This Hammer Makes No Sense!

Three months later.

Malibu Beach, California.

Inside Tony Stark's cliffside villa, deafening heavy metal blasted the ears.

"A little to the left! No, the right! You clumsy idiot, increase the mechanical arm's torque by 15%!"

In the underground lab, Tony, wearing a black tank top and drenched in sweat, was calibrating a brand-new armor chassis. This armor was heavier than the Mark 3, its surface covered in a special insulating coating.

Not far away, Jiang Li lay on a leather sofa wearing sunglasses, controller in hand as he played the latest Call of Duty on the big screen.

"Tony, you still haven't given up on that 'anti-Upgrade armor'?"

As Jiang Li reloaded his weapon, he lazily mocked him. "I told you already, Upgrade takes over technology at the molecular level. Unless you make your armor entirely out of stone or power it with steam like a caveman, I can hack into it as long as it has circuits."

"Shut up and eat your chips."

Without turning around, Tony roared, "I added three layers of quantum encryption to the underlying code and disconnected every external network interface. This time, not even your alien slime is getting in!"

Over the past three months, Stark Industries had seemed to climb aboard a rocket.

With Jiang Li, a "chief consultant" possessing an alien knowledge base, Tony's tech tree had gone off track—and veered straight into the sky.

The Arc Reactor had been upgraded to its third generation, and the clean energy project had already rolled out across the globe. Stark's stock had tripled.

Jiang Li, meanwhile, had begun living the dull rich-man life of his dreams: staying in an oceanfront villa, drawing an astronomical annual salary, and only needing to occasionally crush Tony's confidence while helping S.H.I.E.L.D. deal with a few troublesome mutated creatures.

"Sir."

JARVIS's voice suddenly cut through Tony's shouting. "S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson is requesting an urgent call. He says there has been an unknown-object impact incident of the 'highest priority' and specifically requested the consultant."

"Unknown-object impact? Did a satellite fall?" Tony wiped away his sweat. "Tell him not to bother me unless it's an alien invasion."

"Put him through."

Jiang Li tossed aside the controller and sat up straight.

By his calculations, that "blond hunk with a hammer" should have been thrown down by his dad around now.

The holographic screen unfolded, revealing Coulson's signature good-guy face. His expression was unusually grave, and behind him stretched a desert filled with blowing yellow sand.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Stark, Consultant Jiang."

Coulson did not waste words and immediately brought up a satellite image.

The picture showed a massive crater. At its bottom lay a short-handled iron hammer with an ancient design, one that even looked a little like a brick...

"A hammer?" Tony laughed, grabbing a towel to wipe his hands. "Coulson, has S.H.I.E.L.D. switched to construction work? Or is this some performance artist's piece?"

"This is no ordinary hammer."

Coulson's voice was slightly dry. "It landed in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico, yesterday. We tried cranes, high-horsepower tow trucks... We even used two helicopters to pull it at once."

"And?"

"It didn't move an inch." Coulson drew a deep breath. "Even when the cables snapped, it didn't shift by a millimeter. It's like... it's welded to a fixed coordinate in space."

"More interestingly, there's extremely strong electromagnetic interference around it, but no radiation can be detected."

Coulson looked at Jiang Li. "Director Nick Fury believes this may be another ultra-dense material from some 'extraterrestrial civilization.' We need an expert."

[Beep! Main quest triggered: Trial of a God.]

[Objective: Travel to New Mexico and make contact with "Mjolnir."]

[Optional challenge: Attempt to oppose Odin's magic with brute force.]

[Quest reward: Unlock a brand-new alien genome: Feedback.]

At the sight of the reward, Jiang Li's pupils suddenly constricted.

Feedback!

That overpowered alien that could absorb any energy in the universe and reflect it back at double strength?

If Four Arms was the god of physical combat, then Feedback was the daddy of energy combat! This was made specifically to counter mage-tanks like Thor!

"I'll take the job."

Jiang Li stood and stretched. "Perfect. My bones are getting rusty from staying home all day."

"I'm going too."

