16
"45
Hanging up the communication, joy spread among the three of them.
The leisure time after dinner was rapidly compressed, their fingertips swiping swiftly across the screens, and several flights to New York were immediately locked and paid for.
The next afternoon.
Long Island estate.
Over New York, dark clouds hung low, and a fine drizzle fell like silk.
Family members scattered in various places returned home one after another, gathering in the main hall.
The soft sofas were piled high with exquisite fruit platters and cold drinks, and laughter and chatter continued endlessly.
Although coming from different backgrounds and somewhat out of place, young lives could always find a way to integrate into the collective.
The other four children were also doing quite well in private school, being quite sought after.
The door was pushed open.
Li Da, dressed in a white shirt, stepped into the living room carrying a cold metal briefcase in his hand.
The noisy commotion stopped abruptly, and all gazes focused on him.
His expression was calm, with an extremely faint smile hanging at the corners of his mouth.
"Except for Natasha, everyone is here."
Without any nonsense, he placed the case on the coffee table.
With a soft click, the latch popped open.
On the lining inside the case, more than a dozen syringes filled with transparent liquid were neatly arranged.
The needle tips flashed with a cold light, appearing particularly dazzling in the dim light.
"Specialized Super Soldier Serum."
Li Da raised his eyes to sweep over everyone, "Who wants to try the medicine first?"
The air froze for a fraction of a second.
Looking at those slender needles, several teenagers swallowed their saliva in unison.
Even though their physical fitness had long surpassed the limits of ordinary people, stripping away that halo, they were ultimately still half-grown teenagers in their teens.
The fear of pain and invasive procedures was an instinct carved into their genes.
No one was willing to reach out actively.
Li Da didn't rush them, just watching quietly.
The silence lasted for a few seconds, and the one who broke the deadlock first was the boldest one.
He gritted his teeth, rolled up his sleeves, and jabbed right into his arm.
Pfft.
The liquid was injected, and his muscles trembled slightly.
The others looked at each other in dismay, and ultimately gritted their teeth and followed suit one after another.
They were all secretly complaining in their hearts: "Luckily I chose the arm; if it were a shot in the butt, where would I show my face?"
...
Bang!
On the private beach, a dull, thunder-like roar suddenly erupted.
Sergei's heavy punch slammed fiercely into Li Da's arm.
The terrifying impact force instantly spread, and the water vapor in the surrounding air was forcibly shaken away, forming a huge annular vacuum zone.
The sandy ground beneath their feet sank violently, and gravel and dirt splashed out radially.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Immediately following, the dense explosive sounds merged into one.
Sergei's speed skyrocketed to a point invisible to the naked eye, his figure turning into an afterimage, outputting wildly around Li Da.
The muscle lines on his vest bulged like they were cast from steel, and every exertion of force was accompanied by the cracking sound of bones, bursting with a sense of power.
The speed of the two reached the extreme, and bystanders simply could not see the specific trajectory of their moves.
They could only see the air waves constantly bursting in the air, and the dense craters on the beach resembling the lunar surface.
The watchers on the shore were dumbfounded.
Gennady, Wanda and her sisters, and others kept their eyes closely following the two high-speed moving figures, their pupils contracting.
Meanwhile, the four little ones standing in the back row stood on tiptoe, trying hard to see the details, but could only see blurry shadows.
Especially Clarice, her eyes full of envy.
Unlike the others, because of their young age, they had not undergone serum modification.
This gap in strength became incomparably clear and stinging at this moment.
The injection node had to be stuck at sixteen or seventeen years old and onwards.
By that time, the bones would be basically set, and it wouldn't be too late to act then.
Pietro stared at the battlefield, his eyes full of amazement.
Sergei's offensive was too fierce, like a ball of runaway wildfire.
If it weren't for that high-speed mobility skill of lingering and refusing to leave, the gap in combat power between him and Sergei would still be huge.
Wanda nodded gently from the side.
"The serum raised our foundation by a notch."
Her tone was calm, yet it revealed certainty.
