Supernatural Elixir

“What are you doing!” Just as Joss was carefully examining the serums, Dr. Connors’ furious roar shattered his train of thought.

Turning around, Joss saw Dr. Connors glaring at him, his face twisted with anger.

After a brief moment’s reflection, Joss immediately realized where he had gone wrong. Dr. Connors had just been presenting his research results to him, yet Joss had been distracted, reading the descriptions provided by his system panel instead.

Undoubtedly, he had ignored Dr. Connors.

“No one has ever dared daydream while I’m speaking—never!” Joss’s disregard earned him the scientist’s most violent retaliation yet. He had no doubt that if he didn’t do something quickly, Connors would simply throw him out.

As for why he hadn’t yet been subjected to any injection or transformation—Connors only had to tell Duncan and the others that Joss was physically unfit, and they wouldn’t bother interrogating him about it. And now that Joss had uncovered the secrets here, if he wasn’t turned into one of their new warriors, men like Duncan would certainly kill him to tie up loose ends.

Whether he succeeded or not was one thing, but Joss’s mission here would undoubtedly be a failure.

After all, his goal was to assist Nick Fury in rooting out all of Hydra’s vipers here in one fell swoop, not to kill a few people in a fit of rage and let Hydra slip back into the shadows.

Joss’s brow furrowed, but his face showed not a trace of fear or guilt. Instead, he wore an expression even more furious than Connors’.

“Dr. Connors! Why do you make such baseless accusations? My interest in these serums is no less than yours. Are you spouting nonsense because you don’t want me to receive the injection?”

His words were entirely illogical—after all, Connors had gone out of his way, testing him, dressing up the experiment as a reward for heroes, all to lure him here as a test subject. Yet Joss twisted the situation, making it sound as if Connors was reluctant to part with his precious serums. Connors was so blindsided by this shameless retort that he nearly choked on his own rage.

“Ha! I won’t let you be injected? When I was introducing the serums, you were off in a daze. You haven’t even grasped the significance of these serums! For instance—this one, do you know what effect it has after injection?”

Connors waved his hand at a pale yellow serum not far away. “I just explained this one in detail. If you weren’t distracted, you should know what it does, shouldn’t you?”

Joss glanced at it nonchalantly and sneered, “Heh, isn’t that the Cheetah Serum?”

“Hmph, so you remember the name. But can you tell me its effect? That’s what I just emphasized.”

Despite his displeasure, a flicker of surprise crossed Connors’ face—he hadn’t expected Joss, who’d seemed so oblivious, to have actually heard anything at all.

In truth, Connors never expected much from the muscle-bound men chosen for transformation. The ones who came before Joss had all been unfailingly respectful, but Joss not only looked arrogant, he’d even dared to lose focus while Connors was speaking. That was what irked the scientist most.

The reason he’d asked about the Cheetah Serum was to trip Joss up, to embarrass him and chase him out. Most people only associated cheetahs with speed and would assume the serum enhanced that aspect. But in reality, cheetah DNA provided an extraordinary burst of power—a terrifying effect that could unleash all one’s strength in less than ten seconds, even at the risk of total exhaustion.

Connors had only hinted at this earlier, so even if Joss had been paying attention, he wouldn’t have guessed the serum’s true effect.

“Simple. Besides enhancing physical attributes, the Cheetah Serum’s most important feature is boosting explosive power.”

Glancing at his system panel, Joss recited the description word for word.

“Wha—what?!”

Ignoring Connors’ astonished reaction, Joss bent closer to inspect the serum, then shook his head. “Too bad this serum isn’t finished yet, is it? I wonder what the side effects are.”

“How did you know that?” This time, Connors was so shocked that he overturned everything on the table.

Naturally, not every vial here was a finished product, but to discern that with the naked eye, without instruments—even Connors himself couldn’t do that!

Seeing Connors’ reaction, Joss realized he’d gone too far and felt a twinge of embarrassment. “Ahem… Let’s just say it’s a special ability of mine—a natural intuition for compounds like these.”

“Intuition… I see.” Hearing this explanation, Connors was no longer suspicious. In this world, strange powers were common enough; intuition wasn’t anything particularly alarming.

“But such an ability… might actually be useful to have around. Certainly better than those brainless muscleheads. At least he’d make a decent assistant.” Connors narrowed his eyes, sizing Joss up, his mind already forming new plans.

“Interesting. Let’s forget what just happened—I misjudged you. As an apology, why don’t you pick your own enhancement serum?”

The usual procedure was for Connors to test the subject’s blood and select the serum with the highest compatibility. But Joss’s so-called intuition intrigued him; he was curious to see what Joss would choose for himself.

But after hearing this, Joss didn’t move. Instead, he shook his head lightly. “No, the serums here… they’re all too basic. My intuition tells me you have something better hidden away.”

If he had no other option, the animal DNA serums would do. But having seen Jason’s Abomination Serum earlier, how could Joss settle for these lesser concoctions?

“Oh? Intuition again—or did that fool Duncan tip you off? Never mind, that’s not important. With your constitution, you ought to try something more advanced anyway.”

Connors chuckled and didn’t reject Joss’s request. Instead, he led him deeper into the laboratory.

Here, there were no more transparent display cases, but rows of sturdy, tightly sealed safes. Connors entered a code, and one by one, the safes swung open, revealing their contents.

Inside were rows upon rows of serums, each glowing faintly with mysterious light.