Even though it was already the middle of the night, Heisenberg could still hear Thor howling like he was at a funeral.
Having marked Thor as "special attention" within his senses, Heisenberg could only open his eyes in resignation.
He checked the time.
It was not even five o'clock!
Damn it all.
He pushed aside the slender, soft bodies of the models, got up naked, and walked into the bathroom for a quick shower.
Then he opened the wardrobe and picked out a black trench coat outfit from the thirty-odd sets of clothes Billy had prepared for him.
Once he was dressed and had stepped into his leather shoes, Heisenberg shot into the air and headed straight for the upper atmosphere.
As he flew, he casually had the system deal with his... ahem.
In any case, Heisenberg skimmed past the Moon and flew all the way toward the Sun.
He did not even use his current top speed.
He was only making a trip to the Sun. There was no need to go all out.
So he leisurely flew at around Mach 50,000 for about two and a half hours before finally nearing the solar surface.
The Sun's surface temperature of roughly six thousand degrees Celsius could not trouble Heisenberg in the slightest.
And with the help of his bio-field, even his clothes remained undamaged.
That field really was absurdly versatile!
As he used the field to manipulate the surrounding gravity and let himself slowly glide along the Sun's surface, Heisenberg found himself thinking about the bio-field again.
The bio-field could do more than control the four fundamental forces. It could also protect whatever he wanted to protect.
For example, women!
Which meant that without the bio-field, he would not be able to do the things lovers do at all.
After all, with the force behind his output, it would only take one little whoosh...
At best it would be a direct hit straight to the stomach.
At worst it would be the kind of bone-piercing blow that blew someone's skull open...
It was far too terrifying!
So by now, Heisenberg had already put developing the bio-field at the very top of his priorities.
And not just for such shallow reasons.
Heisenberg had also thought seriously about his own future.
Where exactly were his Kryptonian powers supposed to lead?
Black Age Superman and Bronze Age Superman could be discarded outright. Heisenberg had zero interest in those two versions of Superman's power.
As for Silver Age Superman?
Heisenberg admitted that one was pretty tempting, but Silver Superman was far too dependent on pure will. It almost felt as though he could gain any power as long as he happened to need it!
Setting aside Golden Superman, Superboy Prime, Thought Robot Superman, and the super-Kryptonian H'el, all of whom stood on a higher tier, Silver Superman practically seemed omnipotent!
But how exactly was he supposed to become Silver Superman?
"System, calculate how much Origin Matter I need to upgrade into Silver Superman."
"Silver Superman possesses over 1,814,600 special abilities. Total cost for full exchange: 5^106 Origin Matter."
"OK."
Heisenberg understood.
Understood my ass!!!
5^106?
Five to the power of one hundred and six?
That was way too damn much!
So, annoyed, he continued asking, "Then how much do I need to become Golden Superman?"
"Golden Superman form requires 5^104 Origin Matter."
See that?
Silver Superman was not just strong.
He was absurdly strong!
But could anyone explain where exactly that strength came from?
He was strong everywhere. He could do anything. But that all-purpose strength did not come from the level of his existence itself. It came from the fact that the moment he needed something, he would evolve the ability to do it!
He had too many abilities, but in essence, he still could not transcend the rank of the omniversal scale!
Golden Superman, on the other hand, stood at a higher level, but the source of Golden Superman's power was actually quite simple. He had broken through dimensional boundaries and become a terrifying fifth-dimensional lifeform.
That let him stand from a higher-dimensional perspective, ignore the time and space of third- and fourth-dimensional universes, and freely rewrite the reality of those lower-dimensional universes!
And precisely because he only had that one central ability, even though he was stronger, his price was actually lower.
One overwhelmingly powerful ability was far cheaper than Silver Superman's casually acquired millions of powers that could all massively influence the multiverse.
And outside of Golden Superman and Silver Superman, there were still other versions.
Superboy Prime was basically a darkened Superman. And as everyone knew, going dark gave at least a thirty percent power boost. That little monster took down New Earth Superman and Earth Superman, and as usual also beat the Green Lantern Corps and Captain Atom.
