Chapter 160: The Limit of Emotion

Following closely behind the Hulk, when Zhong Shenxiu laid eyes on the concrete factory that now resembled an iron beast bristling with ferocious weaponry, to be honest, he felt a genuine sense of astonishment.

He had not expected that using the Hulk as bait would actually reel in such a massive fish.

To be able to construct a secret base with a weapon defense level comparable to a military base right under the noses of the New York military and police—

Sheer wealth alone could never achieve this.

Take Stark Industries, for example. If their former weapons research and development department had possessed this kind of weapon configuration, Zhong Shenxiu would have turned around and walked away on the spot without a second thought.

It was not that Stark lacked weapons or the ability to equip them.

Rather, they neither could nor needed to equip that many weapons. After all, they were not trying to conquer the entirety of New York; their goal was merely to deter petty thieves and gang robberies.

Under normal circumstances, their weapons were more than sufficient to deal with ordinary people.

It was simply unfortunate that Zhong Shenxiu, clad in steel armor and wielding a magical shield at the time, was too abnormal, causing their defenses to fail miserably in the end.

When traced back to the root cause, it was because the defenses of Stark's weapons R&D department were designed against ordinary humans, not against monsters.

The base before him today, however, was entirely different.

The sheer volume of weapons in its defense system was so overwhelming that even the Hulk was trapped on the perimeter of the base for a long time by the endless barrage of gunfire, unable to break through.

There were even sonic weapons involved; even when the Hulk got caught up in them, he had to struggle for a considerable amount of time before managing to escape.

From all these various aspects, it was evident that—

When this base's weapon system was initially constructed, it was specifically built for monsters like the Hulk. Various heavy weapons among them were simply ideally suited to deal with such creatures.

Using them to deal with ordinary human soldiers was completely like using a high-frequency vibrating adamantium blade to slaughter a chicken—making a mountain out of a molehill.

This was precisely what aroused Zhong Shenxiu's amazement.

After all, according to the normal timeline, the present-day New York had not yet experienced the massive alien invasion, and mutants were still keeping a very low profile under the mutual deterrence of two heavyweights.

Therefore, why on earth would the people behind this base build it to a standard capable of resisting monsters?

This was a point worthy of deep reflection.

In other words, the person who originally built this base must have known about the supernatural nature of this world long in advance, and also understood how terrifying it was. That was why they had driven themselves to the point of madness, elevating the base's weapon standards to a level capable of single-handedly defending against the Hulk... This even surpassed a typical military base.

This was something that could not be accomplished with mere money; it also required unimaginable influence throughout New York, as well as connections that extended to the absolute extremes.

Only then could someone accomplish all this right under everyone's noses and acquire all these heavy regulated weapons in their entirety.

At this thought, Zhong Shenxiu began searching through his memories.

In the original work, what kind of faction in New York could possibly meet so many harsh conditions?

......

Suddenly, Zhong Shenxiu thought of a heavyweight figure.

Kingpin!

Yet, no sooner had this name popped into his head than Zhong Shenxiu shook his head and dismissed it internally.

If one were speaking of the Kingpin who would later make his fortune through real estate after the battle of New York, gradually dominating both the underworld and the legitimate world, and ultimately becoming the master of the underground mafia empire behind the United States—

That version of the Kingpin indeed had the potential.

However, according to the current timeline, the Kingpin of the present day had not yet reached that stage.

Zhong Shenxiu had also inquired among other gangs, and the current Kingpin was at best a New York underground mob boss, falling far short of that kind of height.

Therefore, the timeline did not match... The Kingpin could be ruled out for now... Though perhaps he shouldn't be too hasty; let's place him in the suspicious category for now.

Zhong Shenxiu paused and thought to himself.

What if Kingpin suddenly struck a stroke of luck, his coffers exploded with wealth, and unlike the original work, he secretly became a mafia emperor at a very early stage? That possibility still existed.

After all, for the Kingpin to become a recurring villain for so many Marvel heroes, his personal intelligence, vision, strength, and so on were indeed all present.

Aside from the future Kingpin, what other organizations could there be?

Zhong Shenxiu thought of another name in his mind, pondered it slightly, and immediately dismissed it.

S.H.I.E.L.D.... No, otherwise those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents wouldn't have reacted that way when they saw those forty-eight soldiers earlier.

The military... Would the military need to hide a base beneath concrete in the United States? This was their own turf after all.

It couldn't possibly belong to Stark, could it?

