I Became a Knockoff Arms Dealer in the Marvel World

The first method of producing palladium metal is through dry smelting directly from ore.

The second method involves extracting it as a byproduct during the copper and nickel production process, using sulfide ores as raw materials and refining them through wet smelting.

The cost of constructing a palladium reactor is less than one percent of that for a reactor using a new element.

This makes it highly suitable for mass production and ensures higher profits for Carl when he sells large quantities of steel battle suits externally.

While Carl was secretly conducting industrial-scale tests for mass-producing steel battle suits, the outside world quickly moved on from the Sidimusa Prison explosion. With the cooperation of major global powers, the incident was quietly swept under the rug.

The existence of information silos meant that most ordinary people quickly forgot about the explosion.

Only Russia remained relentless, determined to find the culprit behind the attack. Yet, after deploying elite KGB agents to investigate for three days and nights, they failed to uncover even a single useful lead.

Ultimately, they had no choice but to let the matter drop, issuing only a few perfunctory protests in diplomatic statements.

---

As October arrived, the Marvel world appeared calm and peaceful on the surface.

The Stark Industries Expo, hosted by Tony Stark, had a spectacular opening ceremony. Each day, tens of thousands of visitors attended the event.

Without interference from any villains, Tony Stark successfully overcame his poisoning crisis and synthesized a new element.

These days, it wasn't uncommon to see Iron Man in his Mark VII armor flamboyantly flying across the skies of New York.

The events of Thor also unfolded as expected. In a small town in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, an unidentified robot caused significant destruction.

However, S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly suppressed the news, ensuring it didn't cause much of a stir.

---

Meanwhile, in a remote corner of the Earth, at the memory extraction lab within Umbrella Corporation's headquarters, Ivan Vanko had outlived his usefulness. Having fulfilled his role as a mere tool, Carl disposed of him without hesitation, sending him to meet his maker.

After all, the Arc Reactor was too valuable to let too many people know about it.

Tony Stark would never share his Arc Reactor technology.

Thus, the Arc Reactor in Carl's possession was a unique monopoly.

The thought of cornering the market for steel battle suit profits filled him with excitement.

It seemed his T-Virus plan could be advanced ahead of schedule. While prosthetic augmentation and bionic robot technologies were promising, relying on system points to acquire them was far too wasteful.

Steel battle suits alone could achieve Carl's desired results.

He planned to execute the T-Virus project as soon as the timing was right.

---

One crisp morning in early winter, light snow began to fall in Sokovia.

Outside, the temperature had dropped to -3°C, but within the Hive Base, it was as warm as spring.

Carl had just woken up in Wanda's plush bedroom when Red Queen brought him some good news:

Umbrella's steel battle suits had successfully completed their final design phase and were ready for mass production.

Carl inspected the advanced precision manufacturing workshop at Umbrella's ground-level headquarters.

The lead scientist responsible for the battle suit design and finalization was Johannes Wilhelm, a former Stark Industries employee. He had once developed the Iron Monger armor for Tony's villainous uncle, Obadiah Stane.

Carl had poached Wilhelm from Stark Industries with a lucrative offer. At first, Wilhelm harbored ulterior motives.

But after Carl implanted a neural chip at the back of his head, Wilhelm became completely obedient.

Now, Wilhelm respectfully trailed behind Carl during the factory inspection, introducing three finalized models of steel battle suits.

---

"Boss, we currently have three steel battle suit models ready for production.

The first is the C1 Police Model, which uses special stainless steel as the primary armor material. Its hallmark is its incredibly low cost—just $100,000 per unit.

In testing, this armor demonstrated perfect resistance to small-caliber bullets. However, it is incapable of fully defending against tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds or large-caliber bullets."

"The second model is the B1 Export Model, designed for external sales. It uses titanium alloy as its primary material, offering stronger defensive capabilities and moderate costs, priced at $1 million per unit."

"The third model is the A1 Proprietary Model, intended for internal use. It utilizes expensive gold-titanium alloy as its armor material, resulting in exceptionally strong combat performance.

Its strength lies in its superb defense—testing showed it could withstand direct hits from small missiles and armor-piercing shells.

However, its drawback is its high production cost of $30 million per unit."

Wilhelm laid out the differences between the three models in meticulous detail, hiding nothing.

---

After hearing the explanation, Carl had a clear understanding and asked about the production cost of the miniature Arc Reactor.

He was well aware that once major powers obtained his steel battle suits, they would inevitably modify and upgrade them. Thus, in the future, he even planned to directly sell finished miniature Arc Reactors.

Dressed in a sterile white lab coat, Wilhelm promptly responded to Carl's question:

"A single miniature Arc Reactor costs $50,000 to produce. This is already the lowest possible price achieved through industrial-scale mass production."

Carl nodded in satisfaction and issued his orders:

"For the next three months, keep news of the steel battle suits under wraps. Prioritize the production of 20 units of the A1 Proprietary Model.

Then, begin mass-producing the C1 Police Model. Five hundred units of the B1 Export Model should suffice for now."

"Understood! I will deliver the steel battle suits as per your requirements, Boss," Wilhelm replied respectfully. He now fully understood Carl's strategy.

Umbrella Corporation was still in its fledgling stage. Only after the seven newly established secret bases across the globe were completed would Umbrella truly step onto the world stage.

Thanks to the meticulous management of the Red Queen, Carl had little need to micromanage the precision manufacturing facilities.

His primary concern now was whether Umbrella had sufficient funds on hand.

---

Umbrella's new bases required massive capital investment. Producing steel battle suits also demanded large sums to procure raw materials.

Moreover, managing so many bases necessitated manpower.

While clones were effective, maintaining seven secret bases would require at least hundreds of thousands of them.

Even with mass cloning through embryo cultivation spheres, producing such a vast number of clones was a costly endeavor.

At present, Umbrella faced a funding gap of over $40 billion.

Carl had spent years selling discounted arms but hadn't dared to undercut prices too aggressively. Advanced weaponry was sold at market rates, ensuring high profits but fewer orders.

Unless he openly declared war on all other arms dealers by flooding the market with low-cost advanced weaponry, Umbrella's monthly profits would remain steady—around $3 billion.

Even at that level, the profit margins were only achievable because Umbrella's production costs were significantly lower than those of its competitors.

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