It was the equivalent of someone finding you and saying that for just one-third of your wealth, they could grant you whatever path to longevity you desired.
There was probably no one in the world who could truly resist what Killian was offering.
"Everything written in this plan... it's real?"
After a long silence, Kennedy finally came back to himself. He didn't say anything else. Instead, he stepped in close and stared at Killian with a nearly crazed look in his eyes.
At that moment, all of Kennedy's aristocratic manners, poise, and etiquette had been thrown aside. Faced with the temptation of longevity, perhaps even immortality, he would have sold his soul to the devil without hesitation.
And Killian wasn't even the devil.
"Of course. I've always been honest and trustworthy with my allies."
"Though I do hope my future allies are powerful enough to deserve the role."
Seeing that expression on Kennedy's face, Killian only gave a faint smile and spoke calmly.
At that moment, he knew the old man in front of him had stepped completely into the cage Killian had built for him, a cage called eternal life.
"Don't worry. This isn't just your matter anymore. I'll help our foundation find allies who truly qualify."
After staring at Killian deeply for a moment, Kennedy regained his composure and answered in a meaningful tone.
The shift was so quick it was almost as if the person from a moment ago had been a different personality altogether.
But whether for Kennedy or Killian, that no longer mattered.
Killian only needed to know that Kennedy would do as instructed.
What else mattered?
"I look forward to that day coming soon."
Meeting Kennedy's gaze, Killian answered with perfect courtesy.
"When we meet next time, you'd better have something stronger prepared to convince those guests."
"Words like these alone won't work on everyone. Not everyone trusts you the way I do, Mr. Killian."
After dropping that final line, Kennedy elegantly straightened the clothes he had disheveled during his earlier lapse in composure, then turned and walked back toward the hotel.
Killian only smiled faintly as he watched him leave.
Then, surrounded by his security detail, he returned to his villa as well.
...
The next morning, Killian boarded a connecting flight to Africa with several carefully selected personnel.
And the moment Killian left U.S. soil...
"Killian has left the United States."
That information immediately began circulating among certain influential circles in America.
Almost all of them were companies that had already been hit by AIM.
After all, when one giant rises, others get squeezed out. The market was only so large. If they simply let AIM continue growing unchecked, then sooner or later AIM would swallow them whole.
"Move. Everyone moves. Find him for me, no matter the cost."
Inside a villa somewhere in the United States, a middle-aged man broke into a smile and immediately roared the order at his subordinates.
"This is a perfect opportunity for us. In the United States, Killian is protected by the government and the military like some national treasure in a zoo. You can't get a stray dog within a mile of him. Now AIM's only real leader has left the country. We have to seize this chance."
"If he dies, AIM loses its head. Even if they want to keep pushing the controlled nuclear fusion project, it'll take them a long time to recover."
In Texas, J. Jones reacted the same way the moment he heard the news, a sharp light bursting from his eyes.
When his younger brother first brought back the information two days ago, he had almost despaired. AIM now had half the United States standing behind it. And after last night's news, even the President had openly backed Killian. That meant moving against Killian inside the country was practically the same as making an enemy of the entire U.S. government.
Even a family business that had been rooted in America for decades could never bear the retaliation of both the government and the military.
But now...
Since Killian had gone abroad, if a plane happened to go down somewhere in a war-torn corner of the world, then all anyone could do was offer their condolences.
"This idiot has no sense of danger at all? He picked now to leave the country?"
Elsewhere, at S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury frowned the moment one of his people reported Killian's travel route.
Just yesterday, AIM had unveiled controlled nuclear fusion and completely made enemies of the old energy giants.
If there were two industries in the world that generated the most brutal profits, they were weapons and energy.
And weapons themselves often existed to fight over energy.
The companies that had made it to the top of the energy business were all deeply entrenched old corporations and family empires. Their foundations were impossible to estimate.
Some of them were so deeply rooted that even Fury would have to move through proper legal channels if he wanted to touch them.
And now, after provoking all of them at once, Killian would have been untouchable if he had stayed inside the United States. With the government and military backing him, nobody would have dared make a move.
But by leaving?
In Fury's eyes, Killian was basically asking for it.
