Chapter 126: A Broken Erik Killmonger
On the palace square of Wakanda, the air seemed to have been sucked dry.
Erik Killmonger stared fixedly at the blond man in mid-air, whose face was filled with a sanctimonious radiance, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
"Homelander!" Erik Killmonger let out a shrill roar, his voice filled with the despair and fury of someone who had been seduced by a scumbag only to be sold into a brothel.
He pointed at Lin An in mid-air and cursed, "What the hell are you doing?! What about the tacit approval and support Vought International promised me for this operation?!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the Wakandan Elders and T'Challa's relatives, who had been kneeling on the ground below, were all stunned.
What did that mean?
Did these two have some sort of shady secret deal?
On the square, facing Erik Killmonger's accusation, the smile on Lin An's face vanished instantly.
His brows furrowed, and his eyes were filled with heartache, shock, disbelief, and just the right amount of anger.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
Lin An spread his hands, facing the livestreaming drones, and denounced him with a compassionate tone that could make rednecks across the American Midwest shed tears, "As a Guardian of Earth's peace, I will absolutely not allow an anti-human thug like you, who aims weapons at civilians, to exist!"
"Bullshit!" Erik Killmonger trembled with rage, a mouthful of old blood stuck in his throat, "You just wanted the Vibranium! You were the one who told me to come to Wakanda! You lying white pig!"
"Lies! Clumsy lies!" Lin An reached up and wiped away non-existent tears from the corner of his eye. "Everyone listen! Everyone look! This is the logic of Terrorists! Attempting to smear a Superhero who has been racking his brains for World peace! And he's a racist too!"
Then, Lin An spoke righteously.
"Just one week ago, this international mercenary named Erik Killmonger, the very same murderer standing before you, took the initiative to contact Vought International, attempting to bribe me with Vibranium stained with blood! He dreamed of inciting riots across the World, making innocent citizens bleed, and plunging the entire World into the flames of war!"
"I, John, a patriot who drinks pure American milk and deeply loves this land, how could I ever agree to such a maniacal demand?!"
In the cockpit, Tony Stark spat a mouthful of coffee onto the control panel, "Is this what he calls 'upholding justice'? He's trying to drive the guy to his death!"
Ultron waved his folding fan, "Mr. Stark, this is called commercial maneuvering. Mr. Erik Killmonger lacks a basic sense of reverence for capital."
Magneto gritted his teeth; this feeling was too damn familiar. Wasn't he one of the victims before?
How despicable!
Lin An's voice echoed over Wakanda; the light of righteousness was practically exploding from the top of his head.
Erik Killmonger felt like he was going crazy.
He finally witnessed something darker than any gang: the mouth of a capitalist.
He roared frantically at the livestream camera in mid-air, "Don't believe him, everyone! He's a greedy liar! We agreed in New York that he would help me ascend, and I would give him thirty percent of the Vibranium! I have a recording! I have a damn recording that can prove everything!"
The Wakandans on the scene were bewildered and looked up at Homelander one after another.
Holy crap, this guy actually kept a recording? He's got strong anti-fraud awareness.
Lin An felt nothing inside, and even kind of wanted some fried chicken.
The air at the scene froze for a moment.
Lin An took a deep breath, "Simply absurd! I, Homelander, CEO of Vought International, the World's richest man with a net worth in the trillions! Would I covet the peanuts and small change of an African tribe?!"
He pointed sharply at the mountain of Vibranium below, speaking with resounding force, "That was a sting operation! To draw out a cancer like you! To let the whole World see the ugly face you hide behind your so-called 'revolutionary' slogans! If I hadn't pretended to agree to you, how would you have exposed your terrorist plan to launch weapons at the entire World?!"
Perfect. A perfectly closed logical loop.
As soon as these words were out, Erik Killmonger's brain completely crashed.
He opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound.
He realized his trump card had become a pile of worthless paper in the face of Homelander's bizarre theory.
Because the public only believes in the logic they want to believe.
Sure enough, the comments in the livestream instantly exploded, completely turning into an ocean of joy.
"This guy is panicking! He actually tried to bribe Homelander? Laughing my ass off, does the richest man need your chump change? If you sold all the cotton in the countryside, would it even be enough to buy a Vought doll?"
"A thug is always a thug, they can never get rid of that nasty habit of zero-dollar shopping! He actually wanted to rob the entire World! And he wanted to drag our true god down with him!"
"God bless America! Thank you, Homelander, for stopping these savages who wanted to throw bombs into my backyard!"
"Go to hell, Terrorists! Do you really think that just because you started some Black Lives Matter thing, you can have privileges in front of Homelander? Homelander's cape is the Stars and Stripes; he doesn't buy into that political correctness crap!"
"I suggest Homelander just uses his Heat Vision to roast them into charcoal! Oh wait, they're already black, so just roast them into white ash!"
Lin An swept a glance at the comments from the corner of his eye; the compassion on his face was almost impossible to maintain.
This felt amazing. Is this what it feels like to take a dump from the moral high ground?
You don't even need toilet paper, and someone even hands you a hot towel.
These netizens are just too easy to fool.
He gritted his back teeth, only just managing to stop himself from laughing out loud in front of billions of viewers.
But Erik Killmonger, down below, couldn't laugh.
He looked at that incomparably hypocritical face in the sky and listened to the vitriolic curses of the Wakandan Elders beside him, who were looking at him like he was scum. He felt the blood vessels in his brain popping one by one.
He realized he hadn't just been double-crossed; he had been used as a free thug and a guide.
Now even his reputation had been completely trampled into the mud!
He had originally wanted to be the savior who liberated his people, but now he had become a Terrorist loathed by all mankind.
A complete and total social death.
"Homelander—!!!"
Erik Killmonger's eyes instantly bloodshot, and a mouthful of fresh blood sprayed from his mouth.
Lin An blinked, "He's panicking, he's panicking, he's really panicking."
"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to peel your skin off!"
Accompanied by this roar that shattered all reason, Erik Killmonger went completely insane.
He directly activated his Golden Jaguar suit.
Clang!
The sharp Vibranium claws suddenly popped out.
Erik Killmonger kicked off the ground with both legs, his entire body turning into a golden-black bolt of lightning, lunging straight for Lin An's throat in mid-air.
Lin An hovered in place, shaking his head as he watched Erik Killmonger lunging at him like a mad dog.
He's broken already?
How boring.
Chapter 127: Zero-Dollar Shopping Successfully Completed
"Clang!"
A deafening metallic collision exploded across the palace plaza, and a visible shockwave blasted outward from the two of them as the center.
Erik Killmonger's eyes were bloodshot; his prized Vibranium claws were currently pressed firmly against Lin An's chest.
The air seemed to freeze in that second.
Lin An lowered his head and glanced at his chest.
No blood. No penetration.
Not even a stray thread on his bodysuit was frayed.
"Is that it?" Lin An rolled his eyes.
"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible!" Erik Killmonger's eyes were bulging out of their sockets as he pushed with all his might, wriggling forward desperately like a crazed black loach.
"This is Vibranium! This is fucking Vibranium!"
"It certainly vibrates quite a bit." Lin An reached out and flicked the spike on his chest, producing a crisp "ding" sound, a mocking smirk curling on his lips.
"Is this the hardest metal you're so proud of? Why is it as soft as your little toothpick?"
Before Erik Killmonger could recover from his crumbling faith, Lin An moved.
He raised his hands and grabbed Erik Killmonger's Vibranium arms.
"Let me show you what true might is."
The smile on Lin An's face vanished instantly, and a terrifying grip strength of ten thousand tons exploded in his palms!
"Screech—"
A teeth-grinding sound of twisting metal echoed throughout the plaza.
The Vibranium suit, which not even missiles could penetrate, was like a cheap plastic toy in Lin An's hands.
Accompanied by Erik Killmonger's heart-wrenching screams, Lin An forcibly bent the sharp claws outward into an obtuse angle!
"Snap!"
The claws snapped off!
"Go back to picking cotton."
