The First Overseas Base

Carl raised his glass and walked over to the window.

By the bright moonlight, he slowly surveyed the base that had just been baptized by war.

Occupy it or destroy it?

The answer had long been obvious.

After successfully taking over Warp Group, Carl had become rich overnight and naturally had little use for the meager spoils in this base.

But from the perspective of long-term development,

the base before him held an entirely different kind of special significance.

After all, Carl's sphere of influence was currently limited to Sokovia.

Calling it a tiny patch of land would not be an exaggeration.

Moreover, because of its abundant oil reserves, many neighboring countries and certain large organizations had long coveted it.

The Hydra base in the Caucasus Mountains happened to sit on the boundary between Eurasia, spanning the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Its geographical position was critically important!

It could advance to attack or retreat to defend—a natural strategic stronghold.

Otherwise, Hydra would not have built a base here in the first place.

However, unlike Sokovia Base, which focused on weapons research,

Caucasus Base did not contain any research facilities.

Its function was relatively simple: storing weapons and equipment, while serving as a bridgehead for the rapid deployment of troops in local regions.

Carl could take this opportunity to develop it into Warp Group's first overseas military base, putting his eggs in different baskets.

Using it as a foothold, he could gradually expand his sphere of influence overseas!

Starting with nothing, building a base entirely by taking it!!!

Good. It was settled, then.

Carl took out his phone and called the head of Warp Group's security department.

After sending over the coordinates, he told them to immediately dispatch a hundred-man squad to garrison the place.

However,

when it came to choosing a base commander, Carl had no particularly good options for the moment.

Fine, the truth was that he had no suitable candidates at all!

Wanda had been sent to Ancient One to study magic, and there was no telling when she would graduate.

Pietro was handling the daily operations of the mountaintop base and had no time to spare.

As for Zemo, the all-purpose steward Carl had recently recruited,

not only did he have to manage the massive commercial empire that was Warp Group,

but he also had to stay vigilant against those outside forces eyeing Sokovia's resources.

At the moment, he had even gone to the United Nations General Assembly headquarters in Vienna to carry out a mission.

He was busy enough to trip over his own feet...

The three people Carl trusted most were all too occupied to split themselves in two!

Even so, Carl had no intention of settling for just anyone.

After all, this was Warp Group's first overseas base for external expansion.

It was exceptionally important, both practically and symbolically.

Besides, it might face retaliation from Hydra in the future.

So he absolutely could not appoint just anyone as base commander and call it a day.

"Ah... this is the common problem with rapidly expanding forces!"

Carl grumbled inwardly.

In fact, this situation was also extremely common in sales.

Whenever business and distribution channels expanded, there was often the awkward problem of a talent shortage.

The solution was simple and brutal.

Offer high salaries and hire talent!

"Looks like after dealing with Hydra's threat this time, I need to find time to recruit some capable people..."

"After all, only then will I have time to truly enjoy life!!"

In his previous life, under the blessings of 996 and 007 work schedules, Carl had not even had time to get a girlfriend.

On countless lonely, unbearable nights, he could only seek comfort for his exhausted body and mind from generously endowed masseuses.

Now that he had finally become the boss, he naturally had to develop the proper boss mentality. Otherwise, how could he face himself?

Carl declared: From now on, aside from beautiful women, I did not want to do anything else!!!

Vienna.

Inside the presidential suite of a hotel by the Danube River,

Zemo and several members of the Echo Scorpion Squad sat around a laptop, watching a video that had just been sent over from headquarters.

In the video, Carl faced hundreds of people who had come to capture him all by himself.

There were even six superpowered individuals among them.

Yet without exception, every single one of them had died at his hands.

After watching the video, both Zemo and the special forces soldiers were left with nothing but shock.

"Boss is way too strong, isn't he?!"

A special forces soldier with fanatical eyes could not help exclaiming.

Once someone started talking, the others joined in, chattering all at once.

"It's simply unbelievable. Those were six superpowered individuals and hundreds of fully armed soldiers!"

"Forget everything else. That werewolf alone would be a nightmare for us.

Even with heavy firepower support, I'm afraid no ground squad could have made it out alive against him."

"Exactly. You can tell Hydra really went all out this time, but unfortunately for them, the person they ran into was Boss Carl!"

"And that's not all..."

Zemo glanced at the expectant crowd and said with a smile, "Boss also occupied one of Hydra's secret bases in the Caucasus region."

Gasp!!!

Boss is awesome!!!

The group immediately howled with excitement, as though they themselves had accomplished such a feat.

Without question, soldiers were the group that revered strength the most.

Therefore, they naturally admired and identified with powerful people like Carl, who possessed overwhelming strength and acted with absolute dominance.

Combined with Carl's feat of consecutively wiping out two elite Hydra units by himself,

he had practically become a god of war in the hearts of these soldiers.

Even Zemo, their commander, was no exception.

"Sir, we just received word from the airport. Hydra has taken the bait!!"

At that moment, a soldier in civilian clothes entered and reported.

A flicker of killing intent flashed through Zemo's eyes.

Gazing at the dazzling night scenery along the Danube River outside the window, he murmured,

"Looks like Boss was right again. Simple slaughter does nothing to Hydra."

"In that case, all that remains is tomorrow's United Nations meeting..."

"If everything goes smoothly, Sokovia will never again suffer interference from any outside force!!"

On a private plane headed somewhere in California,

Baron Strucker, who had been resting with his eyes closed, was suddenly interrupted by a noisy ringtone.

The moment he answered, before he could get angry, an extremely flustered—even terrified—voice came from the other end.

"Baron, after multiple confirmations, the capture squad we sent to Sokovia has been completely wiped out!!"

Baron Strucker's expression instantly turned incomparably grim.

Yet he seemed to still cling to a sliver of hope as he stubbornly asked, "What about those superpowered individuals?"

"...They're all dead too!!!"

Is anyone even reading this? It's my first time writing, and I'm scared out of my mind. My follow-up readers keep dropping—is there something not good enough about my writing... 555, my resolve is about to collapse!