In the blink of an eye, more than half of the Sentinel squadron had been effortlessly eradicated by the White Demon!
The Sentinels were entirely incapable of inflicting a single point of damage. The highly anticipated, specialized spatial-severing attacks were completely useless, let alone the standard heavy munitions loaded into their chassis.
On the live projection in the command center, the one-sided slaughter continued. The White Demon moved like a ghost through the storm of bullets and missiles. Whether it was the conceptual spatial blades or the high-explosive payloads, absolutely nothing could even touch him!
The White Demon's raw speed was simply too terrifying. Even the bleeding-edge targeting algorithms of the Sentinel prototypes completely failed to secure a lock. As a result, the vast majority of their ammunition missed entirely, wasted on thin air!
Furthermore, the high-ranking generals observing the telemetry noticed an even more horrifying detail:
The White Demon wasn't even actively dodging the conventional weapons, nor was he manifesting his invisible spatial defense! He was literally letting the armor-piercing rounds and missiles hit him point-blank! Yet, his physical vessel was completely unharmed. He only bothered to use that terrifying purple singularity to erase the spatial blades!
"His physical constitution has evolved to such an absurd degree..." a general whispered, his face pale. "And he's awakened yet another brand-new mutant ability! A power capable of tearing through the very fabric of space!"
"If he can chain-cast that purple sphere, he could wipe an entire major city off the map in a matter of minutes!"
"Don't forget, his foundational mutant ability is Energy Absorption! As long as there is an ambient energy source, he could theoretically sustain that level of destruction indefinitely!"
"That's it. The Annihilation Protocol is officially aborted," the four-star General stated grimly. "If a direct nuclear strike cannot scratch him, then he has officially evolved beyond our capacity to fight him directly. All direct military engagement is terminated."
"Agreed!"
"Agreed!"
The generals frantically echoed their consensus.
Suddenly, a terrifying thought struck one of the commanders. He whirled around to face the communications officers.
"Quick! Cut the feed to the press! If the global media finds out we dropped a tactical nuke on American soil and still failed to kill him, the military's credibility will be irreversibly destroyed!"
But a young communications officer looked up, his face twisted in a bitter grimace.
"General... the automated press release was already sent to all major news networks the moment the warhead detonated..."
The General's face instantly drained of all color. For the first time in his long military career, he desperately wished his soldiers had been a little less efficient at following orders!
The rest of the room realized the impending geopolitical disaster.
"Those blood-sucking journalists will have their choppers over New Mexico within the hour! They're going to see the crater, the destroyed Sentinels, and the very much alive White Demon! The whole world is going to know our ultimate weapon failed!"
"Pressure the network executives! Blackout all coverage related to the White Demon! Issue a gag order!"
"Are you insane? We can't censor the entire global media apparatus! Those journalists are like vultures; they'll leak it anyway!"
The command center descended into chaotic shouting, finally settling back into a grim, defeated silence. The absolute worst-case scenario had unfolded. The generals were drowning in regret for ever authorizing the strike.
Standing in the corner, Colonel Stryker remained entirely silent. His fists were clenched so tightly that his fingernails pierced his palms, drawing blood.
In his mind, he repeatedly roared a single name with obsessive, genocidal fury:
The White Demon!
It was obvious that Stryker would never abandon his crusade. And realistically, if Stryker was willing to operate entirely off the books and shoulder all the legal and political risks, these very same generals would undoubtedly secretly funnel him funding and resources.
The Sentinel prototypes had managed to gather a wealth of combat data on the White Demon before being destroyed. Once Stryker perfected the Mark II Sentinels, he refused to believe the demon would survive!
...
Back in the desert, every single armor-piercing round and explosive payload that neared Su Mu was instantly drained of its kinetic and chemical energy. Instead of causing damage, the barrage merely provided him with a continuous, steady stream of Energy Points.
The Sentinels' conventional arsenal was utterly useless. Only the spatial blades required him to actively pay attention.