Lin An raised his right leg and delivered a front kick to Erik Killmonger's abdomen.
"Boom!"
The surface of the Panther Habit lit up with a blinding overload light, and Erik Killmonger flew backward like a cannonball, carving a hundred-meter-long trench into the ground before crashing into and collapsing half of the distant palace ruins.
"Kill him! For Wakanda!"
The surrounding Wakandan rebels finally reacted, and hundreds of Vibranium spears glowing with blue light were raised in unison, aiming at Lin An in the center of the plaza.
"Ooh, quite the temper." Lin An couldn't even be bothered to use Heat Vision, simply snapping his fingers. "Magneto, time to work."
As soon as he finished speaking.
Magneto Erik, who had been hovering in mid-air, slowly opened his eyes.
In this kingdom where buildings, weapons, vehicles, and even the underground ore veins were all metal.
Eric felt like a mouse that had fallen into a rice bin...
Pfft! He was a god descending into a metal kingdom!
"Tremble, barbarians."
Eric laughed wildly, spreading his arms, his dark red cape dancing crazily in the wind.
A magnetic field so massive it was suffocating instantly enveloped the entire capital!
The next second, gravity seemed to fail in this area.
"Hum—!"
The Vibranium spears in the rebels' hands vibrated violently, forcibly torn from their grips and flying into the high sky.
The parked flying vehicles, and even the metal debris in the cracks of the floor tiles, were all brutally pulled toward the sky by an invisible hand.
Thousands of tons of Vibranium equipment collided and squeezed together in mid-air, forming a terrifying metal storm that blotted out the sky!
The Wakandans were completely terrified.
The Queen Mother and the Dora Milaje stared at the sky, dumbfounded, their snacks dropping from their hands in fright.
And in this extremely shocking doomsday scene, there was an extremely bizarre sight.
"Move aside, move aside! Don't step on that core plate!"
Tony Stark, without even closing his visor, was hunched over, holding a scanner of unknown model, frantically rummaging through the ruins like an old man collecting scrap.
"This piece has a purity of 99.9%! Good stuff!"
"My god, they actually use Vibranium to make toilets? These upstarts!"
The richest man in the World had no Superhero demeanor, grumbling and complaining while stuffing the Vibraniumscattered everywhere into his arms.
The live stream chat exploded:
"Magneto is a literal god in this place!"
"Wait, hold on... Is that guy picking up trash on the ground the chairman of Stark Industries?!"
"Tony Stark, worth hundreds of billions, is collecting scrap in Africa? This World is too crazy!"
"Understand, for a tech geek, this metal scattered everywhere is sexier than Victoria's Secret supermodels."
"Fuck, these guys don't even understand the true use of Vibranium; wouldn't it be better to make dolls with it?"
"Bang."
In mid-air, Magneto waved his hand casually.
Hundreds of rebels fell from the sky like dead dogs, slamming heavily into the ground.
Lin An stepped on Erik Killmonger's chest.
"Family of Earth, the crisis has been resolved. Vought International is always committed to maintaining Worldpeace, but that does not mean we will interfere in the internal affairs of other countries."
He looked around at the Wakandan citizens filled with awe, and the Queen Mother and Shuri, who had complex expressions on their faces.
"We respect the traditional culture of every country. Punishing Terrorists who attempt to start a World war is my duty as Homelander. But how to judge him—"
Lin An moved his foot away righteously and gestured with a "please" motion.
"That is the right of the Wakandans themselves."
After speaking, Lin An stepped back, completely exposing the half-dead Erik Killmonger to the Wakandans.
After a brief silence.
"Tear him apart!"
The angry Wakandan citizens and the guards loyal to T'Challa swarmed forward like a bursting flood.
Anger and trampled faith exploded at this moment.
The scene was extremely bloody.
"Oh my, too brutal. This can't be broadcast; it won't pass the review."
Lin An covered his eyes with a serious expression and conveniently pressed the button to close the live stream on the controller.
As the screen went black, a crisp system notification sounded in Lin An's ear:
[Ding! Host has quelled the Wakanda crisis, displayed the perfect Superhero demeanor, current popularity: 70 million!]
Awesome.
Once the live stream was off, the justice on Lin An's face vanished instantly, switching in a second to the mercenary face of a capitalist.
He adjusted his cape and walked with a brisk pace straight toward the shaken Queen Mother and Shuri.
"Your Highness, Shuri, congratulations on reclaiming your power." Lin An smiled and extended his hand, but there was no respect in his eyes.
The Queen Mother looked at him vigilantly and did not shake his hand: "Thank you for your help, outsider. Wakanda will remember your kindness."
"Kindness is too vague; I'm a practical person, I prefer things in black and white."
Lin An reached back and pulled out a stack of documents as thick as a brick, slamming it directly onto the stone table nearby.
"Vought International Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation and Resource Trusteeship Agreement. Please take a look."
The Queen Mother was stunned.
She looked down at the hundreds of pages of the contract, then at Lin An: "What does this mean?"
"It's simple."
Lin An pulled over a chair that was still intact and sat down, crossing his legs.
"Look, although Wakanda is technologically advanced, your security level is as shitty as it gets. Even a bastard working as a mercenary outside can just run in and seize the throne, and almost distribute Vibranium to black brothers all over the World for zero-dollar shopping."
"This is too dangerous." Lin An slapped his thigh, looking heartbroken.
"Vought International is now an officially certified global defense organization. To prevent dangerous resources like Vibranium from falling into the hands of Terrorists again, I have decided, reluctantly, to take over all security and defense of Wakanda."
Shuri was trembling with anger: "We don't need your takeover!"
"Little girl, don't get excited, we are cooperating. You are still the Wakandan royal family, you can still dance in grass skirts."
Lin An pointed smilingly at the last page of the contract: "As the price for us providing comprehensive, 24/7 security services, Vought International only needs the exclusive mining rights to the Vibranium mines. This protection fee is quite reasonable, right?"
"In your dreams!" The Queen Mother refused sternly, "Vibranium is sacred! It is the lifeline of Wakanda! It is absolutely impossible to hand it over to you greedy merchants!"
"Oh?"
Lin An sighed and spread his hands helplessly.
"I intended to show my heart to the bright moon, but the moon shines upon the ditch instead."
He didn't get angry, just slightly raised his chin.
Magneto, hovering in mid-air, snorted coldly.
"Rumble—!"
The thousands of tons of metal storm overhead instantly descended ten meters!
The terrifying sonic boom swept across the palace plaza, and the Vibranium spears, under the control of the magnetic field, hovered in front of every Wakandan's forehead.
Cold sweat streamed down the Queen Mother's forehead.
"Oh my, Magneto, what are you doing? We are here for friendly cooperation! Too rude!"
Lin An scolded.
He turned around, the smile on his face extremely "friendly".
"This is why you need protection, because there are unreasonable bad guys like Magneto everywhere outside."
Magneto's mouth twitched.
Lin An stuffed a pen into the Queen Mother's trembling hand, his tone as gentle as if coaxing a child.
"Sign it. For the sake of Wakandan tradition, and so you can continue to ride rhinos here."
The Queen Mother looked at the metal storm in the sky capable of destroying the entire country, closed her eyes in humiliation, and tremblingly signed her name.
Lin An picked up the contract with satisfaction.
"Gentlemen!"
"Wakanda zero-dollar shopping business, cooperation successfully achieved!"
Chapter 128: The Natural-Born Employee
"Clang!"
A Vibranium chain as thick as a human thigh was locked tightly around Erik Killmonger's neck.
Lin An stood on a high platform amidst the ruins of the Wakanda palace, holding a megaphone in his hand.
"Fellow citizens of Wakanda! To demonstrate Vought International's humanitarian concern, I hereby solemnly announce that Mr. Erik Killmonger, who nearly led you all into World War III, has been officially appointed as the Vought International Africa Region Brand Ambassador and First Mining Captain!"
Erik Killmonger's face was covered in blood, and he struggled violently like a rabid wild dog.
"Homelander! You hypocritical white pig! I'm going to kill you!"
