I work as an editor at Marvel.

After reviewing the information on the USB drive, Natasha gained a superficial understanding of the Ouroboros organization's dealings with the Ancient One and Kieran.

"A figure who can overpower the entire mystical world is truly terrifying," Natasha exclaimed. "By the way, since mages and such really exist, perhaps clergy also exist. Since we can't go to the major countries, why don't we go to the Vatican to take a look?"

"The Vatican? What you and I can think of, do you think those national think tanks can't? It will probably soon become a hell for intelligence agents. When that happens, if you throw a brick, nine out of ten people will be intelligence agents."

Nick Fury was quite helpless; this was the limitation of S.H.I.E.L.D. Without a real backer, they were definitely at a disadvantage when facing national powers.

"This won't work, that won't work, what should I do? Stay here?" Natasha was a little anxious; she was very worried about her future.

“No, you have two tasks now. First, find a way to re-establish contact with your teammates. Second, see if you can find any mystical agents who track down people. I think Rogers is still alive, and it’s time to find him.”

Nick Fury instructed, "These two missions are top secret and will not be recorded in the files. Only you and I know about them."

Natasha nodded, and after realizing that she was still a valuable person, she breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Knock knock, there was a knock on the door. Nick Fury opened the door, and Coulson was standing there.

"Chief, they want to access our high-level files. Mr. Pierce is stalling for time. You need to go check on them right away," Coulson said urgently.

"I'm going right now!" Nick Fury walked out of the room without saying a word. There was some information in the file that he couldn't let other heads of state know. If that information were exposed, his job as director would be over.

"Them?" Natasha sighed. "They're probably those countries that fund S.H.I.E.L.D."

Once she was alone in the room, Natasha sank her consciousness into the Ouroboros mark. There were some things she didn't intend to share with Nick Fury anymore. She knew Nick Fury; there was nothing this intelligence chief wouldn't sell, just as there was nothing he wouldn't suspect.

The tag contained three messages, which were similar to friend requests sent by Fina and her friends.

After accepting all the requests, Natasha noticed that neither Genomi nor Vernon had made any other moves; they had simply added each other as friends. Only Fina had sent a follow-up message.

After all, Natasha and Fina had been together throughout the assessment, so their relationship was relatively good.

But just as Natasha was about to reply, a notification suddenly popped up.

[No available energy detected. Please enter energy, including but not limited to blood energy, internal energy, and mana, into the marker. Failure to enter will consume points.]

Natasha quickly stopped what she was doing and brought up the points page. The details of her points clearly showed where she had earned them, mainly from the Annabelle doll she had taken in. The points she received from the new recruit assessment were less than a fraction of what she had earned that time.

Although she didn't know the exact value of the points, Natasha guessed that using points to "chat" was definitely a losing proposition.

With that in mind, Natasha opened the exchange interface, which displayed the general items that she could exchange with her current level of access.

One of the items Natasha really wanted to buy was the Career Matching Detection Potion. Scrolling down the item would reveal even more specific categories of similar products.

However, Natasha couldn't bear to spend the subsequent shipping costs. The energy consumed in transferring the item via the Ouroboros marker without any input was enough for Natasha to buy another bottle.

[The little blue-robed mage is transferring an item to you. Do you accept?]

Natasha, who was hesitating on the redemption page, clicked "accept" without saying a word.

The next second, a blue glass bead and a piece of paper fell into Natasha's hand.

"Don't use points to communicate, it's a huge loss! This is a crystallization of my magic power, don't be stingy with it. Under normal circumstances, its energy will dissipate completely within three hours. I await your reply—Fina."

Fina's thoughtfulness touched Natasha a little, something she hadn't felt in a long time. After pressing the magic crystal onto the mark, Natasha entered a communication state.

Fina: "Are you free now? I need your help."

Natasha: "What do you need me to do if you have time?"

Fina: "Um... Is it convenient to come out and talk? There isn't much magic in that magic crystal, so it probably won't last until we finish communicating."

Natasha: "Okay, where should I look for you?"

Fina: "Stark Industries, the headquarters, come over there and tell me."

Natasha: "No problem."

After a brief chat, Natasha noticed that the mana crystal was half-transparent, proving it was indeed short-lived. She even considered using Skype to contact them, but she figured Fina didn't have an account.

