This man-made disaster ultimately ended with Hulk's victory. After defeating the monster Abomination had turned into, he broke through the military encirclement once again and fled without a trace.
Not only had General Ross failed to capture Hulk, but his daughter had also run off. On top of that, he had to face a mountain of accusations and compensation claims. Abomination, whose fate was unknown, might have offered some small comfort, but compared to the torrent of condemnation awaiting him, it was hardly worth mentioning.
Yet the aftermath left Kraft somewhat astonished. General Ross was merely ordered to halt everything related to Hulk and surrender part of his authority, and then nothing happened to him. He was neither dismissed nor demoted, never faced a court-martial, and did not even make a public apology.
All he could say was, America indeed.
Of course, none of that had anything to do with Kraft. What troubled him now was what direction he should take next.
When Hulk first appeared, Kraft had only felt a slight sense of urgency. Although the power Hulk displayed had been terrifying, the American military had not been unable to deal with him. Kraft had assumed they wanted to capture Hulk alive, which was why he had been able to keep escaping.
But after Abomination appeared and Hulk displayed even greater strength, Kraft finally began to worry.
In truth, no matter how strong Hulk became, he was not much of a problem. Dr. Banner's will kept him from causing widespread destruction. He was dangerous, certainly, but not an issue that had to be confronted.
However, besides Hulk, there was a whole pack of lunatics carrying out similar human experiments. Who knew whether some monster even more destructive than Hulk, and far less controllable, might emerge one day?
Kraft was genuinely worried that those reckless idiots would someday wreck the entire world.
His original plan had been to slowly develop Dream Toy Company, spend several years building himself into a genius like Tony Stark, gradually expand Dream Company's industrial reach, secretly establish his own arms factory, and only then begin manufacturing the powerful weapons of war from his dreams.
After all, he was still young. There was no need to rush.
But now, it seemed Earth might not be able to withstand those lunatics' antics. It was entirely possible that the planet would be ruined before Kraft had the chance to develop.
Having witnessed a city overrun by zombies in his dreams, Kraft did not think he was worrying over nothing.
So he felt he should speed up his research and development. But doing so would likely expose his unusual nature. As a person of color, he did not think he would receive any preferential treatment in America. With the current influence of Dream Toy Company and Martin Lee, they probably could not withstand pressure from the authorities.
And every solution Kraft could think of seemed to have its own flaws.
One option was to shift most of Dream Company and Martin's businesses toward aerospace, then establish a branch base beyond Earth. But that would also attract official attention, and the move would be far too abrupt, making it easy for others to become suspicious.
Building a base underwater or underground had been part of Kraft's slow-development plan. If he wanted to speed things up, such a major undertaking would definitely draw attention too.
Or, as he had often considered before, he could return home and cooperate with the authorities. But Martin seemed strongly opposed to that, and according to the information Kraft had found, similar experiments were being conducted there as well. Besides, cooperating with the authorities would certainly reduce his freedom. Unless he had no other choice, Kraft did not want to take that path.
After agonizing over it for a long time, Kraft returned home with a deeply troubled expression and told his adoptive father what he was thinking, hoping he could offer a solution.
After listening to Kraft's thoughts, Martin Lee began staring at him with a strange look in his eyes.
Kraft grew uncomfortable under his gaze. He shifted awkwardly and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Although I have no idea where this inexplicable sense of crisis of yours came from..." Martin Lee's tone was odd, as though he were holding back laughter. "Kraft, have you forgotten that you have a Shrink Ray that can enlarge and shrink objects at will?"
What?!
Damn it! He had forgotten about that!
Kraft smacked his forehead in frustration. With the size-changing flashlight, what the hell was he even agonizing over? He could shrink his arms factory and build it right in his room. Whenever he wanted to use something after it was made, he could simply enlarge it again!
And if he dreamed of the Hoi-Poi Capsule technology someday, he would not even need to prepare an enlarging lamp!
He must have stuffed too much information into his head lately, making his thinking sluggish.
Realizing how foolish he had been, Kraft scratched his head awkwardly. Too embarrassed to keep facing Martin Lee's amused gaze, he made up an excuse and slipped back into his room.
"I still have some homework left. I'm going back to my room to finish it!"
Quinn tilted his head, stuck out his tongue, and chased after Kraft. As he circled Kraft's feet, he asked, "Big brother, didn't you hand your homework over to Harlow ages ago?"
Martin Lee, who had been faintly smiling as he watched Kraft flee in embarrassment, suddenly changed expression. "Kraft!!!"
"Stupid dog, meow~"
Bear flicked her tail and turned over in Alice's arms, exposing her belly so Alice could continue massaging it.
Having found a solution and feeling pressed for time, Kraft simply had Martin request a long leave of absence from school for him. Martin Lee had not wanted to agree, but Kraft kept pestering him, and with the Learning Helmet, Kraft had consistently ranked first in his grade. In the end, he relented.
Kraft cleared out a large open space in his workshop for the arms factory he was about to build.
At first, he considered using an entire basement or something similar. But after thinking it over, he decided there was no need to waste that time when Angela was there to provide protection. Besides, if he left the shrunken factories out in the open and disguised them as models, no lunatic would think those "models" were real arms factories.
As for the arms factory's blueprints, Kraft did not copy any of the ones from his dreams. Instead, he designed it himself based on the knowledge he possessed and his own needs. And so Angela and Harlow could help build it, he specifically removed equipment unique to the Dream World and replaced it with equipment from this world that had similar functions.
After finishing the blueprints, Kraft did not immediately begin construction. Instead, he made several construction robots called SCVs. They also came from Swann's world, though Swann had not been the protagonist of that dream.
After handing control of the shrunken SCVs to Angela and Harlow, Kraft no longer needed to do the work himself. He merely watched from the side as they controlled a group of tiny SCV robots, building a "model" arms factory in the cleared space.
It actually felt like he was playing a holographic strategy simulation game~
Before you continue