Chapter 47: Ha! We've successfully deciphered the Xenomorphs' secrets!
Listening to Thor's words, the expression on Du Wa's face didn't change from beginning to end.
Surprise? Dissatisfaction? There was none of that. He just sat there calmly, quietly watching Thor.
"Borrowing troops... To be honest, that's a crazy idea. If I agree, it means getting involved in a war between worlds," Du Wa said slowly.
Take Asgard, for example. The population on the main continent of Asgard isn't large, at most less than a hundred thousand people. The rest of the population is scattered across the various planets of the Nine Realms, serving as garrisons.
This population also includes civilians, meaning the number of professional warriors who can be brought to the battlefield is even smaller.
Other worlds, such as Jotunheim ruled by the Frost Giants under Laufey, and Muspelheim ruled by the Fire Giants under Surtur and Queen Sindr, likely don't have large populations either.
But the problem is that the top dogs of these worlds are all at the Skyfather level.
Once they get serious, they can destroy planets at the drop of a hat.
Someone like Odin, wielding the Spear of Eternity and wearing the Destroyer Armor, even dared to fight the Celestials head-on. He's ridiculously fierce.
"Mjolnir chose you. You are the new Thor now. You should bear your responsibilities as Thor!"
The more Thor spoke, the more agitated he became. This was tantamount to admitting his own failure. Every time he saw Du Wa casually toying with Mjolnir, he was practically dying of jealousy.
Du Wa remained unmoved. Trying to bind him, someone who was still considered an Earthling, with the responsibilities of Asgard? What a joke.
"With great power comes great responsibility?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean!"
"Then, Thor, how many soldiers do you want to borrow?" Du Wa looked at him seriously.
Thor first breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that he had persuaded Du Wa with his powerful rhetoric. At the same time, he looked at the surrounding xenomorphs and fell into deep thought.
Borrow troops... how many should he borrow?
Thor could guess that Du Wa couldn't possibly be displaying all his xenomorphs in this dilapidated building. But if he asked for too many, Du Wa might not be able to provide them, and even if he could, he might not be willing to.
That's right, "give." Thor was well aware that while it was called "borrowing," in reality, taking an army to participate in a war between gods would inevitably result in extremely high casualties.
If they were all wiped out, there would be nothing to return.
"The way you are now reminds me of myself as a child eating cream cake, constantly contemplating the ratio of cream to cake, trying to find a combination that would both satisfy my obsessive compulsion and taste perfect." Du Wa looked at the rarely hesitant Thor. "It's clear that your personality has changed a bit since you came to Earth. At least you're trying to think things through now."
"If you became a mortal like me, without any power, and even your subordinates abandoned you, you'd become just like me," Thor said very seriously.
If he hadn't lost his power and suffered a series of blows, he wouldn't have grown up so quickly, let alone used his brain.
Thor extended a hand, showing five fingers.
"Five thousand? You want to borrow five thousand troops? Alright, that's not a small number. Give me some time." Du Wa nodded slightly.
Thor opened his mouth. He had been about to say fifty...
From Thor's perspective, honed by a thousand years of battle, a creature like the xenomorph had many advantages. For instance, they were born with an exoskeleton armor, possessed considerable defensive capabilities, and could largely resist firearms used by humans. This meant that an ordinary xenomorph was no less defensive than an excellent Asgardian warrior—just without the high-tech equipment.
In terms of offensive power, the inner jaw, tail, and highly corrosive blood were all exceptionally terrifying weapons.
Most importantly, Thor believed the xenomorphs were natural-born warriors. Their cold minds, perfect coordination, and a combat will that would never retreat were extremely valuable assets.
Fifty xenomorphs, of course, couldn't help him counterattack Jotunheim—Thor wasn't crazy. He just wanted to take these xenomorphs from Earth to help Loki as much as possible. Perhaps they could serve as a surprise contingent to launch a sneak attack on key figures among the Frost Giants.
The number fifty was what Thor had settled on after careful consideration. He felt that among this tribe of xenomorphs following Du Wa, there should be that many. Even if not, there should at least be thirty or forty.
And now, Du Wa had directly replied with five thousand?
Five thousand. What kind of number was that!
"Thank you for your generosity, this is just... I'm not sure what the social structure of this species is. At least, there are no records of it in the libraries of Asgard. If there were, it's impossible that I wouldn't have any impression of it. But I need true elites. Don't give me the bottom-rung, civilian xenomorphs. That would be sending them to their deaths," Thor hesitated for a moment before he couldn't help but say this.
