Success and Return

Active Skill Card: M1A2 SEP (Green)

Although Hong Fei had obtained active skill cards before, this one was completely different from the ones he'd gotten earlier.

Strictly speaking, it should count as equipment, but it had taken the form of a skill card.

Based on his recent actions, there was no doubt this had dropped from General Ross.

For a moment, Hong Fei had a bold idea.

If he locked Ross up and beat him every day, could he collect land, sea, and air weaponry one by one?

The thought flashed by, and Hong Fei stared at the card from every angle, especially the tank pattern on the front, nearly wearing it out with his gaze.

Even though he didn't yet know what that string of code meant, it was still a real tank, no matter what!

After resting, he felt his physical fitness start to improve again, the soreness in his bones and muscles fading quickly. At the same time, his internal energy was slowly growing.

Probably because he hadn't finished off the target, and his main focus had been on the weaker Abomination instead of Hulk, the boosts were limited.

The energy increase was likely tied to that collapsed building, but the people inside had already evacuated early, so no one died—otherwise, his energy would have broken through long ago.

From that perspective, he'd been busy all night. Even though he'd clashed with both the military and S.H.I.E.L.D., he was still a good guy overall. If not for him, the fight between Hulk and Abomination would have caused far more destruction and loss, and more innocent people would have died.

Even if Hong Fei had fired ten cannon shots in the city, it still wouldn't have caused as much damage as letting those two monsters go all out.

In his Card Slot, the blue Passive Skill Card "Hidden Identity" had been glowing faintly ever since he changed outfits. The passive skill's continuous energy drain had left him with only one-fifth of his energy, so this boost was a timely refill.

As the highest-level card Hong Fei currently owned, "Hidden Identity" wasn't as effective as Superman's glasses, but it worked in a similar way.

As long as Hong Fei didn't blatantly expose his face and voice, no one could trace things back to him based solely on his build or other details. Even if multiple clues pointed his way, investigators would still instinctively overlook him.

This was the result of his experiments over the past month—its effect was practically a unique kind of magic.

For Hong Fei, tonight's events were an unexpected incident he'd foreseen but couldn't control. All his actions and decisions had to be made on the fly.

For the military and S.H.I.E.L.D., they also had no predictions, no preparations, and no idea how things would develop. Aside from a few people like Ross, no one even knew where Abomination came from.

So they were all more or less on the same starting line.

Because the military and S.H.I.E.L.D. had more manpower and resources to deploy.

Hong Fei's only advantage was that he was hidden while they were exposed.

What happened tonight wouldn't wait until tomorrow—many people were probably already losing sleep over it. By dawn, a new wave of public opinion battles would erupt.

An hour later, an old truck sped down the highway, followed by two black SUVs.

Hong Fei sat in the passenger seat, occasionally glancing back at the cargo compartment.

Frank couldn't help but say, "A liter of anesthetic—you're not afraid of poisoning him, but you're scared he'll wake up?"

"You don't get it. Creatures like that can't be judged by common sense. Otherwise, nine shells hit him dead-on, and any normal Earth creature would be long dead."

Frank retorted, "But he's still carbon-based. Does he look like he's about to wake up? I can smell it from here, and it's making me dizzy."

The Abomination lay in the cage in the cargo hold, completely limp, as soft as dough.

Hong Fei sighed. "Hey, it's for everyone's safety. If he wakes up, we couldn't beat him even together."

"So you fed him a liter of anesthetic?" Frank couldn't help but complain. "That's not a liter of water, and you made him drink it! Seriously, I'm starting to think you're terrifying."

Hearing that, Hong Fei snapped back, "What else was I supposed to do? You saw it—needles couldn't pierce his skin. Should I have shot him again? I had to pour it down his throat. I just overdid it a little."

"Bottle after bottle, and you 'overdid it a little'?"

"I lost count, okay?"

"And I was yelling 'that's enough' the whole time."

"I didn't hear you."

Frank was left speechless.

After a long pause, he said, "Next up, The Hand and the Mafia are going to lie low for a while."

With such a huge incident shaking everyone up, the gangs would definitely keep a low profile. That was bad for Frank's operations, and he'd have to lie low too.

Hong Fei stared at the night scenery flying past the window. "They won't run, and they won't want to. Don't rush—you're not dying tomorrow."

Frank scowled and stayed quiet.

A moment later, the truck stopped in a wooded area. Hong Fei jumped out, quickly hoisted the Abomination onto his shoulder, and dashed into the forest. Frank followed behind. The truck was handed off to his men to drive far away, and the driver would pose as a normal transport worker from then on.

Hong Fei wouldn't underestimate the military or S.H.I.E.L.D. Even with "Hidden Identity" in hand, he'd still pulled a little switcheroo.

Through the forest paths, over hills, they returned to the estate.

In the third basement level, the Abomination was thrown into the only cell reinforced with steel. The room had multiple mechanisms—spray nozzles for anesthetic sedation, and high-voltage currents for punishment or even execution.

"Have someone watch him 24/7. If he wakes up, notify me immediately. But remember one thing: if anything gets out of control, kill him, don't let him go."

Until Hong Fei could face the Abomination head-on, even losing such a perfect experimental subject was better than letting him break out and wreak havoc.

In truth, Hulk would have been the ideal sparring partner and test subject for Hong Fei.

But Hulk's strength far exceeded Hong Fei's control. If Hulk turned hostile, forget about sparring or experiments—even survival would be a problem.

So, without the confidence to protect himself or truly learn to calm Hulk, Hong Fei had no interest in him at all.

Ross was a general of a nation, but he didn't have that many war resources to waste and squander.

Closing the heavy alloy door, Frank added, "That big-headed freak you mentioned earlier has been caught. He's locked up next door. Want to go take a look?"

Tracing back along the direction the Abomination had appeared, there was a chance to find "Mr. Blue," who had also mutated from fusing with Banner's blood. As it turned out, by the time his people arrived, that big-headed freak hadn't managed to escape yet.

Mr. Blue, real name Samuel Sterns, was Banner's online friend. He had been helping Banner research a serum to eliminate the Hulk. Though he hadn't achieved that direct goal, he had successfully developed a drug that could suppress the Hulk's emergence.

Of course, he wasn't truly a pure scientist. He had always been intensely interested in Banner's blood—whether its self-healing properties or other effects. If he could successfully analyze, extract, and turn it into a drug, he'd gain both fame and fortune.

Thus, he used the blood samples Banner had sent him to produce a large amount of serum, and it was precisely these serums that, to some extent, directly led to the birth of the Abomination.

Now, he too had been infected by those serums, transforming into a grotesque, big-headed freak.

Hong Fei thought for a moment, then said, "Keep him locked up for now. We'll deal with it tomorrow. He might have some kind of telepathic ability, so don't get too close. Use remote monitoring for now. Oh, and where's Dr. Zhao?"

"She's asleep upstairs."

"Alright, you should rest too. It's been a long night."

Arriving at the spacious area on the second basement level, Hong Fei placed the green active Skill Card M1A2 SEP into the Card Slot.

With a thought, green waves rose from the bottom of the slot like water filling up, but they only reached a quarter of the way before stopping abruptly.

This meant Hong Fei didn't have enough energy left to activate this active skill.

Moreover, the energy inside him had just recovered to exactly one-quarter.

In other words, he would need to expend a full tank of his energy just to activate this green Skill Card.

With a quiet sigh, he shook his head and went back to his room upstairs. Too exhausted to care about anything else, he collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.