The battle between the two little Supermen was like a clash between two monsters. The nearby cars and streetlights were nothing more than toys, casually grabbed and crushed in their hands.
Bai Jing sat atop a building, the wind blowing over him as he watched the fight without the slightest desire to join in.
After all, it was not their property getting wrecked.
Besides, helping would not earn him any benefits. Instead, it would expose him to the military's attention.
Being watched by S.H.I.E.L.D. was troublesome enough. He did not need the military added to the mix.
The sound of the wind brushed past his ears and vanished in an instant. Deep within his pupils, all kinds of gases were directly reduced by immense gravity into a state of energy and matter leaping and fluctuating.
However, the amount of matter absorbed was far too insignificant. Bai Jing could not feel even the slightest improvement.
Everyone knew how the battle would end: Hulk would win, and Abomination would lose.
The knockoff could not beat the original.
Yet Hulk did not leave with the helicopter. Instead, he sprang more than a hundred meters into the air and nearly two hundred meters forward, jumping straight out of the street!
He did not pause after landing. He leaped high again, rapidly advancing at nearly two hundred kilometers per hour!
And his direction was actually Bai Jing's direction!
"Huh!" Bai Jing followed him and watched Hulk race down the road, cross seven avenues, and arrive right in Order Society territory!
"This really is fate!" Bai Jing was rather surprised. In other words, even if he had not come to watch, he would still have encountered Hulk.
Naturally, Hulk had not come looking for Bai Jing. He had arrived in Order Society territory because it bordered the Hudson River!
With a powerful leap, he plunged directly into the Hudson River!
Bai Jing silently followed him.
Hulk's body was nearly impossible to spot in the green river water, but as long as even a little light caught him, Bai Jing could see him!
Not to mention Hulk had to surface for air!
Hulk drifted downstream, passed through New York Bay, and entered the Atlantic Ocean.
Looking at the busy Port of New York ahead, Bai Jing worried that he might be discovered. But then he considered his dark blue clothes. He was only a tiny figure in the sky and did not glow, so it should be fine.
Besides, camera technology was not that advanced yet. This was not the future, where everyone had a smartphone.
He simply flew across the Port of New York and followed after him.
Though Hulk looked reckless, this version of him could actually be described as having a tiger in his heart while delicately sniffing roses.
He was not swimming aimlessly. Instead, he followed a straight route, using the Hudson River's currents to cross New York Bay and reach an island belonging to Connecticut.
The island was called Sandy Hook, a famous sunny beach and vacation destination across America and even the world.
But people in China knew it widely because of a shooting four years later.
A twenty-year-old gunman entered a school and shot dead twenty Sandy Hook Elementary students aged six or seven, along with six school staff members.
Splash...
The final time he emerged from the sea, he was no longer Hulk, but Dr. Bruce Banner—bare-chested, exhausted, and utterly drained.
In 2003, an accident during a Gamma Rays radiation experiment awakened a monster named Hulk within Bruce Banner.
Because Hulk possessed immense strength and a powerful urge to destroy, Bruce Banner feared that those around him would be harmed. So he fled to South America, working on factory assembly lines whenever he ran out of money. He did that for five years!
Honestly, Banner's temper was incredibly good. If it had been Bai Jing, he would have wanted to throw down with some idiot boss within a month.
This time, he had finally gathered the courage to return and seek a cure with his girlfriend's support, only for his girlfriend's father to take an interest in his body.
Fortunately, Abomination suddenly appeared. Otherwise, Banner would have long since been locked away in some unknown research institute, participating in scientific research.
Well, the research was being conducted on him.
Now, Banner trusted no one. He only wanted to find a quiet place to live in seclusion, disturbing no one and hurting no one.
He wanted to die alone and live out the rest of his life that way.
But after reaching the beach, he discovered that someone was standing there, staring at him the entire time.
"Uh, I'm a late-night swimming enthusiast. I just stayed out a little too late..." Banner awkwardly greeted the person.
The man smiled. "Dr. Banner, can we talk?"
"Ah!" Banner was speechless. "How are you people so omnipotent? You actually followed me all the way here!"
He wondered whether he should transform into Hulk and keep running.
"Don't misunderstand, Dr. Banner. I'm not with the military, nor am I with the government!" The man stepped out of the shadows and into an area faintly lit by nearby lights. Only then did Banner realize that he was asian.
"From Korea, or Japan?" Banner probed. "But I'm not planning to go to your country either!"
"I'm from China, but that isn't important!" Bai Jing pointed at a lounge chair by the edge of the beach. "Want to talk?"
Banner hesitated. He did not want to talk to anyone, but he had no idea how the person before him had tracked him down.
Even if he ran now, he would still be caught if he did not figure out the other party's method of tracking him.
