I Think That's Pretty Scientific

Chapter 21: 021: Another Bizarre Piece of Knowledge

Actually, Martin Lee could understand why Kraft was remodeling the house; it was just that everything had happened so suddenly that he wasn’t mentally prepared, which is why he lost his composure like that. So once Martin Lee had regained his composure, he quickly clenched his right hand into a loose fist, raised it to his mouth, and coughed twice lightly before decisively—though somewhat awkwardly—changing the subject: “How long do you think it’ll take you to gather all this information?” Kraft shot Martin Lee a disdainful glance: “Not long.” “Search complete, search complete.” Before Kraft had even finished speaking, Haro’s electronic voice rang out, and the images on the screens in the room stabilized one by one, displaying all the content related to the news report from earlier. Harro had placed the most important content on the screen it projected onto the wall, so once the search was complete, it automatically dimmed the lights in the room so Kraft could see more clearly. After quickly scanning the relevant information on the wall, Kraft got a general idea of what the green monster was all about. Simply put, a military vehicle had picked up someone from the Brooklyn airport and was driving toward the city when the green monster suddenly leaped out of the car. Because the incident happened so suddenly, the military hadn’t had time to suppress the news, so Harlow easily found surveillance footage near the accident site and traced the incident back to its origin in New Mexico. However, when he dug deeper, he discovered that they had emerged from a desert in New Mexico. Harlow couldn’t determine exactly what was going on in that desert for the time being—unless he hacked into the military’s database. “Which unit does this vehicle belong to?” Upon hearing Kraft’s question, Harlow quickly pulled up a report and projected it onto the wall. The report identified the unit to which the vehicle belonged and indicated that General Thaddeus E. Ross was the unit’s commander. “Pull up a list of all the scientists General Ross has been in contact with over the past two years who have recently been in New Mexico.” Kraft paused to think for a moment, then continued giving orders. Harrow promptly complied. Kraft then filtered out those who were clearly just putting on a show, those who had already been abandoned or had produced results, and those researchers who were unlikely to have created the green monster. Ultimately, he narrowed his focus to a physicist named Bruce Banner. Bruce Banner was a household name in academic circles; his genius was every bit as remarkable as that of the playboy Tony Stark. In recent years, he had been conducting research on gamma rays—a type of radiation notorious for inducing mutations, a fact well-known among scientists. To be honest, Kraft was deeply impressed that Bruce Banner dared to make gamma rays the focus of his research. He admires his fearlessness. Furthermore, the Captain America comics also mention gamma rays, stating that Captain America’s success was due not only to the Super Soldier Serum but also to the catalytic effect of gamma rays. Later, out of curiosity, Kraft gathered a bit of information and discovered that, aside from a few embellishments, most of the content in the comics was actually accurate. Of course, he couldn’t find any specific details about Captain America’s experiment, but given the comics’ track record of accuracy—and the appearance of this green monster right before his eyes—it might very well be true. Who knows what those officials are really thinking… At first, Kraft thought adding gamma rays was a misguided experimental direction—that the U. S. had deliberately planted a trap in the comics to set other countries up—but now it seems… It’s an old trick. A fresh yet apt phrase popped into Kraft’s head. “So, is this the result of the Super Soldier Program? The Americans really do love conducting human experiments…” The very thought of human experimentation made Kraft feel even more disgusted with Bruce Banner on the screen. “Hah, after all, the military has always wanted to recreate another Captain America.” Martin Lee smiled contemptuously and said to Kraft, “Actually, I suspected from the very beginning that the military was likely behind the Magia Gang, but I just couldn’t find any clues. On the contrary, some of the leads I did find actually pointed to ruling out the military.” “It could just be a smokescreen, too.” Kraft offered this speculation, but quickly shook his head, dismissing the idea. “No, there’s no need for that. If it were the military, there’d be absolutely no reason to be so secretive—at most, they’re just a few ‘inferior races.’ ” “Exactly, that’s what I think, too.” Martin Lee nodded in agreement, then reached out and patted Kraft on the head. “This isn’t something you can rush. Your little robot is indeed impressive, but remember not to let anyone catch you off guard.” “You can rest assured on that! Not to brag, but while Haro’s infiltration skills might still be a bit lacking, his escape skills are definitely world-class!” Kraft patted his chest and boasted proudly for a moment before belatedly glancing at Martin Lee standing nearby. “Huh?” “I didn’t know about you, you little rascal!” Martin Lee glared at him exasperatedly. “The moment you agreed so readily last time, I knew you wouldn’t let it go…” “I just didn’t expect you to take it this far,” Martin Lee remarked with genuine admiration, glancing at the red Haro flapping its wings on the TV screen. “Hehe~” Kraft scratched the back of his head, looking a little shy. “I don’t know much about the technical side of things, but the most important thing is to be careful and cautious—don’t give yourself away under any circumstances.” Knowing he couldn’t keep Kraft in check, Martin Lee offered a word of caution anyway. Kraft nodded solemnly, indicating he’d taken it to heart. As for Martin Lee’s secret identity and exactly how many magical gadgets Kraft still had—the father and son both knew the truth without needing to ask, and neither pressed the other for details. “Why don’t we figure out a way to get back?” After reviewing the intelligence on the