At that moment, on the dark web, bounties tied to Killian's itinerary and location began rising at a terrifying pace, climbing from the ten-figure range toward eleven.
This was the preparation stage for the retaliatory campaign many corporations were about to launch against him.
As far as they were concerned, if they could eliminate Killian during this trip abroad, then their own companies would still have room to recover.
For a while, hidden intelligence organizations all over the world were set into motion by the enormous bounty. Information began flowing everywhere like a storm.
Beneath the surface of the digital world, the undercurrent had already turned violent.
Meanwhile, sitting on his plane, Killian looked at the projected data on the transparent display in front of him with a faint smile, watching his own information spread across networks everywhere.
He could already imagine how frantically those organizations were moving after he left, how desperately they wanted to find him and erase him.
It was just like Tony Stark being ambushed by terrorists in Afghanistan back in 2008.
"Sir, would you like me to completely lock down your information?"
Baymax's voice came through Killian's earpiece at that moment.
"No. Leave it."
"Let the bullets fly a little longer."
Killian looked out the window as the plane passed above a city below. The crowds and the traffic looked tiny from this height, almost like ants. Then he answered calmly.
"Is everything ready?"
As a communication request appeared on the display, Killian accepted it and asked softly.
"Everything is in place, boss. We're just waiting on your end."
On the other side of the call was one of the earliest Blackwatch members to follow Killian. The leader was Adam, the one and only man Killian had personally named. Beneath the mask, his eyes were filled with reverence as he looked at Killian.
"Good."
Killian cut off the call and closed his eyes to rest.
He already knew that once he landed in Africa, things were going to get lively fast. He needed to conserve his energy.
Ring, ring, ring.
As if the universe were mocking him, the phone rang again the very next second.
"Sir, General Ross is calling. Would you like me to block it?"
Baymax asked helpfully through the earpiece.
"Put him through."
Since it was Ross, Killian had no reason to refuse.
"Killian! I know young people like to travel all over the place, and fine, whatever, but this is the worst possible time for it. You're in danger right now. A lot of people are watching you. Turn that plane around immediately and tell me your exact location. I'll coordinate the nearest military airfield and send a military escort to bring you back."
The call had barely connected before Ross's raised voice came roaring through.
To Ross, Killian was the keystone for the super-soldier military force he intended to build. If Killian got taken out now, then Ross's entire plan and the army's current stage of development would grind to a halt.
They had only just started integrating the bio-tyrants into practical use, and Ross had already personally gone to his superiors to present the humanoid tyrant project Killian had shown him before.
If Killian died now, Ross felt like his own future would probably die with him.
So at this moment, Ross was even more concerned for Killian than Killian's own family might have been.
"Heh, General Ross, relax. In your eyes, am I really that reckless?"
"Trust me. I'm going to negotiate a major deal this time. And when I come back, I'll bring you an even bigger surprise."
After listening to Ross finish, Killian answered with deliberate mystery.
After all, everything he was doing now was ultimately for Ross's side too.
Once he got all the Vibranium out of that man's hands, what kind of monster would a Vibranium-based T-800 become?
And unlike ordinary materials, Vibranium could be recycled and reused. As Killian unlocked more technology, the number of applications would only continue to grow.
Most importantly, though, what Killian truly valued was Vibranium's extreme adaptability in different material states.
Unlike ordinary high-atomic-weight metals, Vibranium was not on the periodic table, which meant it didn't carry the radiation problems that real-world materials of that class would.
Its electrons did not move in the same way, which in Killian's theoretical framework meant its atomic structure could remain extraordinarily stable, almost like being locked in a near-absolute state.
That lack of ordinary atomic motion was exactly why Vibranium was one of the most durable, stable substances in the Marvel universe.
It could absorb vibrations and kinetic energy from its surroundings. When it absorbed impact, its own molecular vibration frequency showed no obvious increase. Instead, the energy was stored within its molecular bonds.
Usually, the more kinetic energy Vibranium absorbed, the stronger and more durable it became.
But if it were ever broken with enough force, it would release most of that stored energy explosively.
And what attracted Killian even more was Vision's body.
When the Mind Stone had been combined with a Vibranium body, a transcendent being like Vision had been born.
Vision could regulate his body until it became almost as light as air and fly.
