Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life...

Chapter 251 The Avengers' Culinary Showdown (Part 1)

The Avengers are unaware of the outside turmoil. Meanwhile, Black Egg's team, while using the chaos created by the Avengers to investigate Hydra, has also kept the outside turmoil separate from the Avengers' efforts.

This is why Sherlock didn't know anything about what Blackie had done. If Sherlock had known, he would have sighed and said that Blackie had at least done something decent, and that he would have treated Blackie better in the future.

After flying the plane for a while and landing in an open area, Sherlock, as previously agreed, used alchemy to disassemble the entire plane into raw materials and then generously led everyone away through the Anywhere Door.

This time, Sherlock was quite reliable and opened the Anywhere Door directly inside St. Petersburg, Russia.

It has to be said that it's unclear whether Tony's anesthetic dosage was sufficient, or whether Alexei was completely disoriented from being suspended under the plane and spinning around like a propeller.

Even after all that he had gone through, Alexei still showed no signs of regaining his senses.

Left with no other choice, the captain carried Alexei and followed a group of people into the streets of St. Petersburg in the early hours of the morning.

The good news is that once Sherlock's Anywhere Door closed and Sherlock put it into his four-dimensional pocket, the group was temporarily out of danger. At least for a short time, Da Mao would never have guessed that they had arrived in St. Petersburg, thousands of miles away.

The bad news is that Black Widow doesn't have her own safe house in St. Petersburg. In fact, not only Black Widow, but also Hawkeye and Tony, who are both agents and billionaires, don't own any property here.

The good news amid the bad news is that Zhao Weike does have a safe house here.

The bad news amidst the good news was that Zhao Weike's safe house was not far from the city center of St. Petersburg, where everyone was located. To put it bluntly, Zhao Weike's safe house was near the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Left with no other choice, Sherlock randomly picked two cars on the street, scanned them with alchemy, and then, with a dark expression, walked into an alley without surveillance cameras. There, he temporarily replicated two cars using materials from a helicopter as his means of transportation.

As for the replica cars, well, how should I put it? Some older people might know that there's a Lada and a GAZ.

Russia's automotive industry is something that those who know about it understand. After all, anyone who has been to Russia knows that their automotive management policy is simply that as long as a car can be driven on the road, it's fine.

In addition, these two cars, which are about the same age as the captain, are purely mechanical in style and have no electronic devices. Sherlock could easily copy them, so he just made do with them.

The captain quite liked the old guys that Sherlock had copied, especially the GAZ-69 jeep with its World War II style, which gave the captain a feeling of being transported back to the World War II era.

However, compared to the captain, the rest of the group were extremely disgusted with the two things in front of them, which could barely be considered as means of transportation.

However, in situations like now, where you can't even find a single person on the street, you can only grit your teeth and accept it.

After stuffing the unconscious Alexei into the trunk, a group of burly men and two relatively slender women squeezed into the two antique-looking structures and, under Zhao Weike's command, headed towards the safe house.

After wandering around for nearly forty minutes, the group finally arrived at Zhao Weike's 'safe house'.

This safe house is a typical example of a small wooden cabin in rural areas of Russia. It is a wooden cabin enclosed in a large courtyard, and because it has been uninhabited for many years, it even looks somewhat dilapidated.

Pushing open the door of the cottage left everyone feeling helpless. The reason was simple: it was basically the same as, or even worse than, the rural cottages in northern China. After all, the rural cottages in northern China were made of brick and stone, while this one was made of wood.

Aside from basic water and electricity, if you want to cook, you can only use a very primitive wood-burning stove or coal stove.

Fortunately, the group wasn't picky. After entering the house, Sherlock used the leftover materials from the helicopter to forge a nearly 20-meter-long iron chain, tied the unconscious Alexei up like a dumpling, and threw him into the abandoned chicken coop in the yard.

The remaining group sat in the cabin, staring at each other blankly.

Well, the situation is quite complicated right now.

After a fierce battle and having not slept for half the night, everyone was starving. Unfortunately, Zhao Weike's safe house was just a house, without even any emergency supplies.

The moment Sherlock finished dealing with Alexei and stepped into the house, everyone's eyes were immediately drawn to him.