"Don't worry, I have it under control."
The xenomorphs Du Wa planned to dispatch would mainly consist of "Blood Xenomorphs." Considering the physical constitution of their vampire hosts, the xenomorphs that chest-bursted from them possessed a higher level of combat power, barely crossing the threshold of a transcendent lifeform.
At the very least, a Blood Xenomorph could ignore the vast majority of human firearms. Even if injured, the xenomorph's own exaggerated self-healing ability, combined with the powerful self-healing inherent to a vampire, would ensure they could rapidly recover from their injuries.
If he sent out Messenger Xenomorphs, born from parasitizing ordinary animals, they would be injured by any slightly more powerful firearm. Sending this type of xenomorph to an Asgardian battlefield wouldn't do much to turn the tide of battle.
They would certainly be useful. The blood of even the lowest-level xenomorph could corrode the alloy of a starship. Presumably, breaking through the skin of an ordinary Frost Giant and corroding their internal organs wouldn't be a problem.
But it was naturally better to send out higher-level xenomorphs. They could swarm their enemies and expand their victories.
Du Wa said confidently, "The xenomorphs may have their flaws, but you can rest assured of one thing: even if they have to fight to the death, they will do everything they can to tear their own bodies apart just to drench the enemy's head in their blood."
A desperate one-for-one trade. 'I might be guaranteed to lose, but you, my enemy, will have your combat power crippled even if you don't die.' This is the combat style the xenomorphs excel at, and it's the result of their do-or-die attacks when all other options are exhausted.
Thor looked at Du Wa, his face filled with shock.
"I hope you're not joking."
"How long have you been on Earth? You've already learned how to make human deadpan jokes?"
The two looked at each other.
"Five thousand, five thousand... If there are really that many..." Thor muttered, growing excited. His expectations hadn't been high to begin with, but now he had received a promise a hundred times greater. This was simply a massive surprise!
Five thousand xenomorphs that have barely crossed the transcendent threshold and also possess a "desperate one-for-one trade" capability would be an absolutely massive and immensely helpful army.
"As far as I know, the Frost Giant race loves melee combat, right? Relying on their powerful bodies and sharp ice magic to slay their enemies. What a coincidence, I like that style of combat too," Du Wa said with a smile.
Once xenomorphs form a large-scale swarm, what do they fear most? The answer is long-range bombardment from high-tech weapons or high-powered magic.
But when it comes to close-quarters combat, melee, and the like, Du Wa was wide awake. In a sense, although a war between gods was perilous, it was also the most suitable battlefield for the xenomorphs.
At least, it was the most suitable before Du Wa could develop a xenomorph system that could wield special energy, like divine xenomorphs or magical xenomorphs.
"My brother, we must have a good drink! When we get to Asgard, I'll toast you with the finest wine! I'll introduce you to the most beautiful women!" Thor was ecstatic, his body trembling slightly. He grabbed Du Wa's hands, held them tightly, and refused to let go.
Du Wa remained impassive as he pried open the rough man's sweaty palms bit by bit. He looked left and right, then called Elektra over and wiped his hands vigorously on her newly grown, fair thighs, angering Elektra so much that her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at her boss.
"Can you really produce five thousand troops?" Elektra was about to flare up, but the xenomorph larva in her chest forcefully stopped her. She could only change the subject and ask.
Elektra was also shocked when she heard the number.
She didn't know if it was her imagination, but she felt that Du Wa had deliberately raised the number to the unit of "thousands."
"Not right now, but it will be possible soon. For something like military expansion, I'm not the only one working on it. There are many others putting in the effort."
Du Wa finally stood up. He glanced at the ecstasy on Thor's face, mixed with a fear of it being too good to be true, and his gaze passed through the collapsed gate, looking toward a place far beyond.
He felt like an arms dealer, desperately pitching the value of xenomorphs as a weapon to a client, hoping the client would take them along when he went to war.
Thor had no other choice and was willing to take the xenomorphs to the battlefield.
Otherwise, who else could Thor find? The Inhumans? Black Bolt would have to be insane to drag the sparsely populated Inhumans into the war. Or Kamar-Taj? Atlantis?
"Wait patiently, Thor. It will be soon. I need a little time for a military buildup. War is never a simple matter."
If command were left to Thor, the guy would most likely just give a single order: "Charge with me."
