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"That's the situation, Bruce. We need your help."
Inside the Batcave, after Bruce finished listening to Darian's account over the phone, his brow remained furrowed.
From the moment General Zod appeared, he had a premonition that something big was going to happen, but he hadn't expected the situation to become this serious.
The existence of Clark, the conspiracy of General Zod, the trait of Kryptonians growing stronger by absorbing solar energy...
Every single thing precisely struck a nerve in him as a severe paranoid.
In the end, he reached one conclusion.
All Kryptonians are dangerous factors.
Whether it's General Zod and his bunch of Kryptonian bumpkins, or Clark, the Kryptonian-descended Earthling who grew up on Earth, there is no fundamental difference in the level of danger.
Without hesitation, Bruce immediately created a new anti-Kryptonian contingency file, setting it directly to the highest threat level, which was far higher in priority than any previous file.
Before this, the file with the highest threat level in his records had always been Darian, the Gotham Gun God and Spider-Man.
He pulled up the data panel, recording the intelligence provided by Darian while simultaneously and rapidly dissecting the various capability metrics of Kryptonians to conceive a response plan.
His hands never stopped moving, and he continued to ask, "If everything you said is true and Kryptonians are this powerful, what help can I provide?"
Darian laughed happily, "Clark and I are just brute warriors; we aren't good at using our brains, and we are both honest, simple people. It's easy to suffer a big loss against an old fox like General Zod who is full of schemes. We need a strategist who is full of bad ideas, so you were the first person I thought of."
Bruce: "..."
He could admit that he was full of bad ideas, but he absolutely refused to admit that Darian was honest and simple.
Darian added another sentence, "Besides, you wouldn't want to watch Earth become a Kryptonian colony, would you?"
Bruce was silent for two seconds, "I'm going to Metropolis now; we'll talk in person."
"No need, that's too slow. I've called a private ride."
Hearing this, Bruce was a bit confused.
Before he could ask, a loud crash suddenly came from the ceiling of the Batcave.
Boom!!
The ceiling of the Batcave was smashed through by force, and pieces of reinforced concrete fell down.
Amidst the dust, a red and blue figure broke through the hole and landed steadily in the center of the Batcave.
Bruce: (—)
Darian jumped down from Clark's back, patted the dust off his clothes, and exclaimed, "Clark, you really are as fast as ever. It's a pity not to use this ability for food delivery."
Clark: "..."
The situation was urgent; he had no choice but to guest-star as Darian's mount once again.
Clark decisively skipped the topic and looked at Bruce, who was wearing the Batman suit in front of him.
"Is this the helper you mentioned?"
Darian nodded, "That's right. He is a long-standing Superhero in Gotham, the Batman who makes countless criminals terrified. His abilities should not be underestimated."
Clark was a bit curious, "Does he have any special abilities?"
He had wandered all over the World for many years and had never set foot in Gotham, so he knew almost nothing about the deeds of Batman.
Darian said seriously, "He is very rich."
Clark: "???"
Can that even be considered a superpower?
Looking at the two people in front of him chatting as if no one else was around, completely treating themselves as insiders, the corners of Bruce's mouth twitched slightly.
He subconsciously switched back to that low, professional voice, "How did you find this place?"
"It's just the Batcave; I found it by using navigation."
Darian waved his hand, and his peripheral vision happened to sweep over the huge display screen behind Bruce, "What are you busy with?"
Clark looked in the direction of his gaze.
On the screen was a newly created file named Anti-Kryptonian Plan, with various response measures listed densely below it.
Clark nodded inwardly, "This Batman is indeed good; he started pre-setting measures to deal with enemies like General Zod so quickly."
As a result, when he looked further down, he saw himself appearing at the very top of the Anti-Kryptonian Plan, listed alongside General Zod.
Beside it, it was marked in large red letters that this target was extremely dangerous and required high vigilance.
Clark: "..."
Bruce: "..."
The air suddenly quieted down.
"Ahem."
Darian broke the awkward atmosphere and patted Clark's shoulder, "Get used to it. He is on guard against everyone, he doesn't even let a good person like me off the hook."
I couldn't let you off the hook, no matter who else I let go.
Bruce silently added to himself.
