France, Paris, Merlin walked in the hall of the European branch of SHIELD, and this place evoked memories of his past.

In 1993, Merlin, the current senior executives of SHIELD, including Fury, was desperately suppressed by other peers due to the disbandment of the Strategic Science Legion and had to be a low-key person.

For a while, in order to avoid being troubled by the enemy, Fury transferred Merlin to the European branch.

He stayed here as an insurgent agent for more than a year and accepted the protection of Agent John Gatler. He finally survived the Kerry invasion in 1994, and then successfully fought a turnaround with Fury.

At that time, Merlin was just a Level 2 agent, and Gatler was already the head of the European branch.

The world changed, 12 years later, Merlin became the deputy director of SHIELD, and Gatler was promoted to level 9 agents all the way. The old man was still on the side of Europe, but in fact, he had already retreated to the second line a few years ago, and maybe he would retire in a few years.

Although he is still healthy, even healthier and more energetic than ordinary young people, he also wants his own peaceful life as an agent for his whole life.

This is human nature.

"Ba, bha"

Merlin reached out and knocked on the office door of the base supervisor, and a moment later, Gatler's low voice rang:

"Come in."

Meilin took a deep breath, and he pushed open the door in front of him and walked into the office.

Gatler, dressed like an old cowboy, was not working. In fact, he was leaning against an office chair with a black, tactical eyepiece-like thing, as if he was resting.

Merlin looked at the black gadget that Gatler was wearing. There was a cartoon logo that looked like potatoes on the shell of the thing. It was a new type of game console that only became popular in the past month.

It is known as a cross-age game console, using virtual reality technology that few people have heard of in this era, allowing gamers to immerse themselves in an epic game story with a span of 2,400 years with a more realistic experience.

Well, the name of this game is "Asassin Creed". You can tell from the name that this is a game related to Assassin.

It was developed by an unknown game studio and is now only a small-scale internal test. It may take some time to wait until it is actually launched.

"Well, are you playing this too?"

Merlin sat on an office chair, looking at Gatler who took off the game equipment. After receiving the transformation of the witcher, the old cowboy returned to his 30s. Not only did he not look old, but he became younger.

However, he still maintained his previous image, just like a person from the previous era, always liked to comb his hair into a big back and apply hair oil. With his clothes, he was full of an indescribable sense of the times.

"Yes, this thing is quite fun, it's just a waste of time, and it's over after a day of fun."

Gatler placed the black game console on the table, and he pulled open the drawer, took out two cigars, and threw one for Merlin.

He is now a witch hunter, and he can go to Diagon Alley to buy this kind of cigar that has been processed with magic skills. This is his favorite treat.

"When you play games, don't your wife talk about you?"

Merlin snapped her fingers, and two balls of beating flames helped the two old men to ignite the cigar. As the mellow smoke rose, Merlin said in a relaxed tone:

"I heard before that Liv wanted a child, but you haven't moved yet..."

"Well, I seriously doubt you are questioning some of my abilities."

Gatler held a cigar in his mouth and said proudly:

"After a while, you have to prepare a gift, Merlin, my child will be born at that time. However, pregnant women will have a bad temper. I was kicked out by her when I was playing games at home yesterday, so I had to take the game console to the office."

"However, the benefits of being a leader are here. I don't blame me when I play games during work hours, especially at this point when I'm about to retire, everyone is very tolerant of me, which is great."

"Ah, then I really want to congratulate you."

Merlin winked at Gatler and said:

"You are over 50 years old this year, and the sword is not old."

"Haha, I won't talk about this."

Gatler had an undisguised smile on his face and said to Merlin:

"Why do you have time to come here today? Is it the leader who came to inspect the work?"

"yes."

Merlin answered seriously:

"Someone reported that some agents were negligent, so I came over to take a look. You were unfortunately caught. Your salary is gone next month and your child's milk powder is not paid. Why don't you beg me quickly? Maybe I can pretend that I didn't see it."

"Just quit."

