Chapter 2073: New King, Reject the New, New King

After walking some distance, he asked, "If there is time in the next few days, can I spar with you?"

Luke didn't think much of it. "An hour every day, preferably between lunch and dinner."

T'Challa nodded quickly. "Okay."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "You have a lot of free time recently?"

"My father was injured, and will soon pass his position to me, so our initial plan to make contact with the outside world has been put on hold for now." T'Challa nodded. "Once I take that position, I won't have time to look for you."

Luke made a sound of acknowledgment and said casually, "Our Justice League is also interested in the idea of a cooperation. What do you think?"

"That is doable; in our initial plan, you and the Avengers were the parties with the top priority," said T'Challa.

Luke and Tony had used the matter of Ultron stealing vibranium to secure a connection with Wakanda.

However, the reigning monarch, T'Chaka, was old-fashioned and wasn't very willing to interact with outsiders, so the relationship between the three parties hadn't progressed much.

It was bad to say, but it was thanks to the explosion caused by Zemo that the old king was abdicating.

Otherwise, given how steadfast this person was, it wouldn't be unusual for him to take one small step forward every five years or one big step forward every ten years.

But if Luke really had to wait for five years, then he could forget about using vibranium to deal with the possible appearance of Thanos's army.

Vibranium had far more advantages than other metals in terms of defense as well as the ability to store, conduct and activate energy.

This was extremely rare, even out in space.

The Shi'ar, Kree and Nova Empires might have similarly high-quality super metals, but the source or the manufacturing process involved was definitely a headache.

In contrast, Wakanda was lucky enough to mine the vibranium from a meteorite as big as a mountain, and the metal could be used after simple smelting.

More importantly, vibranium could be mixed with other metals, so not a lot of it was required.

At the moment, Wakanda could already combine a small amount of vibranium with ordinary metals to produce special vibranium alloys with various properties.

It was like cooking: a small amount of MSG could change the taste of a whole dish.

Everyone else was like people in the olden days, who had to extract a little from all kinds of food.

Wakanda, in comparison, was like a fat cat who had been given a warehouse of MSG by a transmigrator, which lasted a lot longer than a warehouse of flour and rice.

Now that he had an idea of what T'Challa's attitude was like, Luke was relieved.

This prince was more amenable to cooperation.

After T'Challa ascended the throne, even if Wakanda wasn't quick to make full contact with the outside world, it wouldn't affect the Justice League's priority in obtaining vibranium.

With the vibranium mine, it was unlikely that the Justice League would be able to take down Thanos's army head-on, but at the very least, it would have the means to launch a fatal attack.

Luke didn't plan to use the Infinity Glove again. Half his body being roasted all at once was too high a price.

This injury involved a certain power principle which was permanently attached to the Level 2 clone; even when the clone was recalled and summoned again, it was still crippled.

Thus, if possible, Luke didn't want to cripple the Level 1 clone.

The Level 3 clone? There was no way he would turn this strongest clone into a roast pig.

...

For the next few months, Knight remained in Wakanda.

Tony trusted Knight, and had no qualms sending Vision over for the Stone to be removed.

Luke had to stay here and keep an eye on the progress.

Shuri, this genius girl, was very efficient, but for safety reasons, she repeatedly ran calculations and took three months to come up with a preliminary surgical plan.

It would take at least another three months to tweak the plan; half a year to prepare for the surgery was already pretty quick.

During that time, the old king abdicated, and T'Challa ascended the throne as the new King of Wakanda.

Before the second draft of Vision's surgery plan was released, Erik Stevens appeared.

Supposedly, this person was T'Challa's cousin, who had specially returned to fight for the throne of Wakanda.

According to Wakandan tradition, Erik indeed had the qualifications to fight for the throne.

When it came to the duel, T'Challa had to drink a medicine first which blocked the physical boost from the heart-shaped herb to show fairness.

As an outsider, Luke wasn't qualified to participate in this sort of internal matter.

However, he took a look at this cousin from a distance, and soon found information from the CIA on the man.

To put it simply, Erik had a high IQ and a top education, but he had joined the SEALs.

Thanks to his immense capability, he joined the Joint Special Operations Command ghost unit and specialized in secret missions like infiltration, assassination, and toppling foreign powers.

This was a common procedure — transferring experts from the military, who were willing to do the dirty work, to the CIA. If anything happened, it had nothing to do with the American government.

In terms of ruthlessness and decisiveness, T'Challa was at an absolute disadvantage and might lose everything if he was soft-hearted.

But in terms of moral value and character, T'Challa was a good partner, and had a good personal relationship with Luke.

In comparison, Erik had grown up in America and had received a top American education. He had also been on many black ops missions in the last few years.

His thoughts were pretty deranged, and his mind was consumed by fighting.

This would have a huge negative impact on Luke's cooperation with Wakanda.

If Erik became the new king, it was very unlikely that he would uphold the agreement with the Justice League.

It was more likely that he would ask for a change in the terms of the cooperation, like for the Justice League to help him expand his strength.

Luke didn't want a troublesome partner.

So, he sent a message to Shuri, telling her to meet him before the duel no matter what.

Shuri and T'Challa trusted Knight. In the end, they took a detour and spoke for a short moment with Knight.

Luke warned T'Challa that Erik wouldn't hesitate to kill him, so he shouldn't be soft-hearted at the critical moment. If he lost, his parents and sister would also be taken down.

T'Challa's slightly tumultuous mind suddenly cleared up as he became aware of the implications.

Of course, he didn't know that Luke had used Real Dream to give him a mental suggestion.

Naturally, the outcome of the duel was that the unlucky Erik was trounced.

Luke had given T'Challa the mental suggestion not to go easy on Erik, so T'Challa reacted quickly when Erik attacked, and took him down with a combo.

In the end, however, T'Challa's heart softened a little. Erik was only seriously injured, but didn't die.

Even Luke had brought Vision here for treatment; it was basically impossible for the severely wounded to die in Wakanda.

After Erik recovered, he was thrown out of Wakanda to fend for himself.

Luke, who had tweaked things a little, silently noted down Erik's super bright red name.

When he had the time, he would dispose of this elite mini-boss and help his Wakandan friend take care of any potential future issues. This was a win-win situation for everyone.

T'Challa and Erik weren't biological brothers, nor had they grown up together. Even if Wakanda knew that Luke had killed Erik, would they really fall out with him over it?