"Two things."
"First, your payment. A million-dollar deposit has already been transferred to an anonymous bank card. I can give it to you right now. As for the rest..."
Tony paused.
"Honestly, I haven't decided how much catching me was worth. Name your price."
Lu Wen raised an eyebrow but didn't rush to speak.
Tony held up a second finger.
"Second, who are you? Where did you come from? What's the deal with that ability to fire nuclear energy blasts? I'm very curious."
"I told you, I was passing through."
"Someone passing through doesn't take down five Leviathans single-handedly in the Battle of New York..."
Tony stared at him. "And I had JARVIS check. Your face isn't in any matching database! No driver's license, no Social Security number, no credit card records. It's as if you don't exist in this world."
Lu Wen fell silent for two seconds.
Honestly, he hadn't figured out what story to make up.
Was he supposed to say, "I just crossed over from another world, and now I'm undocumented"?
"Someone commissioned me to slap Loki twice, so I crossed over from another world. Now I'm undocumented!" Lu Wen said with a straight face.
Tony froze for a moment.
"Are you serious?"
"Dead serious."
"...I don't believe you."
"Heh~"
Lu Wen gave a soft scoff.
Nobody believed the truth these days! Was trust between people really that precarious?
Tony didn't laugh. He held his glass, his gaze openly scrutinizing.
"Fine, I won't force you to talk. But there's one thing I have to warn you about! S.H.I.E.L.D. saw everything you did out there today. They'll come looking for you sooner or later."
Tony's gaze softened, as if he had given up questioning Lu Wen about his origins.
"I'll deal with that when they come." Lu Wen sipped his drink, looking utterly unconcerned.
"You're not afraid?"
"Of what? I haven't committed a crime." Lu Wen shrugged.
"Besides, didn't you already find out I have no identity? I'm someone who doesn't exist. If I really wanted to hide, where would they even look?"
Tony was momentarily stumped by his logic. On reflection, he had a point.
"All right, let's talk about something else. What are your plans?"
Lu Wen sipped his drink without answering immediately.
How was he supposed to know what his plans were? Just a few minutes ago, he'd still been playing the bewildered protagonist!
He was also considering whether to take a job right away and leave to earn some points, or stay in this universe a while longer. After all, this universe had no shortage of troublesome events. If he was careful, even getting casually involved could improve his strength considerably! Getting stronger first wasn't a bad option either.
"What are you spacing out about?" Tony's voice pulled him back to reality.
"Nothing. Just thinking about what to do next."
"So, have you decided?"
Lu Wen thought it over.
His current situation really was a little awkward... The Marvel Universe was a starter village to him, but every big shot in that village could wipe the floor with him.
Although he'd injected himself with Compound V and counted as a superman among ordinary people, in Marvel, where all sorts of monsters and freaks were everywhere, he was at most... a Falcon who couldn't fly?
No, Falcon didn't seem to be able to take as much punishment as he could.
"I want to stay in New York for a while first. Find somewhere to live, get familiar with the place, and see if there are any ways to make money."
"Ways to make money?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Work for me for a few days, and you'll have some."
"That's charity."
"It's called an investment," Tony corrected him. "You're a decent fighter. You might come in useful again down the line."
Lu Wen glanced at him.
The sly old fox had said "come in useful again down the line," not "help out again down the line."
He meant to establish a long-term working relationship.
"Sure." Lu Wen didn't refuse. "But the price can only go up, not down."
"Can you go three sentences without mentioning money?"
"I grew up poor. It's a habit."
Tony had no comeback. He raised his glass and took a sip.
It was already past ten at night when Lu Wen left the laboratory.
The room JARVIS had arranged for him was very comfortable, but he wasn't in a hurry to go back to sleep. He stood before the corridor's floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over New York at night.
Several buildings were still smoking along the distant skyline. The traces of the Battle of New York hadn't been completely cleared away.
His conversation with Tony had gone well, but on closer consideration, dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D. coming to make trouble wasn't quite so easy.
At least, it wasn't easy for him as he was now.
First was the problem of Serpent S.H.I.E.L.D. Although that problem wouldn't erupt just yet, there was no ruling out their wanting to capture him and slice him up.
Then there was Nick Fury, that motherfucking Black Nick Fury. Every day, he acted like he had terminal paranoia, seeing everyone as a threat to Earth's safety, as if Earth belonged to him. Even when there was no trouble, he could stir some up.
He bore some responsibility for this Battle of New York.
Thinking of it that way, Lu Wen really did need to start taking jobs and doing missions soon, earning more points to get stronger.
Five jobs a year.
It didn't look like much, but it was already 2012. There were still... He took out the phone Tony had given him and checked the date.
May 4.
In other words, he had to complete five jobs before May 2013.
Time wasn't tight, but he didn't have much to spare either. If he got stuck on a difficult job along the way, he'd be in trouble.
"I need to start racking up jobs soon," Lu Wen muttered, turning toward his room.
Although time waited for no one, he needed a good rest now.
From suddenly crossing worlds to being forced into an alien invasion, he'd expended far too much energy. His mind badly needed rest.
Whatever it was, it could wait until he'd rested.
While Lu Wen slept soundly~
Black Nick Fury was staying up late working overtime, sporting dark circles that couldn't be seen.
There was no helping it. Coulson had been stabbed to death by Loki. One of his most capable men was gone, so he had to handle some tasks himself.
Such as~
Reviewing footage of Lu Wen, the superhuman who had suddenly appeared, slaughtering his way through the alien army during the Battle of New York.
Before~ Coulson would watch all of this and organize the important parts before passing them to him.
Now, he could only watch it himself, frame by frame.
He'd just finished handling the aftermath during the day, and tomorrow he still had to wrangle with those damned politicians, using the results of this battle to secure legal status for the Avengers as a superhero team.
By rights, he should have rested first, but this young Asian man's combat record that day was simply too hard to ignore.
If he were merely a little stronger and could tear aliens apart with his bare hands, that would be one thing. Over his years on the job, people like that had popped up now and then, especially those Mutants!
But this one was different! Alien lasers couldn't even break his skin.
And the blast he fired from his chest had an absurdly high energy reading! According to the data analysis, he was practically a walking nuclear bomb!
Although his destructive power wasn't on the scale of a nuclear bomb, judging from the footage of him killing Leviathans, it packed at least as much power as a missile.
"I'm no scientist, but recovering from exhaustion in just a few minutes to release enough energy for another attack seems a little unscientific, no matter how you look at it, doesn't it???"
Nick Fury scratched his dark head.
"Sir, I'm very sorry! We haven't found any information at all." Agent Hill reported empty-handed, her expression grave.
"What?"
"Yes, you heard me correctly, sir. Information on that man simply doesn't exist! Based on his face, I even asked S.P.E.A.R. for help. They had people with the same face, but none of them were him! It's as if he appeared out of thin air."
Nick Fury's face darkened further. He hadn't expected this at all.
"Keep an eye on him for now. Once we've finished dealing with everything on our hands, we'll go see him."
After some thought, Nick Fury decided to wait until he was done wrangling with those politicians before making further plans.
The guy wasn't going anywhere anyway. Besides, Tony was there. He didn't believe that genius rich boy could suppress his curiosity and ask nothing.
Perhaps he could have Natasha and Rogers make contact first. They had, at least, fought alongside him.
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