Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

"You must be a newbie or someone entering this information market for the first time, right?"

Sherlock did not answer the question, remaining silent and waiting for the person to continue.

As expected, seeing that Sherlock did not answer, the hoarse voice continued to speak.

"Let's talk about the price! If your offer satisfies me, I'll send you the way to verify the information."

Hearing the hoarse voice say these words, Sherlock's brows furrowed even deeper. Although Sherlock had never experienced such negotiations before, judging from the man's behavior after entering and the response speed of his bracelet, it was clear that this information should not be any difficult classified information.

Sherlock did not answer, but lowered his head and began to think. Soon, Sherlock figured out the key to it.

It's quite obvious that the coordinates of the valley where the Ten Rings stored their weapons weren't exactly a secret; in fact, it was an open secret.

The real reason Sherlock felt this information must be very expensive was actually because Sherlock already knew that Tony Stark was being held captive in a cave in the valley!

It's a very simple logical trap. The Ten Rings' activities in the Middle East are not really a secret. The real secret is that the Ten Rings kidnapped Tony and imprisoned him in a cave in the valley!

Only in this way can we explain why our wristband responded so quickly after we made the request. We must remember that the process is not even over yet, so how could it respond so quickly?

Only in this way can we explain why the first thing this person said after entering was to ask if it was their first time at this information market! After all, only a novice would ask such a stupid question and make such a stupid request without knowing the facts.

Having figured this out, Sherlock chuckled and took a gold coin from his pocket, gently placing it on the narrow table. He then spoke in a female voice to the person opposite him.

"This is the price! This is the only price I'm offering."

Upon seeing the gold coin Sherlock pulled out, the man opposite seemed to pause for a moment before finally uttering two words in a hoarse voice.

"not enough!"

Faced with the man's haggling, Sherlock showed no sign of anxiety. Instead, he pointed towards the door of the cabin and said calmly.

"If you're not satisfied, you're welcome to leave. Buying information that's already become commonplace for just one gold coin is a great deal! By the way, this is indeed my first time at this information market, but I'm just here to take a look."

After a pause, Sherlock continued.

"Believe me, if you leave this room, the next person to come in will probably be happy to take this gold coin and tell me the information I want to know."

Sherlock's tone and voice perfectly portrayed the image of a spoiled young lady in a high position, even making the person opposite him feel a little confused.

After a long while, the man finally spoke again.

"One last question, what do you want to do with these coordinates?"

Hearing the hoarse voice asking the question, Sherlock frowned slightly, instinctively sensing that something was amiss; it seemed that the hoarse voice was meddling a bit too much.

However, in order to maintain his persona, Sherlock still answered somewhat dissatisfiedly in a female voice.

"Sir, I think you're being a bit too nosy. I've already said I just wanted to come and see for myself. I certainly didn't buy the coordinates to go on a trip, did I?"

In just two short sentences, the image of a spoiled, naive young lady from a high-status family is completely formed.

Without further hesitation, the figure opposite him took the gold coins from the table and casually recited a string of numbers.

"If you don't believe me, you can always verify it with another gold coin."

After giving the coordinates, the hoarse voice casually said something, then stood up and walked towards the gate.

Sherlock, who was still sitting in his seat, replied in the same female voice.

"No need, I've already experienced everything I wanted to experience!"

After saying that, Sherlock walked out of the hut without any hesitation, even before the man could.

Looking at the closed door of the small house in front of him, the person stood there for a moment, then took out his phone, sent a message, and then pushed open the door of the small house and left.

At the same time, in Washington, D.C., at the headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D., Eddie Redmayne's phone rang, displaying a clear message.

Clint Barton: Investigate whether the High Table behind the Continental Hotel is also involved in Tony's affairs.

After seeing the message from Hawkeye, Blackie issued a series of orders, and the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. began to operate at high speed once again.

Chapter 15 Departure

As S.H.I.E.L.D. operates at high speed, the actions unique to the violent agencies have put the High Table and the Continental Hotel on edge, completely unaware of what has happened.