He might as well hear what this person wanted.
After all, it was only one person. Banner was not worried that someone so skinny could do anything to him.
He was not even afraid of Jack Chan!
On the lounge chair, Bai Jing handed him two pieces of clothing and a pair of shoes. He had grabbed them on the way. He had no hobby of chatting with a man wearing nothing but underwear.
"Uh..." Banner awkwardly put them on, then sat down.
His impression of this asian man improved considerably.
"I'm actually curious—what material are your underwear made of? You became so huge just now, then shrank back down, yet your underwear was perfectly fine?" Bai Jing asked.
"Uh..." Banner awkwardly scratched his head. "It's a material I invented in Mexico. It's extremely elastic, but because of the materials and costs involved, I didn't make much. There was only enough for this little bit of clothing."
"Oh, oh!" Bai Jing nodded and asked again, "Then what was that giant just now? I'm curious. Transforming into something that huge should consume a lot of energy, right? And you swam so far, yet you don't seem very hungry. Doesn't that violate the law of conservation of energy?"
"Huh?" Banner's eyes lit up. This person actually knew about the law of conservation of energy?
Right, Asians were all good at studying.
Highly intelligent people did not like talking with ordinary people, because ordinary people might not understand many things. And when they did not understand, they would keep asking why. Why was it like that? Why did it have to be that way?
And the highly intelligent people back home had never even considered conservation of energy. They only kept researching why Hulk was so powerful and whether he could be replicated...
They only wanted to use Hulk for military purposes.
The viewers might have enjoyed watching it, but thank goodness they failed. Otherwise, if they had succeeded, which country did they think would suffer?
It was Banner's first time meeting someone who did not care about power and only cared about the principles behind it. All at once, he felt the urge to talk.
"This was caused by a failed experiment of mine. During that experiment, I was exposed to a massive amount of Gamma Rays!" Banner said. "Afterward, this monster called Hulk appeared inside me. The radiation dosage was immense, but it was still only produced by ordinary particle collisions. Theoretically, it could not contain such tremendous energy. So I've always wondered where Hulk's energy comes from!"
"I once measured the changes in my body weight before and after transforming. Even though Hulk's activity level is enormous, my weight remained within normal ranges. I even tried going five days without food, drinking only water, but Hulk was still active!" Banner scratched his head. "So I suspect Hulk's energy does not come from me at all, but from somewhere else!"
"I see..." When in doubt, Quantum Mechanics. When stumped, parallel universes.
Who would have thought that even you, Banner, a scientist, were like this!
"That's why I can't control Hulk. Even if I inject myself with sedatives or try to control myself through starvation or poison, Hulk still appears. So stop trying to capture me. It's meaningless. I really don't want to fight anymore!" Banner said seriously.
That was his true purpose. He wanted the organization behind Bai Jing to back off, though he knew most organizations were stubborn enough to refuse to quit until they hit a wall.
"Energy from an unknown source?" Bai Jing blinked. "Can you let me try something?"
"What?" Banner blinked. What did he want to try?
"To be honest, I have a rather special ability too. I can absorb all energy and matter!" Bai Jing said. "If I can absorb Hulk's energy from your body, would he never come out again?"
Light carried both light and heat, and a black hole could absorb it all. Naturally, Bai Jing could absorb energy too, just as Superman could absorb sunlight to grow stronger.
But that little bit of light was not worth mentioning to a black hole, so Bai Jing would not deliberately go sunbathing.
"Really?" Banner was doubtful. He had never encountered any superpowered people in his life. Was this guy trying to fool him?
But then again, he himself could transform into Hulk. Who said other people could not have strange encounters of their own?
"We'll know if we try!" Bai Jing narrowed his eyes, while his gaze had already penetrated Banner's body!
He often used Gravity Scan on himself, so he knew exactly what the human body should contain! Therefore, in an instant, he discovered a massive, terrifying, and somewhat abnormal cluster of green energy within Banner!
"There you are!" Bai Jing activated his gravity and tried to absorb it. The moment he did, that mass of energy flowed toward the black hole like swallows returning to their nest, without the slightest resistance, and was absorbed by Bai Jing!
"Hm?" It had gone so smoothly that Bai Jing worried something was wrong. He quickly severed the energy channel and sensed the changes in his eyes.
They seemed... much better?
He blinked and did not feel as if he had gained a Hulk inside him or anything.
Instead, the world before him seemed a little brighter?
Wait, after absorbing air for two days, his eyesight had barely changed. Yet after absorbing Hulk for less than three seconds, his eyes seemed much stronger?
Banner, standing before him, was even more excited. He jumped to his feet. "It worked, it really worked! I can feel Hulk suddenly becoming much weaker!"
