Chapter 3490: Research on Cats and Dogs (Part 49)

The grievances between Zod and Clark Kent can be traced back to early comics. This Kryptonian general is Superman's number one enemy besides Luthor, and often surpasses Luthor in terms of appearance frequency and length, causing Superman great trouble every time.

Although because Superman is a positive character, he can defeat the evil alien general every time and protect Earth and his city. However, every time he sees Superman defeat General Zod, it's not as satisfying as seeing Superman defeat other enemies; instead, there's a faint sense of frustration.

The reason is that they are both Kryptonians. Zod wants to revive Krypton, and Superman wants to protect Earth. Theoretically, it can be considered a conflict of philosophy, but the problem is, why do two Kryptonians have to run to Earth to fight to verify their philosophy?

Even if Zod has no philosophy to verify and just wants to invade Earth and turn it into a second Krypton. But the destruction of Krypton had nothing to do with Earth. You destroyed your own civilization by your own death-seeking, but you want to take Earth as a substitute; where is the logic in this?

Most importantly, the battlefield is set on Earth. If you lose, Earth will be occupied; if you win, Metropolis will be messed up. So humans lose twice?

Isn't this equivalent to the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, with Poland scratching its head in confusion in the middle?

Although reason tells readers that Superman stands on the side of humanity to defend Earth, it's inevitable that one would think: if Superman hadn't come here in the first place, would Zod not have come either?

When reading comics, one might just be watching the fun, but after reflecting on it, one feels that this matter is wrong no matter how one thinks about it.

And from Superman's perspective, it's even more frustrating.

When Krypton was destroyed, he knew nothing, and it wasn't his intention to come to Earth. He was living happily on Earth, but a lunatic from his old home chased after him, which instead harmed the humans who were very kind to him.

After finally defeating the strong enemy, looking at the broken walls and ruins destroyed by the war, it's inevitable to think: if he hadn't come here in the first place, would all these tragedies not have happened? Could humans have lived a more stable and happy life?

What's even more depressing is that Zod clearly knows this too. So every time he is defeated and leaves, he carries a sense of triumph: "Look, what have you brought to the humans you love so much."

Although it's a bit like spiritual victory, it can indeed strike a blow to Superman. If there are more people who don't know the truth and stir up trouble, blaming Superman for bringing all this trouble to Earth, then the blow to Superman is even greater.

Superman has many enemies: Luthor, Doomsday, Mr. Mxyzptlk, etc. But none of them make him feel a sense of sorrow in his heart even after winning the battle and looking at the ruins of the city like his compatriot Zod.

Won, but didn't completely win.

The vast majority of righteous Supermen in the universe face such a dilemma. Because their moral bottom line is too high, it's inevitable that they will have all kinds of philosophical thoughts about their own existence and social existence, commonly known as "thinking too much."

But in fact, it's very simple to solve this problem, and that is to abandon the shackles of quality and enjoy a shameless life.

To put it bluntly, Superman still has too much quality. If you point at Zod's nose and curse before he retreats in defeat—homeless dog, wandering dog, gray-bearded old thief, white-headed fellow—curse whatever is ruthless, curse whatever stabs the heart, he will have to come back and fight you again.

Usually, cursing is indeed wrong, and it's a bit like incompetent rage. But that's only when the game hasn't been decided yet. For such a disgusting opponent, not mocking after winning the game is equivalent to not winning.

It's indeed lacking in quality, but it's also indeed very satisfying.

Of course, some people might feel that Zod is a general after all, and was a figure in Krypton before, so he probably won't be broken by a few words.

However, mockery is not just to make him break his defense, but also to let Superman vent his pressure. Putting all his energy into mocking the opponent leaves no time to think about this and that.

Since the opponent wants to achieve spiritual victory through philosophical questions, then one can naturally achieve spiritual victory through fancy mockery. Anyway, it's all spiritual victory, so who is more noble than whom?

Of course, Clark in this universe isn't doing it for spiritual victory. He made this gesture because he really thinks Zod is too weak.

This is his judgment, not a mockery.

You are a dignified Kryptonian general, and you even kidnapped Bruce to your lair, yet you let him run out?!

And looking at it, it's not just that he ran out, he clearly swiped some things. You are not just generally weak; you are as weak as Pamela's results—jumping high!

Clearly, Zod himself didn't expect such a thing to happen, otherwise he wouldn't have been so angry.

However, he was still a bit too early to be angry.

After Zod gradually regained his calm, he realized that he really shouldn't have been exposed so quickly. And now that someone in the Justice League knows the location of his base, he must move immediately.

After making the decision, he didn't linger in the battle but shook off the two Supermen following him at the fastest speed.

