[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.
At the start of the video, a man radiating dazzling light all over his body was rampaging through a crude military base.
Although the soldiers in the base resisted with all their might, even deploying tanks, rocket launchers, and other heavy weapons in retaliation, it had no effect whatsoever.
Their attacks could not even shake the Energy Coat covering the man's body.
Soon, the video came to an abrupt end amid a series of explosions and screams.
It was obvious that the video had been filmed in extreme haste.
And from the blurry resolution and violently shaking footage, it was not difficult to guess
that the person filming it had likely been a member of that military base.
They must have hastily pulled out a phone to record after coming under sudden attack.
But compared to the contents of the video, Nick Fury was clearly more concerned about why that superpowered individual had appeared there.
He immediately cast Maria Hill an inquisitive look.
She instantly understood and continued her report,
"Although this video has been reposted several times online, making it impossible to precisely locate where it was uploaded from,"
"our people analyzed the terrain shown in the footage, the weapons and equipment used by the armed personnel, the distinctive markings on their uniforms,
as well as multiple factors such as weather conditions and the angle of sunlight, and have roughly determined the exact location of the incident!"
"It should be 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 publicly warned the Security Council, executed its former prime minister for treason... and then announced 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 must have relied entirely on that superpowered individual to wipe out the rebels and quell the conflict this time."
"Unfortunately, we still have no way of finding out that superpowered individual's true identity..."
"Director, do you think he might be connected to the Vought Group, or perhaps gained his powers by taking Compound V?"
"Otherwise, why were there no records related to him whatsoever 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, adults have an extremely low success rate. And it is prohibitively expensive, far beyond what ordinary people can afford."
"Besides, with the Vought Group's profit-driven business model, if he were really one of theirs,
they would have rushed out to package and promote him at the first opportunity, turning him into some so-called national idol!"
It was clear that Nick Fury did not have a particularly friendly attitude toward the Vought Group.
He might even have held exactly the same opinion as Baron Strucker.
But that was perfectly normal.
After all, a commercial capital empire as massive as the Vought Group
would naturally never allow itself to be casually manipulated and controlled by him and S.H.I.E.L.D.
And to the latter,
refusing control meant uncertainty.
And uncertainty meant danger... danger to this world!!!
Therefore, ever since Nick Fury took over S.H.I.E.L.D., he had openly and covertly used every possible means to suppress the Vought Group.
He tried to minimize the Vought Group's presence before both the military and the public.
Otherwise, The Seven led by Homelander
would sooner or later threaten the status of the Avengers that he had personally assembled!
After thinking for a moment, Nick Fury immediately instructed,
"The other party's abilities are extremely dangerous. Have Natasha gather relevant intelligence and information first."
Maria Hill: "Understood!!"
"Looks like Hydra has taken the bait. They'll probably launch another offensive soon."
While all the major forces were focusing their attention on Carl,
he had already noticed in advance through several sudden surges of large amounts of Prestige Points.
He glanced at his total Prestige Points and found that they had already reached 9716.
Of the newly gained Prestige Points, almost all of them had come from the people of Sokovia.
As early as a day ago,
after Carl successfully wiped out the rebel army and completed a new round of internal power and personnel consolidation within Warp Group,
he had Zemo spread word of his achievement.
He wanted to see whether he could get a nice haul from the people of Sokovia.
The results were naturally better than expected.
In less than a day, Carl had gained more than four thousand Prestige Points.
And they were still steadily rising at an even more encouraging rate.
After all, after more than a decade of continuous war,
many places in Sokovia still had poor communications.
Some areas 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 one step closer to raising Dimension Strength above Lv3!!
Let the bullets fly for a while...
After pondering briefly, Carl turned to Zemo and said, "You'll attend the United Nations conference scheduled for three days from now in my place."
Although Carl also wanted to personally go to the United Nations and reap a huge haul,
considering his current status as a civilian, stepping onto the world stage too early might very well backfire.
If people viewed him as a clown or a puppet, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
Besides,
there was something else he needed to do that no one else could replace him in!!
"Huh?"
Zemo froze upon hearing that and asked in confusion, "Do you have some other plan?"
"That's right."
Carl smiled and nodded. "Since we have successfully taken over Warp Group, we can't keep letting Hydra bring the flames of war onto our own territory."
"So, I plan to pursue two objectives at once during the press conference..."
"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 can go wrong, we must have an influential media outlet of our own as a mouthpiece to speak to the outside world. Otherwise, the truth may be buried again, just as it was before!"
Carl did not actually want to make things this troublesome.
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 his plans changed!
A trace of surprise flashed through Zemo's eyes.
He truly had not expected Carl to have considered things so thoroughly.
But could someone under twenty really possess such strategic insight?
As his contact with Carl became increasingly close,
Zemo became more and more certain that his original choice had been correct.
