**Bang!**
A low gunshot rang out. The defenseless Ulysses Klaue was hit directly in the back, fell to the ground, and dropped the vibranium weapon beside him.
Looking at Ulysses Klaue lying motionless on the ground, Erik Killmonger did not let his guard down at all. He knew the old man was cunning and likely to be playing dead, waiting for a chance to counterattack.
Almost the instant Klaue fell, Erik continued to pull the trigger, firing two more shots. This time, Ulysses Klaue seemed to be completely dead. His body went limp on the ground, and crimson blood slowly seeped from the bullet wounds, pooling on the concrete behind him and soon staining it red.
Erik carefully approached Ulysses Klaue with his gun held firmly in both hands. If Klaue made any move, Erik could shoot quickly, denying him any chance to fight back.
As it turned out, Erik's caution was justified.
Ulysses Klaue was, after all, a bandit who had managed to steal vibranium from Wakanda and escape with his life. The three bullets in his back had failed to kill him instantly. He had been pretending to be dead, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Just as Erik stopped beside him, Ulysses Klaue—who had been lying on the ground like a corpse—quickly rolled over, a pistol already in his hand.
However, not only was he already wounded, having been shot three times and at the end of his strength, but Erik Killmonger had also been carefully guarding against him. There was no way Klaue could successfully land an attack.
The moment Ulysses Klaue's body moved, the gun in Erik's hand fired rapidly.
*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Klaue's body had just turned over; before he could even raise his gun to aim, he was hit several more times in the ribs and chest. Ulysses Klaue, who had been holding on by a thread, instantly lost all his strength, and the gun in his hand fell weakly to the ground. Yet, his gaze toward Erik Killmonger remained fierce.
"You want to monopolize it?!" Ulysses Klaue looked at Erik and asked through gritted teeth, believing Erik had shot him for the priceless vibranium.
Erik Killmonger pointed his gun at him and shook his head slightly. "I want you to die!"
After speaking, without another word, Erik pulled the trigger. The bullet shot through Ulysses Klaue's chest, piercing his heart directly. The fierce light in his eyes dimmed completely.
Kicking away the pistol Ulysses Klaue had dropped, Erik crouched down to confirm he was truly dead, then stood up.
Thus, Ulysses Klaue—a generation of bandits, an internationally renowned vibranium and arms dealer who had caused great damage and casualties in Wakanda, and who had successfully evaded the Black Panther, the guardian of the Kingdom of Wakanda, for decades—finally died at the hands of the king's abandoned nephew.
Having killed Ulysses Klaue, Erik stood up and turned to look in the direction from which he had come. In the distance, two black off-road vehicles, identical to the one he had driven, were speeding toward him.
They were Ulysses Klaue's subordinates. After receiving his mission, Erik had quietly accelerated, shaking off the two cars and returning to the stronghold first. He had killed Klaue by the time they caught up.
Erik Killmonger watched the two approaching vehicles, a cold light flashing in his eyes.
He slid his pistol back into the holster on his hip and, with a cold expression, walked to the car's rear. He opened the trunk and pulled out an automatic rifle fitted with a scope and an under-barrel grenade launcher.
Erik hefted the weapon, worked the action with a sharp *click*, and held the rifle steadily in front of him. The stock was pressed against his broad, solid shoulder as the muzzle moved, firmly locking onto the two approaching off-road vehicles.
In the lead vehicle, one of Ulysses Klaue's men, seeing the car parked near the warehouse ahead, stepped on the accelerator and rushed forward, complaining as he drove. "Damn Erik Killmonger! Leaving us so far behind! He must have done it on purpose!"
The companion in the passenger seat next to him heard the complaint and smirked. "Hey, keep it down. If the killer hears you, watch your back!"
"Uh..." The driver's expression changed slightly. Thinking of Erik Killmonger's ferocity and ruthlessness, he realized that compared to a murderer like "Killmonger," he and his fellow arms-smuggling subordinates were small-time.
Not wanting to lose face, he held his ground. "With the BOSS here, he wouldn't dare cause trouble!"
