Everyone knew the story.
Back then, the great Dr.
Erskine died on the very day Captain America was officially created, and all his research materials were destroyed.
But when Luka was young, he showed astonishing talent.
Howard had once explained to him and Tony his reverse-engineered Super Soldier Serum formula.
However, their father strictly forbade them from ever trying to produce or inject it.
Because that serum was extremely unstable.
And it had a sky-high mortality rate.
Young Luka had obeyed his father, but the data remained deeply burned into his mind.
Although he was a bastard who loved wild parties and beautiful women, he always kept his father’s words in mind.
Even later, when he took over Stark Industries’ biological division and built it into Stark Pharmaceuticals—the world’s top medical company by market value—he had never thought about touching that taboo.
Yet strangely, when he saw these files, his brain inexplicably kept pushing him toward that possibility.
His mind told him countless times that the plan had a 99% fatality rate.
The odd part was that once the idea took root, he couldn’t get rid of it.
It was like he was possessed.
Since he couldn’t forget it, he decided to just go for it.
Looking over the files provided by the terrorists about absorbing energy to evolve, Luka realized that combining the two sets of data would perfectly solve the instability of the Super Soldier Serum!
The reason it was unstable was that the human body couldn’t withstand the sudden load when the serum detonated in the system.
But if he added the trait of absorbing energy to evolve, allowing human cells to actively devour external energy to neutralize that load, the serum would fuse perfectly!
No sooner said than done.
He called this project: the Superman Serum!
To save himself—and to prevent anyone else from stealing his research—right at the start of the experiment, Luka drained a large vial of his own blood while no one was paying attention and put it into the core incubation chamber.
What he was creating was a tailored, custom version of the Super Soldier Serum that only he could inject!
The genetic lock on this serum was completely bound to his DNA.
If anyone on Earth other than Luka Stark dared to inject it, there would be only one outcome: genetic breakdown, their cells dissolving into a puddle of slop.
This was also why he was deliberately stalling for time.
A custom genetic serum required a huge amount of time for incubation and adaptation.
He had to pretend to cooperate with the terrorists’ experiments every day, while incidentally killing off a few of their minions used as lab rats.
Fortunately, after two months, the progress bar finally hit 98%.
Luka took a deep breath, pulling his thoughts back to reality.
He turned around to face the remaining lab technicians.
“Alright, guys, everything that needed doing is done.
Now, all of you get out.” Luka waved his hand as if shooing annoying flies.
“I need to adjust the final core parameters.
This requires absolute quiet.
Come back in an hour when the formal test begins.” “If anyone dares to push this door open a minute early, I’ll pour a bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid down his throat.” Nobody argued.
Over the past two months, they had grown accustomed to this big shot’s weird temper.
He always liked to be left alone at critical moments.
They quickly lined up and walked out, the heavy door slamming shut behind them.
Only Luka was left in the lab.
The test subject who had just died had long been dragged away, leaving behind a faint foul odor.
Luka stared at the screen and saw the progress bar tick up to 99%.
“Hurry up…
the yacht parties in New York aren’t going to delay for me.
And then there’s Anna, or Cindy…
Whatever her name is, those long legs are still waiting for me to measure them.” While staring at the screen, Luka began reviewing his upcoming escape plan in his head.
The plan had to be flawless; one wrong step and he’d be dead.
First, inject the serum.
Once injected, as long as there was no energy to activate it, it would lie dormant in his body like plain water.
Next, open the door normally and cooperate with the bald leader’s experiment.
Grab any unlucky terrorist minion and inject him with a batch of completely useless waste fluid.
It wasn’t him dying anyway.
These terrorists killed and robbed people every day; death was too good for them.
Right now, keeping his own skin intact was what mattered—he didn’t have any bleeding-heart sympathy for his kidnappers.
Then, after the waste fluid was injected, that minion would definitely die a gruesome death.
Another failed experiment.
The short-tempered bald leader would explode with rage, thinking Luka was a useless piece of trash.
Finally, true to that bald guy’s habit of destroying evidence and bodies, he would definitely order his men to haul him out to the cliff outside the base to be executed by firing squad.
Once he reached the cliff and came into contact with sunlight…
Everything would fall into place naturally.
