MWM Chapter 120

“I’m back!”

In the evening, when Leo Apparated home, Wanda was in the kitchen, using cooking magic to prepare dinner.

He didn’t always take Wanda along on his tasks—only when there was a possibility of combat did he bring her along to help her gain practical experience. Most of the time, when it came to tasks like finding lost pets, putting out fires, or rescuing people, he handled them alone. Often, he would just flash in, cast a quick spell, and be done, avoiding any unnecessary attention.

Despite this, within just a week, he and Wanda had already appeared in the news multiple times.

At first, people didn’t believe in their existence. After all, up until now, the only real superhero who had publicly appeared was Tony Stark, and people could accept his technology-based powers.

But Leo and Wanda were using magic. Even the jutsus that Leo employed were perceived as magic by New Yorkers.

To the average person, magic was something that didn’t exist—it wasn’t backed by science and was considered absurd.

So initially, everyone thought it was just a rumor, believing the so-called magic was just some advanced technology, and the photos and videos were either doctored or edited, like scenes from a movie.

But as more and more people witnessed Leo and Wanda using magic in real life, they had no choice but to accept that magic was indeed real.

After dinner, Wanda handed Leo a flyer.

“May came over this afternoon with Peter to visit, and she gave me this. She asked if we wanted to join them tomorrow. It’s supposed to be a pretty lively event.”

Leo took the flyer and glanced at it.

On the cover was a picture of the giant open-air pavilion in Queens, with the words:

“Hammer Industries New Product Showcase: Era-Defining Inventions—Land, Sea, and Air Combat Robots. The event will conclude with a grand fireworks display. Everyone is welcome to attend!”

“A grand fireworks display, huh? Sure, let’s go check it out too!”

Leo hadn’t originally planned to attend the Hammer Industries showcase. He’d even had Jack throw the formal invitation they sent him into the trash.

He knew that when Ivan Vanko and Tony Stark clashed, the scene would likely turn into chaos, and bringing Jack and others might expose them to unnecessary danger.

Moreover, he was busy completing tasks to earn small-world time and didn’t have the time for it.

But seeing the anticipation in Wanda’s eyes, he thought it over and agreed.

Although they might not get to see the official fireworks, they’d definitely witness some explosive robot action—an alternative kind of fireworks show.

“Great! I’ll call May back then. She’s been waiting for our answer,” Wanda said excitedly, turning to make the call as soon as Leo agreed.

Meanwhile, Leo casually opened the task panel to check for any new missions.

“Thought there wasn’t one, but turns out it was just a little late.”

Flipping to the last page, he quickly spotted a newly refreshed task, and a smile spread across his face.

[Tomorrow at 9 PM, prevent the robot uprising at the Hammer Industries showcase—reward: 30 days of small-world time.]

Leo had deduced that whenever a well-known event occurred, the panel would usually post a corresponding task. However, when no tasks related to the Hammer Industries robot showcase had appeared in the past couple of days, he’d begun to wonder if he had misunderstood. But it seemed it was just a bit delayed.

It also made him realize that the reward really matched the difficulty of the task.

Over the past week, he had been running himself ragged, completing a large number of side quests, and had barely accumulated a month’s worth of small-world time.

Yet here was a single task offering an entire month as a reward.

It made sense, though. In his usual tasks, the opponents were just ordinary people with guns, easily dealt with, while this time, he would be facing fully armed robots.

If you added up all the enemies he had encountered in the past week, they probably wouldn’t match the firepower of a few of those robots at the showcase.

The difficulty level was on an entirely different scale.

—

“Ding dong! Ding dong!”

Just as Wanda finished her phone call and Leo closed the task panel, the doorbell suddenly rang.

“At this hour? Is it Pietro?” Wanda said as she turned to walk toward the door.

“Coming.”

It was already 9:30 PM, so other than her brother Pietro, there shouldn’t be anyone else visiting them at this time.

As she opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of a middle-aged woman dressed in a yellow, monk-like robe, standing there with a calm demeanor.

“Can I help you?” Wanda asked, her face showing a hint of confusion.

The bald woman smiled warmly.

“My name is the Ancient One. I’m here to see you and your husband. There are some things I’d like to discuss with you.”

“The Ancient One?”

Leo, sitting on the living room sofa, perked up his ears and suddenly stood up.

“The Ancient One came here? Why? Is it because Wanda and I have been using magic in public recently, and she’s here to warn us? Or is there another reason?”

Leo’s face shifted through various expressions, but he quickly steadied his emotions. He then called out to Wanda at the door.

“Wanda, since we have a guest, please invite her in to sit down. We can talk once she’s comfortable.”

With his current strength, Leo didn’t have much to fear from organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, or government agencies—as long as they didn’t push too far, he preferred to ignore them.

But what he truly feared were entities like Asgard, far more advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, various pantheons of gods, Celestials, dimension lords, and the planet’s most powerful magical organization, Kamar-Taj.

The Ancient One was the head of Kamar-Taj, a Sorcerer Supreme who had lived for over five hundred years, a being who could fend off and repel dimensional entities and even borrow their power without ever returning it—a being of immense strength.

With Leo’s current power, he stood no chance against her; even escaping would be futile.

She was also the guardian of the Time Stone, one of the Infinity Stones.

The Ancient One’s visit was something he hadn’t anticipated. In his mind, while the Ancient One was indeed powerful, she was also quite laid-back. Unless the world was facing an apocalyptic crisis, she would typically be either at Kamar-Taj or lounging around in one of the Sanctums.

Even during the Battle of New York, when a massive alien invasion threatened Earth, the Ancient One had only symbolically dealt with some aliens near the Sanctum and left the rest alone.

So, it didn’t make sense for her to come after them just for using magic, especially since they were using it for good.

However, since she had rung the doorbell and formally requested entry, rather than opening a portal and dragging them to Kamar-Taj for judgment, it probably wasn’t anything too serious.

This thought helped him steady his nerves.

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