Miss Justice is not motivated

"Scan for biomagnetic field characteristics." Out of caution, Frank did not choose to use infrared reconnaissance after annihilating the ground spikes, but instead activated biomagnetic field scanning. Then War Machine raised his right wrist, and a cutting laser swept out.

As his body was nearly cleaved in two, Alex, who had been adjusting his body temperature to conceal himself and prepare for a sneak attack, realized he had been discovered. His chitin-based bio-armor was strong enough to withstand tank cannon fire, but it offered absolutely no resistance to the War Machine's cutting laser, slicing him in two like a hot knife through butter.

The wound tissue liquefied rapidly and reassembled. Using minimal bioenergy expenditure, Alex regained his fighting ability and no longer chose to fight head-on.

But how could Frank let him escape like that? Various high-energy rays, cutting lasers, particle beams, and high-voltage electric shocks were unleashed in turn. Even Alex from the original story wouldn't last long under such an offensive before his energy was depleted.

While Alex's current foundation is stronger than in the original story, he hasn't had enough time to grow. Facing the Punisher, whose combat experience far surpasses his own, he's being completely overwhelmed and utterly pathetic.

No… I haven’t seen Dana yet! In this critical moment, Alex did not give up. His obsession with his family spurred him to seek a solution. He was originally a researcher at Gentek and was quite knowledgeable in biology. Because of Shoggoth, he had greater flexibility in manipulating the physical body.

By adjusting individual proteins, enzymes, and genes on the spot, Alex managed to unlock the special skill of photosynthesis, allowing him to absorb energy while bathed in the morning sun, and adapt to various beam attacks by rapidly dividing and mutating his body tissues.

Under normal circumstances, such genetic changes would normally require a long period of accumulation and countless cycles of life and death of the same species to achieve environmental adaptation. However, this was achieved in less than five minutes. Frank, who had been observing all of this, kept these things in mind.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Running, Running, Running

The battle quickly became a stalemate. Although Alex's physical strength was not as good as Frank's, his virus had a variety of strange and unpredictable changes, and he managed to survive the bombardment that was enough to destroy a modern army.

"Mr. Mercer, run!" Just then, He Sanjin, who was fleeing in a disheveled state from the other side of the street, was in no good condition. One of his legs had been broken by a heavy blow, and the pale bone fragments were exposed to the air.

Although he was extremely reluctant to leave in such a disgraceful manner, and even more eager to know Dana's whereabouts, Alex knew that continuing to fight would cost him his life. He had no choice but to flee with He Sanjin. Upon seeing that the former had caught up, He Sanjin forcefully tore open the teleportation scroll in his hand, guiding the two of them to a safe area.

"Did they run away?" Zote, who had been following beside him, glanced at the instrument on his hand and frowned as he spoke. "These spatial scrolls are really too troublesome. It's necessary to put the development of spatial anchors on the agenda, otherwise we'll be at a disadvantage."

“Yes, if we can't lock down the surrounding space for a long time, we won't be able to take control.” Unlike the fully armed super soldiers behind him, Steve was only wearing a simple military uniform, not even a speck of dust on him. Then, he looked at War Machine and asked, “Frank, how's the prototype?”

"I wonder if it's because he's the main character in the story, but his evolution is remarkably stable. Even with the virus causing him to mutate, this level of performance is quite exceptional." Frank transmitted all the data he had just detected to the device in Zot's hand, reflecting on the battle just now. "Although he's slightly lacking in experience, if he continues to grow..."

“It’s alright. He’s not someone who can’t be won over. There’s no need to make things so bad with him.” Shaking his head, Steve naturally understood the meaning behind Frank’s words. This unconventional anti-hero was currently focused on eliminating the threat as soon as possible and killing Alex. “After all, he’s a character with considerable intelligence. As long as we can analyze the pros and cons with him properly, we can have a good conversation.”

Frank didn't respond, but silently organized the data and virus samples he had just collected. Next time... as long as the White Light vaccine is loaded into the warhead, that arrogant brat will definitely suffer a great loss.

This vaccine... isn't easy to manufacture. Zola examined the virus sample in the glass bottle and muttered to himself.

"What's the situation in other areas? Did Squad 12 encounter the Hunters...?" Looking at the horde of super soldiers behind him, Steve gave the order without hesitation. "From now on, every time a squad goes out, one super soldier must accompany them."

Although Hydra's ordinary soldiers have been equipped with upgraded, high-quality gear, it remains extremely difficult to fight against monsters like the Hunters, which are beyond the realm of reason. Moreover, this is only the first day; even stronger monsters will emerge afterward.

"Understood!" The super soldiers, standing in neat rows, responded to Steve's words.

Meanwhile, after escaping their pursuit, He Sanjin and Alex stumbled into an alley and hid.