Green Monster, the family was sitting around the dinner table eating when Kraft brought up the suggestion again. “Over here in the U. S. , they’re always conducting human experiments. What if they pull off another stunt one of these days? Not to mention, take today’s monster—if it shows up near us, my inventions won’t be able to stop it at all.” Although Kraft was referring to the Green Monster, what he really had in mind was the terrifying zombie virus from his dream. “Don’t worry. The world isn’t as simple as you think. There are quite a few people with special abilities in New York.” Kraft was actually familiar with the “special people” Martin Lee was referring to; he’d come across them while gathering intelligence on the Magia Gang—rhino-men, Daredevil, Hulk, and the like. Still, he didn’t think any of them stood a chance against that fat green guy in the video. Seeing the look of disdain on Kraft’s face, Martin Lee sighed helplessly: “Besides, do you think there aren’t any people with special abilities across the ocean? Do you have any idea why I don’t want to go back?” From the sound of it, did Martin have special abilities too? Kraft shot Martin Lee a surprised glance. Although he’d suspected that his adoptive father was the so-called Mr. Negative, he hadn’t investigated any further—mutual respect for each other’s privacy was an unspoken understanding between father and son. “All right…” Come to think of it, if a zombie virus outbreak really happened just like in the dream, it wouldn’t matter where he went, so he stopped insisting. However, he knew he needed to study the technology from his dreams even more thoroughly. The appearance of the Green Monster had given Kraft a rare sense of urgency. He would have to resume the biological research he’d previously resisted—after all, if a biohazard crisis ever truly arose, he needed to be capable of finding a solution. In addition to spending even more time in the lab, Kraft had Harlow continue monitoring intelligence on the green monster. Although the military and a mysterious faction had quickly moved to suppress the news after that day, who could blame the big guy for causing such a commotion? In just a few short days, despite being pursued and blockaded by the military, he rampaged across the United States, eventually breaking through the entire country and fleeing into Mexico, where he ultimately vanished. It was precisely because of this green giant’s antics that Kraft was able to gather a great deal of useful information. That green monster called himself the Hulk. Judging by his behavior on surveillance footage, aside from being extremely hot-tempered, he wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. What shocked Kraft even more was that the Hulk’s true identity was none other than Bruce Banner. “What a tough guy! To actually use himself as a test subject… though it just doesn’t feel very scientific…” Kraft muttered to himself as he looked over the intelligence Harlow had gathered. “I think the technology you used to get us to talk, Big Bro, is actually pretty unscientific too. And Big Sis—she’s actually a robot!” Quinn leaned his head close to the screen, sticking out his tongue as he grumbled. Since Alice usually appeared to be an ordinary, cute and gentle girl, Quinn and Beya had no idea she was actually a robot; they’d only thought her scent and voice were a bit strange. It wasn’t until one day when the two of them got into a particularly fierce fight that Alice was forced to activate the capture net launcher Kraft had installed on her shoulder, ensnaring the cat and the dog—only then did they realize Alice’s true identity. At that moment, Quinn was so startled he even forgot to say his catchphrase, “Whoa!” “Meow, I agree.” Beya, sprawled across Kraft’s lap, lazily raised a paw. “That’s not what I meant,” Kraft rolled his eyes, picked up Beya, and set her on the table, then pointed at Bruce Banner in the video as he was transforming. “Look at him—he goes from such a scrawny build to a burly guy over two meters tall, and sometimes he keeps getting bigger. Even then, his shorts still fit perfectly, even though all his other clothes have been torn to shreds.” “Wow!” Quinn’s mouth dropped open, his long tongue hanging out, a dumb look on his face. “Those shorts must be a blast to chew on!” Beya, meanwhile, wagged her long tail, then turned her head and gave Kraft a strange look. “Why do you always focus on such weird things?” Kraft: … Since when did these two little ones start making fun of me? Come to think of it, Mr. Sakamoto in my dreams seemed to be the one who always made sarcastic remarks… Come to think of it, how do I even know the term “troll”? Kraft rubbed his forehead; yet another piece of strange knowledge had mysteriously popped into his head. Thanks to [Reader 20201019091405921501373] and [Opening My Eyes to a Sky Full of White] for their donations. After staring at the numbers for a while, I realized they seemed to be from friends who’d tipped me before—I just copied them over from a previous record. If I got it wrong, I’m really sorry. Long strings of numbers like this give me a real headache; I’ve even messed up the account number when transferring money to others before. I don’t know why, but I just tend to mix these numbers up easily. Every time I come across a long string of numbers, I have to double-check it over and over again… Come to think of it, I was always terrible at math back in school, too. I can’t remember where I read it, but there’s a version of the Captain America story where he’s enhanced by a combination of the serum and gamma rays—or was it the serum and the Tesseract’s rays? Since I couldn’t verify if it was true, I just incorporated that plot point into Marvel’s own Captain America comics. I bought Zhongyuan some canned red meat, mixed it with cat food, and put it in his bowl. He ended up eating more than half of what he usually eats in a day all at once. Then I took a closer look at his bowl and realized he’d picked out all the canned meat and eaten it clean—all that was left was the cat food… Looks like he still prefers canned food… It’s just that stuff is too expensive and doesn’t keep well, so it’s more convenient to feed him dry cat food when I’m at work.