Three Conditions, $8 Million

What the hell was hardened Kryptonite?

And a magic door, too…

Master Wang, your ability to lie with your eyes open was almost on par with the Director’s!

Natasha inwardly snarked, then observed carefully.

The little shop was covered in signs of battle.

All three rows of shelves had been knocked over, and every product on them had been destroyed. Durex littered the floor. Master Wang was splashed with medicinal liquor, sauce liquor, toothpaste, shampoo, Indian God Oil, and more. He also had quite a few wounds and was covered in blood.

Skye was applying medicine and wrapping him in bandages as tears streamed down her face.

He was injured, and seemingly badly. His complexion was poor, and even his breathing was faint.

Clearly, Master Wang’s battle had not been as easy as his tone suggested.

The entire little shop had practically turned into a recycling depot. The fight had been dangerous.

Master Wang was clearly far weaker than the Kunlun Iron Fist.

If it had been Iron Fist, the battle would have ended in ten seconds at most—and he would not even have been injured!

Still, Master Wang was already formidable.

Even if she had not been injured, she probably could only have done this much.

As expected of Iron Fist’s disciple. His reputation was well deserved!

Natasha quietly compared them in her mind.

Master Wang was young, lazy, inexperienced in battle, greedy for money and women, vain, and disrespectful. In terms of hand-to-hand combat alone, he was probably about her equal. But in a true fight to the death, even without the full Black Widow gear, she was confident she could kill him, though she would likely suffer serious injuries herself.

Iron Fist was vigorous despite his age, carried himself like a grandmaster, had extensive combat experience, and was calm, warmhearted, and trustworthy. His fighting ability far surpassed hers. Even with the full Black Widow gear, her chances of winning would be infinitely close to zero.

Compared to Iron Fist, Master Wang still had a long way to go!

"We’ll take these seven people. S.H.I.E.L.D. will give you appropriate compensation and a reasonable expression of gratitude."

Egghead’s voice came through the earpiece, lowered to the absolute limit, clearly wary of someone eavesdropping. Natasha understood and readily agreed.

These days, even if someone died at a construction site, the compensation would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. She had heard Master Wang’s homeland was cheaper, but it would still cost over a hundred thousand dollars. Not to mention these were Hydra agents.

They were all highly trained killers. The cost of training each of them, plus a full set of equipment, was at least a million dollars. Besides, the Director was busy dealing with Hydra. They might be able to pry useful intelligence from these people, and S.H.I.E.L.D. absolutely could not let this opportunity slip away.

After giving it some thought, considering that Master Wang was injured and the shop had suffered losses, Natasha named a fairly reasonable figure. "Seven people, including compensation: eight million in total. It’ll be transferred within two hours."

"Fine."

Old Wang was not particularly sensitive to numbers. As long as it was enough, that was fine. Eight million was no small amount, though it was still less than what some Tony Stark made in a day.

He nodded. "I have a few more conditions."

"Please, go ahead." Natasha listened closely.

Old Wang raised his left index finger. "First, I hope S.H.I.E.L.D. can provide surveillance equipment of sufficiently high quality to cover a ten-kilometer radius. We should avoid another incident like today as much as possible. I don’t think that would be a problem for S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Three kilometers," Natasha repeated Egghead’s low whisper.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had vast resources and conducted twenty-four-hour real-time surveillance on many people and important locations, so it had an enormous demand for surveillance equipment.

Most of that equipment was purchased from the world’s most famous video and audio technology companies, though all of it was modified by S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Technology Department. It was better than what was commonly available on the market, and much more expensive as well.

However, many of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s devices had been upgraded over the years, and there was nowhere to use the old equipment that had been replaced. Giving some of it away was fine, but their stock was limited. It was not that they could not cover a ten-kilometer radius; there was simply no need to pay that much.

No matter how wealthy they were, they could not squander resources!

Though they were old devices, they were still good equipment. Their quality was excellent and could meet Master Wang’s requirements.

"That’s enough."

Old Wang named an outrageous price and let them bargain him down, thoroughly familiar with the tactics of the market aunties. He raised his left middle finger. "Second, I hope to commission equipment from S.H.I.E.L.D. at a relatively favorable price."

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Technology Department had a whole group of geniuses who invented dozens of new pieces of equipment every year, each one a masterpiece.

Though Old Wang was powerful, there were times when he would rather take it easy. If something could be solved with high technology, there was no need to expose his own strength. Besides, some high-tech equipment had special effects that no amount of badass kung fu could replace.

