After Rimuru and Tony agreed to recruit Banner, they had been searching for him, but even with JARVIS and Gillvalis looking, they had failed to find him. Banner's crude method of using no phone, no credit card, and no electronic devices whatsoever had actually let him slip through the net. In a place like New York, surveillance cameras were pitifully scarce outside the more prosperous areas, and the information provided by the movie was next to nonexistent.
Rimuru sat irritably in front of the virtual screen, muttering nonstop. "Damn, he really is a genius with a high IQ who managed to evade a US military manhunt. You know what? I have to admit it. His counter-surveillance skills are pretty impressive."
In reality, though, Rimuru and the others were simply overthinking it. Banner and the others had taken a cab there. It wasn't nearly as complicated as Rimuru imagined, but it wasn't quite that simple either: he had also brought a baseball cap.
That movie really hadn't given him a useful timeframe. He didn't even know how many days had passed before they went looking for Stern. "Black Dragon, what's the situation with that Stern guy? Has anyone gone to see him?" (Gillvalis's name was too long, so it was changed to Black Dragon to save people from saying I was padding the word count.)
Black Dragon: "Sir, Samuel Sterns is currently fine. No one has gone to see him, and he's still conducting experiments at the school."
"What about the Terminators we sent out? Any reports?"
Black Dragon: "The reconnaissance units haven't found any trace of Bruce Banner either."
Just as Rimuru was racking his brains, unable to figure out where Banner had gone, Banner had already found Mr. Blue. As for how he got in, he had those energetic young people to thank for building a secret passage so they could sneak out and have fun. It had been a little undignified, but it worked.
They had been discreet, but as time passed, Rimuru still noticed something was wrong. Stern should normally have left by now, but he was still in the lab. That lab was a tightly controlled area, so Rimuru hadn't sent a Terminator over for fear of alerting anyone. Combined with the abnormal changes in the radiation readings coming from the lab-damn, had he missed his chance?
Black Dragon: "Sir, military vehicles are approaching."
"Damn it, why is everyone moving so fast? Who's the transmigrator here?"
"Black Dragon, have the Terminators move in. No matter what, take Stern out first."
Black Dragon: "Orders issued."
The atmosphere inside the lab was completely different from the anxiety on Rimuru's end.
Dr. Banner stared tensely at the data scrolling across the screen, while Stern was so excited beside him that he was practically dancing. His eyes gleamed behind his glasses as though he had discovered a new continent. "This is incredible, Bruce! The cellular activity in your blood sample and its compatibility with Gamma Radiation... This overturns everything we know about biochemistry! We really might be able to gain complete control of that power and put an end to your long suffering!"
Banner, however, felt no joy at all. His mind was filled with an inescapable anxiety. No one had ever performed this kind of experiment, and no one knew what the dosage should be. If the dose was too high, it would die on the spot; if it was too low, they would have a crazed giant on their hands.
Before he had finished speaking, the lights in the lab suddenly flickered faintly, and a jumble of sounds could be heard from outside. An ordinary person would never have noticed. But Banner, who had spent years on the run and honed his vigilance to the utmost on the edge of life and death, instantly went on full alert.
"Something's wrong..." He snapped his head up, his sharp gaze fixed on the lab door as every muscle in his body tensed.
At the same time, encrypted military combat signals were detected approaching the campus perimeter. A large number of police cars and military vehicles drove over, along with fully armed elite soldiers. One heat signature and set of facial features were a complete match-Emil Blonsky.
"They got here fast." Rimuru's mind raced, and he instantly sorted through all the potential dangers before issuing decisive orders. "We absolutely can't let the serum and the core data fall into Ross's hands, and we definitely can't let the military capture Banner now and force him to lose control completely. Black Dragon, authorize the T-1000s to engage at will. Core priorities remain unchanged: eliminate Stern completely, destroy all research data and serum backups, and avoid Banner himself as much as possible."
"Combat orders and authorization changes confirmed. Executing."
The light in the corridor outside the lab abruptly turned stark and harsh, losing the faint natural flicker of fluorescent lamps and taking on a mechanically cold stillness. Two "workers" in standard campus maintenance uniforms stood silently before the alloy lab door. Their figures were sleek and upright, their eyes lifeless and still. They were two T-1000 liquid-metal Terminators in complete mimicry disguises.
Unlike heavily mechanized combat units, the T-1000 was perfectly suited to stealth assaults. They had already withdrawn all visible weapons. Their fingertips quietly disassembled and reformed into sharp, slender liquid-metal blades, which slipped silently into the gap in the alloy door. With extreme precision, they dismantled the lock cylinder and locking circuitry. There were no loud noises or violent vibrations, all for the sake of breaking in as quickly and discreetly as possible to complete their elimination mission.
