Chapter 76: So-Called Efficiency Means No Nonsense
The Maybach restarted, and its tires ground over the gravel on the ground, making a slight creaking sound.
Outside the window, the arrogant Rhino was currently embedded in that abandoned bus, half of his body twitching.
All around were citizens screaming and taking pictures, accompanied by the late-arriving sirens of police cars.
The inside of the carriage returned to peace, and soothing classical music flowed once again.
Natasha looked deeply at the man in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
As an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had seen all kinds of superhumans, she still felt alarmed by the scene just now.
There were no fancy movements, and no sign of any energy fluctuations.
Just with a single slap, the enemy could be sent flying.
Simple, crude, and unreasonable.
"Is this what you often call efficiency?"
Natasha broke the silence, her tone rarely carrying a hint of awe.
"That's right, this is called efficiency."
Luke took the wet wipe handed over by Natasha and wiped his fingers leisurely.
His thoughts were calm, even a bit bored.
An opponent of this level didn't even have the qualification to make the virus in his body excited.
[Acquired Rhino skin gene fragment] This kind of notification sound in his mind was just like spam text messages; looking at it even once was redundant.
"Some Heroes like to strike poses when fighting, or chat with villains about life ideals. I don't oppose that style; after all, that's their desire to perform."
Luke threw the tissue into the trash can and picked up his unfinished whiskey again.
"But with me, enemies only fall into two categories: dead people or cripples. Instead of wasting breath, it's better to use your strength in a more direct place. Natasha, remember this, when your power is enough to crush everything, any tactical movement is redundant decoration."
Natasha nodded and did not refute.
In front of this man, so-called tactics indeed appeared somewhat pale.
"Boss."
Natasha glanced at the flashing red light on the dashboard.
"Director Fury's call. He probably saw the live broadcast just now, and his blood pressure is probably high again."
"Hang it up."
Luke didn't even lift his eyelids, gently swaying his wine glass.
"Tell him I don't have time to listen to his cliches about property destruction right now. I have more important things to do."
Luke looked out the window at the towering Oscorp Building in the distance, its green neon lights appearing exceptionally eerie in the night.
Although the Rhino from earlier was an idiot, the words he shouted before dying—'Mr. Osborn says hello to you'—had already explained everything.
Norman Osborn had gone mad.
"Since you want to play, then we'll play big."
Luke smiled slightly, a trace of red light flashing across the corner of his eyes.
...
Oscorp Building, top floor.
In front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, Norman Osborn tightly grasped a glass of whiskey in his hand.
The screen repeatedly played the footage of Luke single-handedly killing the Rhino in seconds.
The thug known as a humanoid tank was as fragile as a baby in front of Luke.
"Trash... all trash!"
Bang!
The wine glass was slammed fiercely onto the ground, glass shards and liquor splashing everywhere.
Norman breathed heavily in large gasps, his chest rising and falling violently.
The death trap he meticulously planned was like a joke in front of Luke.
What made him even more desperate was that the board of directors had just sent an ultimatum.
Because the Rhino's attack incident was exposed to be related to the Oscorp Group, Oscorp's stock price hit circuit breakers twice within an hour.
The board of directors decided to initiate an impeachment procedure tomorrow morning to kick him out.
"They want to drive me away? This is my company! It's the painstaking effort of my whole life!"
Norman hugged his head, kneeling on the ground in pain, his fingernails deeply embedded into his scalp.
Just at this moment, the cold voice sounded deep in his mind once again, clearer and more seductive than any time before.
"Norman, look at you, how pitiful."
"They took away your company, and Luke took away your dignity. Will you still endure this?"
"No... I won't endure it..." Norman's eyes were bloodshot, and his pupils began to dilate.
"Then accept me. Accept power. Go take back everything that belongs to you!"
Norman stumbled to his feet and rushed toward the secret room of the laboratory.
"Power..."
Norman, with trembling hands, pushed a tube of enhancement serum into his carotid artery.
Boom!!!
Intense pain.
It felt as if countless knives were cutting his nerves, and also like magma was being injected into his blood vessels.
"Ugh, ahhhhh!!!"
Shrill screams echoed in the empty laboratory.
But he stood up.
In front of the shattered mirror, Norman Osborn's aged face had disappeared.
