A retired reincarnator from a certain American film studio

Villainous organizations tend to prefer talented individuals more than righteous organizations.

For example, when S.H.I.E.L.D. is recruiting, even if someone is a talented person, S.H.I.E.L.D. will still be selective in choosing who to hire.

But Hydra wouldn't.

Well known.

Due to historical reasons, Hydra comes with a "supervillain buff" and a "discovery and destruction buff," making it relatively difficult for them to recruit talent.

Moreover, Hydra learned from its first demise.

In their view, there were two reasons why they suffered such a crushing defeat back then.

The first problem is that the right partners were not chosen.

After all, the plan to wage war against a certain Russian bear in the East while also waging war against Europe was not first proposed by Hydra, but rather by their partner who thought they were capable of doing so.

So Hydra learned its lesson this time and adopted a solo approach, thus avoiding another liability that dragged them down.

The second reason is that Hydra's risk control in selecting members was not very strict back then, which resulted in them having many members, but only a few who were truly capable fighters.

Just look at Captain America to see this.

Good guy.

Captain America taking on ten men was practically a given back then; taking on a hundred was considered standard practice.

This doesn't work.

In terms of talent, we still need to focus on quality rather than quantity.

Therefore, taking advantage of the resurgence of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, having learned from its first demise, became as rigorous as possible in its talent selection process.

Simply put.

They don't want people who aren't talented.

But this led to another issue.

As villains, Hydra already has little appeal to talented individuals, and with such high entry requirements, they are even more desperately short of talent internally.

Alexander Pierce, as a federal director on the Hydra Development and Expansion Committee, was even more eager to find talent.

Lu Ke is that kind of talent.

able.

Ambitious.

and……

Alexander Pierce looked at Luke's skin color and knew very well that persuading Luke to join them would not be difficult.

"Is Lu Ke of Eastern descent?"

"Yes."

Luke nodded. With just that one sentence, he immediately knew what Alexander was going to say next, so he simply said it for him.

"Are you saying that if I join you, you will fully support my work?"

"Yes."

Alexander spread his hands and looked at Luke with a smile: "You should know that even if you are of Eastern descent, your skin color determines that you will never be valued by the Federation unless someone helps you. And, if I may be frank, I don't think the next California governor who succeeds Louis will value you as much as Louis did."

Lu Ke nodded thoughtfully.

Alexander was not exaggerating, because it was simply the truth.

Well known.

If a high-quality yellow-skinned person and a sparse black-skinned person are competing for a position in the Federation, the black-skinned person will ultimately have a much higher chance of winning than the yellow-skinned person.

no way.

People with dark skin are considered to have a more privileged life.

Luke chuckled inwardly, shook his head, and looked at Alexander.

"to join you guys?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

Luke nodded and smiled at Alexander, saying, "No problem, I'll join you."

These words seemed to have left Alexander somewhat bewildered.

Alexander, who had already prepared other reasons to persuade Luke, took back his prepared words after hearing Luke's words, and suddenly realized that he didn't know what to say next.

Seeing the expression on Alexander's face, Luke helped him out of the predicament.

You should say, "Welcome to the team."

"..."

Alexander snapped out of his reverie, looked at Luke sitting opposite him, and couldn't help but shake his head and smile. He stood up and extended his right hand to Luke: "Yes, welcome to join us."

Luke also rose from his seat, shook hands with Alexander, leaned forward slightly, and spoke in a low but serious voice.

"Hail Hydra!"

"..."

Alexander was stunned for a moment, once again completely baffled by Luke.

After releasing his grip, Luke looked at Alexander, whose face showed serious doubt as to whether he was actually Hydra, and shrugged, explaining, "I've seen documentaries that expose Hydra. Is this how you greet someone? Or do I need to make a gesture?"

As he spoke, Lu Ke raised his right hand forward.

Alexander snapped out of his daze, looked at Luke who was raising his right hand towards him, and his lips twitched.

No need to raise your hand.

"you sure?"

“This belongs to the SS, not us.”

"Ok."

Luke readily agreed, withdrew his right hand, sat back down in his seat, and looked at Alexander: "So, that's good. Is there any joining ceremony required, or do I need to do anything to test my loyalty?"

Alexander shook his head.

Lu Ke raised an eyebrow.

"unnecessary?"

"It's just not the right time yet."

Testing is definitely necessary. Any villainous organization needs to submit a pledge of allegiance before recruiting members; otherwise, how would anyone know if you genuinely want to join them or if you have ulterior motives?

Hydra was no exception.

However, Luke joined too quickly, somewhat unexpectedly, so much so that Alexander hadn't yet figured out how to test Luke.

Alexander opened his drawer, took out a brand new, unopened cell phone, and handed it to Luke, saying, "I'll contact you when I need you. Until then, as long as you don't reveal our existence to anyone else, I guarantee no one else will bother you."

Luke took the phone from Alexander, opened it, took out the phone, turned it on, raised an eyebrow at the signal displayed, and looked up at Alexander: "The cost of this phone..."

Alexander smiled and said, "You don't need to worry about the cost."

All-inclusive phone bill?

That works.

Lu Ke's eyes lit up as he looked at the brand-new smartphone in his hand: "This is great, I'll use this phone from now on."

Although he had cash under his bed at home, which was worth about three million dollars and had been pulled from the secret room of the mutant Davy Jones.

but……

Frugality and simplicity are fine traditions ingrained in our bones.

Luke has always maintained the good habit of riding his bicycle to bars, saving money where he should and spending money where he should.

after awhile.

After Luke pocketed the fully reimbursed cell phone sent by Hydra, he immediately turned to Alexander and got down to business.

Is there anything about Louis's matter that I need to worry about?

"Not now."

"Now?"

Luke's lips curled into a playful smile as he looked at Alexander.

"So, I had something to worry about before?"

"of course not."

Alexander pushed up his glasses: "Things were just dealt with."

He naturally wouldn't tell Luke that if Luke didn't agree, they would investigate and confirm the truth that Luke killed Louis.

After all, the existence of Hydra remains top secret to this day.

Anyone who knows their secrets will either be silenced or subjected to social death.

such as……

The words of a subordinate who killed his superior have no credibility whatsoever.

Alexander then smiled and told Luke about the follow-up procedures for Louis's matter.

"A person has value only if they are alive."

"The dead are of no value whatsoever."

"That's exactly what Horton Lewis is like."

"Moreover, there are quite a few people who want Horton Lewis dead, not just me."

"His sister and younger sister, if they saw those two photos, would probably also wish for Horton Lewis to die as soon as possible."

"What's more, he also had a Sentinel Special Service chief kidnapped from Atlanta."