Sherlock had no idea what kind of storm his casually created persona would cause in the United States, thousands of miles away. He also never imagined that he would encounter Hawkeye, who was secretly collecting intelligence, on his very first time attending this intelligence fair.

Having obtained the information he wanted, Sherlock did not linger in the information market. Instead, he left and returned to his room.

In the living room, Sherlock took out the satellite map he had obtained from the military and quickly located the canyon after entering the coordinates.

After confirming that everything was correct, Sherlock quickly outlined his route and plan before turning and heading towards his room.

Until Sherlock closed his eyes, he felt as if he had forgotten something, but he was so sleepy that he couldn't keep his eyes open, so he couldn't remember what he had forgotten and simply closed his eyes and fell asleep.

So much so that the unfortunate Zhao Weike, whom Sherlock had forgotten, wandered around the intelligence market for half a day, completely unaware that his good partner had already gone back to sleep.

Unlike Sherlock, who responded immediately after simply registering his request, Zhao Weike's attempt to find information related to Tony in the market was an incredibly difficult task.

The bracelet would occasionally remind Zhao Weike to meet in those cabins, but after a brief conversation with the intelligence provider, Zhao Weike could almost immediately tell that the other party was a fraud.

After all, if they could really obtain intelligence here, Hawkeye and the military wouldn't have come away empty-handed.

When the Ten Rings kidnapped Tony, they demonstrated exceptional professionalism. There wasn't even a single spent shell casing at the scene, and the area was completely sealed off, eliminating any possibility of leakage.

After wandering around all night, having spent about five gold coins on drinking alone, Zhao Weike could only return to his room dejectedly.

I originally thought that a mainland hotel, which is deeply intertwined with assassins, gangs, and terrorist organizations, would know information that the official forces were completely unaware of, but now it seems that this is not the case at all.

It seems that all the information related to Tony during this period has been officially verified.

Zhao Weike returned to his room just before the intelligence market ended, but to his surprise, he saw a robe hanging by the door and realized that Sherlock had already returned.

This made Zhao Weike so angry that he gritted his teeth, and even felt like he had been tricked by Sherlock. However, when Zhao Weike saw the satellite map on the coffee table in the living room, as well as the locations, routes and plans that Sherlock had casually marked, Zhao Weike decided to let Sherlock go.

Although Zhao Weike still doesn't know how Sherlock determined that Tony was in this valley, let alone how Sherlock determined that Tony was in the hands of the Ten Rings in the Middle East.

After checking the time, Zhao Weike didn't choose to go back to his room to rest. Instead, he sat down on the sofa, partly to keep watch, and partly to help Sherlock refine his route and plan.

He opened his phone and logged into the official website of the Mainland Hotel. In the intelligence section, Zhao Weike began to use the Mainland Hotel's channels to gather information about the Ten Commandments Gang.

As Zhao Weike collected and organized the information on the satellite map, it began to grow more and more, no longer just simple routes and plans, but many more routes and plans.

It wasn't until late at night, just before sunrise, that Zhao Weike finally finished packing his things and went upstairs to wake the three sleeping people.

Although Sherlock and Helen didn't know why Zhao Weike would wake them up in the middle of the night, out of respect for the rules of the Continental Hotel and trust in Zhao Weike, they put on their robes and followed Zhao Weike into the car, leaving the Continental Hotel directly.

Only after the Mainland Hotel had completely disappeared from everyone's sight did Zhao Weike tear off his robe and begin to explain to the three of them.

The Mainland Hotel here operates under wartime rules, and since most of the people gathered here are intelligence personnel, almost no one actually stays here until sunrise. Once the safe zone rules are broken, almost everyone leaves before sunrise.

This is an unspoken rule that intelligence personnel have cultivated over the years through careful training.

Under this unspoken rule, the Mainland Hotel also developed its own set of unspoken rules: the moment the first rays of sunlight shine on the earth, this so-called Mainland Hotel will disappear.

Disappearance in a truly physical sense!

