Kraft's Secret Base

The disaster, caused by human hands, ultimately ended with Hulk's victory. After defeating Abomination, the monster that Blonsky had become, he once again broke through the military's encirclement and made his escape.

General Ross, who was in charge of this operation, not only failed to capture Hulk but also had his daughter run away. On top of that, he had to face a mountain of accusations and compensation claims. The fate of Blonsky, whether alive or dead, might have been a small consolation, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to the torrent of criticism he was about to face.

However, the subsequent developments left Kraft somewhat astonished. General Ross was merely suspended from all Hulk-related activities and handed over some of his rights. That was it. No dismissal, no demotion, no military tribunal, not even a public apology.

One could only say, "As expected of America."

But none of this concerned Kraft. He was currently wrestling with his next move.

Before, Hulk's appearance had only given him a slight sense of urgency. While the power Hulk displayed was terrifying, the US military wasn't entirely incapable of dealing with him. Kraft had assumed they intended to capture Hulk alive, which was why he believed Hulk could keep escaping.

But with the appearance of Abomination and Hulk displaying even greater power, Kraft finally started to worry.

In reality, no matter how strong Hulk was, it wasn't a major issue. Dr. Banner's will was there to restrain him from causing widespread destruction. It was dangerous, but not a problem that absolutely had to be faced.

However, besides Hulk, there was a whole group of madmen conducting similar human experiments. Who knew when another monster, even more destructive and uncontrollable than Hulk, might emerge?

Kraft genuinely worried that one day, this world would be ruined by those reckless fools.

His previous plan was to slowly develop the Dream Toy Company, spend a few years building himself up into a genius akin to Tony Stark, and then gradually expand the company's scope of business. After quietly establishing his own arsenal, he would then begin manufacturing the powerful war machines from his dreams.

He was still young, after all, so there was no need to rush.

But now, it seemed the Earth couldn't withstand the antics of those madmen. It was possible the Earth would be ruined before Kraft could even develop his plans.

Having witnessed zombie apocalypses in his dreams, Kraft truly didn't believe he was being overly cautious.

Therefore, he felt he should accelerate his research and development. But doing so would very likely expose his unique nature. As a person of color, he didn't believe he would receive any special treatment in America. And with the current influence of the Dream Toy Company and Martin Lee, they probably couldn't withstand pressure from the authorities.

The few solutions Kraft could think of all had their drawbacks.

One was to shift the development direction of most of the Dream Company and Martin's industries towards aviation and establish off-world bases. But this would also attract official attention, and the move would be too abrupt, easily arousing suspicion.

Building bases underwater or underground was an idea Kraft had when planning for slow development. If he wanted to accelerate construction, such a large-scale operation would definitely draw attention.

Or, as he had often considered before, he could return to his home country and seek cooperation with the authorities. But Martin seemed very resistant to this idea. Furthermore, according to the information Kraft had gathered, similar experiments were also being conducted domestically. Moreover, cooperating with the authorities would undoubtedly reduce his freedom. So, unless he was completely out of options, Kraft didn't want to choose this path.

After much deliberation, Kraft returned home with a troubled expression and shared his thoughts with his adoptive father, hoping he could provide a solution.

After hearing Kraft's ideas, Martin Lee began to stare at him with a peculiar gaze.

Kraft felt extremely uncomfortable under his stare and squirmed. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Although I don't know where this inexplicable sense of crisis of yours comes from..." Martin Lee's tone was somewhat strange, as if he were suppressing a laugh. "But Kraft, have you forgotten that you have a shrink ray that can enlarge or shrink items at will?"

!!! (O_O)

Damn it! He'd forgotten about that!

Kraft smacked his forehead in annoyance. With a device that could freely change size, what was he even agonizing about? He could simply shrink his entire arsenal and manufacture it in his room. When he needed to use it, he could just enlarge it!

In the future, if he dreamed up the technology for a universal capsule, he wouldn't even need an enlargement ray!

He must have crammed too much information into his brain recently, making his thinking sluggish.

Realizing his foolishness, Kraft awkwardly rubbed his head, too embarrassed to face Martin Lee's half-smiling, half-knowing gaze any longer. He quickly made up an excuse and slipped back into his room.

"I still have some homework to finish, so I'm going back to my room to do it!"

Quinn tilted his head, stuck out his tongue, and followed Kraft. He circled around Kraft's feet and asked, "Big brother, didn't you finish your homework a long time ago with Haro's help?"

Martin Lee, who had been showing a slight smile as he watched Kraft flee, changed his expression: "Kraft!!!"

"Stupid dog, meow~"

Bear flicked her tail and rolled over in Alice's arms, exposing her belly for Alice to continue massaging her.

Having found a solution and driven by a sense of urgency, Kraft had Martin request a long leave of absence from school for him. Martin Lee was initially reluctant to agree, but he couldn't resist Kraft's persistent pestering. Moreover, with the learning helmet, Kraft's grades had consistently ranked first in his grade, so he eventually relented.

In his workshop, Kraft cleared a large open space to set up the arsenal he was about to build.

At first, he had considered excavating a basement or something similar. But then he thought, with Angela providing protection, there was no need to waste that time. Besides, keeping the shrunken factories out in the open and disguised as models wouldn't arouse suspicion. No crazy person would ever think those "models" were actual arsenals.

As for the blueprints, Kraft didn't replicate any from his dreams. Instead, he designed them himself based on his knowledge and personal needs. And to allow Angela and Haro to help with the construction, he specifically removed any equipment unique to the dream world and replaced it with similar functional equipment from this world.

Once the blueprints were complete, Kraft didn't rush into construction. Instead, he built a few more construction robots called SCVs. These were also from Swann's world, although the protagonist of the dream at that time wasn't him.

He handed over control of the shrunken SCVs to Angela and Haro. Kraft didn't need to do anything himself; he just watched from the side as they controlled a group of small SCV robots to build an "model" of the arsenal on the cleared space.

It felt like playing a holographic simulation strategy game.