Intelligence on the Villains

"All right, kid. No one will disturb us now. Tell me, who exactly are you?"

Hawkeye shed the kind demeanor he had shown Ashley earlier and stared straight at Zhang Ye with a grim face, his tone hostile.

"My codename is Witch Raven."

Zhang Ye had no intention of hiding anything from Hawkeye, but he did not reveal Pietro and Kara’s information.

"To be honest, I came from another universe and ended up here because of an accident. But seriously, I never expected your universe to be this terrible, so I need information—everything about the wasteland."

"Another universe?"

Hawkeye was stunned. He tried hard to make out Zhang Ye’s features.

"God, can you tell me what that universe is like?"

"It’s vastly different from yours. It’s a prosperous world where heroes still fight villains endlessly, but it’s relatively peaceful. People live and work in peace and contentment. In short, everything is normal."

Zhang Ye certainly was not about to say that he had just come from a universe that Deadpool had nearly slaughtered clean, so he casually brushed the question aside.

But the world Zhang Ye described was the world of Old Barton’s dreams. He had nearly forgotten what the peaceful era had been like. For a moment, Old Barton felt an urge to cry.

"That sounds wonderful," Hawkeye murmured.

"It really is. If the Hawkeye from that world knew you married Spider-Man’s daughter here, the scene might be even better."

Zhang Ye made the remark flatly, then shifted the subject back.

"Enough discussing useless things. It’s your turn to talk, sir. I need to know everything you know."

With a faint sigh, Old Hawkeye looked at Zhang Ye. Only after a moment did he slowly begin to speak.

"It all began forty-five years ago. Nearly every supervillain, led by Red Skull, joined forces and attacked the heroes that day. They had gathered intelligence on all of us and caught us completely off guard."

"The villains won a crushing victory and divided up the whole world. I already know that. What I want is information about the wasteland—how many heroes besides you survived, how many villains are still alive, where they are, what weapons they have. That’s what I want to know."

Hearing that, Old Barton stopped reliving the painful past. He raised his head in disbelief and looked at Zhang Ye.

"You… what do you intend to do once you know all that?"

In an instant, Zhang Ye saw a glimmer in Old Barton’s eyes—the thing called hope.

After a pause, Zhang Ye considered his words.

"For certain reasons, I need a large amount of energy. And now, virtually all resources in the wasteland are in the hands of those supervillains. So… more or less as you imagined, I’m going to do some superhero work."

"Ha ha, excellent! Then you really came to the right person!"

Old Hawkeye laughed heartily, and the look in his eyes as he watched Zhang Ye grew far more eager than before.

Even without mind-reading, Zhang Ye knew what Hawkeye was thinking at that moment.

Nothing more than wanting to use Zhang Ye’s strength to get revenge. That did not matter. As long as their goals aligned, Zhang Ye did not mind cleaning up some trash in the wasteland. After all, most people here deserved to die.

But Zhang Ye had no intention of becoming Hawkeye’s weapon. After what he had experienced in the previous world, Zhang Ye was now deeply wary of these parallel worlds. After all, no one knew what strange, twisted existence lurked beneath reality.

"Don’t celebrate too soon, Mr. Barton. With the enemy outnumbering us, we need a more thorough plan. I have only one goal: powerful energy."

"I understand. You magic users are all alike. Strange once searched the entire world for Divine Relics too. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing," Hawkeye said with a smile.

"Then you can begin."

Zhang Ye raised a hand in a gesture of invitation.

"To be honest, as far as I know, most sources of powerful energy disappeared during that battle. The villains divided them up as spoils of war. But some people do have quite a few valuable things on them, like Red Skull and Doom."

"I’m not stupid enough to go to war with Hydra’s army and countless Doombots. Tell me something useful."

After thinking for a moment, Hawkeye spoke again.

"All right, I believe there are a few candidates you might be interested in. First, Count Nefaria. I heard he’s still alive. The ionic energy in his body should be of some help to you. Then there’s Enchantress. That woman is from Asgard and has an extremely long lifespan.

"And Red Hood. I heard that after falling out with Red Skull, he found somewhere to live in seclusion. There’s also Moonstone. The stone on her body carries tremendous energy as well."

Old Hawkeye dreamed every day of grinding those villains’ bones to dust. That was precisely why he knew their information like the back of his hand.

Zhang Ye nodded thoughtfully, waved his hand to dispel the magic, and lowered Old Hawkeye back to the ground. The rope also returned to its original form.

It had to be said, having a local source of intelligence was truly a good thing. At the very least, it saved Zhang Ye plenty of detours. With Old Hawkeye’s guidance, his future targets would be much easier to locate.

However, Zhang Ye had no way of knowing how much the energy from those villains would charge the Time Twister. But he guessed it was still far from enough compared to the charge needed to reach his destination.

"You’ve got some skills, kid. Who taught you those magic tricks?" Old Hawkeye asked curiously, rubbing his sore wrists.

"What if I said Dracula?"

Zhang Ye was still considering the intelligence he had just received, so he answered offhandedly.

Those villains were important to him. In this damned place, no one could guarantee whether an accident or tomorrow would arrive first. He had to find them before they died and figure out a way to draw the energy from their bodies.

"Oh, come on. Even if you don’t want to tell me, you don’t need to joke around like that. You don’t smell like a vampire."

Old Hawkeye naturally did not believe Zhang Ye’s flippant answer, but he was in a good mood and did not press the matter. After a pause, Hawkeye could not help asking.

"So how do we proceed from here? I can find a way to get the locations of every one of them."

"Not we. Me." Zhang Ye pointed at himself and spoke calmly. "I have no interest in taking a retired old man onto the battlefield. Thank you for your intelligence. I’ll act on my own from here."

"Don’t be like that! Weren’t we having a great chat just now?"

The instant Hawkeye heard that, he panicked. He stepped directly in front of Zhang Ye and shouted.

"Don’t underestimate me. My skills haven’t dulled one bit. Ever heard of Hawkeye, who can hit a target from a hundred paces away? Even though I’m old, I can still put arrows through those bastards’ skulls! If you don’t believe me, we can have another match. This time, I won’t go easy on you!"

In response, Zhang Ye merely smiled faintly.

"Sorry, but I still… wasn’t asking for your opinion."

The next moment, Zhang Ye’s body slowly scattered away with the wind and vanished without a trace.

The entire auto repair shop fell silent, leaving Hawkeye alone where he stood, completely at a loss.

(Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. Since it’s a holiday, this update came early today. Wishing all readers happiness, health, and peace.)