Chapter 231: Running Away Is the Optimal Choice

The Chitauri advance force flagship was breached, and most of the remaining troops were also wiped out; only a few lucky ones escaped this region.

Calling them lucky ones might not be accurate. Under the condition that the force field was disturbed, these fighters could only rely purely on fuel power to move forward, and they would likely be stranded in some place in this region due to insufficient fuel.

The lucky ones who escaped would only end up starving to death, and the fighters would become their ready-made graves.

In the command center, Korik, who received the news from the front line, raised his hand. "Everyone, we have won a complete victory! Let's cheer for the brave warriors! Let's cheer for another victory for Asgard!"

All kinds of cheers suddenly exploded in Rogers's ears, suppressing his idea of wanting to ask for some details. After the cheers ended, Rogers still remembered his mission and ran to Korik's side, trying to find out from him how they won, what the opponent's configuration was, how the firepower was...

"You don't need to know so much. Having us protect you is enough; enjoy life well," Korik said, patting Rogers on the shoulder.

The battle report sent from the front line made Korik inflate incomparably now. As for the Chitauri's combat power, with preparation, even if hundreds of thousands more came, they would just be coming to deliver battle merits.

Rogers looked at Korik in this state, and his heart instead became a bit worried. "Korik, Earth supports us coming here and even brought so many supplies. We can't go back without bringing any information; we wouldn't be able to account for it."

Korik thought it was also true. Furthermore, eating people's food makes you soft, and taking people's things makes you short; they had both eaten and taken, so they couldn't make things difficult for Rogers and the others.

"How about this: I'll have them bring some prisoners for you. You can use them for research or take them back to Midgard," Korik decided.

A few hours later, the Mountain-class cruiser returned. Amidst enthusiastic cheers, the warship transferred most of the prisoners to the temporary management center on the asteroid, and then Rogers went out and took ten Chitauri of different levels.

On the asteroid, inside the base hanging the Midgard Experimental Center sign, Ethan looked at the prisoners in front of him, turning a circle to the left and then a circle to the right. "What is their situation?"

No matter how Ethan moved, the prisoners sat sluggishly in place, giving no feedback, just like they were stupid.

"Did the Asgardians perform prefrontal lobotomies on them?" Ethan continued.

Rogers glanced at the booklet given when he took the prisoners. "No, each of them was injected with a mind suppressant. This is to facilitate management and make it not easy for riots to occur. Without additional suppressant replenishment, they will gradually return to normal after 6-8 hours."

Yifan Vanko took the booklet from Rogers and rapidly imported the information on it into his database.

Natasha looked curiously at the Chitauri's heads. Every Chitauri had a hole behind their brain, and a tube-like object connected the back of the head and the spine there.

"What is this? Some kind of organ of theirs?"

"Asgard believes this is a type of implantable personal intelligent brain, which might also replace part of the function of the feeding organ."

Yifan Vanko said to Natasha while building a model from the database. "Every Chitauri has undergone genetic modification. This intelligent brain can reduce the side effects brought by genetic modification and help them control most weapons. In addition, after brain death, they can also replace the brain to send instructions to the body, allowing the individual to perform certain operations even after death."

"Then isn't that like a snake? The head can still bite even after being cut off, right?" Natasha continued.

"That's right. This time, the Asgardian battle damage was basically related to this situation. Being shot in the back by a corpse that had already been confirmed dead caused several barbarian soldiers to be seriously injured," Yifan Vanko said.

"Then what should we do next?" Natasha asked, tugging on that tube.

"Let's do some destructive experiments before their minds recover," Yifan Vanko decided without any psychological burden. For him, human experimentation wasn't something heinous; after all, the things he tinkered with on himself were more dangerous than most human experiments.

Natasha looked at Rogers. Rogers lowered his head and didn't speak. He was relatively resistant to human experimentation, but the Chitauri weren't the same species as Earthlings, and currently, they belonged to an absolutely hostile state, so Rogers could also accept experimenting on them. Otherwise, why bring the prisoners over from Asgard?