What appeared was a twisted, ferocious face full of evil power.
His muscles burst through his shirt, and the last trace of rationality in his eyes was swallowed by green madness.
"Norman is dead."
He looked at himself in the mirror and let out a weird laugh.
"Now, I am the Green Goblin."
He walked toward the green armor, his fingers stroking the cold metal mask.
"Luke... don't you like acting as the savior? Don't you like putting on airs in front of the media?"
"Tonight, I will destroy what you care about the most. I'm going to blow your company, your people, and this hypocritical city all up to the sky!"
Boom!
The Goblin Glider's engine started, ejecting dazzling exhaust flames.
A green phantom crashed through the glass of the Oscorp Building, carrying a piercing screech, and disappeared into the night sky of Manhattan.
...
Eight o'clock in the evening, Times Square.
This was the heart of New York, and the neon lights illuminated the night as bright as day.
Huge billboards scrolled with advertisements for Fisk Biotech's new drugs, as well as reports about Luke being a philanthropic entrepreneur.
The crowds surged, and tourists held up their phones to take pictures, completely unaware of the descent of danger.
Suddenly.
Swish!!
A streak of green light cut through the night sky, accompanied by horrifying laughter.
"Hahahaha! Bugs! Party time!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several pumpkin-shaped bombs fell from the sky, landing on the densely populated street.
The violent explosion instantly swallowed the exclamation cries.
Flames soared into the sky, glass shards fell like raindrops, vehicles were overturned, and the crowd fled in all directions.
"Who is that?!"
"It's a terrorist attack! Run!"
The Green Goblin stepped on the glider, hovering in mid-air, enjoying the chaos and fear beneath his feet.
"Luke! Come out!"
His voice was magnified by a loudspeaker, echoing throughout the square.
"I know you're watching! Your company, your city, is burning! If you don't come out, I'll turn this place into ruins!"
Saying this, he waved his hand fiercely, and a missile directly blasted toward the billboard in the center of the square playing Luke's photo.
Just at the moment when the missile was about to hit.
A red energy wave suddenly appeared out of thin air, like a red shield, forcibly blocking that missile.
Boom!
The missile exploded in the air without harming the buildings in the slightest.
"Hmm?" The Green Goblin turned his head.
Seeing on the street below, two figures were walking against the crowd.
One was a girl wearing red leather clothes, with Chaos red light surging in her hands.
The other was a young man with silver hair, holding an unfinished cup of milk tea in his hand, with a rebellious look in his eyes.
They happened to be shopping nearby and didn't expect to run into this kind of thing.
"The boss said."
Pietro put the milk tea on a bench by the roadside, looking at the Green Goblin in the sky with an unhappy face.
"Tonight is private time, setting off fireworks and firecrackers is prohibited. Especially ugly things that look like pumpkins."
"Superpowered beings?" The Green Goblin narrowed his eyes.
"Luke's subordinates?"
"To correct you, girlfriend."
Wanda spoke coldly, her red hair fluttering without wind, and the red light in her eyes growing increasingly intense.
She was very angry because the explosion just now almost affected her newly bought clothes.
"Pietro, get him down."
"Received."
Before the words fell, Pietro's figure had already disappeared.
The next second, a silver flash of lightning rushed directly towards the Green Goblin in the air.
Utilizing the walls of the surrounding buildings, Pietro ran to the height of dozens of stories within a few seconds, then jumped fiercely, leaping directly onto the Goblin Glider.
"Hey, ugly monster, lend me your skateboard to play with!"
Pietro smashed his fist onto the Green Goblin's helmet.
Clang!
But this strike didn't cause much damage; the Green Goblin's armor was extremely sturdy.
"Get away! Little bug!"
The Green Goblin let out an angry roar, and a row of sharp blades suddenly popped out around the glider, rotating at high speed.
Pietro let out a weird cry, and before the blades could cut off his legs, he instantly vanished, returning to the ground once again.
"Such a hard tortoise shell!" Pietro rubbed his wrists.
"And that thing has spikes!"
"You've angered me!"
The Green Goblin's anger was ignited by the provocation of these two small characters.
He pressed a button, and all the missile bays beneath the glider opened, locking onto the two people on the ground.
"Go to hell!"
More than a dozen micro-missiles roared out, dragging long tail flames, resembling a swarm of death.
