I work as an editor at Marvel.

"Just focus on developing yourself." As she spoke, Gu Yi extended her right hand, her magic swirling in her palm, conjuring a beautiful starry sky. "What you need is different from what those people need. What you need most right now is energy support, and that's the gift I brought for you this time."

Looking at the starry sky, Yang Qiu admired the power of the Ancient One from the bottom of his heart. The wisps of energy that were scattered out of her exceeded the sum of all the spiritual power that Yang Qiu had accumulated over the long term.

"If you give this to me, what will you do with it?" Yang Qiu'an asked, suppressing his excitement.

"Two questions. First, this is not all for you. I will only give it all to you if you can develop enough power to protect the entire Earth before I reach my limit. Second, I never use my own magic power. I usually borrow the power of other dimensions to protect the Earth, which is one of the reasons why it is so powerful."

As Gu Yi spoke, she established a connection between Yang Qiu and the "Starry Sky". From then on, Yang Qiu could use the power of the "Starry Sky" to quickly restore his mental strength. In other words, although his mental strength limit was not increased, his recovery speed was directly maximized.

Yang Qiu blinked. He realized that in the movies of his previous life, the Ancient One's power was "borrowed," but most of the time it was borrowed and never returned. Not to mention that the energy Yang Qiu was replenishing was a drop in the ocean, so the Ancient One's combat power would hardly be affected.

"Rest assured, I will not let you down! I assure you that before you leave, I will definitely become a great force in protecting the Earth." Yang Qiu stood up and bowed deeply.

“I’m not worried about that. What I hope for is that after I die, Earth can continue to move forward and eventually develop into an era where everyone is like a dragon. Let’s set a small goal: let the average individual surpass Asgard.” The Ancient One smiled as she patted Yang Qiu on the shoulder, seemingly having seen some future again.

"Remember, you need to have a broad perspective. If you need any help, you can contact me, for example, I can help you forge ancient books from five hundred years ago." Gu Yi winked at Yang Qiu and stepped into the teleportation portal.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Expanding the Scope

After the Ancient One left, Yang Qiu excitedly began to draw energy. Good heavens, he had never been so rich before. The mental energy he had used to create Kieran's time stopwatch was fully restored in just a few minutes, and that was only because Yang Qiu's own mental energy recovery had an upper limit.

After fiddling around for a while and enjoying the feeling of suddenly becoming wealthy, Yang Qiu calmed down a bit and began to think about the overall situation in Gu Yikou's mind.

Indeed, I seem to have a narrow perspective. Each script is an independent script with no connection between them. The only one that was a bit grandiose was writing a monster hunter training camp for Van Helsing.

These days, making a movie or writing a novel all involves creating a universe—the DC Universe, the Marvel Universe, the Mythology Universe. Given enough energy, anyone can do that.

Yang Qiu pondered, turning his attention to Natasha, who had been brought back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Originally, the Ouroboros symbol left on her hand was just a gimmick Yang Qiu had thrown out to divert S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention, but now it seemed that it could actually come true.

Moreover, Yang Qiu gets excited whenever he thinks about how, when aliens invade Earth in the future, thousands of heroes from the Avengers will emerge.

Revenge? Revenge my foot! When the time comes, it will be their time to counter-invade. Even if they can't counter-invade, they won't be forced to choose revenge.

However, if you want to create a grand spectacle, you have to do the preparation beforehand. To be honest, none of Yang Qiu's scripts have ever gone 100% smoothly to the end. The smoothest one was the birth of Pike. All the others inevitably deviated from the plan.

What does this mean? It means that the arrangements were not in place and the control was too strict. For example, in the pocket watch challenge we just passed, we could have simply designed more anomalies in the initial design. After all, in the final scene, how the anomalies manifest is still up to Yang Qiu.

Therefore, the process is irrelevant; as long as the result is correct, that's enough for Yang Qiu. However, since he's going to weave a grand script, he still needs to take charge of the foreplay.

Inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha was in an empty room with only a bed, a table, and surveillance equipment. She had been assigned to this place after returning from that ship.

The stopwatch was only one issue; the more important thing was the mark on her hand, which could not be removed by any means.

Whether it's a serum to remove the marks, a laser to cover them up, or even if the skin is completely removed, the marks still linger on the flesh and bone.

In the dead of night, Natasha woke up with a start, clutching her right hand. The ouroboros symbol had just started to burn, a burning sensation that seemed to come from the depths of her soul. Although it wasn't painful, she couldn't ignore it no matter how she tried to distract herself.