He could pass through solid matter. If attacked, he could phase his body so that missiles simply passed through him.
He could even enter another object and then solidify, injuring or killing an enemy from within.
And on top of that, Vision could make his body extremely dense, almost diamond-hard, which gave him extraordinary strength and made him incredibly difficult to damage.
Among all of those traits, the one Killian found both the most plausible and the most tempting was the phasing ability.
In that state, no conventional attack could touch him.
Based on the system data Killian had studied for a long time, he was convinced that the Mind Stone itself was not the reason Vision had all of those powers.
The Mind Stone functioned more like an incomparably advanced intelligence optimizer. When you wanted to do something, it gave you the most efficient path and let you follow it.
But it was absolutely not the key factor behind the phasing ability.
The Mind Stone's known abilities were closer to altering, influencing, and controlling thought and spirit, along with amplifying mental power to allow one mind to enter another.
Even if it had other applications, they had nothing to do with spatial phasing.
If it had been the Space Stone in Vision's head, Killian would not have questioned it for even a second.
But it wasn't.
It was the Mind Stone, and the two concepts simply did not line up.
So Killian's working theory was bold but clear.
Vibranium had a hidden third state, one that could be manually adjusted to alter its material form.
And from his analysis, that state likely involved turning the substance into something close to a nearly intangible material phase so it could pass through other matter.
There were limits, of course. In the original continuity, dense matter and force fields could still prevent Vision from passing through.
That was exactly why Killian believed it wasn't true spatial teleportation, but rather a special intangible material state.
But limitations didn't make the ability less valuable.
They made it more technically interesting.
And that hidden potential in Vibranium was the real reason Killian had come all this way, across half the planet.
Otherwise, why would he willingly leave the U.S. right now and expose himself to this much danger?
After more than ten hours of flying time, Killian finally woke again as the aircraft descended into a small international airport in an African country.
At last, he had truly set foot on this complicated continent.
After several dozen minutes of tedious security checks and immigration review, Killian and his team finally stepped out of the airport.
The moment he did, a large group of local hustlers swarmed toward him enthusiastically. When they saw how sharp Killian looked and how professional his escort team appeared, the heat in their eyes became even more obvious.
Each of them kept trying to pitch him in heavily accented English.
It was true that because much of the region had once been under European colonial control, English had become deeply embedded in daily use. Some of them even spoke it quite well.
Too bad their prices were ridiculous.
Ten dollars per kilometer, two hundred dollars minimum. As if he were some clueless mark.
Killian had money, but that did not make him stupid.
He simply waved them off and made it clear he had no need for their services.
Once the expressionless men beside him stepped forward again, the crowd finally backed off reluctantly.
Then, in full view of everyone around them, a convoy of heavily armed armored vehicles pushed through the traffic and rolled straight toward them.
Anyone paying close attention could even see how fresh the gun barrels looked, still gleaming with a trace of oil.
When the vehicles stopped in front of Killian's group, the onlookers finally realized he was no easy target.
He was a predator.
A few people immediately slipped away into the crowd, clearly afraid that Killian might remember them later.
This region of Africa was not as nonstop chaotic as places like Afghanistan or Syria, where war seemed permanent, but that only meant it was slightly better.
Warlords still divided territory here, and countless armed factions of every size operated across the region.
In a place like this, anyone who managed to survive usually had learned how to read danger very quickly.
Ignoring them, Killian led his people straight into the armored vehicles prepared in advance.
Africa was not a peaceful place, and high-tech comforts meant very little out here. Many roads were still dirt tracks, so there was no point pretending otherwise.
That was why Killian had arranged armored vehicles in advance. If something happened, at the very least their absurd defensive plating could buy them time.
"Boss."
Once Killian got in, the man in the driver's seat turned around, looked at the boss he hadn't seen in a long time, and spoke with obvious excitement and admiration.
"Sevin. Long time no see. How are your younger brother and sister doing?"
Seeing the familiar face, Killian smiled warmly and asked with easy sincerity.
"The company's taking great care of them. They're both in kindergarten now, and they've made a lot of friends at school. They're happy every day."
The moment his boss asked about his family first, warmth rose inside Sevin's chest, and he answered respectfully.
(End of Chapter)
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