My family runs an adventurer's guild.

In many people's eyes, New York City is Manhattan, and only those who live in Manhattan are considered true New Yorkers. The remaining boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens are seen as secondary or second-class areas. And the Bronx, with its large Black population, is simply a slum that tarnishes New York's image.

As for Westchester County, which is further north of the Bronx, it is no longer considered part of New York City, but rather a separate administrative unit at the same level.

Westchester County is to New York what Miyun is to Beijing, Chongming Island is to Shanghai, and Lantau Island is to Hong Kong.

However, although Westchester County is a rural area, it is not lacking in class and style. You know, according to the modern American concept, the real upper-class wealthy elites prefer to live in those country villas with fresh air and pleasant scenery.

Only the poor, especially Black people, who can't afford villas, and the middle class who work for big bosses, live in congested and noisy city centers to catch the subway to work from nine to five—it's just that the former live in neighborhoods with poor security, while the latter live in neighborhoods with good security.

For example, Midtown and the Upper East Side, the most bustling areas of Manhattan, are said to be home to the upper class, but in reality they are just residential areas for high-level white-collar workers.

Therefore, the suburbs surrounding New York are dotted with villas owned by the ultra-wealthy, somewhat comparable to Beverly Hills on the West Coast—for example, the Long Beach waterfront villa on Long Island where Doctor Octopus once lived. Even the renowned West Point Military Academy is located in the countryside outside New York.

While the mansions in Westchester County may not be as grand as those in Long Beach, Long Island, they are more numerous and occupy larger areas, allowing them to win by sheer quantity.

Manhattan has just experienced the most intense battle in New York City's history, with dozens of skyscrapers collapsing. From Central Park to Wall Street, endless rows of dilapidated buildings, ruins, and unexploded bombs are visible, along with potholed and broken streets.

Whether it's an alien or the Hulk, they are all seasoned experts at demolishing streets.

Even those buildings that miraculously escaped the ravages of war are now without water and electricity, and even the subway is out of service. Roads are also cordoned off by various departments, including S.H.I.E.L.D., the FBI, and the U.S. military, due to the search for alien artifacts. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of homeless New York war refugees, wandering the streets daily, who went from middle-class to destitute and homeless in an instant, all harboring resentment and eager to vent their anger. They are a classic example of destabilizing factors, and no one can be sure whether a New York refugee riot will break out.

A similar draft riot occurred once during the Civil War, when fighting raged in New York for four days. The Union Navy had to send its fleet to Manhattan and bombard the barricades with naval guns to finally quell the unrest.

In this situation, various businesses, financial institutions, international organizations, and educational institutions originally located in Manhattan either temporarily closed down or relocated to other locations. Westchester County and Long Beach, which are close to New York City and have many wealthy villas and large buildings, became the preferred relocation sites for major international organizations—after all, the United Nations couldn't be expected to work in the black ghettos of Harlem and the Bronx, could it?

Coincidentally, in Westchester County, there is a high-end, elegant, historic, and stylish garden castle that was seized by a bank because its heirs went bankrupt and could not pay inheritance tax. Now, it's being conveniently used by financial tycoons and lent to the United Nations headquarters.

This is... Xavier Castle, or rather, the headquarters of the X-Men, the mutant organization, and Professor X's Xavier School for gifted teenagers!

Where Cyclops, Phoenix, Iceman, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Phantom, and even Deadpool roam...

However, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least in version 1.0, there are no mutants, and naturally, no Professor X, Magneto, Sentinels, X-Men, or Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters...

There was only one bald old professor, Charles Francis Xavier, and his family's ancestral Xavier family castle estate in Westchester County.

(Rumors are circulating that Avengers: Endgame will involve time travel and a reboot of the universe, bringing the X-Men series and even the old Spider-Man back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether this is true or not, only time will tell...)

