Chapter 90

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"Hydra, sending the Winter Soldier to kill me?"

Nick Fury, in front of another diary, his face suddenly became tense, and a sharp light flashed through his one good eye.

Has Hydra become so audacious?

He is the Director of SHIELD!

You infiltrate SHIELD, which is just barely acceptable, but to think of killing the Director of SHIELD too?

Could it be that Hydra is no longer content with just being undercover and is planning to seize power in the open, to take it from my hands?

To completely control SHIELD?

Such ambition, such a bold move! It's unheard of for an infiltrator to want to completely replace the original mastermind.

This also reflects, indirectly, to what insane extent Hydra has infiltrated and taken control of SHIELD.

Otherwise, how would they dare to be so brazen?

The problem with Hydra is indeed a major concern!

But how to resolve this major concern is yet another headache.

At the very least, for now, I haven't thought of any good solutions.

The only thing I can do at present is to pull out those few Hydras indicated in the diary spoilers!

As for the rest, we'll need to take our time and plan for the long term.

The same goes for the Insight Project.

Although the diary made it very clear that this is an important plan of Hydra's, and even in the future, it will stir Captain America himself to take action to stop it.

But as of now, apart from a name, the diary does not reveal anything else.

Apart from quietly investigating, there's not much else Nick Fury can do.

"By my calculations, it's Crossbones who's tough enough to have captured Captain America, and even once brutally defeated him."

"Strictly speaking, the Civil War of superheroes, the split of the Avengers, this guy was the trigger!"

"If it weren't for Crossbones, the Scarlet Witch wouldn't have accidentally harmed civilians, and Wakanda wouldn't have publicly condemned the Avengers on the international stage."

"Becoming the last straw that broke public opinion."

"The Sokovia Accords would never have been introduced! The Civil War would never have erupted!"

Crossbones?

This name or nickname suddenly caught Nick Fury's full attention.

Is this person, reportedly an elite Hydra agent, essentially officially stamped by the diary, who has even captured Captain America and brutally defeated him?

So this person, could he also be a super-soldier?

Almost instantly, Crossbones was regarded by Nick Fury as a significant threat.

However, unfortunately, the diary didn't reveal the name like Baron Strucker did, making it much easier to track the person down.

At present, the only clue I have is the nickname "Crossbones."

But relying solely on a nickname to find concrete information, I'm not very confident about it.

I can only give it my best effort.

After making up his mind, Nick Fury did not dwell on it any longer but focused on another piece of intelligence that was even more important.

Was the Civil War of superheroes and the split of the Avengers, caused by the Sokovia Accords?

So, what is this act?

First off, the act's name contains Sokovia, which is a place name.

According to some common naming conventions, it is clear that the act was introduced because of an incident that happened in Sokovia.

Considering the context, it's apparent that Scarlet Witch, the "most tragic" superhero mentioned earlier in the diary, caused the harm.

Although I do not know who Scarlet Witch is, she has the ability to use magic to alter a town, to rewrite reality.

Undoubtedly, she is also an exceptionally powerful being.

The diary has stamped it; Scarlet Witch is on the side of good, a superhero.

Naturally, I am very willing to bring such a person into the Avengers.

Unfortunately, based on those snippets mentioned in the diary, it is impossible to find out who Scarlet Witch is.

So now, I have no choice but to give up on those unrealistic fantasies and continue to analyze the Sokovia Accords.

The name Sokovia Accords undoubtedly indicates that the incident of Scarlet Witch accidentally harming civilians occurred in Sokovia.

And the people harmed were obviously from Wakanda, or it wouldn't have sparked a public condemnation from Wakanda.

Wait, Wakanda?

It took Nick Fury a moment to remember.

Isn't that country located in Africa, a very poor and backward small country?

Even generally considered to be the poorest country in the world, with a civilization still in the "agricultural era."

Dismissing such a trifling non-entity country, I quickly put Wakanda out of my mind, paying it no more attention.

And continued with the train of thought from before.

According to the diary's information, because of Wakandans being accidentally harmed by the Scarlet Witch, prompting Wakanda to condemn it and igniting public opinion, that's why the act was introduced.

In other words, this act was introduced to quell the public's outrage over superheroes accidentally harming civilians.

It must be restrictive, suppressive, even regulatory in nature.

And for those superheroes?

Each of them possesses unique skills as extraordinary individuals. Presumably, many would be uncooperative ore even disagree with such an act.

Take Tony Stark, whom I just recently met; he is willful and reckless and would never agree with the act.

Yet at the same time, there must also be some superheroes who agree.

Like Captain America.

As a 'super-soldier' with an entire lifetime of following orders and a military background, he surely would understand the need for such an act.

So here lies the point of contention.

Without a doubt, it is this point of contention that ultimately led to the Civil War of superheroes!

Understood!

As an experienced espionage chief, Nick Fury just needed to sort out his thoughts to get a rough outline of the affairs related to the act and the civil war.

["However, when it comes down to the most powerful, it's actually Hydra's best ally."

"The Insight Project that was devised with great effort completely became the sharpest knife in Hydra's hands!"

"The plan that lets Hydra kill millions of people in one go was smoothly implemented."

"It has to be said that Hydra really goes big, eliminating all of Hydra's enemies and potential enemies across the globe in one fell swoop, thoroughly eradicating them!"

"The consequences would indeed be unimaginable if Hydra were successful."

"The ordinary people don't even need to be mentioned; if they get targeted, they cannot survive. Even superheroes would be killed in large numbers."