That was Luka’s entire plan.
Not a single step could be missed.
Of course, one misstep would mean death.
It was a plan where risk and reward went hand in hand.
The reason he had to do this was that the serum he developed had one major flaw: it required a massive amount of energy to instantly activate.
This lousy base had no energy source of that scale whatsoever.
As for the nutrient pod chambers used for testing?
The terrorists guarded them like hawks; they were brought out only during experiments and locked away immediately after.
Luka’s only hope was the sunlight outside.
However, ordinary sunlight’s energy was far too scattered, nowhere near enough to activate the serum.
So, to guarantee 100% success, he had to find another way.
Over the past two months, Luka hadn’t just researched the main serum—he had also poured immense effort into a secondary auxiliary serum and blended it into the main compound.
This auxiliary serum served only one single-use purpose: a Photosynthetic Energy Amplifier!
As long as he was exposed to sunlight within a certain timeframe after injection, this auxiliary serum would instantly trigger, amplifying the absorbed light energy exponentially!
With this amplified wave of energy, the serum’s properties coupled with the evolutionary traits would immediately react.
It would then fully awaken his body’s potential, achieving a perfect mutation!
Interlocking steps—this was Luka’s final trump card.
One wrong move meant death.
If the bald leader suddenly changed his routine, thought going to the cliff was too much hassle, and drew his gun to execute him right there in the lab…
Then Luka would be completely done for.
He could only gamble.
Gamble on the bald leader’s sick obsession with throwing bodies off the cliff.
The digital clock on the wall ticked silently.
Less than half an hour remained of the one-hour deadline given by the bald leader.
“Ding!!” A crisp electronic chime sounded.
The progress bar on the screen finally reached 100%.
Perfect adaptation.
Accompanied by a soft hiss of venting gas, a cover in the center of the bench slid open, and a vial of serum emitting a faint luminescence slowly rose up.
Luka suppressed the wildly thumping excitement in his chest, walked over, and grabbed the serum.
Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately went to the automated injector nearby, placed his arm inside, and loaded the serum into the slot.
“Dad, even though you forbade me from touching it, to save the Stark family name, I’ve got no choice but to disobey you.
I just hope this formula is reliable.
I really don’t want to turn into a pile of rotten meat.” Luka took a deep breath and hit the start button.
The machine made a sharp click, and a needle plunged into his arm vein.
The liquid flowed through the transparent tubing, rapidly injecting into his body.
Soon, the injection was complete.
Luka pulled his arm out and furrowed his brow.
Apart from the mild sting of the needle piercing his skin, he felt absolutely nothing.
No fever, no bulging muscles, not even a faster heartbeat.
Still, he knew this was normal—there was no energy absorbed yet to activate it.
“How anti-climactic.
I thought I’d feel as wired as if I drank ten cans of Red Bull.
Looks like this thing is just a dud under normal conditions.” Luka curled his lip and quickly began clearing the scene.
He deleted all the genetic data belonging to him, erased all traces from the incubation chamber, and threw the empty vial into the incinerator to burn it to ashes.
Soon, the one-hour limit was up.
The lab door was pushed open right on time.
The bald leader walked in with the remaining researchers and two heavily armed soldiers.
In the soldiers’ grip was a terrorist minion struggling desperately.
The poor bastard clearly knew what being brought here meant, screaming and begging for mercy at the top of his lungs.
“Time’s up, Stark,” the bald leader said, staring at Luka coldly.
“Show me what you’ve accomplished in this last hour.
If you disappoint me again, you die.” Luka pretended to organize the instruments on the workbench while quipping back.
“Relax, pal.
Science requires a sense of ceremony.” “Please invite our volunteer to the bed.
Looking at how excited he is, he clearly can’t wait to sacrifice himself for science.” The soldiers brutally pinned the minion onto the examination bed, locking down his wrists, ankles, and neck with heavy leather straps.
Luka pointed casually at the bed with an easygoing posture.
“Strap him down tight.
It’s time to witness the miracle.” Luka strolled unhurriedly over to the console, casually picked up the pre-prepared waste liquid, and mockingly loaded it into the injection device.
“Are you ready, audience?
What you’re about to see next is a giant leap in human evolutionary history.”