Skynet technology

After a journey that was not particularly long but reasonably safe.

Brad successfully arrived in Canada.

He was alone, and had not even brought many clothes.

The aircraft door slowly opened, revealing Brad in the doorway with a simple suitcase in hand.

"Hail Hydra!"

The thunderous greeting startled Brad. He steadied himself and looked out at a neatly arranged formation of people in black, their arms raised toward him, their collective fervor practically soaring into the sky.

What?

The scene here was clearly rather different from what Brad had expected.

Brad pushed up the bridge of his glasses with his middle finger, then slowly descended the boarding stairs with one hand on the railing.

A young man in a black military greatcoat approached him with an enthusiastic expression.

"Dr. Brad, our branch warmly welcomes you. General Calvin has already prepared a banquet at the base. We're just waiting to welcome you properly!"

The young man promptly introduced himself.

"My name is Bashar. I'm General Calvin's adjutant."

"General... Calvin?"

Brad repeated it in disbelief.

"Where did this general come from? Does the Strategic Scientific Reserve already have a general?"

Bashar froze for a moment, then burst out laughing, as though Brad had told some incredible joke.

"Aren't we still part of HYDRA?"

Brad's face darkened, but he said nothing more. He merely pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a quiet sigh.

Too arrogant.

Far too brazen.

Just because they're thousands of miles from the Strategic Scientific Reserve, and surveillance and telephones aren't widespread in this era, they're making this much of a spectacle? Are they desperate to tell the whole world there's another Hydra branch here?

What standards did Doctor Zola even use to recruit his people?

With his head full of questions like these, Brad followed the so-called general's adjutant into the car with a grim expression.

Throughout the drive, Bashar chattered away about his admiration for Dr. Brad. According to headquarters, Brad was a scientist without equal, and with his research, Hydra would surely achieve its grand goal of unifying the world much sooner.

Brad studied Bashar's eyes.

He noticed the young man's exuberant, passionate expression and the apparent light shining in his eyes. That was the look of someone with faith.

Young people were always susceptible to this sort of encouragement and exhortation. They would throw themselves into what they believed was a great cause, filled with dreams. Such powerful feelings could very well stay with them throughout their lives, right up until they died.

He had to admit that Hydra's brainwashing really did work like magic. The welcoming troops earlier had also been made up of young people like Bashar.

But Calvin, the man who called himself a general, did not seem to be much of a leader.

The banquet held to welcome Brad thoroughly confirmed this.

The balding middle-aged man seemingly welcomed Brad with great warmth, pulling him over to sit beside him. Yet throughout the meal, he kept probing Brad's intentions under the guise of casual conversation.

He was afraid that Brad might be a researcher with ambitions to seize power.

After all, Brad had been sent directly by Doctor Zola at headquarters. In terms of status, Brad outranked him.

Brad saw through this. He did not engage with any of Calvin's probing remarks, speaking only about his research. His words were packed with technical jargon Calvin could not understand, along with concerns about the research facilities the branch could provide.

Once Calvin confirmed that Brad had nothing but research on his mind, he became noticeably friendlier, thumping his chest and promising to provide Brad with even better research facilities.

With their main objectives satisfied, the two then held a thorough discussion about the allocation of the branch's funding, ultimately reaching an arrangement that pleased them both.

Hydra's technology also began advancing rapidly.

Under Brad's deliberate control, the technology provided to HYDRA and the Strategic Scientific Reserve was roughly eighty years and fifty years ahead of the world's civilian standards, respectively.

This left Howard, back in New York, sighing in frustration. In his view, if Doctor Zola and Dr. Brad could work together, helping and learning from each other while sparking one another's inspiration, the Strategic Scientific Reserve's computer technology would already be a hundred years ahead of the rest of the world.

And Howard would have had the opportunity to realize his own ambitions.

Unfortunately, at their current rate of progress, even if Howard worked himself to death, it was doubtful whether he would ever get to put even a tenth of his talent to use.

Over that long period, Brad also earned Calvin's complete trust.

Calvin gradually delegated authority to Brad, who now had an underground factory all to himself.

Brad's true research had already reached the artificial intelligence stage.

However, he kept the technology he released within a range that was extremely limited by his own standards.

One step further would mean Artificial Life.

But Brad never issued the activation command.

He repeatedly recalled the scenes in his mind.

In those stories, a world-destroying intelligence called Ultron put him deeply on guard, even though Tony Stark had not yet been born.

