Chapter 77 Entering the Mar-Will
The quinjet's engine sound changed, abruptly rising from a low rumble to a piercing shriek.
The fuselage shuddered violently, and a brutal force pressed the three individuals firmly into their seats. This prototype, a fusion of humanity's cutting-edge technology and some alien techniques, shot straight through the camouflaged rock dome of the Base like a thrown javelin, piercing the cloudless sky without a hint of deceleration.
Carol gripped the control stick tightly, her expression intensely focused. She didn't need to look at the complex instrument panels; her body seemed to merge with the cold machine. She could feel every tiny tremor as the wings cut through the thin air, and sense the strength of every energy pulse from the engine's core.
"Rough design."
Talos's voice came from the back seat, with a hint of the Skrulls' characteristic rasp. He had unbuckled his seatbelt at some point and, despite the immense G-forces that would dislocate an ordinary person's organs, he stood steadily as if nothing were amiss, calmly floating to the center of the cockpit. Outside the window, the clouds rapidly converged below them into a boundless white ocean, while the sky above was visibly transitioning from azure to deep indigo, then to pure black.
Chu Hang leaned languidly in the co-pilot's seat, arms crossed over his chest, eyes closed. His relaxed demeanor made it seem as if he wasn't on an interstellar flight, but rather on a long-distance bus ride home. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Carol's profile; her lower lip was tightly bitten, her eyes a mix of excitement, nervousness, and a barely perceptible hint of confusion.
"Approaching the Kármán line," Carol's voice trembled slightly. This wasn't fear, but an instinctive reaction to the imminent return to the Universe she had been away from for so long.
As soon as she spoke, the heavy pressure on their bodies suddenly lightened, and the violent vibrations and piercing noise of the fuselage vanished without a trace at the same instant.
The World fell silent.
Outside the window was absolute darkness, so profound it seemed to swallow all light. Against this backdrop of ultimate blackness, countless stars shone with startling brightness; unlike the gentle glow seen from Earth, they sparkled like shattered diamonds, with a cold and sharp brilliance. Below them, a vast, quiet, and breathtakingly beautiful blue Planet, draped in a veil of clouds, slowly rotated.
Earth.
The spaceship smoothly entered its designated orbit, and the engine switched to low-power cruising mode. Gravity's hold completely vanished inside the cabin.
Talos, like a child, clumsily floated to the viewport, extending his hand as if to touch the distant Planet. He gazed greedily at the azure and pure white, his eyes filled with complex emotions. It was the ideal home his people had yearned for countless times during their flight, a place full of life and hope, yet they could never possess it. War had taken their homeworld, and now, they could only wander like dust in the Universe, searching for a corner where they could breathe.
Carol also released the control stick, allowing her body to float in the zero-gravity environment. She looked at the blue Planet, silent. She couldn't remember which corner of which continent she was born on, but she could feel a connection, stemming from her bloodline, emanating from that Planet, tugging at her heart. There lay her past, her stolen life.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Chu Hang's calm voice broke the silence in the cabin. He also floated to the viewport, watching the magnificent sight alongside them.
"I've seen many Planets," Talos spoke hoarsely, his voice carrying an lingering weariness, "Burning Planets, ice-bound Planets, Planets shrouded in toxic gas... But like this... full of life, gently covered by life, very few. It's like a miracle."
"Indeed," Chu Hang replied indifferently, then turned his gaze to Carol, "Find the laboratory, retrieve your lost memories, and then what? What do you plan to do?"
Carol slowly withdrew her gaze, the confusion in her eyes replaced by a cold fire: "I'm going to find the Supreme Intelligence. I'm going to expose its hypocritical rhetoric in front of all Kree. I'm going to make Yon-Rogg pay for everything he did to me."
Her voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be squeezed through gritted teeth, full of unwavering determination.
"Revenge," Chu Hang summarized her plan in two words, "Sounds good. Simple, direct, clear objective."
He paused, then abruptly changed the subject, like a scalpel, precisely cutting into the most fragile part of her plan: "But have you considered that the Supreme Intelligence isn't a person? It's a program, a super artificial intelligence formed by the fusion of countless Kree elite leaders' brains. How do you plan to expose a program's lie? Rush into the Supreme Temple on Hala, punch that giant green head? Then what?"
Carol was stunned.
She really hadn't thought about these things. In her understanding, taking revenge was natural and justified. Yon-Rogg had deceived her, and the Supreme Intelligence was the mastermind, so she should drag them out, beat them severely, and make them admit their mistakes in front of the entire Universe. Wasn't that right?
"Even if you destroy that green head, it's useless," Chu Hang's voice was very calm. "Its core code is backed up in the network of every Kree Empire military Base, and even in the central computers of every main battleship. As long as the Kree Empire, this vast War Machine, continues to operate, the Supreme Intelligence will never die. You are not facing one or a few enemies, but a deeply entrenched system, a form of civilization that has existed for thousands of years. You alone cannot defeat a system."
Talos, who had been silent, listened from the side, a deep sense of agreement in his eyes. No one knew better than him how despairing it was to contend with a vast interstellar empire. The Skrulls had tried once, and the result was their homeworld destroyed, their people displaced, hunted across the Universe for sixty years.
"Then what do you suggest we do?!" Carol retorted somewhat irritably. She felt like her full-force punch had landed squarely on empty air, and that sense of powerlessness made her extremely uncomfortable.
"I don't know," Chu Hang's answer was blunt, leaving Carol with a lump in her throat. "I'm just reminding you not to oversimplify things. Revenge doesn't solve fundamental problems; it only creates more. You kill Yon-Rogg, and the Kree Empire will send ten Commanders stronger and more ruthless than him. You destroy the Supreme Intelligence's main unit on Hala, and they will immediately activate backup systems, then declare you Public Enemy Number One of the Empire, mobilizing all forces to hunt you across the Universe. What will you do then? Wander for decades in the endless Universe like them, never finding a place to sleep peacefully?"
He gestured to Talos beside him.
Talos's body visibly stiffened, his eyes instantly dimming, and his green face was etched with pain and sadness.
"We... don't want revenge," he whispered in an almost inaudible voice. "We just want to survive, find a place, and rebuild our home. War... we've had enough."
Carol fell completely silent. Chu Hang's words and Talos's pain were like a bucket of ice water poured over her burning rage. For the first time, she began to consider what else she could do, what she *should* do, beyond anger and revenge.
"Beep beep beep..."
Just then, the monotonous beeping of the navigation system interrupted the heavy conversation.
"Arrived at target coordinates."
The three simultaneously floated towards the cockpit. Looking out through the large front viewport, they saw nothing but empty, pitch-black Universe. Aside from distant stars, there was nothing.
"What's going on?" Talos's voice held an uncontrollable anxiety. "Are the coordinates wrong? Or... is this another Kree trick?"
