And then came the green version of Purgatory Paradise Drop!
Hulk gave full rein to his instincts and started swinging Carnage Kabuto around like a rag doll.
Carnage Kabuto broke free from Hulk's grip at once. Its grayish-brown arm, nearly a meter thick, whipped backward like the collapsing support pillar of a blasted building, unstoppable and overwhelming.
Hulk was sent flying in an instant and smashed straight through a building.
"Let me see how much that building is going to cost."
Zodhis watched the fight while eating fried chicken and drinking cola.
"2.35 million dollars, sir. That building had just been completed."
Black Queen answered.
Zodhis tossed aside the chicken bone in his hand.
Two point three five million!
That prodigal Hulk!
How much stuff would he have to sell to earn that back?!
Hulk climbed back to his feet from the collapsed ruins. His anger made him stronger, and his body grew even more powerful.
"Oh? Getting serious now?"
Carnage Kabuto's blood began to boil with excitement.
In the next instant, Hulk and Carnage Kabuto crashed into each other like two tanks accelerating at three hundred kilometers per hour!
Boom!
The deafening impact nearly shook the sky. Hulk's punch was dodged by Carnage Kabuto, but he took a brutal elbow strike from it head-on!
That blow nearly shattered Hulk's jaw.
But Hulk recovered in the blink of an eye, and the monstrous strength in his body surged even further because of his anger.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Carnage Kabuto felt it clearly. In a single instant, Hulk's strength had already surpassed his own. Both of Carnage Kabuto's arms were pinned by Hulk, and then Hulk slammed his head forward!
Bang!
Carnage Kabuto's head swam from the blow.
What kind of joke was this? I am the strongest combat weapon!
Hulk headbutted him again!
Bang!
You damned bastard!
Carnage Kabuto's entire body began to swell.
"Hulk!"
Hulk was forced to let go, then watched as his enemy became even larger, its entire body turning a purple-green hue.
Carnage Kabuto, Carnage Mode!
A super monster that had managed to fight Superalloy Darkshine for fifteen full minutes before finally being beaten to death!
Hulk was instantly beaten into a miserable state, with no room at all to fight back under Carnage Kabuto's savage pummeling.
"No way! Hulk isn't a match for that monster!"
"You've got to be kidding me. How can a monster that strong even exist?!"
"What do we do? If Hulk can't beat it, is that monster going to destroy all of Boston?!"
"Probably not, right? Aren't there still other S-Class heroes?"
Zodhis looked at the scrolling comments on Spider Web and suddenly clapped his hands.
Then most of the people watching the livestream noticed that a new function had appeared right in the middle of the video.
Cheer Support!
The support function was meant to encourage superheroes who were fighting with everything they had. As long as users activated it, they could shout their support into their phone or microphone, and the Sentinel robots would broadcast those cheers for them.
At the same time, to prevent malicious messages, Black Queen began filtering everything through big data, ensuring that any harmful support messages would be deleted immediately.
Ahem.
Zodhis cleared his throat and gave the Spider Web users a demonstration.
"Hang in there, big green guy!"
All the Sentinel robots across Boston instantly broadcast that support message, as if cheers were coming from every direction, like a sea of people roaring as one.
Hulk's battered body suddenly trembled.
"Go, Hulk!"
This time it was in English. Hulk had not understood the Japanese just now, but after hearing the English and that overwhelming cry of support surging like a packed crowd, he suddenly felt something strange rising inside him.
A feeling that made him unbearably uncomfortable if he did not let it out!
"HULK!!!"
Roaring to the heavens, Hulk forced himself to stand up while taking Carnage Kabuto's punches head-on.
"Go, Hulk!"
"Kill that monster!"
"Smash its head in, Hulk!"
"Hulk, break through his center line first, then uppercut his jaw!"
"Hulk, destroy an insect's central nervous system and it won't be able to do anything!"
Zodhis's two support messages were like the spark that lit a fire. Countless cheers began pouring in after that.
Some Hulk could not understand.
Some Hulk could.
But all Hulk felt was an unprecedented power flooding through his entire body with every cry of support. Never before had he received this much recognition. Every time he came out in the past, people only ever attacked him, except for this recent stretch of time.
After hearing one particular shout, Hulk thrust both hands straight between Carnage Kabuto's fists, forcibly pried apart both of its arms with raw strength, and smashed his fists into its chest.
Then came the uppercut.
And right after that, direct attacks on its central nervous system!
Carnage Kabuto was beaten senseless by Hulk's sudden combo, like some war god had possessed him. Just a moment ago, this guy had only known how to rely on brute force, so why had he suddenly become this ferocious?
It heard those annoying cheers too, and Carnage Kabuto instantly realized why Hulk had suddenly become so much stronger.
But I am the strongest!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
World-shaking explosions rang out again and again. The plaza, already split in two, shattered further under the mad tremors. Shockwaves spread into the surrounding buildings, and even the sky seemed to roll and roar.
Boom!
With a thunderous blast, Carnage Kabuto landed a full-force punch squarely in the center of Hulk's chest. The roar of impact drowned out the faint sound of cracking bones as Hulk was sent flying backward, crashing across broken chunks of concrete. Then, bellowing with fury, he clawed his way back out of the dirt.
Boston's lush green beauty had been flattened into wasteland. Amid the fierce hurricane winds, the afterimages of fists and kicks kept flashing into view, setting off one deafening burst of force after another.
Hulk swung his arm and smashed Carnage Kabuto hard into the ground. Without caring about anything else, he rained both fists down in a frenzy. His rapidly falling punches filled the air with a dense storm of afterimages. Every single punch was as heavy as a mountain, carrying terrifying whistling force as they pounded the ground into fragments.
By this point in the fight, Hulk's strength had already reached the terrifying level of a thousand tons of arm force.
Carnage Kabuto was no longer his match.
After several hundred punches, Carnage Kabuto had been reduced to a mangled heap of flesh. Its hard exoskeleton and bones had all been shattered by Hulk.
"HULK!!!"
Hulk grabbed Carnage Kabuto and lifted it high overhead.
"Hulk!"
"Hulk!"
"Hulk, I love you!!!"
"The strongest man in the world, Hulk!"
The fans' cheers changed with that. Some of them had even gone from casual observers to full-blown fans.
After all, that kind of savage close-quarters brawl, that kind of fight where every punch landed with brutal force, was enough to make anyone's blood boil.
After Hulk finished off Carnage Kabuto, Zodhis kept his promise and let him go have the time of his life in the amusement park.
The amusement park had been built on an uninhabited island, and Zodhis had spent more than a billion dollars constructing it. Every employee there had been specially hired just to serve Hulk.
In truth, soothing Hulk had never been that difficult.
It was just that, all this time, no one had ever been willing to communicate with him.
/-\
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