Chapter 110: The Yingxiong Alliance (Seventh Update, an Extra for the Reluctant Captain Who Wishes to Remain Anonymous)

Luke looked at the group of "short-legs" around him, then thought of Spider-Man, Christina, Skye, Crystal...

A spark of inspiration struck him.

"Decided! Let's call it the League of Cuties!" Luke snapped his fingers, settling the matter.

It was elegant, concise, and incredibly fitting—full of poetic nuance, wouldn't you agree?

Just the thought of everyone having to say "cute-cute-cute" (ying-ying-ying) whenever they mentioned his organization made Luke feel it was all worth it.

Rozanna: "The League of Cuties?"
Amitan: "Hmm, very deceptive."
Anaka: "The General’s naming standards remain as consistent as ever."
Obia: "Cute... cute..."

The next day at school, Luke informed Spider-Man about the official establishment of the organization.

"Only women? Dude, then what about me..."
"Don't worry, you've been a member of the organization for a long time," Luke said with a smile, patting Peter Parker on the shoulder.
"..."
For the first time in his life, Peter Parker felt a moment of doubt regarding his own gender.

After school, Luke took a large group of his organization's members to the warehouse to inspect the construction site.

The construction quality from S.H.I.E.L.D. was impeccable; with money and power at their disposal, they had hired one of New York’s top construction teams and used the best building materials on the market.

The progress was equally flawless. In just a few short days, the reinforced concrete structure of the warehouse was already complete.

Perhaps considering that this was Luke’s warehouse—and keeping in mind Luke’s innate "demolition" attributes—Nick Fury had strictly ordered his agents to build it to withstand a magnitude-seven earthquake. If they dared to cut corners, they could forget about keeping their jobs and would be shipped off to Siberia to find bears.

Standing at the construction site and looking at the warehouse that was about to be roofed, Luke felt quite satisfied with Fury’s compliance.

Christina the Snowman came running over on her short legs to bring him his milk.

Luke required three cups of milk each morning, noon, and night. Considering he had just mastered two new major awakening skills, he had asked Christina to add two extra servings.

That should barely be enough to maintain his energy expenditure. Otherwise, he would often find his stomach growling with hunger just a few steps after finishing a meal.

For this reason, he envied those cultivators, though it was a pity he didn’t have that fate. Still, he had almost transmigrated as an infant, so he supposed he couldn't complain.

Up in the treehouse, Hawkeye was leisurely sipping his afternoon tea. When he saw the "short-legs," he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of tea.

Hawkeye rubbed his eyes and counted: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven...

What was going on? Where did all these children come from?

He had thought there were already too many the other day when he witnessed those "brats" tearing the opposite warehouse apart, but today the number had doubled.

As Hawkeye pondered this, thinking he should report it to Fury, he received a phone call—it was from Fury himself.

"What? Calling me back? Another mission? Understood, Director."

After hanging up, Hawkeye looked at Luke and the others near the construction site, then back at his cozy treehouse, feeling a strange sense of reluctance.

Back at the agency, Hawkeye submitted his summary report for the two-month surveillance mission. At the end, he mentioned the seven children, which caught Fury's attention.

By now, the file on the Apostles had been downgraded from Level 10 top-secret to Level 9. However, when it came to Luke, Fury never dared to be careless. He immediately had someone investigate.

The results showed "no record" for the four girls. Clearly, S.H.I.E.L.D. had no way of identifying the Black Rose quartet. These four children had no files, no photos, no home addresses, no names, and they couldn't even be found in any video footage from before the last 12 hours.

It was as if they had appeared out of thin air 12 hours ago.

"This is ridiculous," Fury said, expressing his indignation at his subordinates' incompetence. With the resources and technology at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s disposal, they couldn't find the origin of four children—did they just fall from the sky?

"The number of people around Luke has been increasing lately," Black Widow said softly from the side.

She had been keeping a close eye on Luke. Recently, she was the one in most frequent contact with Hawkeye, and she, too, had learned that the number of strangers around Luke was multiplying—and they were all children.

She had investigated Crystal a while ago, but unfortunately, aside from a few faint clues, she found no solid evidence. At least Crystal had a trail; she had first appeared on the street with a monster dog and then suddenly vanished. Clearly, she was no ordinary person.

The fact that the four new children had no identifiable background concerned Black Widow even more.

Black Widow was worried that these questionable children would lead Luke astray. She hadn't even realized it herself, but she had been distracted during work lately, with Luke’s voice and face constantly appearing in her mind. She often wondered what he was doing and whether he still hated her. It was a classic case of stepmother syndrome.

Fury thought even deeper. He had always been uncertain: did a secret organization truly exist behind Luke? Otherwise, where did all these diverse characters come from?

That giant dog, suspected of having superpowers, left the deepest impression on him.

Fury, who prided himself on being well-informed, found that whenever Luke was involved, he felt lost. Every investigation led to a dead end.

"How many more secrets does this little brat have?" Fury wondered, rubbing his reflective forehead and sighing to himself.

...

"Only one who possesses the power of the Holy Light can control the Orb of Apocalypse!"

In his bedroom, Luke sat on the bed and spoke this line, which sounded exceptionally "chuunibyou."

However, it was the truth—that was exactly what the blueprint said.

He began to prepare for this massive project, which was projected to cost three billion dollars: an artificial sun.

An artificial sun alone wasn't necessarily a big deal; as human technology advanced, they would eventually achieve it. The key was that this sun was extraordinary: under its light, all friendly creatures would undergo constant self-healing, and their physical functions would be boosted to a certain extent.

This made Luke think of a term: Kryptonian.

A group of guys who could become supermen just by basking in the sun.

This was the Marvel world; Kal-El would naturally not appear. However, what he was doing might very well turn a large group of people into Kal-Els.

He couldn't say if this was good or bad. From his perspective, turning all of New York into supermen wouldn't cause him any loss, though it wouldn't offer any real benefits either. S.H.I.E.L.D. certainly wouldn't like to see such a situation.

"Fortunately, there's a limitation: the concept of 'friendly creatures' is determined by the Holy Light within me. I can set it so the boost only applies to myself. Otherwise, it would really cause chaos," Luke thought with a grin on his little face, not without a hint of regret.

He held a pen, sketching out a design. Strictly speaking, this should be called a "Standard Fusion Reactor Core Schematic."

The more advanced knowledge was hidden in his brain; this was just a concept map, sufficient for negotiations.

Starting at three billion dollars—for him, at this moment, it was an astronomical figure.

There was no helping it; he would have to find sponsors.