Chapter 46: Million-Dollar Evacuation Add-on, MilitaryAction
"Whoosh!"
A specially crafted alloy armor-piercing arrow precisely pierced the throat of a Mutant about to spray acid.
Hawkeye rolled on the ground and dove behind a massive reef.
He panted heavily, wiped the mud and the green blood of an unknown creature from his face, and pressed firmly on his earpiece.
"Officer, if you don't send someone to get me out of here, I'm going to end up as fertilizer along with this bunch of freaks with three heads and six arms," Hawkeyecomplained.
He carried his signature compound bow on his back, cowering in a dark corner.
The voice of Nick Fury, always cold and emotionless, came through the earpiece.
"Hawkeye, your mission is to try your best to be among the ten strongest superpowered survivors and join Vought International."
Hawkeye glanced at the rainforest not far away, where several burly Mutants, three to five meters tall and covered in iron armor, were lurking.
"Me? One of the ten strongest?" He pointed at himself, looking completely bewildered.
"You have received top-tier Agent training." Fury ignored his comment entirely.
"Agent training didn't teach me how to deal with perverts who can shoot lasers from their eyes!"
"Watch your attitude, Agent. Over."
The communication was cut off unilaterally.
Damn it!
He poked half his head out, looked at the massive holographic projection of Homelander in the distant sky, and cursed under his breath.
He nocked another explosive arrow, preparing to find a spot in the forest to lay low.
Anyway, the Director said to try his best; just staying alive was already doing his best.
Vought Tower, top floor, monitoring room.
Lin An leaned back in his spacious executive chair, his legs crossed and resting on the desk.
He watched the slaughter scenes feeding back from dozens of split screens in front of him, raising an eyebrow slightly.
"Not exciting enough." Lin An swirled the bourbon whiskey in his hand.
Although the airdropped weapons had sparked a small climax, these superpowered individuals quickly learned to be smart.
Those who got weapons started to lay low, and those who didn't started to group up.
The casualty rate curve for the entire island had actually started to slow down.
That won't do.
The traffic pool can't go cold.
Lin An sat up straight and casually pressed the island-wide broadcast button on the desk.
"It seems everyone is quite fond of the game of hide-and-seek."
Lin An's magnetic and mischievous voice instantly resonated across the entire desert island in the Pacific Ocean through the amplification matrix, and was simultaneously transmitted to the ears of a billion viewers worldwide.
"To reward everyone, I've decided to add a million-dollar blind box event."
"Last night, I packed up the former member of The Sevenof Vought International—that Translucent guy who likes to hang out in women's restrooms and changing rooms—and threw him into a corner of the island."
Lin An grinned, laughing in an extremely wicked manner.
"The rules are simple. The first person to find him and restrain him can immediately press their surrender bracelet to safely take away a cash prize of one million dollars. Now, the fox hunt begins."
The whole island was dead silent for two seconds.
Then, the entire rainforest erupted.
A million-dollar evacuation?! This was incredible news for those fringe players who realized they couldn't beat the high-level superpowered individuals and were ready to surrender at any moment.
On the east side of the island, in a muddy swamp.
Translucent was naked, covered in stinking mud, and shivering in a tree hollow.
He cursed Lin An's ancestors up to the eighteenth generation ten thousand times in his heart.
His invisibility, which he was so proud of, was simply a joke in this pile of monsters where thermal imaging, Mutantsense of smell, and telepathy were everywhere.
"Hum—"
An extremely piercing high-frequency sound wave suddenly swept across the swamp.
The leaves above the tree hollow were instantly shattered.
"Found you! Little mouse!"
A man wearing a tattered jacket with frog-like air sacs on his neck rushed over in ecstasy.
He was an ultrasonic user, extremely sensitive to vibrations in the surrounding air.
The man took a deep breath, his neck sacs puffed up high, and he blasted a visible, materialized sound wave at the tree hollow.
"Boom!"
The tree hollow exploded, mud and wood chips flying everywhere.
Translucent screamed, was knocked out of his invisibility by the sound wave, flew a dozen meters like a rag doll, and slammed heavily against a rock.
"The million is mine!" The ultrasonic man laughed wildly and lunged forward, pulling out a pair of specially made handcuffs.
But the smile on his face only lasted half a second.
Translucent climbed up from the ground. His carbon-fiber-level skin couldn't even be penetrated by armor-piercing bullets; although the ultrasound made his internal organs churn, it didn't break his defense at all.
"You motherfucker, you're looking for death!" Translucentwas also getting desperate, and relying on his invulnerability, he threw a wild punch directly at the ultrasonic man's nose bridge.
With a crunch, the ultrasonic man's nose bled profusely, and he stumbled back two steps.
Just as the ultrasonic man was preparing to attack again, more than a dozen bizarre figures suddenly sprang out from the surrounding bushes.
"There! That naked pervert! Careful not to touch his balls, it's too disgusting."
"Get lost! The million is mine!"
A Mutant whose hands could turn into giant pincers cut the ultrasonic man in half at the waist, spraying blood all over Translucent's face.
Immediately after, this group of bloodthirsty superpowered individuals pounced on Translucent like hungry wolves.
"Grab his legs!"
