Federal Government Building

"Attention, all units. Attention, all units. The target has been confirmed to be inside The Nest. The target is extremely dangerous. We have been authorized to use weapons of mass destruction. Once the target appears, all units are free to open fire."

The middle-aged man in an officer's uniform sat in the co-pilot's seat of an armed helicopter, repeating the message three times before finally lowering the radio and taking a deep breath. At this moment, every soldier in the base had been deployed outside the hemispherical building known as The Nest. Fighter jets, tanks, and hundreds of gun barrels were all trained on its sole exit, yet such a force had been assembled to deal with only one person inside.

Even with such overwhelming force, the man still felt uncertain. He knew his troops felt the same way. The female adjutant beside him asked quietly, "Sir, I heard the intruder this time... is him?"

The man did not answer. His gaze remained fixed on the door without wavering.

"But that can't be possible, right?" the adjutant murmured, seemingly talking to herself. "He's dead. Superman has been gone for a long time. That can't be him."

The man glanced at her and said in a low voice, "We are soldiers. On the battlefield, we only need to obey orders. Don't think about anything unnecessary."

"Yes, sir."

Yet despite saying that, when the figure they all knew so well appeared in the wide doorway, the man froze along with his subordinates. That dark blue suit, the striking S emblem that was almost blinding, and the scarlet cape billowing like a battle flag—once, they had pointed countless people forward.

Every gun barrel and cannon muzzle was aimed at the figure, but no one pulled the trigger immediately.

The man gritted his teeth and made the decision for his troops. "Fire!"

The roar of a tank shell opened the battle. Bullets swept toward the blue figure like a storm, while missiles from fighter jets and heavy tank shells struck one after another, exploding into light and heat. Flames rose into a wall dozens of meters high, as though some shapeless demon lurked amid the fire and smoke, twisting its body.

Jay stood at the very center of the barrage. Countless fragments scraped across his body and face, and scorching shockwaves made his cape billow violently, yet they could not move him an inch.

He turned his head and looked into the building. His spaceship was still lying quietly there, while the artificial intelligence Hygeian stood with her hands naturally folded before her, like a butler awaiting her master's orders.

But he could not take it with him, at least not yet—he still knew far too little about this alien-tech ship. Besides, he could hardly leave it in his backyard, could he?

"I'll come back for you," he said softly amid the deafening gunfire, utterly certain that Hygeian had heard him.

The soldiers' eyes widened, as though they could not believe what they were seeing. Flames and black smoke were sliced apart by blades of wind. A red-and-blue afterimage, trailing spiraling black smoke, shot into the sky like a rocket. Like a god descending upon the world, he completely ignored the barrage raining down on him and these irreverent mortals. With a sonic boom, he flung even the scorching smoke behind him and vanished into the endless heavens.

Everyone stopped firing and stared blankly at the sky for a long while. Their attacks had been meaningless. They had not even earned the other side's attention.

"I think that really was him, sir," the female adjutant in the armed helicopter said, with a trace of irrepressible excitement in her eyes.

World Federal Government Headquarters.

The location of the building was no secret. It stood right in New York. Wrapped in iron-black glass curtain walls, it was a skyscraper nearly two hundred stories tall—the tallest building in all of New York.

Jay had changed into casual clothes. Trying his best not to look suspicious, he circled the outside of the tower while scanning it with X-ray vision. Unfortunately, aside from the lobby, the entire building was filled with lead structures that blocked his sight.

In truth, he had not even decided exactly what he had come here to do. Confront Mongor and beat the crap out of him? He was not even sure he could defeat Mongor.

After thinking it over repeatedly, he decided that barging in so recklessly would be an incredibly stupid idea. At the very least, he should speak to someone who actually had a plan. Batman might not care about anything beyond Gotham now, but Jay felt that if he told him about this shocking discovery, perhaps he would do something.

Just then, a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. "If this is your disguise, then I have to say you really have no talent for this sort of thing. You do realize you've been wandering suspiciously around the Federal Government Building for five minutes, right?"

He recognized Helena's crisp voice before he even turned around. At a moment like this, it could not have sounded more pleasant. Jay turned to see Helena silently appearing behind him in a sharp leather jacket, her hair tied in a single ponytail.

"Helena?" Jay said in surprise. "Why are you here?"

"Same reason as you, I guess," she said. "Since you're here, I assume you know Mongor exists too?"

"If you mean an ugly, hulking alien who has ruled our world for five years without us noticing—yes, I unfortunately already know."

"Good. That saves us the trouble of exchanging intelligence." Helena nodded. "That means we can get straight to work."

"Get to work?" Jay looked blank. "Okay, you haven't actually explained what we're doing. Go in and beat Mongor up? We don't even know whether he's on Earth."

Helena rolled her eyes at him. "That was your plan for coming here?"

"I, uh, didn't have a plan," Jay admitted awkwardly.

"Then we'll use mine." As she spoke, Helena grabbed him and pulled him away without giving him any choice.

As Jay followed her, he asked, "Wait, you still haven't told me what your plan is."

"Infiltrate that building and find evidence that Mongor is controlling the Federal Government," Helena said. "He's been hiding for so long. Server data, documents, interfaces connecting to alien systems, or alien soldiers stationed on Earth—he can't erase every trace."

"Hmm, that makes sense. But isn't the building over there? We seem to be heading in the opposite direction."

"That building is full of traps from top to bottom. Even the glass is covered in sensors for motion, heat, and more. Floors one through ten are ordinary offices. To go any higher, you not only need card authentication, but they also scan and monitor the entrant's gait and heartbeat. Even with Super Speed, it's impossible to slip inside without alerting a single sensor. And if you trigger even one sensor—"

"We'll have to fight the world's military head-on. That would suck, I get it." Jay raised a hand like a student eager to learn. "So what do we do now?"

"Through the sewer system, straight into the building's absolutely restricted area," Helena said. "I searched through all the information on that building and found an area that is completely off-limits. Even the Prime Minister of the World Federal Government cannot enter without going through a series of complicated authorization procedures. No one knows what is in that area. My friend hacked into their internal network, and there wasn't even any record of data about it."

Jay swallowed. "That sounds... exciting."

"It's dangerous, but it's our only chance."

(Thanks to reader Yan Yan Yan Que An Zhi Hong Hu Zhi Zhi for the 5,000 Qidian Coin donation, reader Justice League Kid Captain and Ming Zhong Que Shui for the 500 Qidian Coin donations, and reader Singularity of the Universe for the 100 Qidian Coin donation!)