Shadow trail of the beautiful world

Chapter 200 3. Mysterious Boy

"This fucking place!"

Merlin was sitting in the tavern that he had already closed early, and he was manipulating his guardian spirit, Raven Victor, to fly quickly over the vast Gobi south of Kandahar.

With the help of sharing the vision with the guardian spirit, Merlin looked around and found that he could hardly see any man-made buildings except for a piece of sunny and desolate land.

He controlled the spirit of the raven to quickly fly across the desolate land. The spirit body, which ordinary people cannot see, is like a moving radar at this moment, trying to find signs of life on this wild plateau.

But the search of the past few hours had given Merlin the disappointing result.

He seems to have made a stupid decision.

He underestimated this piece of land known as the "Empire Graveyard" a little too much.

In the past few hours, he manipulated Victor and quickly searched several canyons in the south of Kandahar, both large and small, but he found nothing.

In this uninhabited place, it is easy to get lost if you only rely on the markers on the ground to identify the direction.

Although Merlin does not need a compass to identify Victor's location, and the spirit body is not exhausted, but relying on his own magic power to manipulate Victor to fully explore this mountainous area, he estimated that it would take an hour. It took a week or even half a month to find the clues.

This is still under the premise of his good luck.

The most important thing is that the existence of the guardian spirit Victor not only requires magic power to maintain, but also has a limited connection with Merlin. After more than 30 kilometers, the connection between Merlin and Victor will become very weak.

In other words, once Victor finished exploring the nearby areas, Merlin needed to set off on his own, heading towards the unknown areas with harsh climates.

Under the high temperature of the day, even turning into mist will make Merlin feel scorching hot, and the temperature on the surface is even hotter. Although it is not fatal, it will make Merlin's spirit very tired, and it will also affect his physical strength. generate a large burden.

Once in the desert, in order to maintain the best condition, Merlin can only choose to avoid activities at the time of the highest temperature, so the search efficiency will be even lower.

And no matter how mysterious and powerful he is, he is still a life, and life needs food and water.In the desert, drinking water can be solved with the water calling spell, but Merlin himself can't stand eating compressed biscuits and military food all the time.

In this regard, he is actually quite a picky person.

Merlin controlled Victor to suspend in mid-air. He looked at the map in front of him. There were already several red crosses on the map, representing the places where Victor had already searched.

But looking at the red cross on the map, which is less than one-twentieth of the mountain area to be explored, Merlin felt that his head really hurt.

Although doing anything requires hard work in order to be rewarded.But a stupid way is a stupid way, and using a stupid way often means that the effort and gain are not proportional at all.

A few minutes later, Merlin disconnected himself from the Raven Spirit.

In the distant sky of Kandahar, the spirit of the raven let out an ugly cry, and then disappeared into the sky.In Merlin's tavern, after thinking for a while, Merlin took out his cell phone and called Fury.

"Things have some eyebrows."

Merlin said to Fury:

"But now I have a problem. I need to borrow the authority of S.H.I.E.L.D. to use military satellites to scan the mountains south of Kandahar. I have now confirmed that the Ten Rings are stationed there."

"The use of satellites is not a big problem."

Fury replied:

"But you have to be prepared to get nothing, Merlin."

"If the hiding places of the militants of the Ten Rings Gang can be easily found by satellites, they will not be able to survive the brutal civil war."

"I read the report you sent back a few days ago, and I can only say that if the Ten Rings can exist in this poor place in Afghanistan for more than ten years or even longer, it can only show that those guys know how to hide Own."

Fury's words are quite reasonable, but Merlin is just trying in other ways. He said to Fury:

"I can't follow the map, go from canyon to canyon, Fury, that would be a waste of time. The situation near Kandahar is worse than I thought. Various militant factions are attacking each other, and the CIA is still secretly poking. The fire supports some forces, and this place is like a pool of water that has been completely muddied, and now I desperately want to finish this matter, and then leave this ghost place."

"I need you to use satellites to help me eliminate some targets and leave areas that need to be searched."

"Row."

Fury agreed very simply, he said:

"It takes time to search in detail. When the results come out, I will send it to your mailbox. In addition, Merlin, I also found some things in New York that may be helpful to you."

