Inside a starship that had slept beneath Earth for more than eighteen thousand years, Luthor faced Superman head-on.
In the water behind them, a gigantic embryo kept writhing. The monster being nurtured inside was about to burst out.
"What is that?" Superman asked.
Superman wasn't afraid of monsters. He was simply too strong. How could a powerhouse be scared off by some random creature?
Faced with Superman's calm indifference, Luthor erupted with fury, a rage born more from Superman's disregard than anything else. He raised his injured hand, ripped away the bandages around the wound, and shouted with a mix of excitement and trembling anticipation.
"That is an ancient Kryptonian deformed monster, blood of my blood, and your Doomsday!"
Crack!!!
The embryo, roughly four meters across, shattered instantly. A pair of enormous black hands thrust out from within.
Those hands tore the fetal membrane to pieces, then the creature pushed its body out.
In the next breath, a black monster over five meters tall appeared completely in Superman's sight.
Yet Superman not only felt no fear, he looked almost curious.
That curiosity even made him briefly forget his hatred for Luthor.
Superman asked softly, "Is that all? What about the other one? The smaller one?"
"Huh? Which one?" Even Luthor was startled by the question. He instinctively turned to look at the water. In the blood-colored gene fluid, where was there anything else?
But Superman was absolutely certain. Even if he couldn't see exactly where it was, he could clearly hear a fourth heartbeat on the scene.
He pointed at Doomsday, who was tearing the slime off his body. "Right under that big guy, something else woke up with him. You wrapped it in lead?"
As he spoke, Superman tapped his own ear.
"I don't know what you're hiding, but sorry. I might not be able to see through your scheme, but I can hear that thing's heartbeat!"
The moment the words fell, Superman distinctly heard that heartbeat turn a little chaotic.
Beneath the water's surface, inside another small cocoon that was almost impossible to notice, a man wrapped in thick ice wore a helpless expression.
That man was Heisenberg, the ninth-generation only heir of the Old Hai family on Earth.
And he was also a transmigrator in the DC movie world.
…
Two years earlier…
…
Inside the ancient Kryptonian ship, an armored figure was speaking to another figure in robes.
"Jor-El, my information has overwritten your control of this ship. You no longer have authorization."
"Yes. Everything is about to go as you wish. But I believe in my child. He will defeat you, Zod!"
"Is that so? A man raised on a farm by humans, who has never received war training, will defeat me, a general tempered by countless battlefields?"
Listening to his old friend Jor-El, General Zod laughed mercilessly.
"Only a traitor like you could say something so naive. Goodbye."
Click.
Zod drove the identity key fully into the console. Jor-El's image shattered instantly.
With that disgusting man gone, Zod turned his attention to the ship's database. He urgently needed to find the Codex of Life he had dreamed of.
Only by finding the Codex of Life could Zod rebuild his species and make the name of Krypton echo across the universe once more.
But unfortunately, he was disappointed.
The Codex wasn't hidden here by that damned Kal-El.
Yet like a miracle, even without the Codex, Zod still discovered something.
Or rather, someone.
"General Zod, do not make any contact with the criminal buried within the ship!"
"Repeat. General Zod, you are forbidden to contact the criminal imprisoned within the ship!"
When Zod traced the ship's oldest and most primitive operating records, the ship's intelligence kept using those lines to stop him.
Zod was utterly confused. There was actually a criminal here?
"Pull up the criminal's file. Why do Jor-El and Kal-El not know about this criminal?" Zod demanded.
"General, Science Council leader Jor-El accessed the criminal's information, but he concealed it before Kal-El discovered it!"
"Hm? He did?" Zod frowned, then waved it off. "Fine. Display the file."
"Yes. The criminal is named Heisenberg, the sixty-fourth Elder Council member of Krypton, the final executor of the Glorious Action, a butcher who slaughtered more than seven hundred of his own kind. Crime: treason."
The instant the ship's intelligence finished, Zod's eyes widened.
He couldn't help recalling that massacre.
Long ago, Krypton had been obsessed with expansion. Endless Kryptonians rampaged across the cosmos, conquering and plundering. They called conquest glory and named the campaign the Glorious Action.
But that action came to a stop eighteen thousand years ago.
Eighteen thousand years ago, an Elder of Krypton named Heisenberg led the Science Council to break a rule Krypton had followed for a hundred thousand years, digging deep into the secrets of Kryptonian bloodlines.
More than that.
To speed up development of other worlds, Elder Heisenberg even created a monster based on Kryptonian genes, fused with multiple mutant genes.
That monster couldn't be controlled. It caused enormous chaos on Krypton. At least one third of Kryptonians died in the slaughter brought by those monsters.
Krypton sealed the method of creating such a monster, and the name they gave it was Doomsday.
After that, Elder Heisenberg lost his ancestral status and was hunted down by the Kryptonian guard.
But as the leader of both Krypton's Science Council and its military at the time, Heisenberg's personal combat power made his capture a nightmare.
At the cost of more than seven hundred Kryptonian lives, Heisenberg was finally imprisoned and, according to Krypton's laws at the time, sent into a random-jump prison ship with no return, launched into the distant void.
The Glorious Action ended there. Krypton never again dared to conduct research into genetics.
In fact, Krypton's fear of genetic mutation made them unwilling to allow children to be born naturally ever again.
Because natural birth meant infinite possibility.
From then on, they sealed every excellent Kryptonian gene into storage, forming the Codex of Life that endured to this day.