"Sergei is breaking in his new body in actual combat, and his speed is approaching the speed of sound."
Just thinking about it made one's scalp tingle.
Reaching that level, what did it mean?
That was a humanoid artillery battery.
Once charging at full speed, the impact force generated by kinetic energy far exceeded conventional weapons.
If ordinary people were standing nearby, their internal organs would be instantly shattered, leaving not even bone fragments.
Head-on confrontation? Directly turning into a puddle of mud.
But Wanda keenly captured a detail.
Sergei's control over his strength was simply outrageous.
That level of precision was very abnormal.
Just as she was in a trance —
Boom!
A loud noise exploded.
Li Da swept out with a whip kick horizontally.
The force was so great that it directly knocked Sergei flying while he was charging.
Sergei reacted extremely quickly, planting his feet firmly into the sandy ground.
His whole body plowed outward for dozens of meters, dragging out a deep trench.
He had just stabilized his figure and still wanted to counterattack.
His vision emptied.
Li Da was nowhere to be found.
But Observation Haki had already locked onto his back.
Sergei instinctively turned his head back.
Li Da's lazy voice sounded in his ear.
"Alright, that's enough."
Sergei's tense muscles instantly relaxed all over his body.
He turned around.
He saw Li Da standing there with his hands in his trouser pockets, strolling leisurely as if walking in a courtyard.
The sea breeze howled, blowing his spotless white shirt.
The hem of his clothes fluttered noisily in the wind.
Rainwater slid down his faintly visible muscle lines.
That face was breathtakingly handsome, with a bit of nonchalant swagger between his eyebrows.
Wanda felt her cheeks grow slightly warm watching this.
What young girl's heart doesn't dream of romance?
Li Da naturally didn't notice this little episode.
He turned his head to look at the crowd gathering around.
There was little expression on his face, but he was very confident in his heart.
After all, with sky blade 7, the supercomputer, around.
Everyone's physical data had long been analyzed clearly.
"The peak strength is one hundred and twenty-five tons."
Li Da reported a number.
"Extreme development can reach five hundred tons."
"The speed limit is the speed of sound."
"Coupled with the optimization of force-exertion techniques, these data can still float upwards."
He said it very plainly.
Heard in everyone's ears, however, it was like rolling thunder.
One hundred and twenty-five tons?
Is this even human?
This is a monster in human skin.
With physical fitness maxed out, the dual-color Haki soared accordingly.
Placed on Earth, these guys were ceiling-level combat power.
Each and every one of them was a walking nuclear arsenal.
Wanda and the others looked at each other, their eyes full of wild joy.
They truly felt the surging power within their bodies.
That sense of fullness was as surging as the tide.
As for where the serum came from?
No one asked.
Li Da didn't say, and they didn't guess.
They had the tacit understanding of a group of old foxes.
After sorting all this out, Li Da brought everyone back to the estate.
The servants had retreated cleanly.
The living room was so quiet that only breathing could be heard.
Li Da leaned back in his chair, his gaze sweeping over this line of people in front of him.
Each of them sat well-behaved, yet their eyes revealed an irrepressible restlessness.
This feeling of controlling the whole situation was really good.
After all, these tough, fighting characters in front of him were all trained by him one by one.
"Thud."
The sound of knuckles tapping on the table was crisp and piercing.
Li Da didn't talk nonsense, getting straight to the point: "Get to work. The mission is very simple — clean those dirty things off Earth."
He paused and added: "Whether it's werewolves, Vampires, or demons, as long as they are dark creatures, either capture them alive or execute them on the spot."
As soon as these words were said, the air froze for a fraction of a second.
Someone couldn't help but gasp.
In everyone's cognition, it was fine if Mutants appeared; after all, it was a genetic mutation.
But werewolves, Vampires, and demons?
Shouldn't these only live in movie special effects and mythological stories?
How come listening to Li Da's meaning, these things not only existed, but were everywhere?
"Believe it or not."
The corners of Li Da's mouth hooked into an arc, a flash of playfulness passing through the depths of his eyes.