It seemed the emergency measures had been triggered.
However.
"What's going on?"
Ian looked around.
He noticed that the staff members were all very calm.
"Nothing, small issue."
The digital Tony smiled faintly. A scene was displayed on the screen—inside a sealed, transparent room, a massive green body was beating its chest and feet.
That was.
The Hulk.
Or rather, the Hulk's corpse had been reanimated. Although his skull had been cut open and his brain removed, the body, which had been dead for who knows how long, still exhibited a state of being alive.
He was frantically smashing everything he could see around him.
"Are you planning to raise zombies?"
Ian was very astonished.
"We need an existence powerful enough to snap the finger we need." The digital Tony explained, his tone laced with a sense of melancholy.
"But it seems Dr. Betty still underestimated the madness of the superheroes. That contamination has already permeated their bodies." The digital Tony didn't seem to feel regret about this.
The gaze projected from his screen was fixed on Ian. Ian didn't notice this; his attention was on the scene the digital Tony was displaying.
He saw.
A group of fully armed soldiers and Gwen rushed into the experimental room, seemingly attempting to rip off the tubes attached to the Hulk. However, the soldiers' suppressing fire was like tickling the Hulk's residual body.
The wasted ammunition made Ian's heart ache.
How wonderful it would be if they were all shooting at him.
"My family education tells me that facing the difficulties of the weak, a good person like me cannot stand idly by!" Ian said, then immediately bolted toward the direction Betty had disappeared.
The access scanner beeped, granting him passage instantly.
The door slid open.
The sight that greeted him was a massive laboratory—in the central transparent containment cell, the Hulk's residual body was violently swinging its fists, while Gwen, like a nimble cat, darted and dodged between attacks.
Her skill was truly impressive.
However.
Facing the massive and unusually agile Green Goliath.
The girl seemed to be struggling to cope.
"Don't panic! Hold on!" Ian shouted at Gwen inside the room while running toward the door. "Think of your family! Think of your bonds! I'm coming to save you right now!"
His intention was to give Gwen a buff.
However.
No sooner had he spoken.
The Hulk's fan-like giant palm slammed down with a crash. Gwen, who was moving like a graceful assassin, was instantly smashed into fragments, splattering onto the ground like a flattened mosquito.
"I told you to think of your family! Say something about bonds and friendship..." Ian's heart sank, but thinking that everything here was an echo of the past, he only sighed.
"That's what you call a small issue?" Ian didn't find Betty, but he saw the digital face of Tony Stark projected on a small screen on the room's wall.
"Mm-hmm."
The digital Tony nodded calmly.
"Wow."
Ian was greatly shocked.
"It seems there really is a lunatic in this room, and I won't say who it is." He ran toward the alloy door at the entrance of the lab room. After a face scan, he passed through without hindrance.
Ian stretched his body. By this time, the Hulk had noticed him.
Originally.
Ian wanted to use the guns of the fallen soldiers to hone his [Student] profession experience. However, just as he picked up a gun, the Hulk, taking advantage of his youth, unchivalrously smashed a fist down.
"Bang!"
Ian wanted to dart and dodge.
But he truly underestimated the Hulk's speed and overestimated his own eight times normal physical fitness—perhaps Captain America, who could fight evenly with anyone, also bore some of the blame.
"No way! Captain America can fight this thing?" Ian was smashed away, but since he couldn't be harmed in this world, the Hulk was already smashing another punch down as he scrambled back up.
[You have diligently studied Combat, [Student] Profession Experience +3]
[You have diligently studied Combat, [Student] Profession Experience +2]
...
"Good, good, good. I'm being hammered like a whack-a-mole, and it's still called studying combat. Just as expected, my system buddy." Ian's attempts to block were completely futile. If he weren't immune to all harm in this world, he would probably be queuing up to be a meat patty with the soldiers and Gwen on the floor.
[You have diligently studied Combat, [Student] Profession Experience +3]
[You have diligently studied Combat, [Student] Profession Experience +3]
...
Ian was being hammered so hard that his whole body was embedded in the floor.
However.
"It actually feels pretty good?" Ian simply chose to enjoy it. He came in here for the upgrade, after all. What difference did the method of upgrading make? He was just such a super-hero who resigned himself to fate. Of course, Ian, as a superhero, did manage to protect one thing: the firearm he was holding, which he needed to practice catching bullets, wasn't damaged.
[You have diligently studied Combat, [Student] Profession Experience +3]
[You have diligently studied Combat, [Student] Profession Experience +3]
...
A token raise of his hand to block.
And he received continuous experience points.
Ian was ecstatic.
However.
This happiness did not last long.
Suddenly, the Hulk's movements stopped, and he crashed to the ground without warning. Ian was about to shout for someone to recharge the Green corpse quickly when a figure stood in front of him.
"What are you doing? Don't you know how dangerous it is here?" It was that familiar clear female voice. While Ian was slightly bewildered, Gwen, in her leather pants, pulled Ian out of the crater.
"Your head is really hard..."
Gwen was astonished when she saw Ian's perfectly intact head.
"Wait?! Gwen?"
Ian rubbed his eyes, then looked at the unrecognizable paste on the floor next to him. The cracked and splattered leather pants confirmed that the person smashed into a meat pulp had indeed been Gwen.
Ian stared at the perfectly intact girl in front of him, suspecting he didn't understand the concept of the "echoes of the past" form. However, the next moment, his super intelligence genuinely clicked.
[My database records every life in this world...] The digital Tony's voice surfaced in Ian's mind. He was about to open his mouth to confirm the absurd guess that had popped into his head.
"Dong~~~~"
The bell for his return had already rung.
Opening his eyes again.
Ian found himself back in his familiar bedroom, on his familiar bed. Ian suddenly shot up from his small bed, his mind still filled with the bizarre and absurd experience he had just had.
"That Marvel world! No, wait!"
Ian felt he had discovered something terrifying.
However.
Before he could think too much.
A hard object under the covers poked him uncomfortably.
"Hmm?"
Pulling back the blanket.
Ian's pupils instantly constricted.
He saw.
A sci-fi-looking firearm lay quietly in his embrace.
***
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