As a prominent family that built a castle in the suburbs of New York as early as the 19th century, before the establishment of the United States, the Xavier family was once considered one of America's upper-class aristocratic families. Unfortunately, over the course of more than a century, the Xavier family has generally declined with each generation, and by the time of the generation of [Professor X without superpowers], they had little influence in either the political or business worlds, only retaining some prestige in academia.

However, thanks to the wealth left by his ancestors, Professor X, who has no superpowers, is still doing alright and can still maintain the dignity of a rich man. However, "although the outward appearance has not collapsed, the inner pockets have already risen." In order to maintain his status, he has been living off his savings and is now unable to make ends meet.

Unexpectedly, the Battle of New York broke out, followed by the global financial crisis. The Xavier family's investments were wiped out in just one week, leaving them with a massive debt. Professor X himself died of a stroke from anger and grief. His heir, David, buried his father with a heavy heart, then stared at the empty safe, unable to pay the inheritance tax, and could only watch helplessly as the bank seized Xavier Castle.

Then, because the UN headquarters was destroyed in the Battle of New York, the repair of the UN building is expected to take at least several months (the Marvel world's New York construction industry is incredibly efficient), a bunch of international agency staff have nowhere to work and are homeless on the streets - companies can go bankrupt and close down, so how can the UN go bankrupt and close down?

So, following the White House's instructions, the bank took advantage of the situation and lent Xavier Castle to the United Nations.

Xavier's School of Gifted Children in "X-Men" has temporarily become the United Nations headquarters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The entire United Nations initially thought this was merely a brief, temporary transition, but unexpectedly, at this time of crisis, it witnessed the first diplomatic third-category contact in the history of the United Nations…

Chapter 215, The Hydra That Can't Be Avoided No Matter Where You Go

The historic English castle is nestled among lush greenery and trees.

The gentle spring breeze blowing from the Atlantic Ocean carries the fresh scent of nature.

Behind the trees swaying in the wind, towers and spires of varying heights appear and disappear, while nearby lies a clear, rippling lake where swans glide.

Thanks to the rapid communication capabilities of the modern world, when Feri and Lulutia's S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet fighter jet, spewing flames and jets of air, slowly landed on the lawn in front of Xavier's Castle, the lawn was already filled with a welcoming crowd.

—Of course, it wasn't the bald Professor X in his wheelchair and his mutant X-Men students, but rather two UN officials, one black and one white, along with a group of diplomats from around the world. In addition, a large group of reporters had already set up their cameras and microphones in the distance, their flashes going off incessantly.

Among them, the dark-skinned big shot was neither Nick Fury, the one-eyed black man who was the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., nor Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General whom Phil was more familiar with. Instead, it was the President of the UN General Assembly, an unfamiliar old black man from Kenya.

Of course, whether in the real world or the Marvel universe, the President of the United Nations General Assembly is a boring character with a severely lacking presence.

—Although nominally, this guy can shamelessly call himself the governor of Earth... in reality, nobody takes him seriously.

The fair-skinned, blond middle-aged man had appeared a few times in the Marvel movies—Alexander Pierce, the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D., the current U.S. representative to the World Security Council, and also the head of the secret Hydra organization.

Of course, regardless of his secret identity or what thoughts he harbored, he was one of the representatives of Earthlings in front of the extraterrestrial visitors. So when he saw Miss Silver Dragon Lulutia and the cat-like Phili step off the plane, he greeted them with a big smile.

Miss Silver Dragon Lulutia demurely extended her slender hand and shook hands with Director Pierce, while the black UN General Assembly President could only squat down miserably and exchange paws with Phil, who was only eighty centimeters tall.

Uh, the black chairman originally wanted to pat Phil's head, but Phil dodged it with an unhappy look on her face—even as a pet, a cat has its own dignity, and only pretty girls can be petted! You old black man, get your dirty hands off me!

"...Thank you so much for your welcome. We are here for peace, friendship and exchange!"

