Stryker Bank

"Anyone can talk big."

"But I'd like to see how you're going to cut my head off."

After speaking, Calvin calmly picked up the white napkin tucked against his chest and wiped the corner of his mouth.

"You need both strength and reason before anyone will truly follow your orders."

"You're too naive, boy."

Calvin sounded like a senior member of the organization lecturing Brad.

Brad listened to Calvin's lecture with a smile, then turned to the others and scoffed, "He thinks I don't have the strength?"

"I'm not as stupid as you, 'General.'"

Brad casually tossed his wineglass aside. As glass shattered against the floor, a strange metallic scraping came from the adjoining room.

Calvin suddenly began to feel a little uneasy.

"Take a look at my latest creation. This will be the foundation of Hydra's conquest of the world!"

"T900!"

With a thunderous crash, the hall's wall was smashed apart, and a tall, pitch-black figure emerged.

The violent collision had cracked the mysterious figure's mask. It fell away, revealing an alloy mechanical skull to everyone present, its eyes glowing red.

In fact, after Brad built the Supercomputer, inspiration had come to him in a steady stream. Blueprints for something called an Ultimate Nullifier Robot rapidly took shape in his mind.

By the time Brad began building it, the blueprints in his mind had already been modified and optimized to their eighth version.

The prospect was simply too tempting.

Brad had decided to build the Ultimate Nullifier after all.

However, the first T800 of the initial version had been somewhat disappointing in terms of strength.

He had grown even less satisfied after acquiring the Moonstone.

He had begun looking for ways to modify and improve it.

It had taken some time, but he had succeeded.

There was an even better way to make it stronger!

After all, Brad also had small quantities of Adamanium Alloy and vibranium.

By replacing components with these exceptionally high-quality materials and upgrading the design, he had built the first robot he named T900.

With vibranium used in several critical places, T900's drive system far surpassed T800's.

It was more than twelve times as strong as T800.

That might not have been easy to visualize, but Brad was certain that, without using super speed or flight, even the superhuman physique he had gained through the Moonstone might not be a match for T900 in close combat.

However, Brad had not given it particularly advanced intelligence.

First, he had begun to grow wary of the inexplicable technology he possessed. In particular, the idea of giving life to artificial intelligence instinctively struck him as wrong.

Second, Brad's mutant ability had finally found a more suitable application.

He could control robots in combat, so a lower level of intelligence did not hinder T900's movements.

In fact, with Brad's commands filling in the gaps and coordinating its actions, the relatively simple-minded T900 was nearly as capable as T800 when it came to carrying out its tasks.

The robot's appearance had caught everyone present by surprise.

This went beyond Brad's talent. Such a terrifying creation should never have existed in this era!

Calvin finally paid the price for his arrogance.

He hurriedly backed away and gave an order. Ten super soldiers burst through the windows and converged on the robot in the middle of the room.

Calvin had come prepared too!

Bang!

T900 stamped hard on the floor, shattering the masonry beneath its feet. Its enormous, heavy body became a black blur, and blood splattered across half the room.

The first super soldier in its path was punched clean through by a mechanical arm. A section of his spine protruded from the back of his abdomen before T900 tossed him aside like a filthy rag.

Even though these super soldiers had passed tests of their resolve, the horrifying sight still made them shudder for an instant.

But the robot had no emotions.

It only carried out its orders faithfully.

By the time the trembling Calvin staggered back to the door and reached its handle, only one super soldier remained alive.

The others had either been torn in half or smashed in two by that overwhelming strength.

Brad tilted his head as he watched Calvin, who had collapsed to the floor, trembling all over, his hand still clamped around the door handle.

"Do you think you can get away, General?"

After showing them a terrifying creation like T900, Brad easily brought the Canada Branch's entire Hydra Base under his control.

Once he had sufficient authority, Brad immediately poured in substantial funding. His factories ran at full capacity under the Supercomputer's control, producing more than a hundred T800s.

T800 was nowhere near as powerful as T900. On average, two super soldiers working together could deal with one.

But they looked exactly alike.

With over a hundred robots serving as a deterrent, Brad also brought all of Calvin's former super soldier subordinates firmly under his control.

As for the other senior officers...

Aside from the one who had gone mad after a super soldier's smashed brains splattered across his face that day, they all stood up on the spot, gave an NC Military Salute, and shouted "Hail Hydra!" to Brad to demonstrate their loyalty.

The robots' operating systems were far more than ten thousand times as complex as the electrical circuits in those buildings.

The limit of his mutant ability when controlling the Ultimate Nullifier Robot series was somewhere above two hundred units.

So Brad stopped after producing just over a hundred T800s.

On an ordinary day, twenty-odd units were enough to maintain order and deter anyone who might harbor ulterior motives.

The remaining eighty-odd units lay dormant deep inside the base.

Unless something unusual happened, Brad had no intention of activating so many Ultimate Nullifiers every day just to surround himself with them.

Besides, he still had the Moonstone.

No one knew about that trump card.

Even if some extraordinarily lucky superhero managed to break through all those robots and reach him in the future...

T900, more than ten times stronger than the other robots, and Brad himself, who was just as powerful, would teach them a lesson.

Several days after Brad had brought the Hydra branch base completely under his control, Zola learned everything through the modified surveillance equipment Brad had deliberately made available.

He immediately sent a congratulatory message.

He also remarked that Brad possessed a knack for getting things done that even he had failed to recognize. Although putting Brad in charge of the Hydra Base in Canada had been Dr. Zola's intention all along...

Brad had accomplished it far faster than Dr. Zola had anticipated.

Brad's reply to the congratulatory message was rather perfunctory.

He had been busy dealing with matters on the internet lately.

He absolutely could not allow Ultron, should he come into existence in the future, to someday acquire the methods for manufacturing the Ultimate Nullifier Robot series.

In Brad's eyes, Ultron's robot army was far too weak. A single superhero could take on eight or ten of them.

If the future Ultron followed traces on the internet and got hold of the Ultimate Nullifier blueprints...

Brad also had the beginnings of another idea.

Perhaps it would be a good thing to secretly arrange Ultron's creation and turn him into artificial life that belonged to Brad.

"The Mind Stone played a guiding role in Ultron's creation."

"If I want to make absolutely certain I can understand and control Ultron in the future, my most urgent task is to get one of the Infinity Stones and study it."

Brad decided to set aside some time to return to New York.

But judging by the timing...

Logan should have been about to become Wolverine.

Stryker's base held vast quantities of vibranium that the current Brad coveted, along with adamantium that had gone through who knew how many generations of development.

He had no intention of waiting until Stryker had transformed Deadpool before making his move.

Not because he felt sorry for Wade, but because he hated to see that adamantium wasted.

If he remembered correctly, Stryker had implanted two long adamantium blades in Wade's body. Brad, who now considered all of Stryker's assets his own property, found that difficult to accept.

Wade was going to die in the end anyway, so those two alloy blades were truly a waste.

After all, adamantium was very difficult to reforge. Including Brad himself, the number of forces in this world capable of reforging adamantium after it had cooled and set could be counted on one hand.

Once it was cast into shape, it would be wasted.

Brad decided to set out and collect this portion of his property, which Stryker had been keeping for him all this time.