"Amy Kloe."
"Birth name Amy Oliver."
"Orphan."
"Born in 1973, she is forty-two this year."
"Social Security number..."
"Registered address, Opes Community, Queens..."
"This is her latest registered address."
"However..."
"This address is from a year ago."
Sharon Carter, currently at New York S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, looked at the computer screen displaying Amy Kloe's financial status: "Eight months ago, Amy Kloe's finances ran into serious trouble. She went bankrupt, and her credit cards were frozen."
After leaving the church, Hawke, in his audi a8, quietly appeared by the roadside in the Opes Community of Queens, as mentioned by Sharon. He looked at the dilapidated five-story slum apartment building across the street, acknowledged her, thanked her, and then hung up the phone.
The next second.
He pushed open the car door, crossed the road, and arrived at the entrance of the slum apartment building. He glanced at the intercom, which had been broken for who knows how long, and then pushed open the main door of the apartment building and walked inside.
The smell inside the apartment building was completely different from the smell outside, like the scents of two different Worlds.
However, Hawke, having closed off his sense of smell, walked up the equally dilapidated stairs, which creaked with every step, towards the fourth floor, his expression unchanged.
As for why he didn't take the elevator, it wasn't because the elevator was broken.
The elevator here worked.
It's just... taking the elevator here required a fee for each ride, as it was a small source of income for the manager of this old apartment building.
Soon.
As Hawke walked up the stairs, when his right foot landed once more, he was already inside room 405, a room of about thirty square meters on the fourth floor.
The room was full of signs of life.
Old.
But very clean.
This reminded Hawke of the room he had seen when he had contracted the timeline and returned to the past.
However, if that room was old but clean, then this apartment had an additional feeling.
The Master of this apartment seemed to live in the past.
Some yellowed couple photos, photos of a pregnant belly, and photos of a family of four, all held in equally old photo frames, were placed on top of an equally old floor cabinet.
There were plush toys whose fur was almost naturally falling off.
And an old crib that, despite the apartment not being large, occupied a significant corner.
Hawke surveyed the apartment's layout, which could be seen in a single glance, and walked to the kitchen bar, where he saw a bewildering array of medicines on the counter.
He walked over and looked at the various medications.
Some bottles were partially empty, others were still full; there were as many as eight different types of bottles that had not yet been finished.
Just then.
Footsteps sounded outside, and after a while, the sound of a key entering the door made Hawke turn his head to look at the apartment door.
The next second.
A woman.
A woman whose originally golden hair had withered and turned somewhat yellow, with a pale face and slightly purple lips, looking frailer than an average woman, walked in from outside.
Amy Kloe.
After pushing his Little Universe to the Golden Universe and once again unlocking a portion of the Reality Stone's computing power, Hawke used the Reality Stone's ability to lower his presence to the minimum.
But even if he hadn't used the Reality Stone, it wouldn't have mattered.
Because Amy Kloe had urgent matters at the moment.
Upon entering the room, Amy Kloe frantically re-closed and locked the door.
A rapid knocking sound immediately echoed.
Amy, forty-two this year, but who had lived alone since she was twenty-three, was startled by the sudden knocking. Her already pale face became even paler.
Hawke looked towards the door; a man who appeared to be around thirty years old, with tattooed arms, was knocking outside.
The man looked fierce, but his voice didn't quite match his appearance.
"Mrs. Chloe."
"Open the door, I'm really not here to collect rent."
"You haven't paid your rent for eight months. My boss brought people today, and he's not as easy to talk to as I am."
"I told you yesterday to go out today and not come back yet, why didn't you listen?"
Fan En was very helpless.
Although he was a hoodlum, he wasn't like the other vicious thugs in the gang, otherwise he wouldn't have been sent by his boss to be an administrator here.
This apartment building was managed by their gang.
The owner of the apartment building was also very willing to cooperate with them, after all, other people's money might be delayed, but no one dared to default on the gang's money.
However... Fan En thought about Amy Kloe's predicament inside, and out of sympathy, he had only urged Amy to pay the rent quickly each time, without thinking of telling his boss.
But a few days ago, his boss called him to reconcile accounts, and then his boss found out.
Thinking of his boss's cruel methods, Fan En came back to his senses, looked at Amy, who still wouldn't open the door, and sighed.
"Mrs. Chloe..."
"Is this it?"
"Yes, Boss, 405."
Just as Fan En was about to let Amy fend for herself, his boss, a fierce-looking strongman with the same tattoo on both arms and wearing a leather jacket, had already come upstairs with two other strongmen, one White and one Black.
