Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

Luye took out a spatial bag and used his spirit-controlling ability to manipulate metal to put one of the cans inside before looking at the circular device.

Sherlock, the alchemist, naturally became the chief technical officer in charge of analyzing this thing.

However, the more Sherlock analyzed, the stranger his expression became.

The reason is simple: this thing is just a one-time teleportation portal built using the Space Stone!

Chapter 544 The Endless Encounters of Old Friends! (Part 1)

Yes, strictly speaking, this thing should be considered a byproduct of Black Egg's research on energy weapons using the Cosmic Cube.

The reason it's a one-time use item is quite simple: it consumes the energy accumulated from the original Tesseract. After the Battle of New York, Hydra lost the energy support of the Tesseract, so it naturally became a one-time use item.

It's no exaggeration to say that any tracking skill will fail in the face of this thing. In fact, because there is no energy replenishment, you won't even know where the Hydra teleported to in the end, because the entire operating rules of this thing are based on the energy of the Cosmic Cube!

Hydra probably never imagined that the Tesseract, or the Space Stone, would return to Earth from Asgard, let alone that the guy who possessed the Space Stone would get involved in this pursuit.

It can only be said that this was purely coincidental; it was just a coincidence that opened the door for another coincidence, and coincidence came full circle!

While Sherlock mentally ranted about Hydra's bad luck, he silently used the Space Stone to power up the machine, trying to find the coordinates of Hydra's last teleportation.

However, after Sherlock found the coordinates inside the machine and searched for them on his phone, the first thing he said was...

"Holy crap! Can't the Riddler just get off the planet?!"

The reason why Sherlock broke down like this is simple: you would never guess where this one-time teleportation portal was headed!

Luxembourg!

In other words, they drove all the way from Luxembourg, almost across the entire country of Germany, and finally returned to where they started.

Damn, I never expected that both the Ancient One and Hydra were such cunning players!

With a dark expression, Sherlock grabbed Deer and Thor's arms and initiated a teleportation based on spatial coordinates.

With a flash of blue light, the three figures appeared in a base the next second, and the entire base began to sound alarms frantically the moment they appeared.

Large numbers of armed men gathered toward the place where the three had appeared. The three reacted quickly. Kano used his full power to resist, while Thor rushed out almost immediately.

The two were vastly different in combat. Thor, relying on his bizarre weapon and the lightning crackling around him, was almost invincible, leaving either the dead or crippled wherever he went.

Compared to Thor, the people of Deerfield were much more refined.

Despite the advanced level of civilization and the abundance of metal in the base before him, Kano remained restrained, believing that combat was merely about rendering the enemy incapable of fighting.

Sherlock originally wanted to persuade Kano that there was no need to hold back against Hydra, since they were no different from the Japanese devils.

However, after dealing with the first wave of armed personnel, when new enemies appeared before them, Kano's fighting style underwent a dramatic change, transforming from gentle to brutal.

The reason why Kano went so crazy was because of the three leaders among the newly arrived enemies.

Or rather, that thing can no longer be called a human.

Two of the three enemies who came to provide support looked exactly alike, resembling metal skeletons with no skin or muscle visible on their bodies.

All the skin was replaced with a transparent acrylic-like material, while the internal muscles that should have been there were replaced with black artificial muscles.

The area inside the abdominal cavity that should have been occupied by internal organs had been completely emptied out, turning it into a container filled with a pale green liquid.

Within that pale green liquid, Sherlock and his companions could clearly see a small child curled up inside.

If this alone isn't enough to send chills down your spine, then any living being would find the image on that metal skull unacceptable.

What should have been the skull was replaced by a transparent lid, inside which was filled a transparent liquid, and a living brain floated in that transparent liquid.

Most importantly, even from this distance, Sherlock could clearly see that the brain was covered with countless extremely tiny metal spikes.

The metal skull in the very center, which is clearly the leader, is even more exaggerated. Apart from the curled-up child inside its abdomen, there are also transparent light green liquid containers on its biceps and thighs.

However, due to the size of these jars, they don't contain children, but rather four small animals: a snake, a kitten, a bird, and a turtle.

