Joining Shinra had always been Su Ye's intention.
Only by fully understanding the enemy can one truly defeat them.
Although he had achieved many victories on Earth, Su Ye didn't believe he could underestimate the enemies of this universe.
Whether it's the easily defeated villains from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Or the outsiders who appeared in this world due to his system and the form DLC loading.
To underestimate the enemy strategically but take them seriously tactically is a principle that will never go out of style.
Furthermore, what Shinra was doing involved developing planetary energy, directly harnessing the power of planets.
How this development worked, what the extracted power called "Mako" truly was—whether it was matter or energy, its function, and what could be developed from it—these were all things Su Ye didn't know yet.
These were things Su Ye wasn't clear about for now.
So, he needed to infiltrate Shinra's inner circle, not just to understand their combat power, but also to delve into their technology.
And when the time was right, he would seize all their technology and make it his own!
Tifa didn't oppose Su Ye's decision.
Just like many years ago, when he said he'd take her home for dinner, when he said they'd go to school together, when he said he'd take revenge on those who bullied her, when he said she would grow up to be his bride.
As long as it was Su Ye's decision, Tifa would never object.
She would only remind him to be careful, stay safe, and never forget that there was a girl waiting for him to return at home.
"When are you leaving?"
Seeing the group in a drunken stupor, Tifa spoke up.
Su Ye glanced at the time; it was already past midnight, and sunrise wasn't far off.
"I'll go when the sun comes up."
"This time, come back soon. Don't make me wait too long. I've already waited over ten years—I don't want to wait that long again." Tifa suddenly lowered her head, her expression darkening.
A trace of awkwardness immediately appeared on Su Ye's face.
It was Su Ye who had made Tifa wait for over ten years, but it wasn't entirely his fault.
It was only recently that he used his projection magic to unlock Tifa's girlfriend card, but before that, he had no idea that things with Tifa would turn out like this.
"Don't worry, I have a feeling this time won't take long. I'll be back soon," Su Ye said, reaching out to gently touch Tifa's shoulder, offering a soft reassurance.
Su Ye placed his hand on Tifa's shoulder and comforted her softly.
But Tifa took the opportunity to fall into Su Ye's embrace.
"I just… don't want to wait anymore!" she whispered.
The next day, just as the sky just began to lighten, Su Ye left the Seventh Heaven bar and headed towards the address Tifa had given him.
Even though he hadn't slept all night, he was still in top shape—still that same spirited guy who could take on ten people at once.
Shinra was very well-known in the Nova Empire, so Su Ye didn't need a guide. He quickly found Shinra's headquarters located somewhere in the capital of Nova.
Though Shinra was just a company, due to the nature of its business and its immense wealth, it needed a powerful security force.
Shinra had many departments: General Affairs, Weapon Development, Space Development, Science, Public Security Maintenance, Urban Development, and so on.
Among them, the Public Security Maintenance Department was a specialized department that dealt with weapon development, law enforcement, external warfare, and all military-related matters.
Its combat personnel were divided into two categories:
One was the Public Safety Troops—most numerous and least capable, essentially cannon fodder.
Above them were the elite soldiers—Special Forces.
Only powerful warriors could become Special Forces—each one practically superhero level.
They were ranked by combat strength into three levels: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
According to Su Ye's estimation, Hawkeye Barton and Black Widow Natasha probably wouldn't even qualify for 3rd level in Shinra.
Shinra's law enforcement operated independently from the Nova Empire government. It was not only a separate military unit but also had its own conscription system.
Outside headquarters was the recruitment office. Su Ye, carrying his "Six Forms" broadsword, walked straight in to enlist.
"Hello, I'd like to sign up. Here's my ID card!"
At the recruiting station was a tall man with a spiky buzz cut. Hearing the voice, he looked up at Su Ye.
"You're called Cloud? That outfit's pretty cool!"
At this moment, although Su Ye still had his original face, his hair was styled into a trendy golden spiked look. He wore a black turtleneck sweater and leather pants, with a wolf-head-shaped emblem on his shoulder.
With the massive broadsword on his back, he looked exactly like a clone of Cloud Strife.
