"Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!"
Sitwell, standing nearby, was nearly scared to death by Rumlow.
Rumlow leaped up from his seat in panic, backing away as he cursed Rumlow without stopping.
"Damn it, why the fuck did you do that? That was Pierce!"
"Yeah, he was Pierce. He was also the only Serpent Head who failed in this operation!"
As he spoke, Rumlow calmly turned around and aimed his chest at the guns held by Pierce's trusted men.
He spoke with composed confidence.
"Our exposure may have been sudden, but looking across the world, whether in Europe or Africa, Hydra achieved overwhelming victories over S.H.I.E.L.D.
Only us—only our American Branch was driven out by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s remaining forces. Wasn't that Pierce's failure?"
"That was because of Captain America! Damn it, if the other branches had faced Captain America too, they would have lost even worse than we did!" Sitwell explained unwillingly.
"So what!!!"
Rumlow shot back directly.
"Why didn't he kill Captain America the moment he woke up? He knew Captain America had once been Hydra's downfall, yet he still trusted his own schemes and let him become the downfall of the new Hydra. Was that the fate he wanted?"
"Bullshit!"
Sitwell was not convinced by Rumlow's argument. His eyes bulged beneath his glasses as he roared viciously at Rumlow.
"No matter how you explain it, you can't change the fact that without Pierce, the other branches won't accept us!
Pierce did lose, and we did lose, but he was the boss who stood shoulder to shoulder with the other Serpent Heads!"
"Heh. Is a dead boss still a boss?"
Rumlow sneered disdainfully as he pulled out his pistol.
"Hey, put down the gun!"
"Don't move, buddy!"
While the others were somewhat flustered, Sitwell shouted stubbornly at Rumlow.
"What else are you going to do? Kill me? Then you can replace Pierce and become—mmph, mmph, mmph...!?"
Rumlow shoved the barrel of his gun into Sitwell's mouth.
That finally made little bald Sitwell panic for real.
The cold, sour metallic taste of the Magnum's barrel made the little bald man feel as though he had nowhere to put his tongue.
And Rumlow's finger, twitching eagerly against the trigger...
"Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm!!!"
Sitwell immediately clamped his legs together. Honestly, he would have offered up even his chastity at that moment, so long as it kept him alive.
At the same time, Rumlow continued.
"The old Hydra rose to greatness because it had the magnificent Red Skull. But ever since the Leader vanished in his battle against Captain America, even though we remained prosperous, we had long since lost the glory of the past!"
At that, he pulled the barrel out of Sitwell's mouth and casually smacked Sitwell's head with the butt of the gun.
"But whether it was Red Skull or Pierce, they both proved one thing through their failures: intelligence alone is not enough to carry us to the end. What we truly need is a leader powerful enough!"
The moment he finished speaking, the trembling Sitwell changed his attitude.
This time, he cautiously played along with Rumlow and asked softly.
"So we should place greater trust in action-team elites like you. Only operatives capable of handling every enemy can possess the decisiveness and composure to handle every unforeseen event, right?"
"Right my ass..."
Rumlow shook his head helplessly. Sitwell really was fucking unyielding.
Pierce really had been an idiot. How could he have put someone like this in such a high position?
After shaking his head, Rumlow spoke mysteriously to all the elites around him.
"I don't have what it takes to be our leader, but I do know a suitable candidate. Trust me, if he becomes our BOSS, failure will never be an option for us!"
As he spoke, he took his phone out of his pocket.
Then, right in front of everyone, he made a call.
"Ring, ring, ring..."
The phone rang for a long time. This...
This made Rumlow incredibly embarrassed.
Everyone around him felt incredibly embarrassed too. This was not how the script was supposed to go!
Shouldn't the call have connected by now, with the person on the other end showing them what a true big shot was?
Then they would all pledge their allegiance and make a comeback together, right?
Why hadn't the call even gone through?
"Uh... the BOSS is probably resting. Even our failure is only a trivial matter in the BOSS's eyes!"
Rumlow forcibly talked it up before calling Heisenberg again.
This time, Heisenberg finally answered.
"Rumlow, give me a reason for interrupting my rest!"
Heisenberg really was a little angry, because he had genuinely fallen asleep.
Hearing Heisenberg's tone, Rumlow did not feel nervous at all. Their brief contact had been enough for him to get a rough sense of Heisenberg's temperament.
He knew Heisenberg would not blame him over such a minor matter.
So he reported softly to Heisenberg.
"BOSS, I'm currently aboard a plane over the outskirts of New York. Alexander Pierce has been taken out by me. There are over twenty Hydra elites here, and they need your guidance!"
"Oh?"
Hearing the explanation, Heisenberg turned over on his lounge chair in satisfaction.
"You have hackers among you, right? Find footage of my battle with Hulk last night. What happens next is up to you!"
With that, Heisenberg hung up.
On the plane, Rumlow smiled.