Natasha listened to Egghead’s whisper and said, "Not all equipment can be commissioned. S.H.I.E.L.D. will screen the requests."

"Of course."

Old Wang smiled and raised a third finger. "Third, I hope to share intelligence with S.H.I.E.L.D. to a certain extent. Or rather… exchange intelligence."

Natasha froze for a moment and raised an eyebrow. "For example?"

S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed the best intelligence network in the world. What did you, Master Wang—and even Iron Fist and K’un-Lun behind you—have to offer in exchange?

"This world hides many secrets. Even gods who have lived for five thousand years cannot know them all. S.H.I.E.L.D. has existed for more than sixty years, so naturally it has grasped more secrets than anyone else in the world. But sixty years… compared to the long history of civilization, is truly too little."

Old Wang tapped the table, a gentle, boy-next-door smile on his face. "I need information on every gang and criminal in New York. In return, I can tell you many secrets of this world. For instance… Hydra’s origins."

Natasha’s whole body stiffened.

On the other end of the call, Egghead’s single eye flew wide open, and his breathing stopped for three seconds.

Then he took a deep breath and said quietly, "Agree to it!"

The eight million dollars arrived in less than two hours. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s liquid funds were clearly far greater than those of many multinational corporations in the Fortune 500.

Five million of it was transferred to Eli and Lucy in Puerto Rico through various channels.

With this funding, they could naturally purchase the equipment and materials needed by The Laboratory through legal or illegal channels. Research into the Darkhold, especially the Framework, would no longer remain merely theoretical.

Old Wang had high hopes for S.H.I.E.L.D.

Still, he could not fleece S.H.I.E.L.D.’s money over and over again. S.H.I.E.L.D. was not the Federal Reserve or the major banks. It was not even comparable to Stark Industries, and it was far from enough to satisfy Old Wang’s grand ambitions.

Wakanda’s Black Panther King was the richest man in the world, but even he was nothing compared to the combined wealth of seven billion people.

You could not keep fleecing the same sheep to death. What if winter came and it froze to death?

There were seven billion sheep. Take one handful from each, and there would be enough to build ten Darkhold Laboratories.

The Framework would serve the public and make money from the public. Its prospects for profit were unimaginable.

No matter how much he invested, it would never go down the drain. Old Wang was confident he would receive returns a hundred, a thousand, even ten thousand times greater.

Of the remaining three million, one million would be kept as liquid funds, while Old Wang planned to use the other two million to commission high-tech equipment from S.H.I.E.L.D. Not just for himself and people like Skye, but also for Eli and Lucy. Scientists’ stomachs were important, but their safety was even more important.

This money was nothing.

The future Iron Man would spend six hundred million dollars just to build a laboratory. How much would a Stark Tower cost?

A few million dollars was not even enough for one wild gambling spree in Las Vegas, nor was it enough to buy a single component of Iron Man’s armor.

"Wang, the information on every gang and criminal in New York has arrived."

Skye was downloading the data from a heavily encrypted cloud drive when she suddenly cried out, "It’s huge! My computer can’t hold it!"

If you wanted a new computer, just say so. We’re rich now… Old Wang pulled a 16TB external hard drive from his clothes and tossed it to her. "Use this for now… Don’t delete anything on it, and don’t look at it either!"

He said "don’t look," but did that not really mean she could look as she pleased?

Although Old Wang had done everything he could to encrypt the drive, to a world-class hacker like Skye, his encryption was like Coulson telling a joke—it was fucking joke!

After plugging in the drive and sneaking a few glances, Skye let out a sigh of relief.

They were all female teachers: Black, white, and Asian, with a colorful range of ages and professional backgrounds. Old Wang’s tastes were perfectly normal.

They took up a full two terabytes.

Huh, why was there also a Word document?

When she opened it, several hundred websites lined up to greet her.

Wang, you’re relying on being a Grandmaster Monk, so you’re not afraid of kidney deficiency, are you?

No wonder you bought toilet paper by the case. What a waste! This is killing!

All the data had finished downloading.

Skye browsed through it carefully.

It took up so much space because, aside from dossiers, there were also a great number of accompanying pictures and videos.

One internal folder was labeled "The Hand · Madame Gao" and was two gigabytes in size.

Old Wang casually looked through it for a moment, then tapped the table. "Send it to Robbie."

Thanks to "Zhuangsheng Dreams of Becoming a Butterfly" for the 100 reward.