"System! Give me a draw!"
Su Zhou started his draw as he followed Crossbones out of the room.
Justice points couldn't earn interest sitting around, so spending however many he had on draws was only reasonable.
Another burst of cheap sound effects rang out, and the giant wheel in Su Zhou's mind began to spin.
A few seconds later, the pointer stopped on a skill slot.
[Telepathy: A nerfed version of Professor X's superpower, with no offensive capabilities whatsoever.]
Su Zhou: (눈‸눈)
I seriously can't with this!
Why have all the recent draws been so weird? Either I get a trial card I can only use once,
or I finally manage to draw a skill, only for it to be a nerfed version!
The phrase "no offensive capabilities whatsoever" was easy enough to understand. Professor X's telepathy manifested in many different ways.
First, he could sense and read other people's thoughts, memories, and emotions, and communicate with them mentally;
second was mind control, manipulating other people's thoughts and actions;
third was defensive psychic shielding, the ability to protect himself and others from psychic attacks;
fourth was a telepathic network, which could simply be treated as a wireless local area network on the mental plane;
fifth was psychic searching, using his mind to find people.
His nerfed version most likely only allowed him to sense other people's thoughts and memories.
Whether he could even communicate mentally with others was still uncertain. He would have to find someone to test it on!
But everyone around him right now was a Hydra member. He couldn't casually experiment with this trump card of a skill.
Still, secretly peeking into someone else's mind probably wouldn't be much of a problem!
Su Zhou looked at Crossbones walking ahead of him and activated [Telepathy] on him!
In just an instant, Su Zhou felt as though he had entered Crossbones's mind directly.
He could view all of Crossbones's memories at will. After casually browsing through them,
he discovered that aside from bloody slaughter, Crossbones's mind contained nothing but inhumane training!
Of course, there were also some scenes that wouldn't pass censorship. As one of Hydra's undercover agents,
Crossbones was usually under a great deal of psychological pressure, and there were only so many ways he could unwind. The less said about those, the better.
Then Su Zhou checked Crossbones's current thoughts and discovered that the guy was actually pretty excited!
Su Zhou's a freak. Even the Winter Soldier is no match for him in close combat,
never mind his insanely accurate marksmanship. No wonder Nick Fury thinks so highly of him.
The Avengers? Interesting!
Su Zhou: 乁(˙ω˙)厂
I have no idea what you're so excited about. Can you handle that big green guy?
He can tank fire from alien warships head-on. Even I have no idea how to beat the Hulk right now!
"Su Zhou, why have you stopped?"
As Crossbones walked on, he noticed that Su Zhou had stopped moving and seemed to be standing there thinking about something.
Su Zhou was still using [Telepathy] at the time, and only realized he had stopped walking when Crossbones asked him about it.
Su Zhou: (´ﾟωﾟ)?
So when I use [Telepathy], my own body stops moving?
My brain's single-threaded, then? It can't process two things at once?!
"It's nothing. I was thinking about the secondary serum you're going to inject me with."
Su Zhou replied as though nothing had happened, casually brushing it aside.
"I remember S.H.I.E.L.D. has records of the process Steve Rogers went through when he became Captain America.
"The Super Soldier Serum he used was secondary. The important part was the massive amount of energy consumed during the process.
"Even the power supply to more than half the city went down at one point. Could that have been the key to his success?
"Or maybe I should put it another way. When you inject me with the serum in a bit, are you going to electrocute me?"
Looking into Su Zhou's clear eyes, Crossbones felt a sense of guilt return for the first time in ages.
Even slaughtering more than five hundred people from an African tribe back then hadn't felt as awful as looking into Su Zhou's eyes!
"Don't worry too much about it. I went through it myself, but I can give you one piece of advice.
"When they inject you with the serum, make sure you stay conscious. The longer you stay conscious, the better the results!"
Without realizing it, Crossbones had spoken his true thoughts, and Su Zhou nodded in satisfaction.
This nerfed version of [Telepathy] isn't completely useless after all!
Even with an old hand like Crossbones, I can secretly influence his emotions,
making him unwittingly say things he would never normally say.
The two chatted and laughed as they headed toward a laboratory. As for the Winter Soldier lying on the floor,
other Hydra members would naturally take care of him. No damage to the organization's property would be permitted!
Inside a plain laboratory, apart from the surgical light overhead,
the only thing in the entire room was an electric chair bolted to the floor. It didn't look like a laboratory at all,
but more like an execution chamber for carrying out death sentences by electrocution!
Crossbones patted Su Zhou's shoulder and gave a rare smile.
"Take off your shirt, shoes, and socks, then get on. I won't help you with that.
"Since you're getting the serum injection, there's no avoiding this!"
"Hail Hydra!"
Su Zhou put on a performance for Crossbones on the spot, and Alexander smiled in satisfaction on the other side of the camera as well.
Su Zhou briskly took off his shirt, shoes, and socks, revealing the well-defined muscles of his upper body.
After the enhancement from the character trial card earlier, even without a serum injection,
Su Zhou's muscles had beautiful definition, making him look like a powerful jaguar!
Looking at Su Zhou's muscles, Crossbones curiously gave his arm a squeeze.
That kick that had sent the Winter Soldier flying earlier hadn't just been thanks to his martial arts bonus. Those muscles had played a big part too!
"You must spend a lot of time at the gym!"
Su Zhou slapped Crossbones's hand away with some disgust and said fiercely,
"I'm starting to suspect you have ancestry from Great Britain. Please stay away from me. Thank you!"
As soon as Su Zhou sat in the electric chair before him, his hands and feet were all automatically locked in place.
Then six mechanical arms extended from behind Su Zhou, each fitted with a pale blue syringe!
"Didn't you say one shot of secondary serum? Why am I getting six shots all at once now?!"
For the first time in ages, Su Zhou felt a little scared. He had been a little prone to fainting at needles in his previous life.
Great. These syringes are enough to make me faint six times!
But no one answered Su Zhou's question at all. Crossbones had left the instant Su Zhou sat in the electric chair.
After all, the electric chair drew too much power. Staying with Su Zhou was too dangerous!
Buzz-buzz!
The six sharp needles aimed at different parts of Su Zhou's body, and he instinctively swallowed.
"Could you be a little gentler when you... Aah!!!!!"
Before he could finish his sentence, all six syringes had already plunged into his body!