Evolution and lying low

The third stop, and the last.

The top floor of a seemingly ordinary luxury apartment building on the Upper East Side.

There were no heavy guards or elaborate security systems here, because this was the private residence of a senior Hydra operative.

"According to the files, the person living here is a distant nephew of... Alexander Pierce." Benjamin sounded hesitant. "Going by the intel you gave us earlier, boss, he's only a relative in name, but he manages some of Hydra's secret accounts on the East Coast. Boss, this is a big fish. Going after him could bring real trouble."

"We're already in trouble." Zhao Fan stood on the apartment building's rooftop terrace, rain sliding down his mask. "Besides, Hydra will soon have its hands full."

He knew that with the storyline of Captain America: The Winter Soldier approaching, Hydra's full exposure was only a matter of time. Every extra chunk of flesh he tore off now meant another reserve to help him survive in the future.

"How do we get in? Rappel down?" Old Dog leaned out to look at the drop of several dozen stories, his legs going a little weak.

"No, we'll use the front door." Zhao Fan straightened a nonexistent tie. "Since he's a senior operative, we should be polite."

Three minutes later.

The apartment door was blasted open by [Kinetic Repulsion].

The Hydra "nephew," dressed in a bathrobe and about to enjoy some red wine and beautiful women, watched in terror as two fully armed, masked men burst into his living room.

"You... who are you? If you want money, the safe's in the study..."

Zhao Fan wasted no words. He walked straight up, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him off the floor.

[Mental Pressure: activated.]

Zhao Fan stared into the man's eyes through his mask. The terrifying aura originating from the Leviathan instantly shattered this pampered middle-aged man's psychological defenses.

"Accounts. Passwords. And... the key."

Five minutes later.

Zhao Fan let go. The "nephew" collapsed limply to the floor, a large patch of his trousers soaked, his mouth still endlessly reciting strings of numbers.

Benjamin shouted excitedly through the earpiece. "I'm in! God, all those zeroes... boss, this is a money-laundering pool! There's at least ten million dollars in liquid funds, plus valuable stocks and bonds!"

"Transfer it all," Zhao Fan ordered coldly. "Into our shell company accounts in the Cayman Islands. Launder it three times, then close the original accounts."

"Got it! This is a big job. I'll need some time."

"What about him?" Old Dog pointed at the fat man on the floor. "Silence him?"

Hearing that, the fat man's eyes rolled back in fright, and he passed out on the spot.

Zhao Fan glanced at the wretch.

"No. He's more useful alive than dead." Zhao Fan picked up a pen from the table, drew Hydra's emblem on the fat man's face, then added a large cross beside it. "Let him live to tell his superiors that New York has a new owner."

Just as they were preparing to withdraw, a painting on the study wall suddenly caught Zhao Fan's eye.

It was not a particularly valuable oil painting, but through Zhao Fan's [Weak Energy Perception], something behind it gave off an extremely faint yet exceptionally pure energy fluctuation.

"Wait."

Zhao Fan walked over and tore down the painting.

Behind it was a concealed compartment set into the wall.

The compartment had no lock. Inside sat only a small, transparent glass vial.

Suspended inside the vial was a fingernail-sized piece of crystal that emitted a faint blue glow.

Old Dog leaned closer. "What's that? A diamond? Doesn't look like one. Looks a bit like... what was it again?"

Zhao Fan's pupils abruptly contracted.

The system's alerts exploded in his mind, even more urgently than on any previous occasion.

[Warning! Residual S-rank high-energy reaction detected!]

[Item name: Cosmic Cube (Tesseract) fragment/co-crystal.]

[Danger level: extreme.]

[Description: A high-purity energy crystal formed from energy escaping the Cosmic Cube (Space Stone), containing extremely unstable spatial power.]

"An energy fragment of the Space Stone..." Zhao Fan murmured.

How did something like this end up here?

Right. During World War II, Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to manufacture weapons. There must have been some scraps or energy residue left over, and Hydra had kept them like holy relics all this time.

This thing was worth more than all their previous gains combined!

"Don't touch it!" Zhao Fan stopped Old Dog's outstretched hand with a sharp shout. "It gives off radiation. If we accidentally activate it, we could be teleported into outer space or torn apart by spatial turbulence."

He carefully took a specially made retrieval case from Old Dog's tactical backpack and placed the little vial inside.

"This is tonight's biggest haul." Zhao Fan tucked the case securely against his body. "Come on. Time to go home."

Four in the morning.

The rain finally stopped.

The D.O.D.C. auto repair shop base in Queens.

Despite its shabby exterior, the repair shop was now filled with celebration.

Three tables had been pushed together, piled with dollars, gold bars, Stark pistols, and various expensive watches and pieces of jewelry taken from the fat man's home.

"I'm buying a house! A huge villa! The kind with a swimming pool!" Old Dog hugged a pile of dollars, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm bringing my daughter to New York! She'll live in the best house and go to the best school!"

"I'm upgrading my servers! I'm buying the best graphics cards!" Benjamin hugged the hard drive containing the key, practically drooling. "With this, I can... ahem, serve the team better."