"Don't let him turn invisible! Smear mud on him!"
"Damn it! He peed all over my hand!"
"Ahhhhhh—help! Boss, save me!"
Translucent was pinned tightly into the mud by a dozen hands.
Some were biting his thighs, others were smashing his head wildly with iron rods.
Although this group of fringe superpowered individuals couldn't break his defense, the excruciating pain of being treated like a piece of meat being pulled and beaten back and forth made him scream like a pig being slaughtered.
On the screens in the monitoring room, the barrage of comments was already so dense that the footage was completely obscured.
[Holy shit! A literal feast of human flesh!]
[Translucent's physical constitution is impressive; he hasn't broken even after being smashed like that, though he looks a bit miserable.]
[Homelander's move is too ruthless, using his former employee as bait; capitalists would shed tears seeing this!]
[Serves him right! For peeping at women! Beat him to death!]
Lin An watched the system notifications flashing wildly on his retina.
[Ding! Successfully ignited a web-wide curiosity carnival; the million-dollar blind box event triggered collective emotional resonance, Popularity +100,000!]
Lin An stretched comfortably.
The highest level of recycling waste is turning trash into traffic. This 100,000 popularity points makes Translucent's beating worth it.
Just as Lin An was preparing to think of some new tricks, a piercing air-raid siren suddenly blared simultaneously in the VIP viewing platform and the monitoring room.
"What's going on? I didn't schedule any new airdrops." Lin An sat up straight.
Tony Stark's hands tapped on the virtual keyboard, creating afterimages, his expression extremely grim.
"There's an unidentified flying object that has breached the no-fly zone! It's moving extremely fast, and the radar signal was deliberately disguised."
Tony looked up abruptly, "It's a heavy stealth transport aircraft from the Military!"
Lin An narrowed his eyes, watching the behemoth on the screen that had suddenly deactivated its optical camouflage and appeared above the central highland of the island.
General Ross.
This old geezer really dared to send people to crash the party.
The transport aircraft's tail ramp burst open.
No parachutes.
A dozen burly men with muscles bulging to the point of deformity, wearing black combat uniforms, jumped directly from several hundred meters in the air.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
These men slammed into the highland at the center of the island like meteorites, creating deep craters in the ground.
As the smoke and dust cleared, this group of people was not only unscathed, but they also let out Beast-like roars.
The "Thunderbolts," secretly cultivated by the Military.
Every member had been injected with an inferior super-soldier serum created by General Ross.
Although not as perfect as Captain America, and even having side effects that led to lowered intelligence and emotional instability, in terms of physical strength, these people were pure killing machines.
Several low-level superpowered individuals who had just been scrambling for Stark's weapons nearby were surrounded by these muscle freaks before they could even react.
"The Military is on a mission; get lost, scum."
The leader of the Thunderbolts sneered, not giving the other side any chance to surrender.
He grabbed a Mutant who could discharge weak electrical currents, grabbed the opponent's left leg and right arm with his hands, and violently pulled in opposite directions.
Rip!
The living person was torn in half on the spot.
Internal organs and blood splattered all over the Thunderbolts, but they licked their lips excitedly and began to clear out all living things in the vicinity.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
The transport aircraft didn't leave; instead, it dropped a massive, heavy metal crate made of high-strength titanium alloy.
The metal crate slammed heavily into the middle of the Thunderbolts, surrounded by dense pipelines for sedatives.
Tony frowned while looking at the scan data of that metal crate on the screen.
"High concentration of gamma-ray reaction... What is this guy trying to do?"
Chapter 47: Showing Their Stuff, Hulk Enters the Fray
"It seems these muscleheads from the Military, who have fried their brains on steroids, still haven't grasped the situation," Lin An watched their performance with a mocking look.
On the screen, the Thunderbolts were rampaging through the rainforest.
They had just torn a few low-level super-powered individuals to pieces and were smugly hunting for their next prey.
Soon, they set their sights on two girls who looked completely harmless.
One was wearing a white and gold bodysuit, blonde and blue-eyed, looking like a cheerleader who had wandered onto the wrong set.
The other was wearing a tattered jacket, like a feral cat scavenging in a dumpster, with a grime-covered Asian face.
Starlight and Kimiko.
"Hey chicks, the Military is clearing the area. Are you going to lie down yourselves, or do we have to break your legs? If you let us have some fun, we might consider letting you live."
The Captain of the Thunderbolts walked forward with a sinister grin, veins bulging on his thick arms.
Starlight took a step back and took a deep breath.
The batteries of all the abandoned vehicles within a hundred meters, as well as the indicator lights on the Stark Industries airdrop crates, instantly dimmed.
Boom!
Starlight's eyes and hands erupted with blindingly intense, searing white light.
This wasn't light; it was a pure energy pulse.
The Captain, taking the brunt of the blast, couldn't even scream before being blown back dozens of meters by the flash, snapping three ancient trees as thick as buckets, his chest bones shattered in a large area.
Before the other Thunderbolts members could react, that "feral cat" moved.
Kimiko let out an inhuman shriek, moving so fast she was nothing but a blur.
She leaped directly onto the shoulders of a two-meter-tall brute, her hands locking onto his chin and skull, and twisted violently.
