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Ivan Vanko glanced back at his father, who was lying paralyzed on the bed, and didn't want to say anything. He had never really believed his father's drunken ramblings.

As far back as he can remember, his father rarely said anything reliable. He always boasted that he was a great scientist, but he never saw anyone from any relevant department come to his house.

"Don't disbelieve me... hiccup... I have the blueprints... hiccup... Once I figure them out... I'll be very, very rich... and then I'll take you and kill them all!"

Ivan Vanko's father continued his drunken ramblings, saying that let alone understanding the blueprints, after so many years, his research abilities had regressed to an unknown level, and he probably wouldn't even be able to understand them now.

boom!

A sudden loud bang occurred outside. Before Ivan Vanko could react to what was happening, a soldier in military uniform burst through the door.

The soldier's face was covered in dust, but his panicked expression was still clearly visible beneath the dust.

"Don't move! Don't move! Put your hands up!"

The soldier pointed his pistol at the people inside and kept shouting.

Under the gun, Ivan Vanko obediently raised his hands, but his eyes were not as honest as his hands, constantly searching for an opportunity and route to retaliate.

"Give up the futile struggle; all your reinforcements have fallen."

Suddenly, a burly man appeared at the door. He had sharp features, his skin was covered in scars, and he was blind in one eye, but his aura of intimidation was ridiculously strong.

In addition, Ivan Vanko noticed that the only weapon the man carried was a longsword in his right hand, which puzzled him greatly. It didn't make sense that someone with a gun was afraid of someone with a melee weapon.

"Bradley! Put down your weapon! I...I have a hostage now!"

The soldier frantically pointed his gun at Ivan Vanko's father on the bed, perhaps because the man, who was also hungover and paralyzed, was unable to raise his hands to surrender.

Kim Bradley looked at the soldier coldly, with a Russian-like air about him. Hostages? What were those?

boom!

In the tension, the soldier pulled the trigger. As the bullet fired, Bradley moved at the same time, flashing in front of the soldier and slicing him in two with a flash of his sword.

"dad!"

Overwhelmed with grief, Ivan Vanko rushed to his father's bedside. Blood had stained the small bed red, and the man on it had stopped breathing.

After crying for a few seconds, Ivan Vanko suddenly couldn't cry anymore. For some reason, he felt that he wasn't as sad as he had imagined, but rather felt a sense of relief.

Kim Bradley walked to the bedside, glanced at the person on the bed, and frowned at Ivan Vanko, asking, "Ivan Vanko?"

"You know me?" Ivan Vanko knelt by the bed, looking up at Kim Bradley.

Kim Bradley lifted Ivanvanko up with one hand. Although Ivanvanko was not particularly strong due to malnutrition, he was still an adult male.

But Kim Bradley carried him like he was carrying a chick.

“I told you we shouldn’t let him raise you. It’s shameful for a father to say such a thing!” Kim Bradley said without changing his expression. “From now on, you’ll stay with me. Otherwise, he’ll completely ruin you. I’ll prepare a coffin for him.”

As Kim Bradley spoke, he led Ivan Vanko to the ground. There were many corpses lying around. After leaving the basement, Kim Bradley put Ivan Vanko down and turned to look into his eyes.

“My name is Kim Bradley, you can just call me Kim, understand?”

Ivan Vanko nodded. He felt inexplicably timid, but every time he tried to take a tough stance, he was immediately intimidated by Kim Bradley's face, and his intention vanished.

“Let’s go. Gangs will be coming to clean up the place soon. You’re not suited to stay here, and you’re too weak. You need to train.”

Kim Bradley led the way in one direction, where a wild-looking car was parked.

After getting into the car, Ivan Vanko noticed that the passenger in the front seat was someone who was clearly a gangster.

"Mr. Jin, this is the payment for this time. My boss is not feeling well, and he asked me to thank you on his behalf."

The gang member said obsequiously, as if Kim Bradley were his boss.

Kim Bradley took a paper bag, glanced at the cash inside, and said, "Just doing a job for money. Take us to the usual place."

"Yes, yes." The gangster said, turning to the driver, "Are you deaf?! Drive!"

Ivan Vanko glanced at Kim Bradley out of the corner of his eye. This man seemed to be an acquaintance of his father, but he guessed that their relationship wasn't very good, and they might even have been enemies.

He also kept thinking back to Kim Bradley's sword strike, what kind of attack it was, that he couldn't even see a shadow of it.

"Jin...where are we going?"

Ivan Vanko asked in a low voice.

"Speak louder! What can you do if you don't even have the strength to speak?!"

Kim Bradley instructed without turning his head.

"Jin! Where are we going?!"

Ivan Vanko repeated it aloud.

"Yes, you look very energetic."

Kim Bradley offered a curt, emotionless compliment: “Let’s go home.”

Go home? Ivan Vanko fell silent. He didn't know what to say, and just sat there, though he felt a little less afraid.

Yang Qiu, observing everything from God's perspective, nodded in satisfaction. The prologue to Script Eight was perfect, Kim Bradley's performance was simply superb, and Ivan Vanko's performance was also as expected.

In short, with Kim Bradley leading the way, Ivan Vanko is no longer able to follow his original life path, and his life will undergo a huge change starting today.

Meanwhile, at Ivanvanko's home, Russia's supernatural rapid reaction force arrived at the scene. After expertly examining the body lying in the center of the basement, they wrote something down in a notebook.

