A Mage Who Had Gone Astray

Gun Kata (Treat firearms as complete weapons, dealing maximum damage to the greatest number of enemies)

Russell had wanted this skill for a long time. As a mage who had gone astray, he could not carry things on his shoulders, could not lift with his hands, could not speak well, was not smart enough, and had an introverted personality. He was naïve and inexperienced, often helping people count the money after they had sold him out.

Fortunately, heaven had shown mercy and had not given him character settings like stage-ten tuberculosis or leukemia. Otherwise, he would have been the Mary Sue of the mage world.

In short, Russell was delicate and frail. He could not follow his predecessors’ example of going shirtless and using his biceps to beat up warriors. Learning firearms combat skills was a safeguard for his little life.

The transport fleet drifted through space for half a month and safely reached the solar system. The reason it had taken so long was to train Natasha and turn her into a qualified starship driver.

Enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum, Natasha’s learning ability was astonishing. She could be said to have a photographic memory and quickly mastered all the theoretical knowledge. What she lacked was practical experience.

The asteroid belt between Mars and Earth’s orbit was a good choice, a natural road test for the third Driver’s License exam. If she could race around here a couple of times without so much as a scratch, she could basically graduate and get her license.

But now was not the time. Training Natasha into a skilled pilot so quickly was so she could personally train new recruits.

With the Chitauri as his little brothers, Hydra’s plan to expand into space was put on the agenda!

First, the transport fleet split into two groups. The Chitauri would establish a Hydra branch on Mars and accumulate capital for Russell’s expansion into space.

Unlike Selovi, the Chitauri leader Zereel was not a spy planted by the Skrull Empire in the Kree Empire, someone who could be exposed at any time. Zereel was a standard cosmic drifter. His home planet had been blown up by Thanos, and the Black Order had put a bounty on him. Even without the Soul Contract, he would have clung desperately to Russell’s thigh.

Russell had originally intended to place the branch on the far side of the moon, but considering that humanity would land on the moon within a few years, he ultimately abandoned the idea.

Humanity’s persecution complex was already terminal. If they discovered that an alien civilization was less than 400,000 kilometers from Earth, salt prices worldwide would surely be driven to astronomical heights. Better not torment them.

Compared to that, Mars was much more reliable!

At this time, the solar system was merely a poor backwater. Ordinary cosmic civilizations did not care to come here exploring, while advanced civilizations feared the Sorcerer Supreme’s reputation. On top of that, this place was nominally under Asgard’s rule, with a big shot like Odin watching over it. Its location was extremely safe, with no need to worry about alien civilizations intruding. It was suitable for newcomers starting out.

The second group of transport ships landed in Wakanda. With large quantities of lathe equipment, Chitauri clone engineers, and a robot production line, rapid development could be fully realized.

For the next period of time, the development priorities of Hydra’s Wakanda base had been set: mining and utilizing Vibranium, breeding and cultivating the Heart-shaped herb, training technological personnel and soldiers, and upgrading and evolving the Super Soldier Serum.

With the Chitauri’s biotechnology, this process would not take too long. The most important thing was cultivating top-tier combat power. As a BOSS, Russell did not have many capable underlings.

If he could not bring thirty or fifty superheroes with him whenever he went out, he could neither eat nor sleep in peace!

As for upgrading the Super Soldier Serum, the Chitauri did not have any good solutions either. They were quite good at cloning cannon fodder, but they were very average when it came to top-tier combat power.

According to Zereel, he only knew that the Kree Empire possessed the most advanced biological enhancement technology and had created many outstanding warriors of formidable strength.

The Kree Empire’s home planet, Hala, was in the Large Magellanic Cloud, practically Old Wang from the neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way. It was far away and powerful, so knowing they had that technology was useless. It was the same as saying nothing.

The Wakanda base was under vigorous construction when several cloaked spacecraft landed, greatly shocking Azzuri. He decisively abandoned any distinction between justice and evil, wagering all of Wakanda on serving Russell.

Hydra had already begun expanding into space. If he did not show some loyalty now, he would not even catch the last train.

Speaking of which, Hydra had been defined as an evil organization the moment it appeared, and that had a direct connection to its unlikable emblem. A skull with black markings on a red background and six tentacles—no matter how one looked at it, it had nothing to do with the mythological creature Hydra. It was much easier to associate it with an octopus.

What was an octopus?

A creature whose very appearance was suggestive. Other than magical girls and warrior princesses, nobody liked them!

After arranging the base matters, Russell made a trip to Kamar-Taj, returned the latest version of the Star Map to the Sorcerer Supreme, and spent a month holed up in the library.

The Sorcerer Supreme had no interest whatsoever in Russell’s development plans. He neither criticized nor praised them, as if he had not seen them at all. In his words, the future was not bad, so there was no reason to interfere.

Russell was very interested in this so-called future. Butterfly effects were no joke. Even though he had tried his best not to mess around on Earth, the future he knew had already become unrecognizable. Having a guide would make the road ahead easier.

But the Sorcerer Supreme remained tight-lipped about the future. No matter what Russell asked, he gave no response. Fine, if he would not say it—but he even put on an attitude of, "Beg me. Even if you beg me, I won’t tell you." If not for the traditional virtue of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, Russell would have beaten him up long ago.

Sorcerer Supremes throughout the ages had all been rather tight-lipped. Doctor Strange had seen the ending countless times without spoiling it even once, and Master Ancient One had been the same. After repeatedly asking without results, Russell simply gave up.

The real world!

After formulating Hydra’s development plan, Russell returned here. Infrastructure construction was purely time-consuming work. His subordinates were in charge, so there was no need for him to worry about it.

Because of the World Anchor, the flow of time in the two worlds was roughly equal, and major time skips rarely occurred. But rare did not mean nonexistent. The connections between worlds were intricate and would regulate and correct themselves. He had tried it before, and during the longest skip, time in the Marvel Universe had jumped forward by half a year.

Previously, Russell had thought this kind of jump was unreliable, but things were different now. It was like fast-forwarding a video. If he got lucky, perhaps after a few more jumps, the base would be finished.

After returning to the real world, Russell continued recharging, still focusing mainly on Marvel. The plot of the Marvel Universe primarily unfolded on Earth, and its descriptions of the cosmos made up only a small portion. It could not provide him with much foreknowledge.

Moreover, Russell had discovered something very important: there were no mutants on Earth in the Marvel Universe he was in!

"It resembles the Marvel movie universe, but many character settings lean toward the comics. What a chaotic world. I wonder which Marvel universe it is…"

A month passed in the blink of an eye. No new world nodes were triggered during that month, and Russell made several appearances in the Marvel Universe to advance the time progress.

The results were average. The progress bar moved very slowly, and there was still quite some time before the base was completed. The plot unfolding was even further away.

"Uncle Luo, your Goddess of Fortune’s Ring has gone offline again. I have obtained a new plot world node. Would you like to go in and take a look?" the system suddenly asked.

"Main God Space…" Russell frowned. Shen Menghan had not visited much over the past month, being busy with her own team. It had left Natasha listless, as though her body had been drained dry.

A few times, Russell had only just left when he returned again before Natasha had even lain down…

"Uncle Luo, what do you think?"

"I’ll make preparations and set off."