Tony Stark quietly investing, ultimately intending to rely on these hidden cards to unify the entire United States and ascend the throne...... This was the kind of thing one only thought about; it was hardly likely......

Zhong Shenxiu went through a circle of suspects and suddenly felt that anyone could be responsible, yet no one was.

Which meant he was back to square one!

Enough, Zhong Shenxiu ultimately decided to pull back his thoughts and intended to continue watching. He would let Hulk, the ultimate meat shield, take the damage first while he observed closely from behind.

A base of this size would inevitably reveal some clues.

Especially under the high pressure of a powerful monster like the Hulk.

Thus, Zhong Shenxiu shifted his gaze back to the Hulk, who was currently taking a furious beating.

Dark bronze bullets were continuously embedding themselves into his body. The firepower of the metal storm inside the base now was far greater than what they had used on the vehicle back then.

Coupled with the fact that it was likely a fixed location, resolving limitations such as cooling and ammunition supply—

This group of terrorists was using it with even less restraint.

Dense streams of fire shot out from every corner like a torrential downpour, unleashing their fury upon the Hulk. In a short while, the Hulk was peppered into a dark bronze "hedgehog." Yet, because the Hulk had grown stronger twice already, these armor-piercing rounds, dense as they looked, were actually unable to pierce his muscles.

What truly delayed the Hulk was the sonic weapon.

Right amidst the weapon wall that had just risen from beneath the ground at the main entrance of the concrete factory, there were two large sonic transmitters.

The two sonic transmitters completely covered the Hulk in intersecting angles, and the powerful sonic waves, carrying an unparalleled vibrational restraining capability, rendered the Hulk completely immobilized within their zone.

He could only instinctively raise his arms to block the front, as if warding off something.

Yet it was completely to no avail.

The further forward he went, the greater this restriction would become.

Consequently, the Hulk had to muster every ounce of strength he possessed to constantly retreat, finally managing to barely escape the overlapping range of the sonic waves and regain a shred of mobility.

After a moment,

The Hulk, with his large head and small brain, seemed somewhat unwilling to accept defeat and charged right back in again.

And then......

He was once again rendered immobile.

Seeing this, Zhong Shenxiu could not help but cover his face.

Too painful to watch.

The Hulk's IQ really was non-existent.....

He was the absolute epitome of a reckless brawler; with a body full of brute strength, he knew how to do nothing except charge in blindly.

Zhong Shenxiu remembered that the Hulk's intelligence seemed to increase gradually over time. For instance, when he was first born, the Hulk was as naive and simple-minded as a baby, and later in The Avengers, he seemed to possess a bit of intelligence.

Right up until Thor: Ragnarok, after Bruce Banner completely banished himself and let the Hulk inhabit the body for a long time, the Hulk's intelligence ushered in another leap forward, allowing him to not only converse freely with Thor but even employ slight tactical thinking.

And later still, in the comic books, the Hulk became increasingly clever.

This indicated that as the time he spent using the body increased, his intelligence did indeed experience a certain degree of growth.

This was a conclusion Zhong Shenxiu had summarized himself.

Calculating the timeline now, the current Hulk had probably been born not too long ago and had certainly used this shared body only a handful of times.

Therefore, his intelligence could be considered to be at the lowest point of his existence.

To give an example, he was probably like a newborn baby?

Thinking about it this way, it was inexplicably somewhat endearing.

A heavily muscled, green-skinned little baby who could kill an elephant with a single punch......

This explained the naive, reckless behavior of the current Hulk; after all, he was still just a 500-kilogram child.

Watching the Hulk grow increasingly reckless—clearly lacking the current capability to brute-force through the "defensive array" combining a metal storm and sonic attacks, yet stubbornly setting his jaw and charging in anyway—

Zhong Shenxiu wished he could acquire countless amounts of Wanda's chaotic magic and pour it all into the Hulk's body.

Controlling his body to execute some extreme micro-maneuvers to dodge skills.

After all, from Zhong Shenxiu's current perspective, given the Hulk's physical fitness, there were far too many methods and routes available to zig-zag his way to the base in the rear.

It was simply a waste of this body, Zhong Shenxiu relentlessly criticized inwardly.

Unfortunately, Zhong Shenxiu did not possess that much mind-controlling chaotic magic. What he had left now was probably only enough magic to fill two or three small containers. After all, he hadn't asked Wanda for too much back then; he had simply brought it along for convenience and to casually control an individual's thoughts when needed, not to reserve it specifically for controlling monsters of this scale.

