Marvel's whitewashing cop, you want me to save the world?

Chapter 143 The Cosmic Cube is in Hand

Tony explained the situation regarding the X gene.

Bruce Banner nodded slightly beside him, his tone tinged with self-deprecation, but more so with heartfelt satisfaction.

"To be honest, the DNA of pure human seems to have even greater plasticity than my mutated form."

"If humanity can really continue to move forward along this path, then the Hulk may not be so indispensable."

Connors nodded several times in succession.

"That's right. The most important discovery of this experiment is not that we created the Type II drug, but that we obtained a crucial piece of evidence."

"The extensibility of human DNA: the X gene, far exceeds the presupposed upper limit of all existing biological theories."

"As long as we continue to advance in this direction, we are far from reaching the limit of evolutionary potential at the biological level."

Tony frowned when he heard the words "continued evolution at the biological level".

The excitement that had just surged due to the better-than-expected experimental data was gently nudged by a certain subtext in that sentence, and quickly cooled down.

He leaned against the edge of the control panel, his arms crossed over his chest, and a very slight downward curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Li En noticed it.

He walked past Banner and Connors, stood in front of Tony, and asked.

"What's wrong? Wasn't everything going smoothly?"

Tony paused for a moment, then looked up and looked away from the constantly updating holographic data.

"In this world today, magic and biological science are both moving forward."

"But we have to admit one thing: we have made almost no substantial progress in materials science and space exploration."

"The human evolution program is indeed progressing steadily. You personally handed the Dragon Blood Potion to the President a couple of days ago, and the heads of state of major countries around the world are also discussing this matter."

"But to tell you the truth, Li En, even if all of humanity were injected with the Dragon Blood Potion tomorrow, and their physical abilities were increased tenfold."

What can we use to stop an alien fleet that is crashing down from above our orbit?

"Are we going to use our fists to fight a spaceship? We're far behind in the field of space technology."

The Human Evolution Project was a long-term strategic plan that Lee En submitted to the heads of state of major countries around the world at the same time he handed over the Dragon Blood Elixir to the US President.

The content is written concisely: Based on the iterative upgrades of the Dragon Blood Potion, all of humanity will gradually complete at least one stage of physical enhancement.

The goal is to ensure that every newborn on Earth is born with the same level of physical abilities as children in Asgard.

This plan is still circulating in diplomatic rhetoric and risk assessment reports among those leaders.

They were saying that if everyone became stronger at the same time, it would disrupt the existing social order.

The security problems that arise after criminals are enhanced, whether these enhancements will be used by certain political entities in a military competition, and so on.

Lee En got up and left the meeting halfway through.

He had already decided that no matter what answer those leaders ultimately gave.

The Umbrella Corporation will allow the vast majority of its people to complete the first stage of evolution at what it deems appropriate, and then continue to move forward.

But the issues Tony is raising now are not covered by that plan.

Space technology.

Li En lowered his head and pondered for a moment.

His previous actions were almost entirely focused on the interior of the Earth.

Gangs, Hydra, dark creatures, hell.

As for threats from outer space, I recall there being quite a few dungeons where I could try my luck.

For example, a battlefield where a large-scale war is being waged against an alien race whose technological level far surpasses that of Earth at present.

It's just that those kinds of dungeons, starting with the level of destroying a nation, with no upper limit.

The entry requirements and risks are much higher than before.

He pulled his hand out of his coat pocket, looked up and met Tony's gaze, his voice lowering.

"If you had the opportunity to acquire a large amount of alien technology, including spaceships, aircraft, and weapon systems, could you digest it?"

Tony, Banner, and Connors all looked up at him at the same time.

Tony spoke first: "Digestion? As long as there are physical samples, Jarvis can get the principle model running in a few days. The rest is just a matter of engineering implementation."

Li En nodded and continued.

"But acquiring these things may involve a certain degree of risk."

"It will cause many deaths."

The three of them fell silent.

When Lee En walked out of the Umbrella suburban laboratory.

The three top scientists behind him were still arguing about the same question.

Li En didn't wait for them to reach a conclusion.

He had something even more important to do.

Steve sent me a message not long ago.

The location of the Cosmic Cube has been found.

Deep in the Mojave Desert, at the Tianma Project Joint Research Institute.

After Hydra took over S.H.I.E.L.D., it has been secretly maintaining its operations.

Moving the Rubik's Cube from one location to another is as careful as an ant carrying food.

In the message, Steve only wrote the location coordinates and a single line of confirmation.

