With the Reverse Cursed Technique successfully reaching Level 3, Su Mu decided to run a quick diagnostic test. He used a localized spatial slash to slice a deep gash across his palm. The very microsecond the cut appeared, positive energy flooded the wound, instantly knitting the flesh back together!
The regenerative speed at Level 3 was exponentially faster than Level 2. If Level 2 was roughly on par with Wolverine's healing factor, Level 3 had completely transcended it!
At his current output, if Su Mu kept the Reverse Cursed Technique continuously running in the background, he had effectively achieved biological immortality! And with his immense cursed energy reserves, sustaining both the Limitless and the Reverse Cursed Technique 24/7 didn't place the slightest strain on his physical vessel.
Furthermore, the most crucial aspect of the Level 3 upgrade was the newfound ability to output positive energy to heal others.
Su Mu hypothesized that when the technique eventually reached Level 4, it would undergo a terrifying conceptual metamorphosis. It wouldn't just be about healing physical damage; it would likely grant him absolute control over biological states. He theorized he could potentially reverse localized time, effortlessly aging a body to dust or reverting it to an infantile state!
Naturally, this terrifying biological manipulation could be applied to others, and perhaps even to inanimate matter!
Once he reached Level 4, safely extracting the Reality Stone from Jane Foster's body would be incredibly simple.
Dismissing his System interface, Su Mu focused back on the battlefield.
Ahead of him, the Hulk—empowered by the Frost Giant properties of the Riot symbiote—was bulldozing his way through the mothership's corridors, effortlessly tearing cybernetic aliens to pieces with his bare, freezing hands.
Captain America, Black Widow, and Loki followed closely behind, ruthlessly executing any Chitauri soldiers the Hulk happened to miss. On the path to the main command bridge, not a single alien was left alive.
The desperate barricades and concentrated plasma fire of the Chitauri infantry were utterly meaningless against Su Mu's vanguard. In a matter of minutes, the group reached the heavily reinforced doors of the command bridge.
BOOM!
With a single, thunderous punch, the Hulk violently shattered the thick metal blast doors!
Su Mu casually strolled onto the bridge, his symbiote-enhanced "Avengers" fanning out around him. The Chitauri Fleet Commander was cowering behind his last line of elite personal guards, staring at the white-haired human who was clearly the architect of this slaughter.
"Earthling!" the Commander shrieked, desperately trying to sound intimidating. "We are the vanguard of the Mad Titan! We have already transmitted a distress signal! The Black Order is en route as we speak! If you retreat now, I am willing to overlook your transgressions!"
Su Mu acted as if he hadn't heard a single word. He simply continued his leisurely stroll directly toward the Commander.
Seeing the apocalyptic demon rapidly approaching, the Commander's faux-bravado completely shattered. Panic contorted his face, and he screamed at his elite guards.
"Open fire! Fire! Kill him now!"
Dozens of high-yield plasma rifles unleashed a blinding barrage of cosmic energy at Su Mu. But just like before, the lethal beams simply washed over his body without inflicting a single scratch, providing him with a pathetic, negligible handful of Energy Points.
Ignoring the blinding crossfire, Su Mu casually stepped into the five-meter absolute perimeter of the elite guards.
Under the despairing gaze of the Commander, the guards at the absolute front were instantly, cleanly bisected at the waist by invisible spatial slashes. But before their upper torsos could even begin to slide off their legs, they were vertically sliced again, quartered in a fraction of a millisecond!
An inescapable storm of overlapping spatial slashes completely enveloped the remaining guards, instantly reducing them to microscopic, bloody mist. The crimson mist floated through the bridge but was violently repelled by the invisible barrier of the Limitless, completely unable to touch Su Mu's pristine clothes.
By the time Su Mu casually stopped in front of the Commander, every single elite guard was dead. The Commander was the only living Chitauri left on the bridge.
Faced with this absolute, incomprehensible monster, the Commander's mind finally snapped under the sheer weight of terror and despair.
"Stay back! Stay away from me, you monster!" he shrieked hysterically.
Su Mu used a localized gravitational pull to yank a high-tech universal translator earpiece off the desk and placed it in his ear. Finally, he could understand the guttural alien shrieks.
