Perhaps because they had once been nothing more than movie characters, Roger had always felt a certain distance from them, making it easier to suppress any feelings of guilt.
But then again…
How could he prove that he himself wasn’t just another movie character in someone else’s eyes?
After sighing at his own insignificance, Roger prepared to head to the next world.
To gain greater power.
To gain a stronger sense of security.
“Maybe I’m not even as strong as Stark.”
He laughed at himself as golden light enveloped his body, and he vanished.
[You have consumed ten Dimensional Crystals and performed ten draws. (100/100)]
[You have obtained common rewards: …]
[Golden light shines! Congratulations! A Real Exploration Event has been triggered.]
[Please choose your destination world.]
[Notice: After selecting your target world, there is a 99% chance you will arrive there accurately.]
[Warning: Every action you take will cause irreversible changes to that parallel universe.]
[Preparation complete! Time flow ratio between Main World No. 12580 and the Hulk movie universe: 1:10.]
[A flash of light surrounds you as you arrive at the Sea of the Multiverse. The magnificent sight leaves you mesmerized. Suddenly, a mysterious force envelops you and carries you into your chosen universe.]
[You have arrived in Ang Lee’s Hulk movie universe. You have become an ordinary soldier.]
The light faded.
Roger found himself inside an underground military facility.
All around him were tense-looking soldiers, and ahead, a massive breach had been blasted open, leading to the outside world.
Seeing the system’s prompt, Roger finally relaxed.
Quietly activating his telepathy, he caused everyone nearby to unconsciously ignore his presence before sprinting outside.
With a single leap, he shot hundreds of meters into the air.
Watching the distant green figure disappear into the horizon, he couldn’t help exclaiming,
“Holy crap!”
Hulk had casually leaped several hundred meters into the sky.
One jump covered well over ten kilometers.
And that was only while he was still getting used to his powers.
If he became angrier—if he entered a berserk state—his strength would continue increasing without limit.
Before today, Roger had spent the Dimensional Crystals earned from daily missions on another ninety explorations.
Besides the very first reward—Flash Step—he had also obtained:
Spider-Sense 10% (Tom Holland)
Spider Strength 10% (Tobey Maguire)
Spider Physique 10% (Andrew Garfield)
Mind Reading 10% (Professor X)
Magnetism Manipulation 10% (Magneto)
Shapeshifting 10% (Mystique)
Telepathy 10% (Emma Frost)
Hecate II Sniper Rifle (Sword Art Online: Gun Gale Online)
Aside from one reward that seemed to have wandered in from the wrong franchise, Roger was extremely satisfied with this round of exploration.
To obtain the power he coveted most.
Among every live-action version of Hulk he had seen in his previous life, the Hulk from Ang Lee’s Hulk was, in Roger’s opinion, the strongest.
He possessed Wolverine-like regeneration.
A wound as long as a forearm healed within seconds.
His speed rivaled thunder itself.
At full sprint, he was comparable to a low-flying fighter jet.
His strength was even more terrifying.
Every surge of anger caused his body to grow larger, and his power increased alongside it.
Roger found it difficult to imagine just how overwhelming a four- or five-meter-tall green giant truly was.
His thoughts flashed by in an instant.
He immediately put on a pair of tactical goggles, blasted forward with a sonic boom, and raced toward the abandoned town where Hulk first stopped after escaping.
Suddenly—
A Hellfire missile screamed past Roger’s side.
In the blink of an eye, it slammed into a nearby house beside Hulk.
Boom!
The tremendous explosion erupted into a miniature mushroom cloud.
The searing shockwave flattened everything nearby.
Even Hulk’s monstrous body wasn’t completely unharmed—a piece of shrapnel sliced open his shoulder.
The moment Hulk rose to his feet, Roger swooped down from the sky.
An arrow carrying a flashbang grenade reached its target before he did.
Before Hulk’s wound could regenerate, the arrow buried itself directly inside the injury.
Boom—WEEEEEE!
A deafening blast erupted.
The sudden flash instantly blinded and deafened Hulk.
From roughly ten meters away, Roger seized the brief opening.
Using telekinesis, he snapped the shaft of the embedded arrow clean off at the wound.
The instant Hulk’s vision began recovering, Roger decisively kicked backward and shot into the sky.
Hulk blinked in confusion.
For a moment, he couldn’t understand what had just happened.
Had something blurry… just flown away?
Within seconds, the wound regenerated completely.
The titanium arrowhead was squeezed out by Hulk’s contracting muscles and fell onto the ground.
Seeing the blood still clinging to the arrowhead, Hulk let out a furious roar before stomping it into the dirt.
Just then, a swarm of cluster missiles descended from above.
With no time to bother over the tiny object, Hulk growled and leaped into the distance.
High overhead, Roger floated among the clouds, wrapped head to toe in a white cloth to disguise himself as a drifting cloud.
Only then did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
He glanced at the broken arrow shaft in his hand.
Inside its hollow core…
Roger had specifically designed these hollow arrows back when he’d acquired Hawkeye’s Archery Talent.
At the time, he’d even dragged Stark to an archery club every day.
Unfortunately, poor Stark had absolutely no talent for archery.
His aim was so terrible that he gave up after a single visit.
Staring at the blood he’d successfully obtained, Roger couldn’t help grinning to himself.
He quietly descended again, hoping to recover the arrowhead as well.
There might still be even more Hulk blood inside it.
But when he finally found the arrowhead…
It had already melted into a puddle of liquid metal.
The remaining blood had been completely incinerated by the intense heat.
Watching the distant green figure disappear over the horizon, Roger gradually calmed down.
This dangerous adventure had already been an overwhelming success.
Anything he gained from this point onward would simply be a bonus.
Now he only needed to head to the military warehouse in San Francisco and wait patiently.
Sooner or later, Hulk’s father would show up.
There was no need to follow Hulk around and witness his rampage firsthand.
Getting accidentally caught in Hulk’s crossfire…
That wasn’t an experience Roger wanted.
In this version of the story, Bruce Banner’s father had participated in a super-soldier gene experiment, using himself as the test subject.
During an accident, he unknowingly passed his mutated gamma genes on to his son.
That was why little Bruce turned green whenever he became angry.
When Bruce was four years old, his father had even attempted to kill him, believing his son would eventually become a monster.
Instead, through a tragic twist of fate, he killed Bruce’s mother, was arrested, and sent to prison.
The incident left young Bruce deeply traumatized.
General Ross subsequently took Bruce into his care.
Under Ross’s upbringing, Banner’s childhood was anything but happy.
If anything…
It was miserable.
After growing up, Banner was exposed to massive amounts of gamma radiation while saving a colleague during an experiment.
That incident completely awakened the Hulk within him.
Most importantly—
The Hulk in this movie possessed his own consciousness.
He could think.
He was fully aware of himself.
Unlike the Marvel Cinematic Universe version, transforming didn’t mean becoming an entirely different personality.
Not only had the MCU version split into another persona…
It had also become weaker.
It simply…
Wasn’t Hulk enough.