Following Firi's prior instructions, Lulutia spoke in a very formulaic and methodical manner, but when it came to the part where she wanted to improvise, she immediately ran out of words and didn't know what to say for a moment—as a very homebody and sleepy dragon mage, her social skills were really not very good.

"...Welcome to Earth! Dear friendly guests, it is humanity's good fortune to have your friendship. As a free, civilized, and democratic society, we are sincerely delighted to have come into contact with another friendly civilization! And I sincerely hope that our friendship will last forever..." Pierce replied enthusiastically, his words full of platitudes.

The president of the UN General Assembly echoed this sentiment, spouting exaggerated and empty rhetoric, yet brimming with enthusiasm.

However, in any case, this is a good start.

In short, as the first informal contact between the official authorities of the Golden Dragon Kingdom and the ruling authorities of the Marvel universe, the atmosphere between the two sides was very good.

In the luxurious halls of Xavier Castle, decorated with various paintings, sculptures, flags, and tapestries, resembling an art museum, Miss Lulutia the Silver Dragon and Firi the Cat had a friendly and cordial conversation with a group of United Nations representatives, deepening their mutual understanding.

Lulutia and Firi briefly explained their route to Earth to the UN representatives and proposed sending students and hiring expert consultants to Earth. The UN representatives welcomed this and then raised further questions.

Finally, after a preliminary exchange of views, the meeting concluded successfully in a harmonious and warm atmosphere.

—Although Phil knew very well that most of these UN representatives had little real power and were generally regarded by the diplomatic circles of various countries as a bench for unlucky people to be exiled, there was a case where a Japanese diplomat served as a representative of the UN for twenty years but could not be transferred (because everyone was making things difficult for him), but these UN representatives from various countries could at least act as a mouthpiece to spread the true thoughts of the Golden Dragon Kingdom around the world.

After all, compared to other modes of communication, the United Nations has a sufficient number of "mouthpieces" with high enough status. As long as they speak publicly here, it is not easy for certain forces to deliberately conceal or distort information. If they were to descend directly onto the South Lawn of the White House, then no matter how upright the Golden Dragon Kingdom's intentions were, they could be forcibly distorted and smeared by certain forces to benefit themselves.

The American political scene in the real world is already shameless enough, but the American political scene in the Marvel universe will only be darker, more shameless, and more insane.

However, if the information is shared with all countries in the world from the beginning, the security level will be much higher.

On the other hand, while the silver dragon Lulutia and the cat Firi were indeed authorized by the golden dragon king Alaric, they were actually just two scouts sent to pave the way and confirm whether the Earthlings here could sit down and have a proper conversation.

Once it was confirmed that negotiations could proceed, a more powerful and influential person was naturally chosen to take charge of the interstellar negotiations...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

After enjoying a sumptuous and delicious buffet dinner, the dragon and the cat settled into a luxurious guest room hastily prepared at Xavier's Castle. Meanwhile, the UN representatives and agents participating in interstellar diplomacy for the first time didn't even have time for dinner, immediately contacting their superiors to organize and transmit the newly acquired information so that various think tanks could discuss relevant countermeasures.

In addition, the alliances and rivalries between countries, as well as their intrigues and power struggles, once again quietly unfolded around these extraterrestrial visitors.

Ultimately, a highly confidential video conference was urgently convened that evening in the name of the World Security Council.

In addition to the five representatives from the World Security Council, Nick Fury, the bald, black-haired director of S.H.I.E.L.D., also attended the meeting.

Then, Nick Fury, the leader of the agency responsible for handling all supernatural and strange events on Earth, whose relationship with the World Security Council had deteriorated severely since the last Battle of New York, was met with fierce criticism and attacks at the beginning of the meeting.

(According to Marvel's established lore, China's S.H.I.E.L.D. will only be established after Thanos's invasion. In other words, as of 2018, the Marvel Cinematic Universe only had S.H.I.E.L.D., and even after S.H.I.E.L.D. disbanded, S.H.I.E.L.D. would not have been established yet, or would only be in the planning stage.)

