Chapter 194: Energy Sovereign and the Starry Sky Reflection
Rorschach and Kara still stood in the ruins of the Cadmusmain control room, the red alarm lights flickering on the twisted alloy wreckage.
He scanned the system panel: "The signal has been sent, but the hunter's time is defined by me."
Bringing that Kryptonian main ship equipped with the world engine, and an entire legion that fought its way out of the Phantom Zone.
They were a group of killing machines with an average constitution of 3.0 or higher, having undergone the most rigorous Military training.
[Indestructible Steel Body 3.2] plus [Life Recovery 3.0] could indeed ensure he remained invincible in the upcoming god-level melee.
Even if he were pinned to the ground and pummeled by Zod, he absolutely wouldn't die.
But staying alive was never Rorschach's ultimate goal.
He was a hunter. A hunter's goal is to take all the chips.
Pure physical defense couldn't stop Zod from using the world engine to terraform Earth's gravity field.
He needed a trump card that could flip the table at the level of rules.
A trump card sufficient to clear the field on a large scale, and even reverse-suppress Kryptonian energy.
Rorschach closed his eyes. His consciousness sank into the depths of his mind, to that cold blue panel.
"System. Search for fusion plans in the Energy System," he commanded in his mind.
[Detectable Energy System fusion combinations: Energy Control 3.1 + Energy Release 2.0 + Thermal Energy Manipulation 1.5 + Ice Manipulation 2.0]
[Detectable Constitution System fusion combinations: Super Speed (Kryptonian) 2.8 + Super Speed (Original) 3.0 + Super-speed Reaction 2.0 → Super Speed 3.2]
[In comprehensive deduction...]
[Fusion Target: Energy Sovereign 3.5]
[Acquired composite ability: Super Speed 3.2]
[points consumed: 17,350]
Twenty-five thousand points.
This was a huge sum sufficient to instantly bankrupt any low-tier transcendent.
Rorschach didn't hesitate for even half a second.
"Fuse."
[Fusion confirmed. 17,350 points deducted.]
[Current total points: 21,150]
[Acquired composite ability: Super Speed 3.2]
[Core effect: Speed breaks the light-speed threshold, reaction time compressed to femtosecond level.]
The moment the command was issued.
Rorschach's breathing suddenly ceased.
This time, there was no sharp pain of breaking bones.
Instead, it was a terrifying tearing sensation as if the soul were being forcibly dragged into a microscopic World.
The surrounding air stopped flowing without any warning.
Kara, standing three meters away, suddenly looked up.
Her pupils trembled violently. Her Kryptonian Beastinstinct was screaming frantically.
She saw a visible distorted force field emerge on the surface of Rorschach's body.
That was the manifestation of rules being forcibly tampered with.
The temperature in the Underground Room began to spiral out of control.
In the space on Rorschach's left side, the moisture in the air instantly condensed into absolute zero ice crystals, even coating the thick steel walls with a layer of pale frost.
And in the space on his right side, the air was directly ignited.
High temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees melted the scattered metal instruments into blinding molten iron, which flowed down through the cracks in the floor.
The extreme conflict of ice and fire met at the center of Rorschach's body, yet no explosion occurred.
Instead, under the suppression of a higher-dimensional power, they were forcibly crushed and reorganized.
Rorschach gripped the metal control console beside him tightly.
The edges of his fingernails lost their color, and his knuckles jutted out sharply against a thin layer of skin.
The solid steel console was like soft clay in his palm, silently squeezed into powder.
On his retina, the World was no longer a pile of matter.
He saw the vibration of atoms, the flow of thermal energy, and the trajectory of electromagnetic waves traveling through the air.
If he wished, he could even make the vibration of these atoms stop instantly, creating an absolute silence from which even light could not escape.
One minute later.
The distorted force field vanished with a boom.
Rorschach let go of his hand and let out a long breath of turbid air.
[Acquired composite ability: Energy Sovereign 3.5]
[Core effect: Breaks the conventional laws of physics. Can absolutely dominate any form of energy (kinetic, thermal, electromagnetic, radiation) from the atomic level. Can achieve free transformation and absorption of energy forms. Comes with weak rule-tampering characteristics.]
Rorschach lowered his head and looked at his palm.
He snapped his fingers casually.
"Snap."
Amidst the crisp sound.
The flames still raging in the main control room, and the ice crystals emitting lethal cold in the corner, all dissipated within the same microsecond.
They turned into pure, non-attribute free energy, flowing into Rorschach's body through his pores like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.
It replenished the physical strength he had consumed during the fusion just now.
Kara stood not far away, her breathing becoming thin and fragmented.
She looked at Rorschach.
In that moment just now, she felt an absolute sense of oppression from a human that surpassed even that of a stellar explosion.
"What... did you just do?" Kara's voice was a bit dry.
"Prepared some celebratory fireworks for the upcoming carnival."
Rorschach turned around.
He didn't look at the corpses scattered everywhere, nor did he look at the ceiling that had been smashed through.
"Let's go. This place is of no value anymore."
Rorschach bent his legs slightly and shot up from the ground.
Kara followed closely behind.
Following the passage they came in from, the two of them rushed out of the ground and returned to the night sky of Metropolis.
The cold rain was still falling.
Rorschach hovered a thousand meters in the air.
He lowered his head, overlooking the former site of RexCorp that belonged to Cadmus beneath his feet.
To pull up weeds, one must remove the roots.
In that air-raid shelter three hundred meters underground, there was still too much data regarding Kryptonian genes and Luthor's equipment.
If left to the Military, it would inevitably become a nuisance again sooner or later.
Rorschach raised his right hand. His five fingers spread open, palm aimed at the street block below.
[Energy Sovereign 3.5] activated.
There was no Earth-shattering explosion, no blinding light and shadow effects.
Only a hair-raising silence.
Three hundred meters deep underground.
The molecular structure of the entire Project Cadmus Laboratory was instantly drained of all sustaining energy.
The steel walls, high-tech mainframes, the floor covered in corpse fragments, and even the surrounding rock layers.
All turned into the finest gray dust in the same second.
It was as if they had been erased directly from this Worldby an invisible eraser.
The buildings on the surface were not affected at all, but the rock layer three hundred meters below had turned into a smooth-as-a-mirror void, with not even a speck of dust remaining.
Rorschach withdrew his hand.
His figure flickered slightly, and the afterimage of Super Speed 3.2 swept through every corner of the laboratory—confirming no data remained.
He rubbed his temples: "Before Zod's ship arrives, there's enough time to set up the killing field."
Then he turned his head and looked at Kara, "It's cleaned up. Back to Gotham."
Kara gazed at the starry sky, her voice tight: "He received the signal... Zod will turn Earth into hell."
Her voice sounded exceptionally hollow in the rainy night.
"Zod. He's a pure lunatic. Before Kryptonian was destroyed, he killed everyone in the council to seize the Codex. He doesn't care how many lives are on Earth; he will only turn this place into a second Kryptonian."
Her stomach churned unexpectedly.
That was the fear of the war butcher deeply rooted in her genes.
Rorschach looked at her.
He didn't reach out to pat her shoulder, nor did he say any of those nauseating words of comfort.
He just curled his lip.
Revealing an arc with a hint of cruelty and nonchalance.
"He'd better be a lunatic."
Rorschach's voice pierced through the rain curtain, crashing clearly into Kara's ears.
"Because if he's too weak, I'll find this game very boring. As for what he wants to turn Earth into, that's none of my business."
Rorschach paused.
An indifference that transcended everything showed in his eyes.
"But if he dares to stand in my way, or tries to snatch the spoils I've set my sights on."
"I will personally twist his head off and kick it like a ball."
As the words fell.
Rorschach turned around and transformed into a dark-gold meteor, tearing through the rain curtain and speeding towards Gotham.
Kara stood frozen in place.
She watched Rorschach's receding back.
The noisy sound of the rain around her was completely drained away in this second.
