Although Victor had spoken, Norman still pondered for a moment before asking, "Are you a Mutant?"
"A Mutant? I wonder if my new ability will change my x-gene." Victor grew interested. "Are there any instruments here? Draw some Blood for me to test."
Norman, following his instructions, retrieved an empty syringe gun and indicated that aiming it at the arm and pressing the trigger would automatically draw Blood.
However, Victor had clearly forgotten something.
When the needle of the syringe gun jabbed into his arm, not only did it fail to penetrate, but it also made a crisp sound and snapped!
Norman's eyelids twitched.
This syringe needle was specifically designed to extract Mutant spider venom; an adult couldn't even break it with brute force.
Just how thick was Victor's skin?!
"Ah, I forgot. I just recently acquired Iron Body. I didn't expect drawing Blood to be such a hassle." Victor frowned slightly.
With such strong defense, if he ever wanted to donate Blood in the future, his strength simply wouldn't allow it!
Norman's expression shifted upon hearing this, and he cautiously probed, "You said 'recently acquired'? Can others also obtain these abilities?"
This question touched upon a core issue.
Victor had intentionally revealed this to Norman, as S.H.I.E.L.D. already knew, so how far off could it be until the rest of the World knew?
He answered smoothly, "Merchants like me can extract many abilities as commodities and trade them to others. My Iron Body, telekinesis, and night vision were all acquired in the past few days."
Norman expressed some difficulty in processing this.
As a Dr. of biological genetics, he found such anti-science operations hard to comprehend.
He instinctively questioned, "All commodities? Even Mutant Abilities? Then... I apologize, I got carried away."
Good self-control made Norman stop his line of questioning.
Questioning his direct superior was not a foolish act Norman would typically commit. The sudden release of his burden had made him forget his vigilance, which was unacceptable.
Victor, however, didn't find it amiss.
If you don't ask, I'll feel awkward showing off my abilities.
He picked up the conversation and replied, "Yes, Mutant Abilities can also be extracted. Bloodline is also one of the commodities we collect.
Do you want any Mutant Abilities?
My current inventory only has two: one that can turn into a cat, and one that can manipulate light.
Oh, I forgot.
The Bloodline I injected you with will conflict with these. Once the spider serum is perfected, I'll reinject you and your son."
The amount of information in this statement was quite large.
Norman didn't ask rashly again. He quickly sorted through the information in his mind, carefully choosing his words, and finally condensed it into one question.
"Are there many merchants like you on Earth?"
"In this Milky Way Galaxy, there's only me. One merchant is responsible for a very large area. I can only contact two others."
Norman pursed his lips and stopped asking questions, knowing when to quit.
His handling of the situation was very pleasing.
Victor didn't correct Norman's submissive demeanor. He turned and went back to the elevator, and Norman naturally followed.
"To the core laboratory. I want to see what you're all researching," Victor said.
Norman remained silent.
This attitude made Victor's eyes narrow slightly. It seemed the research in the core laboratory was probably... Thinking of a certain possibility, his expression darkened slightly.
The elevator quickly stopped at the core laboratory.
When the elevator doors opened, the first thing they saw were three fully armed guards, guns lowered, staring at the two of them without speaking.
Glancing at the fair-skinned Norman, Victor motioned for him to handle it.
Norman didn't waste words with the guards. With a stern face, he walked past them to the closed metal door, entered the password, verified his fingerprint, and verified his iris. The metal door opened smoothly.
The three guards silently holstered their guns and stepped back.
Although they didn't recognize the person in front of them, he looked very much like Chairman Norman, so he was probably some illegitimate son.
Anyway, he had clearance, so who cared.
As they walked through the metal door, Alice's voice sounded in Victor's ear: "Chen, the control System inside operates independently. I will lose sight of you. I need to physically infiltrate using nano-earphones. Is that okay?"
Glancing at Norman, who had stepped forward, Victor cleared his throat and said, "Norman, when we leave, hand over the management here to Alice as well."
"That's fine, but some of the research here is... not suitable for public knowledge. Will this cause any hidden dangers?" Norman was uncharacteristically nervous.
"Don't worry." Victor turned back and gave him a look. "Alice is the most advanced artificial intelligence on Earth. Anyone who can Breakthrough her defenses hasn't been born yet."
Ultron might not even be born in the future.
Norman said no more upon hearing this and silently followed behind Victor.
As they spoke, the two passed through the metal door into another office—it seemed this was Norman's exclusive private passage.
Leaving the office, Norman very naturally led the way.
The first laboratory he took Victor to was coincidentally conducting an experiment—a human experiment!
The subject of the experiment was a middle-aged man, who was desperately scratching his skin, drawing Blood until he was raw, yet he refused to stop, emitting chilling screams.
The white-coated researchers on the side were oblivious to all this, instead, they stared intently, occasionally lowering their heads to record data.
Victor turned to Norman, awaiting his explanation.
"He's a death row inmate." Since Norman had actively brought Victor here, he naturally had a prepared response: "This is research into spider serum, a super-soldier project in cooperation with the military. The military provides death row inmates for experiments."
As he explained, Norman picked up a tablet nearby and brought up the middle-aged man's information.
The information showed that this man named "Anbara" had murdered 14 women and even preserved their heads as trophies.
But Victor didn't believe it.
Even though the contract indicated that the other party wasn't lying, Victor still didn't believe it.
Without avoiding Norman, he spoke directly, "Alice, infiltrate the database here and see if what Norman said is true."
"Okay. Please find a data port entrance. This place is not connected to the outside World, so a physical connection needs to be established." Alice's voice was slightly flat, a sub-program filling in.
The signal here was cut off from the outside World.
As he spoke, Victor felt a wiggling sensation in his left ear. He reached up and grabbed it, and an USB port lay in his palm.
He scanned left and right, found a computer, and plugged it in directly.
One of the researchers finally noticed the two of them and immediately moved to stop them, but Norman, the original Master, blocked him for Victor.
After dealing with the researcher, Norman stood aside, watching Victor infiltrate his core laboratory.
The scene was a bit bizarre.
Victor, however, didn't care about these things. He was waiting for Alice's response.
If the real situation differed from what Norman said, and he was using innocent people for human experiments... then many things would need to be re-evaluated.
Once the bottom line of humanity is crossed, it's very difficult to be human again.
Norman was also a bit nervous.
Many things in the core laboratory were definitely illegal. Besides human experiments, there were many things on the edge of evil.
He didn't know Victor and wasn't sure if he could accept it.
But he had to be honest.
If he concealed it now and it was dug up in the future, it wouldn't be a trust crisis anymore; it could directly lead to a death sentence!
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PS: A trust crisis! The extra update recommendation votes actually dropped by half... So sad! So heartbroken! (T_T)