Ye Li lifted his foot to show it and teased him on purpose, "Because I'm wearing shoes."
Martin: ???
"Don't be afraid, I'm just sparring with you."
Before Mr. Negative could react, Ye Li made a slight gesture, and the scattered rocks gathered again, forming a stone giant that stood up once more.
Martin: "..." 'He can summon again? Then why am I fighting so hard?'
Martin Li didn't believe Ye Li's nonsense about "just sparring." He was sure that Ye Li wanted to kill him!
So—
Mr. Negative suddenly grabbed a mixed-race couple from the surrounding crowd.
With his inhuman physique, even while injured, he firmly overpowered the two ordinary people. "Let me go! Or I'll kill them!"
"You're using them to threaten me?"
System reward has arrived.
Ye Li was already about to leave, but seeing Martin's actions, he found it quite interesting...
He playfully raised his hand, making a finger gun gesture at his temple. "Bang~"
The stone giant collapsed instantly.
"Whew....."
Just as Martin relaxed slightly, he saw—Ye Li stepping toward him...
"Don't come over!"
"Don't come over—!!"
Mr. Negative screamed in fear, and in his panic, he squeezed his hand tightly—
Crack! The man in the mixed-race couple, Ni Ge, was killed as a sacrifice.
Martin Li used this as a warning to Ye Li—he really would kill!
But.
Ye Li did not stop walking...
"You!"
'If I'm going down, I'll take another with me!'
Martin Li thought to himself and exerted more force, about to strangle the other hostage—
"Let her go!!"
"Suddenly—Bang!
A round trash can lid spun through the air, hitting Martin square on the head, knocking him to the side.
The crowd, curious, dispersed and turned to look.
They saw a strong, blond man sprinting towards them at superhuman speed...
…..
On the other side of the universe.
On a dimly lit asteroid.
"The Tesseract has awakened..."
"It resides in a tiny space, in the human world, where humans are trying to control and use it..."
"Unfortunately, only our allies know how to truly unlock its secrets..."
A scepter, embedded with the Mind Stone, was handed to Loki—
"Let our allies be the vanguard. We, the Chitauri, will follow closely behind..."
"This planet may belong to him..."
"But the entire universe will be ours..."
"What can the humans do? They can only wait for their doom."
After escaping from the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Steve found himself lost and overwhelmed by the rapidly changing modern streets.
As fate would have it, he happened to witness Mr. Negative committing murder in the street. Without hesitation, he grabbed a trash can lid and hurled it.
"Uh..."
Martin rubbed his head and staggered to his feet...
Seeing Steve approaching with incredible speed, instead of being frightened, he was delighted and took the initiative to confront him—
As soon as Steve got close, he used his agile combat skills to effortlessly subdue the already injured Martin.
However, at the same time...
Through physical contact,
Mr. Negative's dark energy transferred into Captain America's body, amplifying his negative emotions...
"Oh ho~"
Ye Li was slightly surprised to see Captain America suddenly appear. "This is getting more and more interesting..."
"Argh!.....!!"
Steve suddenly shoved Martin away, clutching his head in pain as the clarity in his eyes gradually faded...
Having just been manipulated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and emotionally shaken, his mental state was already unstable.
Now, his negative emotions were amplified several times over by Martin!
To some extent, Mr. Negative's ability to amplify emotions is even harder to resist than the Purple Man's hypnosis.
One amplifies the target's own emotions, while the other is an external force trying to control the target's consciousness.
The former is harder to resist with willpower in the short term—if the resistance is misplaced, it only amplifies the emotions further.
So.
Even Captain Rogers' willpower couldn't break free from Mr. Negative's ability immediately, leading to him being successfully controlled by the Negative Energy.
"Hehehe..."
Martin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled—it seemed his ability was still effective.
From the power he sensed, this blond man was no ordinary person. If he controlled him, he might be able to escape from Black Spider's grasp...
Wu——
Wu——
Wu——
At this moment.
Several black S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles arrived at the scene. Agents got out and began evacuating the crowd. "Disperse! Leave this area immediately!"
Snap~
Nick Fury closed the car door.
After seeing the situation clearly, this well-experienced S.H.I.E.L.D. director was momentarily stunned—
"Motherf—?"
Why is Black Spider here too?
What the hell is this crater in the middle of the road?
Why is there a corpse lying on the ground?
Who's that guy that looks like an X-ray photo? I think there's a record of this criminal in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database...