To really take them back and hold a prisoner-offering ceremony?

"These Chitauri warriors are divided into different levels according to the different connection pipes: ordinary soldiers, elite soldiers, squad commanders, equipment pilots, and biological weapon connectors," Yifan Vanko said, pointing at each prisoner. "Asgard gave a relatively complete variety, and there is more than one of each type. Let's test their physical strength and some basic information first."

"No problem," Natasha nodded. In the absence of Dr. Banner and Rogers issuing orders, the relevant instructions for the test were all issued by Yifan Vanko.

After bringing the prisoners to the test field by category, Yifan Vanko patted Rogers on the shoulder. "If you can't accept it, go contact Korik's side and get some detailed battle reports from them. I'll be responsible for this side. Whether it's merit or future condemnation, I'll bear it."

"No," Rogers shook his head and looked at Yifan Vanko firmly. "I am the protector of Earthlings, not the protector of the universe. Since they want to actively invade us, don't blame us for carrying out some reasonable counterattacks. As long as it's a measure that can reduce casualties, I'm willing to do it. As for humanitarianism, let's talk about it after this war is won."

"Hmm, you're right," Yifan Vanko said, also quite appreciative of Rogers in this state. "When the time comes, I'll make an electronic wooden fish, and everyone can knock on it when they have nothing to do; it can be considered as earning back the lost merit."

Rogers rolled his eyes. He didn't believe in any talk of merit; even if there really were such a thing, it certainly wouldn't be knocked out by knocking on a wooden fish.

The experiment officially began. First, various common items were used to confirm the various physical indicators of the Chitauri.

After testing, the Chitauri were indeed soldiers who had all undergone genetic modification. Their skin toughness was three times higher than the average value of Earthlings.

This value gave them an extra layer of leather armor naturally. In large-scale army warfare, the effect of this layer of leather armor wasn't great, but if the Chitauri were put into Earth, it would be troublesome if ordinary people encountered them.

Combined with muscle tissue of twice the strength and bone strength of four times, the killing effect of small-caliber firearms on them was very poor, let alone cold weapons.

An ordinary adult male, picking up a kitchen knife from his own home and hacking at an unarmed ordinary Chitauri invader, the greatest possibility was that the kitchen knife would barely cut open a little skin and couldn't go deeper, while the Chitauri's hard bones and some attack parts on their body were enough to directly kill ordinary people, such as cracking a skull with one punch.

Next was acid corrosion testing, etc. The effect of some corrosive items was even worse than imagined. The surface skin of the Chitauri seemed to possess some kind of special resistance, and in the face of various corrosive liquids, it could reduce the rate of reaction, thereby reducing the corrosiveness by more than one grade.

Moreover, their physical recovery ability wasn't low either. After creating a second-level corrosive wound of about ten centimeters by ten centimeters, in just about twenty minutes, this wound healed itself almost completely. If this kind of injury were on a normal Earthling, the person would probably not have reached the hospital yet and would still be receiving treatment in the ambulance.

Then there was energy testing. From the lasers and sound waves on Yifan Vanko to Natasha's demon energy and some relatively common spell attacks, such as the soul arrow of Dark Souls, after a round of testing on the Chitauri soldiers, the final data found that in terms of energy defense, the gap between the Chitauri and ordinary Earthlings existed but wasn't too large.

It was roughly equivalent to the Chitauri carrying a five-percent magic resistance reduction. This reduction value was far less conspicuous than hard defense.

The experiment continued methodically, item by item. Various data were gathered to Yifan Vanko, and a Chitauri group model with relatively high universality was established.

Average soldier height: 2m-2.4m.

Average physical constitution level: 3; ordinary Earthling is level 1, Rogers is level 6.

Average attack intensity level: 2; ordinary Earthling is level 1, Rogers is level 8.

This was a relevant data division level issued by the Earth United Nations, used to facilitate comparison. After all, each country having its own standards was really not easy to communicate and blocked information exchange.

