Making a Deal

[Points: 9120]

"Hiss..."

Looking at the pitiful points panel, Lu Wen sucked in a breath.

"How fucking long is it going to take to save up enough?!"

He glanced again at the lone trait on the traits page, then closed the system panel. Out of sight, out of mind.

Walking out of the alley, Lu Wen switched on the phone Tony had given him. Checking the time, he saw that only two and a half hours had passed.

Thinking of the things in his system storage, Lu Wen contacted JARVIS, planning to go see Tony.

Go home?

What home? He had barely been out for any time at all. Why rush home? Was there supposed to be someone waiting for him there?

What a joke. He hardly knew anyone here. How could anyone be waiting at his place?

Lu Wen hailed a cab and headed to Tony's home using the address JARVIS provided.

Tony wasn't at Avengers Tower today, but at his own villa.

When Lu Wen arrived at the entrance, JARVIS automatically opened the villa's front door.

"Welcome, Mr. Lu Wen! Sir is waiting for you on the second floor."

"Thanks."

Lu Wen went upstairs. Tony was in casual clothes, waiting for him while munching on a cheeseburger.

"I'll have a burger too, thanks."

"JARVIS, get him one too, with fries and a Coke."

"Thanks. How thoughtful." Lu Wen raised an eyebrow at Tony.

"Buddy, I don't think you came here to eat cheeseburgers with me! Come on, what is it? And did you know Nick Fury called me an hour ago asking where you'd gone?"

Tony set down his burger and wiped his mouth, looking at Lu Wen with interest as he spoke casually.

"That bald black egg is that impatient? I've only been gone for two and a half hours."

"Really? Then he probably spent an hour and a half looking for you before asking me when he couldn't find you."

Lu Wen and Tony exchanged a glance, matching mischievous grins appearing on their faces.

"Mr. Lu Wen, your cheeseburger meal."

"Thanks."

Tony waited until Lu Wen had taken a big bite before continuing his questions.

"Tell me, I'm curious too. How did you suddenly disappear so that nobody could find you?"

Lu Wen swallowed his mouthful of burger, picked up his Coke, and took a sip. Then he leaned back in his chair, his expression casual but his eyes a little more serious.

"How should I put it..." He set down his cup and considered his wording. "A special way of traveling."

"How special?"

"Special enough that you can't find me even with satellites."

Tony didn't answer immediately. He stared at Lu Wen for two seconds, seemingly judging how much truth there was to that statement, then picked up his burger and took a bite. Only after he finished chewing did he speak.

"JARVIS, pull up global satellite surveillance records from one to three thirty this afternoon. Find someone."

"Yes, sir."

A few seconds later, JARVIS's voice came from the speakers. "Surveillance data from the world's major satellites during that period has been retrieved... Mr. Lu Wen's facial features do not appear in any of the synchronized footage."

Tony's hand paused with the burger in it. Then he put it down, laced his hands beneath his chin, and looked at Lu Wen a little differently.

"That's going a little beyond 'special.'"

"So I wasn't lying." Lu Wen shrugged. "I did use a certain method to leave New York, and S.H.I.E.L.D. can't trace it."

"Can it be replicated?"

"No."

"How long can you use it?"

"Depends."

"Where did you go?"

"Some places that aren't easy to describe."

Lu Wen met Tony's gaze.

"Tony, I'm not trying to speak in riddles. I just think some things take too much effort to explain, and they're beyond your current knowledge."

(Note: This refers to the system! I don't think a transmigrator would casually tell people what his system does right at the beginning, would he? I came back from later on to add this sentence!)

Lu Wen wasn't boasting. Tony hadn't yet encountered the realm of the multiverse. Once he did, he would understand on his own.

Not to mention, his system didn't just travel through Marvel's own multiverse. He really wouldn't know how to explain those universes outside Marvel.

Explaining it clearly to him would take a lot of talking. There was no need to pad things out here.

Tony fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled.

"You're the first person to tell me my knowledge isn't enough."

"Well, now you've met the first." Lu Wen picked up a fry and dipped it in ketchup. "But if you insist on an explanation, all I can say is that I was on a business trip."

"A business trip."

"Right. A business trip. It counts as my job."

Tony narrowed his eyes. "So those two slaps you gave Loki really were a commission?"

