A small box truck crawled along a New York road. Perhaps because he wasn't used to driving a truck, Blade couldn't cut loose at all.
Looking at the cars ahead, backed up like an impossibly long train, even the usually calm Blade couldn't help growing irritated.
Honk, honk...
The moment he rolled down the window, he heard horns blaring all around him.
"FUCK!"
He slammed his fist into the steering wheel. Luckily, it was sturdily built, or his superhuman strength might have smashed it.
Ring, ring...
His phone rang. When Blade saw the number on the screen, he froze for a moment, then immediately smiled. He answered, and Yang Bo's voice came through.
"Erik, what's wrong? I went exploring today, and there wasn't any cell reception out there!"
Blade complained, "You finally called back! You have no idea how much trouble I went through getting Bor out of the Archive Room!"
"I had to blow up an entire wall!"
On the other end of the line, Yang Bo froze. His muttering came through the phone. "Bor?"
His voice was full of confusion and uncertainty.
A bad feeling suddenly crept over Blade.
"Yang Bo, don't tell me you forgot about Bor!"
"Heh... how could I? Bor's that super-fat vampire, right? I've just had a few things to deal with these past few days! Heh... how could I possibly forget?"
Yang Bo sounded anything but confident. A lot had happened over the past two days, first Coulson, then the Ancient One. As soon as he'd returned home, he'd headed to the Nether, and Bor had completely slipped his mind.
Blade's reminder brought something else back to him, too: the three punks he'd met early on were still waiting for his call.
Blade was sharp. From Yang Bo's response, he could tell that Bor had completely slipped his mind. Annoyed, he said, "Do you still have any use for Bor? If not, I'll just kill him!"
Wedged inside the cargo compartment at the back, Bor shivered involuntarily, the muscles all over his body trembling.
"Why does my back suddenly feel cold?"
Looking around the cramped space, Bor felt stifled. The truck kept stopping and starting. If not for his hardy vampire constitution, he would have thrown up long ago.
Meanwhile, hearing Blade's words, Yang Bo immediately said, "No, no... that's my fault. Bor's pretty useful, so keep him alive for me. Where is he now? I'll come find you!"
"Stuck in traffic on the bridge to Manhattan!"
Yang Bo: "..."
"Then I'll wait for you in Central Park!"
With that, he helplessly hung up. Transporting the truck here would be easy for him, but bringing Bor back would take a bit more effort. He might as well let Blade sit through the traffic.
By now, plenty of stone had finished smelting. Yang Bo went over and took it out, leaving the rest to continue smelting in the Furnace. That way, if he needed it later, he wouldn't have to smelt it at the last minute.
"I'll make the Brewing Stand first. It can't make cultivation pills, but being able to brew potions is pretty great, too!"
Speaking of cultivation pills, Yang Bo suddenly remembered Minecraft's cultivation mod. A thought struck him. If only I could get the cultivation mod. It might not look all that impressive in the game, but that's immortal cultivation!
I don't even know how to get new mods. There's no pattern at all!
Sigh...
Yang Bo sighed, opened the interface of the Crafting Table beside him, and put in the materials to craft a Brewing Stand.
"I'll just make one for now so I don't waste anything. I've got plenty of time anyway, come on... pfft, almost went off track!"
Those earworm songs from before his transmigration were far too powerful. He'd only carelessly uttered that phrase, and the melody had already started playing in his head.
He placed the Brewing Stand on top of the Furnace. Since he didn't have any potion ingredients on him, Yang Bo took some of the money he'd "borrowed" out of a chest and left home.
"First, I'll buy some carrots, books, sugar, glass bottles, melons..."
He hadn't thought about it before, when he had no use for them, but now that he counted everything up, there were far too many things he needed to buy. Honestly, before his transmigration, buying all this wouldn't have taken Yang Bo long at all. The little shop downstairs could have supplied seventy percent of it. For the rest, he would only have needed to open his phone and order online, and he could have bought everything he needed.
But this was the United States, and the United States in 2008, at that...
After thinking it over, Yang Bo decided he'd have to ask Coulson again...
He took out his phone, found Coulson's number, and called him.
The call connected quickly, and Coulson's slightly excited voice came through.
"Yang, you're back?"
"Yeah, I'm back. Where are you right now? Is this a good time?"
In a rare moment of hesitation, Coulson said, "I'm in the Recovery Room. We've found the Captain, and we're thawing him out now. You know, when we dug him out of the ice, he wasn't much different from a frozen fish in a supermarket freezer..."
Hearing that, Yang Bo burst out laughing and stood up. "Haha! Coulson, are you sure the Captain is your idol?"
"Why do I get the feeling you're secretly a hater?"
Yang Bo didn't dwell on anything else. After chatting for a little while, he got straight to the point, clearing his throat. "Coulson, I'm calling because I need your help with a few things!"
"No problem. Go ahead!"
This time, Coulson answered readily, without the slightest hesitation. Drawing on his years of experience as an agent, he'd already recognized that Yang Bo was straightforward and followed the principle of equivalent exchange when dealing with people he didn't know well. If he asked someone for help, he would make sure they didn't lose out.
"I need a few things. Hmm... glass bottles, pufferfish, gunpowder, sand... how about I make you a list? Also, I've got a teensy, billion-sized bit of gold on hand. Could you help me sell it? Don't worry, I'll give you a five-percent handling fee!"
Coulson chuckled on the other end. "No problem. Are you near Central Park right now? It doesn't look like the Captain will be waking up anytime soon, and I'm not far from you. Let's talk in person!"
"Sure! I'll be where we met last time!"
Yang Bo hung up and recalled the plot of the first Captain America movie. After waking up and escaping the building, the Captain had run to Times Square, which was only three or four streets away from him.
Sure enough, just as he walked from his home to the entrance of the square, a black car parked by the road honked. Coulson got out with a smile on his face.
"Thank you for the information!"
Coulson walked up to Yang Bo and extended his hand, speaking with genuine sincerity.
"You're welcome. It's also thanks to your team's capabilities. Even though I knew where he was, finding him on my own would have been practically impossible. If not for you, he'd have stayed a frozen fish in the ice forever."
Yang Bo shook Coulson's outstretched hand and spoke with a chuckle.
Then he gestured with his chin toward a bench in Central Park. "Let's wait over there for a bit. Blade's coming to deliver something to me!"
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