Merlin is not the kind of person who does good deeds without expecting anything in return.

But he hasn't lost his bottom line yet, taking something from a teenager.

He wanted to refuse Eric's "payment", but the kid didn't give him time to refuse, and ran out of the house, leaving Merlin after him.

Eric grew up in the neighborhood and knows the terrain well. He led Merlin through several alleys to a nearly abandoned parking lot. Eric stopped next to a half-used black pickup truck, looked warily left and right, then reached under the pickup truck and took out a key.

He smiled back at Merlin, then opened the door with the key and took out a black bag from under the seat.

He sat down in his seat, handed Merlin the black bag, and looked at him hopefully.

"This is what my father left before he disappeared, and he treasured these things, and kept a lot of the same tin cans in his house. But after the fire was extinguished, I went back to the house and looked at it, and the jars were gone. ”

Eric said to Merlin:

"Now that's the one left in the car."

"I'm having a hard time finding your father and uncle, Eric."

Merlin did not look at the contents of the bag, he handed it back to the little boy Eric, and he said:

"I was indeed hiding on your floor on the night of the explosion, and I heard strangers talking to your father. I heard them say that they want to bring your father back to Wakanda... It's your hometown. ”

Merlin looked at the little boy in front of him, and he said:

"You should know where that place is? Right? ”

"I know!"

When Eric learned of his father's news, a look of joy appeared on his bloody face. What he feared most was that his father was dead, but now from Merlin, he saw hope again.

He took the pocket that Merlin had handed him, and he said to Merlin:

"My father often told me stories about Wakanda, and I knew that it was in Africa, but my father said that Wakanda on the map was just a disguise, and it was impossible to find the real Wakanda if it was not recognized."

"Then you should be fine."

Merlin leaned against the side of the car and chatted with the somewhat precocious boy, and said:

"Aren't you a native of Wakanda? Do you need me to buy a plane ticket to take you home to your father? ”

"Well, actually, I'm not exactly Wakandan."

Eric said to Merlin with some sorrow:

"My father is from Wakanda, but my mother is not. My mom is from Auckland, and she was caught up in a street shootout a few years ago and left me and my father as a result. And my father never took me back to Wakanda, he always said that when I grew up, he would take me back. So I haven't been there either. ”

"Oh, is that so?"

Merlin sensed a hint of ominousness in Eric's explanation.

He had seen with his own eyes how far the warriors of Wakanda could go crazy for the king's orders.

This also means that Wakanda may be technologically advanced, but it should still be ruled by the ancient feudal system.

As we all know, one of the major characteristics of any stable feudal system is the admiration of the theory of blood.

Although Eric's father, Entjob, is a prince of Wakanda, Eric's mother is not from Wakanda, and in the eyes of some pedigree fools, this may mean that the child's bloodline is not pure.

It's also very likely that Eric's father hasn't brought him home...

Well, this child's situation is unexpectedly similar to that of little Arthur. And it is impossible for those Wakanda warriors not to know that Njob has a son, but they took Njob, but not Eric, which also shows that Merlin's guess is likely to be correct.

It seems that Wakanda, a mysterious country with amazing technology and the ability to craft precious vibranium weapons, is also a closed country.

But Merlin didn't break the matter.

For one, the child may not be able to understand.

Second, this is not his business after all, it is someone else's family matter, and he should not meddle casually.

Merlin looked at the sky, and he looked down at Eric who was sitting in the car and said:

"Take care of the 'treasures' that your father left you, and maybe you should listen to your father and wait until you are old enough to go in search of Wakanda. Oh, by the way, are those guys really your father's friends? ”

"It's not!"

Eric said with a look of disgust:

"My father never made friends with the gangsters in this neighborhood. Those people just came to blackmail me, my father and uncle are missing, and I can't find anyone else to help me. ”

"Hmm... Do you have a place to live now? ”

Merlin looked Eric up and down, the kid hadn't bathed in days. In the face of Merlin's inquiry, Eric reached out and patted the half-used car, and said:

"I've been living here for the past few days, and my father has left some money in the car, enough for me to eat."

