Chapter 18 Resignation

Clark actually didn't care much about the threat posed by Ross. After all, in the grand scheme of the Avengers, Ross was essentially still a "good guy." If Ross really wanted to deal with him, he was welcome to try—maybe by dropping a nuke on New York.

Clark didn't see ordinary Earth technology as a real threat to him.

Of course, black technology was a different matter. Its very existence was abnormal. After all, there was only one Tesseract on Earth, and tech derived from it was still quite limited.

There were relics like WWII-era laser weapons, now impossible to obtain. The Kree scientist Mar-Vell had created a light-speed engine, the explosion of which gave birth to Captain Marvel. Then there was Dr. Erik Selvig, a human scientist who developed teleportation technology after falling under mind control.

All of this made Clark realize: black tech was driven purely by imagination. Who knew what someone might invent next? But for now, there was one consolation—Earth currently had only two Infinity Stones.

The Space Stone, or the Tesseract, was in the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. Even Hydra couldn't access it before Loki arrived. The Time Stone, or Eye of Agamotto, was with the Ancient One—arguably the strongest sorcerer on Earth. Clark believed no one could take it from her.

So for now, Earth still seemed relatively safe.

"It's fine. Let them try—as long as they don't throw a nuke into the city, I'm happy to play with them."

Yeah, the weapons Ross could use in the city might as well be toys to Clark.

"Then just be careful. Oh—and take this."

Natasha handed Clark an envelope.

"What's this? A love letter?"Clark smiled as he took it. While he didn't believe Natasha would write him a love letter, the flirting wasn't entirely wasted. Clark admitted he was very attracted to Natasha.

It wasn't love—just pure appreciation of beauty. He remembered reading online that Black Widow was known to be fairly seductive. As someone who'd been a virgin twice in two lifetimes, Clark thought maybe he could develop a little office romance.

"My resignation letter."

"Huh?"

Clark opened it. Sure enough, it was a resignation letter. Thinking for a moment, he realized why she was leaving. She had never really applied for this job. Natasha's next words confirmed his guess.

"Since you've already found me out, there's no need for me to stay here. And I have other missions for S.H.I.E.L.D."

Maybe because they'd gotten along, and might work together in the future, Natasha explained herself.

Clark didn't like people watching or using him, but he still felt a bit disappointed. After all, his beautiful assistant was leaving.

"When are you leaving?"

"Now."Natasha said as she threw her apron at him.

"So sudden? Well… good luck on your mission. But really, you're just going to leave like that? Not even wait for me to find a replacement?"

Clark muttered loudly as he caught the apron, making sure Natasha heard him.

"…Take your time."She turned and left.

"Is she going to Stark?"

Clark wondered if this was just like the original timeline—maybe Natasha was going to interview at Stark Industries and become Tony's secretary's secretary.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Russia, a large man was welding some kind of device while glancing at newspaper clippings about Tony Stark. The schematics scattered on the desk clearly resembled an arc reactor.

After connecting the power, the man saw that his version—while different from the one in Tony's chest—actually worked. He couldn't help but grin.

Ever since Natasha left, Clark's flower shop business had taken a sharp downturn. He'd thought that since it was summer break, lots of pretty girls would be looking for part-time jobs. But maybe due to bad luck or bad feng shui, not a single attractive applicant showed up.

Clark eventually chalked it up to two reasons:

His standards for beauty might be skewed as someone from Asia—what Westerners found attractive didn't always work for him.

He'd been hanging around Tony too often. His standards had gotten too high.

"Damn you, Tony. You hang out with models and celebrities all day. Now I can't even hire a decent-looking cashier. And I have to water all the flowers myself."

Just as Clark complained, his phone rang. Seeing it was Tony, he chuckled—it was as if Tony had heard him.

"Hey, Tony. What do you need from me?"

"Where are you? At that doomed flower shop of yours? Come work for me instead. I've got an opening for a test engineer in R&D."

"Come on. I could crush your 'high-tech' toys with one hand. What would I be testing? Anyway, why are you really calling?"

Clark joked—he never intended to work for anyone in this life.

"Fine. You've missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Whatever. I called to let you know: I've got intel the military's planning to take action against you."

"Haha. Let them. I'd like to see them try."

"Confidence is good—but the real reason I'm calling is to tell you this: I think they're targeting your family."

Hearing that, Clark's expression darkened. He hadn't expected anyone to go after his family.

"Are you sure? When?"

"It's from S.H.I.E.L.D.—you know, the organization that 'protects world peace.'"

"Yeah, they've approached me before."

"Then keep your eyes open."

After the call, Clark's mood turned grim. If Tony hadn't called today, he wouldn't have known his family was in danger.

He quickly decided to check on his mother, Mary. His adoptive father Jonathan was a director and usually on set, so he was probably safe.

Clark pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Hi, Mom. Where are you? At home? Okay—I'm coming right now."

What Clark didn't know was that, just after he hung up, someone broke into his house.

When he arrived, the windows and doors were shattered.

"Mom!"

Clark burst inside. But after looking around, the house was empty.

He hadn't expected anything to happen so quickly. There was no time to hesitate—he jumped out through the broken window and flew into the sky, scanning everything with his telescopic vision.

He searched frantically for any sign of his mother—but with a city as massive as New York, home to tens of millions, and enemies clearly prepared, there was nothing.

Clark regretted not flying straight there earlier. His comfortable routine had dulled his edge. He'd forgotten that in the Marvel Universe, danger was always just around the corner.

Thinking quickly, Clark pulled out his phone and made another call.

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