Chapter 27: The Existence of the Hulk

Luke and his ninjas quickly wiped out the remaining enemy forces. Looking around the conquered dimension, he knew this realm would soon merge completely with his own Dark Dimension. It was the equivalent of continuously expanding his territory's foundation while slowly passively mining it—this was the underlying reason why the System's mining speed was so incredibly fast.

The enemy Lord had managed to flee, but Luke didn't mind. He wouldn't be coming back anyway.

Luke gathered the enemy's equipment into a large pile, looking at the clearly extraordinary gear with a bit of regret. After all, equipment that allowed biological creatures to survive in pure dark energy without being instantly assimilated was definitely not ordinary.

However, the dark energy within Luke's Shadow Domain was far purer and more potent than the energy in other Dark Dimensions. If he brought these items into his territory, they would eventually be corroded and assimilated unless a ninja constantly held onto them.

Luke had previously tried having his ninjas use human firearms, but the moment the bullets left the barrel within the Shadow Domain, they were assimilated into nothingness. He tested the enemy gear, and even a heavily damaged artillery cannon he had dragged over, but they all met the same fate.

Shaking his head, Luke decided to just leave the equipment here and let it be absorbed into the Shadow Dimension along with the rest of the realm.

Mordo walked over. "Why not move it to Kamar-Taj? We can just pull it out of storage when we need it."

Luke thought about it and realized it was actually a viable solution. He ordered the Shadow Ninjas to haul the loot through the portal to Kamar-Taj. As long as the ninjas held onto the items, they wouldn't be assimilated by the dark energy. This was exactly how he had preserved the Ancient One's ledger of coordinates.

Watching the shadow assassins carry pile after pile of magical equipment through the gateway, Mordo was absolutely thrilled. Since Luke couldn't use these items anyway, the sorcerers could study this otherworldly magic. Mordo was particularly interested in those ranged, 'pew-pew' magical artillery cannons.

Returning to his own domain, Luke mentally commanded the Shadow Dimension to completely devour the opposing realm, digesting it to become part of his own territory. Seeing his 'mineable energy' reserve skyrocket to over a million points, Luke clenched his fist in sheer excitement. He finally had enough to upgrade himself again!

Luke and Mordo returned to the material world. Seeing a group of usually stoic sorcerers happily crowding around the unknown magical gear like kids on Christmas, Luke felt a bit helpless.

Suddenly, the Ancient One materialized beside him.

"How does it feel? Cooperating with my sorcerers?" she asked smoothly.

"Not bad," Luke smiled. It was the honest truth. Even though Mordo's team had only managed to block a few artillery shots today, they were severely outnumbered. The enemy sorcerer legion he had wiped out numbered well over a hundred, yet their actual combat effectiveness was weaker than Mordo's squad of fifteen.

Once more Kamar-Taj sorcerers began entering the Shadow Dimension, combined with the offensive magic they would reverse-engineer from this otherworldly loot, these melee-focused monks might actually transform into true, long-range mages. Both sides were getting stronger. It was a win-win-win situation—and Luke won twice.

"Though, at this rate, Kamar-Taj might end up becoming my personal backyard," Luke teased the Sorcerer Supreme.

"Once you reach a level of cosmic existence akin to Dormammu, will you really care about a tiny place like Kamar-Taj? By then, this arrangement might actually be more beneficial to us." She leveled a serious look at him. "As long as you do not endanger Earth."

Luke shook his head. By the time he reached that level, he'd probably be busy constructing his own multiversal Shadow Empire. Why would he bother messing with Earth? Still, that was a very distant goal.

"Have you finished rewriting all those spell matrices?" Luke asked, changing the subject.

"Not yet," the Ancient One sighed, rubbing her forehead in pain. "The past Sorcerers Supreme have collected over five thousand different spells over the centuries. Initially, it made me very proud of our legacy, but right now... it is giving me a massive headache."

She calculated for a moment. "I estimate I still have about three thousand seven hundred spells left to rewrite."

"Well, you've certainly got your work cut out for you," Luke said, marveling at the sheer volume of Kamar-Taj's magical library.

The Ancient One shook her head helplessly. As the one with the deepest understanding of the mystic arts in all of Kamar-Taj, she was the only person capable of doing this tedious work.

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"I must return to my studies. I need to finish this before Stephen arrives," she said, before vanishing completely into thin air.

Luke marveled at the boss's elusive nature, waved goodbye to Mordo, and opened a portal home.

Checking the stats of his newly unlocked Troll Ninja, Luke noted its energy mining and regeneration rates. A single Troll was equivalent to 50 base Shadow Ninjas. By effectively converting all his unit values to base ninjas for easier math, his current setup yielded a mining and regeneration rate of roughly 1,360 points per minute. (This was after he had topped his base ninja count back up to 1,000).

Calculating the time, he realized he'd have to wait until tomorrow to afford the upgrade. Deciding not to stress, Luke spent the rest of the day slacking off.

Waking up the next morning, Luke checked his balance—just over 500,000 Energy Points. He immediately purchased the upgrade.

BZZZT!

His physical constitution doubled once again (now 16x a normal human), and his mining and regeneration speeds doubled alongside it. It was more than enough power for now.

