Chapter 186: I'm Being Targeted!
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
Fort Rozz.
"Perhaps something went wrong somewhere."
Non stood before the control tower, looking at the war report from the front line, feeling somewhat baffled.
Just a short while ago, they had secretly dispatched another operation team to Earth to raid a top-secret A.R.G.U.S. stronghold.
Once again, all sorts of preparations had been made beforehand—various strategies and advanced weapons and equipment—but once again, they were mostly useless.
Led by three Kryptonians and followed by several Fort Rozz aliens with relatively strong racial talents, they basically steamrolled through the stronghold as soon as they made their move.
It wasn't as if they met no decent resistance at all. After all, with the recent spiritual qi resurgence on Earth, while the civilization's technology level was nothing special, there were quite a few superhumans. A.R.G.U.S. had even brought out a superpowered human, a soldier with the codename "Captain Steel." He had undergone DNA-level modification; all the bones in his body had been replaced with a special metal, and his body was a combination of a small amount of enhanced human tissue and, for the most part, a special alloy.
The properties of the alloy granted him Super Strength and Super Speed, as well as an invulnerable body—of course, when facing a Kryptonian, this was completely inadequate.
The deployment of the super-soldier did little to change the outcome. The Kryptonian war criminals easily dealt a heavy blow to A.R.G.U.S., encountering almost no effective resistance in the process.
So now, Non felt a bit lost. In his entire life of service on Krypton, he had never encountered such a bizarre opponent.
If you said they were strong—in a fight, they were complete novices. All the preparations and predictions you made beforehand were utterly useless; a single, casual attack from them resulted in a devastating disaster.
But if you said they were weak... they were eerily weak, giving off a mysterious feeling that you could still suffer an unexpected defeat if you weren't careful.
As he was pondering, General Zod walked up from behind and said dryly, "The Planet Engine has been calibrated and is ready."
Non looked at him in surprise. "So quickly?"
"Of course." Zod glanced at him. "Like we said before, if your method doesn't work, then we do things my way."
Non, of course, knew exactly what Zod's "way" was.
Zod's strategy had a kind of brutish style that Batman would call characteristic of Kryptonians. No conspiracies, no feints—just a direct, overwhelming assault.
He would start with the Planet Engine to flatten the surface, giving all of humanity a physical "Great Purge." During this time, they would fight whoever showed up. It was simple and crude.
"What? You have an objection?" Zod frowned at Non.
"I'm not sure... but I'm wondering if it's too fast," Non mused. "The enemy's full capabilities are still unclear, perhaps—"
"There's no time to dawdle," Zod said flatly. "The reconstruction of New Krypton is imminent. Every second is precious. We've observed them thoroughly enough. This Human Defense Corps you speak of is just a bunch of standard third-level civilization buffoons. They pose no threat to us."
"But the fact remains that we have suffered losses here," Non argued. "I believe we should dispatch spies to infiltrate them and obtain more intelligence—"
"That's not necessary."
Zod waved his hand dismissively, seemingly determined to follow his headstrong path to the very end.
"What we need now is Kal-El and the Codex his father sent away. Say no more. Either join us, or stay out of the way.
We will stop at nothing to rebuild Krypton. Any obstacle must be cleared, and that includes you. Either join us, or don't block the path."
Seeing the other man act so arrogantly on his own turf, Non couldn't help but feel a surge of anger. But on second thought, his own subordinates had been sent to their doom one after another like the Calabash Brothers trying to save their grandpa, all sacrificed on that Earth. Even his wife had gone to Earth for a flanking maneuver and had yet to return; he had quite literally lost his wife and forfeited his soldiers.
Although he still had a squad of trusted Kryptonian soldiers under his command, compared to Zod's army, he was basically a commander without troops. It seemed he really had no authority to intervene.
Thus, he could only swallow his anger. "Fine, we'll do it your way."
Zod nodded in satisfaction and turned to the control tower.
"Now... send a message to our Kryptonian compatriots on Earth. The war for New Krypton begins now!"
Olympus.
"I'm being targeted! I'm definitely being targeted!"
A bruised and swollen Apollo shouted loudly.
"Alright, alright, you've said that many times already." The Goddess of Discord sat on the nearby windowsill, her pale, long legs dangling and swinging back and forth, a cheeky grin on her face. "We all know you got beaten up by Wonder Woman's friend again, so you don't need to keep repeating it."
Apollo couldn't sit still upon hearing this and shot to his feet. "Are you incapable of understanding plain language? I said, I'm being targeted! That little girl, she can freaking drain my energy too!
This is just bizarre! One, two, three of them, all specifically ganging up on me. What am I supposed to do?"
Hera squinted at him.
"Don't look at me like that!" Apollo roared. "Even if I was defeated, I'm still the Sun God..."
As he spoke, he got too emotional, and his nose, which hadn't fully healed, split open again, blood gushing out.
And so, the great Sun God had to tilt his head back and pinch his nose, trying to sniff the blood back in...
"Fine, we understand the situation... but it's irrelevant now." Hera hummed leisurely. "It doesn't matter anymore. Last night, I had a meeting with Hades and Poseidon..."
Hearing this, the Goddess of Discord's eyes widened. She shot off the windowsill and scurried over, her face full of eager anticipation for gossip.
"Mother, you finally gave in to them? Where did you do it? Did they go at it together or take turns—"
"It was just a talk," Hera glared at her fiercely.
"Tch, just talking..."
The Goddess of Discord, feeling utterly bored, went back to her seat to munch on an apple.
"In any case, we reached an agreement." Hera, wrapped in a large feathered robe, spoke with indifference. "We all agree that the throne of the God King has been vacant for too long, but no matter who is appointed as the next God King, the other Gods will surely object.
Even if it includes me... Hades and Poseidon have made it clear. They don't believe I have the authority to appoint the next God King. No matter who I choose, they will not acknowledge them."
"It doesn't matter if they acknowledge it or not," Apollo grumbled. "As long as I sit on that throne and the divine power is in my hands, they'll have to acknowledge it whether they want to or not."
Hera glanced at him and said flatly, "It's not certain who will sit on that throne anymore, Apollo. We've unanimously agreed that the new God King needs to be born from a trial and competition among the Gods."
"What!?"
Apollo, who had just sat down, shot up again, a look of shock on his face.
The nosebleed he had just staunched started gushing again due to his emotional outburst.
"This isn't what we agreed on!" he yelled. "You promised! You said the position would be saved for me!"
"And you didn't fulfill your promise either."
Hera gave him a blank, expressionless look.
"This is the only way that is acceptable to everyone. Zeus won the throne through strength back then, and it must be so now. It can only be so.
So if I were you, Apollo... I would start preparing now and put on a good show. That way, when the time comes for the trial, you might still have a sliver of a chance."
(end of chapter)
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