Chapter 1340: Deal, Recruitment, and Appointment
Stumped for a moment, Carter Slade then smiled bitterly. "So it"s you."
He looked at his friend. "There"s no need to be like that. He"s just a little violent."
Luke reached out and aimed at the black net that was trapping the black horse. Sensing Luke"s hand signal, the black net automatically unlocked and flew up.
As it flew back, the black net compressed back into its original cylinder form and fell into Luke"s hands.
The black horse immediately got up and ran over to the old man. It shook its head and rubbed against its master, indicating that it had been bullied by this baddie again.
Carter Slade rubbed the horse"s big head. "Alright, don"t p.i.s.s him off, because I can"t either. Go back and get some sleep."
The black horse snorted angrily at Luke before it returned to the stable.
However, it gave Luke a wide berth.
After acting spoiled with its master, it knew that it couldn"t do anything to this annoying fellow. It could only stay away. Out of sight, out of mind.
They walked back to the church which Carter Slade was living in. In the dim light, he simply asked, "Do you want water? I only have water."
Luke got straight to the point. "How"s your recovery?"
There was an odd expression on Carter Slade"s face. A moment later, he nodded. "I can live for a few more years."
Luke had been paying people to watch the old man regularly, and the old man wouldn"t notice at all if he was being filmed from a distance.
On the surface, the old man indeed looked a lot better. He could even ride the black horse when he was free.
Luke asked, "Where"s Johnny? Has he contacted you?"
"He came to see me once…" Carter Slade nodded, then immediately added, "But I didn"t ask where he was."
A retired old man like him couldn"t help the new Rider; there was no need to make trouble for Johnny.
Luke said, "I want to make a deal with you."
"No, I won"t… uh…" Carter Slade subconsciously wanted to refuse; he had too deep an impression of the word "deal."
However, he saw faint white light in the eye sockets of this black and white skeleton mask.
Carter Slade suddenly choked. Remembering the fear of being tied up and controlled, he smiled bitterly. "It seems I have to hear you out."
Luke nodded. "Don"t worry, I"m not Mephisto. Besides, I sent that old man back to h.e.l.l last time. He shouldn"t be able to come out for the next decade."
Carter Slade was stunned. "What?"
Johnny had told him the outcome of the last battle with Blackheart.
Carter wasn"t surprised that Blackheart had lost so terribly. Mephisto"s foolish son really wasn"t very smart.
What the old man had found the most incomprehensible was that Mephisto never appeared at all.
The San Venganza contract was definitely very important to this Lord of h.e.l.l.
Carter was certain that although Blackheart, this foolish son, was ambitious and wanted to seize the contract for his own use, he was ultimately just a p.a.w.n for his father.
If Johnny hadn"t described how the San Venganza contract was activated, Carter Slade would"ve really thought that Mephisto had swapped out the contract.
Mephisto was a demon of h.e.l.l who liked to play lies and deception the most; doing something like this beforehand wouldn"t be hard.
Hearing Luke"s words, Carter Slade instinctively felt that it was impossible.
But he subconsciously wondered, what if it wasn"t that Mephisto didn"t want to, but that he couldn"t use the San Venganza contract? That would make sense.
But even more questions followed: That was Mephisto!
As the Lord of h.e.l.l, this demon king had his own dimension where his real body had always resided.
In h.e.l.l, Mephisto was powerful.
There were indeed people who could defeat him in h.e.l.l, but… Carter Slade didn"t think that a terrifying existence like that would appear in front of him and speak to him so amiably.
Luke waved his hand. "I won"t go to San Venganza until I"ve dealt with him. Let"s talk about our deal. In short, you just have to do your best when I need you…"
Carter Slade frowned and was about to refuse again.
"I"m not done." Luke gestured for him to settle down. "The vengeful evil spirits in your body focus on dealing with special beings. So, when I want you to take action, it"ll basically just be these sorts of enemies. I"m usually occupied, however, and saving even a little bit of time can help to protect more innocent lives. So, you"ll have to move to New York."
Carter Slade"s mouth moved again, but this time, he was smart enough to remain mum, since Luke wasn"t done.
"Do you know the "undead" which appeared in New York not long ago? Not only did they wreak havoc in New York City, causing countless casualties, they also opened the door to the underworld on Staten Island in an attempt to let all their kind out," said Luke. "I don"t think you can just sit back and let something like that run wild, right?"
Stumped for a moment, Carter Slade then nodded silently.
If he didn"t have a righteous heart, he would have given the San Venganza contract to Mephisto long ago.
Compared with the San Venganza contract, the consequences of opening a door to the underworld in the human world were no less devastating.
Luke nodded. "That"s exactly the sort of thing I need you to deal with. I"ll call for you if I need you to come with me and solve the root of the problem. It"s also fine if you"re willing to fight low-level monsters and save innocent lives."
Carter Slade hesitated… but still wanted to refuse.
100 years was long enough for him. He had lived for too long, and really didn"t have the urge to fight anymore.
However, his belief in justice was what had enabled him to persist for over a hundred years. If he lost that last bit of determination, he would just be a walking corpse.
Looking at his hesitation, Luke simply finished off by saying, "To give you enough energy to fight, I"ll provide you with a regular supply of the drug I gave you last time: Life 1. I"ll do my best to help you settle down in New York and everything else. As long as you don"t want to buy the Empire State Building, anything is fine."
Carter Slade felt that there was something wrong with this deal. Why did it feel like… hm, this felt the same as when he had accepted the position of sheriff after talking to the town mayor over 100 years ago.
In essence… he was being scouted?
Feeling a little awkward, he couldn"t help but repeat the mocking words he had said to the mayor all those years ago. "What if I want gold? A lot of gold."
Luke looked at him strangely.
There were a lot of poor superheroes, but most people"s first reaction was to ask for cash, right? This old man… was quite old-fas.h.i.+oned.
The moment Carter Slade said that, he became embarra.s.sed. "I"m joking…"