Chapter 1217: Business, Secret Hired Thug, and Birthday

Phi left half an hour later, but not empty-handed.

Two Light Daggers from Tandy, two Life 1s, and two multifunctional mechanical gloves were taken away under the guise of “test supplies.” At the same time, he obtained the contact details for the mysterious businessman.

Phil and Luke looked at each other in the rearview mirror for a moment in their respective cars before they looked away.

Phil’s mind was in a mess, but he had no choice but to return to New Haven first to stand guard as the crown prince of Asgard continued to cozy up to a girl.

He couldn’t act too differently.

Hearing Sitwell’s name just now had already made him very distrustful of SHIELD’s internal structure.

He didn’t want anyone to know that he had been in private contact with Batman.

Batman had said that as long as it was a major incident that threatened the safety of ordinary people, Phil could ask him for help, and he would do his best to protect the innocent.

Phil hadn’t expected Batman to make this promise before he left.

For a moment, Phil didn’t think about how this supposed “big business” had turned into “a hired thug dropping by for a visit.”

Luke smiled and was quite satisfied with this deal.

His purpose in coming to Phil wasn’t complicated. His main objective was to give Phil some life-saving trump cards.

Whether it was Tandy’s “magical” Light Dagger, which contained life force, or Life 1, they were both life-saving methods.

As long as Phil followed Luke’s advice and carried one of these on him, it would be possible for him to survive most external injuries.

The multifunctional mechanical gloves, on the other hand, had various functions, like for physical punches or climbing, auxiliary firepower, and dispelling electric shocks or tearing things down. They could significantly improve the wearer’s combat and survival capability.

More importantly, the mechanical gloves weren’t a limited edition product like the daggers or an experimental product like Life 1. They were technologically advanced and cheap at just two million dollars each.

Phil’s face darkened when he heard that.

Most SHIELD agents only had personal equipment worth thousands of dollars. The more expensive equipment was basically for “public use,” and the agents only applied to use them when they were on a mission.

A mechanical glove worth two million definitely wouldn’t see widespread use.

After Luke’s warning about “Hydra,” the only person Phil could trust was Nick Fury.

Nick Fury didn’t trust anyone, so it was impossible for the things Phil brought back to become widespread. He could only keep them for his own use for the time being.

Safety always came first before research or anything else.

Once he heard the name Hydra, Nick Fury wouldn’t undertake any major project before doing a full investigation of SHIELD.

Luke had done this on purpose.

His biggest impression of the director from his previous life was that he was bald and distrustful.

However, the Marvel movies that Luke had watched were limited to the Avengers, so he didn’t know how genuine or deep Nick Fury’s paranoia ran.

Apart from the black baldie himself, nobody else knew how many things he was hiding. Even Pierce, the immediate superior who had promoted Nick Fury to director, was no exception.

Whether it was Captain America or Phil, the two men whom the black baldie absolutely trusted only knew some classified information.

It was only because of Nick Fury’s paranoia that SHIELD, who had been infiltrated by Hydra after World War II, hadn’t been completely taken over.

In the end, Hydra’s forces were routed by the Avengers and SHIELD agents led by Phil. The heads were cut off and Hydra collapsed.

But that didn’t affect Luke’s plan.

As long as Nick Fury had suspicions, he would definitely take the bait.

Phil would tell the black man about his contact with Batman sooner or later, and how Luke absolutely wouldn’t meet the director because he said he was too ugly.

In fact, these words were just to make his stance clear — Batman would keep in contact with Phil and could help, but a certain person shouldn’t come looking for trouble.

Nick Fury was a pragmatic person.

As long as Batman was useful to him and was willing to help, he wouldn’t fall out with Batman even if Batman pointed at his nose and said, “You’re ugly.”

Besides, since Luke hadn’t said it in front of him, this thick-skinned and black-hearted guy would just pretend not to know.

This way, Batman would be able to maintain a suitable distance from SHIELD.

Because of Hydra, the black baldie and Phil wouldn’t leak the news of Batman cooperating with them.

They might look for Batman once they needed to resolve certain crises.

Given Nick Fury’s distrust, he definitely wouldn’t give Batman tasks that involved major interests; more likely, he would want Batman to eliminate some supervillains and emergencies.

In short, Batman would be SHIELD’s secret “hired thug.”

If it were before, Luke definitely wouldn’t shoulder this sort of responsibility.

He wasn’t interested in being used, nor did he want to bet his life on a certain person’s moral integrity.

But with the appearance of the Star of Justice clone, he no longer had anything to worry about.

Even if his clone died, it would only be 100,000 credit points. He could afford it.

Compared with Luke doing his own investigation, it was undoubtedly more efficient to turn SHIELD into NPCs who issued missions.

Besides, given the nature of the Marvel world, a certain baldie and Phil would definitely become involved in major events in the future, and Luke would get a lot of experience and credit points.

However, there was no system notification that Phil had become a teammate.

Luke wasn’t too surprised.

As a veteran SHIELD agent, it wasn’t easy for Phil to trust someone.

Batman hadn’t even shown his face. No matter how much Phil trusted him, he would still have some doubts. He wasn’t as gullible as Mindy.

But Luke had other plans. At this point in time, SHIELD didn’t need to trust him.

Everything was just the beginning.

…

The next few days were peaceful. It was April 22.

It was Selina’s birthday, but she hadn’t invited anyone else to celebrate.

To celebrate, Luke prepared a delicious dinner.

After dinner, Gold Nugget gave Selina a gift — a brand new Alien laptop that it had bought online.

Looking at the gift, Selina pinched the dog’s ears and said angrily, “Do you think I don’t know that you bought this for yourself?”

Gold Nugget whined and covered its ears with its paws to indicate that it didn’t want to listen.

After exposing the dog head’s money-saving trick, she still accepted the laptop. “This time, I’ll use it for a month. I’ll play music on it every day, and you’re not allowed to use or touch it. I’ll definitely play with it until it’s secondhand before I give it to you.”

Gold Nugget whined.