A Small Test of Skill

Tongus, clad in a white protective suit, broke out in a cold sweat. His soaked lining clung tightly to his body, and his eyes were filled with terror and panic.

He had not forgotten that the alien possessed a baseline strength of over thirty thousand tons.

What did that mean?

It meant that an ultra-high-pressure saw capable of easily cutting through the strongest known alloy in the world, spinning so fast it tore through the air and formed sonic boom clouds, was now being casually pinched between two fingers.

The thirty-meter mechanical arm trembled incessantly. With nowhere for its pressure to go, it snapped the firmly secured bolts loose with a bang, and the arm began swaying wildly.

The entire Anchorage Base was stunned. No one had expected the alien to suddenly awaken at this moment.

Tongus was especially terrified. His tablet fell from his hand. His body's protective mechanism had frozen him stiff under the extreme fright, so stiff that he even felt as though his heart had frozen.

Because the skin around the alien's eyes looked as though it had been scorched. The high heat had reddened the area, revealing blue veins beneath.

Boom

Two crimson beams of Heat Vision suddenly shot toward Tongus's head.

His head first suffered an overwhelmingly powerful kinetic impact. It blasted through his protective suit and tore his head from his body. Then came the searing heat, melting and vaporizing his head. Throughout it all, he felt only the fear before the attack and no pain at all.

The Heat Vision shot straight toward the dome, striking its steel supports and melting them into crimson droplets of molten iron. It then pierced through the dome of Anchorage Base and streaked into the night sky.

The distant garrison in Anchorage City saw a crimson beam tearing through the night sky.

"Ah!!!!!"

Everyone inside Anchorage Base saw the crimson Heat Vision reflected in their eyes. Their instinctive fear of a powerful creature gripped their hearts like a giant hand, setting off panicked screams and chaos.

The biomedical experts in the treatment room scrambled to their feet and fled for their lives.

He-El slowly stopped using Heat Vision. His eyeballs felt dry, and there was a faint burning pain around his eyelids. It was merely discomfort from using it for the first time and did not matter.

He opened and closed his eyes. His deep pupils shifted slightly, and everything had already returned to normal.

"Why did he wake up?!"

"Kill him! Attack!"

"We can't kill him. Our lifespans are still in his body."

"Do you still not understand how serious this is?"

"He's an alien. The power he possesses makes him a walking nuclear bomb."

"Kill him. A corpse will do!"

"He has to die!"

"Open fire!"

The representatives of various nations hanging around the dome walls knew how serious the situation was.

Their expressions were ugly. They had not expected the target to suddenly awaken during the dismemberment procedure. According to the plan, they had already fed him enough neurotoxin through his mouth to paralyze nearly a thousand elephants, yet it now seemed to have had no effect.

But it did not matter. A corpse would do.

The fully prepared weapons and equipment still gave the representatives of various nations confidence.

He-El lightly pinched the circular saw between two fingers, then casually flicked it away.

The thirty-meter mechanical arm was struck by an unmatched force, twisting and whipping through the air. The sound of tearing steel bored harshly into everyone's ears. The arm snapped apart in midair and crashed into other steel supports, causing violent tremors and frightened cries.

"My body is a little stiff."

He-El sat up on the steel operating table and turned his neck. It cracked repeatedly, bringing a wave of comfort.

He held out his hands, turning them over and examining them before clenching them tightly. His fist closed too quickly, creating a sonic boom. Two pale clouds enveloped his hands before quickly fading.

Now, even a casual movement from him could easily break the sound barrier.

He-El gauged his strength inwardly. Every cell in his body was exceptionally active and excited, supplying immense power while intertwining it into a biological magnetic field that allowed him to control his body even better.

He had not awakened the instant he landed after basking in the sun. Instead, after realizing there was little danger, he had chosen to meditate and take control of his body.

For him, that illusion of suddenly becoming powerful enough to kill a cow with one punch, the sensation of going from weak to strong, no longer existed.

The deep meditation of the Kryptonian Meditation Guild existed precisely to master a Kryptonian's body.

I have fully mastered my body.

He-El casually tore apart the Ironhide restraining his hands and feet. He raised his head and looked around, his pupils constantly contracting and expanding as he alternated between near and distant vision. His gaze swept over the many Anchorage Base staff members watching from afar in shock and suspicion, clearly catching every rich expression on their faces.

A grenade bounced down to his feet with several clanks, followed by more than a dozen grenades thrown inside.

He-El lowered his head and watched the little thing hit his chest muscle before rolling onto the floor.

Boom boom boom...

The grenades exploded in succession, releasing a cloud of bluish-green mist.

What was this thing?

He-El felt nothing at all. The bluish-green mist entered through his nose, but he could not sense the slightest effect from the weak irritant smoke. He had no idea what it was supposed to do.

Rows of elite army soldiers carrying the latest equipment had been mobilized by General Jericho. M240 machine guns and Browning M2 heavy machine guns provided heavy firepower. In the distance, jeeps equipped with thirty-millimeter autocannons arrived, stocked with various armor-piercing rounds. Heavy military sniper teams armed with L115A3 sniper rifles and Barrett M82A1s lay in wait, aiming at the treatment room.

Farther away, seventeen M1A2 main battle tanks had long been deployed in the plaza outside Anchorage Base. Their barrels turned in unison toward the treatment room. At a single command, they could blast through Anchorage Base's outer walls and shell the treatment room directly, destroying the entire area.

In the sky outside, armed helicopters such as the Apache, Cobra, and Little Pony had their missiles and autocannons aimed at the treatment room.

Fighter jets carrying missiles were already circling in the distant night sky.

The entire treatment room was surrounded by gun barrels without a single gap.

"General, the target has not been affected by the nerve gas."

Inside the treatment room, the bluish-green mist gradually dispersed, and a tall black figure slowly emerged like a demon god.

"Open fire!"