40: Chapter 40: Extracting Gamma Genes, Loki Escapes

"Roar..."

The twenty-meter-tall Humungousaur lowered its head, its dark red slit pupils coldly staring at the Hulk beneath its feet.

The Hulk's roars had become extremely weak.

Under the crushing weight of the Tyrannosaurus, which was comparable to a mountain in absolute physical tonnage, his prized gamma muscles were emitting sounds of tearing under the unbearable strain.

"Hiss!"

The Humungousaur's thick right claw suddenly reached out, grabbing the Hulk by the scruff of his neck, and lifted him straight into mid-air from the shattered deck crater, as if he were holding an insignificant green-furred mouse.

Immediately after.

The crimson blood watch on the Tyrannosaurus's massive wrist erupted with blinding light.

Dozens of dark red bio-metallic threads, each as thick as a wrist, shot out from the watch face like living creatures, piercing without resistance through the Hulk's tough skin—which even armor-piercing shells could not penetrate—and plunged deep into his spine and arteries!

"Urrghh aaaahhh—!"

The Hulk let out an extremely painful, shrill scream.

His originally boundless, violent power was being frantically drained along these dark red threads by an irresistible, cosmic-level devouring force.

[Target locked.]

[Beginning extraction: High-purity gamma mutation genes.]

[Detected that this gene contains "Emotion Binding / Infinite Amplification" characteristics; performing underlying logic stripping and purification...]

With the ruthless extraction of the Bloodtrix, the Hulk felt an unprecedented weakness.

But more terrifying than the weakness was the fear.

Although the Hulk did not have the full intelligence of an adult, he possessed the keenest instincts of a Beast.

At this very moment, in front of this dark red Beast that held him with one hand and frantically plundered his life essence, he felt an absolute hierarchical suppression.

It was the aura of a top-tier cosmic predator.

In front of the Humungousaur, he was not the "Invincible Hulk" at all, but merely a delicious steak.

Fear, like ice water, extinguished the rage in the Hulk's heart.

With the fading of his rage and the loss of gamma energy, the Hulk's massive green body began to shrink rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The green skin gradually faded, and the knotted muscles rapidly withered.

In less than ten seconds.

The green monster that could overturn an armored vehicle with one hand had disappeared.

Replacing him was a naked, emaciated, middle-aged man who had fallen into a deep coma.

Dr. Bruce Banner.

The Hulk had been beaten into submission.

Or rather, he had been beaten by Lynn's extremely violent, absolute power until he developed psychological trauma, scared into retreating deep into Banner's subconscious, never daring to show his head again.

[Extraction complete.]

[High-purity gamma genes have been stored in the backup gene bank. Bloodtrix repair progress increased to: 22%.]

"Thud."

The Humungousaur released its claw, and the unconscious Dr. Banner fell onto the ruin-filled deck.

A red light flashed.

The twenty-meter-tall dark red Beast rapidly disintegrated and contracted.

Lynn returned to his human form, wearing a black shirt.

He twisted his neck, feeling the vast amount of gamma energy inside him that was being tamed and purified by the Bloodtrix, and narrowed his eyes in satisfaction.

With this gene as a foundation, his human-form physical strength and self-healing ability would once again experience a qualitative leap.

"My god..."

In mid-air, Tony Stark, who had just arrived at the third deck, had his mouth wide open under his mask.

He had witnessed with his own eyes the Hulk, who had left S.H.I.E.L.D. helpless, being beaten back to his original form by Lynn.

"You... did you kill him?" Tony landed on the deck and glanced at Banner on the ground.

"Just drew some blood. He's healthier than a normal person right now."

Lynn glanced at Tony, "Call your Director. I want to see the access to the technology library he promised me immediately."

Just as Tony was preparing to contact Nick Fury.

A violent explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the containment cells on the lowest level of the helicarrier!

"Sir, crossfire detected in the containment zone. It's the special glass prison where Loki is!" The warning voice of the intelligent butler Jarvis sounded inside Tony's mask.

"Loki?" Tony's expression changed.

Just now, when the Hulk went berserk and the helicarrier almost crashed, all the Agents were busy repairing the engines, and no one had time to look after that severely wounded Asgard deity.

"Pull up the surveillance!"

Images flashed on the screen.

Hawkeye Barton, who had previously been controlled by Loki using his scepter, took advantage of the chaos to blow open the bottom-level security door.

He used an explosive arrow to shatter the control console and released Loki.

In the footage, a bloodied Loki walked onto a Quinjet with Barton's support.

Before the cabin door closed, Loki even flashed an extremely cold, mocking smile at the surveillance camera.

"Damn it! He escaped!" Tony cursed under his breath, "Jarvis, track that jet's flight path! Where does he want to go?"

"Sir... the jet's flight path has been locked."

Jarvis's voice carried a rare hint of gravity, "Their destination is New York, Manhattan. To be precise, it is the top floor of Stark Tower."

"What?!" Tony was struck by lightning.

"Dr. Selvig, who is under control, had already snuck into your private laboratory two hours ago with the Tesseract. The Arc Reactor on the top floor of the tower can provide the massive energy needed for the Tesseract to open a portal."

Everything was connected.

Loki being caught was intentional; triggering the Hulk's rampage was intentional.

He used his own severe injuries to delay all the main forces of the Avengers, just to open that door to bring in the alien army in the center of New York City!

"BOOM—!!!"

Not giving Tony any time to react at all.

Outside the helicarrier's porthole, in the direction of distant New York, Manhattan.

A thick, azure beam of energy, over a dozen meters in diameter, shot out from the top of Stark Tower like a sword piercing the firmament, plunging straight into the pitch-black night sky!

Under the tearing force of that violent spatial energy.

The clouds above New York were instantly shredded.

An extremely large, deep, and eerie starlight-shimmering cosmic wormhole slowly formed in the sky.

On the other side of the rift was the dead, cold deep space.

Immediately after.

"ROAR—!!!"

Countless hair-raising roars came from the other side of the wormhole.

Thousands of Chitauri, riding individual flying vehicles, swarmed out of the wormhole like a plague of locusts, frantically diving toward the bustling New York City!

Fire, explosions, and the screams of civilians instantly shattered the tranquility of this city that never sleeps.

"It's over..." Tony looked at the alien army covering the sky and the earth, deep despair showing in his eyes.

The Battle of New York had officially begun.

Earthlings faced a true doomsday catastrophe.

However, Lynn, standing on the deck of this damaged helicarrier, looked at the portal in the distant sky that resembled a black abyss, and the endless army of Chitauri pouring out.

In his black pupils, there was not a shred of fear or despair.

Only extreme greed.

"Such a massive gene bank; it would be too wasteful to kill them all."

Lynn stroked the slightly hot crimson blood watch on his left wrist, his mouth curling into a chilling, violent smile.