"Although these days have been turbulent, everything is still within our control."
"Yes!"
Agent Sitwell nodded in agreement.
Afterward, Agent Sitwell and the new head of Hydra's American branch made their way deep underground together…
In truth, the real essence of Project Insight was this: by analyzing every individual's history and records, it would predict whether that person might pose a threat to the established order in the future.
If a threat was identified, the Helicarriers would be deployed to eliminate the target before that threat ever materialized.
To elaborate, it meant using a person's past behavior—including the things they had said, the books they had read, the music they had listened to, the movies they had watched, the organizations they had joined, the posts they had published, liked, and shared, the emails they had sent, every phone call and every text message, their social circles, professional attributes, educational history, medical records, blood type, zodiac sign, and so on—to predict that person's future.
In today's society, nothing escapes detection by satellites and cameras, and most things are recorded on the internet. That is the terrifying power of big data.
The Lemurian Star was, in fact, a satellite launch vessel, and it could be considered part of Project Insight.
The crux of Project Insight lay in those three Insight satellites, and that was precisely what the launch vessel was for.
Why did S.H.I.E.L.D. launch satellites from the sea?
The reason was simple: a ship could sail to the equator. If they launched from the equator, the satellites would require less fuel to reach orbit.
It was a more efficient method, and the satellites could also remain in space for a longer time.
And so, once Project Insight began, the Sword Bureau had already launched two Insight satellites. Zodheus did not stop the project—after all, this was Hydra's final revelry.
Just as they were preparing to launch the last satellite, Agent Sitwell happened to arrive.
All this time, he had been waiting for the satellite launches, and now they had finally reached the final step.
Agent Sitwell, while a member of the Sword Bureau, was also a Hydra spy.
Because of that, he needed to inject a secret program into the satellite's systems.
This program was of paramount importance. It concerned the true essence of Project Insight—one could even call it the future of Hydra.
This was the mission entrusted to him by the new head of Hydra's American branch, and because the mission was so special, he had to complete it personally.
It was only when Agent Sitwell watched with his own eyes as the final Insight satellite soared into the sky that he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, for the time being, even the arrogant Hydra knew that this was not the best moment to launch Project Insight.
After all, the dazzling Zodheus was still around. As for whether the Insight ships could kill him, no one believed it was even a possibility.
Otherwise, Zodheus would have died long ago during the Chitauri invasion, wouldn't he?
It was at this moment that Zodheus announced something that was both shocking to the world and a delightful surprise to Hydra.
"I will be stepping down from my position as Director of the Sword Bureau."
This sent the United Nations into shock. Why would he suddenly resign when he was doing such a good job?
We never gave you a hard time or made things difficult for you—it was always you giving us a hard time and making things difficult for us, wasn't it?
The representatives of the Atlantean civilization and Wakanda also did their utmost to persuade Zodheus to stay.
They were joking, right? If Zodheus resigned, who knew how the new Director of the Sword Bureau would target them?
Faced with the pleas and appeals of the entire world, as well as all sorts of promises from the United Nations, Zodheus refused them all. Then, cleanly and decisively, he handed over the authority of the Director of the Sword Bureau.
He had already sold them the Zaku units anyway. Zodheus now felt that he could finally shed the burden of being a superhero.
Left with no other choice, the hidden Hydra began to exert its influence. The position of Director of the Sword Bureau carried unimaginable power and prestige!
It was no exaggeration to say that even the President of the United States could not compare to the Director of the Sword Bureau. It was the most powerful position in the world!
But the result was completely unexpected. At this moment, Zodheus announced that he had found the sleeping Captain America, Steve Rogers.
Then, the battleship-class superhuman Steve Rogers jumped out. With the overwhelming support of the public, as well as Zod's recommendation, Steve Rogers became the new Director of the Sword Bureau!
There was nothing to be done about it. Although Steve's popularity had basically been crushed by Zodheus, apart from Zodheus, he truly was an idol in the hearts of the American people.
Many, many Americans had grown up listening to the stories of Captain America. Aside from Stark possibly having objections, no one else had any complaints.
The superheroes were also very willing to follow Captain America's command.
This was also the tone that Zodheus had set from the beginning. The Captain America he had shaped could perfectly handle the position of Director of the Sword Bureau. He would show no favoritism or selfishness, devoting himself entirely to humanity and justice.
Add to that Nick Fury as Deputy Director for support, and Stark as the leader of the superheroes responsible for nitpicking every flaw—a trinity of management!
Hydra was left completely dumbfounded as the important position was snatched away from them.
The problem was that this had all happened too suddenly. They were caught off guard. The opponents they had originally anticipated were Nick Fury and Tony Stark, or at worst, General Ross.
They never expected that an old fossil who had been dead for over seventy years would jump out and compete with them for the position—and then succeed just like that.
If you asked whether Hydra was willing to accept this, the answer was definitely no.
But then came the problem: even though they were unwilling, there didn't seem to be anything they could do about it.
After Zod had arranged everything, he began studying the corpse of the Cursed Warrior, which had been reduced to pieces.
The Reality Stone was now in his possession. If he could replicate the Cursed Warrior, wouldn't that be quite nice?
Although Hydra desperately wanted the Cursed Warrior's corpse and refused to give it to Zodheus,
Zodheus's remaining authority was still formidable, so the United Nations tacitly allowed the corpse to be recovered by Zodheus.
After all, they had captured a large group of living Dark Elves. Surely they could extract the technology to create such powerful warriors from them, right?
Unfortunately, they didn't know that the Cursed Warrior was created using fragments of Aether particles, and Malekith had already used the final fragment—the Cursed Stone—on Algrim.
Zod studied it for a while and figured out the principle behind the Cursed Stone.
In essence, it was simply the result of Malekith making a wish to the Reality Stone and obtaining a fragment of it.
The Cursed Warrior, which consumed life force to the extreme—even a Dark Elf could only maintain that state for a limited time before dying.
But fortunately, Zod had the Power Stone, which could complete the energy supply for the Reality Stone.
The Power Stone served as the foundation for activating the abilities of the other Infinity Stones while reducing the burden on the user. Although Zod himself was fully capable of powering all the Infinity Stones on his own, having the Power Stone share the load wasn't bad either.
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)