The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division-wasn't that fucking S.H.I.E.L.D.?
No, at this point in time, calling it Serpent S.H.I.E.L.D. would have been more appropriate.
Li Ang turned his head and saw Coulson wearing his standard smile, Nick Fury's number-one workhorse.
He wore a well-tailored suit, and when he saw Li Ang look over, he raised the credentials in his hand.
"Hello, I'm Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Do you have time to answer a few questions?"
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents showing up so quickly came as something of a surprise to Li Ang.
He had thought they would only find him after Tony's press conference.
"That name of yours really is a mouthful," Li Ang remarked, earning Coulson's agreement. "Yes, you can also call us S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Hmm?" Li Ang raised an eyebrow, his gaze unconsciously drifting to the top of Coulson's head.
Those airy bangs, which consisted overwhelmingly of air-the hairstyle commonly known as a bald crown-were far too eye-catching.
Before either of them could say anything, Pepper Potts tactfully walked away.
Only after Pepper Potts had gone some distance did Coulson say, "Recently, quite a few superhumans with... special abilities have appeared. S.H.I.E.L.D. has also taken full charge of the matter involving you in Hell's Kitchen."
As early as the second day after Li Ang escaped Hell's Kitchen, the workshop's surveillance footage had landed on the desks of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s detection department.
But Nick Fury had been directing a certain plan of his own lately, so it had not been reported to him immediately.
By the time Nick Fury noticed and began investigating, news arrived that Tony had been rescued.
Coulson had come here primarily to make contact with Tony Stark. After he spotted Li Ang, Nick Fury directly ordered him to make contact.
Hearing Coulson mention Hell's Kitchen, Li Ang was also surprised by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ability to gather information.
Of course, he had never intended to keep it hidden. What he wanted, after all, was presence.
As for the superhumans Coulson mentioned, Li Ang was very interested.
"Superhumans? Could you give me an example?"
Coulson did not refuse. "For instance... someone who can extend steel claws and has lived for over a hundred years, a blind man with super hearing, and someone with wings growing from his back who can fly."
Hiss... Li Ang blinked. All of that sounded awfully familiar. The first one was definitely fucking Wolverine!
The X-Men were here too?
Li Ang did quite like that character, but how had the X-Men gotten mixed into the Marvel Universe?
[Fox has already been acquired by Disney, Master...]
With that reminder, Li Ang accepted it. After all, more important characters meant more presence, didn't it? He just did not know whether Professor X and the others were around.
Beside him, Coulson grew a little nervous when Li Ang did not respond.
He did not know Li Ang was thinking. He had watched all that footage: Superman-like speed and flight, and heat vision that could cut straight through steel!
Despite his nerves, he could still maintain his smile. Now that was a veteran actor.
Li Ang could clearly hear Coulson's heartbeat speeding up. He raised a hand and rested it on Coulson's shoulder, smiling. "I've heard of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I'm open to working with you, but not right now."
As Li Ang saw it, he would at least wait until S.H.I.E.L.D. had been purged internally before joining.
With Hydra's sinister mindset, if they really latched onto him, they would be endless trouble. As the saying went, it wasn't the thief stealing that you feared, but the thief setting his sights on you.
Having them trip him up every few days would annoy him to death.
So, when he had the chance, he would act directly and uproot Hydra entirely.
Faced with Li Ang's words, which sounded like agreement but were actually a brush-off, Coulson maintained the same smile. "That would certainly be best."
He would report today's conversation exactly as it happened. As for decisions and how to approach Li Ang next, those were things for Nick Fury to worry about.
Just as he was thinking that, text appeared before Li Ang's eyes again.
[Earned Alexander Pierce's covetous interest: +2,000 presence]
"Fuck! Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives!" Li Ang frowned. Fucking covetous interest, too. Was he planning to brainwash me into a biological weapon?
With Hydra's vile methods, they were absolutely capable of that.
"I have two things to announce."
Just then, Tony, not far away, had finished a lengthy speech and begun wrapping things up.
Having accomplished his objective, Coulson stood to the side and listened patiently.
"First, I want to thank the young man who rescued me from the terrorists, Li Ang."
As he spoke, he pointed toward Li Ang in the distance.
This was an opportunity. Li Ang certainly wasn't going to get shy over something like social anxiety. He walked over and took his place beside Tony.
Everyone's eyes instantly converged on Li Ang. Cameras clicked nonstop throughout the hall, and the dazzling flashes took some getting used to.
How did those celebrities manage to endure flashes like these?
Still, for the sake of getting good photos, he imitated them and smiled.
These would all be circulated later, so he had to look good. Otherwise, if nothing but unflattering photos spread and got turned into memes, that would be terrible.
The reporters around them started recording. Beside him, Obadiah watched Li Ang with a smile on his face and well-concealed hostility in his eyes.
All my plans came to nothing because of this man. What the fuck were those terrorists good for? They still hadn't sent any word back!
"Mr. Li Ang! How did you fight your way out of the terrorists' camp with Tony Stark?"
A female reporter with rimless glasses and wavy blonde hair raised her microphone and asked the question on everyone's mind.
At that, Li Ang smiled faintly. "Very simple."
With that, under the reporters' gazes, he placed his hands behind his back and slowly rose, floating in midair!
As Li Ang's feet slowly left the floor and his entire body hung in midair, the whole hall fell so silent that a pin dropping could have been heard!
After a brief moment of shock, the shutter clicks abruptly multiplied several times over, and the flashes merged into a continuous blaze, lighting up Obadiah's bald head nearby until it gleamed.
Then came the harsh scrape of chairs against the floor.
Several reporters in the front row involuntarily stood up, nearly dropping the voice recorders in their hands.
The wavy-haired blonde reporter with rimless glasses forgot to close her mouth, her microphone held in midair. "Oh my God..."
The photographers at the back of the press hall abandoned all thought of composition and kept pressing their shutters.
Tony stood onstage, the faint smile with which he had been about to sell Stark's image frozen on his lips. He felt as though his faith in science had been slapped hard across the face.
Taking the Mark I's nine-hundred-pound punch head-on had already been absurd enough. Now he couldn't even keep Newton safe.
"Did you get it?" a young female assistant asked, clutching a male colleague's arm, her voice trembling.
"I'm shooting." Her colleague had not lowered his camera since raising it, but his hands were shaking so badly that the shots were out of focus. He kept muttering, "This is fucking front-page news!"
In the corner, Coulson maintained his trademark smile, but his eyes blinked twice in rapid succession.
He had seen mutants and enhanced humans, but he had never personally witnessed someone float so cleanly and effortlessly without any warning. Instinctively, he raised a hand to touch the concealed communicator inside his collar.
And back at S.H.I.E.L.D., a certain black baldy, Nick Fury, saw all of it.
Watching Li Ang display his abilities without the slightest restraint, his expression changed abruptly. "Motherfucker!"