Drex Valen didn't have any objections to the proposal.
After all, the United Nations and S.W.O.R.D. were offering an astonishing one hundred million dollars for a single Rider System slot.
After thinking it over for a mont, he agreed.
It wasn't as if he lacked options.
Kabuto, Gatack, TheBee, Drake, Sasword, the Hell Brothers...
There were plenty of Rider Systems he could release.
At that mont, Angel Yan was making it exceptionally difficult to focus.
While he spoke over the call, her hands wandered freely across his body, gradually crossing boundaries she knew perfectly well she wasn't supposed to.
Drex ignored her teasing.
Mostly.
After ending the call, he leaned back and sank into thought.
His recent research had produced so interesting results.
Specifically, his experints involving the fusion of the X-Gene and Inhuman genetics.
The result was a new category of creations he referred to as Weapons.
"Weather Weapon: Weather Witch."
He reviewed the project data.
"By implanting specialized electromagnetic cells, the subject gains the ability to manipulate atmospheric electromagnetic forces and planetary magnetic fields."
"In theory, they could control global weather patterns."
"Hurricanes. Thunderstorms. Hail. Droughts."
"All weaponized."
The destructive potential was staggering.
The secondary disasters alone would be catastrophic.
A major hurricane contained vastly more energy than any nuclear weapon humanity had ever created.
Yet the Weather Witch wouldn't generate that energy herself.
She would simply redirect existing forces.
Solar radiation.
Planetary rotation.
Oceanic and lunar tidal effects.
The entire atmosphere would beco her weapon.
Of course, there was a problem.
To operate effectively, the Weather Witch required an extrely detailed planetary climate model.
That ant hundreds of teorological experts.
A worldwide network of weather satellites.
Constant data collection.
And a supercomputer powerful enough to process it all in real ti.
Only by concentrating the resources of an entire scientific institution into a single individual could the concept truly function.
Fortunately, Drex already possessed most of those requirents.
The vast weather-control satellite network he had previously constructed could easily support the project.
Granting a single person dominion over a planet's climate...
In ancient tis, that would have been indistinguishable from creating a god.
Interesting.
But not imdiately useful.
He casually tossed the concept into the Black Queen's database and moved on.
Maybe he'd find a use for it soday.
The next issue was the Kryptonian Empire's economy.
Power was important.
Money was also important.
Internal currency didn't matter nearly as much as a currency recognized throughout the galaxy.
The Milky Way contained roughly five hundred billion stars.
Every star possessed a habitable zone.
Any planet located within that zone had the potential to support water, atmosphere, and life.
According to incomplete estimates, the galaxy might contain as many as ten billion habitable worlds.
Each one represented an ideal target for colonization.
A single planet could support billions of Kryptonians.
Unfortunately, the Kryptonians had arrived late to the interstellar stage.
The Kree Empire had entered space tens of thousands of years earlier.
The Skrull Empire had done so even earlier.
Most desirable worlds already belonged to soone.
Even undeveloped planets were typically registered on the Galactic Quantum Network.
Ownership existed whether colonization had begun or not.
The Kryptonian Empire was powerful.
Very powerful.
But not powerful enough to ignore galactic law.
Not yet.
Simply invading and claiming registered worlds wasn't an option.
The planets previously seized by force didn't count.
Those operations had been conducted by the Burning Legion.
And since Drex had already erased the Burning Legion from existence...
Those worlds were obviously ancient Kryptonian territory.
A completely different situation.
Naturally.
If Drex wanted to beco ruler of the galaxy, he probably could.
But where was the fun in that?
Lately, he had beco increasingly interested in following the rules.
Treating reality like a ga.
Besides, the Skrull Empire wasn't going to survive much longer.
By his estimates, its collapse was approaching.
Once two of the Four Great Empires disappeared from the board, would the Kree Empire really remain a aningful rival to Krypton?
The question then beca:
What did the Kryptonian Empire actually have that other civilizations wanted?
Super soldiers.
That was the answer.
Thor had been worth ten million Galactic Credits in the Grandmaster's arena on Sakaar.
The Hulk was probably worth even more.
Most superheroes would likely sell for around ten million credits apiece.
A few hundred of them could generate billions in revenue.
Enough money to purchase enormous numbers of habitable worlds.
True Kryptonians, the genuine Super-Kryptonians, were even more valuable.
Although their growth had limits, each one possessed enough power to defeat a Kurse-level warrior roughly four tis as strong as Thor.
Every single Kryptonian could probably command hundreds of millions of credits.
Of course, Drex wasn't an idiot.
Selling his own citizens would be absurd.
No empire auctioned off its population for profit.
That was ridiculous.
Then another thought occurred to him.
Selling Earth's superheroes...
Now that was an interesting idea.
Earth possessed an absurd concentration of superhumans.
Surely they would fetch a respectable price.
There was another possibility as well.
rcenary work.
The old specialty of the Burning Legion.
In the Xandar Sector, capturing a wanted criminal and delivering them to the Nova Corps could earn between two hundred thousand and one million credits.
Defending colonies from cosmic monsters paid similar amounts.
Escort contracts existed too.
Interstellar piracy remained rampant, with hundreds of Ravager factions operating throughout known space.
Then there were exploration and retrieval contracts.
Peter Quill's mission to recover the Power Stone was essentially one such operation.
Kidnapping contracts existed.
Yondu had once accepted a bounty worth one hundred twenty thousand credits to capture Quill.
Assassination contracts existed too.
Ayesha had offered Yondu one million credits to eliminate him.
The more Drex considered it, the more appealing the idea beca.
His players possessed almost limitless energy.
Why not send them out to complete contracts?
They would earn Galactic Credits.
Those credits would flow back into the Kryptonian Empire.
Foreign currency entering the dostic market would stimulate economic growth.
Everyone benefited.
As for whether the players could actually succeed...
That wasn't even worth questioning.
This was the Marvel Universe.
The universe of superheroes and supervillains.
Nothing else mattered as much.
A civilization without superheroes was a tragic thing.
A massive fleet.
Advanced technology.
Hundreds of billions of citizens.
Hundreds of habitable worlds.
None of it guaranteed victory.
Place the entire Kree Imperial Fleet on one side of a battlefield.
Place a few thousand superheroes from New York on the other.
The odds would sohow favor the superheroes.
New York itself was gone now, but the point remained.
S.W.O.R.D. alone had already recruited more than five thousand superheroes.
At its peak, the Kree Empire possessed tens of thousands of warships.
Gigantic carriers stretching hundreds of kiloters in length.
Main cannons capable of unleashing attacks comparable to supernova explosions.
And yet...
What did any of it matter?
Above the Kree stood the Skrulls.
Above the Skrulls stood even older powers.
The Ancient Builders.
The Kree civilization itself had originated from a Skrull scientific expedition.
The Ancient Builders had arrived billions of years ago, scattering the seeds of civilization throughout the cosmos.
They were nearly immortal.
Compared to humanity, these civilizations appeared infinitely more advanced.
And yet, ti and again, they lost to a handful of individuals dressed in colorful costus.
The outco had nothing to do with economics.
Nothing to do with military power.
Nothing to do with technology.
The lesson was simple.
In a universe like this, higher-order interference outweighed everything else.
For all its apparent realism, reality itself felt absurdly artificial.
Like a ga whose rules had been written by soone else.
And Drex had finally decided to play it seriously.
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