"No, it's right there," Carol suddenly spoke, her voice very soft, yet unusually certain.
Her eyes, at some point, had lit up with a faint golden glow. She gazed at the seemingly empty darkness ahead, as if seeing something others could not.
"I can feel it," she murmured. "An energy source of the same origin as us, very faint, shielded by some kind of force field. But it's there. Like a... sleeping heartbeat."
She extended her hand, pointing to the dark space about thirty degrees to the left of their front.
Chu Hang raised an eyebrow. It seemed the Tesseract's energy did indeed have some kind of super-spatial resonance between different individuals of the same origin. Under his guidance, Carol's energy perception had become quite acute.
"Can you make it appear?" Chu Hang asked.
Carol closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Following Chu Hang's method, she no longer tried to perceive with brute force, but emptied her mind, allowing the cosmic energy within her to act like a calm lake, sensing the ripples from that faint "heartbeat."
This was more difficult than any precise control she had practiced on Earth before. It was like trying to distinguish a single audience member's breathing in a noisy rock concert.
Several minutes passed, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
"No... it's too faint, I can't grasp it," she opened her eyes, somewhat frustrated.
"Don't 'grasp' it," Chu Hang's voice was like a clear spring, sounding in her ear. "'Call' to it. Treat it as part of your body, like your finger. You don't need to 'grasp' your finger to control it; you just need a thought, and it will move on its own."
Carol paused, as if understanding.
She closed her eyes again. This time, she no longer tried to capture the energy, but completely let go of her consciousness, imagining herself as an infinite ocean of energy, and that faint energy as a distant drop of Water of the same origin. She didn't chase, didn't grab, but gently and continuously called out to it.
Slowly, she felt a response.
That faint heartbeat began to become clear. It was no longer a distant and Vague point; as if drawn by her call, it was actively approaching her.
"Now," Chu Hang reminded her softly.
Carol abruptly opened her eyes, the golden light in them flaring intensely for an instant. She extended her right hand, palm forward, and a highly concentrated beam of golden energy, like a precise laser, silently shot towards the point she had sensed.
There was no anticipated explosion, no Earth-shattering roar.
The moment the golden energy beam entered the darkness, it was like a drop of ink falling into clear Water.
Centered on the beam's impact point, a visible, wave-like ripple rapidly spread through the smooth space. Wherever the ripple passed, the previously empty cosmic space began to twist and blur, and then, the outline of a colossal object gradually materialized from nothingness amidst the shifting light and Shadow.
It was a space station.
A space station of exceptionally graceful design.
It wasn't like any spaceship built by humans or Kree; it lacked that cold, angular military style.
Its overall structure resembled a metallic lotus blooming in the Universe, with flowing curves and massive circular structures.
Countless large blue observation windows, like quiet eyes, gently gazed at the azure Planet below. The entire space station was covered with an advanced optical camouflage, blending seamlessly with the surrounding cosmic environment; without the guidance of same-origin energy, no radar or detector could have discovered its existence.
On the central body of the space station, its name was engraved in an elegant, non-Earth script.
— The Mar-Vell.
Talos looked at the space station that had appeared out of thin air, trembling with excitement, and for the first time, tears welled up in his weathered eyes. Sixty years of exile, decades of searching, the sacrifice of countless kin... they had finally found their last hope.
Carol also stared blankly at the space station named after her mentor. A strong sense of belonging and an inexpressible sadness simultaneously surged in her heart. This was Dr. Lawson's true home, a place of her own, far from war and turmoil.
The quinjet slowly approached the space station, as if guided by something. A hidden docking bay door, originally perfectly integrated with the ship's body, automatically slid open to both sides, revealing a brightly lit hangar inside.
"Let's go," Chu Hang patted Carol's still-dazed shoulder. "Go and meet your true past."
The spaceship smoothly entered the docking bay and settled with a slight tremor.
The hatch opened, and the three stepped onto the cold metal deck. A long-sealed, yet not unpleasant, scent wafted towards them.
Before them was a long, pure White corridor, simply and spaciously designed. The moment they stepped in, the corridor lights automatically illuminated, casting a soft, non-glaring glow. On the walls on both sides of the corridor hung several holographic photos. There were magnificent Nebulae, grand galaxies, and some... candid shots.
Carol's footsteps stopped in front of a photo. In the picture, a young Dr. Lawson and a similarly young girl in a U.S. Air Force flight suit were laughing heartily in front of an old propeller plane. The girl, laughing carefree, with the sunlight on her golden hair, seemed to glow.
It was herself.
She reached out, her fingertips trembling, wanting to touch her own radiant smile in the photo.
Just then, from deep within the corridor, an extremely faint metallic scraping sound suddenly echoed, as if something was moving.
"Who's there?!"
Talos reacted fastest, instantly becoming alert, sharply turning and adopting a combat stance, his eyes fixed on the dark end of the corridor.
Chu Hang's brow also furrowed slightly. His energy perception had already covered the entire space station. He could clearly feel that in this seemingly empty space station, there was a fourth... no, a fifth life signal.
One signal source was strong, filled with pure energy. The other... was very strange, like both life and machine.
A slightly stiff, mechanically synthesized female voice suddenly sounded from the space station's broadcast system, breaking the long silence.
"Unknown visitor, identity verification failed. Initiating... Level One Defense Protocol."
Chapter 78 Reencounter with the Cosmic Cube
A mechanical, synthesized female voice echoed through the empty corridor, each word metallic and cold.
"Level One Defense Protocol… initiated."
The moment the voice faded, along both ends of the corridor, streams of eerie blue energy beams shot out from the wall seams, intertwining into two impenetrable light walls, completely sealing off their retreat. Immediately after, dozens of smooth, square dark compartments slid open on the ceiling and floor, and pure white drones, shaped like mechanical spiders, crawled out from them, silently landing on the ground and walls.
They were not large, only about the size of a basketball, but their movements were incredibly agile. Eight sharp metal limbs supported their rounded bodies, and a single, cyclops-like blue lens in the center lit up, simultaneously locking onto the three uninvited guests in the corridor.
"Damn it!" Talos cursed under his breath, reacting with extreme speed. Almost as soon as the drones appeared, he drew a uniquely shaped Skrulls energy pistol from his waist, aimed the barrel forward, and slightly crouched, adopting a standard combat stance. As a General who had fought in interstellar wars for many years, he was all too familiar with such automated defense systems.
Carol's reaction was equally swift. Her hands were instantly enveloped in golden cosmic energy, emitting a sizzling sound. The temperature in the air began to rise, and a powerful energy fluctuation spread out from her. She was ready to unleash two Impact waves at any moment, melting all these troublesome metal lumps into molten iron.
Only Chu Hang remained in place, not even changing his posture. His hands were in his pockets, and he idly surveyed the drones, without the slightest tension in his eyes, but rather a hint of curiosity, as if he were visiting a technology museum.
