The contents were simple.
[I've long heard of the famous "Bounty Hunter." I hope Mr. Hunter can come to the Rand Corporation for a talk. We have a task that will interest you, and the reward will surely satisfy you.]
Signed: [Ward Meachum].
Blaine narrowed his eyes slightly and gently tore the letter to pieces.
Ward Meachum?
That name might not be very well-known, but the Rand Corporation certainly was.
Especially to Blaine, who was a transmigrator.
Rand Corporation—valued at hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars—was particularly well-known in the pharmaceutical field.
Although it couldn't compare to Tony Stark's weapons and tech company, for ordinary people, it was still a behemoth.
Of course, Blaine had already earned over a billion dollars in a short time by relying on his own abilities, so he wasn't easily impressed by a few hundred billion.
There was only one reason he remembered Rand Corporation.
Because the person who held 51% of Rand Corporation's shares was Danny Rand.
That name might seem ordinary.
But he had another identity—Iron Fist.
Iron Fist, Danny Rand.
In the Marvel universe, he was the guardian of the mystical city K'un-Lun, and a mortal enemy of The Hand.
And Ward Meachum was his childhood friend.
Blaine rubbed his chin.
He wasn't particularly interested in learning more about all this. To him, money was real—everything else was an illusion.
The current CEO of Rand Corporation should be able to offer a decent price, right?
Though, whether the price was good or not, he didn't really have a choice.
Because after searching for a long time, Blaine found that aside from this envelope, it seemed no one else had tried to hire him.
The big players knew about him, sure—but they were still watching and waiting.
After all, who could tell if he was just a smoke screen released by S.H.I.E.L.D.?
S.H.I.E.L.D. themselves were quite helpless about it. No matter what they said, nobody believed them—even if it was the truth.
It would take some time before he started receiving a flood of job offers.
This envelope had probably been stuffed through the door a while ago, so Blaine felt there was no time to waste. It was time to see what this Ward Meachum wanted from him.
The night was dark and starless.
It was a familiar night.
Familiar actions.
Blaine donned his Hunter outfit, unseen for a week, and slung the Bow on his back.
Even if he was just going to accept a mission, he had to stay on high alert—fully armed.
After all, who knew if someone was just using this name to lure him into a trap?
Blaine took a long look at the small house behind him, then slowly vanished into the shadows, sprinting through the shadow world toward the Rand Corporation building.
If there's a mission, you do it. Not a single opportunity to make money should be wasted.
Rand Corporation was located in Brooklyn, southeast of Manhattan and below Queens.
(Note: In the show, Rand Corporation's exact location isn't mentioned. I'm just making it up.)
Blaine's agility was astonishing now. He darted through the shadows, sometimes leaping across rooftops. His speed was so fast that the naked eye couldn't catch him. In less than a minute, he reached the Rand Corporation.
By this time, it was late at night. Most of the lights in the building were off, with only a few still on—one of which was Ward Meachum's office.
Blaine didn't take the stairs, since big corporations often required employee ID cards to use them. Instead, he directly merged into the shadows and scaled the walls like a gust of wind.
His danger sense didn't alert him.
It seemed this really was just a mission.
Ward Meachum's office.
Ward sat with a troubled look, staring at the documents on his computer.
Ever since Danny Rand returned to the company, problems kept piling up. On top of that, his father Harold Meachum's messes had left him mentally exhausted.
Just a few days ago, Harold had even asked him to find some "Bounty Hunter," claiming it was the key to dealing with The Hand...
The Hand? What the hell is that?!
Was everyone around him going crazy?
Ward didn't know why his father had gone just as delusional as Danny. But ever since he was a child, he had lived under his father's control—and that hadn't changed, even now. So, he obeyed.
He shook his head and downed a pill with a glass of red wine.
But just as he was about to resume work—
He suddenly noticed that the chair in front of his desk, which had been empty, now had a dark silhouette sitting in it.
"Holy sh*t!"
Ward jumped up instantly, but accidentally banged his thigh against the desk. The intense pain made him stumble backward, collapsing against the floor-to-ceiling window.
Cold sweat poured down his face.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Security! Security!"
"Get the hell out of here, or I'll call security! Trespassing into a company like this—we'd be well within our rights to shoot you dead!"
Ward clutched his leg, staring wide-eyed at the shadowy figure sitting calmly across from him, shouting in a tone that sounded orderly but was actually panic-stricken.
"Me? Weren't you the one who asked me to come? Or have you already forgotten?"
The figure was, of course, Blaine. Watching Ward's frantic behavior, he couldn't help but laugh softly: "With nerves like yours, you're hiring a Bounty Hunter?"
Compared to Nick Fury and Natasha, Ward's reaction was absolutely pitiful.
But then again, Ward was just a rich civilian. This invitation was likely arranged by someone behind him.
"Bounty Hunter?"
Ward finally calmed down, forcing himself to stand upright. Seeing that Blaine hadn't made a move, he let out a sigh of relief: "Phew… damn. You finally came."
He thought The Hand was nonsense made up by Danny and Harold, but he didn't doubt the Bounty Hunter's existence.
Because the Bounty Hunter was someone many had seen—an extraordinary being.
No matter how hard it was to accept, his presence was real. You couldn't deny it.
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