Clouds Gathering on All Sides, a New Round of Captures Begins

[S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters].

"Director, that superpowered individual has appeared again..."

Maria Hill hurried into Nick Fury's office and reported,

"Just now, the system found a newly uploaded video online. Its contents happen to be related to that superpowered individual."

As she spoke,

Maria Hill projected the video onto the large screen behind her.

The video began with a man radiating dazzling light, mowing down enemies inside a crude military base.

Although the soldiers in the base resisted desperately and even deployed tanks, rocket launchers, and other heavy weapons to retaliate, it was utterly ineffective.

Their attacks could not even shake the energy coating around the man's body.

Soon, the video came to an abrupt end amid a series of explosions and screams.

It was clear that this footage had been filmed in extreme haste.

And from the blurry resolution and violently shaking camera,

it was not difficult to guess that the person filming it had been a member of that military base.

They had likely pulled out their phone and recorded it on the spot in a panic after the sudden attack.

But compared to the contents of the video, Nick Fury was clearly more concerned with why that superpowered individual had appeared there.

He immediately gave Maria Hill a questioning look.

She instantly understood and continued her report,

"Although this video has been reposted several times online, making it impossible to accurately pinpoint the location from which it was uploaded,"

"our people analyzed the terrain shown in the footage, the weapons and equipment used by the armed personnel, and the special markings on their uniforms,

then combined factors such as the weather and the angle of sunlight to roughly determine the exact location of the incident!"

"It should have been in the Kingdom of Sokovia in Eastern Europe, and the attacked base belonged to a rebel organization called the Monthly Liberators!"

"Sokovia?" Nick Fury frowned slightly and asked uncertainly,

"The small country that openly warned the Security Council, publicly executed its former prime minister for treason... and then declared that it would hold a United Nations conference three days later?"

"That's right. The Kingdom of Sokovia's civil war has lasted for more than a decade." After thinking for a moment, Maria Hill offered her own speculation.

"They were likely able to eliminate the rebels and quell the conflict this time entirely because of that superpowered individual."

"But we still have no way of finding out his true identity..."

"Director, do you think he might be connected to Vought Group, or perhaps gained his powers by taking Compound V?"

"Otherwise, why was there not the slightest record of him before this?!"

"Probably not." To her surprise, Nick Fury shook his head with unusual certainty.

"Unless he was injected with Compound V as an infant, the success rate for adults is extremely low. It is also incredibly expensive, far beyond what ordinary people can afford."

"Besides, given Vought Group's profit-driven style of business operations, if he really were one of theirs,

they would have stepped forward at the first opportunity to package and promote him, turning him into some kind of national idol!"

It was clear that Nick Fury's attitude toward Vought Group was far from friendly.

He might even have held the exact same view as Baron Strucker.

But that was perfectly normal.

After all, a commercial capital empire as enormous as Vought Group

would naturally never accept being freely manipulated and controlled by him and S.H.I.E.L.D.

And from the latter's perspective,

refusing control meant uncertainty.

And uncertainty meant danger... danger to this world!!!

Therefore, ever since Nick Fury had taken over S.H.I.E.L.D., he had openly and covertly used every possible means to suppress Vought Group.

He wanted to reduce Vought Group's presence before the military and the public as much as possible.

Otherwise, The Seven led by Homelander

would eventually threaten the position of the Avengers, which he had personally established!

After thinking for a moment, Nick Fury immediately ordered,

"Their abilities are extremely dangerous. Send Natasha to gather relevant intelligence and information first."

Maria Hill: "Understood!!"

"It looks like Hydra has taken the bait. They'll probably launch another offensive soon."

While all the various factions focused their attention on Carl,

he had already noticed something in advance through several sudden surges of "large" amounts of [Reputation Points].

He glanced at his total [Reputation Points] and found that it had already reached [9716].

Of those newly gained Reputation Points, nearly all of them came from Sokovian civilians.

