Chapter 4040

The command center was suddenly in an uproar, with everyone cursing loudly. Because just based on these captured things, they could roughly reconstruct the original appearance of the event.

This octopus named "Talos," in the war that had just ended, had illegally captured and imprisoned many of his own kin and brought them onto the Interstellar Security Council's starship. And certain high-ranking officials with such hobbies arrived as promised, holding a decadent banquet on the starship.

Perhaps to liven things up, perhaps to get the ultimate thrill, they also brought in some kind of psychedelic agent, and finally got themselves completely drunk. Then, it's unknown which idiot was driving the starship while drunk, and one shot from the main cannon hit the surface, directly causing the planet to disintegrate.

Moreover, Eddie subsequently collected even more conclusive evidence: he found the aromatherapy used to release the psychedelic agent and extracted the substances inside. Although no analysis was conducted, most aliens could recognize that this stuff was a potent hallucinogen, effective on most carbon-based life forms in the universe, somewhat similar to drugs in the universe. And judging by the ignited dosage, it was enough to knock out some large carbon-based life forms—which also fit the state of those high-ranking officials.

But there were still major doubts about this matter. For example, this shot was fired with such precision that it hit exactly the mine where Spider-Man and the reinforcements were located. Don't look at the core of the high-energy impact being tens of kilometers thick, and the affected area possibly being hundreds of kilometers, but this planet wasn't small, so how did it happen to hit exactly that spot? This group of people were all knocked out, and they could still perform precision strikes?

Everyone felt something was wrong, but they couldn't find any evidence. Stark pressed his earpiece and said to Jarvis, "Have you checked the internal system of that starship? Are there any traces of intrusion?"

"None discovered for the time being," Jarvis said, "but this possibility cannot be completely ruled out; after all, Batman is on the other side."

Stark frowned, clearly deep in thought.

Actually, judging from the existing evidence, Thanos was the most suspicious. First, the starship that fired the shot was equipment of the Interstellar Security Council; second, the planet was specifically blockaded before the shot was fired; finally, and most importantly—the Dark Quadrant had returned recently, his interest alliance with humans was precarious, and his recent small actions were not few at all.

He had both the motive and the ability to take advantage of this opportunity to strike at humans and then push the blame onto Batman.

Because whether he sent someone to manipulate the starship or Batman remotely hacked the starship, no one could say for sure. Both situations were possible. However, because Batman was currently at war with them, they would naturally suspect Batman, while Thanos could instead play the victim and avoid human retaliation.

Although using the Interstellar Security Council's standard equipment was a bit too risky, didn't they have a group of high-ranking officials to take the fall? When the time came, push it all onto them, saying they colluded with Talos for personal gain and snuck onto the ship, and Thanos could naturally walk away unscathed. This move was risky, but the odds of success were high.

But if one were to say Batman had no suspicion at all, that was of course impossible. After all, they were fighting on the planet at that time, and the reinforcements were being blocked by mutants. In order to escape smoothly and bring the Infinity Stones back to Apokolips, they weren't incapable of doing such a thing.

Anyway, Batman didn't treat aliens as people at all, let alone aliens from a universe that wasn't his. And how many good aliens could there be in a black market? Naturally, there was even less burden when taking action.

But now the problem they faced was: whether it was Thanos or Batman, they had no decisive evidence. They could neither find intrusion records nor evidence of the act. Although they could strike back directly without evidence, if they made a mistake and hit the wrong person, the other side would be able to laugh in their dreams.

If they wronged Batman, Thanos could naturally watch the two sides fight; if they wronged Thanos, Batman would also reap the benefits. It was truly difficult to choose.

Just as everyone was constantly analyzing, they received a message—Thanos had left the Ring Sector and returned to his Dark Quadrant.

"That's it, it must be this guy!" everyone gritted their teeth. "If you aren't feeling guilty, why are you running away?!"

The Batmobile cut through the silent cosmic space and landed steadily on a desolate dwarf planet. Schiller walked over, pulled open the car door, and after sitting in the car, he said, "Let's go, back to Apokolips first."

"Are you sure they will go and trouble Thanos? Logically speaking, we aren't exactly above suspicion either." Arkham Batman said while starting the car.

After Constantine went in, he smelled an indescribable odor, seemingly some kind of psychedelic agent. However, the starship was quite clean and tidy, with no signs of battle.

Constantine walked all the way inside, and when he entered the banquet hall, he saw a tall black figure standing there, holding a camera, not knowing what he was filming.

"Hey! You..."

Before Constantine finished speaking, the big guy turned around. Constantine was stunned, then said: "Venom? Are you Venom?"

The black slime disappeared instantly, revealing Eddie's face behind it. He said: "I am Eddie Brock. Are you Constantine?"

"That's right, it's me. Honestly, you looked hot just now." Main Universe Constantine walked up and shook hands with Eddie.

"He's hitting on you!" Venom shouted in his mind.

"He's hitting on you," Eddie said irritably. "Don't come out, be careful he doesn't get handsy."

"What are you doing here?" Main Universe Constantine asked.

"Filming news, of course," Eddie shrugged and said. "I was originally a war correspondent over there, but while wandering the battlefield, I discovered that two planets full of octopuses were at war, and one side seemed to be abusing prisoners of war. I followed this lead and came near this ship, but I didn't expect that guy to be so insane as to dare to attack a planet directly with a starship's main cannon. I think a charge of slaughter is inevitable, but I feel there is still a story to be dug deeper here, so I came up to take a look."

