"Uncle, aren't you tending to your antique shop today instead of selling hot dogs at the school gate again? Give me two!" Ryan wasn't surprised at all as he naturally walked over to Uncle's food cart to chat.
"I recently recruited an apprentice for the antique shop to take care of it. Besides, you foreigners are getting harder to trick these days, so my antique shop business isn't doing well. Don't I have to come out and sell hot dogs to make some extra cash?"
The white-haired little old man wearing small glasses and a yellow vest replied leisurely while grilling hot dogs for Ryan.
"That really is terrible. I hope you don't drop below the execution threshold, Uncle~" Ryan joked half-heartedly.
"Haiya! You brat, how dare you curse Uncle! Do you think Uncle is too old to wield a blade anymore, huh?!"
Hearing this, the little old man glared, waving the grilled sausage in his hand and making a few threatening gestures at Ryan.
You know what, it actually looked quite convincing!
"I surrender, Uncle. Your might is just as formidable as when you were young, I was wrong~" Ryan raised his hands in surrender.
"Humph! Consider yourself smart! The hot dogs are ready, twenty dollars!" Only then did the little old man retract the two grilled sausages, spread sauce on them, and tuck them into the bread.
Ryan smiled, took the two hot dogs, and pulled out a hundred-dollar bill to place on the food cart: "Keep the change, consider the rest as a tip for you, Uncle~"
"Haiya! For twenty dollars' worth of stuff, you're giving an eighty-dollar tip. Is being a Professor really this lucrative these days?"
As he spoke, the little old man unceremoniously tucked the green hundred-dollar bill into his yellow vest and grinned at Ryan: "For the sake of that eighty-dollar tip, if you run into trouble in the future, just drop my name. Your Uncle will cover you!"
"Then I'll have to trouble Uncle to cover me!" Ryan shrugged without refusing.
"One more thing, did you solve that evil dark magic creature from another dimension over in the West Side?" Uncle asked suddenly.
"Solved it, Uncle. Do you happen to know the origin of that thing?" Ryan perked up.
"Haiya! How would I know? It's just that Qi told me there is an extremely evil entity over there, and that monster isn't the source—it's merely a puppet being manipulated by someone!" Uncle flicked his hand and knocked Ryan on the forehead.
Ryan didn't mind and pressed further: "A puppet? Then who is controlling it?"
"Haiya! I told you Uncle doesn't know! Do you take me for a fortune teller? I'm just a little old man who sells hot dogs!"
Uncle knocked Ryan on the head once more.
Hearing this, Ryan looked somewhat disappointed and rubbed his forehead: "You little old man, your hits actually hurt quite a bit. Since you don't know, I won't stay here bullshitting with you anymore; I have to go to class."
With that, Ryan gave Uncle a final wave and walked into the Empire State University campus with America.
Leaving only Uncle behind, gazing deeply at his retreating figure while constantly pinching his fingers, as if calculating something.
"This brat's destiny is truly bizarre; every day the calculation is different, and today it even calculated a great disaster. It's not that he is about to face a great disaster, but rather that he himself is a great disaster, as if something is about to awaken from within his body..."
"Big chest? Where's a big chest? Buddy, give me a hot dog~"
At this moment, an aged voice interrupted Uncle's fortune-telling.
Uncle looked up and saw standing before his stall another little old man with hair just as gray as his, except styled in a slicked-back pompadour and wearing sunglasses.
...
"Did that old man just now know your hidden superhero identity? Is he not an ordinary person either?"
On the campus path, America asked with some curiosity.
After all, the conversation between Ryan and Uncle just now didn't sound like one between two ordinary people.
"He is a great Qi mage, representing a part of this World's righteous energy. It's just that the forces of justice in this World are very strong and no longer need him to act, so Uncle changed careers to sell hot dogs~"
Ryan explained leisurely.
"A mage switching careers to sell hot dogs? That career change really spans quite a wide gap..."
America was utterly speechless at this.
Speaking of which, Ryan suddenly remembered: "Right, what about that Sorcerer Supreme who told you about those dark creatures while protecting you? Where is he?"
Hearing this, America looked somewhat dejected: "He died..."
"He took me on the run, originally intending to get the Book of Vishanti from his Universe to defeat these dark creatures, but before we could get it, we were hunted down and driven into a desperate situation by a powerful dark creature..."
"Therefore, he wanted to strip away my power and use the strength inside me to defeat that dark creature, but before he could take action, he was killed by the monster. In the end, terrified, I opened a multi-dimensional portal and accidentally came to this Universe..."
Speaking of which, America's eyes lit up: "Right, Strange from that previous Universe said that with the Book of Vishanti, he could eliminate those dark creatures. Let's go find Strange of this Universe and have him use the Book of Vishanti to deal with those dark creatures, how about that?!"
Hearing this, Ryan didn't look surprised at all; instead, he shook his head indifferently: "I don't think much of it, because Strange of this Universe had already been blasted to ash by a guy with an extremely arrogant tone during the incident dealing with Thanos..."
"And the newly appointed Sorcerer Supreme is a paranoid cotton machine, and my relationship with him isn't that great either. The first thing he'd want to do upon learning of your ability is definitely to lock you up rather than help you. Do you believe me?"
America looked at Ryan's breathtakingly handsome profile, now unmasked, and instinctively nodded.
With that sunny, righteous face, anything he said was right!
Good looks are justice!
"Professor Parker? Who is this..."
A voice interrupted America, who had been staring in a trance at Ryan's profile.
America snapped out of it, turned her head, and saw a blonde girl wearing a white knitted sweater, a short skirt, and sneakers.
This girl was very pretty, and she exuded a sense of sunlight extremely similar to Ryan's.
For some reason, however, those big, beautiful green eyes of hers were staring right at her with hostility.
"Gwen!"
Seeing the newcomer, Ryan opened his arms, gave Gwen a hug, and introduced her to America: "This is Gwen Stacy, the smartest student I've ever taught. Compared to her, other students are like primitive humans with underdeveloped brains~"
Other students behind Gwen: ...
Professor, we're still right here...
Yet none of them dared to speak out to refute Ryan's words.
Because the last time a few American school Monarch troublemakers refused to submit to Ryan's discipline, Ryan hung them on the basketball court to bake in the sun for a whole day before letting them down.
Afterwards, the parents of these troublemakers even came to the school to make a fuss, accusing Ryan of bullying students. As a result, those troublemaking parents were also hung up on the basketball court alongside them to bake for a day...
In the end, it even alerted the Illuminati, who used goodness knows what method to make both sides 'reconcile'...
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