On the second floor of the Hydra base.
Luca handed control of "Strucker" back to Hakimi, and then stopped paying attention to the fight outside.
Honestly, "fight" wasn't even the right word anymore. "Slaughter" fit better.
Hive's group didn't bring only regular Hydra soldiers—there were also a handful of tougher fighters and a few Inhuman-powered weirdos mixed in.
But against the coordinated swarm attack from the "drone hive," none of them could really do anything. It didn't matter how special they were; they couldn't make a dent.
The upgraded "Pterodactyl drones" came with built-in "melting beams" and "disintegration energy orbs," which was enough to make most enemies drop dead on the spot.
At the moment, Luca was in an office, scratching his head as he stared at the energy cube the Spot had just retrieved using a black hole.
"Wait… living creatures can count as core components too?"
The energy cube in Luca's hand was what Hive had turned into after getting hit by the [Dehydration Gun].
The thing was, Luca had been watching from upstairs the whole time. The instant Hive stepped out of the vehicle, Luca noticed he was giving off that distinctive glow that only "core components" had.
That was why Luca didn't kill him immediately. Instead, he sealed him with the [Dehydration Gun] and brought him back.
Now that he was looking at the cube in his hand, though, Luca found himself stuck again.
And that had everything to do with what Hive—this so-called ancestor of the Inhumans—could actually do.
Hive originally was an Inhuman created by the Kree from humans, but after a thousand years of exile, he'd long since lost his original body.
At this point, Hive was basically a bizarre lifeform made up of countless microscopic parasites clumped together. He survived by constantly infesting and possessing other people.
Worse, those parasites could absorb flesh and blood to rapidly repair injuries, which meant normal attacks barely worked on him.
That was also why Luca had insisted on meeting him through a remotely controlled "Stark" robot earlier. He didn't want to get anywhere near him in person.
Sure, a high-energy physical attack—like a "disintegration orb" that wipes out every parasite at once—could still kill Hive.
But Luca didn't want Hive dead right now. He wanted to touch him and pull up the cheat system's crafting panel.
And if Luca made direct skin contact, that meant taking a very real risk of getting killed—or worse, getting infested.
So yeah. It was a problem.
"If the Ancient One were here, she could just freeze time for me. I wonder if the Mind Stone even works on something like a parasite swarm?"
Even though it was risky, Luca still decided to try.
Because if he left a "core component" sitting right in front of him and couldn't find out what it could craft into, he knew he'd be so annoyed he wouldn't be able to sleep.
He moved immediately.
Luca didn't even bother responding to "Strucker" coming in to report that the battle was over.
The yard outside had basically been plowed flat by lasers. Every enemy was gone without a trace. What was there to report?
"Jonathan, open up a separate pocket space. Doesn't need to be big."
"Haro-4, take the scepter and the Dehydration Gun inside and test it. If you can control him with the scepter, come out and tell me. If you can't, dehydrate him again fast. I'll figure out another solution later."
As he spoke, Luca pulled out "Loki's scepter" and handed it over to Haro-4 along with the [Dehydration Gun] and the energy cube that contained Hive.
At this point, Haro-4 was the only Haro-series robot Luca had left. The other four were all wrecked, and he hadn't had time to repair them.
And honestly, if Hive had any good way to deal with machines, Luca wouldn't even dare risk using Haro-4.
A black hole opened, and Luca watched the Haro mech step inside.
Not long after, Haro-4 didn't even need to come back out. Hakimi relayed the result over comms.
"Heh. Guess Infinity Stones really are no joke."
Inside the pocket space, Luca didn't bother giving orders to the dazed, motionless Hive. He just reached out and put a hand on Hive's shoulder.
A pale-blue system panel popped up instantly.
[Snake Cup]
[Origin World: Shadow Operatives Universe 1/5]
[Creator: Dr. Serpent]
[Core Component: An occupied corpse]
[Crafting Materials: 1 albino snake shed skin, 1 covert-ops field manual, 1 set of medieval knight armor, 2 longswords, 1 knight's mask, 1 pack of cigarettes, 1 lighter with a snake emblem]
[Item Description: One of the artificial humans created by Dr. Serpent by combining multiple high-quality gene lines. Calm, steady, and stubbornly resilient. Highly skilled in Serpent-style combat techniques, swordplay, hand-to-hand fighting, and illusion-based psychological tricks, and was software-modified from the moment of birth. Strong in combat and also a solid support-type research assistant.]
[Friendly Reminder: A creation that blends "combat techniques" with biotechnology—but don't lump the people from that world in with ordinary humans.]
"Uh… so you can craft a human being out of a person?"
Luca had always known biotech was a major branch of tech-based items.
But seeing the system straight-up craft an artificial human still made him feel a little weird.
"I keep calling these things 'items,' but can an artificial human really count as an item?"
That said, it was only mildly uncomfortable. And honestly, Luca had already seen stranger stuff—he'd even pulled out a living person before.
So crafting one more didn't feel like something worth spiraling over.
"Man, if this could teach me those 'combat energy' techniques, that'd be amazing."
Once Luca pushed aside the distracting thoughts, he stared at the panel and sighed a little.
That other world's tech might be ridiculous in its own way, but the real backbone was its wild variety of specialized techniques and inherited super-traits.
If Luca could master that "internal energy" system, his real body's combat power would probably jump a lot.
Unfortunately, based on the system's "Friendly Reminder," it didn't sound like learning those techniques was going to be an option.
"Whatever. Why am I overthinking it? The materials this time all look pretty simple. I'll just craft it and see what I get."
"I'm also curious how strong this artificial human is… because I don't remember ever hearing this name in the original story."
Since he planned to craft it on the spot, Luca didn't even bother taking the "Spot" transport back to New York. He stayed right there at the Hydra base and had "Strucker" use his connections to gather the materials.
Aside from the so-called "covert-ops field manual"—which Luca had Hakimi throw together from random online notes and stitched into a fake "training guide"—everything else was collected within an afternoon.
Back inside the Spot's black-hole pocket space, Luca drew a circle around Hive (who was still standing obediently in place), laid out the materials one by one, and set them in position.
Then Luca pressed both hands to the ground and silently recited the words in his head.