I became light in American comics

Chapter 77 Archive

Shen You took the initiative, accelerating his advance and activating super speed. He flashed forward and appeared in front of the first robot, punching the metal skull face with the thrusters, shattering it.

This punch was like a fuse that suddenly went off, instantly setting the stage for a fierce battle in the dark factory.

A large number of Brainiac robots emerged from the darkness, their smooth steel bodies reflecting the eerie green light emanating from each other. They moved with equal speed, quickly deploying into formation and surrounding Shen You from both the air and the ground.

"Collect. Collect," a strange mechanical sound came from one of the robots.

Shen You leaped into the air, simultaneously delivering a powerful knee strike that tore a huge gash in the robot's chest. The robot's eyes flickered, then it swayed and plummeted to the ground.

"Knowledge needs to be collected, and the world needs to be archived," another robot said.

Shen You leaped into the air on flames, followed by more robots, with dense beams of light shooting from all sides. With so many enemies in the enclosed space, and green laser beams crisscrossing everywhere, there was no room to maneuver, no matter how fast one moved.

However, the energy of the Ultra Barrier had already been released, enveloping the armor in the form of a force field shield. Dense beams of light blasted from all sides, creating continuous explosions around Shen You, but they could not shake the solid shield.

"How is the force field?" Shen You asked.

“86% integrity, it can definitely hold up,” Pal said.

The shield system was incredibly effective, absorbing tons of damage without even a crack. Shen You unleashed a barrage of palm strikes, causing the Brainiac robot to explode one after another under the impact of the palm cannons.

"They used to say that mass production would inevitably result in substandard products, but I thought they were just saying it casually."

As he spoke, Shen You had already sprinted and disrupted the robot formation. He fired a rocket punch that pierced through one of the robots, and then swung it backhand, smashing another robot to the ground.

"Scans revealed that these robots utilize various extraterrestrial technologies, but the metallic elements that make up their bodies all originate from Earth," Pal reported. "It is speculated that Brainiac hijacked the vanguard of Earth's assembly line production."

However, because it uses local production lines and raw materials, its body strength is not high. A light-powered cannon maintaining above 7% output is enough to destroy the outer shell.

"7%, I'll remember that."

Shen You unleashed an eight-point light wheel, neatly severing an entire row of robots in two.

In just one minute since the firefight began, more than half of the robots in the room have been wiped out. But they feel no pain or fear, and the remaining robots continue to surge forward, muttering eerie phrases.

"Lakes and seas were destroyed, and all birds and beasts were wiped out—"

"Eliminate them all—"

"We will take over what is important—"

A Specium warhead fell, its explosive flames carrying deadly matter that swept across the area. Numerous machine bodies shattered one after another, the sounds of explosions, sparks, and clashing steel mingling together, leaving behind a vast expanse of charred remains.

The last machine disintegrated, and a huge screen lit up in the darkness.

Shen You approached and stepped forward. A green background appeared on the screen, along with a Q-version face that looked like a skull.

“I am Brainiac.”

The voice, like that of a synthesized machine, seemed to come from somewhere far away.

"You are a planetary anomaly; you do not belong to this planet. I have been observing you."

"Really? I'm truly flattered."

Shen You spoke calmly, while Parr was already trying to trace the source of the signal.

"What do you want?" Shen You asked.

“Knowledge, collection, archiving,” Brainiac said. “I collect the knowledge of countless worlds, and store the knowledge of every civilization that the universe has given birth to in my library.”

"So, your next target is Earth?"

“To correct you. I’m not targeting Earth now; I’ve been here for a while, and the knowledge about this planet has already been archived,” Brainiac said calmly. “The species that live on this planet—they call themselves ‘humans’.”

They are primitive and backward, yet also suspicious and self-righteous. The Kryptonians and your presence make them uneasy and drive them to seek a way out.

And I offered them solutions. So they willingly opened their doors to me, offering me what I wanted to collect.

"What do you mean?" Shen You narrowed his eyes, glancing at the tracking progress bar in the corner of his vision.

Theoretically, once the signal's origin is found, Shen You could digitize his body and trace the path—though whether to do so remains to be seen. Charging headlong into the other side without knowing anything about the environment, deployments, or enemy situation would be reckless and obviously unwise.

Pal silently showed him the progress via the screen. The location had been tracked somewhere beyond the atmosphere, in the boundless starry sky. But then the progress bar froze, the loading icon spinning in circles, yet it seemed unable to find the source of the signal.

“I know you’re stalling for time. You’re trying to find me, but that’s impossible,” Brainiac said calmly. “I’m everywhere.”

But at least Shen You was certain of one thing.

Old Bu himself is probably not on Earth.

“I originally came here only to collect information about Earth’s civilization, but after arriving, I discovered that there were unexpected gains,” Brainiac said calmly. “The remaining Kryptonians are also here, Kryptonians who grew up on Earth. Important specimens that need to be collected.”

And there's something even more important: you.

Shen You could almost feel the burning gaze of the super AI through the electronic screen.

"I have collected civilization after civilization, conquered world after world, but I have never seen a being like you. An energy-state life, like a newly emerging star, with immense power and endless possibilities."

"Thank you for the compliment, but you can forget about me becoming your pet."

