Lord of Cinder in American Comics

"Dorian Gray, or Lord Henry Warden, was also a member of this alliance, possessing infinite life and youth, but he was a traitor."

Dorian Gray had a self-portrait painted by the artist Basil Hallward. Upon seeing the portrait, he was amazed by his own beauty and wished to retain his youth while letting the portrait bear his aging. Unexpectedly, this wish came true. From then on, he had infinite youth and an ageless body, and even if he suffered harm, only the portrait would bear it.

"The Gentlemen's League eventually sealed this traitor inside his own portrait, which remains to this day. The portrait is still kept by the London S.H.I.E.L.D."

After carefully savoring Fury's superhero story, Coulson had no idea that the item was in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"So, should we coordinate with S.H.I.E.L.D. in London to obtain that painting?"

"No need. For some reason, I've kept that painting in secret."

The fact that something from S.H.I.E.L.D. in London ended up in the hands of Fury at S.H.I.E.L.D. in San Francisco was clearly suspicious. But Coulson would never ask such a stupid question, so he simply threw out another question to change the subject for his boss.

"Should we hand the portrait over to the greedy?"

To put it simply, once the deal is completed, Coulson himself will no longer need to worry about it, and Fury can avoid the greedy people coming to collect debts.

If the deal isn't completed, Fury can drag it out until the greedy ones come knocking. But this gives him more room to maneuver and perhaps allows him to gather more intelligence.

Coulson was still weighing the pros and cons when Fury said something completely different.

"We need to reinvestigate Natasha..."

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Author's Remarks

Happy Lunar New Year's Day! Wishing everyone all your wishes come true, good fortune, and great luck! May all your desires be fulfilled, your paths be smooth, your gains be as you hope, and your dreams come true.

2022-02-03 01:02

Chapter Twenty-Four: Advice from the Bald Man to the Bald Man

Natasha is the starting point of this incident. The most important task is to find out what role she played in it and what coins the greedy people took from her.

'Perhaps this coin can be used to obtain more of the necessary information from the greedy.'

This thought lingered in Fury's mind. Knowing that there were many more powerful beings in the universe, he wanted to assemble a team of superheroes to fight against them. Finding or training superheroes was what he most wanted to know.

The basic plan Fury devised was to obtain relevant information from Natasha and then extract the information he wanted from the greedy.

Coulson had just been rescued by Natasha. Although he acknowledged Natasha as his comrade, he couldn't stop Fury's plan, and the task of investigating Natasha might fall to him again.

At that moment, another helicopter landed next to the farm, and Melinda stepped out of it.

Melinda looked utterly exhausted and on the verge of collapse. Her two squads, along with Coulson's, were almost completely wiped out by the Candymen, all because Melinda had gone to join the retreat after receiving orders to do so.

Although it was a well-intentioned act, good intentions could not outweigh the consequences of Melinda not following orders.

"Sir, Melinda is reporting to you."

Melinda forced herself to salute Fury, awaiting his judgment.

"Agent, tell me, why did you go after receiving the order to retreat!"

Fury's deep voice was devoid of any emotion, but to Melinda it was a clear accusation that she was responsible for the deaths of members of both squads.

"My mistake, sir."

Melinda admitted her mistake directly without saying a word more; her heart was broken, and she gave up any more struggle.

"Hand over your sidearm and badge. You are on temporary leave. Your return date will be announced later."

Ignoring Melinda's reply, Fury immediately stripped her of her privileges, placing her on indefinite leave. An agent who cannot complete missions according to orders is utterly worthless.

Melinda saluted Fury again and left the place dejectedly, not knowing where she was going.

Melinda left, while Fury and Coulson remained to discuss the details of the upcoming mission. Natasha's report arrived at that moment.

Fury quickly skimmed through Natasha's report, and after reading it, he said to Coulson, "Let's put all our plans on hold for now."

"Sir, I don't quite understand."

The two discussed for almost an hour, and just when they thought they had finalized a plan to discover and train another superhuman, Fury turned around and abandoned the plan. This left Coulson feeling like he was punching a cotton ball, with no way to use his strength.