He closed the file page without changing his expression, as if nothing had just happened.
"Don't waste time; tell me, what exactly is the situation now?"
"Let me explain."
After seeing this Anti-Kryptonian Plan, Clark's assessment of Bruce actually went up a notch.
Whether his combat power is strong or not is one thing, but he is truly cunning, and maybe he really can help.
Clark composed his expression and said seriously, "As far as I know, General Zod's spaceship is equipped with a device called the World Engine. It is essentially a planetary terraformer that can completely change the atmosphere and terrain of the target Planet in a very short time, eventually turning it into a second Kryptonian."
"Once the transformation is complete, all Earthlings will die because they cannot adapt to the Kryptonian environment."
Bruce's face darkened, and he summarized directly, "So we must destroy the Kryptonian spaceship."
Clark nodded, "That's right. At that time, General Zod's flagship will split into two parts operating simultaneously, and both must be destroyed. One will be left to me, and the rest will need to be completed by you."
Bruce asked, "It shouldn't be that simple to destroy it, right?"
"Yes, once the World Engine is activated, it will create a gravitational field, and most weapons on Earth will lose their effectiveness."
Clark said, "However, its energy source is the Phantom Projector. The principle is the same as the spaceship I arrived on Earth in; it can distort space. As long as these two spaceships collide, a black hole will be created, swallowing everything in the vicinity."
Bruce rubbed his chin and immediately understood the real difficulty, "The biggest problem isn't this; it's the Kryptonians who will come to stop us."
"As expected of you, Bat-boy, right to the point."
Darian grinned, "The Kryptonians will definitely stop us from destroying the spaceship. We don't need to worry about Clark, but we might have to face several Kryptonians on our side."
"Simply put, it's a split-push tactic. Put the strongest, Clark, in the top lane to push and take towers alone, while the rest of us group up and push in the middle lane. But this will also attract more enemy forces, making the risk extremely high. You should understand it well if I put it this way, right?"
Bruce nodded.
After Darian's explanation, it had indeed become even harder to understand.
Next, he asked the question he was most concerned about, "How many people do we have on our side?"
Darian laughed, "What are you saying? Aren't our people all right here?"
Bruce: "..."
Actually, Darian had contacted Constantine, but as soon as that guy heard he had to deal with General Zod and his group, he immediately pretended the signal was bad and hung up the phone.
Me, fighting Kryptonians? Really?
Darian was very disdainful of Constantine.
He had no spirit of sacrifice at all; he deserved to be shut out of Heaven.
The result was that the only person Darian could pull in was Bruce, this Batman, while providing him with information about the Kryptonians to try and avoid triggering the first-encounter-kill buff.
"Not enough; it's too big a difference."
Bruce frowned.
The Kryptonians already had the advantage in numbers.
According to the intelligence provided by Clark, excluding the research staff, there were seven or eight combatants left on the spaceship. In extreme cases, even the research staff might warm up and enter the field, and the numerical gap between the enemy and us would only widen further.
What was even more deadly was the Kryptonian trait of growing stronger by absorbing solar energy.
Now that General Zod had discovered this secret, once all the Kryptonians started absorbing solar energy, the scene would be simply unimaginable.
"There's no other way; you're the only Superhero I know."
Darian spread his hands, "If it really doesn't work, I'll get Director Gordon to come. He is the Gotham King of Solo, undefeated in one-on-one combat. Why not let him solo General Zod, and we can solve the rest of the Kryptonians."
Bruce ignored Darian's words and said in a deep voice, "I know there are many beings in the World with special abilities, but time is too tight now. General Zod's plan could be activated at any time, and we simply don't have time to look for them one by one."
Darian's eyes suddenly lit up, "That's simple. Since we can't find them, let them come find us."
As he spoke, he flipped his hand, and a loudspeaker appeared in it.
[Item: Small Loudspeaker (Can send a message to the entire World through the World channel; all conscious beings can hear your voice, limited to 50 characters)]
Darian took out a bowtie-style voice changer, held the loudspeaker to his mouth, and pressed the switch.
At the same moment, in the mind of every conscious being on Earth, whether human or animal, a cold, strange voice appeared.
