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"What?" Anton was taken aback.

This incident was indeed beyond his expectations.

Green monster?

Army?

Why is the Foot Clan with these two again?

Although Phil didn't explicitly mention the identities of the two parties, his reference to Brazil and the time frame naturally made Anton think of something: the Hulk—and the army led by General Ross, who was hunting him.

"Boss, we didn't expect it either!"

Phil looked helpless as he explained the situation to Anton.

They had searched the tropical rainforest for an entire day, finally pinpointing the precise location of the last part of the teleportation device. Just as they dug it out, a loud noise echoed in the distance.

A helicopter was suddenly crushed flat like a toy and thrown aside. Its propellers were bent, and no one could tell how far it had been flung.

In the rainforest, trees were uprooted or snapped like twigs. Mud splattered everywhere, covering their faces. Everyone was dumbfounded.

Boom!

The next moment, the helicopter exploded.

As the shockwave rippled through, a massive green figure covered in muscle leapt into the air, then landed with earth-shaking force. The figure appeared in front of Phil and his group.

It was a giant green monster with a bare upper body, wearing only a pair of shorts.

The moment it landed, the ground trembled as though an earthquake had struck.

When the green monster noticed Phil and the others holding weapons, it didn't hesitate. It attacked, killing a member of the Foot Clan instantly.

Coincidentally, the military team arrived at that exact moment.

Their remaining helicopters, armed with powerful cannons, aimed at both the green monster in the rainforest and Phil's group.

In the chaos, the green monster inadvertently stepped on the location of the teleportation device fragment. The fragment activated immediately.

Whoosh!

The green monster disappeared along with the fragment!

Everyone froze in shock.

Phil and the others exchanged glances, only to find themselves quickly surrounded by the military. After a fierce fight, they barely managed to escape, but not without significant losses.

Almost ten people had accompanied Phil on this trip. Now, if you counted himself, only three remained. The other two survivors were Dr. Stockman and the female ninja Karai.

Of course, the military didn't get off unscathed either.

Thanks to the Foot Clan's frenzied counterattack, more than 30 soldiers were lost.

There wasn't even supposed to be any conflict between the two sides! But now? If there wasn't animosity before, there certainly was now.

To be honest, though, Phil wasn't as concerned about the military or the Foot Clan as he was about his own situation.

He had come to Brazil and gotten into a fight with the military. Didn't that pretty much confirm his status as a supervillain?

When he returned, wouldn't the military just track him down and throw him straight into prison?

Phil had taken note of the soldiers this time. The army sent to surround the green monster wasn't Brazilian. With the American flag prominently displayed on their uniforms, they were undoubtedly the same cross-border soldiers Phil's group had encountered at the airport when they first arrived.

Speaking of the whole situation, not only was Phil in a complicated mood, but even Anton, who had just heard the details, was left speechless.

"However, we should be able to locate the remaining fragments and the monster's position using the tracker," Phil said, thinking aloud. But then he added, "It's just that during the recent flight, the tracker was damaged. Now there's no way to pinpoint the location."

"In that case, come back first," Anton said after a moment of thought.

But just as he spoke, a loud "bang" came from Phil's side of the call.

Phil instinctively turned his head toward the sound and froze in shock. The door to his room had been kicked open, and a submachine gun was aimed directly at him.

"Don't move! Hands up!"

The military had surrounded the hotel. A group of armed soldiers burst into the room, their weapons trained on Phil with terrifying precision.

Caught off guard, Phil had no chance to don his Green Goblin suit. Resigned, he raised his hands, letting the phone fall to the carpet.

He was led out of the room, where he saw Stockman already handcuffed. Even Karai, the most combat-capable among them, had been subdued and was now a prisoner of the military.

"Well, it seems I don't have to worry about getting arrested after returning home!"

Despite the gravity of the situation, Phil couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the irony.

"The real question is whether I'll get to go back at all!"

"Phil?"

Anton's expression darkened as he heard the commotion on the other end of the call.

Without hesitation, he summoned his cyborg clone. Within seconds, he used his phone to locate the hotel in Brazil where Phil was being held. Then, he remotely wiped all data from Phil's phone.

Using the hotel's surveillance system, Anton viewed the scene from the cyborg clone's perspective. He saw Phil and the others being led out of the room under heavy guard.

Boom!

Without a moment's delay, Anton transferred his consciousness into the cyborg body. Breaking through the window of his villa, the cyborg soared into the sky, heading straight for Brazil.

As the cyborg flew out of the villa area, every surveillance camera along its path froze, capturing nothing but empty air. Only after the cyborg had completely left the vicinity did the cameras resume normal operation.

Brazil, near Rio de Janeiro.

At a certain airborne base, this temporary facility had been secured through General Ross's connections.

The plan was simple: stay here for the night and return home the next morning.

During this time, Ross quickly identified Stockman's background. As for Phil and Karai, their identities remained unknown.

Stockman was a well-known scientist, but the other two were far less prominent—practically anonymous.

Inside the base, Stockman sat in an interrogation room. A single beam of light illuminated his face as the questioning began.

Sitting opposite him, General Ross, his expression cold and unreadable, had a glint of calculation in his eyes. After an indeterminate amount of time, he suddenly laughed—a sound that sent a chill down Stockman's spine.

"Baxter Stockman, a scientist who has been studying teleportation technology for many years..." Ross began slowly, his voice carrying an edge. "So, the reason the person I'm after disappeared so suddenly is because of your teleportation technology?"

"No, you can't say that," Stockman stammered, swallowing nervously. "The teleportation technology isn't perfect. I can send someone away, but I can't bring them back. Do you understand? If you're looking for that person, I can't help you!"

"You can't even guarantee that he's still on Earth?" Ross frowned deeply.

"This..." Stockman hesitated, then reluctantly nodded.

Ross leaned back in his chair, his demeanor shifting as he continued, "I found something interesting among your equipment. My tech expert tells me it's a positioning instrument."

He paused for a moment, a thin smile spreading across his face. "Dr. Stockman, care to explain what it's for?"

Stockman froze, his eyes widening. The old fox in front of him seemed to have seen through every deception.

After a long silence, Stockman groaned in defeat, eventually dragged out of the room.

Though he was still alive, he had been tortured enough to leave him physically and mentally shattered.

For Ross, a ruthless general focused solely on achieving his goals, such methods were simply a matter of course.

In the interrogation room, Ross remained seated, his mind racing.

"Teleportation device, positioning instrument, Banner..." he muttered to himself. "If you're going to run away like this, Banner, you're certainly giving me quite the surprise."

A cold smile spread across his face as his thoughts crystallized.

Since Banner had escaped using the teleportation device fragments, the location of the fragments and Banner's current position would naturally align.

Repairing the positioning instrument and tracking him down would not be an issue.

Better yet, Ross realized he could even use Banner to complete the teleportation device.

Kill two birds with one stone.

Unbeknownst to Ross, at that very moment, a figure was soaring through the clouds at incredible speed, heading straight for Brazil.

….

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