The enormous pharmaceutical complex had been divided into a vast enclosed zone and rebuilt into a manor-style training base. High walls, patrol routes, and overlapping surveillance systems ensured that both the interior and exterior of the compound remained under strict security at all times.
Three primary buildings stood at the center of the facility.
At the top of the northern building was a luxurious private bedroom reserved exclusively for Ethan Voss. It served as his resting place whenever he stayed at the base.
After finishing a quick dinner, Ethan made a brief phone call to his assistant.
Attorney General Berry had thoroughly enjoyed the private gathering earlier that evening. According to the assistant's report, the man was now enthusiastically "studying foreign languages" and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.
He would probably stay awake the entire night.
Ethan gave a calm but very specific instruction before ending the call.
"Make sure everything is recorded. The attorney general might forget about his happy moments tomorrow morning, but we absolutely must not."
He hung up the phone, then walked to the window and pushed it open. A cool night breeze drifted into the room, carrying distant city sounds along with the faint glow of lights scattered across the horizon.
Ethan turned back toward the center of the room.
With a single thought, the air in front of him suddenly rippled like water disturbed by a stone. In the next instant, a dark chaotic gate appeared silently in midair.
Without hesitation, Ethan stepped through it.
The scenery changed immediately.
He now stood inside a richly decorated study filled with polished wood furniture and elegant bookcases. Sunlight streamed through the large window behind the desk, illuminating the room with warm daylight.
Outside the window, the sun shone brightly in a clear blue sky.
This place was Ethan's Divine Realm.
When his soul first transmigrated into this world, the body he occupied had been only eight years old. At the time, nothing about the situation seemed particularly unusual.
Several years passed before the strange phenomenon appeared.
The so-called Divine Realm manifested suddenly, without warning.
Eventually Ethan realized what had happened.
During the process of crossing into this universe, something extraordinary had fused with him. It seemed to be a divine heart—or something very similar to a divine core.
The fusion process lasted five full years.
When Ethan turned thirteen, the integration finally completed.
And the result was astonishing.
The divine core had evolved into an entire planet.
More precisely, it had become Ethan's own personal divine world.
The realm existed somewhere in an unknown extra-dimensional space surrounded by chaotic energy, yet it remained directly connected to Ethan's soul.
Leaving the study, Ethan stepped outside.
The house stood halfway up a mountain, and numerous buildings had been constructed around it. At the base of the mountain, not far away, a small town had begun to take shape. In the distance, the faint outlines of large construction projects could still be seen.
High above, a bright sun radiated heat and light.
When the Divine Realm first formed, the sun, moon, and stars appeared automatically according to Ethan's subconscious expectations.
However, as the ruler of this world, he understood the truth.
Those celestial bodies didn't truly exist in a physical sense. They were more like projections or environmental simulations, similar to a curtain placed over reality.
Even so, they still functioned exactly like real celestial bodies.
At present, only the mountain region and the land surrounding the small town showed signs of life.
The rest of the planet resembled the barren surface of Mars—dry, lifeless, and covered with endless rock and dust.
There were no oceans.
No rivers.
No forests.
No natural ecosystems.
As the master of this world, Ethan's task was to gradually build and develop the planet. Every stage of development strengthened both the realm itself and Ethan's own abilities.
More importantly, the growth of the Divine Realm was not restricted by physical laws or scientific limitations.
If he wished, he could eventually transform the planet into heaven.
Or into hell.
The choice belonged entirely to him.
After years of experimentation, Ethan gradually discovered several methods for strengthening the Divine Realm.
The simplest method was also the most direct.
Increase the population.
For that reason, over the past several years he had secretly transferred numerous confidential facilities and personnel into this world.
Without question, this realm was the safest location imaginable.
His scientists and Hydra agents no longer needed to hide from governments or intelligence agencies.
At the same time, Ethan had quietly recruited people across the globe. Some were persuaded through generous incentives, while others had been brought here through less ethical methods.
As a result, the once barren mountain ranges had slowly transformed.
What had originally been rocky desert terrain gradually turned into fertile soil. Underground water sources were discovered and expanded, allowing vegetation to flourish.
Flowers, grasses, and trees now spread across sections of the land.
Currently, more than five thousand people lived within the Divine Realm.
Aside from the Hydra research base located inside the mountain, most of the population resided in the growing town at its base.
Several factories had already been built around the settlement.
Farther out, large areas of land had been cleared and converted into farmland and ranches.
The red wine that Attorney General Berry tasted earlier that day hadn't actually come from France.
It had been produced here.
Based on Ethan's calculations, the agricultural products, livestock goods, and wine exports generated from this world would eventually produce tens of millions of dollars in profit every year once sold in the outside market.
And that was only the beginning.
At first, when the planet had been empty, Ethan could only vaguely sense the existence of the world itself.
