Skinning, Carving, Applying Medicine, and Dressing

Eric was startled. He got up and opened the door, revealing a refined-looking man standing outside. He looked like a nearly extinct Germanic, with gray eyes and gold-rimmed glasses that concealed his sharp gaze behind the lenses. His hair was slightly graying, and he wore a well-tailored, high-end suit with a six-legged skeleton octopus badge pinned to his chest. He looked like a university professor.

"Who are you?" Eric asked as he began reading the man’s mind. In moments, he had dug up everything about the man’s background.

No wonder Professor X was so feared. This ability was simply too damn overpowered.

"You may call me Baron Strucker. I represent Hydra!" the man introduced himself with a smile.

"Come in!" Eric already knew what he wanted, but he could no longer find any other way to accomplish his grand dream. He had no choice but to borrow Hydra’s power for the time being.

Baron Strucker entered the room. After Eric’s rampage, the entire place was a complete mess. He casually found a relatively clean spot and sat down, getting straight to the point.

"His Majesty Killmonger, we can use technological means to fuse your Vibranium Armor into your body, allowing you to break through the limitations imposed by the flaws in Ultimate Limit Qigong. Afterward, Hydra can also support Wakanda in establishing the Pan-African Alliance."

"And the price is for His Majesty Killmonger to join Hydra and become one of us."

"Fine. It’s a deal!" Eric agreed immediately. His decisiveness took even Baron Strucker by surprise.

The baron paused, then quickly stood up and extended his hand with a smile. "Welcome to Hydra, His Majesty Killmonger. Many of your actions within the Pan-African Alliance deeply resonate with me. You are a natural Hydra!"

The two shook hands and reached an agreement. Then they left together, went downstairs, got into a car, and drove away.

Eric knew exactly what Hydra had in mind. They merely wanted to use him for human experimentation. Technology for fusing Vibranium and other special metals into the human body had always been immature, and 99 percent of test subjects were doomed to die. However, Magnetic Field Warriors possessed extremely powerful regenerative abilities. Perhaps he could withstand the rejection response and provide them with more detailed data for their experiments.

It had to be said that after Stryker’s death, his laboratory had provided a great deal of useful data to many organizations. Baron Strucker’s experimental data also came from Stryker’s laboratory. The existing results involved a Mutant with innate regenerative abilities—Wolverine.

However, Stryker’s Wolverine experiment had merely fused True Adamantium Alloy into his skeleton. Baron Strucker’s experiment would take things a step further. It would involve a whole-body fusion, as well as shaping and strengthening the meridians, acupoints, and other structures within the human body.

If Baron Strucker’s experiment truly succeeded, then without a doubt, it could achieve the effect he had described, unlocking Eric’s upper limit and freeing him from the restrictions of Ultimate Limit Qigong.

As for the dangers involved, Eric truly did not care.

He admitted that he could not do what T’Challa had done—seize the opportunity to crawl out of Hell even after all four limbs had been crippled. But if he could not endure even a little danger, if he could not see life and death clearly, then he had no right to speak of any grand ideals. He might as well go home and nurse his children!

As for the so-called Hydra, heh, times had changed. From now on, this snake’s head would naturally belong to whoever was worthy.

Eric could fly, but Baron Strucker could not, so their car drove directly to a military base in the country where they were located. From there, they boarded a military aircraft and headed for their destination.

Hydra truly deserved its reputation as Marvel’s foremost organization when it came to infiltration. They had bases in every country. Even the small Central European nation where Eric was located had failed to escape their infiltration.

After several hours of flight, the military aircraft finally landed at a base somewhere in Australia.

The place was remote but conveniently located, and vehicles clearly came and went frequently. This indicated that it was not a hidden site but a semipublic base. It might even have some ties to the Australian military.

Baron Strucker had deliberately arranged things this way to display Hydra’s power by implication. But he did not know that Eric had already learned everything from his mind. Eric’s understanding of Hydra was absolutely no worse than his.

The experiment required advance preparation, as well as the collection of data on the test subject. Baron Strucker therefore had someone settle Eric in first, then went alone to gather the experimental staff and formulate the experimental plan.

To improve the chances of success, Eric even took out the design blueprints for the Vibranium Magnetic Armor he had obtained back then and handed them to the scientists for research.

Over the next few days, he underwent repeated tests with various instruments and devices, recording all kinds of data. They also drew his blood and extracted bone marrow, then injected small pieces of Vibranium collected inside the laboratory into his body before taking samples and recording various rejection responses.

After more than a month of torment, the experimental plan was finally completed.

Because the experiment required the test subject’s cooperation, Eric could not be anesthetized and laid on an operating table. Instead, he was made to stand suspended in midair above an open area.

This was not inside the laboratory, nor was it a sterile environment. They simply found a spacious area within the base and began the experiment there.

With Eric’s cooperation, the scientists first peeled off all the skin from his body. This action was entirely led by Eric. Otherwise, given the scientists’ frail physiques, they would not have been able to cut through him at all.

Then, on Eric’s naked, blood-soaked body, the scientists drew numerous dense lines. They had Eric use the Adamantium Knife to cut open every marked location on his own body while controlling his body’s instinctive reactions and preventing it from healing itself.

These wounds varied in depth. Some only cut into the surface muscles, while others had to be deep enough to expose bone. The limbs and spine in particular were covered in deep, bone-revealing scars.

As the third step, the scientists placed the prepared medicines into the incisions. Eric then had to use his own power to envelop all the medicines and prevent them from being washed away by his blood.

The final step was to put on the Vibranium Magnetic Armor, then drape his skin back over his body. After that, he would activate the power of Magnetic Field Rotation, allowing the medicine to take effect and fuse the Vibranium with his body.

If anything went wrong at any stage, the final result would fail to meet expectations, and the entire process would have to be repeated from the beginning.

After undergoing the processes of skinning, carving, applying medicine, and dressing dozens of times, the experiment finally succeeded!

After his transformation, Eric’s entire body was completely hairless. Every strand of hair had vanished, including his head hair, eyelashes, and body hair. The skin wrapped around his body was black with a pale undertone, giving him an extremely bizarre appearance. Repeated stimulation from the Vibranium and the experimental medicines had caused his bones to develop and grow once more. He now stood a full two meters and twenty or thirty centimeters tall, and his build had grown a size larger as well.

But none of that mattered. The most important thing was this:

After successfully fusing the Vibranium Magnetic Armor into his body, he had not only broken through the restrictions of Ultimate Limit Qigong but had also tempered his will through the pain and torment of the experiment. He had successfully entered the realm of the Fiftieth Heaven Magnetic Field Rotation!

Eric carefully experienced the surging, turbulent energy within his body and threw his head back in laughter.

"Wakanda, I’m back!"