Monarch's Speculation

"What?"

Nick Fury hurried over, opened the news report, and rapidly scanned through it.

Sure enough.

In the video, John Jameson wore an extremely grave expression as he warned San Francisco residents who saw the news to evacuate the city immediately.

Conventional weapons simply could not inflict any effective damage on the monster.

Moreover, the monster's blue blood released a deadly toxin that polluted the atmosphere and rapidly caused pulmonary edema and various other respiratory illnesses in humans.

On top of that, the monster's body continuously emitted radiation into its surroundings... In short, fleeing with their families was the wisest choice!

"That clown again?"

Rather than being pleased by the new intelligence, Nick Fury's face instead showed a trace of suspicion.

Even S.H.I.E.L.D. knew nothing about the monster that had just appeared.

What gave a third-rate newspaper like The Daily Bugle the right to possess such precise intelligence?

And this was San Francisco, not New York!!!

This was fucking ridiculous.

Nick Fury even began to suspect that John Jameson might be one of Hydra's people.

Once this crisis was resolved, it seemed necessary to send someone to deal with... no, properly investigate that guy!

"Ah, if only Thor and Hulk were here..."

Nick Fury shook his head helplessly.

As he hesitated, Maria Hill came over and said,

"Sir, the Department of Defense just sent word. The person in charge of Monarch wants to speak with you."

"What the hell is Monarch?"

Nick Fury was about to say he had never heard of it when a memory suddenly surfaced in his mind.

It seemed that such an organization did exist in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret files, though it had an extremely low profile.

The reason it had such a low profile

was because every member of the organization was dedicated to searching for the mythical ancient giant beasts.

They had no interest in anything else.

Rumor had it that the more than twenty nuclear tests conducted near Bikini Atoll in the 1950s were connected to one of the organization's experiments.

Naturally, Nick Fury had never paid much attention to an organization that posed no threat whatsoever to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Still, perhaps he could obtain some valuable information from them this time!

At the very least, he needed to verify whether The Daily Bugle's claim about poisonous blood was true.

Nick Fury took the call and got straight to the point. "What do you know about this monster?!"

On an island nation, in Janjira City, inside a Monarch base built within the abandoned Janjira Nuclear Power Plant.

A bespectacled, unshaven middle-aged man spoke respectfully into the phone.

"Hello, Director. My name is Ishiro Serizawa... Although we have yet to find any records related to this monster, this mysterious creature may have occupied Earth long before humanity existed."

"The original purpose of Monarch was to locate these Titan beasts, provide humanity with warnings and assistance, and thereby preserve peace throughout the world."

"So, Director, please allow us to take charge of this operation. We may have a way to lure it into uninhabited waters."

Clearly.

When it came to such mysterious giant creatures, Monarch had reacted faster and more professionally than S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Can you kill it?"

Nick Fury asked in an unfriendly tone.

Ishiro Serizawa shook his head apologetically. "These Titan beasts are immensely important to maintaining ecological balance, and every one of them possesses unparalleled research value.

So unless there is absolutely no alternative, we will not harm them."

"Hmph!!!"

Nick Fury let out a mocking snort and continued,

"Does the blood of these monsters contain toxins lethal to humans?"

After thinking for a moment, Ishiro Serizawa answered honestly, "While we cannot rule out that possibility, based on the information Monarch currently possesses,

we have yet to discover toxins in the blood of Titan beasts. They generally only carry a certain amount of radiation... Beep beep beep beep beep?!!"

???

Having obtained the information he wanted, Nick Fury simply hung up.

Seriously, these days any random nobody dared to jump out and claim they wanted to protect humanity!

You think you're worthy?

S.H.I.E.L.D. was more than enough to protect Earth. There was no need for irrelevant outsiders to meddle.

If Thor and Hulk were here, I could settle this in minutes, alright?

Nick Fury immediately made his decision. "Continue the artillery suppression. If one barrage isn't enough, then fire another!"

"If that still doesn't work, then fucking empty every last round we have!"

"I refuse to believe any carbon-based life-form can truly be immune to modern weapons."

"That's right... Not even if God himself came!!!"

San Francisco.

On a street near the coastline.

A large number of civilians screamed as they fled into the distance, but a team of nearly a hundred people chose to move against the flow at that moment.

Most of them were heavily armed soldiers, while the remaining few were dressed like researchers.

Yet every one of them bore a special bowtie-shaped insignia on their chests, with a line of letters beneath it—[MONARCH].

That's right, Monarch!

A blonde, short-haired white woman slowly opened a special device the size of a laptop, aimed it at the "intruder" roaring at the sky, and began collecting its vocal-frequency data.

Just then, Ishiro Serizawa's apologetic voice came through the communicator.

"Dr. Emma, I'm truly sorry. S.H.I.E.L.D. rejected our request and will soon resume the bombardment, so please lead everyone to safety as quickly as possible."

"They can't do that. This monster is innocent..." Emma Russell roared furiously.

Before she could finish speaking, however, a new round of artillery fire came crashing down from the sky.

The thunderous explosions instantly interrupted Orca's collection of the monster's vocal frequencies.

The surging shockwave even threw her directly to the ground.

"No, stop! It's innocent!"

Emma Russell scrambled back to her feet and cried out hoarsely toward the area where artillery shells kept raining down from the sky.

"This world belonged to them in the first place. We humans are the murderers who occupied the Titan beasts' home!!"

Facing the increasingly close monster and bombardment, a sergeant responsible for security came over and reminded her, "Dr. Emma, according to protocol, we must evacuate this area immediately!"

"You go ahead. I'm staying to try one more time." Emma Russell shook her head with utmost determination.

"As long as we can find a way to communicate with these creatures, they can coexist peacefully with humanity..."

With that, she ignored everyone else and began readjusting Orca's settings on her own.

The others immediately exchanged looks.

You're amazing, you're noble, you're not afraid of dying—but we're afraid of dying, alright?!

When life and death were on the line, no one but lunatics would joke around with their own lives.

The other members of Monarch quickly evacuated completely.

Leaving Emma Russell alone, busy at the scene.

However.

Just then.

An unfamiliar man's voice suddenly sounded behind her.

"You just said... this device can control that monster?!!"

Thanks to Tian 8 Xie for the two monthly tickets, QAQ Struggling Salted Fish for the two monthly tickets, Wandering Dust Recluse for the two monthly tickets, Zhang Jiadong for the one monthly ticket, and all the readers who have continued to vote with recommendation tickets. This humble author is immensely grateful!!!