They then put Ivan Vanko's father's body in a body bag, preparing to cremate it.

Aside from those things, they didn't do anything else, just turned around and left, setting the entire basement on fire as they left.

The blueprints that Ivan Vanko's father had always hung on the far side were also destroyed in the fire.

Chapter 49 The Alchemist (Seeking Recommendations)

A dozen minutes later, under the respectful guidance of gang members, Kim Bradley brought Ivan Vanko to the location.

This is a courtyard of considerable size. Despite its dilapidated appearance, one can still discern its former glory. However, it now looks rather desolate. When the wind blows, the sign on the door sways precariously, almost falling off.

“Come with me,” Kim Bradley said, pushing open the door and walking in first.

He led Ivan Vanko directly to the backyard of the courtyard, where there was a grave by the wall, but there was no tombstone, giving the impression of an unmarked grave.

"This is your mother's cenotaph."

Kim Bradley walked to the grave and whispered, "She saved my life, which is why I brought you away from there."

My mother? Ivan Vanko looked at the grave; he could hardly remember what his mother looked like anymore.

That was a very long time ago. Sometimes he would wonder if his father would have fallen into such a state if his mother had lived longer.

It's highly likely that he will, after all, there's no saving a man like his father.

"After we meet, we'll get down to business. Your father has wasted too much of your time, and I'll make up for it."

Kim Bradley looked at Ivan Vanko with such a cold gaze that it stung his skin.

"Tell me first, what are you good at?"

“Um… mechanical manufacturing, weapons design, and some martial arts…” Ivan Vanko subconsciously followed Kim Bradley’s lead and began to speak.

Martial arts?

Without a word, Kim Bradley kicked out, and Ivan Vanko was kicked to the ground before he could even catch a glimpse of the foot's afterimage.

"Without physical fitness as a foundation, martial arts are just nonsense," Kim Bradley said calmly.

Ivanvanko silently stood up from the ground, not saying a word, but in his heart he kept arguing that no one in all of Russia could compare to his physical fitness.

"Without resources, there's no way to design weapons or manufacture machinery. Judging from your appearance, you probably can't provide me with those resources either."

Ivan Vanko took a deep breath. After so much time, his courage had returned considerably. "Then all I'm good at is studying. I can learn anything quickly! That's what I'm best at!"

Kim Bradley nodded in satisfaction. Ivan Vanko's basic qualities were decent. If, after getting to know him, he found that Ivan Vanko was a hopeless case, then Kim Bradley's best course of action would be to give Ivan Vanko some money and get rid of him.

“Since you’re confident in your learning abilities, then I’ll teach you something,” Kim Bradley said as he led Ivan Vanko inside.

"Are you going to teach me how to train? And then turn me into a gangster thug like you?" Ivan Vanko suddenly became bolder.

Kim Bradley stopped and turned to look at Ivan Vanko.

Meeting his gaze, Ivan Vanko cowered again. This man's individual combat ability was too strong; if the other party wanted to do something, he would have no room to resist.

"No, everyone has their own strengths. You are not suitable for martial arts. Being too old is one thing, but more importantly, your muscle and bone quality are not particularly good."

"I'm going to teach you alchemy," Kim Bradley said.

"Alchemy?!" Ivan Vanko found it somewhat absurd. "Are you a legendary alchemist? Or do you know a lot about alchemists?"

Ivan Vanko shook his head. His impression of the person in front of him had changed a lot. Relying on his self-study, Ivan Vanko's scientific literacy was quite good. In his opinion, the so-called alchemy was fake. At most, it was just an ancient chemical term that did not have a systematic approach.

What era is this? Alchemy?

“I’m not an alchemist, but I know them very well,” Kim Bradley said, yanking the door open. “Because I’ve killed a lot of alchemists!”

Ivan Vanko shuddered at Kim Bradley's words, thinking that the room was probably full of disposed corpses. But when he actually peeked inside, he found that what was inside was completely different from what he had imagined.

This is a large storage room, mainly storing books and some things that Ivan Vanko doesn't quite understand.

"Jin... I didn't expect you to open this door..."

Just as Ivan Vanko was feeling disappointed, the innermost mummy suddenly spoke.

Kim Bradley walked up to the mummy. "I'm surprised too. You're still alive after all these years."

"Surprised? This is the power of the Philosopher's Stone!" The mummy suddenly went berserk.

Kim Bradley looked down at the man before him. "You're using your own soul as material for the Philosopher's Stone. Time will only drive you crazier."

"You don't understand...you understand nothing...I'm the only alchemist left. I must see the Gate of Truth, I must become Truth. Alchemists cannot perish!"

The mummy roared, its expression extremely agitated.

"If you hadn't been so crazy as to launch simultaneous attacks on the Clock Tower and the Heavenly Court, alchemists wouldn't have fallen to this state."

Kim Bradley said it casually.

He still remembered how crazy the alchemist community was back then. Not only did they provoke the Clock Tower, which was at its zenith, but they also got the Heavenly Court, which always preferred peaceful development, to participate in the siege. Under the joint attack of the entire mystical side of the world, almost all the alchemists were killed.

"You don't understand! Once you see the truth, the Clock Tower, the Heavenly Court, the Kiran, and the Heavenly Emperor are all just weak ants!"

The mummy roared, seemingly showing no remorse as an alchemist.

“Alright, I’m not interested in your delusions. Since you’re still alive, come see someone.” Kim Bradley said, beckoning to Ivan Vanko.