Snap!
The brute's neck was twisted into a pretzel. Kimiko was covered in blood, her eyes filled with primal savagery.
"Whoa!" Lin An yelped in the monitoring room. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I always talk about—the consequences of hitting on the wrong people! This sweetheart, who can turn an electric bill into a weapon, is codenamed'Starlight'! Never provoke a girl who can generate her own electricity; their tempers are usually as high as their electric bills!"
Before the others could recover their vision from the flashbang effect, that "feral cat" moved again. Kimikocharged like a ghost, leaping directly onto a brute's shoulder, her hands locking onto his chin and skull like she was opening a can.
"Crunch!"
The sound was as crisp as snapping a potato chip. The brute's head turned at an angle that violated both ergonomics and all traffic regulations. Kimiko licked the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes as pure as... a lion that had just finished eating.
"And her best friend, Kimiko!" Lin An's voice was full of pride. "A mute girl who doesn't talk much but has incredible hands-on ability. Her motto is: If you can fight, don't argue. Give these two ladies a round of applause!"
The chat screen was instantly flooded with "Hahahaha" and "Holy s**t."
"Is this Captain trying to pick someone up, or is he just delivering his own head?"
"I declare Starlight is my new wife! Whoever objects will get electrocuted!"
"That Asian girl is just too brutal..."
Lin An cut the camera feed to the northern highlands, like a professional sports commentator.
"Alright, let's check out another match. The representative team from Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is conducting a friendly 'clearing' activity."
"See that guy wearing red sunglasses who looks like the lead singer of a rock band? Don't stare into his eyes; he has social anxiety... Just kidding, the stuff that shoots out of his eyes can wipe your house off the map, along with your unpaid credit card bills."
On screen, Cyclops gently pushed up his glasses, and a red beam turned the four unlucky souls rushing toward him into the smell of barbecue permeating the air.
"The Ice Man next to him playing ice skating on the ground—don't underestimate him. With such a useful ability, how much could you save on air conditioning in the summer? And the one in the sky with wings, codenamed Angel—that name is too pretentious. I suggest he buy some accident insurance, lest he gets struck by lightning."
"And that white-haired girl who is giving her hair some static electricity therapy is known as Storm. In short, this is a group of rebellious, troubled teenagers."
"Finally, let's take a look at our two special guests." Lin Ancut the feed to the coastline.
A man and a woman were sitting on a reef watching the sea, surrounded by a dozen corpses twisted into pretzel shapes, looking like a Picasso sculpture exhibition.
"Oh look, this handsome guy is called Quicksilver, a fast man—and how fast is he? Let's put it this way: just as your girlfriend shouts 'go,' you've already sprinted to the finish line. Of course, I'm talking about a race."
Lin An leaned into the microphone and whispered: "As for this hot redhead, Scarlet Witch. Take my advice, contestants: stay away from that red-haired girl. She might turn you into a teddy bear and have you humping a tree all day."
The chat server was already starting to smoke.
"Hahahaha! Is Homelander commentating or doing stand-up comedy?"
"I suspect he's investigated the color of everyone's underwear! Is this the all-knowing Homelander?!"
"Is this f**king selection? This is clearly gods fighting, and mortals suffering!"
On the transport plane.
General Ross stared intently at the screen at the slaughtered Thunderbolts members, so angry he slammed his fist onto the console.
"Trash! A bunch of drug-fueled trash!" The flesh on General Ross's face trembled.
His pride and joy, the super soldiers, were nothing more than clumsy targets on this island of chaos.
"General, the Thunderbolts have already lost more than half their numbers. Should we call for reinforcements..." The adjutant was sweating profusely.
"Reinforcements my ass!" General Ross's eyes were bloodshot as he pointed at the huge metal crate still lying quietly in the center of the island.
"Cut the sedative lines to the stasis pod! Disengage all physical locks!"
General Ross gritted his teeth, a crazed glint in his eyes. "Since Vought International wants to see monsters, then I'll show them the strongest, most brutal ultimate weapon!"
In the center of the island.
The remaining members of the Thunderbolts were being besieged by various super-powered individuals.
Just then, the heavy metal crate behind them suddenly emitted a piercing depressurization sound.
Hiss—
Dozens of sedative lines connected to the exterior of the crate popped off simultaneously.
High-pressure gas spewed out.
The heart rate monitor inside the crate emitted a sharp alarm.
"Heart rate: 120...150...180...200!"
Bang!
An arm, thicker than a normal person's thigh and filled with green muscle fibers, violently punched through the high-strength titanium alloy crate lid!
Every super-powered individual on the scene stopped their actions at that moment.
No one spoke; even the background gunfire ceased.
Boom!
The huge metal crate shattered into pieces.
A monster nearly three meters tall, its body as hard as green rock, stood up from the ruins.
Hulk, having been pent up all day, was reaching the peak of his rage.
"Roar—!"
"Hulk... is angry!"
Chapter 48: The King of Flexing, Magneto, Makes a Grand Entrance
At this moment, the nameless island in the Pacific Oceanhad been turned into Hell difficulty of "Left 4 Dead" by Hulk.
