The Hand, a well-known ninja organization in Marvel.
A perfect product of stereotypes.
Before being led by Daredevil, it was a thoroughly villainous organization.
They followed whoever offered the highest price.
It is not an exaggeration to say they were infamous.
And at this moment, Dante was not surprised at all that they were hired, or even controlled, by The Family.
After all, The Family had money and power.
Dante did not bother to hold back against these ninja assassins.
With a slight movement of his finger, Chaos Magic energy wrapped around the necks of these beautiful ninja girls.
A series of snapping sounds rang out, and everyone in front of him collapsed softly.
Their necks were twisted into distorted shapes.
Although he liked to persuade surrenders and offer amnesty, that was conditional.
Anyway, these assassins, whose hands were stained with the blood of innocents, were not within his consideration.
But to let them go directly would be a bit absurd.
It was better to simply destroy them mercilessly.
Stepping over these corpses, Dante continued to walk further inside.
After fumbling around in the elevator, sure enough, after touching a certain switch, the elevator, which originally only had floors one to six, suddenly gained ten more floors.
All of them were basement levels.
What kind of mental hospital has ten basement floors?
Dante pouted and directly pressed the button for the lowest floor.
Humming a song, the elevator began to descend at a steady speed.
Suddenly, a man's voice abruptly came over the intercom.
"Agent Dante, how about we have a chat?"
"Are you Simmons?"
"That's right, it's me."
"What do you want to talk about? You can't be hoping I'll let you go, can you? I was planning to kill your entire Family directly."
"Everything that happened before was just a small misunderstanding," Simmons heard Dante's murderous tone and didn't panic at all. "If you're willing, please press the button for the fifth basement floor."
Dante raised his eyebrows and reached out to press the button.
Just then, the elevator was precisely at the fourth basement floor.
After descending one more floor, with a ding, the elevator doors opened.
As soon as Dante stepped into the fifth basement floor, what was originally pitch black was instantly illuminated by bright lights.
Everywhere he looked was resplendent and magnificent.
He looked with interest at the various antique authentic works hanging on both sides of the corridor, then walked toward the end of the corridor.
Following it, he arrived in a huge room.
In addition to the still magnificent decoration, there was a rather large conference table.
And Simmons was standing beside the conference table at this moment.
He didn't bring anyone, just stood there by himself.
On a nearby table, there was a complete set of high-end steak dinner, along with a bottle of collection-grade fine wine from a Bordeaux winery.
"Oh, you're living quite well, eating and drinking."
"Thanks to you, Mr. Dante." Simmons nodded and continued, "My life is quite good, and the entire U.S. is doing well…"
"But you, haven't been very honest lately."
Dante narrowed his eyes.
He didn't care about this Family thing at first.
Because for profit-seekers like them, causing trouble everywhere didn't actually align with their interests.
What they excelled at was creating big news at certain important junctures.
Achieving maximum profit with minimal cost.
"I can explain all of this."
Simmons gestured for Dante to take a seat.
Dante raised his eyebrows and sat on the edge of the conference table.
And Simmons didn't mind this.
He reached for the wine bottle, pulled out the cork, and poured it into the decanter.
Then, with the sound of the wine colliding with the crystal decanter, an elegant old man in a suit and leather shoes appeared out of thin air from the corner.
Then he sat down in front of the steak dinner.
Dante's eyes widened abruptly.
With his current abilities, skills like illusion could not deceive him at all.
But this old man in front of him…
He truly appeared out of thin air.
There was no sign, and he didn't feel any energy.
Dante was momentarily stunned.
This is…
Who?
At this moment, he saw Simmons, who had just been calm, directly kneel down and bow to the old man.
His hands were clasped tightly, in a praying posture.
"God, please give me courage and strength."
"Listen to my wish."
The old man's brows furrowed slightly, looking at the performance art in front of him with some confusion.
Then he withdrew his gaze.
And started looking at Dante.
The moment he was stared at by those eyes, Dante subconsciously activated all three lights.
That feeling of being spied upon immediately disappeared.
He picked up his knife and fork, cut a medium-rare piece of beef, and put it into his mouth.
Fat and hemoglobin burst in his mouth, and the charred aroma of the Maillard reaction filled his taste buds.
The old man nodded in satisfaction.
Suddenly, this extremely elegant old man spoke.
"I heard your name is Dante?"
"That's right. What do you want to do?"
"No, no, Agent Dante, you're too wary of me."
The old man shook his head, but his next words made Dante break out in a cold sweat.
"How is that fellow Jack Bright doing? Ever since he left his original Universe, my life has truly become visibly boring."
After speaking, the old man's elegant, unchanging face showed a hint of regret.
"You… are also from the Foundation Universe?"
Dante frowned.
Although he asked verbally, he had already confirmed it in his heart.
Someone who knows that guy Jack Bright must be a member of the Foundation Universe.
The old man appearing out of thin air, knowing Jack Bright…
Wait, this guy wouldn't be…
"Unfortunately, I come from that somewhat… overly dilapidated Universe."
"You should know, that Universe now… is not very habitable."
After a brainstorm, Dante instead calmed down.
He even had the leisure to glance at Simmons.
But he didn't expect Simmons to be frozen in place, as if he had been halted.
Even his blink was only halfway through.
"You paused time?"
Dante looked up, once again looking at the old man.
The other party was eating steak while chatting casually with him.
As if the two were old friends who hadn't seen each other for years.
"Yes, I really can't stand this person's neurosis."
"I just happened to appear here when I traveled through."
"I found a nice wine cellar here, so I temporarily stayed."
"But this man seems to have misunderstood, he actually treats me as God, and sincerely prays to me."
"Recently, he even fantasized about God's plan to destroy the world, and he is the vanguard."
"I'm also very troubled."
"His wine is indeed good, I'm a bit reluctant to leave."
"But I'm also afraid of being infected by an idiot."
The old man seemed to have opened his floodgates, his words flowing like a torrent.
Dante rolled his eyes.
Crazy.
"Alright, in a sense, there's nothing wrong with him calling you God."
"Don't you agree, SCP-343…"
"God."
(To be continued.)