The First Step to Building a Fortune

Every beginning was difficult.

A plan was just a plan.

Looking at the progress bar in his mind, formed after Hebron Industries' energy had been completely drained and sealed away, Luke saw that it had not moved at all. How exactly was he supposed to accumulate the first pot of gold needed to build his fortune? By his calculations, even draining all the energy and electricity in the world would probably be useless.

Perhaps only energy that was more powerful, more vast, and denser could push forward the first step of Luke's plan.

So where could he find such energy?

Lost in thought, Luke unconsciously raised his head and looked at the laboratory ceiling. His unfocused gaze seemed to pass through it and straight into the boundless sky.

The sun?

It was an enormous and usable Energy Source, and the technology Luke possessed could indeed efficiently harness solar energy. But manufacturing the equipment would take too much time, manpower, and support. Besides, the nearest one up there was not easy to get his hands on.

Ancient One?

Luke would have loved to happily follow Ancient One around and fleece the Dimensional Demon Gods. But that was impossible for now. He had no means or technology to find Ancient One.

That left only one person who seemed most promising.

The Captain of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick Fury!

Luke did not care about S.H.I.E.L.D., and he did not care about Nick Fury either. But he cared very much about the Tesseract they managed and safeguarded.

Compared with the risks involved in the first two options, fleecing the S.H.I.E.L.D. under Nick Fury's command seemed to carry the smallest cost and had the greatest chance of success. He was not greedy. He did not want to take possession of the Tesseract or any other Infinity Stones. He only wanted to skim off a little energy, accumulate his initial supply, and activate his progress bar. That was not too much to ask, was it?

So, should he reveal something else to make Nick Fury take him more seriously and recruit him into that organization that had yet to be established? Joining that organization would undoubtedly bring him closest to the Tesseract, and it would be the best way to tamper with it without Stimulating Nick Fury, Stark, and the others. After all, once he joined them, they would be on the same side. When the Chitauri invasion came, he could use the opportunity to siphon off some energy. Maybe everyone would even thank him for it.

Of course, that was not his only backup plan.

The Seed of Black Nightmare.

These so-called seeds were also peculiar energy-gathering devices that Luke could not yet fully understand, and their method of collecting energy was even stranger.

But did Luke dare use them on the planet where he lived?

Though he was eager to try, reason told Luke not to court death by playing the villain for now. Even if Stark and the others could do nothing to him, what if Ancient One or someone else decided this was a tentacle extended by some evil Dimensional Demon God? Would he not be in serious trouble then? Even if he hid himself well and was not discovered, if the seeds were wiped out before they had collected enough energy, the loss would outweigh the gain.

However, not using the Seed of Black Nightmare on this planet did not mean he could not use it elsewhere. After all, the Seed of Black Nightmare possessed some interdimensional travel characteristics. Of course, Luke had neither obtained nor cracked Betsy's dimensional positioning technology, so the destinations could only be random.

If the destinations were not random, and if he could choose a specific dimensional world or region of the universe instead of relying entirely on the Seed of Black Nightmare's selection rules to choose hosts, then the Seed of Black Nightmare in Plan B might have been better suited as the primary energy plan for launching the first step.

As for whether the Seed of Black Nightmare he released might cause some particularly terrible consequences, what did that have to do with Luke?

Even if someone traced it back to this star system and this planet, before he had grown strong enough, there would still be taller people to hold up the sky. Which genius scientist in this world had not caused a world crisis through an experimental accident? If you had not achieved the feat of nearly destroying the world, did you even have the nerve to call yourself a genius scientist?

Having figured it out, Luke hesitated no longer and divided the only batch of Seed of Black Nightmare in his possession into two groups before releasing them.

One group went into the starry universe of this world.

The other went toward another dimensional world that he could vaguely sense, one he had once visited.

After releasing them, all he could do was wait. Everything depended on the hosts selected by the Seed of Black Nightmare and the environments they were in. As for how long the wait would be, the number of Seed of Black Nightmare he possessed was limited. Luke could not use Casting a Wide Net on a massive scale to reduce the time needed to select hosts or expand their regional distribution. Everything was up to fate.

For example, if the areas where they landed happened to contain Intelligent Civilization and life, that would naturally be ideal. If they happened to land in dead zones, then he could only wait for a long time until an opportunity arose. Therefore, after releasing Black Nightmare, Luke's primary plan still depended on Nick Fury.

As for stealing or robbing?

Luke had no intention of taking that path. Only when there were no other options or methods left, when he had been driven into a corner, would Luke make that decision. That was a decision only a gambler staking everything would make.

"We regret to inform everyone that yesterday, due to an exercise, a Raptor Aircraft crashed. Fortunately, there were no casualties." Colonel James Rhodes stood at the podium as the spokesperson, casually brushing over the Air Force's loss of a Raptor Aircraft. Without waiting for reporters to ask questions, he immediately moved on to the next topic.

"As for the Camille Incident, we still do not know who the intervening force was..."

On the Virtual Projection before Luke, one side showed James Rhodes's public statement, while the other showed an Iron Armor flying nimbly through the air. The footage also showed a burning Raptor Aircraft falling from the sky and a pilot parachuting down.

"Has Stark bought another batch of metal?"

"TI-2217-FZ. A new Titanium Alloy material. Unit price: 175 USD per gram. Purchase quantity: two tons." White Queen brought up the transaction list with Stark.

"Keep an eye on Tony Stark—no, keep an eye on Obadiah Stane of Stark Industries. If anything unusual happens, notify me immediately." Luke had initially wanted to monitor Tony Stark, but considering Tony's intelligence and his intelligent Butler, J.A.R.V.I.S., he decided to focus his attention on Obadiah Stane instead to avoid any accidents.

Building a relationship and receiving an invitation from Nick Fury both required the right time and place to get twice the result with half the effort.

PS1: I'm stuck while figuring out how to insert the upcoming plot developments. There may be chapters later that switch perspectives to where Black Nightmare was sent...