However, something changed as people began arriving.
It seemed that every individual who entered this realm shared a faint fragment of their soul energy with him.
The sensation gradually intensified as the population grew, yet something invisible always blocked the connection from fully awakening.
When the population surpassed three thousand residents, everything changed.
Ethan experienced a strange sensation, almost like an egg cracking open.
In that instant, the connection between himself and the entire world became perfectly clear.
At the same moment, he awakened a terrifying new power.
An overwhelming mental force.
Telekinesis.
If he wished, Ethan could lift an entire mountain into the air.
If he wished, he could compress a car until it shrank to the size of a football.
If he wished, he could reshape the entire terrain of the planet.
Within this world, he could soar through the sky or plunge into the deepest ocean trenches. Mountains could rise or collapse according to his will.
In this realm, he was the absolute ruler.
From that moment forward, Ethan became completely certain of one thing.
As the population of the Divine Realm continued growing, his connection with the world would deepen further.
And with that connection would come greater power.
The power of a god.
Just as Ethan stepped out of the study, one of the nearby staff members spotted him.
A moment later, someone hurried over to deliver a report.
"Mr. Voss, Dr. Anton and Mr. Ivan have successfully developed the super cushioning material you requested. They're currently waiting for you in the armor laboratory."
The Hydra base had been built deep inside the mountain itself.
Its interior design resembled something from a futuristic city.
The armor laboratory was particularly impressive, filled with advanced machinery and high-tech equipment.
Unfortunately, the numerous vodka bottles scattered across the floor ruined the aesthetic somewhat.
The moment Ethan entered, Anton Vanko immediately stood up.
"Boss, you're here!"
Ivan Vanko, on the other hand, merely pursed his lips and remained seated. Before he could say anything, Anton slapped him sharply on the back of the head.
Ivan sighed in annoyance and slowly stood up as well.
Ethan didn't care about the messy laboratory, and he certainly didn't care about the vodka bottles.
Several years earlier, when he had sent people to locate Anton Vanko, the old scientist had already been worn down by life and was suffering from serious illness.
Ethan had brought him to America, paid for his treatment, and offered him generous funding to continue his scientific research.
Anton had never forgotten that kindness.
Ethan had also promised him something else.
One day he would have the opportunity to beat up Tony Stark.
Howard Stark might already be dead, but his son was still alive.
And besides, Anton believed in fairness.
If Howard's son got beaten by his own son, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to settle old grudges.
"I heard the super cushioning material is finished?" Ethan asked.
Ivan immediately straightened, a hint of arrogance appearing on his face.
"It's just a simple buffer material. I solved it with barely any effort."
He folded his arms.
"Don't bother me with trivial things like this next time. I've got far more important projects to deal with."
Anton shot him an irritated glare before turning back to Ethan.
"Boss, the cushioning material passed every test. It fully meets the requirements you specified."
"Excellent."
Ethan nodded with satisfaction.
"How's the full-body armor design progressing? Now that we have the cushioning material, it should be feasible, right?"
Anton nodded.
"The design phase is finished. We're currently producing prototype units for comprehensive testing."
He adjusted his glasses.
"Once the tests are completed, we can begin small-scale production. I don't expect any major problems."
"Very good."
Ethan then turned his attention to Ivan.
"What about the shield generator for the Crimson Mech? Is it finished yet?"
Ivan's expression immediately darkened.
Ever since Ethan recruited the Vanko father and son, he had assigned them a final ultimate goal.
Build the Crimson Mech.
With Anton's decades of expertise, they eventually succeeded in recreating a working Arc Reactor.
At present, the entire energy supply for the laboratories and the small town inside the Divine Realm depended on two large reactors.
However, miniaturizing high-output energy reactors remained extremely difficult.
And the mech itself required far more than just a power source.
There were still major challenges involving the transmission system, buffer system, propulsion system, intelligent assistance system, and structural stability.
Tony Stark had managed to develop his Mark series armor relatively quickly because he had access to decades of advanced research from Stark Industries.
More importantly, Tony Stark himself was something of a genius anomaly.
The kind of person practically cursed by knowledge.
Anton and Ivan Vanko were brilliant scientists, but they weren't chosen prodigies like Stark.
In many ways, they were the stepping stones that genius figures eventually surpassed.
"You have no idea how hard it is to mount a shield generator onto a mech," Ivan complained.
"My first prototype was the size of a truck."
He rolled his eyes dramatically.
"I've tested every material I can think of, and none of them can handle the energy output."
Ethan understood the problem perfectly well.
Materials capable of handling that level of power certainly existed somewhere in this universe.
They simply didn't possess them yet.
"You can pause the material experiments for now," Ethan said calmly.
"I'll be bringing back something you've never seen before soon."