The overbearing aura of that man, who viewed all things as mere grass, was actually more terrifying than Zod's.
But this terror strangely gave her an unprecedented sense of security.
Kara took a deep breath, suppressed her palpitations, and accelerated to keep up.
Light tore through the rain curtain, and a moment later, the two of them landed steadily on the rooftop of a warehouse in the Gotham East District.
Chapter 195: Gotham Undercurrents and the Hunter's Dormancy
Gotham East District. Abandoned Warehouse.
4:30 AM.
The rain showed no sign of letting up.
The rusty corrugated iron roof clattered under the pounding rain.
After landing, Rorschach pushed open the iron door from the rooftop and stepped onto the second floor. Kara, her mind still unsettled by the shadow of Zod's arrival, unconsciously gripped the hem of her clothes and instinctively chose to leap lightly through a broken window.
The emergency lights emitted a ghastly white glow.
A few sleeping bags in the corner remained exactly as they had been.
He walked to the window, casually tore off the old newspaper stuck to the glass, pulled over a broken wooden chair, and sat down.
Kara flew in through the window.
She deactivated her Bio-electric Field, letting the water droplets on her body drip onto the dusty concrete floor.
She walked over to the sleeping bag opposite Rorschachand sat cross-legged.
Hugging her knees with her hands, her chin resting on her arms, her gaze was somewhat vacant.
The shadow of Zod's impending arrival weighed on the young girl's chest like a massive stone.
Rorschach ignored her internal struggle.
He pulled two cans of chilled beer he'd picked up along the way from his system space.
"Pop."
The sound of the pull-tab opening was exceptionally crisp in the quiet warehouse.
Rorschach tossed one of the cans over.
Kara caught it instinctively. The cold sensation brought her back to her senses.
"Have a drink. It'll help clear your head." Rorschach tilted his head back and took a large gulp of beer.
The bitterness of the malt spread through his mouth.
Kara looked at the aluminum can in her hand.
"Aren't you afraid?" she asked softly.
"Afraid of what?"
"Zod's ship has a world engine. When that thing starts, it releases a gravitational field and atmospheric composition that simulates a Kryptonian environment. In that environment, our abilities will be significantly weakened, while his soldiers will become unstoppable monsters."
Kara gripped the edge of the aluminum can tightly.
Her strength was so great that the muscles in her entire forearm twitched silently.
Seeing her look as if she were facing a formidable foe, Rorschach couldn't help but chuckle.
"What are you laughing at?" Kara frowned.
"I'm laughing at you aliens; your heads are filled with nothing but rigid instruction manuals."
Rorschach crushed the empty beer can into a metal ball and tossed it into the corner.
"Do you think a fight is about whose strength is greater or whose environmental adaptability is stronger?"
He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.
"Zod is a general. A general's greatest weakness is arrogance. He thinks he can crush everything with the world engine. But he forgot—this is Earth. He doesn't get to decide the rules here."
Rorschach pointed to his head.
"Don't panic when things happen. Make your opponent panic first. If he wants to terraform Earth, let him. Wait until he's shown all his cards and thinks victory is in his grasp, then plunge a knife into his heart. That's how you kill someone."
Kara's mouth hung slightly open.
She looked at Rorschach's face, which appeared somewhat gloomy in the dim light.
This man's way of thinking completely shattered her perception of a 'hero' or a 'warrior.'
He was like a venomous snake hiding in the shadows, ignoring martial honor and rules, caring only for the fatal strike.
"Just what kind of person are you?" Kara couldn't help but ask.
"A passing Scenery Harvester." Rorschach leaned back in his chair. "In this World, only fine wine and beautiful women are worth not disappointing. As for those villains, they're just ATMs used to exchange for chips."
Kara didn't understand what 'ATM' meant, but she could hear the absolute confidence in Rorschach's tone.
She looked down and took a sip of beer. Her previously tense back relaxed incredibly.
Rorschach said nothing more.
He closed his eyes.
[Omniscient Sense 3.4] expanded fully and without reservation in an instant.
His vision penetrated the warehouse walls, and his auditory nerves bypassed the physical barriers of space.
The World in his perception turned into a massive holographic map pulsating with countless points of light.
He heard movement in the direction of Metropolis.
As [Omniscient Sense 3.4] swept over the ruins of S.T.A.R. Labs, Rorschach paused slightly—there was a faint, dark red pulse that didn't belong to Kryptoniantechnology, like some kind of intergalactic distress signal.
The void where the underground lab had been erased had already caught the Military's attention.
Over a dozen Apache attack helicopters were circling above Metropolis.
Beams from searchlights swept frantically through the rainy night.
Inside the underground bunker of The Pentagon.
Several old men with general stars on their shoulders were gathered around a conference table, slamming their hands and roaring.
"Cadmus is finished!! The legacy Luthor left behind is all gone!! Investigate!! Find that monster who smashed through the deck!!"
A cold sneer curled at the corner of Rorschach's mouth.
A bunch of fools only fit for picking up trash behind the scenes.
He retracted the focus of his senses and cast them toward the outskirts of Gotham City.
Wayne Manor. The underground Batcave.
Green code scrolled frantically across the massive supercomputer screen.
Bruce Wayne, wearing his black skintight suit and without even removing his cowl, stared intently at the intercepted low-frequency electromagnetic wave on the screen.
Alfred stood to the side holding a cup of hot coffee, his brow furrowed.
"Master Bruce, the frequency of this signal doesn't belong to any known communication satellite on Earth." The old butler's voice was tinged with worry.
"It's Kryptonian." Batman's voice was as raspy as sandpaper. "Before it was destroyed, Cadmus transmitted coordinates into deep space. They're summoning something."
"Does the man named Rorschach know about this?"
Batman's fingers paused on the keyboard.
"Not only does he know, he's also showing off to me."
Batman pulled up another screen.
The screen displayed a burnt black data disk. It was the one he had handed to Rorschach on the rooftop a few hours ago.
"I embedded a miniature tracking program in the data disk's underlying logic. As long as someone reads the data, the program activates automatically."
Batman's voice was cold as ice. "But the way he read the data directly destroyed the physical hardware, leaving only a faint nanometer-level frequency residue."
"He left a clue on purpose?" Alfred asked.
"He's waiting for me to find him."
Batman stood up abruptly and grabbed a Batarang from the table.
"The leads on Cadmus are dead. Metropolis is a mess. The only breakthrough point is him. Kryptonian troubles must be solved with unconventional means."
The second floor of the warehouse.
Rorschach slowly opened his eyes.
The faint red glow in his eyes gradually faded.
Everything was going as expected.
Batman is a control freak.
When all leads are severed and a massive unknown threat is about to arrive, he will certainly come looking for me—the only 'variable' capable of contending with Kryptonianpower.
And this was exactly what Rorschach wanted.
Dealing with Zod's Ancient Legion alone would be too exhausting, and it would be easy to miss out on points.
He needed the prototypes of the so-called 'Justice League' on Earth to serve as his free cleaners and distractions.
As for the final task of harvesting heads and drawing blood, naturally, he would have to do it himself.
Time passed minute by minute.
The heavy rain outside gradually turned into a light drizzle.
Kara had already fallen asleep leaning against the sleeping bag.
Even a Kryptonian would feel exhausted after experiencing continuous emotional rollercoasters.
Rorschach was still sitting by the window.
Not even the frequency of his breathing had changed.
5:15 AM.
An extremely slight movement brushed past Rorschach's eardrums.
It was the sound of high-tech rubber soles frictioning against the puddles in the alley downstairs.
The sound was deliberately suppressed to the minimum, even perfectly matching the frequency of the falling raindrops.
If not for [Omniscient Sense 3.4], it would have been impossible to detect.
Rorschach did not look back.
He looked at the gray sky outside the window, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest of the wooden chair.
"Since you're here, don't stay down there in the rain. Gotham's acid rain isn't very kind to capes."
Rorschach's voice wasn't loud, yet it precisely penetrated the floorboards and struck the ears of the figure hidden in the darkness below.
