My family runs an adventurer's guild.

Fortunately, the three major magical nodes—the US, China, and the UK—are all formidable forces. Countries like the EU, Russia, India, and Japan, lacking these superior magical nodes, would have virtually no chance of success regardless of whether they target New York, London, or Hong Kong.

For a long period of time, the three largest magical nodes were under the control of the Anglo-Saxon people.

Twenty years earlier, the question of Hong Kong's ownership might have sparked a fierce dispute. But now, Hong Kong has been returned to China for so many years, and for Britain to want to interfere in Hong Kong again is as absurd as Germany wanting to claim the former East Prussian territory (Kaliningrad) from Russia.

Of course, despite this, the secessionist activities advocating for Hong Kong should still be incited and funded, and the fleets of the United States and the United Kingdom may also appear in the Spratly and Paracel Islands to create some tension... at least to cause some trouble for China.

However, given Beijing's determination, these petty actions are ineffective. Moreover, spurred by this news, the central government will no longer allow Hong Kong, this magical sanctuary, to remain outside of direct government control—it is estimated that soon the country will tear up the Basic Law, abolish the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and even impose martial law and military control on Hong Kong… The Chinese representative to the World Security Council thought to himself.

Chapter 218, The Attitudes of All Parties (Part 2)

Luxurious guest rooms hastily prepared for guests from another world at Xavier Castle, the temporary headquarters of the United Nations.

Although winter had long passed, the spring nights in the countryside outside New York State were still somewhat chilly under the influence of the North Atlantic winds. So, a bright red flame burned fiercely in the brick fireplace, dispelling the damp chill from the room.

The flickering firelight reflected off the exquisite bone china teaware and gleaming silverware, creating a mesmerizing glow.

The social routines of traditional Western high society basically consist of tea parties, banquets, and balls, with occasional hunting parties.

Due to the lack of prior notice, the short notice, and considerations for security and confidentiality, Xavier Castle was temporarily unable to host a welcome ball or banquet for the visitors from another world. However, a small tea party was held after dinner as a gesture of hospitality.

The gilded and painted bone china tea set contained fragrant black tea and coffee, next to a white porcelain cup filled with sugar cubes. On the small round table, a three-tiered shelf held small cakes, sandwiches, and cream puffs, as well as a bottle of brandy in an ice bucket.

Accompanying the two extraterrestrial visitors were two Avengers superheroes.

Since S.H.I.E.L.D. is responsible for handling all supernatural and unusual events on Earth, receiving visitors from other worlds seems to fall under this category. Therefore, after several arguments, Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., successfully secured the task.

Until the United Nations establishes an interstellar diplomatic agency, communication with visitors from other worlds will remain within the scope of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s work.

One of the guests was Steve Rogers, the outward face of the Avengers, a righteous and upright Captain America; the other was Natasha Romanoff, the only woman in the original Avengers, who had previously brought the visitors from another world to the United Nations headquarters.

As for Tony Stark, the Iron Man who, upon learning of the arrival of extraterrestrials in New York, excitedly flew for over two hours from his Malibu villa in California across the entire United States to reach New York, he was temporarily barred from entering the United Nations because of his foul mouth, which was believed to offend many people...

It is evident that Director Nick Fury went to great lengths to handle this unexpected diplomatic mission.

It must be said that as a symbol of justice and freedom, and a classic icon who was once popular worldwide, Captain America has a pretty good charisma. Especially his handsome, muscular, blond-haired appearance, which even the silver dragon Lulutia quite admires.

After an initial awkward silence due to unfamiliarity, Captain America quickly adjusted and chatted happily with the two extraterrestrial visitors.

"...According to you, magic is a dynamic resource like a river, and there are only three large magic nodes on Earth...In other words, if travelers from magical otherworlds want to visit Earth, they can only land in New York, Hong Kong, or London, right?"

Captain America, holding a coffee cup, smiled and said, "...Looking at it this way, my hometown, New York, really is a magical city..."

"...Yes, unless we perform the descent ritual at a magical node outside Earth and then slowly travel over in a spaceship—but that would be far too troublesome, and spaceships aren't easy to acquire. So, according to our plan, if New York doesn't welcome us, we'll try our luck in Hong Kong next. If that doesn't work, we'll go to London..."

As Phil licked the hot milk from her small cup, she replied, "...I believe there will always be a place that will welcome us..."

"...Well, I think you don't need to try your luck elsewhere. As a city of immigrants, New York has always welcomed everyone."

Captain America said with a confident look, "...Please have faith in the warmth of America, or rather, Earth, towards its friends!"

"...Especially since you also promised to impart your knowledge about magic to us Earthlings, this kindness is truly touching."

