Chapter 64: Inhaling a Whole City’s Exhaust Fumes
"Their crisis? That was entirely something they brought upon themselves."
Orion Cross leaned against the sofa and spoke casually. "Let me ask you a question. If the scientists who discovered nuclear fission back then had all been executed by the higher-ups of that era, and there were no atomic bombs today, what do you think the global order would look like?"
"World peace? That’s just a critic’s fantasy. Without nuclear deterrence, maybe there would have already been a Third World War."
Nick Fury laughed self-mockingly.
"That example might not be very good. Let me change it..."
Orion Cross stroked his chin and thought for a moment. "If in a cold-weapons nation, someone suddenly invented gunpowder and even produced firearms, but the king destroyed all the firearms and gunpowder out of fear for stability, what do you think would happen?"
"You’re talking about the Qing Dynasty? History has already proven what would happen." Nick Fury looked a little confused. "What do any of these things have to do with the crisis in that world?"
"You still don’t understand? Mutants are equivalent to firearms. After the higher-ups of that world discovered that firearms existed, their first reaction was to destroy them!"
"In the future, they created robots called Sentinels, specifically designed to search for and hunt down mutants with the X-gene."
"Do you know what the final result was?"
Orion Cross sneered and said, "Anyone could suddenly awaken the X-gene. Once they awakened, it meant death had set its sights on them, and they would have no chance to explain themselves."
"That’s far more terrifying than concentration camps."
Listening to Orion Cross’s description, Nick Fury could not help shuddering.
This was not the kind of racial slaughter carried out by the Nazis. At the very least, an Asian or a Latino could not suddenly become Jewish.
But mutants were different. Anyone could suddenly awaken the X-gene.
Even if you did not awaken, your son or daughter might.
And once the Sentinels grew powerful enough, they would no longer be something humanity could control.
"Wait. Are you trying to warn me about something?"
Nick Fury finally reacted and looked at Orion Cross with a strange expression.
"That’s right. You finally noticed."
Orion Cross looked relieved and even clapped for Nick Fury.
Once Tony Stark returned, Earth’s age of turmoil would begin. When that happened, all sorts of monsters and freaks would start jumping out.
Orion Cross did not want to have a pile of pig teammates dragging him down when the time came.
"..."
Nick Fury was somewhat speechless. "Wouldn’t it be better if you just said what you meant?"
"If a meteor falls toward Earth, and I shatter that meteor, but then someone demands that I compensate them for the economic losses caused by the meteor fragments, and I beat that person half-crippled, would you have any objections?"
Orion Cross asked.
"No objections."
Nick Fury froze for a moment, then nodded.
"If aliens invade Earth, and I’m fighting them and am just about to deal with them, but someone suddenly launches a ’Little Boy’ at my position, and I go shove the head of the person who gave that order into a toilet, would you have any objections?"
"No... no objections."
"If after I save the world several times, someone wants to push through an act saying that superheroes are not allowed to act without orders from the higher-ups, and I send those people off to become food for hell demons or dark lords from other dimensions, there’s no problem, right?"
"No problem."
The more Nick Fury listened, the more something felt wrong. "Wait. Did you see the future? Using that mage friend of yours and her Time Stone?"
"She wouldn’t casually lend me that thing."
Orion Cross smiled and shook his head, then said, "But I’ve seen far, far more than she has."
"Don’t worry. As long as I’m in office, and as long as S.H.I.E.L.D. exists, something like that will never happen."
Nick Fury looked at Orion Cross seriously and made his promise.
From his current perspective, the Avengers Initiative had not yet been implemented. At the very least, the people who joined needed to have no worries holding them back. Otherwise, who would join?
"Uh, sure."
Orion Cross did not care much about Nick Fury’s promise. On the contrary, he felt that Nick Fury was actually raising a terrifying flag.
What the hell did he mean by as long as he was in office and as long as S.H.I.E.L.D. existed?
Had this guy secretly read the script too? Did he know that he would step down in the future and that S.H.I.E.L.D. would be disbanded?
"Um, Stark really is fine?"
Before Nick Fury left with his people, he still asked again with uncertainty.
"He’s dead. No saving him. Wait to collect the body."
Orion Cross, who was preparing to go upstairs and return to his room, waved his hand and said impatiently.
After returning to his bedroom, Orion Cross turned off the lights, opened the window, and sat cross-legged on the bed.
Now, he was going to attempt to absorb the natural energy of the Vastayashai’rei.
Five minutes later.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Orion Cross leaned against the window and coughed violently.
Absorbing natural energy had failed.
"What the hell? Did I just inhale the exhaust fumes of the entire city?"
Orion Cross looked at the black harmful gas he was coughing out mouthful by mouthful and was instantly speechless.
Sure enough, cultivating something like Sage Mode in a steel metropolis like this was just asking for discomfort.
This place was filled with car exhaust and PM2.5. The environment had already been nearly destroyed. Where was natural energy supposed to come from?
"Do I have to find some primeval forest?"
The thought had only just appeared in his mind before Orion Cross rejected it.
In this era, true primeval forests had also been damaged, and there was very little natural energy left.
Rather than waste time in the main world, it would be better to find a dimension where the environment had not been destroyed.
Ionia, as the First Lands, was Orion Cross’s best choice right now, and also his only choice.
However, because of his contract with Aurelion Sol, he could only stay there for half a day at a time, so Orion Cross was in no hurry to go over now.
With that time, it would be better to properly increase the magic power of his extradimensional magic first. That would also increase the time he could stay over there.
Knock, knock, knock.
After finally coughing out the city’s waste gas, Orion Cross was just about to rinse his mouth and sleep when someone knocked on his bedroom door.
"Um, we’d like to receive our salary in advance and rent one of the storefronts."
Invisible Woman Susan stood at the door with Mystique Raven. When Orion Cross opened the door, she immediately spoke.
"You two want to open a shop?"
Orion Cross was a little surprised. These two blondes from neighboring universes had actually formed a united front this quickly?
"Yes. We discussed it and decided to open a barbecue restaurant."
"We want to slowly integrate into this world, so we need to interact with outsiders eventually."
"And we also don’t want to keep taking a salary from you that far exceeds the work we do..."
Susan and Raven both looked at Orion Cross seriously, waiting for his reply.
"Your idea isn’t bad."
Orion Cross stroked his chin and nodded. After being reminded by them, he also felt that freeloading off S.H.I.E.L.D.’s fixed salary was not very interesting.
"I agree. Go pick a storefront from Skye yourselves."
"Yes!"
Susan and Raven high-fived each other, closed the door, and ran toward Skye’s room on the other side.
"Start a company? What would be good to monopolize?"
After returning to his room, Orion Cross leaned against the pillow and started thinking.
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