[I am the consciousness of Earth. General Zod intends to transform Earth into a Kryptonian, ending Earth civilization. To protect Earth, all super-beings please gather in Metropolis to stop the evil Kryptonians.]
Excluding punctuation marks, it was exactly within 50 characters.
Under the effect of the Small Loudspeaker, Darian's voice was automatically translated into various languages, so people from any country could easily understand the meaning.
The entire Earth exploded instantly.
Not long ago, General Zod had hijacked the global signal to hold a World broadcast.
Now this voice was even more extreme, directly hijacking the brains of all mankind, forcing a pop-up.
But what made people even more shocked was the content.
General Zod wanted to transform the entire Earth into a Kryptonian, ending Earth civilization. Didn't this amount to taking everyone's life?
And the most ridiculous thing was that this voice actually claimed to be the consciousness of Earth.
Could it be that Mother Earth was asking them for help?
Whether it was true or false, global public opinion was instantly ignited.
People were already wary of General Zod and this group of aliens; after all, they hijacked the global signal as soon as they arrived—could they be good guys?
But the technological level of General Zod and his group of aliens was also right before their eyes. They could easily hijack the global signal and park a spaceship in Earth's orbit; in terms of technology, they completely crushed Earth.
So everyone could only comfort themselves, thinking that maybe General Zod would really leave obediently once he found his people.
But now, this consciousness of Earth had directly exposed General Zod's ambition.
Regardless of any faction or stance, everyone's primary identity was that of an Earthling.
Earth was their only home; destroying Earth was equivalent to destroying everything they relied on to survive.
Who could sit still now!?
The super-beings hiding all over the World all had solemn expressions and began to move rapidly toward Metropolis.
Even some Super-villains set off, cursing and swearing, determined to let those alien bumpkins know whose territory Earth really was.
At this moment, Clark and Bruce, the only ones who knew the full picture, were looking at Darian with shocked faces.
"How did you do that?"
They had also heard the voice in their minds, and of course, they knew it wasn't any consciousness of Earth, but this guy in front of them.
Darian waved his hand calmly, "Just a little magic, not worth mentioning."
Although it was a bit of a pity to use the Small Loudspeaker for global recruitment to fight a boss, it was worth it to show off in front of the DC duo.
Bruce was the first to recover, saying in a deep voice, "Then let's head to Metropolis now; we must form a team that can confront the Kryptonians head-on as soon as possible."
He lowered his head and glanced at the Batman suit on his body, knowing in his heart that this conventional equipment had no power to fight against Kryptonians at all.
Without hesitation, he immediately said, "Activate the SM-9527 plan, activate the latest suit."
"Anti-spider-man suit activated."
The wall slid open to the sides, and a cold electronic prompt echoed in the Batcave.
A brand-new suit slowly rose from the hidden compartment, thicker than the one on Bruce by more than a magnitude. The chest plate and shoulder armor had multiple layers of composite armor, hydraulic auxiliary structures were installed at the joints, the helmet's eye area emitted a dim blue light, and the whole thing looked like a humanoid tank.
Darian's eyes were a bit subtle, "Anti-spider-man suit?"
Bruce was expressionless, "No, you heard wrong. It's the Batman suit."
Darian's mouth twitched slightly, "Bullshit, what I heard was Anti-spider-man suit."
"Maybe the name was entered incorrectly by accident."
"Who the hell are you kidding? These two names don't even have the same number of words."
Clark, seeing his teammates arguing before even reaching the battlefield, quickly stepped forward to persuade them, "Forget it, forget it, stop arguing."
Bruce suddenly turned his head to look at him, "What is your name?"
Clark was stunned, "Clark."
His name had long been exposed, so there was no need to hide anything from Bruce.
Bruce shook his head, "I mean a codename, like Batman and Spider-Man."
This actually stumped Clark; he had never given himself a codename.
Clark thought about it seriously and said, "Let's call it Superman. Someone used to call me that before, and I think it's quite fitting."
"Superman, good name."
Bruce nodded, offered a compliment, and immediately turned his head to order the artificial intelligence, "Modify the name of the Anti-spider-man suit to Anti-Superman suit."
"Understood, corrected."
Clark: "..."