"You can freely enlarge or shrink your body. In this world, your DNA is the key to truly reproducing that ability!"
"From now on, you have to protect yourself carefully. No matter how familiar someone around you seems, you need to make absolutely certain they really are who they claim to be."
"The Skrulls could transform into anyone close to you and strike from within. By the time that happens, you'll be surrounded by enemies with nowhere to escape!"
Hearing that, Eric O'Grady instinctively rubbed his neck.
A chill ran across it.
Cold sweat covered his back.
Skrull technology had become so advanced that it was leaving them almost helpless.
"We can't just charge straight into their base. Even though we know about their conspiracy, we still can't make a move against them!"
"So we're supposed to just sit here and wait?"
"This is humiliating! Damn it!"
Eric couldn't tolerate that.
Karl, of course, had no intention of simply waiting for the enemy to act.
A clear plan had already begun taking shape in his mind.
"Counterattack? Of course we'll counterattack."
"But we need to prepare everything first. Otherwise, they could easily exploit one of our weaknesses. By the time you try to fight back, you might already have lost most of your advantage."
Eric stared at him in confusion.
"Can you say that in simpler terms?"
Karl shook his head helplessly.
Earth was already filled with danger.
Since their operation this time had specifically targeted Eric, there was no reason not to turn that against them.
First, they could make the Skrulls believe the mission had succeeded.
Then they could use that opportunity to uncover exactly what the Skrulls were planning.
"But leaving the fake Hope Pym here indefinitely isn't going to work."
"She definitely has some kind of signal transmitter or communication device on her that she uses to contact the other Skrulls."
"You need to find a way to make her reveal information about it."
"As long as we can obtain that information, everything else will become much easier."
Karl's reasoning surprised Eric.
After all, this fake Hope was merely an early-generation copy based on Ant-Man-style abilities.
"Her power is only about one-third of mine."
"Getting information out of her should be easy!"
"You don't need to worry about the rest. Leave it to me."
Karl winked at him.
These Skrulls were notoriously stubborn.
They also possessed the determination to risk their lives for their objectives.
Their obsession with obtaining the power of gods hadn't developed overnight.
Dealing with them properly would require considerable effort.
Otherwise, the situation would only become increasingly difficult.
"This time, we absolutely cannot lower our guard."
"Their methods are far too insidious."
"If they can send a fake Hope Pym after you, then they can just as easily send other fake superheroes after us."
"When that happens, we could end up trapped between multiple threats with no good way out."
Eric's concerns might have sounded excessive, but the situation was actually even more difficult than he imagined.
Karl knew perfectly well that the Skrulls were determined to conquer Earth.
This plan clearly hadn't been prepared in just a few days.
They must have spent an enormous amount of time arranging everything.
So many superheroes had already fallen into their hands.
And it had all happened without anyone noticing.
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
"I've never dealt with Skrulls before."
"But I have to admit, seeing what they're capable of this time has really opened my eyes!"
"If this isn't enough to make them our enemies, I don't know what is."
"I already want to fight them to the end!"
Eric could feel his palms itching.
He desperately wanted a proper fight.
But right now, he had to consider the larger situation.
For the moment, he could only suppress his anger.
Karl understood that danger could be hiding anywhere around them.
Anything could become a threat.
They couldn't relax their vigilance for even a moment.
They had to carefully watch everything happening around them to prevent the enemy from finding an opening.
"Boss, don't worry!"
"This situation has definitely gone beyond what we expected, but we've already sent our people out to investigate every place that needs to be checked."
Karl knew that the sorcerers under him hadn't been sitting idle.
It was entirely possible that many superheroes had already been replaced.
"Besides getting information out of her, give me something else to do."
"Otherwise, I can't settle down."
"I keep feeling like something dangerous is about to happen, like there's still something we haven't taken care of."
Karl understood exactly where Eric's unease was coming from.
With so many enemies watching them and Earth surrounded by hidden dangers, of course he was nervous.
Eric nodded firmly.
He continued asking Karl who they should search for.
By this point, his confidence in Karl was absolute.
He understood that they needed to find people who had not yet been copied by the Skrulls as quickly as possible.
Only by gathering people whose identities they could still trust would humanity have any chance of improving the situation.
"But didn't you say you don't even know how many superheroes are being held underground?"
"If we don't know who's real and who's fake, wouldn't going there just mean walking straight into a trap?"
The two of them moved as quickly as possible.
But even along the way, Eric still couldn't calm himself down.
The battle earlier had been extremely dangerous.
If Karl hadn't arrived in time, Eric would probably already be dead!
And that wasn't even considering the possibility of the fake Hope Pym taking complete control of him.
The mere fact that the Skrulls could obtain his DNA and create superheroes with the same size-changing abilities and appearance as him was terrifying enough.
He had never imagined danger could come this close to him.
"What's wrong? Scared?"
"This is only the beginning."
"Everything that comes next is going to become even more interesting, so stay focused."
Karl smiled faintly.
Interesting?
Eric certainly didn't think any of this was interesting!
He felt as though his heart was about to explode.
As Ant-Man, he could repeatedly shrink and enlarge his body.
But doing so placed tremendous strain on his body and required exceptional physical resilience.
If his body weren't capable of enduring it, he had no idea how many times he would already have collapsed.
Every time he used this ability, it placed him under tremendous pressure.
This wasn't a joke.
Their lives were at stake.
"I've heard about this ability of yours for a long time."
"Apparently, you can shrink all the way down to the subatomic level!"
"I still find that hard to believe."
"You can reduce your body that far, yet your strength can still increase to dozens of times its normal level!"
"That sounds almost impossible."
"I can't believe Dr. Pym actually managed to develop technology capable of doing something like that."
"He really is incredible!"
(End of Chapter)
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