After savoring a little taste of Tony's future happiness, Heisenberg quietly fell asleep.
Quietly…?
No. Jessica came.
"BOSS…"
"Fuck!"
When he woke up again, Jessica was already gone. Billy was standing beside him, reminding him softly, "Boss, should you eat some lunch first? You've got a meeting to hold this afternoon."
"A meeting, what meeting, what the hell?" Heisenberg asked on instinct, then remembered what he had scheduled for today.
Right, those damn gang bosses were supposed to come to him and die.
Cough.
A meeting is a meeting. How could he call it sending themselves to die? Those idiots were here to attend a meeting.
Heisenberg climbed out of his lounge chair and went down to the nightclub to eat something.
Because of the orders he had given in advance, there was not a single customer in the club today.
At the same time, more than thirty professional cleaners had already been arranged backstage.
Why cleaners instead of hitmen?
Heisenberg's people did not need hitmen. Hitmen made a living by killing with ambushes, but Heisenberg's people never killed in secret.
He slowly swallowed the last bite of steak, then stuffed the final oyster into his mouth.
Setting down his knife and fork, he patted Billy on the shoulder.
"Three p.m. When they arrive, come get me."
"Yes, Boss!"
Just like that, Heisenberg returned to the rooftop and leisurely basked in the sun.
If you studied his life closely, you would find that he seemed to be sunbathing nine days out of ten.
He lounged like that until 3:15 p.m. before Billy finally came to wake him.
"Boss, I think everyone's here!"
"Hm? Good."
Heisenberg nodded in understanding, climbed out of the chair, and headed toward the nightclub, which had now been sealed off.
He took the elevator down. When he reached backstage, Jessica and Bullseye were already waiting.
Seeing Heisenberg arrive, the two nodded. Bullseye lowered his voice. "Boss, we're ready."
"Mhm. Keep it clean," Heisenberg replied.
Then he crossed the empty backstage, passed rows of dancers' costumes, and entered the nightclub itself, where there were no customers at all.
The front doors had long since been locked. In the center of the club, more than forty people were sitting on chairs in a messy cluster.
Some looked nervous. Some looked completely unconcerned as they sipped the alcohol Heisenberg's men had brought them.
When Heisenberg arrived, over half of them decisively stood up and greeted him.
"It's an honor to meet you, Lord Heisenberg!"
Those who stood spoke with respect.
As for the rest who did not even rise, they did not have the mood to so much as look at Heisenberg.
But Heisenberg felt exactly the same way. He could not be bothered to spare these mob bosses a single glance.
He walked slowly to the seat that belonged to him.
Tap.
He lightly patted the table and, in an extremely gentle tone, said, "Today's meeting, I've only got one thing to say. Are all the bosses of New York here? Anyone not here yet?"
As his words fell, one of the bosses who had stood up hurriedly shook his head and answered, "Sir, we're all here!"
When he answered, his expression even looked excited. Maybe he thought he could gain the authority Kingpin once gave him.
But what he never expected was that the moment Heisenberg heard his reply…
"All here? Good. Then let's begin," Heisenberg said softly.
Then he turned around cleanly and walked back the way he had come.
Inside the nightclub, his men instantly pulled out weapons under Bullseye's lead.
In the blink of an eye, countless gun barrels filled with blood and slaughter were aimed at the gang bosses.
"What is this!"
"Boss, say your piece first, don't start shooting before you even talk!!!"
"Damn it, you're doing it already? At least tell us what you want, what if we can give it to you!"
"Heisenberg, you're a fucking bastard!"
"You've got some nerve, you asshole, you actually dare do this!"
"You'll pay for this!!!"
Rat a tat tat…
Before they could finish, gunfire was already ringing out one after another. Bullseye even picked up a machine gun himself, making every round precisely punch into the mob bosses' chests.
In moments, corpses covered the floor.
Heisenberg looked at the bodies and nodded with satisfaction.
"Everyone's here, right? That's the only thing I needed to say," he said.
"Since no one's late, kill every last one of them.
Bullseye, take your men and the elite Rumlow sent and hit the streets. Starting tonight, New York's darkness will have only one name, Heisenberg.
Jessica, bring the nightclub staff and clean this place up. Don't let these greedy cockroaches dirty my floor.
And Billy, kid, I appreciate your ability. I hope you don't end up like these dead bastards, blinded by greed and ambition.
Everyone has the right to earn success and happiness through me, but those who go against me don't.
Get to work. And say goodbye to these damned bastards for me!"
With that, Heisenberg returned to the rooftop with light, easy steps.
Maybe his mood was finally smooth again. The way he lay there now looked especially relaxed.
…
Meanwhile, inside SHIELD's temporary command center for Project Pegasus.
