20 Establishing a Secret Base

This factory has a very large basement, and it's unclear why such a facility was built initially, but now it's a boon for Thea. They selected a few lightweight and usable processing equipment and welding machines. The two women exerted tremendous effort to load these items onto a cart and then struggled to move them into the basement.

Fortunately, both women were strong. Despite Felicity appearing like a homebody, she's actually quite robust, with plenty of flesh on her bones. With gritted teeth and determination, she can be considered quite a strong woman. Thea, having trained with Malcolm for almost half a year, has also gained some strength, though Felicity still bears the brunt of the labor, being older.

After getting all the equipment set up and ensuring they were functional, Thea has been reading books on machining lately. She doesn't aim to become a master of engineering like Tony Stark., but for the future armor and the current Red Arrow Glider, she needs to at least have a basic understanding of these skills.

They sealed off the door to the basement and disguised it. From now on, the outer area will serve as the office space for the software department, while the hidden chamber inside will be their secret base.

Both women leaned against the wall, panting heavily. Thea couldn't help but admire Oliver a bit. Here they were, two people completely exhausted, but he would eventually do all this work alone. Those muscular arms sure were powerful!

Felicity, lacking enthusiasm, suggested, "I'm so tired, Thea. Let's go to the hot springs!"

What? They had to go there again? Remembering the last experience, Thea was somewhat afraid, but there was also a slight excitement? Why was she getting excited? Firmly rejecting the idea of engaging in corrupt and immoral behavior, she decided to go back and report to Moira instead.

She instructed Felicity not to slack off. Although they were only creating a diversion and might not accomplish anything significant, the basic framework had to be established. The task of finding software engineers was entrusted to Felicity, given her status as a top-tier hacker. Anyone she selected would likely have a certain level of expertise.

Over the next few days, Thea worked tirelessly, cleverly pulling out the equipment she needed. She reported to Moira about the strong computers required for the Software Department, secured a considerable budget, and went through the process of black accounting. In their secret base, Felicity installed a set of powerful servers.

This made the former hacker, now turned into a homebody, excited beyond measure. Indeed, one only values what they once had but lost! Seeing Felicity's radiant smile, Thea wondered if she would oppose doing something a little embarrassing now. For those with dirty minds, they can rest assured—it's nothing like that. Thea took out a bucket of paint, two brushes, and a spray bottle, instructing Felicity to take one wall each and clean up the secret room.

Thea felt a bit OCD about cleanliness. Perhaps Oliver wouldn't mind the environment, having stayed in such a dirty and messy place for over a year, but she couldn't stand it. Since the existence of the secret room couldn't be exposed, only the two of them could do the painting job.

Felicity, who was busy playing with the computer, never expected this turn of events. A master's graduate from MIT had a promising career, and now she was doing renovation work. Thea had been to her apartment; she was lazy. The trash can was always full before she emptied it. Without someone occasionally pushing her, she could live her life passively.

Normally, she might have declined, but seeing Thea, a wealthy young lady, rolling up her sleeves to paint, made Felicity realize she wasn't so delicate herself. Reluctantly, she changed her clothes and accompanied Thea to paint the walls.

Muttering to herself as she painted, Felicity grumbled, "Moving machines, installing doors, painting walls! What happened to the advanced weapon modifications you promised? Liar!"

Thea lowered her head, pretending not to hear. The environment was too messy, and she really couldn't stand it. She had initially brought Felicity along to help with the workload, fearing she couldn't handle it alone. However, now that they were painting, Thea couldn't help but think she had forced Felicity into it. Men and women indeed had different expectations regarding their surroundings. This was also one of the reasons why female heroes had a hard time.

Creating a base was truly challenging. Batman managed with a cave, but they had to do all this messy work. After a lot of effort, the environment did improve significantly; at least it was now bearable. Thea had essentially turned Felicity into a jack-of-all-trades, employing her as a laborer, mover, and decorator for two days straight. Reluctant to refuse Felicity's suggestion to soak in a hot spring, Thea accompanied her with fearless spirit, though the details of what happened below the neck will not be described here. Suffice it to say, the entire process could be summed up in the words of the venerable martial arts master, Xuzhu: "Very good, excellent, indescribably enjoyable."

Another month passed quickly, and the preliminary preparations for the software department were mostly complete. Although Thea was content to let things drag on like this indefinitely, as she had no interest in departments like software or hardware, she had just started assembling her glider, and Felicity was busy developing a new algorithm for brain-computer interface (BCI).

Moira firmly rejected Thea's suggestion to prepare for another month and insisted that they start working immediately. With the leader determined to move forward, the two girls had to temporarily set aside their current work. Thea was appointed as the head of the department, with Felicity as her deputy. While it sounded impressive, in reality, they only brought in three people from the group. The others were either incompetent or leering at the two girls with unclear intentions.

Among the three subordinates, two of which were women who were extremely thin, so much so that they could be blown away by a strong breeze. The other was a man who was soft spoken and had an effeminate body. Thea felt that if all villains were like this, she could easily handle ten of them at once.

Thea briefly mentioned the group's importance to the new department, but judging from the surroundings—an empty factory with various oil stains on the floor and the windows rattling with each gust of wind—it was evident how powerless her words were.

Looking at her three weak subordinates, though they couldn't compare to Malcolm's army of minions, it was at least a start. With ambitious determination, Thea declared they should get to work!

Thea's first day as department head passed with nothing but tea and newspapers because there was genuinely nothing to do. Queen Industries started out in steel smelting, with connections both legal and illegal and a group of brutish henchmen who could do anything. It could be said that Queen Industries' early days were far from honorable.

For a company that started out on the fringes, the demand for software was practically nonexistent. Thea couldn't help but wonder if she would spend her days sleeping during the day and working at night. While she could manage, it felt like a waste of time. Her time was precious, and half a year had already passed from the original five-year plan.

She groggily got up to find Felicity. The situation was completely opposite to when they were at the company. At Queen Industries, while Felicity slept, Thea was busy, but now Thea couldn't do anything. She couldn't just stand in front of her three subordinates and practice archery. If she did want to practice, those three subordinates would have to run.

Felicity didn't have this problem at all. She could work on her brain-computer interface (BCI) software at any time without anyone knowing what she was doing, except that she looked impressive.