Chapter 18

"Agent Morse, how's it going on your end?" Commander Hill, who had been watching the live broadcast of the Brooklyn Bridge since Zhou Yi appeared, quickly called Barbara Morse, who was carrying out the infiltration mission.

At this point, the dangerous situation on the Brooklyn Bridge had largely been brought under control by Zhou Yi. Seeing this, Commander Hill knew it was time to retreat.

"Sir, I've already checked the computer, the safe, and all possible places. I only found one suspicious spot in the basement. I need more time!" Agent Morse responded.

"There's no time. The target is returning. Mission terminated, leave immediately." Commander Hill issued the order to withdraw.

Agent Morse rolled her eyes in response, then said helplessly, "Understood, sir. I'm leaving now." With that, she tidied up her traces and quietly left Zhou Yi's villa.

Just as she was leaving the villa, Zhou Yi had already returned to the underground laboratory silently through the underwater tunnel.

"Medusa, remove the armor." Under Zhou Yi's command, the nanometal slowly retracted into the external equipment like flowing mercury. The mechanical arms began to operate, unloading the external equipment from Zhou Yi's body one by one.

Zhou Yi twisted his neck and asked, "Medusa, can the size of the Dawn One equipment be reduced further? I don't want to carry these strange components around all the time."

"Sir, with the self-compression capability of Alpha Nanometal 7, there is still a lot of room for improvement for the Dawn One. However, doing so would significantly reduce its protective capabilities. I do not recommend such modifications."

"Show me to what extent it can be compressed and how much the protective capability will decrease."

Medusa immediately activated the holographic image, displaying a relatively wide metal bracelet in front of Zhou Yi. At the same time, a holographic image of the Dawn One was shown simulating damage under different impact forces.

"According to calculations, the maximum compression of Alpha Nanometal can reduce the Dawn One to 0.00012 cubic meters, roughly the size of two watches. However, compressing it to this extent would make the nanosuit too thin. It can only withstand a maximum impact force of 7400 pounds, which is only one twenty-seventh of its original capacity."

"Reducing it to one-tenth of its size results in such a significant decrease in protection?" Zhou Yi was somewhat dissatisfied with this situation.

"Without the need for a specific form, most of the nanometal would be fixed in the form of the equipment. Only the minimum coverage would be provided in other areas," Medusa explained in detail.

"Medusa, save the file and create the Dawn Two based on this standard. Also, increase the research direction for the next type of nanometal to further improve the compression level."

"Yes, sir. It has been recorded. It will take 15 hours to complete the Dawn Two. Do you have any other requests?"

"Make the compressed mold look like a watch, but not too unconventional." Zhou Yi said as he pushed open the door. As Zhou Yi left, the laboratory fell back into darkness, with only the sound of the machines still echoing.

Zhou Yi's villa, strictly speaking, was divided into two levels. The underground laboratory was completely controlled by Medusa, while the ground floor was Zhou Yi's private space. Unlike Tony Stark, who relied on JARVIS for his daily life, Zhou Yi preferred to do things himself. Therefore, the ground floor of the villa was decorated in a classical style.

The living room featured an old wooden bar, a soft and thick brown sofa, and walls adorned with landscape oil paintings by various artists. There was a spacious lawn and garden, as well as a bright swimming pool. The entire villa was filled with warm tones, which was Zhou Yi's impression of home.

In contrast, the purely white style of Tony's house, with its cold machinery, was not something Zhou Yi liked. In fact, only someone with Tony's peculiar taste would have such a preference.

Looking at the time, the sky was already somewhat gray. It was 4:20 PM, about the time to start thinking about dinner. Zhou Yi had some ideas and opened the refrigerator, but then closed the door with a frown.

He had forgotten something important. Having been back for less than two weeks, and most of his time spent entertaining outside, he had no time to prepare ingredients. The refrigerator was frighteningly clean, and the last few eggs and a bottle of milk had been consumed as breakfast with pizza.

And a villa that only hired temporary workers for regular cleaning and had no professional servants was unlikely to have any stock.

"Damn, I just wanted to eat some dumplings." When it came to food, Zhou Yi was quite particular. Once he decided on something, he wouldn't change his mind and would do whatever it took to get it. For example, if he wanted dumplings for dinner, he would make sure to have them.

Driven by his obsession, Zhou Yi had already opened the garage door and taken out the keys. Just as he was about to leave, his super vision revealed something strange.

Zhou Yi's garage contained eight cars. Besides the Audi ZERO he had taken from Tony and the Hummer driven away by Ororo, there was a Lamborghini, a Bugatti Veyron, two Ferraris, a Bentley, and a Cadillac SUV for daily shopping, as well as a custom-built motorcycle from Dodge.

Though he had many luxury cars, to be honest, Zhou Yi didn't really care about them except for the custom-built motorcycle. He hadn't managed this place for over a year, so the cars were naturally covered in dust.

Interestingly, he noticed something odd about the dust on the cars. Though it had been carefully handled, the thickness of the dust still varied.

At this point, Zhou Yi realized someone had intruded into his private domain. While he knew there were agents monitoring him, he didn't expect someone to break in while he was away.

As a person with a strong sense of territory, Zhou Yi naturally didn't like someone intruding so casually. He activated his super vision and began searching for suspicious people around. He believed the intruders wouldn't be able to breach his laboratory and would continue to lurk.