As he tucked his phone into his tactical vest, he said to the others.
"We have many people who qualify as excellent hackers. Find the footage of Hulk's battle last night. The answer I want to give you is there!"
The moment he finished speaking, the hackers immediately got to work.
In only a short while, they found all kinds of YouTube videos. But those were all scattered, disorganized clips, mostly filmed and uploaded by civilians, with varying quality.
The hackers then searched for satellite footage and processed and edited all the video material.
At last, they reconstructed the entire battle between Heisenberg and Hulk, a fight that had stunned the entire world.
In the footage, amid the cries of countless citizens at the scene, Heisenberg's power-filled fists left every agent utterly shocked.
And when Heisenberg's second punch sent Hulk flying out of New York, the agents on the plane simply began cheering!
Until Hulk broke through the sky, passed close to the satellite itself, crashed onto the moon, and was then smashed back to Earth...
The entire plane fell completely silent.
At the end of the video, when Hulk was beaten back into Banner and Heisenberg raised his middle finger at the satellite—
"This is my BOSS now, everyone!"
Rumlow declared to everyone with boundless excitement.
"He is the true God on Earth. No words can describe his greatness. He will lead Hydra to rise again in an entirely new form!"
As Rumlow spoke, his face actually flushed from sheer excitement.
But no one minded his loss of composure, because most of those present were tempted.
As for the handful who were not tempted.
They looked even more excited than those who truly were.
I can't ignore a performance I'm supposed to play along with!
Rumlow continued in that atmosphere.
"Heisenberg—perhaps you will say he is an alien, but he has the same traits as us and the same appearance as us. Other than the power that leaves us looking up at him, he is one of us.
Of course, he is destined to stand above us. He stands high above, like a god.
Could anyone be more suited than someone that powerful to lead Hydra forward?"
Rumlow patted little bald Sitwell on the head.
"Hulk couldn't even endure three punches and one kick from the BOSS. Do you think Captain America, whom you've always feared, could cause trouble for our new BOSS?"
Well, Heisenberg had already become his new BOSS.
And everyone present actually accepted that claim!
Looking at his former colleagues around him, who remained silent but wore exceptionally vivid expressions, Rumlow knew that his short-term mission had been partially accomplished.
He picked up the radio and gave a quiet order.
"We aren't going anywhere. Not Europe, not Asia. Let's return to New York and start over from where everything ended!"
"Understood!"
The pilot eagerly obeyed Rumlow's command. The plane immediately returned to New York and eventually landed at a port airfield once owned by Kingpin.
Rumlow and the outstanding senior agents quickly blended into the atmosphere of the Nuke Gang.
After Rumlow woke him up, Heisenberg covered his head and took another nap.
When he woke up, it was already 11:20 in the morning.
He climbed up from his lounge chair and first glanced at Banner, who was still unconscious.
Tsk, tsk... What terrible sleeping posture.
Frowning in disgust, Heisenberg casually grabbed a tapestry and tossed it over Banner's completely naked body.
He had really been a little stupid last night. What had he been thinking? How could he let a naked man appear on his roof?
If his subordinates saw that, wouldn't they misunderstand his orientation?
Heisenberg grumbled to himself before quickly retrieving a set of clothes from the wardrobe and tossing them beside the unconscious Banner.
That way, Banner would see the clothes as soon as he woke up, so no one should misunderstand anymore.
After dealing with Banner's little problem, Heisenberg went downstairs to the Nightclub, sat on his personal sofa, and enjoyed the lunch delivered by the chef.
As he ate, he checked his gains.
And one look made his eyes nearly pop out of their sockets!
"Yesterday, the host obtained 625,477.262 cubic units of Origin Matter. Please keep up the good work!"
"Holy shit!!!"
Heisenberg cursed outright. What exactly had he done yesterday to create such an enormous impact?
625,000 cubic units of Origin Matter meant that he had at least slightly altered the fates of six hundred million people!
This was not some joke involving six ten-thousands. It was a full six hundred million!
But on second thought...
Purple Man had exposed Hydra, causing S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra to begin their all-out war nearly two years ahead of schedule.
That alone had changed the original fates of hundreds of thousands of agents.
Those agents had their own families and friends. That web of influence involved far more than tens or hundreds of millions of people!
At the same time, aside from the United States and China, Hydra had won in most countries.
That single victory was enough to alter the fate of most citizens in those countries.
And although American S.H.I.E.L.D. had won the war, it had only been a pyrrhic victory.
Even the president of the United States was dead. One could imagine what the country had become.
The chaos would likely continue for a long time.
As for China...
Sorry, China was a forbidden zone. Not to be spoken of, not to be spoken of.
In short...
Heisenberg smiled. He truly smiled. Earth in the Marvel Universe only had a population of around ten billion.
This one wave had earned him Origin Matter equal to nearly one-fifteenth of that!
Purple Man truly possessed immeasurable merit!!!
Before you continue