After reporting the situation, Nick Fury quickly arrived outside the room. He was not at ease leaving Natasha, as his capable subordinate, to be investigated by others. After all, the vampire incident had made him realize that there were likely spies from other forces lurking within S.H.I.E.L.D.

"How are you feeling now?" Nick Fury stood by the window, his voice coming through the microphone.

“Same as before.” Natasha rolled up her sleeves, revealing the Ouroboros mark. The mark, which used to flash like breathing, was now highlighted as if it had been activated by something.

Nick Fury was silent for a moment, then said, "Come with me."

The doors opened, and Natasha, dressed in a thin coat, followed Nick Fury. The two walked through a high-tech passage and boarded an internal elevator, which descended to the basement level.

After the elevator doors opened, Natasha glanced outside and saw quite a few familiar faces, including Coulson and Hawkeye.

"How's that thing?" Nick Fury asked Coulson beside him as he walked forward.

"Just like a few tens of minutes ago, there's no sign of activity except for the addition of an extra marker," Coulson replied.

A mark? What mark? Natasha became suspicious.

A minute later, we arrived at our destination, an observation room with the same function as the room outside Natasha's room.

Through the completely transparent wall, Natasha saw a group of researchers and a box made of a special material in the center of them, inside which was a creepy doll.

This doll looks very much like a human baby, with a similarity of over 90%. The only thing that makes it look wrong at a glance is the broken joints and the mouth that is extremely wide open.

This is the Annabelle doll that Nick Fury captured during an operation. Research on it has continued for a long time, but like the mark on Natasha's hand, no matter how they study it, they cannot find the problem. All of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current cutting methods cannot scrape even a speck of dust off the doll. When scanning, it either shows nothing or a black doll.

Just a few tens of minutes ago, a mark suddenly appeared on the Annabelle doll—an ouroboros. The researchers immediately reported this to their superiors. Judging from the timing, the appearance of this mark was exactly the same as the time when the mark on Natasha's hand was highlighted.

"It moved!" Hawkeye Barton suddenly said. As S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strongest sniper, he possessed terrifying dynamic vision and observation skills.

"It moved?! Where?" Coulson asked back.

"The smile on his mouth has become smaller!" Hawkeye said. "Wait, it's back to normal."

Nick Fury gestured to the surveillance camera, and the agents behind him immediately pulled up the footage for comparison. The final result proved that Hawkeye was right; the Annabelle doll's smile did indeed change slightly after she "saw" Natasha.

After the results came out, everyone turned to look at Natasha, who looked completely bewildered; she felt nothing at all.

No! Since entering this room, the burning sensation marked on my arm seems to have lessened, but only slightly, and you can't feel it unless you pay close attention.

After expressing his feelings, Nick Fury pondered for a few seconds, then said, "Go walk forward and take a look."

Natasha cooperated and walked directly to the French windows. Instantly, Annabelle's expression changed, her smile vanished, and her eyes were fixed on Natasha.

“Annabelle doll…” Natasha suddenly murmured.

Hawkeye was startled. His right hand was already on the pistol at his waist. If Natasha made any sudden moves, he would shoot her in a non-lethal position immediately to subdue her.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Entry Examination

“Annabelle doll? Its name?” Nick Fury asked Natasha, standing behind Coulson.

"This name suddenly popped into my head; it must be its name," Natasha said, regaining her composure.

"That marked hand or foot?" Hawkeye asked in return.

Just then, the laboratory lights suddenly went out, and the emergency lights immediately came on.

In the blink of an eye, the Annabelle doll disappeared from the containment box. Just as everyone was on guard against a possible attack, Natasha looked at an empty corner.

Her eyes shone with a pale green light, and in her vision, the Annabelle doll hung upside down in the corner by a thread of unknown material.

Bang! Hawkeye decisively pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew towards the spot Natasha was looking at.

With a whoosh, the Annabelle doll's figure began to change shape constantly in the observation room, and Natasha pointed to some directions as she turned around.

The bullets flew through the air, but hit nothing.

Annabelle doll seemed to realize that the people below couldn't do anything to it. After understanding this, with each movement, it slowly moved closer to Natasha.

“Here you go!” Coulson said, throwing a pistol toward Natasha.

As Natasha reached for the thrown pistol, a thread shot directly towards her wrist, just before it touched her skin.

The mark on Natasha's right hand emitted a dazzling light, and under this light, the threads began to melt like ice blocks in the sunlight.

"Click click click..."

The wooden chin creaked and groaned, making strange noises. The Annabelle doll suddenly lurched backward, crashing into the doorway. This time, it was blocked behind the door.

