Goddess’s Blessing

"Forget it. Setting fires everywhere doesn’t fit my image. I’m supposed to be a shining paragon of righteousness."

Wang Bert shook his head and said to Yuriko, "The High Summit is about to begin. This isn’t the time to stir up trouble. Once the summit is over, if there’s still no opportunity, I’ll find a way to create one for Psylocke."

Yuriko reminded him, "Boss, don’t let anyone get hold of something they can use against you. Your reputation is very important right now."

Wang Bert asked again, "Don’t worry. How are things going with Wolverine?"

"He’s having a great time over there and doesn’t want to leave at all. Cyclops was so angry with him that he nearly challenged him to a duel."

Yuriko said, "Also, that Rogue is very happy. To mutants who haven’t seen much of the world, Mutant Academy is no different from Heaven."

"Doesn’t matter. Rogue’s ability is pretty good, but I have no use for it. What I need are seasoned warriors."

Wang Bert waved his hand. He had no interest in either Rogue or Nightcrawler, for a simple reason: they weren’t true warriors.

"Come to think of it, leaving Modified Deadpool in the warehouse is a waste. I should find time to modify him."

Wang Bert thought to himself. Modified Deadpool possessed multiple superpowers and was far stronger than an ordinary Alpha-Level Mutant.

"Wade’s Security Team has been fully assembled. Also, he’s withdrawn a total of five million dollars from the company during this period. I suggest checking his accounts."

Yuriko continued. Wang Bert smiled and said, "No need. I trust Wade. He may be a mercenary, but his character is decent enough."

Wang Bert meant Wade, not Deadpool. As for Deadpool, let alone a conscience, he didn’t even have a heart.

Yuriko nodded and said, "All right, Boss. You’re scheduled to inspect the recycling plant this afternoon, and tonight you have a charity dinner with the president."

"Fine. Send Dailin in to help me pick out something suitable to wear."

Wang Bert said. Dailin was his personal secretary and had a strong grasp of fashion—Wang Bert came from more than ten years in the future, so his sense of style was somewhat out of step with everyone else’s.

"All right. I’ll go take a look around the finance department. Their efficiency is terribly low."

Yuriko got up and left. Not long after, the voluptuous Dailin walked in and said sweetly, "Chairman, I’m here."

Wang Bert glanced up at Dailin and nearly blurted out, "I can tell at a glance that you’re not human."

The Dailin before him was Mystique in disguise. How did Wang Bert know? Please. Wang Bert was proficient in the Soul Secret Technique and was also the Lord of Blood. Identifying Mystique was effortless. Wang Bert gave her a faintly amused smile. "You’re a little late. I’ve been waiting for you a long time."

Dailin—or rather, Mystique—froze for a moment, then asked, "Chairman, what kind of event are you attending tonight?"

Wang Bert said, "A charity dinner. The president will be there. I’m too young, so make me look as mature and steady as possible."

"No problem."

Mystique smiled. As one of the most professional spies around, her fashion expertise exceeded even Dailin’s.

For some reason, while helping Wang Bert try on clothes, Mystique kept flirting with him, deliberately or otherwise. Wang Bert’s eyes flickered. Not only did he fail to refuse her, he took the opportunity to cop a feel.

"Men are all the same, whether they’re eight or eighty."

Mystique sneered inwardly, putting on an act of half-hearted resistance. Wang Bert didn’t appear overly eager, merely taking advantage in silence.

A moment later, Mystique went to the floor-to-ceiling window to fetch Wang Bert’s hat. Wang Bert narrowed his eyes and stepped back slightly. If he wasn’t mistaken, the glass wall was about to shatter.

As it turned out, Wang Bert was wrong. The glass didn’t explode—it was smashed by the hook of an out-of-control tower crane. Then, carrying terrifying force, the hook hurtled toward Mystique in front of it.

Mystique was shocked, but she didn’t lose her composure. She bent backward like an expert gymnast and barely dodged the incoming hook.

With a boom, the hook slammed into the wall. Then it swayed back, swinging toward them. Mystique didn’t get up, maintaining the same position.

When the hook reached directly above Mystique, the steel cable above it suddenly snapped, and the hook came crashing down at her.

