Chapter 428: The Comedic Trio Livestreams Again
Superman Clark, upon learning that there were surviving Kryptonians, no longer felt alone.
Thus, when pursuing Kryptonian criminals, he tried to apprehend them without causing harm whenever possible.
But now, seeing Faora's current state, he actually felt rather pleased.
"Behave yourself. Don't cause any more trouble," Clark warned flatly.
"I told you, you've got the wrong person."
The stubborn Faora turned her head away, adamantly refusing to acknowledge her status as the current leader of the Kryptonians.
Besides, with so many Kryptonian soldiers still on the run, she wasn't about to own up to anything now.
It was just too humiliating.
Not long after, Clark turned and flew off.
He still had to lead the Justice League heroes in pursuing the Eternals.
Faora let out a quiet sigh of relief.
How utterly disgraceful.
The dignified leader of the Kryptonians, reduced to being a mount for some human native… how could she ever face the Justice League again? She'd be laughed out of the galaxy.
Just one comment—"You were a ride for a lunatic?"—was enough to permanently ruin her reputation.
"What are you doing now?"
Faora glared furiously at Allen, who was still on her back.
At that moment, the lunatic was sitting cross-legged, hands resting on his knees, eyes closed in deep meditation.
Eyes shut, Allen declared confidently, "I've sensed a wisp of spiritual energy. The realm that has troubled me for a thousand years is finally starting to loosen."
"Huh?!"
She didn't understand a single word of that.
Allen abruptly opened his eyes and sighed. "Forget it. I won't transcend to the True Immortal stage."
"Say something I can actually understand," Faora snapped.
Awooo…
Allen awkwardly muttered, "I was imitating the male lead of a xianxia novel—dual cultivation to ascend to immortality."
"…"
As expected, making sense of a lunatic's words was exhausting.
Seeing Faora's blank expression, Allen scoffed, "You clearly don't read much. Never even touched a xianxia novel—how sad."
As he spoke, he stood again, striking a pose with a 45-degree gaze toward the sky, melancholic and dramatic: "If only I could live like a xianxia protagonist, with three thousand beauties at my side, ascending to the heavens."
Faora more or less understood that one.
Only, one thought popped into her mind:
Idiot. Dream on.
——
New York Sewers
A hidden world, vastly different from the surface.
Many homeless people liked to gather in the sewers, forming a unique social structure.
Among them, bartering was common—sometimes even sexual exchanges.
Of course, the most sought-after commodity was drugs.
After all, most of the homeless ended up there due to addiction and contraband.
However, the usually lively sewers had grown eerily quiet.
The once dry areas that used to be filled with tents were now eerily empty. Tents remained, but the people were gone. Bloodstains on the ground hinted at danger.
The musty, moldy stench that lingered in the air made Kingo frown deeply as he arrived.
Navigating the sprawling, maze-like sewers was a pain.
"Judging by the number of tents, at least a hundred people have gone missing."
With that conclusion, Kingo's expression turned grim.
One human provided enough nutrients for a single mutant beast to mature. That meant there were likely over a hundred of them.
Whoosh—
A shadow streaked past.
"Who's there?!"
A golden glow flickered at Kingo's fingertip.
His power—firing golden laser beams from his fingers—was more than enough to instantly kill a fully grown mutant beast.
Every member of the Eternal squad was powerful enough to crush mutant beasts, which was why they had been assigned the extermination mission.
Kingo splashed through the filthy water, giving chase.
At a turn in the tunnel, he suddenly came face to face with two mutant beasts the size of bulls.
Looking behind, he saw two more cutting off his escape. Footsteps echoed in the distance—more were gathering.
"An ambush?" he muttered darkly. "Looks like a king has emerged among the mutant beasts."
When mutant beasts reached a certain population, one of them would rise as a leader, its intelligence evolving to match that of a human.
Streaks of golden light burst from his fingers.
Kingo struck first, trying to carve a path through.
But with this many mutant beasts, sheer numbers could wear him down.
Undeterred by the deadly lasers, the frenzied beasts charged like maddened monsters.
Before long, the golden light faded.
Kingo lay in the filthy water, wounded all over, eyes wide with terror as the mutant beasts surrounded him.