Zhao Fan sat in a corner, toying with the lead case, a faint smile on his face.

He had not lost his composure the way they had, but the excitement inside him was no less intense.

This was more than wealth.

This was power.

With this money, S.C.U. would no longer be a hired team dependent on D.O.D.C., but a third-party force with independent funding, its own weapons, and even independent intelligence sources.

"All right, that's enough dividing the spoils." Zhao Fan tapped the table, quieting the two men.

"Old Dog, take half this cash and gold. The rest will serve as the team's operating funds."

"Ben, the key and the technical data for these energy pistols are yours. I want you to crack this gun's biometric lock within three days so our people can use it. Also, find a way to launder this money."

"No problem, boss!" the two answered in unison.

"And what about me?"

A cool voice suddenly came from the doorway.

All three whipped around. At some point, the repair shop's rolling shutter had been raised halfway. Dr. Evelyn Reed stood in the entrance in her signature white lab coat, surveying the roomful of "stolen goods" with a faint, ambiguous smile.

The money in Old Dog's hands fell to the floor.

Benjamin nearly swallowed the hard drive.

Only Zhao Fan showed no panic, as though he had expected this. He slowly rose, picked up the energy pistol, and walked over to Evelyn.

"This is your share, Doctor."

Zhao Fan offered her the pistol, his gaze open. "An unreleased Stark Industries prototype. I imagine you'd be interested in its energy circuitry."

Evelyn did not take the gun.

Her gaze swept across the cluttered tables before finally settling on Zhao Fan's face.

"Unauthorized military operations, illegal possession of heavy weapons, looting a private residence, and..." She pointed at the hard drive in Benjamin's arms. "Intent to hack a classified federal database."

With each charge she listed, Old Dog and Benjamin grew a shade paler.

"Zhao Fan, under federal law, those charges are enough to keep you in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deep-sea prison for the rest of your life."

The atmosphere froze solid. Old Dog's hand had already begun slipping toward the shotgun behind him.

Yet Zhao Fan smiled.

He reached out and gently pushed down Old Dog's restless muzzle, then gestured for Evelyn to come in.

"If you were here to arrest us, Doctor, you wouldn't be standing at the door alone." Zhao Fan poured himself a glass of whiskey, then one for Evelyn. "Besides, I believe you know better than anyone what sort of people we're dealing with."

"Hydra." Evelyn accepted the glass but did not drink. Instead, she walked over to the pile of Stark pistols, picked one up, and deftly disassembled it. "But you made too much noise. The Queens police station's emergency lines have been ringing off the hook, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is asking questions too."

"That was to cover up something bigger," Zhao Fan said. "If we hadn't wiped out these outposts, Hydra would have destroyed every trace once they reacted. But now..."

He took a USB drive from his pocket and placed it on the table.

"This contains a list of Hydra personnel in the New York area, their money trails, and several higher-level contact points that fat man gave up. This is a 'gift' I prepared for you-or rather, for Nick Fury. He'll like it."

Evelyn looked at the USB drive, something flickering in her eyes.

"You ate the meat and left me the bones?"

"No, I left you the trouble, and the credit along with it," Zhao Fan corrected. "With this list, D.O.D.C. can join forces with S.H.I.E.L.D. for a legal purge. You'll become the hero who exposed Hydra's conspiracy, while we... are just a few lucky cleaners who picked up some trash they shouldn't have."

"As for this trash..." Zhao Fan pointed at the money and weapons on the tables. "It's the 'compensation for emotional distress' and 'equipment depreciation expenses' we risked our lives to earn. As our supervisor, surely you wouldn't mind your subordinates having better means of protecting themselves?"

Evelyn fell silent for a moment.

She looked at Zhao Fan. The man she had once regarded as merely an interesting test subject had now grown into a... partner who made even her feel a hint of danger.

"I'm taking half the Stark pistols," Evelyn said abruptly. "The technical department needs samples for reverse engineering. As for the rest, I'll have Benjamin alter their serial numbers for you and turn them into legal 'testing equipment.'"

Old Dog and Benjamin let out enormous sighs of relief. Old Dog even wanted to go over and kiss Evelyn, but he restrained himself in light of the "she-devil's" fearsome reputation.

"As for the money..." Evelyn swirled her glass. "S.C.U.'s accounts have always been independent. As long as it doesn't appear on the audit bureau's reports, I don't care where it comes from. But you'll have to run it through S.C.U. first, or the taxes alone will give you plenty of grief."

"Deal." Zhao Fan raised his glass and clinked it against Evelyn's.

"One more thing." Evelyn took a sip, her gaze suddenly sharpening. "What did you take from the safe's hidden compartment?"

Zhao Fan's heartbeat remained steady, without the slightest fluctuation.

"Nothing much. An antique pocket watch Hydra collected," Zhao Fan lied without a change of expression. "Old Dog likes that sort of thing."

Old Dog immediately played along with a greedy grin. "That's right. It was gold!"