Mystique’s expression changed drastically. She threw herself to the side with all her strength, and the hook barely grazed past her before smashing into the floor with a thunderous crash. It punched through the floor and fell toward the stories below along with the broken concrete. Piercing screams immediately rose from downstairs.

"Isn’t this a little too brutal?"

Wang Bert stared in disbelief, then immediately regretted it. He should have known better than to conduct the experiment here. This was his office.

Mystique, who had narrowly escaped death, straightened up in a daze. At that moment, the humidifier in the room suddenly exploded. A piece of its casing struck Mystique in the back, sending her flying uncontrollably.

Fortunately, Mystique was still Mystique. At the critical moment, she grabbed a decorative flagpole outside and didn’t fall.

Before Mystique could breathe a sigh of relief, a series of cracking sounds came from above. Her face stiffened as she looked up and saw the flagpole slowly breaking apart.

"Am I really this unlucky today?"

Mystique swallowed. She used both arms to leap upward like a toad, barely catching hold of the window above. At the same time, the flagpole finally snapped under the force of her movement and fell below.

Mystique let out a breath. Even she had been frightened. Then the violent roar of spinning rotors suddenly sounded behind her, while fierce winds swept around her, nearly blowing her off the building.

Holding on tightly with one hand, Mystique turned her head with difficulty and saw a helicopter flying straight toward her. She could even see the terrified face of the pilot.

"Are you kidding me?"

Mystique was beginning to despair. She desperately tried to climb up, but the helicopter was coming far too fast. She had no time.

Just as Mystique was about to collide with the helicopter, she and the pilot vanished at the same time. Immediately afterward, the helicopter crashed into the wall and exploded with a thunderous boom. Flames billowed out, all the nearby glass shattered, and countless metal fragments rained down below.

"Ah!" The pedestrians below paled in shock and screamed as they fled in all directions.

"I was wrong. It’s not a little brutal—it’s extremely brutal. Goddess’s Blessing? More like Goddess’s Curse!"

On the rooftop, Wang Bert stared at the thick smoke below, his expression dark beyond measure. His earlier guess had been right. Someone had placed a curse on him—a curse that forbade him from getting close to other women.

Whether Wang Bert was interested in a woman or a woman was interested in Wang Bert, that woman would suffer bad luck.

Shadowcat and Psylocke had both experienced this before, but their contact with him had been relatively minor, so only nearby glass had exploded. Mystique had interacted with Wang Bert much more, so the curse had escalated into a death curse.

"What exactly happened to Wanda?"

Wang Bert sighed inwardly. Wanda might not like him having other women, but she wouldn’t go to such extremes. This curse was probably connected to the Scarlet Witch.

In other words, Wanda’s fusion with the Scarlet Witch hadn’t gone smoothly. At the very least, they hadn’t fully merged. The Scarlet Witch was still there.

Having narrowly escaped death, Mystique collapsed onto the rooftop. Even she felt profound fear. What had just happened? Why had there been both a crane hook and a helicopter? Had someone cursed her?

More importantly, was it over? At that thought, Mystique nervously scanned the sky, terrified that another helicopter might come crashing down.

Fortunately, the sky was clear and cloudless. There was nothing there.

"It should be over."

Mystique breathed a sigh of relief. Then she recalled what had happened earlier and couldn’t help glancing at Wang Bert. He could actually teleport?

Mystique sighed inwardly. "People with multiple abilities really are lucky."

At that moment, Wang Bert’s phone rang. It was Yuriko, asking anxiously, "Boss, are you all right?"

"I’m fine. Call the fire department, and have everyone in the company evacuate in case something else happens."

"Okay."

Yuriko nodded and said, "The fire isn’t too serious. The sprinkler system should handle it, but our company will probably have to move."

"Then we’ll move. We’re renting this place anyway. In a few months, I’ll find a way to buy a building."

"Buildings in Manhattan aren’t cheap. They cost at least a hundred million."

Thinking of something, Yuriko asked in a low voice, "Boss, did you know a disaster was going to happen?"

Wang Bert was puzzled. "Why would you ask that?"

"Last month, you had me buy a huge amount of insurance."

Yuriko said softly, "One of the policies happens to cover exactly this situation. In other words, we won’t suffer any losses this time."

"I just have a habit of buying more insurance."

Wang Bert chuckled. Yuriko sighed in relief and complained, "That’s good. After all, you even bought alien invasion insurance. I don’t want to wake up one day and find New York occupied by aliens."

