Avengers

The next day, Lu Qi had not finished his final game of chess with the Duke of Zhou. Victory was in sight, but a knock on the door woke him up.

"What the hell!" Lu Qi lay in bed without wanting to move at all and had a Ninja Soldier go see who it was.

"Oh, thanks. Lu Qi? Where are you?" Tony's punchable voice came through. It definitely was not just because Tony had disturbed Lu Qi's sweet dream; Tony's voice was especially punchable today.

"So what is it? Why did you come so early?"

Having finally dragged himself out of bed, Lu Qi looked at the incredibly energetic Tony. "I didn't fall asleep until three last night. You should have slept even later than I did. How are you this energetic?"

Lu Qi yawned and went to the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face, only becoming a little more alert afterward.

Walking out of the bathroom, he looked at Tony, whose face showed no trace of sleepiness and even held a faint smile.

"So, you succeeded last night?"

"Of course. When I make a move, it's as good as done."

Tony said it without the slightest humility.

"Give me a break. It's your luck that Pepper even likes you. You're a middle-aged guy pushing forty, so what are you showing off for?"

Lu Qi glanced at the bulging outline around Tony's stomach and shook his head.

"You finally trained all that fat into muscle in that cave, but not long after coming back, you trained it into one solid lump again. And you still call that boxing practice."

Tony sucked in his stomach indignantly, only for the button near his collar to nearly pop off. Lu Qi disdainfully turned his head away, too lazy to look at Tony anymore.

"So why did you come this early today?"

Taking a hot fried dough stick and soy milk from a Ninja Soldier beside him, Lu Qi happily enjoyed his breakfast.

"Your breakfast looks pretty good. Is it some kind of niche delicacy?" Tony could not help asking as he watched Lu Qi enjoy it.

"Fried dough sticks and soy milk. They're traditional breakfast where I'm from, and they taste pretty good. There are also soup dumplings, fried dough sticks, egg pancakes, scallion pancakes, pork buns, braised pork buns, fresh pork buns, long bean buns..."

Once Lu Qi started, he could not stop. Tony helplessly gestured for him to be quiet.

"Fine, I admit your breakfast is ten times more varied than mine, okay?" Tony said helplessly, thinking that when he went back, he absolutely had to hire a professional Chinese chef to make different breakfasts for Pepper and himself every day.

"More than ten times." Lu Qi was a little speechless. When he had first come to this world, breakfast had been sandwiches or bread every morning, enough to make him want to throw up.

Later, he had directly searched online for videos on making Chinese breakfasts, arranged for ten Ninja Soldiers to learn, then had them compete for the position and kept the best one.

Tony could not be bothered arguing with Lu Qi. After all, his breakfasts really were nowhere near as lavish as Lu Qi's.

"Early this morning, that one-eyed director of yours called me and told me to bring you somewhere because he had something to discuss with us. Damn it, that guy woke Pepper up and got me kicked out."

"What!" Lu Qi was utterly shocked.

"Pepper's father agreed to let Pepper live with you? Isn't that delivery right to your door?"

"Actually, after I confessed to Pepper last night, I convinced him," Tony said. Thinking about how Pepper's father had lectured him for ages the night before, the corner of his mouth twitched.

"I'm guessing that wasn't easy." Seeing Tony's expression, Lu Qi made a guess.

"It really wasn't easy, but I still succeeded." Tony swore that aside from his father, nobody had ever dared lecture him for that long!

Uh, maybe his mother too?

"Alright, enough talking. I think that one-eyed guy is getting impatient," Tony said, urging Lu Qi to finish breakfast before driving off with him.

"I think I need to move again." Looking at the people along the road taking pictures with their phones, Lu Qi felt helpless.

"Look on the bright side. Once these people post their photos, we'll attract another huge batch of customers to buy our phones. Who could refuse a phone with internet access, a camera, directions, navigation, music playback, and more? It can even make calls!"

Tony explained it, then smiled at the people taking photos by the roadside and signaled for Lu Qi to cooperate. So Lu Qi gave them a cooperative smile too.