"You need to work hard, Captain."
Lin An casually used Heat Vision to burn off the fingernails Erik Killmonger was using to try and pick the lock, then turned to raise an eyebrow at the dumbfounded WakandaElders. "Eighteen hours of work a day, with room and board included. Who says we capitalists don't provide job opportunities for our Black brothers?"
The Elders trembled, not daring to make a sound.
This ultimate re-employment for traitors was truly hardcore.
Meanwhile, in the royal laboratory beneath the palace, Tony Stark and Ultron were acting like a couple of Banditsraiding a village.
"Dismantle that Vibranium reactor! And that quantum collider! Pack it all up!" Tony directed several Wakandans as they frantically moved the equipment.
Ultron waved a folding fan and said, "Mr. Stark, is it not a bit too unscrupulous to even take their toilet lids?"
"What do you know! These primitives are actually using Vibranium to make toilets; I'm saving science!"
Lin An strolled in, ignored the chaos everywhere, and locked his gaze directly on the talented Wakandan princess, Shuri, who was huddled in a corner with a face full of resentment.
"Your Majesty, the Queen Mother." Lin An turned his head to look at the old Queen Mother, who was being protected by the guard unit, his tone full of goodwill. "Although your country's technology is advanced, it lacks a global perspective. To promote technical exchange and cultural assistance between us, I have decided to give Princess Shuri the opportunity to study abroad in New York. Full scholarship, don't mention it."
This was clearly just kidnapping a hostage!
The Queen Mother was so angry she nearly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot, but looking at the metal storm still swirling in the sky, she swallowed her profanities.
"Let me go! You Bandits! Lackeys of the capitalists!"
Shuri struggled desperately, but Ultron grabbed her and lifted her up like a chick.
"Princess, please watch your manners. At Vought International, cursing the boss will result in a deduction from your performance bonus."
Half a day later, at the border of Wakanda.
T'Challa woke up with a start on a tattered straw mat, spitting out a mouthful of murky river water.
"Your Majesty! You're finally awake!" Several fishermen from a border tribe knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly.
T'Challa touched his aching chest, his memories returning in an instant.
The challenge ceremony, being thrown off the waterfall by Erik Killmonger, the bone-chilling river water.
He hadn't died; the current had washed him downstream.
"Wakanda... how is it now?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
The fishermen cried even louder: "It's gone! It's all gone! A white devil draped in the Stars and Stripes descended from the sky, forced the Queen Mother to sign a treasonous treaty, occupied the mines, and even took Princess Shuriaway to New York as a slave!"
T'Challa was devastated.
The kingdom he was so proud of, the family he swore to protect, was it all over?
"The Heart-Shaped Herb... is there any Heart-Shaped Herb left?" T'Challa's eyes were bloodshot as he gripped the fisherman's shoulders tightly.
"It was all burned. There is only... only the last one that the Elder secretly hid."
T'Challa snatched the glowing purple herb, not even bothering to crush it, and chewed and swallowed it raw. Violent energy exploded within his body, and the divine power of the Black Panther returned.
He stood up abruptly, looking toward the other side of the ocean, and gritted his teeth: "Homelander... I will go to New York, rip out your heart with my own hands, and reclaim the dignity of Wakanda!"
The scene cuts back to New York, in the underground laboratory on the third floor of Vought Tower.
Shuri had been locked up here for three whole days.
"I would rather die than write a single line of code for you Bandits!" Shuri crossed her arms, sitting in the corner on a hunger strike, her eyes as stubborn as a little leopard.
Tony Stark was frantically pulling at his hair in front of the workbench.
"What is going on here? Why does the Vibranium skeleton cause the silicone skin to overheat and melt during high-frequency piston movement? Ultron! Is your algorithm full of crap?"
Ultron waved his fan aggrievedly: "Mr. Stark, my algorithm is perfect. It is you who insisted on adding an 8,000 RPM overclocked vibration motor inside the robot; current material science simply cannot support this level of heat conduction."
Shuri, the tech genius in the corner, twitched her ears.
High-frequency vibration motor? Vibranium heat conduction?
This group of self-proclaimed smartest scientists on Earthactually can't even handle such a basic Vibranium energy conduction matrix?
The tech girl's damned desire to win instantly overcame her national hatred.
"Idiots." Shuri sneered. "Just add a nano-scale heat dissipation grid within the micro-crystalline layer of the Vibranium skeleton, and then adjust the conduction algorithm frequency to resonate at the same frequency as the Vibranium, wouldn't that work?"
Tony froze, then slapped his thigh hard: "Genius!"
Ultron immediately and obsequiously handed over the blueprints and an electronic pen: "Princess, could you demonstrate that specifically?"
Ten minutes later.
When Lin An walked in to inspect while holding a cup of Americano, he saw an extremely bizarre scene.
Shuri was wearing safety goggles, holding a welding torch, and while performing precision machining on a semi-finished silicone doll, she was scolding Tony Starkrelentlessly.
"Stark! Your ergonomic design is absolute dogshit! The range of motion for the waist joints is too small; it's impossible to perform high-difficulty poses! This will seriously affect the user's experience! Change it!"
Tony not only didn't get angry, but instead took notes frantically like an elementary school student humbly asking for advice: "Yes, yes, yes, you're right, the range of motion needs to be increased. And that contraction function..."
Lin An watched this scene and silently took a sip of coffee.
Such adaptability, such enthusiasm for work.
"Boss, Princess Shuri has been working overtime for ten consecutive hours, and she doesn't want any overtime pay at all." Ultron leaned over and reported in a low voice.
Lin An sighed with emotion.
A natural-born employee.
Dragging our Black brothers into the factory to screw bolts is indeed an excellent tradition carved into the bones of America.
"Get her an iced Americano."
Lin An waved his hand very generously. "Tonight, I will personally sponsor her to have a KFC family bucket, the kind without a group-buying coupon."
Half a month later.
The night sky over New York was overcast with heavy rain pouring down.
A black, agile figure moved like a ghost, avoiding all surveillance around the perimeter of Vought Tower and sneaking all the way into the third underground floor through the ventilation ducts.
T'Challa was wearing his pitch-black Black Panther suit, his heart pounding like thunder.
Chapter 128: The Bewildered Black Panther, the Broken Hell Lord
It had been half a month.
Having survived near-death experiences, crossed the ocean, and relied on smuggling and stealth, he finally reached the depths of this devil's den.
At the thought of his sister being tortured by that brutal Homelander, being whipped like a slave, T'Challa felt as if his heart was being twisted by a knife.
"Shuri, brother is here to save you."
T'Challa took a deep breath, unsheathed his Vibraniumclaws, and kicked open the laboratory door with a violent force!
"Long live Wakanda—!"
T'Challa let out a deafening war cry, preparing for a bloody battle.
However, there were no overseers holding whips, nor any bloody torture devices in the laboratory.
Under the glaring incandescent lights, Shuri was wearing a lab coat, her face smeared with machine oil, excitedly patting the buttocks of a fully naked, exaggeratedly curved silicone female robot.
"Look! The Thomas Flair I designed!"
Following Shuri's command, the silicone doll took off from the workbench, its legs completing a 720-degree rotation in the air at an incredible angle before landing steadily, even winking.
"Perfect! Absolutely perfect!" Shuri was dancing with excitement, giving a high-five to Ultron beside her.
T'Challa stood frozen at the doorway.
He maintained his claw-raised posture, his brain completely ceasing to function for a moment.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Why was my proud, unyielding royal sister building such disgusting things for a capitalist?!
And smiling so happily?!
"Brother?" Shuri turned her head, saw the petrified Black Panther at the door, and paused for a moment, "Why are you here? No, how did you get in? I just upgraded the security system."
T'Challa felt his worldview shattering.
"Shuri... have you been brainwashed? What have they done to you?!"
He lowered his claws, trembling, his voice full of despair.
"Brainwashed? No."
Shuri took off her goggles, looking excited, "Brother, you don't understand! The equipment here is amazing! Even though Stark is annoying, his brain is truly sharp! We are currently tackling the greatest artificial intelligence problem of this century!"
