I became light in American comics.

Chapter 144 High-speed afterimage

"I have a great idea!"

Maxima's eyes seemed to be shining.

"Why don't you come back to Almeric with me first? We can solve any problems together later, what do you think?"

"Good strategy, but I'd like to make a slight modification," Shen You said. "How about you go back to Almeric first, and then look around for other suitable options?"

Maxima pouted: "You should know that you're refusing Almeric's crown."

"So, if I have the crown, can I do whatever I want?"

"Of course not, you still have to listen to me." Maxima puffed out her chest. "The rules are simple. You do whatever I say, and you're not allowed to leave the palace without my permission. Otherwise, you're free to do as you please."

"So that's the problem. It seems your concept of marriage is quite different from ours," Shen You said helplessly. "Or how about this: in most cities there's a big blue guy with a red cape, stronger than me. Go bother him; he's handsome, good at fighting, and easy to talk to."

"Enough with the nonsense, I've got you figured out!" Maxima sneered. "Your skills and combat awareness are indeed impressive, but the princess of Almerik has much more to offer than that."

This time, I'll show you my speed!

As the last word fell, the person vanished in a flash, no longer in the same spot. In an instant, dust rose, like a hurricane of yellow sand. Figures flickered in and out of the dust, as if Maxima had surrounded him from all sides at the same time.

To be fair, Maxima is indeed quite powerful, with an all-around impressive stat line. She possesses superhuman strength, incredible speed, and both energy and mental abilities—she's a true all-rounder. No wonder she considered herself invincible before arriving on Earth, where overpowered characters are everywhere.

But if we put it on Earth...

Maxima dodged and weaved, confident that her speed was already dazzling her opponent. However, as she maintained her high speed and circled to the flank, preparing to attack from behind, she suddenly discovered in horror—

—The other person is looking at me.

Among the countless fleeting figures, eyes were fixed on her, watching her every move.

He can actually see that?

Maxima was horrified. She knew that achieving her current speed wasn't just due to her own abilities, but also to the amplification provided by her equipment. As the princess of Almerik, her armor was the culmination of their planet's cutting-edge technology, allowing her to reach more than twice her original speed.

How can he keep up like that?

Maxima gritted her teeth. She could go even faster!

Her speed exploded without restraint, the wind from her passing leaving the earth riddled with holes like a sharp blade. Her armor was operating at an unprecedentedly high speed, so fast that even her reflexes struggled to keep up, and the scene before her eyes began to blur.

Success!

Maxima's body sliced ​​through the air, sweeping a spinning kick towards Shen You. Shen You stood still, neither dodging nor avoiding, as if he hadn't had time to react at all.

Unexpectedly, her kick swept across Shen You, creating a loud bang that cracked the ground, but it didn't feel like it hit its target.

Instead, they passed through without any hindrance.

A fleeting afterimage.

Maxima was stunned. She turned her head and her expression immediately exploded.

She saw a large group of mobile armored vehicles.

Like a mirror image, a dozen or so mobile armored vehicles surrounded her from all sides.

"High speed. Afterimage!?"

Maxima was stunned.

The knowledgeable princess immediately recognized what kind of skill this was. In fact, it was a common skill for all speedsters in DC, creating high-speed afterimages by moving at a sufficiently high speed, thus creating the illusion of a clone.

To generate over a dozen high-speed afterimages all at once like this, as if it were free, how fast would that be!?

In fact, Shen You only had the idea after seeing Maxima's ability to teleport everywhere. He wanted to take the opportunity to try out the new tricks that he had recently developed during his research.

The clone technique isn't anything special; many arcane characters can do it. However, the standard clone technique involves splitting the light particles on one's body to create a second body. Like teleportation in the arcane series, it's a mana-intensive skill for most people, except for highly skilled players who can use it indiscriminately like a skill with no cooldown. Moreover, it's often unnecessary, so Shen You rarely uses it.

