SWNOVELXO Chapter 142: Superman's Uncle
Chapter 141: Superman's Uncle (4k)
In Earth's orbit, a massive, skull-shaped spaceship hovered like a harbinger of doom, looking down upon the entire azure planet.
David and Clark received satellite footage and the situation in Metropolis from Jor-El. The two of them rushed back to Metropolis from the North Pole at breakneck speed.
"Destroy the world, keep only one city.
This is exactly Brainiac's style!"
Recalling the robots' slogan, David's eyes held a sense of urgency as he streaked across the sky at hundreds of times the speed of sound.
This was an unprecedentedly powerful enemy Earth had encountered, and most importantly, his home was next to Metropolis.
"Brainiac was originally an artificial intelligence created by the homeworld of Brainiac. He possessed the highest level of intelligence in the universe, but his subsequent evolution went out of control, backlashing against the scientists who created him, conquering the entire planet, and continuously evolving. He evolved greediness, jealousy, and hatred.
After that, he transformed into a cosmic collector, who liked to destroy civilizations everywhere and shrink a favorite city to keep as a collectible."
David's mind flashed with information about Brainiac. A developed and prosperous city appeared at the end of the horizon, but suddenly, an astonishing green light cascaded from the sky like a waterfall, engulfing the entire Metropolis.
The two of them stopped immediately, staring at the shocking scene.
A beam of light enveloped the entire city.
When the dazzling light subsided, the earth was left with a huge, hideous scar. The bridge connecting Metropolis to the outside world had broken, and the drainage system buried deep beneath the city was exposed to the air.
The city, covering tens of thousands of square kilometers, had vanished into thin air.
"Metropolis is... gone!"
Clark's mouth hung open in mid-air, unable to believe what he was seeing, his eyes filled with profound shock.
"No, Metropolis is still here, it's just shrunk."
David frowned and pointed a finger towards the very center of the bottom of the giant pit.
There lay a patch of steel-gray land, the size of a beehive, in stark contrast to the hundred-mile-wide, earth-brown pit.
Clark's super vision saw the bottom of the pit at a glance. Magnifying it, he saw the familiar steel metropolis again, with a glass dome covering the entire city.
The city, which had once occupied vast tracts of land, now looked like a model.
"What just happened? The bright light made me unable to see anything, and I injured my cervical spine."
"Did I have a concussion? Why do I feel like the sky has been distorted? Is that... is that glass?!"
Through the glass, which resembled a display window, the city's residents looked up at the sky, magnified countless times, and were terrified.
Panic and chaos in the city reached their peak.
Chloe, who had just finished her manuscript after staying up late the previous day, pulled open the curtains of her rented apartment. Seeing what was outside, she rubbed her eyes, rolled them back, and fainted.
"Help me, I must be dreaming!"
A bug from underground crawled onto the glass dome. Its two antennae were like the main steel cables of the Golden Gate Bridge, and its thick mandibles were like two mountain ranges squeezed together, casting shadows that covered more than a dozen blocks.
The citizens were terrified, some even clutching their chests and passing out from fright.
"Survivors of Planet No. 200458, you have been sealed. Permanent sealing will be completed in one hour and will be irreversible. Welcome to the Creator's collection."
Robots maintaining order in the city broadcasted mechanically.
The skull spaceship above the Earth cast a tractor beam, and Metropolis, covered by the glass dome, floated up and flew into the spaceship.
Clark's expression changed drastically, and he was about to fly after it, but David stopped him.
"The citizens need help." He turned to look at his brother.
"They'll be fine. There's something more important now."
David motioned for him to look towards the edge of the giant pit.
Tens of thousands of skull robots, equipped with top-tier cosmic technology, began to deploy, destroying everything in sight, preparing to annihilate everything and turn the living planet into a dead silence.
Only then would Brainiac's collection have the highest value as a rare item.
The town of Smallville was located on the outskirts of Metropolis. This unremarkable town was not shrunk along with Metropolis, but due to its geographical location, it would bear the brunt of the attack!
"Mom! Dad!"
Clark hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and withdrew his gaze from Metropolis, which had already been collected into the spaceship. He dove down like a supersonic fighter jet, punched and shattered several robots that had entered the town first, their parts scattering everywhere.
Hiss!
"Let's deal with these robots first, then we'll rescue Metropolis."
A scorching cosmic energy beam shot from David's eyes, sweeping and cutting. A group of skull robots fell like wheat being harvested.