"Don't you have any other relatives?"

Merlin frowned, and in the face of his inquiry, Eric shook his head:

"My father is from Wakanda, and he has no relatives in the country. My mom also has a younger brother, but a few years ago I was in prison for robbery, and they told me to go to an orphanage, and I didn't want to go. ”

Speaking of this, Eric raised his head, and he stubbornly said:

"My father didn't die, he just... Just went home. I'm not an orphan! ”

After a few seconds, the little boy looked up again, and he looked at Merlin with a hint of anticipation in his eyes, and he said to Merlin:

"Boss, why don't I follow you, you can fight like this, you must be very powerful! The children in this neighborhood want to grow up to be a good boss, earn more money, and enjoy life. ”

"What's the boss and not the boss!"

Merlin didn't like the occasional gang temperament in Eric, it seemed that the kid had been in this unsafe neighborhood for a long time, and had been affected by the bad thinking in other people's minds.

He frowned and said to Eric:

"Kids should go to school! Then graduate and get a decent job and be a decent person. I'm not a boss either, I'm a... Well, I'm a government employee, you know? Public Officials! A decent person. ”

"But no one here likes public officials."

Eric Jr. retorted:

"Those cops only bully ordinary people, and I've seen them drink with a few local bosses."

"That's them, not me!"

Merlin stretched out his finger and struck Eric's head, and after thinking about it for a while, he said to Eric:

"You saved my life, I can't just leave you in this damn hell. So, pack your things, come with me, and I'll take you to New York, and I'll find you a host family there. You go to school there, and when you grow up, I'll send you to Wakanda and your father, how about it? ”

"Don't hit me in the head."

Holding his head and dodging Merlin's fingers, Eric curled up in his chair and said to Merlin:

"What if my father comes back and can't find me? I don't want to leave here, even if it's shabby and dangerous, but it's always my home. ”

"Then leave a message for the children you know well, and if your father comes back, he will naturally follow this message to find you. Didn't you say your father was smart? ”

"Well, that's fine."

Eric thought about it for a few minutes, then nodded.

He jumped out of the car, handed the car keys to Merlin, and said:

"Then let's go, I'll take you to some of my best friends. Oh, by the way, boss, you can take this thing. ”

After Merlin sat in the driver's seat of the pickup, Eric lifted the bag next to the seat again, and he lay down on the back of the driver's seat, like a display toy, took the contents of the bag, and said to Merlin:

"Look! It's beautiful, and it glows in the dark. ”

"Huh?"

Merlin glanced back and saw a strange metal jar at Eric's feet.

In the center of the jar was a cylinder made of glass, and in the jar, which was dozens of centimeters high, there were some things that resembled liquids and semi-condensed solids, which emitted a little fluorescence in the dark night, and the blue light looked beautiful.

"What is this?"

Merlin reached out and took the thing in his hand. It's quite heavy to start with, about 2 kilograms.

He had never seen anything like it before, only that it was full of high-tech feelings, and he leaned back in the driver's seat, extending his dark perception, trying to get closer to the weird jar in his hand, but something strange happened.

It was as if something was blocking Merlin's observation, and his perception couldn't penetrate the jar, as if he had encountered an obstacle.

Merlin's eyes narrowed, and he guessed what it was.

That night, Merlin overheard a conversation between the Panther King of Wakanda and Njob, who said that their country had been attacked, that someone had robbed 0.25 tons of raw vibranium, and that Njob was in cahoots with those attackers...

Merlin had also sensed the armor-clad Wakanda warriors, and he knew that vibranium, an extremely hard metal, could resist dark perceptions.

In other words, what he has in his hand is likely to be one of the vibranium that Njob and others snatched from Wakanda.

The female mercenary Lingdie once told him that the price of vibranium on the black market is high, and that a mercenary like her can secretly take away the vibranium weapon of the female warrior Orkena without regard for her cheekiness, which has already shown the preciousness of this thing.

