"If you see one cockroach, there are a thousand more."
Batman suddenly said a famous line.
Viktor remembered hearing it in his past life too, showing an understanding expression on his face.
Superman clenched his fist and hit his palm, suddenly looking excited.
"'Girls in Trouble'! It was written by Caroline Leavitt. I didn't expect you, Batman, to have actually read her novel."
Zatanna looked completely confused.
She grew up practicing magic from a young age.
Those ancient magic books were more interesting to her than most scientific books in the human world, let alone the novel Superman mentioned.
Zatanna poked Viktor, who also looked confused.
"What? I'm from another planet. You don't expect me to have had time to read novels after arriving on Earth, do you?"
"But you obviously had a reaction when you heard that sentence just now."
He raised his hand to cover his face. He really didn't expect that line about cockroaches actually came from somewhere.
In his previous life, Viktor had thought it was just something a random person on the internet made up.
"Maybe I just naturally had a strong sense for literature. You could tell what that kind of metaphor meant as soon as you heard it."
He then moved a couple of steps aside to avoid Zatanna bothering him.
On the other side, Batman also stood up and moved away to avoid Superman, who had suddenly become excited after realizing that Batman had read the same novel as him.
Unfortunately, Batman had no intention of discussing novels with Superman.
"This incident is different from the Flash before. The equipment on her body is advanced. There's very likely a team supporting her behind the scenes."
"If they were able to send one here, they could send more people."
Viktor became slightly distracted and started searching through his memories.
In the original story, besides Atomica, there was another person from the Crime Syndicate—Alfred's reverse counterpart, the Outsider.
It was worth mentioning that although Atomica had followed direct orders from the Crime Syndicate, the Outsider was different.
He always acted independently in secret.
However, neither of them had been sent by the Crime Syndicate.
Instead, because Darkseid's invasion had weakened the barriers between universes, Atomica and Outsider were able to travel into the New 52 main universe.
After that, the Outsider spent five years not only establishing a super-villain organization called the Secret Society, but also finding information about Pandora's Box in some ancient texts and discovering how to use the box to open a passage to the multiverse.
Then came the Outsider's orchestration of the Trinity War, using this to activate Pandora's Box to bring the Crime Syndicate to the main universe.
However, the Trinity War was never made into a movie, and Viktor wasn't a hardcore comic fan either.
He didn't really know the more specific details of the Trinity War.
He only vaguely knew that the Outsider had used Pandora's Box, which could bring out the dark side of anyone, to cause several forces to fight each other.
Vioktor quietly walked to a computer near the circular corridor in the Watchtower.
"Can I check the Justice League's past records?"
Batman noticed Viktor's movement and frowned.
"What do you need to look up?"
"I was previously sent to a place called the hypertime stream. I saw some vague things there, and now I wanted to verify them."
Batman stared at him for a while, then raised his hand and tapped his gauntlet a few times, giving him permission.
Afterward, Batman continued discussing things with Superman.
Now knowing that this universe very likely had spies from other universes, Batman began to think that even some members of the Justice League could no longer be fully trusted.
Viktor lowered his head and typed on the computer for a while. After raising his head, he looked even more confused.
This universe doesn't even have a record of Darkseid's invasion.
He felt puzzled.
If assuming the Outsider still exists, and Pandora's Box hadn't appeared yet, how should the Outsider create enough chaos?
Suddenly, Viktor felt something inside his body pulse.
It was the gift he had received from a higher-dimensional being in the Invincible universe.
The authority of discord from the Golden Apple.
At this moment, Superman was rejecting Batman's new suggestion.
"The turmoil from Wonder Woman and Aquaman leaving the team hasn't yet subsided. You want to secretly monitor and verify everyone's identity again. If this is discovered, I'm afraid even the remaining Justice League members won't be able to trust each other anymore!"
Batman argued directly against Superman and insisted on his view.
"Trust is only valuable to discuss in peaceful situations. But now, we could face a war from another universe at any time!"
Sensing the divine authority within his body, Viktor's confused expression gradually disappeared.
War!
War!!
Viktor turned around and interrupted the argument between the two.
"No. Right now, we shouldn't focus on certain individuals. Instead, we should think—are there any forces on Earth that could stand against the Justice League?"
Batman stopped, thought for a moment, and said.
"The US government recently recruited former Justice League members, including Hawkman and some independent heroes I'm still observing."
"They formed a metahuman group called the Justice League of America, led by Amanda Waller from A.R.G.U.S., supposedly creating a reserve force for the Justice League."
Almost at the same time, Cyborg's alarm sounded throughout the Watchtower.
From the signal's frequency, it's a particularly serious A-level incident.
A piece of surveillance footage was projected onto the wall behind them.
Hawkman, who left the team some time ago, was leading a group of oddly dressed people searching back and forth near the beach at the outskirts of Metropolis, as if they were looking for something.
Cyborg's voice sounded.
"I had just hacked into A.R.G.U.S. The US government deduced Viktor's existence from clues left behind during the Doomsday incident in Metropolis. After that, they interrogated Hawkman, and now they were searching for Viktor's residence."
Viktor's speculation had come true.
It shouldn't have been easy for the government to figure out that there was another alien like Superman with Batman doing cleanup work afterward.
But if two gods wanted Earth to fall into chaos, secretly giving hints using their authority, then it was a different story.
The divine interference at this level doesn't follow science.
Even if Batman had wiped all surveillance and cleaned up all traces at the scene... once that divine "impulse" came, they would just strongly feel that there had been another unknown powerful being fighting Doomsday.
Moreover, Hawkman had actually seen Viktor.
Superman moved next to Viktor almost instantly, with fear that he might react badly.
"Don't—don't get excited."
He rubbed his face, looking a bit helpless.
"Rachel set up interference magic around that house. I'm not very worried they can find it, but you're probably worried about the wrong person."
In the next second, Emperor Viktor appeared in the surveillance footage, flying in from the sea while carrying a small wooden boat.
Even Zatanna, who usually didn't care much about threats in the physical world, started to gasp when she saw this.
Batman immediately turned and ran, his cape sweeping behind him, while telling Cyborg to notify the other Justice League members.
Following Batman, the others hurried toward the exit of the Watchtower.
Zatanna poked Viktor again as they ran.
"That's the future you. What do you think he'll do?"
Viktor's voice transmitted from under the helmet covering his face, muffled and heavy.
"He would probably kill everyone, I guess."
Viktor's mood wasn't affected much.
This move by the God of War didn't really bother him, but it probably meant that Emperor Viktor wouldn't be able to stay peaceful anymore.
He also poked Zatanna back, but his strength almost made Zatanna tumble.
"The violent maniac you were looking forward to is here—and why are you running? Aren't you a magician?"
Zatanna steadied herself, stopped, and gave Viktor the middle finger.
Then, Zatanna waved her hands and used teleportation magic.
...
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