However, with the absolute perception of the Level 3 Six Eyes perfectly tracking their trajectories, and the destructive erasure of Purple ready at his fingertips, the Sentinels—machines that would strike absolute despair into the hearts of 99% of the mutant population—were nothing more than helpless wooden training dummies to him!
Su Mu swung his fist one last time.
BOOM!
A catastrophic eruption of black-red lightning roared! The final, pristine Sentinel robot was violently crushed into a twisted pile of scrap metal!
The entire Sentinel squadron had been completely eradicated!
Su Mu dumped the massive surplus of energy he had absorbed from the nuclear blast directly into the System. His Template Synchronization instantly shot up to an incredible 72%!
Every 10% threshold required an exponentially larger pool of Energy Points. Breaking past 70% meant that every single percentage point moving forward demanded an astronomical, nearly incomprehensible volume of energy!
If he were still relying on his old method of draining local city power grids, it would take him months of continuous absorption just to push the meter up by 1%!
Even devouring the absolute totality of a tactical nuclear weapon had only yielded a 6% increase!
By that logic, completely draining a brand new Arc Reactor would barely move the needle.
It was clear that Arc Reactors were no longer viable as his primary power source. His sights were now firmly set on the six Infinity Stones—particularly the Power Stone, the ultimate, infinite cosmic battery!
Beyond the Stones, there were other high-yield cosmic energy sources ripe for the taking. He could mimic the Celestials and drain the life force of entire planets, or he could acquire mythic artifacts like the Eternal Flame. The universe was teeming with power.
Therefore, he wasn't worried about hitting a bottleneck.
Furthermore, Su Mu had begun contemplating a very interesting theoretical possibility. The System allowed him to level up his innate abilities and cursed techniques through repeated use and energy expenditure.
If he went to Kamar-Taj and learned how to cast the mystic Sling Ring portals... could he level that skill up through the System as well?
A basic Sling Ring portal allowed the user to travel anywhere within their current universe that they could clearly visualize. Ned Leeds, Spider-Man's best friend, had even accidentally opened portals specifically targeting individuals across the multiverse!
If Su Mu acquired that magic and used the System to artificially push it to its absolute conceptual limits, what kind of transcendental boundaries could he cross?
Time travel?
Effortless interdimensional traversal?
Or perhaps... opening a portal directly into other fictional realities?!
Su Mu was incredibly excited by this hypothesis. If the Marvel Universe existed as a physical reality, the probability of other universes existing was astronomically high!
If he could level up the portal magic enough to cross into other dimensions, and eventually open a gateway directly into the Jujutsu Kaisen universe...
Using a vastly superior, evolved version of Gojo Satoru's own techniques to completely crush the original Gojo Satoru... now THAT would be incredibly entertaining!
Standing over him and delivering the iconic line:
"Throughout Heaven and Earth, I alone am the honored one."
Just thinking about the sheer, absolute arrogance of that scenario made Su Mu's brain tremble with anticipation!
(Author's Note: What do you guys think?)
As the dust began to settle, Thor and his group cautiously approached the edge of the battlefield. When they finally crested the ridge, they were met with a scene of absolute, mythological devastation.
The air was thick with choking dust. Massive, craterous depressions littered the landscape as if the earth had been bombarded by a meteor shower. The pulverized, burning remains of heavy munitions and advanced robotics were scattered across the molten glass.
And directly in the center of it all—at the very origin point of the apocalyptic purple trench, hovering perfectly still one meter above the molten floor of the nuclear crater—was the incredibly familiar, yet utterly terrifying White Demon.
He seemed to be reminiscing about the battle, or perhaps visualizing some incredibly euphoric, deeply entertaining future.
He casually raised his right hand, covering his eyes as he tilted his head back toward the sky. The corners of his mouth began to curl upward. The smile grew wider, and wider, until it finally broke into a booming, manic, absolutely unrestrained laugh that echoed through the devastated wasteland!
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