Once out of danger, Alex was swollen all over, and large amounts of bodily fluids gushed from his wounds. Upon closer inspection, the fluids that fell to the ground even made a hissing sound, like boiling hot oil.

"Mr. Mercer, are you alright?" A gentle surge of chakra flowed from his palm to heal Alex. He Sanjin, who was skillfully using palm magic, did not give up his surveillance of the surroundings and remained vigilant.

“I’m fine now… but Dana…” The thought of Dana’s whereabouts being unknown made Alex feel like his heart was being torn apart. He had no intention of resting here any longer and wished he could rush to his sister’s side right now.

“Calm down a bit, Mr. Mercer.” Grabbing Alex’s shoulder and shaking him gently, He Sanjin, unlike the doting brother who was worried about his sister’s safety, remained calm and analyzed the situation. “Since Dana was captured alive, it means that the other party must have something to ask of us, so naturally they won’t harm her.”

At this point, He Sanjin couldn't help but feel puzzled. His hidden pawn had been removed without him even noticing. Unless… the person who removed the pawn was far superior to him in biological modification, this situation was impossible.

Furthermore, He Sanjin noticed signs of virus modification left at the scene, which were probably clues deliberately left behind by the kidnapper.

However, this is not impossible, as the virus within Alex's body is already a significantly mutated version. The other party seems to enjoy causing chaos and could potentially turn the city upside down.

“I… understand.” Alex clenched his fist unwillingly, then relaxed it, unable to think of any way to proceed at this stage.

“Let’s go find Elizabeth; she should know what’s going on.” He Sanjin noticed that Elizabeth still had control over the infected. Logically, this didn’t make sense, because the infected at this stage weren’t using the simple Blacklight virus. If the other side wanted to control the infected through the Mother Nest consciousness, it would need the same virus.

Although Alex himself was unaware of it, He Sanjin, who had accessed his memories, knew that the vial of Blacklight virus had been tampered with. Now that Elizabeth also possessed the tampered virus, it meant that the person who kidnapped Dana and the person who tampered with the virus were the same person.

He explained his reasoning to Alex, who looked on with sudden realization. He Sanjin cheerfully offered his advice: "Isn't that great? Since our opponent wants to lure us into a trap, let's go and venture into this den of dragons and tigers!"

"Crush this and absorb it; you'll recover quickly." He Sanjin tossed a red jade stone the size of a fingernail to Alex, then crushed the red jade stone in his own hand. As the jade shattered, a bright red light shone in his palm, and his injuries and depleted energy were quickly replenished.

Alex followed suit and crushed the red jade, but the next moment, countless words filled his mind and echoed.

"You beast, don't want to die? Let me go! Please don't! Leave me now! Help! Why are we going through this? You beast, you should go to hell! Aaaaaah! You want to die? Let me go! Please don't! You bastard, why are we going through this? You beast, you should go to hell! Leave me now! Help! Aaaaaah!"

Alex, pale-faced, snapped out of his daze from the screams that filled his ears. He Sanjin, standing beside him, explained with concern, "This is the Philosopher's Stone, forged from human souls. It can be used as a consumable item, which is very convenient."

"However, if you crush and absorb something like this, you will be affected by the spiritual influence left in it, but it's not a big problem. It's just that it's not as convenient as the Myriad Blood Spirit Pearl made from the flesh and blood of living people, but it is good and cheap."

Chapter Twenty-Six: Alliance [Part 1]

Generally speaking, it usually takes several years to build a subway, and the manpower, financial resources, and material resources required are staggering.

However, the reincarnators who descended upon this place completed the basic appearance of the underground world in less than two days, a speed that left people speechless.

One hundred meters beneath Times Square, a massive underground cavity, hundreds of meters wide, has appeared. From this enormous cavity, tunnels large enough to pass through large armored vehicles extend outwards throughout New York City.

For Mu Xishuang and Zote, this was not difficult. The former used the Earthly Divination Talisman to summon a large number of burrowing worms. These creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos could dig tunnels through rocks, which were like butter to them. Furthermore, they did not need to breathe, and fully mature individuals could cause powerful earthquakes.

Meanwhile, Zot retrieved the sealed insect eggs and revived the cave lord sealed within them by injecting magic. He then used transformation magic and gene potions to create a large number of cave demons, and began his tireless digging as well.

This was undoubtedly the right approach; by using the magical creatures to absorb the force of the two, they created the perfect hiding place for the infected in a very short time. Although this would create considerable tremors and potentially reveal the location…

But what does it matter? If they dare to go underground, Zote and Mu Xishuang have a hundred ways to kill the regular army underground.