Hulk was panting heavily, the white steam puffing from his nostrils resembling a leaking industrial steam engine.
Those bloodshot, copper-bell-sized eyes could not distinguish between friend and foe, leaving not a shred of human reason, with only one pure thought remaining in his mind: Smash something!
"Roar——!!!"
A deafening roar exploded on the flat ground, and the tangible sound wave directly uprooted a dozen palm trees as thick as a few people combined, sending them flying through the air like pulled green onions.
The unlucky member of the "Thunderbolts" closest to him didn't even have time to shout "shit" before Hulk grabbed him tightly by the ankle.
This scene looked like an adult swinging a ragdoll.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The burly man who had just boasted about injecting Super Soldier Serum and acted invincible was physically "ascended" and turned into an indescribable pile of pixels.
"Hulk... smash!"
Hulk, like an intercontinental missile leaving its silo, forced his tens of tons of flesh to carve out an anti-Newtonian parabola, smashing with precision guidance into the most crowded final circle of Mutants and superpowered individuals.
Boom——!
The Earth cracked, and a dozen people were blasted into the air like popcorn.
Hulk delivered a massive slap in mid-air, directly patting this group of people into a sky full of blood mist.
This bloody and extremely violent scene caused the global live stream's comments to lag like a PPT presentation.
[Fuck! Is this big green guy cheating? How are we supposed to play now?!]
[Homelander, come out and handle this! The script is wrong, this is a one-sided massacre!]
[I bet a pair of Wall Street underwear that this Hulk wins the Battle Royale! He's too OP!]
In the monitoring room, Butcher's hand holding the cigar was trembling wildly, and he punched the air in excitement: "Well done! Grind all these superpowered scum into meat paste for me!"
Beside him, Hughie was so scared he nearly spat out the soda he had just drunk, his legs shaking uncontrollably: "Boss, this... isn't this destructive power a bit off the charts?!"
Lin An, sitting in the boss's chair, smiled. Watching the popularity points on his retina explode exponentially, he felt so good his toes were practically curling into the floor of his Tomson Riviera Villa.
"A living nuclear bomb, Bruce Banner. The only man in the entire Universe who can turn his underpants into an artifact." Lin An picked up the milk Natasha had just squeezed and took a leisurely sip. "General Ross is truly a philanthropist; this wild influencer with his own traffic has absolutely maxed out the show's effects."
The Battle Royale on the island could no longer be called a Battle Royale; it had completely turned into a "Where's Hulk" musou-style mowing-down game.
Even the energy shields jointly erected by several arrogant Level 2 Mutants were shattered into pieces by a single slap from him, embedding both the people and the shields into the rock wall.
However, just as global viewers thought Hulk was about to clear the game with one punch, a sudden change occurred.
Hum——!
A teeth-aching, high-frequency vibration instantly swept across the entire deserted island; it was the wail of the Earth's magnetic field being forcibly twisted.
"Shit! The magnetic field intensity has exceeded the limit by three hundred times!" Tony Stark's furious cursing came over the communication channel, accompanied by the clattering of a keyboard. "John! He's pulling things from underground! This isn't an earthquake!"
In the center of the island, Hulk, who was about to tear apart his next lucky victim, suddenly stalled.
He looked down at the ground; the soil beneath his feet was rolling violently like waves.
Rumble——!
A massive abyss, hundreds of meters deep and several kilometers long, tore through the center of the island without warning.
Immediately after, a World-class spectacle that made billions of people around the globe gasp appeared.
Massive metal ore veins underground, abandoned steel air-raid shelters, underground pipelines, and even the Stark Industries airdrop blind boxes scattered all over the island, all shot into the sky under the pull of an indescribable, terrifying power!
Tens of thousands of tons of steel torrent seemed to have gained life in mid-air, swirling, reorganizing, and splicing together like Lego bricks.
In less than three minutes, a towering, pitch-black steel fortress, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression, slammed onto the highest peak of the island.
Lin An sat up straight, his eyes locked on the main screen. It's here, it's here, the King of Flexing is here!
At the very top of the steel fortress, a middle-aged male model wearing a flamboyant dark red cape and the iconic anti-mind-control helmet was descending slowly, hands hovering as if he were a god.
Erik Lehnsherr.
Magneto.
Behind him followed Mystique, Raven, and a group of VIP core enforcers from the Brotherhood of Mutants, making a dazzling entrance.
He wasn't here to participate in a talent show; this old guy was here to flip the table!
"My fellow Mutants."
Magneto didn't use a microphone, but his voice followed the electromagnetic waves, forcibly hacking into the island's broadcast system, and even projecting his weathered face onto all the live stream screens around the World.
"Humans fear us, attempting to use this barbaric gladiatorial game to deplete our power, treating us like circus monkeys to please those ignorant mortals in front of their screens."
Magneto spread his arms, and the magnetic field of the entire island resonated with his breathing.
Even the furious Hulk on the ground had the metal debris and weapon fragments on his body stuck firmly in place; his hundred-ton strength couldn't move his legs for a moment.
"But we are not prey." Magneto looked down at all living beings. "We are the pinnacle of evolution! We are the new Masters of this Planet!"
He pointed back at the metal fortress behind him, his dominance leaking out.
