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"Looks like the Iron Titan still has some shortcomings. Deploy the cables." General Ross gave the order to the soldiers beside him. The soldier who received the command spoke a few words into his radio, and two vehicles immediately roared out of the surrounding bushes, a long, nearly invisible cable as thin as a strand of hair stretched between them.

Hulk forcefully lifted the Iron Titan piloted by Blonsky and hurled it away. Watching the massive metal body roll across the ground several times, he was about to press the attack when the two vehicles pulled apart, drawing the cable taut as they began circling him. Hulk felt his feet catch, then stumbled. The thin cable wrapped around his legs, and as the vehicles pulled outward, it tightened into the muscles of his thighs.

Hulk angrily struggled twice. The slender cable, which looked like it should snap with one pull, was unexpectedly tough. Even with his strength, all he did was hurt his palms from pulling on it. The cable remained completely intact.

"Prepare the Sonic Cannons."

Seeing the cables wind tighter and tighter around Hulk without being stretched apart, General Ross smiled in satisfaction. He took the radio from the soldier beside him and issued the next order.

These were naturally no ordinary cables. They were not the expensive nanotube nanoropes supposedly capable of building a Space Elevator, but they were still specialized cables whose hardness, toughness, and lightness far surpassed ordinary steel. A product of Hebron Industries. They were expensive as well, but General Ross was willing to pay the price.

General Ross's core strategy now was to limit Hulk's range of movement. If he could control Hulk's actions, and if there were materials capable of binding and temporarily restraining him, that would be even better. He had prepared many plans for this. The cables and technological products from Hebron Industries played an important role among them.

Another two vehicles came roaring out of the nearby woods and bushes, leaping through the air. Their bodies were fitted with horn-like metal devices. The vehicles stopped in suitable positions, and the Sonic Cannons Ross had mentioned activated, sending out ring after ring of transparent sound waves visible to the naked eye toward Hulk.

This weapon was similar to a Sonic Weapon. The high-energy sound beams it emitted could disorient living creatures and render them unable to move, yet would not cause irreversible harm to the human body.

Of course, ordinary people could not withstand a sonic weapon with enough power to deal with Hulk.

Locked at the intersection of the sound waves, Hulk immediately clutched his head. The power surging within his body began to fade. He had previously been able to struggle and tug at the cables around him, but now he could only kneel on one knee.

"Liquid Nitrogen Bomb."

Watching the situation gradually develop according to his plans, General Ross, for the first time feeling that the operation to capture Hulk might succeed, smiled even more broadly. It seemed his long-held wish would finally be fulfilled today.

Following General Ross's order, Blonsky controlled the Iron Titan and activated its weapon system. A panel on its arm unfolded, revealing a metal warhead as thick as a baby's arm. Under Blonsky's control, it struck Hulk, who was still trying to struggle, dead on. A massive burst of cold air erupted. After the frigid mist dispersed, an ice block like a small iceberg appeared before them. Within it, Hulk's savage, furious expression was vividly preserved, before quickly becoming obscured by the cold fog.

"Does this count as success?"

Looking at Hulk inside the ice, Blonsky found it hard to believe. Or rather, he still wanted the kind of violent battle from before. This fight had ended just as his excitement was rising, leaving him with an irritating sense of dissatisfaction. At the same time, though, he had gained an even deeper understanding of Hulk's strength and monstrous resilience. If anyone else had dared yank on those cables like that, their palms and thighs would probably have been sliced right off.

The protective power of that skin was simply absurd! Throughout the entire battle, aside from Blonsky's metal fist making Hulk spit out a mouthful of bloody saliva, none of the other weapons—whether guns or anything else—had even broken his skin. And weapons with greater firepower were not something even the general dared use here.

Besides, General Ross's mission had always been to capture him alive.

"I don't know." General Ross's voice came through the radio.

"Helicopter, prepare the hoist cables."

To prevent further complications, General Ross called out over the radio the moment he confirmed that Hulk was indeed under control. He did not know when Hulk might break free from the ice, but he had to bring him back to his own territory and imprison him as quickly as possible. In the prison he had spent so long building for him.

"Dad, you can't do this. Please let him go?"

Bruce Banner's girlfriend, General Ross's daughter Betty Ross, finally broke free from one of the soldiers holding her and hurried to her father. Grabbing his shoulders, she pleaded anxiously.

"You know that's impossible, Betty." General Ross looked at his daughter, whose eyes were full of tears as she begged him, then stiffly pushed her toward the soldiers beside her and ordered, "Hold her until she calms down."

"You're a monster!" As the soldiers dragged Betty Ross backward by one arm, she still turned her head and shouted furiously at her father.

"I don't care what kind of person you think I am." General Ross's expression darkened briefly, but he soon spread his hands and shrugged indifferently. He could already hear the noise of helicopter rotors churning overhead. Soon, he would fulfill the wish he had pursued for so long.

However, accidents always happened when you thought victory was assured.

Perhaps the thick ice had weakened the Sonic Cannons' power. Or perhaps Hulk, who had not lost consciousness inside the ice, saw the fragile figure being dragged away. But whether it was the former or the latter, all he felt was the rage in his heart growing fiercer and fiercer. Under the disbelieving gazes of General Ross and everyone else, cracks began to spread across the ice.

Sparkling ice mist and shards of ice scattered as the block shattered. Then came the tow vehicles connected to the cables, swung by Hulk like flails. The metal-bodied tow vehicles, used as hammerheads on either side, smashed directly into the two Sonic Cannon vehicles, instantly turning them into heaps of scrap metal.

Then Blonsky, who wanted to come forward after realizing things were going wrong, was directly encircled by the tow vehicle Hulk yanked back and hurled out again. The thin cable wrapped twice around the Iron Titan due to inertia. Finally, beneath the heavy blow of the tow vehicle after it lost its momentum, the Iron Titan crashed to the ground with a loud clang.

Unable to break free from the two loops of cable around him even after using all the Iron Titan's power, Blonsky involuntarily spat out a mouthful of saliva, opened the hatch, and jumped out.

"Looks like we failed again."

Watching Hulk swing two tow vehicles and an Iron Titan around as weapons while trying to break through the encirclement, General Ross's expression turned extremely grim. This had been his closest attempt at success yet.