Evelyn stared at Zhao Fan for several seconds, seemingly trying to spot a flaw in his microexpressions, but she failed. His facade was flawless.

"Fine. Remember to tell everyone that same story." Evelyn set down her glass. "Whatever it is, be careful with it. Don't let it blow us all sky-high."

She picked up the USB drive and several pistols, then turned toward the exit.

"Get some rest, cleaners. S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel will take over those sites tomorrow morning. When they do, make sure your 'story' holds together."

As the rolling shutter came down, quiet returned to the repair shop.

"Oh my God..." Benjamin plopped onto the floor, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "That presence was scarier than facing Hydra. Boss, you actually dared to bargain with her?"

"Because she needs us." Zhao Fan touched the lead case against his chest, feeling the faint yet terrifying energy coming from within. "She needs a sharp blade to help her rise another step and cut open the festering sores she can't conveniently touch herself. We're that blade."

"And..." Zhao Fan looked at the gradually brightening sky outside the window. "We have our own trump cards now."

A fragment of the Cosmic Cube.

Hydra's energy weapons.

A legendary key from the hacking world.

And enough funds to arm a platoon.

"Digest these gains," Zhao Fan told them. "Ben, I want you to thoroughly master this technology within three days. Old Dog, recruit a few trustworthy peripheral personnel. S.C.U. needs more people."

"What about you, Fan?" Old Dog asked.

Zhao Fan walked to the center of the training area and removed his shirt, exposing lean, powerful muscles that occasionally shimmered with golden light.

"I'm going into secluded cultivation."

Zhao Fan looked at his hands. He could feel the [Leviathan] energy he had absorbed from the "Shadow" bodyguard and the faint stirring produced when he first touched the Cosmic Cube fragment undergoing some strange chemical reaction inside his body.

Over the next two weeks, New York seemed to return to peace.

Just as Zhao Fan had predicted, Evelyn used the intelligence on the USB drive to conduct a sweeping purge alongside S.H.I.E.L.D. Numerous peripheral Hydra outposts were eliminated, and countless associated personnel were arrested. D.O.D.C. received commendations for providing critical intelligence, further securing Evelyn's position.

Meanwhile, S.C.U., the team responsible for setting everything in motion, seemed to vanish off the face of the earth, holing up in the Queens repair shop without setting foot outside.

The repair shop basement.

Benjamin had transformed it into a laboratory brimming with cyberpunk style. Exposed cables, flickering monitors, and disassembled Stark pistol parts were everywhere, the latter scattered across the floor.

"Done!"

His hair resembling a bird's nest, Benjamin excitedly raised a modified energy pistol. "Boss, look! I cracked Stark's biometric lock and rewrote the fire-control program. It no longer needs to connect to Stark's satellites for authentication. A matching fingerprint is all it takes to fire! I also added an overload mode. It'll burn out the barrel, but one shot can punch through tank armor!"

"Good work."

Zhao Fan's voice came from the training room.

Bare from the waist up, Zhao Fan sat cross-legged inside a transparent container filled with pale blue liquid. It was the "high-energy nutrient solution" Evelyn had provided, specifically intended to sustain the demands of super soldiers like him.

But his current condition was rather strange.

A dim blue glow occasionally flashed across the surface of his skin: residual spatial energy.

During those two weeks, he had not directly absorbed the Cosmic Cube fragment-that would have been suicide. He had only used [Weak Energy Perception] to carefully draw out tiny wisps of escaping spatial energy each day to temper his body.

[Analysis complete.]

[New trait acquired: Basic Space Resistance (your discomfort from spatial teleportation is reduced, and your defense against spatial attacks is increased).]

[New ability acquired: Phase Blink (incomplete/extremely unstable).]

This was an unexpected bonus.

He had originally thought he could only absorb energy to strengthen his body. He had not expected the unique properties of spatial energy to stimulate the system and produce a conceptual ability related to "space."

Although his current [Phase Blink] could only make him flicker in place like a light bulb with a faulty connection, or "disappear" from this world for 0.1 seconds, this was already an ability touching on the level of rules!

Splash-

Zhao Fan rose from the nutrient solution, sending liquid splashing around him.

He clenched his fist and threw a punch.

There was no rush of air, but the air around his knuckles seemed to distort for an instant.

"Where's Old Dog?" Zhao Fan asked as he dressed.

"He went to 'stock up.'" Benjamin pointed outside. "He said that now we have money, we should improve our quality of life. He bought the best coffee machine, got a high-end sound system, and even hired two... uh, cleaning ladies to handle the cleaning upstairs."

"As long as he doesn't leak this place's secrets."

"Don't worry. Old Dog's shrewd. The repair shop upstairs is open for business now. That's our cover. Those two ladies only sweep the floors. They don't even know where the basement door is."

Just then, the communicator on Zhao Fan's wrist vibrated.

It was Evelyn.

"Break time's over, Captain Zhao." Evelyn's voice was as cool as ever, but the background was filled with clamoring voices and alarms. "Bring your people to headquarters immediately. Something major has happened."