The Cursed Arc Reactor
The lifting platform emitted a dull mechanical grinding sound and came to a stop in front of Jiang Li.
In the center of the high platform, suspended, lies the heavily contaminated Arc Reactor. It is no longer Stark Industries ' proud clean energy source, but has become a beating mechanical heart.
Inside the core, a dark red, rusty glow intertwined with a ghastly green jumble of code, spewing out black oil mist.
Each flash releases a visible "assimilation ripple." Dust particles in the surrounding air come into contact with the ripple and instantly turn into extremely fine metal fragments that fall to the ground.
This is the first anomalous source in the ERROR-404 universe.
In the corner of the screen, the pale green pixelated figure emitted an extremely faint warning:
Don't touch it... It's the anchor point directly connected to the underlying logic of this universe...
[Once you pull it out... 'those things' will notice you... the Cosmic Firewall will unleash a real catastrophe...]
"Shut up. If you say another word, I'll chew up your lousy code along with it."
Jiang Li completely ignored the AI's warnings. He strode forward and, without the slightest hesitation, reached out his right hand to grab the cursed reactor!
Buzz--!
Seemingly sensing the intruder's intrusion, the Arc Reactor suddenly erupted with a blinding burst of dark red light!
[WARNING! Unauthorized access!]
[Triggering Absolute Defense Rule: Forced Mechanical Assimilation!]
A red light instantly enveloped Jiang Li's right hand.
An extremely domineering law of cause and effect began to forcibly rewrite Jiang Li's flesh and blood. Large patches of reddish-brown rust quickly appeared on the surface of his skin, and his muscle fibers began to transform into rusty metal gears.
If it were an ordinary person, they would turn into a pile of mindless scrap metal within 0.01 seconds of contact.
Jiang Li merely snorted coldly.
"Trying to bite back?"
The hybrid cells of Doomsday and Viltrum within his body instantly boiled, and the berserk creature managed to withstand the corrosive rust, holding it firmly to his wrist, unable to advance an inch!
Immediately afterwards, Jiang Li raised his left arm.
On his wrist, the [Multiversal Energy Core] emitted a deep green starlight.
"Take it away!"
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
More than a dozen thick, green data tentacles shot out directly from the dial, like a dozen poisoned nails, and pierced the metal shell of the Arc Reactor!
The reactor trembled violently, emitting an extremely sharp hum. It attempted to release more assimilation rules in rebellion.
But in the face of the Omnitrix that incorporates the Phoenix Essence, this resistance is like a baby pushing and shoving.
Glug!
The green data tendrils transformed into greedy straws, forcefully extracting the dark red rule code from inside the reactor with the force of a whale swallowing it whole!
Visibly, the reactor's light began to dim rapidly. The rust on the surface peeled off inch by inch, and the intertwined jumble of code inside was forcibly washed away, covered, and pulverized by the green data stream!
Click--
Three seconds later, a crisp cracking sound rang out.
The Arc Reactor, considered the source of indescribable tales, shattered completely in Jiang Li's hands into a handful of dull, ordinary Iron Gray that slipped through his fingers.
At the same time, the Omnitrix on Jiang Li's chest emitted a series of system notification sounds.
[Ding! Forced analysis of the anomaly source complete!]
[Underlying logic code successfully extracted!]
[Congratulations, host! Successfully contained: First fragment of the rules - Mechanical Flesh Assimilation (Incomplete)!]
[The dial's antivirus database has been updated. Resistance to anomalous rules in this universe has been increased to 30%!]
[Ding! Watch face capabilities expanded!]
[The host gains a permanent passive ability: Causality-Level Cyber Infection!]
Jiang Li squinted, looking at the watch on his left wrist.
On the dark matter-sleek case of the dial, an extremely fine dark red line has appeared. This signifies that he has not only destroyed the anomaly, but also claimed this "rule" for himself.
This newly acquired [Cyber Infection] is fundamentally different from the [Upgrade] form.
[Upgrade] is the process of hacking into and taking control of existing machinery and networks.
[Cyber Infection], on the other hand, directly rewrites the concept of matter!
Jiang Li turned his head and looked at the faceless corpse in the corner of the hall, which had just been stripped of its parasitic armor and had been dead for some time.
He didn't transform; he simply raised his hand and snapped his the Snap at the corpse.
Smack
A dark red code ripple shot out from Jiang Li's fingertip and instantly disappeared into the corpse's body.
A bizarre scene unfolded.
That body, made of pure flesh and blood without any mechanical modifications, suddenly began to convulse violently. Its skin hardened and took on a metallic sheen at a visible speed. Its bones reassembled into hydraulic drive shafts, and its blood vessels became cables for transmitting engine oil.
In just a few seconds, the corpse transformed right before Jiang Li's eyes into Mechanical Hound covered in sharp metal barbs, radiating a chilling killing intent!
"Roar..."
The Mechanical Hound growled and obediently ran to Jiang Li 'Jiang Li feet, rubbing its cold metal head against his trouser leg.
Creating things out of thin air. Forcibly transforming organic matter into inorganic machinery and imposing it with absolute obedience to logic.
This is the power of "rules".
"Not bad. From now on, we won't even need to transform when clearing out enemy soldiers."
Jiang Li stroked the Mechanical Hound's metal head with satisfaction.
The moment the Arc Reactor was completely contained.
The entire Stark Tower suddenly emitted a deafening wail.
Having lost the support of the source of the abnormal rules, this hundred-story building, forcibly pieced together from flesh and scrap metal, finally collapsed in a physical sense.
The tumors on the walls withered, and the rusty pipes broke. The building's structure began to disintegrate on a large scale.
[WARNING... Underlying logic is missing... This area is about to be forcibly reset by the Cosmic Firewall...]
The pixelated figure on the screen uttered a final, broken murmur before going completely out.
"The building has been demolished."
Jiang Li remained completely calm.
The "Untargetable" patch was still in effect. The massive concrete slabs and steel bars that crashed down from above passed right through Jiang Li's body the moment they made contact.
With his newly transformed Mechanical Hound by his side, hands in his trench coat pockets, he strolled leisurely out of Stark Tower amidst the devastating collapse of buildings.
Boom--!!
The moment Jiang Li's right foot stepped onto the asphalt of Fifth Avenue, the towering, bizarre insect hive behind him was completely transformed into a vast, ruined graveyard.
Amidst the swirling dust.
Jiang Li raised his head and looked into the distance.
The destruction of Stark Tower seemed to have thoroughly enraged the underlying logic of this universe. In the ghastly green sky, the black sun was flashing wildly, like a bloodshot, angry eyeball.
A cold wind swept through the street.
A newspaper, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, landed right at Jiang Li's feet.
Jiang Li looked down.
The front page of the newspaper featured a headline printed in extremely distorted font:
<A massive spiderweb has appeared in Queens! Your "good neighbor" is watching you.>
Jiang Li crushed the newspaper and sneered.
"Queens? It's on my way."
Let's go.