"Aren't you going to fight?" Thor looked at him in surprise, as if a leader who commanded such loyalty not going to the battlefield personally was an extremely strange concept.
"I'm not fighting. I don't need to get involved personally in a fight of this level." Du Wa was calm and composed. In truth, even if he didn't join the battle, he could still remotely control all the xenomorphs.
More importantly, he didn't want to get beaten to death on the battlefield by some sub-Skyfather or Skyfather-level powerhouse who might pop up. By staying on Earth and controlling things remotely, even if he really pissed off Jotunheim, they wouldn't dare come to Earth for revenge.
"Well then, now it's time to let that guy show his value... Mr. Blue."
Du Wa left Thor behind, taking the Abomination xenomorph and a few Deviant xenomorphs with him. Using the power of a newly-birthed Speed Xenomorph, he became a blur difficult for the naked eye to see and quickly vanished from the spot.
Mr. Blue was hiding in the Sewer, painstakingly studying the mysteries of the xenomorphs.
Around him, dozens of pale green creatures were slumbering, submerged in formalin.
These were all products he had developed using the blood of the Hulk, modeled after the Abomination, and they could be controlled by him.
But this wasn't what Mr. Blue wanted. He wanted to replicate the xenomorphs; he wanted to command that fascinating group of creatures.
His intelligence, which had surged five hundredfold, meant he never stopped thinking for a moment. Deduction and calculation were as simple as eating and drinking.
"That guy went quiet after coming back from New Mexico... He precisely located the landing spot of Thor, then successfully returned with the identity of Thor. Did he parasitize Thor?" Mr. Blue was extremely excited.
"Something major must have happened in Asgard, causing Thor to fall to Earth. What could it be? An external invasion? A civil war?" Mr. Blue couldn't figure it out, but he vaguely realized that after Du Wa made contact with Thor, he would definitely take further action.
Just then, with a loud bang, the ground above shattered, and Du Wa descended from the sky, appearing before Mr. Blue.
"It seems you've been working hard these past few days." Du Wa glanced at the pale green monsters.
"Of course. I knew someone like you wouldn't let me be. You must have sent xenomorphs to secretly monitor me, so I've been waiting for you. You really need these things I've developed, don't you?" Mr. Blue's face showed no surprise. He simply lowered his head slightly and let out a maniacal laugh.
Du Wa frowned slightly. It seemed that in this universe, the Mr. Blue whose brain had been modified by the Hulk's blood was a bit neurotic. But as long as he was useful, it was fine.
"From now on, you will focus all your efforts on creating these... things. You, included, will belong to me."
"Is a war about to break out? Are you going to war with S.H.I.E.L.D. or some other organization? Is it to fight for ownership of Thor, or..."
Du Wa didn't waste words. He went up and fed him a facehugger. He watched as the man foamed at the mouth and passed out, only to quickly regain consciousness a moment later thanks to the Hulk serum in his body.
"There's something gestating in my chest. Just as I thought, this creature can fuse with the host's genetic material. I guess you won't kill me before I've lost my value." Mr. Blue grew even more agitated, carefully sensing the changes within his body.
As early as the day the Abomination xenomorph was born, he had already collected a tiny bit of residual genetic material from the xenomorph in his lab. However, he had been unable to replicate a true xenomorph. He had been waiting for Du Wa's arrival all along.
First understand, then decipher, then achieve perfect control, and finally, surpass Du Wa and in turn, enslave Du Wa and the xenomorphs—this was the plan Mr. Blue had set for himself!
Du Wa could roughly guess what this ambitious mad scientist was thinking, but now was not the time to worry about it.
A mere Mr. Blue was not enough to provide him with a large military force.
In the time that followed, besides dispatching more xenomorphs to attack in force and frantically capture vampires, he would have to rely on Mr. Blue's genetic experiments and that stolen xenomorph egg.
High above the continent.
Inside the biological laboratory of the Helicarrier.
"Success! The xenomorph really does communicate via pheromones! So far, it hasn't shown any sign of a psychic link. We've already developed a pheromone agent from its secretions that can control it!"
"Have you noticed? This xenomorph is evolving rapidly! If I'm not mistaken, it's evolving into a queen capable of reproduction! Parthenogenesis, so this is how xenomorphs reproduce. It's incredible!"
A group of scientists gathered together, heatedly discussing the xenomorph imprisoned in a cage made of Adamantium.
(end of chapter)