T'Challa's vision went dark, and he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
Just then, a round of crisp applause echoed from the shadows in the depths of the laboratory.
Lin An walked out slowly, wearing an expensive high-end suit and holding a glass of red wine.
"Clap, clap, clap."
"A touching sibling reunion."
Lin An wore that signature perfect smile that made people want to punch him, "Your Majesty T'Challa, I must admit, you do have some skill to be able to sneak past the external security to get here. Of course, it's mainly because I had Jarvis open a backdoor for you."
T'Challa instantly tensed his muscles, facing a formidable enemy: "Homelander! You destroyed Wakanda, and now you want to destroy my sister too! I will kill you!"
"Save it, Your Majesty."
Lin An sipped his red wine, his eyes full of mockery, "The era of feudal emperors is over. Right now, you are just an illegal immigrant."
Lin An snapped his fingers.
Ultron immediately slid over from the side and handed a thick document to T'Challa.
"Vought International Security Department Deputy Director Employment Contract."
T'Challa was stunned: "What does this mean?"
"Literally what it says."
Lin An walked up to T'Challa and looked down at him, "Your sister is now the Chief AI Interaction Engineer at Vought International, holding a multi-billion dollar project in her hands. You want to take her away? You can. But first, pay the breach of contract fee, probably about 20 billion."
T'Challa gritted his teeth so hard they almost shattered: "In your dreams!"
"Or—" Lin An changed the subject, thrusting a pen into T'Challa's hand, "Sign this contract and come clock in at my security department. Room and board included, and you can see your sister every day. Whenever you pay off the debt, you can go back to Africa and ride rhinoceroses whenever you want."
T'Challa looked at the humiliating contract in his hand, then at Shuri, who was not far away, hugging that Vibranium doll and refusing to let go.
His pride-filled Black Panther power was completely useless at this moment.
...
"Bang!"
In the throne room, which reeked of sulfur, a statue formed from tormented souls was smashed to pieces.
The Hell Lord Mephisto looked at the disastrous "Third Quarter Earth Soul Harvesting Report" in his hand, trembling with rage.
"Can someone explain this to me! What the hell is going on?!"
Mephisto's roar shook the bone chandelier in the hall, making it sway precariously.
A row of high-ranking demons kneeling below trembled, not even daring to breathe.
The data on the report showed a shocking cliff-like decline.
In the past, to satisfy their endless desires—money, lust, power—tens of thousands of idiots would line up every day to sign contracts with Hell, willingly selling their souls.
Hell's soul vault was filled to the point of overflowing every day.
But this month, the income was almost zero.
"My, My Lord..."
A contract demon in charge of sales raised its head tremblingly, holding a colorful poster in its hand, "It... it's Vought International."
"That damn Homelander?"
Mephisto snatched the poster.
[128,000 USD, buy out the perfect love! Vought AI partner, understands everything about you!]
"These stupid humans! Just by spending over a hundred thousand dollars, they can buy a perfect partner who is obedient, can cook and clean, and even comes with hundreds of high-difficulty moves!"
The contract demon said with a mournful face, "Whether they are shut-ins or Wall Street tycoons, they are all satisfied in their physical and psychological desires by this thing! They just stay at home hugging robots all day now, and don't come out to do evil at all!"
"Not only that, My Lord," another demon added, "Our Hell's Succubus Legion is now facing total unemployment. Human clients dislike that succubi drain their life force and have body odor; they aren't as clean and hygienic as Vought AI. Now the succubi are all begging on the streets..."
Deflation.
An unprecedented financial tsunami had directly crashed Hell's financial system.
Mephisto looked at the empty soul vault, his eyes slowly turning blood-red.
To cut off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents.
"Vought International... Homelander."
Mephisto gritted his teeth and crushed the parchment in his hand, a ball of eerie green hellfire igniting in his palm, "Since you are cutting off my food supply, don't blame me for flipping your table!"
As he finished speaking, he turned into a cloud of black mist and violently tore open the dimensional rift.
Meanwhile, in New York, at the Stark Industriesunderground third factory.
The fully automated assembly line was running at high speed, with brand-new "Angel Devil Vibranium Series" bionic partners undergoing final packaging.
No one noticed that a wisp of extremely cold black gas had silently slipped in through the ventilation ducts, rapidly splitting like a viper, and precisely burrowed into the core matrices of that batch of machines about to be shipped out.
Chapter 129: Asking the Ancient One to Open the Gates of Hell
The next day, Hawaii, a private beach.
Lin An wore sunglasses, lying comfortably on a beach chair.
On his left, a blonde female fan in a bikini was carefully applying sunscreen for him; on his right, another fanatic fan was massaging his legs.
On the system panel, his popularity score remained steadily at the peak of 85 million.
Awesome.
This is the retirement life a Superhero should have.
Fighting and killing is so tiring; selling sex dolls is the true way to make money while lying down.
"Ring—"
The dedicated phone vibrated frantically and abruptly.
Lin An frowned and answered the phone: "Madelyn, if you don't have a reason sufficient to destroy Earth for interrupting my vacation, I will stuff you into Stark's centrifuge."
"Boss! Something big has happened!" On the other end of the line, Madelyn's voice was urgent. "Vought International's AI stock price crashed by ten percent in ten minutes! And it's still falling!"
Lin An sat up straight abruptly and pushed the fans aside: "Explain clearly, what's going on?"
"The second batch of delivered AI dolls has a problem! Twitter has exploded, and #VoughtDollsSuckingPeople# has shot straight to number one on the global trending list! Just a moment ago, dozens of wealthy clients were rushed to the ICU, completely shriveled up, and they said they were drained of their Yang energy by the dolls!"
Lin An's eye twitched.
He quickly pulled up the system panel. The popularity score, which had been steady as a rock, was now plummeting like a waterfall.
80 million... 70 million... 50 million!
In an instant, 30 million popularity points evaporated! The backlash from the negative news was even fiercer than a nuclear bomb!
Lin An's eyes were instantly bloodshot, and his previously sunny face was completely distorted.
What kind of bullshit savior, what Superhero, it was all thrown to the back of his mind.
"Dare to cut off my fortune?"
Lin An gritted his teeth, ripped off his beach shorts, and revealed the Stars and Stripes suit underneath.
"Boom!"
Lin An turned into an afterimage, charging straight into the clouds with monstrous killing intent.
Seeking death!
New York, Long Island, a top-tier luxury residential area.
"Bang!"
Steve Rogers was sent flying by a massive force, crashing heavily onto the leather sofa, smashing the expensive coffee table to pieces in the process.
"What on Earth is this thing!" Steve climbed up in a sorry state, raised his shield, and looked ahead in disbelief.
That nano-silicone doll with a hot body and pretty face had completely changed its appearance.
Underneath her silicone skin, eerie purple-black veins were visible, Beast-like fangs had grown in her mouth, and her eyes glowed with an eerie green evil light.
"Jarvis! Repulsor blast at maximum power!"
In mid-air, Tony Stark, wearing the Mark armor, aimed his palms at the monster and fired a scorching plasma beam.
However, the monster didn't dodge or evade, charging forward while tanking the repulsor blast. The beam hit her, only emitting a wisp of black smoke; it didn't even break her skin.
The monster leapt up, grabbed Tony's armor, aimed its fangs directly at a gap in the armor, and an extremely chilling suction force erupted instantly.
"Warning! Unknown energy intrusion detected, vital signs are dropping rapidly!" Jarvis sounded the alarm frantically.
Tony felt like he had fallen into an ice hole, his legs went weak, and it looked like he was about to be drained dry.
"Captain! Help! This woman is sucking me dry!" Tonyscreamed.
Steve roared and was just about to throw his shield.
Just then.
"Boom—!!!"
The Villa's roof was smashed through as if it were made of paper. A red and blue figure, like a falling meteor, slammed into the center of the living room with an incomparably violent Impact.
The entire Villa trembled violently.