In the puddles downstairs.
The black cape paused slightly.
At this moment, the prey and the hunter officially swapped roles.
Chapter 196: The Dark Knight's Bottom Line and the Hunter's Bargaining Chip
The iron door to the rooftop remained closed, but the airflow within the second-floor warehouse suddenly shifted.
Rorschach tapped the armrest—the ripples in the puddles downstairs had not yet faded before a shadow, like ink dropped into water, silently scaled the rafters.
"Your stealth lessons might earn you a perfect score in front of ordinary people."
Rorschach didn't even turn his head; his gaze remained fixed on the grey sky outside the window.
"But to me, the sound of your armor's servo motors is louder than the air-raid sirens in the next block."
From the shadows, Bruce Wayne's figure gradually peeled away.
He hadn't used the main entrance, instead utilizing some form of optical camouflage to hang directly in a blind spot on the warehouse rafters.
Having been spotted, he released his grappling hook and landed heavily on the concrete floor.
His combat boots crushed the dust on the floor with a dull thud.
"That vacuum zone three hundred meters beneath Metropolis—you created it."
Batman's voice, processed through a modulator, was raspily grating to the ears.
Rorschach turned around and casually tossed the aluminum can in his hand.
The can was caught mid-air by an invisible force, then forcibly compressed into a high-density metal ball less than a tenth of its original volume, landing with a clang at Batman's feet.
"An unfinished biological weapon left by Luthor; I froze it for you."
Rorschach rested his elbows on his knees, his posture relaxed.
"You didn't just destroy Cadmus; you also intercepted the signal they transmitted."
Batman took a step forward.
"The micro-tracking program on that data disk was destroyed by you in an extremely crude manner. You're making a show of force."
"Let me correct you on one point."
Rorschach raised a finger.
"That wasn't a show of force. That was a notification. Notifying you to come see me."
Kara stood up from beside her sleeping bag.
She looked at the man encased in black armor, her Kryptonian Super Vision piercing directly through the layers of Kevlar.
"He's just an ordinary human."
Kara turned to Rorschach, her tone tinged with confusion.
In her understanding, anyone capable of speaking as an equal to a monster like Rorschach would at least have to be someone who could withstand a nuclear bomb.
"Don't underestimate ordinary people."
Rorschach curled his lip.
"This guy has more backup plans in his head than the number of alien spaceships you've ever seen."
Batman's gaze shifted to Kara.
The micro-computer beneath his armor's cowl began to run rapidly, scanning Kara's biological vitals and energy fluctuations.
"This is the Kryptonian they're looking for."
Batman reached a conclusion.
"The Military intercepted that broadcast. An alien calling himself General Zod is demanding that Earth hand over one of their own."
Rorschach looked at the tensed lower half of Batman's face.
The big bat's mind was surely racing with ways to formulate contingency plans against Kryptonians.
The home-field advantage of Gotham gave him an illusory sense of control.
That sense of control had to be completely shattered.
"Zod isn't here to negotiate."
Rorschach stood up and walked toward Batman.
With every step he took, the surrounding air grew heavier.
Telekinesis Control combined with the faint outward projection of an Energy Sovereign field.
The various indicator lights on Batman's armor began to flash frantically, and red alerts flooded the display inside his helmet.
The system warned that external pressure was rising exponentially, and the armor's load-bearing structure emitted an overburdened creak.
Bruce clenched his jaw tight, forcing his back straight and refusing to take a single step back.
"His ship carries a world engine. Once it lands, it will begin terraforming Earth's atmosphere and gravity. When that happens, those high-tech toys you're so proud of won't even get a chance to power up."
Rorschach stopped less than half a meter from Batman.
The two looked each other in the eye.
"You think you're defending this city's bottom line, but in reality, you're just providing a free playground for those lunatics."
Rorschach's voice wasn't loud, yet every word hammered against Batman's nerves.
"I don't play your 'no-kill' house games. When rules don't work, the fist is the only truth."
Batman's fingers paused on his belt.
In that spot, he had hidden the high-purity Kryptonitepowder he'd just seized from Luthor's secret warehouse.
But he didn't pull it out.
He was calculating the stakes.
The power system this man displayed completely exceeded his known data on Kryptonians.
Against a force field capable of directly interfering with physical laws, Kryptonite might not even work.
If he failed, Gotham would face an uncontrollable variable ten thousand times more terrifying than the Joker.
"What do you need me to do?"
Batman unclenched his fists.
This was his final decision. In the face of an absolute crisis, Gotham's rules could temporarily give way.
"That's more like it."
Rorschach withdrew the outward force field.
The suffocating pressure in the warehouse dissipated within half a second.
"Zod has quite a few Legionnaires under his command."
Rorschach sat back down in the chair.
"Killing them all by myself would take too much time. I need a few agile cleaners to help draw some of the fodder's fire."
He pointed to Batman's Utility Belt.
"I know you've been secretly monitoring those with special abilities. The unlucky fellow at S.T.A.R. Labs who was turned into a cyborg by a mother box, and that kid in Central City who runs faster than lightning."
Batman's jawline tightened abruptly.
These were his highest-level top-secret files; even Alfredonly knew part of them.
How did this man know so much?
"Don't bother guessing. Your little intelligence network is as good as transparent to me."
Rorschach tapped the armrest of the wooden chair.
"Call them here. Let's talk about a deal that will let this Planet survive."
Batman didn't agree immediately.
He was used to being in control of everything.
"Why should I believe that you won't become the next dictator after Zod is dealt with?"
Batman's raspy voice was laced with extreme caution.
"When you killed the Joker, you didn't even blink. Your logic isn't supported by any moral bottom line."
Hearing this, Rorschach burst out laughing.
He laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the empty warehouse.
"Moral bottom line?"
Rorschach stopped laughing, his eyes becoming extremely dangerous.
"Your moral bottom line consists of sending those psychopaths to Arkham over and over again, only to watch them escape and continue slaughtering civilians."
He raised his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and gave a casual wave.
"Ssss—!!"
A dark red beam erupted from his fingertips.
Heat Vision was compressed to the extreme by Energy Sovereign, turning into an indestructible blade of light.
The beam grazed past Batman's ear, slicing the H-shaped steel support pillar behind him in two.
The cut was as smooth as a mirror, without even a trace of molten metal, as all the matter had been vaporized in that single microsecond.
On Batman's armor display, the temperature monitor spiked to an astronomical figure.
"As long as I don't have so-called morals, no one can dream of kidnapping me with them."
Rorschach lowered his hand.
"I'm not here to be your savior. I'm just a passing hunter. Zod is my prey, so I have to kill him."
He looked at Batman.
"As for whether this Planet lives or dies, that's just a byproduct of my hunt."
Batman remained silent for a full minute.
He was re-evaluating Rorschach's threat level.
From extremely dangerous to an indefinable disaster level.
But he also knew Rorschach was telling the truth.
If Zod descended, Earth's existing Military forces would be completely unable to resist.
Only a monster can deal with a monster.
"The kid at S.T.A.R. Labs is in an extremely unstable state right now."
Batman finally spoke.
"The mother box technology is eroding his nervous system. I can't guarantee he'll be an effective combatant."
"Then let's go."
Rorschach stood up and brushed the dust off his trench coat.
"As long as he has a single breath left, I can pull him back from the brink of death."
He walked over to Kara's side and tilted his head toward Batman.
"As for the fast one in Central City, you're responsible for contacting him. Tell him the end of the World is coming, and to stop catching petty thieves on the streets."
Batman didn't respond to Rorschach's banter.
He turned and walked toward the edge of the rooftop.
"The abandoned port in Metropolis. There's an old warehouse there that can serve as a temporary base."
With that, his black cape snapped open.
Like a giant bat, Batman melted into Gotham's rainy night.
Kara watched the direction in which he disappeared.
"He doesn't trust us at all."
"Trust is worthless in the face of absolute interests."
Rorschach walked to the window.
