MARVEL : A myriad of personalities

According to the original arrangement, all three rounds of the match were supposed to be completed, regardless of who won or lost.

However, after being "killed" twice in a row—and both times without understanding how it even happened—Leonid was in no mood to continue. His state of mind was easy to imagine.

So, he simply called off the match.

Doing this certainly hurt his pride, but continuing would have been even more humiliating.

Ten minutes later, both competitors had changed back into their civilian clothes and arrived at the control tower together.

Back under the control of his main personality, Ray smiled upon seeing Leonid and asked:

"Dean Leonid, I assume I can finally start the Integrated Combat Tactics course now?"

"I said it before—if you beat me, I'll greenlight everything you ask. I'm a man of my word, Doctor," Leonid replied, waving a hand dismissively to reassure him.

While Ray and Leonid were chatting, the other three deans, including Weaver, gathered around.

As soon as he saw Ray, Vincent exclaimed in Chinese:

"Ray, you've really shown me what it means to 'look at a man with new eyes after three days'!"

Ray immediately recognized the man speaking Chinese, and the other middle-aged gentleman standing next to Weaver, whose face he didn't know very well. The identities came back to him quickly: the Dean of the Communications Division and the Dean of Covert Operations.

With this in mind, Ray replied in Chinese as well:

"It's been a while, Vincent."

"You remember it's been a while? You vanished for so long without even a word—I thought you'd forgotten all about your old friend," Vincent teased with a feigned look of offense.

"I'm really sorry. I actually meant to reach out, but the place I went to wasn't exactly… conducive to staying in touch with the outside world," Ray said, brushing it off with an excuse.

It wasn't even a lie—the psychiatric hospital was certainly not a place for easy communication.

"Is that so? Alright, fine. Since it wasn't on purpose, just buy me a drink sometime and I'll forgive you," Vincent joked.

"That's a deal," Ray replied without hesitation.

As the two of them laughed together, Claude interrupted:

"Gentlemen, not everyone here speaks Chinese. Could we at least pretend to be gentlemen?"

"What, afraid someone will forget you're here?" Vincent snorted.

He and Claude were on friendly terms, so he could joke freely. Ray, on the other hand, didn't know him that well, so he politely greeted him:

"Good afternoon, Dean Claude."

"Doctor Ray, finally! Come on, tell us—what the hell happened just now? How did you even manage to hit Leonid like that?" Claude blurted out impatiently.

It was obvious that his curiosity outweighed his manners.

In fact, everyone there, including Vincent, Weaver, and even Leonid himself, perked up at the question.

"You want to know?" Ray glanced around.

All the deans nodded eagerly.

He cleared his throat and, with a mysterious tone, said:

"Have you ever heard of something called Gun-Fu?"

"Gun-Fu?" They looked at each other in confusion, all unfamiliar with the term.

"It's said that during World War II, there was a Chinese sharpshooter who, all by himself, killed over a thousand Japanese invaders!" Ray began, speaking in a solemn tone. "What made him so powerful was an unbelievable gunfighting technique…"

"He named it: Gun-Fu."

"The most incredible aspect of Gun-Fu… is that it allows bullets to bend."

"Bullets that bend?!" Claude and Leonid shouted in unison.

Vincent and Weaver didn't react as loudly, but both looked just as stunned, staring at Ray as if they'd seen a ghost.

To be fair, they had considered the possibility when reviewing the footage—that Ray could only have hit Leonid from that impossible angle if the bullet had somehow curved.

But that idea had seemed too absurd to entertain and was dismissed instantly.

After all… bullets curving in midair? Newton would spin in his grave!

Yet now, Ray was confirming the very theory they had refused to believe.

"Exactly. Bullets that bend," Ray continued. "The moment the bullet leaves the barrel, if you rapidly twist your wrist, you can make it curve in midair. That's the final secret of Gun-Fu."

"I disappeared all this time because I went to China to learn this legendary technique from a hidden master. Once I completed my training, I returned to North America."

"I see…" Claude and Leonid's eyes lit up.

Both had once been high-level field agents for S.H.I.E.L.D.—in other words, combat specialists. Hearing about such an unbelievable technique had them visibly excited.

Especially Leonid. His mind was already racing: maybe he could learn a little of this mysterious Gun-Fu from Ray in the future?

But then Weaver, looking skeptical, said:

"Applying a rotational force to a moving object can affect its trajectory. That's common in sports—Bernoulli's principle explains it. But… a bullet travels way too fast. How could a wrist flick possibly redirect it? That doesn't seem physically possible."

"Weaver, you're being too rigid. The facts are right in front of you and you still don't believe them because they don't fit your equations? Ever heard of 'if it exists, it must be rational'?" Claude cut in before Ray could answer. "Doctor Ray told you—it's a mystical Chinese technique! If it were so easy to explain, it wouldn't be so magical, would it?"

Claude was already a full-fledged believer in Gun-Fu, defending it passionately.

"Well said!" Leonid chimed in, even more enthusiastic. "There's no way some so-called 'law of physics' can explain a miraculous technique like this. There are plenty of things in this world that science can't explain. Haven't we seen enough of them already?"

Weaver hesitated.

Leonid wasn't entirely wrong. They were all members of S.H.I.E.L.D., and as mid-to-upper-level personnel, they were well aware of the world's many supernatural phenomena.

And perhaps… Gun-Fu was one of them.