Beside the Potomac River stood the Triskelion, headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Inside the Director’s office, a bald Black man was going through the documents in his hands.
He was none other than the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., the man known as the “King of Spies”—Nick Fury.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Director.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“Come in.”
Nick Fury raised his head, his single eye settling on the trusted subordinate who entered the room.
“Coulson.
Something wrong?”
“Yes, Director Fury.”
Level 8 Agent Phil Coulson nodded.
“It’s about our consultant.”
“Tony Stark?”
Nick Fury set down the documents in his hands and frowned.
“Has his palladium poisoning gotten worse again?”
Ever since Tony publicly announced that he was Iron Man, his existence had naturally drawn the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization responsible for monitoring individuals with extraordinary abilities.
As one of the world’s foremost industrialists and billionaires, Tony’s influence in both political and business circles meant that he was never going to be easily controlled.
He had no intention of joining S.H.I.E.L.D.
and instead held the nominal position of scientific consultant.
Even so, Tony remained one of the candidates Nick Fury had in mind for his future Avengers Initiative.
Fury was also aware of the hidden danger threatening Tony’s life, which was why he had immediately asked about it.
“Quite the opposite, Director.
According to the agents monitoring him, Tony Stark’s palladium poisoning appears to have been cured.”
“Cured?”
Fury’s frown deepened.
“He found a solution himself?”
Fury knew about Tony’s condition.
Even S.H.I.E.L.D.’s finest researchers had been unable to come up with a solution.
“Not necessarily, Director.”
Coulson shook his head.
“According to our agents, his physical condition suddenly began improving a little over a month ago.”
“And over the course of the past month, he’s been flying his armor to a pet shop on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan at regular intervals.”
“A pet shop?”
Fury was even more puzzled.
He certainly wasn’t going to assume that the playboy had recently taken a liking to some beautiful woman and was buying pets to court her.
Nick Fury was the kind of spy who questioned everything.
If there was a complicated explanation for something, his instincts invariably drove him to consider it.
“Palladium poisoning suddenly disappearing…
a pet shop in Manhattan…”
His brow furrowed tightly.
“Is there anything unusual about that pet shop?”
Coulson answered as he handed over the information he had already compiled.
“Adrian Cross?
Chinese-American?
Parents died in a car accident nine years ago?”
Fury looked over the file, which appeared completely unremarkable at first glance, without offering any comment.
“Coulson, you know it can’t be that simple.
I want a more detailed investigation, including everything that’s happened recently in Manhattan.”
He naturally wasn’t about to do anything to the pet shop itself.
But his instincts as a spy still compelled him to find out what was going on.
“Yes, sir.”
Coulson nodded before bringing up another matter.
“There’s one more thing, Director.”
“Hmm?”
“It seems General Ross and the military have captured Dr.
Banner.”
Fury’s expression immediately darkened at Coulson’s news.
Although their respective jurisdictions were different, General Ross represented the military, while S.H.I.E.L.D.
wielded enormous authority of its own.
The two sides had never exactly gotten along, and Ross and Fury themselves could practically be called old rivals.
Dr.
Banner, the man Ross had captured, had originally been another potential candidate for Nick Fury’s Avengers Initiative.
The world-renowned physicist had been exposed to an extraordinarily intense dose of gamma radiation during an experiment.
As a result, whenever he lost control of his emotions, he transformed into a terrifying monster known as Hulk.
“Where did Ross take Dr.
Banner after capturing him?”
Fury immediately asked.
“We don’t know, Director.
You know how strict the military is about keeping this kind of thing classified.”
Hearing Coulson’s answer only worsened Fury’s mood.
Meanwhile, Adrian Cross had absolutely no idea that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s egg-headed Director had already taken notice of him.
In fact, he was currently busy washing his face.
“Please, God.
Ten pulls—just don’t let every single one be a dud.”
Back on the familiar rooftop lawn, Adrian Cross stared nervously at the dark silhouettes before him, looking as though he wished he could ceremonially wash his hands and spend three days fasting and bathing beforehand.
That’s right.
He was preparing for his second major round of gamb—ahem, summoning since arriving in this world!
Thanks to Tony, his mobile Point-generating ATM, Adrian Cross had been steadily accumulating Points.
Over the past month or so, after treating Tony ten times, he had finally saved up a full 1,000 System Points!
Each summon cost 100 System Points.
In other words, Adrian Cross now had enough for ten consecutive summons!
[Summoning initiated…]
[Summoning failed.
Adrian Cross was already familiar with failure notifications, so he simply continued watching nervously.
To his surprise, however, on only his third summon…
[Congratulations, host.
You have obtained the special item—Palkia’s Spatial Core.]
As the System’s announcement sounded, a strange purple gemstone appeared before Adrian Cross.
[Palkia’s Spatial Core]
[Description: A gemstone formed from the power of Palkia, the embodiment of space.
It is embedded in Palkia’s left arm.]
[Effect: Allows the space containing the Spatial Core to be drawn into an alternate dimension, expanding and stretching the space within.]
[The host can observe conditions outside the original space while within the alternate dimension and can manipulate the Spatial Core at will to leave the alternate dimension at any time.]
[Special Effect: Doubles the probability of summoning Palkia.]
The instant it appeared, the rooftop lawn around Adrian Cross was suddenly stretched outward.
In moments, everything within his field of vision had transformed into an enormous grassland!
“What the hell?!”
Adrian Cross couldn’t stop himself from swearing.
His rooftop had suddenly turned into an entire grassland.
Who could possibly remain calm after seeing that?
Unable to resist, he hurried downstairs to check.
Yet from the outside, his building appeared completely unchanged.
“Isn’t this basically like the three Sanctums?”
Adrian Cross immediately understood.
His entire rooftop had been incorporated into an alternate dimension.
From outside, there was absolutely no indication that anything had changed.
It was similar to the three Sanctums established by the Ancient One.
From the outside, nothing appeared unusual, and ordinary people couldn’t freely enter or leave them, yet an alternate space existed within.
The only difference was that the Ancient One accomplished it through magic, while Adrian Cross was borrowing the power of the spatial Legendary Pokémon, Palkia.
“This is good stuff.”
Looking at the suddenly expanded space around him and Celebi soaring excitedly over the grassland, Adrian Cross’s eyes lit up.
For him, the alternate dimension could effectively serve as a safe house.
Even better was the bonus that doubled his chances of summoning Palkia.
Of course, Adrian Cross knew perfectly well that with the System’s summoning rates, “double the probability” might simply mean going from something like 0.001 to 0.002—the classic kind of misleading advertising.
Still, at least it gave him hope.
“System, continue summoning.”
Adrian Cross quickly put the matter aside and resumed his summons.
After obtaining the Spatial Core, however, he no longer expected much from his remaining luck.
Given the System’s summoning rates, getting even one successful pull out of ten would already count as extraordinarily lucky.
As for getting two successes in a single ten-pull?
That’d be like winning the lottery jackpot—or my parents suddenly telling me I’d actually been born with the luck of a gacha god…
And just as Adrian Cross had that thought…
He hit the jackpot.
[Congratulations, host.
Summoning successful!]
[The host has obtained the Legendary Pokémon—Rayquaza!]