Back at the processing plant in New York, Wang Khan secretly cordoned off a workshop and closed it to outsiders. In fact, aside from him, no one in the entire company even knew an extra workshop had been added.
"Red Queen, begin purchasing the raw materials needed to manufacture a Quinjet. Remember to use false accounts for the transfers. Don't let those S.H.I.E.L.D. rats find out."
"Understood, Guardian."
"Now show me the files you stole."
Red Queen uploaded all kinds of classified documents stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy to Wang Khan's laptop. Wang Khan skimmed through them and found quite a bit of advanced technology, but no major secrets beyond that.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most essential assets were not its technology, but its various 084s—the unified designation for events or objects that defied common sense.
For example, Quake, Skye, was an 084. The Obelisk containing a Terrigen Crystal was also an 084.
"It's only an academy, after all. There are no files on 084s in its servers. Forget it. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. collapses, those files will be exposed anyway. I'll wait."
"After this attack, S.H.I.E.L.D. will definitely heighten its vigilance. I suggest that you keep a low profile for a while, Guardian. Also, keep an eye on the moles inside the company. After last night's attack, those moles all received messages from S.H.I.E.L.D. It seems Nick Fury suspects you."
Red Queen's words made Wang Khan pause, then he shook his head slightly.
"With Nick Fury's style, if he truly suspected me, he would have brought a large force here long ago. Having the moles investigate now means he's just casting a wide net. Keep monitoring them, but don't alert them."
After settling the matter of the moles, Wang Khan pulled up everything useful from the files, including the target of this venture: the Quinjet's structural blueprints and its Stealth System.
After absorbing that knowledge, Wang Khan began the Meditation Experiment. Now that his physical fitness had greatly improved, he could conduct Meditation Experiments for three consecutive hours—six times longer than before.
Soon, three hours passed. Wang Khan let out a long breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, then grabbed a compressed dessert beside him and wolfed it down to replenish his energy.
"I never expected the Quinjet, which only served as transportation in the movies, to have so many hidden functions. In a desperate situation, it can even break through the atmosphere and enter space. Incredible."
Wang Khan remembered that in the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Original Inhumans had been sent into space in a Quinjet to die. That alone showed how powerful the Quinjet was.
After three hours and more than seven thousand Meditation Experiments, Wang Khan had not only completely mastered the Quinjet's structure, but also improved it.
"I originally wanted to make an aircraft for traveling within Earth. Instead, I unexpectedly got an aerospace vehicle that can operate both inside and outside the planet. Now the only problem is energy. Mineral fuel can't be used in space."
"Red Queen, have you finished buying the raw materials for the aircraft?"
"The orders have been placed. The goods will arrive in seven days. I have already arranged everything. The total cost was 50 million dollars. The financial changes will likely be impossible to hide from the company's moles, so you need to come up with an explanation."
"An explanation..."
Wang Khan sat in his chair and happened to look up at the television. It was broadcasting a report about Iron Man, Tony Stark. He had taken down another illegal organization and brought peace to the area.
In short, Tony Stark was currently intoxicated by the thrill of being a Super Hero. He did not care even if it accelerated his Palladium Poisoning.
"Is the US Military currently eyeing Tony Stark's Iron Man suit?"
"Yes, Guardian. Although I believe that kind of suit is flashy but impractical and completely unsuitable for military deployment, I have to admit that armor powered by a new energy source holds immense appeal for the military."
Of course, Wang Khan knew that the Iron Man suit was unsuitable for the military. Even in the later stages of Marvel, when the military had acquired a suit and Hammer Industries had its remote-controlled armored machines, this kind of Iron Man suit still could not be mass-issued within the armed forces.
By then, the secrets of the Iron Man suit were practically no longer secrets to the military.
Even if they could not create the new energy source based on the Space Stone Isotope, they should have already mastered Arc Reactor technology based on palladium. Yet they still could not deploy it on a large scale. The fundamental reason was simply that it cost too much.
"Even excluding development costs, each Iron Man suit costs tens of millions of dollars to manufacture. Can you imagine a single soldier carrying equipment worth tens of millions? The U.S. military may be rich, but it can't burn money like that."
"Guardian, have you come up with an idea?"
"Since the U.S. military has a demand for Personal Armor, we'll satisfy it. It can also help us conceal the processing plant and the flow of funds."
"Red Queen, gather all available knowledge on High-Energy Batteries. I'm going to invent a brand-new battery for our new Personal Armor."
Just as Wang Khan began his new research project, S.H.I.E.L.D. also made progress.
"Director, we discovered that this cyberattack followed a specific pattern. If the other side tries to invade again, it won't be so easy."
Nick Fury's expression darkened as he listened to his subordinate.
"What I care about is finding that son of a bitch, not passive defense."
"Please don't worry, Director. Once we grasp his attack pattern, it will be like grasping his network DNA. We can monitor the network twenty-four hours a day. The moment we detect similar network DNA, we can immediately lock onto it. If we get lucky and he tries to steal something again, we only need to send people over in time. There's a high chance we can corner him before he succeeds."
"Hmm. That information is somewhat useful. Bring Natasha and Barton back. I have a feeling that bastard will act again soon. This time, I'll make him understand what we're capable of!"
Sharon Carter had recently been operating in deep cover. In other words, aside from maintaining a single line of contact with Coulson, she did not even contact the other S.H.I.E.L.D. colleagues within Umbrella Corporation.
However, Coulson had still informed her about the recent intrusion at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.
The moment Carter learned about it, she suspected Wang Khan. She had no evidence, only instinct, but a woman's intuition—especially a female agent's intuition—could sometimes be eerily accurate.
Aside from her intuition, Carter had another reason to suspect Wang Khan. She had recently been trying to obtain the source code for the Spider-Sense System, but had made no progress whatsoever.
She had now discovered that Umbrella Corporation possessed powerful network defenses. However, that strength definitely had not been created by the network engineers hired by the company. There had to be another reason.
Carter had two suspicions regarding that reason. One was that Wang Khan had a hidden network team behind him, one that had been secretly guarding Umbrella Corporation's network security.
The other possibility was that Umbrella Corporation's network contained a high-performance artificial intelligence. Whether it was the former or the latter, both proved that Umbrella Corporation was extremely powerful in the cyber world. This time, S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy had lost because it had been outmatched online.
"Ms. Carter, this is this month's electricity bill. Please verify it and submit it to the boss for his signature."
After taking the electricity bill from the operations department supervisor, Carter glanced over it and suddenly had a thought.
She found that this month's electricity costs were clearly thirty percent higher than last month's. As far as she knew, the factory should already have been operating at full capacity, so electricity costs should not have fluctuated so drastically.
"I want the electricity usage data for every workshop. The more detailed, the better."
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