SWWW Chapter 233: Treasure Inside the Flerken Space
After arranging for Alice to monitor Gwen and Kara's activities as superheroes, Xi Nian suddenly remembered something.
Something he had been meaning to do for a while, but had put off.
"Cloak."
He raised his hand slightly. The red cloak immediately flew across the living room and wrapped itself around him.
The cloak's hem draped down, transforming into a dark red trench coat.
He put on his boots for going out.
"Xiao Huang, time to wake up. Open your mouth."
Xi Nian walked over to the sofa, scooped up the little orange cat sprawled asleep there. Xiao Huang finally cracked her eyes open.
"Meow."
Yawning, her small mouth opened wider and wider—until it split open unnaturally, revealing rows of sharp teeth and writhing tentacles.
In the blink of an eye, the palm-sized kitten swallowed Xi Nian whole!
Gulp.
Moments later…
The little cat sat quietly on the sofa, eyes narrowing into slits. With Xi Nian gone, the living room fell back into silence.
…
Xi Nian's black hair and dark red coat drifted weightlessly.
It felt as if he were in outer space. The cloak slowly lowered him until his boots touched down on a strange, pulsating, fleshy asteroid.
Since the Asgard incident, his Kryptonian body had already adapted to surviving in the vacuum of space.
"Starro, you doing alright in here?" Xi Nian asked.
"Not bad," came a psychic voice, one that resembled Jarro's.
Beneath his feet, the colorful asteroid writhed violently, then opened up like a massive bud, splitting into five giant, radiant petal-like arms.
No—those weren't petals. They were massive tentacles.
In the center of those five tentacles was a single, clear eye, reflecting Xi Nian's figure.
He was standing atop the enormous body of Starro, magnified tens of times larger than Jarro's form, floating within the Devourer Dimension.
The giant starfish's body glowed faintly, like a miniature planet, releasing arcs of multicolored energy.
This was Starro's true form, the origin from which Jarro had split off.
"Didn't expect you to actually come in here," Starro said, his voice tinged with a trace of resentment.
"Isn't Jarro always around anyway?" Xi Nian shrugged. Then he paused, frowning. "Wait. Starro… why do you look smaller?"
When he first moved Starro into the Devourer Space, the being had been massive, larger than most buildings. Now, though, Starro was only the size of a heavy truck.
That was far more than just a little shrinkage.
"I did get smaller," Starro admitted.
"What did you do?"
Xi Nian was curious.
Normally, unless Starro split off too many clones, his main body would only continue to grow. The only way he wouldn't was if he were completely cut off from outside energy, like how Jarro had been sealed inside a glass jar.
But here, in the boundless Devourer Space, Starro had shrunk this much?
"Let me show you what I've been working on," Starro said.
He unfurled his five huge tentacles and drifted forward. Passing through a stretch of dark fog, the scene before Xi Nian suddenly opened up.
"What… is this?"
Xi Nian froze.
Before him floated a small planet.
Yes, a planet.
For the first time, within the vast Devourer Space, something like this had appeared.
Though its radius was only about a hundred meters, its surface was covered with lush green grass. A perfectly round, vibrant green planet—alive.
"Starro, how did you do this?"
Hovering down with the Cloak of Levitation, Xi Nian landed on the grassy surface. There was air here, gravity about half that of Earth, and a pleasantly warm temperature.
"I was bored and reshaped it with energy. If I had more energy, I could make it bigger, better," Starro said proudly. "Well? Impressive, right?"
"Very," Xi Nian admitted sincerely.
This scene struck him harder than Starro's previous feats of consuming energy, splitting clones, or communicating telepathically.
Creating a planet. A living planet.
That was something approaching the level of a creator god.
"Wait. You just said… if you had enough energy, you could make it even larger and more complete?" Xi Nian asked.
"That's right. I've already spent the energy I stored for twenty years on this one," Starro replied.
Xi Nian touched the silver necklace at his collar.
If there was one thing he didn't lack, it was energy.
After all, the Space Stone—the former Tesseract—had been Hydra's source of infinite energy during World War II.
In essence, Infinity Stones themselves contained nearly limitless power.
And he had three of them.
If he provided Starro with that energy, wouldn't it be possible to create a true, full-scale planet?
A second Earth, perhaps.
Xi Nian shook his head. He had no use for something that large.
But… this place could serve as a perfect emergency refuge. A truly safe haven.
After all, the only entrance was through Xiao Huang's mouth.
Even someone at the level of the Ancient One couldn't enter here without first knowing its location.
…
Riding on Starro like a flying saucer, Xi Nian traveled deeper into another region of the Devourer Space.
Soon, he reached what looked like a cosmic junkyard.
All around floated endless debris, stretching beyond sight. Strange alien artifacts, wrecked spaceships, even corpses of alien creatures…
Because each Devourer Beast's personal dimension was inherited through generations, this trash came from multiple predecessors.
Some were consumed by Xiao Huang's mother, Goose. Others were swallowed by her grandmother, or even earlier Devourer Beasts from ancient times.
Given their nature and long lineage, there was no telling what might be inside this space.
"When I had free time, I sorted through some of this. Anything useful, or valuable, I pulled aside for you," Starro said.
"Any functioning spaceships in here?" Xi Nian asked casually as he flew forward with the cloak, weaving through the floating debris.
"Of course. More than one," Starro replied quickly.
"This beast really does eat everything…"
Xi Nian marveled as he inspected the sorted alien objects. It felt more spectacular than Stark Industries' annual technology expos.
These were creations from civilizations across the cosmos, spanning billions of years.
Later, he thought, Alice could scan and categorize them batch by batch, extracting their technological value…
He was in the middle of this thought when suddenly, a small object bumped against his forehead.
"What's this?"
Xi Nian grabbed it.
It was a ring.
More precisely, an ancient and finely crafted ring, material unknown. Cool to the touch, weathered with age, its surface mottled and worn, as though it came from an era long past.
"Just junk. I checked it before—no energy signature at all," Starro said, glancing at it briefly before losing interest.
"Is that so…"
Xi Nian turned it over in his hand. The texture felt nice, the craftsmanship curious. He slipped it away without much thought.
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