Marvel: The Sole Player

Darian patted Daniel’s shoulder, smiling broadly: "Then it’s a deal. You take me for a trip to K’un-Lun later."

Daniel suddenly snapped out of it, a hint of alertness in his eyes: "How do you know about K’un-Lun?"

"She told me."

Darian pointed at Madam Gao on the ground: "She also said the next time K’un-Lun opens is in a month, and I’ll need you to lead the way then."

Daniel shrank back a step: "Wait, I didn’t agree to that."

Darian’s gaze turned unfriendly: "You said it yourself just now, any compensation would do. What, you want to go back on your word already?"

Daniel got anxious: "I saw your expression just now and thought I hit one of your family members, that’s why I said that!"

Darian’s expression turned serious and righteous: "It’s the same thing. I went to great lengths to persuade Madam Gao to leave the darkness and join the light, willing to lead us to destroy The Hand’s evil plan."

"But then you hit her with a blast of the accelerator, and the plan went up in smoke. If things get delayed because of this and millions of people die in New York City later, who do you think should be held responsible?"

"This..."

Daniel swallowed hard.

This accusation was too heavy; even with his Iron Head, he couldn’t withstand it.

Darian struck while the iron was hot: "So this is your responsibility, and you must make amends."

Daniel made a bitter face: "What exactly are you going to K’un-Lun for? K’un-Lun isn’t a place outsiders can just enter."

Darian asked in return: "Have you heard of Kamar-Taj?"

Daniel’s expression changed slightly as he looked at Darian in surprise: "You’re from Kamar-Taj?"

As the Iron Fist of this generation, he naturally knew the name of Kamar-Taj.

Darian nodded: "Exactly. The Sorcerer Supreme went on a journey recently, so I’m temporarily in charge of Kamar-Taj. We’re both in the Himalayas, so we’re practically neighbors. It’s normal for me to pay a visit, right?"

Although Daniel had a Westerner, having stayed in K’un-Lun for so many years, he was deeply steeped in customs.

Darian was right; neighbors visiting each other was indeed not a problem.

He hesitated for a few seconds before finally relenting: "Alright, but I have to ask my master first."

"No problem."

Darian agreed readily.

It didn’t matter even if Daniel didn’t agree. At worst, he’d just have to go through some trouble and send people to conduct a carpet search for the entrance to K’un-Lun in the Himalayas.

Once he managed to sneak in and map the area, it wouldn’t be up to others to decide anymore.

Daniel pointed at Madam Gao on the ground: "Then let me treat her injuries first. It’ll be trouble if it delays the important business."

Darian waved his hand dismissively: "It’s fine. This old hag is tough and won’t die that easily. Besides, she already told me the location, so it doesn’t matter even without her."

Daniel: "..."

Why didn’t you say so earlier!

Although Daniel was a grown man, his social experience was pitifully low.

At nine years old, he and his family had an accident in the snowy mountains. His parents died, and he was rescued by the monks of K’un-Lun, growing up in that secluded secret realm ever since.

It wasn’t until recently that he left K’un-Lun and returned to his long-lost home in New York, America.

Who would have thought that city people’s schemes were denser than a honeycomb? In a short time, he had been tricked several times.

City schemes are too deep; I really want to go back to K’un-Lun!

Just as Darian said, Madam Gao wasn’t in any serious danger. With the protection of Qi in her body, unless it was a hundred-ton truck, being hit by a car wouldn’t cause too much damage.

The reason she looked so badly injured was mainly because Darian had been too heavy-handed before. Most of the injuries were actually caused by Darian and had little to do with Daniel.

Darian knew this full well, but he still shifted the blame to Daniel. This was to let the young man experience the sinister nature of society and gain some experience so he wouldn’t end up being sold and still helping to count the money. It could be said he had good intentions.

While Darian was fooling the young man, Matt had already shared the information with Luke Cage and Jessica.

After hearing the whole story, the two decided on the spot to join in and team up to deal with The Hand.

Including Daniel, there were a total of seven Superheroes on the field. The lineup could be described as quite luxurious; even if all the supervillains of Hells Kitchen were lumped together, they probably wouldn’t be enough for them to fight.

Darian had no objection to this and even wished a few more would come.

He liked bullying the few with the many; if they could gang up on someone, they wouldn’t do a one-on-one duel. To him, things like martial ethics were all nonsense.

