Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 165 Tony Goes Abroad, Captain America Recovers Ahead of Schedule (Updated 3/3)

Skye asked one last time to confirm, "Boss, is everything you're saying true?"

"If I awaken superpowers, will I really not turn into an ugly monster?"

Xia Zuo replied affirmatively, "Of course, I guarantee that everything I said is true."

"Skye, I know what abilities you will awaken, and of course I also know that you will become even more beautiful after you awaken them."

""

"I also know a prophecy: you, Skye, are destined to be the king of the Inhumans, the savior who will save them from peril."

Skye, convinced by Shazo's confident attitude, finally felt completely at ease and then asked curiously, "Where is the third place where we can obtain Terrigen Crystals?"

Xia Zuo's eyes were dark. After a slight hesitation, he continued, "The third place is in a secret realm called the Afterlife. I have no idea where it is."

Skye was driven to despair: "How could this be? All these clues are unreachable! How am I supposed to awaken my shockwave superpowers?"

Shazo laughed and said, "Actually, it's not like there's no way. Skye, do you remember what I told you about S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Skye nodded: "Of course I remember, they had a Terrigen Crystal."

Xia Zuo said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps a lot of strange things and keeps them extremely secret."

"But there is no such thing as absolute secrecy in this world, and the more people in charge there are, the more difficult it is to keep secrets."

"Skye, what do you think S.H.I.E.L.D. should do to keep it a secret?"

Skye thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up: "Minimize the human element in the security process as much as possible, so use computer systems to replace manual management as much as possible, and manage through an efficient network —"

Computer systems! Networks!

Skye jumped excitedly on Shazo's lap twice and shouted happily, "So, the reason you want me to study hacking skills is to find S.H.I.E.L.D.'s warehouse through the internet."

"Then, using their computer system, we'll get our hands on the Terrigen Crystal!"

It took Xia Zuo a while to regain his composure, suppress the fire in his heart, and clear the bloodshot from his eyes.

He grinned and replied, "That's exactly what I'm thinking. If you can find traces of S.H.I.E.L.D. online and track down the location of their warehouse where the Terrigen Crystals are stored, I can guarantee that I can get the crystals out of that warehouse."

"Finding the crystal traces in the S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse will be my test of your hacking skills."

"I can't get my hands on the crystals until you complete this task, understand?"

"So now you should get off my lap, go back to your room and sleep, so you can be well-rested for school tomorrow!"

""

Xia Zuo was feeling unwell, and Skye was feeling just as bad; neither of them has recovered yet.

She stood up listlessly, her mood slightly downcast, and said, "Yes, boss."

Skye stopped at the door, and for some reason, she suddenly turned around, ran back, bent down, and gently kissed Xia Zuo on the cheek.

Then Skye, blushing, said, "Thank you, boss."

"And boss, you're so strong!"

After saying that, the girl, whose neck was completely red, ran out the door without looking back.

The girl's kiss was like a glass of cold water poured into a blazing oil pan.

The cold water not only failed to extinguish the flames, but was instantly evaporated into steam, blasting away countless oil droplets and causing the flames to rise violently, instantly turning into a huge fireball.

Xia Zuo's desire erupted like a volcanic eruption, as if he were being burned by fire, and he almost caught the escaped girl.

He was able to firmly press himself onto the sofa entirely through sheer willpower.

But the burning flames that wouldn't subside were too unbearable, so after calming himself down, Xia Zuo stood up and went into the bathroom.

After a long while, Xia Zuo sneezed loudly under the showerhead in the bathroom.

He muttered to himself with a hint of complaint, "That brat, she really knows how to play with fire."

"Thankfully, she'll be going to Cornell University soon, otherwise it would be a disaster."

"By the time she graduates from university, she should be old enough to eat. Then I'll make that little girl beg for mercy!"

Xia Zuo turned on the tap again.

In Skye's room, she hid herself completely under the covers, blushing so much she didn't dare look at herself.

"Hehe, the boss looks fierce, but he's actually really cute."

She secretly took out a tablet, opened the monitoring software, and checked each room one by one. She quickly found Xia Zuo in the bathroom.