Shortly after leaving S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha arrived at Stark Industries headquarters, an iconic building in New York City.

After searching for a while without finding Fina, Natasha sent her a message. Half a minute later, following Fina's directions, Natasha arrived at a secluded spot and then disappeared from there.

Several satellites outside Earth also simultaneously lost monitoring of Natasha's location.

After a moment of weightlessness, Natasha found herself in a building decorated in a style reminiscent of the last century.

"Welcome!" Fina, who was waiting there, gave Natasha a big hug.

"Hmm...where is this?" Natasha asked, looking around.

“This is the temporary accommodation my teacher arranged for me. It has its own fixed-point teleportation array, and it’s free. My room is right next door,” Fina said, leading Natasha to her room.

Once inside the room, Natasha took out the completely transparent mana crystal. "Seriously, sending two messages used up so much energy. It was all gone in no time."

Fina smoothed her hair sheepishly. "Actually, it's because my technique is lacking. My magic power is too poorly concentrated, and most of the energy diffuses into the air when I press it, which is why this happened. But seriously, you need to learn a technique as soon as possible, otherwise you'll be too limited."

"Cultivation techniques? I only saw the aptitude test in the exchange interface, not any cultivation techniques..."

"Oh, you need to test your aptitude first, and then the corresponding cultivation techniques for qualified aptitude will be refreshed. But there's no rush. The potions in the mark are too expensive. Wait for me to see if I can buy a bottle from my teacher. I estimate I can get it with half the points."

Natasha nodded to indicate that she understood. It's always good to listen to professionals in these matters, and Natasha didn't think Fina would try to sabotage her on this issue. After all, they would still be working together in the future, and it wouldn't be worth ruining their relationship for a few points.

Moreover, Natasha felt that Fina was somewhat like a model student in college, the honest type.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Elm Street

"By the way, we've been talking about me for so long. Didn't you need my help with something? What is it?" Natasha asked enthusiastically.

“Well… it’s like this, aren’t you an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Although I don’t know what S.H.I.E.L.D. is, agents usually have pretty good information sources, right?” Fina looked at Natasha and spoke slowly.

Natasha nodded; S.H.I.E.L.D. was quite adept at information gathering.

“I just received an investigation assignment, but I’ve always followed my teacher and never been in the surface world, so… have you heard of Elm Street?” Fina said, writing down Elm Street.

“Elm Street?” Natasha searched her memory for a moment, then shook her head. “Never heard of it. Any other information?”

"There's nothing special about it. The mission only says that there's an ominous aura hanging over Elm Street, and some kind of evil force may have descended upon this street."

Fina read the message she had received aloud.

“It’s alright, I’ll go back and check the relevant files to see what happened there. I’m sure I can find some clues,” Natasha said confidently.

“Thank you very much. Actually, this task shouldn’t have been given to me, but my teacher said that some changes have occurred in this world, and many investigators have been drawn up to another task, leaving no manpower available. That’s why we newcomers were suddenly assigned to this task,” Fina added.

“Hmm…then why don’t I have it?” Natasha asked, wondering if she was being discriminated against or excluded in some subtle way.

“Perhaps it’s because you’re not a professional. Many of the tasks that require investigation are beyond the capabilities of ordinary people, and the clues are also beyond their ability to find. That’s why this awkward situation has arisen,” Fina explained. “Don’t worry, even if the teacher doesn’t have time to make potions, I will help you once I advance to become a full-fledged mage.”

Natasha nodded. This person was her most valuable friend right now, and she would do him a favor regardless of whether she could get the potion at a discounted price.

More than an hour later, after chatting with Fina about some random things, Natasha quickly returned to S.H.I.E.L.D., and without saying a word, she grabbed Coulson's men and together they started looking up information about Elm Street in the internal system.

"Natasha, I've found something wrong. Come take a look," Coulson called out to Natasha, turning the computer screen to its maximum size.

The computer showed a recent case report from Yushu Street, dated over a month ago. Three people suddenly died in this small area, all with unknown causes of death, and all three had families that had suddenly become rich.

“Sudden wealth and unknown cause of death—something’s fishy here,” Natasha said with absolute certainty.

……

"Hello, location confirmed, Elm Street." A call was made from inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

Before Natasha's files were even fully reviewed, the relevant information was leaked, and more than one party learned of it.