Wanda's expression changed, her hands suddenly pushing apart, and the red Chaos Magic constructed a huge barrier.
Chapter 77: Buying the Dip Tomorrow
But right at that moment.
A suffocating pressure suddenly enveloped Times Square.
That was neither magic nor superpower.
The roaring missiles came to a bizarre halt mid-air.
It was caught by a black, viscous substance.
Countless black tentacles shot out from the shadows in all directions, precisely catching every single missile.
"The smell of gunpowder is truly choking."
A lazy voice came from high above.
Everyone raised their heads.
They saw that at the top of Fisk Tower, the huge floor-to-ceiling windows had already opened.
A figure was hovering mid-air.
Luke.
He was still wearing a black suit, but behind him, a pair of huge wings slowly flapped, blocking out the moonlight.
He was still holding half a glass of red wine in his hand.
"Norman."
Luke gently swirled his wine glass, looking down indifferently at the Green Goblin below.
"I gave you a chance to go bankrupt with dignity. But you just had to choose a noisy way to end your life."
"Luke!!!"
Seeing the real deal appear, Green Goblin went completely mad.
"You ruined everything I had! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to drain your blood dry!"
Green Goblin fiercely stepped on the glider, transforming himself into a green arrow that shot straight into the clouds, crashing toward Luke.
The trident in his hand flickered with high-voltage electric arcs, and pumpkin bombs were thrown out like they were free.
"Boss!"
On the ground, a red and blue figure arrived swinging on spider silk.
It was Peter Parker.
He let out an exclamation upon seeing this scene and wanted to shoot spider silk to help.
"Just watch, Peter."
Wanda stopped him, a trace of a sympathetic smile appearing on the corner of her mouth.
"Luke is angry. The green-skinned freak is in for it."
In the air.
Facing the charging Green Goblin, Luke didn't even put down his wine glass.
He just gently sighed.
"What a... noisy fly."
Just when Green Goblin rushed to within less than five meters in front of him.
The wings behind Luke suddenly shook.
Boom!
The sonic boom cloud exploded.
Luke's speed broke the sound barrier in that instant.
He didn't dodge, but instead crashed directly into Green Goblin.
A large hand covered in black fluid armor pierced through the flames and electric arcs, directly grabbing Green Goblinby the neck.
Crack!
The kinetic energy of the high-speed dash instantly dropped to zero.
Green Goblin felt as if he had crashed into a giant mountain.
His cervical vertebrae let out an unbearable groan, and his helmet deformed and twisted under Luke's fingers.
"Is this your power?"
Holding Green Goblin, Luke hovered a thousand meters high in the air.
The violent wind messed up his hair, but not a single drop of the red wine in his hand spilled.
He looked at the frantically struggling Green Goblin in his hand, his eyes filled only with disappointment.
"Too weak. Not even comparable to a single finger of Hulk's. I really don't know where you got the courage to declare war on me."
"Let me go... I am a god..."
Green Goblin was still roaring, attempting to initiate the self-destruct program on the glider.
"A god?"
Luke smiled.
His smile sent a chill through Green Goblin.
The Blacklight Virus inside Luke surged, and the black fluid poured out along his arms.
[Forced contact.]
[Unstable enhanced serum (defective version) detected.]
[Analyzing Oscorp Group technology tree...]
"You... what are you doing?!"
Green Goblin found with horror that his power was fading, and his body seemed to no longer belong to him.
"Since you like playing with bombs so much, then taste this."
Luke did not directly devour him.
His other hand suddenly transformed into a huge sharp blade.
Swish!
A slash fell.
The demon glider behind Green Goblin was cut directly in half.
Immediately after, Luke grabbed Green Goblin's ankle and swung him around in a full circle in the air.
"Off you go!"
Boom!
Luke exerted sudden force, throwing Green Goblin directly toward the direction of the Hudson River.
The terrifying force caused Green Goblin's body to generate sparks from friction in the air, streaking across half of New York like a green meteor and heavily smashing into the river a few kilometers away.
The whipped-up water pillar was even taller than the Statue of Liberty.
"Resolved."
Luke drained the red wine in his cup in one gulp, casually threw the empty wine glass into the air, then put away the wings behind him, slowly landing on the roof of a building in Times Square.
