Begin from the original form of torture and become immortal

Chapter 1748 Norman the Avenger

"Hiss—hiss hiss—"

A deep, powerful sound of compressed gas being released, like the sigh of a deep-sea monster, echoed inside the heavy alloy airtight door.

At the entrance to the main passage, the massive door, designed by Tony Stark himself and capable of withstanding water pressure from thousands of meters high, slid smoothly and silently to both sides under the precise drive of the hydraulic system.

Outside the door lies the eternally dark and incredibly oppressive abyss of the Atlantic Ocean; inside lies "Neptune's Eye of Insight"—an isolated island built on the seabed by human wisdom and technology, now projecting a warm and bright light outwards.

The light outlined a figure.

Bruce Banner stood in the doorway, still carrying the chilling aura of his long interstellar journey and deep-sea shuttle.

He was wearing faded khaki trousers and a slightly oversized, old-fashioned olive-green field jacket, as if he had just stepped out of a corner of some remote laboratory.

His signature black-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, and the look in his eyes behind the lenses was a mixture of travel fatigue, the caution that came from living with "another tenant" for a long time, and the cautious anticipation unique to facing unknown challenges.

His perpetually somewhat messy curly hair swayed slightly in the circulating airflow inside the base.

He was carrying a silver-gray alloy briefcase that looked unusually heavy but had a pristine, brand-new finish. The edges of the briefcase featured Stark Industries' signature curved lines, indicating that it had clearly undergone special reinforcement and protection.

He forced a gentle smile, but deep within that smile lurked a lingering unease.

"Tony?"

Bruce's voice was a little hoarse, dry from a long journey, as he cautiously broke the brief silence after the door opened.

"Bruce!"

A vibrant shout instantly dispelled the chill in the passageway.

Tony Stark strode out from the depths of the passageway as if he were under a spotlight. He wore a well-tailored dark gray high-tech fiber casual suit, and his face was beaming with an extremely warm smile that reached his eyes, full of genuine joy at reuniting with his old friend.

He spread his arms wide, the movement so large that it almost filled the entire passageway.

"Welcome! A warm welcome to 'Neptune's Eye of Insight'! Humanity's most forward outpost in the deep sea, and also our command center for solving 'big problems'!"

Tony's enthusiasm was almost overflowing. He patted Bruce on the shoulder forcefully and then took the heavy suitcase from him.

"Wow, Banner brand luggage, with built-in gamma ray security? Don't worry, Jarvis has already blocked the radiation detectors here... temporarily."

He blinked, his tone relaxed, trying to ease Bruce's tension.

Moments before Bruce arrived, Tony was engrossed in his exchange with Natasha Romanoff about intelligence on S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Brock Rumlow (Crossbones), and felt a subtle, unpleasant sense of camaraderie at being outmaneuvered by this top agent once again.

However, Bruce's arrival was like a stone thrown into deep water, instantly scattering those trivial thoughts.

A new phase, potentially crucial to the fate of Earth, officially begins as this gentle yet destructive physics PhD steps into the deep-sea fortress.

Tony's eyes gleamed with the light of pure scientific exploration and the excitement of facing a challenge.

"How was the trip? Did the 'deep-sea roller coaster' experience on the shuttle wake up your 'friends'?"

Tony joked as he guided Bruce through the spacious, bright, futuristic central corridor. On either side of the corridor were enormous transparent observation windows, outside which lay eternal darkness, illuminated only by the base's own lights that revealed the floating ocean snow and the occasional strange deep-sea creature.

The walls are bathed in soft, cool blue light, reflecting various holographic interfaces and screens displaying constantly scrolling data.

"It's alright... I'm used to it. I just didn't expect you to build the base so deep inside."

Bruce pushed up his glasses, looked around, and his eyes revealed a scientist's curiosity and admiration for cutting-edge technology.

"This place... is spectacular."

His voice gradually relaxed.

“Of course! Shallow waters are too unchallenging and not safe enough. Here,”

Tony tapped on the thick observation window. "3712 meters deep, the water pressure is enough to crush an ordinary submarine into a pancake. But here, we are absolutely safe... in theory."

He pointed to the ceiling, “Multi-layered composite armor, self-circulating ecosystem, independent energy core… and my genius brain at the helm. We are the ‘lighthouse’ of the deep sea, but not for navigation, but for hunting.”

Bruce's gaze was drawn to a huge holographic projection in the central control hall.

The projection clearly displays a complex nautical chart of a vast area of ​​the Pacific Ocean, with countless fine lines of latitude and longitude interwoven, and ocean current data flowing like ribbons.

In the center of the nautical chart, a striking red mark stands out—PX-114.

Around the marker, a dense stream of data cascaded down like a waterfall: sonar signal maps, geomagnetic anomaly readings, weak but persistent bioenergy radiation characteristics... All of these data pointed to a chilling fact: there was a huge energy source in that area.

"PX-114...is that it?"

Bruce's voice lowered, and his expression became serious.

He knew what the code name represented without even asking.

"That's right,"

Tony's playful expression vanished instantly, replaced by a focused and serious one. He walked to the holographic projection, tapped it lightly, and magnified the image of the PX-114 area. "Our 'old friend,' or rather, 'old adversary'... another brother. The target feature match is as high as 97.8%, and the energy fluctuation pattern is highly consistent with the secondary peaks recorded in the Battle of New York. It's very active, and..."

The hologram shows the "Eye of Neptune" right beneath their feet!
Thousands of meters below them, in an absolute abyss of darkness deeper than the base itself, a darkness impenetrable even by the base's most powerful searchlights, a shadow so vast it distorted the laws of sonar detection was silently adjusting its mountain-like form.

The seawater was stirred by its slow but powerful movements, forming silent undercurrents.

Each of its tail swings contains a terrifying force capable of triggering a small tsunami.

It was covered by a thick, rough carapace that shimmered with an eerie, ghostly green bioluminescence, as if it were clad in armor from an ancient abyss.

The enormous dorsal fin, like the ridgeline of an underwater mountain range, cuts through the heavy water.

A pair of enormous, orange-yellow vertical pupils, burning with pure malice, slowly opened in the darkness, coldly "gazing" at the "point of light" above that radiated intense energy and life signals—the underwater steel fortress built by humans.

(End of this chapter)