It looked like some kind of emergency measure had been triggered.
And yet...
"What's going on?"
Ian looked around.
He found that all the staff members were staying remarkably calm.
"It's nothing. Small issue."
Digital Tony smiled lightly, and an image appeared on the screen. Inside a sealed transparent chamber, an enormous green body was pounding its chest and smashing everything around it.
That was
the Hulk.
Or rather, Hulk's corpse had been reanimated. Even though the top of his skull had been cut open and his brain had been removed, the body, dead for who knew how long, was still moving like a living thing.
He was wildly destroying everything he could reach.
"Are you trying to raise zombies in here?"
Ian was genuinely shocked.
"We need something strong enough to deliver the snap we need," Digital Tony explained, his tone carrying a trace of weariness.
"But it looks like Dr. Betty underestimated just how insane superheroes can be. That corruption had already seeped into their bodies."
Digital Tony did not sound particularly regretful about it.
The eyes projected on the screen stayed fixed on Ian the whole time.
Ian, however, did not notice.
All his attention was on the image Tony had brought up.
A group of heavily armed soldiers charged into the testing room with Gwen, apparently trying to rip away the tubes connected to Hulk's body. But the soldiers' covering fire was about as effective as scratching an itch on the reanimated giant.
All that wasted ammo made Ian's heart ache.
It would have been so much better if they had fired it all at him.
"My upbringing taught me that a kind-hearted soul like myself cannot stand by when the weak are in danger!"
As soon as Ian said that, he took off running toward the direction Betty had disappeared in.
The access scanner beeped and immediately cleared him.
The door slid open.
What came into view was a massive laboratory. At the center, inside a transparent holding chamber, Hulk's reanimated corpse was wildly throwing punches, while Gwen moved through the gaps like a nimble cat.
Her agility was incredible.
Still,
against a giant green monster that was both huge and freakishly fast,
even she was starting to struggle.
"Don't panic! Hang in there!"
Ian shouted toward Gwen as he ran for the entrance.
"Think about your family! Think about your bonds! I'm coming to save you!"
He had meant it as a morale boost.
But
the moment the words left his mouth,
Hulk's enormous fan-like palm slammed down.
Gwen, who had been moving like some graceful assassin, was crushed on the spot into a smear, flattened against the floor like a mosquito.
"I literally told you to think about family. At least say something about bonds or friendship..."
Ian felt his heart drop for a second, but once he remembered everything here was just an echo of the past, he only sighed.
"This is your idea of a small issue?"
Ian looked around for Betty but failed to find her. Instead, on a small display mounted on the wall, he saw Tony Stark's digital face again.
"Mm-hm."
Digital Tony nodded calmly.
"Wow."
Ian was deeply shaken.
"So there really is a lunatic in this room. I won't say who."
He ran toward the alloy door at the laboratory entrance, and after a face scan, he was once again cleared without issue.
"Some people fight the remains of the Monkey King, I fight the remains of Hulk. Everyone gets a bright future."
Ian stretched a little,
and at that moment, Hulk noticed him.
Originally,
Ian had planned to use the guns dropped by the dead soldiers to level up his [Student] class a bit first. But the moment he picked one up, Hulk, with absolutely no sense of fair play, punched straight at him.
Boom!
Ian wanted to dodge and weave too.
But he had seriously underestimated Hulk's speed and overestimated the value of being only eight times stronger than a normal person. Maybe part of the blame also lay with Captain America giving everyone the impression he could go toe-to-toe with anything.
"Wait, Captain America can fight this thing?"
Ian was sent flying, but since he could not be injured in this world, he climbed right back up, only for Hulk to smash him again with another punch.
[You seriously studied combat. Student class EXP +3]
[You seriously studied combat. Student class EXP +2]
...
"Right, right. So getting hammered into the ground like a whack-a-mole counts as studying combat now? That's my system buddy for you."
Ian's attempts to block with his arms were completely meaningless. If he had not been immune to all harm in this world, he would have already joined the soldiers and Gwen on the floor as a line of meat pancakes.
[You seriously studied combat. Student class EXP +3]
[You seriously studied combat. Student class EXP +3]
...
Ian had already been driven halfway into the floor.
Still,
"This actually feels kind of nice?"
Ian simply chose to enjoy it. Was this not exactly why he had run in here in the first place? To level up? Leveling up was leveling up no matter how it happened. He was just that kind of adaptable superhero.
Of course, Ian had not failed to protect everything. At the very least, he had protected the gun in his hand so it would not get crushed, and he could still use it later to practice catching bullets.
[You seriously studied combat. Student class EXP +3]
[You seriously studied combat. Student class EXP +3]
...
A token effort of raising his hands to block
kept earning him experience nonstop.
Ian was having the time of his life.
But
that happiness did not last very long.
All of a sudden, Hulk froze, then collapsed to the floor without warning.
Ian was just about to shout that he was out of power and needed a recharge, when he saw a figure standing in front of him.
"What do you think you're doing? Don't you know it's dangerous in here?"
It was that familiar crisp female voice. While Ian was still in a daze, Gwen, dressed in her leather pants, grabbed him and pulled him out of the crater.
"Your head is seriously hard..."
Gwen looked at Ian's completely intact skull and sounded honestly amazed.
"Wait... Gwen?"
Ian rubbed his eyes, then looked at the floor nearby.
There, unmistakably, was the unrecognizable smear, the split-open and ruined leather pants, clear proof that the one who had just been smashed into meat paste really had been Gwen.
Ian stared at the perfectly unharmed girl in front of him, starting to suspect he had fundamentally misunderstood what "echoes from the past" actually meant.
Then, in the very next second, his superior intellect finally kicked in.
[My database contains records of every life-form in this world...]
Digital Tony's earlier words echoed in Ian's mind. He had just opened his mouth, ready to confirm the absurd theory forming in his head.
Dong~~~~
The bell of return had already rung.
When he opened his eyes again,
Ian found himself back in his familiar bedroom, on his familiar bed.
He shot upright.
That bizarre, impossible sequence of events was still flashing through his mind.
"That Marvel world... no, something's wrong!"
Ian felt like he had uncovered something deeply terrifying.
However,
before he could think any further,
something hard under the blanket was pressing into him uncomfortably.
"Hm?"
He pulled back the covers.
Ian's pupils immediately shrank.
There,
lying quietly in his arms,
was a sleek, futuristic gun.
(End of Chapter)
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