(I only realized after signing the contract that the damn book title was wrong. The book title was supposed to be 'Marvel: Starting as a Seer, I Spread the Fool to the Avengers'. Tomato doesn't support such a long title, and I didn't notice when copying from Word. Please bear with me, dear readers. Adding an extra chapter to prove I'm an idiot.)
Queens, underground, B-7 Wastewater Treatment Hub.
Inside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command vehicle, the atmosphere was oppressively tense, like an iron box about to have all its air sucked out.
"My God... this is impossible!" A young Technical Agent stared fixedly at the screen in front of him, his face pale, his voice trembling. "The energy monitoring graph... the entire spectrum is dyed red! The peak values are still skyrocketing wildly! Sir, the location of that young man isn't a signal tower; it's practically become an energy black hole!"
His shout became the fuse for panic.
"Audio Analysis Team reporting! We've captured infrasound! Extremely low frequency, but the intensity is continuously increasing. Humans can't hear it, but it's enough to... to cause discomfort to the brain! The whispers heard by Queens residents might be this!"
"Thermal imaging shows no reaction! But the hydrological monitoring team reports that the water flow in the target area... has stagnated! The physical models have completely failed, as if the water has turned into asphalt!"
Coulson remained silent, his gaze fixed intently on the two main screens side by side.
On the left was the now meaningless energy graph, dyed a bloody red.
On the right was the real-time surveillance feed from the drone, shot from a high-altitude ventilation shaft.
Yet, it was this seemingly calm image that sent a chill deep into his bones.
In the center of the frame, Lin Huai stood quietly. But the wastewater that should have been flowing normally around him... was completely wrong!
The water presented a non-physical, viscous Darkness that seemed capable of devouring light. The water's surface was no longer calm; it resembled a pot of asphalt about to boil, continuously bulging with vague humanoid outlines that then collapsed, as if countless unseen Wraiths were crowding, struggling, and frantically charging towards the center beneath the surface!
"He's attracting... something..." Coulson muttered to himself, his knuckles white from gripping too tightly.
He couldn't see the enemy, but he saw the terrifying ripples the enemy's charge left in the real World.
At the same time, inside the workshop at Stark Tower.
The holographic screen in front of him displayed the feed from his primary surveillance drone. But on this drone's lens, as per Lin Huai's earlier instructions, was tightly affixed a coin-sized circular silver disc. Etched onto it using mystical craftsmanship was a hollowed-out, eye-like symbol representing 'peering'—a temporary [Spiritual Sight Talisman], reportedly blessed by a deity.
It revealed thousands upon thousands of translucent, twisting, writhing gray shadows. They seeped out from pipe openings, wall cracks, and every drop of sewage from all directions, converging into streams of gray-black "spirituality tides," madly surging towards Lin Huai!
"Sir," Jarvis's voice carried a hint of fluctuation beyond data calculation for the first time, "according to model analysis, the probability of an individual suffering mental collapse under negative spiritual impact of this intensity is 100%."
"That's because your model doesn't have the variable 'deity'," Tony snorted coldly, but his expression was extremely grave. "He'd better hold on."
At this moment, Lin Huai, at the storm's epicenter, was enduring a terrifying pressure far beyond Tony's imagination.
He wasn't just the bait; he was the battlefield.
Hundreds of millions of thoughts filled with hunger, malice, and madness, like hundreds of millions of poisoned steel needles, frantically pierced into his mental World.
[You are hungry... join us...]
[Give up... become one...]
[Flesh... fresh flesh...]
The cold whispers converged into a chaotic ocean in his mind, attempting to tear his will apart. His body trembled uncontrollably, cold sweat beading on his skin—a physiological reaction to excessive spiritual drain and contamination.
The Ritual Array beneath his feet had long been overwhelmed, cracks spreading across the lines drawn in silver powder.
The time had come! One more minute, and he himself would become part of this gluttonous feast!
"BOOM—!"
At that moment, the heavy-duty industrial freight elevator gate at one side of the treatment hub let out a thunderous noise and slowly rose.
A crude, utterly unaesthetic steel behemoth slowly rolled in.
Its heavy metal treads crushed the damp ground, every inch of advance carrying a sense of unreasonable, brute weight.
"What is that?!" Inside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command vehicle, there was finally a change they could comprehend. A Technical Agent exclaimed, "A Stark Industries Engineering Robot... what does he intend to do?"
Coulson's pupils constricted sharply. All the clues in his mind connected at this moment!
The abnormal water surface, the ultra-high energy readings, Lin Huai's "bait" posture, and Stark's obviously modified "mobile platform" with its energy core as the absolute centerpiece... He understood!
This wasn't a battle; it was a premeditated, planned... Exorcism Operation!
In the underground hub, Lin Huai opened his eyes. They were bloodshot, but his will burned with the heat of molten steel.
He took a deep breath and pulled out the final protective talisman from his pocket—a card-sized, square silver piece engraved with layered "barrier" patterns.
He pressed the scalding silver piece fiercely against his own chest.
The silver piece instantly melted, transforming into an invisible golden light curtain that merged with his body, instantly reinforcing the crumbling Wall of Spirituality!
The clamorous whispers in his mind were cut off, becoming like the sound of wind and rain outside a window.