"From this moment on, this is no longer a Vought International reality show set. I, Erik Lehnsherr, hereby declare—the Mutant nation, Genosha, is officially established!"
In front of screens around the World, you could hear a pin drop.
The audience was stunned.
Everyone had originally come to watch the superhuman version of "Battle Royale," so how did it turn into a live broadcast of "The Founding of a Nation" while they were watching?!
Those Wall Street tycoons who were drinking champagne and placing bets in the VIP viewing rooms were practically pissing themselves; they watched in terror as the screws of the metal blast-proof room above their heads began to tremble wildly, ready to disintegrate at any moment and physically "ascend" them.
"Energy shields! Push all the Stark Industries reactors to critical levels! Hold it for me!" Tony roared at the top of his lungs over the communication channel.
However, in the highest monitoring room.
Lin An was not angry; instead, he was smiling so wide his back teeth were showing.
[Ding! World-class event detected! As the venue provider and instigator, the host receives a popularity point critical hit compensation: +500,000!]
Awesome! So fucking awesome!
Lin An was so excited he almost crushed the milk cup in his hand.
Almost there; just less than a million popularity points away, and the Kryptonian bloodline would be beckoning to him!
Magneto's move was truly a gift from heaven; the top supporter just gifted fifty Super Carnivals in a row!
Not to mention the high-production special effects, even the lines were so attention-grabbing!
"My fellow Mutants."
Magneto's aged yet bewitching voice exploded in the mind of every Mutant.
The massive steel fortress refracted a cold, fierce light under the tropical sun. "The choice is in your hands. Join the Mutant nation and become the rulers of the new World. Or... die on this island along with these inferior maggots!"
The superpowered individuals on the entire island were silent as cicadas in winter.
Several X-Men students looked at each other; Cyclopspressed hard on his ruby-quartz visor, cold sweat beading on his forehead, gritting his teeth, not daring to be the first bird to stick its head out.
Some stragglers hiding in the bushes didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
Just in this silence that lasted over ten seconds, with the atmosphere of flexing maxed out.
"Roar——!!!"
A violent roar that threatened to flip one's skull cap forcibly interrupted Magneto's speech.
No one can flex over Hulk!
No one!
Hulk's thick legs, as if equipped with ten-thousand-ton hydraulic presses, suddenly kicked and shattered the rock layer beneath his feet. His massive green body, carrying unstoppable kinetic energy, flew straight toward Magnetoin mid-air like a surface-to-air missile.
Facing this Earth-shattering meat-bomb impact, Magnetodidn't even lift an eyelid.
"Brainless Beast, stand down."
He just coldly spat out a few words, extended a finger, and pressed down gently.
Rumble!
As if his words were law, a dozen abandoned World War IImain battle tanks that had been buried on the island for who knows how many years were instantly forcibly pulled from the ground by terrifying magnetic force, kneaded together, and transformed into a solid, high-density iron ball weighing several hundred tons, which then smashed precisely onto the mid-air Hulk with the force of Mount Tai!
Bang——!!!
The dull sound of the impact made everyone watching the live stream subconsciously clutch their chests.
Hulk was forcibly smashed back to the ground by the massive kinetic energy, creating an exaggerated crater over a dozen meters deep in the rainforest.
But that wasn't all!
Magneto's withered palm suddenly clenched in the void.
All the metal within a one-kilometer radius of the deep pit.
Rushed madly toward the bottom of the pit.
Layer upon layer, seamless and tight.
In the blink of an eye, a solid metal cocoon, seven or eight meters high, appeared before everyone's eyes.
From inside came Hulk's muffled, furious roars, and even the entire metal sphere was trembling slightly, but because it was wrapped so tightly with no space to exert force, the Hulk was physically silenced by this "Zongzi-wrapping" tactic that played without martial virtue.
Magneto lowered his hand, his aged eyes coldly looking down at the people below who had been scared silly.
"Now, who else has any objections?"
Chapter 49: Hulk's Counterattack and Escalating Melee
Magneto's overwhelming methods and his aloof, superior air completely shattered the psychological defenses of most superpowered individuals.
That was a monster that tore through enhanced humans like toys, yet it was suppressed by a single move?
"Brotherhood! Long live!"
The Mutant covered in spikes was the first to kneel, shouting fanatically.
This was like knocking over a domino.
Dozens, hundreds of Mutants walked out of their cover, knelt on one knee, and offered their loyalty to that steel fortress.
Mystique Raven standing behind Magneto curled her lips into a cold sneer, and she snapped her fingers.
The Carnage had begun.
The newly joined Mutants, in order to show loyalty to their new master, pounced like mad dogs on the superpowered individuals and Mutants who refused to join.
The entire rainforest instantly turned into a living hell.
Energy beams, Fire, and venom flew everywhere. The screams were ten times more harrowing than when they were fighting over the airdrops earlier.
[OMG, this Battle Royale has been turned into a Carnageby Magneto. Homelander has really flipped over...]
[My God! Magneto's aura is so high, so cool! Even the Hulk can't beat him. Is Homelander even his opponent?]
[I bet 1 dollar that Homelander can't beat Magneto.]