The red string on his wrist shimmered faintly in the dim light.
He called up the panel deep in his mind.
Current total points: 21,150.
Not enough.
Against Zod, these points aren't even enough to get started.
In the coming war, he was going to squeeze every bit of mother box technology from Apokolips and the entire essence of the Kryptonians dry.
Rorschach turned to Kara: "The Kryptonian mothership has a world engine. I'm too lazy to spend time deciphering its underlying code. We need a brain that can talk directly to an alien ship."
"Let's go. Our worker is waiting for us. Time to meet the future chief hacker."
As his voice fell.
A dark gold meteor tore through Gotham's curtain of rain, carrying Kara as it shot into the sky, heading straight for the ruins of the West City Laboratory.
Chapter 197: Cyborg's Call
The ruins of S.T.A.R. Labs were hidden within an abandoned industrial zone in the western suburbs of Gotham—a holographic illusion set up by Lex Luthor that had long since been laid bare under Rorschach's Omniscient Sense 3.4.
Amidst the charred, broken walls, the residual energy fluctuations of the mother box throbbed like a dying heartbeat.
This place had once been the top cutting-edge scientific research center in the U.S.
But now, nothing remained but a wasteland torn apart by high-energy explosions.
Charred load-bearing walls twisted at eerie angles, and the ground was littered with shattered bulletproof glass and the scorched remains of instruments.
The air was thick with the pungent scent of ozone, mixed with the burnt aroma emitted by some alien metal melted by high temperatures.
Rorschach and Kara landed at the edge of the ruins.
The rain had stopped. The cold early morning wind blew through the ruins, making a sound like the whimpering of a Beast.
Rorschach ignored the surrounding dilapidation.
Omniscient Sense 3.4 instantly locked onto two sources: Victor's rampaging energy deep underground, and a dark red pulse at the same frequency as the one sensed last night—the source was deeply entangled with the mother box's data stream.
"It's down there."
Rorschach withdrew his perception, his gaze locking onto a half-collapsed elevator shaft ahead.
Kara stepped forward, her hands gripping the deformed alloy door that weighed several tons.
The Kryptonian's Super Strength exploded.
Accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of tearing metal, the alloy door was forcibly ripped off and tossed aside.
The two descended vertically down the dark elevator shaft.
The fourth basement level.
Silas Stone's secret laboratory.
The degree of destruction here was even more thorough than on the surface.
The walls were riddled with charred pits scorched by high-energy rays, and various thick cables lay broken on the ground, occasionally bursting with blue electrical sparks.
In the deepest part of the laboratory.
A figure curled up in a corner was twitching violently.
It was Victor Stone.
Or rather, it used to be Victor Stone.
His current appearance was a wretched sight.
The left half of his body was completely covered in silver-grey alien metal; it wasn't just stuck to the surface, but like a living thing, it was rooted deep into his flesh.
An eerie red light flickered through the gaps in the metal.
The mother box's technology was forcibly restructuring his carbon-based life form in an extremely brutal manner.
"Don't... don't come over here!!"
Hearing footsteps, Victor jerked his head up.
His remaining human right eye was bloodshot, his pupil dilated from extreme pain.
His left eye, however, had already turned into a mechanical prosthetic eye emitting a red glow.
Along with his roar, his completely mechanized left arm made a tooth-grinding sound of clashing gears.
The metal casing rapidly flipped and restructured.
In less than half a second, a Sonic Cannon shimmering with high-energy pulse light had formed, its muzzle locked tightly onto Rorschach.
"Get out!! My head... there's something in my head!!"
Victor's voice had become a mixture of synthesized electronic sounds and human roars, sounding hair-raising.
Kara subconsciously took a step forward, her Bio-electric Field instantly covering her entire body.
"Stand back."
Rorschach raised his hand, stopping Kara.
He looked at the maddened Victor, his face expressionless.
"There are no saviors in this world, only cleaners holding butcher knives. If you don't want to be swept away like trash, then hold tight to the chips in your hand."
Rorschach's voice was cold.
He didn't activate any defensive fields, walking toward Victor's cannon muzzle step by step.
"I said get out!!"
Victor's rationality completely collapsed.
The mother box's data stream crushed his neural defenses. The muzzle of the Sonic Cannon lit up with a blinding white light.
Boom—!!
A high-frequency sonic pulse capable of blowing a main battle tank into scrap metal smashed directly toward Rorschach's face.
Kara's breathing hitched for a moment.
But in the next microsecond.
Rorschach's figure vanished.
Super Speed 3.2 activated.
His speed broke through the critical point of light speed.
In Rorschach's vision, that violent sonic pulse was like a ball of cotton suspended in the air, moving at an excruciatingly slow pace.
He even had time to walk around the pulse before leisurely approaching Victor.
Time resumed its flow.
The sonic pulse slammed into the alloy wall behind Rorschach, blasting a massive hole.
Meanwhile, Rorschach's hand was already clamped tightly onto the top of Victor's mechanical head.
"Be quiet. Your noise is bothering me."
Rorschach spoke indifferently.
Victor struggled frantically, his mechanical left arm attempting to counterattack.
But he discovered in horror that the mechanical strength he was so proud of could not move even a single millimeter under this man's palm.
Rorschach didn't waste words.
His consciousness sank into his mind.
Nanite Control 3.0 was fully activated.
A cloud of black mist, invisible to the naked eye, surged from Rorschach's palm and flooded into Victor's mechanical body.
This wasn't nanotech from Earth.
This was top-tier biochemical technology that Mr. Sinisterhad spent his life's work on, integrating Mutant gene maps.
Tens of billions of Nanites drove straight in along Victor's mechanical neurons.
They didn't try to destroy the mother box's metal structure; instead, using extremely precise tactics, they forcibly constructed a physical-level firewall between Victor's remaining organic brain and the mother box's data interface.
The sound of tooth-grinding metal friction echoed through the lab.
The flickering red lights on Victor's body surface began to flash violently as the mother box's underlying logic counterattacked frantically, attempting to erase these invading Nanites.
But the level of Nanite Control 3.0 was enough to suppress the mother box energy, which was currently in a masterless state.
Three minutes later.
The red light gradually dimmed, finally turning into a stable blue light.
The twitching of Victor's mechanical body stopped.
His bloodshot human right eye finally regained its focus.
He gasped for air, his chest heaving violently.
Rorschach let go.
The system's cold notification sounded on time in his mind.
[Target Detected: Victor Stone/Cyborg (Male)]
[Ability Assessment: mother box Technology Fusion, Electronic Intrusion, Sonic Cannon, Flight—Comprehensive Level 2.8]
[Judgment: Target abilities originate from alien technological physical modification, no super-powered genetic source, unable to acquire abilities]
A flash of satisfaction crossed Rorschach's eyes.
He never expected to be able to draw blood for points from a cyborg.
What he wanted was a living skeleton key.
"What... did you do to me?"
Victor leaned against the wall, looking at his hands—one half flesh and blood, the other half metal.
His mind was clearer than ever before.
The massive data streams that were originally going to tear him apart were now neatly arranged in a safe isolation zone.
"I installed a valve in your head. Lest you be burned into an idiot by that scrap metal."
Rorschach looked down at him.
"I'm not interested in hearing you complain about the unfairness of fate. I came for you because you have value."
Victor looked up at Rorschach with a complicated gaze.
"The residual data stream of the mother box... shows you are tracking alien threat coordinates."
"He's only half right."
Rorschach snapped his fingers.
"I'm not here to find a way. I'm here to find a tool. Zod's ship is about to land; I need you to hack into their system and seize control of the world engine."
Victor fell silent.
He closed his mechanical left eye.
In his mind, the mother box data zone isolated by Rorschach began to operate.
He saw it.
Not only did he see the Kryptonian ship.
Through the underlying memories of the mother box, he also saw an even more terrifying starry sky.
It was a dark Planet covered in fire and lava.
A rocky giant sitting on a throne was coldly watching the barriers of the multiverse with eyes that emitted a red glow.
