General Ross remained expressionless.
But...
Inside, waves surged.
After confirming his suspicions with the research staff, a figure surfaced in his mind.
Captain America, Steve Rogers.
To date, he was also the only being to have taken the Super Soldier Serum and possessed the strongest combat power known to humanity.
The military had never given up on recreating the Super Soldier Serum.
But after Abraham Erskine was assassinated, the true Super Soldier Serum formula had vanished into history.
Yet one thing was certain.
The genuine Super Soldier Serum required Gamma Rays.
That was also the fundamental reason for Hulk's birth.
Bruce Banner had previously been a military scientist. While researching Gamma Rays and the Super Soldier Serum, an accident had triggered a Gamma Ray explosion, leading to Hulk's birth.
This gave General Ross hope.
Even if Hulk was uncontrollable.
But right now.
There was a human who showed no inhuman characteristics whatsoever.
Inhuman reaction speed.
Exceptional strength and jumping ability.
Gamma Rays that had completely vanished.
General Ross was now certain that this intruder had come for the Gamma Rays.
And when those three pieces of information were combined, they all told General Ross one thing.
This was the super soldier he had been searching for.
So...
"Find him!"
"At any cost!"
General Ross unconsciously clenched his right hand. Looking at the Gamma Laboratory, now reduced to ruins, there was not a trace of anger in his eyes—only endless excitement.
Hawk had no idea that General Ross, the man who had once chased Bruce Banner across the world, had set his sights on him.
However...
Even if he knew, he would not care.
Because Hawk had already left Quantico and was not even within the boundaries of Washington D.C. anymore.
Hawk was now beneath a waterfall.
Rumble!
The waterfall poured down like rolling thunder, crashing with a rumble onto Hawk, who sat cross-legged in the water with his eyes closed, naked except for a pair of shorts.
Yet the instant the cascading water struck Hawk like falling boulders, it seemed to vaporize. Endless white mist rose from his body.
This was Maryland, deep within Cunningham Falls Nature Reserve Park near Thurmont.
Few people ever came here.
Hawk had been here for over twenty days.
Over those twenty days, Hawk had done only one thing beneath the waterfall.
He burned his Cosmo.
Within his Cosmo.
The Phoenix constellation chart, seemingly etched into the sky above his Cosmo, shone brilliantly. The phantom image of a Fire Phoenix flickered in and out within the Phoenix constellation chart.
He was in no hurry to return to New York City.
On one hand, it was not yet time for summer classes to begin. On the other, he intended to let the bullet fly for a while.
For example...
Hawk wanted to see whether, after he had caused such a commotion in Quantico, the people there could find him hiding here.
If they could not, it would not be too late for him to return to New York City.
But if they found him, there was nothing to fear.
He had specifically chosen this place. Within five kilometers in every direction lay untouched forest.
Few people came here. It was truly an ideal place to kill.
Little Black only respected power, not virtue. If one wanted Little Black to submit, morality was useless; only slaughter would do. Kill them until they were afraid, kill them until their courage froze, and they would naturally submit.
The military was the same.
How did that saying go again?
When the United States military accused you of possessing weapons of mass destruction, you had better actually have them.
Why?
Because if you really had them, the United States military would not dare attack you for real.
But if you only pretended to have them, then sorry—the United States military would come down on you with full force.
So...
Hawk had deliberately chosen this place, somewhere ordinary people were unlikely to visit, as his intended battlefield. He would wait for the military to find him, fight them right there, beat them until they were afraid and terrified, then dust himself off and return to New York City.
But more than twenty days had passed.
Forget military personnel—Hawk had not even seen a single ordinary person.
Still, it did not matter.
Hawk had not chosen to stay here solely to wait for the military to find him. At the very least, that was not his main purpose.
He had his eye on this waterfall.
Hawk intended to use this waterfall to help himself break through in one go and completely light up the Phoenix constellation chart within his Cosmo.
Sitting cross-legged in the water, Hawk kept his eyes half-closed and used the waterfall's thunderous cascade to temper himself.
For the past twenty-odd days.
During the day, he constantly threw punches against the resistance of the waterfall. At night, he sealed his five senses and sat cross-legged in the water, using both the waterfall that flowed without pause twenty-four hours a day to temper his body and the chance provided by sealing his five senses to try to find an opportunity to touch upon the Sixth Sense.
Strictly speaking, Bronze Saints could not be considered true Saint Seiya.
Uh...
The Five Bronze Saints were an exception.
Only Saint Seiya who had awakened their Sixth Sense and truly mastered it were qualified to be called genuine Saint Seiya.
Hawk did not expect to awaken and master the Sixth Sense now.
That was unrealistic.
He merely thought that, since he had nothing better to do, it would be excellent if luck allowed him to touch the edge of the Sixth Sense during this time.
The Sixth Sense was a wonderful thing.
Saint Seiya who had awakened the Sixth Sense and Saint Seiya who had not were entirely different beings.
It stood above the five senses.
Once Saint Seiya awakened and mastered the Sixth Sense, they possessed endless possibilities: controlling elements, foreseeing the future, Telekinesis, flight, illusions... and more.
That was precisely why only Saint Seiya who had awakened and mastered the Sixth Sense deserved to be called true Saint Seiya.
What a pity!
Forget awakening it—he had not even found where the door to the Sixth Sense was.
Hawk slowly opened his eyes in the water. Then, as immovable as a mountain, he ignored the crushing force of the falling waterfall and slowly rose from the water.
Hawk's blood and qi boiled throughout his body, heat waves rolling off him as streams of white vapor rose from his skin.
And amid that boiling white mist, a fiery-red phoenix phantom flickered behind Hawk.
That was right.
Phoenix.
Although Hawk had spent more than twenty days here without waiting for the military or finding the door to the Sixth Sense.
His primary goal had still been achieved.
Hawk had now successfully lit up his first constellation.
One of the forty-eight Bronze constellations!
Phoenix!
The next moment.
Hawk looked at the waterfall plunging before him and threw his first punch, beginning a new day's task of ten thousand punches.
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