The dust settled, and Lin An stepped on the debris-covered floor, his face so gloomy it could drip water.
"Buddy!!" Tony looked as if he had seen his own father.
Lin An couldn't even be bothered to talk nonsense, his eyes instantly converging with a chilling crimson glow.
"Sizzle!"
Heat Vision instantly pierced through the monster's chest.
Accompanied by a shrill, non-human scream, the monster exploded, turning into a puddle of remains emitting foul-smelling black gas.
Tony fell onto the floor, gasping for air: "My God, what kind of material mutation is this? This is definitely not in Ultron's algorithm!"
Lin An ignored Tony, strode to the pile of remains, and grabbed the doll's head that was still emitting black gas.
[Ding! High-dimensional energy detected (Hellish Demonic Energy).]
The system prompt sounded in his mind.
Lin An's dead fish eyes narrowed.
Hellish Demonic Energy?
He knew it; no matter how crappy Stark Industries' assembly lines were, they couldn't produce a succubus that sucked Yang energy.
So it was those dirty things from the magic side playing tricks behind the scenes.
Looking at the popularity score that was still falling, Lin An's anger could no longer be suppressed.
Commercial competition is one thing, but playing with metaphysical dimension-reduction attacks?
"You guys clean up the mess here and block the news." Lin An carried the head and turned to look at Steve. "Tell Madelyn to say it was malicious poisoning by a competitor. I'm going to find someone professional to solve the source of the problem."
"Professional?" Tony was stunned. "Where are you going?"
"To chop someone up."
"Boom!" The sonic boom exploded again, and he shot into the sky.
Nepal, Kamar-Taj.
Sorcerer Ancient One was sitting in the meditation room, holding a cup of freshly brewed green tea, enjoying the afternoon tranquility.
"Bang—!"
The two heavy antique wooden doors were pushed open violently.
Lin An strode to the tea table and slammed the head, which was emitting a thick Hellish aura, onto the table with a "slap".
Tea splashed all over Sorcerer Ancient One's face.
"Auntie Ancient One." Lin An braced his hands on the table and spoke righteously: "Help me open a door and send me to Hell."
Sorcerer Ancient One wiped the tea off her face expressionlessly, her gaze moving down to the sex doll's head.
She sighed, the Eye of Agamotto on her chest slowly opened, and the green light of the Time Stone flashed by.
The next second, the corners of Sorcerer Ancient One's mouth twitched, which was extremely rare.
She saw through the ins and outs of the matter.
Just because the sex dolls sold by Vought Internationalwere too good, they stole the demons' business, causing Hell to go bankrupt.
Mephisto ran to the mortal world in a fit of rage to smash the place, and now this Homelander wants to storm into Hell to collect debts?
What kind of nonsensical Universe timeline is this?!
"Lin An." Sorcerer Ancient One's voice was filled with deep speechlessness and exhaustion. "The duty of the Sorcerer Supreme is to defend against magical invasions from multiple dimensions and protect Earth. We... do not interfere in secular commercial disputes."
"Commercial disputes?" Lin An sneered, pointing to the head emitting black gas. "This thing has almost drained my big clients dry, and you call this a commercial dispute?"
Sorcerer Ancient One shook her head and took a sip of tea: "The Sorcerer Supreme lineage is only responsible for defending against full-scale invasions from magical dimensions. This kind of personal vendetta caused by commercial competition is not within my scope of duties. Please leave, Homelander."
"You won't care?" Lin An's eyes turned cold. "Fine. If you don't open the door, I'll just sit here. Anyway, the Feng Shui in this place is not bad; I'll move Vought International's AI R&D center here in a while.
Oh right, I also plan to open a live streaming room in Kamar-Taj, called 'Exploring Earth's Strongest Nunnery'. Guess how many days this place of cultivation can last?"
Rascal.
An extreme rascal.
Sorcerer Ancient One looked at this troll in front of her, who was impervious to reason and valued traffic more than life, and finally realized that this was the biggest trouble on Earth.
"I cannot go to Hell; this would cause the collapse of dimensional laws." Sorcerer Ancient One put down the tea cup, her tone somewhat helpless. "However, since you are so persistent, I can send someone to assist you."
Lin An's eyes lit up: "You should have said so earlier! Who are you sending? Who is the best fighter among you magicians?"
"Stephen."
Sorcerer Ancient One didn't even look back and shouted towards the back of the hall.
Chapter 130: The Miserable Stephen
Kamar-Taj's backyard.
Lin An stood with his arms crossed, looking down at the man in the yard.
He had a handlebar mustache.
His hands were shaking like someone in the late stages of Parkinson's.
He was miserably holding a broom, sweeping up fallen leaves.
"Yo, isn't this New York's most expensive Doctor?"
Stephen Strange looked up.
He saw that iconic stars-and-stripes cape, and his eyes widened instantly.
"Homelander?!"
The broom in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter".
His ruined hands shook even more violently, and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Lin An walked over with that signature sunny smile.
He patted Stephen's shoulder in an extremely "kind" manner.
The force of this slap was immense.
Stephen felt like his scapula was almost shattered into powder.
His facial features crumpled in pain, and his legs went weak, almost causing him to kneel directly on the flagstones.
"Stephen, old buddy. I heard you were in a car accident, how unfortunate." Lin An said with a grin, "But seeing you sweeping the floor here, your mental state seems pretty good?"
In his mind, however, a barrage of comments was flashing:
Is this it? This is the future Doctor Strange?
With his current weak, pathetic state, even The Deep would laugh at him for three minutes.
The Ancient One walked over from the corridor, holding a teacup.
Her shiny bald head was dazzling in the sunlight.
"Mr. Stephen, Homelander wants to go to hell, so you should open that portal."
Stephen was stunned.
He pointed at his own nose, his voice cracking from extreme shock: "Me?"
"Yes, you."
"I've only been here for three days!"
Stephen shouted in a breakdown, holding his trembling hands up in front of the Ancient One.
"I haven't even finished sweeping the floor in this crappy yard! You want me to take him to hell?!"
"I can't even conjure up a spark!"
"I don't even know how to draw a circle!" Stephen rambled incoherently, shaking his head like a rattle.
Lin An was very dissatisfied.
He turned to stare at the Ancient One: "Are you playing with me? An intern? If he leads the way, we'll probably end up teleporting into a New York septic tank."
The Ancient One shrugged.
She had absolutely no burden of being the Sorcerer Supreme, and the corners of her mouth curled upward instead.
"Aren't you the omnipotent Homelander? If you think Kamar-Taj's teaching method is inappropriate, why don't you teach him yourself?"
Passing the buck.
A naked attempt to pass the buck.
Lin An stared at the Ancient One's old face and understood that this old bald lady was using him as a free coach.
However...
Lin An twisted his neck, and his joints made a crisp popping sound.
Training the future Sorcerer Supreme? This job sounded like quite a bit of fun.
He turned his head and looked at the shivering Stephen.
The corners of his mouth spread bit by bit, revealing two rows of stark white teeth.
He strode toward Stephen.
"Fine, since the old bald one has spoken."
Lin An grabbed Stephen by the back of his collar and lifted him completely off the ground.
"Then we'll do it my way, and push you a little."
Stephen kicked his legs wildly, struggling frantically: "Wait! Put me down! I'm going to sue you for kidnapping! I am the top Doctor in the U.S.!"
"Shut up, you hand-shaking freak. Are you ready to experience Vought International's wolf-pack culture?"
"What culture?!"
"As long as you don't practice yourself to death, keep practicing until you die!"
Whoosh—
A strong wind picked up.
Lin An took Stephen and soared into the sky.
The sonic boom from breaking the sound barrier instantly shattered several wooden doors in Kamar-Taj.
Leaving only the Ancient One behind, sipping tea in a leisurely manner.
The following week was called "Strange's Avici Hell" by Stephen.
Day one.
Thirty thousand feet above New York.
Lin An held Stephen by the ankles, hanging him upside down above the clouds.
"Listen, magic comes from the spirit. Now, draw a circle!" Lin An shouted against the gale.
