Project

"As for you…" Wei Xiuming turned to Gideon Malick and said, "I have something to give you. Since you have influence at NASA, it's most suitable for you to be in charge. You can bring in the World Security Council if necessary, or even let the America military foot the bill."

"What do you need me to do?" Having his god, whom his lineage had worshipped for thousands of years, revealed to be a slave, Gideon Malick suddenly seemed to lose his backbone, his entire aura turning dejected. After all, losing one's goal in life is a huge blow; becoming white-haired overnight isn't just a legend.

But at the same time, he rekindled a new hope. For the thousands of years Hydra had existed, no matter how hard they tried, they hadn't achieved significant results. Although they made a fortune investing in high-tech projects like aerospace, life remained simple and dull. Now that he knew his efforts would be futile even if successful, Malick felt at ease.

"An outer space defense system, an outer space defense line composed of twenty-four satellites. With it, although facing invasions from the three great empires and others would still be challenging, it won't be as easy as before for raiders or other wanderers to enter and exit Earth as if it were their own home," Wei Xiuming said.

If his face weren't covered by a gas mask, one could see his expression of disappointment.

Speaking of which, not only Gideon Malick but even Pierce became interested. "Then, do you have any equipment like space battleships? To deal with external threats, we can't just be forced to defend; we must also attack proactively!"

"Cosmic battleships?" Wei Xiuming scoffed. "You're underestimating yourselves. With Earth's current industrial base, can you really produce a ship that can take off and land freely, break through the atmosphere without rocket assistance, and travel between planets? The strong force materials required for main battleships cannot even be synthesized in Earth's most advanced laboratories today."

"Even if you could build ships capable of long-distance voyages, none of Earth's weapon systems are developed for outer space combat. Facing alien spacecraft would be like a warship from the age of sail encountering a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. If you were to start from scratch, by the time they were developed, the aliens would have already turned Earth into a colony. Even if I presented you with blueprints, it would be like throwing nuclear weapon blueprints at people from the steam age. Lacking the support of fundamental knowledge, you might not even be able to understand them. Even with the entire world's industrial power at the time, you might not even be able to build a single graphite pile."

"With Earth's current technological level, the outer space defense system is the most cost-effective option. Other things like vacuum implosion bombs, gravity disruption devices… even the most basic neutron inhibitors that paralyze nuclear reactions are things you can't even dream of right now."

Wei Xiuming was very satisfied with the reactions of these two Hydra leaders. He himself didn't believe that a few words could persuade these two old foxes. It took him years of effort to dispel Nick Fury's suspicions. It would be strange if he didn't tamper with them here.

This was because he had actually researched human thought and the influence of hormones on emotions, and conducted experiments. By interfering with the body's bioelectricity using his magnetic field abilities, he could stimulate nerve endings to provide feedback, thereby indirectly influencing human thought processes. This was the first time he was formally using this ability on Pierce and Malick.

The way this level of ability was applied surpassed even Magneto's in the original timeline, making it a unique form of psychic ability.

However, the human body is a highly precise instrument, and the more precise something is, the higher its chance of malfunction. After he forcibly interfered with their endocrine systems using his abilities, these two would definitely experience physical abnormalities, such as falling seriously ill.

Furthermore, electromagnetic abilities have strong interference effects on electronic devices. With a little attention, one could notice something was wrong. This meeting was a top-secret affair. To prevent information leaks, all electronic devices were left outside the reception room. Moreover, the two old men didn't have pacemakers installed due to heart problems, which created a rare opportunity for Wei Xiuming.

"The next agenda item is to create Hydra's own Super Soldiers," Wei Xiuming said. "Given the current technological foundation, performing gene editing and modification surgery during the embryonic stage to obtain offspring with high intelligence and superior physiology is unrealistic in terms of feasibility and cost. Therefore, I recommend human mechanization."

Upon hearing the last sentence, Rumlow, who had been a silent background character, completely shocked, suddenly had a dark expression. He recalled the human modification plan he had heard in Nick Fury's office and thought, I can't escape this after all.

"Rumlow, this is your destiny," Wei Xiuming said. "As a distinguished figure of Hydra, you lost most of your body structure during the execution of Project Insight and were forced into bio-mechanical augmentation. Although this history has changed due to my arrival, don't you really consider undergoing the modification? After you retire at ninety, you can still regain the form of a normal human through surgery, and still in a youthful body state."

Wei Xiuming said this entirely to provoke Rumlow. Hydra had very effective methods for controlling its internal personnel; brainwashing was a common tactic, making them akin to ancient suicide soldiers who would immediately take poison if captured.

However, Rumlow's loyalty to Hydra was clearly not that strong. After Project Insight was disrupted in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, seeing that the tide had turned, he left Hydra, gathered a group of people, and became a mercenary under the codename Big Daddy. Then he was killed by Leng Feng of the Wolf Warriors—scratch that, codenamed Crossbones, killed by his own bomb vest.

If Rumlow, unable to overcome his psychological barriers, were to become a half-man, half-machine entity, and the Hydra leaders forced him to undergo the modification, that would be quite a show. It would be even better if he could bring Brock Rumlow under his wing. What he lacked now was talent. Although Wei Xiuming was dealing with two large organizations, his personal situation wasn't much better than being alone.

Not to mention the Doctor Death alter ego, which was a cyborg. When activated, he had to wear a special neural interface device for remote control, and his power output was terrifyingly weak.

As for those Shuka combatants, their predecessors were vagrants who underwent human enhancement experiments. After the experiments were successful, they were nominally "secretly disposed of." In reality, Wei Xiuming intercepted them, performed brain surgery to turn them into simple-minded combatants, and then equipped them with combat suits and basic Mechanical Exoskeletons. Their overall strength was only equivalent to 2.5 normal adult males, which was quite weak.

"Regarding candidates for human modification, I do have a very good suggestion," Pierce said. "Hydra's Siberian branch, the Winter Soldier, originally named James Barnes."