However.
Just as he was preparing to fix his hair and call it a day.
A familiar roar of thrusters suddenly came from the horizon.
A gold-red figure trailing a long tail flame flew over at high speed, accompanied by AC/DC's heavy metal rock music.
"Hey! Big guy with black wings! Can you leave me some face?"
Tony Stark, wearing brand-new armor, forcibly performed a superhero landing at a time when he wasn't even needed.
Thump!
Single knee on the ground, fist smashing into the ground, looking up, faceplate opening.
The movements were smooth and seamless, radiating swagger to the heavens.
"I was only late by three minutes! Just three minutes!"
Tony stood up, looking depressedly at the ripples still spreading on the distant river surface, and then looked at the unscathed Luke.
"I just gave the armor a full polish and even prepared a handsome opening line. And you just threw him away? That's my old opponent!"
"Oh come on, Tony."
Luke smiled slightly.
He walked over and reached out to brush off a bit of dust on Tony's shoulder.
"If I waited for you to come, the big screens in Times Square would have been scrapped long ago. That's the asset of Fisk Group, and it's very expensive to repair."
"Whoa, this look..."
Tony looked Luke up and down.
At this moment, the Blacklight fluid on Luke's body was slowly receding, revealing the suit underneath.
"How did you solve the joint flexibility problem after the fluid hardens? I saw your movements just now were as smooth as if they were greased."
Tony couldn't help reaching out to touch the black tentacles that hadn't completely faded from Luke yet.
"Don't go touching it blindly, watch out it bites you."
Luke smiled and slapped away Tony's iron hand.
"This is a talent, you can't learn it. Just like how I can't learn how you fit so many missiles into such small shoulders."
The two stood on the rooftop, with the bustling New Yorknight view behind them, looking like two colleagues chatting idly just after getting off work.
"Right."
Luke suddenly put away his smile, becoming slightly more serious.
He reached out and gently tapped Tony's gold-red chest armor, producing a crisp clang-clang sound.
"Giving you a technical suggestion, Tony."
"Mhm? I'm listening." Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Although I don't think Stark Industries' highest masterpiece has any flaws."
"Your shock-absorbing buffer system is still too poor."
Luke leaned in closer and said in a low voice:
"Just now when I grabbed Norman, I felt like his cervical vertebrae almost broke. If it were you, hit by the same force, even if the armor didn't break, your internal organs inside would be shaken to pieces."
"Although the Mark VII has solved laser guidance and portability, in terms of force dispersion, you still need to use your brain more. I don't want the next thing I fish out of the river to be you."
Tony was stunned for a moment.
As a top genius, he instantly heard the gold content in Luke's words.
Jarvis's simulation data also confirmed this point.
Facing a pure strength-type opponent of Luke's level, rigid defense indeed has hidden dangers.
"Fine."
Tony pouted proudly, but his eyes became serious.
"When I go back, I'll add an anti-gravity gel layer to it. Then I'll let you see what absolute defense is."
"I'm looking forward to it."
Luke smiled and turned towards the stairwell.
"Oh, and one last thing."
Luke stopped his steps, turned back, and blinked at Tony.
"If I were you, I would call Pepper right now and have her dump all the Oscorp Group stocks held by Stark Industriesbefore the market opens tomorrow."
"Then, get cash ready."
"Because after tomorrow, Oscorp Group will change its name."
Hearing this, the eyes under Tony's faceplate instantly lit up.
"Ha! I knew you guy was a crafty merchant! You want to take the opportunity to buy the dip?"
"No, I want to acquire it."
Luke waved his hand, his figure disappearing into the shadows.
"Remember to treat me to late-night snacks, Tony. I want to eat expensive and bad-tasting French cuisine, and you're paying this time."
Looking at Luke's departing back, Tony Stark couldn't help laughing out loud.
"Jarvis."
"Sir?"
"Call Pepper. Tell her there's a tough battle to fight tomorrow morning. Also..."
Tony glanced at the reactor on his chest.
"Create a new project file, I really don't want to get a concussion."
"Very well, sir."
Tony closed his faceplate, the thrusters roared, and he shot straight up into the sky.
Tonight's New York, although a bit noisy, with the two strongest people around, it was still very safe.
...
Book completed.
Endish - on hiatus - waiting??