"You lunatic! You're a pervert! Put me up!"
Stephen's face was deathly pale, and the wind pressure at high altitude made the skin on his face flutter like dough.
His hands shook wildly, and he couldn't even keep the Sling Ring steady.
"Alright then." Lin An loosened his fingers.
"Ahhhhhhh—"
Stephen plummeted like a fleshy projectile.
Seeing that he was only thirty meters away from the lightning rod of the Empire State Building, Lin Anappeared instantly and grabbed him by the collar.
"Remembered how to draw a circle yet?"
Stephen rolled his eyes back, and his crotch was soaked in a large patch.
Day two.
The core of the Antarctic ice sheet.
In a blizzard of minus sixty degrees.
Stephen was wearing only that thin linen robe, with snot frozen into icicles hanging from his mouth.
"Concentrate! Feel the flow of magic!"
Lin An was wearing Hawaiian swim trunks, standing in a hot spring pit he had just melted with his Heat Vision, taking a bath.
He was also holding a glass of iced martini in his hand.
"I... I can't draw it!" Stephen's teeth chattered violently, and he almost flung the Sling Ring away.
"Then keep freezing. If you can't conjure a spark in half an hour, I'll call The Deep over."
"Why call him?"
"Let him teach you how to have in-depth communication with these seals."
"Pervert!"
Half an hour later, Stephen was frozen stiff. Lin An walked over, slapped him awake, and told him to keep drawing.
Day three.
The center of the Sahara Desert.
Lin An sat under a parasol drinking iced cola and threw a Sling Ring to Stephen.
"There's a pack of hyenas ahead that I've starved for three days, and they'll be rushing over in three minutes."
"If you can't draw a portal, tomorrow's headline will be 'Former Famous Doctor Eaten by Wild Dogs'."
"Are you fucking sick?!" Stephen cursed, his mouth full of yellow sand, "This kind of extreme pressure will only make my nerves more tense!"
"No, no, no, this is called potential stimulation." Lin Ansnapped his fingers, "Release the dogs."
Three minutes later, pig-like screams rang out in the desert.
Stephen limped on one leg as he was dragged back to Kamar-Taj by Lin An.
Day four.
The third basement level of Vought Tower laboratory.
Ultron's extremely realistic silicone face was almost pressed against Stephen's nose.
It held an indescribable object in its hand that was spinning at high speed and shimmering with a metallic luster.
"Sir, would you like to experience the latest 'Deadly Poison Dragon Drill'? It is equipped with a Vibranium motor from Wakanda."
Stephen was strapped tightly to the operating table, his eyes bloodshot: "Homelander! Just kill me! Kill me!"
Lin An shouted through a megaphone from outside the explosion-proof glass.
"If you don't conjure a spark, this thing is going straight in. Don't worry, you're a Doctor, you know you won't die, you'll just have to wear diapers for the rest of your life."
Stephen closed his eyes in despair, his fingers wearing the Sling Ring rubbing desperately.
Zzzzt!
A faint golden spark flashed by.
It was only for a second, but it did light up.
"Nice work, there's progress. Increase the dose tomorrow." Lin An nodded with satisfaction outside the glass.
"Devil! You're just a devil!"
Day five.
The explosion-proof training room on the top floor of Vought Tower.
Lin An threw Stephen in and slammed the heavy gate shut.
Opposite him, a large green guy was angrily pounding his chest, emitting a deafening roar.
"Hulk! Smash!"
Hulk charged toward Stephen like an out-of-control steamroller.
"Fuck!"
Stephen's face turned the same shade of green as Hulk's, and he scrambled to avoid the giant fists that were smashing the floor.
The crisp sound of Lin An chewing potato chips came through the loudspeaker.
"Hulk is in a very bad mood lately because he couldn't buy a limited edition AI doll. If you don't draw a circle to escape, he'll treat you like a silicone doll and crush you."
"Come on, thirty seconds countdown."
"Ahhhhhhh—"
Veins bulged on the back of Stephen's hands, his fingernails almost digging into his flesh, and the Sling Ring moved frantically in the air.
Just before Hulk's fist wind grazed the tip of his nose.
A few dazzling yellow sparks finally took shape in mid-air.
By the sixth day.
Stephen was no longer screaming.
He stood on the edge of an active volcano crater in Hawaii.
The magma below was bubbling with toxic bubbles, and the heat wave scorched the hem of his robe to a charred yellow.
His eyes stared blankly at the void, and the expression on his face was completely numb.
Lin An stood behind him, raising his leg, ready to kick him down.
"No need to kick."
Stephen's voice was hoarse, without any rise or fall, "I'll do it myself."
He raised the hands that once held a scalpel.
No fear.
No glory of a famous Doctor.
And no hatred for Lin An.
He now had only one obsession in his mind.
Leave this lunatic!
Return to Kamar-Taj to sweep the floor!
"Hummm—"
The Sling Ring cut through the heat wave.
A golden, spark-filled magic circle instantly opened in mid-air.
It rotated steadily, and on the other side of the door was the quiet backyard of Kamar-Taj.
Stephen's eyes were red.
He collapsed into the scorching volcanic ash, opened his mouth, and wailed without any regard for his image.
He had learned to teleport on the sixth day!
Stephen turned his head and looked at Lin An, who was walking over with a smile on his face.
This guy, from beginning to end, never treated me like a disabled person!
At first, he really just wanted to treat his hands and wanted to be a celebrity with a scalpel again.
But now, he had completely given up on that thought.
"I'm not getting treated anymore." Stephen's face was covered in snot and tears, pointing tremblingly at the portal.
"Let me go back to the hospital to work. Even if it's neutering dogs, I'll accept it! I beg you, let me go!"
Lin An looked at the future Doctor Strange who would master the Time Stone, crying like a broken-hearted workhorse at this moment.
He couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Walking forward, Lin An patted Stephen on the shoulder heavily with the posture of a capitalist inspecting an excellent employee.
"See, I told you, people have to push themselves."
Lin An had a sincere expression of "I'm doing this for your own good".
"If I didn't push you, you wouldn't even know you were a magic genius. Six days! The old bald one will definitely look at you with new eyes."
Stephen bit his back teeth, wishing he could stuff the Sling Ring in his hand into Lin An's nostrils: "I fucking thank you."
"You're welcome, this is what you deserve."
Lin An pulled him up from the ground and patted the volcanic ash off his robe.
"Since you've mastered the art of drawing circles, we can get to the main topic."
A cold sweat broke out on Stephen's back instantly.
He took a cautious half-step back: "What main topic? I've already learned it, your coaching task is over!"
"How can you say that?" Lin An grinned, his smile offensively bright, "As a reward for you learning to open a portal in a week, I've decided to take you to a good place."
Stephen swallowed, his voice trembling: "Wh-what place?"
Lin An leaned into his ear and lowered his voice.
"Let's go, as a reward, I'll take you to visit hell."
Stephen opened his mouth wide.
His chin almost hit his instep.
His brain hummed.
Go to that dimension full of demons, magma, and suffering souls?!
He stared at Lin An's face, which was even more anti-human than a demon's, and completely broke down.
"Go... to hell?!"
Stephen grabbed a hot rock nearby, howling heart-wrenchingly.
"What kind of reward is this?! I don't want the reward, okay? Can you cash out the reward? Or just throw me back into the crocodile pool! I'm not going to hell!"
"Protest invalid."
Lin An grabbed the back of Stephen's neck and pulled him away from the rock.
He raised his hand and pointed forward.
"Open the door, coordinates: Mephisto's doghouse."
Chapter 131: Hell Sightseeing Tour
"Hum—" The quantum live-streaming drone automatically ascended above the crater.
The second before, Lin An had been intimidating Stephen Strange, but the next second, his facial muscles seemed to be wound up like a spring, precisely pulling into a sunny smile that revealed eight teeth, as if the pervert who had wanted to kick someone into the magma just a moment ago wasn't him at all.
"Hello to all the Vought International family members around the World, good afternoon!" Lin An waved at the camera.
