January 31

As for how to handle the hammer, Su Ye wasn't particularly concerned. After all, he couldn’t even lift it, and it really had nothing to do with him. Still, he felt that Zhen Yuanzhai’s plan to return the hammer to its owner was a bit too—well—polite. Back in the day, so many treasures from the garden were taken away; how many of them have ever been returned? Even if some were, it was a rarity; most of them we had to buy back ourselves at exorbitant prices. They stole your ancestors’ things, then made you pay dearly to reclaim them—such is the so-called gentlemanly conduct of Western “civilized society.”

Gentleman, my foot.

If it were up to Su Ye, since Zhen Yuanzhai could lift the hammer, why not just take it back to the Dragon Nation? As long as they could withstand the Destroyer's assault, then from that day forward, the hammer of Thor would belong to the Dragon Nation. Besides, if the hammer ended up in the Dragon Nation, it might not have to endure the Destroyer’s attack at all. After all, Loki’s goal had always been only Thor. Take the hammer, then finish off Thor, and perhaps the Dragon Nation could even establish diplomatic relations with Loki’s Asgard.

Tsk, tsk...

Loki might be cunning and devious, but who wasn’t a sly old fox in their own right? When it came to schemes, the Dragon Nation was hardly afraid.

Su Ye’s idea was perfectly feasible, but Teacher Zhen Yuanzhai was not the sort of person who, if bitten by a dog, would bite back. Otherwise, he would never have been able to lift Thor’s hammer in the first place.

So, a few days later, when he was leaving the United States with his apprentice, Zhen Yuanzhai simply left the hammer behind—casually abandoning it at the Shiranui dojo, almost as if he’d deliberately chosen that spot to annoy the old devil Hanzo Shiranui.

As for Hanzo Shiranui, he simply stopped returning to the dojo, vanishing both day and night; no one knew whether he’d gone off to see an old flame or had just rolled himself back to Japan.

As a result, things became even more unbearable for King and Yuri Sakazaki at night. Seven days a week, every single night of the month—who could possibly withstand such torment?

If this kept up, the two of them were going to develop nervous breakdowns. During the day, when they saw Su Ye, they barely dared to speak, as if afraid that one careless word would get them pregnant.

Fortunately, the bar’s new location was quickly settled. Su Ye bought an existing establishment, changed the sign, and opened for business. King and Yuri Sakazaki moved in to live at the bar that very same day.

At first, they thought that moving out, away from the nightly “demonic serenade,” would finally let them get some proper sleep.

But who would have thought that the very first night, they suffered from insomnia...

“King, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“It’s fine, Lily. You’ll have to grow up sooner or later!”

Yuri Sakazaki’s name, phonetically translated, was Yuri, but the direct translation was Lily—quite fitting for the occasion.

Recently, Su Ye had been busy at the Shiranui dojo every night, and his days were hardly idle, either. Gwen was always caught up in her own affairs and didn’t need Su Ye’s interference, so he spent most of his time with Dr. Fox.

After his last showdown with Iron Man, Su Ye had taken Ivan Vanko’s arc reactor and handed it over to Dr. Fox for research.

Vanko’s arc reactor was already almost indistinguishable in function and performance from Tony Stark’s second-generation reactor—the one used in the Mark II and War Machine suits, with a core made of palladium.

For Tony Stark, the palladium core was obsolete. He was now using a new element, discovered by his father, Howard Stark, during his own research into the Cosmic Cube years ago.

Howard Stark had realized the existence of this new element but, limited by the technology of his time, couldn’t synthesize it directly. Instead, he left clues to its structure in the design of the Stark Expo pavilion, using a cryptic method to keep the secret safe from ambitious villains—only his son, who knew him well, could unravel the mystery.

But for Su Ye, a traveler from another world, this secret was never a secret. He had long since gotten the structural diagrams of the Expo pavilion from Gwen. That model had been on display at Stark Industries’ Los Angeles headquarters for decades; getting his hands on it would be no trouble at all.

Next, Su Ye needed to accomplish three things.

First, he wanted Dr. Fox to help him design a new Batsuit, using the palladium reactor as its foundation, and to add flight and long-range munitions capabilities. Naturally, the power source would have to be well hidden, so no one could easily target his weak spot.

Second, he intended to study physics with Dr. Fox, laying the groundwork to eventually synthesize the new element himself and build a reactor core with it. If Iron Man could dismantle his house to assemble a particle accelerator and create a new element, Su Ye figured he could do the same. After all, while Spider-Man and Batman might not match the genius of a 250-IQ master craftsman, they weren’t far behind Iron Man either. As long as he was willing to learn, there was always a way.

Third, he planned to use Black Crystal to make smoke bombs and Black Crystal activators, though the limitations of this technology kept it from being a priority.

One day, after working in the Batcave all day, Su Ye returned to the Shiranui dojo at dusk and immediately sensed something off in the surrounding atmosphere. Normally, the neighborhood around the dojo was lively and crowded, but today, there were far more people lurking about, their behavior suspicious as they loitered near the dojo, some close, some farther away.

Though they tried to blend in, Su Ye’s sharp senses picked up the way their eyes would dart toward the dojo from time to time.

They weren’t as blatantly incompetent as the undercover cops in a bad detective flick, but to Su Ye’s keen perception, their presence was obvious.

So, had the dojo been targeted? Most likely by S.H.I.E.L.D., Su Ye mused.

Ever since Zhen Yuanzhai had left the hammer here, Su Ye had known this day would come, but he hadn’t tried to avoid it. After all, he had returned from North Town with Zhen Yuanzhai, and their flight records could easily be checked. As long as S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating Zhen Yuanzhai, Su Ye would inevitably be caught up in the inquiry as well.

There was no way to keep this a secret. Zhen Yuanzhai left the hammer here; Su Ye couldn’t remove it, so contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. was only a matter of time.

The only question was how seriously S.H.I.E.L.D. would treat the matter—would they continue to watch from the shadows, or would they come knocking at his door?

From the looks of things now, S.H.I.E.L.D. was taking the hammer very seriously indeed. Not only had they dispatched dozens of agents to monitor the Shiranui dojo, but even Director Fury’s right-hand man, Coulson, was on the scene.

At the entrance of the dojo, Coulson stood with his hands clasped, quietly waiting for the owner’s return.

Mai Shiranui was nowhere to be seen—she had probably gone to the bar to boast to King and the others.

Su Ye approached with a smile, glancing at Coulson, who was half a head shorter than himself.

“Hello, are you here to enroll your child in martial arts lessons...?”