Chapter 4292

When this alien spaceship, shaped like a squid, appeared over Metropolis, global armed forces broadcast the shocking scene via live signal. The "meteorite" that had appeared on aviation monitoring equipment was actually an alien spacecraft.

Buildings were lit up, people were jolted awake from their dreams, and countless experts rushed into their offices in a panic. They had assumed this would be the most thrilling moment of their lives—alien life had truly visited Earth!

But immediately after, an even more jaw-dropping scene occurred: Superman appeared, punched the ship to pieces, and shattered everyone's fantasies about a friendly First Contact.

Superman stood in the night wind, his cape snapping loudly. The night sky of Metropolis grew brighter and brighter, almost drowning him in light. The shock and fear in the eyes of his fully armed kin standing on the landing craft were no different from those of tiny humans.

This finally made him understand that it was not the Kryptonians who could change everything, but him—it was Clark Kent.

The noise of helicopter rotors rose, and the sound of sirens became increasingly piercing, yet Clark's thoughts began to drift away. He recalled what had happened a few months ago.

A man wearing a plaid shirt walked downstairs with a cup of coffee, raising his hand to greet a colleague. But the colleague stopped him and said, "Mr. Kent, there's mail for you."

"My mail? Is it a bill? Why wasn't it sent to my apartment?"

"Not sure. Maybe fan mail. Here."

Clark took the letter from his hand, set the coffee cup aside, and opened the envelope. What he saw was not ordinary stationery, but an invitation emitting a faint glow, with "Battleworld Invitation" written on it.

The sunset outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the apartment looked like a painting gradually dissolving. Clark's handsome profile seemed to merge into the painting. He sat on the sofa, repeatedly examining the mysterious invitation. And the moment the thought "maybe I could go take a look" appeared in his mind, he arrived in a white space.

"Oh, another newcomer. You going, or am I?"

"I'll go. After all, I am the Superman of the 'Prime Universe,' so it should be my turn to welcome the newcomer."

The white light gradually dissipated. Clark looked up, only to see a man somewhat similar to himself, wearing a bodysuit with the same color scheme but a slightly different style, appearing before his eyes.

"Hello, welcome to Battleworld. I'm Superman, just from another universe. I know you're confused, but it's okay, come over here, and I'll explain it to you slowly."

Clark was pulled along, dazed, his mind being infused with knowledge that sounded reasonable but was actually quite absurd.

Multiverse, variants, Battleworld...

Clark asked him many questions, and he answered them one by one. Although the answers were detailed, it still took Clark a long time to accept all of this. The other party also asked him some questions, eventually revealing an expression of sudden realization.

"It seems you're still very young, haven't met Batman, and haven't joined the Justice League. But you'd better be careful; the enemy won't wait for you too long."

"Enemy?"

"Yes, haven't you encountered any enemies?"

Clark opened his mouth, but for a moment, he didn't know what to say. Were the classmates who mocked him when he was a child enemies? After growing up, were the colleagues who ostracized him enemies? Were the people who discovered his extraordinary nature and wanted to expose it all enemies? He didn't know.

"Listen, young man. Your enemies have never been humans. To be precise, the powerful foes capable of threatening you mostly come from outside Earth. For example, General Zod—have you seen him?"

Clark shook his head; not only had he not seen him, he hadn't even heard of him. The Prime Universe Superman briefly told him about General Zod's origins and said, "Why Zod came to Earth is slightly different in every universe. But what's the same is that he wants to destroy Earth. If you aren't that kind of evil Superman, he will definitely be your enemy."

"Of course, you have many other enemies, not just this one. After you join the Justice League, you will also... oh, wait, you haven't even met Batman yet."

"Batman?" Clark asked, but after a pause, he said, "I think I've heard of him, the masked freak in the neighboring city."

"That's right." The Prime Universe Superman smiled and said, "He should be here too. I'll go ask the others to see if I can contact him; maybe you two can get to know each other in advance to facilitate future cooperation."

Clark didn't agree, but he didn't object either. He didn't even know what kind of roles he and Batman played, why he had to know him, or why they would cooperate later. These were all mysteries.

But he soon realized that he wouldn't like this guy. The first impression they left on each other was very bad, and their first meeting ended on a sour note.

"Oh, don't be like that, Clark." When in Superman's base, the other Superman put his arm around his shoulder and said, "You should try to accept him, try to understand him more. At least give him another chance."

"I don't understand," Clark looked at him and said, "Why on earth should I understand him? I think people should have the right to choose their own friends. We aren't suited to be friends."

That Superman looked shocked. After gesturing, he said, "But you... you probably... I mean... God, don't you think he's amazing? Very attractive?"

"I'm not gay." Clark left.

