Chapter 176 God of Mischief? God of Self-Deception!
"Loki?"
Thor thought he was hearing things.
But the green shadow in front of him became clearer and clearer.
"You look quite pathetic, brother."
Loki shook his head, a mix of emotions churning within him.
"To be so weak because of a mortal illness."
"Loki, it's really you... I knew it..."
Receiving Loki's response confirmed to Thor that Loki was indeed alive. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, but a smile of comfort spread across his face.
Then, he could no longer hold on and completely passed out.
Loki scanned Thor from head to toe. The words of mockery he had intended to utter couldn't be spoken.
After leaving H.A.M.M.E.R., he had leisurely begun searching for Thor, but the information Coulson provided was clearly outdated.
It took him several days to find Thor, who was wandering the streets.
Loki had originally thought he would be happy and triumphant seeing Thor in such a sorry state, but the emotions filling him now were far from that.
He used to be able to stab Thor in the side with a smile, completely unfazed, even delighted.
It was precisely because of this that he had always believed he could coldly kill Thor, that he didn't care about Thor's life at all.
This person before him wasn't even his biological brother.
But now.
Seeing Thor in such a disheveled state, Loki felt no happiness.
On the contrary, he felt a tightness in his chest, making his breathing heavy and difficult.
He didn't know what was wrong with him.
And he certainly couldn't face his feelings for Thor directly.
"How are you feeling now?"
Ben's figure suddenly appeared behind Loki. Loki turned his head, and the moment he saw Ben, his eyes flickered, showing a hint of panic, but also a touch of relief as he asked.
"What are you doing here?"
"What, are you embarrassed that I saw you feeling bad about your brother's suffering?"
Ben walked past him, helped Thor to the shade of a tree, and then explained.
"It was Heimdall."
"I had already arrived at the School when Heimdall used his ability to tell me that Thor was on the verge of death," Ben said helplessly.
Although Thor had indeed come to the mortal world to suffer, if he were to actually die on Earth, the consequences would be too dire.
"He can see through the Nine Realms, so he should know you're here too, right? Why did he find me?"
"Who knows?" Loki smiled faintly, flicking his wrist and conjuring a dagger. "Perhaps he was worried I'd kill the Son of Odin."
"Give me a break," Ben shrugged.
"You can fool your brother, but don't fool yourself."
Come on, everyone knew their brotherhood was a love-hate relationship; the hate was fake, the love was real.
God of Mischief and Trickery?
I think he's the God of Self-Deception?
He thought to himself, but Ben didn't say it aloud, giving Loki some face.
"Your words are tough, but you still consider him your brother. Seeing him sick like this, you're already heartbroken, yet you've forgotten that the suffering you endured on Sakaar was ten times worse than his."
"I'm adopted," Loki said flatly, clearly wanting to change the subject. He then asked, "Did Heimdall say anything else?"
Ben shook his head.
Seeing this, Loki seemed both relieved and a little disappointed.
He didn't ask anything further.
Instead, he took Thor to the hospital and then left.
"Aren't you going to wait for him to wake up so you can mock him?" Ben asked.
"Too boring."
"I'm not in the mood to mock a loser."
Loki turned and left.
Watching his retreating back, Ben lowered his head and pondered.
In fact, Heimdall finding him was a complete fabrication by Ben.
He had intentionally followed Loki here.
Seeing Loki this time, he felt that the Loki before him was a bit strange.
Originally, Loki had come to Earth to mock Thor, but after arriving on Earth, he didn't immediately look for Thor. Instead, he went to find the hammer.
Although Loki's explanation was reasonable, Ben still felt something was off.
From Ben's understanding of Loki, perhaps Loki did care about whether the hammer could prove his worth, but he cared more about Thor.
Afterward, although Loki was still looking for Thor, he didn't seem to be in a hurry. It was as if he was deliberately putting on a show of searching for Thor.
These actions made Ben suspicious.
However, after observing from the shadows, he could clearly feel that Loki's feelings for Thor were genuine.
"Could it be that he deliberately went to find the hammer first, just to trick himself into believing Thor wasn't important to him at all?"
If he thought of it that way, then it wasn't strange anymore.
...
"What a failure!"
Kingpin angrily smashed the object in his hand onto the ground.
Chameleon, who had been so confident when he left, claiming no one could see through his disguise (Loki: I am a god!), had gone missing in less than a day.
At first, Kingpin thought Chameleon might have just encountered some trouble and was unable to contact him.
But after a few days, with no news, he slowly began to grow suspicious.
Now it seemed.