Fury handed the report to Coulson, who quickly skimmed through it and soon discovered the key points.

"Ash Solar? How could it be him?"

After reviewing the intelligence, both of them discovered Ash's role in the matter. Ash provided Natasha's blessing, which was key to saving Coulson. Ash was an insurmountable obstacle in investigating the origin of the mysterious coin.

“Sir, if we investigate Ash Solar, it will cause a huge backlash. Ross and Sheffield will not hesitate to attack us.”

Coulson voiced Fury's biggest concern: Ash's decades-long identity maneuvering had created an almost impenetrable defense, making any investigation targeting him a chilling experience for any investigator.

However, the quick-thinking Fury offered another solution, pointing to a line in the report and saying, "Look at this character; she is the key link between Natasha and Ash."

Coulson read out the place Fury was pointing to.

"Fire Keeper?"

Fury used his terminal to search for information about the Fire Keeper, and after reading it, he confirmed her identity again.

"Yes, Ash joined the Firelink Church while in the army. Now the Firelink Church has its own pope, and the Fire Keeper was sent by the pope to assist Ash. We can use the Fire Keeper as a breakthrough point, which will not only bring us closer to Ash, but also allow us to investigate the Firelink Church."

Based on the intelligence he possessed, Fury devised a plan to kill two birds with one stone, attempting to gain Ash's support and the secret of Firelink Shrine.

“But we haven’t been able to get in touch with them. Ash has kept his communication channels very private. Rumor has it that he uses Stark Industries’ private communications satellite to call Sheffield and Ross.”

The Stark Industries' private communications service is built upon the ingenuity of Tony Stark. While expensive, it is undeniably secure.

Stark Industries' advertising slogan is "You can breach the Pentagon, but you can't breach Stark." Furthermore, its creator, Tony Stark, uses Jarvis, an artificial intelligence unknown to outsiders, for server management; current technology indeed makes it impossible to breach Jarvis's firewall.

“We have Natasha now, let her go.”

Fury explained that Natasha, as a key figure in this mission, not only knew the Fire Keeper but had also received Ash's blessing.

Fury considered this the best candidate, and this person also had the background of a former defector agent, so if Ash was angered, he could be abandoned at any time.

Coulson understood that any problems with this mission would have consequences that S.H.I.E.L.D. could not afford, and Natasha was a pawn to be discarded if the mission failed.

Feeling indebted to Natasha, Coulson wanted to persuade Fury to switch agents, but he didn't know how to bring it up. Coulson knew in his heart that Natasha was the best solution.

While Coulson was still agonizing over Natasha and the mission, Fury gave Coulson a new order.

“Coulson, as Natasha’s supervisor, you are responsible for all of Natasha’s operations and will report directly to me.”

Coulson's initial fears came true; he became Natasha's supervisor, and being caught between his savior and his mission objective caused him to lose even more hair.

But he could only accept orders from his superiors. The only thing he could do was to help Natasha complete her mission without crossing the line and causing Ash to misunderstand.

After issuing the mission, Fury noticed Coulson's sparse hair fluttering in the wind as he watched Coulson deep in thought.

"Coulson, you should try a new shampoo, a shampoo that helps with hair growth."

Fury said something that would hurt any middle-aged man; no middle-aged man could accept such unvarnished and utterly useless words.

Coulson instinctively pressed down his wind-blown hair, looked at Fury's shiny bald head, shook his head and said, "Even the greedy don't have any tools to solve the hair regrowth problem. He even said I have more hair than the Demon King of Hell."

Chapter Twenty-Five: What Bureau of Land and Resources?

Bald Fury offered ineffective advice to Bald Coulson, which Coulson rejected. After all, anyone would feel lost and helpless when faced with a problem that even the Demon King of Hell couldn't solve.

After discussing the mission details, the two parted ways, and our attention returned to Ash.

Ash only remembered the incident after seeing Natasha's dangerous jump from the car last night. Although the Fire Keeper had told him about Natasha's problems, Ash had completely forgotten about it.