"That policy came free. This world probably won’t have an alien invasion. Uh, aliens?"

Wang Bert blinked. There seemed to have been aliens in Black Phoenix. "We’ll deal with it when the time comes."

Wang Bert shook his head and hung up. Not long afterward, loud sirens sounded below as the police and fire department arrived. The police began maintaining order while the firefighters prepared to put out the blaze.

"It’s finally over. Looks like I need to stay away from women from now on."

Just as Wang Bert was thinking that, Mystique suddenly walked over, hugged his arm, and trembled as she said, "Chairman, that was so scary."

Wang Bert was speechless. Looking at Mystique, he complained inwardly, "Sister, you’re going to get yourself killed like this, you know?"

Wang Bert pushed Mystique away and looked up at the sky. Thankfully, no unidentified objects were approaching.

Mystique stared at him in astonishment after he pushed her away. Based on the personality he had displayed earlier, shouldn’t he have taken the chance to wrap an arm around her?

Just as Mystique was preparing to press on with her efforts—to continue courting death—Wang Bert’s phone rang again. He answered, and a deep voice asked:

"Mr. Bert Wang, can you tell me what happened just now? And are you all right? I may not like you, but if something happened to you at a time like this, it would cause a lot of trouble."

"Officer George, you’re as honest as ever. Don’t worry, I’m fine. As for what just happened, even if I told you, there’s an eighty percent—no, a one hundred percent chance you wouldn’t believe me."

Wang Bert smiled. Yes, the person on the other end was George Stacy. In this world, he was much younger. Also, he was only an officer, not a director. After all, he was young.

Because of mutant-related matters, Wang Bert had dealt with George several times. For convenience, he had given George his phone number.

"How do you know whether I’ll believe it if you don’t tell me?"

George said. He strongly suspected this disaster had been caused by mutants—he was rather prejudiced against them, since mutants had caused plenty of disasters, and many of his colleagues had been injured by them.

Wang Bert turned and called to Mystique, "Dailin, come tell Officer George what happened just now."

"Okay."

Mystique took the phone, then recounted what had happened in a halting voice while sobbing.

After hearing it, George had only one thought: Are you fucking kidding me?

In fact, not only George—even Mystique herself found it utterly unbelievable. She said, "The helicopter pilot was also saved by the Chairman. You can ask him."

"Fine. Where are you?"

George nodded. He was about to say more when Wang Bert’s voice suddenly came through the phone. "Fuck."

George hurriedly asked, "Mr. Wang, what happened?"

"Look up."

Wang Bert said. Officer George looked up, then cursed just like Wang Bert had—a small meteor, blazing fiercely from atmospheric friction and trailing a long tail of light, was falling toward them.

Wang Bert complained inwardly, "Where the hell did that meteor come from? This planet doesn’t even have meteorites. Even the sun and moon are projections."

"Everyone, run! A meteor is coming!"

George shouted with all his might. Everyone froze for a moment, then collectively looked up at the sky. The next second, panic broke out, and everyone screamed as they fled.

The meteor was headed straight for the building Wang Bert was in. If it struck, the resulting disaster would far surpass 9/11—though 9/11 apparently hadn’t happened in this world yet.

"Is this ever going to end?"

Mystique couldn’t help swearing. She hurriedly called to Wang Bert, "Chairman, we need to leave now."

Wang Bert didn’t move. He turned and noticed a helicopter approaching. Judging from the logo on it, it should belong to New York TV Station.

With the tv station’s professional dedication—suicidal tendencies—they would definitely stay to film the meteor hitting the building.

"This might be a good opportunity."

Wang Bert’s eyes lit up, and he suddenly vanished. Mystique stared blankly at the empty space before her. You ran away? What about me? The next moment, Wang Bert reappeared with someone beside him—Psylocke, dressed in a long skirt.

Wang Bert said quickly, "Psylocke, no time to explain. Fly into the sky and cut that meteor apart for me."

"Cut a meteor? Uh, why is there a meteor in Manhattan?"

Psylocke, who had just been shopping, was baffled. Fortunately, she was a professional and quickly composed herself. "Boss, I should be able to cut the meteor apart, but there are two problems. First, I can’t fly.

Second, what’s the point of cutting it? The fragments will still fall down, and the damage might be even worse."