[Shit! Homelander is the true hero of justice, that Jokerwith the blast helmet is just shit!]
[Is this too cruel? These superpowered people are really too dangerous... Can Vought International really manage this group of lunatics?]
In the monitoring room.
Lin An laughed out loud.
"Well done, Magneto!" He raised his wine glass to toast the screen.
This plot progression is fantastic.
The Battle Royale has directly upgraded to ethnic cleansing.
Audiences around the World love watching this kind of no-bottom-line gore.
This is the ultimate popcorn attribute.
Glancing at the data in the top right corner, the number of online viewers had already exceeded two billion, and the popularity value was skyrocketing at a speed of hundreds of thousands per second.
"Boss, this isn't right." Madelyn's face turned pale, and her fingers swiped rapidly across the tablet, "Magneto's magnetic field is interfering with the entire island. Stark's rescue mechanism is paralyzed! Our AI cannot get in!"
"Let it be paralyzed." Lin An shrugged indifferently, "If you buy a ticket to enter the Roman Colosseum to watch gladiators, would you hope that the gladiator can just press surrender and take a helicopter away? Chaos creates the greatest news value."
"The villain is Magneto, what does that have to do with my righteous Homelander?"
Just as Lin An was about to pour another glass of wine, the image on the main screen suddenly distorted.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The giant metal cocoon trapping Hulk suddenly had shocking fist marks bulging on its surface.
"Hulk... not submit!!!"
Boom—!
The hundreds-of-tons heavy compressed metal cocoon was torn into pieces from the inside by a violent force that could not be explained by physics.
Amidst the steel wreckage flying across the sky, Hulk's body size was a full circle larger than before.
Green muscle fibers were almost tearing through his skin, and veins were intertwined like thick tree roots.
Anger had completely taken over this body.
Magneto frowned slightly and threw both hands out.
Thousands of sharp steel bars shot towards Hulk like a rainstorm.
Hulk didn't dodge at all.
The steel bars pierced into his flesh, pulled out, and the wounds healed instantly.
He roared wildly, grabbed the wreckage of an armored vehicle, and threw it at Magneto like a baseball.
Bang! Magneto used a magnetic shield to block the armored vehicle, but the huge Impact force also made him retreat more than ten meters in mid-air.
"Damn lunatic!" Magneto cursed angrily.
The two fell directly into the most primitive bombardment.
One is a Mutant emperor who controls magnetic fields, the other is a green-skinned monster that gets stronger the angrier it gets.
The aftermath of their battle flattened the rainforest for several kilometers.
Hawkeye huddled in a narrow rock crevice in a cave, tightly covering his ears.
A rock the size of a truck flew past his scalp, smashing a forest in front of him.
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva mixed with mud and sand and called out into the headset.
"Director, Director?? You speak!"
The slaughterhouse.
This is a real slaughterhouse.
Hulk didn't care who was the Brotherhood and who was human.
Any living creature that appeared in his sight was smashed into meat paste by him.
Magneto's magnetic storm was even more indiscriminate Carnage.
In the ruins, a silver lightning flashed crazily on the edge of the battlefield.
Quicksilver Pietro was sweating profusely, panting heavily.
He had just thrown a girl whose leg was crushed by Hulkinto a safe cave, turned around, and rushed back into the magnetic storm, pulling out an innocent ability user who was almost cut in half.
He really couldn't watch it anymore.
Although Magneto claimed to build a Mutant nation, this kind of no-bottom-line Carnage made him feel sick.
Not to mention he already hated this 'father'.
"You can't save everyone, Pietro!" Scarlet Witch Wandastood on high ground, her hands surrounded by the red light of Chaos Magic, helping him block the flying shrapnel, "Don't get yourself killed!"
"Save one if I can!" Quicksilver gritted his teeth and turned into a residual shadow again, rushing into the battlefield.
The center of the battlefield.
The X-Men's situation here was precarious.
Bobby Drake just condensed a thick ice wall, trying to block a high-voltage tower that Hulk threw casually.
Boom!
The ice wall shattered like glass in the face of absolute violence, but the electric tower was also deflected from its route by the obstruction of the ice wall.
Seeing that this little guy actually blocked his offensive, Hulk roared and rushed over, his green fist, which was bigger than a sand pot, straight at the Iceman's head.
"Bobby!" Cyclops let out a desperate roar, but his Impacthit Hulk, only making the monster retreat half a step, which instead angered Hulk even more.
In the VIP viewing platform.
The fat tycoon who had been closing his eyes suddenly opened his eyes wide.
Charles Xavier could no longer sit still.
He couldn't watch his students get smashed into meat paste.
"Bruce Banner! Wake up!"
Charles's mental power crossed the distance of space, like an invisible steel needle, fiercely piercing into Hulk's brain, trying to forcibly awaken Dr. Banner's reason, or at least make this Beast quiet down.
Hulk paused his movements slightly, and Angel took the opportunity to take a few companions and fly away.
Charles had just breathed a sigh of relief, only to find that he had underestimated Hulk's anger.
In that spiritual ocean, what Charles saw was not reason, but a green Sun that was exploding.
The next second.
Boom—!
The pure, illogical, violent rage followed the mental link and backlashed directly.