Natasha fired several shots, but the bullets bounced off the Annabelle doll. Despite the ineffective attack, the Annabelle doll seemed to have encountered its natural enemy, constantly moving away from Natasha and shrinking into a corner.

"You all hide! I think I can catch it!" Natasha shouted, suddenly feeling confident, and lunged at the Annabelle doll.

The two played hide-and-seek in the small room. Fortunately, Natasha's body had been modified, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to catch the Annabelle doll even if it were trapped in this small space.

After a chase of more than ten minutes, Natasha grabbed one of Annabelle's fingers with her right hand.

A flash of green light appeared, and the Annabelle doll came into view. It wailed and flailed its arms, but the green light seemed to be extremely sticky, clinging to the Annabelle doll and impossible to shake off. At the same time, the green light continued to erode the parts that were not stuck.

In just a dozen seconds, the Annabelle doll was covered in green light. Then it twisted and was pulled into the mark. Natasha stood there, stunned, as a long string of information flashed through her mind.

[Successfully contained the escaped monster - the Annabelle doll...]

No containment ID detected...

[Warning! The inmate failed the entry test and was illegally identified as a person with an assigned number...]

Natasha tensed up; if she hadn't been without a knife, she would have chopped off her right forearm.

[Sizzle...]

[Retest successful. The inmate is a prospective employee. Onboarding review time is tentatively set for... *buzzing sounds*]

Just as Natasha was wondering what was happening, a black cat emerged from the shadows of the room and, in full view of everyone, jumped onto Natasha's head. Everyone in the observation room and the research room froze in place, able to think but unable to move even a finger.

“I temporarily disconnected the detection system from the internet. I was planning to introduce it to you sometime, but I didn’t expect you to be so lucky as to encounter the monster that escaped last time, and such a weak one at that.” Ann’s voice rang in Natasha’s mind.

Natasha rolled her eyes, trying to observe Anne above her head, but she didn't see Anne. She only saw a familiar stopwatch floating there, ticking away.

"The internet outage won't last long. I'm asking you, are you planning to participate in the entry-level assessment? There's a risk of death. If not, I'll take the mark and that strange creature away right now." An was acting out the script Yang Qiu had written.

“You should at least tell me what kind of industry it is before you decide to participate,” Natasha said, stalling for time as she looked at Nick Fury after realizing she could speak.

"You don't have that much time left, you have thirty seconds."

Nick Fury blinked with all his might, under the influence of fear.

“I’ll participate!” Natasha replied immediately.

"That's fine then. It's not in accordance with procedure to contact you beforehand. I'll schedule your assessment for the next group assessment of new recruits. In the meantime, strengthen your training... never mind, just run more every day. If you can't beat them, try to outrun them." An left these words and then disappeared.

[Buzzing... Interference has been eliminated. The assessment channel is temporarily closed. Containment points have been deposited into a temporary account. Please pay attention to notifications.]

After Ann left, the room returned to normal. Without saying a word, Nick Fury activated the emergency procedures, and a team of agents would arrive soon to subdue all the researchers.

Immediately afterwards, Nick Fury took Natasha alone to one of the most heavily guarded places in S.H.I.E.L.D.—his office.

After explaining her situation and repeating what the voice had said, Natasha sat down comfortably and watched Nick Fury walk around the room.

Natasha was also unsettled. Today's events and the cruise ship's experiences kept flashing through her mind. She glanced down at her arm, where the doll whose gun had stopped working was caught in this small mark. This mark seemed to be compensation from the black cat after it stole the stopwatch, and it appeared to be a kind of industry entry permit.

“I’ll classify this as top secret. All your missions are canceled for the time being. Do as that cat said and start exercising more,” Nick Fury said, turning around.

Natasha shrugged. It would be a miracle if she could improve her physical fitness through ordinary training now.

Nick Fury understood this, but he really had nothing else to say. Natasha was basically at the peak of an ordinary person's strength, but in that cat's eyes, she was still ridiculously weak.

On the other side, after the performance, An jumped around Yang Qiu. It was its first time acting, and it was a little excited.

Yang Qiu placed the Annabelle doll in a box surrounded by miniature hunter traps, which he had made himself using Van Helsing's power. After finishing this, Yang Qiu clapped his hands and prepared to make contact with the other people.

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Punisher

It was another quiet night. Pike arrived at the headquarters of a small gang in New York City, following the list. This gang did all sorts of jobs, and their specialty was double-crossing. However, many of the gang members were retired U.S. military personnel, which allowed them to live a peaceful life in this place.