But they didn't strike.
Instead, they parted, forming a path.
A smaller beast, clearly the leader, walked forward slowly.
The next moment, crimson tendrils stabbed into Kingo's body.
Golden energy flowed along the tendrils into the mutant leader, triggering a biological evolution.
That mystical golden energy caused its body to shrink and gradually morph into a humanoid form.
When the last drop of energy was extracted, Kingo was nothing but a corpse.
"Next target."
Now in humanoid form, the mutant leader had gained the ability to speak.
The Eternals hunted them—and in return, the mutant beasts were now hunting the Eternals.
——
At that moment, a flash of teleportation light appeared.
Uxas and the comedic trio used the teleportation tech from Arkham Fortress to arrive in the New York sewers.
"Smells awful!"
"Hurry, put on your nose filters."
"I'll set up the livestream."
They busied themselves for a bit.
Cobblepot held up his umbrella, using it to prop up the phone and aim the camera at Arthur.
Edward managed the livestream chat.
Uxas just looked confused, joining in without really knowing why.
Only the one walking in front held a pair of golden Desert Eagles with visible smugness.
"Hello, viewers! I'm the righteous hero, Joker Robin! Right now, America is facing an alien invasion crisis!"
"As a reformed citizen, I must stand up and protect humanity!"
"If I make it back alive, I hope you'll all vote for me when I run for mayor of Gotham!"
Thanks to Unita's behind-the-scenes promotion, the stream was immediately flooded with viewers.
Within a minute, it surpassed ten thousand.
Each second brought hundreds, then thousands more. It wouldn't be long before they topped every major platform.
"Publicity stunt. Total nonsense."
"Can't beat that stream with Comedic Bat—now that was heroic."
"Here's a rocket donation! Get Comedic Bat on screen!"
Clearly, Allen's past exploits had won him a devoted fanbase.
But due to his unconventional methods, the hero ranking sites didn't list him.
This didn't escape the watchful eyes of the Justice League and Avengers' cyber-monitoring teams.
"What the hell are they doing?" Bruce watched the Joker enter the sewer on stream and immediately thought: That lunatic's gonna blow up New York.
Given his criminal history—he'd bombed a hospital and nearly blew up a cruise ship—he was fully capable of leveling an entire city.
In some alternate versions, the Joker had nuked Metropolis, pushing Superman into darkness.
In this universe, Arthur's Joker had bombed an abandoned hospital, and his cruise ship plan had failed.
"We've got enough trouble already, and now they're pulling this nonsense. Absolutely infuriating." Diana pulled out her phone, entered the stream, sent a rocket gift, and commented, "Get Comedic Bat on NOW."
"Thanks to Princess Pokégoddess for the rocket! Don't worry, Rich Lady—Comedic Bat is our grand finale!"
Edward immediately thanked her for the gift.
Bruce glanced meaningfully at Diana, who pretended nothing happened.
Truth be told, most male Justice League members suspected that Wonder Woman had a thing for the lunatic—but no one had any proof.
And since she never denied it, all they could do was gossip in private.
"I'll handle this," Bruce volunteered.
After all, he had experience capturing the comedic trio. Dealing with them was second nature.
No one objected—they needed everyone else on standby for the Eternals. These three jokers? Any one of them could take care of it.
Batman's combat ability, after all, didn't quite stack up against the Eternals.
Back in the sewer—
Arthur suddenly raised his hand.
"Listen!"
The four held their breath, ears straining.
"Sounds like fighting," Uxas said confidently.
His superior physiology gave him exceptional hearing.
They rushed toward the source of the noise.
Meanwhile, the livestream had broken one million viewers.
Other platforms started syndicating the feed overseas, cashing in on the Joker's global popularity.
A villain-turned-politician? That was pure headline gold.
Boom!
A mutant beast flew across the tunnel, slamming hard into a crowd of others.
Thousands of mutant beasts filled the drainage canal, swarming a burly Asian man swinging his fists wildly.
"Die, all of you!"
Gilgamesh, the powerhouse of the Eternal squad, could kill a mutant beast with a single punch. Though kind-hearted, he loathed the beasts.
He seemed to have the upper hand, but his injuries were mounting fast.