Gatler said indifferently:

"S.H.I.E.L.D. paid me a month's salary, but I won more than I went to the tavern to play cards once. Speaking of which, do you want to play a game of cards? We haven't played cards for a long time."

"OK."

Merlin pulled the chair to the desk, Gatler threw the things on the table on the sofa, and the two took out their respective Gent cards and blatantly played the cards during working hours.

This time, Merlin did not cheat, but in just a few minutes, he was defeated by Gatler.

"Your card skills have regressed."

Gatler threw down a monster card and said to Merlin:

“I haven’t played much cards lately?”

"Well, I've been very busy lately, and things are everywhere."

Merlin frowned and replied, looking at his hand:

"Smart equipment, strange gods, Hydra remnants, and more and more street heroes... They suddenly jumped out like mice, under the banner of executing justice, causing trouble everywhere, making every city chaotic, just like dog peeing moss growing wildly after the rain. In just a few months, they were everywhere. It was really annoying."

“The same is true in Europe.”

Gatler said:

"Some wizards in the UK have created a sacred relics association and dig out antiquities everywhere throughout Europe. I met your wizards last week and they told me that those wizards seemed to have found some way to summon heroes... I don't know where they got it, but it's suspicious."

"And there is Eastern Europe, you may not know that a small country had a rebellion some time ago, and the original government was overthrown. A guy named Victor von Dum formed a puppet government there. That guy looked like a wizard, but also like a scientist. We are trying to contact him, but he, how can he say, is quite xenophobic."

"The last one is the Ten Ring Gang. You know, the group of terrorists who can't kill them completely. After hiding for a few years, they started to move again. I heard that some saint appeared and gathered the forces of the Ten Ring Gang again."

Gatler sighed, watching Merlin throw out a terrain card, then drop a sunshine card to dispel the negative effects of Merlin's terrain card.

He said to Merlin:

"I don't know if it's an illusion, Merlin, I always feel that the world has become unstable..."

"It's not an illusion, it's indeed heading in a chaotic direction, but that's not our problem."

Merlin looked at his hand and said:

"The truce, the intersection of the sky, and other things, these troubles seem to be gathering together. The turbulence of the situation at this time is just a sign, and the real trouble has not come yet. And I doubt that the supernatural phenomenon that has been explosively growing in recent years, and the endless superhumans, are also a sign."

"A chaotic era is coming, whether we want it or not, whether we are ready or not."

"Bang"

Merlin looked at the bad card game in front of him, and threw down the card he had won, Geralt of Livia at 15 points.

Gatler shrugged and chose to skip the meeting and admit defeat.

But this was just the first game. Merlin threw away his trump card, and Gatler was sure to win in the next two games.

And just at the beginning of the second game, Merlin suddenly said:

"John, I get it."

"Um?"

Gatler asked while sorting out his hand:

"What do you know?"

Merlin looked up at him:

"clairvoyance..."

Gatler's movements immediately stopped in place, as if he was hit by a lightning bolt. He raised his head stiffly, and the yellow snake eyes looked at Meilin, his pupils slightly dilated.

In his eyes, there was a hint of shock, a hint of hesitation, and a hint of fear.

It was like the biggest secret in my heart was exposed, and this moment came so suddenly that Daogatler was unable to deal with it at all.

"You...why are you..."

"I'm very disappointed, John."

Merlin looked at the Gent card in his hand. His mind was not on playing cards at all, otherwise his performance today would not be so bad.

"I'm very disappointed, you've hidden these things from me, John, I treat you as a true friend, we have a life-long friendship...more than once."

"But when I saw your past from that young man Ward's memory...I really..."

Merlin put his hand on the table, he took off his glasses, and a ray of flame-like light flashed in his dark red eyes, he said:

"Do you know? For a moment, I really want to kill you!"

A trace of helpless confusion flashed across Gatler's face. He tried to say something, but looking into Merlin's eyes, he finally did not try to deny it.

At this time, facing a wizard, denial will only make things worse.

"I can guess, I can understand your anger, you have every reason to be angry."

John Gatler said bitterly:
To be continued...