"I'm afraid that aside from the Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and others of that caliber, very few could withstand it, right?"]

Killing millions of people in one fell swoop! Tony Stark was profoundly shocked.

Indeed, even Iron Man, with his cool and flamboyant persona, was taken aback by HYDRA's terrifying and cruel plan.

It wasn't just a few, a few hundred, or even tens of thousands, but millions!

Keep in mind that the population of New York is less than ten million!

Are all those HYDRA people insane?

No, the term 'insane' is completely insufficient here; it's literally demonic! A heartless, deranged demon! However ~

After the shock and anger, Tony Stark also developed deep doubts.

How can you kill millions of people "all at once"? Highlight the fact that it's all at once! This means that it has to be done simultaneously, or within a very, very short interval of time! A weapon of mass destruction?

No, there is no weapon of mass destruction capable of such exaggeration, except for a nuclear bomb!

But the crucial problem is that the diary clearly states that the Insight project aims to kill all of HYDRA's enemies and potential enemies.

Those people can't all be gathered together waiting for HYDRA to kill them, can they?

Considering HYDRA's enemies and the like, it probably has nothing to do with geography.

In other words, those millions of people must be scattered around the world.

So, HYDRA can use that Insight project to kill millions of people scattered around the globe all at once?

How is that possible!

From a technical standpoint, it's just not feasible.

So, what exactly is the Insight project?

Iron Man was deep in thought.

The diary also mentioned that this plan was researched by Nick Fury.

Considering that Nick Fury also studied the superweapon using the Tesseract, could this thing possibly be a superweapon developed by Fury?

Damn it, Fury!

What have you done!

If you can't have absolute control over the weapon you've developed, then don't research recklessly!

"The Insight project, it was something I came up with?"

Nick Fury was initially stunned, caught completely off guard, and also stimulated.

He was highly focused on what he thought was HYDRA's top-secret plan, only to find out it was his own creation?

This is insane.

Howon earth would big egghead Fury be able to create something that could kill hundreds of thousands of people in one go?

Besides, there's another equally important question: why would big egghead Fury even create such a thing?

Could it be that the future him, or another version of him from a parallel universe, thought that SHIELD needed to be able to massively eliminate a large number of targets at once?

What a joke. They are an intelligence agency, not fighting in a world war!

Why would they have such a need?

"Wait a minute!"

"Maybe not impossible!"

Nick Fury, who knew the truth of this world, quickly realized something.

He had personally experienced wars with the Skrulls and the Kree, and the diary also mentioned the "Chitauri invasion."

If SHIELD truly needed to kill millions of people at once, there's only one possibility.

They are dealing with an extraterrestrial threat!

Fury had always been preparing for such extraterrestrial threats, and it seemed that in the future, he had achieved significant results.

However, frustratingly,

Such a mega-weapon intended to fight aliens had fallen into the hands of HYDRA!

How could this happen?

With the capabilities of Fury the big egghead, how could something so important have been seized by HYDRA?

Could it be...

Nick Fury's one good eye shone brightly.

Could this possibly be the assassination attempt by the Winter Soldier mentioned in the diary?

Given Fury's status, HYDRA would not act this way without a very important reason.

And if Fury had been well, the Insight project would never have fallen into the hands of HYDRA!

Linking these two together, the logic suddenly became clear.

The only problem is, this is all based on Fury's speculation.

Whether it's really the case, perhaps only the devil knows.

There's another extremely important question, too.

What does "potential enemy" mean? Not an enemy now but might pose a threat to HYDRA in the future? Is HYDRA planning to kill even such people?

No wonder they are willing to kill millions at once! 

HYDRA truly knows no bounds!

[If that's the case, Stark, who is now boasting, even if he avoided palladium poisoning and Whiplash, cannot escape HYDRA's 'courteous' greeting!]

[When it comes down to it, Stark owes his survival to Captain America!]

[But it's also hard to say.]

[According to the plot, Stark's palladium poisoning should be quite advanced by now, right?]

[This universe is not Universe 199999, who knows whether Stark can solve the palladium poisoning problem.]

[Remember, there are many universes where Stark dies in various ways, he might well have one where he dies from palladium poisoning.]

[Haha, if that exists, that would be the most pathetic death for any Iron Man, wouldn't it?]

"It seems that Captain America thwarted HYDRA's plan to use the Insight project to kill millions."

Black Widow couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved as she nodded.

The diary previously mentioned the "Battle of Insight," with Captain America and the Winter Soldier both participants in this battle.

And in that battle, Captain America was beaten to a pulp by the Winter Soldier!

Black Widow had been worried about whether such a diabolical plan as the Insight project had been successfully stopped.

And now, Black Widow could finally rest easy.

Captain America proved to be as reliable and effective as ever, ultimately thwarting and unraveling HYDRA's conspiracy once again.

Saving millions of people.

"Severe palladium poisoning?"

Tony Stark's mouth curled into a smug smile.

Humph!

Zhou Cheng, you got it all wrong this time!

Look at your confident demeanor; I, the great Tony, refuse to follow your script, to walk your "plot"!

Great Tony already cured his palladium poisoning, okay!

Of course, the fact that he cured his palladium poisoning is wholly due to the diary's spoilers. That's something Iron Man wouldn't mention at a time like this.

"It's just a pity I can't see Zhou Cheng's face when he hears this news."

With that thought, Tony Stark shook his head with a touch of regret and boredom.