As early as one day ago,

after Carl had successfully wiped out the rebel army and completed a new round of restructuring within Warp Group's personnel and power structure,

he had Zemo spread word of his achievements.

He wanted to see whether he could reap a batch of benefits from the people of Sokovia.

The results were naturally far better than expected.

In less than a day, Carl had gained more than four thousand [Reputation Points].

And they were still steadily rising at an even more encouraging rate.

After all, after more than a decade of continuous warfare,

communications in many parts of Sokovia were still far from smooth.

In some regions, people could only receive news through the most primitive method of word of mouth.

Naturally, information did not spread that quickly.

It needed time to ferment.

Fortunately, Carl had the patience.

After all, he was another step closer to raising [Dimensional Strength] above Lv3!!

Let the bullets fly a little longer...

After pondering for a moment, Carl turned to Zemo and said, "You'll attend the United Nations conference scheduled for three days from now in my place."

Carl also wanted to go to the United Nations himself and harvest a huge wave of Reputation Points.

But considering his current identity as a civilian, appearing on the world stage too early might very well backfire.

If people treated him as a clown or a puppet, would that not be a massive loss?

Besides,

there was something else he needed to do that no one else could replace him in!!

"Huh?"

Zemo was momentarily stunned and asked in confusion, "Do you have some other plan?"

"That's right."

Carl nodded with a smile. "Now that we've successfully taken over Warp Group, we can't keep letting Hydra bring the flames of war onto our own territory."

"So during the conference, I intend to strike on two fronts..."

"We'll take the initiative and show Hydra what we're made of, so they'll never dare pull any more tricks in Sokovia again."

"And... if we want to ensure nothing goes wrong, we must have an influential media outlet of our own to serve as our mouthpiece to the outside world. Otherwise, the truth may be buried again just like before!"

In truth, Carl did not want to make things so complicated either.

But he really had no choice.

Even the head of the Security Council was one of Hydra's people!

And now,

his response strategy had to be adjusted accordingly as the plan changed!

A trace of surprise flashed through Zemo's eyes.

He truly had not expected Carl to think things through so thoroughly.

But was this really the kind of strategic mind someone under twenty could possess?

As his contact with Carl grew closer and closer,

Zemo became increasingly certain that his original choice had been correct.

Without asking too many questions,

he immediately nodded in admiration. "Understood, Boss!!!"

At that moment, Pietro, who was standing not far away, approached with an eager expression and a smile.

"What about me... Is there anything I need to do?"

It was clear that Pietro wanted to prove his worth before Carl.

Although Carl noticed it, Pietro had not yet officially "awakened" his superpowers. For safety reasons, Carl smiled and reassured him,

"For now, stay here and help me guard this mountaintop base."

"All right..."

Pietro immediately deflated like a punctured balloon and sat back down with a disappointed expression.

Seeing this, Carl did not say much.

But after dealing with Hydra, he decided he would find a way to help Pietro awaken his "Speed Force."

Otherwise, Pietro might become completely discouraged because of this!

After all, Carl and Wanda, who had both been experimental subjects, had already gone in completely different directions. One had successfully "awakened" superpowers and could soar through the skies and dominate the battlefield!

The other had gone to Kamar-Taj to study magic, with a bright future ahead of her!

Only Pietro was left with nothing to do, showing no sign of awakening at all...

Anyone would feel enormous pressure in that situation!

Two days later.

[Sokovia].

Under the blazing sun,

a steel convoy of more than twenty military Humvees, carrying nearly two hundred elite soldiers, drove straight down a rugged mountain road riddled with shell craters and arrived outside Hydra's mountaintop base.

More than a dozen armed helicopters carrying various missiles coordinated with them overhead.

After the convoy came to a stop, large numbers of fully armed soldiers poured out of the Humvees. Following their commander's orders, they swiftly established a temporary position using the vehicles and surrounding rocks as cover.

This time, Major Lox, the operation's commander, did not choose a covert approach.

Instead, he openly assumed the posture of someone preparing to fight a hard battle.