With a slight curl of his fingers, Su Mu violently manipulated the spatial gravity around the Commander, lifting the alien off the ground and completely immobilizing him in mid-air. Under the crushing spatial pressure, the Commander's body trembled violently, the sickening sound of snapping bones echoing through the bridge.
Su Mu smiled warmly, his tone incredibly friendly.
"Look at you... twisting and squealing like a pathetic insect. Is this how the supposedly 'fearsome' conquerors of the universe behave? Crying and begging?"
Just as Su Mu was about to finish the Commander off, a booming, incredibly arrogant voice echoed through the bridge's main communication console.
"Earthling. I command you to release him. Only the Mad Titan holds the absolute authority to pass judgment on his subordinates!"
A holographic projection flickered to life in the center of the bridge. It displayed a massive, incredibly muscular humanoid alien with thick, gray, reptilian skin. He glared down at Su Mu, issuing his absolute warning.
"I am Cull Obsidian of the Black Order. Release the Commander, lay down your weapons, and submit yourselves to the judgment of Thanos! Do so, and you may be granted a mercifully swift death!"
Outside in the deep cosmos, a colossal wormhole had rapidly formed. An apocalyptic warship, several times larger and infinitely more heavily armed than the Chitauri mothership, slowly emerged from the portal.
Standing on the command bridge of the Sanctuary II, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, and Cull Obsidian watched the holographic feed of the Earthlings who had slaughtered the Chitauri vanguard.
While Cull Obsidian delivered the ultimatum, Corvus Glaive turned to his wife, Proxima Midnight, and scoffed.
"The Chitauri truly are a pathetic, useless race. To think they were actually defeated by a handful of primitive Earthlings!"
"Indeed," Proxima Midnight agreed, her tone dripping with venom. "But regardless of how pathetic they are, they still belong to Lord Thanos. These weakling Earthlings must pay in blood for daring to strike at our master's forces!"
Neither of them believed for a microsecond that these primitive humans could withstand an assault from the Black Order, nor did they believe the humans would be stupid enough to actually resist.
Unlike the expendable, low-tier Chitauri, the Black Order was the absolute, elite core of Thanos' apocalyptic army. They possessed terrifying strength and cosmic infamy. They fully expected the Earthlings to make the "logical" choice: surrender immediately and wait for the Mad Titan's execution.
But as the couple casually chatted, Cull Obsidian—who had been actively negotiating with the Earthlings—suddenly unleashed a furious, blood-curdling roar!
"No! You insignificant insect! I will tear you limb from limb!"
Corvus and Proxima turned to him, confused. "What happened?"
"That pathetic Earthling!" Cull Obsidian snarled, his gray face twisting with absolute rage. "He completely rejected the ultimatum! He casually crushed the Chitauri Commander to death right in front of me! He even dared to mock us! He challenged the absolute authority of the Black Order!"
Hearing this, absolute fury ignited in the eyes of Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight.
"To openly provoke the Black Order... it seems these ignorant Earthlings truly do not comprehend the cosmic terror associated with our name!" Corvus snarled, gripping his glaive.
"Even if they are ignorant, their disrespect cannot be tolerated," Proxima stated coldly. "It is time to remind this primitive planet of the absolute fear of subjugation. Divert all main batteries to the Chitauri mothership! Erase the Earthlings and the Chitauri failures from existence!"
Following Corvus Glaive's command, the massive, planetary-siege energy cannons on the Sanctuary II rapidly charged. With a blinding flash, a colossal, apocalyptic beam of cosmic energy was violently fired directly at the Chitauri mothership!
Watching the blinding energy beam tear through the dark abyss of space, absolute, cruel smiles spread across the faces of the three generals.
But just as they expected the Earthlings and the Chitauri vessel to be instantly vaporized into subatomic dust... they witnessed something entirely, absolutely impossible.
The apocalyptic energy cannon—a weapon designed to shatter tectonic plates—abruptly came to a dead halt right in front of the Chitauri mothership!
Floating in the vacuum of space, directly in the path of the colossal beam, a lone white-haired Earthling had casually raised a single hand.
And against his palm, the apocalyptic cosmic energy was completely, absolutely stopped dead in its tracks!