Chapter 104: A Mentally Exhausted Pride
Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
"Commander Noen placed great importance on your disappearance and immediately decided to dispatch troops to Earth."
"This is one of the main reasons we came to Earth. The core mission of our squad was to find your whereabouts. Secondly, it was to study human samples to make targeted adjustments to the 'Great Purge' system, to facilitate future cleansing measures on Earth."
"Commander Noen highly valued this mission, which is why he sent me to personally lead the team—his right-hand woman, one of the strongest powers in Fort Rozz."
Astra listened silently as Indigo finished, then calmly spoke.
"And then you got captured and brought in here too?"
"Yes, that's right," Indigo nodded.
As she spoke, she was already locked in a cell just like Astra.
In fact, just being locked up was considered lucky for her. The only reason she was still breathing was that the location of Fort Rozz's headquarters was still unknown, and they needed her to reveal intelligence about the Great Purge and Non's movements.
The other vicious criminals from Fort Rozz weren't so lucky. Every last one of them had been turned into Experience Points.
"It's not that I'm weak, I was targeted!" Indigo yelled. "Have you seen that freak? He can enter the Data World just like me, which would be one thing, but he's even faster than me in there! And he actually managed to catch me inside—can you believe it!?"
"Even I can't do that! It's completely unscientific! Illogical! Inexplicable!"
However, to her surprise, Astra's expression remained unfazed upon hearing her tearful accusation. She just gave a faint "Mm," as if it were no big deal.
Indigo was puzzled. "Don't you find this outrageous?"
"It is outrageous," Astra said emotionlessly. "But you get used to it after seeing it enough."
Indigo: "?"
Astra looked through the glass at Indigo's cell across from hers and asked, "What about your abilities? Can't you get out of there?"
Astra couldn't escape because she was being bombarded by a Red Sun twenty-four-seven, which drained her superpowers. But Indigo had superpowers too. Even if there were no electronic devices in the cell to use as a network connection, her own Super Strength should be enough to physically break through the wall.
Of course, Astra knew that cunning light-being wouldn't make such a basic mistake. Since he had locked Indigo in this cell, he must have a countermeasure. She was just curious what it was.
At the mention of this, Indigo's anger flared up. "That shameless bastard! He... he stuffed a bunch of weird things into my body. I feel completely full now, but I can't get them out. It's even hard to breathe, let alone use any abilities..."
Astra: "?"
"It's a virus," Indigo said angrily. "He wrote a whole mess of viruses for me that interfered with the operation of my abilities."
This was also an idea Orin Vale got from the original work. It was actually a bit funny. In *Supergirl*, Indigo boasted, "I have transcended space and time, I am invincible," yet when she tried to infiltrate the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) computer to attack their headquarters, her superpowers crashed after an IT guy stuffed her with a bunch of viruses and malware.
She would probably never rest in peace, haunted by that humiliating defeat until the day she died.
*My invincible space-time technique was defeated by 360 Antivirus? Why would I have such a dream?*
The viruses Orin Vale created were naturally more potent than the DEO's. His viruses precisely paralyzed all of Indigo's abilities and weakened her constitution, achieving an effect similar to a Red Sun on a Kryptonian. This way, she wouldn't be able to just leave this place either.
She angrily kicked the glass in front of her, but the recoil made her own foot ache. Indigo sullenly sat down to one side and asked dejectedly, "So, are they going to torture us soon? Just tell me what methods they use, so I can be mentally prepared."
Astra glanced at her with a deadpan expression and softly uttered a few words.
"Dark cuisine."
Indigo: "?"
During this trip to Blüdhaven, Orin Vale had taken out an alien nest, captured a high-level combatant from Fort Rozz, and, while he was at it, captured an alien spaceship in the bar's basement. This was the very vehicle that Indigo had led her Investigation Squad to Earth in.
Orin Vale now had more and more spaceships on his hands. One from Kara, one from Astra, one from Indigo, and Old Bu's warship...
If things kept developing like this, he felt he could form an entire interstellar fleet all by himself in the future.
Anyway, the space beneath his coffee shop was a subspace he had created using the same Pocket Dimension technology as the New Generation Ultraman transformations, so its capacity was still sufficient for now.
After settling the prisoners and the war trophies, Orin Vale went upstairs. Just as he was about to find the Old Wizard to sponsor a spell to help with the interrogation, he suddenly saw Kara running over hurriedly.
"Kara?" Orin Vale asked, surprised. "Where did you just come back from?"
"From the Rock of Eternity—ah, just come with me and take a look!"
Kara's small face was very tense.
"Let me tell you, I was attacked today!"
"Huh?"
Orin Vale looked at her with a slightly strange expression.
You? Attacked?
After a moment of thought, Orin Vale asked, "Is the other party okay?"
"Something happened to Envy."
Pride narrowed his eyes.
"We were careless. I didn't expect that little girl with the Wizard to be extraordinary, but we should have anticipated it. It seems we need to consider adjusting our combat plan.
"What do you say, shall we discuss it?"
He said, turning to look at his teammates.
Wrath mumbled something indistinctly, his voice sounding like muffled thunder in his throat.
"Just capture the Wizard and kill him? No." Pride shook his head. "That would be letting him off too easily. He tormented us for so long; he must pay a more painful price. He can only be allowed to die after everything he cares about has been destroyed...
"By the way, Gluttony, can you shut your mouth for a moment?"
Gluttony, who was gorging himself beside them, stopped eating. With half-eaten raw meat in his claws and mouth, he blinked blankly in the darkness.
"And Sloth, can you stop sleeping for a bit?"
Another pair of eyes opened in the darkness, and a dark shadow emerged, asking quizzically, "What's up?"
"We're discussing our revenge against the Wizard," Pride said, displeased.
Sloth scratched his head.
"We brothers are of one mind. If you've discussed it, it's the same as if I've discussed it..."
Pride: "..."
He suddenly felt a bit mentally exhausted.
These teammates were just too difficult to lead.
"I have a plan," Bliss said.
Pride's eyes lit up. "Oh? You have a plan too?"
*Finally,* he thought, *at least there's one reliable one.*
"Let's hear it."
"The Wizard doesn't just have that one opening. During my reconnaissance earlier, I happened to see that the Wizard cares about someone else."
As Bliss spoke, magic power surged, and a mist transformed into an image.
The footage showed a street. The Old Wizard was coming out of a convenience store, followed by a beautiful, pale-skinned girl with short, blue-black hair, who was helping him carry bags of all sizes as they walked back together.
The two of them were constantly talking about something as they walked, appearing to have a close relationship.
"Not bad, not bad." Pride nodded, very satisfied. "Then our target changes. Our new target is this girl. Find her, and use her to make that detestable Wizard feel pain!"
(end of chapter)