"Apokolips..."
Victor snapped his eyes open, his voice tinged with unconcealable fear.
"The mother box is calling its Master... there is an existence even more terrifying than the Kryptonians staring at Earth."
Kara subconsciously clenched her fist.
[High-risk cosmic coordinates detected: Darkseid (Threat Rating: World-Destroying Level)]
The system notification simultaneously pierced into Rorschach's nerves.
He merely curled his lip.
That was a true ultimate point jackpot.
"Let him stare."
Rorschach's fingertips brushed over the red string on his wrist, a cold light glinting faintly. "When he reaches out—"
The encrypted communicator suddenly vibrated.
He looked down at the screen: "The Speedster in Central City has been found. But he's in trouble. Needs backup."
Rorschach glanced at the screen.
"Let's go, cyborg."
Rorschach turned his head, looking at the still-dazed Victor.
Chapter 198: Central City's Red Afterimage and Trouble
Before Victor could digest the terrifying cosmic scene in his mind, the red light of his mechanical left eye flashed three times—the brand of Apokolips was still searing his nerves.
Before he could react, his back collar was gripped tightly.
Rorschach had no intention of taking the stairs or waiting for the elevator.
He looked up at the concrete dome that had been blasted through above.
Airflow exploded beneath his feet with a roar.
The violent reaction force directly cracked the load-bearing floor tiles on the fourth underground level.
Holding Victor, Rorschach's figure rose from the ground. Kara followed closely behind, her red cape snapping in the airflow.
The moment they burst from the ground, [Flight 3.0] operated at full power.
A sonic boom cloud exploded into a white ring of air over the ruins of Gotham's western suburbs.
Victor only felt the scenery before him stretch into blurred lines. Intense weightlessness and gale-force winds poured into his mouth, forcing him to swallow all his words.
The mechanical red light of his left eye flickered frantically.
The mother box's low-level computing power attempted to analyze the energy composition of the man holding him during the high-speed Flight.
But the feedback data was only a dead silence of garbled code.
The system's [Origin Masking Protocol] had welded Rorschach's true data defense line shut; the moment the mother box's detection waves made contact, they were swallowed by an invisible force field.
Victor's mechanical eyeball emitted a faint scorched smell due to computational overload.
"Don't waste your effort."
Rorschach's cold voice penetrated the high-altitude wind noise, smashing precisely into Victor's auditory nerves.
"Keep looking where you shouldn't, and I'll gouge out that glowing eyeball of yours and crush it like a lightbulb."
Victor's back tensed, and he immediately cut off the detection program.
Central City wasn't that far from Gotham.
At speeds breaking the sound barrier, it was only a few minutes' journey.
The sky over Central City didn't have the permanent acid rain clouds of Gotham, but tonight's night sky was equally dreadfully gloomy.
Rorschach hovered at an altitude of a thousand meters.
[Omniscient Sense 3.4] instantly covered the blocks below.
In the energy perspective on his retina, a cluster of extremely dazzling red electric arcs was darting frantically within an industrial park in Central City's East District.
That was a force of pure kinetic energy.
Its speed was so fast that even Rorschach's vision required a bit of concentration to track it.
However, around the periphery of that red electric arc, six massive Energy Anchors had been deployed.
These anchors connected into a high-frequency Electromagnetic Net, trapping the red electric arc within an area less than half the size of a football field.
"This is your new colleague."
Rorschach let go.
Victor adjusted his posture in mid-air, the metal armor on his back flipping to spray blue tail flames, barely stabilizing himself.
Kara looked down, following Rorschach's gaze.
"That's an Earthling Military."
Kara's Super Vision pierced through the night.
In the abandoned freight station below, eight black armored vehicles without any markings were parked.
Dozens of fully armed soldiers, wearing anti-static insulated combat suits, were holding strangely shaped heavy Pulse Rifles and staring intently at the center of the field.
"After Cadmus was wiped out, those old men in the Military went completely insane."
Rorschach looked at the hidden eagle insignias on the soldiers' epaulettes below.
"This is The Pentagon's Rapid Response Special Forces. Specifically used to handle uncontrolled mutants. It seems our little Speedster brother ran to the wrong place tonight."
In the center of the freight station.
Barry Allen, wearing that dark red suit cobbled together from space shuttle heat-resistant materials, was panting heavily.
The young face under the mask was filled with panic and exhaustion.
He had just gone out in the middle of the night to buy pizza and happened to resolve a robbery, only to be cornered here by this group of black-clad men who appeared out of nowhere.
"Warning!! Target heart rate exceeds three hundred beats per minute!!"
"Shrink the Electromagnetic Net radius!! Cut off his kinetic circuit!!"
Beside an armored vehicle, a Commander with a face full of rough flesh roared into his walkie-talkie.
The six Energy Anchors emitted a piercing hum.
The ghostly blue Electromagnetic Net began to contract inward. The smell of ozone from high-voltage electricity piercing through oxygen permeated the air.
Barry grit his teeth and suddenly exerted force with his feet.
Red lightning exploded around the edges of his combat boots.
He tried to use his speed to forcibly break through the Electromagnetic Net's blockade.
Boom!!
As soon as Barry's body touched the blue curtain of light, a terrifying reverse current was conducted directly through his suit.
The kinetic energy of the Speed Force was forcibly interrupted by the high-frequency pulse.
Barry let out a scream and was sent flying backward, smashing heavily into an abandoned container, denting the iron sheet into a deep crater.
"Cough, cough..."
Barry slid to the ground clutching his chest, wisps of black smoke rising from his suit.
He felt as if every bone in his body was falling apart.
"Take him alive. Luthor's lab is gone; we need a new test subject to fill the void."
The Commander pulled out an electric pistol from his waist and strode toward Barry.
The soldiers pressed forward step by step, Pulse Rifles at the ready.
Barry closed his eyes in despair.
Just as the Commander's finger was about to pull the trigger.
Boom—!!
A deafening roar descended from the sky.
Without any warning.
And without any deceleration.
A black afterimage, like a meteorite falling to Earth, smashed directly into the concrete ground between the Commander and Barry.
A violent shockwave swept out along the ground.
The Commander, bearing the brunt of it, didn't even have time to scream before being thrown over ten meters away, only stopping after breaking a lamppost.
The surrounding soldiers were blown over by the airwave, their formation instantly collapsing.
The dust settled.
Rorschach stood up unhurriedly, patting the dust off the hem of his trench coat.
Kara and Victor landed behind him immediately after.
Barry opened his eyes, staring blankly at the tall back blocking the way in front of him.
"Fire!! Kill them!!"
The Commander spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and shrieked at the top of his lungs.
Dozens of heavy Pulse Rifles fired simultaneously.
Dense blue high-energy beams tore through the night, forming a firepower net with no blind spots, pouring down toward Rorschach and the other two.
Kara instinctively wanted to step forward and raise her Bio-electric Field.
Rorschach raised his left hand, stopping her.
"Don't embarrass yourself by bringing out such low-quality toys."
A glint of dark gold light flashed in Rorschach's eyes.
[Energy Dominator 3.5] fully activated.
No fancy movements were needed.
Rorschach simply stood in place, and with him as the center, the physical rules within a fifty-meter radius were completely and forcibly altered in that second.
Those high-energy pulse beams, capable of melting through the armor of a main battle tank, suddenly came to a bizarre halt half a meter from Rorschach's body.
It was as if the pause button had been pressed.
The next second.
All the blue beams began to twist and decompose.
The molecular-level control precision of [Energy Dominator 3.5] directly erased the output pulses of these energy weapons from their underlying logic.
The beams turned into a sky full of blue light dots, then completely dissipated into the air.
Not even a trace of heat was left behind.
The entire freight station was deathly silent.
The soldiers held their guns, fingers clenched tightly on the triggers, but the barrels emitted nothing but faint white smoke from heat dissipation.
"This... this is impossible..."
The Commander's eyes widened, looking at Rorschach as if he had seen a ghost.