Seeing this, Fan En flinched, thinking of Amy, who was over forty, whose husband had died tragically, and whose children had also died. He shook his head, forced a smile, and went to meet them: "Boss, Mrs. Chloe has already transferred the rent to me..."
"Get out!"
Fan En's boss directly pushed Fan En aside and walked straight to Amy's apartment door, kicking it with his foot.
Hawke frowned as he watched Amy Kloe, her back against the door, her face pale, clutching her chest, and looking to be in great pain.
The next second.
He saw the strongman outside raising his foot, ready to kick the door.
The door... remained unmoving.
What moved was the strongman who was kicking the door. The moment he was about to kick the door, he was instantly airborne, flying backward, and slammed with a thud against the wall of the apartment corridor.
Fan En was stunned.
The two Black and White henchmen who came with the strongman were also stunned.
The strongman, getting up from the ground, shook his head. Although he was a bit puzzled about what had happened, he quickly walked again and kicked the door once more.
Boom!
This time, without any surprise, the door was kicked open by the strongman.
Then—
The strongman looked at Hawke, who was holding a frail old woman in the apartment, and frowned.
"Amy?"
"...Who are you?"
Fan En also walked over, looking at Hawke, who had suddenly appeared in the lonely Amy's home, with a shocked expression.
Hawke looked at the unconscious Amy in his arms, his icy gaze turning to the strongman.
The strongman met Hawke's gaze, chuckled, and, intending to strike first, directly stepped out with his right foot.
The next second.
Instantly vaporized!
With a 'poof' and a flash of golden light, the strongman instantly vanished from his spot.
Fan En, standing beside him, was stunned.
The Black and White henchmen standing on either side of Fan En, who had planned to take the traitorous Fan En back later, were also shocked.
Hawke glanced at the remaining three people.
Poof!
Poof!
Fan En felt the sudden heatwave beside him, his body trembled, and then he looked at Hawke, who was holding the unconscious Amy in his arms, with a gaze as if looking at God.
Just then.
Tense but rhythmic footsteps climbing the stairs sounded, and soon, three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents known to Hawke appeared at the stairwell.
The leading S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, seeing Fan En standing dumbfounded at the door, quickly ran over, but also paused slightly upon seeing Hawke holding a woman in the room.
Hawke looked at the S.H.I.E.L.D. arrivals, withdrawing his gaze from Fan En.
"Settle his rent."
"Secure this place."
"...Understood!"
The leading S.H.I.E.L.D. agent reacted to the words, came to his senses, and nodded.
Hawke then, holding Amy, vanished from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' sight.
The leading S.H.I.E.L.D. agent exchanged a look with the other two, and after entering the room, his gaze first fell on several yellowed photos on the wooden cabinet.
Then!
He also saw the male infant in swaddling clothes in the yellowed family photo of four.
The next second.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent gasped.
Sharon, at New York S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, also gasped as she looked at the infant in swaddling clothes in the photo through the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's camera.
She had only learned the name Amy Kloe a few days ago.
Hawke had asked her to investigate.
The reason it took so long to investigate was actually very simple: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system had been upgrading these past few days.
Stark Industries had sold a 'smart system' to S.H.I.E.L.D.
This was also a proposal from the Security Council. Although Howard Stark was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders, Tony Stark was not.
Although S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system held no secrets for Jarvis.
But... such were the rules.
And so, Stark Industries sold a 'smart system' named 'Friday' to S.H.I.E.L.D.
This was another backup program Tony Stark had written when he created Jarvis, but unlike the male voice of Jarvis, Friday's voice was female.
This also very much suited the current S.H.I.E.L.D.
Therefore, the information about Amy Kloe was actually only found after Friday officially went online.
At the same time.
Just as the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's camera froze on the photo, Friday's intelligent analysis program quickly began to operate.
Soon.
A top-secret file was synchronized, and a group photo, seemingly from a church choir, was found within it.
Subsequently, a photo of a four-year-old boy from the group photo and the photo of the boy in swaddling clothes were placed together.
The result—
"Based on intelligent analysis!"
"Match rate—"
"One hundred percent!"
... (End of chapter)
On my Patreon, I have several advance chapters available if you're interested in more than 100: For $1, you get 20 fewer chapters than the $2.50 tier. For $2.50, you get 40 fewer chapters than the $4 tier. And for $4, you get them all.
The number of chapters is updated every 7 days and increases by 7 to 8 chapters.
My Patren: paroncom/FanTranslator