Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 884 At All Costs (Second Update)

Six girls participated in Lorna's tutoring session, but apart from Lorna, the other high school girls seemed somewhat distracted. Salomon felt he shouldn't linger today; the girls' whispers were rather explicit, and they kept erupting into heated discussions whenever he turned away—his black suit was indeed rather fitted, and Salomon's muscles were quite developed, especially since he had taken off his coat. Darcy Louise, the most vulgar, blunt, and unreserved woman Salomon knew, had already warned him about the consequences of wearing an English suit; her words were guaranteed to make any lady blush to the point of fainting. These high school girls were already quite shy, and Darcy Louise always used actions instead of words, so he couldn't blame them; they were merely whispering.

Little Lorna rolled her eyes where no one was looking, then turned away, feigning great interest. When Salomune asked about it later, she said it was "a powerful demonstration of fake friendship," adding, "I want to hear what funny nicknames they gave your ass," and that this was how high school girls' friendships were, implying that he, a guy obsessed with fighting, wouldn't understand how delicate the female psyche was.

"What are you guys talking about? Sorry, my brother was helping me with my math problems earlier."

"We're talking about him, Dane." The girl sitting on the far left, closest to little Lorna, blinked and glanced at the arcane mage walking towards the other children. She had long, golden curly hair and green eyes. "You're not related by blood, are you?"

"I also wish I were two meters tall, muscular, driving a convertible, handsome enough to be liked by both men and women, and able to casually shoot and wipe out an entire street of people. Yes, we're not related by blood, so what?"

"It's nothing, we're just curious why you didn't fall for him."

"Because nobody likes someone who knows all the stupid things they've done." Little Lorna grinned mischievously. "Let me tell you a little secret: he rarely uses social media, and the trendiest words he uses are from the nineties. He is indeed very rich, but believe me, you won't be interested in a conservative old man. Besides, he has girlfriends, two supermodels at that. His crotch won't get tight from a bunch of pretentious teenage girls. He'll only break your hearts and make you suffer. And by the way, I've seen him shower, and I guarantee 'suffering' is exactly what it sounds like."

"Wow! What did you say? Why did they run out crying?"

Little Lorna stood in the corridor, waving lazily toward the orphanage gate. "It's nothing, but I don't think they'll come back."

"That's a good thing. The five of their perfumes mixed together is unbearable. Hopefully, they'll be more selective next time they wear their mother's perfume, otherwise I'll start to become interested in their mother sooner or later." Hearing this, little Lorna immediately gave him a look as if she'd heard something disgusting. Then Salomon asked seriously, "There's one more small question. I want you to tell me, when did you see me taking a shower?"

"Let's talk about Spider-Man, something for young people," little Lorna jumped up. "Or Hollywood actresses would do! You're only in your early twenties, aren't you?" Salomon didn't reply, but instead tossed little Lorna aside and took out his phone to dial his secretary's number. Little Lorna, picking up fallen leaves from her feet, listened as her brother assigned tasks to his subordinates over the phone. Finally, after Salomon hung up, little Lorna seized the opportunity to speak.

"What's wrong!" she asked. "Weren't you uninterested in Spider-Man?"

“Yeah, I’m not interested in Spider-Man, but I am interested in the guys who make Spider-Man.” Salomon didn’t turn around. His fingers were already dialing another number. “Remember which company made the vaccine we used? I mean, the one we bought for the kids before I started making it. That’s right, Osborn! That company’s in a bad financial situation right now. Do you think I’d let those experienced scientists go? Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to let them go homeless with the company’s restructuring. I’m busy poaching virologists and cell biologists for my lab right now. Hey, Stephanie, don’t forget to bring in our white gloves—no, not the cross-shareholding kind, I want wholly owned white gloves. The ones Dr. Whitehall left behind, so even if we fail, we won’t be dragged into it.”

The bio-gene laboratory is a department within the Immortal City that, like the Department of Internal Affairs, is completely isolated from Wakanda's involvement.

While the secrecy measures were excellent, they also exposed a shortage of manpower. The Malik family had never previously ventured into the medical field; that was Dr. Whitehall's domain. Therefore, the biological laboratory didn't gain many researchers after the Malik family joined. After Salomon inherited Dr. Whitehall's legacy, receiving shares in a series of pharmaceutical companies and a gene laboratory, he could distribute some experiments across multiple labs, slightly alleviating the manpower shortage. However, the biological laboratory's formidable security measures were terrifying not only externally but also internally—the Immortal City's research projects were simply too dangerous. Many scholars who entered the biological gene laboratory never returned, either going insane, committing suicide, or attempting to kill their colleagues, destroy research results, and then being killed themselves. If the Wakandans learned of the research projects in the laboratory, the self-proclaimed civilized and advanced Wakandans would immediately sever ties with the Immortal City.

It was in this research environment, combined with genetic modification technology and the mysterious art of gene alchemy, that the experiment to create the first Royal Guard was barely successful, at the cost of nearly two hundred gang slaves captured on human trafficking routes and almost half of the biologists going insane. Salomon desperately needed a way to replenish his genetic research team; relying solely on the existing manpower to absorb Wakanda's biology was far from sufficient to meet his needs, and he didn't want to encounter problems due to a shortage of personnel when creating the next Royal Guard. His needs could never be satisfied, because that dangerous future required him to make all the necessary preparations.

"If the acquisition goes through, remember to demand the Osborn Group provide their research data on genetic mutations. I need to find out if the Spider-Boy's abilities in New York City can be inherited through DNA... You don't know this yet, sorry. Just do as I say. If the conclusion is that it can be inherited, remember to prepare for sterilization injections, just like we did for those Inhumans." Salomon glanced at Lorna's expression. "Oh, and remember to investigate whether Tony Stark intends to contact our Spider-Boy. Hey, my sister, why do you look so unhappy?"

"Are you serious? Sterilization and superpowers!" the girl whispered. "Is this your job? I have superpowers too, are you going to do that to me?"

"Because your genes aren't the problem, your superpowers come from dimensional disturbances and mergers, making them extremely unstable." Salomon raised an eyebrow. "That's right, that's my job—to avoid a terrible future by any means necessary. If I hadn't sterilized the Inhumans, Earthlings would have become slaves to aliens. My solution is to sterilize the Inhumans to completely negate their value as slaves, while simultaneously smashing the aliens' heads in. It's that simple."

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)