From inside the room came the faint sound of two people whispering in panic, furniture being moved, and glassware lightly knocking together.
The instant a finger-wide gap had been cut into the heavy alloy door-
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sudden rifle fire shattered the quiet of the campus. The shots came not from the T-1000s stealthily breaching the door, but from the far end of the corridor.
Blonsky charged out from cover in the lead, his face full of violent fighting spirit. Clad in full tactical gear, he kept firing his standard-issue assault rifle. A dense stream of bullets struck the lab door and the walls on either side with precision. Bullet holes erupted across the hard walls, sending debris and sparks flying.
"Unknown hostile targets spotted! Stop the breach! Fire at will!" Blonsky made no attempt to probe or ask questions. General Ross's orders were engraved in his heart: capture Banner alive, seize all Gamma serum research materials, and eliminate every obstacle in the way.
These two maintenance workers who had appeared out of nowhere at the entrance to a top-secret lab and were attempting to force their way in were undoubtedly obstacles that had to be removed.
The two T-1000s instantly stopped breaching the door. Bullets twisted and deformed their liquid-metal bodies, but the damage slowly healed, and they quickly recovered. The shots couldn't cause even the slightest lasting damage.
Blonsky was dumbfounded. The shocking sight before him was just like the first time he had seen Hulk. How had two more monsters suddenly shown up? Fortunately, they were much weaker than Hulk. At least their defenses could be pierced.
Their onboard tactical processors instantly assessed the threat: armed military squad, moderate threat. Suppression prioritized.
Moving in perfect synchronization, both silently disassembled and transformed their uniform sleeves, producing two slender metal longswords. The blades gleamed silver from end to end, shaped entirely from liquid metal without a single mechanical sound. The next instant, they stabbed straight at Blonsky.
Blonsky wasn't afraid either. He had wanted to test his newly enhanced body anyway, so he charged in and engaged them at close range. He actually fought the two T-1000s to a standstill.
Even so, Blonsky's pupils contracted sharply, and intense shock and wariness welled up in his heart.
He had fought for years and encountered countless elite mercenaries and special forces, but he had never seen enemies whose bodies could withstand bullets, enemies this outrageously bizarre. They were no ordinary security personnel or private soldiers. These things didn't even look human. He had punched that thing's face out of shape, yet it was perfectly fine, without a single drop of blood. Even Hulk wasn't like that.
Inside the lab, the sudden gunfire and clash of metal outside the door left Banner and Stern chilled to the bone and scared out of their wits.
"They've caught up! They're Ross's men!" Banner's face was as white as paper. He immediately bent over to shield Betty beside him, his knuckles turning white from the force.
While the two T-1000s held Blonsky up, other Terminators crawled in through the pipes. White liquid metal dripped onto the floor and gradually gathered into human shapes. Seeing the bizarre scene, Banner and Betty kept striking the gathering liquid metal to stop it from reforming.
Stern had already lost his head in panic. His hands hammered frantically at the keyboard as he desperately tried to delete and destroy all the experimental data, but the computer system had already gone completely out of control. The image on the screen warped violently and filled with glaring static. Then it refreshed, displaying a rapidly descending red formatting countdown. Black Dragon had remotely breached the system and started a forced, system-wide data purge.
"The door-the door's about to be broken through! They're coming in!" Stern trembled all over, staring in terror at the alloy door as it was steadily cut and slightly deformed. Despair engulfed him completely.
Through the gap in the door, Banner could clearly see the chaotic fight in the corridor. On one side were Blonsky, whom he had fought in Brazil and who had pursued him relentlessly, and the military soldiers-his mortal enemies who had hunted and tormented him for years. On the other were two unfamiliar "maintenance workers" with bizarre forms and terrifying combat power, as well as these things now gathering together, whatever they were.
For Banner, who had nowhere left to turn, being caught by either side meant nothing but endless imprisonment, dissection, and experimentation.
Utter despair, suppressed fear, and bone-deep pressure clamped around his heart like an iron band. His temples throbbed violently. A scorching, savage power surged wildly from his chest and rushed to the top of his head. Bright green lines spread rapidly up his neck, devouring the last of his reason.
"No... I can't... I absolutely can't transform now... I can't lose control here..." He doubled over in pain, clutching his head with both hands and using every ounce of willpower to fight the green behemoth roaring madly inside him, desperate to break free.
Outside the door, the battle grew ever more intense.
