Mercer was still basking in his delight when the system's voice rang out in his mind. Only then did he remember that he still had a system mission.
Before he could check it, the voice continued ringing out in his mind.
"Blacklight's Debut, completion: 100,000/1000. Bonus rewards earned!" "Item card obtained: Star Wars Lightsaber: Darksaber!" "Character card obtained: Transformers: Lockdown!" "Otherworld Card Collection Branch unlocked!"
The unexpected rewards stunned Mercer for a moment. Two cards and a book suddenly appeared out of thin air before him, and he instinctively reached out to catch them.
One of the two cards depicted a plasma blade glowing black and white, while the other showed a Lamborghini supercar.
Mercer was familiar with both. The Dark Saber was a special kind of lightsaber from the Star Wars movies.
In appearance alone, it looked better than most lightsabers. It looked more like a sword than a glowing tube.
Lockdown was a robotic assassin from Transformers.
He was powerful enough to seriously injure Optimus Prime, and his Lamborghini Aventador supercar form was quite an eye-catcher, too.
As for the Otherworld Card Collection Branch, this was no place to investigate it. Anything unusual might alert the others.
"I'll leave first and look into this 'Otherworld Card Collection Branch' when I get the chance."
Mercer put the two cards away. He was still on someone else's turf, so using something like this here was a bad idea. Better to slip away first.
He had just stepped through the doorway when he saw Nick Fury and Natasha approaching, their expressions looking a little off.
When Nick Fury saw Mercer coming out, he walked straight past him and into the room. Finding it empty, he couldn't help asking, "Where's that guy?"
"I took care of him. Wasn't that our deal?" Mercer said casually.
"You've already dealt with him?!"
Nick Fury inspected the room again. Apart from the cage in the center, the stark white room had nowhere anyone could hide.
He had originally intended to watch how Mercer handled things through the monitor, but Mercer had destroyed the camera, leaving Nick Fury no choice but to come and see for himself.
Not even ten minutes had passed, yet when Nick Fury entered, Abomination had vanished completely. How was that possible?
Nick Fury even began to wonder whether the room had some kind of secret passage. Otherwise, how could someone that huge simply disappear?
"All right, if there's nothing else, I'm leaving."
Mercer had no intention of staying. He still had his precious Dark Saber and his precious car to check out. He had no time to linger here.
"Alex, please wait."
Natasha caught up with him, tucked the hair over her forehead behind her ear, and said softly, "Could I get your number? If you need anything, you can call me."
Her words were rather suggestive, especially coming from a sexy woman like Natasha, whose looks and figure were top-notch. An ordinary guy would never have been able to resist.
But Mercer wasn't an ordinary guy. Women would only slow down his sword draw.
"No need. Thanks. Goodbye."
Three simple phrases, and Mercer turned and left in one smooth motion without pausing at all, leaving Natasha staring in disbelief.
She turned to Nick Fury with a wry smile. "I never thought a young guy like him would reject me."
Having searched the room and found nothing, Nick Fury held up a fragment of the metal cage door that Mercer had sliced apart with his Blacklight Claws. "He's really something else. Just how many secrets is he hiding?"
"Forget it. Let's put his case aside for now. How's the personal information you gathered while undercover at Stark Industries coming along?"
"Oh, right, about that..."
The two returned to discussing the formation of the Avengers, setting the issue of Mercer aside for the time being.
After all, the gap in strength was enormous. All they could do was monitor him; keeping him under control was out of the question.
After Nick Fury and Natasha left, several figures appeared at the doorway.
Looking at the empty cage, the man leading them made a call.
"Mr. Secretary-General, this is Rumlow. Abomination is gone... Yes, yes, I'll make the arrangements right away!"
After a round of deferential nodding and bowing, Rumlow immediately dialed another number.
"It's me. Start preparing."
After leaving the S.H.I.E.L.D. Building, Mercer ran farther away.
Only after confirming that he was beyond S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance range did he take out the Lockdown character card he had just obtained.
He slapped the card forward, and a brand-new gray Lamborghini Aventador appeared before him.
No guy could look at a supercar sitting right in front of him, one that belonged to him, and feel nothing.
Looking at the sleek supercar before him, Mercer was as excited as a child who had just received a new toy. He hurriedly opened the door and climbed inside.
He couldn't get enough of the exquisite interior, running his hands over everything.
The instrument panel in front of the steering wheel suddenly lit up, and a mechanical voice sounded inside the car.
"Greetings, Creator. I am Lockdown."
Mercer jumped, but quickly relaxed. This was a Transformer, after all. Of course he could talk.
"Creator" was what Lockdown had called his former master. Now that Mercer had become his master, Lockdown addressed him that way.
Mercer got out of the car and looked around. He was in a park, and it was already late at night. With no one else in sight, he spoke.
"Let me see your humanoid form."
The moment he finished speaking, the luxury car moved, immediately transforming into a robot around six or seven meters tall.
Seeing Lockdown's humanoid form, Mercer couldn't help covering his forehead. He was far too ugly. His arms were long and thin, and his head barely had any ornamentation. He looked like a baboon.
If his car form deserved a perfect score of one hundred, his humanoid form probably plummeted to sixty-just barely a passing grade.
"You'd better turn back into a car. Your humanoid form doesn't look very good."
Lockdown: ...
"We Cybertronians never judge anyone by their appearance. You Earthlings are strange, always going on about looks," Lockdown said.
He still thought he was in the world where Cybertron existed.
"Are you loyal to me?"
Mercer asked because he remembered that Lockdown was a bounty hunter who worked for money. But he was flat broke right now. How could he afford to hire him as a bodyguard?
"Yes. My programming states that I must be loyal to you. But if you insist on paying me, I wouldn't turn it down."