A radiology expert, Bruce Banner, who had forced his way into Project Pegasus as the overall director a month and a half ago, had just finished his life of being constantly excluded.
It had to be said, even if Banner truly possessed the intelligence worthy of the position.
Even if he really was more suitable for the job than anyone else.
When he descended out of nowhere and shoved himself into the project…
The people who hated him far outnumbered those who admired him.
But from the first day he joined, Dr. Banner had prepared himself for all of it.
He knew the rotten, petty garbage of the scientific world, and he had the ability to handle it.
And sure enough, after a full month and a half, he relied on his highly professional ability and sky high, unconstrained thinking to successfully win over countless top scientists under him.
And now, he was finally enjoying a kind of happiness he had not felt in years.
After finishing today's work, he returned to his dorm with light, carefree steps.
His dorm no longer looked like a prison. It was an ordinary scholar's room.
Yet it was precisely that ordinariness, that normalcy, that gave him the happiness he craved most.
He was no longer the "monster" people whispered about.
Now, he was truly one of the most intelligent scientists on Earth, a Bruce Banner who finally matched his own mind.
Murmuring his doctor title to himself, Banner walked into the room, skillfully brewed a cup of coffee, and settled in.
He still had plenty of work tonight. This was not the time to rest.
Sipping the coffee, he tasted SHIELD's special supply blend while thinking through the stage by stage equations for the Tesseract's energy surges.
That's right. After confirming he would not unleash the beast in his heart and cause trouble for SHIELD, Hill transferred him into the current Tesseract research group.
Thinking about the peace and happiness he now had, Banner suddenly felt a bit grateful to Heisenberg for beating him up.
In his view, if Heisenberg had not properly taught Hulk a few lessons, how could he possibly have the life he had today?
But what he did not realize was that the quiet life he had just gained was about to vanish with the Tesseract's abnormalities.
Banner had only drunk half his coffee when his phone rang.
When he answered, his current deputy, Professor Selvig, the former lead of Project Pegasus, spoke with tension on the other end.
"Dr. Banner, the Tesseract's spectrum record just showed an abnormality. Please come observe as soon as possible!"
"Hm?" Hearing Selvig's words, a bad feeling rose in Banner's gut.
He threw on his white lab coat and rushed to the main lab of Project Pegasus with the most perfect scientist posture he could manage.
…
Less than half an hour later, aboard the Helicarrier high above the Rocky Mountains, acting SHIELD Director Hill received Banner's call.
Seeing the caller ID, Hill still felt a bit tense.
She was the one who had pushed Bruce Banner into Project Pegasus against objections. If Banner caused trouble again, she would be in a very difficult position.
So the moment she answered, she asked, "What happened? How is Project Pegasus?"
"Umm, Pegasus is actually fine. Based on the Tesseract's energy laws, we've developed at least three kinds of weapons that can utilize its energy," Banner answered quietly.
But that was not enough to ease Hill's mind. A professional agent like Hill had already heard something off in Banner's tone.
"Get to the point. What happened? You sound nervous."
On the other end, Banner seemed unaccustomed to admitting flaws in the project to a leader.
After all, every research plan led by Bruce Banner had never had an error.
Heh.
Fine. He would admit it. The first time he ever led a research plan independently, it went wrong, and that was how he became the Hulk.
And after that, he never again participated in a massive project like Pegasus.
So, with a hint of tension, Banner said to Hill, "Alright. The Tesseract really does have a problem. I can't quite pin down the cause."
As he spoke, Banner instinctively picked up the research report in front of him. Reading the recent abnormal fluctuation curve, he continued.
"The Tesseract seems to be undergoing changes we can't control. It's far more active than before, like something is remotely controlling it!"
At that, Banner put down the report and spoke seriously.
"If possible, you should come see the changes yourself. It just had a small scale energy riot. I have to request an evacuation of the Pegasus base. I'm afraid we need to temporarily abandon research on the Tesseract."
"Hold on for a few more days. I'll head to Pegasus as quickly as I can. Before I arrive, do not take any action regarding the Tesseract."
Hill issued orders swiftly. As SHIELD's last, fragile hope, she absolutely did not want the Tesseract to lose its value like this.
So the moment she hung up, she ordered the Helicarrier to turn around and head for the Pegasus base.
In the past two months, SHIELD had already been squeezed and battered to the brink by Hydra remnants and the World Security Council. They could not afford another massive blow.
But Hill also understood that whether it was Professor Selvig, or Professor Banner, who had been confirmed not to suddenly turn into the Hulk, both were top class figures in their fields.
Their judgments were unlikely to be wrong.
So she had to prepare herself to abandon the Tesseract.
/-\
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)