Chapter 216, The Attitudes of All Parties (Part 1)

"...Aliens! Another wave of aliens has arrived! It's only been a month since the attack on New York! And the location hasn't even changed!"

As soon as the emergency meeting began, a board member launched a fierce verbal attack on S.H.I.E.L.D., saying, "...and S.H.I.E.L.D. is still the same as last time, completely unaware beforehand and unable to provide any intelligence afterward, leaving us to rely on our negotiators to find out the truth ourselves—do you know how passive this puts us?"

"...The last alien invasion was like this, and this time the alien envoys are visiting. Where has your S.H.I.E.L.D. spent trillions of dollars every year? Either you brought on the invaders by doing your own stupid things, or you were completely unaware of the arrival of the alien visitors!"

Another white-haired board member chimed in, saying, "...I think it is very necessary for the board to review S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget report."

"...especially given the current global economic crisis and the financial difficulties faced by all countries," the female council member from the European Union added.

"...If you, the council members, have carefully read the records provided by the negotiators, you should understand that, strictly speaking, they are not aliens, but people from another world. Telescopes cannot see their home planet because that planet does not exist in our universe..."

Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., calmly retorted, "...NASA's telescopes can't find these visitors from other universes, so S.H.I.E.L.D. naturally can't predict their appearance... Our capabilities are also limited, and we can't carry out missions that are beyond our capabilities. Gentlemen, if you can find fortune tellers with accurate predictive abilities, I would be happy to offer them advisory positions within S.H.I.E.L.D.

"...You're clearly trying to shirk responsibility..."

"...We can discuss the issue of responsibility later. Could you please first explain S.H.I.E.L.D.'s subsequent handling measures?"

Seeing that the two sides seemed to be locked in a fierce battle, former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Alexander Pierce quickly stepped in to smooth things over and change the subject.

"...We have sealed off and searched the entire Blick Street, and detained the two tabloid reporters who first came into contact with the dragon and the cat, as well as some police officers and unemployed citizens. We have conducted preliminary interrogations on them—I must say, these guys are really bold. Someone actually secretly plucked the fur of that otherworldly cat-man, wanting to take it back as a collectible. In addition, someone even had designs on the dragon scales, but failed."

During this period, our agents also clashed with FBI and military personnel, but all parties exercised restraint, and negotiations are currently underway.

Nick Fury calmly replied that, in fact, he didn't think there was anything worth searching on Blick Street, because the entire time the other party was on Earth was filmed by photographers, and S.H.I.E.L.D. was just doing a routine check to see if anyone had hidden anything strange.

In the end, the only somewhat decent find was a few strands of cat hair from another world...

But Natasha had already taken a small amount of this stuff and sent it to the lab to start analyzing it, okay?

If you want to know how to "pluck the most cat hair and hear the fewest meows," Black Widow Natasha is the real expert!

—Let's take three seconds to mourn for Phily the cat, who hasn't yet realized that she's already been petted bald.

However, even Nick Fury himself did not expect that although his agents searched the entire Blick Street thoroughly, they missed the original landing point of the cat-like Phil and the silver dragon Lulutia, 177A Blick Street, where the New York Sanctuary is located.

This is certainly not because the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were careless, but because the New York Sanctum was enchanted with magic that made people ignore it. Ordinary people would subconsciously ignore its existence even if they passed by it, just like the Leaky Cauldron in the Harry Potter world. Otherwise, if someone went to the Leaky Cauldron to collect water or electricity bills or business taxes, but found a room full of wizards, wouldn't that be very embarrassing?

"...Regarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s handling of the aftermath, there are no obvious oversights at the moment, so let's leave it at that for now!"

In fact, the council members hadn't paid much attention to Brick Street, where the cat-like Phili and the silver dragon Lulutia had appeared. Their focus was actually on the four demands Phili and Lulutia had just made: "establishing diplomatic relations, studying abroad, missionary work, and sending advisors," as well as the information Phili had casually revealed about the distribution of Earth's spiritual veins and magical nodes.

