I'm Not Going, I Want to Be a Slacker

"What Iron Man?" Maria Hill frowned slightly.

"Ah... uh... did I say the words 'Iron Man'?" Kino was a little dazed. He had gotten too excited and accidentally spilled the spoiler early.

"Yes, I'm sure you did!"

Although Kino played dumb, Maria Hill had no intention of letting him off. She knew Kino was hiding many shameful secrets, and perhaps he even had some ability to predict the future. She intended to dig them out bit by bit.

"I don't know. I never said it. Don't falsely accuse me."

Three straight denials, with his eyes shifting everywhere...

"!"

"Ah—" Kino suddenly cried out, looking her up and down with a teasing gaze. "This is the third floor, and you actually came up? So that means you agreed! Hmm, looks like I can prepare a candlelit dinner tonight!"

Maria Hill's expression changed. Only then did she realize what the third floor meant. She wanted to leave, but... this matter was too serious. She could not simply turn around and walk away.

Tony's disappearance was not just bad luck for him alone. Stark Industries' stock had been plummeting every day, and people were jumping off buildings every day.

And that was not all.

Since the news reports of Tony's kidnapping, an amount equivalent to one billion dollars in market value had evaporated in just the first day.

Like dominoes, companies connected to Stark Industries had also suffered devastating blows. One link after another, and in just one day, half of New York had been affected to varying degrees.

If they kept waiting, no one knew how many more people would die!

But even that was not enough to make Maria Hill offer herself up.

"If you force me, I guarantee you'll only get a corpse."

"Then S.H.I.E.L.D. might be finished." Kino hated being threatened.

"—!"

"Forget it! Forget it! Just this once, and never again. If you come up here again in the future, I definitely won't let you off." Seeing Maria Hill's gaze of facing death without fear, Kino irritably waved his hand and lay back down.

She breathed a sigh of relief and was about to turn and leave when she suddenly realized: Wait, that was not why she had come here—

"The director wants you to rescue Tony Stark."

Although Kino had verbally agreed to do two things for S.H.I.E.L.D. during the first year, she did not dare force him with the tone of an "order."

One wrong move and he could become an enemy.

"Hm?" Kino rolled over and glanced at her. He was a little curious. S.H.I.E.L.D. had gotten involved in Tony's situation?

He remembered they had not intervened.

Oh, right. That had only been a movie, not reality. Iron Man in 2008 had merely opened the curtain on the Marvel Universe. To whet the audience's appetite, S.H.I.E.L.D. had remained hidden in the background. How could they have appeared so early?

But on the real Marvel Earth, how could they possibly sit idle during such a major incident? Besides, after Tony was rescued, Coulson immediately went over to ask about the details.

Perhaps Tony had saved himself too quickly, and Nick Fury, that Blackhead, had not had time to act?

But things were different now. There was an anomaly like him.

Two free favors. No reason not to use them.

After figuring it out, Kino rolled over again. "I'm not going. I want to be a slacker!"

Maria Hill was furious. "I've always wanted to ask: what exactly does this 'slacker' you keep talking about all day mean?"

People in the United States did not like eating salted fish.

How could Americans eat something listed as a Class 1 carcinogen?

Rice was even classified as junk food in the United States. The Harvard School of Public Health had once made a nutrition pyramid. Researchers placed rice at the very top of the pyramid, recommending—limit consumption.

So Maria Hill truly could not understand why Kino kept talking about "salted fish," something that could possibly cause cancer, and kept saying he wanted to become salted fish.

What exactly did salted fish mean?

Suddenly, a voice rang out.

"You can think about the characteristics of salted fish."

"I've never seen salted fish." Maria Hill shook her head.

"Uh—it smells, it's salty, and fish is supposed to be eaten fresh. What kind of fish smells bad?"

"A dead fish?" Maria Hill said.

"That's right, a dead fish! In Chinese, it means—[a person who doesn't want to move, a person with no dreams]. In other words, it refers to someone who doesn't do anything and doesn't want to move!"

Maria Hill frowned slightly. Wasn't that just being lazy?

Kino was speechless. He turned around and glared at Raven unpleasantly. "Who let you come up here? Don't you know what the third floor means?"

The voice that had suddenly appeared naturally belonged to Raven, the former "Mystique."

"I know. There's a notice posted on the wall beside the stairs."

"You knew, and you still came up?"

"I don't mind being your 'fuck buddy.'" As she spoke, Raven struck a very seductive pose.

Gulp—she really was tempting.

But...

Kino rolled his eyes. But I mind.

What was his status now? How could he casually take just any public bicycle? Given his identity and position, at the very least, it should be an Asgardian princess.

Uh, it seemed there was only one princess, Hela.

Tsk, tsk. Although those long legs and catwalk when she first appeared in Thor: Ragnarok had been quite exciting, unfortunately—she was too old.

"Get downstairs! If you dare come up here whenever you please again, don't even think about getting your abilities back in this lifetime."

Raven's expression abruptly changed. "..."

"Why aren't you going downstairs yet?"

"Hmph—" She angrily turned and left.

This was so damn irritating!

The fuck buddy he wanted would not give him the time of day and did not fancy him; the ones he did not want insisted on throwing themselves at him!

Sigh, if this continued, his dream of being a slacker would never come true.

Kino muttered softly, "Some readers even say this book has nothing to do with being a slacker anymore. Tch, what do they know? 'Slacker' has another phrase."

—A slacker turning over!

Heh, did they not know that slackers could turn over too?

Who said it had nothing to do with it?

Hmph, so shallow.

"What are you saying?" His voice had been too quiet, and Maria Hill frowned slightly.

"I was saying, why hasn't Galina come back yet? I kind of miss her."

Maria Hill curled her lip. You miss her peachy ass, don't you? Shameless scum!

She decided not to concern herself with this slacker nonsense anymore.

"This is the verbal agreement you made with the director. As a man, I assume you won't go back on your word?"

"Don't try to provoke me with your words! Hmph, if I said it, I'll do it. When are we leaving?" Kino stretched. He should get to work.

Hmm, rescuing Stark did not seem entirely without benefits.

At least that guy had money.

Saving his life should earn him plenty of dollars, right? He would ask: Tony, how much do you think your life is worth? Then just pay that amount!

"The sooner the better. The bus is already outside."

A bus?

Americans liked calling airplanes buses—air buses.

"Okay! Okay!"

"You're not coming?" Before heading down the stairs, Kino turned back to glance at Maria Hill.

"What do you think?"

"Yeah, I get it."

Of course she was going. As his "personal monitor," how could she not follow?

"While I'm gone, Raven, remember to take all the jobs. We'll probably be away for about a week?" Kino gave Raven an instruction.

"I know."

Once the two of them left, she would be all alone. Oh, and there was also a white horse named "Athena." What the hell was wrong with that horse? Horses ate grass, didn't they? Yet it ate everything? As the secretary, she even had to be responsible for the horse's meals.

It was infuriating.

"Looks like I'll have to pull off a 'girl-crushing embrace kill' again."

As he walked out of the Odd Jobs Shop, Kino looked around. There was no bus anywhere. No need to guess—it had to be invisible in the sky.

—A Quinjet!

"Let's go—"