What's more, Su Ye was even more handsome and radiant than the original, naturally earning others' favor.
"Yes, Cloud Su! What should I call you, senior?" Su Ye asked with a smile.
"Ha!" The man with black hair and a buzz cut laughed lightly. "You're signing up for Shinra and don't know who I am? Kid, you're not a spy sent by the enemy, are you?"
Before Su Ye could respond, the man laughed again.
"Ha ha, just kidding, don't take it seriously. It's normal not to know me. I'm just a regular soldier in the 3rd Special Forces, not really famous, ha ha ha!"
What he said was true; as long as you were in the Special Forces, even the 3rd rank, you were practically at the superhero level. Every one of them was a star, so how could they not be famous?
It was clear that he was just trying to make it easier for Su Ye to save face.
"My name is Zack Fair, a nameless rookie in the 3rd Special Forces. Remember me, newbie!"
While registering Su Ye, Zack reminded him.
Su Ye had felt that Zack seemed familiar from the moment he saw him, as he looked very similar to the Zack from the game.
In the game, Zack Fair was a marginal character whose role was mainly to enrich the backstory of the protagonist, Cloud, and to pass on the Buster Sword as his weapon.
Later, due to the popularity of the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the game company released Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII as a prequel to the main story, telling Zack's story.
And that happened a decade after the original release of the game.
Perhaps due to Tifa and Cloud's immense popularity, Zack, who served as Cloud's older brother figure, gained a significant fan following.
Honestly, Zack's personality was indeed very likable.
In the Final Fantasy VII Remake, they even created a storyline where Cloud's actions influenced a parallel universe, where Zack didn't die at the hands of the pursuers, but instead escaped with the Cloud from that timeline.
Of course, Zack's feelings for Cloud were genuinely positive.
So much so that when Su Ye saw Zack at the recruitment office, he couldn't help but feel a slight fondness for him.
It wasn't because of his familiarity with the character or the storyline—it was simply Zack's personal charm.
"Alright, the form is filled out. I'll take you to handle the onboarding procedures!"
After Su Ye filled out the form, Zack stood up, slung an arm around his shoulder, and casually left the recruitment office with him.
This made the people behind Su Ye in line to enlist feel weirdly slighted.
Everyone was there to enlist, so why was it that the 3rd Special Forces senior treated Su Ye with special attention while ignoring everyone else?
Zack didn't care about any of this. He lived his life without needing to explain himself to anyone.
With Zack's help, Su Ye's onboarding process went smoothly without any problems.
Next came the evaluation.
Looking at Su Ye's appearance, it was clear that he wasn't the type to be a grunt. It was almost certain that he'd be selected for the Special Forces.
After a small display of his abilities—his immense strength, jumping power, and control of the Buster Sword—he smoothly became a 3rd Special Forces soldier of Shinra.
Super soldiers were extremely rare within Shinra, and those in the 1st rank were even rarer.
There were only three people in the 1st rank, one of them being Sephiroth.
As the "Eternal God" of Shinra's Special Forces, Sephiroth was at the top of the 1st rank, easily crushing the other two.
One of the other two members of the 1st rank was Angeal Hewley, who was Zack's mentor.
After bringing Su Ye through the onboarding process, Zack immediately took him to find his mentor, Angeal.
"Master, this is the newbie I just picked up. He's got solid combat skills, though he lacks experience. Maybe you could take him under your wing?"
Angeal was a kind person and treated Zack well, so he naturally didn't refuse.
For Su Ye, joining a new organization and seeking guidance from a senior was perfectly normal, so he didn't mind it.
With Angeal's help, he could more easily access Shinra's core resources.
Over the next few days, Su Ye followed Zack to familiarize himself with the workings of Shinra's Special Forces.
Using his telepathy, Su Ye didn't even need to talk to people to extract tons of information.
So after just a few days, he'd pretty much mapped out Shinra's inner workings—yet no one suspected he was a mole.
Through his research, Su Ye finally understood what Shinra's "Mako" truly was.
In this universe, there were countless planets.
In our common understanding, planets are dead objects following natural laws, devoid of life.