And what made him feel a bit surprised was that the Justice League of this universe didn't catch up either, but returned to the manor for the first time. Zod couldn't help but mock the other party's stupidity in his heart.

But when he flew to the cave, his heart went completely cold.

The cave, which had become empty because most of the equipment had been removed, was now completely empty.

That Kryptonian ship that occupied most of the back area of the cave had disappeared without a trace at some point.

Zod stood at the entrance of the cave and froze for more than ten seconds, as if he couldn't accept this fact at all.

And this was indeed outrageous—that was a Kryptonian warship modified by him, and its performance and security measures were even superior to ordinary Kryptonian ships. After Krypton was completely destroyed, this warship could almost walk sideways in the universe.

This thing couldn't be flown by humans at all. It could only identify the identity information of Kryptonians, and only his identity information could pass the identification and successfully start the ship.

Even if the ship was successfully started, the operation was very complex. Without professional space navigation training in Krypton, it was absolutely impossible to fly it away.

There were only so many Kryptonians on this Earth, even adding the two Supermen from outside, there were only three.

These three were thrown to Earth when they were infants; what could they know about Kryptonian ships? Even if they knew some fur, did they really think they were senior engineers who could directly crack the identity identification system?

Zod didn't consider at all that the ship might not have been flown away, but moved away entirely.

Because in his view, humans couldn't possibly have the technology to move such a large ship directly, especially within a few minutes.

Zod checked the warning sent by the ship on his communicator. The first warning detecting abnormal energy appeared about a minute and a half ago.

Are you saying that a backward civilization that hasn't completely left the surface can transfer such a large ship out of thin air within a minute and a half?

If they had this ability, why would I still be attacking Earth?

In Zod's impression, to achieve this, one must have portal technology, that is, jump technology, and at the same time, one must have anti-gravity or compression technology.

Of course, Zod also knew about the existence of Green Lanterns. But the whole universe knew about the existence of Green Lanterns, and Krypton back then knew it too. In order to guard against them, the ship had an energy repulsion system. Green Lantern energy couldn't move this thing, nor could it pass through a portal constructed by Green Lantern energy.

And what Zod didn't know was that Green Lantern Hal indeed couldn't move this thing; he tried several times and failed.

When Hal found the cave following the coordinates, he was also taken aback: "This kid is really good at hiding."

He noticed equipment around that isolated energy detection, but since he had already reached a distance visible to the naked eye, isolating energy detection was useless.

The energy barrier Zod set up at the entrance was smashed by Hal with one punch. After he flew in, he saw the huge ship.

"Wow," Hal flew around the ship and sighed, "These Kryptonians have good aesthetics; this ship is too beautiful."

Finally, he stopped right above the ship and stretched out his hand, and Green Lantern energy spread downward.

But the moment it touched the surface of the ship, the energy suddenly began to shake violently, and then it was out of his control, unable to condense into shape again, but exploded directly like fireworks.

Hal sighed with some annoyance.

The position of the Green Lantern Corps in the universe was indeed a bit awkward. They were subordinates of the Guardians, but there was no lack of civilizations in the universe with technological levels equivalent to the Guardians.

With the Guardians' annoying nature, who wouldn't guard against them?

Many advanced civilizations had developed certain methods to counter the emotional spectrum; although they couldn't directly destroy the Lantern Corps, they could completely ensure they didn't come to bother them.

Unfortunately, Kryptonian civilization also had similar technology. Although materials were scarce and couldn't be armed on a large scale, Zod led the Kryptonian elite back then, so it wasn't strange that his ship was equipped with this technology.

Hal didn't give up and flew around the ship again, and then he suddenly remembered, did Bruce say that the surface of this ship was damaged?

With this, Hal carefully and thoroughly looked at the whole ship inside and out, and finally found a small opening at the bottom of the ship that was just enough for one person to enter and exit.

After Hal drilled in, he found that the parts inside wouldn't resist his Green Lantern energy.

Theoretically, he could dismantle this thing bit by bit from the inside. But the problem was that Zod would be back before long; although changing from stealing to robbing wasn't impossible, if Zod was pushed into a corner and decided to burn everything, that would be a huge loss.

After thinking about it, Hal decided not to take this risk. He picked up the communicator and called Oliver, briefly explaining his situation.

"I'll contact Barry," Oliver said, "He should have a way."

So Barry, who was sitting in Bruce's car, received Oliver's call and was called away to move the ship at a critical moment.

And the method he adopted looked simpler than Hal's, but in reality, it was much more mysterious—it was the trick he used to deal with Injustice Superman: moving the ship directly to another point in time.

However, the difference was that this time, he didn't leave a projection from another point in time. The ship seemed to have disappeared completely.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3491 =====