"Stable energy output, flexible joints, the fire system is a standardized pulse ray, well designed." He even had the leisure to comment, "Dr. Lawson also has a lot of talent in weapon design."
"Now is not the time for that!" Carol snapped, feeling the drones charging, ready to attack the next second.
"Don't rush." Chu Hang raised a hand, lazily waving it towards her and Talos, "No need for so much trouble."
Almost as he spoke, the single blue lenses of all the drones flared brightly, and dozens of high-energy pulse rays intertwined into a Death net, shooting towards the trio from all directions, sealing off all space for evasion.
Talos's pupils suddenly constricted, and he instinctively moved to the side to find cover. The golden light around Carol also surged to its peak, as she prepared to endure the attack.
However, Chu Hang simply casually raised that hand, facing forward, and gently made a fist.
A bizarre, indescribable scene occurred.
In front of him, the seemingly empty space, as if it had become a soft curtain, was suddenly pulled inward by an invisible giant hand, forming a small, continuously rotating indentation.
The dozens of pulse rays, powerful enough to melt spaceship armor, vanished silently after entering this area, like mud oxen entering the sea, without causing any ripples.
The next moment, behind the drones, the same spatial area also distorted. The vanished pulse rays shot out from the distortion, hitting their own backs with the same speed they had arrived.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A series of dense explosions rang out, and fire and electric arcs flashed wildly in the corridor. In less than a second, all those dozens of menacing defense drones turned into piles of smoking scrap metal parts, scattered across the floor.
The entire process was clean, swift, and even possessed an absurd artistic flair.
Talos stood frozen, gun raised, his mouth slightly agape, unable to close it for a long time. He had fought wars for half his life, seen all kinds of powerful warriors—some who could tear warships apart with their bare hands, some who could control energy storms—but he had never witnessed such a bizarre, unreasonable method of attack.
This was not strength, not energy; this was more like… a god altering the rules of the World. He felt that his proud combat experience became a joke in front of this man.
Carol also lowered her hands, which had been burning with golden flames, and looked at Chu Hang's back with complex emotions. She knew Chu Hang was strong, but every time, the power this man displayed redefined her understanding. He seemed to have no limits.
"Alright, the path is clear." Chu Hang clapped his hands as if he had done something insignificant, and continued to walk forward.
When he reached the eerie blue energy light wall, he didn't stop, but simply walked straight through it. The moment his body touched the light wall, it met no resistance, as if passing through a holographic projection, and he emerged directly from the other side of the light wall.
This scene once again almost made Talos's eyes pop out. He cautiously reached out and touched the light wall. A powerful electric current instantly shot through his body, shocking him into a shiver, his hair standing on end.
"This is… the Law of Space?" he murmured in a voice almost like a dream. In the ancient legends of the Skrulls, only those creation gods who touched the origin of the Universe could manipulate space in such a way.
"Keep up." Chu Hang's voice came from ahead.
Carol and Talos exchanged glances, both seeing deep shock in the other's eyes. They quickly followed, finding that after Chu Hang passed, the energy light walls also automatically dissipated.
"Level One Defense Protocol… deactivated. Threat level Zero." The mechanical female voice sounded again, but this time, there seemed to be a hint of softness in its tone, "Identity confirmed… Welcome home, Dr. Mar-Vell."
Evidently, the space station's AI, through the recent energy fluctuations, had confirmed Carol's identity, or rather, had been "persuaded" by Chu Hang's unreasonable ability.
The walls on both sides of the corridor had, at some point, become transparent, massive floor-to-ceiling windows, revealing the deep Universe and the giant blue Planetoutside. They seemed to be walking amidst the stars.
At the end of the corridor was a massive circular metal door. As they approached, the door silently slid open to both sides, revealing the scene behind it.
The core laboratory.
This place was much larger than the outer offices, like a giant circular auditorium. In the center was a multi-layered operating platform, with countless holographic screens suspended in the air, quietly flickering with faint light. The laboratory's dome was completely transparent, offering a panoramic view of the entire galaxy.
And in the very center of the laboratory, a massive cube, emitting a soft blue light, was held suspended in mid-air by complex energy containment devices. It was the energy core of the entire space station.
The Tesseract.
"It's… it…" Carol murmured, looking at the cube. She could feel the energy within her resonating strongly with it. Six years ago, it was this very thing that completely changed her fate.
Chu Hang's gaze also lingered on the Tesseract for a few seconds. He could feel the pure, ultimate spatial primordial energy contained within it. The power within him rejoiced because of this, like a child who had found his mother. He forcibly suppressed the urge to rush up and "replicate" it entirely. Now was not the time.
"Here!" Talos's exclamation drew their attention.
He was standing in front of the central operating platform, pointing at a huge holographic screen. Carolwalked over and found it was a vast star map. On the star map, a clear flight path was marked, ending in an unknown star system at the edge of the Andromeda galaxy.
Next to the flight path, there was also a file. Talostremblingly clicked it open.
It was a list. A roster of personnel.
Hundreds of Skrulls names were densely recorded on it, along with their family relationships and basic information.
Talos's gaze frantically scanned the list, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid. Finally, in the middle of the list, he found two names etched into his bones.
Sore-Lah, his wife.
Ael-Lu, his daughter.
"They… they're still alive…" Talos's body trembled violently. This tough man, who had shed blood but no tears on the battlefield, now felt his legs weaken, almost collapsing to the ground. He clutched the control panel tightly with his hands, his shoulders heaving violently, and suppressed whimpers, like the cries of a Beast, escaped from his throat.
Carol watched him silently, saying nothing. She could understand this mix of ecstatic joy and profound sorrow at finding something lost.
Chu Hang, however, appeared much calmer. His gaze did not linger on the star map, but slowly swept across the entire laboratory. His energy perception had long since become an invisible net, covering every corner of the space station.
He knew that in this space station, besides the three of them, there were other "people."
Just below the list Talos found, Dr. Lawson had left a log entry.
"I've hidden them. Hidden them in the safest place. A place the Kree will never think of. They are innocent; they just want to survive. If something happens to me, I hope whoever sees this message can help them find a new home."
"Hidden? Where are they hidden?" Carol frowned. Although the space station was large, it was clearly visible, and there was no place to hide hundreds of people.
"No, they are here." Chu Hang suddenly spoke.
His gaze was directed towards an inconspicuous cargo transfer channel in the corner of the laboratory.
"Right below here. In a folded sub-space."
Chu Hang's energy perception could clearly "see" that beneath the seemingly ordinary metal floor, there existed an independent small space. Hundreds of faint life signals, like fireflies, were gathered in that space.
And in the center of that group of "fireflies," there was a completely different signal source.
An extremely powerful, extremely restrained life signal. It was not a pure energy body like Carol or the Tesseract. Its signal was very peculiar, like an infinitely compressed black hole, or a supernova that could explode at any moment.