Rorschach lowered his hand.
His gaze passed over the soldiers and landed on the six Energy Anchors still operating around them.
"This net you use to catch rats is a bit of an eyesore."
Rorschach raised his right hand and suddenly clenched his fingers.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The six Energy Anchors, each weighing several tons, were instantly crushed into scrap metal by a terrifying invisible force.
The hard alloy casings were squeezed and deformed like dough, and the high-precision electronic components inside burst with blinding sparks before being completely ruined.
The Electromagnetic Net trapping Barry vanished instantly.
Rorschach turned around, looking down at Barry, who was still slumped on the ground.
"Get up. Fast one."
Rorschach's voice had no fluctuation.
Barry swallowed and scrambled to his feet using his hands and feet.
He looked at Rorschach, then at the half-human, half-mechanical Victor next to him, and finally fixed his gaze on Kara in her uniform.
"Who... who are you? Are you here to catch me too?"
Barry's voice trembled slightly.
"Catch you?"
Rorschach curled his lip.
"I don't have that kind of free time. I'm here to take you to work overtime."
"Hey..."
The Commander crawled up from the ground and pulled out a specially made tactical knife from his waist.
"Regardless of what kind of monsters you are, this is Military jurisdiction!! You are committing treason!!"
Rorschach didn't even turn his head.
He hated it most when people interrupted while he was talking business.
[Telekinesis Control 3.3] activated.
The Commander's body flew into the air uncontrollably and was dragged directly in front of Rorschach.
Rorschach reached out his right hand and precisely grabbed the Commander's neck.
"Back when I used to write code, I hated explaining things the most, so now I've decided to just pull the power plug."
Rorschach looked at the Commander's face, which had turned purple-red from suffocation.
"Go back and tell those old men at The Pentagon."
Rorschach's fingers tightened bit by bit.
"The ownership of Earth is temporarily under my control. Whoever dares to reach out their hand, I will chop it off."
Crack.
The crisp sound of a neck bone snapping was exceptionally piercing in the silent freight station.
Rorschach let go.
The Commander's corpse slumped to the ground like a pile of mud.
The surrounding soldiers all took a large step back, even the hands holding their guns trembling violently.
Kara frowned, but ultimately said nothing. She was starting to adapt to Rorschach's style of leaving no survivors.
Victor, on the other hand, stared intently at the corpse on the ground, the red light in his mechanical eye flickering uncertainly.
Barry was completely dumbfounded.
He looked at the corpse on the ground, then at Rorschach's calm face.
"You... you killed him?"
Barry's voice suddenly rose.
"He was just following orders!! You can't just kill people like that!!"
Rorschach turned his head, looking at this young man still immersed in playing superhero house.
The system's prompt sounded coldly in his mind.
[Target Detected: Barry Allen/Flash (Male)]
[Ability Assessment: Speed Force 3.3 (Extreme Speed, Phase through walls, Create cyclones, Warp space-time) — Comprehensive Level 3.3]
[Judgment: Target is male; blood contact must occur within 30 minutes of leaving the body to acquire abilities]
[Current Total points: 21150]
Rorschach's eyes narrowed slightly.
Level 3.3 Speed Force. This was an extremely tempting piece of meat.
If he snapped Barry's neck now and drew his blood, his speed would definitely undergo a qualitative change.
But Rorschach's mind worked extremely fast. He was performing precise calculations of benefit.
Killing Barry and getting the Speed Force would indeed increase his combat power.
But Zod's Kryptonian army was vast, and there was the big trouble of the world engine. He needed someone to clear out the fodder, someone to rescue the civilians caught in the crossfire, so he could free his hands to focus on dealing with Zod and absorbing the high-level abilities of the Kryptonians.
Keeping Barry alive as a diversion and a cleaner offered far higher cost-performance than killing him now.
Once his remaining value was squeezed dry, there would be plenty of opportunities later.
Rorschach restrained the killing intent in his eyes.
He looked at Barry, his lips curling into a mocking arc.
"Following orders?"
Rorschach took a step forward, closing in on Barry.
"If his order was to take you back for dissection and research, would you still obediently lie on the operating table and cooperate with him?"
Barry was forced back two steps by the sense of pressure emanating from Rorschach.
"That... that still doesn't mean you can kill! We could have tied him up and handed him over to the Police!!"
"Police?"
Rorschach let out a cold laugh.
"By dawn, several alien spaceships will drop from the sky. They will drain this Planet's atmosphere and grind all the cities into ruins."
Rorschach extended a finger and poked the lightning emblem on the chest of Barry's suit.
"When that time comes, which Police station do you plan to go to for reporting?"
Chapter 199: The Speedster's Bargaining Chip and the Muster
Barry's chest throbbed with pain where Rorschach's finger had poked him.
He looked at the cold-eyed man before him, his mind a chaotic mess.
"Alien spaceships? Slaughters?"
Barry shook his head.
"I don't know you people. I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm just an ordinary guy who happens to run a bit fast. I'm not getting involved in your killing games."
With that, Barry pushed off hard with his feet.
Red lightning instantly exploded around his combat boots.
The Speed Force erupted in full force.
In Barry's subjective vision, the World around him was infinitely stretched in an instant.
The wind stopped flowing.
Dust motes floating in the air froze mid-flight.
The exhaust fumes from the armored car nearby turned into a static mass of gray cotton.
Kara's surprised expression was frozen in time. The red light in Victor's mechanical eye became a rigid, unmoving line.
This was the absolute domain belonging to a Speedster.
Barry breathed a sigh of relief.
He prepared to bypass Rorschach and run straight along the freight station wall back to his Underground Room, treating tonight's events as nothing more than a nightmare.
He took a step forward.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A deep, cold voice with a hint of playfulness exploded in Barry's ear without warning.
Barry's pupils instantly contracted to the size of pinpricks.
He whipped his head around.
In the World of absolute stillness constructed by the Speed Force...
Rorschach was strolling leisurely by his side at a speed that was a whole dimension faster than his own.
There was no red lightning on Rorschach, nor any fancy light and shadow effects.
Super Speed 3.2 combined with Super-speed Reaction 2.0, supported by the physical endurance of Physique Enhancement 3.0.
Rorschach's speed had already broken through the boundaries of conventional physical laws.
"The high speed you're so proud of is no different from a static slideshow in my eyes."
Rorschach tilted his head, looking at Barry, who looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"Did you really think you could slip away from under my nose just by relying on this piece of junk spacesuit?"
Barry's brain completely stalled.
The trump card he took the most pride in didn't even qualify as a joke in front of this man.
He instinctively tried to accelerate.
But Rorschach didn't give him the chance.
Rorschach raised his right hand—seemingly slow, but in reality, incredibly fast—and grabbed Barry by the back of the neck.
BANG!!
The moment time resumed its flow.
Barry was slammed ruthlessly against the mottled brick wall of the freight station by an irresistible force.
The brick wall shattered with a roar, spiderweb-like cracks spreading out.
Barry let out a pained groan, and the red lightning on his suit instantly extinguished.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Barry coughed violently, his feet dangling in the air as his hands gripped Rorschach's arm tightly, trying to break free.
But he felt as if he were grabbing not a human arm, but a load-bearing pillar cast from Adamantium.
It didn't budge an inch.
"Listen, kid."
Rorschach pulled Barry close, their noses almost touching.
"I'm not here to provide counseling. I don't need your approval, and I don't need your understanding."
Rorschach's eyes held absolute coldness.
"I only need those fast legs of yours."
"Zod's legion will be landing on Earth soon. Their goal is to destroy every living thing on this Planet. That old psycho Batman thinks you're somewhat useful, so I've bothered to come and fish you out."
Rorschach loosened his grip slightly, allowing Barry to catch his breath.
"Since your rules can't protect this Planet, I'll flip the table and start over myself. You have only two choices now."
Rorschach held up two fingers.
"First, come with me. Go to Metropolis and help me clear out those alien grunts. Once the war is over, you can go back to Central City and continue being your masked vigilante."