"You will, sizzle."

The signal seemed to be starting to become unstable. The screen began to flicker, and Brainiac's voice started to crackle.

"Just give it some time. But before that, the Kryptonians have already begun the archiving process."

The screen went black, and the signal was lost.

Shen You frowned slightly.

Archiving has started? What does that mean?

But he soon found out.

A call was connected to the armor, and the message indicated it was from Kara.

"Kara? What's going on?" Shen You asked.

"Shen You! You...you come back quickly! Did you see the news? It's about Karl...Oh my god, Karl was..."

"Calm down, Kara, tell me slowly, what happened to Superman?"

As he spoke, Shen You gestured to Pal to open Metropolitan News on the monitor.

Then he immediately understood what Kara meant.

Almost every channel was interrupting its broadcast with this breaking news.

Superman successfully captured?

Good news! Thanks to all the readers for your support, although the fanfiction was heavily cut, this book still managed to secure a spot on the Three Rivers list with excellent readership!

Bad news: There are too many books during the summer vacation, so Sanjiang has been scheduled for next week, and its release has also been pushed back to next week.

The original plan was to release this climax of the metropolis section all at once, but this release schedule has completely disrupted that plan.

However, I don't want to deliberately slow down the pace just to force the release date, so I plan to stick to the original outline. It's just that I feel really annoyed that I can't release a huge batch of chapters all at once... it's frustrating...

Chapter 78 Superman Arrested?

Through the news and Kara's description, Shen You quickly figured out what had happened.

In short, a train traveling at 200 miles per hour went out of control tonight. Superman appeared and did his utmost to stop the train, but he was exhausted and was then captured by the military while he was weakened.

real or fake?

Upon seeing this, Shen You felt a sense of doubt.

Superman, stopped on the train, exhausted, and arrested? Are you sure this description is the same Superman I know?

But then he thought, just as Batman was a rookie when he first debuted, Superman probably wasn't much better off now. After all, the Superman he saw on TV at this point didn't even have his classic costume, just a simple T-shirt, jeans, and leather boots.

It's not entirely impossible that Superman would be caught these days.

Moreover, Shen You immediately thought of what Brainiac had just said: the Kryptonian archiving had already begun.

Perhaps Old Bu is also interfering?

Judging from the description just now, Old Brooks may have already started contacting high-ranking military officials, and may even have fabricated lies to portray himself as the savior while depicting Superman as a heinous aggressor—it sounds like something Old Brooks would do.

Then Brooks used some methods to help the military capture Superman. This guess sounded much more plausible to Shen You; it was quite normal for a newcomer like Superman to fall into Brooks' hands.

“Mom said I have to take care of Carl, I should look after him!” Kara said nervously. “What should we do now? Should we just storm into that base and rescue Carl?”

"That's a last resort, no rush," Shen You reassured him.

Typical reckless thinking, probably another classic Kryptonian solution derived from her super brain after careful consideration: "Quickly use your super power to A-go!"

"Wait for my message, I'll go check it out."

The force that captured Superman was led by General Lane. He's also a familiar face in the Superman stories: the father of Lois Lane, Superman's future wife, and Superman's father-in-law with whom he has a love-hate relationship.

This character bears a striking resemblance to Ross, the father-in-law in the Hulk stories: a staunch anti-Superman activist and a troublemaker. He claims to be acting in humanity's best interests by driving away aliens, but his daily life revolves around creating countless messes he can't clean up, leaving Superman to clean up his messes.

General Ryan is probably still in the early stages of his illness and hasn't yet entered the obsessive phase of wanting to have a father. Right now, he just wants to find an opportunity to take down Superman.

So now all we need to do is figure out a way to sneak into General Ryan's base and take a look.

This was quite easy for Shen You. He was no longer essentially human; his human form was merely a disguise. He could transform into whatever he wanted. In other words, disguise and transformation were among his basic abilities.

So he had Pal forge the files and "create" a new identity.

Mike Williams, a senior agent of SkyEye.

There were reasons for using the name "Sky Eye" (天眼). Matters involving extraterrestrials fall under Sky Eye's jurisdiction. Furthermore, unlike other departments, Sky Eye is a special agency similar to S.H.I.E.L.D. (the agency of Nick Fury in Marvel). They have a high degree of autonomy and often suddenly intervene in the affairs of other departments, only to be met with a mysterious "classified" when asked anything.

Wearing the disguise of a Sky Eye agent and carrying a forged identity document from Pal, he successfully infiltrated the camp, but still encountered some minor resistance.

“Sorry, Superman is ours. This isn’t a matter for SkyEye,” General Ryan said curtly.

"All superhuman and extraterrestrial events fall under the purview of the Sky Eye."

Shen You made sure his appearance and tone of voice matched the image of a Sky Eye agent as closely as possible.

"Furthermore, the Sky Eye recently encountered an invasion by extraterrestrial life, which behaved similarly to this 'Superman.' There are indications that the two are connected."

Then his tone softened: "Of course, Director Waller doesn't mean to steal this project. We just hope to share information so that Sky Eye can develop strategies to deal with these aliens."

General Ryan pondered for a moment, seemingly agreeing that the request was reasonable.

"Row."