Afterward, the photo of Lu Qi and Tony forcing smiles together blew up online and really did attract quite a few people to buy their phones.

After a while on the road, Tony brought Lu Qi to a warehouse in the suburbs.

"Is S.H.I.E.L.D. out of funding? Do you have to rent office space in a place like this?" Tony glanced at the agents on duty and turned to Lu Qi.

Before Lu Qi could speak, a voice came from inside the warehouse.

"If the famous Iron Man Tony Stark is willing to provide me with some funding, I would be more than happy to accept it."

Tony turned toward the door, which had opened at some point. It was pitch-black inside, with only a single eye visible.

"Hahahaha!" Lu Qi clutched his stomach. He had not expected Fury to have so little awareness of his own skin color and still pull a stunt like that.

Lu Qi gave him a thumbs-up, making the veins on Fury's forehead bulge. Obviously, though, Tony and Lu Qi still could not see them.

"Is that funny..." Fury asked Tony.

Tony had initially kept a straight face, but Fury's sudden words made him lose it.

"Pfft, hahahaha! Lu Qi, did you see that? His teeth..." Tony simply could not control his expression.

Lu Qi and Tony laughed even harder, while Fury's mood became far less pleasant.

Fury glared at the nearby agents, who were gradually being infected by the merriment, then turned and went inside. He switched on the lights in the room, finally revealing himself.

Lu Qi and Tony laughed outside for a while longer before rubbing their aching jaws and entering the room.

"So, what did you call us here for?" Lu Qi asked Fury.

"A plan. I hope you can take a look at it." Fury took out two documents and handed them over.

Lu Qi looked at the emblem on the document, raised a brow, and opened it to look over the plan.

Tony was different. He complained as he read.

"Avengers? What kind of weird name is that? Do you have to wait for others to hit you before fighting back? I usually prefer taking out the other side first. What do you think?"

After looking over the terms, Tony was the first to put the document down.

"So you want us to join the Avengers?"

"No." Fury shook his head. "I'm only showing you this plan. What do you think of it?" Fury asked Tony.

"Uh..." Tony thought for a moment. "It's a good plan. Gather the most suitable members and solve problems ordinary people can't solve. I think it's pretty good."

To Tony, the identity of a superhero who handled a pile of matters alone suited him perfectly.

"So Lu Qi and I have been invited to join the Avengers?"

"No." Fury shook his head again. "I'm only letting you know about this team. The one who will truly join it is Lu Qi."

Fury looked at Lu Qi, who was still slowly reading through the terms, waiting for his response.

But before Lu Qi could speak, Tony became somewhat dissatisfied.

"Why can Lu Qi join this team while I can't?"

Fury looked at Tony with his one eye. "Because you're arrogant, self-important, lack teamwork, refuse to follow orders, and most importantly, I, the one-eyed guy, don't like you!"

Tony said in surprise, "You've been monitoring Lu Qi?"

"No, I've been monitoring you. As for him, he and I have an agreement." Fury reached beneath Tony's collar and pulled out an inconspicuous black patch.

"Looks like I need to change dry cleaners." Tony shrugged.

Lu Qi was still a little dazed. Ever since discovering he had been monitored, he had kept many Ninja Soldiers around him to watch for hidden surveillance, yet they had not caught a single agent.

He had truly thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was simply too powerful for him to detect. So it turned out this guy really had not monitored him again.

"So, what do you think of this team?"

Lu Qi looked at Fury's single eye, thought for a moment, and finally placed the document on the table.

"Although I think this team is great too, I personally don't want to join it."

Lu Qi looked at Fury's unchanged expression. As expected, this guy had guessed it. Tony, meanwhile, was the most shocked one there.

"Why?"

"Because I don't like being ordered around every day. I don't like my actions being controlled by others at all times, and I don't like other people having private information about me."

Lu Qi explained it. After all, he still wanted to be the king of scandals. How could he let others control his information?

"You don't seem surprised at all?" Tony gave Fury a puzzled look.

"Could you stop acting so stupid, Tony? He's the biggest spy chief in the world."