Rorschach's fingers slowly tightened, making it difficult for Barry to breathe again.
"Second, I snap your neck right here. Then I'll go and kill all the aliens myself. Either way, it's just a matter of a little extra time for me."
Barry's face turned beet red.
In Rorschach's eyes, he saw a tangible killing intent.
This man really would kill him without any hesitation.
Barry thought of what Rorschach had said about the "alien fleet arriving in 3 hours," and his nails dug into his palms.
"I... I choose the first one..."
Barry squeezed the words out of his throat with difficulty.
Rorschach's wrist relaxed.
Barry fell directly to the ground, greedily gulping in large mouthfuls of fresh air.
"Very good. It seems your brain hasn't been completely fried by the Speed Force."
Rorschach turned around, not even glancing at the Militarysoldiers who were still shivering in fear.
"Let's go, workers. The boss is waiting for us to start the meeting."
Metropolis. Abandoned port.
Pier 12.
This was an old container terminal on the edge of Metropolis that had been abandoned for over a decade. The sea breeze carried a heavy smell of salt and rust.
Inside a massive corrugated steel warehouse.
No lights were on.
Only a few beams of pale moonlight leaked through the damaged roof, barely illuminating a clearing in the center.
Batman swiped his finger across his wrist projector—"batwing supersonic mode, arrival time: 04:58."
Like a ghost, he stood silently in the shadows.
His black cape almost merged with the darkness.
He waited quietly for the prey to enter the net.
BOOM—!!
The iron door of the warehouse was blown away by a violent gust of air.
The heavy iron door smashed into an abandoned crane dozens of meters away, making a deafening crash.
The gale swirled dust from the ground into the warehouse.
Rorschach crossed the threshold and strode inside.
Kara followed closely behind.
Then came Victor and Barry.
Rorschach walked into the moonlight and stopped.
He casually tossed a plastic bag filled with high-calorie burgers and energy drinks to Barry.
"Eat something. Don't let your legs go soft when you're running later."
Barry scrambled to catch the bag, glanced at Batmanstanding in the shadows, and shrunk back toward Kara in fear.
"I've brought the Cleaners you wanted."
Rorschach stood with his hands in his trench coat pockets, looking at Batman's silhouette hidden in the darkness.
"A Cyborg, a Speedster, and a Kryptonian."
Rorschach's gaze swept over the people present.
This was practically the prototype of the Justice League.
But in Rorschach's eyes, this was just a temporary team of laborers.
"Now, show your hand."
Rorschach got straight to the point.
"When will Zod's ship land? What have you prepared to deal with a Kryptonian's Steel Body?"
Batman stepped out from the shadows.
His combat boots stepped onto the dusty concrete floor, making a dull thud.
He ignored Barry's curious and reverent gaze, nor did he look at the red mechanical eye blinking on Victor.
His gaze was locked firmly on Rorschach.
"Signals intercepted by Cadmus show that Zod's fleet has entered the solar system. In three hours at most, they will reach Earth's orbit."
Batman's raspy voice echoed in the empty warehouse.
"Kara's intel was correct. Zod's flagship is equipped with a world engine. Once activated, Metropolis will be leveled to the ground within ten minutes."
Batman stopped two meters in front of Rorschach.
From a hidden compartment in his utility belt, he pulled out a small lead-lined sealed box.
"Kryptonian cells become indestructible under the radiation of a yellow Sun. Conventional physical attacks are useless against them."
Batman pressed the mechanical combination lock on the box.
"Click."
The box popped open.
A ghostly green light instantly illuminated the surrounding space.
It was a ring set with an irregular green crystal.
Energy seemed to flow within the crystal, emitting a radiation pulse that caused extreme discomfort.
The moment Kara saw that green light, her expression changed drastically.
She felt the strength in her body being drained away instantly; her legs went weak, and she collapsed onto one knee.
Her breathing became rapid, and fine beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
"Put it away!!"
Kara clutched her chest in pain.
Batman didn't move; he looked at Rorschach.
Rorschach stood where he was, letting the green radiation light shine upon him.
The force field of Comprehensive Defense 3.0 rippled slightly on his skin, completely isolating the Kryptoniteradiation.
Rorschach's cells did not feel any weakness.
Because what flowed through his body wasn't pure Kryptonian blood at all. His power came from the system's plunder and fusion; Kryptonite, a substance targeting specific genetic weaknesses, had no effect on him.
Rorschach reached out and picked up the Kryptonite ring directly from the box.
It was ice-cold to the touch.
"I seized it from Luthor's secret lab."
Seeing Rorschach's lack of reaction, a flicker of deeply hidden wariness flashed in Batman's eyes.
This guy isn't afraid of Kryptonite.
Batman's pupils narrowed slightly; Luthor's files had never recorded such a resistance.
"The purity of this Kryptonite is extremely high. As long as it touches Zod's skin, it's enough to make him lose all his superpowers and become an ordinary person within thirty seconds."
Batman provided the precise data.
"Thirty seconds."
Rorschach toyed with the Kryptonite ring, a cruel curve tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Thirty seconds is enough for me to crush his bones inch by inch and drain every drop of his blood."
Rorschach casually stuffed the ring into his trench coat pocket.
With the green light of the Kryptonite blocked, Kara finally took a deep breath and stood up from the ground.
"Tactical deployment."
Rorschach stopped smiling, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
"Leave Zod to me. He's my prey; no one interferes."
Rorschach pointed at Kara.
"You're responsible for containing Zod's lieutenant, Ursa. Don't go head-to-head with her; just stall her."
Next, Rorschach looked at Barry.
"Speedster. Your task is rescue. Once the world enginestarts, buildings in Metropolis will collapse on a massive scale. I want you to evacuate all civilians from the edge of the battlefield. I don't want any extra corpses getting in my way."
Barry swallowed hard and nodded vigorously.
Finally, Rorschach's gaze fell on Victor.
"Cyborg. You're coming with me."
Rorschach's eyes became extremely deep.
"After Zod's ship lands, I want you to hack directly into their main control system. Seize control of the world engine."
Victor frowned.
"That's Kryptonian peak technology. I can't guarantee that the mother box's computing power can crack their firewall in a short time."
"I don't need you to crack it."
Rorschach's voice was as cold as ice.
"I'll tear open the ship's hull and send you straight into their core server room. You just plug in the data cable; leave the rest to me."
Rorschach turned his head, looking at the sky outside where the first light of dawn was beginning to appear.
"Time to get to work."
Above the distant clouds.
Three massive black shadows were tearing through the atmosphere, descending slowly with a pressure that threatened to destroy everything.
Hunting time has officially begun.
Chapter 200: The Predator's Countdown
The roar of the spacecraft tearing through the atmosphere was still a hundred kilometers away—these final two hours were precisely the window for Rorschach to set up his hunting ground.
The corrugated steel plates of the abandoned dock vibrated violently in the gale.
A pitch-black batwing tore through the night, hovering above the shattered dome of the warehouse.
The vertical take-off and landing engines spewed ghostly blue high-temperature exhaust flames, and the violent downdraft kicked up over a decade's worth of accumulated dust and rust from the ground.
Batman did not leave the shadows. He raised his right arm, clad in a Kevlar tactical glove, and accurately tossed a highly encrypted black solid-state drive to Victor.
Victor raised his fully mechanized left arm. Five metal fingers splayed open in mid-air, and a ghostly blue data port opened in his palm, swallowing the hard drive whole.
The red light in his mechanical eye flickered frantically. The mother box's underlying computing power instantly shredded the Military-grade firewall Batman took such pride in.
"Metropolis. City center. Centennial Park."
Victor's synthesized electronic voice echoed in the empty warehouse, carrying an emotionless metallic quality.
"Wayne Enterprises' near-earth orbit satellite array captured abnormal gravitational wave refraction. The jump coordinates of the alien fleet have been locked. Countdown: two hours and forty minutes."
