Character Background

As the Knight System's users were being enhanced in full swing, the Shocker organization, which had fewer than ten members for the time being, began to stir on the other side. The deal between the vampires and the smaller Doctor Death, remotely controlled by Wei Xiuming, was also underway.

I had to give Nick Fury a hard time over this. Blade, the human-vampire hybrid, had always been under his surveillance, but after Wei Xiuming had gone out of his way to mention him, Fury had started to suspect there was something special about the guy and had taken samples from him again and again for testing.

Fury had no idea that Wei Xiuming was merely forcing connections between the Marvel World and Kamen Rider. It was like people complaining that there were no Inves in the Marvel World, but they shouldn't forget that the Skrulls had abilities very similar to the Inves. And by an era when traveling between star systems was as easy as driving from the east side of town to the west, biotechnology had also become highly advanced—as Rocket Raccoon showed.

Doctor Death's deal with the vampire noble Mr. Victor proceeded without a hitch. The vampires' representative was an arms dealer from a small Eastern European country—a perfectly ordinary arrangement.

Just as their predecessors had done during the slave trade, whenever they wanted access to a country's mineral resources or the like, the capitalist-controlled United States would provoke civil unrest there. Arms dealing was one way to do it.

When people carried a deadly weapon, murderous impulses stirred. Even holding an unparalleled blade made them want to cut something just to test its edge. With guns in hand—far more lethal, and capable of earning them greater profits or even power—they were even harder to hold back. Especially when people from a certain superpower hinted, openly or otherwise, that they could cause as much chaos as they liked, and that all their logistical support and firepower when things went badly would come from them.

Official arms dealers usually stayed out of sight, leaving the work to middlemen they supported. This Eastern European arms dealer played just such a role. Most of the profits went to American arms dealers, while he received only a small cut. It was hard-earned money, essentially just a delivery fee.

More importantly, when the deal went through an overseas company, all sorts of methods could be used to legally avoid taxes. Even though this arms dealer could deliver the Amazon Potion to Mr. Victor just two hours after making the deal with Doctor Death, on paper the entire transaction had taken place overseas.

This fellow named Doom looked nothing like an arms dealer. He seemed more like an academic doing research at a university, with a strong scholarly air about him. He dressed well, and apart from a slightly receding hairline, he could easily have graced the cover of a fashion magazine.

The deal was once again taking place in an abandoned warehouse, though not the same one as last time. This one was near a harbor.

Compared with trucks that might be stopped and inspected, transporting the goods by ship was much more convenient.

The fighters, still wearing simple exoskeletons and black combat uniforms, wheeled out one portable temperature-controlled container after another. Shocker's logo was printed on them. Doom's men took the containers, packed them into wooden crates lined with foam and bubble wrap, then loaded them onto the ship. Having been warned in advance, they didn't foolishly open the containers to inspect them. Some had tried that before, but they had either died during the deal or been killed by Doom.

Doctor Death didn't bother checking whether the amount in his bank account was satisfactory. Instead, he chatted with Doom with evident interest. After all, that name carried enormous significance in the Marvel World: Lord Doom, the god-emperor of an age.

"Mr. Doom, would you be interested in working for me? I can give you power beyond your imagination—power even greater than those vampires'." They only shared a surname, but how could Wei Xiuming pass up the chance to personally create a Doctor Doom? Even if he had to force the connections, he was still tying things from the Marvel World to Kamen Rider.

"My home is in Eastern Europe, in a small, poor country called Latovinia." Doom didn't directly refuse Doctor Death's offer. The man dealt directly with his superiors, and Doom had heard that the boss had even sent his personal secretary, Bill, to meet and negotiate with him last time. Anyone who offended them wouldn't come to a good end. "Latovinia is landlocked, with no coastline, and surrounded by neighboring countries that have sealed off its borders. Because of its location, it has always been poor. It has few mineral resources, its terrain is mostly mountainous, and there's very little farmland. People have always lived below the poverty line."

"Latovinia had two periods when it was relatively prosperous. The first came when the Third Reich was rapidly expanding. Latovinia was still a feudal state and couldn't resist, so it had no choice but to surrender. It was then developed for a time as a staging ground for the Third Reich's attack on the USSR. Many Latovinians were hired and earned relatively good wages. They could also sell their crops to the army or trade them for food like canned goods. In the mountains, apples were the only thing that grew well. The first time I ever stole a drink, it was homemade apple cider."

As he spoke, Doom discreetly sized up Doctor Death with his slightly greenish eyes. He was clever and perceptive; it wasn't hard for him to notice the connection between the so-called Shocker organization and the Third Reich's Workers' Party.

"The second period of prosperity came after World War II, when Latovinia joined the USSR. In that fiery age, the USSR spared no expense in developing its member states, and Latovinia's lot improved a little. For the first time, the people became the people, rather than the nobles' serfs and targets of exploitation."

"But then the USSR collapsed. As one of its member states, Latovinia received little of the inheritance, and people's lives took a nosedive. And those who had been overthrown came back, turning Latovinia into a monarchy again."

"My father disappeared at some point, and my mother raised me alone. The income from farming was enough to support the two of us and keep us fed, so we could have lived that way for the rest of our lives. But my mother didn't see it that way. She didn't want me trapped in Latovinia as a poor farmer for my whole life. Instead, she scrimped and saved to send me to school. But her income alone wasn't enough to cover the tuition, so she found some things related to magic among the belongings left behind by my grandmother, who had been a Gypsy witch. She became a witch herself and traveled around telling fortunes to earn money—until she became too obsessed with it, went mad, and died in what was supposedly a magical experiment."

"The irony was that I'd earned excellent grades and received an acceptance letter from the State University of New York with a full scholarship. With that money, I could have taken her away from Latovinia and given her a better life."

"At university, I studied engineering and physics, and my grades were excellent throughout. I even earned a doctorate. Then one of Mr. Victor's men, who was in charge of one of his businesses, found me. He needed an overseas representative, and I was more useful to him than those greedy, ignorant fools."

Doom paused. What came next was a trade secret, and he couldn't tell an outsider like Doctor Death.

"My men are all from Latovinia. This job is evil; it helps take countless lives. But it lets their families live better, and gives their children an education so they can change their own destinies."

"If I work for you, Mr. Victor will find someone else to replace me, and that person will build his own team. And because we know too many secrets, my men, their families, and I will all be eliminated."