He Is Indeed Worthy

The Gentle-looking Man felt his diaphragm spasming violently. He wanted to bend over, but the heel driven beneath his jaw carried a force he could not resist, pinning him hard against the wall. Pain filled his eyes, and the bloody stench and filth from the sole of the high heel flooded his nose.

Only now did he understand why Jupiter had emerged from a battlefield like the Middle East and become a renowned journalist. It was not merely because of her beauty and intelligence; she also possessed formidable strength.

"Jealous?" Pain twisted the Gentle-looking Man's lips. With the high heel forcing his neck back and his toes barely touching the floor against the wall, he struggled helplessly and said with contempt flashing in his eyes, "You pride yourselves on being the pinnacle of human intellect. Yearn for it. Envy that kind of power. Be jealous."

The predecessor of the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association was the world-famous Mensa Club.

Its original purpose was to serve humanity's interests by identifying, cultivating, and consolidating human IQ; encouraging research into the instincts, traits, and applications of human intelligence; and providing its members with valuable opportunities for intellectual stimulation, exchange, and development.

Mensa was the world's largest and most successful IQ club.

It had more than a hundred thousand members spread across one hundred countries, with the United Kingdom and United States having the largest numbers.

Aside from the South Pole, it had branches in more than forty countries across every continent.

There were no restrictions on gender, race, class, or profession for membership, but its sole threshold was extraordinarily high: you had to be exceptionally intelligent to join.

What did "exceptionally intelligent" mean? It meant your IQ had to rank within the top 2 percent of humanity.

In other words, 98 percent of Earth's population lost the qualifications to join Mensa because they were "too stupid."

Since its founding, Mensa had gathered top geniuses from every field, including science, literature, and art.

When the alien announced himself to the world and appeared in the video posted online—a video that even Mensa's computer geniuses could not crack no matter what they tried—they understood that Earth was about to change.

Mensa subsequently fell silent. Some among them with IQs above 180 and unwavering convictions formed an organization dedicated to saving humanity from danger: the Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association.

Some possessed intellects so extraordinary that Earth seemed transparent to them. They saw through this world, through humanity and human nature. Their eyes fixed on the alien who sought to conquer the world, their lips curling as they welcomed a game of conquest and subjugation.

Would humanity conquer the alien, or would the alien conquer humanity? To them, it was a psychological game so thrilling that it sent adrenaline surging through their veins.

They wanted to use masses of humans to break him, crush him, and conquer him.

Now was only the beginning.

Others stood at the pinnacle of human intelligence, fearful yet resolute. With the will to sacrifice themselves, they approached him, observed him, and searched for his weaknesses, all for the day they could cleave apart the figure beneath the sun and seize dawnlight for humanity.

They all possessed humanity's peak intellect. In the past, money, power, fame, and beauty had been no more than things within easy reach, hardly worth mentioning.

Everything in the human world seemed meaningless to them.

They had seen through too much. There was little left to entertain them.

Only this—facing an alien, an insurmountable summit—could give them the sensation of their brains boiling and every synapse leaping with the thrill of challenge.

At this moment, they felt that they had been born into this world to deal with him, drag him down from his pedestal, control him, conquer him, and kill him.

They had been born with intellects far beyond ordinary people for this very moment.

This era had not failed us!

The sewer room was terrifyingly silent. The oil lamp swayed with dim yellow light, and every face was buried deep in shadow, their gazes calm.

"To possess such intelligence without an unwavering faith is truly a frightening kind of stupidity." A face hidden in the darkness spoke in an unruffled tone.

"If he cannot even manage basic social understanding or see through the ways of the world, how does he dare hope to fight alongside us?" Another face shook its head, without the slightest trace of regret in its voice.

The others said nothing, but all agreed.

At a time like this, in front of everyone, declaring that he wanted to become the alien's subordinate and gain superpowers was simply too foolish. His emotional intelligence was practically nonexistent.

Perhaps Harmony's usual genial exchanges had given him the wrong impression, making him think they merely held different opinions and were still fellow highly intelligent people who looked down on ordinary humans.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

It was a group of highly intelligent humans facing a god whose intelligence was no less than their own and who despised humanity.

This was a war between humans and a god.

How could such a war tolerate someone with such abysmal emotional intelligence?

Jupiter remained very calm.

Compared to Kevin, who had faced He-El directly and been cut in half by his Heat Vision, the Gentle-looking Man before her was far inferior.

Expressionless, she gently lowered her raised right leg, withdrawing her high heel from beneath his jaw.

The Gentle-looking Man let out a breath of relief. The flesh beneath his jaw throbbed with pain, swollen and bleeding, making his face twitch slightly.

Just as his heels slowly touched the ground, Jupiter's descending right knee twisted like a machine joint, turning half a circle at an angle. The top of her foot then struck swiftly and stealthily toward his temple.

Bang!

Without noticing anything at all, the Gentle-looking Man was kicked directly in the temple by Jupiter. He flew backward, crashed onto the ground, and passed out.

Jupiter lowered her right leg, expressionlessly brushed at her torn skirt, returned to her seat, and spoke.

"Everyone, my time is limited. It is time to announce our strategy for the next phase."

"I still support maintaining our Psychological Strategy against him," a voice said confidently.

"Psychological Manipulation has already failed. Kevin is dead. We made the wrong choice."

"No, quite the opposite. Now that he has displayed such intense emotions, he has value as a target for manipulation. Since he cannot be manipulated through the 'greater good,' we should start with the 'small details.' That will surely produce remarkable results."