The corner of Chu Hang's mouth curved into a barely perceptible smile.
He knew what it was.
Accuser.
An adult Accuser with full spatial abilities. This was far more valuable than the "Form Mimicry" he had copied from Mystique. It was practically an S-Rank ability gift package delivered right to his doorstep.
Just as he was about to speak, to let Talos see his wife and daughter, a piercing alarm suddenly blared throughout the entire space station without warning.
"Warning! Warning! Large-scale Kree Empire fleet detected! Approaching!"
The mechanical female voice's tone became urgent and tense for the first time.
The holographic star map on the central operating platform instantly switched to a real-time monitoring view of the space station's exterior.
In the dark cosmic background, a massive black battleship, as huge as a mountain range, was slowly emerging from a jump point. Its design was ferocious and domineering, full of the violent aesthetics of the Kree Empire. Surrounding it were dozens of escort ships, forming an impenetrable encirclement.
The bow of the main ship bore a massive emblem, symbolizing Death and judgment.
Ronan's flagship, the "Dark Star."
A cold image of a man, full of fanaticism and arrogance, was projected into the center of the laboratory. He wore black heavy armor and wielded a massive war hammer, none other than Ronan, the Accuser of the Kree Empire.
"Earthling, hiding inside, and the remnants of the Skrulls." Ronan's voice was devoid of emotion, like he was reading a verdict, "I give you thirty seconds. Hand over the human weapon codenamed 'Fos,' and the Tesseract hidden by Mar-Vell."
His gaze seemed to pierce through the screen, fixed intently on Carol.
"Otherwise, this space station, and everything within it, will be purified."
Carol's face instantly turned cold. She clenched her fists, and golden energy began to boil again. Facing this Accuser, whom she had once held in immense awe, now only towering rage remained in her heart.
Talos's face, however, was filled with despair. He knew who Ronan was—a madman, a genocidal maniac. Falling into his hands meant no chance of survival.
Chu Hang, however, seemed not to have heard Ronan's threat. His attention was not on the massive fleet at all.
His gaze remained curiously fixed on the direction of the cargo transfer channel.
Ronan? Kree fleet?
That was just the main course.
Before that, he had to enjoy this unexpected, yet incredibly tempting appetizer.
"System," he silently thought, "lock onto that signal source. Prepare to replicate."
Chapter 79 Clearing the Area
Ten."
Ronan's voice came through the holographic projection, flat, cold, and devoid of any emotion. It was like a falling piece of iron.
"Nine."
A subtle but continuous tremor came from the deck underfoot. It was the space station's structure groaning under the pressure of an external energy field.
The golden light around Carol flared intensely, scorching the air around her into a slight distortion. She stared fixedly at Ronan's projection, her knuckles white. She wanted to rush out and smash that arrogant face with her fist.
"Eight."
Talos's face was no longer pale, but a bloodless grey. He had just found his long-lost family; was he about to watch them and himself be "purified" into cosmic dust the next second? He looked at Chu Hang in despair; this man was his only hope. But Chu Hang didn't even turn his head, only stood with his back to Ronan, as if he hadn't heard the countdown to Death at all.
"Seven."
"What are you doing?!" Carol finally couldn't hold back, growling at Chu Hang's back, "We have to find a way! Get out of here!"
"Don't rush." Chu Hang's voice was maddeningly calm. "Let's take care of business first."
"Six."
After he finished speaking, he ignored the anxious gazes of the two behind him, and also ignored Ronan's cold countdown, which had already reached "Five." He walked straight to an inconspicuous cargo transfer channel in the corner of the laboratory.
"There's nothing there!" Talos was on the verge of collapse. He couldn't understand why, at a time like this, this man was still concerned with an empty corner.
Chu Hang ignored him. He walked to the seemingly ordinary metal floor, squatted down, extended his right hand, and gently pressed it against the center of the floor.
He didn't use force, didn't pry; he simply injected a trace of imperceptible Space energy, like mercury, silently into it.
The next second, a scene that Talos and Carol would never forget occurred.
The floor, made of superalloy, was gripped from the middle by an invisible hand and then folded to both sides.
The metal edges showed a smooth curve that defied the laws of physics. Beneath the folded floor, a continuously fluctuating light gate, emitting a soft White glow, was revealed.
A sub-space entrance.
"This..." Talos was utterly speechless.
Before he could recover from his shock, a cacophony of sounds came from the light gate. There were terrified whispers, suppressed sobs, and the faint cry of a baby, frightened.
Immediately after, green, terror-stricken faces peered out from the light gate.
These were hundreds of Skrulls, men, women, and children, packed like sardines in that small, bright sub-space. They looked up at this unfamiliar World outside, their eyes filled with confusion and fear.
"Sore-la!" Talos's body trembled violently. He stared fixedly at a woman holding a child in the crowd, his voice shaking uncontrollably.
The woman heard the call and looked up in disbelief. When she saw Talos, her entire body froze, and tears instantly streamed down her face.
"Talos!"
"Daddy!" The seven or eight-year-old girl in her arms also saw Talos and let out a joyful shriek.
Talos could no longer control himself. He scrambled to the light gate, reaching out his hand, wanting to touch his family, whom he had longed for day and night.
At this chaotic and touching moment of reunion, Chu Hang's gaze passed over them, precisely locking onto the orange cat in the little girl's arms.
There, an orange cat was lazily yawning. It looked like the most ordinary Earth house cat, with shiny fur, a plump build, and a hint of the feline's characteristic laziness and disdain in its eyes.
Chu Hang slowly stood up and walked towards the little girl.
His actions instantly tensed up the reunited family. Sore-la immediately shielded her daughter, Ailu, behind her, blocking Chu Hang's view with her body, looking warily at this unfathomable man.
"Don't be afraid." Chu Hang's face showed a smile that was as kind as possible. "I'm just looking at your pet, it's very cute."
Ailu was a little scared and hugged the orange cat in her arms even tighter.
The orange cat also seemed to sense something. It was no longer lazy; its round eyes stared warily at Chu Hang, and it let out a low growl, "Grrr..." but the sound caused the surrounding air to vibrate slightly.
Chu Hang did not stop. He walked in front of the little girl, ignored her mother's nervous gaze, slowly extended his hand, and reached out to stroke the orange cat's head.
"Three."
Ronan's countdown continued, like drumbeats on everyone's heart.
"Two."
Just as Chu Hang's fingers were about to touch the orange cat, the cat suddenly bristled! It abruptly opened its mouth, but what was revealed was not ordinary teeth and a tongue, but an abyss that seemed to connect to another dimension, filled with countless slimy tentacles and sharp teeth!
A powerful spatial repulsive force erupted from its body, trying to push Chu Hang away. The force was pure and instinctive, like the repulsion of like poles of a magnet, defying all reason.
"Interesting."
