Family Meeting

Two months had been enough to bestow Natasha’s Super Agent abilities upon every child adopted by the Karl family.

As for why he did not keep Natasha within the Karl family, Kyle had considered it repeatedly.

Natasha had been trained by the Red Room as a top-tier spy and agent. He had no intention of overlooking or changing the role of this "Black Widow"; placing her among S.H.I.E.L.D.’s upper ranks would be more suitable.

Natasha could serve as a bridge between the family and S.H.I.E.L.D., while also helping the Karl family monitor and understand S.H.I.E.L.D.’s internal situation.

Kyle was about to leave Earth and fight for that final sliver of survival. With his long-term outlook, he instinctively left himself plenty of contingencies regarding anything he did not fully control.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was one of them.

Since it was tasteless to keep but a pity to discard, he might as well send someone to secretly monitor and balance it.

Over the half hour in the master’s conference room, Kyle mostly kept Natasha by his side, using the opportunity to copy and extract Super Agent.

Half an hour later, as the Karl family meeting approached, Kyle first dismissed Natasha. He raised the hand wearing the Sling Ring and waved it, causing a dazzling, sparking portal to appear and expand across the ceiling.

When the ring of sparks opened to a radius of one meter, the Winter Soldier, wrapped in iron chains, rolled out of it and crashed face-down onto the conference room floor.

"What happened?" Bucky climbed up in confusion, the chains dragging over him with crisp clattering sounds. He had just seemed to be falling endlessly through a dream, falling for more than half an hour.

"You finally recovered. Looks like this method was pretty effective after all," Kyle said thoughtfully.

He had merely opened a portal with its exit positioned directly above the portal itself, creating a loop that made someone fall endlessly.

"Recovered? Did something happen to me again?" Bucky stared urgently at Kyle, desperate for an answer.

Kyle met his gaze and stated bluntly, "You lost control and went berserk just now. The Karl family had to put in quite a bit of effort to subdue you."

"Right, I remember now—those scrambled memories controlled my mind again. They made me want to kill, destroy, obey orders." Bucky muttered to himself, then suddenly laughed miserably and slumped onto the floor. "I thought leaving that place would let me return to how I used to be, but I still can’t escape the control of the memories in my mind. The person I used to be will never come back."

Kyle did not try to comfort him. Even he found matters involving brain memories exceptionally difficult to handle.

Bucky’s memories had been damaged and erased, then repeatedly implanted with cold, ruthless programmed directives. Over time, even Bucky himself had come to believe he had been born as a Winter Soldier machine made for missions.

Even in the original films, after the twenty-first century, when Earth’s Light of Technology had illuminated the universe, the Winter Soldier’s condition still had no effective cure.

Bucky gripped his metal Mechanical Left Arm with his right hand and rasped out his decision. "Kyle, why don’t you kill me now… Give me release sooner. It would also prevent innocent people from being injured or killed by the Winter Soldier buried in my memories."

Kyle remained silent. He watched Bucky’s sorrowful face for a long while before finally saying softly, "Of course I can grant your request, but if Steve is still alive, I won’t be able to explain this to him when he comes back."

"Steve, Steve…" Bucky repeated the name over and over, shaking his head with a bitter smile. "Will I ever see him again in this life?"

Kyle tapped on the table and offered a suggestion. "I can freeze you in a cryogenic chamber and keep you in the manor’s basement. When a method capable of treating and resolving your condition emerges someday in the future, the Karl family will thaw and awaken you."

"Then let’s do that. Thank you, Kyle." Bucky nodded gratefully, agreeing to this method that could hardly be called a solution.

Freezing was a way to delay and evade the present, but it was not a bad all-purpose solution.

When Kyle learned of his Gene Mutation, he had also considered freezing himself, sleeping peacefully while waiting for future technology to reach a high enough level.

But rather than place his hopes in others and the future, he would rather venture into the vast cosmic stars and rely on himself to seize opportunity cards and break through his body’s genetic predicament!

The Karl family meeting at the manor was held as scheduled.

At the large round table in the second-floor hall, Kyle sat at the head, with Lucy, Logan, Yutong, and Natasha—who only counted as half a family member—seated to either side.

"Howard has secretly transferred Stark Industries’ corporate shares and control under the Karl family’s name. I will entrust the family’s finances entirely to Lucy. Any objections?" Kyle asked seriously, looking at his fiancée, his two trusted subordinates, and Natasha.

His final question was merely a figure of speech, and naturally no one objected. Not only had all of the family’s resources been prepared by Kyle, but as the future mistress of the family, Lucy held far more say in the Karl family than anyone else.

"I don’t know… whether I can manage it well." Lucy raised her hand in response, lacking confidence.

"Don’t worry. Learn slowly, and ask Howard if there’s anything you don’t understand." Kyle comforted her, then asked thoughtfully, "Logan, how are the combat courses going for the children adopted by the family?"

"After all, they became orphans because of the war and suffered bullying and scorn at the orphanage. They’re much more mature than children their age, and they’ve all been diligently and patiently learning the combat courses. But…" Logan hesitated and stopped there.

Kyle naturally understood what he meant—some children had high talent for combat, while others had low talent. Yet no matter how gifted they were, their talent was still far too lacking in the eyes of people like them.

Natasha was secretly surprised as well. In her view, raising children this way was inferior even to the Red Room.

"As long as they have willpower and sufficient loyalty to the family, talent doesn’t matter." Kyle smiled, recalling something as he gave an example. "Have you forgotten Steve? Back in the military camp, he had the least talent and ability among my peers, yet didn’t he later become a superhero?"

To Kyle, all human children were equally weak. What they lacked was merely the evolutionary key to unlock their physical potential, along with sufficient motivation.

"Logan. Starting today, every three days, select one child from among the adoptees who has performed exceptionally in training. After Yutong reviews them, I will grant them an opportunity that gives them a physique no weaker than Natasha’s!"

Kyle said in a deep voice, "Loyalty to the Karl family is the primary requirement! Anyone harboring disloyal thoughts or lacking ambition will be expelled from the manor without exception! What I need are elite members who can protect and repay the family in the future."

This was the first time Kyle had laid out the selection and management of Karl family members. Logan nodded without hesitation. Although all the children at the manor had been adopted by him, if they failed to meet the standards for becoming Karl family members, he would not plead on their behalf.

Within the Karl family, Kyle was a god of supreme authority. Every rule and regulation he spoke was the absolute law here.