Data, the Starry Skies, and Rocket's Plea for Follows and Bookmarks

"...According to this paper, witnesses at Culver University recently saw an intense battle between an Iron Giant and a Green Giant..."

"...Culver University is currently in chaos. Several students witnessed the battle firsthand, but because they could not produce evidence, the school board denied it ever happened..."

Hebron Technology.

The White Queen played all the news reports she could gather concerning that battle, filtering out the duplicates before showing them to Luke. Of course, with the military having made preparations beforehand, most of those reports were merely journalists' verbal accounts. The only evidence shown was that Culver University did indeed bear traces of battle, but there was no recorded footage of the Iron Giant fighting the Green Giant.

Most of the students' phones and electronic devices had been searched. Even if there were any recordings, they would only have ended up in General Ross's hands. Fortunately, that was no challenge for Luke. He currently had all the battle data and footage from the Iron Titan's fight at hand. And if nothing unexpected happened, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. would soon send over the damaged Iron Titan for Hebron to repair.

After all, a giant toy worth several hundred million would never be discarded after a single battle unless it was completely scrapped.

The data he could collect then would be even more authentic and intuitive.

Of course, before the repairs, he would have to squeeze some benefits out of Nick Fury. After all, Fury had already violated the Iron Titan service contract he had signed with Hebron.

As for the Hulk inside Dr. Bruce Banner?

Luke had nothing to say.

Because any super mutation born from an accident like that might appear to be a scientific mishap, but in truth, it had nothing to do with science.

For instance, a Hulk produced by nothing more than a scientific accident would not actually be difficult to deal with. What was difficult to deal with? Whether he possessed some utterly unreasonable means of growing infinitely stronger. As for immortality and powers approaching conceptual laws, those seemed to be standard features of scientific accidents in this world, at least according to Luke's memories.

Although Luke himself would become somewhat unscientific in the future, he did not want too many others like him. Or rather, too many people whose unscientific nature was beyond his control.

The Milky Way Galaxy.

Tartarus.

A raccoon and Groot sat before the foot of a mountain. One had his eyes closed, seemingly deep in thought, while the other gazed at the sunset over the planet. Behind them stood a small silver-white spacecraft.

"Groot!" Groot coaxed a flower from the ground, plucked it, and handed it to the little raccoon beside him.

"I told you, Groot! This is the time when I pray to God! Don't bother me during this time!" Rocket opened his eyes and snapped irritably at the flower held before him.

"Groot!" Groot replied in a wounded voice.

"I'm not blaming you. When I needed help most, God answered me! Do you understand? He freed me from that place!" Rocket had no choice but to temporarily interrupt his daily prayers. Facing the downcast Groot, he helplessly spread his hands in reassurance.

"Groot." Groot raised his head and gestured with his fingers.

"I don't care whether he's a good god or a bad one! He saved me and got me out of that abandoned Half-World. So far, he hasn't brought me any trouble. On the contrary, he's made my brain sharper." Rocket could always understand what Groot meant beneath those endlessly repeated, identical words and answer him.

"Groot!"

"You want to pray to God too? Fine, fine. One more believer is always good." Rocket muttered a few words and accepted the flower Groot offered him.

"Groot?"

"Don't ask me who God is! I don't know who he is either! All I know is that he looked like a black, illusory seed. If I had to give him a name, maybe... the Maker?" Rocket hesitated at the end. God's power seemed to be giving him inspiration and a talent for building machines. With it, he had resolved Half-World's troubles, freed himself from responsibility, and begun traveling.

"Groot!"

"I don't have that seed anymore, and I don't know where it came from. I don't think it suits your species." Rocket looked Groot up and down. Groot was the companion he had found after wandering the stars—or, more accurately, a mercenary. They had worked together several times and coordinated remarkably well. At Rocket's suggestion, Groot had joined the Star-Pirate crew he formed and become his personal mercenary.

"Groot!"

"What does God like? You want to cater to his tastes?" Rocket fell into thought.

"Groot!" Groot nodded heavily.

"I'm not God. How would I know?" Rocket replied grumpily, but then he cupped his chin and pondered. "It seems, probably, perhaps, maybe... God likes money, just like me? I used to have no concept of money, but after merging with that black seed, money seemed to become my pursuit?"

"Groot!"

"Of course I know God isn't that shallow. But how can I buy energy without money? How can I build machines? How can I soothe all those wonderful ideas in my head? Only money lets me sleep soundly! Do you understand, Groot?" Rocket said bluntly.

"Groot?"

"Besides money? Maybe energy, maybe knowledge. Anyway, neither has anything to do with you." Rocket rose from the ground, abandoning his prayers as he headed for the spacecraft. "Come on, we still have several big jobs to do! Once we finish them, we'll have money to upgrade the Hogarth."

"Groot?"

"Praying? You need to be flexible, Groot. When you have work to do, you can put prayers out of your mind and delay them for a while." Rocket waved a hand. "Besides, prayer requires sincerity. I was interrupted today."

"Groot!"

"Who says I sleep when I pray? You can't doubt my devotion to God!"

Their voices gradually faded into the air.

The Large Magellanic Cloud.

The Kree Homeworld.

The Kree Empire's Council of Nobles.

"The Supreme Intelligence's computational load and energy consumption have both increased considerably lately. What is the reason?" asked an elderly Kree.

"The Supreme Intelligence says everything is normal."

"It is gathering and producing more energy."

"I believe the Supreme Intelligence has been somewhat abnormal recently."

Concerned voices rose one after another.

"The Supreme Intelligence is the core reason the Kree Empire has developed to this day. Nothing can happen to it."

"What should we do, then? As things stand, we probably do not have much authority over the Supreme Intelligence."

"Let's observe it for a while first."