A few days later, Brown was strolling through New York's Times Square in Manhattan. After walking around for a bit and seeing that there was still some time before the New Year's Eve countdown, he ducked into a tavern.
"Hey, give me a well-done steak, charred to a crisp, with french fries on the side, and some broccoli. Pour black pepper sauce right over the steak, and bring me a glass of water." Brown sat down and placed his order.
The waiter replied, "Sir, a well-done steak is going to be very tough."
"Then that just means your chef lacks skill. Do you want me to go into the kitchen and teach him how to fry a well-done steak?" Brown said.
Hearing this, the waiter simply turned and walked away...
Ten minutes later: "Sir, your steak and water are ready."
Brown's eyes shifted to the waiter's face. The person serving him looked remarkably like one of his favorite foreign actresses from his past life: Scarlett Johansson.
Staring at the waiter, Brown grabbed him by the wrist and asked, "What's your name?"
"Sir, my name is Aliyah Vivian. It's right on my name tag. Is there something you need, sir?" Natasha said.
"Nothing much, you just look a lot like a departed friend of mine. My apologies." With that, Brown let go of his hand.
Sitting inside a black van with a headset on, the Baldy Egg—otherwise known as the Motherfacker—was watching the internal closed-circuit camera feed from the restaurant. Thinking Natasha's cover had been blown, he immediately asked, "Natasha, do you need backup?"
Natasha turned and walked a few steps away before replying, "No, I'm fine. That customer just thought I looked familiar."
Director Fury stared at Brown on the monitor and issued an order: "Keep an eye on this guy."
He had a vague intuition that this man was no ordinary person.
Coming back to his senses, Brown asked the system, "Did touching Black Widow just now trigger any system reward draw attempts?"
A mechanical voice sounded: "Host, touching a superhero in the Marvel universe does not grant draw attempts. System draw attempts can currently only be accumulated at a rate of one per day. Once the plot begins, interacting with protagonists will yield certain rewards."
Hearing the system's reply, a flash of disappointment crossed Brown's face. But he quickly recovered and began to enjoy his meal.
After finishing his food, it dawned on Brown, and he muttered to himself, "Natasha is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Running into her is no good thing—she's most likely on a mission, and there might be more than one agent in this place."
With that thought, Brown headed toward the restroom, looking around as he walked.
Sure enough, he caught sight of a familiar face: Coulson, sitting in a corner booth, leisurely eating a burger and fries. Brown knew that seeing Natasha and Coulson meant there was a high probability that the one-eyed Baldy Egg director was around too. In movies from his past life, he hadn't felt any particular fondness for the director, but the man wasn't entirely evil either. So should he lend a hand if they ran into trouble during their mission later?
Returning to his seat, he ordered a glass of water and an order of fries, sitting back to wait for the unexpected to happen.
Brown took a sip of water and looked out the window, acting as if he were waiting for someone. Fury was still watching him from the van to see if he would make any further moves; if he did, he would have the agents inside the restaurant immediately pin him down.
At that moment, a man wearing a long black trench coat and a hat walked into the restaurant and took a seat in a corner booth by the window.
Noticing that the man was the target, Natasha walked over. "What would you like, sir? Here is the menu."
"I'll order in a moment, I'm waiting for someone," the man said, handing the menu back.
A few minutes later, a glamorous woman walked into the restaurant and sat down opposite the trench-coated man. She looked precisely like the person he was waiting for.
Woman: "What are you eating? Have you ordered yet?" *(How are the things I asked you to prepare coming along?)*
Man: "Waiting for you. Haven't ordered yet, waiting for you to pick. This place makes food pretty fast and it's good." *(I haven't prepared anything, but I found a seller. The goods are good; let's talk about what you need and we'll buy it then.)*
Woman: "Fine, then just the usual. It's not like it's our first time here." *(It's not our first time running a mission; just prepare it like the previous ones.)*
Man: "Alright, then the usual."
He raised a hand to signal Natasha to come over and take their order.
Baldy Egg: "Target confirmed to be these two individuals. Prepare to move in."
Natasha stood by the table, serving the targets, while Coulson also stood up, preparing to make his move under the guise of paying the bill.
The other agents all moved into position, waiting for the director's command. Meanwhile, the two Hydra thugs still had no inkling of the threat, assuming it was just a simple rendezvous.
"Move in!" At the order, Natasha first delivered a punch to the man while simultaneously sweeping the woman's legs out from under her, sending her crashing to the floor. As the man winced in pain, he drew a weapon and aimed it at Natasha. Coulson lunged forward in a flash to wrestle with him, and a gunshot rang out, hitting the ceiling and causing an uproar among the other customers. The woman scrambled back to her feet to make a run for it, but Natasha landed another kick that knocked her flat on the ground. Surrounding agents swarmed in and subdued the pair.
Watching the sudden commotion unfold in less than fifteen seconds, and seeing that the couple required no intervention from him, Brown decided there was no heroics for him to perform here. He figured he would head out, wander around the neighborhood, and return to Times Square close to the New Year's Eve countdown.
As he was leaving, he glanced back at Natasha a few times, and an idea popped into his head: *With proficiency in firearms and melee combat, plus agent experience, could I join S.H.I.E.L.D.?*
That thought was immediately stamped out. Other transmigrators essentially had S.H.I.E.L.D. actively recruiting them, or they became villains and wiped S.H.I.E.L.D. out. For him to proactively try to join felt a bit beneath him. He paid his bill and walked out.
Natasha looked toward Brown's solitary, fading figure and called out to him, "Happy New Year."
Hearing those words, Brown turned around and said, "Happy New Year. I'm sure we'll see each other again."
Without replying, Natasha got into a car and drove away.
Watching her get into the vehicle, a smile played at the corners of Brown's lips as he strolled off.
By midnight, fireworks from the Times Square countdown illuminated the sky. Standing amid the crowd, Brown quietly watched everything around him, gazed up at the sky, and muttered, "Happy New Year," before vanishing into the throng of people.
Walking the streets of New York on New Year's Eve, cheer and entertainment were only on the surface; robberies and crimes in dark corners were everywhere.
Tonight, he had wanted to be a hero—to punish evil and promote good like Spider-Man. With great power comes great responsibility.
Yet when he thought about his own abilities, he realized they were just passable compared to ordinary people, but this was the Marvel universe! Those powers could be chewed up and spit out by villains at any moment. Contemplating this, Brown abandoned the idea.
Returning home and looking at the messy apartment he hadn't cleaned in days, he said, "Looks like I've got my work cut out for me tonight!"