Security Vulnerability

Baron Strucker gradually came to from a tingling sensation that spread through his entire body, realizing that his armor seemed to have completely shut down. The display was black, likely because the relevant circuits in the back had been damaged in the recent impact.

He felt his limbs as heavy as several tons, completely unable to move—the artificial muscle fiber power structure must have been damaged. But that was unlikely to have been caused by the impact; it was more probable that someone had scanned his armor's structure and precisely destroyed it.

Yet the armor system was still operational. Strucker issued the ejection command, and the still-intact mechanical parts clicked and whirred as they separated, the thick armor opening from the middle like a gray iron shell.

The Baron crawled out of the battered armor, covered in dust, with only the "Satan's Claw" still worn on his right hand. This blood-red claw was a weapon completely independent of the armor system, a formidable armament in its own right even when used alone.

He turned his head and saw Ivan Vanko's armor deeply embedded in a wall not far away, the reactor on his chest shattered from the outside, the armor's functions completely paralyzed, and his own fate unknown.

In comparison, his own situation was still relatively good.

Strucker staggered to his feet. Just as he looked up toward the exit, he despaired to find the Black Armor already blocking his way, a cold blue light gleaming in its V-shaped visor.

The Baron gritted his teeth and decided to make one last desperate move. With a low growl, he lunged forward. The Satan's Claw's mechanism activated, and filament-like energy shrieked as it shot toward that icy figure.

Michael casually swatted away the energy attack. The Baron closed in with a swift step, his blood-red claw, radiating intense heat, slashing down. Michael deflected the strike with one hand, then flipped his palm to grab the "Satan's Claw" by the wrist. The system in his gauntlet activated, channeling power to his palm, and the suddenly amplified grip effortlessly crushed the casing of the intricate "Satan's Claw," sparks flying in all directions.

He reached out and gave Baron Strucker a light push on the shoulder. Deprived of his equipment, the Baron toppled backward, landing in a heap of disarray.

Seeing that his last glimmer of hope had vanished, Baron Strucker finally gave up completely. He raised his hands. "Alright, I lose, Dr. Norton. We all lose, completely and utterly."

He lay back on a raised piece of debris embedded with rebar in the shattered floor, slowly calming his ragged, rapid breaths.

"You've dealt us a heavy blow. No one has ever done that before," he said. "But to this day, none of us understand. How did you do it? How did you know everything? We've considered every possibility, checked every channel that could have leaked information."

"I'm sure you've checked, and more than once," Michael interrupted in a flat tone. "But the truth is, my source of information isn't some hidden vulnerability. If I had to put it, your security flaw exists throughout your entire network system—it's everywhere."

"You're saying you hacked Hydra's internal network," Strucker sneered. "Impossible. No one in this world can hack into our network. Its complexity is so daunting that even its own builders shy away from it. Hydra's branch networks each store their own set of security protocols, yet they're all interconnected. Attacking from any one branch would alert the entire global network."

"From the outside, perhaps. I'll admit that even I might not be able to do it."

Baron Strucker frowned. "Are you saying you started hacking into our network while you were still inside the organization? That's even more impossible. That was over three years ago, and Hydra's network undergoes a full-scale purge several times a year, with security protocols constantly being updated."

"But what I'm telling you is the truth," Michael interrupted again. He crouched down, leaning close to Strucker. "To be precise, I didn't take any aggressive offensive measures at the time. I just used the access I had to create a backdoor in Hydra's entire network system, preparing for this moment.

"Honestly, it was a long and massive project. It took me one year, three months, and five days to finally finish. It felt like a prisoner trying to escape, digging through the prison wall with a spoon every night without giving up—except the difference is I was digging through a firewall."

"But after your betrayal, everything related to you was thoroughly reviewed," Strucker said. "Even if your backdoor happened to go undetected at first, our network upgrades and self-checks every month. A vulnerability like that couldn't have remained undiscovered until now."

"Normally, yes," Michael said calmly. "But what if the vulnerability I mentioned could hide itself?"

Strucker froze. "What?"

Michael continued, "What if it could think for itself, learn for itself, update itself with every system update, and relocate itself with every self-check?"

"You... you mean... artificial intelligence?" Strucker couldn't control his expression. "You mean... all this time... you've hidden an AI in our network?"

"Something like that."

In truth, this wasn't Michael's original intention. His initial plan was simply to dig a one-time backdoor into Hydra's network, aiming to exploit it to hack the security system of the base he was in and escape the organization's control.

But later, as he began to delve into the world's knowledge of artificial intelligence, even he was startled by his own astonishing learning speed. As mentioned before, the process of dimensional traversal had somehow greatly enhanced his thinking ability in the field of electronic information. Without even anticipating it, he created the first AI program of his life within Hydra—the prototype of what would become Sherry.

From then on, that AI program was rooted deep inside Hydra's network. With each promotion he earned within the organization, gaining greater security access, his AI's roots dug deeper. Later, once it learned to a certain degree, it no longer needed his help and gained the ability to delve further on its own. It learned to evade security checks in the data world and march into one Hydra branch network after another, until it lurked undetected throughout Hydra's entire network system.

When he left Hydra, Michael copied the core code of that original AI and used it as the basic framework to create the Sherry of today. It has now become a part of Sherry, its system establishing a one-way channel with her. Over the years, it has continuously lurked within Hydra's internal network, gathering intelligence and secrets from all sides, feeding that information back to Michael through Sherry.

That's why he could always stay one step ahead.

"That's all you need to know. I hope it helps you understand my next question," Michael said. "Regarding the ability data of that pair of superpowered twins and the experiments you conducted on them, I couldn't find that information in Hydra's network. So I'm guessing you might have stored it on a local server. Maybe because you didn't want to share it with the rest of Hydra?"

Baron Strucker let out a heavy snort.

"And about the Scepter, sir," Sherry reminded him promptly. "You asked me to put it on your memo."

"Right, the Scepter," Michael added. "The Scepter that gave the twins their powers. I believe that should also be in your possession."

"You want the Scepter?" Strucker frowned. "Then you'll be disappointed. The Scepter isn't with me. It was transferred long ago, but I don't know where it went."

Michael stared at him for a moment until the armor's lie-detection module, integrating a series of monitors on heartbeat, pupils, and micro-expressions, popped a "Truth" prompt onto the display in front of him.

"Alright, looks like you're not lying about that part. But it doesn't matter; it'll show up again sooner or later," Michael said. "But at least you still have the experimental data, right? Tell me where it is."

"I don't know," Strucker replied coldly.

This time, the display flashed a "Lie" prompt.

"Lying isn't a good habit."

"Then maybe you could just blow my head off."

"That won't be necessary. You see, I've been in Hydra. I know you have some special tricks for making people talk. But I've never been a fan of those methods. By comparison—"

Michael raised his right hand, and a dark green magical fluctuation gathered in his palm.

"—I prefer my own approach."