Chapter 1518

Chapter 1518: Investment and Motive

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Luke and Phil left via a window and returned to their car. They immediately took off the trackers on the two men in black suits and threw them into the grass next to the road.
The car started up and drove away into the night.
In SHIELD’s Eastern European branch, the surveillance staff was already explaining the situation. “The two targets took down four agents, and took Carson and Litt. Tommy and Fisher were left in the washroom on the second floor of the bar.
“The targets returned and checked on Tommy and Fisher before they left again.”
‘The supervisor frowned. “How long until support arrives?”
“It’ll take at least ten minutes for them to arrive,” another staff member replied.
The supervisor nodded and murmured, “What’s going on? Are the targets too strong, or was there an ambush?”
Of course, he could never expect that there were actually two of Targets 1 and 2.
This time, Luke and Phil didn’t act again after the power went out. Instead, they used the Thousand Faces System to make masks of the targets’ faces beforehand, and used their identities.
‘This was to make SHIELD think that they had misjudged the targets’ strength, and that the two missing men had been killed.
Making someone “disappear” was an artform, and had to be done well.
Just now, the two of them had deliberately let their faces be caught by the surveillance equipment on the four SHIELD agents so that SHIELD didn’t mistake who they were.
After this incident, it wouldn’t be easy for SHIELD to catch these two agents of a certain national government.
Even if the other party confessed what really happened, SHIELD wouldn’t believe it, and would more likely suspect that it was just an excuse.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be hard for things to drag out for a few weeks or even a month or two.
Aweek later, Luke met Phil again in New York.
After Sokovia, they returned to New York.
It would be a while before the third operation.
‘There was no helping it.
The suspects wouldn’t always act the way Nick Fury hoped.
Nick Fury had to arrange everything flawlessly so that Hydra wouldn’t notice anything wrong.
‘The three men captured from the last two operations had all been Hydra members.
‘They had provided the names of eight Hydra members inside SHIELD. Apart from Garrett, the big boss, the person with the highest position was only a level 4.
Obviously, they had no contact with other senior members of Hydra.
Neither Nick Fury nor Luke was disappointed. Instead, they were very satisfied.
‘This meant that they were on the right track.
‘These men who had been confirmed to be Hydra would expose even more people.
But Luke and Nick Fury had very different thoughts.
Fury’s mood was much heavier because not only was Hydra’s infiltration a fact, it was on a scale that was rapidly exceeding his expectations.
Luke, on the other hand, “listened” to the information which the three Hydra members had on SHIELD through a long-range thought amplifier.
They subconsciously looked down on SHIELD.
To them and to Hydra at large, SHIELD was basically “meat on the chopping block.”
Nick Fury might still be fantasizing about saving SHIELD at this point, but the notion had already occurred to Luke.
According to these Hydra members, SHIELD couldn’t be saved!
If one or two percent of people in a secret organization was completely corrupted by a terrorist organization, no amount of purging would save the secret organization.
Because nobody could prove that everyone else was innocent.
Even if someone killed dozens of Hydra members outright, that could also be a ploy to gain the enemy’s confidence.
Nick Fury’s opinion didn’t matter at all. In any case, the five major members of the World Security Council would never trust this organization again.
‘Thus, Luke judged that it was basically the death sentence for SHIELD.
If he were anyone else, he would probably just offer three things — “sorry,” “there’s no hope,” and “goodbye.”
For the sake of experience and credit points, however, Luke felt that he had to help Nick Fury.
Hm, would SHIELD still exist after Luke lent a hand? What did that have to do with Luke? He wasn’t the one who let Hydra corrupt SHIELD.
He was just a warmhearted hero who worked hard to maintain world peace and stability without asking for anything in return.
Phil was in good spirits.
Although he had been working overtime recently, after some guidance from Luke, Phil was able to quickly get a handle on the Kunlun Chi Refining Technique.
Phil had a bit of innate talent for cultivating chi to begin with. He could enter a cultivation state quickly, which was much better than Robert, who had to take 30 minutes.
‘The Kunlun Chi Refining Technique could also significantly reduce fatigue.
Even with the massive amount of physical training which Selina did every day, she could sleep for less than five hours.
Phil, who mostly used his brain, was energetic after two hours of training every day and three to four hours of sleep.
He met Luke in New Jersey and gave him the intelligence on the operation, before Luke rushed him to train.
SHIELD was a big ship that was destined to sink, and Phil certainly wouldn’t jump ship early.
If he didn’t destroy Hydra, he would be turning his back on the years he spent in SHIELD.
Thus, Luke had to do his best to increase Phil’s ability to survive so that he wouldn’t be buried along with SHIELD.
As long as nothing happened to Phil, he would be Luke’s best “hand.”
For example, putting people in place to take down Hydra with one call would become a completely normal thing.
‘When Luke took down gang members, he had to worry about the safety of the local community.
‘Taking out 10,000 Hydra heads could only make this world a safer place.
In this regard, Hydra, the Hand, the Fraternity, and the High Table were all similar targets in that it was very safe to take them down without any adverse consequences.
If he invested more in Phil now, the rewards would be even greater in the future.
After an hour of training, Phil was panting and sweating as he circled Luke.
Luke stopped what he was doing and stretched. “Ask away.”
Phil smiled. “Why do you hate Hydra so much?”
Luke got up and poured himself a cup of coffee. He grabbed a bottle of juice and tossed it to Phil. “I don’t hate them.”
Phil caught the bottle, took a sip of the juice, and said in confusion, “But you…”
He gestured at the computer and the warehouse that they were in, clearly confused by what Luke was doing.
Big Dipper definitely wasn’t some government agent. He was too ruthless; he killed more bad guys in one operation than Phil had in his entire life.
But calling him a murderer didn’t seem right.
A murderer didn’t care if their target was good or bad. As long as their own conditions were met, they wouldn’t be able to control themself.
Luke, on the other hand, was clearly only interested in criminals.
Except for the fact that he had killed too many people, he was no different from Batman.
Pondering for a moment, Luke asked, “Do you know anything about Chinese culture?”
Phil was stumped. “A bit.”
Luke said, “My actions are a way to punish evil. In Chinese culture, this is also a way to do good. So, I’m just saving people..”