CHAPTER 227: GREEN LANTERN’S REMINDER

Steve originally thought he would be able to quickly adapt to this strange and fascinating new world.

But he had underestimated just how much time could change everything. In other words, it was the existence of Reid and LexCorp that had brought so many unpredictable changes to the world.

And now, all he could do was wait. Wait until the next day to find out what the people who had freed him from the glacier truly wanted from him.

Before leaving the hospital, he still had a few guesses.

It was most likely the Super Soldier Serum, or more specifically, his genetic data. After all, in Steve’s understanding, a super soldier was still something rare.

But everything he experienced today made him realize that heroes like him were no longer rare in this era.

Returning to the hospital, he turned on the TV and saw a show starring Johnny Storm, the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.

It was a drama that told the story of how Johnny, while still an ordinary person, used his smarts and strong sense of justice to fight crime. Eventually, he was selected by LexCorp to become a member of the Fantastic Four.

Steve couldn’t help but compare himself to Johnny and realized fast that, aside from maybe arm-wrestling, he couldn’t even be compared to this kind of hero.

"This world... what really happened? Even the industrial revolution couldn’t have transformed the world this much in just half a century."

* * *

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Fury found himself unable to fall asleep deep into the night.

Over the past while, thanks to the mutual efforts between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the other side, they had finally reached an understanding with Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.

Usually, ’Hal’ would patrol outside the solar system. But whenever S.H.I.E.L.D. needed help, he would return to Earth and assist them.

This was already the best outcome Fury could’ve hoped for.

But this time, without being called, ’Hal’ returned on his own and even made contact with them.

Standing before the hero, Fury asked cautiously, "Hal, did something happen in the universe?"

What he feared the most were changes happening out there in space.

Because while S.H.I.E.L.D. looked powerful on the surface, they actually had no real means to deal with any real cosmic-level threat. All the advanced technology and brilliant minds had long since fallen into the hands of LexCorp.

At first, the agency had tried to gain some interstellar travel tech from the Skrulls who had stayed on Earth. But soon, that idea was crushed by LexCorp.

The company’s control over the Skrulls was beyond strict, so much so that even concentration camps from World War II seemed more humane in comparison.

The only difference was that they didn’t kill for fun. Other than that, the aliens had absolutely no freedom.

And as LexCorp’s space development program advanced, all the Skrulls were relocated to space stations, far away from Earth. That completely cut off S.H.I.E.L.D.’s chances of having any meaningful contact with them.

But based on Fury’s judgment, LexCorp was definitely using the Skrulls to collect information globally. They had likely created an intelligence network so secret it was nearly impossible to detect.

However, none of these issues had surfaced yet, and Fury had no way of dealing with them for now.

Even so, Hal’s sudden return gave him quite a scare.

"No, the universe is stable. At least for now. With Martian Manhunter and Captain Marvel drawing the Kree Empire’s attention elsewhere in the galaxy, they won’t focus on this backwater solar system unless they absolutely have to," ’Hal’ shook his head and replied.

That was the truth. Even though the Marvel Universe was full of incredible events that often played out on Earth, from a galactic civilization’s perspective, the solar system was practically a barren wasteland.

Its most valuable resource was still vibranium from the asteroid belt.

And even that, as rare as it was, had substitutes in the wider universe. For instance, Asgard’s Uru metal not only matched vibranium in strength but was also better in terms of flexibility.

"Good to hear."

Fury finally let out a sigh of relief. S.H.I.E.L.D. had just gone through a major power transition, and because of Reed’s research, troubling changes were already emerging within the agency.

All of this had already left him overwhelmed. If ’Hal’ had returned with news of a cosmic crisis on top of that, he honestly might’ve lost it.

That’s right. There was no way Fury could be unaware of what had happened to Reed.

Although this was his most unstable moment in terms of authority, it was also when his eyes and ears were at their sharpest. He had clearly seen what the scientist was going through, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

Due to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s previous internal strategies, most of the agents within the agency now held loyalties to their own nations. Fury couldn’t even tell which faction was trying to recruit Reed, and he had no way of stopping them either.

That was why he had decided to squeeze out the last bit of value he could from Reed. He would allow the different sides to fight over the man, and then he’d use that as a reason to push out foreign influence from within the agency.

At the end of the day, Fury wasn’t like Alexander Pierce. He didn’t care about profit. Deep down, he truly believed in the dream of protecting Earth’s peace. So unlike Pierce, he wasn’t willing to let other nations expand their control in S.H.I.E.L.D. just to gain some political advantage.

"Then what happened?"

"It’s LexCorp. They’ve made some unusual moves."

"Huh?"

Fury was a little surprised to hear that ’Hal’ came back because of LexCorp.

Of course, that didn’t mean he was unaware of Vought International’s widespread publicity across the United States. In fact, among all of LexCorp’s subsidiaries, the one he paid the most attention to was Vought.

He had been planning to form a superhero organization of his own, and had even started drafting a concept for the Avengers. But who would’ve thought LexCorp, or rather, what was now being called Vought International, would take things a step further?

They had completely commercialized superheroes, turning them into entertainment celebrities. With publicly available information, constant public attention, and LexCorp’s own immense power, they had built a system that constantly monitored these heroes.

If all of that power were in Fury’s hands, he might’ve felt secure. But in the hands of Lex Luthor? He couldn’t relax.

Fury could trust himself not to be tempted by power, but he couldn’t say the same for others.

What truly surprised him, though, was that despite closely monitoring LexCorp, he hadn’t noticed anything major enough to draw ’Green Lantern’s’ attention.

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