Seeing the hungry wolves in everyone's eyes, Sherlock, whose stomach was also growling, almost instantly understood what the group was thinking. Without the slightest hesitation, he took out the ingredients from his four-dimensional pocket.

When Sherlock placed the fresh, glistening vegetables and meats, along with a variety of seasonings, on the table, almost everyone present visibly swallowed hard.

If Sherlock had pulled out some canned food or fast food, the crowd probably wouldn't have thought much of it; they would have eaten something quick and then gone to rest.

But what Sherlock pulled out was his mother's fresh ingredients, which looked as fresh as if they had just been bought from the market.

As for why there are such fresh ingredients in Sherlock's four-dimensional pocket, and how these ingredients are kept fresh in Sherlock's four-dimensional pocket, that's none of your business.

Anyway, Sherlock won't tell you that he used alchemy to create a temperature- and humidity-controlled area in his four-dimensional pocket, which even preserves food, specifically to store his collection of wooden sticks and the like.

The source of these ingredients is quite simple. They were originally prepared by Sherlock for a beach barbecue with Doro and Helen, but what happened next was clearly beyond Sherlock's expectations, so these ingredients ended up lying in Sherlock's pocket.

Upon seeing the fresh ingredients Sherlock had brought out, the captain silently removed his helmet, then took out an obviously ill-fitting shirt from the wardrobe and put it over his uniform. Without a word, he shouldered the Stormbreaker and walked out of the hut.

Less than ten minutes later, the captain dragged a tall birch tree back to the yard of the cabin, and then silently began chopping the wood with his Stormbreaker.

Stormbreaker probably never imagined that one day it would use an axe for its true purpose: chopping wood instead of killing people on the battlefield.

Chapter 252 The Avengers' Culinary Showdown (Part 2)

As the captain began chopping wood in the yard, Tony, tempted by the delicious food, also went out silently and began using the boosters on his armor to dry the wood, employing techniques he had learned while drunk.

Hawkeye followed Tony out and quietly began to take the dried wood from Tony and neatly stack it up.

After exchanging a glance, Black Widow and Yelena drew their daggers and began cleaning the ingredients Sherlock had taken out.

Meanwhile, Zhao Weike took some wood from the pile that Eagle Eye had prepared and quietly ran to the bottom of the large pot to start a fire.

Seeing everyone busily getting to work in silence, Sherlock's lips twitched, and he reluctantly took his place as the chef.

It was already late at night, and Sherlock was too lazy to cook any more elaborate dishes. He simply picked a few quick vegetables, prepared them, and immediately stir-fried a plate of garlic and pork, along with a plate of chili and pork. He also cooked a pot of rice on the small stove he used for heating.

However, to Sherlock's utter surprise, the overwhelming aroma of his two dishes instantly whetted the appetites of everyone present.

It's important to understand that in a situation like a late-night snack, almost everyone has their own obsessions, especially given that the people present are from completely different races and nationalities.

After being tempted by the aroma of Sherlock's cooking, Tony ran to the kitchen without a word and used the ingredients Sherlock had brought to make himself a cheeseburger.

Tony even thoughtfully made a few extra so everyone could share the food.

Although Tony has virtually no cooking experience, simply frying meat patties and bread, adding some sauce, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, pickles, and plenty of cheese is not a difficult task for him.

With Tony leading the way, Hawkeye almost immediately followed suit, heading into the kitchen to satisfy his cravings.

Unlike Tony, Hawkeye prefers simple charcoal-grilled fish and similar foods.

Typically, when three or more people in a group do the same thing, the activity becomes different and starts to become competitive, especially in male-dominated groups.

Captain and Zhao Weike followed closely behind into the kitchen. Even infected by the atmosphere, Black Widow pulled Yelena into the kitchen as well.

In the end, it even felt like a cooking competition, with Sherlock rolling up his sleeves and running into the kitchen to prepare two more impressive dishes.

As the sun rose above the horizon, the Avengers sat around a large round table inside the cabin, looking at the dishes laid out like a New Year's feast, and for a moment, no one knew what to say.

If you were to call this a late-night snack, it's rather lavish.

But to say that this table of food is breakfast is a bit of an exaggeration.