On Twitter, the trolls who had been frantically spamming insults about Vought International selling toxic dolls suddenly froze, their fingers stopping mid-keystroke as they watched Homelander suddenly go live.
Lin An shoved the doll head in his hand, which was dripping with black liquid, right in front of the camera.
"I know everyone has had some misunderstandings about the'Second Edition Angel Series' AI dolls recently. As a socially responsible enterprise, Vought International will never shirk its responsibilities!
We worked overnight to uncover the truth—this isn't a product quality issue at all, but rather cross-border, no, cross-dimensional malicious business competition!"
He patted the doll head that was emitting demonic energy, looking heartbroken: "Demons in Hell, jealous of our product's sales, secretly poisoned our assembly line! Family, who gets this? If your own products don't sell, you resort to such low-class tactics?"
The live stream chat paused for a second, then instantly exploded.
"Holy sh*t? There's a Hell in this World? Does that mean there's a Heaven? I want to go to Heaven!"
"Demons can engage in business competition? Did Vought International's PR department write this press release while high?"
"Gods are out delivering food, aliens have invaded Earth, what's so surprising about a Hell demon showing up?"
"Look closely at that black mist, it's really not a special effect! I can feel the chill through the screen!"
The overwhelmingly negative comments instantly turned into a frenzy of gossip-mongering.
Lin An looked at the popularity points on his system panel, which had stopped falling, and snorted coldly in his heart.
"So, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, today we are doing a special outdoor program—'Hell Sightseeing Tour'." Lin An flashed a sinister smile at the camera, "Now, I'm going to teach this reckless thing a lesson. Stephen Strange, open the door."
Stephen Strange's hands were shaking like a sieve, but seeing the faint red light flickering in Lin An's eyes, he gritted his teeth and used his Sling Ring to draw a portal sparking with golden light above the crater.
On the other side of the door was a dark red sky and the pungent smell of sulfur.
"Let's go." Lin An grabbed Stephen Strange by the back of his collar and stepped right through.
The drone followed closely behind.
"Bang!" As soon as the two landed, they found themselves on scorched black Earth, surrounded by flowing magma.
"Roar—!" Before Stephen Strange could even see the surroundings clearly, three low-level demons that looked like skinned toads caught the scent of living humans and pounced from behind the rocks, drooling.
"Ahhhh!" Stephen Strange was so scared he sat on the ground, instinctively covering his head.
Lin An didn't even lift an eyelid, backhanding them with a slap.
"Slap!"
The violent gust from his palm instantly slapped the three demons into a spray of blood mist, leaving not even a complete corpse.
"Shut up, you are now an external employee of Vought International, don't embarrass me."
Lin An wiped his hands on Stephen Strange's robe with disgust, then looked around, "Tsk, what a crappy place, the infrastructure is worse than Wakanda."
Not far away, a contract demon wearing a tattered suit and holding a stack of parchment was preparing to sneak away when Lin An spotted him.
With a "whoosh," Lin An instantly appeared in front of him, grabbing him by the neck with one hand and lifting him up.
"M-My Lord, spare me!" The contract demon trembled all over, dropping the "Soul Pawn Contract" all over the ground.
"Do you know the way?" Lin An asked with a smile, "Take me to your boss. Otherwise, I'll stuff you into that crater over there right now and make charcoal-grilled ribs out of you."
"I-I know! My Lord Mephisto's palace is right ahead!"
"Very good, lead the way."
Flying forward along the way, the four hundred million viewers in the live stream were completely dumbfounded.
"Holy sh*t, it really is Hell! Look, people are still being boiled in the magma over there!"
"Those monsters from just now were way too realistic, right?"
"Homelander is awesome! He killed his way to Hell just for after-sales service! This is a conscientious merchant!"
Lin An looked at the soaring popularity points and raised an eyebrow in satisfaction.
Stephen Strange was carried by Lin An, his back already soaked with cold sweat.
He watched the bizarre demons along the way; any that dared to approach were instantly sliced in two by Lin An's Heat Vision, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.
This is the Hell army that Sorcerer Ancient One has to guard against?
What's the difference between them and paper cutouts in front of this guy!
In less than five minutes, a huge palace built of bones and obsidian appeared in view.
The palace gates were tightly shut, exuding an extremely oppressive, evil aura.
"This is it." The guiding demon trembled, "My Lord, can I go now?"
"Thanks for your cooperation." Lin An crushed his neck and tossed him into the nearby magma pool, "Take a bath, you smell too bad."
He straightened his Stars and Stripes cape and strode to the bone gate, which was over ten meters high.
"Bang—Boom!"
Without any nonsense, Lin An kicked it directly.
The gate, engraved with defensive magic, was instantly covered in cracks, then exploded into a sky full of bone fragments with a loud bang.
"Which blind bastard dares to run wild on my turf!"
Deep in the hall, on the throne, Mephisto stood up abruptly. He was wearing a dark red suit, his face livid, holding that Vought AI doll poster in his hand.
Lin An walked in swaggering, followed by a gulping Stephen Strange and the buzzing live-streaming drone.
"You're the one called Old Mo?" Lin An picked his ear, "You're the one stuffing dirty things into my assembly line?"
Seeing Lin An's flashy Stars and Stripes suit, Mephisto's eyes instantly turned red: "Homelander! You actually dare to deliver yourself to my door! Do you know what you've done?!"
He angrily slammed the poster onto the ground and pointed at Lin An's nose, cursing: "You created those robots that don't need emotions, just need charging, and are f*cking proficient in hundreds of positions! How are my succubus legions supposed to survive?! My soul vault's income this month is Zero! Zero!!!"
The old devil was trembling with rage, looking just like an old man who had three years of wages withheld.
Stephen Strange listened from behind, his mouth twitching wildly.
What the f*ck... what kind of magical plot development is this?
The Hell Lord is bankrupt because of sex dolls?
The live stream chat was completely laughing like crazy.
"Hahahaha! Hell Lord defending his rights online!"
"Case closed, family, it turns out Vought AI has laid off the succubi through involution!"
"Support Homelander in rectifying the Hell workplace!"
Lin An sneered, looking at Mephisto with extreme disdain: "Your own product power is lacking, blame me? You succubi haven't iterated for thousands of years, you reek of body odor and still suck Yang energy.
My Vought International takes the technological route, do you understand dimensionality reduction attacks? You don't research how to upgrade your business, but run over here to break my goods? Do you know how many followers you've made me lose?!"
"Enough nonsense!" Mephisto roared, his suit instantly bursting apart, turning into a ball of raging Hellfire, "Since you're here, today you will leave your soul in Hell to pay off the debt! Tear him apart for me!"
Accompanied by his roar, more than a dozen huge high-level abyss demons darted out from the shadows on both sides of the hall.
Their bodies were covered in indestructible scales, and they wielded poisonous bone scythes in their hands, pouncing on Lin An from all directions with shrill, air-piercing sounds.
"Watch out!" Stephen Strange shouted.
"Is that it?" Lin An stood still without moving.
A high-level demon's bone scythe slashed fiercely at Lin An's neck.
"Snap!"
The bone scythe was like cutting into solid Vibranium, instantly snapping into two pieces.
The demon was stunned.
Lin An turned his head, looking at the stunned demon, his mouth curling into a cruel arc: "Didn't you eat enough? Little mouse."
He suddenly reached out, grabbed the demon's head, and exerted force with his five fingers.
"Bang!" Like crushing a watermelon, red and white liquid splashed all over the ground.
Immediately after, Lin An turned into an afterimage and rushed straight into the group of demons.
No magic, no fancy footwork, just pure, extreme physical violence.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Punching through chests, kicking spines to pieces, grabbing two demons by the back of their necks and smashing them together, brains splattering.
In front of Lin An's superhuman body, which had been enhanced by the system and possessed absolute magicimmunity, these high-level demons, who were said to be able to stir up bloody storms on Earth, were as fragile as cheap inflatable toys.
In less than ten seconds.
The hall went quiet.
The floor was covered in foul-smelling remains.
