The morning breeze swept over the distant snow-capped mountains, crossed the rippling lakes, and slowly blew through the castle.
"You're saying those two children are dead?" Hong Fei frowned, his face creased with doubt.
Number Four spoke. "Boss, we investigated carefully, even obtaining the government's relevant records. There is indeed evidence that they have died."
Number Five handed over the documents. Without looking, Hong Fei said, "Forget it, let this matter end here. You can put it aside. Also, New York might need some daily assistants. Pick some and send them over."
"Understood." Hong Fei tapped his knuckles on the desk and asked again, "Including New York, how many people are currently capable of participating in combat?"
Number Four replied without hesitation, "128."
Hong Fei thought quietly for a moment and decided, "Select from here again, 120 is enough. Send 10 more to New York, and keep the rest at the castle. Divide everyone into four batches, rotating every season."
Number Four and Number Five accepted the order gladly.
He didn't want to attract unnecessary attention by having too many people. Only he and Frank could make independent decisions. The latter handled all the screening, management, and daily training. A hundred or so people were enough; any more would be a burden. He hoped to concentrate funds on advantageous directions rather than blindly expanding for the sake of so-called scale. He was a person, an individual, a human being who would grow old and die.
Whatever stage one is in, just do what should be done or can be done at that stage.
"Take Big Head to the car and wait for me." He said this to Number Five, then looked at Number Four. "Is the plane arranged?"
"It's already arranged, taking off in two hours." Number Four finished reporting, paused, and then spoke again. "Boss, should we send some people to accompany you? The brothers can help you solve some small troubles, and the girls can take care of every aspect of your life."
Hong Fei's face darkened immediately. "If you don't know how to speak, then speak less."
Number Four hung his head sheepishly. Why did both Number Four and Number Five say that? Hong Fei privately thought that most rich people must be too corrupt, leaving a stereotype in these two people's minds that they liked to fool around. But I was definitely not that kind of flashy, cheap person; I had also read the Spring and Autumn Annals!
Hong Fei glanced at the documents on the table, where a photo of a smiling teenage boy and girl was clipped to the top. The Maximoff twins wouldn't die so easily; the Death report was unreliable.
"However," they should have already been taken by HYDRA to participate in experiments.
The Mind Stone was still unknown, and there was still some time before they made their debut. There was nothing to regret. If there was regret, it would be on the other side; HYDRA's place wasn't that easy to stay in.
Throwing the documents into the fireplace to burn them completely, Hong Fei turned around and asked, "How are our neighbors doing?"
"Boss, they are very quiet. "Furthermore," I discovered that they don't seem to be ordinary people. It is heavily guarded there, and strange faces often appear.
Looking at the security status, it looks more like a military fortress."
Hong Fei hadn't mentioned the matter of HYDRA to others, so it wasn't easy for Number Four to find this out, especially without the other party noticing. Most castles existed originally as military fortresses, only gradually losing their utility after warfare transitioned to modernization, but HYDRA had rearmed the castle with its black technology and used it as a stronghold.
"Don't pay too much attention for now, and don't be too curious, lest you be detected by the other party. Next, I should take a detour back to New York. I'll leave this place to you all, thanks for your hard work."
"You're too polite, Boss, this is our duty."
Getting up, Hong Fei went downstairs to the outside of the castle, where a row of seven or eight black SUVs was parked at the entrance. Samuel sat in the passenger seat, his eyes showing great obedience.
Hong Fei sat in the driver's seat, poked his head out and said, "No need to arrange so many cars to follow, just go do what you need to do."
A moment later, a car drove out of the castle towards the airport.
After boarding the plane, Hong Fei looked back, and Samuel immediately said, "Put it on my tab."
"Are you very rich?" Hong Fei said coldly.
Samuel was stunned, "I... I have a little."
"Then you pay."
"Okay."
Throughout the entire flight, Hong Fei did not say another word to Samuel. This instead made the clever Big Head feel a bit uneasy. He hadn't mentioned to Hong Fei about being whipped by Psychic Power, but he still strongly suspected that the person was Hong Fei. "Moreover," perhaps it was because he had suddenly become too smart, he couldn't help but think too much for a moment.
Although Hong Fei was the biggest suspect, why had he never shown any signs of possessing Psychic Powers all this time? Could it be that it was purely to hide his clumsiness? That didn't quite make sense. If it wasn't Hong Fei, that would mean there was a second person around Hong Fei who had mastered Psychic Power, and Hong Fei was still kept in the dark. In that case, he couldn't ask even more, otherwise wouldn't that be proactively alerting him? After comprehensive consideration, Samuel chose to say nothing about this matter.
It bothered me that Hong Fei had grown so cold. What was going on in his mind? The Leader was brilliant, with an incredibly high IQ. The telepathy was just a bonus, a result of his rapidly evolving brain. What truly made him a supervillain was his unmatched ability to learn and understand. He'd have been better suited as a researcher or planner. But since his mutation, he'd been stuck by Hong Fei's side and hadn't had much chance to absorb knowledge.
Hong Fei's original plan was to have The Leader take up his old profession from the comics, moonlighting to build an intelligence organization alongside his scientific research. But after acquiring the "Telepathy" ability, he felt that looking at Samuel's Big Head was… dull. He was smart, yes, but also disobedient. Keeping him close was a disaster. If Samuel could read Hong Fei's thoughts, he'd know Hong Fei was considering whether to kill him. The plane landed in the Middle East.
Samuel stayed at the airport while Hong Fei went alone to the pre-rented warehouse. He activated the skill card, and the tank materialized. Returning to the airport, Hong Fei sent an email, reminding the wealthy buyer to collect the goods. Then the plane took off again, destination: Europe. London was next. After the buyer paid, he'd wait a week before delivering the goods to the UK. After all, they'd offered one hundred million, so it was only right to let them study it a bit longer. Hmm, I wonder if this will make the energy rise rapidly? Four billion was probably close.
The direct purpose of selling tanks had also shifted from making money to earning energy. Of course, it'd be nice to make a few extra bucks along the way. Samuel watched Hong Fei's mouth curve up from the side, and his heart trembled. Was he formulating some new, strange plan? His smile was terrifying!