Chapter 135: The Desire to Break Through the Barriers

Seeing Bruce Banner on the brink of death, Betty pushed through the crowd. Ignoring everyone’s attempts to stop her, she ran to his side.

Bruce Banner’s condition was terribly wrong.

He could feel his consciousness growing hazy. Although his eyes remained open, he could see nothing at all—only an expanse of white, as though he had been transported to heaven.

But then—

Within that white light, Bruce Banner suddenly saw a face he could never forget.

It was Betty’s face, her eyes rimmed with red.

Bruce Banner wanted to squeeze the last remnants of strength from his body for Betty’s sake and sit up once more.

Even if he could not manage that, he wanted at least to make a simple sound or move his arm, to say goodbye to Betty and tell her to stay away from him. After all, there might still be radiation on his body.

But he could do nothing.

Not a trace of strength remained for him to draw upon. He could no longer control his own body.

All he could do was watch helplessly as Betty’s tears, large as beans, fell one after another onto his face within that endless whiteness.

He watched the expression of utter grief on her face.

Bruce Banner was filled with unbearable reluctance, but his consciousness continued to fade away, cold and merciless.

Just like the grim reaper harvesting a life.

I wish I could kiss you one more time.

That was Bruce Banner’s final thought.

Then—

The white light in his eyes gradually faded, and Betty’s face began to blur.

He lost all consciousness.

He did not know how much time had passed...

Bruce Banner suddenly “awoke” once more.

He realized that he had fallen into a strange state.

The light before his eyes had suddenly turned green. Although he still could not control his body, he seemed able to make out vague figures within that green radiance.

Slowly, very slowly, his consciousness began to return. Though his entire body remained enveloped in green light and he still could not move it, Bruce Banner could clearly feel that he was alive.

His mind grew sharper by the moment.

This filled him with immense surprise.

But his relief lasted only briefly before Bruce Banner suddenly discovered something.

He was moving!

Though he was not controlling his body, he could sense it through the outlines formed by the green light. From those rough contours, he could even make out, in a general way, that he was in motion.

His surprise instantly turned to horror.

Someone is controlling my body?

The thought flashed through Bruce Banner’s mind.

At once, all kinds of dangerous possibilities surfaced. He wondered whether he had ended up like Matt in Resident Evil 3, transformed into the Tyrant.

Perhaps he had become nothing more than a body with immense strength, while his true soul had been sealed inside forever, never to find release.

As he frightened himself with these conclusions, Bruce Banner immediately focused all his concentration and began to examine the green light around him with painstaking care.

He soon discovered that no matter how he shifted his viewpoint, the green light remained like mist, constantly surrounding him.

Tiny points of light seemed to be flowing...

It was as if the vague green radiance around him had transformed into a pixelated game, displaying everything outside.

Gradually, Bruce Banner realized that he seemed to be destroying those points of light.

Yes—destroying them.

As he moved, the green points became smaller and smaller until they vanished entirely.

Others became mottled and uneven, no longer retaining their original orderly arrangement.

After observing for a long while, Bruce Banner suddenly felt tired. He wanted to sleep.

An overwhelming drowsiness slowly welled up within him.

But Bruce Banner did not dare fall asleep. Somewhere deep inside, he had the feeling that if he surrendered to this sleep, then...

He would never wake again.

This was not an exaggeration, nor was it mere imagination.

He was certain that once he fell asleep, he would never awaken—not even though he had no idea where that certainty came from.

So Bruce Banner forced himself to remain awake, desperately trying to keep his mind alert.

But it was useless.

The drowsiness was like a worm gnawing into his very bones. It lingered without end, surging ceaselessly toward his mind and dismantling every last line of defense.

Little by little, Bruce Banner could no longer hold out. He wanted to sleep.

But at that very moment—

All the green light suddenly erupted into turmoil. This disturbance was unlike anything before it, violent enough to rival an earthquake.

The light scattered into countless mottled points, which gradually gathered before Bruce Banner’s face and formed the shape of a human visage.

That face was one Bruce Banner could never forget in his lifetime.

It was Betty’s.

But the expression on Betty’s face was not her familiar smile, nor the tender look in her eyes.

It was not even the sorrow she had shown moments earlier, with tears welling in her eyes.

It was terror.

Bruce Banner was utterly bewildered.

Betty had never looked at him that way. She had never felt afraid of him.

Bruce Banner had always possessed a quick and perceptive mind. At once, a dangerous suspicion took shape within it.

Then, through the green light, he discovered that “he” was slowly advancing toward Betty, just as he had destroyed everything else.

He was trying to “destroy” Betty.

That was something Bruce Banner could not tolerate.

Fueled by boundless fury, he instantly broke through the chains of his drowsiness.

For a brief moment, he even felt as though he had regained some control over his body.

But it was only a feeling.

Something like an unyielding barrier had risen before him.

It blocked every path ahead and prevented him from controlling his own body.

Yet as he watched the terror deepen on Betty’s face, Bruce Banner let out a silent roar within his mind and slammed his head violently against the barrier.

Once was not enough, so he struck it twice.

Twice was not enough, so he struck it three times.

He battered it until stars burst before his eyes and his head spun wildly.

After an unknown number of blows, the barrier finally cracked.

Then—

All the green light vanished at once.

Bruce Banner discovered that he could see through his eyes again.

Everything was still veiled by a layer of hazy green light, but at least he could see the world with his own eyes.

He realized that the laboratory beside him had been reduced to complete ruin.

And beneath him...

Lay Betty, gravely wounded and barely clinging to life.

When Bruce Banner saw her injuries and the terror on her face, his heart felt as though it had been seized and wrenched hard.

Before he knew it, the crack in the barrier had widened.

Yet he still could not control his body.

Then the army arrived.

He discovered that the bullets spitting sparks merely tickled when they struck him.

His body began to “retaliate” on its own. As more and more soldiers poured in, Bruce Banner suddenly found himself behaving like a gigantic spring.

With every leap, he flew impossibly high and impossibly far. Moving at tremendous speed, he fled toward the distant horizon.

...

At last, in a secluded alley, Bruce Banner slowly returned to normal.

In the darkness, he found a public telephone and contacted a trusted friend.

From that friend, he learned that General Ross had already placed him on the wanted list throughout the United States.

At the same time, he discovered the reason behind the bizarre transformations he had undergone that day.

It was all because of the enhanced super-soldier serum he had developed—and the gamma radiation.

Because of those forces, he had transformed into a green-skinned monster, devoid of reason yet possessing unimaginable strength.