Tony suddenly tossed aside his wrench, his eyes blazing with a scientist's fanaticism. "A hammer that can't be lifted? I don't believe it. It must be some sort of neutron-star material or a gravitational-wave anomaly. I want to see which physical constant is wrong."

Four hours later.

New Mexico, on an endless stretch of desert.

A Quinjet slowly landed beside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s temporary circular base.

The moment Jiang Li and Tony stepped off the aircraft, they felt a scorching wind. S.H.I.E.L.D. had already sealed off the crater so tightly that it looked like a miniature fortress.

"This place is hot." Tony took off his sunglasses and eyed the dust around them with disgust. "JARVIS, remind me to donate some air conditioners to this place when we get back."

"This way, gentlemen."

Coulson was already waiting. He led them through layer after layer of security checks and straight to the bottom of the crater.

The legendary Mjolnir lay quietly in the soil, its surface engraved with intricate runes and radiating an ancient, mysterious aura.

"This is it?"

Tony stepped forward and pulled out a handheld scanner. "The readings are strange... Unknown metallic elements. The density doesn't seem all that high?"

Refusing to believe it, he reached out, gripped the handle, and pulled hard.

It did not budge.

"Hey!" Tony activated the portable exoskeleton device on his wrist. "Mechanical assistance activated... maximum power!"

The mechanical arms emitted an overloaded hum. Tony's face turned red, and his feet dug pits into the ground, but the hammer remained as immovable as a mountain, as if mocking him.

"This is why I hate magic." Tony released the handle, panting heavily. "It violates the laws of mechanics."

"You're giving up already?"

Jiang Li walked forward and rolled his wrists.

The surrounding agents stopped their work and curiously looked toward the legendary "super consultant."

"Jiang, what are you planning to do?" Tony raised a brow. "Turn into that four-armed Hulk and give it a try? Or become that terrifyingly huge giant?"

"Forget the giant. He'd crush this place."

Jiang Li stood before the hammer and placed his left hand over his chest.

He knew very well that this was Odin's enchantment. Anyone without the "worthiness," no matter how strong, could not lift it.

But he still wanted to see whether the ultimate brute force of alien technology could shake the rules of a god, even slightly.

"Transform!"

A flash of red light!

The skinny youth instantly vanished, replaced by a three-and-a-half-meter-tall red giant with four arms.

"Four Arms!"

"Phew—"

Jiang Li exhaled a breath of hot air as his four palms cracked against one another.

"Up!"

Without hesitation, Jiang Li's upper two hands seized the hammer's handle, while his lower two hands braced against the ground for leverage.

Every muscle in his body instantly tensed, veins bulging!

"Haaaargh!!"

Terrifying force erupted. The ground beneath his feet instantly shattered, and cracks spread more than ten meters in every direction.

Yet.

The hammer did not move.

[System Notice: High-dimensional energy lock detected (unknown magic). The Omnitrix cannot analyze this rule.]

"So it really won't work?"

Jiang Li narrowed his eyes.

"Since I can't lift it..."

Four Arms suddenly released the hammer. His lower hands flattened into shovel-like shapes and began frantically digging at the soil beneath it!

"What is he doing?" Coulson froze.

"He's exploiting a bug." Tony looked thoughtful.

In only a few seconds, the soil under the hammer had been hollowed out.

But then a shocking sight appeared: the hammer did not fall. It simply hovered in midair!

What it locked onto was not an object, but a coordinate in space!

"Interesting."

Jiang Li canceled his transformation. Looking at the floating hammer, a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

"Tony, if I keep digging downward and tunnel through the Earth beneath it, do you think it'll fly into outer space because of Earth's rotation?"

Just as everyone was left speechless by that absurd idea, a piercing alarm suddenly blared across the base.

"Sir! Someone has broken in! He's another big guy!"

On the surveillance screen, a muscular man with long golden hair and the build of a bodybuilding champion was tossing agents aside like sandbags as he charged straight toward the crater.

Jiang Li looked at the reckless brute on the screen and smiled.

The real owner had arrived.