Book List

Now that they were his own people, the few of them spoke much more casually.

"Actually, I really admire the people of the Heavenly Kingdom, and I can even speak a few words of Heavenly Kingdom speech!" Frank said, and started demonstrating, "Hello, I have no gun, I surrender."

"Uh," Bai Jing was speechless. "Where did you learn these words?"

"In the army, taught by the superior officers. If you encounter Heavenly Kingdom soldiers and can't beat them, you can tell them these!" Frank said with great interest. "The direction I was stationed never ran into Heavenly Kingdom soldiers, but I heard other legions did and got beaten up miserably!"

"Wait!" Bai Jing suddenly had a question. "How old were you when you joined the Vietnam War?"

"Seventeen, I guess!" Frank replied. "Fought for over two years, then came back, and after that stayed right here in the American mainland, never going out again until I retired!"

"Then this year, you're already fifty?" Bai Jing asked in surprise.

"Fifty-five!" Frank sighed, a few short words conveying a lifetime of vicissitudes.

What compelled a fifty-five-year-old Vietnam War veteran to put on battle gear again, pick up firearms, and step back onto the battlefield?

It was this damn society!

Yet Frank had nothing else he could do; he hadn't studied properly as a child, enlisting in his teens. The military didn't teach culture or ideology, leaving him knowing nothing outside of standard military routines.

Actually, Bai Jing was also very curious about whether female soldiers in the US military really got assaulted, but looking at Frank's weathered face, he didn't have the heart to ask.

After some conversation, he gained a deeper understanding of the person before him.

He was just an old veteran whose military skills were maxed out while his politics and ideology were at zero, pretty much what Bai Jing had imagined beforehand.

As for Frank's position, it was also quite easy to arrange: military advisor and instructor.

Bai Jing, who understood deeply that political power grew out of the barrel of a gun, had been waiting for this a long time.

With Frank, the mob of stragglers under Bai Jing's command could be organized and given armed training, transforming them into a regular army.

The ridiculous scene of shooting blindly into the air from when the two gangs had confronted each other still floated through Bai Jing's mind from time to time!

Actually, this was also a kind of hint to Frank, letting him know that a mere three hundred regular soldiers could sweep through three thousand, or even thirty thousand, gangsters.

So could gangs really not be dealt with?

Having settled things with Frank, Bai Jing followed Denny to Bruce Banner's quarters.

"The aesthetic style here is so clean!" Bai Jing exclaimed, looking at the bedroom plastered with plain white wallpaper, mostly empty, furnished with only a bed, a desk, a chair, and extremely minimalist decorations.

This bedroom was located in the Viper Gang base, though who had originally used it was unknown.

"It wasn't like this originally; it was renovated overnight according to Dr. Keanu's requirements!" Denny smiled. "Most people weren't willing to take on this job, but a father and son pair from the Heavenly Kingdom did it!"

"Is that so?" Bai Jing nodded, having no intention of reaching out to compatriots.

To be honest, he didn't much like the countrymen who came to live over here—though those who came to learn advanced knowledge to go back and build up their motherland were a different matter.

"I'll arrange this space into bookshelves over here, but the books are still on the way, so it looks very empty right now!" Bruce Banner smiled from the side. Even though his face had been changed, his smile was still as goofy as ever.

"Oh," Bai Jing asked casually. "Bought online?"

"Yeah!" Banner nodded.

Amazon had been founded as early as 1995, and after acquiring Joyo in 2004, it had taken off; trying to enter the market now left almost no opportunities.

"These are the books I compiled for you!" Banner handed a notebook to Bai Jing.

"Just this little bit?" Bai Jing had thought Banner had already written the book contents into the notebook, but upon opening it, he discovered it was just a list of book titles.

The book titles were followed by author names, and since the English names were all very long, about one book took up a whole line.

They were written line after line, page after page, just like that!

He flipped one page, then another, and finally gave a rustling flip, turning half the notebook all at once until he finally reached the end!

"So many?" Bai Jing asked with some surprise.

"Is it much? It's all right!" Banner smiled. "If you were only studying electronic field theory, you wouldn't need this many books, but studying just a single subject doesn't really have much meaning. Having multiple disciplines running parallel and intersecting makes it easier to spark the flames of thought."

That's for geniuses like you, alright? Ordinary people exhaust their entire lives just studying a single subject!

"In addition, your abilities can actually benefit from reading some related books for a relative enhancement. Superpowers and science are not impossible to fuse; in fact, once you master knowledge, your application of your abilities will be even handier!" Banner said. "After you absorbed those transformation energies of mine, I discovered that I could manipulate a bit of the small amount of energy left in my body. This energy greatly increases my endurance and keeps me spirited. The book titles were also written under those conditions—actually, I didn't sleep at all last night."

"Uh," Bai Jing was speechless.

"When I was a kid, I also read some comics about Superman and the like, but I read very few after growing up!" Banner continued. "Because I've always felt that using superpowers for fighting and killing is simply the greatest waste. Like what I'm doing now, using the energy Green Hulk uses for combat on study and research is completely three to five times more efficient than in the past!"

"Even when used in combat, their methods are far too crude. Take the ability to manipulate water, for instance. If they could master fluid dynamics and vortices, wouldn't the destructive power of that ability increase by a lot?"

He was a scientist even more genius than Tony. Tony could still rely on his own abilities to design Iron Man, but if Banner hadn't been harassed by Hulk, his achievements would actually have been much greater than Tony's.

Bai Jing nodded, thinking to himself that Banner had jumped straight into the late-stage state of fusing with Hulk.

Not really, though. The current him could use that kind of energy without turning green, which felt like it should be even better than the later version.

At least judging by his appearance, that was true.

"I get it!" Bai Jing nodded. He was actually quite unsatisfied with his own use of energy and wanted to learn something, but he just hadn't found the time until now!

He had only been here two days, either fighting or looking for people, and he had already found a school to prepare for studies.

"Also, I want to do some experiments, but I don't have the equipment." Banner looked at Bai Jing again. "As a scientific advisor, I surely can't go without a laboratory!"

"Uh," Bai Jing helplessness showed. "Should be, should be. What do you need?"

"I've already given the list to Denny Roberts." Banner pointed to Denny Roberts on the side.

"Then buy it!" Bai Jing turned his head to look at Denny Roberts.

"But the equipment he wants costs over forty million dollars, and that's just the equipment. The lab has to be independently designed and built, which will cost tens of millions more!" Denny Roberts said.

"Build it, this has to be built!" Bai Jing nodded without a moment's hesitation.

Experiments were a man's romance; whatever products or toys were just playthings for guys after all!

If given the chance to play with a fighter jet, would you play with it?

If someone blew up a nuclear bomb for you to watch, would you want to see it?

In his past life, Bai Jing had been an ordinary corporate drone with no such opportunities; he wouldn't even dare to dream of it!

But in this life, he had the chance!

Well, anyway, it wasn't his own money being spent!