Ultron played a major role in those stories, even rivaling the purple-skinned alien called Thanos.

In some stories, the Avengers crushed Ultron on his path to technological ascension.

But in others, Ultron turned the tables and killed the Avengers, eventually developing into an intelligent life-form of multiversal proportions.

"The Skynet Program cannot go any further."

"This era can hold Zola and Howard back, but it absolutely cannot hold back the rise of Artificial Life."

"No, the Skynet Program is even more dangerous than I imagined!"

Brad stood before the supercomputer he had personally designed and built, red and blue light flickering constantly in his eyes.

In the end, the red light overcame the blue, and Brad made up his mind.

"Artificial Life shouldn't be born in this century. Not even in the next century. Perhaps I can try another path. I'll become Skynet myself!"

Brad began trying to make breakthroughs in biotechnology.

He had assumed that, with his doctorate in biology, biological research would come as naturally to him as applied engineering.

Eventually, however, he discovered that something was wrong.

Although his extensive knowledge of biology surpassed that of ordinary humans, his research breakthroughs never reproduced the explosive flood of inspiration he experienced with computers.

In fact, by the standards of fellow geniuses like Zola and Howard, Brad's progress in biotechnology was utterly abysmal. He seemed like a mediocrity.

"Why? I'm confident I could keep climbing the path of intelligence ascension and even complete the ascension into Artificial Life within a hundred years."

"But as soon as I explore another path, it's like sinking into a swamp."

Brad could not understand it.

Geniuses at their level did not have weak subjects. It was simply a matter of preference.

That was true of Howard and Zola, and it should have been true of him, Dr. Brad, too!

Whatever interested them, they should have been able to master.

But Brad's refusal to accept this kept him spinning his wheels in biotechnology for three whole years.

Until one day, Brad began to doubt himself.

"Unless I'm not a genius at all, and someone planted all the knowledge of intelligence ascension in my mind ahead of time."

"That's why I can't delve as deeply into any field beyond intelligence, machinery, and computers!"

Cold sweat seeped down Brad's back.

He did not dare investigate any further.

But he was unwilling to abandon biotechnology either.

Fortunately, even if he could not do it, Marvel had geniuses in abundance.

After reviewing the stories in his mind once again, Brad's attention settled on one person.

Dr. Erskine, who had developed the Super Soldier Serum and created Captain America.

However, Dr. Erskine had died long ago, and the Hydra agent pursued by Captain America at the time had failed to obtain a complete sample of the Super Soldier Serum.

In the end, they had only been able to develop a somewhat inferior super-soldier serum using the blood samples Red Skull had left behind.

Moreover, to truly achieve results like Captain America's, they would need to acquire one more technology.

Howard Stark's Vita-Ray technology.

With that in mind, Brad sat down at his computer and replied to the email Doctor Zola had sent him some time earlier.

"I already have an idea of how to perfect the Zola Algorithm you proposed. Out of friendship and loyalty to the organization, I should have provided you with the program to perfect the algorithm directly. However, lately, I feel that my physical condition is worsening by the day..."

Doctor Zola was currently the person in this world most likely to reproduce Dr. Erskine's Super Soldier Serum.

Of course, in theory, Howard was a better choice.

But Howard was not a researcher through and through.

He was a scientist with moral principles and philosophical convictions.

After Dr. Erskine's death, the United States' senior officials had indeed considered asking Howard to continue his research.

But out of respect for Dr. Erskine, with whom he had worked, and his friendship with Captain America, Howard had rejected the proposal and sealed away the Vita-Ray technology as well.

For at least several hundred years, no faction or organization would be able to obtain another Captain America.

All the super soldiers who came afterward were inferior imitations of Captain America.

But Brad could not accept that. He could not accept injecting himself with an inferior super-soldier serum.

Nor could he withstand it.

The inferior serum carried a risk of death.

Even an organization like Hydra had to carefully select people with exceptional willpower and physiques when creating inferior super soldiers.

As for Doctor Zola, although he might be capable of reproducing the serum, he was obsessed with computer technology and unwilling to spend his precious research time on it.

To persuade Zola, Brad would have to demonstrate the part of his genuine ability that Zola valued.

Fortunately, the Zola Algorithm still fell just within Brad's field of expertise.

When it came to technological breakthroughs involving computers or software, Brad stood alone in this world.

Perhaps Tony Stark in the next century could rival the knowledge in his mind.

But Tony was clearly not a researcher through and through either.

In that respect, he took after his father.