Black Widow Natasha chimed in, "...The United States of America has always been very generous to people with technical skills."

"...You want to learn magic? No problem. I can teach you any spells I know. But before that, please make sure you coordinate how to use the various magic nodes! In countries without spiritual veins and sacred lands, you won't be able to use magic even if you learn it!"

Phil nodded. "...New York might be alright, but Hong Kong is probably going to descend into chaos very soon!"

Captain America, who had just thawed from the polar ice caps and was still somewhat out of touch with the modern world, was completely bewildered by this; while Natasha, the Black Widow who had been active since the early Cold War, immediately understood what Phil meant and couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

Among the three major magical nodes in the Marvel universe, New York is the heart of America, and London is the capital of the British Empire. Unless another world war breaks out, and it has to be a super nuclear war that turns the world into a radioactive wasteland, no other country can possibly set foot in these two places.

Hong Kong is unique in that it was a British colony before returning to China less than twenty years ago. It not only enjoys a high degree of autonomy, but the United States and Britain also have considerable influence there. They have planted a large number of "democratic and free camp" agents in the business, political, legal and cultural circles.

As a result, relations between Hong Kong and Beijing have never been very harmonious since the handover, and there seems to be a slight possibility of undermining each other.

Although both Britain and the United States have excellent spiritual sites (London and New York) that are no less than Hong Kong, magic is a scarce resource with infinite possibilities, so naturally the fewer people who possess it, the better—how can sharing it among three countries compare to sharing it equally between two countries? Let's just kick the Chinese off the table!

Therefore, even with her eyes closed, Black Widow Natasha could guess that the CIA and MI6 were probably already planning numerous schemes to disrupt Hong Kong's social order and create trouble for the Chinese in developing and utilizing magical powers—riots, marches, conflicts, martial law, terrorist attacks, suppression, and even naval standoffs would soon occur near Hong Kong…

However, even Black Widow Natasha did not expect that while the British Empire, under the banner of "former colonial power," was stirring up trouble in Hong Kong and causing trouble for the Chinese, its own capital, London, was also facing the risk of "fire in its own backyard."

—As the capital of the British Empire since ancient times, London's ownership is beyond question.

However, Germany, France, and other countries, unwilling to accept defeat, took a different approach, using the pretext of the EU to pressure Britain, demanding that Whitehall open London's Magic Node for all EU member states to use. This left Britain in a difficult position, and public opinion in favor of Brexit grew stronger...

Of course, that's all in the future.

Update time adjustment

A bug has been found in the draft of the next chapter. I need to do research and I'm also very tired and my thoughts are all jumbled up, so I really don't have time to fix it tonight. Therefore, the update time tomorrow will be changed to tonight. I would like to inform all readers of this.

Old Wang will continue to maintain perfect attendance this month and will definitely not skip any appointments, so please rest assured, readers.

Chapter 219, The Terrifying Cat!

Although she felt slightly embarrassed after being contradicted by Phil during the conversation, as a top-tier female agent whose career spanned over half a century since the early Cold War and who had navigated the world of all sorts of people, Black Widow Natasha was naturally not so petty. After an initial period of slight frustration, her thoughts immediately shifted to another aspect:

How could this dragon and cat, who claim to be from another fantastical universe, know so much about Earth's society?

Although Phil's insights were, frankly, at the level of a keyboard politician, they shouldn't be something someone from another world could say—in fact, even in the United States today, there are many people who simply can't offer such insights on current international issues.

Seemingly due to the lingering influence of isolationism and the long-term poisoning of anti-intellectual, pampered education, most Americans don't really care about current events. They only watch sports, talk shows, and soap operas on television, and they can't even read a world map. Even though the US military has been fighting in the Middle East for so many years, at least one-third of Americans still can't locate Afghanistan and Iraq on a globe.

Especially those rednecks who tout themselves as "true Americans," almost take pride in their ignorance. They neither understand nor want to look at anything with slightly complex logic or numbers; the more someone explains it, the more they believe it's a lie…

"...Uh, it seems, Mr. Cat, you know quite a lot about our planet?"

After hesitating for a moment, Black Widow Natasha organized her thoughts and tentatively asked Phil.

"...Hey, didn't I tell you before? Just call me Phil! I don't really know much about the situation on Earth, but we need to gather some information and make sure there isn't too much danger before we dare to cross over! Otherwise, wouldn't it be gambling with our lives?"

