Chapter 1669: Touching Down In Sapporo, and Freeloading Partners

After seeing his brother off, Luke started a new round of harvesting.

Things were starting to calm down in America, and there were fewer opportunities to fish in troubled waters. However, there were “big fruits” still hiding in Japan.

To be more precise, the SHIELD branch in Japan had been turned into an empty shell by Hydra.

This group of Hydra members had gone into hiding, changed their appearances and identities, and then gathered under the banner of another shell company.

For the people of this branch, doing this was worthwhile.

They had embezzled billions of dollars from SHIELD alone, and had moved a lot of other priceless resources.

But that was also good news for Luke.

That was because they were no longer SHIELD, and had nothing to do with the American government or the CIA.

If Luke had killed them earlier, he would have to deal with an intense investigation by the American government, and even China’s interest would be piqued.

The disappearance of a bunch of principal opponents would be a cause for celebration for China.

Now, if these people went missing again, only Hydra would care, and the police in Japan would probably deem it “collective travel” and decline to file a case.

So, why was it so safe on paper in Japan, and murder cases even rarer?

They muddled through the cases and perfunctorily deemed them either a suicide or an accident.

A certain Japanese show had pointed this out, and even the Japanese populace were shocked.

Luke didn’t care about Japan’s societal issues, just like how he didn’t care about the American legislative system.

He only needed to confirm that no one would know if 300 Hydra members died.

That would make things very easy for Luke.

…

When he went to Japan this time, he got off a plane at Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport.

Sapporo was located on the northernmost of Japan’s four islands, Hokkaido. It was very “refined” compared with Tokyo.

It had a population of almost two million, and was the heart of the Sapporo Metropolitan Area.

The Hydra members in Japan’s SHIELD branch that had collectively fled… naturally weren’t here.

However, Sapporo was an international tourist destination, and more than ten million tourists from all over the world visited this place every year.

That was what the Hydra group was counting on. Most of them were in Sapporo and went about daily life with their new identities.

Their base, on the other hand, was located in the mountains to the south of the city. In the name of building an onsen, it was easy to transport construction materials and personnel here.

In truth, the very simple marketing for this onsen had only been for show.

If an ordinary person went to this onsen, they would probably get lost.

After all, phone map navigation wasn’t widespread yet in Japan, so it was very possible to get lost.

Once phone maps became a thing, basically nobody would come to this onsen.

After all, diagonally down was Sapporo’s most famous Jozankei Onsen, while further to the left was Otaru’s Asarigawa Onsen. Who would come to Hydra’s nest?

“Shall we go to Jozankei first? I want to go to the hot spring.” A voice rang out next to Luke.

“It definitely isn’t the hot spring you want to immerse in.” Driving a rental car, Luke roasted Ivan, who was in the passenger seat.

Ivan yawned. “I think it might be jet lag; I need to relax.”

Luke said, “Don’t worry. With your face right now, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to mooch off a woman.”

Ivan lay supine in his seat. “Are you saying that they have to pay for my services?”

Luke said, “That’s right. You can do it, bro.”

“Okay. How about we go together?”

Luke finally glanced at him. “I have integrity.”

Elena snorted. “Bullsh*t! Master Bruce is the one with integrity, not us.”

Luke smiled but didn’t say anything.

He would be going on a killing spree during this trip, so it was Big Dipper who was undertaking this mission.

It was for that reason that the only person to accept this job was Ivan.

Some were busy, some were going to school, some weren’t interested in hanging out with Big Dipper, and who knew what the rest thought.

Luke wasn’t disappointed.

The more people there were, the bigger the room for error.

Fewer people might mean missing out on some targets, but that wasn’t a big deal.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Ivan had been upgraded to a 1-star teammate a few days ago, Luke wouldn’t have brought him along.

But considering that it was very likely that this guy was using the mission as an excuse to come out and play, Luke didn’t refuse.

Other people could move freely and had money and time, and could travel whenever they wanted.

The world was so big that one could go anywhere.

It was just that Ivan knew that Batman would definitely watch him very closely if he went traveling alone.

When he heard that Luke was coming to Japan for a week or two, he had been tempted.

He had never been to Japan before, and it had sounded interesting after he read comments online about it.

He had had enough of the bars in Nassau County. Naturally, he had come to Japan to sample some of its specialties, like the onsen and so on.

Luke knew what the guy was thinking. Before they came, he had given Ivan a new ID. When they reached the city center, he told him to get out of the car.

The operation would take a while, and he still had to prep for it.

In the meantime, Ivan could do whatever he wanted.

This guy had too much money and nowhere to spend it. Now, he even had a handsome face which he could live off of.

The face on the new ID was something Ivan had requested himself – it was of a handsome man in his thirties.

Watching the car drive off, Ivan suddenly let out a breath. “Hmph, don’t think I don’t know that you’re all on the same side.”

Batman hadn’t said anything when Ivan and Big Dipper came out on this mission.

Big Dipper had even dumped him in Sapporo to go play by himself.

Were Batman and Big Dipper idiots? Who would believe that?

It was precisely because it was Big Dipper’s mission that Batman was so reassured.

The Bat Squad had never revealed their real identities to each other, but after numerous missions, they knew each other’s personalities.

The father and daughter, or uncle and niece, were actually very nice.

Pink Bear was amusing, and Black Bear was taciturn and honest, at least in the team.

The ninjas were purely obedient kids.

Black Cat looked friendly, but that was actually only to the minors like Pink Bear and the Ninja Squad.

Hammersmith, Lady Deathstrike and Iron Cage King were all vicious people who didn’t talk much, but it was fine as long as they weren’t provoked.

Deadpool was a lunatic; Ivan just treated him like air and kept his distance.

Tony was an egoist and a “lifelong enemy.”

Big Dipper was a little like Deadpool, but had a poisonous tongue.

Apart from Batman, however, he was the one person Ivan was the most wary of.

Every time there was a battle, Big Dipper would be the quickest and most efficient at killing the enemy.

He didn’t have Batman’s “no killing rule,” and he wasn’t as crazy as Deadpool.

Conversely, he was as indifferent to human life as Deadpool, and as precise and efficient as Batman. He was the perfect killing machine.