Without asking too many questions,
he immediately nodded in admiration. "Understood, Boss!!!"
Meanwhile, Pietro, who was standing not far away, looked eager to try as he approached with a smile.
"What about me... Is there anything you need me to do?"
It was obvious that Pietro wanted to prove his worth before Carl.
Although Carl noticed it, considering that Pietro had not yet officially "awakened" his superpowers, he smiled and reassured him for safety's sake,
"For now, stay here and help me guard Summit Base!"
"Alright..."
Pietro immediately deflated like a punctured balloon and sat back down with a disappointed expression.
Although Carl did not say anything more when he saw that,
he still decided that after dealing with Hydra, he would find a way to help Pietro awaken his Speed Force.
Otherwise, Pietro might become completely discouraged because of it!
After all, among the test subjects, Carl and Wanda had both already found their paths. One had successfully "awakened" superpowers and was now unstoppable in battle!
The other had gone to Kamar-Taj to study magic, with a promising 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 Hummers carrying nearly two hundred elite soldiers drove straight along a rugged mountain road riddled with shell craters and arrived outside Hydra's Summit Base.
More than ten armed helicopters carrying various missiles coordinated overhead.
After the convoy came to a stop, large numbers of fully armed soldiers poured out of the Hummers. Following their commander's orders, they swiftly used the vehicles and surrounding rocks as cover to establish temporary positions.
This time, Major Lox, the commander in charge of the operation, had not chosen to act in secret.
Instead, he openly assumed the posture of someone preparing to fight a hard battle.
His goal was to place immense psychological pressure on Carl before the battle began!
This would not only aid the capture, but would also effectively intimidate the recently consolidated local armed forces and keep them from interfering rashly.
That would avoid many unnecessary troubles and accidents.
"Heh heh... Looks like Baron Strucker was worrying too much."
Major Lox looked at the base before him with a disdainful sneer.
Hadn't they said the enemy was extremely alert and might even possess large-scale Psychic Perception?
Then why had he practically come knocking at the door without the guy showing himself?
Was that all?!!
Get your ass out here and surrender already!
When he thought of how successfully completing this capture mission would not only earn Baron Strucker's appreciation and promotion, but might even get him a position as a base commander,
greed flickered uncontrollably in Major Lox's eyes.
He was extremely confident about this capture mission.
Because aside 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 was also a Matchstick Man who could control fire.
And a mind controller capable of interfering with and controlling other people's thoughts...
No matter how one looked at it, a test subject who had only gained superpowers recently could not possibly stand against those superpowered individuals!
This time, that brat would have nowhere to escape.
If he still failed after all this, wouldn't he be nothing but a 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 first cleared his throat, then directly began shouting toward the base.
"Test Subject Number 380, you are surrounded. If you know what's good for you, hand over the scepter and come back with us to accept punishment!"
"If you continue resisting stubbornly, there will be only one outcome—death..."
"Are you looking for me?"
Before the other side could finish, a figure radiating golden light all over his body slowly descended from the sky like a god.
"Heh, you finally came out."
Major Lox, unaware of the situation, saw that Carl was not immediately launching into a fight as 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 posture and sneered triumphantly:
"At least you know what's good for you. If you had attacked right away, you'd already be dead."
"Cut off one head, and two more shall grow..."
"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] can do it!!"
"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... I should thank you for using me as an experiment?!"
Carl scoffed at such shameless nonsense.
While the other party was loudly spouting off,
he had silently activated [Psychic Perception], searching through Major Lox's memories for the information he wanted.
That was the location of the base where Baron Strucker was stationed!
That was precisely why he had not chosen to act directly this time.
Now that his objective had been achieved, there was no need to listen to any more of the other's nonsense.
His gaze then turned toward the heavily guarded soldiers behind him.
As usual, Carl began his pre-battle surrender offer.
"Before we officially begin, if anyone is willing to put down their weapons and surrender, I will not only spare their lives, but also provide them with a well-paying job..."
"Well? Anyone interested?"
"Hmph, you ungrateful fool. Looks like you won't give up until you're staring at your own coffin!!"
Major Lox felt deeply insulted. His face immediately turned extremely ugly, and he shouted in humiliation and rage:
"You brought this upon yourself. Now you'll get a good look at what we're capable of..."
"Special Capture Squad, it's time for you to take the stage!!!"
Thanks to big boss "Taiyi Qingtian Daoxuanzhen" for the donation, and thanks to "S Greater Daemon," "Ending in 8451," "Raccoon Age Three," and "Loke233" for their monthly tickets. This little author has been buried in writing and forgot to give thanks earlier, so please accept my apologies. I also want to thank everyone who has kept voting recommendation tickets for this book. Thank you all so much!!!
And then... as usual, please keep reading, please vote, I'm begging on my knees!!!
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