Egghead Comes Calling

Finding them a place to stay was easy enough.

Old Wang might not have much money, but he had connections.

What was most important in the twenty-first century?

Connections!

One phone call, and it was settled in ten minutes.

In the latter half of the night, Old Wang drove Skye’s newly bought truck and took Matt, Elektra, Stick, and three sets of S.H.I.E.L.D. Field Agent Equipment to an apartment nearby.

They could move right in, and Robbie lived next door.

With Ghost Rider around, as long as The Hand did not deploy weapons of mass destruction, even if all four Fingers came, there would not be enough of them to judge.

Under Old Wang’s treatment, the three of them had recovered from their external injuries. Their internal injuries still needed time to heal, but they were nothing serious.

With "Old Veteran Nurse Wang" looking after them so attentively, even severe injuries could recover in two or three days.

Matt had a stomach full of things he wanted to say to Old Wang and a stomach full of questions he wanted answered. He practically wished they could eat at the same table, sleep in the same bed, and talk through the night. But his ex-girlfriend and master needed care too, and he himself was injured, mentally exhausted, and in need of rest.

Physical injuries were easy to heal. Mental trauma was not.

Stick was fine. He had merely been knocked unconscious by his most valued disciple, then slipped into a deep coma from excessive blood loss. A good sleep would fix that.

Elektra had not only lost too much blood, but had also been affected by the Beast’s power, which had caused some mental damage. The impact was not too great, though. She would probably need to sleep for a full day, and there was no guarantee there would not be lingering effects.

The first step when a computer crashed was rebooting it.

People were the same.

Old Wang had no interest in chatting with Matt, whom he knew inside and out. But he was very interested in "Black Sky" Elektra and planned to study her while the iron was hot. He had experience in this area.

The Dreadlord Bannazar had possessed Highlord Dathrohan, while another Dreadlord, Keth’zanathir, had possessed the Blood Elf rogue Valeera. Old Wang had studied both cases in depth, especially the latter.

Maybe he could solve the problem completely, just as he had back then.

However, before Old Wang could speak, Skye called.

"This girl doesn’t trust me. I just didn’t come home in the middle of the night, and she’s already checking up on me. Is that really necessary…"

Old Wang shook his head and answered.

"Wang, someone’s here to see you… Mr. Nick Fury."

Old Wang froze.

Egghead had come knocking?

The mighty director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had come to find him in the dead of night?

Was Egghead’s head itching that badly?

Egghead had not come alone.

The night gave him black eyes, allowing him to perfectly conceal his movements in the darkness as long as he kept his mouth shut.

The King of Spies was no fraud. He had carried out all sorts of dangerous missions in his day, and his overall capabilities might even surpass Black Widow’s, excluding fighting.

Even so, with both Hydra and The Hand beginning to surface, it was too dangerous for a big shot to travel alone, so he had a bodyguard.

As soon as Old Wang returned to the Azeroth Specialties Shop, he saw a black SUV parked out front.

Its lines were hard and imposing, overflowing with an IMBA aura. Robbie’s Dodge Charger looked like a kid brother beside it.

A Chevrolet Suburban, the standard ride of United States federal agents and also S.H.I.E.L.D.’s official vehicle. It had plenty of horsepower and was rugged and durable.

This one was different.

Scenes from the movies flashed through his mind one after another.

Wild ramming, taking heavy-weapon attacks at close range, tearing through storms of bullets as though they were nothing, withstanding the overwhelming firepower of dozens of elite Hydra agents without a scratch. Combined with its not particularly user-friendly intelligent control system, the vehicle had clearly received special modifications from the Technology Department. Its modification costs probably exceeded the price of the entire vehicle by who knew how much.

Then he looked at his own truck, which had cost less than fifty thousand dollars. Old Wang suddenly felt the urge to steal the Chevrolet Suburban.

That car could not be bought even for a million!

"It’s time to change cars."

Old Wang shook his head and entered.

Two figures in black came into view.

Black Widow’s curvaceous body was impossible to miss. Her black specialized uniform perfectly highlighted her figure, while the modest amount of equipment she carried was anything but ordinary. It had been custom-made, and anyone who provoked her would find out just how effective it was.