None of that is the main issue. The real question is—why is Steve Rogers holding his head in front of him?
The situation was quite different from what Egghead had expected.
He originally thought he just needed to persuade Captain America to come back with him, but now things were far more complicated...
"First..."
Fury quickly composed his thoughts and decided to stick to his original goal. He ordered his agents, "...Go check on our Captain!"
Several agents drew their guns at Martin Li and slowly approached Steve, who was holding his head motionless...
'Government personnel?...'
Mr. Negative looked at the men in black suits, unaware that they were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
He thought they were some government agency coming to arrest him for his criminal activities.
So, he directly commanded the Negative Energy-controlled Captain America to attack—
Steve moved like a diving eagle!
Bang! Bang bang! Bang!
The approaching agents had no time to react before Captain America took them down with three punches and a few kicks.
If Steve hadn't subconsciously restrained his strength, these well-trained agents would have been either dead or seriously injured.
At this point, Nick Fury had no doubts—Captain America was under Mr. Negative's control.
Rogers had just woken up and escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D., only to run into this mess—could he be any more unlucky?
Meanwhile, the surveillance footage and Martin Li's profile retrieved by the agents quickly gave Egghead a clear picture of what had happened here...
Fury silently turned his gaze toward Black Spider—
So, you were the one who started this fight?
And now you're just standing there watching?
Doesn't your conscience hurt?
"Black Spider, this is all your mess!"
Nick Fury mustered his courage and demanded from Ye Li, who was still watching, "You have to take responsibility and fix this!"
He really didn't want to provoke this troublemaker, but he had no choice...
Black Widow Natasha was away on a mission; Hawkeye Barton was at the Tesseract research base monitoring it; Mockingbird Barbara was undercover in the Ghost Spider Club, almost deep enough to become close to the vice president; and newly awakened Captain America Steve had just "defected" on the spot...
There was literally no one else available...
Ye Li, hearing Fury's demand, raised his hand slightly.
This scared the surrounding agents, who thought he was angered by Fury and were about to raise their guns at him—
But he simply waved his hand in a dismissive farewell gesture and disappeared in an instant.
Fury: ??...??
He started the fight and just left? Is he seriously ditching us like this?
Now stuck with a mess, Motherf—Man's face darkened... though it wasn't easy to tell.
Bang! Bang! Bang bang bang!
Meanwhile.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who moved in to arrest Captain America and Mr. Negative were knocked down one after another by Steve, lying sprawled all over the ground...
Fury's eyes turned cold as he immediately formulated a strategy, "A few of you, fire to hold off Captain Rogers! The rest, go after Martin!"
Upon receiving the order, several agents immediately drew their guns and opened fire on Steve—
Bang! Bang!....
Under the pressure of bullets, Steve dodged and moved aside, exposing Martin Li behind him.
This was where Mr. Negative's ability showed its flaw.
He wanted Steve to block the bullets for him, but the remaining Negative Energy was nearly depleted, meaning Steve was close to breaking free from control and wouldn't follow such an order anymore.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents seized this opportunity and flanked in.
Martin Li, enduring his injuries, relied on his superhuman physique to dodge.
However.
Under the dense rain of bullets.
He was still struck in the arm by two bullets, splattering black-and-white blood.
Just as Mr. Negative was about to be captured, a victorious smile began to form on Fury's face—
Wu——!
Wu——!
Wu——!
More vehicles roared in, as several unmarked cars stopped opposite the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles.
From these cars emerged gang members wearing devil masks, armed with guns, confronting the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents—
The Devil Gang's underlings had finally arrived.
As gang members.
Their execution skills weren't as sharp as professional agents, so they arrived later than the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel.
"Ugh..."
Mr. Negative, supported into a car by one of his underlings, finally caught his breath and ordered, "These should be government people. Don't engage them—just scare them off, and let's get out of here..."
His subordinate nodded and was about to pass on the order—
However...
Martin Li wanted to de-escalate the situation.
Nick Fury, however, had no intention of letting him go.
Would highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agents be afraid of mere gangsters?
Even Kingpin was scared into prison by S.H.I.E.L.D.!
Fury: "Arrest them all!"
Gunfire erupted instantly!
Bang! Crack!
Boom! Pop! Bang!
A series of gunshots rang out for a while.
Fury initially thought that, with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' combat training, they would end the fight quickly.
However, the Devil Gang members pulled out weapons imbued with Negative Energy, significantly boosting their combat abilities, allowing them to fight on par with the agents.