Lin An stepped on the ground full of minced meat, leisurely wiping the blood off his hands.
"Is this your trump card? It's not even enough for me to warm up." Lin An curled his lips mockingly, "Now, it's time to talk about the compensation for you breaking my dolls."
Mephisto looked at his minions who had been insta-killed all over the floor, and his expression finally changed.
He felt the terrifying power hidden beneath this human shell before him; it was a monster that even the rules of magic could not easily shake!
"Arrogant mortal!" Mephisto laughed in extreme anger, the temperature in the entire hall instantly soared, and dark red magma gushed out from the ground.
His body began to swell crazily, turning into a giant demon dozens of meters tall, burning bone spikes piercing through his skin from his back, and a giant sword formed entirely of Hellfire appeared in his hand.
"In Hell, I am God!" Mephisto's voice was like thunder, shaking the entire space, and the giant sword, carrying the high temperature that could incinerate everything, slashed down towards Lin An.
Facing this World-destroying strike, Lin An didn't even intend to dodge.
He tilted his head slightly, the fake smile on his face completely disappearing.
"God?"
Lin An snorted coldly.
His eyes instantly gathered a chilling crimson light, the surrounding air crazily distorting due to the extreme heat.
"I specialize in beating gods!"
"Sizzle—Boom!"
Two crimson Heat Vision beams, thick to the point of exaggeration, like a magma waterfall flowing upstream, blasted out explosively to meet that Hell giant sword!
Chapter 132: The Hell Lord Being Beaten Up
Boom—!
An absurdly thick beam of crimson Heat Vision pierced directly through the giant hellsword, instantly vaporizing Mephisto's dozens-of-meters-tall body along with it.
A sky full of magma rain crashed down with a roar.
"Is that it? I thought he could take more than that."
Lin An retracted his Heat Vision and curled his lip.
But no sooner had he finished speaking than the magma pool in the distance began to churn, and black ashes rapidly reassembled.
In less than three seconds, Mephisto stood in place, completely unharmed, though his expression was so dark it could drip water.
Lin An didn't even lift an eyelid, just impatiently picked at his ear.
Seeing him so arrogant, Mephisto revealed a sinister sneer on his face.
"In that case, try this."
He suddenly raised his right hand and made a grabbing motion in the air toward Lin An!
"Soul Extraction!"
In an instant, an invisible yet chillingly cold force enveloped Lin An.
Stephen watched in horror as a translucent phantom with the silhouette of Homelander was being forcibly pulled out of his body by a tremendous force!
"It's over! It's a soul attack!" Stephen's face turned pale with fright; against this kind of magic that acts directly on one's essence, physical defense is completely useless!
The audience in the livestream room also exploded, the screen filled with question marks and expressions of terror.
Lin An frowned.
He did indeed feel something.
The feeling was quite peculiar, as refreshing as just preparing to take flight.
However, half a minute passed.
"Hmm? What's going on? Can't pull it out, like being constipated?" Lin An muttered to himself in his heart.
That translucent phantom had been pulled out less than a centimeter before it "biu" snapped back into place, steady as a rock.
The smile on Mephisto's face froze.
He increased his magic output, his face turning red from the effort, but Lin An's soul seemed welded into his body, motionless.
"Damn it, you're no good, no good at all, leaving me hanging like this."
Lin An spat.
"How is this possible?!"
"Mental Purgatory!" Mephisto refused to believe it and activated his ability again.
The scene before Lin An's eyes changed instantly.
He found himself at a grand awards ceremony, the audience filled with Superheroes and global celebrities.
The host was emotionally announcing: "The winner of this year's 'Most Pathetic Hero' award is—Homelander! Because of him, a plane full of passengers crashed!"
The spotlight "snap" hit him, and immediately, the surrounding area erupted with tsunami-like ridicule and public verbal abuse.
This was an illusion capable of shattering the Dao heart of any hero.
However, Lin An just looked at all this expressionlessly, then squeezed a sentence through his teeth: "Is this it? I thought my popularity rating had been cleared to zero or my system had been banned. A plane? Who the fuck cares about a plane."
No sooner had he finished speaking than his eyes swept with Heat Vision, the tens of thousands of people in the audience swept into severed limbs and broken arms, blood flowing like a river.
This scene was even more hellish than hell itself.
The entire illusion shattered with a boom, like a popped soap bubble.
Mephisto swallowed hard.
What the fuck, who is the real Hell Lord here?
This guy doesn't feel pressure at all!
Stephen watched from the side, dumbfounded.
He had also been affected by the aftermath of the illusion just now, seeing the scene where he had caused a patient's death due to his trembling hands, and broke out in a cold sweat.
But Lin An... he seemed to think the illusion wasn't stimulating enough?
"Trash! You can't even pull off a decent mental attack! You might as well just use a seduction spell on me."
Lin An gave Mephisto the middle finger. "Where's the third dish? Hurry up and serve it, I'm in a rush to get back to Hawaii for an essential oil back massage."
"You! Are! Courting! Death!"
Mephisto was completely enraged.
He roared, and black-purple flames gushed from beneath the entire hall, formed by countless suffering souls, instantly engulfing Lin An.
"This is Hellfire! It can directly burn the source of the soul! Let's see how you..."
Before he could finish, Lin An, inside the flames, stretched and let out a comfortable moan.
"Hmm... not bad, the temperature is just right, about the same as a volcanic hot spring in Hawaii. It's just that the sulfur smell is a bit heavy, bad review."
Stephen was completely numb.
He silently put away the defensive spell he was preparing to release, took two steps back, and decided to be a qualified audience member.
He realized that the man before him was simply not a creature he could understand.
In the livestream room, after a brief moment of shock, the vibe went completely off the rails.
"Hahahaha! Hellfire sauna? Bro, I'm investing in this project!"
"Feeling bad for Old Mo, ran into a cheater, all skills missed!"
Mephisto watched Lin An taking a bath in his strongest flames and finally realized a terrifying fact—all magic, in front of this man, was like a joke.
"Out of moves? Now it's my turn, right?"
Lin An's tone was icy, and a destructive crimson glow lit up in his eyes once again.
Before the words had even faded, two tangible beams of scorching heat shot out, instantly engulfing Mephisto's figure.
The Hell Lord's body was directly vaporized in the extreme high temperature.
However, the next second, arrogant and ear-piercing laughter echoed from all directions.
"Foolish mortal! In hell, I am immortal!"
The aura of black smoke and sulfur reassembled in place, and Mephisto reappeared, completely unharmed. He smiled contemptuously, a ball of even more surging Hellfire rising in his palm: "Now, feel endless despair..."
"Bang!"
Lin An didn't even wait for him to finish his line. A sonic boom cloud exploded where he stood as he broke the sound barrier, instantly appearing before Mephisto and smashing half his body to pieces with a single punch.
Then, he grabbed the remaining half of his spine with one hand and slammed him fiercely onto the obsidian floor like a windmill.
The earth shook and the mountains swayed.
"Your respawn cooldown is pretty short." Lin An sneered inwardly.
Old thing, let's see how many times you can live.
"Crack!"
Second resurrection.
Lin An used his Heat Vision to slice his head off like a watermelon.
Fifth resurrection.
Lin An swept his leg, kicking him into a volcanic crater, and casually picked up a small mountain peak weighing dozens of tons to press down on him.
Twelfth time.
Nineteenth time.
Twenty-seventh time.
The entire hell hall had been demolished to the point where it couldn't even be called ruins, with bottomless pits and backflowing magma everywhere.
Stephen huddled inside a defensive magic shield, hands clutching his head, watching the man in the Stars and Stripes suit rubbing the Hell Lord into the ground outside, his worldview shattered into pieces.
"Is this really a Superhero? He's more like a demon than a demon!" Stephen swallowed, feeling that the magic he had learned was just a joke.
The bullet comments in the livestream room had long since lagged to the point of freezing.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! Homelander is killing it!"
"In front of Homelander, any god, alien, or demon is just a small fry!"
"Old Mo is too miserable; how many times has he been twisted like a pretzel now?"