Merlin felt as if he was holding a real vault in his hand.

"Put it away!"

Merlin handed the liquid vibranium to Eric, who instructed:

"Don't tell anyone you have this..."

"It's precious, and maybe in the future, when you grow up, you'll have to rely on it to return to Wakanda."

"If it's really that precious, then you can keep it for me, boss."

Eric smiled, it was difficult for a child of his age to understand the value of vibranium, and the scenes and things he saw in the block since he was a child had taught him to rely on the strong, and Merlin was a strong man in his eyes.

Merlin glared at him and said:

"Don't call me Boss, call me Merlin. Also, this is your thing, you want to rely on it to return to your hometown, you take good care of it, the people who know about it have left, no one will pay attention to you anymore, as long as you don't talk nonsense, there will be no danger. ”

"Alright, Merlin."

Eric shrugged his shoulders, he knew about his father and found a new supporter, which made him happy, he leaned back in the back seat, humming a song, and flipped out a game console from under the seat and played with it.

"Wait here, I'll go buy something."

While passing by a convenience store, Merlin stopped the car and said a word to Eric behind him. Then he opened the car door and walked into the convenience store, where he bought some things, and at the time of checkout, he said to the boss:

"I'll use the phone, okay?"

"Then give me 2 more bucks!"

The owner is an old woman with glasses and a fierce temper.

Merlin paid the money, stepped aside, picked up the phone, glanced out, channeled the dark perception, and dialed a number.

A few rings later, the phone was connected, and a gentle voice sounded through the microphone:

"Hello, this is Wayne Manor, and I'm Alfred, the steward of the Wayne family..."

"Hello, Ah Fu."

Merlin whispered:

"Thank you for your help in keeping me alive."

The voice on the other side of the microphone stopped, and after a few seconds, Old Afu's voice sounded again:

"You're Merlin, right? Glad to hear that you're still safe, if you're really a friend of the young master, then that's what I'm supposed to do. So, Merlin, can you tell me now, where has the young master gone? A lot of people are worried about him. ”

"I'm sorry, I can't."

Merlin Says:

"I promised Bruce not to divulge his whereabouts. But I can tell you that he's safe now, and he's in a new place and is planning his own adventure... He's going back to Gotham, and he told me he'll return to his hometown when he finds what he's looking for. So, Ah Fu, be patient. ”

"Alas, the young master is always so stubborn."

Old Ah Fu on the other side of the microphone sighed, and the butler said in a sad voice:

"Ever since he was 9 years old, when the lord and his wife died of a serious illness, he has been..."

"Come on, Ah Fu."

Merlin laughed, and he said:

"Don't test me, Bruce told me all about him when he was a kid. It was 8 years old, and in Crime Alley, his parents were killed by a robber named Ziley... The play that day was Zorro, and you were in the parking lot not far from them when it happened, but you couldn't save the tragedy. ”

"Well, it seems that you are really a friend of the young master, if it weren't for a real friend, he wouldn't tell you these things."

Old Ah Fu was also really relieved, and he said to Merlin in a pleasant tone:

"Anyway, thanks to the news you brought, I finally got a good night's sleep tonight."

"Also, if you need to, you can call this number, give me an address by the way, and I'll send you a few things. Don't always use the public phone on the street... It's easy to find out, and I don't want to see a bad word about the Wayne family on the news one day. ”

Merlin smiled and said:

"It's going to take a few days before I settle down, and I'll contact you then. Also, thank you again, Ah Fu. ”

"If you really want to thank me, tell me where the young master has gone."

Old Ah Fu complained:

"He should stay at home, like the rest of the young people, and find those chicks to spend their days drinking and having fun, preferably leaving a legacy for the Wayne family. Instead of freezing and starving somewhere in the world, and perhaps encountering danger. ”

"Don't worry, Afu, Bruce is strong."

Merlin looked out the window at the night, and he whispered:

"He's strong, much stronger than you think... And, doom, is already far away from him. ”