Phil shrugged and replied, then tilted his head and thought for a moment. He realized that his previous "Seven Cats' Adventure in Marvel" was already widely known throughout the Golden Dragon Kingdom thanks to the novel "The Castrated Cat" featuring old Cumberbatch. He figured it wouldn't be able to hide it from the Earthlings in the upcoming bilateral exchanges, so he decided to speak frankly, "...Actually, I already came to New York with a group of companions last month. Captain, Miss Natasha, we were watching from the sidelines when your Avengers were fighting the Chitauri on the streets of Manhattan!"

"...What? You were in Manhattan back then? Why didn't any of us notice you? No, nobody saw you!"

After hearing Phil's explanation, Captain America and Black Widow were both puzzled, because in the month or so since the Battle of New York ended, S.H.I.E.L.D. had not received any information about "orcs appearing on the streets of New York".

—With the cat ears on Phili's head and the cat tail behind her, it doesn't look like something that's easy to hide.

If she had the appearance of an adult woman, she might be mistaken for a catwoman working as a hostess in bars and clubs—those moving cat ears and tails have already been developed by Japanese companies and have quite a few enthusiasts in the cosmopolitan city of New York. However, with Phil's toddler-like size of only 70 or 80 centimeters, the cat ears and tail would be quite eye-catching and would surely attract a lot of attention, right?

"...Ah, that's because when we came to New York for the last time, my companion and I didn't look like this now."

Having decided to be honest, Phil wasn't going to hide anything anymore. So, amidst the questioning looks from Captain America and Black Widow Natasha, Phil got up, took away the tea set and pastry stand, and then jumped straight onto the table, transforming into a fluffy orange cat with a "thump."

And then, facing the stunned Scarlett Johansson, it raised a tiny paw and let out a cute meow:

"……Meow--"

Captain America, Steve Rogers, the "righteous man of God," was only slightly surprised and bewildered because of his consistently upright character. However, the cunning Black Widow, Natasha, was shocked, suddenly realizing a serious blind spot shared by intelligence agencies worldwide:

As is well known, espionage generally requires maintaining a low profile.

However, no matter how low-key they try to be, human spies can't possibly be as low-key as cats and dogs, right?

Intelligence agencies only focus on people, and at most pay attention to some monsters, but who will investigate the cats that are everywhere?

Even if some cats exhibit unusual behavior, most people will simply ignore it or even subconsciously overlook it.

Even God probably doesn't know how many feline spies have been secretly operating in human cities on Earth.

In this way, they lowered humans' guard by acting cute and collected all their information... What will they do next?

The thought that countless feline spies had infiltrated human society over the years, whether roaming freely on the streets, disguising themselves as pets to sneak into homes, research institutes, warships, and government agencies, secretly stealing all sorts of intelligence and monitoring every move of human society, from bankbook passwords to the president's nuclear button... sent chills down Black Widow Natasha's spine.

Moreover, these feline agents also possess magic, so human security measures may not be effective against them.

Moreover, this only takes into account the situation of cats.

Who knows if there are dog agents, squeaky agents, or even gecko agents in that other fantastical world?

If all of these exist, then it's truly impossible to guard against, and it's terrifying to think about! It's terrifying to think about!

As she thought this, her gaze toward Phil also carried a hint of wariness and fear.

However, on the surface, Black Widow Natasha remained all smiles and even picked up Firi in her cat form, placed him on her lap, and began to pet him... while secretly plucking a few hairs to compare the difference between his fur in his human and cat forms.

In short, it seems that the cat Phily is destined to be petted until she's bald...

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

Meanwhile, in another room some distance away, Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and former director Alexander Pierce, who had been listening in the entire time, felt as if someone had grabbed them by the throat, their hearts filled with a sense of utter devastation, as if they had overturned a coffee table and smashed countless tragedies.

Good heavens! It turns out cats really are invading human society! Who knows how many humans have already been enslaved by them!

Cats are indeed terrifying creatures, always plotting against Earth!

If this orange cat hadn't let slip today, perhaps all of humanity would have unknowingly become cat owners!

As Nick Fury thought this through, he considered how to quickly introduce new regulations prohibiting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from keeping cats and dogs, and how to strengthen the vetting of the police dogs (military dogs?) that the agency already kept... But could the methods used to vet humans be applied to cats and dogs?

Even if you give cats and dogs a confession drug, whether it will work is another matter. Even if it does work, who can understand cat language and dog barking?

What's even more disheartening is that if any trouble is actually found out about this issue, in the end, he, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., will have to take the blame!

—Who gave S.H.I.E.L.D. the authority to handle all supernatural events on Earth? Extraterrestrial spies are included in that!

So, he really had no choice but to take the blame—Nick Fury's face immediately darkened, feeling like he was about to become the scapegoat!

How to do it?

How about we contact Tony Stark and have him try developing a cat language translation app?

Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., pondered this with a conflicted expression.