Chu Hang chuckled softly. His palm was covered with an imperceptible, constantly twisting spatial barrier, easily neutralizing the repulsive force. His hand did not pause in the slightest, continuing forward.
Finally, it landed steadily on the orange cat's furry head.
A vast and intricate stream of information instantly flooded his mind.
It was a brand new way of understanding Space. If his previous Space Control was about using powerful force to forcibly twist and tear Space, like a savage demolition team, now he had learned how to "weave" Space, how to "fold" one Space and stuff it into another.
This was a skill, a talent, an innate instinct.
He felt that a part of his body had established a strange connection with an invisible, intangible independent dimension. He only needed a thought to open or close the entrance to that dimension.
A perfect pocket space.
"One."
Ronan's countdown ended.
"Purification... begin."
As his cold voice fell, the flagship "dark star," like a mountain, slid open hundreds of launch ports on both sides of its hull. There were no energy beams, no laser cannons; what shot out were massive, destructive physical warheads.
The Kree Empire's standard weapon — the "Executor" kinetic impact warhead.
These warheads struck the Mar-Vell space station at near-light speed.
The space station's energy shield lit up in response, like a giant blue bubble, enveloping the entire space station. The first wave of impact warheads slammed into the shield, stirring up circles of violent energy ripples. The shield lasted less than half a second before shattering with a piercing wail.
"Boom—!!!"
The violent explosion instantly swallowed everything.
The entire space station trembled madly, as if it would disintegrate the next second. Giant, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the laboratory's dome, and countless metal fragments and equipment crashed down from the ceiling.
The Skrull refugees let out desperate screams, and the scene instantly spiraled out of control.
"Protect the civilians!" Carol roared, immediately flying towards the dome, using her body and energy to try and plug the ever-widening cracks.
Talos also desperately tried to organize his people to take cover, but his individual strength was insignificant in the face of such a massive disaster.
In the entire laboratory, only one person remained standing, as if he were an outsider.
Chu Hang withdrew his hand, which was still stroking the orange cat, and slowly straightened his body. He glanced at Carol, who was struggling to hold on, then at the Skrulls, who were in chaos and despair. Finally, his gaze fell on the Tesseract, which was still suspended in mid-air, emitting a faint blue light.
"Time to clear the area," he muttered softly.
He raised his right hand, palm open.
In his palm, there was no light, no energy, but a constantly rotating black vortex. The vortex was bottomless, as if connected to the end of the Universe, emitting a heart-palpitating suction.
S-Rank ability, Sub-space Stomach, activated.
"Everyone, get in."
His voice was not loud, but it clearly reached everyone's ears.
The Skrulls were stunned; they looked at the black hole-like vortex in terror, not daring to approach.
Talos was the first to react. He looked at Chu Hang, his eyes filled with unspeakable awe and a last glimmer of hope. He violently pushed his wife and daughter, shouting, "Quick! Get in! Trust him!"
Sore-la hesitated for a moment, but still held her daughter and was the first to rush towards the vortex. The moment they touched the vortex, their figures stretched and twisted, then silently disappeared.
Where there was one, there was a second. The rest of the Skrulls also followed suit, scrambling to Chu Hang's palm, disappearing one by one into the small black vortex.
This scene was utterly bizarre. Hundreds of living people were thus "eaten" into a man's palm.
In just over ten seconds, all the Skrull refugees in the entire laboratory, along with the orange cat, were taken into Chu Hang's "pocket dimension."
Having done all this, Chu Hang's gaze turned to Carol, who was still struggling to hold on in the dome.
"You go in too," he commanded. "Take them and find a safe place to stay."
"What about you?" Carol shouted back, the cracks in the dome behind her growing larger and larger, already revealing the cold Universe outside and the Kree fleet. "Let's go together!"
"Me?" Chu Hang smiled. "I need to have a good talk about life with this My Lord Accuser who has come all this way and teach him some hospitality."
He didn't give Carol a chance to retort.
With a grab from his left hand, an invisible Space force instantly locked onto the huge Tesseract, stripping it from its containment device, shrinking it into a fist-sized ball of light, and flying into his palm.
Immediately after, he made a grasping motion with his right hand in Carol's direction.
Carol only felt the surrounding Space suddenly tighten, an irresistible force firmly imprisoning her, then violently pulling her backward. Before she could even let out a cry of surprise, she was involuntarily flung towards Chu Hang and, along with the Tesseract, was forced into the black vortex.
The vortex slowly closed, and Chu Hang's palm returned to normal.
The entire World instantly fell silent.
Only the piercing alarm of the space station on the verge of disintegration remained.
"Boom—!!!"
Another volley of fire accurately hit the space station's engine area. The massive explosion completely destroyed the space station's structural balance. The laboratory's huge transparent dome could no longer hold up and shattered completely with a loud bang.
Violent air currents instantly swept up all the fragmented items in the laboratory, throwing them into the cold vacuum.
Chu Hang stood at the center of the storm, unmoving.
Vacuum, weightlessness, low temperature... these environments, which were enough to instantly kill any carbon-based life, were like a gentle spring breeze to him.
He slowly looked up, through the shattered dome, at the colossal black warship that blotted out the sky.
On the bridge of the dark star, Ronan was frowning at the monitoring screen.
"Officer, report," a Kree Officer reported, "Target energy signals... all disappeared. Including the Tesseract."
"Disappeared?" For the first time, Ronan's face showed a puzzled expression. "Scan the entire star system! They can't just disappear into thin air!"
"Officer..." another Officer pointed to the main screen, his voice trembling slightly. "Look there."
Ronan's gaze turned to the main screen.
In the center of the space station's wreckage, which was riddled with holes and constantly spewing flames, a tiny figure floated silently in the Universe.
He was not wearing any spacesuit, just exposed in the vacuum.
He looked up, seemingly sensing their gaze, then he raised one hand and waved casually in the direction of the dark star.
Chu Hang stretched his neck, letting out a series of crisp bone cracks.
"Alright, the small fries are cleaned up."
He looked at the behemoth in front of him, a relaxed smile on his face.
"Now, it's your turn."
Chapter 80 Heavenly Father (End of the Captain Shock Chapter)
On the bridge of the dark star, Ronan stared at the main screen.
On the screen, the figure floating in space was as tiny as a speck of dust.
The Kree officers around him were silent; even their breathing had ceased.
Hundreds of life signals evaporating into thin air, an unlocable target—all of it shattered everything they had learned in the Military Academy.
"He... he's waving at us?" a young officer's voice was dry, as if he had swallowed a mouthful of sand.
That seemingly light gesture, however, pierced Ronan's heart like a red-hot iron poker.
This was a provocation.
Facing the Kree Empire's most powerful Ronan the Accuser fleet alone, he made the most blatant provocation.
"All fleet, all units," Ronan's voice was low, like two pieces of metal grating together, "Target, that man.
Fire at will. Erase him completely from this Universe!"