After doing this, he mustered all his strength and roared two words into the communicator:
"Ignition!"
The next second, he closed his eyes and couldn't help but mutter a low curse:
"Stark, you Lunatic, I hope you didn't set the power to maximum..."
"Sorry, I always prefer maximum."
Tony chuckled in the workshop, then slammed down hard on the red button.
HUM—!
The output mode of the arc reactor in the steel behemoth's chest was instantly forced to switch. The originally stable blue glow turned into a blinding pure white in an instant, the energy core's rotation speed reaching its theoretical limit!
The entire underground space trembled from the high-frequency energy hum.
Countless lenses on the Illumination Platform began to rotate and focus in unison, converging all the energy released by the reactor onto a single point.
Then, the World lost its sound.
A beam of light.
A beam of light indescribable in words, like a slice of the moment of the Universe's Big Bang, pure and intense to the extreme, erupted from the core of the Illumination Platform!
"Ah—!"
In the S.H.I.E.L.D. command vehicle, all the Agents staring at the screens cried out in pain, covering their eyes. Tears streamed uncontrollably.
All monitoring screens turned into an unparseable, pure, blinding white in an instant! Amidst the sizzling of electric current, the frontmost optical lenses and high-sensitivity sensors instantly emitted black smoke, burned into scrap metal.
"Warning! Energy readings off the charts! Primary sensors overloaded! Drones 1-3 have lost contact!"
"Thermal imaging failed! Optical lenses failed! Backup systems switching, requiring 90 seconds!"
Inside the command vehicle, alarm sounds, the acrid smell of burnt equipment, and the Agents' curses mingled into chaos.
In that sea of light, the silent war reached its most brutal end.
When the first intense beam of light shone upon the spiritual bodies of those "Whispering Leeches," they let out a shrill, soul-shattering shriek inaudible to humans.
Like snow under sunlight, ghosts in the Darkness. That pure, unreasonable light and heat were the natural enemy and bane of these dark conglomerates. They twisted, struggled, trying to flee back to dark corners.
But under the 360-degree, no-blind-spot sweep of the "Mobile Sun," it was all futile.
Swaths of spiritual bodies gathered into tides were directly evaporated, vaporized, leaving not even a wisp of smoke. The spiritual layer of the entire space felt as if it had been seared by a red-hot branding iron!
Lin Huai, at the center, felt it most deeply.
Even with the protection of the [Wall of Spirituality], the brutal heatwave and light radiation, intense enough to melt steel, still made him feel as if he had been thrown into a blast furnace. His skin burned with a stinging pain, his vision was filled with gold and white, and his head buzzed.
He gritted his teeth, his entire body tense, resisting this indiscriminate baptism from a "friendly force."
"Bastard... a real Lunatic..." he gasped through clenched teeth.
Ninety seconds later, the light finally slowly faded.
"Officer! The low-light sensor lens on Backup Drone 4 is restored!"
Coulson immediately looked at the backup screen.
The image was severely distorted and flickering from residual heat waves, but it was clear enough to see the scene.
The steel Monster was now lying dormant, cooling down. The Illumination Platform was dark red all over, like a slumbering giant beast.
The young man was leaning on his knees, panting heavily. His hair was slightly singed, his whole body soaked, looking utterly disheveled, but... he was alive.
-
And all around, the viscous Darkness, the eerie outlines, the terrifying atmosphere... all had vanished.
The water had returned to looking like ordinary sewage, even partially evaporated from the high heat, revealing more of the ground.
Lin Huai straightened up and carefully collected some of the black ash that had settled on the dried ground using a specially made glass vial.
He spoke into the communicator, sounding exhausted, "Pleasure working with you, Mr. Stark. Contamination source cleared."
"Also, this 'ash' is very useful Beyonder material. Consider it... a little compensation for almost roasting me alive."
With that, he cut the communication, not even glancing around, and turned to leave the scene calmly.
Inside the command vehicle, there was dead silence.
A brave Agent donned a protective suit and descended to the site. A few minutes later, his voice came through the communicator, filled with irrepressible shock:
"Officer... the air here... is clean. Radiation levels normal. But we've discovered unidentified ash, taking samples... My God, this machine is still emitting incredible heat, like a small reactor..."
Coulson watched the retreating figure on the screen, silent for a long time, before finally picking up the highest-encryption-level satellite phone.
The call connected.
"Director Fury." Coulson's voice was unprecedentedly grave.
"The Queens incident is resolved. The official report will state a large-scale methane combustion explosion in the city's sewage pipes, with Stark Industries' Engineering Robot coincidentally present to corroborate."
"However, sir, the unofficial account is..."
He paused, as if organizing his words.
"I don't know what I saw. We monitored a 'ghost story' all afternoon, and then Tony Stark drove a 'Sun lamp' in there and'shined' all the 'ghosts' to death."
Silence on the other end of the line for a moment.
Coulson continued, "That Asian youth is the key. His name is Lin Huai. He planned everything. He attracted... those things. He's cooperating with Stark. Sir, this is a completely new variable outside our assessment system."
"I recommend immediately listing this individual as a top-priority target. We may have encountered a... new problem a hundred times more troublesome than the incident itself. A living, enormous 'unknown quantity' entangled with Stark Industries."