51: Chapter 51 Signing of the Treaty, Sovereign Independence

8,000 meters underwater. The Mariana Trench.

The radar coordinates on Tony Stark's mask clearly displayed the life signal representing Thor moving upward extremely slowly.

But on the rooftop, not a single person dared to save him.

Captain America Steve gritted his teeth tightly, veins bulging on his forehead, but could only lower his head in humiliation.

In front of Lynn, who could crush interstellar warships with his bare hands and manipulate spatial laws with one hand, resistance had lost all meaning. That was not a battle; that was a one-sided slaughter.

"Whoosh—"

A gust of wind swept across the rooftop.

A pitch-black S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet landed slowly. The hatch opened, and Nick Fury, wearing a black trench coat with his remaining eye bloodshot, stepped down with an ashen face.

He took one look at the alien army, now nothing but wreckage on the ground, and then looked at the Avengers, who had completely lost their will to fight.

Finally, his gaze fell upon Lynn, who held two Infinity Stones in his hand.

"You win."

Fury took a deep breath, looking as if he had aged ten years in an instant. He pulled an extremely sophisticated black metal hard drive from his pocket; it was a top-level physical key.

"This is what you requested earlier in the communication. Top-level access to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters weapon technology database, reverse-engineering schematics for all alien engines, and the underlying code for all past black technology chassis."

Fury tossed the hard drive toward Lynn. "Take it and leave here. The cleanup work for this war..."

"Clap."

Frank, standing beside Lynn, reached out and steadily caught the hard drive.

Lynn, however, did not even glance at the hard drive, which represented the pinnacle of Earth's technological heritage. He toyed with the Tesseract in his hand, a flash of extremely dangerous coldness flickering in his deep black eyes.

"Director Fury, did you misunderstand something?"

Lynn's voice was not loud, yet it sent shivers down the spines of everyone present. "This hard drive is the appearance fee for me stopping Hulk just now and preventing the Helicarrier from crashing."

"As for the account of me single-handedly wiping out the alien fleet and even swallowing a nuclear bomb for you..."

Lynn looked down at Fury from a position of superiority. "Do you think this crappy hard drive is enough to settle it?"

Fury's heart jolted violently. "What else do you want? Both Infinity Stones are already in your hands!"

"What I want is rules."

Lynn put away the sneer on his face, and an extremely domineering and terrifying magnetic field, characteristic of a superior, instantly enveloped the entire rooftop.

"Notify the United Nations, notify the World Security Council."

Lynn's voice was like an unquestionable cosmic iron law. "From today on, the thirteen blocks west of Manhattan, New York, with 'Hells Kitchen' as the core, are officially separated from the United States territory."

"This territory will be renamed [Crimson Court]."

"It is an absolutely independent sovereign entity that is not subject to any Earth laws or armed interference from any country. Without my permission, any country's military, Police, or Agent—including you bunch of losers in spandex—who dares to step even half a step inside, will be killed without mercy."

Once these words were spoken.

Not only the Avengers, but even Fury widened his single eye.

"This is impossible! This is openly splitting national territory! Washington and the United Nations will absolutely not agree to such absurd terms!" Steve couldn't help but roar.

"Not agree?"

Lynn glanced at Steve.

He slowly raised the Tesseract in his right hand.

"Hum—"

The deep blue spatial light instantly surged.

Above Stark Tower, the sky, which had already closed, split open again with a terrifying spatial rift hundreds of meters long!

And within the rift, the wreckage of the Chitauri interstellar mothership, which had been blasted in half by Lynn and was over ten kilometers long, was hovering in mid-air.

As long as Lynn moved his finger slightly, this piece of space junk, weighing several million tons, would crash like a meteorite directly onto the White House in Washington or the United Nations headquarters building!

"You can make a call and ask them now."

Lynn looked at Fury, whose face had instantly turned pale. "Ask those politicians who just launched a nuclear bomb at me whether they want a few blocks, or if they want several million tons of scrap metal falling from the sky."

Absolute military deterrence.

There was no room for negotiation. Either sign and cede the land, or face physical destruction.

Fury's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty. With trembling hands, he connected to the emergency encrypted channel of the World Security Council.

After a short three minutes of silence.

The extremely humiliated and fearful voices of the council members came through the communicator.

"The council... agrees to sign the 'Crimson Sovereignty Treaty'."

Steve closed his eyes in pain. Tony Stark smiled self-deprecatingly and shut down the power to his armor.

In the face of absolute violence, the so-called superpowers were as fragile as a thin sheet of paper.

Lynn stood on the edge of the rooftop, bathed in the golden morning light.

From an experimental subject who woke up in a HYDRA underground Base, to an underground emperor who bloodied the gangs, and now to today.

[Crimson Court] had officially ascended from a gang organization into an abyss empire that made global powers bow and possessed absolute sovereignty!

...

Meanwhile.

Washington D.C., S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion Headquarters building.

Inside the high-level Director's office on the top floor.

Alexander Pierce stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the electronic copy of the 'Crimson Sovereignty Treaty' just transmitted back on the virtual screen, as well as the order for the full transfer of the technology database.

This deeply hidden supreme leader of HYDRA had a face so gloomy it seemed as if it could drip water.

"Officer."

An Agent wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform (Crossbones' former deputy) walked quickly into the office, his voice filled with undisguisable anxiety.

"Director Fury has already handed over the headquarters' physical key to Lynn. If Lynn's team cracks the underlying code, the 'Insight Project' we have hidden deep in the technology database, as well as the list of HYDRA's sleeper Agents within S.H.I.E.L.D., will be completely exposed!"

Pierce gripped the coffee cup in his hand tightly.

With a "clap," the expensive porcelain cup was crushed to pieces, and hot coffee mixed with blood dripped onto the floor.

"Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place. But this monster named Lynn wants to pull HYDRA's body out by the roots."

Pierce turned around, a flash of extremely ruthless determination in his eyes.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had compromised, but HYDRA must not sit and wait for death. Once Lynn started auditing the underlying code, their decades of infiltration would be ruined overnight.

"Initiate the 'Frozen' protocol."

Pierce coldly issued the command. "Go to the underground Base in Siberia. Wake up the strongest weapon we have. Also, notify Baron Strucker to bring over 'that pair of twins' catalyzed by the Mind Stone's energy."

"Since a nuclear bomb cannot kill him."

Pierce's tone was as cold as a viper.

"Then use magic, use mutations, use every supernatural power we can mobilize to bury this tyrant!"