But in the Marvel universe, there are living planets.
A prime example is Star-Lord's father, Ego the Living Planet.
As a Celestial, Ego possessed tremendous power.
During his long life, to avoid loneliness, he began planting seeds across the universe to expand his influence.
The planets taken over by his seeds didn't necessarily grow into Celestials like him, but within them, a special life energy would appear.
That energy was what this world called "Mako."
The Shinra company in front of Su Ye was developing planets that hadn't become true Celestials but had acquired Celestial-level power.
After all, that was the power of the Celestials. The energy level was far stronger than the thermal and electrical energy generated on lifeless planets due to natural laws.
It was even comparable to the energy of stars.
This powerful energy could be widely applied in various fields such as clothing, food, shelter, and transportation.
Shinra's Weapons Development and Science Departments had R&D capabilities far beyond Earth's—surpassing even Xandar's in some cases.
Simply put, these two departments were responsible for developing war mechs and conducting human mutation experiments.
Sephiroth, along with Shinra's Special Forces, were nearly all products of human experimentation.
Mako can give people immense power, but it also comes with the risk of degradation or even transformation into something demonic, which is rather unreliable.
So, Su Ye focused more on the Weapons Development department.
That's right. The head of the Weapon Development department, Scarlet, was a bombshell with an amazing figure, and she didn't care much about dressing properly—this had nothing to do with it.
Su Ye had seen many women—but he had never met one who looked like she came straight from the "Friend's Mom" series—cough!
Scarlet's... cough, skills, although not necessarily more advanced than Tony Stark's, could still be of value. A little borrowing from other fields could never hurt.
Furthermore, Su Ye wanted to establish a real elite mech force with the Great Wall Guardians and even in Dragon Country, and relying solely on Tony's technology wasn't realistic.
After all, Tony was still American; it wasn't realistic to expect him to follow Su Ye and the Great Wall Guardians all the way.
Unless, of course, America collapsed.
But that's a topic for another time. There's nothing wrong with mastering more skills. Learning a craft that belongs to you can provide sustenance in the future.
Stop spending every day with your head full of nonsense!
That's a sickness—it needs treatment!
While Su Ye and Scarlet were mentally communicating, feeling each other's cerebral cortex folds and hypothalamus hormone secretion, Zack found him.
"We need to go on a mission!"
"Okay! Who's the target? Should we kill them outright or leave them half-dead?"
"Chop, chop, chop, you only think about killing. A mission doesn't equal murder. You need to learn to view the world calmly!"
Zack snorted and took the lead.
Su Ye slung his Buster Sword on his back and followed, not taking this mission seriously at all.
What he was really thinking about was Ronan.
Where did Ronan go?
Didn't he already have the Power Stone? Why didn't he immediately come to Xandar for revenge? This doesn't make sense, it doesn't fit his character and motivations.
And doesn't this mess things up a bit?
The Great Wall Guardians and Yondu's team were still discussing the plan to save Xandar.
It seemed unreliable to let a bunch of pirates save Xandar.
But they couldn't skip this act; otherwise, how could they establish a closer relationship with Xandar and form a strategic partnership?
Yet if Ronan didn't show up, wouldn't it all be pointless?
Thinking about all this, Su Ye couldn't take Shinra's mission seriously.
He wasn't here to do menial work or complete tasks—he could just deal with it casually and get by.
While lost in thought, Su Ye quickly arrived at the slums, guided by Zack.
It was normal for the capital of the Nova Empire to have slums. In a capitalist society, wealth gaps are a reality, often extreme.
Having slums and people living in dire poverty was also normal.
In fact, not having slums would be abnormal.
The idea of eliminating poverty in a few decades through poverty alleviation was something beyond their imagination.
Resource monopolies, class solidification, exploitation and oppression—that's their eternal reality.
But in such a place—originally supposed to be dirty, chaotic, and foul-smelling—there was a tidy and clean church, with flourishing greenery and flowers inside. That wasn't normal.
"That girl is called Aerith Gainsborough, and she's the target of our mission."
Zack said softly in front of him.
Su Ye frowned, "So, our mission is to... do her?"