"Two weeks ago, the CIA fine-tuned the agent system in Afghanistan, and a new supervisor went there. His name is Rollins. He should be in charge of intelligence collection and supporting local forces. Coincidentally, Yes, he should be near Kandahar by now."

"You think there's something wrong with that Secret Service Director?"

Merlin asked:

"In addition, you also have informants within the CIA? I have only heard of agents who penetrated into the enemy's interior, but I haven't heard of spies who penetrated into my own department. In this regard, Fury, you are really good."

"No, I still have a limit, Merlin."

Fury explained:

"No matter how decadent an organization that has been passed down for a long time is, there must be people who stick to its principles. They don't want to see the organization they serve fall into darkness. The luckier thing is that I actually have a lot of friends , having a friend who works in the CIA and still maintains his principles is normal for someone like me, isn't it?"

"Oh, so it's a friend."

Merlin shrugged, and he said to Fury:

"That's it. I'll go and observe Agent Rollins, and I'll wait for your results."

Merlin hung up the phone, checked the time, and made himself a simple lunch.

Ten minutes later, wearing a loose local dress, a sun hat and glasses, he drove his third-hand broken car towards the outside of Kandahar.

He planned to take a walk around in the afternoon to see if he could find anything interesting.

But just 10 minutes after Merlin drove out of the city, he accidentally found a strange young man on the side of the road.

It was a tall, thin white man.

He has short blond hair, wears jeans and sneakers, probably because of the hot weather, he took off his coat, tied it around his waist, and carried a schoolbag-like thing on his shoulder.

If it was on the streets of New York, it would be absolutely fine, and it wouldn't even attract anyone's attention.

But this is Afghanistan, a place where war is brewing, and on the side of this desolate road, such a person who looks like a student appears in this kind of attire, no matter how you look at it, it is abnormal.

After thinking for a while, Merlin drove the car and stopped a few meters away from the young man. He shouted to the young man who was looking around:

"Hey, need a ride?"

"Well, thank you, kind sir."

Hearing Merlin's invitation, the already tired young man with a haggard face expressed his thanks in embarrassment, then quickly opened the car door and sat in the back seat.

Merlin started the car again, and amidst the noise of the engine, he watched the young man through the side mirror.

He looked like he was only 20 years old, definitely not more than 25 years old.

"Where are you from? Traveling to Afghanistan is not a good choice at this time."

Merlin asked casually.

The young man behind replied:

"I'm from Cincinnati, and I'm not here for a trip. Actually, I'm here just because of a... er, accident."

"What accident sent you from North America to this damned place?"

Merlin pretended to be very interested, and he said to the young people behind:

"Oh, by the way, my name is Yuri, I'm from New York, and I run a failed bar in Kandahar. But business is getting harder and harder, and I'm planning to go home in a while. What about you?"

"My name is Lincoln, sir. Lincoln Campbell."

The young man with the beautiful blue eyes replied politely:

"I'm a medical student. As for how I got here, uh, forget it, you won't believe it."

"Ok?"

Merlin became interested, he said:

"I've been in this damn place for almost 2 years, it's boring, I'm curious about everything now. So, tell me, Lincoln, maybe I can help you? Look, you're here I don’t know the place, and I happen to know how to get to the airport.”

"Of course, if you don't want to say it, forget it."

Merlin pointed to the rough road ahead, he said:

"I'll drop you in the next town where there is a coach to Kabul."

Lincoln was silent for more than ten seconds, with obvious daze and bewilderment on his face.It seems that he is also very troubled by his current situation. Under Merlin's deliberate guidance, he feels that he really needs help now.

So, after a moment, he raised his head and said to Merlin:

"Actually, Mr. Uri, I was drinking in a bar in Cincinnati two hours ago...but now, I have crossed half the world and appeared in Afghanistan."

"I was brought here by a weird person who can travel through space. He originally wanted to take me to a hidden place, but he seemed to feel something urgent in the middle, so he left me here alone."

"Sounds like drunk gibberish, or some damn magic story."

There was a flash of light in Merlin's eyes, but he pretended to be angry and patted the steering wheel:

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me your story, Lincoln, but now I feel like you're insulting my intelligence."

That way, he looked like an ordinary person who heard the absurd words.

