A Bountiful Harvest

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!"

Sitwell nearly had a heart attack from Rumlow's outburst.

He scrambled up from his seat, backing away while cursing Rumlow nonstop.

"What the hell, why the fuck would you do that? That was Pierce!"

"Yeah, he's Pierce—and the only Serpent Head who failed in this operation."

With that, Rumlow turned calmly, exposing his chest to the guns of Pierce's loyal men.

He spoke coolly, without a trace of panic.

"Our exposure was sudden, but look at the whole world—Europe, Africa—Hydra crushed S.H.I.E.L.D. everywhere.

Only us, just the American Branch, got kicked out by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s remnants. Isn't that Pierce's failure?"

"That's because of Captain America! If the other branches faced him, they'd lose even worse!" Sitwell argued bitterly.

"So what?!"

Rumlow shot back.

"Why didn't they kill Captain America when he first woke up? They knew he was Hydra's old executioner, but they trusted their schemes and let him become the new Hydra's executioner. Was that his destiny?"

"Bullshit!"

Sitwell wasn't buying it. He glared through his glasses, eyes bulging, and roared at Rumlow.

"No matter how you spin it, without Pierce, the other branches won't accept us!

Pierce lost, we lost, but he was still the Boss standing shoulder to shoulder with the other Serpent Heads!"

"Hah, is a dead Boss still a Boss?"

Rumlow sneered contemptuously, pulling out his pistol.

"Hey, put the gun down!"

"Don't move, pal!"

As the others panicked slightly, Sitwell stood his ground and shouted at Rumlow.

"What now, gonna kill me? Then you can take Pierce's place, do mmph—!?"

Rumlow shoved the gun barrel into Sitwell's mouth.

That bald little man finally panicked.

The cold, sour taste of the Magnum's muzzle made his tongue feel like it had nowhere to go.

And Rumlow's finger on the trigger, twitching...

"Mmph mmph mmph!!!"

Sitwell clamped his legs together. Honestly, at that moment, he'd give up his virginity just to survive.

Meanwhile, Rumlow kept talking.

"Hydra once grew strong because of the great Red Skull, but ever since the Leader vanished fighting Captain America, even though we still thrived, we lost our former glory!"

He pulled the barrel out of Sitwell's mouth and smacked his head with the butt of the gun.

"But both Red Skull and Pierce proved one thing with their failures: wisdom alone can't carry us to the end. What we really need is a Leader strong enough!"

As he finished, Sitwell, trembling on shaky legs, changed his tune.

This time, he cautiously played along, asking softly.

"So, we should trust elites like you from the action teams. Only operatives who can handle any enemy have the decisiveness and composure to deal with any surprise, right?"

"Right, my ass..."

Rumlow shook his head helplessly. Sitwell was way too damn spineless.

Pierce really was a waste—how did he let someone like this hold a high position?

Shaking his head, Rumlow spoke mysteriously to the surrounding elites.

"I'm not fit to be our leader, but I do know a suitable candidate. Trust me, if he becomes our Boss, we'll never fail."

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and dialed in front of everyone.

"Ring, ring, ring..."

The phone rang for a long time.

This...

This was awkward for Rumlow.

Everyone else felt awkward too. This wasn't how the script was supposed to go!

Wasn't the call supposed to connect, and the person on the other end show them what a real big shot looked like?

Then they'd all pledge allegiance and stage a comeback?

Why wasn't the call going through?

"Uh... I'm afraid the Boss is resting. Even our failure is just a small matter to him!"

Rumlow tried to smooth things over, then called Heisenberg again.

This time, Heisenberg finally picked up.

"Rumlow, give me a reason to forgive you for disturbing my rest!"

Heisenberg was genuinely annoyed, since he had actually been asleep.

Hearing Heisenberg's tone, Rumlow wasn't nervous at all. Their brief contact had been enough for him to get a read on Heisenberg's temperament.

He knew Heisenberg wouldn't blame him for something this trivial.

So he reported softly to Heisenberg.

"Boss, I'm on a plane over the outskirts of New York right now. Alexander Pierce is dead. There are over twenty Hydra elites here, and they need your guidance."

"Oh?"

Hearing the explanation, Heisenberg turned over contentedly in his recliner.

"You've got hackers among you, right? Find the video of my fight with the Hulk from last night. The rest is up to you!"

With that, Heisenberg hung up.

On the plane, Rumlow smiled.

He tucked the phone into his tactical vest and said to the group.

"We've got plenty of top-notch hackers here. Find the video of the Hulk's fight last night. The answer I promised you is in there!"