World leaders generally support establishing diplomatic relations with the Golden Dragon Kingdom. After all, until magic is fully understood, Earth can't send troops to invade other worlds, and being friends is better than being enemies for no reason. However, whether the diplomatic relations should be established on behalf of Earth as a whole, or separately for each country, and how diplomatic personnel should be stationed in each other's countries, still requires further discussion.

And studying abroad is even more enthusiastically welcomed—just like how ancient Chinese feudal dynasties, in pursuit of prestige, liked to hold "tribute ceremonies from all nations," even paying extra to appear wealthy and powerful, just as modern nations around the world are very confident in their own civilizations and love to send groups of students from less developed countries to show off. Now that orcs and dragons from fantasy worlds are willing to study abroad, it's naturally something to be eagerly awaited.

Moreover, the other party wasn't trying to steal any cutting-edge technology; they just wanted to read some common-sense materials available in libraries and bookstores.

Then, there's the task of spreading the doctrine of the God of Sleep on Earth... This request has given countries around the world a bit of a headache, because it easily reminds them of the missionaries who served as the vanguard of colonizers during the Age of Exploration, leading to concerns that the otherworldly beings might harbor malicious intentions in this regard.

However, after quickly skimming through the scriptures of the Church of Sleep, they discovered that it was a bizarre religion that was so negative that it was only suitable for lazy people and lazy cats. Even Buddhism was much more positive than this thing!

Even if the Church of Hypnos were to successfully spread across the globe and gain a large number of followers, it would at most only add more otaku to society.

At first glance, the Church of Hypnos seemed to have no problems, but due to a lack of knowledge about occultism, everyone decided to study it first.

However, according to the cat-like Firi, the link between the two worlds was opened by the God of Sleep, requiring the consumption of faith power to form a temporary new body on Earth. If faith power cannot be obtained on Earth, then the connection between Earth and the Golden Dragon Kingdom will become a one-way channel—allowing only intelligent life from the other world to come to Earth, but not allowing humans on Earth to visit the fantastical other world.

In this way, Marvel's expert advisors and travelers cannot be sent there, regardless of whether Earth's officials agree or not. Furthermore, soft power through cultural export, and even more importantly, peaceful evolution, become impossible to achieve.

Chapter 217, The Attitudes of All Parties (Part 2)

In short, since the two sides have only just begun to make contact and there is still a lack of mutual trust, Earth is only prepared to agree to the first two of the four basic demands that Feli the cat and Lulutia the silver dragon put forward to the United Nations: "establishing diplomatic relations, studying abroad, missionary work, and sending advisors."

—The last point, "sending advisors," was something the Earth faction in the Marvel universe was actually quite willing to agree to. After all, anyone who has studied modern world history knows that sending experts and advisors to other countries is one of the important soft power tactics used by Western powers to manipulate Third World countries.

For example, in the latter half of the 20th century, the United States used both soft and hard tactics to send a large number of highly educated Chicago School economists to Argentina as advisors, and subsequently succeeded in dragging Argentina into a deep abyss, gradually transforming it from a prosperous and wealthy developed country into a developing country experiencing economic collapse.

While Western countries are experts at using such deceptive tactics, East Asian countries are also adept at copying them.

Of course, facing a magical realm they knew nothing about, Earth couldn't harbor such obvious malice from the start. Otherwise, if the other side possessed some kind of mental magic that could search souls or detect lies, all the wicked schemes hidden in the Earth advisor's heart would be exposed.

However, even so, it's not a major problem. There are plenty of those self-righteous, delusional leftists in Western countries. If they can fool the rulers of the Golden Dragon Kingdom with their goodwill and enthusiasm, then nationwide turmoil, widespread chaos, and regime change are all to be expected.

