chapter 193 part 2
It was precisely because of such a large amount of Gamma Rays that the Hulk was able to recover from what would be a fatal injury for a normal person in just a few seconds.
As his injuries healed, the emotion in the Hulk's eyes began to change. The stimulus of pain caused his already furious mood to escalate further. Under the influence of this emotion, his already massive body began to expand rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, he had already broken through the laboratory's ceiling.
Due to his enormous size, the Hulk had to support himself with his hands, maintaining a half-squatting position in the laboratory to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling.
Looking up at the ceiling just inches away, a savage look flashed in the Hulk's reddened eyes.
The next moment, he recklessly began to smash his arms against the ceiling above him.
...
"Ah, help..."
"What's happening?!"
"An earthquake, it's an earthquake!"
"OMG... Run..."
"Get down, find cover!"
"Why is there an earthquake in New York out of nowhere?"
Inside Hydra Tower, the sight of cracks forming on the ground and the violent shaking from beneath their feet instantly plunged everyone into chaos.
Not just Hydra, but everyone in the vicinity was terrified by the sudden tremors.
No matter how they racked their brains, they could never have guessed that the cause of all this was not the natural disaster they imagined, but merely the Hulk's two arms.
Looking at the Hulk, who was now relentlessly pounding the laboratory ceiling, having even forgotten about him.
Colin was basically certain that in his green giant state, the other party had no rationality to speak of; all his actions were dictated by emotion.
That's why a situation like this—getting distracted by something else mid-fight—could occur.
With his Super Hearing, Colin could already hear the chaos on the streets below caused by the tremors, the sounds of confusion and car crashes.
"Now is not the time to be distracted."
Amid the chaotic sounds of panic and crying, Colin gave the Hulk a little reminder. The next second, with a flicker of his figure, he was already behind the massive body.
"Good boy, don't go moving around."
With a whoosh, Colin swung his arm, and his fist smashed into the back of the Hulk's head, sending the giant stumbling.
However, seeing this, Colin's eyebrows involuntarily shot up.
"He's gotten stronger."
Feeling the force transmitted from his fist, Colin couldn't help but mutter to himself.
If the immense power the Hulk had displayed during their fight earlier was only close to the Black Iron level...
Then the force now coming from the Hulk was clearly much greater than before, even approaching the level of Bronze-tier Super Strength.
Although the increased strength was only approaching, not truly reaching Super Strength (Bronze), the speed of this growth still surprised Colin a little.
As he pondered, Colin once again fired Heat Vision from his eyes at the Hulk.
However, the high-temperature beams that had just been able to pierce the Hulk's body and leave gaping, bloody holes now seemed to be losing their momentum after penetrating his outer skin.
No matter how much Colin pushed his Heat Vision, he couldn't inflict any further damage on the Hulk. Often, before his heat vision could penetrate the muscle, it was blocked by regenerating tissue.
"This rate of power growth is an ability that's basically cheating."
Seeing this, Colin's mouth twitched, feeling a bit speechless.
If this continued, he believed it wouldn't be long before the Hulk's strength was comparable to his own.
"Fortunately, you're not the only one with a cheat ability."
However, the next second, the twitching corner of Colin's mouth turned into a subtle smile.
He stopped his Heat Vision attack and, under the Hulk's gaze, slowly closed his eyes, which were still glowing faintly red.
Under the effect of Super Speed, everything around him slowed down.
The sound of the Hulk's roars and footsteps grew slower and slower in his ears. As his eyes closed, Colin's consciousness began to sink deeper and deeper.
Finally, enveloped by countless green lights, he passed through into another world.
...
Main World. Colin opened his eyes.
He turned on the radio by his bed. The early morning radio program was reporting the latest developments in a kidnapping case.
"...As of now, there is still no trace of Charles Lindbergh's missing child. Charles, who is only twenty months old, was kidnapped a week ago. The kidnapper initially left a note on the windowsill demanding a ransom of fifty thousand dollars. However, just a short while ago, they left a new note, increasing it to seventy thousand dollars. This greedy and cold-blooded individual..."
The kidnapped child's father, Charles Lindbergh, was a famous aviator who, in 1927, flew the single-engine airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, from New York City to Paris, crossing the Atlantic Ocean without landing in 33.5 hours.
For this, he won the Orteig Prize and became a celebrity.
It was precisely because of Charles Lindbergh's celebrity status that this kidnapping case garnered so much attention.
Radio stations even began real-time tracking of the entire case, dubbing the kidnapping the 'Crime of the Century'.
This was not only because the victim's father was the celebrity Charles Lindbergh, but also because it was the first criminal case to be reported in real-time via radio. Past crime reports were generally covered by newspapers, and even the fastest newspaper reporting had a delay compared to the immediacy of radio.
The radio's meticulous reporting on the kidnapping pulled Colin's thoughts from his battle with the Hulk in the Anti-World back to the Main World he was in.
"Unfortunately, this case was doomed to be a tragedy from the start, a complete and utter sham."
With his Super Intellect organizing his thoughts, Colin came back to his senses and felt a sense of sympathy for the victim, Charles Lindbergh, mentioned in the radio report.
If he remembered correctly, Charles was brutally murdered by the kidnapper on the very day he was taken. After all, a twenty-month-old baby was far too conspicuous to take anywhere, and the kidnapper, who was only after money, had no intention of babysitting.
Therefore, from the very beginning, they had no intention of returning the child to the Lindbergh family.
In the end, when Charles Lindbergh gathered the ransom, what awaited him was his child's corpse.
The role the radio played in this case was merely to inform the public about it and, through detailed descriptions, help the Lindbergh family find the missing child's body. The endless commentary and updates from radio reporters also indirectly fueled the public's frenzy over the case. It became the first example of public obsession with a real crime.
And even after the case concluded with the kidnapper being sentenced to death, the related discussions did not stop.
Many even believed that the kidnapper who was later caught, a German immigrant named Hauptmann, was just an unlucky scapegoat.
Hearing of this case, the British detective novelist Agatha Christie was inspired by the mystery to create her famous detective novel—*Murder on the Orient Express*.
(end of chapter)