99 The Hammer of Thunder (Fourth Update)

Although he had discovered this issue, it was not a particularly serious crisis for Jos in reality—at most, it was just a bit irritating.

After all, when he eventually reached a level where he couldn’t gain any points no matter how many worlds he conquered, it would mean that nothing in this world could threaten him anymore.

As long as he didn’t die, how could it be considered death?

Just like now, ordinary street thugs offered no rewards at all, because even if Jos let them beat him up all day, he wouldn’t suffer any serious injuries.

Gang members could provide a small number of points, maybe ten or so, mainly because some of them were armed with firearms.

But under normal circumstances, unless Jos lost his mind, if ordinary people used guns against him, he could instantly detect the trajectory of the bullets through subtle changes in his finger muscles and pupil movements, allowing him to easily dodge the shots.

Even if he deliberately took a bullet, as long as it didn’t blow his head apart, being shot through the heart by a standard firearm was still something he could survive.

Clearly, this situation did not align with the system’s rule of “the more dangerous it is, the more you should take risks.” Things that posed almost no threat to his life naturally could not provide many points.

At present, Jos’s strength was indeed at a rather delicate level—neither too high nor too low.

Compared to those like Hawkeye and Black Widow, his combat power was naturally far superior, but against true powerhouses—even in his prime he might not fare well against someone like Wolverine.

After all, their fighting skills, strength, and agility might be on the same level, but Wolverine had the advantage of his blood-clotting mutation!

“This is quite a headache… People in the Marvel world don’t seem to care much about improving their strength,” Jos mused.

Unlike the protagonists in Japanese manga who constantly fight monsters and level up, characters in the Marvel universe rarely have clear moments where you can actually sense an “upgrade.”

For most people, occasionally punching a bag or lifting weights counted as training. In the storyline from Avengers 1 to 3, the only ones who clearly “leveled up” seemed to be Tony Stark and Thor.

Tony upgraded his power source and armor, debuting new equipment and skills with each appearance.

Thor, after the destruction of his hammer in Thor 3, upgraded to wield an electric-powered weapon akin to a living thunderbolt, and then acquired new equipment in Avengers 3, significantly boosting his overall power.

But characters like Hawkeye and Natasha remained largely unchanged in strength from their first appearance until Thanos ended Natasha’s life with a single finger press.

Jos, naturally, was unwilling to be like them—debuting at his peak and remaining eternally stagnant, never changing in strength throughout his life.

He had the confidence given by his system and the reasons and obsession to become stronger, so he was certainly not content with the status quo.

“Onī-chan hentai!!!”

While Jos was pondering, his phone suddenly chimed with a rather peculiar ringtone. Opening it, he found a text message.

“What?! That thing actually appeared!”

Scanning the brief message, Jos’s expression quickly turned surprised.

In summary, the text reported that an unidentified extraterrestrial object had crashed in New Mexico—not a meteorite, but something resembling a man-made hammer.

Although S.H.I.E.L.D. had already launched an investigation there, no one could move the hammer, so they established a temporary base on site to study it.

Since Steve Rogers and others had gone to Russia, and with some new recruits recently joining the Avengers keeping the others occupied, they hoped Jos could go check it out.

“A hammer falling from the sky, immovable… This has to be that thing, right?” Jos’s face darkened as he instantly teleported to S.H.I.E.L.D., slapping Nick Fury’s desk. “I know! This is definitely an SCP project!”

“Wha—what the hell are you talking about…?” Nick Fury nearly jumped out of his chair at Jos’s sudden outburst.

After calming his heart for a moment, Nick was grateful he didn’t have the habit of playing around with his secretary in the office; otherwise, Jos’s frequent surprises would have driven him mad by now.

“Tsk, it’s basically the same kind of organization. Why can’t you just find some SCP stuff? A few Keter-class entities would be enough to handle any problem, even if they themselves are problems.”

“Enough, enough. If you’ve got nothing better to do, just go over there. I’m busy here.” Seeing Jos’s attitude, Nick realized he was just bored and decided it wasn’t worth his time.

If Jos couldn’t be beaten in a fight or reasoned with, it was truly frustrating!

Nick Fury even began to regret how he’d foolishly brought Jos into the fold, but then he thought if he hadn’t, who knew what chaos Jos might have caused. He quickly congratulated himself on his own cleverness.

Seeing Nick’s obvious attempt to shoo him away, Jos smirked, unplugged his internet cable, and decisively left the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.

He hadn’t come just out of boredom—he also wanted to gather information about Thor.

However, by all logic, he shouldn’t know about Thor’s existence yet, so he couldn’t ask directly. Besides, with the hammer freshly fallen, it was still unknown whether Thor had arrived or made contact with S.H.I.E.L.D.

After a day at S.H.I.E.L.D., Jos at least confirmed that Nick and his team had not discovered Thor’s presence. Despite his scheming mind, Nick was still somewhat trusting of his own people and wouldn’t secretly plot against them.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn’t contacted Thor yet, and they don’t even know if Loki is on Earth now. That big-brained troublemaker is no less formidable…”

Frowning thoughtfully, Jos knew that anyone connected to Thor was not to be underestimated. Even Loki, whose combat power was the weakest among them, possessed the physiology of an ice giant far surpassing humans.

Not to mention Thor himself—a member of the Asgardian god race—whose innate strength alone could easily overpower many Earth heroes.

“It seems I have to be careful about any contact with Thor,” Jos decided silently, recalling the events of the first Thor movie.

Yet as Jos lowered his head in thought, he failed to notice a young girl clad in armor resembling a skeletal exoskeleton watching him from afar.