This resulted in a temporary stalemate.
With Captain Rogers still being partially controlled, the agents were actually starting to struggle...
Nick Fury watched, feeling extremely frustrated, as if a mighty tiger had fallen into a pit of hounds...
Meanwhile.
Ye Li hadn't actually left.
He was standing on a nearby streetlight, watching the show while checking his system rewards—
[You have defeated Gwen Stacy's fated enemy. As her 'close associate,' you may choose one of the following rewards:]
[1. Monetary reward: $1 million]
[2. Random reward: The ability to comprehend and use a 'Biological Field']
[3. Subordinate reward: Convert Martin Li into an absolutely loyal underling]
Hmm...
Martin Li... could be a useful summon, working alongside Electro in battles to create some spectacular special effects...
Negative Energy could also be used to enchant weapons for subordinates, like Silver Sable's 'Wild Pack.'
The reason Ye Li wasn't helping S.H.I.E.L.D. capture Martin Li was simple—if Mr. Negative fell into their hands, they would definitely use him to develop Negative Energy weapons.
Ye Li had no intention of giving Fury such an advantage.
However.
Compared to option [2]—the random reward—having an enchantment-capable Martin Li seemed somewhat underwhelming.
The 'Biological Field' was similar to Superman's ability.
It was described as a force field naturally generated by living beings.
But it felt more like a mind-over-matter ability.
It could penetrate the quantum realm, ignore friction, evenly distribute force, and resist most forms of damage.
Or conversely, it could concentrate force into a single point—if controlled precisely, it could alter atomic structures, compress energy, and manipulate force direction.
Basically, it was an all-purpose ability—the kind where 'if I think I can do it, I can.'
Like the Golden Light Spell, this ability's effectiveness would scale with Ye Li's own strength and still had room for development.
After decisively choosing [Biological Field], Ye Li took a moment to sense its effects and came to a conclusion—
For now, combining this ability with the Golden Light Spell was a solid choice.
The two abilities could amplify each other when used together.
Bang!
Meanwhile.
Nick Fury had personally drawn his gun and joined the fight, but still couldn't take down Steve.
Frustrated, he resorted to threatening the Devil Gang members: "Are you all really choosing to go against S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
The Devil Gang members had barely even heard of S.H.I.E.L.D. Besides, compared to his rival "Hammerhead," Martin Li ruled with a relatively gentle hand, so his subordinates remained loyal and didn't take Fury's threats seriously.
However...
Mr. Negative, on the other hand, had definitely heard of S.H.I.E.L.D.!
He panicked.
He used up the last bit of Negative Energy within Steve and gave a final order to attack Nick Fury—
This was to buy himself more time against the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Then, he immediately turned to the driver and shouted, "Step on it! Get us out of here!"
The driver, startled, quickly started the engine.
Wuhu——!
Vroooom—!
The vehicle smashed through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s blockade.
It sped off toward the outskirts.
This time, they got away.
Martin Li planned to lay low for a while—S.H.I.E.L.D. was not an enemy he could afford to mess with...
Fury held up his special firearm as Steve charged at him, hesitating on whether or not to pull the trigger—
Clang!
A red-and-gold suit of armor suddenly landed in front of Fury, blocking Captain America's punch with one hand. "Well, well, look at this! A new super-criminal?"
Click~
Tony turned his armored head slightly and greeted Fury, "I originally wanted to invite you to an art exhibition, Director Fury, but it looks like your head was almost cracked open. I guess that'll have to wait."
"Thanks for your concern, Tony."
Fury gave him a friendly reminder, "But Captain Rogers isn't easy to handle. Be careful."
"Captain Rogers? That name sounds familiar..."
Just as Tony was trying to recall, Steve suddenly grabbed him and executed a back suplex—
Boom!!
"Oh! Sh*t, you bastard!"
Tony's repulsor cannon lit up, blasting Steve away with a bright flash.
Xi———
The Iron Man suit's thrusters fired up, lifting Tony into the air.
Tony aimed his palm at Steve, who was lying among the wreckage of a car, preparing to fire another shot. "So, do you understand how powerful I am now, Rogers—? Hmm? Wait, why does that name sound like that American soldier from the last century?"
"Tony, hold back!"
Fury quickly stopped him. "He is Captain America—Steve Rogers!"
"What?"
Mr. Stark was full of question marks, but he still dimmed the glow in his palm. "Fury, that joke isn't funny."