The U.S. military, the undercover Hydra unit, and the U.S. Supernatural Rapid Response Team all sent teams to that remote town.

Meanwhile, Yang Qiu looked quite helpless at home. He was now wondering if he had gone too far in his characterization of Fina, making her too naive and innocent.

What was she thinking when she proactively sought help from Natasha? And when making this decision, Fina should have been aware of the information leak issue, but judging from her behavior, she didn't think about it at all.

The man was currently in his room, waiting for Natasha's reply while studying the spell models in his hands, selecting the ones he would use to break through to the apprentice level. He was so engrossed in his research that he had no other thoughts on the matter.

Actually, there's nothing wrong on Elm Street. It's just that the concentration of negative energy there is a bit high. The reason might be that it's a normal accumulation that occurs when the world's energy is active. Fina just needs to go there for a while and submit a relevant report.

Fina made such a simple matter complicated.

Furthermore, since he anticipated that other people would get involved in this matter, Yang Qiu no longer intended to stick to his original idea.

Those people wanted to use this incident to get in touch with supernatural events, so Yang Qiu granted their wish.

In any case, there is already an excessive accumulation of negative energy there, so it is quite easy for related negative energy products to evolve.

A few hours later, on Elm Street, a man in a black coat looked around warily. After making sure no one was watching him, he entered the underground through a hidden entrance.

"Kádár, how's the situation?" a man wearing a headscarf and a floral-patterned robe asked from inside the basement.

“Amanda, the situation is not good. The operation may have to be suspended. The police station received two calls, both orders from higher authorities, to prepare information on all personnel in Elm Street. They will be coming to transfer them soon. In addition, all police officers are required to stay at their posts and await further orders.”

Kadar's tone was very heavy, and his eyes kept darting around as he spoke, as if he was thinking about something.

*Smack!* Amanda slammed her hand on the table. “No, we can’t stop. Every second the goods stay here increases the danger, and the boss is pushing hard. They’re really short of stock over there.”

"What can we do? You can't exactly transport goods openly in broad daylight, can you? Besides, the deputy director gave me some information. The guys who came to town to cause trouble this time are quite numerous, and they seem to be quite influential." Kadar sat down, took off his coat, revealing his police uniform underneath.

"Didn't you clean up what happened last time?!" Amanda yelled angrily at Kadar.

"How much cleaner do you want it to be?! The files and reports clearly state that the cause of death is unknown, that's the limit. This place isn't big, and there are only so many people. Finding a scapegoat would expose us even faster. You can't expect me to erase the details of the death, can you? If I had that ability, I would have been the chief long ago!"

Kadar was also quite angry. He glanced at Amanda and said, "And where's the money?! Where's the money?! I took such a huge risk, and where's the money?!"

"I fucking told you! We only get paid after all the goods are sold! We've only gone a third of the way and you're already stopping? And you're still criticizing me?!" Amanda roared.

That is to say, the basement is surrounded by soundproofing materials, otherwise, if he shouted like that, passersby would definitely hear him.

"Blame me?! Those three smugglers just wanted a little more money per pound of goods! Why didn't you just give them the money?! Even if you didn't give them the money, you could have killed them after the goods were sold!" Kadar slammed his fist on the table, his tone quite forceful.

The two stared at each other for a full minute.

"Forget it, I can't reason with you. From now on, don't leave here. I have to go back to the station. If I don't show up for too long, it will arouse suspicion. I'll let you know if there's any news."

As he spoke, Kadar changed into a coat of a different color and left the basement through the secret passage.

Chapter Thirty-Six: A Head-to-Head Response

"I'm telling you, this matter falls under our jurisdiction. You'd better get back to where you came from!"

"I'm sorry, we have a mission to complete, and you have no right to order us around."

Inside the meeting room of the Yushu Street Police Station, the captain of the supernatural rapid response team was yelling at the military personnel in front of him.

"What mission do you have that requires you to come to this place?!" Guda said through gritted teeth. The group's arrogant attitude infuriated him. Weren't they just taking advantage of the fact that his division was newly established and didn't have a stable backer?!

“Sorry, it’s a military secret. If you want to know, remember to have your superior send a letter to General Ross to get a slip, and then make an appointment with my people. I will tell you the specific information about the mission at that time.” Des said, putting down his cup with disgust. There was saliva spat out by the other party in it.