Strange New Knowledge Acquired Again

Actually, Martin Lee could understand why Kraft had modified the house. It was just that everything had happened so suddenly that he had been caught completely off guard.

Once Martin Lee came back to his senses, he quickly raised his right hand into a loose fist, brought it to his mouth, and coughed twice. Then he decisively and stiffly changed the subject. "How long will it take you to gather all the information?"

Kraft shot Martin Lee a disdainful glance. "Very soon."

"Search complete. Search complete."

Before Kraft had even finished speaking, Haro’s electronic voice rang out. The images on the screens around the room stabilized one after another, displaying everything related to the news report.

Haro placed the most important information on the screen it had projected onto the wall. After completing the search, it proactively dimmed the lights in the room so Kraft could see more clearly.

After quickly reviewing the relevant intelligence on the wall, Kraft roughly figured out what the green monster was.

Simply put, a military vehicle had picked someone up from an airport in Brooklyn. While it was driving into the city, the green monster had suddenly burst out of the vehicle.

Because the incident had happened so abruptly, the military had not yet had time to suppress the news. Haro easily found surveillance footage near the scene and traced the incident’s origin to New Mexico. However, further investigation showed that they had come out of a desert in New Mexico. As for what exactly was in that desert, Haro could not find out for the time being unless it infiltrated the military’s database.

"Which unit did that vehicle belong to?"

At Kraft’s question, Haro quickly pulled up a report and projected it onto the wall. The report showed the unit the vehicle belonged to and identified its commander as General Thaddeus E. Ross.

"Pull up all the scientists General Ross has been in contact with over the past two years who were recently in New Mexico."

Kraft thought for a moment before giving another order.

Haro promptly complied.

Then Kraft filtered out the obvious publicity projects, the abandoned ones, the ones that had already produced results, and researchers who were unlikely to create a green monster. In the end, he narrowed the target down to a physicist named Bruce Banner.

Bruce Banner was also a renowned figure in academic circles. His genius was no less than that playboy Tony Stark’s, and in recent years he had been studying Gamma Rays. Gamma Rays were the kind of radiation that could very easily cause mutations, making them notorious among scientists everywhere.

To be honest, Kraft greatly admired Bruce Banner for daring to make Gamma Rays his field of research.

He admired him for not being afraid of death.

Gamma Rays had also been mentioned in the Captain America comics. They claimed that Captain America’s success had depended not only on the Super Soldier Serum, but also on the catalytic effects of Gamma Rays.

Later, out of curiosity, Kraft had gathered a little intelligence and discovered that, aside from some embellishment in a few places, most of the comics had surprisingly not been lying. Of course, he had not uncovered the specific details of Captain America’s experiment, but judging by how accurate the comics were and the appearance of the green monster before him, it might really have been true.

Who knew what those officials had been thinking… At first, Kraft had assumed the addition of Gamma Rays was an experimental mistake, a trap America had deliberately planted in the comics to fool other countries. But now, it seemed…

That was some seriously layered deception.

A new yet fitting phrase popped into Kraft’s head.

"So this was a product of the Super Soldier program? Americans really love conducting human experiments…"

Thinking of human experimentation made Kraft dislike Bruce Banner on the screen even more.

"Heh. The military has always wanted to recreate another Captain America."

Martin Lee sneered contemptuously and said to Kraft, "I initially suspected that the people backing the Magia Gang might be the military. I just never found any evidence. In fact, some of the clues I found seemed to rule the military out."

"It could have been a smokescreen."

Kraft made a guess, but quickly shook his head and rejected it.

"No, there’s no need. If it were the military, they wouldn’t need to hide things so carefully. At most, it would just be a few ‘inferior races.’"

"Exactly. That was what I thought too."

Martin Lee nodded in agreement, then reached out and patted Kraft on the head.

"This can’t be rushed. Your little robot is impressive, but remember not to leave any traces for others to catch."

"Don’t worry! I’m not bragging, but Haro’s hacking abilities might be a little lacking. Its escape skills, though, are absolutely world-class!"

Kraft patted his chest and boasted proudly for a moment before belatedly looking at Martin Lee beside him.

"Huh?"

"You think I don’t know you, you little brat?" Martin Lee glared at him irritably. "When you agreed so easily last time, I knew you wouldn’t just let it go…"

"I just didn’t expect you to be capable of this much." Martin Lee glanced at the red Haro flapping its wings on the television and sighed sincerely.

"Hehehe~"

Kraft scratched the back of his head somewhat bashfully.

"I don’t understand the technical side of things, but the most important thing is to be careful. Don’t ever expose yourself."

Knowing he could not stop Kraft, Martin Lee still reminded him.

Kraft nodded seriously to show that he had taken it to heart.

As for Martin Lee’s secret identity, and just how many miraculous gadgets Kraft possessed, father and son tacitly understood each other and did not pry into one another’s secrets.

"How about we figure out a way to go back?"

After reviewing the information on the green monster, the family sat around the dining table eating dinner when Kraft brought it up again.