The order was given.
The dark star, and dozens of surrounding frigates, all their uncooled weapon systems recharged.
Energy cannons, missile launchers, kinetic impact cannons... hundreds of thousands of dark muzzles simultaneously aimed at that solitary figure.
The next second, an energy storm powerful enough to completely scour a planet's surface tore through the vacuum.
Dense beams of light and missiles formed an unstoppable torrent of Death, surging towards Chu Hang from all directions.
Facing this World-destroying scene, the smile on Chu Hang's face did not change in the slightest.
He simply raised his hands slowly, as if to embrace this grand fireworks display.
Then, something bizarre happened.
Within a few hundred meters around his body, space began to visibly distort.
It wasn't a violent tearing, but a smooth, rhythmic curvature, like an invisible ripple spreading out from a stone thrown into a calm lake.
The first energy beam shot into this area.
Its trajectory was slightly altered, grazing Chu Hang's body as it flew into the deep space beyond.
Then came the second, the third, hundreds and thousands more.
All attacks, whether energy cannons or physical missiles, upon entering this warped space, seemed to be drawn into an invisible orbit.
Their paths were forcibly deflected, curved, bypassing Chu Hang at the center of the storm.
No explosions, no impacts, no sound.
From the bridge of the dark star, it looked like a grand meteor shower, and Chu Hang was the star that caused countless other stars to orbit him.
"Report! All attacks... completely missed!" The weapons officer's voice was filled with horror and confusion, "Target position hasn't moved, but our weapons can't hit! All targeting systems are offline!"
"How is that possible!" another officer roared, "Ballistic calculations show the trajectory is correct, but they just curve on their own!"
Ronan's pupils constricted to pinpricks.
He didn't understand, but he felt a chill deep in his soul.
Chu Hang seemed to have grown tired of this passive defense.
He raised his hands, gently closing his fingers.
The warped space around him instantly increased its curvature severalfold.
The attacks that were circling him had their trajectories further altered.
After bypassing him, instead of flying into deep space, they made an eerie U-turn, violently crashing into a Kreefrigate next to it.
Boom!
The frigate's energy shield shattered instantly, and a massive explosion bloomed like a flower of Death in the vacuum.
The hull was blown in half, with plasma flames and countless fragments spewing from the rupture.
This was just the beginning.
More and more attacks were deflected, refracted, then turned around, shooting towards their own allies.
"The 'Emperor's Sword' has been hit! Engine disabled!"
"The 'Sanctuary Guardian's' shield is overloaded! Requesting support!"
"Evade! Evade quickly! Those are our own torpedoes!"
For a time, the Kree fleet's formation was in chaos.
Explosions erupted one after another; they weren't attacking the enemy, but rather slaughtering each other.
"Stop attacking! Stop attacking!" Ronan finally reacted, letting out a hysterical roar.
But it was already too late.
In just these short tens of seconds, over a third of his proud escort fleet had been turned into a pile of space junk by their own firepower.
Just as the fleet scrambled to cease fire, Chu Hang's figure vanished from the main screen without warning.
"Target lost! Where did he go?!"
"Not on radar! Cannot be scanned on any frequency!"
The bridge was in chaos.
Ronan suddenly turned his head, an unprecedented sense of crisis making all the hairs on his body stand on end.
He saw that behind his Commander's throne, that man was standing quietly.
It was as if he had been there from the beginning, never leaving.
He was still wearing those ordinary Earth clothes, with a playful smile on his face, and even held a steaming cup of coffee that had appeared from who knows where.
"Hello there," Chu Hang took a sip of coffee, greeting casually, "The view here is nice, just a bit noisy."
The bridge instantly fell silent.
All the Kree officers froze in place, as if petrified, staring in horror at the uninvited guest.
Their hands hovered over the control panels, eyes wide, minds blank.
The piercing intrusion alarm even took a few seconds to sound belatedly.
Ronan's body trembled violently, not from anger, but from fear.
A fear he hadn't experienced in a long time; his instincts screamed at him to flee.
But he was, after all, Ronan the Accuser.
His fanatical faith in the Kree Empire overcame his fear.
"For the Kree!"
He let out a roar, raising the universal weapon that symbolized his identity and power with both hands, and with all his might, brought it crashing down on Chu Hang's head!
This blow was enough to shatter mountains.
However, the massive warhammer stopped less than ten centimeters from Chu Hang's head.
Chu Hang didn't even put down his coffee cup.
He simply raised his left hand, lightly pinching the heavy warhammer between his index and middle fingers.
"Is that all?" He raised an eyebrow, a hint of disappointment in his tone.
Ronan used all his strength, his face turning purple, the muscles on his arms bulging, veins throbbing.
Yet the warhammer remained motionless, as if welded in mid-air.
He felt as if he wasn't fighting a man, but the entire Universe.
He looked at Chu Hang's relaxed expression, at those two slender yet infinitely powerful fingers, and at that moment, his faith and pride completely collapsed.
"You... what exactly are you?" he asked, trembling, his voice tinged with a sob.
"Me?" Chu Hang released his fingers, letting the warhammer clatter powerlessly to the ground.
He thought for a moment, then smiled.
"I'm here to teach you manners."
With that, he extended his right hand and casually made a gesture behind Ronan.
The space behind him, like a canvas cut by a knife, split open with a dark rift.
On the other side of the rift, there was no sound, no light, only pure nothingness.
Ronan watched the spatial rift in horror, his body unable to move due to Chu Hang's control over space.
Chu Hang, holding his coffee cup, walked up to him and, with his free left hand, lightly flicked the armor on Ronan's chest, as if dusting off his clothes.
"Clink."
A soft sound.
An irresistible force surged through him.
Ronan's body involuntarily flew backward, plunging into the spatial rift.
The rift then quickly closed, as if nothing had happened.
The entire bridge was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Chu Hang finished the last sip of coffee, casually tossing the empty cup; it disintegrated into countless light particles in mid-air and vanished.
He glanced around at the terrified Kree officers.
"Alright, your Captain has gone to cool off in space," he clapped his hands, as if he had done something trivial, "Now, this ship belongs to me.
Who's in favor, who's against?"
No one dared to speak.
Everyone bowed their heads, not daring to meet his gaze... A few days later, Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret headquarters.
The atmosphere in Nick Fury's office was stifling.
Fury sat behind his desk, his good eye bloodshot.
On the screen in front of him, a top-secret recording from a Military satellite played on a loop.
In the recording, a man faced a massive alien fleet alone.
With a wave of his hand, the fleet turned on itself.
Then he vanished into thin air, and when he reappeared, the fleet had lost its Commander and fled in disarray.
"We've given him a codename," Phil Coulson stood nearby, his voice dry, "Internal file, highest clearance... Skyfather."
Fury didn't speak, just stared intently at the screen.
Skyfather? The word sent shivers down his spine.
