Lynn put down her pen and looked up at him.
Because it's not worth it.
Not worth it?
The Soldier Boy seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world.
"Defending freedom and fighting the enemy is my fucking duty!"
"What do you take me for? A whore who only knows how to pose and smile on billboards?!"
"It seems that peaceful times have made you forget your place."
Lynn stood up.
He slowly unbuttoned his suit jacket, took it off, and casually draped it over the back of the chair.
He casually rolled up the cuffs of his white shirt, revealing his well-defined arms, as he slowly walked towards the Soldier Boy.
I'll remind you one more time.
"Your duty is to obey me."
As the Soldier Boy watched Lynn's actions, the initial rage on his face gradually gave way to anger.
He clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking like popping beans.
"Perfect timing, I haven't stretched my muscles in ages!"
He moved.
Without any warning, a punch powerful enough to pierce a tank struck Lynn squarely in the face!
However, the fist was abruptly stopped less than a centimeter from Lynn's nose.
The Soldier Boy saw a hand.
Lynn's hand.
That hand casually grasped his wrist, yet it made him feel as if he could no longer move forward an inch.
"My strength has increased considerably."
Lynn commented.
"Looks like the steak and whiskey you're consuming in peacetime are providing you with good nutrition."
The next second.
Lynn delivered a powerful knee strike to his abdomen.
The Soldier Boy curled up like a shrimp, gushing out acid and bile from his mouth.
Lynn gave him no chance to breathe, grabbing his hair and slamming his tall body to the ground like a dead dog.
Expensive Italy handmade leather shoes stepped precisely and forcefully on the back of his head, again and again.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
A bloodstain quickly appeared on the floor.
The excruciating pain and humiliation ignited the Soldier Boy's final madness, and the energy within him began to gather.
Just as the Soldier Boy was preparing to use his chest cannon to fight Lynn to the death.
That long-lost feeling of suffocation returned, and the light in my chest involuntarily went out.
She rolled over and lay on the ground, her hands gripping her own neck tightly.
Lynn looked down at the face that had turned purplish-red from lack of oxygen and stepped on his chest.
"Now, do you understand?"
"You are not a hero, you are just my weapon."
"Your glory, your anger, your will... are all worthless."
"I give you glory, so you can enjoy the cheers of the crowd."
You can only kill whomever I tell you to kill.
"If I tell you to shut up, you'll have to swallow your teeth and blood."
The Soldier Boy finally loosened his grip on his hand, and like a fish out of water, he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
The body convulsed violently due to pain and fear.
The tyranny and unruliness he saw had been completely replaced by a fear that originated from the depths of his soul.
He finally remembered.
The man before him was the one who could decide his life and death, the one who could make him suffer more than death... a devil.
"I... I understand..."
He uttered those words with difficulty in a muffled voice.
Lynn put her suit jacket back on.
Motoko Kusanagi appeared silently at the doorway.
"Boss, Professor Pyg has sent in the latest intelligence."
" Hydra's Winter Soldier Project has entered the operational phase."
"What? That idiot is one of yours too?"
The Soldier Boy lying on the ground was stunned.
I can't believe I'm only finding out about something this important now!
Lynn couldn't be bothered with this guy.
This kid thinks he's second only to God after winning a few battles.
Lynn nodded to Motoko Kusanagi and then looked out the window.
" Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.. are the best balance."
The river of time flows silently.
The world maintained a fragile peace under the Shadow of the Cold War.
Lynn's Vought Empire grew wildly in the soil of peace.
Movies, television, music, fashion...
Vought's logo has become a symbol of popular culture, permeating every aspect of United States life.
The stories of heroes have been repeatedly brought to the screen, becoming a collective memory for a generation.
1963.
A seemingly insignificant news item caught Lynn's attention.
Anton Vanko, a top Soviet Union scientist, defected to the United States.
Information about Motoko Kusanagi is much more detailed.
"Anton Vanko has been taken away by Howard Stark, and the two will jointly launch an energy project called the Arc Reactor, aimed at creating a completely new clean energy source."
"Based on our long-term psychological profiling analysis of Howard, a large part of the reason he initiated this project was to make up for the guilt he felt for contributing to the development of the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project."
"Innocent."
Lynn scoffed.
Do you want to use a more powerful force to atone for the evils caused by another?
Humans always repeat the same mistakes.
He did not interfere.
He simply had Motoko Kusanagi make a copy of all the files on Anton Vanko within S.H.I.E.L.D..
The seeds have been planted.
He only needs to wait for it to bear the fruit he desires in the future.
His attention was focused on more important things.
Vought International Headquarters.
The secret laboratory deep underground.
This place is safer than the Pentagon's command center.
Dr. Horton.
This mad chemical genius was staring at a stabilizer emitting a ghostly blue light in front of him with an almost reverent, fanatical gaze.
Inside the stabilizer, a tube of crystal-clear blue liquid floats quietly.
It looks almost identical to Dr. Erskine's original version.
But Dr. Horton knew these were two completely different things.
This is the Blood of God.
"We succeeded! It eliminated all risks of unstable gene collapse and reduced the cell decay rate to a value that is... infinitely close to zero!"
"It's a miracle! A perfect work of art!"
Lynn walked to the stabilizer and quietly looked at the tube of liquid.
Nearly twenty years.
From obtaining Erskine's notes to Stark's slightly flawed serum and Horton's " Rebirth " serum.
Then came the relentless investment and countless failures.
Finally, he got what he wanted.
It's not about creating more super soldiers.
It was for his own sake.
He knew better than anyone that time was the most terrifying enemy in the world.
Everything he has built and everything he has planned needs a long enough time to develop and be realized.
He cannot grow old.
They absolutely cannot die.
"Prepare for injection."
Lynn took off his shirt, revealing his well-maintained physique.
He lay down on a specially designed injection table.
The robotic arm injected the perfect vial of serum into his body.
The fluid flows through the blood vessels to the heart, and is then pumped to every corner of the body.
At first, I didn't feel anything.
But a few seconds later.
An indescribable pain erupted from the deepest part of his body, like a volcanic eruption!
Every cell in his body is being reorganized.
Lynn gritted his teeth and didn't let out a single scream.
Willpower, like a stabilizing force, tenaciously held onto the last vestiges of clarity.
He could sense that his life form was undergoing a radical transformation.
Aging, the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all life, is moving away from him.
I don't know how much time passed before the excruciating pain finally subsided.
Lynn felt an unprecedented sense of power and lightness.
He could clearly hear the steady beating of Motoko Kusanagi's prosthetic heart outside the laboratory.
The world became clearer in his perception than ever before.
He slowly sat up and looked at his flawless hands.
Beneath its skin lies a power powerful enough to overturn mountains.
Within the heart beats an inexhaustible life force.