Rorschach stood under the pale moonlight, the hem of his trench coat fluttering in the draft.
He lifted his eyelids, his gaze passing over Victor and falling on Batman in the shadows.
"The intel has been delivered. You can crawl back to your Gotham and continue playing your masked ghost-catching game."
Batman's breathing frequency did not change at all. His black cape hung at his feet, like a lifeless stone statue.
"Zod's target is all of humanity. Metropolis has a permanent population of over eight million. The Military's air defense systems are just a pile of scrap metal in front of Kryptonian technology."
A raspy voice pierced through the roar of the engines.
"I'll switch the batwing to remote fire support mode. Don't let the flames of war spread to civilian areas."
Rorschach curled his lip, revealing an extremely cold sneer.
"Have you misunderstood something?"
He took a step forward. His Military combat boots stepped on the cracked concrete, making a tooth-aching grinding sound.
"I'm not here to be a savior. Whether civilians live or die is something God should worry about. I'm only responsible for tearing those alien bastards falling from the sky into pieces, one by one."
Rorschach's finger swept casually through the air.
"As for where the flames of war spread, that depends on where the prey runs. If Zod levels Metropolis, then that's just the city's bad luck."
Batman's body tensed. A hidden compartment on the edge of his utility belt made an extremely subtle mechanical clicking sound. It was his instinctive reaction to prepare his backup kryptonite weapons.
But Rorschach didn't even look at him again.
He turned around, his gaze falling on Barry, who was still stuffing a high-calorie burger into his mouth.
"Are you full? Speedster."
Stared at by Rorschach's temperatureless eyes, Barry's throat rolled sharply, and he forced down the last bite of the burger.
"Full... I'm full."
Barry wiped the sauce from the corner of his mouth, and a few sparks of red lightning uncontrollably overflowed from his suit.
"Good."
Rorschach's right leg bent slightly.
[Physique Enhancement 3.0] erupted fully. Dark gold energy flowed frantically deep within his muscle fibers.
Without any warning.
The concrete floor under Rorschach's feet collapsed with a boom, a giant crater over five meters in diameter instantly forming. Spiderweb-like cracks spread all the way to the edge of the warehouse's load-bearing walls.
The violent reaction force propelled Rorschach's body into the sky like a cannonball.
He reached out his right hand in mid-air, grabbing Barry's back collar with pinpoint accuracy.
"Ah—!!"
Barry's scream had just left his throat before it was completely swallowed by the terrifying sonic boom cloud of breaking the sound barrier.
Kara exerted force with her legs, her red cape pulling a straight afterimage in the air as she followed closely behind Rorschach.
The metal armor on Victor's back flipped open, two high-energy particle exhaust flames spewed out, and his semi-mechanical body broke through the warehouse's sheet metal roof, soaring into the clouds.
Metropolis.
LexCorp Headquarters Building.
This was the tallest landmark in the entire city. The massive glass curtain wall reflected a cold metallic luster in the pre-dawn glimmer.
On the rooftop helipad, the wind whistled.
Rorschach descended from the sky, his feet firmly planted on the metal railing at the edge of the helipad.
He let go.
Barry slumped on the ground like a puddle of mud. He clung to the edge of the helipad, dry-heaving frantically into the bottomless abyss below.
Without the protection of the Speed Force aura, enduring such crude supersonic Flight made his internal organs feel as if they had shifted.
Kara and Victor landed behind Rorschach one after another.
Rorschach ignored Barry's mess. He stood at the highest point of the building, overlooking this supercity that was still asleep.
The streetlights on the streets were like golden rivers, with a few early-shift street sweepers moving slowly on the empty roads.
Peaceful. Serene.
But in Rorschach's [Omniscient Sense 3.4] vision, a layer of distorted gravitational field, undetectable by the naked eye, was looming over the city.
Space was wailing. The barriers of the multiverse were vibrating on the verge of shattering under the tearing of the Kryptonian jump engines.
Rorschach's consciousness sank into his mind.
A cold system panel unfolded on his retina.
[Current Total points: 21150]
This was an extremely awkward number.
General Zod's combat power assessment was as high as Level 3.5. That was a terrifying existence capable of withstanding nuclear explosions with his physical body and tearing the earth's crust with his bare hands.
Rorschach's current core survival abilities, [Life Recovery] and [Comprehensive Defense], were both stuck at Level 2.4.
According to the system's cross-level upgrade rules, jumping from 2.x to 3.0 required a full 8,000 points.
Upgrading both abilities would require 16,000 points.
The remaining 5,000-plus points were simply not enough to support him in making temporary boosts to other core abilities during battle.
The Kryptonite ring was indeed a perfect tool for dimensional reduction strikes.
But Rorschach never staked his life on a glowing rock.
What if Zod's adjutant blocked the Kryptonite radiation at the cost of their life? What if the Kryptonians' environmental armor blocked the penetration of the rays?
The risk was too great.
When a hunter faces a beast larger than themselves, they must ensure they have an absolute immortal body to set traps calmly.
"Not enough points."
A bloodthirsty cold light flashed in the depths of Rorschach's eyes.
He needed more stepping stones. He needed those Kryptonian soldiers under Zod's command.
"Victor."
Rorschach withdrew his gaze and turned his head to look at the cyborg who was trying to access the Metropolis city power grid.
"Cut off all air defense alarms in this city. Block the Military's early warning radars."
Victor's movement of tapping the virtual keyboard suddenly stalled.
His human right eye widened, staring intently at Rorschach.
"Are you crazy? If the alarms aren't sounded, once the alien ships land, the people in this city won't even have time to run! The casualty figures will be an astronomical disaster!"
Kara also turned around, her blue eyes filled with confusion and anger.
"Rorschach. We are here to stop Zod. How is what you're doing any different from a massacre?"
Rorschach turned around.
He walked step by step to the front of Victor and Kara.
The pressure of [Super Strength 3.0] was released without reservation. The surrounding air seemed to freeze in an instant, becoming so heavy it was impossible to breathe.
Barry stopped dry-heaving and looked at Rorschach's back in terror, not even daring to breathe a word.
"Stop?"
Rorschach let out a cold laugh.
"What are you going to stop them with? Your pathetic moral bottom line? Or your play-house sense of justice?"
Rorschach tapped on Victor's metal armor, which made a dull thudding sound.
"Once the Military discovers the ships early, they will launch nuclear missiles. When nukes detonate over the city, more people will die than from the aliens. Besides, nuclear weapons can't even penetrate the energy shields of the Kryptonian motherships."
Rorschach's gaze shifted to Kara.
"Sound the alarm early? Eight million people stampeding on a dozen narrow outbound highways—Zod won't even have to lift a finger before this city turns into a living hell on its own."
Rorschach's eyes were cold to the extreme, without a flicker of emotion.
"What I want is for Zod's fleet to land completely unprepared. I want them to deploy all of their ground troops."
Rorschach looked up at the layer of clouds gradually darkening at the end of the skyline.
"I'm going to turn them all into my nourishment."
"If the world engine starts, the gravitational field turbulence will interfere with my harvesting efficiency—Victor, you control the system, I'll clear the field."
Victor's mechanical jaw trembled slightly. In Rorschach's eyes, he could see no human mercy.
That was a pair of pure predator's eyes.
"Do it."
Rorschach's voice brooked no argument.
"Or, I'll dig your brain out right now and plug the data cable into this building's terminal myself."
Victor closed his eyes.
The red light of his mechanical left eye flickered at an extreme frequency.
The data stream from the mother box followed Metropolis's underground fiber optic cables, spreading frantically like a virus.
On the monitoring screens at The Pentagon, the radar feedback over Metropolis turned into a completely normal green.
The warning systems of the North American Aerospace Defense Command were forcibly implanted with fake peace codes.
The entire city was completely blinded.
Countdown: one hour.
The wind stopped.
The darkness before dawn became exceptionally heavy, and even the rising Sun was forcibly shielded behind the clouds by some unknown power.
The hunting ground had been set.