Chapter 56

Today there's only one update, sorry.

...

At the top-floor terrace of the Umbrella Tech building, under the sunshade...

Liu Rui'an, lying on a sun lounger, seemed to be enjoying a leisurely time, but in reality, his mind was far from the enticing girls in the swimming pool.

It had been three days since he returned from San Juan, Puerto Rico. During these three days, Liu Rui'an had been pondering the changes in his body.

Previously, he had obtained Skye's genes and used them as a catalyst to undergo the Terrigen Crystal baptism, thereby gaining corresponding superpowers.

Before making this plan, Liu Rui'an had not failed to conduct thorough and comprehensive considerations.

With Skye's genes, Liu Rui'an was not worried about his safety.

The only issue was whether, after the Terrigen Crystal baptism, he would gain the exact same abilities as Skye, the Quake, or new abilities.

However, the entire process, while not dangerous, did present three problems that were beyond his control.

Problem one: After the Terrigen Crystal baptism, his body carbonized, and he lost consciousness completely.

According to Skye's description afterward, although the carbonized body would lose sensation, consciousness would not be completely lost.

Problem two: After carbonization, Skye did not take long to complete the evolution process, shedding the carbon layer and returning to normal.

However, his carbonization time was significantly longer, almost ten times longer.

Fortunately, he had reassured Skye beforehand; otherwise, she would have been terrified.

Even so, Skye was still quite frightened.

Problem three: After returning to normal, he immediately tried to use the Quake's abilities but found that he had not gained them.

Not only that, after "retreating" to the Umbrella Tech building, he discovered that he had gained a rather useless ability—teleportation.

Teleportation, in other words, instant transfer.

There's a movie called "Jumper," where the male protagonist has such an ability.

According to Liu Rui'an's tests, the ability he gained seemed similar to the one in the movie.

He could only teleport to places he had been to before, and not to places he hadn't visited.

Additionally, he could only teleport to places within his line of sight, and there seemed to be a distance limit; at least, he couldn't teleport directly from Earth to the Moon.

The reason it was considered useless was that after obtaining Kryptonian genes and absorbing enormous energy by approaching the sun, even though he was far from reaching the speed of light, his flight speed was not much different from the teleportation ability.

Moreover, he would often travel to different worlds.

For worlds that were not based on Earth or where the geography had changed significantly, the teleportation ability would be of no use.

Even for worlds based on Earth with similar geography, Liu Rui'an was not sure if his newly acquired teleportation ability would work.

Most importantly, after the Terrigen Crystal baptism, his original abilities seemed to have been affected.

However, the specific impact and how it manifested were still unclear.

Just as Liu Rui'an was racking his brain, his personal terminal suddenly lit up.

"My master, Skye is looking for you," the Starling reported, displaying a holographic image on the screen.

"Has she returned?" Liu Rui'an asked, temporarily putting the problem aside.

Since returning from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Liu Rui'an had only kept Skye at the Umbrella Tech building for a day before letting her go free.

His initial "invitation" was to use her genes to undergo the Terrigen Crystal baptism. Since the goal was achieved, there was no need to restrict her freedom.

Moreover, after becoming "Quake" in advance, even though her ability was still raw and limited in power, it would be much harder to restrict her freedom than before.

Additionally, Liu Rui'an genuinely liked the half-Chinese, half-American girl, and since she had accepted the Inhuman heritage, there was no reason to continue detaining her.

"Approximately five minutes and eighteen seconds, and she will appear, provided you give her permission," the Starling reported.

"Give her permission," Liu Rui'an nodded and clapped his hands, attracting attention and making a gesture.

The group of life assistants, who had been playing and flirting by the pool, realized their boss probably had something important to discuss and left the terrace in a group, leaving it empty.

"Starling, prepare some food and drinks and bring them here; you should have her preferences recorded," Liu Rui'an instructed, looking at the now calm terrace.

"Always at your service, my master," the Starling, knowing her master didn't like to be disturbed at this time, quickly disappeared from the personal terminal.

A few minutes later, Skye, dressed fashionably, appeared on the terrace.

"Welcome back, Skye," Liu Rui'an stood up to greet her, extending his hands with a smile.

"Hi, Liu," Skye naturally extended her hands to embrace him, greeting him with a smile.

Their relationship had become much closer due to their shared experiences.

Skye even considered Liu Rui'an as a family member because of her Inhuman heritage.

"How have the past two days been?" Liu Rui'an asked, gently embracing her and then holding her shoulders.

"Not good," Skye shook her head, answering the question.

"What happened?" Liu Rui'an asked, pulling her to sit under the sunshade and handing her a bio-drink.

"Shortly after I returned, SHIELD, as you said, came to recruit me as an agent," Skye explained, taking a sip of the drink and noticing the food on the table, which she liked, with a hint of joy in her eyes.

"What's your choice?" Liu Rui'an asked, smiling, having anticipated this would happen and already warned her.

"Before, I would have agreed, but now, you know," Skye shook her head, answering.

"I respect your decision. Compared to Nick Fury and the others, we are too innocent," Liu Rui'an nodded, not surprised by her decision.

"Moreover, that circle is chaotic; it's better to keep some distance," he added.

Skye, who had often hacked into SHIELD's system as a high-ranking member of the Rising Tide organization, agreed with this statement.

However, thinking about the information she had obtained from SHIELD, she hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Liu, are you really from the future?"

"I lean more towards the parallel world theory. At least in my world, your life experiences are not like this," Liu Rui'an shook his head, answering.

"What should my experiences be like?" Skye, who had only learned part of the "truth" from him, couldn't help but ask.

Faced with this question, Liu Rui'an, who had not intended to keep it from her, recounted the plot from the TV series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," omitting parts that would affect his plans.

"Skye, if I hadn't met you, would the future of this world's you be like the one I know?" Skye, who had never imagined her future would be so tragic, asked with a bitter smile.

"You've already met me, haven't you?" Liu Rui'an countered, not directly answering the question.

At that moment, the personal terminal on the sun lounger suddenly lit up.

"Master, Phil Coulson has sent an encrypted message about Dr. Bruce Banner."

"See, SHIELD is like a dog-skin plaster; once you get involved, it's hard to get out," Liu Rui'an said, picking up the terminal and laughing helplessly.

Seeing such a powerful organization as SHIELD described as a dog-skin plaster, Skye couldn't help but laugh and ask, "If you know they're a dog-skin plaster, why did you get involved?"

"I didn't want to, but the situation was special at the time. It's too late to regret now," Liu Rui'an shrugged and then opened the encrypted message on the terminal.

Hearing it was an encrypted message, Skye, though curious, didn't ask.

However, after reading the message, Liu Rui'an directly pushed the terminal to her and said, "What do you think? I made a deal with SHIELD before, and now they've given a response. Are you interested?"

"Is it appropriate for me to see an encrypted message?" Skye, surprised, took the terminal and asked, not quite reacting.

"We're a team now; why can't you see it?" Liu Rui'an, completely unconcerned, answered.

Even though their relationship had become closer since returning from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Skye, who had lacked affection since childhood, was still quite pleased to see such trust.

However, her joy quickly dissipated as she read the encrypted message.

"Liu, are you sure you want to get involved in this?" Skye, pointing to the screen on the terminal, asked worriedly.

"Why not?" Liu Rui'an, leaning back in his chair, shrugged and said.