Reid put away the magical tome he got from Doom but didn't ask about the situation in Latveria.
Likewise, the latter didn't feel the need to report any updates. For now, they were merely partners, nothing more. And besides, claiming the throne of Latveria wasn't something difficult for him. It was never a challenge to begin with.
In fact, from the information Reid had received, Doom had already gathered a group of like-minded followers in his homeland and launched a resistance movement. Their momentum was gradually growing.
The current king had even begun seeking international aid, but unfortunately, no country was willing to respond.
With the U.S. government under LexCorp's control, nobody wanted to get involved in a civil conflict within a tiny, resource-poor nation like Latveria. Its territory and population were both too insignificant to be worth the trouble.
Doctor Doom becoming the new king was only a matter of time.
"Recently, quite a few Hydra agents have entered Latveria. Seems like they've learned that I possess some special abilities too and want to uncover the secrets of magic from me," Doom remarked.
The impact of LexCorp driving S.H.I.E.L.D. out of the United States was far greater than anyone had anticipated. This was just one of the consequences.
Latveria, a country with almost no natural resources to speak of, had suddenly drawn Hydra's attention. LexCorp's actions had stirred up fear within the organization, prompting them to seek out sources of supernatural power to stand a chance against the company's growing influence.
"In that case, how about you deal with the next part?" Reid responded with a faint smile. "Reed will soon lose his footing in the U.S. Your old friend... I'll leave him to you."
Those words pulled Doom's thoughts back to his university days.
He had always been known as a genius, praised by teachers and peers alike. But no matter what, Reed was always one step ahead of him.
But now, things were different. The tables had turned. Reed was on the verge of losing everything, while he had already begun walking a path that felt like a complete rebirth.
"That's exactly what I intended. Also, about your plan with Luthor, I should make one thing clear. Reed won't be handing over any superpowered individuals to S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra. The one who gains powers… will be Reed himself."
Doom's voice grew cold with certainty.
"That guy might look like a clueless nerd on the outside, but his intelligence is not to be underestimated."
* * *
It had been a month since Fury became the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
During this period, the Fantastic Four had flawlessly prevented numerous disasters, quickly becoming America's most beloved group of celebrity heroes.
At the same time, the former Von Doom Industries had rebranded itself as Vought International and launched other superheroes into the stardom.
A wave of street-level heroes emerged one after another.
In daily life, they lived as celebrities—doing endorsements, commercials, and public appearances. But when necessary, they would don their suits and appear before the public to deal with disasters as superheroes.
The word 'hero' gradually started to lose its noble weight and turned into something more commercial. Yet it always remained under Luthor's control.
In just one month, three street heroes had already vanished from the public eye. The reason? Their character had completely corroded under the spotlight.
And that was exactly Luthor's plan.
This world was filled with superheroes, and it would continue to give rise to more of them.
What he aimed to do was ruin the very soil that bred those people. He wanted to turn heroism into a product, profitable but not pure, making it harder for true, idealistic heroes to ever take root.
Even Daredevil, the silent guardian of Hell's Kitchen, had been approached directly by Vought. After some negotiation, the two sides signed an agreement.
Though his abilities came from radioactive exposure, turning him blind while heightening his other senses, Daredevil had now officially become one of the company's superheroes.
He helped them build this stage for heroic celebrity culture, and in return, Vought supported his crusade against crime.
The world was changing. And with it, the system points in Reid's hand kept rising steadily.
But at this moment, he had no intention of redeeming new characters. While he could easily trade for a magic-type superhero card and quickly understand the book Doctor Doom had given him, he chose not to.
Because for the first time, he had a chance to gain power through personal effort rather than the system.
So, Reid decided to learn on his own.
His talent in magic wasn't as strong as Doom's, but he wasn't completely hopeless either. As the first small orb of light shimmered into existence in his hand, lit by magic alone, his journey of learning continued.
* * *
On the other hand, things were starting to fall apart for Reed.
At first, Fury still visited him occasionally, trying to persuade him to stay once the research was done. But as he grew more familiar with his responsibilities as director, and with the ongoing chaos around him, he was eventually forced to give up his daily check-ins with Reed.
Without him keeping an eye on things, Hydra's influence began to slowly reveal itself.
The assistants who had once been extremely cooperative with Reed's experiments started acting differently. Now they kept detailed logs of every step in the experiments and backed up those notes somewhere outside of his awareness.
Although Reed lacked emotional intelligence, he was not stupid.
He knew that the moment he joined S.H.I.E.L.D., all of his research would automatically be stored in their central database. There was no reason for his assistants to make separate records—unless, of course, they never intended to upload those records to the database in the first place.
Realizing what was going on, he tried to take the initiative and report the strange behavior in the lab to Fury.
But he soon discovered that he couldn't even find the man anymore.
It wasn't that someone was directly stopping him. Instead, it was as if an invisible hand was subtly orchestrating a series of coincidences, constantly keeping the two of them from crossing paths.
Whenever Reed was fully focused on his research, the director would briefly return to the base. But by the time he heard about it and went looking for the man, he would already have left to deal with other matters.
It's not just him. Even Fury seemed to be manipulated like a pawn on someone else's board.
And this... was only the beginning.
When some research assistants blatantly ignored his instructions, deleting files that were supposed to be entered into the main database, Reed finally understood that the organization he joined was far from clean. But by now, he was in too deep to get out.
He looked up at the massive machine in front of him and sighed.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had already chosen the candidate who would receive the superpower. It was Brock Rumlow, the same agent who had once fought the Fantastic Four head-on.
However, everything Reed had seen during this time pointed to one thing: he could not let them get their hands on superpowers.
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