"I'm here, what's the situation now?"
In the Island Base laboratory, a blue Teleportation Gate opened, and Noah, clad in his armor, stepped out. As he walked, his armor receded, the nanites flowing back into the container on his belt. The Teleportation Gate behind him slowly shrank and vanished once Noah had fully emerged.
Noah had just been in the Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia, completing his daily mission, when he received a message from Lissandra. The Gamma energy detector he and Dr. Banner had built was reacting, so Noah immediately opened a Teleportation Gate and returned to the Island Base.
Walking to the detector Noah and Banner had set up, Noah looked at the detector's screen. The screen displayed a radar scan, and Noah could already see several red dots appearing on it, proving that the enemy's operation targeting Banner had begun. Noah was currently observing the scan of the area near XX City and the forest where Banner was located. Once the matter was resolved, and Banner, who was camping in the forest, returned here, they would then observe the Gamma energy traces left by these things to find the enemy's lair.
"Is it just these four?"
Although red dots representing mutated creatures had appeared on the radar scan, there weren't many, only four. This puzzled Noah. Did the enemy believe these four mutated creatures could handle the Hulk? Were these all extremely powerful mutated creatures?
"Their speed is quite fast, though." Leaving aside other things, Noah observed the movement traces of these four red dots and found that their movement speed was quite fast, and their trajectories cut through the city. Noah deduced that they were likely all avian mutated creatures.
However, since the targets had appeared, Noah also planned to go to the forest to observe. It wasn't that Noah didn't trust Warwick's strength; Warwick dealing with these four avian mutated creatures wouldn't be an issue. After all, Warwick wasn't just a land-bound wolf; when Noah created him, he had already added flight capabilities, so Warwick could now engage in aerial combat.
Noah's purpose in going there was to observe Warwick's battle, collect combat data, and use it for future enhancements and modifications. Moreover, Banner was still on site, so he could conveniently send Banner back first to prevent him from becoming emotionally unstable and transforming into the Hulk on the spot. Although for Noah, whether the Hulk appeared or not was irrelevant, if the other party didn't like transforming into the Hulk, Noah would simply open a Gate for him to leave the scene.
Just as Noah was about to turn and open a Teleportation Gate, his peripheral vision suddenly caught new changes on the radar scan. This made him stop and shift his gaze back to the scan.
The scan, which originally only had a sparse four red dots, began to show a larger red dot from the edge of the forest. Was it a giant mutated creature? No, after Noah observed carefully, he found that it wasn't a single large creature, but rather a huge red dot caused by a collection of mutated creatures. And after this monster group appeared, more red dots successively appeared on the map, advancing towards Banner's location.
"So the main force was behind, huh? This is actually quite interesting. This mission should be worth a B now, right?" Noah looked at the screen full of red dots, not surprised but rather pleased, because for him, these were all missions, all essence!
Because mutated creatures could come looking for Banner at any time these past few days, Noah planned to wait until the last minute to accept his daily missions, to avoid a situation where he finished his missions early, and then those mutated creatures just happened to appear, leaving him with no mission attempts left. That would be agonizing for him. So Noah had timed his mission acceptance just before going to the Golden Triangle, and then as soon as it passed 00:00, his mission attempts refreshed.
Now that these mutated creatures had appeared, Noah estimated that this time he should be able to refresh a B-rank mission. After all, these things weren't just gang thugs and criminal organizations, but an army of mutated creatures.
Without further ado, Noah waved his hand to open a Teleportation Gate, preparing to head to the forest to refresh his mission list. Before leaving, Noah suddenly thought of something and waved his hand to open another Teleportation Gate leading to the manor, emitting a magical energy fluctuation from his body. A few seconds later, a purple stream of light passed through the Teleportation Gate and rushed towards Noah.
Deathcap, although it was currently Noah's pet and mascot at home, its true form was a powerful magic artifact. Noah now intended to take it to participate in battle. Noah was afraid that if the hat stayed home all the time without any activity, it would truly become just a mascot.
Noah cradled the Magic Hat that was circling him, its cracked maw continuously emitting blue magical aura.
"Let's go, Hat, I'm taking you to fight little monsters."
Noah pressed the button on the side of his belt, and the black Project Armor once again covered his entire body. He walked towards the Teleportation Gate that had been open for a while. Dr. Banner on the other side of the Gate had already poked his head through, because he noticed the Gate had been open but no one had come out.
Just as Dr. Banner was about to walk to the Teleportation Gate to see what was going on, a purple flash of light burst out from the other side of the Gate, brushing past Dr. Banner and startling him, almost causing him to lose his footing and fall.
After Dr. Banner regained his balance, he looked up, wanting to see what had just come out of the Teleportation Gate. To his surprise, a large, blue-glowing mouth appeared directly in front of him.
"Haa!!!" The large blue mouth let out a roar, accompanied by stretching blue magical halos.
"Shit!" Dr. Banner was greatly startled by the sight before him after looking up, and he retreated a few steps.
"Hat, don't mess around, he's not easily scared." Noah walked out of the Teleportation Gate and saw the Magic Hat playing a prank. He smiled and reprimanded it a few times.
The Magic Hat circled Dr. Banner once, scrutinized the stranger, and then returned to Noah's side.
Seeing this, Dr. Banner clutched his chest, breathing heavily. He had been so scared that the Hulk almost burst out. After calming down, Dr. Banner finally saw what had scared him: a purple hat floating in the air, with a large mouth cracked open on its brim, emitting a blue glow from within. This was a miraculous magic item. Dr. Banner looked at its unscientific appearance, feeling a bit curious, but he now wanted to know Noah's purpose even more.
"Noah, why are you here? Did the detector find targets?" Dr. Banner asked directly.
"You guessed right. The creators of the mutated creatures have started their operation again, and this time there are many of them. It seems they intend to take down you and the Hulk in one fell swoop this time," Noah said.
As the two conversed, somewhere above the forest, a blue laser beam shot from a high point in the forest into the sky, attracting their attention. Then, the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground rang out, as if something had been shot down.
"What was that?" Dr. Banner exclaimed. A laser weapon? When did Noah set that up?
"They're here. I'll send you back first, Dr. Banner." Noah looked towards the source of the sound. He saw what had fallen: a green mutated bird, much larger than normal birds, its chest now pierced by a large laser hole, struggling on the ground.
Noah knew these were the red dots he had initially seen on the radar scan, indicating that other mutated creatures were already close. And that blue laser was fired by Warwick, whom Noah had dispatched to ambush in the forest. Warwick had detected the targets and had already entered hunting mode.
The battle was about to begin, and Dr. Banner had no reason to stay here now. Although the mutated creatures' target was Dr. Banner, if Dr. Banner disappeared, they might not come because they lost their target. However, Dr. Banner had just been startled by the Magic Hat and emitted some of the Hulk's Gamma energy. This energy would serve as a perfect lure for those mutated creatures.
Noah opened a Teleportation Gate, intending to have Dr. Banner wait back at the Island Base, but Dr. Banner didn't move. Instead, he stood still, his expression constantly changing, then settling into a determined look.
"Li, you just said there are many mutated creatures. Do you need my help?"