Skye bit her red lips with her white teeth, her heart pounding like a drum, her eyes wide with shy curiosity as she carefully observed Xia Zuo taking a shower.

"The boss has a great physique. The pectoral muscles I just touched were so firm and bouncy. They look even better than a model's."

"Strange, why doesn't he have abs? Tsk tsk, that's a bit lacking."

"(o) Wow, it really is that big!"

She stretched out her fair arm to compare, looked at it, and stuck out her tongue in surprise: "It's so big, so hot, is it really a human thing?"

"I, I, I can... Hey, oh dear, how embarrassing!"

Skye buried her face in the soft mattress, her arms and legs flailing wildly across the bed as if they were powered by motors.

The budding romance of a young girl is in full bloom, showcasing the vitality of her youth.

On the other side, Xia Zuo took a cold shower for two hours before returning to bed and drifting off to sleep with a sigh.

On the top floor of Wilson Building, Kingpin stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the bustling city that never sleeps, pondering the news he had just received that Bullseye had been arrested.

His mind was filled with doubt, and he couldn't be sure what Xia Zuo wanted to do.

Did he know that his purpose in recruiting Bullseye was to deal with Xia Zuo after the test, so he preemptively struck to give himself a warning?

Or perhaps Xia Zuo still doesn't want to let Kingpin's attempt to murder Typhoid Mary go unpunished, and is looking for an opportunity to teach him a lesson?

Or perhaps it's nothing at all, just a coincidence?

-

Kingpin's dilemma is certainly not without reason.

As the emperor of the underworld, Kingpin controls nearly half of the gray and black businesses, and naturally pays close attention to Mexico, an important supplier.

Therefore, he learned of Melissa's death immediately, and a few days later, he received detailed intelligence that differed from the reports of the Mexican Drug Enforcement Administration and Mexican officials.

A person with special abilities inspected the battlefield and confirmed that Melissa herself and her entire army had been killed before the heavy missiles exploded and the thermobaric bombs covered the area.

The investigators didn't recognize the killer, but they were certain he possessed unprecedented gunfighting skills and had stormed Melissa's fortified villa head-on, wiping out an army of over 300 men.

Finally, he "tortured" Melissa for four hours and looted a great deal of her valuables.

This was a powerful, greedy, cruel, and ruthless demon who not only executed Melissa but also beat her until she was like a rag doll.

The intelligence even confirmed that Melissa was no ordinary person; her body was burned by the thermobaric bomb, and only her clothes were burned away.

The skin, riddled with bullet holes, was not charred by the fire, and even the hair was only slightly dry.

Even the corpse was so bizarre, Melissa's strength was definitely not to be underestimated, and the gun-fu master who killed her was even more terrifying.

For some reason, after seeing the detailed information, Kingpin connected this mysterious gunfighting master with Shazor.

Moreover, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that his guess was correct, and the more he thought about it, the more his scalp tingled.

Kingpin felt he had to find a way to increase his power as soon as possible, otherwise the monster would surely find an opportunity to kill him.

He gritted his teeth and muttered to himself, "Who should I contact General Ross through?"

..

Time flies, and before we knew it, it was 2008.

During this period, Xia Zuo also encountered a disruption in his return cycle, entering the dimensional dream only once in a full seven months.

No new characters have appeared in the dimensional dream yet, but Xia Zuo has still gained a lot.

As expected of everyone's golden finger, Naruto Natsume continued to grow at a rapid pace even after becoming Hokage.

During the dream gathering, Marvel's Shazam obtained Dust Release, a fusion of wind, fire, and earth, and Steel Release, a fusion of earth, wind, and water, from Naruto's Shazam.

In the Marvel universe, these two abilities mutate into Disintegration and Iron Body, a super-weakened version of Iron Body, roughly equivalent to the mutant Colossus.

More importantly, he also obtained the Flying Thunder God Technique, which the Hokage, Natsume, had barely mastered.

Although it's a bit of a stretch, it's already a remarkable thing that it's usable.

This gave Xia Zuo even more confidence, and he could no longer suppress the urge to take action against S.H.I.E.L.D.