A day later, when he and Bruce Wei En were standing in the queue for the same instance, Clark decided to initiate a topic that wouldn't make them so awkward.

"They say you're very amazing."

"Who?"

"The other Supermen."

"That's not me."

"They say all Batmen are very amazing."

"You came to find me just to see for yourself?"

Clark turned his head back, took a breath, and said, "They say we will eventually end up together. I don't think so."

"I'm not gay."

"That's not what I meant. They think we will become comrades fighting side by side, and even form an organization called the Justice League to deal with cosmic-level crises."

"What do you think?"

"I don't think you're a good teammate for now, nor do I think there's any need for us to cooperate. But I think we can give each other a chance, can't we?"

"You're trying hard to appear open and inclusive, but you know you aren't. You just need a reason to pass a death sentence on me and some organization that might appear in the future. If that's what you want, then go ahead."

Clark glared at him.

Afterward, the experience of that entire instance was like a dream. After seeing the ending where the villains received their retribution, the breath that had been stuck in his chest was never cleared. So much so that when he had a long talk with Batman, he still harbored that feeling of anger, even viewing that statement as an act of cowardice. He wanted to do it, he could do it, he was capable of doing it. Why not?

A white light flashed before his eyes, and Clark subconsciously looked in that direction. The searchlight on the helicopter shone directly into his eyes. In the helicopter pilot's field of vision, those deep blue eyes were washed out until they were almost colorless. Coupled with his cold expression, which carried a hint of anger, the voice calling out involuntarily carried a tremor.

"Don't... don't... I mean, put down your weapons, do not resist... uh..."

A rich red bloomed amidst the light. Heat vision sheared off the helicopter's rotors. The moment the helicopter plummeted, a figure streaked past below, and then, the helicopter was steadily placed on the roof of a nearby building.

Clark didn't fly up again, but stood on the edge of the roof, watching the helicopters gathering toward this spot retreat like a tide. The sound of the rotors gradually disappeared, and the piercing sirens also came to an abrupt halt.

The sense of control brought by this power didn't make him feel any better; instead, that anger burned even brighter, surging and turbulent. The red light of the air-raid sirens swept over him again and again, at one moment glacial blue, at the next, core-of-the-earth red.

Clark shot into the sky, grabbed the final wreckage of the ship, and headed straight up. His kin fell one after another, emitting screams and curses, but he still hauled them out of the atmosphere.

Standing above this blue planet, Clark's gaze scanned continuously. Sure enough, he discovered a larger ship in low Earth orbit.

He flew over carrying the wreckage, reached out to lift it, and smashed it into the ship. An engine on one side emitted a sharp, mournful cry. And when his figure slowly landed in front of that huge floor-to-ceiling window, everyone inside saw his lip-reading:

"Leave Earth, or die."

With a "whoosh," his figure disappeared.

When he reappeared over Metropolis, the ground forces had already finished assembling. Police cars blocked all nearby streets, and fighter jets began to circle overhead.

Clark landed on the ground. He exhaled softly, closed his eyes, and raised his hands toward the pitch-black gun barrels.

And just diagonally above him, Lex Luthor, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window witnessing this scene, clenched his fists tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hands, his whole body trembling.

When Clark boarded the prisoner transport, he keenly sensed a gaze falling on his back. He looked back, and in the direction of the Metropolis Museum, a woman stood in the shadows, watching him leave.

Diana let out a long sigh. One really shouldn't be a thief in the middle of the night, or retribution would come. Who could have known that just after returning from Luthor Manor, she would run into such a grand drama.

Superman, this superhero who hadn't appeared in Metropolis for long but had already become famous, had shown such powerful strength in front of the public for the first time. As an immortal, Diana understood that this was not the end, but just the beginning—the beginning of a long disaster.

She thought again of the lost snake tail. Some intuition told her that these two things might be related. However, she could use her abilities to break into Luthor Manor at night, but it was impossible to actually storm a U. S. military base and witness them interrogating Superman.

Diana looked up and saw the Luthor Tower standing tall in the night. This building, full of modernist color, was so high it seemed endless, its top completely hidden in the night fog, not standing, but seemingly hanging upside down.

The howling wind shuttled between the cold buildings, and the asphalt road became like a dark River Styx. Streams of people and traffic crawled out from another world, walking into the mist under the moonlight. In the extreme darkness before dawn, the world seemed to have died once, only to be resurrected from the sunlight.

Standing in the Batcave, Bruce Wei En met the gaze of Clark's final backward glance. He knew he was looking at him, because he could see and hear the location of the cameras he had set up.

This made him recall again that when death gradually approached, the blue eyes looking at him contained not pain and guilt, but a kind of alarming anger.