100: Chapter 100 Alliances and Strategic Cooperation

Inside the base, seeing Thompson's shocked expression, Black Panther didn't answer immediately.

He snapped his fingers, then spread his arms, tracing a large circle in the air to encompass the entire underground laboratory.

"Look at this place. How do you think a research base this secretive and so well-equipped it would put any biotech company to shame came to be?"

Following Black Panther's gesture, Thompson re-examined the lab and the row of precision instruments lined up against the wall, none of which he could name.

Finally, his gaze landed on the nameplates attached to the sides of those instruments.

The names of the manufacturers were printed on the plates. Some were in English, some in foreign languages he didn't recognize, and on the nameplate of one centrifuge, a line of small characters was clearly engraved: Made in the East.

He knit his brows, recalling the medicine shop he had passed through to get in. The brass bell on the doorframe had clearly been hanging there for a long time, and the groove worn into the door pivot couldn't have become that deep without at least ten years of use.

"I observed that traditional Chinese medicine shop upstairs." Thompson withdrew his gaze from the ceiling and looked at Black Panther. "It must have been built over ten years ago. Your Star Ghost Organization couldn't have predicted the arrival of aliens ten years ago, could you?"

Black Panther smiled and nodded. "So?"

Thompson's frown deepened.

He had been a police officer for over twenty years, and his professional intuition told him that when something didn't look like a coincidence, it wasn't a coincidence.

"You didn't..." Thompson's voice carried a hint of wariness, "accept funding from some mysterious power, did you?"

Hearing this, Black Panther threw his head back and laughed loudly.

He wagged his index finger. "Not one mysterious power, Thompson—dozens."

He cut his laughter short, walked to the center of the laboratory, and tapped the floor with the tip of his shoe. "This base used to be a secret contact point for Eastern agents stationed in New York."

"Now, it belongs to our Human Renaissance Alliance."

Black Panther turned around and pointed toward the end of the lab bench at an old man of Indian descent who had been working with his head down. "And this Professor Rajan here was also a spy for India who had been undercover in the United States for many years."

"He holds dual PhDs in biology and chemistry from Imperial College London. Now, he too has joined our Human Renaissance Alliance."

The old man finally looked up, gave Thompson a slight nod, and then lowered his head to continue looking through the microscope.

Thompson's mouth hung open in surprise.

"My f*ck!" His eyes widened. "How did you do it?"

Black Panther pulled a cigarette out of his white lab coat pocket, lightly tapped the filter against the corner of the lab bench, and then placed it in his mouth.

"Thompson." He twirled a lighter between his fingers. "Do you know who my idol is?"

Thompson shook his head.

Black Panther pressed the lighter, and a small flame flickered from the top, reflected deep in his pupils.

He brought the flame to the end of the cigarette and took a drag. Smoke escaped from the corner of his mouth, stretching into a thin gray line in the light of the LED strips.

"Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in the East, there was a man named Guiguzi."

He exhaled a puff of smoke, which slowly dissipated in the air. "He was also the one who created the School of Diplomacy."

"When I was studying for my Master's at Cambridge University in London, it was by gaining a superficial understanding of the art of war from his student, Sun Bin, that I established the Star Ghost Organization."

He flicked the ash into an empty beaker on the table, making a very faint sizzling sound.

"In fact, the reason I could achieve this is thanks to four words."

He held up four fingers, then curled them down one by one.

"He, Zong, Lian, Heng."

"Huh?" Thompson looked at him with a face full of confusion, his expression saying: Can you say something I can actually understand?

Black Panther pulled a nearby chair over and sat down face-to-face with Thompson.

"Over the past few days, in my capacity as the King of Wakanda, I've made over two hundred phone calls to high-level officials in countries around the world, explaining the Photographer Theory I told you about one by one."

Thompson snapped out of his confusion. "They believed it?"

Black Panther shook his head, the glow of the cigarette tip drawing two red commas in the air as he moved.

"Only a little. They just think the scenario I described is one of the possibilities."

Thompson leaned forward and pressed further, "Then how did you convince them?"

Black Panther took the cigarette from his mouth and held it between two fingers. "Remember the lions in the Photographer Theory I mentioned?"

Thompson nodded.

"Now those lions have arrived, and the elk is the entire civilization of Planet Blue."

Thompson frowned. "You mean those people from Planet Wuhu? They seem pretty friendly to me! That female alien who was selling stuff even bowed to people."

Black Panther didn't answer the question directly, but asked pointedly, "You saw the Special Ability demonstration video under the President's Twitter post too, right?"

Thompson nodded. He hadn't just seen it; everyone in New York with a phone had watched it at least ten times.

"That woman named Kara said that a full-power strike from an A-rank Esper is enough to destroy half of New York, comparable to a human nuclear bomb."

Black Panther said, "And the leader of the other side, A-Zu, is an A-rank Esper according to the latest intelligence assessment from the United States."

He put the cigarette back in his mouth. "And your so-called friendliness is only because Chen Mu has temporarily restricted him."

"After all, what Chen Mu looks forward to is a fight between the elk and the lion, not the elk foolishly approaching the lion only to be eaten in one bite."

Thompson's Adam's apple bobbed. "You mean Chen Mu will lift A-Zu's restrictions?"

Black Panther shook his head. "It can only be said that those people from Planet Wuhu haven't yet figured out Chen Mu's true attitude toward the civilization of Planet Blue."

"Once they realize that Chen Mu doesn't truly intend to protect Planet Blue's civilization, they will instantly reveal their fangs and devour it in one go."

"How is that possible?" Thompson's tone carried a hint of defiance. "Even if that A-Zu is comparable to a human nuclear bomb, humans actually have real nuclear bombs."

"The United States, Russia, the East—which one doesn't have them? At worst, we'll all go down together."

“Heh.” Black Panther sneered. "Thompson, why are you still so naive?"

He took the cigarette butt from his mouth and stubbed it out directly on the edge of the lab bench. "Do you really think humans are such united creatures?"

He brushed the ash off his hands. "Go down together? I bet if A-Zu performed a stunt of dodging a nuke or tanking one on the spot, these people would surely surrender immediately."

"They'd even post videos on TikTok with captions like 'Lord A-Zu is so cool'."

Thompson was speechless. After all, he had personally witnessed from beginning to end how Chen Mu had become the Ball Chief.

Chen Mu hadn't killed a single person from start to finish, yet the entire Planet Blue had begged Chen Mu to become the Ball Chief, to become the new sun of Planet Blue.

Black Panther looked at the silent Thompson and threw the cigarette butt into the trash can. "So, I explained the danger of A-Zu to those nations. Once the United States is ruled by A-Zu in the future, which countries in the world do you think will be able to stay out of it?"