Chameleon had likely been dealt with on the very first day, and he was only just finding out now.
With this, the plan to obtain the Super Soldier Serum formula had failed again.
Kingpin realized that for the past six months, he had been losing and losing, never winning.
The only victory he had was in the recent Hydra war, but he gained nothing from it.
Or rather, preventing Hydra from dominating the world was a benefit in itself.
But that war didn't depend on him. His proud criminal empire was nothing more than an unknown soldier in that conflict.
Kingpin often felt a sense of urgency.
As a villain, he was very driven.
It all started with Iron Man, a person with no superpowers, who became a superhero because of a battle armor.
Then, it was as if the entire world had flipped a switch, and all sorts of people began to emerge.
Perhaps they had always existed, but only now had they appeared. However, from Kingpin's perspective, the lives of ordinary people would only become more difficult from now on.
That's why he was so eager to obtain things that could mutate people.
Green Goblin Serum, Lizard Serum, Super Soldier Serum...
Anything would do.
But none of them were easy to acquire.
However, he was quite persistent. While Chameleon's failure made him angry, it wasn't a crushing blow.
At this moment, one of his subordinates brought him astonishing news.
"Mr. Kingpin, Walter Hardy is back."
"What?"
Upon hearing this, Kingpin shot up from his seat, looking at his subordinate in disbelief, as if questioning the truth of his words.
He could find out that Cat Burglar was at S.H.I.E.L.D., so he could also know Cat Burglar's true identity.
Therefore, Kingpin had already made his plan. Once Chameleon helped him exchange Cat Burglar from the H.A.M.M.E.R. prison, Kingpin would use Felicia's life to threaten Cat Burglar into cooperating.
Of course, Kingpin had also found out that Felicia had a good relationship with Ben, who had attracted Spider-Man's attention the last time he was captured.
However, he believed that it was Peter, not Ben, who was connected to Spider-Man, and besides, a friend of a friend was already a distant relationship.
He was confident that as long as he acted quickly, there would be no loose ends.
But he hadn't expected Chameleon to be gone.
Even less did he expect Cat Burglar to have gotten out of prison.
"How is this possible?" He clenched his massive, millstone-like face with his thick fingers, deep in thought.
"Did he tell H.A.M.M.E.R. his secret? But even so, H.A.M.M.E.R. wouldn't let someone who knows the formula leave."
"Or, H.A.M.M.E.R. doesn't know his secret at all?"
Then he shook his head, dismissing the unrealistic idea.
H.A.M.M.E.R. was built on the remains of S.H.I.E.L.D., and all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s data had been absorbed by H.A.M.M.E.R.
With information as crucial as the Super Soldier Serum, there was no reason for H.A.M.M.E.R. not to pay attention to it.
"Unless they released the Cat Burglar themselves."
Kingpin pondered, guessing it was still related to the previous Hydra incident.
The number of captured Hydra agents was too large, so large that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prisons couldn't hold them all.
They couldn't possibly lock up the Cat Burglar and Hydra agents together, could they?
"This is a good opportunity."
He grinned, his small eyes emitting a captivating gleam.
"But, could it be a trap?"
Kingpin's subordinate expressed some worry.
Perhaps H.A.M.M.E.R. intentionally set a snare to lure them in, precisely because they didn't know who sent Chameleon.
But Kingpin didn't think so.
"Do you think Chameleon would be loyal enough to hide the truth for us?"
His relationship with Chameleon was merely transactional. Even if Chameleon was trustworthy, he wouldn't hesitate to betray Kingpin if it meant saving himself.
Therefore, either H.A.M.M.E.R. already knew he sent Chameleon, or they simply didn't care who sent Chameleon.
If they didn't care, then there was no need to set a trap.
It had to be said, Kingpin was quite bold.
He dared to commit arson at the age of twelve and personally kill someone. After all these years, he had only grown more ruthless.
However, sitting on the throne for too long had made him appear a bit more benevolent.
"Aleksei should be healed by now. Let him... Never mind." Kingpin thought for a moment and decided against deploying Rhino.
That guy wasn't very bright. If he were sent, he'd just cause chaos and accomplish nothing.
Kingpin considered it again and decided to send a few skilled gang members to kidnap the target.
Although the Cat Burglar might have injected a serum, the person was already eighty or ninety years old, practically as old as Biden. Even with a serum, their combat effectiveness would likely be minimal now.
Thanks to the 100-point tips from passersby who liked novels, Wang Yige, and Zi Qi Dong Lai 0-0. Thank you, bosses.
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