This wasn't a hero codename; it was a threat level.
A God walking among men.
Just then, the office door was pushed open.
Chu Hang, dressed in casual clothes, a toothpick in his mouth, strode in confidently and plopped down on the sofa opposite Fury, grabbing an apple from the table as he did so.
"Director Fury, long time no see," he took a bite of the apple, speaking indistinctly, "Your place is really hard to find."
Fury took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
He turned off the screen, clasped his hands, and placed them on the table.
"Let's talk."
"Talk about what?" Chu Hang crossed his legs, "About you sending people to monitor my investment accounts twenty-four hours a day? Or about you trying to hack my firewall and burning out three of your servers?"
Fury's eye twitched.
"We are not enemies, Mr. Chen.
Or rather, Mr. Chu," Fury said gravely, "Earth needs strength like yours, but... it also fears such strength.
We need to be sure you are not a threat."
"So?"
"So, let's make a deal." Fury spoke quickly, clearly having prepared his words, "S.H.I.E.L.D. will provide you with the highest level of identity concealment, erase any records you don't wish to exist.
We will provide you with all the worldly resources you desire—wealth, information, channels—as long as we have them.
We guarantee that no one will disturb your life.
We only have one request."
"Speak."
"When, one day, a World-ending threat arises that we cannot solve... we hope to be able to contact you." Furypaused, then added, "Of course, in the form of a transaction.
You can propose any conditions we can meet, as long as you are willing to act."
Chu Hang gnawed on the apple, saying nothing.
He knew this was the biggest concession Fury could make.
Turning an uncontrollable God into a mercenary who could be bargained with was the best option.
He also knew that while he was strong, it wasn't yet time to contend with cosmic civilizations like the Supreme Intelligence; low-key development was key.
"Deal." He accurately tossed the apple core into the trash can five meters away, "However, I also have a condition."
"Please speak."
"Let Carol go be her Universe Police; I've given her the name Captain Marvel.
Don't make her an Earth nanny.
She doesn't owe this place anything.
Also, don't bother the Skrulls; find them a place to settle down."
"...Can do." Fury hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded.
"That's good." Chu Hang stood up, stretched, "I'll be going if there's nothing else.
Oh, and don't call me again; I'm very busy."
With that, he turned to leave, and as he reached the door, he seemed to remember something, turning back with a smile: "Skyfather? I like that name."
As his voice faded, his figure vanished into thin air.
Fury leaned back in his chair, letting out a long sigh, feeling his back drenched in cold sweat.
Since then, Carol Danvers became Captain Marvel, Guardian of the Universe, occasionally returning to Earthto see friends.
And Chu Hang, or rather Anthony Chen, completely disappeared from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sight.
He was like a true ghost, quietly building his vast business empire, enjoying a rare peaceful life... Over a decade, in the blink of an eye.
The World entered a new millennium, technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and stories of heroes seemed to have become distant legends.
Until one day in 2008.
Chu Hang, who was sunbathing on a private island in the South Pacific, felt a satellite phone in his pocket, encrypted for over a decade and never rung, suddenly vibrate.
On the caller ID, there was only one symbol.
An eagle.
Chu Hang frowned and answered the phone.
"It's me." On the other end of the line, Fury's familiar yet much older voice came through, with a hint of barely suppressed urgency.
"We have a problem."
"A weapons supplier, very important to the Military, has gone missing in Afghanistan."
End of volume.
Chapter 81 Tony Shit
So?" Chu Hang rolled over, his butt facing the Sun. "If he's missing, go find him. Isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. rumored to have eyes and ears everywhere? Why ask me? I'm not a living Lei Feng."
"His name is Tony Stark."
Chu Hang stopped chewing on the blade of grass.
Fury's voice was full of helplessness. "Afghanistan is a hellhole, mountains upon mountains. Our people can't get in, can't find his exact location."
"That's your problem." Chu Hang lay back down. "I'm retired, Director Fury. Unless..."
"Conditions." Fury cut him off quickly; he understood the rules.
"All of Howard Stark's research notes." Chu Hang's voice was flat, like he was ordering a coffee. "I want a complete copy, not a single hair out of place. Including all his research on the Tesseract."
Silence on the other end of the phone lasted a full five seconds.
"Deal." Fury's voice sounded like it was squeezed through his teeth.
"Coordinates." Chu Hang said, then hung up directly.
He stood up from the beach chair, stretched, and his bones cracked with a series of crisp sounds. He hadn't done any serious work in over a decade, and he wondered if his skills had gotten rusty.
Once he took the job, he had to do it. Before starting, he habitually inventoried his assets.
He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into his body to check his superpower copier.
---
Superpower List:
[S-Rank Healing Factor]: From Wolverine
[super soldier serum]: From Captain America
[Tesseract Source Energy]: Energy of the Space Stone
[Subspace Stomach]: From Accuser, a perfect pocket dimension. Can hold living things, or be used as a trash can. Usually used to chill beer, with excellent results.
[Spatial Curvature Barrier]: Standard defense, makes bullets curve, essential for home and travel.
[Life Restoration]: Automatically repairs all damage and converts it into energy.
[Space Control (Beginner)]: Basic interference with small-scale space.
[Fixed-Point Teleportation]: Point-to-point teleportation, a divine artifact for travel.
[Spatial Cutting]: Used for cutting steak, better than the sharpest knife.
[Twin Star Form]: Carol's version, a humanoid walking nuclear reactor. When in a bad mood, firing one into the deep, uninhabited sea can create a hundred-meter-high splash, very stress-relieving.
[Will Barrier]: Copied from Yon-Rogg, the KreeCommander. Can block mental attacks and allows him to maintain absolute calm when counting money until his hands cramp.
[Beginner Atmospheric Control]: From Storm. The ability isn't strong, but it's convenient for creating artificial rain on his small island or blowing away annoying mosquitoes.
[Kinetic Injection]: From Gambit. Injecting kinetic energy into playing cards and then throwing them to fish is one of his few recreational activities.
[Superman Senses and Physique]: From Beast. Although his physical fitness was already off the charts, this provides Beast-like intuition and dynamic vision, allowing him to distinguish thirteen different vintages of red wine in one second.
[Form Mimicry]: Mystique's version, a divine skill. Over the years, he has relied on this ability to transform into various people and manage his illicit business empire around the World.
Cool down finished, new abilities can be copied
---
Chu Hang pouted. His assets were decent, good enough to use.
The next second, he vanished from the spot.
A gentle breeze blew, leaving only a shallow indentation on the beach chair, as if no one had ever been there... Afghanistan, Kunduz Province.
On the desolate Gobi Desert, the air was distorted by the scorching Sun. Chu Hang's figure appeared out of nowhere, the sand beneath his feet slightly sinking from his sudden arrival.
He was wearing beach shorts and a floral shirt, completely out of place, like a tourist who had wandered onto the wrong set.