With his super vision, most obstacles lost their effectiveness. Whether it was concrete walls, metal, or clothing, Zhou Yi would see things he shouldn't. So most of the time, he restrained this ability, using it only when necessary.

Scanning the vehicles on the street and nearby houses, Zhou Yi quickly noticed several suspicious individuals. The most noticeable was Barbara Morse, who was sitting in a car, flipping through a map while staring in his direction. Of course, the reason Zhou Yi noticed her was due to his super vision.

After sizing up this obvious target for a moment, Zhou Yi smiled, his mood clearly improved. With a playful attitude, Zhou Yi opened the garage and drove the Cadillac away from the villa.

He parked directly next to the car where Agent Barbara Morse was sitting, got out, and knocked on her window. Seeing the tall, blonde beauty lower the window with a puzzled look, he asked directly,

"Miss, I believe you were the one who sneaked into my house, right?" Though it was a question, Zhou Yi phrased it as a statement.

Barbara Morse only managed a sarcastic smile in response.

"Sir, is it really appropriate to approach a lady in such a strange way?"

Ignoring the agent's pretense, Zhou Yi continued his one-sided speech.

"Who do you work for, CIA, FBI? No, those agencies shouldn't be able to discover me. So, is it that long-named Strategic Bureau?"

Agent Morse's heart skipped a beat, but she maintained her composure and rebuked,

"Sir, do you think playing strange agent games will attract a lady, or are you still a high school student living in a fantasy world?"

Zhou Yi shrugged, slightly extending his hand. Agent Morse felt a slight discomfort in her ear and was shocked to find that the hidden micro-communication device in her ear was now in Zhou Yi's palm.

"This is your communication device. I've already received its signal. It seems you're working with those guys in the sky. So, the six people lurking around are also with you?"

At this point, Agent Morse could no longer pretend and nodded.

"I didn't expect the target to be a special ability user. My mission has failed, but I won't reveal any information."

With that, she closed her mouth.

Zhou Yi smiled and pinched the car window, which crumbled into dust under his strength. This display of power made Agent Morse's pupils dilate. After showing his strength, Zhou Yi said to her,

"I don't want anyone to disturb my life, especially those who can't speak up in their own organizations. So, I don't want to get any information or assurances from you. Now, get out of the car and come with me."

After Zhou Yi demonstrated his strength and speed, Barbara Morse wisely chose to comply. Whether she was waiting for an opportunity to escape or for rescue was unknown.

Seeing Barbara Morse obediently get into the car, Zhou Yi drove directly to the nearest supermarket.

At the supermarket parking lot, Zhou Yi chuckled at Barbara Morse.

"Twenty pounds of premium A-grade beef, the rib part, four French blue lobsters, the extra-large ones. A few pounds of New Zealand crayfish. Two dozen eggs, and a large sea bass. You can choose the sea bass yourself, as long as it's fresh."

At this point, Barbara Morse looked at Zhou Yi in disbelief, clearly stunned by his actions.

While Zhou Yi was driving, she had already imagined how she would be treated. Forced interrogation, hypnotic brainwashing, and even more cruel humiliation were within her expectations, but she never thought Zhou Yi would take her to a supermarket to shop, and apparently, he wanted her to do the shopping.

"What's the matter? Hurry up. Don't tell me that as an agent, you don't even have the money to buy ingredients."

Hearing this, Barbara Morse rolled her eyes. The items he wanted were not ordinary ingredients, and even for a high-paying job like an agent, spending so much on a meal was painful.

However, Barbara Morse wasn't so tactless as to ask Zhou Yi for money. She simply got out of the car and headed to the supermarket.

Zhou Yi patted the car door and said to Barbara as she turned back, "Hey, agent. I know you're looking for a chance to escape or wait for rescue. But believe me, it won't do you any good. You won't have any other options until I agree to let you go. You can verify this with your superiors. One last thing, take your time. I'll be back here in an hour."

Seeing Barbara Morse force a smile and turn to leave, Zhou Yi whistled and continued driving. This time, Zhou Yi went to a small supermarket that sold Chinese specialty ingredients.

About half an hour later, Zhou Yi parked in front of a small supermarket called Mr. Liu's Ingredients. The store was run by the Liu family, who had been in business for two generations in the United States. They had many connections in China and a private farm in New York State. The father and son ran this small supermarket, mainly selling various Chinese sauces and unique ingredients, including some rare ones. Of course, the main focus was on their farm's produce.

As wealthy farmers, Mr. Liu usually only came to the store on nice days, and his son only checked in at the end of the month. So, the store was generally managed by a hired cashier.

This time was no exception. The store was being managed by a Chinese-American girl who looked like she was still in high school, probably a part-time student hired by Mr. Liu to help out.

Smiling at the girl, Zhou Yi started selecting ingredients. Air-freighted Sichuan bamboo shoots and bamboo fungus, black fungus, yams, white radishes, mushrooms, and some valuable matsutake and monkey head mushrooms. Of course, there were also fresh scallions, cilantro, and tofu from the Liu family's farm, which were hard to find in the United States. Most importantly, there were rice, flour, soy sauce, sweet bean sauce, and doubanjiang for daily use. Additionally, Zhou Yi bought a free-range Chinese chicken from the farm to make soup.

After buying a large amount of ingredients that would fill the kitchen, and keeping the part-time girl busy, Zhou Yi finally put the items in the trunk and drove back to the supermarket.

When he returned, Barbara Morse had already been waiting for over an hour.