With things on Tony's end settled for the time being, Luke remembered Tony mentioning that General Ross had asked him for some sonic weapons. The man was going to bother Banner again because he had nothing better to do.
Speaking of Banner, Luke felt the guy could easily compete for the title of Marvel's most unfortunate superhero.
He had originally been a genius with seven doctorates and an IQ rivaling Tony's, with a beautiful girlfriend to boot. Then a blast of gamma radiation turned him into a big green brute.
After accidentally killing a few people, he had been wanted ever since. His former prospective father-in-law, General Ross, was now one of his most relentless pursuers.
Then he had kept moving from country to country, barely enjoying a few days of peace.
He had finally gone to stay in Brazil, only to be discovered by General Ross because of an accident. He had slipped all the way back to the United States and discovered that his girlfriend really had found someone else.
Although his girlfriend returned to his side, he still couldn't do anything with her because of the Hulk.
In the end, he had even had to clean up his prospective father-in-law's mess, then leave his girlfriend again, with nothing to show for it.
Only when Fury planned to restart the Avengers Initiative did he stop the people pursuing Banner. Otherwise, Banner's life afterward would have been even more miserable.
When it came to misery, probably only a handful of people like the Punisher could give Banner a run for his money.
Still, the Hulk was seriously strong. Even with Troll Soldiers, Luke wasn't particularly keen to get involved in that mess. But remembering the destruction when the Hulk fought Abomination, and Abomination's indiscriminate slaughter of ordinary people, Luke decided he would rescue all those civilians and finish Abomination off afterward.
In the original storyline, Abomination had nearly been strangled to death by Hulk, but his girlfriend had been beside him at the time, so he hadn't gone through with it.
Honestly, Luke had no idea why that woman had stopped Hulk. In any case, he was going to kill Abomination when the time came, so those idiots with a death wish wouldn't get any ideas about him.
Luke shook his head, recalling the famous saying, "With great power comes great responsibility," and felt that his way of thinking was leaning a little toward that of a superhero.
It felt pretty good, though. Glancing at the little flowers he was growing on the balcony, Luke sent two Ninja Soldiers to keep watch on Doctor Samuel, so the fighting wouldn't already be underway before he even realized the plot had started.
Still, it would probably take a long time. After all, Banner had begged his way all the way to the United States, which had probably taken quite a while.
With some free time for now, Luke opened the system and discovered that the million-plus energy was almost finished being mined, so he decided to go on a shopping spree.
Based on the results of the previous dimensional war and his battle with Andrews, Luke had gained a rough understanding of how strong small dimensions were, and planned to increase the number of his troops.
Setting the Ninja Soldiers aside for now, he didn't have enough dark energy to buy enough of them to reach 5,000 and unlock the next upgrade. Besides, judging by the pattern in those numbers, the next upgrade might cost five million energy. That was no small sum; by his calculations, he would have to conquer five or six small dimensions.
He might as well strengthen his troops first, then attack other dimensions.
Thinking over the various troop types in the Shadow Legion, he found that massing any single type together left glaring weaknesses. It would be better to divide them into squads.
He would expand his Ninja Soldiers in squad formations, with fifty Ninja Soldiers, five Blade Soldiers, and one Troll Soldier per squad. That way, the Troll Soldier could break through strong defenses, the Ninja Soldiers could handle defense, and the Blade Soldiers could respond to emergencies.
Having settled on the ratio, Luke began his shopping spree, bringing his forces up to 1,500 Ninja Soldiers, 150 Blade Soldiers, and 30 Troll Soldiers. They formed thirty squads in total, leaving Luke with only a little over a hundred thousand energy. That was reserved for the Mage Corps. Its numbers had now tripled, so it consumed more energy in battle, but Luke's energy recovery wasn't slow either, at 6,000 points per second. He didn't need to keep too much in reserve.
With his forces expanded, this dark dimension was nearly mined out as well. Luke took out his phone and sent Mordo a message, asking him to bring the mages into the Shadow World and prepare to attack the next dark dimension.
Luke had a Ninja Soldier bring up the notebook, then selected a set of coordinates.
Mordo also arrived with the newly expanded Mage Corps. They were now carrying some equipment that looked rather out of place, probably acquired from yesterday's dimension.
Signaling for them to get ready, Luke connected to the dimension he had selected.
The system warned that enemies were present in the target dimension. Luke poked his head through and discovered that the other side was filled with giant birdlike beasts.
But he saw no sign of anything resembling a Dimension Lord, and all those giant beasts seemed to be in a state akin to sleep.
What was going on? What was this?
Luke had no idea what was happening either, so he simply sent a few squads of ninjas to see whether they could kill those giant beasts. In the end, even a dozen or so Troll Soldiers couldn't lift a single wing of one of them!
Time to leave. I couldn't mess with these things. Luke ordered all the squads to withdraw.
What a joke. A whole bunch of Troll Soldiers couldn't even lift one of them. In a fight, they'd probably flatten me with a single step.
He reckoned he would need tens of millions of energy just to fight one of these things, yet these were only the small fry. Who knew where the real boss was?
There were over a hundred of these small fry alone, and he still had no idea what this dimension's Dimension Lord was like. Better to leave straightaway. Otherwise, if he disturbed the big boss, a single breath might wipe him out.
Judging by its size, Luke estimated that this dimension was almost at the level of a medium dimension. But its Dimension Lord seemed to be busy with something and hadn't taken the initiative to plunder other dimensions. Otherwise, it would probably have been an intermediate dimension by now.
Feeling that their power was completely beyond the scope of a low-level dimension, Luke immediately made his own dimension disconnect from this one, then wrote a huge "Danger" over those coordinates.
Still, those creatures seemed rather familiar, as though he had seen them somewhere before.
He didn't know why he had that impression. After all, if he had seen something that huge, it should have left a very strong impression.
Luke selected the next dimension. This connection felt much more normal, and the place was similar to the dimension they had fought last time. Luke immediately sent out all the Shadow Squads, while he stayed behind with Mordo and the others to guard their base.
He watched his squads wipe out a large portion of the enemy forces. Then the enemy Dimension Lord emerged and destroyed one squad after another. But Luke's Shadow Ninjas could respawn endlessly, exhausting all the enemy's energy until he finally slunk away with his remaining squad of subordinates.
Although the Shadow Army's current strength wasn't enough to keep the enemy Dimension Lord from escaping, it could still drive him away. Luke was happy to take it easy, too. He planned to expand his Shadow Squads to fifty, then go idle and let the Shadow Army conquer small dimensions.
He had the mage squad, which had tagged along without doing much beyond fighting a few small fry, take the spoils back. Luke returned to his little home as well.
This battle had taken several hours. Although it had lasted a long time, its advantages were safety and consistency.
Now that the system was continuing to mine, Luke had no idea what to do next. He had spent nearly a month playing games at home, and he didn't feel like gaming anymore.
Opening up and looking at the sun outside the window, Luke felt as though it had been a long time since he had gone out for a stroll.
After tidying himself up, Luke decided to go out and wander the streets for a while. He would also send out a few ninjas to watch the surroundings and see whether there were any agents around. He could even use the opportunity to squeeze Fury into handing over the model of the complex.
Taking his camera, Luke left home and began strolling along the streets.
Before you continue