When he first arrived at Firelink Shrine, he was busy making money for Sheffield and collecting rent. In addition, he encountered a video game in Kassel that he hadn't played in ages, and for a moment he forgot about the Fire Keeper.

It's like your wife asking you to go grocery shopping before dinner so she can cook. But you get engrossed in a game and forget about it.

It wasn't until you heard your friends in the game say it was time to cook that you remembered. You hurriedly ran downstairs to the supermarket to buy groceries, just in time to prepare and wash them before your wife found out.

Ash finally pinpointed Natasha's location using her blessing, and sent a clone with a treasure chest head to help her. She only breathed a sigh of relief after negotiating with Fury.

Ash's initial excitement and subsequent relaxation after watching the video piqued the curiosity of Kassel and Beckett, who were watching the video together.

"Have you found out something again, Special Advisor Faber?" Cassel asked from the side.

"Beckett should receive notification of the cancellation of the investigation in a little while."

Ash could only tell Cassell tactfully that this was not something they could investigate, and that the Sheffield incident was pre-arranged. As for how S.H.I.E.L.D. would fabricate lies, that was beyond his control.

Before Ash could finish speaking, Beckett's phone rang. It was Police Inspector Montgomery calling.

After hanging up the phone, Beckett and Cassel both looked at Ash with curious eyes, trying to get an explanation.

"Don't look at me like that. You have to tell me what was said on the phone first. There are some things you can't know."

I don't know whose pseudonym S.H.I.E.L.D. is using to cover things up. It's best to find out before making any excuses.

"Montgomery halted the investigation and sent me back to the station to sign a confidentiality agreement. Apparently, an agent from Forborough had come to my door."

Beckett relayed the contents of the phone call to Ash, which was based on a confidentiality agreement with Forborough. Ash was Forborough's special advisor, and obtaining information from Ash before Beckett signed the agreement did not violate any regulations.

Ash touched his beardless chin, a habit from his past life that he had retained after being brought to the Dark Souls world. It was a gesture to commemorate his past.

Everyone in Dark Souls knows that whenever Ash makes that gesture, she's definitely thinking of something wicked. The half-dragon Yorshka knows this all too well.

Ash once tricked the half-dragon girl into giving her the Yorshka Bell from the Prisoner's Tower by claiming she was a dragon and could fly, much to the girl's delight.

The nameless war god, who loved his younger siblings dearly, would have absolutely crushed Ashe if he hadn't been unable to defeat her. Even later, during the Firelink Shrine meeting, the nameless warrior repeatedly challenged Ashe to a duel, attempting to avenge the half-dragon girl.

"Wait a minute, let me make a phone call and ask first."

Ash pulled out his phone, which contained the phone numbers of countless people, found the number, and dialed it.

“Dafferin, I have some super valuable information. You’re so generous, you’ll definitely pay for it, right?”

Ash's cryptic words puzzled Davelin, but after Ash explained her reasons, he immediately agreed to Ash's price and said he would act right away.

Ash hung up the phone with Davelin, and Cassel and Beckett immediately came over. Based on just a few words from Beckett, they were curious about why Ash could ask someone for a large sum of money.

"Wait a while, maybe there will be some twists and turns later. We'll explain everything to you when it's all over."

Ash didn't directly answer their questions, but instead told them to wait. Ash then retreated back onto the sofa and resumed her game of conquering the greenskins.

Beckett and Cassel were curious, but they couldn't get any information from Ash and didn't want to ask directly. So they could only whisper sweet nothings to each other in private.

Not long after, Beckett received another call, again from Montgomery. This time, Montgomery sounded extremely angry, quickly giving Beckett instructions before hanging up. Before the call ended, Beckett vaguely heard Montgomery yelling to lock that guy in the interrogation room.

The green-skinned warriors repeatedly destroyed Ash's fleet. Helplessly, he put down his controller. He had never been suited for this kind of game in his previous life. He never expected that even with his attributes maximized, he would still suffer a crushing defeat. He could only confirm the fact that e-sports is all about talent.

"You've finished the call. What did you say?"