When discussing future plans earlier, Jasper had thought Russell was a clear-headed young man with a solid strategy.
But Russell’s absurd performance in the lobby now left Jasper utterly dumbfounded.
This counted as recruitment?
He thought he could poach Hydra’s workforce with just this?
Jasper even wondered if Russell had been reading too many web novels from that powerful country across the Pacific.
Did he really think a few casual words would release some mythical conqueror’s aura and make everyone bow down to him?
What a joke!
That wasn’t how reality worked!
If Russell kept acting like this, Jasper wouldn’t go back to Hydra as a spy even if it killed him.
Not a chance in hell.
Although Russell didn’t know what Jasper was thinking, he had never expected a speech to convince the scientists and soldiers to abandon Hydra for him.
If people wanted to cling to a thigh, they would choose a thick one.
No matter how you looked at it, Hydra was the thick thigh here.
“Sir, are you joking?
Defecting from Hydra carries severe consequences!
You might not fear Hydra’s retaliation, but we do!”
A Hydra squad leader spoke up first after taking a long, serious look at Russell and Wilson.
Once the first person broke the ice, a second and third joined in.
“Exactly.
We’re just ordinary people, not superhumans like you, Sir.
We can’t survive Hydra’s vengeance!”
“Right!
No one who betrays Hydra comes to a good end!”
…
The researchers and soldiers voiced their opinions one after another.
Just as Jasper had predicted, not a single person chose to follow Russell.
This was the normal course of events.
Trying to entice these people with double pay was a complete joke.
Forget double—even if it were tenfold, you needed to be alive to spend it. Get faster updates on g.com.
Besides, not everyone was like Russell, with no family commitments to tie them down.
If they betrayed Hydra today, Hydra might hunt down their families tomorrow, and then…
“I understand everything you’re saying,” Russell said.
“That’s why I won’t force a single one of you.”
“I don’t know why each of you joined Hydra.
Some might have joined for better pay, others to conduct research under better conditions, and some might even agree with Hydra’s ideology.”
“Whatever your reasons were, I believe you all joined voluntarily.”
“I won’t promise that joining me means I can guarantee your families’ safety, because that would be unrealistic.”
“The only thing I can promise is that, within my power, I will do my best to protect your safety and the safety of your families.”
“If you choose to join today, and one day in the future you wish to leave, you may do so voluntarily, unharmed, and without lingering consequences.”
“That is the only guarantee I can offer you.
Uh…
wait, two guarantees, counting the double pay I mentioned earlier!”
After saying that, Russell pointed to Dr.
Wilson beside him and continued, “If you are willing to join, report to the doctor before midnight tonight.”
“If you aren’t, that’s fine too.
When we leave tomorrow, the doctor will give a 24-hour sedative to anyone who declined.
All you have to do then is take it.
Additionally, starting right now, the base will be completely cut off from the outside world until after we leave tomorrow!”
Having finished, Russell said no more and simply looked at the crowd of researchers and soldiers in silence.
“How do we know it’s really a sedative?
What if it’s a lethal toxin?
We can’t trust you!”
After a period of silence, a white man nearly two meters tall shouted loudly.
Following his outcry, many others voiced similar concerns.
“On that point, you have no choice but to trust us,” Russell replied coldly.
“If you refuse to join and refuse to take the sedative, I will personally end your lives.”
“There is no negotiating on this.
“Furthermore, let me remind you: it’s fine if you don’t want to join, and I won’t harm you, provided you cooperate.”
“However, if anyone thinks they can feign allegiance only to leak information to Hydra behind my back, I will teach them the meaning of cruelty.”
“Refusing to join is fine.
But if anyone joins only to sell us out for Hydra’s favor or reward, I won’t just harm you—I’ll harm your family, and I’ll slaughter every last dog in your neighborhood.
Do I make myself clear?!”
If Russell had seemed harmless and easy to talk to earlier…
…then as he uttered these final words, he was like a blood-soaked butcher with countless lives on his hands, radiating suffocating murder intent.
With that, Russell turned and left the lobby, returning to the reception room.
When he walked back in, Jasper looked at him with an extremely complex expression.
“Should I call you reckless or meticulously calculating?”
Jasper had originally thought Russell read too many web novels and believed he possessed some mythical aura.
But after hearing Russell’s closing words, Jasper couldn’t make a simple judgment anymore.
If you said his method was brain-dead, he nevertheless held total initiative and had left the researchers and soldiers thoroughly stunned.
Yet if you called his method clever, it clearly wasn’t, as he had no way to guarantee loyalty—or if anyone would even join in the first place.
“What are you actually thinking?” Jasper asked after wrestling with his confusion.
“Simple.
Just don’t care too much about them,” Russell replied.
Hearing Russell’s answer, Jasper finally understood, slowly remarking, “I truly underestimated you.”
The reason for Russell’s approach was simple.
He didn’t particularly care whether these people were willing to join him, so he hadn’t bothered overthinking a complex recruitment plan in the first place.
I state my conditions clearly: if you want to join, join; if you don’t, whatever.
While the researchers and soldiers were professionals, they weren’t indispensable.
Without them, Russell could still execute his plans just as smoothly.
If they chose to join, it would save him some effort.
As for loyalty or trust, Russell hadn’t wasted a second thinking about them.
Three-legged toads were hard to find, but two-legged humans were everywhere.
That was why he used such a blunt, brutal method.
In short: join if you want, beat it if you don’t.
Why complicate things?
As for consequences, they were all adults, and taking responsibility for one’s own choices was just common sense.