Chapter 160: Loki is Melancholy

The first wave of lightning-fast assault, which theoretically should have been the most effective and yielded the greatest results, produced an outcome that completely caught Loki off guard.

The people from S.H.I.E.L.D.—no, not just them, ordinary agents, Avengers, and even other Earthlings—every single one of them reacted with astonishing speed, as if they had known beforehand that he would summon an army right here!

Furthermore, these people acted as if they had lost their minds. Houses that appeared completely ordinary and unremarkable possessed structures of extraordinary sturdiness; even when struck head-on by a Frost Giant, they stood firmly in place without suffering any damage.

"Damn insects... But it doesn't matter. Even so, the advantage is still overwhelmingly mine!"

Shaking his head to banish the absurd thought that his plans had been leaked in advance, Loki threw himself entirely into commanding the Chitauri.

As for the Frost Giants, he felt not a jot of worry. These dim-witted brutes possessed formidable strength and boundless ambition. The moment they set foot upon Earth's territory, they would naturally become the ultimate invaders without requiring any commands from him.

Moreover, the members of the Avengers, whom he had previously been quite concerned about, had recently encountered spatial turbulence and been swept away to god knows where. This discovery brought even greater peace of mind to Loki, convincing him that this operation was an absolute certainty.

Yet it was hardly surprising that Loki felt so complacent. With top-tier powerhouses choosing not to intervene—or unable to do so—for various reasons, the individuals who stepped forward to protect the city at this moment were truly subpar.

Though the Chitauri were dismissed as cannon fodder, neither Thanos nor Loki nor anyone else ever regarded them as a true "main course."

Despite their slightly strange appearance, these humanoid creatures had never been taken seriously, and their individual strength was utterly mediocre, hovering mostly between 0.5 and 0.8 Hawks.

Most importantly, their technological tree was as bizarre as that of the Ninja World; while their personal flying vehicles were mass-produced, their weaponry remained roughly on par with Earth's contemporary technology.

Even so, the "weakness" of the Chitauri was merely a relative concept.

Each of them could easily lift a couple of hundred pounds, possessing stamina and recovery abilities far superior to humans, complemented by weaponry slightly more advanced than modern Earth tech.

If the Hydra army that had previously attacked New York was a group of restless ghosts from World War II, the citizens of New York were now facing technology from decades in the future.

Even prominent figures like Hawkeye and Black Widow would find themselves stretched to the limit when confronting the endless Chitauri hordes. How could ordinary, pure humans, even weaker than them, possibly cope with these invaders?

And this was merely the weakest faction among the invading armies.

Leviathan behemoths, born of Chitauri engineering, hovered and swam through empty space. Their colossal volume required no deliberate attack; merely by grazing the sky, their bodies reduced towering skyscrapers and US military positions alike to a sickening paste of crushed rubble without the slightest resistance.

There were also Frost Giants rampaging through the city, each boasting a combat capability starting at a baseline of at least three Hawks. Their physiques surpassed even those of the Chitauri, and their innate frost magic made them virtually insurmountable for ordinary super-powered beings!

"Besides, once the fighting moves into the city, those terrifying monsters will hesitate to strike for fear of collateral damage to civilians. The destruction of this city is already sealed by fate."

A cruel smile curved the corners of Loki's lips, as if he could already foresee the ultimate conclusion.

"As for you... S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, what could you possibly do?" Loki's eyesight was countless times sharper than a human's. Standing atop the rooftop, he had naturally spotted the S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avenger members active in the city long ago.

"Nick Fury... Hmph, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., what a mighty title! When all is said and done, he is merely a mortal. What can you accomplish now that you've lost the majority of the Avengers?"

Loki offered a contemptuous chuckle, clearly holding his opponent in utter disdain!

He could already see that the group of agents led by Nick Fury was about to collide with a detachment of Chitauri troops. Conflict seemed imminent, and Loki felt not the slightest concern regarding the outcome...

"What on earth are they doing? What are they possibly doing?!"

Rubbing his eyes vigorously, Loki still struggled to comprehend the scene before him, so shocked that he even blurted out a phrase in the regional dialect of the Frost Giants.

Down on the street, Nick Fury held a pistol horizontally in one hand while gripping a microphone in the other, muttering incessantly. With his head tilted sideways, he walked forward toward the advancing Chitauri while firing.

The posture bore a striking nine-part resemblance to the viral internet videos demonstrating "how black gang members shoot guns," radiating an aura of absolute hoodlum swagger.

Even weirder than this outrageously cool yet thoroughly impractical stance was the fact that his shooting accuracy was unexpectedly high; almost every single shot dropped a Chitauri to the ground.

Yet even stranger than him were the S.H.I.E.L.D. members trailing behind him. Rather than walking, they were practically breakdancing!

Breakdancing was one thing, but how on earth were they able to dodge bullets so perfectly while doing it? What in the world is wrong with you people at S.H.I.E.L.D.?!

After blasting another Chitauri into oblivion with a single shot, Nick Fury tilted his head to signal an agent carrying a boombox to switch tracks, while swiftly reloading his magazine with his free hand.

Glancing at the cleared street and the corpses of Chitauri littering the ground, Nick Fury could only let out another long sigh. "I never expected that what Joss said—'Nobody can defeat me when my BGM is playing'—would actually turn out to be effective..."

...

Although he could not hear what the enemy was saying, Loki decisively chose to stop watching the S.H.I.E.L.D. members, whose aura carried severe mental pollution, and hastily shifted his gaze to another block.

"Bruce Banner... Is he hoping to use him to destroy the Chitauri warships? Hmph, based on the intel I gathered, his transformation may be powerful, but it's hardly stable. Without something sufficient to enrage him, he is nothing more than an ordinary human."

Loki smiled contemptuously, clearly dismissing the threat entirely!

The very next second, however, Loki saw a man wielding a massive sword and shield rush up to within ten meters of Bruce Banner, cupping his hands around his mouth and roaring something at him.

In the next instant, Banner actually transformed!

"Just how foul is your mouth? What on earth did you say to him?! Aren't you supposed to be his teammate? Why on earth were you able to trigger his berserk state with a single sentence?!"