His purpose was to place immense psychological pressure on Carl before the battle began!

That would not only aid in the capture, but would also effectively intimidate the local armed forces that had just been reorganized, preventing them from interfering too easily.

That would avoid many unnecessary troubles and accidents.

"Heh heh... It seems Baron Strucker's concerns were unnecessary."

Major Lox looked at the base before him, a disdainful sneer appearing on his face.

Had they not said the enemy was extremely vigilant and might even possess large-scale Psychic Perception?

Then why had he still not shown himself after we'd practically brought the dragon right to his face?

Was that all?!!

Why didn't he hurry up and crawl out here to surrender already!

At the thought that successfully completing this capture mission would not only earn Baron Strucker's appreciation and promotion, but might even get him a base commander position,

greedy light flickered uncontrollably in Major Lox's eyes.

He was brimming with confidence in this capture operation.

Because apart from these conventional forces,

he also had six disposable superpowered individuals as his trump cards!

Among them were werewolves skilled at ground pursuit and blessed with immense strength.

There were also fire users capable of controlling flames.

And mind controllers capable of disrupting and controlling the thoughts of others...

No matter how one looked at it, an experimental subject who had only gained superpowers not long ago could not possibly stand against those superpowered individuals!

This time, that brat had absolutely no chance of escape.

If he still failed after all this, would that not make him a completely useless fool?!!

Without realizing it,

Major Lox had already regarded Carl as an important stepping stone on his path to promotion.

"Ahem..."

Major Lox took out a loudspeaker.

He cleared his throat first, then began calling out toward the base.

"Experimental Subject Number 380, you are surrounded. If you know what's good for you, hand over the scepter immediately and come back with us to accept punishment!"

"If you continue to resist stubbornly, there is only one path left for you: death..."

"Are you looking for me?"

Before he could finish, a figure glowing with golden light slowly descended from the sky like a god descending upon the world.

"Heh heh, you finally came out."

Not understanding the situation, Major Lox saw that Carl had not immediately begun fighting like he had in the previous video.

He thought his psychological tactics had worked, and he could not help feeling smug.

He immediately put on an overbearing stance and sneered triumphantly:

"At least you know what's good for you. If you'd attacked right away, you'd already be dead."

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place..."

"You must have realized by now that individual strength can never stand against [Hydra], not even [S.H.I.E.L.D.] or the [Avengers]!!"

"And from the moment you gained superpowers, you became the organization's private property. Even if you die, your corpse will still belong to the organization!!"

"So... should I thank you for using me as an experiment?!"

Carl scoffed at that shameless line of reasoning.

While the other party was boasting loudly,

she had already silently activated [Psychic Perception], searching through Major Lox's memories for the information she wanted.

It was the location of the base where Baron Strucker was stationed!

That was precisely why she had not chosen to attack directly this time.

Now that her objective had been achieved, there was no need to listen to any more of his nonsense.

Her gaze then shifted to the heavily guarded soldiers behind him.

As usual, Carl began trying to persuade them to surrender before the battle.

"Then, before the official battle begins, if anyone is willing to put down their weapons and surrender, I will not only spare their lives, but also offer them a well-paying job..."

"How about it? Is anyone tempted?"

"Hmph, you ungrateful fool. Looks like you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin!!"

Major Lox felt deeply humiliated. His expression immediately turned incomparably ugly as he shouted in fury:

"You brought this upon yourself. Now I'll let you have a good look at what we're capable of..."

"Special Capture Squad, it's your turn to take the stage!!!"

Thanks to the generous patron "True Mystery of the Azure Heavens of the Taiyi Dao" for the donation, and to "S the Archdemon," "Number Ending in 8451," "Three-Year-Old Raccoon," and "Loke233" for their monthly votes. This humble author had been too busy writing and forgot to give thanks earlier, so please accept my apologies. Thanks as well to everyone who has continued voting recommendations for this book. My deepest gratitude!!!

And then... as usual, please keep reading, please vote, I'm begging on my knees!!!