Tony gave Lu Qi a dissatisfied look, but he did not continue arguing.

He knew Lu Qi's personality. He was just still somewhat shocked.

"Then will you continue being a security consultant?" Fury asked in a deep voice.

Lu Qi thought about it. "I can continue. Even though I'm not worried about making a living anymore, I still need to do some work now and then to add some variety to life."

Fury nodded, then turned to Tony. "Would you be willing to first become a..."

"A security consultant? I'd be happy to. I also hope I can beat up some Vampire or something. That would fit a superhero's identity," Tony answered before Fury could finish.

"Of course, you can't afford my salary. But I think you can hire me through other means."

...The next day...

A congressman with a fake smile awarded medals to Tony, Lu Qi, and Rhodey.

"This feels really weird," Lu Qi whispered to Tony.

"Don't worry, just smile." Tony handed Lu Qi a pair of sunglasses and put on a perfect smile.

Thus, the shortest congressman stood in front, with three faces of different skin colors above him, all wearing perfect smiles.

"Perfect!" Lu Qi took a phone from the Ninja Soldier taking pictures below the stage, looked at the photo, and was very satisfied.

Then he uploaded Rhodey's embarrassing photos, Tony creating the New Element, the Ninja Soldiers surrounding the Mechanical Soldiers, and photos of the final boss Ivan to his blog, publishing an entry titled Iron Man 2.

He also compiled the previous photos and published Iron Man 1. Looking through the comments, Lu Qi unexpectedly saw a name.

Stan "Cameo King" "Watcher" Lee

With a smile only he understood, Lu Qi put away his phone. Iron Man 2 was over, Coulson had also headed to Mexico, and a certain brother-obsessed guy was about to come to Earth for a visit.

Opening the phone he had just put away, Lu Qi searched for recent news about meteorites or similar things falling from the sky and found one report with exceptionally low attention.

After checking the meteorite's landing location, Lu Qi bought a plane ticket to Mexico.

At that moment, some unnamed working man was driving toward Mexico under the blazing sun, unaware that someone was about to overtake him on the curve.

Lu Qi informed Tony, only to find out that the guy had taken Pepper on a trip out of town. Since Pepper had spent an entire day handling work and had not even had time to be lovey-dovey with him, Tony had angrily taken Pepper and skipped work.

Just what one would expect from you!

Lu Qi nodded and decided to take an impromptu trip too, though his destination might be just a tiny bit farther away.

...Asgard...

Holding Odin's Gungnir, Loki came to Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost.

"How is my brother doing on Earth?"

Heimdall's mismatched eyes glanced at Loki. "Thor is undergoing his trial on Earth."

Loki looked at Heimdall strangely. "I thought Father would never let him return. Asgard has only one prince now."

Heimdall's gaze returned to the stars. "Thor will not stop moving forward on Earth." As though he had seen something, Heimdall shook his head.

A mere woman wanted to shake the eldest prince's steadfast, straight-man heart and will as firm as steel.

Seeing Heimdall act as if he did not even care about him, Loki's mood soured greatly.

"Tell me, Heimdall. You possess eyes that see through the Nine Realms and tremendous power. Would my father fear you?"

Heimdall withdrew his gaze and looked at Loki. "No, because the king understands that I will be loyal to my king!"

Loki swung Gungnir, and powerful energy surged across the Bifrost.

"But now I am the king!"

Heimdall's expression did not change as he looked at Loki.

"You are only acting king. Once King Odin ends Odin's Sleep, you will become a prince again."

Loki was furious, but even with Gungnir in hand, he did not dare attack this powerful god. He could only leave in anger.

Heimdall tightened his grip on the divine sword and watched Loki's departing figure.

"Odin knows I will never betray him. He has never concealed his actions, and I have never pried into his. But you..."

Heimdall withdrew his gaze. "I have never been able to see through you."

Heimdall continued watching Thor. If anything happened to Thor, he would activate the Bifrost and grind that enemy to ash!

For the warlike and fierce Asgardians, the eldest prince Thor better matched their expectations of a king. As for the second prince, who secretly practiced magic, he had only one supporter...