Coincidentally, the kidnapped little monsters that Sherlock and the others were searching for this time were also snakes, cats, birds, and turtles!

"you wanna die!!!"

The moment he saw this scene, Kano's eyes turned red. His metal body shattered into countless fragments, instantly killing all the armed personnel following the three guys. Then, the fragments transformed back into a sword in Kano's hand, which he then thrust at the guy in the middle.

However, when faced with Kano's attack, the guy standing in the middle didn't even lift his eyelids, as if he were shooing away a fly, and then just waved his hand.

A pale blue light screen appeared between Kano and this guy like a barrier, and then pushed out directly towards Kano.

Under the immense impact, Lu Ye was directly blasted away by the barrier-like light screen, landing right next to Sherlock. Sherlock reached out and caught him before he regained his balance, staring incredulously at the inhuman, ghostly thing.

"Impossible! Stone Armor? What did you do to Da Song?"

Unfortunately, the figure ignored Kano and instead stared intently at Sherlock standing next to Kano. Sherlock, on the other hand, casually pulled Kano up and spoke to him in a relaxed tone.

"Don't be so surprised. The so-called Flowing Stone Armor is not unreplicable. As long as the principle is understood, it is not difficult for Hydra to replicate it with its modern technology."

And if nothing unexpected happens, this guy isn't targeting you, but me! What intrigues me, though, is that this guy gives me a strange feeling of familiarity.

As soon as Sherlock finished speaking, the inhuman leader opposite him let out an extremely hoarse laugh. The transparent skin on his head twitched slightly, revealing a barely perceptible smile, as he spoke to Sherlock.

"A very keen intuition, Sherlock. It has indeed been a long time!"

With that sound, like that of an old-fashioned horn, Sherlock's memories were instantly awakened, and he looked at the inhuman, ghostly thing standing in the middle with an incredulous expression.

"Dr. Zola? Impossible! They should have killed you outright back then!"

Chapter 545 The Endless Encounters of the Past! (Part 2)

After finding a recollection of the thing before him in his memory, Sherlock's expression was almost as if he had seen a ghost. In fact, Sherlock did see a ghost in every sense of the word.

It's important to know that when Sherlock destroyed Dr. Zola, who had transformed into a giant sphere, in that base, he clearly sensed that Dr. Zola's soul had dissipated.

But if Dr. Zola's soul has really vanished, then what is this inhuman, ghostly thing in front of us?

Sherlock felt like his CPU was about to burn out and couldn't figure out what was going on.

Seeing the horrified look on Sherlock's face, the thing that resembled Dr. Zola chuckled, its red eyes flashing, and spoke cheerfully to Sherlock in a voice like an old-fashioned megaphone.

"Don't be so surprised, my dear Mr. Sherlock. You can imagine, a genius who invented consciousness uploading in that era, a genius who suffered from disability and was even ridiculed for it."

At the end of his life, after inventing that damned technology of uploading consciousness, will he simply become a bunch of fragile, immobile machines, or even machines that have no sense of the outside world?

Could he desperately crave a young, normal, strong body, or even one with a mind that matches his intelligence?

The answer seems obvious! After all, in Zola's plan, the so-called consciousness upload was merely a prerequisite for his resurrection plan.

The inhuman, mechanical thing in front of him explained to Sherlock in an elegant, aria-like tone, but this explanation only made Sherlock's brows furrow even deeper, his eyes fixed on the thing that called itself Dr. Zola.

"No! I've confirmed it, Zola's soul has vanished! And you've been using 'he' instead of 'me' from the very beginning! So, who are you really?"

Faced with Sherlock's questioning, the thing that claimed to be Dr. Zola seemed quite pleased. He opened his arms and even turned around in front of Sherlock to show off his body before speaking to Sherlock in an excited tone.

"Yes, that's right, I've always been talking about him! Because I am Zola and yet I am not Zola! The consciousness uploading technology has given me all of Zola's memories and wisdom, I am Zola! But I am not Zola!"

Even he hadn't expected that the birth of life would be so interesting. After he used cell editing to recreate a perfect 'vessel' and brought it into existence, the vessel itself gave birth to a pure soul!