His energy perception spread out like an invisible radar, instantly covering dozens of kilometers in every direction. Countless life signals lit up in his mind, like stars in the night sky. Most were weak and chaotic, belonging to the ordinary people struggling to survive in this land.
But in one particular spot, the energy signature was very strange.
Deep within a mountain range, there was a faint but extremely stable electromagnetic field, like a quiet heart. And next to it, there was a reactor with extremely unstable energy output, flickering on and off, as if it could stall at any moment.
"Found it."
Chu Hang's figure disappeared again.
When he reappeared, he was inside a dark, damp cave.
Tony Stark and Ethan were clanging away at a pile of scrap metal.
"The angle's off, three degrees to the left!" Tony coughed as he yelled. The crude electromagnet in his chest flickered with a faint blue light, each heartbeat feeling like someone was pinching the shrapnel inside him with pliers.
Ethan sighed, picked up a hammer, and prepared for another strike.
Just then, two dull thuds, "thump," "thump," came from the cave entrance.
"Who's there?" Ethan tensed up, grabbing an iron rod.
Tony also stopped what he was doing, staring nervously at the cave entrance.
A man in beach shorts and a floral shirt, a blade of grass in his mouth, hands in his pockets, strolled out of the darkness. He glanced at the cave's interior, wrinkling his nose in distaste.
"Tsk, this smell, it's overpowering."
Behind him, two Ten Rings Gang Sentinels lay on the ground, each with a neat cut across their necks, dead silently.
Tony and Ethan were dumbfounded. How did this man get in?
"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked warily.
The man ignored him, walked straight up to him, circled him, his gaze like someone picking pork at a wet market.
"Are you Tony S-tark?" Chu Hang deliberately mispronounced "Stark" with a heavy, strange accent.
"It's Stark! Idiot!" Tony instinctively corrected him, then reacted. "Wait, who are you? Military personnel?"
"You can call me... the delivery guy." Chu Hang grinned. "Someone placed a sky-high order, asking me to deliver this expensive package, you, back in one piece."
He glanced at the makeshift armor they were tinkering with.
"Just with this thing?" He pouted. "The design looks okay, but the armor material is crumbling. By the time you two finish hammering, those bastards outside will have already riddled you with bullets like a beehive."
Tony's face immediately showed the arrogance unique to a genius: "What do you know! This is a groundbreaking masterpiece!"
"Is it?"
Chu Hang walked to a pile of steel plates prepared for the armor, extended his index finger, and casually traced a line in the air as if drawing.
[Spatial Cutting]
No sound, no light effects.
On that thick steel plate, a perfect circle appeared out of thin air, then clanged to the ground. The cut was so smooth it could be used as a mirror.
Tony's eyes instantly widened. He lunged forward, repeatedly stroking the smooth cut with his hand, then turned to look at Chu Hang's ordinary finger, his arrogance instantly replaced by a look of utter disbelief.
"My God... How did you do that? This... this is unscientific!"
Ethan was also dumbfounded, the iron rod in his hand falling to the ground.
"Forget about science, Mr. S-tark." Chu Hang walked to the workbench, picked up a design blueprint. "Good idea, but your workshop's efficiency is too low. I'll give you a hand."
For the next hour, Tony and Ethan witnessed what it was like for a god to work.
Tony went completely crazy. Like a hyped-up foreman, he pointed at a component on the blueprint, frantically shouting out dimensions and angles. And Chu Hang, like a humanoid universal machine tool, used his Spatial Cutting ability, gently drawing a line in the air with his finger, and the metal material beside him would split, cut, polish, and bend in one smooth motion, with precision higher than Stark Industries' top-tier equipment.
"Here, the arc needs to be a little tighter! Yes! Just like that!"
"That driveshaft, I want it integrally formed!"
"Damn it, how did you perfectly weld these two metals with different melting points together?!"
Parts that would normally take days to hammer out were completed in minutes by Chu Hang. Ethan became completely useless, only able to gape at the magical scene before him, feeling his worldview being repeatedly rubbed into the ground.
"Alright, the core parts are done." Chu Hang clapped his hands. "You can handle the remaining assembly yourselves. I'm going out for some fresh air."
As soon as he turned around, a chaotic sound of footsteps and curses came from outside the cave.
"They found us!" Ethan's face turned pale.
"No time! Hurry! Help me put it on!" Tony roared in a panic.
Heavy pieces of iron were fitted onto Tony one by one, but time was too short. The gunfire outside grew closer, and the iron door of the cave entrance was banging loudly.
"The system is still downloading, I need time!" Tonyyelled.
Ethan glanced at the painfully slow download progress bar, then at Tony, who looked ready to die, and his eyes became resolute. He grabbed an AK, and said to Tony: "I'll buy you some time."
With that, he rushed out without looking back.
"Ethan!" Tony's eyes were bloodshot.
Chu Hang stood by, watching silently, not moving.
This is your path, S-tark, he thought.
Gunfire erupted outside, fierce, but it quickly stopped.
When the iron door was blown open and the Ten Rings Gang surged in like a tide, they were met by a slowly rising Iron Giant.
"My turn has come." Tony's voice came from beneath the faceplate, suppressing towering rage.
He raised his arm, and two streams of fire roared out from the flamethrowers on his arm gauntlets, instantly incinerating the unlucky few who rushed in first.
The cave immediately filled with wailing and howling.
Tony strode out of the cave with heavy steps, like an unleashed steel Beast.
Chu Hang followed behind him, strolling leisurely. Occasionally, stray bullets flew towards him, but before they could reach his body, they were twisted and deflected by an invisible Spatial Curvature Barrier, flying off to who knows where.
Mark 1, ugly, but effective. Flamethrowers and a shotgun were a complete dimensional attack against these Terrorists armed with AKs.
Tony fought his way through the camp, and after blowing up the mountain of Stark Industries weapons piled at the cave entrance, he activated the makeshift thrusters on his back, wobbling into the air.
After flying a few kilometers, the pile of scrap metal finally couldn't bear the load, disintegrated in mid-air, and crashed heavily into the desert.
Tony struggled out of the shattered helmet, and before he could catch his breath, he saw Chu Hang standing leisurely in front of him, holding a bottle of ice-cold mineral water.
"Need a hand, Mr. S-tark?"
Tony looked at him, then at a black dot in the distant sky—a U.S. Military rescue helicopter.
"Who... are you really?" he asked, panting.
"The delivery guy." Chu Hang tossed him the water. "Your friend is here to pick you up, so I won't be in the way."
The helicopter grew closer, the roar of its propellers deafening.
Chu Hang threw the empty bottle onto the sand and waved at him.
"See you, S-tark."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was gone.
Vanished into thin air. Not even a Shadow remained.
In the desert, only a bewildered Tony Stark remained, along with a equally confused James Rhodes who had just jumped off the helicopter.