"These guys are still too fragile..." Mu Xishuang yawned as she watched the burrowing worms that looked like squid burrowing back and forth on the ground. Anyway, once the basic framework is built, these guys can go back to rest.

While bunker buster bombs can indeed be used to attack underground targets, the nest that Mu Xishuang designed for Elizabeth is located about 100 meters underground, which is inaccessible to ordinary bunker buster bombs. Furthermore, using specially designed bunker buster bombs at a depth of 100 meters would inevitably cause considerable disturbance. Elizabeth could then use a teleportation scroll to move to another backup base, unless Hydra were so insane as to blow up the entire underground area.

"This is exhausting. They won't let us use weapons of mass destruction." While drawing an underground map with dissatisfaction, Mu Xishuang was still designing exits and sensing methods.

In one of the exits of the underground base, Alex and He Sanjin went down into a sewer. The two noticed that the entire sewer wall was covered with fleshy vines unique to the Blacklight virus, which stretched into the darkness.

"These guys are pretty capable." He Sanjin couldn't help but agree, having roughly guessed what the infected Reincarnators were thinking. "Let's go, let's move forward."

In the original story, Elizabeth also thought of hiding her true form underground to avoid danger, but how could Hydra compare to the burrowing demons and burrowing lords who were born with the ability to dig holes? As a result, Blackwatch injected white light spray into the sewers, forcing her out of the ground.

Now, it's impossible for Hydra to replicate the original story. Even if they were to spread white light spray in the underground tunnels, all they would need to do is create a cave-in to block the tunnels where the white light spray was spread.

"..." Doflamingo looked around, a look of amazement on his face. He had been observing which side to join when Mu Xishuang noticed him and invited him to see this underground world, hoping to win him over.

For Mu Xishuang, Zote's mission didn't conflict with her own, so recruiting him wasn't a bad thing. While Doflamingo had some weaknesses, his raw strength was considerable, making him a good choice to bring in as combat power.

During the earlier commotion, Doflamingo, though not involved in the fighting, observed everyone's battles up close. Utilizing the Shadow Rider Line's clone technique, he was able to simultaneously reach multiple battlefields, witnessing the power displayed by the others.

Even Doflamingo wasn't entirely confident of defeating each of them. Therefore, choosing the right faction required even greater caution.

For this reason, Doflamingo did not choose to come down with his real body, but instead chose to use a clone of himself to accept the invitation.

"!" Doflamingo's Observation Haki accurately sensed a familiar presence. When he reached the end, he saw He Sanjin and Alex.

“It’s you…” He Sanjin recognized at a glance that this guy was the one who attacked him during the battle to seize Elizabeth. However, he also recognized that this guy was not the real body, but a clone made of silk threads.

"Fufufu... It is indeed me." Doflamingo smiled, but did not provoke him further. Compared to He Sanjin, he paid more attention to Alex beside him, after all, the other party was the protagonist of the story and had great fortune protecting him in many theories.

Feeling the intense gaze from Doflamingo, Alex felt quite uncomfortable and simply hid his face in the shadow of his hood.

Although there was no light in the passage, all three had other ways of perception besides sight, so they were able to walk through it smoothly.

Before long, they arrived at a small cubicle lit by candles. Sitting there were Zote and Mu Xishuang; the former had a deadpan expression, while the latter had a cheerful smile.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, you two." Doflamingo smiled and pulled out a stool to sit down.

Alex, on the other hand, didn't follow them inside. Instead, he found a spot nearby and leaned against the wall, lost in thought. He Sanjin, meanwhile, pulled up a stool, sat down imposingly, and coldly surveyed the other three.

"Enough with the small talk, let's form an alliance." Mu Xishuang spoke first, showing off her main quest. "This is my main quest, and it doesn't conflict with Mr. Zote's, so we've chosen to cooperate."

Zott cooperated by demonstrating his main quest, and then didn't say anything more.

After each demonstrating their main mission, He Sanjin and Doflamingo remained silent, waiting for Mu Xishuang to speak.

“Mr. Alex shouldn’t be so quick to abandon Blackwatch. He will definitely participate in the fight against Hydra afterward, which means our positions will overlap.” As she said this, Mu Xishuang snapped her fingers, and a display screen appeared, showing the unconscious Dana. “Moreover, Mr. Alex doesn’t need to worry about Miss Dana’s safety. Here underground, her safety is guaranteed.”

The ground beneath their feet shattered with a bang. Alex looked at Mu Xishuang, whose face was ashen, while the latter seemed completely unconcerned.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Alliance (Part Two)

"Is this your sincerity in cooperating? At the very least, you should bring the person here, shouldn't you?" He Sanjin was not going to believe Mu Xishuang's nonsense. He didn't want such a big weakness to be held in someone's hands.