Captain Atom blew up again and again and again!!!
Honestly, people should be used to that by now. It was normal.
Then there was Thought Robot Superman, but that thing was basically just a robot controlled jointly by Superman and Anti-Monitor's counterpart Ultraman, so Heisenberg did not consider it.
As for H'el...
That guy had an incredibly high aura. He was the only super-Kryptonian who was not ultimately beaten by Superman, but instead talked into leaving.
Even the way he left was overwhelmingly grand. He just crossed the multiverse and walked away!
But still, to put it simply, H'el was ultimately not as strong as Golden Superman.
Because the conflict between H'el and Superman started from H'el's desire to devour the Sun and rebuild Krypton!
That meant H'el himself lacked the power to save Krypton directly, or perhaps he could do it, but the price was too high.
Golden Superman, however, showed up and casually restored the Krypton of old while also resurrecting countless Kryptonians and his beloved Lois...
From that alone, it was obvious that Golden Superman was stronger.
Of course, apart from the forms above, there were still countless others. Doomsday Superman, Magic Superman, Doomsday hybrid Superman, Parallax Superman...
Then Red Superman, Blue Superman, Deng Superman, Darkseid Black Superman, Bizarro clone Superman, Ultimate Superman, and so on and so forth!
It had to be admitted.
There were simply too many versions of Superman.
But either those versions were inferior to Golden Superman, or they were outright mistaken branches in the evolutionary path, like Doomsday Superman.
So Heisenberg only wanted the very best one!
He wanted to become Golden Superman!
That led to the next problem.
The price of Golden Superman...
Anyone smart enough could try calculating just how massive the number 5^104 actually was!
With a Kryptonian brain, Heisenberg naturally computed it instantly, but the number was so huge that he estimated he would have to run through tens of thousands of universes before he could ever hope to accumulate that much.
So...
Rather than planning to exchange for Golden Superman outright, it would be better to store up Origin Matter and exchange for suitable powers whenever he needed them.
A self who could exchange powers at any time would already be starting from a point close to Silver Superman anyway.
And as for Golden Superman, as long as you basked in sunlight long enough, you would naturally become Golden Superman one day.
If he got himself a few Suns to wear around his neck and cut down the sunlight-absorbing time, then after a few thousand years or so, he would naturally upgrade.
And beyond exchange itself, Heisenberg had defined the core of his power around his bio-field.
It was true that there were countless Supermen in existence.
But there was only one Heisenberg!
Rather than becoming a substitute for some other Superman, Heisenberg wanted to make a breakthrough in the direction of the bio-field!
If one day he could use the bio-field to shatter dimensional limits and carry out dimensionality-reduction strikes against the entire omniverse at will, then he could call himself Field Superman!
Possessing a one-of-a-kind title that truly belonged to him, that was Heisenberg's real pursuit!
And besides Superman, there were many other powerhouses too.
For example, Dr. Chen, Immortal Venerable Wei, Lord God Li, Shopkeeper Zhou, Supreme Zhao, Emperor Anping, Director Huang, Old Devil Bai, President Lan, Heavenly Venerable Gu, and so on...
Heisenberg did not care which of them was stronger or weaker. He had not seen any of them jump out of their novels and start chopping people down in real life.
At the end of the day, these supreme powerhouses, just like Golden Superman, were all supreme beings born from omniversal structures derived from origin universes.
They were all on the same level!
And if that was the case, then the Superman route was obviously the one best suited to the current Kryptonian Heisenberg.
...
By the time he finished thinking all this through, Heisenberg had remained on the Sun's surface for more than thirty hours.
Feeling a little bored, or perhaps simply wanting to see whether Loki on Earth had begun to make his move yet, Heisenberg spent another little over two hours flying back to Earth.
Silently, he lay back down in his recliner and listened to the situation around him.
Fortunately, nothing much had gone wrong. With that group of Justice League trinkets now helping handle the Nuke Gang's business, a criminal organization with over a hundred thousand members was not going to collapse that easily.
