Fuck!
This Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.!
Does this bastard even know what intellectual property and patents are!
If I could make a move...
If it weren't for that inexplicable suppressive force pinning his body so he couldn't move… Kilian really wanted to smash Uehara Naraku's head straight into his gut with one punch!
He'd spent so many years painstakingly biding his time to finally draft this behind‑the‑scenes mastermind plan, and in the end it got snatched away by a single sentence from this Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.…
The key point was that Kilian had absolutely no way to resist.
Uehara Naraku also didn't seem to intend to give him any chance to refute.
Uehara Naraku glanced at Kilian, who was kneeling on the ground, then extended his palm and pulled him up: "Looks like Mr. Kilian seems to agree to transfer his plan to me, so let's wish ourselves a pleasant cooperation?"
"…"
Kilian tilted his head up in speechless silence to look at Uehara Naraku, then finally stretched out his hand, grabbed Uehara Naraku's, and stood up…
Fuck…
Did he have any room to resist?
But this also let Kilian barely breathe a small sigh of relief.
At least his life could be spared today, and with Uehara Naraku, this Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., backing him, his plan seemed to have an even better chance of being realized.
"But I'm really curious about one thing…"
Kilian got to his feet and looked at Uehara Naraku, asking quietly: "Why would the Director want to be involved in this plan? Isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. supposed to be…"
"Shh…"
Ichimaru Gin raised an index finger to his lips, cutting off Kilian's question, and spoke with a squinting smile: "Mr. Kilian, there are some questions you just can't ask…"
After he finished, Ichimaru Gin's eyes narrowed even further, but his smile remained gentle: "You only get to know what the lord allows you to know… things you shouldn't know, if you accidentally learn them, can be very dangerous!"
"…"
Kilian's mouth couldn't help twitching as he pulled out a whatever kind of grin: "Fine, then I won't ask more."
Honestly, there was no need to ask much.
Why would this top‑level lapdog, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., suddenly want to get involved in his plan, even participate in assassinating the President?
It was nothing more than wanting to control this country too.
"Good that you're sensible."
Uehara Naraku gave Kilian a long, deep look, then calmly turned and left, leaving one last sentence behind: "I'll leave this place to you, Gin."
"Yes, my lord."
Ichimaru Gin bowed his head humbly toward Uehara Naraku's departing back.
A spatial Black Hole Gate quietly appeared.
Uehara Naraku's figure stepped into the black hole and vanished from where he'd stood.
This scene left the scientist Kilian in utter amazement; he even subconsciously wanted to go take a closer look. It was just that before he could get there, that Black Hole Gate had already disappeared.
And after Uehara Naraku left.
A crisp blade‑ring suddenly sang from Ichimaru Gin's hand. His palm gripped his Zanpakuto, and with a sudden slash he severed Kilian's hand!
"Aaaahhhhhhh…"
Kilian clutched the point where his wrist had been cut off with a death grip. The painful roar in his throat could no longer be suppressed, and the Extremes in his body erupted in an instant!
The surging high temperature turned Kilian's body a blazing red!
Kilian clamped his wrist as tightly as he could. The temperature at the wound climbed higher and higher; molten iron seemed to gush from the break, and a brand‑new hand grew out…
"This is punishment."
Ichimaru Gin smiled as he looked at Kilian, ignoring the ferocious rage on his face, and just went on talking with that same smile: "I hope Mr. Kilian will remember today's bit of good fortune. In future, you probably won't be rude to my lord again, right?"
Ichimaru Gin slowly slid his blade back into its sheath and continued as he watched Kilian: "Although my lord's temperament is gentle, that is not a reason for anyone to offend him… don't you think so, Mr. Kilian?"
"Honestly… I don't even know where I offended him…"
Kilian slowly shook out his newly regrown wrist, cursing this lapdog of Uehara Naraku's, Ichimaru Gin, over and over in his heart…
Fucking lunatics!
If it weren't for his Extremes being able to regenerate limbs, today Ichimaru Gin really would have chopped off his hand for good with that one stroke!
Ichimaru Gin waved his hand with a smile, his eyes slowly opening to reveal a pair of clear bright pupils: "When you're standing in front of my lord… kneeling is all you need to do, isn't it?"
"…Got it."
Kilian slowly nodded.
Fuck…
Definitely lunatics.
All this time, Kilian had thought his own deeds were enough to be called terrifying, but when faced with Uehara Naraku and Ichimaru Gin, he realized he was still playing kiddie games…
These two were far more cruel!
Just because Uehara Naraku had pointlessly knocked on the door outside for five minutes, everyone in the room had their lives stripped away, forced to cling to a five‑minute sliver of life before they died, and he even claimed he was letting them experience how precious five minutes was…
And Kilian, simply because he'd followed Uehara Naraku's gesture just now and used his hand to pull himself up, had his wrist hacked off afterward by Ichimaru Gin…
This was what true wholesale slaughter looked like!
They…
Truly didn't see life as life. These two basically treated them as a bunch of ants that could be crushed to death anytime!
Everyone in the house had been "cleaned up" by Uehara Naraku using the power of the Time Gem, so there was naturally no reason to stay in this Florida mansion any longer.
Facing someone as ruthless as Ichimaru Gin, Kilian didn't dare say Uehara Naraku slaughtering so many of his subordinates would delay things; he could only swallow his frustration and bring Ichimaru Gin back to his main base.
Kilian's main base was an oil tanker moored off the coast of Florida.
This tanker, which had once spilled crude oil off the coast of the United States, had long been abandoned and had become the base for Kilian and the Extremes test subjects.
With Ichimaru Gin watching him, Kilian didn't dare rashly contact anyone to leak information. Who knew if any of those politicians who'd thrown in with him had actually been planted by Uehara Naraku?
The only thing he could do now was continue executing his plan.
Still, Kilian had gotten one benefit from working with Uehara Naraku, namely that he could obtain some necessary intel from Uehara's hands.
For example…
The military's movements.
In order to curb the terrorist organization under Lord Mandarin from launching large‑scale remote bomb attacks, the military had dispatched the Iron Patriot to hunt down Extremes test subjects… this Iron Patriot was none other than Colonel Rhodes, piloting the War Machine armor.
Whenever Colonel Rhodes deployed, his intel was sent straight into Kilian's hands, all on Uehara Naraku's orders.
Obviously.
Uehara Naraku also wanted to make use of Rhodes.
"Perfect timing."
Kilian sat inside the base at his main stronghold, sizing up the subordinates around him as he laid out his orders in a low voice: "Go bring Rhodes back. We'll use Rhodes's armor to infiltrate the President's side…"
"You'd better move quickly…"
Ichimaru Gin squinted at everyone present and added softly: "You don't have much time left. I've heard this country has Christmas, you know…"
"…What's that supposed to mean?"
Kilian frowned, turning in surprise to look at Ichimaru Gin beside him: "Do you need us to prepare a Christmas gift for you?"
"Of course."
Ichimaru Gin slowly nodded, opened his palm, then gently closed it again: "This country… is the most suitable gift."
A tribute…
A gift for that lord!
Or rather, one of the rare gifts this planet is even capable of offering…