"Want to see her? No problem at all, consider this my sincerity." Shrugging, Mu Xishuang snapped her fingers. Soon, a cave demon crawled out of a hidden cave entrance, carrying an unconscious black-haired girl on its back.

"!" Instinctively, Alex wanted to rush forward, but in the end, he stood still, staring intently at the cave demon, refusing to look away.

“No need to be nervous, this is just the proper way to show sincerity.” Mu Xishuang gestured for the cave demon to walk towards Alex, and the obedient spider gently put the girl down from its back. Then she turned her gaze back to He Sanjin and asked gently, “How is it? We have already shown our sincerity, now… shouldn’t you show yours as well?”

Alex gently lifted the unconscious Dana into his arms. His movements and expression were indescribably sacred and solemn, like Galahad in mythology holding up the Holy Grail. No one would treat this symbol of divine grace with disrespect.

"Heh." He Sanjin scoffed, a disdainful expression on his face. "How interesting. Are you joking? You arrested someone and then brought them back, and you call that sincerity, not provocation?"

"How could that be? We value sincerity above all else." Unperturbed by He Sanjin's sarcasm, Mu Xishuang remained amiable. "If you have no intention of cooperating, you may leave now. I have no intention of forcing you. Of course, if you wish to form an alliance in the future, we welcome you at any time."

Zote, standing nearby, squinted, seemingly taking a nap. Although he had fought He Sanjin before, neither of them had any intention of continuing the fight.

"..." Doflamingo listened to the conversation between the two and suppressed his Observation Haki. Even so, he could sense the surging and exaggerated power within He Sanjin beside him, which explained why the other party was being so eagerly recruited.

“This gentleman hasn’t decided on a side yet, has he? If he’s interested, he can join us.” Mu Xishuang raised her hand, signaling the cave demon beside her to step back.

"I'll join." To everyone's surprise, He Sanjin blurted out. He looked at Zote and Mu Xishuang, then took out a fragment of the Philosopher's Stone from his storage space and said, "But I need the Philosopher's Stone. Do any of you have one you can trade?"

Philosopher's Stones and Blood Orbs of All Spirits have always been the hard currency in the Source Point Terminal, essentially another form of currency besides points. Whether used for absorption or as energy, they are considered excellent items.

"What do you want in exchange?" It was Zot who spoke, taking out a fist-sized Philosopher's Stone from his storage space. The crimson light, imbued with the souls of tens of thousands, shone brighter than candlelight, attracting Alex's attention.

As he spoke, Zote took out a card and crushed it; it was a transaction notarization card from the Source Terminal. With the Source Terminal acting as a third party, neither party to the transaction could lie.

“This is the Box of Bliss.” Pointing to the box he took out of his storage space, He Sanjin explained, “It originally contained ‘Enlightenment,’ but I’ve already eaten it. So the other thing sealed inside is the demon from the Land of Demons.”

Zote nodded thoughtfully, finding the box intriguing, and took it to examine it. He Sanjin wasn't worried about the box being directly stored in his storage space; under the notarized transaction model, no one could do that.

"Deal." X2. As these words were spoken, the Philosopher's Stone and the Box of Elysium flew into He Sanjin's and Zote's Books of Reincarnation, respectively, and the transaction was completed.

The reason he requested to trade the Philosopher's Stone was naturally for Alex's sake. Although he had gained many forms due to the infusion of power, his basic energy reserves were too low, and He Sanjin himself rarely stored Philosopher's Stones, so he would consume them whenever necessary.

Mu Xishuang remained silent, simply observing. Just like before, the Jingjing appearing here was merely an avatar, even the name she used was a pseudonym.

Doflamingo looked thoughtfully at everything that had just happened. Everything at the Origin Terminal was completely new to him; it was something he had never seen before.

As for He Sanjin… he admitted that the reason for joining was not complicated; it was simply because the Reincarnator on the Black Watch (Hydra) side was an excessively powerful monster. If he were alone, he would definitely find it difficult to defeat the opponent, not to mention having to worry about being betrayed by other Reincarnators.

After forming an alliance, at least He Sanjin no longer had to worry about being betrayed by Zote and Mu Xishuang, which was enough for him.

The atmosphere became tense. Doflamingo knew the reason was naturally because of himself. However, he didn't feel embarrassed; he was just still pondering, weighing, and considering the benefits of joining the infected side.

Currently, the infected side has a larger number of reincarnators. Moreover, due to He Sanjin's involvement, Alex Mercer should also be bound to it, at least for now... he won't clash with Elizabeth like in the original story.

Currently, the infected side not only has three reincarnators, but also two powerful characters from the original story: Alex Mercer and Elizabeth Greeney. It can be said that they have brought in all the high-end combat forces that were not available in the original story.