The moment he finished, the hackers got to work.

In no time, they found various YouTube videos, but they were all messy, fragmented clips, mostly uploaded by civilians, with varying quality.

The hackers then searched for satellite footage and edited all the material together.

Finally, they reconstructed the full battle between Heisenberg and the Hulk—a fight that had stunned the entire world.

In the video, amid the shouts of countless onlookers, Heisenberg's powerful punches left every agent in awe.

And when Heisenberg's second punch sent the Hulk flying out of New York, the agents on the plane actually started cheering!

Until the Hulk broke through the sky, hurtled past a satellite, crashed into the moon, and was then slammed back to Earth...

The entire plane fell dead silent.

At the end of the video, when the Hulk was beaten back into Banner and Heisenberg flipped off the satellite—

"This is my new Boss, everyone!"

Rumlow said, his voice brimming with excitement.

"He's a true God on Earth. No words can describe his greatness. He will lead Hydra to rise again in a whole new form!"

As Rumlow spoke, his face flushed red from sheer exhilaration.

But no one minded his loss of composure, because most of the people there were already captivated.

As for the few who weren't—

They looked even more excited than those who truly were.

I can't just pretend not to see the performance I'm supposed to play along with!

In that atmosphere, Rumlow continued.

"Heisenberg—you might call him an alien, but he has the same features as us, the same appearance. Aside from the power that makes us look up to him, he's one of us.

Of course, he's destined to be above us. He stands high, like a god.

Is there anyone else more fit than such a powerhouse to lead Hydra forward?"

Rumlow patted the bald head of little Sitwell.

"The Hulk couldn't even withstand three punches and a kick from the Boss. Do you think the Captain America you've always feared will cause any trouble for our new Boss?"

Well, Heisenberg had already become his "new Boss" in his words.

And that claim was accepted by everyone present!

Looking at his former colleagues, who remained silent but wore expressions that spoke volumes, Rumlow knew he had made a little progress on his short-term mission.

He picked up the radio and spoke softly.

"We're not going anywhere—not Europe, not Asia. Let's go back to New York and start over from where it all ended!"

"Understood!"

The pilot eagerly obeyed Rumlow's order. The plane turned back to New York and eventually landed at a port airport once owned by Kingpin.

Rumlow, along with the elite agents, quickly blended into the atmosphere of the Nuke Gang.

After being woken up by Rumlow, Heisenberg pulled the covers over his head and dozed off again.

When he woke up, it was already 11:20 in the morning.

He climbed up from the lounge chair and glanced at Banner, who was still unconscious.

Tsk... no sense of decency when sleeping.

Frowning with disdain, Heisenberg grabbed a tapestry and tossed it over Banner's naked body.

He'd really been an idiot last night—what had he been thinking, letting a naked man show up on his rooftop?

If his subordinates saw this, wouldn't they misunderstand his orientation?

Heisenberg muttered to himself, then quickly went to the wardrobe, grabbed a set of clothes, and threw them next to the unconscious Banner.

That way, when he woke up, he'd see the clothes and avoid any further misunderstandings.

With Banner's little problem handled, Heisenberg went downstairs to the Nightclub, sat down on his private sofa, and enjoyed the lunch the chef had brought.

As he ate, he checked his gains.

And what he saw nearly made his eyes pop out!

"Host obtained 625,477.262 cubic units of Origin Matter yesterday. Keep up the good work!"

"Holy shit!!!"

Heisenberg cursed outright. What had he done yesterday to cause such a massive impact?

Six hundred twenty-five thousand cubic units of Origin Matter meant he'd at least slightly altered the fate of over six hundred million people!

That wasn't a joke—six hundred million, not six thousand!

But then he thought about it...

The Purple Man had exposed Hydra, forcing S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra into an all-out war nearly two years early.

That one move had changed the original fates of hundreds of thousands of agents.

Those agents had their own families and friends—the ripple effect reached far beyond tens of millions!

At the same time, aside from the United States and China, Hydra had won in most other countries.

That single victory could alter the fate of most citizens in those nations.

And while S.H.I.E.L.D. in the U.S. had won the war, it was only a pyrrhic victory.

Even the U.S. president was dead—imagine what the country had become.

The chaos would probably last a long time.

As for China...

Sorry, China was off-limits. No comment.

In short...

Heisenberg smiled—really smiled. The Marvel Universe's Earth had only about ten billion people total.

And with this one move, he'd skimmed off nearly one-fifteenth of the Origin Matter!

The Purple Man had truly earned boundless merit!!!