Professor Lizard

"Pleasure doing business with you."

After negotiations, he quoted Lieutenant General Reynolds a price of $170,000 per unit, while the price of the Lethalizers remained unchanged.

Products with infectious properties like these were destined to be impossible to mass-produce.

So he had no intention of lowering the price.

In the end, the military purchased 500 Fighting Wolves and ordered 30 Lethalizers.

The Air Force and Navy had little use for Fighting Wolves and bought only 100 in total.

Adding the other buyers interested in Fighting Wolves, his first deal sold a total of 960 Fighting Wolves, 30 Lethalizers, and 100 doses of serum.

All told, he had sold more than $170 million worth of products!

He had charged the military $170,000 each. S.H.I.E.L.D. had wanted to buy together with the military, but unfortunately, the military ignored them.

As for the costs, they had only come to $20 million.

In other words, he had made a straight profit of $150 million on this deal!

No wonder they said capital brought exorbitant profits.

After signing the contract, Noah was in high spirits.

The plans he had made earlier could finally be put into action.

But after calculating carefully, he realized there were even more places that needed money.

Not to mention that both companies had been operating at a loss before.

Although Anobella had made some money, that income had never been enough to cover expenses; they had relied entirely on bank loans.

Now that they were making money, the first thing to do was naturally pay it back.

Then there was the underground Hive base.

The preliminary budget alone had already reached $300 million.

And that was only the preliminary estimate. The actual expenditure would likely be even higher.

Anobella did not need such a large testing ground, but it still needed a research base.

Even if its scale could be smaller, everything else could not be inferior.

That alone might cost another two or three hundred million.

Leaving aside those future expenses, even the costs he needed to cover right now gave him a headache.

All in all, $150 million suddenly did not seem like much.

Noah's good mood from having just made money vanished immediately.

Forget it. There was no point thinking about that.

Noah shook his head.

He cast those worries from his mind.

No matter what, today was still a good day—he had made money.

S.H.I.E.L.D.

Nick Fury held a report in his hand, frowning deeply.

A moment later, Coulson walked in.

"Director, this is the investigation report on Umbrella."

Nick Fury reached out, took the report, and opened it. His already furrowed brow tightened even further.

"Before Noah Allen joined Umbrella, the company had made no breakthroughs whatsoever in biotechnology.

"But afterward, in less than half a year, they produced something like the Fighting Wolf.

"I don't believe that was the result of just a few months.

"There must be some other secret behind him."

As he spoke, he looked at the other report in his hand.

It documented the several gangs Noah Allen had slaughtered with black insects under his control.

He did not care about those dead gangsters.

To him, it was not worth his attention no matter how many of those scum had died.

What caught his attention was how they had died—the black insects.

It would have been one thing if Noah Allen had previously encountered them in some major laboratory.

But according to the investigation, although he had studied biology at Empire State University, he had never conducted any similar research there.

Yet it was still far too strange.

"Should we test him?"

Coulson asked.

Nick Fury thought for a moment.

"Forget it. Keep a close watch on him.

This report came a little late.

He's a rising star in the military now. Even people in the White House are paying attention to him."

Thinking of that virus that brought the dead back to life, wariness flickered in his eyes.

This was humanity's taboo!

And the next step after resurrection was immortality.

For many people, even a mere possibility was enough to draw their attention.

Noah was a student at Empire State University.

It was a legendary university.

Peter Parker studied there, and it was also home to famous professors from the Marvel Universe, such as Professor Lizard and Doctor Octopus.

And today, his goal was to find Doctor Lizard, Curt Connors.

Curt Connors was a research fanatic who spent every day holed up in the laboratory.

When Noah arrived at the lab, he found him there, as expected.

"Professor Connors."

Noah greeted him.

Curt Connors turned around.

"You are...?"

He didn't remember ever teaching this student.

"Noah Allen."

"So you're Noah Allen."

Curt Connors set aside his work, his expression warm as he looked at Noah.

"You've heard of me?" Noah asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Of course I have. You're the pride of the school. Though you haven't been enrolled for long, you've already achieved many remarkable things.

There probably aren't many people who haven't heard of you, especially not a biology professor like me.

But why did you come to see me?

Do you have some question about your research?"

Noah looked at Professor Connors's empty right sleeve.

Curt Connors noticed his gaze and shifted his body awkwardly.

"It must be very inconvenient."

Curt Connors frowned.

"What are you talking about?" His expression darkened.

"Your arm, of course," Noah said.

"I got used to it long ago.

If that's all you came to say, you can leave."

As he spoke, Curt Connors pointed toward the door without the slightest politeness.

Noah didn't move. Instead, he said, "Perhaps I can give you hope of having your arm again.

If you're not interested, I can leave right now."

Have his arm again?

He had researched it for years without seeing any hope of that.

What could a student possibly do?

So his first thought was that Noah was making a joke about his arm.

Even though he had grown accustomed to living with one arm.

Over all these years, however, he had never truly accepted it. Every moment, he had been researching the possibility of regenerating a severed limb.

It was his taboo. He would not allow anyone to mention it.

So he became furious.

"Get out!"

At that, Noah turned and left without hesitation.

The very next moment.

"Wait."

Curt Connors called after him. Though anger still lingered on his face, he had regained much of his reason.

He was unwilling to give up any possibility of hope.

Even if it was just something a student had said casually.

"You're not joking?"

"Of course not. Have you heard of Umbrella?"

Curt Connors's heart stirred.

Umbrella's bankruptcy and restructuring had caused quite a stir back then.

He had heard a little about it as well.

"If you know anything about Umbrella, then you should know that Umbrella recently secured an order from the military.

And the reason for that was because Umbrella discovered an ancient virus.

This virus is incredibly miraculous.

It might even be capable of... bringing the dead back to life."

Noah spoke each word slowly and clearly.

Sure enough, a sharp gleam instantly appeared in Curt Connors's eyes.

If the dead could return to life, then regrowing an arm was naturally not impossible.

And since Umbrella had been able to sign an order with the military, it was clear they had already achieved certain results in this field.

And to him, all of that represented hope.

With that in mind, Curt Connors asked:

"Who are you?"