Clap. Clap.
Hearing the slow applause, Jack and Gwen looked up toward the upper floor. A man who looked to be in his thirties stood on the metal walkway above them, and behind him stood a lizard man who appeared to be Dr. Connors. Both looked down at them as if they had been waiting.
"Well, well, well." The scientist smiled. "I expected someone would eventually find this place, but I never imagined I'd be welcoming the leader of the Plumber organization himself."
The moment he heard those words, Jack's eyes narrowed. He knows about the Plumbers... and even my future. Jack was now certain — this had to be the time criminal the Ancient One had warned him about.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Gwen demanded angrily. Her attention was completely focused on the countless human experiments around her, so she didn't even notice what the scientist had just revealed.
"Why should I answer you?" The scientist laughed coldly. "Let's see if I can kill the young Omnix... and uncover all of your secrets."
He pressed a button on the device in his hand. Click.
The next moment, hidden compartments throughout the laboratory slid open, and different types of robots emerged one after another before charging straight toward Jack and Gwen.
The larger robots charged forward with heavy metal fists, while dozens of small bee-like robots filled the air with a loud mechanical buzzing. Jack's visor immediately identified them.
"Small attack drones. Don't let them surround you!"
"I know!" Gwen replied as her Spider-Sense flared. She twisted her body, narrowly avoiding several stingers before firing webs that smashed a group of the tiny drones into the walls. At the same time, she kicked one of the larger robots backward.
Jack destroyed another robot with a powerful punch, but more bee-like drones quickly replaced the ones he had destroyed, repeatedly slamming into his Plumber suit and making it difficult to focus on the larger enemies.
"Tch... these things are irritating."
Seeing more and more drones swarming toward them, Jack decided not to waste any more time.
"Big Chill!"
A flash of green light engulfed him as he transformed. Opening his mouth, he released a freezing wave that swept across the entire laboratory. The bee-like drones froze solid in midair before crashing to the ground, while the larger robots were quickly covered in thick layers of ice, leaving them completely immobilized.
But when Jack looked back toward the metal walkway, the scientist was already gone.
"He escaped?" Jack frowned as he looked around. "With that entrance and all that talk, I thought he'd at least have some kind of trump card."
"What's this countdown?" Gwen suddenly noticed a timer on a nearby computer — 120... 119... 118...
"Fu*k." Jack's expression immediately changed. "This is a self-destruction sequence. Red Queen, can you stop it?"
Several holographic windows appeared as Red Queen immediately attempted to access the system. A few seconds later, the countdown on the screen froze, and just as they thought it had worked—
"Master, I only interrupted the display. The bombs have already been armed and are operating independently. They cannot be disabled remotely. A manual shutdown is required."
"There are still civilians who were turned back from lizard men outside!" Gwen said as she immediately ran toward the exit.
"Sir, only seventy seconds remaining until self-destruction."
Still in his Big Chill form, Jack quickly followed her. Damn it... From the beginning, that guy never intended to fight us. He was only buying time.
They soon reached the previous area where the rescued civilians were still gathered.
"How do we get everyone out in time?" Gwen asked anxiously. "Can you transform into XLR8?"
Jack looked down at the Omnitrix on his chest. "I can't. I'm still transformed. Unless I change back first, I can't select another alien..." Then something suddenly crossed his mind. Wait... I never checked the system notifications after restoring those lizard men.
He quickly opened the system panel.
[Human restored. Heroic Points +50.]
[Human restored. Heroic Points +50.]
[Human restored. Heroic Points +50.] ...
The notifications kept scrolling one after another.
[Saved innocent people from a fate worse than death.]
[Bonus Heroic Points awarded.]
Jack skipped past the long list and looked at the summary.
Total Heroic Points: 1650
Next Alien Unlock Requirement: 1600 Heroic Points
[Do you wish to unlock a new alien?]
Seeing that he had enough Heroic Points, Jack didn't hesitate.
"Unlock."
[Unlocking...]
[Congratulations! New Alien Unlocked: Appoplexian.]
Seeing the race name, Jack was confused for a split second before remembering. "Rath..." His expression immediately fell. "This won't help me right now."
Just as Jack was about to call Emma — knowing her XLR8 form could rescue everyone in time, since his own Omnitrix still couldn't switch directly between alien forms — another notification suddenly appeared.
[Congratulations.]
[The user has successfully unlocked 10 alien forms.]
[Evaluation Complete: The user has consistently used the Omnitrix to protect innocent lives.]
[Reward Unlocked.]
[Direct Alien Transformation enabled.]
[The user may now switch directly between unlocked alien forms without reverting to human form.]
[Omnitrix Active Time increased: 15 minutes → 20 minutes.]
Jack's eyes widened. "...Seriously? Now?"
A/N: The Patreon version is already updated with 20 advanced chapters. If you'd like to read ahead of the public release schedule, you can join here:
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