"Really?" Bai Jing blinked. Was a black hole really this effective against Gamma Rays energy?
Come to think of it, black holes seemed to be one of the origins of Gamma Rays.
When black holes devoured matter, violent collisions between atoms flung some particles outward at high speeds. That was how Gamma Rays were produced!
When a supernova exploded and a giant star collapsed, even more violent collisions between vast numbers of atoms could produce gamma-ray bursts capable of traveling hundreds of millions of Light Years!
And what did a supernova become after exploding?
The smaller ones became white dwarfs, the larger ones became neutron stars, and the even larger ones became black holes.
Calling black holes the fathers of Gamma Rays would not be an exaggeration at all!
Banner was still nodding, nodding furiously!
From 2003 to 2008, Hulk had tortured him for five years!
Five years! Did anyone know how he had spent those five years?
He had been putting caps on bottles on a beer production line!
A genius scientist, a biologist and physicist capable of replicating the perfect evolution serum, putting caps on bottles on a beer production line!
That was why, even knowing America was dangerous, he had still returned. He desperately wanted to solve this problem!
He had thought there would be no result this time and that he would have to leave in disappointment, but just as he was about to go, a solution appeared?
What was this? When all seemed lost, a new path opened up?
"Help me. Is there anything I can do? I..." Banner immediately rose to his feet, nearly dropping to his knees before Bai Jing.
"Don't do that, Professor Banner, don't!"
Bai Jing hurriedly pulled Banner up and said, "To be honest, I founded an organization called Order Society. Running into you this time was actually an accident, but since we've met, I sincerely invite you to join our organization!"
He disliked white people, but someone like Banner was genuinely hard to dislike.
Both were genius scientists. Look at Tony Stark, then look at Banner.
It was practically the difference between human trash and a saint!
To avoid hurting others, Banner would rather go live in the slums...
Wait, there were plenty of people in the slums too. Why was he not afraid of hurting them?
Had he gone to India later too?
He really did run wherever there were lots of people!
Or was he simply afraid of hurting Americans?
Bai Jing turned to look at Banner, who was grinning foolishly, and felt that perhaps he was overthinking things.
But whatever!
Absorbing energy was good for his eyes anyway. And besides, a genius scientist who could even build a time machine—what price would it have taken to recruit someone like that in his previous life?
"What kind of organization is it?" Banner asked. He had said he could help, but if they wanted him to carry out terrorist attacks or something, he definitely would not do it!
"You'll know once you get there. Don't worry, it won't violate your principles!" Bai Jing said, extending his hand again. "First, let's solve your Hulk problem!"
"Alright!" Banner nodded. "What do I need to do to cooperate?"
"Just stand still!" Bai Jing replied.
"Okay!"
Gravity extended outward and enveloped that mass of energy. Then Bai Jing opened up and began absorbing it!
Bai Jing felt the world before him grow clearer and clearer. The sounds of nearby waves and tides also became increasingly distinct. Closing his eyes, he could even vaguely construct a world in his mind from sound alone!
That mass of energy was simply too vast. Bai Jing absorbed it for half an hour before finally draining it completely!
Then, just as he was about to withdraw his gravity, he discovered that a spot which had contained nothing suddenly produced a tiny bit of energy. That small amount then gradually increased.
"Uh..." Bai Jing was speechless. He absorbed that bit of energy, but then another bit emerged from the same place.
He kept absorbing it, and it kept appearing.
He absorbed it again, and it appeared again!
"What the hell is this!" Bai Jing probed that spot with his gravity, then discovered in surprise that there was actually a hole there!
Of course, it was a hole under Gravity Detection. The scientific term should be a wormhole, or perhaps a spacetime rupture point.
Of course, Bai Jing had made that up. He was not a scientist; he had merely slapped on a vaguely fitting name.
He did not know what lay on the other side of the hole, because gravity could only detect such a short distance. But even within the area he could detect, it was filled with this kind of energy!
No wonder Hulk was like a god of war, a perpetual-motion machine. No wonder transforming did not consume Banner's energy.
So his body was connected to another world?
Then did anger make him stronger because the angrier he became, the larger this hole grew?
Bai Jing withdrew his gravity and looked at Banner as though he were looking at an incomparable treasure!
This guy was a freaking power bank!
Sob, sob, this chapter was 4,400 characters.
I wrote it during work hours in a chat window, so I could not see how many characters I had written.
Then I pasted it into the backend and saw 4,436...
I didn't pad it out either!
I originally wanted to split it into two chapters, but then I thought about the word counts in Tribulation of Myriad Races and decided against it.
I already wasn't as talented as others. I couldn't fall behind them in effort too...
There'll be more this afternoon, updated at six.
I'm watching a match tonight, so there won't be an update.
Before you continue