Still, Heisenberg always felt that the name Nuke Gang sounded a bit ugly...
He would find some time to talk to those Justice League trinkets and maybe consider changing the name...
Thinking that, he drank bourbon, played his PS5, and happily resumed sunbathing.
Sure, they were both called sunbathing, but could doing it like this possibly compare to sitting all alone on the Sun?
...
While Heisenberg was sunbathing, certain people in a certain universe were hard at work on something of their own.
After enduring countless hardships, and with Iron Man openly cheating, they had finally achieved their goal.
Time travel!
...
In the blink of an eye, five or six days passed. Heisenberg woke from his sleep and, as usual, accepted the meticulous care of his maids.
After tidying himself up, Heisenberg shaved again.
Then he put on the formal clothes Billy had prepared before taking his leave and got ready to attend a banquet.
That was right.
Today was Tony Stark's wedding!
He picked up the invitation Stark had sent him and gave it a glance. The location of the wedding banquet was Stark's hillside villa in Los Angeles, a fairly standard choice.
But considering Stark had invited fewer than fifteen people in total, it fit well enough with Stark's relatively low-key attitude when it came to family matters.
Thinking as he went, Heisenberg flew out of the theater. The moment he appeared in the sky, countless flashes immediately lit up.
Quite a few newly opened street-side bars and restaurants had sprung up not far from the theater. The outdoor seats along those streets were packed with young men and women who had brought their children.
The moment Heisenberg took off, the children erupted in cheers.
Looking at the way the children lit up with joy the instant they saw Superman, even their mothers were so moved they grew a little moist in the eyes.
At the same time, the drinkers near the bars excitedly began discussing it among themselves.
"I saw him, I saw him, Superman!"
"That'd be Injustice Superman, but damn, he's handsome!"
"I heard today's Stark's wedding. Superman's definitely going, right?"
"Of course. They're friends, I guess. Sort of."
"It's such a blessing that New York has Superman. Lately Los Angeles and Washington have both been thrown into chaos by that alien in green."
"Yeah, but he doesn't dare come to New York anymore, because we have Superman!"
"We've got the Justice League too. My cousin's uncle is working at that construction site in Central Plaza. That's where the Justice League base is being built!"
"Hah, now that you mention it, aren't they also gangsters and assassins? Can they really be called the Justice League?"
"Haha, who cares? They forced my son into rehab, so I love them!"
"My uncle too. They beat the hell out of him, and after that he never dared touch drugs again!"
"Daredevil is in the Justice League too, so I guess they really are righteous."
People chatted nonstop, but none of them knew that at that exact moment, in the alley between two neighboring securities buildings on the south side of Central Plaza...
Four men suddenly appeared there, wearing white time-travel suits!
Only moments after landing, one of them immediately pressed at his chest.
The travel suit on his body vanished at once, revealing a traditional retro-style Captain America uniform underneath.
"Move. We're short on time. We have to secure it the moment the war ends..."
Before he could finish, he froze on the spot.
And the same went for the other three beside him.
Ant-Man.
Iron Man.
And a Hulk who was no longer angry.
All four of them stared dumbfounded at their surroundings, especially at that unbelievably spotless sky.
Sunlight filtered through the thin clouds and fell naturally across their faces.
That kind of warmth did not belong to the battlefield they had expected at all!
And only moments later...
Ear-piercing screams suddenly rang through the financial district.
A group of passing women looked at Banner, clasped their hands to their chests, and shrieked with every bit of strength they had.
"Ahhh! It's the Hulk! Call Superman, now!!!"
Under those screams, Banner gloomily put the travel suit back on, and the other three did the same.
The four time travelers broke into a run and fled the exchange district, but no matter where they ran, there were simply too many New Yorkers around to see them!
Looking at the growing flood of people around the financial center, the four of them felt miserable enough to drop dead on the spot.
In the earpiece, Stark's furious roar rang out without end.
"Fuck! My tech absolutely cannot have messed up the date, which means the past we came to is definitely wrong!!!"
/-\
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