Winning is called martial ethics; losing is called a case study.

Fortunately, everyone had driven over, so there were plenty of seats.

The few of them did a quick tally and decided to split into two cars, with Daniel and Frank each driving one.

Daniel originally didn’t want to be the driver. After what just happened, he felt nervous even looking at a steering wheel—a standard case of post-accident stress.

But the problem was, looking around, there were really no other options.

Matt was blind and couldn’t drive at all.

Luke Cage was Black. If he drove out, he’d likely be pulled over by white traffic cops a dozen times before even leaving the street. They wouldn’t get through a few blocks in a whole day, which would be too much of a delay.

Jessica and Elektra, the two female drivers, were passed over immediately.

That only left Darian.

However, Darian only said one thing: "Your crappy cars can’t even hit three hundred yards."

Hearing this, Daniel immediately took the initiative to be the driver.

At least him driving only meant a larger psychological shadow; if Darian drove, it might mean larger body parts.

As for Madam Gao, she was stuffed into the trunk by Darian.

Darian sat alone in the back seat of the car, with Frank and Matt in the front.

Luke Cage, Jessica, and Elektra were all unwilling to sit in the same car as Darian, as if he were some ancient fierce beast.

They had all been severely beaten by Darian, especially Luke Cage and Jessica, and Darian even had many embarrassing historical photos of them. They just wanted to stay as far away from him as possible.

Darian was completely oblivious to this and even felt a bit aggrieved.

He felt he was quite easy to get along with—spoke kindly, acted reliably, and wasn’t scary-looking. Why did these people avoid him like the plague?

The altar was located on the outskirts of New York City, in a place as remote as it could be.

When the group drove to the scene, they found the construction site was unusually quiet, without even a security guard in sight.

Darian opened the trunk, hauled Madam Gao out, forcibly woke her up, added another layer of hypnosis for good measure, and then let her walk in front to scout the way.

Everyone followed behind Madam Gao, crossing the empty lot piled with building materials toward the half-finished building.

Once inside the building, Madam Gao walked straight to a wall, reached out, and felt around a few times, quickly triggering a hidden mechanism.

The wall slid open silently to both sides, revealing an elevator leading underground.

The elevator had a limited capacity, so they went down in two groups. Darian was in the first group.

The elevator descended to the bottom floor. Within a few steps, a stench hit their noses, as if they had arrived at a slaughterhouse.

Before them was a massive underground space. In the center stood a stone altar, its surface covered in dense runic grooves filled with dark red blood, emitting a nauseating metallic smell.

Black-clad ninjas knelt all around the altar, all respectfully prostrating toward the center.

Among the crowd, the remaining Three Fingers of The Hand could be seen, also prostrating on the ground, not even daring to look up.

And sitting atop the altar was a person draped in a dark red robe, eyes tightly closed, face covered in eerie runes painted in blood. The whole person exuded a gloomy and bizarre aura.

[NPC: Wallin (Black Sky)]

[Favorability: -50]

[Evaluation: Vessel of the Beast, from the Hell Shadow Dimension, one of the oldest primordial demons in the Universe, the true leader of The Hand]

[Status: Possessed by the Beast]

A primordial demon of the Hell Dimension.

Darian narrowed his eyes.

Kamar-Taj had handled many dimensional intrusion incidents, but most were small fries—ordinary magical creatures slipping in from other dimensions. This was the first time Darian had seen an old fossil from the Hell Dimension descend to Earth.

The Black Sky on the altar suddenly opened its eyes.

Those eyes had no pupils, only a murky dark red. Its gaze fell on Darian.

He slowly stood up: "This aura... you are the human who easily defeated my slave?"

"That’s right."

Darian knew he was talking about Murakami. He nodded and asked in return: "And you’re the Black Beast... bah, the Beast, right?"

"You have some modicum of insight."

Black Sky snorted coldly, shifted his gaze from Darian, and glanced at Elektra standing behind him, his tone turning dark: "Originally, I had a more suitable vessel to choose from, but you interfered and ruined my plan, forcing me to settle for this shell. What is your crime?"

"I’m not sure what my crime is, but do you know you’ve broken the law?"

Darian’s expression was serious: "You’ve violated the Anti-Smuggling Act of the Reality Dimension. Any existence from a non-reality dimension must not enter the Earth’s reality plane in any form without reporting. This is a serious case of illegal entry. There’s still time to leave now."