—In the Marvel universe, the scope of Iron Man Tony's research has always been a mystery, seemingly encompassing everything from biology to computer programming... But animal language, such a niche field, seems too far removed from the image of Iron Man, doesn't it?

Beside him, Alexander Pierce, the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. on the surface and the mastermind behind Hydra, was terrified, his body covered in cold sweat. He kept trying to recall if any cats, dogs, or rats were eavesdropping when he was communicating with his subordinates... But the more he tried to think about it, the less he could remember, making him increasingly nervous and anxious.

—Damn it! Could it be that the people from another world already know my secret of being a Hydra?

Well, anyway, I'll kill that cat first when I get back! Pierce made that decision in his mind.

On the other side, after demonstrating her cat-transformation ability, Phil seemed quite pleased with herself for scaring Captain America and Black Widow, to the point that she became a little carried away and couldn't help but start another round of revealing (or rather, bluffing)...

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

"...Besides that, we also have an Earthling over there, who's now my work colleague, meow..."

After being held and stroked by Scarlett Johansson for a while, Phil continued to boast, "...he also told me some things about Earth..."

"...Oh? You've already had Earthlings go there? Could you tell me who this person is?"

"Perhaps we can help contact his family," Scarlett Johansson asked with interest, while expertly scratching Phily's chin.

"...He is a Japanese man named Suzuki Satoru, whose online name is Ainz. After transmigrating, he gave himself a new name, Ainz... However, you probably can't find any information about him here. Because... he came to our world from Earth in 2138 AD."

Phil answered casually, but Black Widow froze, even stopping the hand that was petting the cat.

The outspoken Captain America couldn't help but exclaim, "...2138? But it's only 2012 now!"

"...That's right, to you, Suzuki Satoru is a person from the future, more than a century in the future, meow...So, you don't need to bother looking for his family information. Because even he himself probably doesn't know where his ancestor lived or what he did for a living more than a hundred years ago, meow!"

—After hearing Phil's meow-like explanation, Nick Fury and Pierce, who were remotely listening in another room, were also taken aback.

Then came waves of headaches and stomach aches, and it looked like it was going to turn into a cerebral thrombosis and a myocardial infarction.

Hey, Earth seems to be getting a bit too lively lately, doesn't it?

First, a group of aliens came, then this group of people from another world, and now even people from the future are showing up.

Next, could it be that some ancient people somewhere else are about to rise from their coffins?

Uh, no, there's already an ancient person in that room, a Captain America from World War II era who has been resurrected from beneath the icy sea...

While Nick Fury and Pierce were completely bewildered over there, Phil continued to enthusiastically leak information to the superheroes.

"...Hmm? You want to know what Earth will be like in the 22nd century? Well, I don't mean to discourage you, but according to Suzuki Satoru, Earth in his time was truly awful! How so? The world order that was basically established after World War II, although there were constant upheavals, barely lasted until the end of the 21st century. But in the early 22nd century, all sorts of crises erupted!"

The cat, Phil, calmly discussed the horrifying topic, "...Unfortunately, under the impact of war and rebellion, European and American countries collapsed in a very short time. By the time Suzuki Satoru lived, the country we live in no longer existed..."

"...Another new world war? And America will be the loser? That's really...sigh!"

As a righteous man of God and a symbol of the American spirit, Captain America was naturally shocked and dejected upon hearing the prophecy of his country's destruction. However, after a moment, he managed to recover. "...Could you please tell me what enemy defeated America?"

"...No, there was no foreign invasion at all. The Americans destroyed themselves, or rather, the old United States of America collapsed amidst civil war and unrest, leaving behind only a bunch of scattered city-states and small countries, as well as vast areas of polluted land where humans could not survive..."

Feline wagged her paw and replied, "...Miss Natasha must have already witnessed something similar to the destruction of her homeland. So, a situation similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union will occur in the United States and Europe at the beginning of the next century, only the process will be even darker and bloodier, and the ending even more tragic—the Earth's ecological environment will be completely destroyed during this period, and natural fruits, vegetables, and crops will become expensive luxuries. The remaining civilized society will become unprecedentedly harsh; welfare, human rights, and voting rights will basically disappear, and public security will be abysmal."

In 2138, Mr. Suzuki Satoru worked himself to the bone every day, barely surviving on synthetic pills, nutritional drinks, and sticky rations. He hadn't tasted fresh fish, meat, fruit, or vegetables in his entire life... so he had no desire to return to Earth.

Of course, it's only 2012 now, and you have plenty of time to save your planet. Even if the nightmarish future ultimately cannot be changed, that's a hundred years from now. Before that, you'll probably have already lived your entire lives..."

Chapter 220, Conversation with the Ancient One (Part 1)