Relying on the undying properties of their liquid metal, the two T-1000s suppressed and pinned down Blonsky's squad. Conventional bullets and ordinary ballistic attacks were completely ineffective. Even when armor-piercing rounds occasionally struck their torsos and blasted apart patches of liquid metal, the damaged sections instantly flowed back together and rapidly repaired themselves, with no effect.
Blonsky was enraged. A crazed, bloodthirsty fighting spirit burned in his eyes as he quickly switched to a grenade launcher, raised it, and scored a direct hit on one T-1000's chest!
Boom!
The explosive impact tore the T-1000's mimicked work uniform apart. Liquid metal from its surface sprayed everywhere, exposing the flowing, silver-bright metallic texture beneath.
Seeing this, Rimuru couldn't help feeling frustrated. If he had known, he would have sent a T-X. The T-1000s didn't have firearms. Come to think of it, something was off about Blonsky too. Was its regenerative ability really that strong? It had taken so many sword strikes from the T-1000s and was somehow fine?
"What kind of monster is that?!" The remaining soldiers were thoroughly frightened, and their hands began to tremble around their guns.
Blonsky, however, was not afraid. Instead, the fighting spirit in his eyes grew even more fervent. He had desperately sought ultimate power, longing to surpass the limits of the human body. The bizarre, undying monsters before him had completely ignited the madness in his heart.
At the critical moment when a T-1000 was about to finish off Stern, or Blonsky was about to grit his teeth and call for vehicle-mounted heavy weapons support-
"Roar~~!"
An earth-shaking, deafening roar filled with utter savagery and boundless rage suddenly erupted from inside the lab!
The sound waves shook the entire corridor, drowning out all the gunfire and mechanical humming! The heavy, sturdy radiation-resistant alloy door was ripped apart from within by a terrifying force and sent flying as though it were a thin sheet of paper!
Amid the thunderous crash, metal fragments and dust exploded in every direction. A massive, dark-green figure, broad as a mountain, burst out through the wreckage!
Hulk had fully arrived!
His enormous green eyes, veined with savage bloodshot lines, immediately locked onto Blonsky and the armed soldiers confronting them at the end of the corridor. These enemies, who had hunted and hounded him for years and brought him endless suffering, were the foremost threat engraved in his instincts. As for those T-1000s, Hulk had stomped them to tiny pieces, and they were recovering very slowly.
And in his crude, savage understanding, the two beside him that had kept blocking the lab door were likewise unfamiliar enemies trespassing on his territory and threatening his host. They too were instantly added to his list of enemies.
"Hulk! Smash!!"
His rough, savage roar echoed across the scene. A green iron fist carrying immense force and a howling gale smashed straight toward the nearest T-1000.
Before that tremendous power, the T-1000 splashed across the entire corridor like a body of water hit by a cannonball. If it had been a real person, the scene would never have passed censorship. But Hulk's brute strength had already exceeded physical limits, and even the shock wave from that one blow shattered the other T-1000 across the floor.
Blonsky watched it happen without fear. Instead, an utterly fanatical grin spread across his face. He dropped his rifle, crouched to gather strength, and charged straight at the rampaging Hulk, utterly unafraid of that world-destroying power. "That's the power! That's right! Come on, big guy! Let's have a real fight!"
On the other side, the T-1000s that arrived afterward strictly followed their core combat orders. Ignoring the savage melee ahead, they took advantage of Hulk's attention being completely fixed on Blonsky and the chaos engulfing the scene. Their bodies instantly flattened and slid along the floor, circling through the battlefield's blind spots and silently rushing into the wrecked lab.
One arm turned into a longsword and pierced straight through Stern's head. To make sure he didn't come back from the dead, the T-1000 stabbed him several more times. The gruesome sight drew a scream from Betty, which caught Hulk's attention. Ignoring Blonsky's provocation, he charged back. The unfortunate T-1000 received the same treatment as several of its brothers.
Far away, Rimuru watched the entire chaotic scene through the live feed from the T-1000s, especially the sight of Hulk in a complete rampage. He couldn't help raising a hand to slap his forehead, his head aching at how serious things had become.
"Just as I thought! Plans can never keep up with sudden changes! After all those layers of anticipation, Hulk still went berserk."
He quickly collected himself and issued new orders in a low, rapid voice. "Black Dragon, adjust the entire battle plan immediately! Abandon the frontal assault and containment! The T-1000s are to prioritize seizing and destroying all serum samples, hard drives, storage devices, and experimental data in the lab! Do not provoke Hulk head-on or try to withstand him directly! Use your liquid metal's mobility and disguise capabilities to maneuver around him, and direct the full force of his anger at Ross's military troops."
He paused, looking at the battle that had completely spiraled out of control and could no longer be stabilized with robots. "Why do I feel like I've caused trouble?"