Thus, this tactical master could not play his role at the moment.

He could only stand by and watch the Hulk continuously charge in recklessly.....

However, one thing was certain: the Hulk would definitely manage to break through the interception of these weapons.

Because in Zhong Shenxiu's True Sight, the Hulk's combat power was still soaring continuously, and with every roar he let out, he grew increasingly adept amidst the crossfire of the sonic waves and armor-piercing bullets.

This also meant the Hulk was constantly growing stronger.

It was just that the speed was a bit too slow.

By the time he grew strong enough to tear through the base's defenses by sheer brute force alone, goodness knows how many ages would have passed.

This was probably the limitation of the Hulk, right?

The anger of a living being always had its limits. Even if he could accumulate it infinitely, once his anger reached a certain extreme, while his power would have no upper limit, the rate of increase would become tethered to that anger, gradually slowing down as the rage reached its peak.

This meant that the Hulk's power grew rapidly at the very beginning, but the further along he went, the slower it became.

By the time he grew strong enough to be invincible in the world, who knew how long he would have been angry for. This was a state that could probably only be achieved by anger exceeding human emotion and continuing endlessly without ever extinguishing.

The conditions could not be described as anything less than harsh.

Therefore, the greatest limitation to the Hulk's ability was actually Bruce Banner—the limitation of this person's emotions.

This was actually quite natural.

The real world always had all sorts of limitations. For instance, as powerful as the Ancient One was, she still had to be bound by time, and someone as mighty as Odin was no different.

To put it in the context of another world, even the Espada of the Wrath Beast in Bleach had an ability similar to the Hulk's—the angrier he became, the stronger he grew, and according to him, there was no limit.

Yet when his power truly grew strong enough for him to become the zeroth Espada,

Ultimately, his power still reached its end. This perhaps was truly just like the Hulk.

It was not the limit of his ability, but the limit of his emotions as a living being.

No matter how angry he got, he could only get that angry; what else could he do?

Yet in the Marvel universe, there was something that could help the Hulk break through the shackles brought by the emotional limits of his host, Bruce Banner.

The Mind Stone.

Or a substitute possessing the abilities of the Mind Stone, such as Wanda's chaotic magic.

The ability to manipulate minds could directly ignore this so-called emotional limit, continuously stimulating Bruce Banner's mind and thereby keeping the Hulk's power growth uninterrupted.

Of course, if one truly did this, Bruce Banner would very likely lose his mind entirely.

What kind of impact this would have on Banner and the Hulk, who shared this symbiotic body, remained completely unknown.

However, Zhong Shenxiu could appropriately control the degree.

While ensuring things did not go too far, he could moderately stimulate the Hulk's emotions so that the growth of his power would accelerate once more, thereby breaking through the base's defenses all the faster.

Zhong Shenxiu swept his True Sight backward once again.

He discovered that those police cars were continuously observing the battlefield from a distance in the rear, and a bit further away, those four S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were likewise observing the battlefield without a moment's pause.

The police and the S.H.I.E.L.D. faction.

Once the commotion grew large enough, even General Ross, who had always wanted to capture Bruce Banner, would rush over to this location.

No, it was even possible he was already on his way.

Thinking of all this,

Zhong Shenxiu felt that he could no longer drag things out like this.

He needed to let the tank-like Hulk break through the base's defenses sooner, or else simply have the Hulk retreat.

However, Zhong Shenxiu roughly calculated the amount of Wanda's chaotic magic he currently held.

He felt that using it to extinguish the endless fires of rage in the Hulk's heart... might fall somewhat short.

Whereas using it to pour oil on the fire was entirely feasible.

Therefore, after a brief moment of thought, Zhong Shenxiu decided to give the Hulk another simple stimulation, causing his anger to swell ever more magnificently and ultimately breach this base in a short amount of time.

Then Zhong Shenxiu could slip in while taking advantage of the chaos.

To search for any clues about the master behind this base, and also to see if there were any items of immense value.

For instance, certain precious research data.

One had to know, why would a base be equipped with such a powerful weapon system?

It was certainly to better protect the research data housed within it.

Since this weapon defense was so formidable, one could guess that the data inside must be extremely precious.

Thus, this served as Zhong Shenxiu's secondary objective upon seeing this base.

Accordingly,

He drew out another small container of chaotic magic, opened it, and wrapped his own gray chaotic magic around the red chaotic magic.

Intending to once again fuel the Hulk's rage—