"Who are you?"
The banker, his pleasure of feasting interrupted, roared in displeasure.
"Get out! We're having a meeting here!"
The young man didn't even look at him. His gaze swept around the conference room, finally landing on Justin Hammer's deathly pale face, and he showed a friendly smile.
"Excuse me, just a quick question."
He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone as relaxed as if he were just dropping by.
"Is this company for sale?"
As soon as he spoke, the air in the entire conference room solidified.
Justin Hammer was even more stunned, his mouth agape wide enough to fit a lightbulb.
"Me?" The young man finally seemed to notice the banker. He smiled, took a document from the blonde woman's hand, and casually tossed it onto the conference table with a soft "thud."
"I'm here to buy something."
The banker looked disdainful, picked up the document, and muttered curses.
"Any Tom, Dick, or Harry thinks they can just… Holy hell!"
The expression on his face, from scorn to shock, then to a ghostly terror, took only one second.
It was a certificate of assets issued by UBS, with so many zeros that he couldn't count them all at once.
At the bottom of the document was a clear number: $3,000,000,000.
Three billion.
U.S. dollars.
Cash!
The entire conference room was dead silent.
The bankers, who had been so arrogant just moments ago, now held their breath, their eyes wide like bullfrogs.
"Three billion."
Lynt held up three fingers, as if ordering dishes at a market.
"U.S. dollars, cash. To buy Hammer Industries, including this building, all technology patents, all equipment, and even the wastebaskets in the restrooms. Is that enough?"
He walked in front of Justin Hammer, looking down at the man who was now completely dumbfounded.
"I only have one request."
"You… you tell us!"
The banker stammered, his back almost bent at a ninety-degree angle.
Lynt's hand gently patted Justin Hammer's shoulder. The force wasn't strong, but it made Hammer shiver all over.
"Get him, and everyone else who doesn't want to sell the company to me, out of this building."
Lynt smiled, but the look in his eyes behind his glasses was icy cold, without a hint of warmth.
"Now, immediately, right now. I'm a bit of a clean freak; I don't like trash in my house."
No negotiation.
No bargaining.
Just using money to smash your dignity, your career, your everything into pieces.
Justin Hammer, the former arms tycoon, didn't even dare to fart before he was dragged out of the empire he had personally built by two opportunistic security guards, like a dead dog.
Half an hour later.
Lynt stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window of the top-floor office, with the bustling traffic of New York beneath him.
Raven was nearby, operating a tablet computer at lightning speed, the legal process of the acquisition moving faster than an assembly line.
"The company name will be Apex Technology," Lynt said without turning his head.
"It will be a subsidiary under Apex Amplification."
"The legal department is already handling it."
Raven nodded, but couldn't help but ask,
"Why are you spending so much money to buy such a mess? These technologies, according to the Pentagon's assessment report, are just a pile of garbage."
"They see it as garbage, but in my eyes…"
Lynt turned around, a grin spreading across his face.
"It's a gold mine."
He took Raven directly to the lowest-level secret research Base of Hammer Industries.
A mix of engine oil and dust hit them in the face.
It was like a giant steel graveyard, with half-built robots everywhere, unarmored drones, and various ostentatiously designed weapon prototypes.
"Justin Hammer is a genius, and also a fool."
Lynt walked up to a two-meter-tall mech skeleton, his fingers tracing the cold metal.
"His design philosophy is at least ten years ahead of this era.
But he lacks good materials, powerful energy, and even a smart brain to command these iron lumps."
Lynt tapped a few times on a screen, and the mech's design blueprint popped up, with glaring red "FAILURE" warnings flashing on the energy core and AI modules.
Lynt smiled. The Sentinel robots should be put to use.
Most importantly, he had a group of perfect… guinea pigs.
The next day, Apex Technology, underground training ground.
It had been transformed overnight into a huge metal fighting arena.
Sabretooth Victor, Toad Man, Red Devil, and the other former Brotherhood troublemakers stood there with disgruntled expressions.
"Boss, why did you call us to this crappy place? To smell rust?" Victor impatiently flashed his claws.
"Team building, version 2.0."
Lynt clapped his hands, and the alloy gate behind him slowly rose.
More than a dozen robots of various designs walked out with heavy steps.
Their designs were those failed ones from Hammer Industries, but their shells gleamed with a brand new metallic luster.
"Let me introduce you to the company's new security guards," Lynt said with a smile, pointing at the robots.
"Your task today is to dismantle them."
"Win, and each of you gets one hundred thousand U.S. dollars, deposited instantly. Lose, or run away…"
Lynt's smile turned playful.
"This month's salary, gone."
"One hundred thousand?!"
"Let's do it!"
The eyes of these unruly Mutants instantly turned red.
"Ha! Just these pieces of junk? I'll take them down with one claw each!"
Victor was the first to charge forward with a roar, his momentum like a prehistoric beast.
Then… he rushed in front of the clumsiest robot, and his sharp claws, whistling through the air, slashed down hard!
"Clang!!!"
A deafening clang of metal, sparks flying everywhere!
Only a few shallow White marks were left on the robot's chest.
Victor froze.
The next second, the robot silently raised its arm, and an alloy fist, larger than a casserole, with a dull whoosh, struck Victor's stomach precisely, coming from behind.
"Bang!"
Victor was hit like by a battering ram, instantly arching into a shrimp, his eyeballs almost popping out.
He didn't fly away at all; instead, he was directly knocked off his feet by the immense force, shooting backward like a cannonball, slamming heavily into the alloy wall fifteen meters away, creating an exaggerated human-shaped dent, and then sliding down.
The entire scene was dead silent.
As Toad Man leaped into the air, an electric net descended from above, enveloping him completely, making him foam at the mouth and twitch uncontrollably.
As Red Devil was about to teleport, several robots around him simultaneously emitted an invisible sonic wave. His brain felt like it was being pricked by thousands of needles, and he clutched his head and knelt down.
The entire scene became a one-sided beatdown.
Only Magneto Erik stood still, his face so grim that Water could drip from it.
He could feel that the materials of these robots had extremely strong resistance to his magnetic force.
In fact, their internal energy cores were actively interfering with the magnetic field around him.