The depths of Hawk's pupils burned fiercely, like two small suns. He didn't bother with precision, throwing his arms wide.
WUM—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
No longer precise cuts, but a furious barrage! Two thick, astonishingly hot columns of light, like whips of divine judgment, violently poured forth from his eyes.
Where the beams swept, massive stainless steel bioreactors were effortlessly melted through and torn apart. Scalding culture media and high-pressure steam mixed with priceless biological agents erupted like a broken dam. Dense alloy pipes transporting high-hazard chemicals melted, twisted, and exploded like wax sticks before the high-temperature rays. Propane, ethanol, chlorine gas... various lethal chemical vapors instantly filled the air!
Hawk's aim precisely locked onto the voluminous liquid raw material and solvent storage tanks. The Heat Ray slammed directly into the weakest points on the tanks—the welds or the bases. Blazing fireballs detonated one after another. The chain reaction had begun.
The terrifying shockwaves from the explosion and the flames hot enough to melt steel instantly consumed Hawk's position. He stood at the center of the storm, completely unscathed. Instead, an almost imperceptible, water-like energy ripple spread across his skin. The shockwaves and intense heat were drawn into his body like a relentless, invisible vortex, thanks to his Energy Absorption. This feeling made him narrow his eyes slightly, as if he were savoring an energy feast.
After a few seconds, he suddenly threw his arms wide. "Here you go!"
The absorbed, wild energy, merged with his own power, exploded outward from his center! A visible, translucent ring of energy shockwave instantly spread out!
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE—!!!
It was like being violently crushed by an invisible giant hand. The core factory building, already unstable from Hawk's initial impact and Heat Ray damage, utterly collapsed under this devastating energy burst! Supporting columns twisted and snapped, massive steel beams bent and fell like noodles, and the tens-of-meters-high factory roof crashed down with a deafening roar!
A firestorm ten times more intense than before, mixed with heavy smoke, shot into the sky, instantly lighting up the entire Pennsylvania night! As the entire core production zone became an unsalvageable, raging inferno, Hawk's figure shot straight up, hovering hundreds of meters in the air, gazing down at his handiwork.
The firelight illuminated his cold face. But he didn't leave immediately.
He saw below, amidst the chaos, a factory emergency response team attempting to approach the fire's edge, trying to prevent the flames from spreading to the liquid chlorine storage area on the factory's perimeter. Large-scale liquid chlorine leakage would immediately trigger a maximum-level biohazard response.
Hawk's mind shifted, red light blazing in his pupils. A Heat Ray, far thinner and more precise than before, yet highly energy-focused, instantly shot out! It targeted the critical support structure of the fireproof isolation wall separating the liquid chlorine storage from the core fire zone.
Shhh—CRACK!
The support structure silently melted away.
That heavy, fireproof isolation wall, once hoped to halt the spread, collapsed inward with a groan under the internal blast shock and imbalanced load. The towering tongues of fire, having lost their last barrier, roared like a loose beast and lunged toward the deadly liquid chlorine storage area!
From high above, Hawk clearly saw the desperate fleeing and terrified screams of the people below. The liquid chlorine storage area was already starting to heat up, and the characteristic yellow-green smoke of chlorine gas began to seep out from the safety valves...
Hawk saw no reason to linger. His figure became a blurring streak of light, instantly vanishing into the northern night sky, flying toward New York.
Time: 00:59.
Within minutes of his departure, a massive fireball, mixed with the toxic yellow-green smoke of chlorine gas, soared into the sky, forming a chilling, mushroom-cloud-like plume!
The most extreme chemical disaster alert blared across the entire region. Fire sirens wailed from all directions, but rescue efforts were utterly futile against the double hell of the core zone and the high-hazard chemical storage.
The devastating explosion, fire, and potential high-hazard chemical leak at the TCRI Pennsylvania factory—along with countless chaotic phone videos and the towering firelight—instantly broke local social media and news websites, even in the dead of night.
The next morning, Wall Street.
The TCRI stock, which had slightly risen the day before due to "positive clinical data," plummeted by 30% at the opening bell. The news of the Pennsylvania factory's destruction hit the market like a bombshell. This wasn't an unknown secret lab; this was a public, crucial production site worth hundreds of millions of dollars! The loss was undeniable!
News headlines screamed pictures and video of the factory ruins: "TCRI Flagship Factory Devastated by Attack!", "Unknown Terror Attack Cripples Biotech Giant!", "TCRI Stock Plummets!"
Investors engaged in a frantic sell-off; the sell-side volume was immense. Emilia watched the terrifying, cliff-like drop of the red candlestick on the screen. The anxiety on her face was instantly replaced by euphoria. Her fingers flew, continually adding to the short position amidst the crash, greedily sucking up the market's panic.
"Drop! Drop faster!" she growled, as her account's initial loss instantly reversed, accumulating astronomical profits at a staggering speed. "Hawk... you madman! You perfect madman!"
TCRI's public relations team hastily issued a statement attempting to classify the attack as a "severe safety accident," being vague and denying a terrorist attack. But the extent of the on-site destruction and witnesses' descriptions of "non-human power" made the statement utterly hollow, only fueling market speculation and panic. The stock briefly struggled, then continued its downward spiral.
....
Lane Group Safe House.
Hawk watched the financial news channels broadcasting footage of the factory ruins and the miserable plummet of TCRI's stock chart on the adjacent screen, his face expressionless.
Emilia sent a concise encrypted message: "Harvesting. Continue?"
Hawk's reply was a simple "Yes."
He then shifted his gaze to another target—TCRI's large precision instrument manufacturing plant located outside Houston, Texas, a facility known among its peers as the "Precision Crucible."
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