Scientists are Wealth

"My Lord."

Dr. List watched Baron Strucker's grin grow wider, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.

He couldn't understand why, after pouring so much effort into running the base for years, the Baron wasn't angry or saddened by its destruction—instead, he seemed overjoyed.

"Dr. List, don't be upset. Soon you'll have a bigger lab, better equipment—everything will be better than before."

Li Chuan looked at the bewildered Dr. List and reached out to pat his shoulder in reassurance.

Dr. List's eyes lit up at that; so the Baron had secretly prepared a fallback all along.

"Land there, on that hilltop."

Li Chuan studied the terrain below, pointed at the top of a small slope, and ordered the Hydra pilot flying the helicopter.

The Hydra pilot quickly nodded and began maneuvering the helicopter down toward the distant hilltop.

Once the helicopter steadied, Li Chuan led Dr. List and Dr. Smith off the aircraft. Then, under their horrified and bewildered gazes, he deftly snapped the Hydra pilot's neck.

Afterward, he dispelled the Transformation Jutsu, revealing his original face.

"Mr. Li Chuan!"

"Who are you? Where's the Baron!"

Dr. Smith's earlier terror turned to delight at the sight of Li Chuan, while Dr. List's expression shifted to sheer panic.

"Dr. Smith, congratulations—you're saved."

Li Chuan calmed Smith down, then turned to the terrified Dr. List:

"Sorry, but your Baron was blown to pieces when you hit the self-destruct. Let me reintroduce myself: I'm Li Chuan, president of the Li Group, and your future boss."

"Th-this..."

Dr. List stared at Li Chuan, his lips moving as if to object, but recalling the pilot whose neck Li Chuan had just snapped, he swallowed his words.

He was at the mercy of the knife; if he didn't want to die, he had no choice but to comply.

Seeing Dr. List take the hint, Li Chuan didn't press further. Instead, he stepped forward politely:

"Dr. List, rest assured—if you work hard for me, anything Hydra could give you, I can give you too, and more."

Though he wasn't deeply familiar with the Marvel World, he knew its scientists were no pushovers. Used well, they were an enormous asset.

Captain America's Super Soldier Serum was created by Dr. Abraham Erskine. Dr. Banner turned himself into the Hulk by studying Gamma rays. Doctor Octopus nearly built an artificial sun. And then there was the Extremis virus—the list went on.

The Marvel World was packed with black tech, most of it cooked up by scientists.

So if he could build a top-tier team of scientists, it would be perfect—whether for developing future products to expand the company, or refining genetic serums to inject and boost his own strength.

That was why he'd kept Dr. List alive all along.

Honestly, if he could develop a serum that let someone transform into the Hulk while keeping their sanity, he'd chase down even Kage-level fighters in the Naruto World and beat them senseless.

"Young Master!"

Just then, a voice rang out ahead.

A dozen young men in camouflage, armed with various guns, appeared before Li Chuan, led by an older man.

It was Uncle Li, who'd received Li Chuan's orders earlier and been waiting with his men at the foot of the hill.

"Uncle Li, handle the rest. I'm heading home—Wanda's waiting for me to eat."

"Yes, Young Master!"

Seeing Uncle Li and the others arrive as planned, Li Chuan checked the time, stopped worrying about what came next, and drove off first.

Cleanup work like this was something Uncle Li was far better at.

"Five Explosive Tags, one Great Fireball Technique scroll, one Shadow Clone Jutsu scroll, one sharp longsword, one valuable jade Buddha, one box of 999 Cold Medicine."

As he drove toward his villa, Li Chuan opened his mission item space.

The mission item space was a storage area on his panel. Every time he completed a side mission, the rewards were sent there.

He could take out reward items anytime or put them back in—very convenient.

The downside was that it could only store mission reward items. Non-mission items couldn't be placed inside. Even when he wrapped the longsword in tape and tried to store it, the tape would automatically fall off outside.

If not for that, he wouldn't have had to swallow the Ration Pills to bring them back.

Right now, the three items at the front of the mission item space were the rewards from the three missions he'd just completed.

"This... Explosive Tags. Not bad."

Of the three mission rewards, the best was naturally the Great Fireball Technique. It was a secret Uchiha Clan jutsu, hard for anyone outside the clan to obtain.

The Shadow Clone Jutsu was more versatile, but once he returned to the Naruto World, he could get it easily.

Though it was a B-Rank Ninjutsu created by the Second Hokage, it was so practical that it had spread everywhere, with many villages making their own tweaks.

Water Clone, Earth Clone, Lightning Clone—they were all roughly the same.

What was truly hard to get in Konoha was the A-Rank forbidden jutsu the Second Hokage later upgraded: the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, which could create a huge number of shadow clones at once.

But it consumed too much Chakra. A ninja with insufficient Chakra using it could easily risk their life.

As for the final mission reward—five Explosive Tags—it really wasn't worth much. With his wealth in the Naruto world, he could easily buy plenty of them.

And in the Marvel World, their explosive power was at most on par with a hand grenade.

The only advantage was that they looked like ordinary paper, so most people wouldn't be wary holding one, making them decent for catching enemies off guard.

Plus, modern detection devices basically couldn't pick them up.

By six in the evening, Li Chuan finally drove back to his villa. As he parked, he noticed another familiar car.

"Is Pietro here?"

Pietro Maximoff was his brother-in-law, Wanda's twin brother, born twelve minutes before her. This black sedan belonged to Pietro.

With a wry smile, Li Chuan figured out why Pietro had come.

It was probably because the Spanish dish, Asturian Stew, had proven a bit too challenging for his wife's still-developing cooking skills, so she'd called in her brother, who was a much better cook, for help.

"Looks like I'll get a decent dinner tonight."

With Pietro's help, at least the food wouldn't be as salty as that breakfast three months ago—that was a good thing.

And since Pietro was here, it was the perfect chance to talk about moving to New York.