Chapter 1858 - Unexpected, Base Modifications, Joint Visit

In the end, it was just a passing remark.

If the bigshot really refunded her 10,000 credit points and requested that she stop cultivating the Chi Refining Technique, she wouldn’t agree.

Obtaining this Chi Refining Technique from this mission? It wasn’t a loss for her at all.

But sometimes, it wasn’t good to be too smart.

The female agent, who had seen through the other party’s tricks, but still had to play along, felt her chest tighten. She could only comfort herself: Maybe after a thorough stock check, she could get some credit points!

She wasn’t asking for much, but it should cover her expenses… right?

Inadvertently, Natasha began to miss Batman.

That man was too strait-laced, but he just said what he wanted to say. He was fair and didn’t play tricks, at least!

At the same time, Luke, who was checking the assets at the base, looked away from the screen in surprise and paid attention to the system interface.

System: Natasha Romanov has been upgraded to a 1-star teammate.

Turning from a light green friend to a light green teammate was a huge improvement.

Could it be… that she was grateful for the credit points that he had given her? So, the Black Widow was someone like this! Luke couldn’t help but smile.

Natasha was a professional, and was very efficient and ruthless as an Avenger.

The people she had taken down in recent years were either agents or bigshots who had committed all sorts of crimes.

In the future, Luke would probably get even more credit points from her than from Mindy, who was a 2-star teammate (10% for 1-star, 20% for 2-star, 50% for 3-star).

After all, under Damon’s guidance, the violent little girl had focused on her studies in the last few years. She rarely chopped people up with her blade now – at most, she just crippled them.

…

After that conversation, Natasha left on the third day.

It was instinctual for her to gather intelligence, and she had seized the opportunity to take a look around the base for two days.

She had contributed toward securing the base, so Luke didn’t bother with her. He simply used his ability to plant a hint for her to not reveal the base’s existence for the time being.

This was a floating, mobile base.

It moved very slowly and the process was tedious and dangerous. When stationary for long periods of time, it had to stay in shallow waters.

Nevertheless, it was indeed mobile.

Luke planned to let Phil and Tony take a look at his spoils. During this period of time, he would also finish cleaning up and renovating the base.

After that, the base would be moved to another part of the North Pole and become a top secret base.

Compared with McCullen and the Doctor, Luke had an unparalleled advantage: his inventory.

Such a huge base would require a lot of supplies.

From time to time, the base had to send out the metal-faced soldiers to fight, so there was a hidden hole in the ice which transported people and supplies via a steel cable elevator.

In addition, underwater submarines were indispensable.

In order to launch the nanomite warheads, McCullen had even gotten his hands on three missile launchers.

There was clearly no need for these.

Luke had his own unique means of transport. He didn’t need a bunch of metal-faced soldiers to stand guard, nor did he plan to launch the nanomite warheads.

Thus, the base underwent major modifications.

He got rid of the steel cable elevator, and he put four submarines away in his inventory.

The base was now an isolated island in the ocean, and the cleanup operation officially began.

Most of the admin staff and researchers in the base were single and didn’t need to go in and out.

A few senior personnel went in and out of the base through a secretive process during which they were unconscious.

If the surveillance wasn’t strict, the base would’ve been exposed long ago.

After the base was modified and moved, those who were a yellow neutral or light red evil in the system would be sent back to human society.

Those who were bright red would stay to use their brains and physical labor to atone for their sins.

The metal-faced soldiers were all bright red, and there was no way to treat their brain damage.

Luke was prepared to adjust the control program and hand most of them over to Phil as manpower.

He would keep a small portion to patrol and safeguard the base.

This way, the number of people in the base would drop to 60%, and there wouldn’t be a need for too many supplies.

It wasn’t that Luke couldn’t afford more people, but there was limited storage space in the ocean base.

The remaining nanomite researchers would be moved to Space 2 and gradually replaced with a suitable batch of “candidates.”

This place would become a manufacturing center for low-level weapons and components.

Compared with research, manufacturing required a lot of space.

Armor, small cars and motor boats were fine, but bigger barges and fighter jets took up too much space.

Whatever entered Space 2 were basically valuable, high-risk projects like the Iron Man Armor, Life 1 (Blood Orchid), nanotoxins, super soldiers and so on.

Take the Quinjet which both Luke and SHIELD had.

Cobra’s stealth plane was something they had developed themselves, and it wasn’t any worse than what SHIELD had.

Luke wasn’t interested in stuffing low- to mid-range products like that into his inventory.

Of course, his smart kitchenware in Space 2 was a must-have.

It was the same with the North Pole base – no matter how high-tech it was, as long as it had people, they had to eat, drink, and use the toilet, so the base couldn’t skimp on food and daily necessities.

…

A few days later, Tony and Phil arrived together at Luke’s invitation.

After entering the submarine, they flipped open the mask on their armor and greeted Knight.

They went to an observation room on the top floor through an exclusive passage. After the protective layer was opened, this was the best place to enjoy the view. Outside the transparent window was the blue of the shallow ocean waters.

It wasn’t like a bright and lively tropical ocean, but it felt tranquil and ancient.

Tony, who was used to big scenes, was a little envious. “This base isn’t bad. How about… I buy a share?”

Phil looked over as well at his words.

Both of them had a rough idea of the situation at the North Pole base.

A mobile underwater base could also do a lot of things.

However, Tony had only said it casually, and didn’t really need the base.

At most, he would treat it like a toy and use the relevant technology as reference. When the time came, he could create something himself and take Pepper on a night swim in the deep ocean.

Phil, however, really wanted a base like this.

Compared with an air base, a mobile underwater base was cheap and convenient.

Luke didn’t give them a chance to dream as he refused outright. “I’m using this place as a processing plant. If you want one, you can build one yourself. I’ll provide the relevant technology and supplies.”

Tony and Phil weren’t angry at this response.

Too many cooks would indeed spoil the soup, and there were no favors involved in this; otherwise, the three of them wouldn’t be managing their own team each.

If Luke was willing to provide the technology, Tony could be considered to have achieved his goal.

Supplies? Phil could have them, as the poor man among the three.

He might not necessarily be able to build a sea base with the technology alone.

As they chatted, Tony ‘toured’ the various areas in the base via the surveillance system, before he flipped through the construction data.

He also didn’t forget to stuff a backdoor program into the base’s system.