[Template Fusion: 54%]
After clearing the robots near the town, a strange light flashed in David's eyes.
After the abnormal increase in template fusion degree last time, he had some speculations.
The system needed to gain emotional points by influencing people who were important to the fate of the world, such as superheroes, supervillains, and those with extraordinary abilities.
"But what role have ordinary people played in the plot of world destiny?"
They seemed insignificant, often unremarkable, and were always being saved when facing powerful supervillains. But if they didn't exist, would any of the plot still have meaning?
Even though the superheroes defeated the supervillains and foiled the plot to destroy the world, if the world is just a desolate wasteland, is it still worth cheering and celebrating?
"So this is the hidden 'important person'."
Raising his palm and unleashing a torrent of energy that blasted several robots to pieces, David's gaze sharpened.
Although these ordinary people never appeared on his status screen, they genuinely increased his fusion progress.
Ever since he appeared before the public as Purple Light Man, he had been paying attention, confirming this point. Every time he appeared and stirred the emotions of those ordinary people.
"Afterward, the template fusion progress would see an abnormal increase!"
David had no interest in saving the world or doing anything for strangers who had nothing to do with him. But if it was for emotional points, he didn't mind saving them casually when it wasn't dangerous.
"Detected leaked Kryptonian samples, must be destroyed!"
The Skull Robot army saw David and Clark and shouted as they ascended. The steel army charged like a swarm of locusts, seeming to have found a higher priority target than destroying the world.
"Detected unknown life forms prioritized for capture, preparing to capture!"
Energy laser cannons rained down like a torrential downpour, along with steel fists that could easily pierce tanks. David and Clark fought their way through the robot army, dodging and weaving.
"We can't let a single one of these robots leave our sight intact," Clark said, swinging his iron fists. His immense strength made the alloy steel used to forge these machines brittle and shatter.
David manipulated the gravity field and squeezed fiercely, crushing hundreds of Skull Robots together like crushing a swarm of insects, turning them into a pile of scrap metal, and letting them fall to the ground.
These Skull Robots, manufactured by Brainiac, seemed like crude, inferior products in the hands of David and Clark. However, in reality, these robots had previously destroyed world after world for Brainiac.
Considered in terms of Earth.
A swarm of these robots here, any one of them could fight in various terrains and environments including deserts, lava, and the seabed. Their flight speed reached over ten times the speed of sound, their strength allowed them to easily throw dozens of tons of tanks, and their energy attacks could penetrate skyscrapers.
A single unit possessed enough power to destroy a strong nation's army!
Tens of thousands of Skull Robots could easily destroy Earth.
If even one robot were allowed to escape and embark on its programmed path of world destruction, countless people might die under its slaughter.
Gotham and Metropolis, like a pair of twin siblings, one somber and silent, the other prosperous and passionate, faced each other across a stretch of coastline.
But now, the other side of the coast had become a massive sinkhole, a dark void staring up at the sky, leaving only Gotham behind.
Brainiac's so-called collection of civilization samples actually involved his ship invading the entire planet's intelligent database the moment it reached a life-bearing planet, downloading all useful information.
Whether the cities were left behind was irrelevant; it was merely his personal preference.
Metropolis was not the most perfect city on Earth, and it was difficult to consider it a sample of Earth civilization.
However, regardless, Gotham was not meant to be a sample of Earth civilization. Due to its darkness, its decay, and its depravity that made even mechanical Kryptonians frown, it had successfully been spared.
However, Gotham's Bat did not stand idly by in the face of the crisis in the neighboring city. He piloted his Fenrir Mech and arrived above Metropolis to join the battle.
Promethium metal, which absorbed energy, protected him from all attacks. It possessed the power to sink warships and destroy robot after robot.
"What's it this time?"
Catching a Skull Robot with a bat grappling hook and violently swinging it to smash over a dozen others, a hoarse, deep voice emanated from the tall, heavy mech, allowing one to guess his expression without seeing his face.
"I've lived for over thirty years, and although I wasn't in this country for half of that time.
I still remember that the Metropolis of the past was never this lively!
But ever since you two appeared..."
World-ending crises involving the universe and extraterrestrials had occurred one after another, and all of them centered around Metropolis.
This made one suspect that due to the existence of the two of them, the gaze of some terrifying entities in the universe had been cast upon this planet.
"It's like two rhinoceros beetles appearing in an ordinary anthill. On a roadside that was originally ignored, curious people stop by from time to time, wanting to dismantle and study it, bringing disaster to the anthill."
