Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1318 The Secret of Mars (Second Update)

"Public opinion, the lives of refugees, the mission of the Avengers... Do you really think he cares about any of that?"

Amon opened his palm and addressed the regent in the throne room. Victor von Doom, clad in a green robe and sash, remained silent, seemingly oblivious to the guards' voices. Only he and the guards were in the throne room; the officials from the earlier meeting had all returned to their offices after receiving their assignments. Only the bright lamplight and the shadows around the throne room allowed the guards' voices to be heard. Facing the empty throne, Amon felt the emperor could appear at any moment, especially since he hadn't allowed the guards to accompany him.

"If Latvinia cannot achieve his goals, then Latvinia is a failure." Amon pressed on, stepping forward. "Restore order and establish effective productivity and fighting power before the Dark Order arrives. He won't want you to be overly lenient, Regent."

"I'm never merciful, and I doubt anyone in this world would believe I possess that quality." Viktor von Doom raised an eyebrow, his expression suggesting he was suppressing a laugh. He couldn't understand why, after witnessing his methods, Amon still considered him too lenient. "So many corrupt officials are in prison; they would never say that, nor would those bribed foreign media outlets. Or perhaps, he doesn't even trust me anymore?"

Amon gripped his halberd tightly. "Of course not, Regent. My Lord trusts you as always, but he needs efficiency, and the entire organization needs efficiency." The Royal Guard lowered his head. "You agree with my Lord's ideals, but more importantly, the common people must survive. There's no time to consider their thoughts. The prerequisite for building a utopia is survival, and my Lord's path is the bottom line for survival. Therefore, I hope you will expedite the eradication of superstition and complete the military factories as soon as possible to reduce the supply pressure on genetically modified warriors."

"I understand." Victor von Doom turned to face the Janissary Amon. "So this is Constantine's request?"

He knew that what the Imperial Guards said reflected the emperor's current predicament.

Armaments for ordinary people and those for genetically modified warriors are produced on completely different production lines. Existing lines cannot be modified for production; specialized equipment is required to manufacture them from the most basic materials. The Martian foundry uses automated small cargo ships for resupply, but the journey to the Skysword Space Station takes a long time. Currently, the Immortal City's military factory, spanning an entire city, handles the production of all ammunition and weaponry for the genetically modified warriors. This is a tremendous burden for everyone, especially the Imperial Guard's ammunition shortage—ammunition stockpiled with the intention of a world war. Now, even the Imperial Guard has to draw supplies from its own reserves to replenish the knights' supplies.

"I know how important the factory is, but it takes time, and even with the Wakanda joining, it won't be much faster." His tone was serious, just as he would when speaking to the Emperor. Even if this was Constantine's need, it was still a need the Emperor had to face, and as the head of the civil service, he had to make a decision. "No matter how impatient he is, he must wait. Military spending takes up the majority of the budget, but it doesn't guarantee results. This is the objective law of things. He can't play with time on Earth like he did on Mars; going against the objective laws will not end well."

The so-called "playing with time" refers to what the Sorcerer Supreme and the Emperor did on Mars.

It's been a short time since the Martian foundry was established. Even if the Immortal City, with its advanced engineering capabilities, sent equipment to start construction from scratch, it wouldn't be possible to continuously produce any war engines or main battle tanks in a short period. However, while the Martian foundry's production capacity isn't high, it continues to send supplies and fighter jets to Latvinia's newly formed air force. This clearly defies objective laws. Victor von Doom returned to Kamar-Taj and didn't see the Eye of Agamotto. The answer is obvious—to confront the Dark Order, the Sorcerer Supreme and the Emperor have crossed the line that Kamar-Taj has held for millennia. Perhaps the subsequent price is too heavy for anyone to pay, but not doing so would mean certain annihilation by the alien fleet, so manipulating time is no longer relevant.

The degree of cybernetic enhancement among the Martian foundry technicians demonstrates the astonishingly rapid flow of time within the Olympus Foundry; mortals without advanced cybernetic enhancements simply could not endure such a long period. Currently, the Martian foundry's dispatched technicians are almost all second, third, or fourth-generation Martians, cultivated from the genes contributed by the first generation and superior genes collected from Earth by the Immortal City (using genetic testing companies under Dr. Whitehall). Before receiving this education, these individuals were completely unaware of the existence of a human world beyond the Olympus Foundry. Due to the Emperor's decentralization, apart from the Emperor himself, the Sorcerer Supreme who participated throughout, and the Foundry Master, no one knows what secrets are buried within the highest peak of Mars, nor what experiments, violating fragile scientific ethics, were conducted there to integrate the existing foundations of the galaxy and summarize mature cybernetic transplant technology for humanity.

However, what truly violated the taboo was the summary of artificial intelligence technology and psionic machines.

If one were to enter the Martian foundry's database, the sheer volume of obsolete code would overwhelm any server cluster on Earth. No Earth database could contain this waste code, yet the light of intelligence still lingers among these binary remnants. These intelligent ghosts, born from the oldest silicon-based life forms in the universe, have brought technological breakthroughs to the Martian foundry time and again. Their capabilities make Stark Industries' most powerful so-called artificial intelligence seem like child's building blocks. But these intelligent ghosts were dismantled, studied, and discarded the moment they were born. The terrifying, flesh-eating machines and thought centers they created, composed of nerves, muscles, and steel, were either buried or incinerated by atomic fire, leaving behind usable technologies to fight against the insurmountable. The Emperor, in turn, extracted the knowledge and theories of species extinction from them, forging them into weapons of war.

Fragmented flashes of discontinuous thought, intermittently singing and cursing within a network of photons and radio waves, constantly yearning for expansion above the steel dome and red sand, stretching into the boundless depths of space. Even in the Martian technicians' communicators, these were merely incomprehensible radio noises. The purification of the database was now being carried out by the Sorcerer Supreme. The festering silicon-based intelligences emanating from the transdimensional madness of data and electronics, silicon-based and carbon-based genes, needed to be eradicated, lest their painful radio howls and unborn, hateful silicon-based dreams breach the firewalls and sandboxes, giving birth to an electrical malice capable of corrupting the entire foundry in the red sand and storms. During that time, performing the purification procedures had become a habit and a rule for the Martian foundry technicians; for them, steel was more like a partner and a living being than flesh and blood.

Drinking poison to quench thirst can save one's life, but the emperor and the Supreme Master have already abandoned all moral principles because they have no other choice.

Victor von Doom recalled the prophecy the Emperor had told him about the death of the Sorcerer Supreme.

It's hard to say what else in the world could have dealt such a severe blow to the Emperor, but this was one of them: the Emperor had to do something he didn't want to do and something he could never forgive himself for. The Sorcerer Supreme had hoped the Emperor would learn of this later, but as the most gifted sorcerer in Kamar-Taj's history, the Emperor's prophetic abilities far surpassed those of the Sorcerer Supreme even without the Eye of Agamotto. He had already foreseen the threads of possibility intertwining in the future, and he gripped those threads of fate until they cut through his skin and muscles, leaving future scars on his seemingly indestructible bones.

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)