"Ah!"
In the viewing platform, the fat tycoon possessed by Charles suddenly let out a shrill scream, clutching his head tightly with both hands.
Immediately after, a large amount of blood sprayed from his nose, eyes, and ears at the same time.
The tycoon's body twitched violently a few times, then fell straight onto the leather sofa, motionless.
The surrounding tycoons screamed in fear, scrambling to hide in the corners.
"The ratings have broken three billion, Boss." Madelyn's voice carried a hint of trembling.
The whole World had gone crazy.
On the Internet, no one was discussing morality or bottom lines anymore.
Everyone was staring at the screen, watching this real doomsday melee live broadcast that surpassed all Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters.
Chapter 50: If I Do Not Go to Hell, Who Will? The Protector of Earth, Homelander!
Madelyn watched the backend data, her fingers sliding rapidly across the tablet, her voice trembling.
Three billion!!
Never in human history has any program reached this scale.
The entire World's network bandwidth is about to be overwhelmed by this group of bloodthirsty netizens.
If not for the system's cheat maintaining the network, it would have already crashed.
Natasha, who had just been secretly reporting progress to the Director in the corner, walked over.
Looking at this apocalyptic scene, even the composure of a top Agent couldn't hold up.
That's Magneto plus a living nuclear bomb; this game has completely spiraled out of control.
She subconsciously leaned closer to Lin An.
Lin An casually wrapped his arm around her slender waist, his large palm sliding naturally down the curve, and gave it a firm squeeze.
"Boss, you still have the mood to joke around?" Natashawas somewhat speechless.
She was truly a bit scared now; this blast-proof building constructed by Stark would likely not last a minute against that old madman who could pull up metal veins and the rampaging Hulk.
In the corner nearby, Hughie was curled up holding his head, shivering.
"We're going to die, right? That's a green-skinned monster. Even Magneto can't suppress him. Once he turns his target toward us, he'll definitely smash us flat too."
"Shit, you really are a coward!" Butcher ignored Hughieentirely. He looked like a fanatical cultist, his cigar almost chewed to pieces in his mouth. "This is what you call a Battle Royale! Big green guy! Smash those damn superpowered bastards into pulp! Tear them apart! Let them see what absolute power is!"
In the eyes of this former leader of The Boys, as long as he could kill superhumans, it didn't matter if another monster was used to do it.
Tony Stark had no time to listen to these lunatics arguing.
He scrambled to a corner of the control room, where mechanical arms were descending rapidly, layering the gold and red Mark armor onto him.
With a "click," the faceplate closed. Tony turned his head, and the armor's eyes lit up with blue light.
Only when the armor was fully equipped did he feel a bit more at ease.
"Buddy, don't blame me for not warning you." Tony's voice came through the faceplate, carrying a distinct mechanical texture and gravity.
"Magneto plus that mutated Hulk; this isn't just some ordinary Battle Royale game anymore. My energy shield can't withstand that level of pure violence. Can you still handle this situation?"
Can I handle it?
Lin An leaned back in his boss chair, watching the number on his retina finally jump to an extremely exaggerated magnitude.
[Ding! Detected global online viewership exceeding three billion!]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully triggering a global phenomenon of fanaticism; popularity points have exceeded the 10,000,000 Mark!]
Ten million.
Finally saved enough.
Finally!!
Lin An had been waiting for this moment so long he was nearly desperate.
These stifling days are finally over today.
"System, redeem [Kryptonian bloodline]!" Lin An issued the command in his mind.
[Ding! Consumed ten million popularity points; Supermancore gene—Kryptonian bloodline initial version fusing.]
After a long minute.
A terrifying power that could not be explained by physics instantly exploded along his bone marrow.
If the power brought by the previous first generation compound v was like a river,
then now, Lin An felt as if a roaring ocean had been forcibly stuffed into his body!
His heartbeat was like a drum, and the sound of his blood flowing even caused Natasha nearby to experience a bout of tinnitus.
Vision, hearing, bone density, muscle fibers—all data was skyrocketing in a geometric progression in an unreasonable way.
Tenfold.
At least tenfold.
On a microscopic level, every one of his cells was frantically devouring the surrounding light and energy.
Lin An could feel that if he were allowed to quietly sunbathe over the Pacific Ocean for a month, he could wipe this Hero Island, which spanned dozens of kilometers, completely off the Earth's map with a single punch.
This is the gold standard of an authentic Superman.
Lin An let go of Natasha, slowly stood up, and turned to look at the fully armed Tony.
He smiled.
That smile was arrogant to the extreme, carrying an absolute confidence that stepped the whole World under his feet.
"Tony, don't use your pathetic physics common sense to measure me." Lin An patted the shoulder of the steel armor.
Creak—
An extremely simple shoulder-patting action.
The million-dollar aviation-grade alloy armor on Tony's shoulder actually emitted a sound of metal twisting under unbearable stress.
Feeling that heavy, massive force, Tony's eyes widened instantly under the faceplate.
"Let me tell you one thing." Lin An leaned close to Tony's faceplate, speaking word by word.
"On this Planet, there is no bottom line I cannot handle."
