The Legendary Mechanic in Marvel Universe

Chapter 221 Leo’s Speculation

TL: Kyous

The bottom of the mine seemed narrower than the middle section, with a giant platform in the center which was filled with lighting equipment that gave off a bright blue and white glow.

A small transport vehicle was parked at the southern end of the platform and a maglev track was supported by several sturdy stone pillars, extending upwards along the rock wall.

On the northern side of the platform, there were three openings that were approximately five meters long and three meters wide. 

The openings were spaced more than fifty meters apart, and a Wakanda warrior stood on each of the openings, with a curved sword strapped to their waist and a clock draped over their body. The tips of their swords gleamed in light and the cloaks were adorned with runes, a standard appearance for the warriors of the Border tribes.

Inside each of the three openings, Wakandan workers were busy loading Vibranium onto the small transport trucks that shuttled back and forth.

Despite their massive builds and bulging muscles, these workers didn’t rely on their brute strength to carry the Vibranium. Instead, they drove a four-wheeled forklift-looking vehicle that zipped between the opening and the small maglev transport trucks.

Meanwhile, near the middle opening, a middle-aged Wakanda, who appeared to be a mining team leader or some other high-ranking official, greeted a young warrior who was standing guard, “Hey, my brother from the Border tribe, our mining team has already produced one-third of the inventory in the past week. Is that enough for you to use?”

“I don’t know, friend! I’m just a guard who happens to be assigned to urge you to transport the Vibranium,” replied the young warrior, shrugging his shoulders truthfully.

“Then, have you figured out who those b*stards were who attacked Wakanda fifteen days ago?” the middle-aged leader asked again.

“I think so but I didn’t ask about it.” Straightening the crease on his clock, the young warrior continued, “I believe the council has already released a notice. If you want to know, you can go check it out at the entrance of the council’s chamber.”

The middle-aged leader waved his hand, “Why bother going all the way there? I’m just asking casually. If you don’t know, then forget it.” 

“Even if those outsiders try to attack Wakanda again they’ll be blocked by your brothers from the Border tribe and the Royal Guard. I don’t have to worry about that,” the middle-aged leader added.

Finally, the middle-aged leader patted the young warrior’s shoulder warmly. Saying, “Brothers from the Border tribe are fighting at the forefront of the battlefield and guarding the peace and tranquility of Wakanda. Thank you for your hand work. Please convey my thanks to them.”

The warrior straightened his cloak with great difficulty and immediately stood up tall, filled with a sense of pride. His partner next to him also smiled shyly but stood even straighter.

At that moment, a forklift carrying Viranium quickly drove out from the gate. 

The middle-aged leader glazed at the ten tubes of Vibranium loaded in front of the forklift and knitted his brows slightly, “We’ve shipped out enough Vibranium in the past two weeks to last the kingdom’s needs for the next two years. Even if the king decided to conquer the entire Africa, he wouldn’t need any more than this. So why are we still transporting it out of here?”

“Don’t worry about that, brother,” the young warrior waved his hand dismissively. “Look around us, there’s Vibranium everywhere. This entire mountain is a Vibranium mine, we’ll never run out of it.”

“No! Everything will eventually run out,” the middle-aged leader disagreed with the young warrior’s view. “Only the freshly mined raw Vibranium contains vibratory energy, the main source of power for Wakanda. Think about it, in a thousand or ten thousand years, at our current Vibranium mining and consumption rate, the mine will eventually be depleted. What will our descendants use then? Will they resort to using primitive electricity? Don’t you worry that they’ll blame us by then?”

The young warrior hadn’t thought about these matters and was left stunned by the leader’s words.

With a serious tone, the middle-aged leader continued, “My uncle used to work in the East and he learned a saying that I think is quite profound, ‘Frugality leads to abundance while extravagance leads to poverty.’ We, the older generation, have been living in luxury for thousands of years and have squandered all the Vibranium. Will our descendants be able to adapt to a life with electricity? Even if they could, I’m afraid it could lead to a disaster that would wipe out our civilization!”

Baffled, the young man didn’t understand how the older man in front of him could jump from one topic to a grave matter such as the annihilation of their people in just a few words. His thoughts couldn’t catch up at all.

But he didn’t want the middle-aged leader to notice his confusion, so he muttered under his breath, “The king will find a way to solve them.”

“Sigh!” Pausing momentarily, the middle-aged man let out a long sigh and shook his head before walking back into the opening.

If everything in a country relies solely on the king, then its development is too limited. Other countries have already moved away from monarchy for over a century while Wakanda still holds onto this ancient tradition, which may or may not be a good thing.

After the middle-aged leader left, the young warrior was left with a baffled face. Facing his partner, his partner helplessly shrugged, indicating he was equally confused.

The middle-aged man had started off speaking in a friendly tone, but his language suddenly became just like those old teachers at school. Just hearing those gave them a headache.

Both of them cast this matter back into their mind and focused on their duty of guarding the entrance.

Batch after batch of raw Vibranium continued to be transported out, with the excess being sent to the military factory to manufacture weapons. It was said to be a direct order from the king and the Council of Elders hadn’t disclosed the specific reasons.

Deep inside the mine, the tranquility was restored, with only the faint sound of forklifts and the monotonous noise of small maglev transporters whizzing by. 

However, what the two young guards at the entrance didn’t notice was a tiny black figure, the size of an ant, standing quietly less than two meters above their heads on the rock wall.

Leo had been standing there for a while now, even before the middle-aged leader came out.

Therefore, he naturally overheard the conversation between the middle-aged leader and the young warrior. But the two of them weren’t speaking English or Chinese, they were speaking Wakandan language. So he was utterly lost and had to rely on their body language and facial expression to speculate what they were saying.

Based on his haphazard guesses, he started to piece together the conversation.

The middle-aged man might have been the young warrior’s elder, like a distant uncle or cousin. He was impressed that the young warrior was doing so well that he had been assigned such an important task of guarding the Vibranium mine. The middle-aged man expressed his affirmation and appreciation towards his nephew.

The middle-aged man patted the young warrior’s shoulder affectionately was the best proof.

Later, the middle-aged man became serious and suggested that since the young warrior was doing so well, he should get married, perhaps to his own daughter who would be a good match. He encouraged them to meet and get to know each other better.

After the middle-aged man left, the young warrior immediately gave his companion a look of confusion, and his companion’s reaction was even more straightforward, he shook his head right away.

It can be concluded that the middle-aged man’s daughter was probably not pretty, and the young warrior didn’t like her. Or maybe when the young warrior was a child, he was abused by the middle-aged man’s daughter and left with a significant psychological shadow.

Leo nodded slightly, ‘Hmm! That should be the case! The hell, how can it be?!’

Perhaps it was the language style of Wakanda that was too expressive with a lot of ups and downs and rich in infectious expressions that made Leo start to have all sorts of strange thoughts in his head.

Quickly shaking his head, he dispelled these weird thoughts from his mind. He didn’t really care about what the middle-aged man and the young warrior were talking about earlier.

What he was more concerned about was what kind of thing was being guarded at the entrance of the mine by the young guards. Was it something that made them constantly transport the Vibranium out of the mine with such high efficiency in mining?!

Thinking of this, Leo hopped off the rock wall and activated his Anti-gravity Pulse Blasters silently, sneaking towards the cave openings.