Chapter 369 |
The request from the Ancient One didn’t trouble Josh for long.
Because this matter was still far off—perhaps decades or even centuries later—Eternity might discover the Ancient One’s “betrayal.”
At present, however, another matter had caught Josh’s attention.
That was news from the mage in South America who was responsible for watching Thor, reporting that Thor’s current situation was not good.
It had now been more than a year since Thor was exiled to Earth.
After being rescued by Che Guevara, Thor had been following this revolutionary ever since.
Having witnessed the harsh lives of the South American people in this era, and the various messy interventions by the United States in South America, plus Che Guevara’s personal teachings, Thor—having lost his divine powers and fallen to the mortal world—unsurprisingly, just as Josh expected, joined Che Guevara’s forces.
Moreover, it was unclear whether Thor carried some sort of aura, but he quickly became a core member of Guevara’s team, which prompted Guevara to leave Cuba several years earlier than in the original timeline and start campaigning across various Central and South American countries.
Of course, because in this world the Kingdom of Austria had unexpectedly risen and was covertly supporting anti-American and anti-Russian forces worldwide, causing many more rebellions than in the original timeline, Josh naturally filtered out such details.
What do Ouroboros and Austria have to do with it?
In the past year, as Thor followed Che Guevara fighting across the region, Thor’s name also began to rise in international renown.
Although Thor was now just a mortal body, his physique and over a thousand years of combat experience were impressive. Even without divine power, he was hardly weaker than an ordinary super soldier. In the movies, the reason he could be pinned against the wall by a group of doctors and nurses was entirely due to his unstable emotions after exile.
Now, after being exiled and meeting Che Guevara, Thor had long since accepted his fate. Under these circumstances, his combat power was naturally incomparable to before.
Especially now, Thor wasn’t just a brute wielding cold weapons; he was proficient with various firearms and even could fly combat jets—fully a jungle warfare expert.
Under such conditions, Thor naturally stood out easily on the battlefield, especially in the tropical South American rainforests, an environment well-suited to individual prowess.
But the more you walk down a dark road, the more likely you are to meet ghosts.
After winning the Mexican-American War, the United States had already regarded the entire Americas as its backyard, and began invading and controlling by various means. From then on, regime changes in Central and South America were almost always traced back to U.S. influence.
For example, in the original timeline, Che Guevara was captured and executed under a CIA plot after gaining U.S. attention.
Now, with a powerful solo fighter like Thor and the covert stirring of the Russians and “other” forces, the group led by Guevara naturally became a thorn in America’s side.
It would have been okay if they stayed in Cuba, since Russia’s presence there kept the U.S. in check but once they left Cuba, things were no longer under their control.
The moment they left Cuba, the CIA was already watching them.
Back when Josh was still in the U.S., to gain more resources, he had also cultivated the CIA well. Although there wasn’t the widespread use of generalized super soldier serums like the Austrian military had now, the second batch of super soldiers that Josh led the creation of was considerable. The U.S. even produced several more batches afterward—though with high mortality rates, the formulas were much better than in the original timeline and were not shelved.
Later, under dual pressure from Russia and Austria, the U.S. developed several more batches of super soldiers.
So now, the U.S. had a substantial number of super soldiers.
Not to mention Peggy Carter, the current CIA director.
Of course, Carter, who was loyal to Josh, naturally would not take the initiative to deal with Thor at Josh’s hint.
But dealing with Che Guevara and Thor was a consensus in the U.S. Congress, not something Carter could simply avoid. And Carter was no Josh—while Hydra still controlled the CIA, it was no longer a one-man show.
Plus, Josh had no reason to shelter them.
So with Carter turning a blind eye, intelligence on Guevara was continuously funneled to the U.S., and ultimately the Army led the planning of a targeted capture operation.
Moreover, this operation against Guevara and Thor employed a top-secret Army project.
That was the “Reconstructed Warrior” program, which Josh had forgotten about long ago.
The early “Reconstructed Warrior” program was quite unsuccessful.
But thanks to Josh’s push for epoch-making technological advances and the previously provided corpses of dead super soldiers, the project made a leap forward.
The success of the “Reconstructed Warrior” program also to some extent promoted the military’s continuous research into super soldiers.
Dr. Woodward, responsible for the program, astonishingly discovered that using corpses of super soldiers or failed super soldiers combined with Vibranium’s data storage and transmission functions, not only could the success rate reach over 80%, but the reconstructed warriors had combat power even higher than ordinary super soldiers.
Such a surprising discovery caught the attention of not only the military high command but also Josh himself.
After all, when it came to the number of super soldiers, which force could surpass his?
So shortly after the project’s success, Josh obtained this technology through Hydra’s channels.
Unfortunately, after research by Josh’s scientists, it was confirmed that soldiers “revived” by this technology could only maintain pure physical function but could not retain the extraordinary powers of their corpses.
And although these “undead warriors” looked good, for Austria—where super soldier serums were widespread and robot armies were already being built—the cost was too high and the benefit was marginal.
While this was a drawback for Josh, for the U.S. military it was clearly a treasure.
Thus, under careful planning by the U.S. military, during an operation, Che Guevara and Thor, along with over a hundred rebels, were trapped by a force of thirty-six reconstructed warriors and an entire enhanced American infantry regiment.
At the first clash, Guevara’s rebels were scattered, leaving only Guevara, Thor, and about a dozen others desperately fleeing.
But the entire region was already under U.S. control; escape was practically impossible.