Sherlock's stir-fry with rice, Hawkeye's charcoal-grilled salt fish, Zhao Weike's mashed potatoes with pan-fried cod, Captain America's American-style steak, Tony's cheeseburger, Black Widow's borscht, and Yelena's stewed beef in a clay pot.

The table of dishes was both outrageous and reasonable. As for the final result, it was simple: the hungry crowd didn't care who cooked what, and they started to feast.

Especially after Sherlock pulled out a barrel of beer, the original cooking competition completely turned into a food sharing event from various countries, and even felt like a celebration party for completing a mission.

The group wasn't worried about food waste, since with their captain, a big eater, there was no problem with any amount of food.

Under the influence of alcohol, the group stayed up until late morning before finally finding places to rest, satisfied. Only poor Alexei remained unconscious in the chicken coop.

Alexei, the unfortunate fellow, didn't wake up until the evening of the following day.

After he woke up, a group of people staged a scene in front of Alexei, pretending that Hydra wanted to destroy the Red House. As for Black Widow, she believed that the enemy of my enemy is my friend and temporarily formed an alliance with this group of 'Hydra'.

Surprisingly, Alexei didn't have the slightest doubt about this flawed 'script'. Or to put it more bluntly, Alexei no longer cared about the Red Room or anything else; he was more concerned about Black Widow and Yelena's situation.

It's a genuine concern, but it's hidden beneath his goofy exterior, making it hard to detect.

If there's any problem, it's probably that when Black Widow asks Alexei about the Red Room, the unfortunate Alexei's gaze keeps falling on 'Captain Hydra'.

Sherlock had initially thought that Alexei, with his obsession with the Captain, would challenge this 'Captain clone' in front of him.

But whether it was the dazzling cold light emanating from the Storm Axe in the captain's hand, or the incredibly convincing 'cold' aura that the captain exuded, Alexei's gaze was always fixed on the captain, yet he never once suggested a one-on-one duel.

Unfortunately, Alexei didn't know much about the Red House, but he was very knowledgeable about Melina, the mother of Scarlett Johansson, and stated that Melina definitely knew the location of the Red House.

Most importantly, Alexei knew Melina's address! And he was absolutely certain that Melina hadn't moved in all this time!

More importantly, Melina lives in St. Petersburg, not far from the safe house where they are now!

After learning the news, a group of people held a meeting behind Alexei's back, exchanging glances, and then put on a grand show in front of him.

The drama between Black Widow and Hydra.

Black Widow refused to allow Hydra to accompany her to meet Melina, claiming it was a private matter and a family gathering. She even stated that if Hydra insisted on interfering with her family gathering, then her cooperation with Hydra would end there.

The Hydra agents present were naturally unwilling to accept this, but they were helpless against Black Widow, who possessed information about the Red Room. In the end, only after the Hydra captain and Sherlock's Green Skull repeatedly threatened Black Widow did they allow her to leave.

Unbeknownst to Alexei, the moment she stepped out of the courtyard, Scarlett Johansson secretly activated the tracking device on her body.

The reason for staging such a grand spectacle is actually quite simple: the men present wanted to give Scarlett Johansson some space.

If the Red Room is a problem the Avengers can face together, and even rescuing Alexei is a problem they can face together, then when it comes to Black Widow's rare opportunity to 'reunite,' her teammates shouldn't interfere.

This can be seen as a gesture of tenderness from Scarlett Johansson's comrades and friends.

As for keeping the location tracking on, it's purely for safety's sake. You have to understand that although Melina is nominally Black Widow's mother, she is still the chief scientist of the Red Room and one of Drekoff's most capable assistants. It's necessary to be on guard.

Chapter 253 Drekoff's Ambition

Just like in the movie, Black Widow, along with Yelena and Alexei, drove the Lada crafted by Sherlock towards Melina's location, and even the story that followed was similar to the movie.

Melina and Scarlett Johansson have finally resolved their differences, and there's even a hint that Alexei and Melina might have rekindled their old flame.

If we had to point out any difference, the only difference would probably be that after Black Widow arrived with Melina, she turned off her location tracking a few times to let the Avengers know where Melina was. That's all.

