Chapter 907

Since the Skrulls disguised as Nick Fury and other superheroes officially stepped onto the stage, they realized things were not as they had expected.

Originally, the Skrull leader posing as Nick Fury hoped to gain the identity of S. . . . . . director and superhero, intending to exploit the resources and connections these figures held—but within days of assuming the directorship, reality struck him a crushing blow.

According to Nick Fury's own memories, over the years he had exploited numerous loopholes in S. . . . . . to embezzle vast funds and establish many secret bases, their locations scattered across the entire United States, known only to himself and a handful of core agents.

The inventory within these warehouses was even more valuable: besides the strategically vital aerial carriers, there were massive amounts of heavy equipment unobtainable by ordinary civilians—things of critical importance to the Skrulls.

The Skrull Empire, one of the three great empires of the universe, had endured a turbulent fate.

They originated in the Andromeda Galaxy, where they had advanced their civilization to an extremely high stage, but unfortunately their homeworld was devoured by the Planet Eater, forcing them to flee.

Internal strife was constant within the empire; after a massive upheaval, many Skrulls fled their homeland, and this group that came to Earth followed an ancient religious parable, believing Earth to be their land of rebirth, and thus sought to control it.

Their initial operations proved highly effective: many Skrulls infiltrated S. . . . . . agents, came into contact with the superheroes, and during this process completed preparations to replicate their appearances and abilities.

After the superheroes began dying one after another, the Skrull leader realized this was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity.

Their replication ability was not without flaws: first, they had to be in proximity to the target for a prolonged period—no need for direct contact, but they could not remain too far away for long, or the reading would fail, and if it failed, they had to start over entirely.

Another flaw was that the upper limit of their replicated abilities was weakened; if they fought the original, they had a high probability of losing, especially against magic or psychic powers.

Another crucial point: a single target could only be replicated and mimicked by one Skrull; multiple Skrulls could not simultaneously mimic the same ability.

Moreover, changing appearance and abilities had a cooldown period—roughly ten years—but Skrulls were not immortal; their lifespan was about 220 years, only two to three times longer than humans.

This meant they had to choose their replication targets with extreme care, for if they wished to switch targets, they had to wait ten years—something potentially fatal.

This created a problem: if they wanted to assume someone's identity and take the stage, they had to make that person disappear—but since their abilities were already weakened, they could not defeat the original.

They could not send a dozen Skrulls to replicate the same powerful ability and overwhelm the target, nor could they first replicate a powerful ability and then mimic a socially useful superhero, because the long cooldown would leave them critically short on personnel.

Moreover, a mass assault would create too much noise—they sought to infiltrate human society silently and seize control of its upper echelons, not wage war against all of humanity.

Having lived among humans for so long, all the Skrulls understood how suspicious and xenophobic this species was.

They even divided themselves into countless factions and turned against one another; if they ever learned a terrifying alien race capable of perfectly copying their appearance and abilities was planning to invade Earth, the Skrulls would know no peace.

The Skrull leader posing as Nick Fury had originally planned to target easier prey—ordinary people like Coulson or Hill, core agents—kill them at the right moment, then slowly infiltrate, and finally strike at Nick Fury himself.

They had never intended to kill superheroes directly: first, because it would create too much noise; second, because they could not afford the losses.

Humans had so many superheroes, and mutants too; the number of Skrulls who had come to Earth was already small, and internal divisions had further reduced their numbers—this faction, led by the Skrull posing as Nick Fury, numbered fewer than twenty.

If they engaged in direct conflict with superheroes—whether Captain America or Spider-Man—even if they managed to kill them, the heroes could still take one or two Skrulls with them; these heroes did not kill humans, but they had no qualms about killing aliens—they could not afford such personnel losses.

Waiting with such thoughts, they never expected a massive, heavenly gift to fall straight onto their heads.

Nick Fury was dead; the three most popular superheroes in New York were dead too.

How could such an opportunity be missed? The impostor Nick Fury took office immediately—and was instantly trapped in this whirlpool.

He intended to use the vast resources Nick Fury had accumulated over the years to build Skrull bases and weapons, but within two days of taking power, bases across the United States began exploding one after another.

Hydra suddenly remembered that S. . . . . . was their inescapable enemy; those Nazi remnants seemed to recall their glorious past—and this time, they aimed for something even more glorious: invading the American continent.

Within two short days, over eighty of the 120+ bases across the country were attacked; within a single day, the destruction rate exceeded 40%, and the lost resources could only be measured in astronomical quantities.