After reading it, Li En immediately called Barron and asked him to arrange for a helicopter to be on standby at the suburban laboratory's helipad.

Before the propeller had even come to a complete stop, he had already climbed into the cabin.

The helicopter flew over the desert for nearly two hours.

Outside the porthole, there were originally continuous gray-green hills, but after crossing an invisible boundary line, the landscape suddenly became extremely desolate.

Gravel, pebbles, and a riverbed so dry it's cracked, with only a few camel thorns, their leaves yellowed from the sun, standing forlornly on the sand.

The Tianma Project Joint Research Institute, when viewed from the air, blends seamlessly with the surrounding desert.

Several low concrete buildings were half-buried in a leveled hill, their roofs painted with camouflage paint that closely matched the color of the surrounding sand.

Without flying close enough, it's impossible to distinguish between buildings and natural terrain.

The helicopter landed on the open ground in front of the main building of the research institute.

Li En jumped off the plane and stepped onto the concrete floor that had been exposed to the sun all day.

Steve, Natasha, Barton, Coulson, and Melinda were already waiting at the entrance.

The five people were standing very loosely, and their relaxed posture showed that the place was completely under control.

Li En stepped forward, nodded to each of them, and then casually asked, "How did you discover the Rubik's Cube was in this position?"

Coulson smiled.

"It was the bureau chief who notified us."

"You found Nick Fury?" Li En was genuinely surprised.

After Pierce seized power, that black guy was like a pebble that fell into a black hole.

Even Jarvis could only catch some vague, indirect clues and could never pinpoint his location.

Coulson shook his head, but the smile on his face did not fade.

"The bureau chief contacted us first, but his exact location is still unknown."

"He just sent a message over an encrypted line, gave me the coordinates and a time window, and then hung up."

His tone was calm, but Lee Eun could see it in his eyes.

Coulson felt much more at ease now.

Fury is still alive and can still give orders.

That's enough for Coulson.

Li En raised his wrist and gently pressed the side of the black watch-like communicator.

A faint blue glow emanated from the dial, and Jarvis's synthesized voice came from the miniature speaker built into the watch.

"Mr. Lee, we are currently unable to pinpoint Mr. Nick Fury's exact location."

However, following Mr. Tony's instructions, I conducted continuous passive scans of the targets you are concerned about and discovered some abnormal signals.

Li En frowned slightly.

Jarvis is artificial intelligence, and there is no ambiguity in its language logic.

It never uses the word "some".

If it says "some", it means the quantity is greater than one.

Moreover, it was identified as an anomaly after cross-comparison, but it was an independent signal source that did not belong to any known classification.

More importantly, Jarvis's statement contained a crucial detail:

It said, "We'll discuss it with Mr. Tony when you get back."

This means that Tony had given it instructions in advance to wait until Li En returned to a safe environment before reporting, rather than saying it directly in the public channel.

Li En is currently on Jarvis's access list, ranking second only to Tony Stark on this planet.

The reason he was kept out of the information gate is not simple.

"It's okay, we'll talk when we get back." He lowered his wrist, gestured with his chin toward Coulson, and changed the subject.

"Why didn't Hydra move the Rubik's Cube? Haven't they been researching this thing all along?"

Coulson turned around and led Li En towards the depths of the research institute while explaining.

"They did move. This is the place they just moved Rubik's Cube to not long ago. They were planning to move to the next hidden location within two days."

The routes have been planned, and the personnel list for the transport fleet has been finalized.

We arrived just in time and caught them red-handed.

Traces of the firefight can still be seen on the walls on both sides of the corridor.

Bullet holes were embedded in the concrete, glass shards had not yet been cleaned up, and a very faint smell of gunpowder lingered in the air.

Coulson pushed open a thickened blast door at the end of the corridor, leading Li En into a laboratory surrounded by various monitoring devices.

All of those devices were marked with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo, and some of them were even manufactured decades ago.

The paint on the outer casing has been worn smooth, but the indicator light is still flashing green steadily.

In the very center of the room, the Cosmic Cube floats above a circular metal tabletop, emitting a pale blue, cool light.

The light wasn't dazzling, but it was extremely uniform, as if someone had compressed a small patch of ocean to this size and placed it on a pedestal.

As Li Engang approached the Cosmic Cube, a light screen popped up in front of him.

The countdown to the upgrade of the portable storage space is down to 179 seconds.

three minutes.

A slight smile played on his lips; it was definitely the real deal.