Noting that the newly annexed dimension still had about 800,000 mineable energy points left, Luke decided to use that energy to purchase more elite units. Ensuring he had enough raw combat power for future dimensional wars was his absolute top priority.

Suddenly, a new System prompt popped up. Luke opened it and immediately felt a massive headache coming on.

The next [Stat Enhancement] requirement had appeared... and it now required a staggering 5,000 Shadow Ninjas!

While he knew the growth curve would get steeper as he leveled up, he hadn't expected the requirement to skyrocket to 5,000 units so quickly. Sighing at the harsh realities of grinding, Luke accepted his fate. He had no choice but to keep pushing forward.

He gave Tony a call to ask for Pepper's location so he could assign her a permanent security detail. Now that the Shadowkhan's physical strength had doubled again, the A.I.M. bio-soldiers in the future wouldn't even be able to get within ten feet of Pepper.

After dropping by Pepper's office and secretly assigning ten Shadow Ninjas to her shadow, Luke headed over to Stark's Malibu mansion. He took a few exclusive photos of the workshop for his blog and checked on Tony's progress with the smartphone prototype.

"Luke, take a look at this. Are you satisfied with it?" Tony asked, tossing a sleek, rectangular glass device over.

Luke stared at the device, completely shocked. It looked incredibly similar to the bezel-less smartphones from the 2020s in his past life. Tony Stark truly lived up to his genius reputation; he had built a fully functional prototype in mere days.

"Can you actually bring the manufacturing cost down on this thing?" Luke asked curiously, swiping through the interface. It felt even smoother and more responsive than his old phone.

"That one is a custom-built, premium version using Stark Industries proprietary materials just for you. The civilian model will obviously be dialed back, which will significantly reduce production costs," Tony explained confidently.

"The marketing department is saying this phone is going to be an absolute global phenomenon. They think it might eventually become more profitable than commercializing the Arc Reactor. Since it was entirely your brilliant idea, I was thinking about giving you some shares in Stark Industries. What do you say?" Tony looked at Luke seriously.

"Why does it feel like you're leaving a will? Just casually handing out company shares?" Luke said helplessly.

"Don't underestimate your idea. Marketing said the whole world won't be able to resist this tech," Tony said, crossing his arms.

If the marketing department was that accurate at predicting a product's success, no company in the world would ever go bankrupt.

Luke thought for a moment. "How about you just create a brand-new subsidiary company dedicated entirely to producing this phone, and give me some shares in that? You should hold onto your Stark Industries shares; you're going to need them."

Tony nodded in agreement, immediately calling Pepper on speakerphone to start drafting the subsidiary paperwork.

"Tony," Luke said seriously, looking his friend in the eye once the call ended. "If you ever hit a wall, or find yourself in a situation you really can't handle... you have to tell me, okay?"

This had nothing to do with preserving the MCU plotline; Tony was genuinely his best bro now.

"Do you want me to leave two of my ninjas here for you to study? I recently unlocked a brand-new unit type."

"A new unit type?" Tony asked, his scientific curiosity instantly overriding his palladium poisoning depression.

Luke led Tony out to the private beach and summoned a Troll Ninja.

"Good lord, this guy is massive!" Tony stared up in awe. He wasn't even half as tall as the creature, and his entire waist was thinner than just one of the Troll's arms.

"Troll, go pick that up," Luke ordered, pointing to a massive boulder half-buried in the sand.

The Troll lumbered over and effortlessly hoisted the ten-cubic-meter boulder high over its head.

"My god. That thing has to have at least 20 tons of lifting force!" Tony calculated rapidly, staring at the behemoth.

"Pretty much. Want one as a bodyguard? Walking around with him would definitely turn heads!" Luke threw an arm around Tony's shoulder.

But Tony shook his head. "I believe the power of science can achieve the same results easily. My armor can lift that too. I'm just a little shocked by the biological—or rather, dimensional—composition, that's all."

Tony turned back to Luke, his expression sobering. "Honestly, he reminds me of those leaked military videos of the Hulk. Speaking of which, General Ross recently ordered two custom sonic cannons from me. He kept nagging and trying to pull rank, so I just gave him some old inventory to shut him up. I'm guessing he's gearing up to hunt the Hulk again."

"Oh, really?"

'Looks like the Incredible Hulk plotline is officially kicking off,' Luke thought to himself.

He decided to send a few Razor Claws to New York to keep a close eye on Dr. Samuel Sterns (Mr. Blue). It would be best to intervene early and completely prevent the creation of the Abomination and the Leader. If those two were allowed to wreck Harlem, the collateral damage to New York would be massive.

As for messing up the sacred timeline? Who cares! As long as he was strong enough, he could solo the Chitauri invasion and Thanos himself. Besides, the Ancient One wasn't going to die under his watch. If push came to shove, he'd just bring the Sorcerer Supreme to the Endgame battle. Who was afraid of whom?

As for General Ross, if that stubborn old man wanted to get his own soldiers killed hunting the Hulk out in the wilderness without causing civilian casualties, Luke couldn't care less.

"Call me if you need me," Luke reiterated.

After hanging out with Tony for a bit longer, Luke recalled the Troll Ninja, opened a portal, and headed home to prepare for the upcoming chaos.