You’re Not Qualified

"…"

Didn’t you say there was no one over there?

Chen Mu looked at Nick Fury speechlessly, while the latter remained expressionless, showing no change at all.

"I forgot about the time difference."

With that bland sentence, Nick Fury simply brushed the matter aside.

As for whether he had really forgotten, did it matter?

It did not. Nick Fury did not care, and he knew Chen Mu would not care either.

"Whatever. Abomination is one of your S.H.I.E.L.D. people anyway. No matter what he does, S.H.I.E.L.D. will take the blame."

Wasn’t that so? Abomination was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, even an Avenger personally chosen by Nick Fury. Now that he had gone on a killing spree and slaughtered ordinary people, S.H.I.E.L.D. would definitely be held responsible.

As for the demolition issue, that was an even smaller matter.

"Now that this is over, I’ll take Loki and leave. You can handle the rest yourselves."

Thor had been watching the show in perfect comfort all along. He had been annoyed ever since Nick Fury brought up the two brothers. After seeing Abomination appear and begin slaughtering S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, there was no way he would help them. He somehow produced a bag of sunflower seeds, sat on a little stool with Loki at the side, and after Chen Mu dealt with Abomination, he clapped his hands and prepared to leave with Loki.

"No. Until we find the Tesseract, we can’t let you take Loki away!"

Nick Fury still refused to give up.

"Blackie, didn’t I tell you already?"

Thor looked displeased as he said to Nick Fury, "America simply isn’t qualified to possess the Tesseract. In your hands, it will only bring endless trouble. With your strength, all you can do is let the powerful civilizations of the universe come and plunder Earth."

Although the Nine Realms were all Asgard’s territory and Asgard would protect them, there would always be times when it could not attend to everything. Asgard had no desire to concern itself with America’s nonsense.

But honestly, with China on Earth now, there was not much of a problem. Still, both Odin in Asgard and Thor on Earth believed that America was not qualified to possess the Tesseract.

If the cube were to remain on Earth, it could only be kept in China’s hands.

On Earth, only China had the ability and qualifications to safeguard it.

"But if we truly don’t have the cube, Earth will have no way to fight alien civilizations!"

Nick Fury spoke righteously, raising his voice. "Only by mastering the power of the Tesseract can humanity have enough strength to resist alien civilizations!"

"You don’t even know what the Tesseract is."

Thor picked at his ear, his face full of disdain.

"Uh… an Infinity Stone?"

Nick Fury tilted his head and asked tentatively.

He had heard that from Chen Mu.

"That’s right. The Space Stone among the Infinity Stones."

Thor nodded. He was not surprised by this. Quite a few people in the universe knew about it. As for how Nick Fury knew, he had obviously heard it from Chen Mu.

"There are only six Infinity Stones in the universe. What qualifications does America have to possess one?"

Thor looked at Nick Fury with contempt and mocked, "Blackie, you couldn’t even deal with that ugly thing just now, yet you still dream of claiming the Tesseract for yourself. What a joke."

"…"

Hearing that form of address again, Nick Fury’s teeth itched with hatred, but there was nothing he could do about Thor.

"But why do you say China has the ability to safeguard the Tesseract?"

Nick Fury was deeply dissatisfied.

"Sorry, China has sufficient strength."

Thor looked at Nick Fury mockingly and said irritably, "China established a defensive perimeter around the Solar System long ago. With its Space Fleet, China possesses considerable power even in this region of the universe!"

Wait, what had Thor just said? China had an immensely powerful Space Fleet?

When had China established a Space Fleet? How did he not know?!

"So as long as one has sufficient power, one is qualified to protect the Tesseract?"

Nick Fury’s expression struggled. He did not continue asking about China’s Space Fleet. What he was considering now was whether he should call Carol back.

With Carol’s strength, she should count as qualified, right?

Carol, Captain Marvel, was Nick Fury’s old friend. After awakening her powers back then, she had run off into space to maintain universal peace, completely ignoring her own Earth…

It had to be said, she truly was an American. Being the "Pacific Police" on Earth was no longer enough for her; she wanted to become the "Galaxy Police" in the Milky Way.

Maintaining universal peace sounded like a joke that made people laugh.

"Are you thinking of calling Carol back?" Chen Mu knew exactly what Nick Fury was planning from the look on his face.

Back then, the first-generation Quinjet built by Project Pegasus and flown by Carol had been called the Avenger, and it was then that Nick Fury came up with the idea of forming the Avengers.

So, strictly speaking, the first Avenger should have been Captain Marvel.

However, Captain Marvel’s power was indeed extremely formidable.

And the reason Captain Marvel possessed such tremendous power was actually because of the Tesseract—or rather, the Space Stone.

Back then, the Skrulls behind Project Pegasus had secretly planned to use the Tesseract to create a lightspeed engine and escape the Kree Empire’s pursuit. Project Pegasus was merely a cover for building that lightspeed engine, and Carol gained her current immense power only through a series of coincidences.

Nick Fury, who knew all this, had been studying the Tesseract all this time because he wanted to replicate another Captain Marvel, hadn’t he?

The sight of Captain Marvel alone frightening off the Kree Empire’s Space Fleet was still vivid in Nick Fury’s mind. That was why he had been so determined to study the Tesseract.

Of course, limited by his abilities, several decades had passed without the slightest progress…

"How do you know Carol?"

Chen Mu had casually exposed his greatest trump card, and Nick Fury stared at him with wide eyes.

He had thought it was a secret, yet someone had casually spoken of it. Did Nick Fury not have any dignity?

"Carol possesses great power and is still rather active in the universe." Chen Mu looked at Nick Fury with amusement and said, "The Kree have long spread word that Carol’s abilities came from the Tesseract. Tell me, what do you think those civilizations that envy Carol’s power and wish to become strong will do once they learn that the Tesseract is on Earth?"

Of course, this was only meant to scare Nick Fury. But it did make sense. If it were him, and he learned that the Tesseract was on some backward planet that he happened to be capable of reaching, he too would invade without hesitation.

It was a very simple principle, and Nick Fury understood it immediately.

Therefore, Thor and Chen Mu were not lying. Once alien civilizations learned that the Tesseract was on Earth, they would launch an invasion without hesitation.