The Most Miserable Superman

The sun was blazing. Gotham was brighter today than it had been on any other day.

Even with windows and curtains blocking it, the sunlight still baked the air until one could almost smell scorched skin.

It was the most abnormal noon since summer had ended.

Cyborg stopped searching, disconnected from the database, and opened his eyes. "I can confirm the location, but are you sure you want to go there? That's a military restricted zone!"

As a national military consultant, trespassing into a restricted zone was a major taboo.

Of course, compared to the national restricted zone, Cyborg wanted Flash and Batman to join World War III more, to put an end to the war once and for all.

"Then let's move." Barry said to Batman, Thomas Wayne, "Take your Batwing and get us there immediately. Superman will be our greatest help!"

"What Batwing?" Thomas asked.

"Don't tell me you don't have a Batwing!" Barry had a bad feeling.

How could Batman not have a Batwing?

"I don't have one of those, but we do have something we can use. It can barely fly," Thomas said.

An hour later, a private plane took off from the airport.

And an hour earlier, another plane had already left the runway.

The plane passed through thick clouds and, after violent turbulence, finally stabilized in the stratosphere.

Li Zu sat in first class, fiddling with a watermelon-sized plastic toy of Killer Croc.

When he activated his ability again, the thumb-sized toy enlarged. Watermelon-sized was already the largest it could become without giving Li Zu a headache.

The enlarged Killer Croc toy looked remarkably lifelike.

Its teeth, tongue, eyeballs, and even the blood vessels lurking beneath the fine scales on its neck were all clearly visible.

Penguin sat beside Li Zu, sweat constantly seeping out and dripping down his long, hooked nose.

The white shirt across his chest had already been soaked with sweat stains.

"That's a military restricted zone," Penguin repeated the words he had said countless times before.

It was a military restricted zone, defended by heavy weapons, and they were flying there in an unarmed private cargo plane!

They would surely become a burst of fireworks in the sky the moment they entered firing range.

Yet Penguin could not bring himself to refuse. Compared to being blown to pieces by missiles, becoming a plastic toy seemed like an even worse fate.

"Thank you for your courage, Mr. Cobblepot." Li Zu seemed not to notice the retreat in Penguin's words. He paused while fiddling with the plastic toy. "We don't need to fly directly to our destination. That would be very unsafe."

So you do know it's unsafe, Penguin thought.

Yet he maintained a smile. "I completely agree with you~"

He also breathed a sigh of relief inside.

Whenever Penguin entertained the thought of rebelling against this bastard, the plastic toy in Li Zu's hand made Killer Croc feel uncontrollable fear.

Just from its appearance alone, Penguin could not help wondering what kind of horrifying humanoid monster it was.

A fusion of man and crocodile, with weed-like jagged teeth and ten dagger-long claws.

Yet even it had been unable to tear open this man's chest.

And it had been unable to escape Toyman's clutches, ultimately becoming nothing more than a toy that could bare its fangs and claws...

How could his own round body possibly escape? He did not want to spend the rest of his life behind a glass display case.

During their journey together, Penguin had doubted more than once.

Was this guy really the third-rate villain Toyman from before?

If Toyman had truly been this formidable, he should not have remained an unknown nobody in Gotham.

On a military island,

Fully armed soldiers patrolled back and forth in squads of six, carrying standard-issue rifles.

They protected the top-secret project on the island with their lives.

And they eliminated anyone not on the security roster!

The deep pit on the eastern side had already buried far too many enemy spies.

Today might have been another repetitive day.

"Yawn~" Someone yawned.

From behind the coastal rocks, a drenched white figure emerged.

The soldiers jolted and swiftly swung their guns around, aiming at his head.

"Don't shoot!!" the drenched figure shouted. "I'm seeking help!"

"Go check it out!" The squad leader nodded.

There were six of them, all fully armed. There was no reason to fear someone who looked like a drowned rat.

"How did you get here?" The squad leader pointed his gun at the chest of the man in the white coat.

"This place..." The man's gaze passed over the squad and looked toward the military area in the distance. "Is this where the Superman Project is being conducted?"

Click, click!

Bullets were chambered.

The soldiers' expressions instantly turned grim.

The fact that this man could ask such a question meant he had come prepared!

"Looks like it is. I want to see Carl El—the alien you've imprisoned here. I promise, I'll only take two looks at him!" He promised solemnly, "Looking from far away is fine too!"

"If you don't want to see your own brains, you'd better behave and not resist!" The squad leader pressed his gun against the man's forehead.

Even an Amazon's invulnerable body could not escape death after its head was blown apart.

"Of course I don't want to see that." The man in the white coat raised a hand and grabbed the barrel. The corners of his mouth stretched wide, revealing two neat rows of teeth.

He wore an exaggerated smile so startling it made one's heart tremble.

Excitement gleamed in his eyes. "But perhaps you'll be interested in spending some time in my private display case!"

"Hmph!" The squad leader showed no mercy and immediately pulled the trigger.

The gun did not fire!

Confused, the squad leader applied more force.

Snap~ The rifle's trigger actually broke off!

Only then did the squad leader realize that the rifle in his hands had become a pink-and-yellow toy gun.

When he had exerted force just now, he had snapped off the toy gun's trigger!

The man in the white coat spun around swiftly, his hand brushing across the muzzles of every gun.

Everything happened too quickly. There were only two accidental gunshots before everything fell silent.

The squad soldiers discovered in terror that parts of the guns in their hands had turned into toys!

For some, it was the muzzle. For others, the change had spread all the way to the stock.

"Ahhh!!!" Another soldier discovered in horror that his hand had turned into a plastic toy. The Toyification spread through his entire body like an infection!

Bang~

A living man instantly became a plastic toy, hitting the rocks and bouncing away.

Six guns had been disabled.

Five people had, to varying degrees, lost their ability to resist.

As the last one remaining, the squad leader watched that hand reach toward his face and lightly pat his left cheek.

An eerie energy enveloped his body.

Li Zu contentedly changed into the squad leader's clothes and put away the five thumb-sized toy figures by his feet.

The prop box fell from the sky.

Beside the watermelon-sized Killer Croc lying inside and Harley Quinn, Yoyo, in the corner, five more toy soldiers appeared.

Li Zu shook his slightly dizzy head. After casually tossing the naked plastic toy squad leader into the sea behind him, he strode openly toward the military base.

He held his head high and swaggered all the way through. Not a single person dared stop him.

Inside a sealed glass room that emitted red light.

A gaunt man curled up in the corner. Hearing footsteps, he raised his head.

The dark bags hanging beneath his eyes revealed his exhaustion.

"You're not from here." He looked at Li Zu, who stood outside the glass in a combat uniform and watched him.

"That depends on how you see it. If we're talking about my identity as an Earthling, then I'm the local here," Li Zu said with great interest.

Who would have thought this was Superman?

Thin, weak, despondent, and utterly devoid of faith in everything.

The red stellar light above, imitating a red sun, was the key to suppressing all of Superman's powers.

The moment he had arrived on Earth, the military had taken him away.

Like an experimental lab rat, he had spent day after day in this room with nothing but a red sun.

He was the most miserable Superman.

Superman looked at Li Zu, seemingly formulating a question, while Li Zu sighed over what he had gained.

World Exploration Progress 39%

Thank you to "Forged Gut Man" for the 1,000 Qidian Coins tip.

(End of chapter)