On the outskirts of New York lay the underground headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was kept concealed from the general public and served as not only the operational head office but also a repository for various mysterious artifacts and antiques that the American government had amassed.
Although, in the research conducted so far, none of these mysterious items have been found to have any special functions, they were still carefully sealed to prevent incidents similar to the 'Thanksgiving Demon King' that occurred in the Southern Desert Base.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director, Smith, sat in his office. It was a large and open room that was used by multiple other officials as well. The place was constantly alive with the sounds of people conversing, walking, and speaking into headphone dials. Various screens representing different kinds of information all lit up and conveyed a thousand different ideas at once.
Smith really wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. to appear more mysterious and futuristic, like the high-tech headquarters of the Men in Black in the movies. However, the reality was that Earth's technology was not as advanced, and he could only regretfully give up on that idea.
"Director, the personnel from the Manhattan First Research Department have arrived."
Smith's assistant entered his office and saluted.
“Let them in,” he quickly replied.
“Yes!”
The assistant went out to relay the command, and soon, five people entered the office.
The person who walked ahead of the others looked a bit frail, and old, with sparse and messy brown hair. However, he appeared full of energy.
At first glance, Smith knew that this person was a researcher.
Behind the researcher were four extremely robust men. They stood tall with a hint of solemnity. Each of them carried a silver briefcase which was handcuffed to their wrist.
"Has the research been successful?"
Smith excitedly stood up from his seat. He certainly knew the purpose of the personnel from the Manhattan First Research Department.
This research institute was one of the deeply hidden research facilities in America. After the United Nations Assembly, research on the biological technology of the ancient civilization was conducted in this institute.
Apart from recent major breakthroughs in the global medical field coming from these research institutes, various countries' research facilities were also studying how to weaponize the technology that they obtained.
In the mysterious sphere that stored technological data, there were some weapon blueprints that, although not too complex, surpassed the current kinetic weapons of humanity by a significant margin. The scenes of the Deep Ones wreaking havoc in Tokyo initially terrified many nations, as conventional human weapons proved ineffective against these creatures.
To prevent such situations from occurring, countries increased their investment in weapon research. The recent release of partial technological data from the ancient civilization met the urgent needs of many nations.
While these weapons might be as ineffective as fireworks against beings like gods, they should be sufficient against Deep Ones. From the beginning, nations did not plan to develop weapons to counter gods but rather focused on creating tools to combat smaller creatures.
"The research was successful. With specific research data, we could proceed with systematic manufacturing. The completed prototypes have been made, and researchers from various countries are continuing to work on reverse engineering the technology in hopes of providing humanity with more advanced tools."
Upon hearing this, Director Smith's mood became somewhat somber.
The fact that the ancient civilization's legacy technology could be successfully replicated indicated its authenticity. It also suggested that the technological development of the ancient civilization was far more advanced than that of Earth. Considering that humanity's current technological achievements were a mere fraction of the ancient civilization's true capabilities, the technological level of the ancient civilization's homeworld was likely even more advanced. However, this civilization, like the race who created the ‘Xenomorphs’ in ‘Alien’, was destroyed by its own creation, the Shoggoth.
This realization served as a warning to humanity. It emphasized the importance of caution in researching uncontrollable weapons. In the past, humanity lacked references from other civilizations, but now the ancient civilization serves as the best model.
However, simultaneously, this outcome left the leaders of various countries feeling helpless and distressed. The ancient civilization was already vastly superior to Earth's civilization, yet it still adhered to the worship of Cthulhu. In the face of the great gods Odin and Thor, Cthulhu exhibited a cowardly demeanor, highlighting the immense gap between humans and gods.
Moreover, this was just one ancient civilization. Who knew how many civilizations existed in the boundless universe? Humanity, in the cradle of civilization, was likely just an infant. The arrogance of the past, where humans believed they were the kings of the universe, had now been shattered by reality.
Indeed, humans should have developed more cautiously, refraining from causing trouble everywhere. It was even said that all plans to send signals into outer space had been abandoned by various countries, and even the launched spacecraft had been self-destructed.
Humans didn’t want to be discovered by extraterrestrial civilizations one day and face destruction without even meeting them.
While Smith's thoughts were wandering, the four strong men placed the briefcases in front of him. Subsequently, they carefully took out keys to unlock the handcuffs and entered the passwords on the briefcases.
"This thing is just a prototype. A few hundred elite troops were dispatched to escort it."
The researcher said with a smile. Then he opened the four cases, treating the creations inside as if they were his own children.
At this moment, Smith saw that the four cases contained four silver-like objects resembling pistols. However, unlike regular pistols, they seemed to have no visible joints, appearing as a seamless whole, and more like works of art than weapons.
Smith exclaimed with joy.
"For now, we've only made four guns. The production cost is currently too high, mainly due to material issues. It requires processing from various sources. If materials science can make progress, I believe the production cost of these weapons will decrease for industrial production."
The researcher explained to Smith.
"These weapons are energy-based. In the past, we only dared to miniaturize powerful energy weapons in novels and movies. I never expected that we could directly skip so many steps and actually manufacture them now."
The researcher sighed, "Moreover, we've incorporated genetic technology into this weapon. The energy it produces won't cause any damage to material substances; it will only inflict harm on living organisms. I think such weapons would be very suitable for use by your S.H.I.E.L.D. Although there's no experimental data, based on the power of this weapon, I believe it can be used to combat those deep-sea creatures if they appear!"
Countries were researching these new weapons to deal with the appearance of such unusual life forms in groups, but when faced with disasters like Surtr and Typhon, the monster kings of that level, humanity could do little more than pray.
These weapons, naturally, were also Louie's gift to the people of Earth. The vast technological gap between the Terran civilization and Earth was difficult to fathom. Human scientific capabilities couldn’t even reach beyond the solar system, while the Terran civilization had traversed past the Crystal Wall System, spanning the cosmic void and reaching another universe.
With the Terran civilization's scientific and technological achievements, any minor contribution would be more than enough to greatly benefit humanity.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