Chapter Nineteen: The Serpent Shield Bureau.

“Lucky, are we really just going straight to S.H.I.E.L.D. like this? No disguise?” Natasha asked as they stepped outside, brushing back her red hair. Her crimson lips parted slightly, and she posed the question with irresistible charm.

Lucky wiped the sweat from his brow, already feeling hard-pressed to withstand the Black Widow’s allure. No wonder, in his previous life, she had been the kind of woman who could make even Durant drink her bathwater. That kind of magnetism was practically boundless.

“Um... Widow, what sort of disguise do you think we should use?”

“Aren’t you the captain? You’re asking me?” Natasha gave a graceful roll of her eyes, looking rather speechless. This was her first mission with Lucky, and somehow he already felt so unreliable.

Well... counting the years, he probably still wasn’t even twenty. Sure enough, a kid who hadn’t grown up was just not dependable.

“My opinion?” Lucky said patiently. “My opinion is that we should smash right through their front door. At this point, they’ve almost certainly planned to launch the helicarrier and then use it to carry out assassinations and threats. Right now, it all comes down to hard power.”

He explained, “If we win, the helicarrier gets destroyed and S.H.I.E.L.D. can be returned to its rightful owner. Whether it’s torn down or rebuilt, Nick can handle it. If we lose... well, we’re about to go to war anyway, so let’s not say anything unlucky.”

“Heh... whatever you like.”

Natasha’s mouth twitched. Even the boldest S.H.I.E.L.D. agents weren’t as reckless as he was.

Fine. You’ve got the bigger fists, you’re the captain, and therefore you’re right.

Nearby, Barton quietly adjusted his arrows, secretly removing the more powerful tips. He had elderly parents to support and children to raise; he needed to leave himself a way out.

In this world, fools died young...

Soon, the three of them drove to the road leading to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Trident headquarters. The entrance was blocked by a massive gate—what was this, preemptive defense?

“Stop!”

The moment they drew near, two miniguns rose from the gate. Their barrels began to spin and charge, looking ready to fire at the slightest provocation.

Natasha turned and glanced at Lucky, signaling him: Captain, it’s your turn to show your might.

“Leave it to me. Just drive straight in!”

Lucky silently formed a hand seal.

“Ninjutsu: Multi Shadow Clone Technique!”

Instantly, one percent of his energy vanished...

All around the sports car, more than a thousand versions of Lucky appeared. A thousand right hands crackled with lightning, and railguns were fully primed.

“Level Four Electromaster: Railgun!” x1000

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A thousand coins were launched at Mach three. The solid gate shattered in an instant, and the miniguns never even had a chance to fire.

The force of the blast was nearly comparable to a small meteor impact.

Natasha drove through the smoke-covered gate in a cold sweat, cursing all the way.

“It’s just one gate! Was it really worth using your ultimate move? You’re using an anti-aircraft gun to shoot a mosquito—do you have too much energy to burn?”

“Uh... habit. My mistake, my mistake.”

Lucky wiped the sweat from his forehead. He did seem to have overreacted a little. He had assumed S.H.I.E.L.D.’s gate was made of steel. Who would have thought it was concrete?

So weak? Just how much of the public funds did Nick embezzle before he left?!

“Yeah, right, as if I believe that.” Natasha gave another dazzling eye roll. “We’re almost there. I can already see those two siblings from last time. Get ready.”

She drifted the car with a sharp, controlled slide, bringing the door to a stop right beside the Trident gate.

The door opened in a gull-wing motion. In the distance, a group of Hydra agents stood armed and aiming in their direction.

“Ninjutsu: Nirvana Technique!”

Lucky had no intention of charging in and fighting to the death. With another hand seal, countless feathers materialized in the air and drifted down.

Then Natasha and Barton watched in stunned silence as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents collapsed all over the ground, leaving only the Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch standing.

Not even their bulletproof helmets and vests could withstand the feathers’ penetration and hypnosis...

“Lucky, that move is great. Can you teach me?”

Delighted, Natasha threw her arms around Lucky. Her red lips were moist and inviting, almost brushing his cheek.

Lucky’s face flushed slightly, and when he felt the soft fullness pressed against his arm, his nose went cold... Damn it, he really couldn’t hold out much longer.

“Um... no, no.”

He hurriedly turned his head away, too afraid to keep looking at Natasha.

“These ninjutsu are family techniques, passed down through the men and not the women. Besides me, only my mother, Angela, knows them. Don’t even think about it.”

“Tsk. Feudal thinking.”

Seeing that seduction had failed, Natasha gave a snide remark and let him go before walking over to Barton.

On the other side, Wanda and Pietro stared at them with growing irritation. They were right there in front of them, shamelessly flirting—did they not take them seriously at all?

Were villains really that insignificant?

“Hmph. Sister, don’t worry. I’ll go teach them a lesson.”

Pietro touched the bridge of his nose. The moment his foot moved, his figure vanished. In less than a thousandth of a second, he had already rushed in front of Lucky.

He extended a hand, using the momentum of his speed to drive a strike toward Lucky’s right cheek...

Crack!

The familiar sound never came. Instead, a wave of agony shot up from Pietro’s wrist.

“Ahhh!”

Barton and Natasha both looked at the wailing Pietro with strange expressions. What was going on? The speedster who had never once been caught had just been taken down like this?

Lucky smiled faintly. He was never going to admit that, thanks to the passive effect of his Observation Haki, he had already predicted Pietro’s attack.

Indeed, when dealing with speed or invisibility-type abilities, nothing worked better than Observation Haki. Otherwise, wouldn’t Admiral Kizaru, with the Glint-Glint Fruit, be invincible?

“Let go of me! You bastard!”

Pietro struggled, trying to break free from Lucky’s grip... but Lucky only smiled slyly. Kid, if you can break loose from this, then what exactly was the point of my cheat?

“Let go of my brother!”

Seeing Pietro suffer in Lucky’s grasp, Wanda could not hold back any longer. That was her younger brother—the brother who had depended on her since childhood!

With a scream, Wanda’s emotions surged, and a crimson sphere of energy hurtled toward Lucky.

But Lucky had already fully integrated the Electromaster’s power into a passive skill. He did not even need to form a seal; a layer of electricity automatically wrapped around him and surged forward, scattering the energy sphere to nothing.

Then, to prevent Wanda from losing control and doing something terrible, the lightning automatically stimulated Lucky’s cells. Like a phantom, he stepped behind her in a single move and struck her unconscious with a knife-hand blow, utterly defeating the siblings.

Ah, one had to say, the Avengers’ heroes were really obvious examples of being all offense and no defense. He didn’t feel the slightest pressure at all.

Once he had a complete system of ninjutsu, many little bosses were reduced to nothing more than ordinary monsters to farm.

“Um, continue?”

Natasha licked her lips. She had heard that Angela could use these ninjutsu too... No, when she had time, she absolutely had to wring some benefits out of Lucky, or she’d have no standing in the Illuminati later.

Barton was thinking exactly the same thing.