"As long as he still has emotions and can still communicate, I can break him."

"Control began when he was willing to step onto that podium."

As the oil lamp flickered, it revealed an ordinary face wearing a confident smile.

Edward Yorton.

He was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, with an ordinary build and ordinary mid-range clothing. He seemed to possess nothing remarkable whatsoever.

Yet he was currently Earth's most terrifying master psychologist. Everyone, including Mensa's most intelligent members, had to acknowledge and fear dealing with him, because during a few casual exchanges, it was easy to be misled by him, hypnotized by him, and planted with subconscious influences.

He possessed the world's sharpest eye. With a single glance, he could identify a person's psychological weaknesses. No matter how one disguised oneself before him, no one could escape those eagle-like eyes.

He possessed psychological abilities capable of altering the subconscious, like Inception.

For someone without any supernatural mental powers to control a person's memories and experiences through nothing but simple gestures, hypnosis, and objects, that was a truly terrifying ability.

He had no psychic powers resembling superpowers. He relied only on his unique understanding and interpretation of every individual's psychology, along with graphic hypnosis, verbal suggestion, subconscious-planting gestures, and mind-reading observation techniques he had developed specifically for humans. He could control anyone.

IQ and emotional intelligence were irrelevant. So long as a person still had emotions, they could be manipulated by him.

Even his entry into Mensa had not been normal.

Merely to demonstrate his ability, he had relied on his own talents to thrive among various highly intelligent circles. Before anyone realized it, he had made everyone acknowledge him as a Mensa member—and even one of its higher-ups. In the end, with great dramatic irony, even the Mensa Club's chairman believed Edward was more qualified to serve as chairman and publicly ceded the position to him.

No one objected. Everyone thought it suited him perfectly.

After taking the chairman's position, he stood on the podium and loudly mocked every Mensa member. They were utterly vulnerable; what genius gathering? Not one person could contend with him. Every one of them had been led around by the nose, leaving him with nowhere to find a worthy opponent.

Only after he voluntarily revealed everything did Mensa's upper ranks finally snap back to their senses. They understood the terror of this peerless master psychologist. Without realizing it, they had become puppets used to achieve another person's goals.

Even after the truth was exposed, countless geniuses still willingly submitted to him, believing his abilities were exceptional and that he was more formidable than 99 percent of the world's population.

Before this, numerous wealthy individuals had jointly protected him, secretly forming a security force even more extravagant than that of a national president, all to protect a psychology master who surpassed humanity.

He might have been the person in human history who understood human psychology better than anyone else.

An ordinary middle-aged man with a charm that captivated every highly intelligent human on Earth.

The others fell silent. No one could refute Edward on the subject of psychology.

This was the field he had devoted his life to. No one could compare.

They feared him, yet were also certain that Kevin had been unknowingly used by him as a brick to knock loose the alien's emotions.

"May Kevin's sacrifice have been worthwhile. Your team will be responsible for interpreting his behavior and conducting Psychological Manipulation." Just as everyone was about to debate whether continuing Psychological Manipulation was feasible, Jupiter decisively made the call and placed Edward, the former Mensa chairman, in charge.

He was an expert in this field. Even the world's greatest psychologists had received only a tiny fraction of his instruction. His understanding of human nature and psychology surpassed that of geniuses. Even Mensa Club's many geniuses turned pale at the mention of him, and no one knew how many people had unknowingly had their lives controlled by him.

If they needed someone to interpret his behavior, there was no one more suitable than him.

Then Jupiter pressed all ten fingers against the round table, her expression stern as she said.

"Everyone, I want you to emerge from the shadows and become his subordinates."

"Recommend yourselves to Dawn. I will also arrange for a group of people to enter."

"Use every ounce of your wisdom and talent to manage his grand Earth Empire and make outstanding contributions."

"Our next phase is this: secure at least 900 slots for superpowered humans."

"Among us are Earth's finest researchers in chemistry, physics, biology... In the shortest possible time, we will develop superpower applications beyond his imagination."

"His strength exceeds humanity's imagination. In that case, we will use his own power to kill him."

No one objected. Today's infiltration and assistance to the enemy were for tomorrow's victory.

"Fine. I was just about to respond to Dawn's recruitment," a voice said with a faint smile.

"What a coincidence. So was I."

"Then Dawn has a good eye."

"It saves us the trouble of recommending ourselves or making arrangements. If we cannot even enter his political group, how can we talk about bringing him down?"

"He is too pitiful, all alone and opposed by everyone."

"Heh heh."

"..."

The group could not help smiling. Some had already been invited by Dawn, so they only had to accept now, saving themselves the trouble of self-recommendation and backdoor arrangements.

They lamented the alien's suicidal foolishness. Every one of his subordinates was his enemy.

He was indeed worthy of their intervention.

Everyone smiled faintly.

Jupiter's solemn gaze swept across every face present. In a deep, sorrowful, yet resolute voice, she said.

"Gentlemen, this road stretches endlessly ahead. We do not know when we may again act according to our will. It is highly likely that we will die without a survivor, be reduced to dust and ashes, perhaps not even leaving corpses behind. Even so, even if our bodies are destroyed, we shall still cut through thorns and brambles, press forward without hesitation, cleave apart the figure beneath the sun, seize dawnlight for humanity, and cast a ray of light upon future generations."

As the oil lamp swayed, its dim yellow glow hazily illuminated one confident, composed face after another.