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Ch. 129 Playing Cars When Broke, Playing Watches When Rich, Top-Notch...
🕑 Added 2023-11-05 16:00:05 +0000 UTCAlthough there weren't any particularly advanced weapons installed on Bakshi's Zaku armor, its astonishing firepower output easily eliminated the first batch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempting to intercept them, reducing them to ashes.
Playing Cars When Broke, Playing Watches When Rich, Top-Notch...Although there weren't any particularly advanced weapons installed on Bakshi's Zaku armor, its astonishing firepower output easily eliminated the first batch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempting to intercept them, reducing them to ashes.
Only after all the opposing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had been reduced to ashes did Bakshi finally stop his firing, having expended a few more seconds to do so.
It was clear that Baksi didn't possess much combat experience; he even lacked the basic ability to predict enemy firepower.
However, this was quite normal. After all, he typically portrayed a successful entrepreneur rather than a deranged killer.
Having easily dispatched the initial intercepting team, Russell's group moved forward without hesitation towards the interior of the base.
Simultaneously, Hydra soldiers attacking from other directions engaged in combat with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Not far from the core laboratory, Hawkeye Clint Barton and Black Widow Natasha Romanoff formed a two-person combat team. With their formidable firepower, they managed to intercept one of the squads.
Barton shot arrow after arrow in rapid succession.
In a matter of moments, he took the lives of three Hydra soldiers.
However, soon he encountered resistance from the Zaku armor.
Although the Zaku armor didn't look as high-tech as the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor No. 01, it still possessed terrifying combat capabilities.
Swish! Swish!
Barton evaded attacks from other Hydra soldiers and fired two arrows towards the Zaku armor.
The arrows precisely struck the black Zaku armor.
But then, the armor's defensive plating deflected them.
Barton's accuracy was indeed impressive, and he aimed for the seemingly vulnerable connection points on the Zaku armor.
However, no matter how accurate his shots were, they couldn't change the fact that he was using a bow and arrow.
Defensive plating that could easily withstand rifle bullets couldn't be easily pierced by arrows shot by hand.
If the Zaku armor's defenses were weak to this extent, the military wouldn't have paid Russell a whopping $120 million per unit to purchase them.
As an archer, and arguably the best archer on Earth, Barton knew well the penetration power of his arrows.
He had never thought he could easily destroy the Zaku armor like he did with the other Hydra soldiers.
After shooting two regular arrows, while dodging bullets from the Zaku armor and Hydra soldiers, Barton reached behind to a specially designed quiver and retrieved an arrow with a slightly different arrowhead.
"Cover me!" Barton shouted to Natasha, who was hiding on the other side.
"Got it!"
Without hesitation, Natasha took out a small black sphere, about the size of a ping-pong ball, from her tactical belt.
Then, without any hesitation, she threw the small black sphere towards the Zaku armor.
The black sphere followed a standard parabolic trajectory in the air and landed in front of the Zaku armor.
The operator of the Zaku armor noticed the black sphere thrown by Natasha, but he didn't take the seemingly unremarkable object seriously.
Judging by the size of the sphere, even if it was filled with high explosives, its explosion wouldn't pose a threat to him protected by the armor.
However, the next second, the operator of the Zaku armor experienced the disastrous consequences of underestimation.
The black sphere exploded, producing not flames and shockwaves, but a pulse of electronic energy with a radius of less than ten meters.
This invisible electronic pulse instantly swept through the Zaku armor.
As early as the Gulf War in 1991, the U.S. military had records of using electromagnetic pulse weapons in actual combat.
It was a Tomahawk cruise missile equipped with a non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse warhead.
The electromagnetic pulse successfully disabled the enemy's air defense radar, causing their anti-aircraft artillery to blindly shoot at the sky.
The principles of electromagnetic pulse weapons were well-established, and many countries had developed such weapons.
However, the small-scale individual electromagnetic pulse weapon Natasha was using now remained an exclusive invention of S.H.I.E.L.D.
No, that wasn't accurate.
It shouldn't be called an exclusive invention of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Since S.H.I.E.L.D. had mastered it, it wouldn't take long for Hydra to catch up.
After all, "Hail Hydra!" doesn't discriminate!
The Zaku armor, which had been acting like a human-shaped automated artillery platform just moments ago, suddenly came to a halt as if it had crashed.
Barton didn't waste the opportunity Natasha had created.
He swiftly drew, aimed, and fired his bow in a seamless motion.
The silver-tipped arrow reached the Zaku armor in the blink of an eye, striking the spot where the red eye used to be on the Zaku armor's helmet.
Armor-piercing arrow!
While conventional arrowheads couldn't penetrate the Zaku armor's defenses, armor-piercing arrows could.
The armor-piercing arrow Barton was using now operated on the same principles as tank armor-piercing shells.
Armor-piercing shells primarily used explosives within the ammunition to melt metal and form a metal jet, achieving the effect of penetrating the target's armor.
Compared to conventional rounds, armor-piercing shells had a far greater penetrating power on armor due to their immunity to initial velocity and firing distance.
The armor-piercing arrows Barton was using were specialized arrows developed from the principles of armor-piercing shells.
The armor-piercing arrow pierced through the Zaku armor's helmet, directly taking the life of the Hydra soldier inside.
With the Zaku armor no longer suppressing them, the remaining three Hydra soldiers were no match for Barton and Natasha. They swiftly neutralized them.
After dealing with this squad, Barton and Natasha approached the Zaku armor with solemn expressions.
Although they didn't know which organization the invaders came from, they recognized the Zaku armor.
Although Hydra had made some modifications to the Zaku armor, it couldn't change its core characteristics.
The Zaku armor was Octopus Monster Industry's flagship product that established its footing in the military-industrial sector.
While S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't purchased Zaku armor from Octopus Monster Industry, Barton and Natasha were familiar with it.
In fact, the current Zaku armor wasn't merely a piece of combat equipment.
In order to expand its market, Russell had No. 3 produce some Zaku armor models without weapon systems.
He sold these weaponless Zaku armors to wealthy billionaires and second-generation affluent individuals who had money to spare.
As for the price, he decisively set it at $150 million per unit, which was $30 million more expensive than the combat-functional Zaku armor he sold to the military.
Even so, over the past few months, he had still managed to sell six Zaku armors, bringing Octopus Monster Industry a revenue of $900 million.
Playing cars when broke, playing watches when rich, top-notch playing with Zaku armor!
This was the latest hierarchy of disdain within the American affluent circles.
And among those with privately customized armor, Russell and Tony stood at the very top of this disdain hierarchy.