"Yeah. Didn't I tell you that ages ago? Is it my fault you didn't believe me?"

Tony: ...

Who would believe something that important when you said it so casually and flippantly?

After grumbling inwardly, Tony didn't press the subject any further and instead continued asking questions.

"So what did you come to see me for? I don't believe you're just here for a cheeseburger."

"Right, I almost forgot the important stuff. Come take a look at these."

As he spoke, Lu Wen took another big bite of his burger, then waved his hand, laying out the things he had scrounged up on this trip from his system storage onto the floor.

"Wow... Looks like you had a pretty good haul. What are these? Your wages?"

Tony put down the half-eaten burger in his hand and stepped forward to examine the fairly advanced equipment with interest.

Lu Wen wasn't surprised by Tony's interest. He had checked on his way over, and there was no Oscorp in this Universe 628.

"No, my wages are something else. I finagled these with a few insignificant conditions."

At that, Tony shifted his gaze from the Pumpkin Bomb to Lu Wen's face. He had actually said that without so much as blushing or his heart skipping a beat.

"So... what do you want me to help you with?"

"I want you to help me fully understand this technology, then replicate it. And there's the Green Goblin Serum. This stuff..."

Lu Wen carefully explained the Osborn family's situation to Tony.

"So you want me to help you set up a production line for this equipment, improve this serum, and figure out how to give the kid over there plastic surgery, and my only compensation is sharing this technology... Buddy, you're asking for quite a lot! And we don't seem to know each other that well."

Tony sat back down at the table, his tone serious as he gave Lu Wen a look that said, "You really have no shame!"

"Uh... if that were all, it really would be asking too much! As for your compensation, when I go on another business trip, I'll get you something better in exchange. You just need to help me get what I want within your capabilities."

"What if you can't get anything?"

"I think you should trust my judgment. After all, I'm very 'special,' aren't I?"

The room fell quiet for a moment. The two looked at each other, as though trying to read something in the other's eyes.

"All right, I'll invest in this project of yours! But let me make this clear first: I'm a businessman! If the project I invest in initially doesn't meet expectations, I'll pull all further investment."

After considerable thought, Tony decided to trust this mysterious fellow, Lu Wen, whom no records could be found on, just this once.

There was no other reason. It was purely the intuition of a genius businessman that made him choose this investment.

"Then here's to a happy partnership."

With a smile playing on his lips, Lu Wen picked up his Coke and raised it toward Tony in a toast. Tony raised his own Coke in response.

The two thus reached an agreement.

"All right, thanks for the hospitality. I need to get back to work."

After finishing Tony's burger, Lu Wen openly announced that he was going back to work.

"Now? In that much of a hurry?" Tony set down his Coke, his expression saying, "You've barely been here."

"Can't help it. I've got debt hanging over me. Of course I'm in a hurry to work it off. Life's hard for the poor..."

Speaking in an odd, exaggerated tone, Lu Wen called up the listings section in his mind, ready to take another order.

"All right." Tony shrugged, accepting Lu Wen's status as a poor man.

As far as he was concerned, with Lu Wen's meager assets, he was no different from a poor man!

His consciousness swept through the void, and five new orders popped up.

He scanned them. The first four either paid too little, had vague descriptions, or were obvious traps! But the fifth order made his consciousness pause for a moment.

This one!

"Accept." Lu Wen willed it.

"Bye-bye. See you later."

Lu Wen turned back and gave Tony the middle finger. His figure flickered twice like a signal glitch, then vanished on the spot.

"JARVIS, is my connection lagging? Why did I just see him flicker twice and disappear like a TV with bad reception?"

"No, sir! Mr. Lu Wen really has disappeared. To use an analogy, he was like a holographic projection being switched off, and I detected no energy fluctuations."

Tony remained seated, staring for a while at the spot where Lu Wen had disappeared... Then he cursed under his breath. "Fuck... That really was freaky."

He looked down at the pile of Green Goblin Suit blueprints and equipment Lu Wen had left on the table, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Still, it looks like I probably won't lose money on this deal."

With that, he gathered up the pile of things, turned, and hurried toward the underground laboratory. Although the equipment here was limited, it would be more than enough for him to get a basic understanding first.