The real Nick Fury had stored these resources as strategic reserves; during the intense development of the Solar System project, he had no urgency to use his accumulated materials and equipment.

He was not in a hurry—but the impostor Nick Fury was desperate.

The impostor urgently needed to deploy these materials and equipment into new production to support the Skrull revival effort; he had assumed his first act upon taking power would be to inventory all resources and put them to use—but he had inventoried them, and all he found were losses.

This incident plunged the impostor Nick Fury into deep self-doubt, because Nick Fury's memories told him that roughly half the bases had locations known only to Nick himself, and another small portion could only be opened with Nick's personal authorization.

This was not information he had heard—it was memory he had directly read—so it must be entirely true and reliable.

Then how had Hydra found and destroyed bases whose locations Nick had never revealed to anyone?

Any intelligent life form trapped in a vortex of doubting their own memories could rarely escape; once they found one gap in their memory, they began suspecting gaps everywhere.

Moreover, this Nick knew he was a fake—making him even more insecure.

This was also the problem faced by the other fake superheroes: their appearance disguises were flawless, their ability imitations nearly perfect—the only flaw was their psychology.

The impostor knowing he was an impostor was the greatest flaw of all.

If a person knew he was fake, he could not help but feel guilty; his behavioral logic would be forcibly bound by one mandatory command: "Prove that I am real."

In the game of Werewolf, the greatest weakness of the werewolves was knowing they were werewolves.

Human memory and thought inevitably drove their behavior; once they knew their identity could not be discovered, they were forced to perform many actions to conceal it.

But these actions contradicted normal behavioral logic: in most cases, ordinary people did not need to prove who they were—and unless in a game where everyone had to prove themselves, such anomalies became glaringly obvious.

The result was that the superheroes had to act like superheroes—or else they would feel guilty, fearing exposure.

Thus, in the following days, the other fake superheroes encountered serious troubles.

Spider-Man's biggest problem was that the original Peter Parker's Spider-Man had died publicly; neither S. . . . . . nor the government could ever reveal to the public that someone could be resurrected—so the impostor Spider-Man naturally became the second-generation Spider-Man.

Everyone knew that the idealized figure was invincible; if the idealized figure became unattainable, he remained the brightest, most beautiful moon in the sky—but if he lived on, he became a grain of rice in the porridge: ordinary, dull, and annoying.

Human nature was simple: what you could not have was always the best.

Spider-Man was not a perfect superhero; even while alive, criticism of him was never lacking.

On forums, some questioned his combat style, others condemned his words and actions, some maliciously sought to investigate his background.

But the moment Spider-Man died, he instantly became the benchmark of all superheroes.

In the descriptions of certain forum users, he was a noble young man—intelligent, wise, kind, strong, capable of reaching the highest heavens and diving into the deepest oceans, punching criminals and kicking evil forces, mastering every weapon from swords to axes, spears to hooks, yet incapable of staying alive.

In contrast, the so-called second-generation Spider-Man now alive was met with disdain at every turn.

Some claimed he must design a new suit entirely different from the original Spider-Man's, otherwise he was riding on the dead hero's popularity, profiting from the dead.

Spider-Man's fans also showed fierce resistance; they refused to accept someone who looked exactly like their hero but fell far short of him; after days of criticism in newspapers and livestreams, the impostor Spider-Man finally compromised.

He changed into a new suit, distinct from the original but equally stylish: the blue turned black, the red deepened, giving him a sharper, more menacing aura.

But soon, this suit drew new criticism: many said the colors were too evil, unfitting Spider-Man's youthful, energetic image.

So the impostor Spider-Man adjusted again: he lightened the blue, kept the red unchanged, making him appear more cheerful.

But soon, others attacked this look as frivolous and exaggerated, like a toy from a children's store, giving off an untrustworthy impression.

Beyond his suit, his behavior was relentlessly criticized.

He mimicked the original Spider-Man's lively, talkative style, and was immediately labeled an ignorant, nauseating imitator; but if he became silent and cold before cameras, people accused him of abandoning Spider-Man's once-down-to-earth image.

Within just a few days, the impostor Spider-Man was nearing collapse.

He was merely a young officer with almost no social experience; translated into human age, he was roughly the same as the current Peter Parker, and most of his time on Earth had been spent working within S. . . . . ., never having interacted with ordinary society.

He had never realized humans were such terrifying creatures.

He had not grasped that human nature was fundamentally hypocritical: when they disliked someone, everything they did was wrong.