Contain the Spider, Extract [Causal Foresight]
The pale, translucent core lay silently amidst the white ash.
Each faint pulsation creates a ring of causal ripples in the air, imperceptible to the naked eye. That is the underlying code that this mutated spider uses to weave its "Web of Fate."
"Sucker Punch."
He raised his left arm, and the Phoenix Galaxy vortex in the center of the dial suddenly accelerated its rotation.
"Drain it!"
Pfft! Pfft!
A dozen thick, green data tentacles, like raging pythons, shot out directly from the dial and plunged fiercely into the pale white core!
Buzz--!
Sensing a deadly threat, the core erupted with a blinding, eerie blue light. It attempted to release its last remaining Silk of fate, trying to pull these green tentacles into the Nightmare Dimension for assimilation.
However, in the face of Jiang Li, who had just completely destroyed the spider's main consciousness, such resistance seemed utterly ridiculous.
Jiang Li cold, and the torrent of data on the dial instantly increased its output power.
The green data tendrils were instantly stained with a dark red, a color representing destruction. They were like the most domineering antivirus software in the entire universe, tearing apart the dark blue firewall of fate with overwhelming force.
Glug!
The core internal rules code was forcibly extracted, crushed, and transformed into the purest data stream, which was then poured back into the Omnitrix along the tendrils.
Click.
Less than two seconds.
The fist-sized, pale core, like an apple that had been drained of its moisture, quickly shriveled. Finally, with a crisp sound, it turned into a pile of meaningless dust and dissipated with the wind.
The source of the haunting legends that had plagued the entire Queens has been completely erased.
At the same time, the Omnitrix on Jiang Li's chest emitted a deafening system notification sound.
[Ding! Forced analysis of the anomaly source complete!]
[Successfully extracted the underlying subconscious logic code!]
[Congratulations, host! Successfully contained: Second fragment of the rules— the Fate-Causality Web (incomplete)!]
[The dial's antivirus database has been updated. Resistance to anomalous rules in this universe has been increased to 60%!]
[Ding! Watch face capabilities expanded!]
[The host gains a permanent passive ability: Causality Foresight (Extreme Spider-Sense)!]
As a series of beeps ended, a new neural pattern, shimmering with a faint blue light, appeared on the dark matter-sleek case of the watch face, in addition to the dark red pattern that represented mechanical infection.
Jiang Li shook his left hand, closed his eyes, and felt the newly emerging power in his mind.
When he opened his eyes again, the world before him had undergone an extremely subtle change.
Jiang Li turned her head and looked at an abandoned red-brick apartment building next to the street.
In his line of sight, on the half-open door of the apartment, floated a line of small, blood-red characters that only he could see, radiating a blinding red light:
[Trigger condition: Push open this door.]
[Cause and Consequence: Instant death. Crushed into mincemeat by the gravity-induced collapse rules hidden behind the door.]
He then looked at an old Ford sedan parked by the roadside. A line of red code floated on the door handle as well:
[Trigger condition: Left hand touches the metal handle.]
[Cause and Consequence: Limb necrosis. The Rust Virus will instantly rob the arm of its control.]
"I see."
Ordinary Spider-Sense can only warn you of "danger is imminent, get out of the way" a fraction of a second before danger strikes.
Jiang Li's [Causal Foresight] system, which incorporates the dial hacking mechanism, directly displays the location of the landmine, the principle of its explosion, and the conditions for its triggering on his retina, just like a cheat code!
"As long as I don't trigger those red-marked dead ends, the rules of this damned universe will never touch me."
Jiang Li walked to the Ford sedan parked on the side of the road, avoided the red metal door handle, and kicked the car window, shattering it.
Clang!
He pulled a pack of vintage cigarettes, which had been sitting on the car seat for who knows how long, took one out, put it in his mouth, and lit it with a wisp Mars Phoenix spark from his fingertip.
"Woof!"
Behind him, the Mechanical Hound that had been following him let out a low growl.
"Let's go. The trash in Manhattan and Queens has been cleaned up. Let's move on to the next one."
Jiang Li exhaled a puff of green smoke, put his hands in the pockets of his black trench coat, and prepared to leave the ruined square with his Mechanical Hound.
However.
He had only taken two steps when he suddenly stopped abruptly.
Because at that very moment, the [Causal Foresight] system on his retina suddenly went berserk, frantically refreshing its settings!
A huge expanse of blinding red light almost covered the entire sky in front of him!
[WARNING! An extremely deadly causality is covering the entire map!]
[WARNING! Environment-level rules are being modified!]
"Um?"
Jiang Li immediately raised his head.
The once deathly, pale green sky suddenly began to churn violently.
The wind has stopped.
The humidity in the air was rising at an abnormally high rate, making it so oppressive that it was almost impossible to breathe.
Immediately afterwards, extremely thick, ink-black thunderclouds emerged from the horizon. These thunderclouds, moving at a terrifying speed exceeding the speed of sound, instantly engulfed the black sun, plunging the entire city of New York into absolute darkness!
Rumble--!
A muffled rumble of thunder rolled deep within the clouds. But the lightning was neither white nor blue; it was a pure black, exuding an aura of destruction.
This is not a natural phenomenon.
In Jiang Li's causal vision, above that pitch-black thundercloud, a massive line of blood-red code was clearly floating:
[Natural Cataclysmic Anomaly Entity: Thor]!
Just then...
Along the street, the loudspeakers on the once-dead streetlights and the car radio in the old Ford next to Jiang Li still there.
Suddenly, after a piercing static noise, it turned on automatically.
"Sizzle... sizzle..."
A cold, mechanical, and emotionless female voice echoed through the dark skies of New York City, transforming into an extremely piercing air raid siren:
[Urgent broadcast! Urgent broadcast!]
[Asgard Rain have been detected over the city.]
This is not a drill.
[All citizens are urged to immediately take refuge in underground bunkers or completely enclosed indoor spaces.]
[WARNING: Please be sure to discard all metal items you are wearing.]
[To reiterate, never carry any metal in the rain.]
The broadcast was still echoing.
In the distance, an NPC pedestrian wearing a trench coat seemed oblivious to what was happening. He stood blankly in the middle of the road, even subconsciously reaching into his pocket and pulling out a metal coin he used to buy a newspaper.
The moment the coin touches the air.
Above the sky, a bolt of pure black lightning, over ten meters in diameter, tore through the clouds without warning and struck down at the speed of light!
Boom--!!!
A deafening explosion.
There were no screams, no struggles.
The passerby holding the coin, along with the asphalt road within a ten-meter radius of his feet, was instantly wiped out by millions of volts of regular voltage within 0.01 seconds of contact with the black lightning!
There wasn't even any ashes left; all that remained was a bottomless, charred meteorite crater, still emitting acrid black smoke.
"Indiscriminate area-of-effect (AOE) thunderstorm coverage?"
Jiang Li watched the black lightning bolt vanish in an instant, his eyes narrowing slightly.
This monster, named "Thor," has no physical form; it is the very source of this overwhelming, sky-covering thunderstorm.
This kind of natural disaster that covers the entire city has no such thing as being "Untargetable". Because no matter if you are Null or not, as long as you are under this thundercloud, you are its indiscriminate target.
Jiang Li casually tossed the cigarette butt out of his mouth.
He looked up at the black lightning surging wildly in the sky, and instead of seeking shelter in the basement, his eyes blazed with an extremely fervent fighting spirit.
"A natural disaster, huh? They don't allow metal items, right?"
Jiang Li sneered, and the Omnitrix on his left wrist began to erupt with extremely violent green sparks.