The problem is that the only channel between the two worlds is entirely controlled by the "God of Sleep" in this fantastical world. Even if Earth uses soft power to disrupt the society there, it's unlikely to gain any benefit. Moreover, in a fantastical world with vastly different cultural backgrounds and even distinct racial compositions, it's hard to say whether the soft power of so-called "free and democratic countries" can actually be effective.

Moreover, in that fantastical otherworld, besides the Golden Dragon Kingdom, there are many other countries. Even if Earth racks its brains and successfully implements a peaceful evolution of the Golden Dragon Kingdom across the dimensional barrier, it will most likely only benefit the other countries in that otherworld.

Given this situation, why would Earthlings create trouble for the sake of creating trouble, when there's essentially no benefit to be gained? Is it simply to demonstrate their malice?

In addition, if Marvel Earth wants to send advisors to fantasy worlds, it first needs to build a temple to the god of sleep on Earth, recruit followers of the god of sleep, and provide faith to Momo the Dormouse girl who has only recently been deified. Otherwise, let alone advisors, it can't even send envoys.

Even in the world of Overlord, Ainz Ooal Gown first built a bunch of Temples of Sleep on the surface of the Great Tomb of Nazarick and in the fortress city of Erantil before he could crawl into the temples, lie down and dream, and sleep all the way to Totoro Town and become a living person.

However, out of caution regarding the unknown, the World Security Council does not intend to approve the spread of faith by the god Hypnos on Earth for the time being.

However, this would turn bilateral exchanges into a one-sided effort by Earth, with the Golden Dragon Kingdom reaping the benefits without any effort. First of all, the Golden Dragon Kingdom certainly has no deposits to use in the Earth Bank of the Marvel Universe, nor any means of borrowing.

Secondly, since the Sleep Goddess Mengmeng's time-travel system only supports soul travel, the students from the Golden Dragon Kingdom were unable to bring gold, silver, and other treasures to Earth to sell.

In this situation, international students' tuition and living expenses in the Marvel universe have to be covered by generous donations and advance payments from Earth.

Of course, as a medieval feudal fantasy kingdom with a total population of only three million, the Golden Dragon Kingdom could at most send a few dozen to a few hundred students to Earth to study. Such a small expense would be easily covered by the five UN leaders simply squeezing out a little pocket money from their own pockets.

The charitable aid that developed countries in Europe and America spend on Africa and the Middle East every year is at least several hundred times that amount!

However, Feli the cat and Lulutia the silver dragon stated that they were not beggars seeking alms. Furthermore, they believed that friendships should be reciprocal for them to last. Therefore, to express their gratitude for Earth's generous sponsorship, the Golden Dragon Kingdom also offered a generous gift in return.

That's magic!

Phil not only expressed his willingness to impart magical knowledge to Earthlings, but also drew a rough map of the Earth's spiritual veins and their distribution.

As a result, this sensational new discovery immediately caused a stir in the international community.

"...Alas, if it weren't for the reminder from these extraterrestrial visitors, we probably wouldn't even know that the Earth beneath our feet is actually a magical planet with spiritual veins. Of course, according to them, although the total amount of magic on Earth is large, it seems to be unevenly distributed. But, on Earth, what resource isn't distributed in this way?" The British representative of the World Security Council sighed as he looked at the globe rising in the center of the hall and the spiritual veins drawn on it.

The French and Russian council members couldn't help but roll their eyes at this, while the Chinese council member breathed a sigh of relief.

In the Marvel universe, there are only three major magical nodes on Earth, located in New York, Hong Kong, and London, which can be roughly compared to top-quality oil fields. Other regions have only some insignificant nodes, or even none at all, belonging to the "poor magical kingdoms."

What's even more critical is that while oil-poor countries can import crude oil from oil-producing countries, how can countries without magic nodes import magic?

This uneven distribution would likely have sparked fierce competition among nations around the world. Those without magic nodes would want to seize them from elsewhere, those with small nodes would want to grab large ones, and nations that already possessed large magic nodes would want to have more.