His companion meant to joke further but suddenly noticed something wrong. His eyes widened as he stared into the distance and hurriedly shouted to the driver, "Something's wrong! Do you see someone lying on the ground next to the car?"
The driver looked and saw that there was indeed a person lying there. Judging by the clothes, it looked like their boss, Ulysses Klaue! "It's BOSS!"
"Damn it! The killer betrayed the boss!"
The two quickly informed their companions in the car behind them via walkie-talkie. Both vehicles accelerated simultaneously, rushing toward Erik Killmonger.
Just as they realized something was wrong and began to speed up, they saw Erik Killmonger open the car trunk, take out an automatic rifle, and turn to aim at them.
"Be careful! He's going to shoot!"
"You bastard!"
"Prepare to return fire! Kill this traitor!"
Before they could react, Erik Killmonger, after taking aim, quickly pulled the trigger. But instead of a bullet, a grenade shot toward them.
The lead off-road vehicle was instantly struck. The explosion's force blew the car forward, flames erupting from the shattered windows and turning the entire vehicle into a fireball. Several of Ulysses Klaue's men inside were consumed in the blaze.
The trailing off-road vehicle slammed on its brakes and skidded to a stop. The four men inside scrambled out, taking cover behind the car. They drew their weapons and began firing back at Erik Killmonger.
After destroying the first car with a grenade, Erik didn't take cover. He remained standing, quickly aiming through the rifle's scope at the men who had exited the vehicle, and pulled the trigger.
The two sides were more than 100 meters apart. The panicked, wild shots from Klaue's four men landed far from Erik, posing no threat to him. Even the occasional bullet that whizzed by didn't affect him in the slightest. His hand holding the gun remained steady as a rock, the cold expression on his face unchanged, as the bullets he fired swiftly claimed the lives of his opponents.
The firefight ended quickly. Before he had even emptied the magazine, all four men on the other side lay dead.
Erik tossed the rifle to the ground, walked back to Ulysses Klaue's body, picked up the vibranium weapon from the ground, and dragged the corpse back to the car.
After throwing Ulysses Klaue's body into the trunk, Erik started the car and drove off, following a route that appeared on his phone.
Dozens of minutes later, when the local police—who had tracked them via surveillance—finally arrived, they found only two severely damaged off-road vehicles and several bodies lying in pools of blood. The occupants of the first car had already been burned to ashes.
By the time the belated police began investigating the shootout, Erik Killmonger had already driven into a more desolate and remote mountainous area.
Rounding the foot of a mountain, Erik turned into a small valley surrounded by several hills.
A sci-fi black fighter aircraft sat silently in the middle of the valley, waiting for his arrival.
Looking at this advanced fighter, which was clearly generations ahead of its time, a flicker of excitement flashed in Erik Killmonger's eyes. He knew where this fighter would take him: it meant his trial was complete, and he was now eligible to enter the Hydra headquarters—the top-secret Base Zero.
There, he would officially become an internal member of Hydra. For external reserve members like him, who had been trained since childhood, this was akin to a pilgrimage.
His heart surging with excitement, Erik Killmonger got out of the off-road vehicle, hauled Ulysses Klaue's body from the trunk, and strode toward the fighter.
As he approached, the belly of the fighter opened downward, forming a ramp. Erik carried Klaue's body up the ramp and into the aircraft's interior.
Once Erik Killmonger was completely inside, the ramp behind him slowly closed and sealed.
Subsequently, the fighter's energy engine activated. Intense blue flames erupted as the craft slowly lifted from the ground, then suddenly accelerated under the thrust of its engines, shooting into the distance and soon disappearing into the sky.
…
**Northwestern Norway, deep in the Scandinavian Mountains.**
A sci-fi black fighter, jetting dazzling blue flames from its tail, sped through a deep fjord, heading straight for a tall mountain covered in ice and snow.
As the fighter approached, a passageway suddenly split open on the mountainside. The black fighter shot inside and vanished. The fissure in the mountain slowly sealed shut, returning it to its original state.