Black Sky narrowed those blood-red eyes, a low sneer escaping his throat: "A group of weak humans actually dreaming of setting rules for existences like us. You think too highly of yourselves."

Darian wasn’t annoyed and said cheerfully: "I didn’t set the rules; the Sorcerer Supreme did. If you have an objection, you can go to her and report it personally."

Black Sky fell silent for two or three seconds before saying coldly: "Your strength is passable, being able to defeat the slave I bestowed power upon."

"That’s a pretty clumsy way to change the subject."

Darian complained, then his expression suddenly became strange as he probed: "You’re reacting so strongly, could it be you were beaten by the Sorcerer Supreme before?"

"Absurd! How could that be! No such thing!"

Black Sky immediately issued a triple denial, but the hint of guilt in his tone couldn’t be hidden.

Dimensional Demon Gods coveting Earth were as numerous as cow hairs, and the Beast was one of them.

Back then, young and ignorant, it had launched a massive invasion of the reality dimension, attempting to claim Earth as its own territory, only to run head-first into a kind-looking bald woman.

The specific details won’t be mentioned, but in the end, the Beast tucked its tail and retreated back to its own territory, only daring to do what other dimensional big shots did—secretly cultivate forces on Earth, which is now The Hand.

Seeing this, Darian was instantly certain that this guy definitely had a psychological shadow from Ancient One.

He immediately said: "Consider yourself lucky. The Sorcerer Supreme just happened to go out for a meal. There’s still time for you to leave now. Once the Sorcerer Supreme comes to handle it personally, you’ll be in for some suffering."

"You think using the name of the Sorcerer Supreme can scare me away?"

Black Sky looked disdainful: "I’ve already investigated. That bald woman has been gone for a long time. She might have already died at the Hands of some other Dimensional Demon God. If I hadn’t confirmed she wasn’t here, how would I dare to show up now?"

As he spoke, he accidentally blurted out his true thoughts.

But soon, Black Sky suddenly realized and flew into a rage: "Cunning human, you dare to trick me into talking!"

Darian: "..."

You clearly blurted it out yourself; I’m not taking the blame for this.

"Kill them!"

Black Sky raised a hand and gave a sharp command.

The ninjas around the altar stood up in unison, and the Three Fingers of The Hand also drew their weapons, surging toward the group like a tide.

Da-da-da-da-da-da—!

Frank was the first to pull the trigger.

The tongue of flame from the muzzle was particularly piercing in the dim underground space, mucking down a swath of ninjas in the blink of an eye.

The other Superheroes also engaged, automatically matching their opponents and clashing in a chaotic brawl.

Among them, Daniel was particularly conspicuous. He charged into the enemy ranks, his fists erupting in brilliant golden light, turning into a flurry of fist shadows that blasted the ninjas in front of him away.

Basic attacks mixed with normal attacks, normal attacks mixed with basic attacks—it was filled with the beauty of raw stats.

Darian ignored the small mobs around him and directly pulled out two Golden Desert Eagles, aiming at Black Sky on the altar.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang—!

Several bullets wrapped in pure white light shot out of the barrels, heading straight for Black Sky.

Black Sky knew these were human weapons and planned to casually swat the bullets away, then take the opportunity to mock the stupidity of these lower organisms.

However, the moment the first bullet hit his palm, Black Sky’s blood-veined face suddenly changed color.

A searing burst of holy energy erupted from the bullet. This energy seemed to be his natural enemy; his enhanced body was actually burned directly by this energy, sizzling and emitting acrid white smoke.

"Ah!!"

Black Sky let out a shrill howl of pain. No longer caring about acting cool, he quickly dodged away from his spot.

But the remaining bullets curved in mid-air and continued to pursue his position.

Seeing this, Black Sky swung his arms, and several fireballs smelling of sulfur blasted out, melting all the incoming bullets.

At the same time, the injuries on his body healed rapidly, returning to normal in an instant.

Black Sky stared intently at Darian: "This is the aura of magic. You are a mage?"

"You actually noticed. That’s right, I am a mage."

Darian held the Golden Desert Eagles in both hands and nodded affirmatively.

Black Sky: "..."

Are mages nowadays all this up-to-date with the times?

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