After saying this, Lin An grabbed the island-wide broadcast microphone on the table and signaled for Madelyn to cut into the global live broadcast channel's holographic projection.
The tyrant, who was full of arrogance just a second ago, instantly switched his expression to one of compassion and heartbreak the moment the massive holographic projection lit up.
"Citizens of Earth, viewers in front of the screens."
Lin An's voice was low and hoarse, revealing a thick sense of exhaustion and grief.
A hundred-meter-tall golden holographic projection appeared again over the island, forcibly overshadowing Magneto's arrogant steel fortress.
The Carnage on the desolate island experienced a brief pause because of this sudden voice.
Everyone looked up at Homelander's projection.
"What exactly was my original intention for hosting this Superhero Battle Royale?"
Lin An spread his arms with heartbreak, "Is it for money? Vought International's wealth is already enough to rival a nation! Is it for traffic?"
"I! Homelander! Am already the most dazzling star in this World!"
Magneto also stopped his actions.
He gave a disdainful cold snort. Still putting on a show when death is imminent?
"None of those! I am doing this for peace!" Lin An clenched his fist tightly, his eyes as firm as a martyr's.
"Every day, innocent civilians are harmed by supernatural powers. I want to use this trial to screen out heroes who truly have the ability and awareness to join me in protecting this scarred World."
"I give them a platform, I give them prize money! I give them glory! I even gave them a chance to turn over a new leaf!"
He suddenly reached out and pointed at Magneto high in the sky.
"But! There are always some evil Terrorists trying to destroy this hard-won peace!"
"Erik Lehnsherr! You selfish, cruel dictator! You are using the name of Mutants to conduct inhumane ethnic cleansing on my program!"
"You even detonated that inhumane experiment of the Military, that out-of-control green monster, and let him slaughter those innocent contestants!"
This scapegoat was pinned on him fast and hard.
Magneto's face in the air twitched violently.
What the hell do you mean I detonated it? I'm a victim too, okay!
General Ross on the transport plane gritted his teeth as he looked at the barrage of questioning messages from the White House on his phone.
But Lin An didn't give either of them a chance to explain.
"Look at this once beautiful land; what has it become now? It is covered in blood and wails everywhere."
Lin An's voice was impassioned, his infectiousness dialed to the extreme, "As the leader of Vought International, as the protector of this World, I cannot stand by and watch anymore!"
"I know that going down to face a Mutant tyrant who controls magnetic fields, plus a living nuclear bomb that can tear everything apart, is extremely dangerous."
Lin An paused deliberately, pulling a corner of his mouth into an extremely tragic bitter smile.
"Perhaps I will get hurt, or perhaps I will even lose my life because of this."
Then he suddenly raised his head.
"But! There is a good saying in China!"
"If I do not go to hell, who will!?"
"Justice will never bow to evil!"
"To prevent the World from being destroyed, to maintain World peace, to uphold love and truth—I, Homelander, am duty-bound!"
Boom!
The holographic projection instantly extinguished.
A red and blue figure, like a meteor tearing through the atmosphere, smashed directly through the blast-proof glass of the VIP viewing deck, trailing a long sonic boom cloud, and crashed straight down toward the meat grinder battlefield in the center of the island.
The entire internet comment section, after a three-second silence, completely exploded.
The emotions of three billion people were instantly ignited and exploded by this extremely hypocritical yet highly inflammatory speech!
[My God! This is the true Superhero! Those Mutants and superpowered individuals only know how to kill; only Homelander is bleeding for peace!]
[Did you see that bitter smile just now? He clearly knew he might not be able to beat those two monsters, but he went anyway. Wuwuwu, I'm crying!]
[Magneto must die! Mutants are all Terrorists! Homelander is awesome!]
[Run, Homelander! Don't go to your death! That Hulk is simply not something a human can defeat!]
[So the Hulk was made into this state by the Military; the government is truly disgusting!]
[Uh, speaking of which, the lines Homelander just said are a bit familiar...]
[Can someone who likes watching Pokémon be a bad person?!]
Public opinion completely flipped.
No one pursued the cruelty of the Battle Royale itself anymore; all hatred and fear were successfully transferred to Magneto and the authorities.
Those do-gooders who usually shout about human rights also shut their mouths at this moment.
Lin An became the only savior of all humanity.
At the same time, in the corner of the ruins of the VIP viewing deck.
That fat tycoon, covered in blood and just having been mentally backlashed by Hulk, struggled to open his eyes.
Charles Xavier's consciousness had not yet completely faded from this body.
He listened to those righteous declarations echoing over the island, watching that golden figure charging into the battlefield without looking back, his mind in complete chaos.
As the World's greatest brain, he could keenly perceive the malice and madness behind this Battle Royale.
At first, he was convinced that Lin An was an out-and-out villain, a dictator even more terrifying than Magneto.
But at this moment, looking at that man who was willing to risk his life to stop Hulk and Magneto.
Watching his determination as he charged down against the magnetic storm and the monster's roar.
Charles clutched his throbbing head, his blood-covered face full of conflict and confusion.
That's right, why would a rich and powerful Homelandertake this risk?
Hiss...
Could I be wrong?
Is he really a good person with a heart set on doing good?