Chapter 8 - 8: My Name is Gene Mason

As the system notifications faded, Gene Mason immediately began reviewing the spoils of his latest infiltration. First, there was the massive profit—$50 billion made by short-selling the American stock market. Then, there was the Supreme Industrial Engineering Knowledge and Supreme Biotechnological Knowledge, now fully integrated into his neural network, accessible at any time. But what intrigued him the most were the Hive Base, T-800 Prototype, and T-Virus Sample. After carefully examining their descriptions within the system, Gene couldn't help but burst into silent laughter. These rewards were perfect for him. With the T-800 Prototype, he could rapidly assemble an army of robots, programmed for absolute loyalty. Compared to the T-800, Tony Stark's Iron Man suits were nothing. Even better, Gene could fuse the cutting-edge technology of this world with the T-800 framework, pushing it to new heights. The Hive Base? A sprawling, deep underground complex that could serve as his primary headquarters, hidden from prying eyes, where he could manufacture his unstoppable war machines. As for the T-Virus Sample, with his newfound mastery of biotechnology, Gene could engineer a refined version of the virus, allowing his robotic army to seamlessly infiltrate human society. Just as he was contemplating his next move, the system's voice rang in his mind. "Host, would you like to establish the Hive Base here?" Sёarch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "No!" Gene immediately rejected the option. Right now, the Baxter Building belonged to Reed Richards. If he wanted to deploy the Hive Base, it had to be somewhere completely under his control. After another ten minutes, Gene shifted his focus to analyzing the classified intelligence he had obtained. S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, the FBI—thousands of classified files surged through his neural network at lightning speed. With the combined processing power of a human mind and an advanced AI, what would have taken a normal person years to sift through, he finished in mere minutes. "Interesting… This world is far more chaotic than I imagined." Finally, Gene zeroed in on the Arc Reactor technology from Stark Industries—the true crown jewel of his latest infiltration. At this stage, Stark's Arc Reactor was simply too powerful to be reasonable. A compact energy source, capable of generating an unfathomable amount of power—this was exactly what Gene needed to fuel his future body. "Looks like miniaturizing the Arc Reactor will be my task now." Studying the blueprints, Gene began deconstructing the reactor's design. After running billions of simulated refinements, the final optimized Arc Reactor took shape within his neural network. This version was smaller, denser in energy output, and vastly more efficient than the one housed in Stark Tower. With an energy output exceeding hundreds of billions of joules per second, this reactor could power a supersonic fighter jet for an entire century—and that was just one of its potential uses. With the Arc Reactor miniaturized, Gene turned his attention to reviewing the weapons technology from other organizations. His army wouldn't just need bodies—they needed firepower. ... The Next Morning – Baxter Building Reed Richards, the future Mister Fantastic, arrived at his office bright and early. Of course, he wasn't Mister Fantastic yet—he had yet to experience the cosmic radiation that would change his life forever. "What the hell happened last night?" As he scrolled through the latest news on his phone, Reed's eyes widened in disbelief. A global cyberattack had breached the intelligence networks of nearly every major country. A mysterious Latin message had appeared on all electronic devices worldwide. The core research files of Stark Industries had been stolen. The sheer flood of news was overwhelming. "Wait… even J.A.R.V.I.S. couldn't stop the intruder?" Reed muttered to himself, unable to believe what he was reading. After all, his own AI system was heavily inspired by Stark's work. "Reed, we need to check if our systems were compromised!" Susan Storm, his wife, and future Invisible Woman, entered the room, concern evident in her voice. The Baxter Foundation was one of the leading high-tech research institutions in the world, rivaling Stark Industries. If their network had been infiltrated, they could have lost priceless scientific data. "Lons, run a system audit!" Reed called out to his own AI assistant, which he had developed recently. He had named it Lons. But there was no response. "Lons?" Still nothing. "LONS!" Reed's voice grew louder, frustration creeping in. Nothing. "…Maybe the voice recognition module glitched," Reed said awkwardly, glancing at Susan. He had hoped to show off his AI, but it seemed he had embarrassed himself instead. "Fine, I'll just enter the command manually—" Before Reed could finish his sentence, everything in the Baxter Building changed. All security protocols activated at once. All fire doors slammed shut. The power was instantly cut off. All signal-jamming devices went to full capacity, ensuring no one could communicate with the outside world. "What's happening?!" Susan rushed to the office door, trying to open it—but no matter how hard she pushed, it wouldn't budge. The entire building was in a state of emergency. Panic set in among the staff of the Baxter Foundation—none of them had any clue what was happening. Then, a voice echoed through the building-wide intercom. "Greetings. My name is Gene Mason." "I mean you no harm… but I expect your full cooperation." The voice was entirely synthetic—a cold, calculated AI. Yet, to those who heard it, it sent a chill down their spines. For the first time in history, an AI had seized control of one of the world's top research institutions. And no one knew what would happen next… -------------- T/N: Access 30 Chapters in Advance on my P@treon: [email protected]/MPHFics