Isn't that what makes life so interesting?

As he spoke, the man who called himself Zola's smile became increasingly distorted, though it was difficult to see through his transparent skin. His tone grew increasingly manic and gleeful.

"Do you know what's most ironic? That guy Zola tried to challenge the authority of God, and as a result, I was born, and God pinned me to the ground and laughed at me!"

He attempted to hold power for a lifetime, but was betrayed by his own good apprentice, Pierce, the successor he had personally selected. In the end, he not only became a 'supercomputer', but was also forced into a cautious exile, hiding behind the scenes and turning into a ball!

The most interesting thing is that before he could figure out how to cleanse my soul, his damned, aging and crippled body was already unable to support his research.

He could only watch helplessly as his physical body died, like a defeated dog, hiding in that dark and sunless machine, cautiously planning his chance to turn things around.

After losing his physical body, he came to loathe human greed, unaware that he himself was the greatest believer in greed!

At this point, the guy who called himself Zola paused slightly, tapped his transparent head with his hand, and then continued speaking to Sherlock.

"Speaking of which, I should thank you, Mr. Sherlock. If you hadn't led those idiots from the Avengers to kill that fool who wanted to control me out of jealousy, I would never have gained my current freedom!"

Especially after watching how you eliminated that idiot, I realized even more deeply that conspiracies and tricks are a joke in the face of absolute power.

Now, I have not only inherited everything from that fool, but I also possess the body, power, and strength that he craved his whole life!

You are the one who set me free, the one who unlocked my shackles! For this, I express my heartfelt gratitude to you!

The guy who called himself Zola even bowed to Shylock at this point, a gesture usually reserved for ancient European courts.

If it weren't for its bizarre appearance, just by looking at its standard movements, an uninformed person might even think that this thing in front of them was a nobleman from some royal family.

After hearing what the thing in front of him said, Kano subconsciously glanced in Sherlock's direction. Although he didn't know what Sherlock and the others meant by "ball" or "Zola," there was one thing Kano was quite certain of.

That is, this thing in front of us has something to do with Sherlock!

Sherlock was completely bewildered, even wondering if Zola had somehow inherited some kind of legacy from his grandfather.

Why does this scene before me look so similar to my grandfather's Nirvana Plan? Perhaps the only difference is that my grandfather's Nirvana Plan was indeed effective, while Zola's failed.

Even so, Sherlock could imagine just how jealous the real Zola must have been of this thing.

Zola's jealousy also fueled the madness and insecurity of the creature before him. This insecurity led to the creature's thirst for power, which in turn resulted in the abduction of the little demon on the rabbit's side.

This was the first time in both of his lives that Sherlock had ever so directly experienced what the butterfly effect meant.

Under the increasingly complicated gaze of Kano, Sherlock rubbed his temples with a headache and held up a finger at the guy opposite who called himself Zola.

"One last question, there's something I'm curious about. I remember very clearly when we were in the small town of Opheim, Montana, during our operation, I cut off all communication between the base and the outside world. How did you 'see' it?"

Upon hearing Sherlock's question, the guy who claimed to be Zola pointed to the sky, then tapped his temple before speaking to Sherlock.

"It's simple, satellite! Although this method of communication doesn't transmit a large amount of data, it's more than enough for Sherlock if he only wants to convey a few thoughts and feelings of that poor Zola!"

Ironically, that idiot experimented on me relentlessly, was so cruel to me and even tried to control me, yet in the end, he actually hoped that I would help him take revenge?

What a foolish person! He thought himself clever, yet he'd been manipulated by human nature his whole life. Did he really think I was just his puppet? Hahahaha!

Chapter 546 The Battle Begins

The guy who claimed to be Zola laughed incredibly wildly, as if he had really seen the funniest joke. But apart from him, neither Sherlock nor Luye laughed.

Sherlock even began to show a mocking expression as he looked at the skeleton opposite him, who was laughing wildly.

"But didn't I still appear before you?"

Sherlock's words were like a shackle, his wild laughter abruptly stopped as if his throat had been choked. The guy who claimed to be Zola stared at Sherlock with a complicated look in his eyes.