Bruce Wayne's suspicious heart stirred again. If the two of them left this planet, would the world return to its former superficial peace? Would he only need to patrol the city in his Bat-suit as before?
"The number of lunatics in Gotham is endless, especially the increasing number of mentally ill criminals who don't commit crimes for money after you appeared."
Manipulating the gravity field to shatter dozens of robots that pounced on him, David glanced at him and said coldly.
"Can these phenomena also be attributed to you?"
In fact, Bruce Wayne's speculation was not entirely baseless. To some extent, these crises were indeed related to Clark's appearance.
In the comics, Dr. Manhattan once used the universe as a testing ground to research this matter. Clark was the beginning of everything, and he could even influence the past. As long as his fate changed even slightly, the world line would undergo enormous changes.
It could be said that Clark was the Son of DC, the center of the multiverse.
"They came to Earth tracking Zod's ship,"
Fiercely swatting away a Skull Robot and shattering its internal parts with his violent strength, Clark explained in a deep voice, his expression somewhat grim.
He didn't want things to turn out this way, but they had happened despite his wishes. The disaster brought by Zod was enough to make him feel guilty.
But it wasn't over yet; another huge problem had arrived.
"No matter who is behind these robots!
I will stop him. No one will get hurt in this incident!"
Clark's eyes blazed with heat vision as he swept across a large area of robots. He clenched his fist and looked up at the sky.
"Someone is coming from space!"
David gazed at the sky, squinting as he spoke.
*
In space, aboard a massive skull-shaped spaceship.
The Mechanical Kryptonian surveyed Metropolis, now encased beneath a glass dome. His metallic finger traced the glass, oblivious to the terrified people inside screaming and crying as they looked at the 'Giant Hand of God,' and he waved a hand dismissively.
"Take it down and seal it."
Two Skull Robots stepped forward to receive 'Metropolis,' which had been transformed into a city in a bottle.
Zod-El's icy gaze swept downwards.
The steel floor turned into a transparent screen, constantly displaying the combat data of David and Clark against the Skull Robots. His intelligent brain rapidly calculated and arrived at an unpleasant conclusion.
"Without external interference.
Tens of thousands of combat units will be destroyed by these two within ten minutes."
He controlled the spaceship to open the hatch, and crimson flames erupted from beneath his feet, charging downwards like a comet bringing ill omen and death.
Above Metropolis, the three of them stared at the scarlet comet, which was igniting as it rubbed against the atmosphere, its entire body engulfed in flames.
The atmosphere buzzed with agitation, and a powerful, oppressive aura swept over them.
"Is it you!"
Clark roared and threw a punch.
"The source of this disaster?!"
Boom!
Flames exploded outwards, and a blue and red figure flashed, sending Clark flying back. A visible shockwave erupted, sweeping a hundred meters with a deafening roar.
An enemy of unprecedented strength, Clark felt as if his head had been struck by a meteorite. He flew back several hundred meters, stabilized himself, and shook his head. Just as he was about to raise his fist to retaliate angrily, he froze.
"You... Who are you?"
David and Bruce Wayne's gazes flickered rapidly between the two.
The previously ferocious Skull Robots also stopped at this moment, forming a protective cordon behind the newcomer, making him appear like a mechanical deity looking down from above.
The same red and blue combat suit, a similar S-symbol on the chest, and even subtly similar facial features—one was flesh and blood, the other mechanical.
"Mechanical Superman!"
David's eyes sharpened, and he recognized the newcomer's identity from his distinctive appearance.
Mechanical Superman was Brainiac's subordinate, his technological modification. He was one of the survivors of Krypton, and originally Clark's own uncle and Supergirl's father—Zod-El.
"Krypton was a renowned and powerful civilization throughout the universe, and Brainiac had always coveted Kryptonian cities as samples for his civilization.
When Krypton was destroyed, he protected a Kryptonian city called Kandor City and collected it. Zod-El was caught in the explosion and was on the verge of death. Brainiac modified him into a servant to collect civilization samples for him, becoming Mechanical Superman."
"I am the ultimate Kryptonian created by the Creator, here to fulfill his will!"
Zod-El looked coldly at Clark and David, his palm transforming into a sharp combat blade. Like a messenger proclaiming God's will, he fiercely attacked the two with an imposing aura.
"You need to be eliminated, and you need to be captured!"
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