The Tactful Baron Strucker

"Bring Eric over here!"

Only then did Emma pull back her nearly dreamy gaze after hearing Xu Mo's order.

It was only at this moment that she noticed Magneto, Eric, floating in the distant sky. Beneath his feet, a massive ship comparable to a luxury cruise liner was slowly rising from the water.

They had clearly begun acting according to Xu Mo's plan.

In Xu Mo's view, the White Queen alone was enough to completely take down the Hydra Base.

After all, the Hydra Base did not seem to have any combat personnel worth mentioning.

At most, it had some conventional weapons.

And the people inside were nothing more than ordinary people.

Against the White Queen's psychic abilities, without specialized precautions, they had virtually no ability to resist.

However, Xu Mo's goal was not to destroy the base.

It was to claim the entire base for himself—not only its researchers and soldiers, but also all its equipment and machinery.

That raised a problem: all of those things needed to be transported back.

Although Xu Mo could handle all of it himself.

Why should he exert himself when subordinates could do the work for him?

What else were subordinates for?

Eastern Europe.

Sokovia.

The Hydra Base located on a mountain.

In the forest halfway up the mountain, a Spatial Gate slowly opened.

Xu Mo and the other two stepped out of the Spatial Gate.

After glancing up at the old, timeworn building at the mountaintop, Xu Mo turned to Emma behind him.

"I'll leave the rest to you!"

"Of course!"

The White Queen nodded, stepped forward twice, and silver light blazed from her eyes.

In less than ten seconds.

The corners of Emma's lips curled upward slightly.

"Found you!"

Before setting out, Xu Mo had told her that the person in charge of the base was a man named Strucker. As long as she controlled him, taking command of this Hydra Base would proceed smoothly.

"The room in the southeast corner of the top floor of the base!"

As soon as the White Queen finished speaking, another Spatial Gate appeared before them.

Once the three passed through the gate, they appeared in the room Emma had mentioned.

The room looked like an office.

At that moment, a middle-aged man with short hair stood blankly in front of the desk.

Xu Mo walked forward and sat in the chair behind the desk, then gave the White Queen a look.

Emma nodded. After a snap of her fingers, the man came to his senses as though waking from a dream.

Noticing the three people who had suddenly appeared in the room, his expression changed.

He subtly took several steps back and watched them warily.

"Who are you? Why are you in my room?"

At the same time, he moved his right hand behind his back. Feeling the hard object in his hand, his heart settled.

Then he smoothly drew his gun, aimed, and fired!

The entire sequence took less than a second. Baron Strucker was certain that even the strongest mercenary could not move faster than he did.

He was confident that they could not possibly react in such a short time.

And indeed, just as he expected.

The three made no attempt to dodge, allowing the bullets to pass through their foreheads.

Baron Strucker looked at the three corpses on the ground and let out a long breath.

But before he could celebrate.

A round of applause sounded in the room.

Then the scene before him dissolved like bubbles.

And the three people who had already died appeared in the room again, still standing where they had been before.

The young man sitting in the chair was the one applauding.

At the sight, a bead of cold sweat slid down Strucker's forehead.

"How is that possible? I clearly..."

His worldview had suffered a tremendous blow.

Xu Mo smiled as he watched him question his entire life.

It had to be said that using Emma's abilities against ordinary people was simply a dimensionality-reduction strike.

Even before cultivating the [Phantom Demon Secret Art], Emma could easily toy with them in the palm of her hand, let alone the Emma of today.

Give her one or two years to develop, and perhaps even Professor X would be unable to see through her illusions.

Compared to Emma, who had cultivated the [Phantom Demon Secret Art], Professor X was like a barefoot village doctor beside a PhD graduate from a proper medical university.

It was not that Professor X lacked talent.

It was the gap in their level of understanding.

One had relied entirely on his own exploration, while the other possessed the experience accumulated by countless predecessors over millions of years.

There was simply no comparison between the two.

"What, are you wondering how we came back to life after clearly dying?"

"There are still bullets in your gun. You can try again. Maybe this time, you really will kill us!"

Hearing Xu Mo's words, Baron Strucker gradually calmed down.

As a high-ranking member of Hydra, he was not completely ignorant of people with supernatural abilities.

Since they were so composed, he could be certain that firing again would not change the outcome. It might even provoke them.

Realizing this, Baron Strucker simply tossed away the gun in his hand.

"Since you didn't kill me immediately, I must still be of some use to you!"

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

After hearing him, Xu Mo nodded in satisfaction.

As expected of a highly intelligent talent who had managed to uncover some secrets of the Mind Stone.

His decisiveness in handling matters was indeed impressive.

He had recognized the situation before him so quickly and made the choice most beneficial to himself.

"It's simple. I want you and the entire base to work for me from now on!"

"Fine!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Baron Strucker agreed outright.

Xu Mo naturally did not believe that he would sincerely submit, but it did not matter.

With Emma around, even if he had other thoughts, she would know immediately.

Moreover, Emma's powers had another use: she could subtly influence the thoughts in people's hearts.

Unlike a Soul Seal, this ability could only quietly alter a particular thought in someone's mind.

For example, the degree of their loyalty to an organization.

It was like the brainwashing methods used by pyramid schemes. Through long-term psychological manipulation, she could unknowingly brainwash someone.

The reason the Hellfire organization had grown so powerful was largely due to this ability of hers.

Under the influence of Emma's powers, these people would soon become fanatical believers in the organization.

Next, under Baron Strucker's command, the entire Hydra Base sprang into action.

All kinds of weapons and equipment, tanks, aircraft, and the like were transferred through Spatial Gates to Death Island.

During this process, Xu Mo's eyes were truly opened.

As one of the oldest organizations in the world, the Hydra Base's reserves were indeed formidable.

It had no fewer than seven or eight independently developed fighter jets alone.

Its various tanks and armored vehicles were even more numerous.

It also included complete production lines capable of manufacturing these weapons and equipment.

It could be said that, given sufficient funding, it could rapidly build up an army large enough to launch a war.

The relocation project lasted an entire day.

By the time night fell.

The entire Hydra Base was empty, aside from that old-fashioned building.

Of course, the reason they could finish moving everything in a single day was also thanks to Magneto. If not for his ability to haul away several tons of machinery at once, the process would have taken several more days.

As the Spatial Gate closed, a massive explosion rang out at the base.

Even the remaining building was reduced to a pile of rubble.