Compared to the warmth on Black Widow's side, the Avengers' side was rather dull. A group of men were gathered in the bedroom of the cabin, where the old-fashioned CRT television was humming with the radiator, and the screen on the television was Black Widow's location.

Hawkeye, Zhao Weike, and Tony, who had just finished reporting to their respective leaders, were idly playing cards. The game was Dou Dizhu, a game Sherlock had taught them to pass the time, and it was the no-shuffle version of Dou Dizhu.

The captain leaned against the kang (a heated brick bed) in the bedroom, holding a bottle of beer. His eyes would occasionally glance at the screen on the television opposite him, but his attention was mostly focused on the sky outside, giving him the appearance of a handsome but hesitant man.

On the contrary, Sherlock was huddled at the end of the kang (a heated brick bed), holding Tony's phone and making a video call to Doro with a maternal smile on his face.

However, for some reason, Doro in the video always gave Sherlock the feeling that he was hiding something, but Sherlock couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong. In the end, he could only attribute it to Pepper Potts and Helen being too lenient with Doro.

Even when Doro returned the phone to Pepper, Sherlock reminded her about it, and needless to say, Pepper didn't give Sherlock a chance to continue and hung up the phone.

Out of sheer boredom, Sherlock could only pull out all sorts of gadgets from his pocket and start maintaining them. This scene attracted the interest of the others, though they were mostly just curious about Sherlock's strange gadgets.

A group of people who were almost driven to PTSD by Sherlock's perverse sense of humor didn't even bother to ask what the effects of those props were; at most, they would just ask for their names.

In short, this group of people were doing everything they could to pass the time.

However, just as the group was getting bored, the captain suddenly sat up and looked at Black Widow's location on the TV with a serious expression.

"Stop playing around, something's up, Natasha's started moving."

Upon hearing the captain's words, the previously bored group instantly perked up, quickly tidied themselves up, and then focused their attention on the location displayed on the television.

"At this speed, it can't be a car, it can only be an airplane! Damn it, I knew Melina couldn't be trusted. What should we do now? Should we just follow the GPS to the Red House?"

Tony looked anxiously at the rapidly moving location on the TV screen and said something, but Hawkeye quickly rejected Tony's suggestion.

"No! Let's go check on Melina's cabin first. It's hard to say what exactly happened to Natasha. We need to gather more information to support Natasha's next plan!"

Hawkeye stared intently at the rapidly moving location on the television screen and spoke to a group of people.

After hearing Hawkeye's suggestion, the captain began to arrange the mission almost without hesitation.

“Tony, keep track of the location. We need to know the exact coordinates of the Red House. This is an opportunity! Hawkeye, you drive us to Melina's house. Just like you said, we must find out if Natasha left any clues or plans.”

After saying that, the captain took the lead and walked out of the house. A group of big men squeezed into the GAZ-69 jeep, and the captain drove towards Melina's hut.

Melina's cabin is located in the outskirts of St. Petersburg, even further from the city center than Zhao Weike's safe house, but its size and facilities undoubtedly far exceed those of Zhao Weike's cabin.

When the group arrived at Melina's cabin, a team of Black Widows were inspecting something inside.

Without saying a word, the group of people took down the Black Widows and then began searching Melina's cabin, hoping to find out if she had left any useful information.

It has to be said that Black Widow is indeed a veteran spy. After Hawkeye went inside and took a look around, he quickly found the clues left by Black Widow.

But what's puzzling is that the clues left by Scarlett Johansson point to the pigs in Melina's yard.

Faced with this situation, Sherlock and Tony, the only two highly educated people in the team, almost immediately began to inspect the pigs in the yard.

However, after the examination, both Sherlock and Tony had extremely solemn expressions.

"A powerful neural control technology! Its effects are exceptionally strong, ensuring complete control over the target while the user remains conscious!"

Tony summarized his test results with a dark expression, while Sherlock, seeing the still somewhat puzzled looks on everyone's faces, simply explained Tony's words.

"To put it simply, it's like installing a control system on a slave. It doesn't affect the slave's consciousness, but it can manipulate all of the slave's data!"

For example, a master can order a slave to stop breathing. Until the slave receives another order from the master, no matter how much they struggle, their body will not make any breathing movements; they can only watch themselves suffocate while fully conscious.