"America conducts human experiments at the drop of a hat. What if they create some new mess someday? Forget anything else—take today’s monster. If he showed up near us, none of my inventions could stop him."

Though Kraft spoke of the green monster, what he was actually thinking about was the terrifying zombie virus from his dreams.

"Don’t worry. This world isn’t as simple as you think. There are quite a few people with special abilities in New York."

Kraft actually knew about the special people Martin Lee was talking about. He had seen them while collecting intelligence on the Magia Gang—Rhino, Daredevil, Power Man, and the like. Still, he did not think any of them could fight the green brute in the footage.

Seeing the disdain on Kraft’s face, Martin Lee sighed helplessly. "And do you think there aren’t special humans on the other side of the ocean? Do you think I don’t want to go back for no reason?"

From the sound of it, Martin had special abilities too?

Kraft looked at Martin Lee in surprise. He had guessed that his adoptive father might be the so-called Mr. Negative, but he had not investigated further. Respecting each other’s privacy was an unspoken understanding between father and son.

"Fine…"

Thinking about it carefully, if the zombie virus really broke out like it had in his dream, running anywhere would make no difference. So he stopped insisting.

Still, he needed to study the technology from his dreams more thoroughly.

Because of the green monster’s appearance, Kraft felt a rare sense of urgency. He had always resisted biological research, but now he needed to pick it up. At the very least, if some kind of biochemical crisis truly occurred one day, he needed the ability to find a solution.

Besides spending even more time in the laboratory, Kraft had Haro continue monitoring information about the green monster. Although the military and a mysterious force soon began trying to suppress the news after that day, who could blame them when that big guy was so good at causing trouble?

In just a few days, he rampaged across America under military pursuit, eventually smashing his way through the entire country and fleeing into Mexico, where he finally vanished.

It was also because of the green giant’s activity that Kraft gathered quite a bit of useful information.

The green monster called himself Hulk. Judging by his behavior in the surveillance footage, aside from being incredibly violent, he did not seem very smart. What shocked Kraft even more was that Hulk’s original form was actually Bruce Banner.

"What a ruthless guy! He actually experimented on himself… Though it feels a little unscientific…"

Kraft stared at the information Haro had gathered and muttered to himself.

"I think your ability to make us talk is pretty unscientific too, Boss. And the big sis is actually a robot!"

Quinn stuck his head in front of the screen, sticking out his tongue as he complained. Since Alice usually looked like an ordinary sweet and adorable girl, Quinn and Bea had no idea she was a robot. They only found her scent and voice a little strange.

It was not until one day, when the two of them fought so fiercely that Alice had no choice but to activate the capture-net launcher Kraft had installed on her shoulder and trap the cat and dog in a net that they learned Alice’s true identity.

At the time, Quinn had been so scared that he even forgot to say his catchphrase, "Shocked!"

"Agreed, meow."

Bea, sprawled lazily across Kraft’s thigh, raised a paw.

"That’s not what I mean." Kraft rolled his eyes, picked Bea up and placed her on the table, then pointed at Bruce Banner transforming in the video. "Look at him. He goes from such a skinny build to a muscular guy over two meters tall, and sometimes he gets even bigger. Yet his shorts still fit perfectly, even though all his other clothes have torn into rags."

"Shocked!" Quinn opened his mouth wide, his long tongue dangling out as he looked utterly foolish. "Then those pants must be really satisfying to bite!"

Bea swished her long tail, then turned to look at Kraft with a strange expression.

"Why are your priorities always so weird?"

Kraft: …

When had these two little guys started liking to make snarky comments about him?

Come to think of it, Mr. Sakamoto in his dreams seemed to be the straight man who made snarky comments…

Wait, how did I know the term "straight man" in that sense?

Kraft rubbed his forehead. The strange knowledge that kept inexplicably appearing in his mind had increased again.

Thanks to reader 20201019091405921501373 and Eyes Open to a Sky Full of White for the tips.

After staring at the string of numbers for ages, I realized this seemed to be a friend who had tipped before, so I just copied it from the previous one. If I got it wrong, I’m really sorry. I get a terrible headache from these long strings of numbers. I once even entered the wrong account number when transferring money to someone. I don’t know why, but I mix up these numbers so easily. Every time I encounter a long string like this, I have to check it over and over again…

Come to think of it, I was always terrible at math when I was in school too.

I forget where I saw it, but apparently there was a version of Captain America that used serum plus Gamma Rays, or maybe serum plus Cosmic Cube Rays. Since I couldn’t confirm whether it was true, I put that part of the plot into Marvel’s own Captain America comics.

I bought Zhongyuan some red meat canned food and mixed it with cat food in its bowl. It ate in one sitting what it normally ate over most of a day. Then I looked carefully at its bowl and realized it had picked out and eaten every bit of the canned food, leaving behind nothing but cat food…

Looks like it really prefers canned food… It’s just too expensive, and it doesn’t keep for long. Dry cat food is still more convenient when I’m at work.