Hadn’t she gone to clean up his mess?

Why had she come here?

Had she not brought enough toilet paper?

Looking farther to the side, he saw a broad black trench coat stretched around a shiny bald black head. That guy was actually sitting in Old Wang’s beloved recliner, eating his third late-night meal!

That was too much!

Old Wang snorted, leaned over for a look, and nearly burst out laughing.

Of the "ten fried dough sticks, two bowls of spicy soup, five buns, and four braised eggs" that Skye had bought from the late-night cafeteria three hundred meters away in the middle of the night, only the braised eggs remained.

Even a tiger would not eat its cubs, yet you were eating your own kind?

"Master Wang."

Seeing Old Wang arrive, Black Widow shot him a helpless look.

In the middle of the night, Master Wang had first called her over to clean up his mess. Before she had even finished, her BOSS had called her here to act as a bodyguard. Was she ever going to get a proper night’s sleep?

"Agent Romanoff, you’ve worked hard."

Old Wang nodded. As he walked toward the recliner, he said casually, "Fried dough sticks are ten thousand each, spicy soup is fifty thousand a bowl, buns are twenty thousand each. Braised eggs are free, eat as many as you want… Get up. That’s my chair. Skye, put it on the tab."

"Got it!" Skye’s eyes lit up.

Black Widow shrugged. BOSS, so you have this day too.

Egghead’s whole body stiffened. After hesitating for two seconds, he picked up a braised egg and stuffed it into his mouth. It was free anyway.

Though it felt strange eating it, it did taste pretty good.

What was this thing called again?

A braised egg?

Maybe he could have it for breakfast from now on?

He finished it in a few bites. Just as he was about to look for a napkin to wipe his mouth, Old Wang’s leisurely voice drifted over. "A small pack of tissues, ten thousand a pack."

"Pfft!"

Skye had been drinking water, and she really did spray it, all over Egghead’s head. "Sorry… pfft… I couldn’t hold it in… pfft pfft pfft!"

Egghead: "…"

Miss, I don’t use this brand of shampoo. And even if I did, I don’t have enough hair to need that much. One spray would have been enough…

He simply wiped himself with his black trench coat. Remembering that this was someone else’s shop, that private residences were sacred and inviolable, and that he apparently could not win in a fight, he could only stand and give up the seat.

Old Wang had no intention of actually sitting down.

The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was at least a general. He still had to give him some face. Old Wang got straight to the point. "Go ahead. What is it?"

Young people who had never navigated society really were not smooth enough… Egghead had prepared a whole bellyful of lines, but had nowhere to use them. He could only say, "Master Wang, are Matt Murdock, Elektra Natchios, and that mysterious ‘Stick,’ whom Immortal Iron Fist rescued, people from K’un-Lun?"

The reason he had only come now was mainly because the various investigations had taken time—being the King of Spies, Egghead never fought a battle he was not sure of winning.

Negotiations were the same.

That sentence carried a great deal of information. He believed that as long as Master Wang was not stupid, he would certainly pick up on things such as how formidable S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intelligence network was, that they were not completely ignorant of K’un-Lun and Iron Fist, and that Old Wang should not think he could fool him…

So he was laying his cards on the table… Old Wang felt it was about time. He nodded. "Matt and Elektra are Stick’s disciples. Stick is the leader of the True Pure Ones Society. The True Pure Ones Society is an outer organization of K’un-Lun, and it has existed for several centuries."

Egghead remained impassive, but stormy waves surged in his heart.

With his expertise in reading people, he was certain of one thing: Master Wang was not lying.

K’un-Lun really did have people on Earth, and they had even established an organization!

Most importantly, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been able to uncover even The Hand, yet had never known of the True Pure Ones Society.

Could this organization really have been so secretive that no one had known about it despite its existence for several centuries?

Old Wang could not read minds, or he would have sprayed his drink too.

Egghead, Egghead, the reason so few people knew about the True Pure Ones Society was mainly because there were so few of them…

After thinking for a moment, Egghead asked again, "How many elites like them does the True Pure Ones Society have?"

Old Wang did not even need to think before answering, "More or less all of them."

That was also the truth.

The members of the True Pure Ones Society were more or less all dead.

Maybe every last one of them was!