Marvel: The Imposter Inventor

Chapter 146 Cooperation, Oracle, Captain America
"Young Master, are we just going to let them go like this?"

Outside the villa, watching the fully armed soldiers carrying several corpses quickly board a stealth fighter, Samira asked Luca in a low voice, her expression somewhat grim.

Upon hearing this, Luca calmly shook his head.

"What can we do if they don't let them go? They've already sent fighter jets. Are we just going to shoot them down and then wait to be hit by missiles?"

In fact, Luca had no choice but to do this, not to mention there was a fighter jet transporting Strucker and his crew overhead.

Even without fighter jets, given Hydra's power, it's possible that no sooner Luca had taken down Strucker than two missiles aimed at him would be launched from a US military base.

'Ultimately, their strength is too weak!'

Despite Luca's assertive demeanor towards Baron Strucker, it was only a temporary advantage.

In terms of resources, strength, and influence, Luca is no match for Hydra, even though Strucker represents only one branch of Hydra.

Considering that even Stark's villa was bombed by missiles, nearly killing him instantly, what am I compared to him? How many divisions do I have under my command?
"However, it's business. What difference does it make who I do business with? Maybe this is an opportunity for me."

Yes, Luca did ultimately agree to the cooperative deal that Baron Strucker had proposed.

However, there was a slight change in the middle. Instead of simply selling the 'Orderer' pistol to them for experiments in Sokovia, the Orange Group would establish a branch in Sokovia to directly liaise with the local government.

It may seem like a superfluous move, since the government of Sokovia has long been controlled by Baron Strucker, but it also provides the Orange family with an entry point to return to Sokovia.

'That place wouldn't be bad as an overseas base.'

'However, it's still best to secure some insurance for yourself first.'

After watching Strucker's plane depart, Luca immediately took out his phone and made a call.

"Hello? Tony."

"You're crazy! Who misses you!"

"I have a business deal in Sokovia. Hmm, it's a business partner from my mother's hometown. Are you interested in getting involved?"

"Hey, I'm here to help you make money, and you're not happy about it? So what if you're the richest man? Does being the richest man make you so great?"

"You just wait and see. Once I finish this big deal, I'll make you call me 'Dad' sooner or later!"

"Testing a mecha, huh? Fine, fine, just wait until I finish modifying the boxer, then I'll show you what 'bigger is better' really means! You'll be calling me 'daddy' before you get any ideas!"

"Okay, okay, I'm hanging up!"

The call ended after a few simple words, and a smile appeared on Luca's lips.

'Okay, reporting complete~'

Under Samira's astonished gaze, Luca turned around and went back into the room.

There's someone else here waiting for him to deal with.

Inside the villa's living room, the corpses and bloodstains from before had long been cleaned up.

But the one bound hand and foot in the corner seemed somewhat out of place.

Strucker took all his other men with him when he left, except for Heinrich, who was somewhat familiar with Luca.

At this moment, Heinrich's left eye was nothing but a blood-soaked socket, and he appeared extremely weak, as if he had completely lost all hope of survival.

Luca casually tossed the still-bloodied mechanical eyeball in his hand.

【The Oracle of the Crossroads】

Cyberpunk 2077 2/5

[Manufacturer: Kichiro Tsukasa Optical Laboratory]

[Core Component: Electronic Prosthetic Eye] [Consumable Materials: None]

[Item Description: Implantable prosthetic eye. One of the core products of the Kichiroku Corporation. After successful implantation, the prosthetic eye can scan and lock onto threatening enemies within its field of vision, while highlighting various traps, explosives, mechanical weapons, and other threatening equipment. This prosthetic eye also features 10x optical zoom, effectively magnifying the current field of vision.]

[Friendly reminder: This is just a mechanical prosthetic eye. It requires a series of implanted prosthetic components, such as a brain-computer interface chip, to function properly. It can't be used simply by stuffing it into the eye socket.]

Aside from the [Solar Skateboard] that he had previously created inexplicably becoming a core component, this was the first time Luca had ever seen a cheat item that didn't require any 'synthesizing materials'.

However, this [Oddity Man's Eye] has improved in all aspects, and its function is indeed very similar to the artificial eye that was dug out of Heinrich's eye socket.

Well, the original 'electronic prosthetic eye' also had a remote-controlled self-destruct function.

Of course, Luca has no interest in gouging out his own eyeballs and replacing them with prosthetics, or even implanting some random brain-computer interface chips.

Moreover, he can now mass-produce the [tracking glasses], and a large part of their functions actually overlap with those of mechanical prosthetic eyes.

Even if this thing is synthesized later, it will only be used for some technological reserves at most.

But the man in front of me, Heinrich, had lost his left eye.

Luca hadn't expected that the other party was a 'spy' planted by another faction within Strucker's ranks.

When Luca pointed out the problem with Heinrich's left eye, even Strucker himself was stunned.

To reiterate, Hydra is never a monolithic entity.

Although they operate under the same banner and often cooperate, there are always some unsavory motives between different factions.

Although Luca himself didn't seem to care much about his collaboration with Baron Strucker being exposed.

After all, it was just a normal business collaboration, and Luca 'didn't know' they were Hydra.

Even if the scheme collapses, at best you'll still be considered a victim who has been deceived.

However, it's likely that Baron Strucker will try his best to settle accounts with that 'clairvoyant' once he gets back.

"As for you... never mind, Chang Gong, you go find a place to interrogate him."

Luca guessed that Baron Strucker was only keeping the man alive because he was certain he wouldn't get anything useful out of him.

However, the necessary procedures still need to be followed.

'What if?'

'Or perhaps, Strucker wants to use this guy to reveal Hydra's true identity to me?'

Meanwhile, Baron Strucker, who had just left, was also reflecting on his experiences that night.

He didn't come here with the intention of simple cooperation; he wanted to recruit Luca directly into his ranks.

Unexpectedly, not only did he suffer a setback at the hands of a child who was only ten years old, but he also discovered that he had been outmaneuvered by his 'colleagues' from the S.H.I.E.L.D. faction.

It can be said that they lost both face and substance.

As a powerful figure within Hydra, he naturally wouldn't remain indifferent to this.

He immediately narrowed his eyes and whispered instructions to one of his subordinates.

"After we get back, send some more people to investigate Captain America and confirm whether he's one of us or not! He'll be very useful to us!"

"Yes!"

The subordinate jogged away.

However, what none of them noticed was that a small black listening device had appeared on Strucker's heel at some point.

(End of this chapter)