Although it had been more or less confirmed that Hulk would likely be saying goodbye to this world, Kraft had Angela verify the locations of the people he cared about just in case. After finding that they were all far away from Bruce Banner, he continued charging his brain with the Learning Helmet.
Still, the thing was not omnipotent. Feeding it knowledge did not mean Kraft could invent gadgets that had never appeared in his dreams, like those scientists did. It could only help him understand the principles behind devices that had already appeared and modify them to a certain extent. What made those scientists truly impressive was their wild, unconstrained imagination.
Then there were inventions by people like Dr. Shinonome and Dr. Norimaki, which completely defied logic. No matter how much knowledge Kraft absorbed, he could not understand them. That made him incredibly curious about what kind of worlds those people lived in.
Unfortunately, the dreams generally only showed the manufacturing and testing processes. Everything else had to be inferred by Kraft himself from details like the books' contents, the furnishings in the rooms, and the architectural styles.
It was one of Kraft's little amusements in his dreams.
After stuffing some of the dream's information into his head, Kraft removed the helmet and shook his slightly swollen-feeling head. He needed time to digest the contents after every infusion. He truly had no idea how Child Emperor in his dream had managed to absorb the knowledge of an entire library in an hour.
Kraft slumped in his chair like a salted fish. Mechanical arms wearing white gloves extended from either side of the reclining chair and pressed against his temples, continuously massaging them.
"Something's happened on Bruce Banner's side."
Just as Kraft had recovered a little and was about to put his newly absorbed knowledge into practice, Angela's projection appeared before him once more.
Before Kraft could ask anything, Angela projected footage from over there onto the wall.
A yellowish-green monster was rampaging through the streets. It looked even more savage than Hulk, with distinct joints all over its body and a row of spikes growing from its back. If Hulk looked like a bodybuilder fresh out of a gym, then this monster looked like a seasoned underground bare-knuckle fighter who had fought countless brutal matches.
"Hulk! Get out here!"
The yellowish-green monster grabbed a car and casually hurled it at a military helicopter overhead, roaring at the top of its lungs.
"What the hell is this now?"
Kraft's first thought was of the blood Bruce Banner had sent to Samuel Stern.
"Don't tell me this is Mr. Blue? He isn't blue at all."
"Based on his previous conversations with the military, he appears to be the officer in charge of capturing Hulk."
"Uh... so this was General Ross's trump card against Hulk? But it looks like he's lost control too..."
When searching for information related to Hulk earlier, Kraft had indeed found material about General Ross researching the Super Soldier Serum. The location had not been New Mexico, though, so Kraft had ruled it out at the time.
"How did he manage to make the Super Soldier Serum produce a Hulk-style effect?"
"It appears this officer secretly received another injection of Hulk's serum from Samuel Stern."
Angela promptly cleared up Kraft's confusion.
"...All right... General Ross really is one unlucky bastard."
His son-in-law had become a monster, his subordinate had become a monster. If his daughter, or even he himself, became a monster someday, that would be hilarious.
At the thought, a malicious smile appeared on Kraft's face. As a representative of America's official hawkish faction, General Ross was someone Kraft naturally enjoyed seeing make a fool of himself.
Just as they could not stop Hulk, ordinary soldiers were completely incapable of stopping the monster Emil Blonsky had become. Since this was the city center, many heavy weapons could not be used. Other than hiding at a distance and firing a few ineffective bullets, they could not inflict any meaningful damage at all.
However, judging from General Ross's usual conduct, that iron-hard hawk probably would not be able to endure for much longer. After all, the one rampaging through New York was his subordinate. If he did not deal with him soon, he would probably end up before a military tribunal. Then again, even if General Ross resolved the monster situation now, there would be no good outcome waiting for him.
In short... what an unlucky bastard.
Just as Kraft had guessed, once most of the civilians had evacuated, General Ross stopped worrying about the surrounding damage and ordered his men to begin using heavy weapons such as artillery shells. The force generated by the violent explosions temporarily slowed the monster's advance, but only made him even more enraged.
Blonsky, who had initially focused most of his attention on forcing Hulk to show himself, began actively attacking his former comrades.
The military, which had only just achieved a few minor successes, instantly began suffering devastating losses.
Then Hulk appeared.
The two green monsters brawled in the streets of New York. Compared with Hulk, who had been transformed from a researcher, Blonsky was far more skilled at fighting. Once Hulk charged in, he was immediately beaten senseless.
"Didn't they say Hulk's problem had already been solved?"
Kraft did not care about which of the two monsters won. In his view, as long as America was willing to be ruthless, killing them by force would not be a problem.
"According to data analysis, Hulk is displaying considerably less strength than before."
Angela listed set after set of comparative data, then brought up the research materials she had stolen from Samuel Stern.
"The drug should have taken effect. Hulk's existence is simply more troublesome than expected."
"Hmm... this solution doesn't seem to have any problems."
Kraft carefully reviewed Samuel's research materials, nodding from time to time. To guard against things like the Zombie Virus, he had crammed plenty of biological science knowledge into his own head, so understanding Samuel's materials was not difficult. According to the descriptions, it should theoretically have been able to solve Hulk's problem.
Moreover, Hulk's long delay in appearing earlier, as well as his obvious current weakness, clearly showed that the plan had worked. It was simply that the mutation within Dr. Banner's body was far more tenacious than they had anticipated.
"So that means Dr. Banner isn't done for?"
After turning into Hulk, Dr. Banner had chosen to live alone in seclusion, which gave Kraft a slightly better impression of him.
However, today's events seemed determined to oppose Kraft. The moment he reached that conclusion, reality slapped him in the face again.
"Hulk's strength is recovering rapidly."
Angela brought up the battle footage again. In the video, Hulk had gone from being utterly dominated by Blonsky to trading blows with him evenly. Meanwhile, the strength values Angela had calculated for Hulk were climbing at an alarming rate.
"The strength Hulk is currently displaying has already far surpassed his previous records."
"Yeah... I can see that..."
The battle in the video was now completely different from how it had begun. The once-arrogant Blonsky was now like a huge rag doll, gripped in Hulk's hand and slammed around at will, utterly incapable of resisting.
"So how did he do that?"
Was the knockoff ultimately no match for the original? For some reason, Kraft felt as though that was a jab at him.
"Based on the information collected, Hulk's strength appears to be related to his emotions. The angrier he is, the stronger he becomes."
Angela knew nothing of Kraft's complicated inner thoughts. She methodically presented her analysis and brought up footage of Hulk calming down because of Betty Ross.
"His emotions? What kind of trashy romantic sci-fi movie is this..."
Kraft clicked his tongue. He suddenly felt that the technology in his world did not seem all that logical either.
Before you continue