While the high-speed afterimages may look similar, they are not simply a matter of creating clones. This is a skill of The Flash. Although it's called an afterimage, it's not just about being fast enough to create a shadowy image. As seen in Reverse-Flash's performance in the TV series, these high-speed afterimages are like physical clones, and they can even fight each other.

Its true mystery lies in its involvement of the spatial properties of the Speed ​​Force, allowing speedsters to achieve the effect of appearing in multiple different places simultaneously when they reach sufficient speed.

In the comics, one of the Flash's most frequently mentioned feats is that of the third Flash, Wally, who raced against a cosmic being capable of unlimited teleportation. The being teleported to the other side of the universe in the shortest possible instant, yet the Flash arrived before him. Wally essentially pushed the Speed ​​Force to its limit, allowing him to appear almost anywhere in the universe simultaneously.

Of course, those extremely rare instances of explosive growth represent the upper limit. That's still a long way off, but after some research and development, Shen You has already grasped the basics of this attribute and developed the most fundamental high-speed afterimage usage.

And this first real-world test was undoubtedly quite effective.

You could tell from Maxima's bewildered expression, as if she were questioning the meaning of life.

The new skill itself wasn't that important; what mattered was the underlying principles and limitless potential. Its applicability convinced Shen You that he had found the right research direction, and that following this path would allow him to uncover even more secrets hidden within the Speed ​​Force.

Maxima was completely captivated, looking utterly conquered.

Is this man that fast?

Not only is it that strong, it's also that fast.

I'm done.

My judgment proved to be accurate.

If we have a boy, we'll name him Caesar; if we have a girl, we'll name her Karen.

"Uh, Your Highness?"

"What is it? I'm busy."

Maxima, whose important life event of naming her child had been interrupted, glared angrily at Sass, who had interrupted her.

Sass shrank back.

"I didn't mean to interrupt, but they had already left."

Maxima: "."

Tianyan Association, Headquarters.

"The situation at the volcano is under control, and all abnormal readings have disappeared."

An investigator from the Tianyan (Sky Eye) team is reporting to headquarters. Behind him is the temporary investigation camp that Tianyan has just set up.

"Why did you suddenly disappear?" Amanda Waller asked.

"I don't know. About an hour ago, all communication and surveillance in the vicinity were cut off, but some local residents reported seeing a flying object resembling the biological codename 'Ultraman,' which might be related."

"Understood," Waller said. "You stay at the scene and conduct further investigation."

"Yes, sir."

After cutting off the communication, Waller pondered for a while and suddenly had a strange intuition that staying there to investigate might not be a good idea.

Lately, I've been having really bad luck; I'm getting blamed for everything, even drinking water seems to cause problems. Who knows, staying there might just lead to some more strange karmic entanglements.

"The dragon's gone too?" Norn couldn't sit still any longer and shouted, "How could it be gone!?"

"I don't know," the communications officer said helplessly. "Dicken, who had just completed his raid, was lying in wait underground. But the signal suddenly went down not long ago, and our monitoring was blocked by some unknown means."

When they regained the signal, they discovered that Dickon's vital signs had disappeared; he had been eliminated.

"This is outrageous!" Norn frowned.

He set up towers around the Earth, but they're gone. Now, the giant dragons he sent down are also gone.

So what's next? Are they preparing to push the high ground?

"Don't rush," General Zod said calmly. "Get me the location of the last time Dickon's vital signs appeared. Give me the image."

"Yes, sir."

The connection was quickly established, and a live view of Mount Triss appeared on the monitor of the Rothsburg control panel.

After looking for a moment, Zod suddenly reached out: "Zoom in on that area at the foot of the mountain."

The soldier did as instructed.

As the image zoomed in, everyone could clearly see a series of tents and equipment temporarily erected at the foot of the mountain, with armored vehicles and fully armed soldiers moving back and forth between the camps.

A logo was clearly drawn on the tent, along with a string of large characters.

ARGUS (Sky Eye Association)

Norn narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists.

"Sky Eye."

(End of this chapter)