But before that, the landmark event that Shazo regarded as the beginning of the superhero craze finally began.

Amid the wave of deindustrialization, Stark Industries' stock price reached a new peak due to its unique weapons development and manufacturing capabilities.

This year, Tony Stark developed the all-new Jericho missile.

This is a groundbreaking, high-powered, precision-guided super cluster MIRV missile.

However, the Jericho missile had a problem: for the conservative, small-scale army, the price of the new missile was simply too high, and they were unwilling to buy too many new missiles.

If the cost price is so high, it's not easy to increase the price in the defense budget.

Without any extra charge, how would Commissioner Smith get his share?

If Commissioner Smith doesn't take it, how can he convince the men on Capitol Hill to approve the budget and spend money generously?

Without money, the army has nothing.

In an effort to persuade the Army and Commissioner Smith, Tony Stark, at the urging of Obadiah Stan, traveled to a base in the Central Asian desert to personally demonstrate the power of the Jericho missile.

And incidentally, give Commissioner Smith a generous kickback.

Only in those chaotic and war-torn places could one possibly escape the sharp eyes of the IRS.

It's perfectly normal for an all-powerful IRS agent to feel uncomfortable in the desert environment and accidentally "get lost" or "disappear."

However, Stark's trip to Central Asia was not made public.

The private jet he was traveling on had its flight route reported directly to the Air Force through private channels, and it was flying a military route.

From the news, newspapers, and the internet, Shazo Dawson had no idea that Stark had left Millet Point.

In other words, ordinary people have absolutely no chance of making waves in the stock market by taking advantage of Tony Stark's tragic fate.

By the time news reports of Tony Stark's troubles surfaced, the opportunities to short Stark Industries stock had already been completely wiped out by the big players.

Fortunately, Skye was by Shazo's side.

Although Skye has been at Cornell University for less than six months, her hacking skills have improved significantly.

The young girl wrote her own efficient web crawler software, collected a massive amount of information from the internet, bought the best servers with Xia Zuo's money, and then compared the big data with data models that Xia Zuo had mentioned briefly.

Finally, Skye determined the answer by examining personnel changes at Stark Industries, trends in the canteen supply chain, and changes in the purchase volume of specific ingredients and beverages.

Tony Stark has left Rice Point.

But Skye didn't understand what Shazo did next.

When something happened, she used the online chat software she developed to contact Xia Zuo and started a video call.

Looking at the leisurely Xia Zuo, the girl asked, "Boss, why did you short Stark Industries stock?"

"The president of a multinational corporation like Tony Stark is always traveling all over the world, so it's perfectly normal for him to leave MiLiZhi."

Xia Zuo replied with a smile, "This time is different."

Skye, a new era has begun.

Skye: "Huh?"

Xia Zuo exclaimed, "Guess who I saw in Hell's Kitchen?"

Skye was puzzled: "Boss, there are so many people in Hell's Kitchen, how could I possibly guess who the boss saw?"

Xia Zuo made his request again: "Guess."

But the girl still guessed seriously, "Daredevil? The Punisher? It can't be Bullseye, can it?"

Xia Zuo said helplessly, "How could he be Bullseye? I personally arrested this ruthless criminal. How could he possibly walk out of prison alive?"

"I'm not a hypocritical tycoon like Batman. I don't believe the law can solve evil; I only believe my own bullets can solve criminals."

"As for Daredevil and the Punisher, do you think their abilities warrant my attention?"

Skye chuckled. Having suffered bullying since childhood, she had no trust in the law and strongly supported Xia Zuo's approach of eliminating the root of the problem.

Criminals with abilities beyond the comprehension of ordinary people are simply not capable of being imprisoned for long.

Leaving aside the possibility of them escaping from prison themselves, the US government, conglomerates, intelligence agencies, and the military could all release these criminals from prison to serve their own needs.

Once these criminals are released from prison, they will naturally retaliate against the police officers who arrested them, and often without any scruples.

Therefore, as the NYPD's most notorious administrative leave addict, Shazor rarely arrests serious criminals; he usually shoots them dead on the street.