"Don't waste time talking to him," Venom said in his mind. "There seems to be someone upstairs, I heard movement. Let's go up and take a look."

Eddie nodded at Main Universe Constantine, then carried his camera upstairs. Main Universe Constantine followed behind him. The two went upstairs one after the other, and then they saw several high-ranking officials who often appeared in interstellar news walking out wobblingly.

Most interstellar high-ranking officials are from the three major empires. Among them, because the Supreme Intelligence has very tight control over the Kree Empire, most of the high-ranking officials from the Kree Empire are actually equivalent to avatars of the Supreme Intelligence. And the Supreme Intelligence is an electronic life form, so he has no selfish desires, so these high-ranking officials are relatively fair when facing problems outside the Kree Empire, and their personal morality has no problems either.

But the remaining two empires are a chaotic mess. The Skrull Empire is a bit better because most of its citizens have accepted high levels of mechanization, but this Shi'ar Empire has been a feudal aristocratic system from beginning to end, and how wild they play goes without saying. This time, these few high-ranking officials were also from the Shi'ar Empire.

Eddie and Constantine reacted very quickly, instantly flashing into a small room nearby. Eddie poked the camera out and clearly filmed the faces of this group of people.

"I said there was a problem. That Toros captured his own kind, and not only did he not kill them, he locked them all up and brought them here; it turns out it was to sell them to these officials. But what use do they have for octopuses?"

"Uh..." Main Universe Constantine paused and said, "Don't you think those octopuses look very beautiful?"

"Hmm???"

"Their limbs are very soft, their markings are very bright, and the suckers are even more amazing. Oh..."

"Wait," Eddie said, somewhat incredulously, "You don't mean to say that they brought those octopuses here to... My god! I mean... Lord!"

"Of course, their most wonderful aspect isn't their limbs, but their psychic abilities, which can provide you with a dual enjoyment of both body and spirit..."

Eddie looked at Constantine's reminiscent expression and couldn't say a word, only feeling that his worldview had suffered a severe shock.

"Don't look at me like that," the main universe Constantine said. "This is recognized throughout the universe, and the issue of this ethnic group being trafficked has always been very severe. This just proves my aesthetic sense is normal."

"Ugh!"

"What's going on?! Why did so many people die all of a sudden?!" Earth's command center was already in an uproar. Looking at that sea of grayed-out names, all the commanders were on the verge of a breakdown.

Death is perfectly normal in war, but these people weren't ordinary people with fragile bodies; they were Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four! How could they be wiped out directly without even a shred of resistance?! You could at least have sent a message back!

But soon, they received the Battleworld messages from the deceased. However, everyone stated that they didn't know what had happened either; they just saw a white light, and the next second they appeared in Battleworld.

"A white light?!" Stark said, somewhat surprised. "Could it be another version of the Omega Beams?! Could it be Darkseid acting again?"

"It doesn't seem like it," Natasha shook her head, checking her own information interface, and then said, "This time there is a significant difference from the last time. They felt obvious thermal energy, and the death process was slightly longer than being hit by Omega Beams; it doesn't seem to be the same type of energy."

"Then what on earth is going on?!" Steve was also scratching his head. The losses this time were even more devastating than the last, but they didn't even know what had happened.

But soon, they learned from interstellar news about the disintegration of the Centauri market planet. And this news was even released on the interstellar internet by their war correspondent, Eddie Brock.

"In the footage, we can see that this once very prosperous planet is gradually disintegrating. Due to safety considerations, I cannot get too close, but I have invited a customer who was shopping on this planet earlier to tell us in detail about the situation at the time of the incident. Hello, may I ask if you know how this planet disintegrated?"

Eddie was standing on a satellite, and behind him was the gradually disintegrating market planet. On this satellite, many spaceships were docked, which looked like they had fled from the main planet.

And the person he was interviewing was a purple-skinned alien with four arms. The other party chattered a lot in an alien language. Eddie translated: "He said he also doesn't know how the planet disintegrated, only that he felt a very strong vibration. However, his personal terminal told him that the energy fluctuations seemed to come from the Interstellar Security Council's spaceship."

"Prior to this, the Interstellar Security Council had blockaded this planet, using the pretext of pursuing fugitives, but according to this customer, he had never seen any fugitives on this planet."

"Just minutes after the explosion occurred, I risked my life to approach the Interstellar Security Council's starship, entered it, and discovered a shocking secret. Next, please look at the footage I captured inside the starship..."

As the footage switched, they first saw an octopus-like alien creature flying out of the starship; after entering the interior of the starship, there was first all kinds of slime in the messy banquet hall, then the drunken Interstellar Alliance high-ranking officials; immediately following that was the starship's weapon deployment log, which clearly stated that just a few minutes ago, the starship's main cannon had charged and fired, and the target was precisely the surface of the market planet.

It just so happened that this incident occurred at this time; even if you said you didn't do it, no one would believe you. The human side had suffered such heavy losses that even at the risk of a complete falling out with the Interstellar Alliance, they would definitely want his life. Therefore, staying in the office in the Ring Sector was not safe at all; he had to return to his home base.

Just like that, Thanos ran away. But his running away like this could be considered as confirming his suspicion.

Although the command center suspected that it should be Batman and Thanos colluding, with Batman directing Thanos to open fire in order to save the trapped Arkham Batman and Schiller's group, the betrayal of a former ally from the same universe was indeed even harder to accept.

Thanos hadn't been back in the Dark Quadrant for an hour before the Dark Quadrant was surrounded by mutants.