It should be noted that from the moment Sherlock and his group entered this so-called Continental Hotel, the information market in its core area had always been housed in prefabricated buildings, while the residential area consisted of simply renovated abandoned houses.

This means that these houses will be abandoned by the Mainland Hotel after sunrise, and a new Mainland Hotel will be built in the ruins of a brand new town before night falls again.

Over the years, this rule has never failed.

This is why Zhao Weike led everyone to leave before dawn; after all, only by hiding among the crowd could they better conceal their identities.

Sherlock and Helen naturally had no objections to this; in fact, they both felt they had learned something new.

As for Doro, he slept soundly in Helen's arms the whole time, like a dead pig, and none of the three of them actually thought of waking him up.

As for the intelligence on the satellite map, Zhao Weike, sitting in the passenger seat, handed over everything he had prepared to Sherlock before finally curling up in the passenger seat and falling asleep.

Sherlock, however, didn't seem to care and wasn't in a hurry to rescue Tony according to the plan. Instead, he drove the three of them to a relatively open place to set up camp.

After all, neither Helen, Zhao Weike, nor Sherlock themselves slept well last night, so they might as well find a place to get some rest.

With Sherlock's alchemy skills, creating a 'luxury' version of the camp would be a piece of cake.

When a building with a garage and a Middle Eastern flair rose from the ground, Helen, the only one who was still conscious, almost popped her eyes out. Although she had known that Sherlock knew alchemy, she never expected that alchemy would be so convenient.

As Helen waited for Sherlock to get back into the car and drive it into the garage, the first thing she said to him was...

"I swear, Sherlock, if you were willing to go into real estate, you would definitely be the next Tony Stark!"

Chapter 16 Sherlock and Tony's starkly different daily lives

Sherlock didn't take Helen's teasing to heart. After all, building houses was just a basic application of alchemy for Sherlock.

After driving the car into the garage and waking Zhao Weike, Sherlock left a lot of food and water, and then they each chose a room and fell into a deep sleep again.

Sherlock was awakened by the aroma of food when it got dark again.

After a quick wash, Sherlock went to the dining room. Zhao Weike and Doro had obviously been sitting at the table enjoying their meal for a while. Seeing this, Sherlock almost cursed.

"You bastard Zhao Weike! You didn't even invite me to dinner!"

As Sherlock complained, before Zhao Weike could say anything, Doro swallowed the food in his mouth and waved to Sherlock with his greasy little hands.

"Come quick, everyone! There's lots of delicious food here!"

Seeing Doro's adorable appearance, Sherlock didn't know what to say for a moment. He could only glare at Zhao Weike before joining the army of people fighting for food.

After several rounds of drinks and several dishes, the three people at the table finally patted their full bellies and slumped back in their chairs, satisfied.

It was only then that Sherlock remembered that someone seemed to be missing from the dining table.

Where is Helen?

Faced with Sherlock's question, Zhao Weike rolled his eyes so hard they almost reached the sky. "When you were fighting with me for the chicken leg earlier, why didn't you think of Helen? Now that you're full, you finally remember Helen."

Despite his complaints, Zhao Weike did answer Sherlock's question.

"She's gone to take a shower. Don't worry, Helen has already eaten."

Hearing Zhao Weike's explanation, Sherlock was finally relieved. After Helen reappeared in front of Sherlock and took Doro away, Sherlock then discussed his thoughts and plans with Zhao Weike.

Sherlock wasn't actually in a great hurry to rescue Tony, after all, Tony needed time to perfect the Iron Monger, right?

Otherwise, given Obadiah Stanislav's intelligence level, how could there have been such a spectacular Ironman battle later on?

Although Sherlock cherished his peaceful life, to be honest, he couldn't find any reason to refuse something that was obviously entertaining!

More importantly, this kidnapping is Tony's transformative journey into Iron Man, and Sherlock doesn't want to cause the future Iron Man to lose anything and thus change the future because of his actions.

So, after discussing it, the two quickly came up with a plan that was less of a rescue and more of an outing.