If the team hadn't split up, he wouldn't have had to worry—Ajak, their leader, had healing powers.
But with time, his wounds worsened.
Seeing how the enemy numbers barely thinned, despair crept in.
Their suits had sensors to track teammates, but he didn't think he could last until help arrived.
Thwack!
A tendril stabbed into his back.
Gilgamesh turned in panic—and saw a humanoid mutant.
Shocked, he swung a massive punch.
Boom!
It smashed into concrete. An illusion?
Water Sprite!
Gilgamesh instantly recognized his teammate's power.
Thwip, thwip, thwip...
More tendrils pierced him, draining golden energy.
He looked around in terror—the entire area swarmed with mutant leaders.
"You killed Water Sprite and stole her powers!" he shouted in rage.
"That little one?" the mutant leader said coldly. "She died in despair and pain. Don't worry—I'll send you to join her."
"DIE!"
Enraged, Gilgamesh struck out again and again, only to hit nothing but illusions.
The real enemy stayed hidden in the shadows.
He could feel his strength ebbing away.
Every time he tore out a tendril, more replaced it.
In moments, he collapsed to his knees, too weak to even lift his hand.
He waited for death.
The illusions faded, and the mutant leader revealed itself.
Its appearance had changed drastically, now almost fully human, golden energy flowing visibly across its skin.
"Four down. Six Eternals remain."
Its pupils gleamed gold. Not only had its form evolved—it had fully inherited the Eternals' abilities.
Kingo's energy beams. Gilgamesh's brute strength. Water Sprite's illusions...
The mutant beasts' origin was a Celestial's mistake.
In essence, they were similar to the Eternals—biological constructs based on human DNA.
But the mutants had something far more terrifying: the potential for limitless evolution.
"As soon as I devour all ten Eternals' energy, I'll evolve into my final form."
Hatred burned in the mutant leader's golden eyes.
Encoded deep within their very genetic structure was an irrepressible drive for vengeance against the Celestials.
The Celestials' inhumane biological experiments had created countless civilizations across the cosmos.
Yet to them, anything that didn't meet expectations was discarded—abandoned in the void to live or die on its own.
Of course, some of those so-called "failures" had become cosmic nightmares even the Celestials couldn't ignore.
The mutants were among them.
Once the mutant leader consumed the energy of all ten Eternals and reached its ultimate form, it would be able to roam the universe freely—hunting down Eternals one by one, until it evolved into a being on par with the Celestials themselves.
Bang!
A gunshot snapped the mutant out of its thoughts.
"We've found the alien intruder!"
Arthur had caught up. He raised both pistols and opened fire excitedly.
"I'm the righteous clown Robin! I won't let alien bastards wreak havoc on Earth!"
The bullets hit the mutant leader's body, punching finger-sized holes—nowhere near fatal.
Upon seeing that the attacker was a native human, the mutant leader silently retreated.
To it, only the Eternals were worth targeting. Devouring humans couldn't fuel its evolution. They were just food for the lower-ranked mutants.
Arthur emptied both magazines.
He stared blankly at the mutant, which now turned its bloodthirsty gaze toward him.
"Don't panic—solo the monster and you'll get a cruise ship!"
"Cowards don't get votes!"
"Be a real man—species barriers are no excuse!"
"…"
Spectators in the livestream barrage chat flooded the screen, egging Arthur on to go die in style.
"Ruuuun!!"
And just like that, Arthur's bouts of manic laughter came to an abrupt end.
With a loud yell, he turned and bolted. The four of them raced down the street in utter panic.
Behind them, hundreds of mutants gave chase, like rabid dogs whipped into a frenzy.
Just moments ago they were smug and posturing—now they were a complete mess.
"Why are we even running?"
Uxas ran with them, but he didn't understand. He figured he could handle the mutants barehanded.
"Don't ask—just run!"
Edward, panting and adjusting his glasses, replied vaguely, completely unaware of how powerful Uxas truly was.
Problem was, two legs would never outrun four.
Before long, they were cornered in a dead end.
With the bloodthirsty mutants closing in, this was the trio's first time facing a real alien threat—and they panicked.
Uxas clenched his fists quietly, preparing to fight their way out.
Boom!
The sewer collapsed…