in his pistol into Holy Light Bullets and fired at him. In the darkness, a bullet radiating golden light flew toward its target. Just as the Holy Light Bullet was about to hit him, the body beside him suddenly sprang up and lunged in front of him, blocking the bullet.

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

In the instant Meng Zu was distracted by those two bodies, a mass of black mist emerged from the remaining body and pounced 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 black mist instantly surged into Meng Zu's body.

Meng Zu's expression immediately turned panicked, but before anything strange could happen, his Danger Sense subsided. At the same time, he received a system notification in his mind: A Lesser Demon had been discovered devouring the host's soul. System protection function activated. Lesser Demon eliminated. Host gained 500 Contract Points.

Meng Zu: [・_・?]

Meng Zu quickly understood. So that thing had been 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 destroyed by the system, and he had even received five hundred Contract Points for free.

This demon had practically delivered itself to his door. What a talent! Meng Zu mocked inwardly, then turned on the hallway light to inspect the three bodies. However, he discovered that they were rapidly decomposing. Their faces were no longer visible, and a foul stench spread through the air.

Meng Zu hurriedly opened several windows to air the place out. By the time he returned, all three bodies had turned into puddles 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 up the mess, sprayed an entire bottle of air freshener, and only then went back to sleep.

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

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

Meng Zu was taken aback. Tony Stark had not even announced the new energy technology, yet the stock had risen? But he immediately thought of the reason. "Because he admitted that he was Iron Man?"

Yang Hai smiled. "Yeah. Everyone says Tony Stark will sell that Iron Man armor in the future, so lots of people are buying Stark Industries stock. It shot up all at once and has been rising every day. We're going to make a fortune."

"As long as it went up."

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 will never sell his Iron Man armor, even if the military tries 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 even further. I don't have any spare money left. 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 Peter Parker graduated from high school.

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