"Looks like someone's watching me. Is it Ancient One, or..."
The only thing he could be certain of now was that whoever it was could also fly, and pretty fast, too. They had vanished without a trace in the few seconds it took him to fly up here. They definitely weren't weak.
Not knowing who was watching him, or even whether they were friend or foe, felt awful.
Li Ang wasn't the type to sit around waiting to die.
Who could stay on guard against a thief forever? The exhaustion alone would kill him.
Just as he was wondering how to identify this person, Li Ang slapped his forehead. How had he forgotten about Presence?
Anyone who knew he existed would provide him with Presence.
The more important they were in the Marvel Universe, the more they provided. Someone this powerful wouldn't get lumped in with the passersby, would they?
"Bring up the log of the Presence I just gained."
As Li Ang spoke, a log of his Presence gains and losses appeared before his eyes. He started reading from the Presence he had spent earlier.
Aside from the 700 provided by passersby while he was fighting crime, there were the 3,000 trickling in from his recent news appearances, plus 5,000 from Thaddeus Ross and the soldiers.
Most importantly, a Presence gain had come in yesterday.
[Gained 4,000 Presence from Ikaris's curiosity]
Ikaris! Li Ang knew this guy, and remembered him vividly. Why? Because that shitty Eternals movie hadn't been released in mainland China, and he had happened to be on a business trip to the Little Republic of Korea at the time.
So he had gone to see it, and he would have been better off fucking skipping it.
They called them Eternals, but the smartest one was a black fag, another was an Indian Taka Kato, another was a girl who never grew up, and another was a speedster who couldn't hear or speak and could only go "aba aba."
If the Celestials were making people anyway, couldn't they make some decent ones? A whole fucking bunch of the old, weak, sick, and disabled. This was straight-up the Alliance of the Old, Weak, Sick, and Disabled.
Ikaris was the bargain-bin Superman of the bunch. He could fly, shoot lasers, and had super strength.
All things considered, he was actually pretty similar to Li Ang.
Li Ang rubbed his chin. According to their backstory, the Celestials had put these Eternals on this world to protect the birth of a Celestial.
They probably wouldn't clash with him now. After all, when Thanos had come, they hadn't done a damn thing.
Having thought it through, Li Ang flew toward Tony's mansion with Banner.
While they were passing through Philadelphia, Banner woke up in midair.
"Ah!" He cried out first, then looked up at Li Ang and froze. "I know you!"
"We're so high up! Can we go down first?"
Hearing this, Li Ang looked down. He could hear Banner's heartbeat speeding up again. If he turned into Hulk in midair, he might crush a few people when he landed.
With no other choice, Li Ang could only return to the ground.
Back on the ground, Banner was still a little disoriented. He looked at his hands, his eyes filled with dejection and lingering fear.
"Betty... did I do something irreversible again?"
Banner's voice was full of guilt. Li Ang walked over and patted his shoulder. "Not this time. You just nearly knocked an old geezer's health insurance card clean off him."
"Old geezer? What's that?" Banner looked bewildered, completely missing what Li Ang meant.
"Uh, it means a nasty old man," Li Ang explained. When he looked down, he saw Banner swallowing as he stared at a nearby fast-food restaurant.
"Want something to eat?" Li Ang pointed at the fast-food restaurant nearby.
"I really shouldn't..."
But just a few minutes later, once the burgers arrived, Banner started wolfing them down. "So good!"
Li Ang preferred Chinese food to this kind of fast food, so he only ordered a Coke and fries and sat across from Banner.
This scientist should have had a bright future ahead of him, but a single experiment had turned him into a prized target for the United States military.
In that sense, Li Ang had swooped in and snatched their prize.
Li Ang activated Super Hearing, wanting to listen to Banner's heartbeat.
Unexpectedly, he had barely activated it and hadn't even had time to listen when, "It's Li Ang! Mr. Li Ang?!"
Several girls' screams startled Li Ang!
Li Ang stood and looked to the side, where he saw a dozen or so young men and women who looked like college students. Their faces lit up with surprise when they saw him.
They soon gathered around him, and Banner hurriedly lowered his head.
"Mr. Li Ang, I'm a fan! Could I take a picture with you?" The girl in front looked excited.
Li Ang tilted his head down slightly, his vision full of bouncing that left him dizzy. He coughed and gestured for the students to come closer.
"Of course. Come on over, everyone."
Several female students led the charge. The bolder ones had already hooked their arms around Li Ang's and hugged them to their chests.
"Holy shit, those have to be D cups!" Li Ang remarked. Girls soon surrounded him, and several boys squeezed in as well.
"One at a time!"
By the time they finished taking pictures, more than ten minutes had passed.
The girls never took their eyes off Li Ang, especially those who had felt him up close. They were even more reluctant to leave.
The students soon left. Li Ang wiped away his sweat, reflecting that even fighting Iron Monger hadn't been this exhausting. As he raised his hand, a card fell out of his sleeve.
He picked it up and saw contact information written on it, along with a few lines expressing affection.
"They really are forward." Li Ang put the card away and sat back down.
Across from him, Banner looked envious. He, too, wanted to become a superhero adored by everyone, just like Li Ang. But when he thought of Hulk inside him, he lowered his head again.
Seeing this, Li Ang knew it was because of Hulk inside Banner.
Did he hate Hulk? Li Ang wasn't sure. He only knew that the two tormented each other. Just as the mission said, no one loved Hulk.
"Do you usually communicate with the Hulk inside you?" Li Ang broke the silence.
"Communicate? God, you should hear what he says. He roars like a wild beast." Banner fell silent.
Li Ang scratched his cheek. "A lot of problems can be solved through communication. Instead of both trying to destroy each other, why not learn to coexist in another way?"
"What are you suggesting, some mysterious Eastern magic?" Banner sounded dejected.
"More precisely, putting yourself in his shoes. If all anyone had shown you since the moment you were born was hostility, what would you do?"
"I think, therefore I am. You can't wipe out a thinking life like a tumor. This is your body, yes, but did Hulk ask to appear?"
For a long time, Banner had treated Hulk as the product of a failed experiment.
He shouldn't exist. This is my body. I can control him.
Thinking like that would only widen the rift between them.
In the end, nothing good would come of it. They would only hurt each other.
"Trust me. Give him some respect, and he won't necessarily repay you with a pile of rubble. Besides, even if he throws a tantrum, you've still got me, haven't you?"
Li Ang's words left Banner frozen in place.
He murmured Li Ang's words to himself. A few seconds later, he raised his head. Master, I've attained enlightenment!
Hot tears slipped from the corners of Banner's eyes as he recalled running naked after turning into Hulk beneath the setting sun all those years ago. That was the youth he had lost. "I think I understand!"
"In that case, come somewhere with me." With that, Li Ang grabbed Banner's hand, left the money, and shot into the sky!