The dilapidated factory was located in a remote corner at the very end of Arthur Avenue. Even the sound of gunshots could hardly travel out.
Furthermore, this was Hertz's main base, a stronghold of the Mafia.
In this true Little Italy, even if nearby residents heard gunshots, they wouldn't call the police.
So after dealing with Hertz, Roy didn't leave immediately. Instead, filled with curiosity, he went to what was originally Hertz's office and found the hidden elevator leading to a secret basement.
Originally, Roy had no interest in the 'goods' Hertz had spoken of.
After all, Roy didn't deal drugs.
But Hertz's dying words about the Super Soldier Serum had piqued Roy's intense interest.
Roy really wanted to know what kind of 'goods' could possibly be connected to Super Soldier Serum research. It couldn't be that getting high was more conducive to research work, could it?
Ever since Captain America emerged from the battlefields of World War II, countless factions had spent the next sixty years trying to research the Super Soldier Serum—the U.S. military, S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, and so on.
The Super Soldier Serum was all about the evolution of human limits.
Regardless of a faction's size or whether an organization was good or evil, basically any person or ghost with the means wanted to give it a shot.
Even the Mafia's family Commission had its own dedicated laboratory.
All of this, Roy could understand.
But a short, fat loser like Hertz, who had to resort to shady back-alleys just to source his drugs...
Ding!
Just as Roy's curiosity reached its peak, the elevator doors opened, and an induction-powered incandescent light instantly illuminated the somewhat gloomy underground space.
What came into view were rooms that resembled shipping containers.
Through the occasionally open doorways, Roy could see pregnant women living inside.
Not one or two, but hundreds of them.
An unprecedented chill, like an electric current, made Roy's scalp tingle.
It was obvious that these pregnant women were the so-called 'goods' Hertz had mentioned.
As a reincarnated person, Roy had gone from being a citizen of East Xia in his past life to a mixed-race assassin in this one, living in a world dominated by Western culture.
Roy considered himself emotionally detached, no saint by any means. To him, killing a person was no different from killing a chicken.
But even so, Roy held a sincere sense of protection for pregnant women and human children.
And now, combined with Hertz's dying words, it was clear that these so-called 'goods' were to be sent to a secret laboratory in Southeast Asia as consumables and test subjects.
In an instant, an extreme rage ignited, as if it would burn a hole through the top of his skull.
At this moment, Roy wished he could go to Kamar-Taj, borrow the Time Stone, turn back time by ten minutes, revive Hertz and Hammerhead, and then capture them alive to be tortured for ten thousand years.
It wasn't that Roy had a strong sense of justice or morality, but rather a fundamental instinct of being human.
Fortunately, this instinctive anger came as quickly as it went.
Roy soon regained his rationality and prepared to call the police, letting the NYPD and the New York city government handle the massive trouble before him.
That's right, massive trouble.
Just the rescue, settlement, repatriation, and compensation for these pregnant women would be an enormous hassle.
Not to mention, a shocking case of this magnitude could never be covered up.
It could very well become a sensational piece of global news.
Roy didn't want to get involved in this kind of 'trouble' in the slightest.
Just as Roy cast a Cleaning spell and prepared to leave silently, someone suddenly peeked out from the room closest to the elevator. A pair of wary yet pure eyes landed on Roy.
Their eyes met, and the pregnant woman in the room was clearly frightened, quickly darting back inside.
Roy opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.
Rescuing them and calling the police was already a great deed, one that seriously violated his professional code.
It was best not to get involved in any extra business, not even a little bit.
However, before Roy could leave, a timid female voice came from the room.
"Have you seen that person before?"
"No, but he has a gun. Don't go out, Veronica..."
"..."
The soft whispers reached Roy's ears without missing a single word.
At this moment, Roy hated his incredibly sensitive hearing, and he hated the slow-to-open elevator doors even more.
Sure enough, what he feared came to pass.
Just as the elevator doors behind Roy finally opened, a beautiful woman in a pure white maternity nightgown walked out of the room. As if mustering her courage, she said, "Sir, are you here to save us?"
One of Roy's feet was already in the elevator. He wanted to leave directly, but his conscience wouldn't allow it.
After a long moment, Roy stiffly turned his head. "No, I'm just lost. Wrong door."
"Uh, don't worry, I'll help you call the police later. No need to thank me."
After saying that, Roy prepared to make a run for it.
But before the elevator doors could close, the beautiful pregnant woman had walked over, barefoot. She blocked the elevator door with one hand, her breathtakingly beautiful eyes fixed on Roy.
Roy raised an eyebrow. "Ma'am, I already said I'll help you call the police."
"And I don't want to get into trouble, understand?"
The beautiful pregnant woman seemed a little embarrassed as well. She gave Roy an apologetic smile. "Sir, I understand what you mean. I just wanted to ask you to wait a moment, and then we can leave together."
As she spoke, a faint light flowed around her body.
In the next moment, the beautiful pregnant woman instantly transformed into a top-tier, mature beauty with a bombshell figure.
Ah, her appearance was also very familiar. She seemed to bear a striking resemblance to Earth's beauty queen, Monica. To be precise, she was an upgraded version of the beauty queen—bigger, fairer, and more tender.
Pah, this figure... it's just too indecent.
"Witch? Mage? Or something else?"
"Mage! Just like you, I simply don't wish to be exposed. I have no ill intentions."
Roy was not mesmerized by the beauty of the upgraded-version beauty queen opposite him. During her transformation, he had sensed an energy flow that was extremely similar to his own mana.
And what reassured Roy slightly was that when his gun was pressed against her vital points, she showed no 'resistance' whatsoever.
A real gun, a handgun, not any other kind of messy 'gun'.
At the very least, this was enough to prove that she had no malicious intent.
A female mage with less mana than him, who wasn't resisting at all, and an upgraded-version beauty queen at that.
Roy guessed he might have run into a 'plot' character from the real American media universe.
He could go for it—no, he meant, they could leave together and exchange some information about the 'mage world'.
"You have two minutes."