In short, after the summary of various data, currently in Yifan Vanko's data model, the probability of an ordinary Earth adult male, without having received any targeted education and training, defeating an ordinary Chitauri soldier was less than one in ten. The result of the two sides in the simulated battle was that the Earthling was completely defeated.

After this big round of testing, the duration of the mind suppressant was also almost up. Rogers had requested a portion of the finished suppressant from the Asgardian side in advance, but he didn't inject it into the Chitauri soldiers immediately.

Because there was still a very important link missing: actual combat testing.

Actual combat test personnel: Natasha. She would face an ordinary Chitauri soldier and give relevant personal feedback.

Choosing Natasha was first because her own strength met the test requirements; otherwise, letting Yifan Vanko go, with a full alloy skeleton, he would just stand there and the Chitauri couldn't hit him. If it were Bruce Banner, that would be even more nonsense; in Dr. Banner's state, the Chitauri could hammer Dr. Banner until his head was full of bumps, but if the Hulk came out, one finger could directly press the Chitauri soldier to death.

Besides the consideration of strength, there was also the consideration of experience. Natasha had basically spent her whole life in the career of an agent and the career of training. She had killed no less than eight hundred people, and unlike ordinary soldiers, in most cases, she didn't kill her targets with firearms.

This brought Natasha a lot of relevant experience. She could judge better than the data model simulation just how high the threat level of a Chitauri without weapons really was.

After the mind suppressant completely failed, the Chitauri soldier recovered rapidly from the suppressed state. His body was constantly trembling. Relying on this trembling, various information was rapidly fed back to the brain, allowing the brain to clearly know the state of his body.

One minute and fifty-one seconds later, the Chitauri soldier woke up completely and entered combat status, his eyes tightly locked on Natasha.

Yifan Vanko outside the test room silently added a line to the test report: resistance to abnormal states and recovery ability are relatively strong.

Natasha hooked her finger at the soldier. The Chitauri soldier didn't launch an attack, but while maintaining a defensive posture, he discriminated against the surrounding environment. He constantly touched the walls of the room, seemingly confirming the hardness and stability of the walls.

Yifan Vanko added another line: rich combat experience, clear combat decision-making...

"Natasha, active attack."

The order from Yifan Vanko came through the earpiece. Natasha rushed out directly. The Chitauri soldier dodged with a side roll, then took out a firearm similar to a pistol from somewhere, aimed at Natasha, and fired directly.

The super-strong reaction ability allowed Natasha to immediately change frequency the moment the opponent took out the firearm, directly exploding the demon energy in her body, and the whole person completely entered combat status.

Golden hair flashed in front of the Chitauri. Natasha appeared directly behind him and smashed an elbow strike over. The Chitauri raised his arm and turned to defend.

*Crack! * The arm broke directly from the middle, and the pistol in the other hand was also kicked away by Natasha.

Half a minute later, with Natasha deliberately holding back, the Chitauri soldier lost any ability to resist and lay limply on the ground.

After Natasha added a shot of mind suppressant, she shook her hand and walked out of the test room, her expression very heavy.

"Modify the simulation results of pure data," Natasha said to Yifan Vanko. "There is no winning rate. If ordinary people encounter Chitauri soldiers, it is not recommended to use any method to attack or defend. The best self-rescue method is to run!"

Yifan Vanko nodded. He also saw it. Judging from the previous confrontation, things were the same as what Natasha said. The Chitauri's resistance to pain was very high. Even with all the bones in their body shattered, they were still trying to counterattack. This kind of combat sustainability was something ordinary people couldn't compare to.

Even if the physical fitness of both sides were on the same level, the winning rate of ordinary people wouldn't exceed thirty percent, not to mention that the constitution itself had a not-small gap.

"Did you see clearly where his pistol was taken out from?" Yifan Vanko asked. He replayed the footage frame by frame and didn't see which area of the body the pistol was taken out from.

Natasha shook her head.

Rogers touched his chin. They had searched these Chitauri. If there were weapons, they should have been discovered in the search that even cut the skin. "How about this: you guys continue testing, and I'll go to Korik's side to see if I can ask anything out." ===== CHAPTER 232 =====