Behind him, the young man shrugged helplessly, and said:

"Look, I've said it before, you're not going to believe it, in fact, I don't even believe what I'm seeing. I thought I was still hungover at first."

"Then suppose what you said is true. There really is a weirdo who can travel through the world at will. But why does he take you across the world?"

Merlin muttered:

"If I had the power to travel through space, I'd be robbing banks, or being a superhero, not kidnapping a poor, white medical student, right?"

"I think so too."

Lincoln nodded, the expression on his face changed slightly, and then he showed an expression full of approval, and he said:

"I also feel like I'm dreaming now, maybe I've been sunburned or maybe I'm dizzy. Well, Mr. Yuri, you can just leave me in the next town. I'll go to Kabul by myself."

The change of expression on Lincoln's face could not be hidden from Merlin who had been observing him.

The young man had a secret, and he had almost revealed his secret just now.

Obviously, at the most critical moment, he realized that Merlin was just a stranger he just met.

Well, this is a very bright young man.

Merlin shook his head slightly, he was interested in the secret of this young man he met by chance, but now is not the time to explore that secret.

"Okay, you can take a break, we won't be there in ten minutes."

Merlin says:

"I'll wake you up then."

"Well, thank you for your kindness, Mr. Yuri."

Lincoln said:

“It was so reassuring to hear a familiar language in this foreign country.”

"Hehe, then you are much luckier than me."

Merlin smiled, and he stopped talking. In the back seat, Lincoln also closed his eyes in the slight jolt.It could be seen that the young man was very tired, and taking this opportunity, Merlin also tested Lincoln's life activities with his dark perception.

After a few seconds, Merlin withdrew his perception.

He can be sure that Lincoln Campbell is just an ordinary young man.

There are neither magical fluctuations nor the weird energy hidden in the body of mutants.I really don't know how he got involved in such a supernatural event.

Merlin turned the steering wheel and continued to move forward along the extremely poor road. After turning a corner, Merlin saw three military vehicles looking in his direction nearly 200 meters away.

Those cars were full of soldiers wearing local costumes, but Merlin saw a few white faces in them. If Merlin guessed correctly, these should be "special people" operating in Afghanistan. Neither is a peaceful mission.

Merlin had seen some information inside S.H.I.E.L.D., that after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan 10 years ago, the CIA immediately began to support pro-American forces locally.To be honest, this country has been fighting a brutal civil war since 1995 and has continued until now. It is hard to say whether there are factors driven by external forces.

"Oh, war."

Merlin sighed, he is a secret agent, but he has no interest in things like war.

A few seconds later, the distance between Merlin and the three military vehicles was getting closer and closer. When the two sides were less than 100 meters away, the perception in Merlin's mind suddenly became active in a jumping posture, and his heart beat at this moment. The moment became very fast, and the magic power in the body began to boil.

It seems that something bad is about to happen.

And under Merlin's gaze, 2 seconds later, under the road beside the three military vehicles that were moving fast, a trap that had been set up earlier was triggered.

"boom"

Under Merlin's gaze, a group of blazing flames exploded nearly 50 meters in front of him. He watched helplessly as the first military vehicle was completely engulfed by the flames, and then flew into the air.

"Shet!"

Merlin cursed, subconsciously turned the steering wheel, and his car rushed towards the side of the road.

The next moment, a second violent explosion sounded behind him.

His bad luck, and meritorious deeds again.

After seeing everyone’s comments, I seriously suspect that I was out of my mind when I calculated the timeline. There was a big bug in the timeline, and I am currently changing it crazily. The two chapters that have been published are estimated to be corrected in the afternoon. Thank you for your reminders .

In addition, regarding the matter of Shangqi movies, it is actually quite painful.I personally like the hero Shang-Chi, but the current situation is that Disney has cast two guys who don’t know how to evaluate it, and I have completely lost interest in this movie.

Therefore, the story of Shang-Chi will not appear in this book. Don’t worry, everyone. As for Mandarin, this...Because of Iron Man, it is inevitable to write Marvel fans, so we can only write less .

In the end, I still want to complain, what kind of actors did Disney choose in 2019, and they still play that outdated set, aren't they afraid of overturning?

(End of this chapter)