Each child would be born by selecting the corresponding information from the Codex, cultivated in Krypton's Genesis Chamber, harvested by Krypton's scavenger beasts, and raised by Krypton's orphanages.
In short, the Heisenberg that left Zod feeling conflicted was the elder Kryptonians had once hated most, and the very architect of Krypton's great disaster.
Even though Zod now needed the strength of every Kryptonian, he still didn't dare release Heisenberg from his cage.
He shook his head. "Keep him imprisoned."
"Yes!"
…
One day earlier…
…
Alexander Luthor, the new head of LexCorp, carried a case containing five fingertip skin patches as he entered the Kryptonian ship now heavily surrounded by the US government.
This Kryptonian ship had crashed during the Superman incident two years ago, and after Superman brought it down, it had remained here ever since.
If the ship didn't want to fly, then with Earth's technology alone, there was no way to move it.
Luthor slowly pressed the fingertip skin patches onto his own fingers. Those five pieces of skin were cut from General Zod's corpse using kryptonite.
And that allowed him to enter the ship's command center.
He walked all the way to the ship's core. Following the intelligent system's prompts, Luthor obtained control authorization with deep satisfaction.
He placed Zod's corpse into a small Genesis Chamber that looked like a sheet of water, then cut his own hand and let his blood flow onto General Zod's body.
At his command, the Genesis Chamber began its work. A monster fused from General Zod and Alexander Luthor's genes was about to be born.
Energy surged toward the ship in massive quantities. Nearly half of America's electricity was ruthlessly siphoned away by this ancient Kryptonian vessel.
And Luthor had no idea.
As that energy gathered on a huge scale, the ancient Kryptonian buried within the ship also regained his life.
Before Heisenberg even woke up, a hollow voice had already sounded in his mind.
"Multiverse plane has been bound. Bound person: Origin Earth soul, Heisenberg. Bound body: DC universe Kryptonian Elder, Heisenberg. Identity fusion in progress."
…
All of that was crap. In short, Heisenberg woke up, fully woke up.
At the same time, the flood of information and memories made him understand what had happened.
"Tsk. Last night I lost two hundred and thirty thousand in one round of cards. I got too worked up, had a heart attack…"
"I died?"
"I transmigrated into the completely ridiculous DC world?"
"I'm the last hawkish elder of Krypton, Heisenberg the Kryptonian?"
"I was exiled, imprisoned, for a full eighteen thousand years!!!"
"Now I'm alive again, on Earth in DC?"
"Heh…"
Heisenberg laughed soundlessly. He finally realized what he had.
A Kryptonian!
That was Superman's bloodline, worshipped by countless people.
Indestructible strength, a body almost immune to all harm, heat vision, freezing breath, speed approaching light, free flight, and all sorts of abilities that practically defied logic!
With power like this, in the Marvel world, aside from a handful of mages, he would be unbeatable!!!
What was there to be scared of? There was no way he was going to live like a corporate slave again, just scraping by. Hahaha!
Once he understood everything, Heisenberg immediately wanted to break free of the restraints on his body. He wanted to enjoy life. He had to enjoy life!
In the past, whether it was the rich, the officials, his boss, or his clients, Heisenberg didn't dare disobey.
Even if they stepped on his pride and ground it into the dirt, Heisenberg still had to smile and praise them for stepping well.
Great step, strong step, you look very healthy.
But now, as a Kryptonian, Heisenberg wanted to tell everyone one thing. Everything you have is nothing but crap!
Only fists are the real law, and since I have Kryptonian fists, I am the hardest law there is, absolute law!
Who else?
Who else can make me bow my head?
Who else can make me back down?
Who else can…?!
Wait.
Heisenberg froze.
As the ice melted away, as the spacetime material Krypton used to imprison criminals dissolved, Heisenberg finally saw his surroundings clearly.
Of course he had watched Batman v Superman. He knew exactly where he was, so he knew even more clearly what the black monster looming above him was.
"Doomsday!"
Heisenberg immediately chickened out.
"System, get out here. Why did I revive together with Doomsday? I'm just a normal, weak Kryptonian!"
"I haven't absorbed Earth's yellow sun yet. I can't fly, I don't have heat vision. What am I supposed to use to deal with Doomsday!"
"Superman, who's been sun-charged for over thirty years, still got killed by Doomsday. What can I do, hide?"
"I want to hide, but I can't even move right now, and Doomsday has already locked onto me!"
"At least let me move a little. Just a little. Just once, just once!!!"
That's right.
At this moment, Doomsday had also noticed the Heisenberg buried deep inside the Genesis Chamber.
In Doomsday's eyes, Superman up there wasn't as attractive as the weird fellow "of his own kind" below.
Because as early as a day ago, Doomsday in his embryo had already sensed a presence he found deeply disgusting, constantly stealing the energy meant to birth him!
So Doomsday stretched out a huge hand and fished out the spacetime material wrapping Heisenberg.
The once rock-hard spacetime material was melting rapidly, and Heisenberg's face gradually appeared in Superman's vision.
"Damn it, what is that, another Kryptonian?" Luthor's voice rang out, shocked and terrified.
But Heisenberg had no ability to answer.
Before the spacetime material fully dissipated, he couldn't move at all. He could only watch as Doomsday grabbed him and squeezed down viciously!
"Ahhh! If you've got the guts, let me out of this first, then I'll carve you to pieces alive!!!"
Wrapped in spacetime material, unable to move, Heisenberg's mind screamed in silent agony.
Pain, pure pain.
The instant he successfully transmigrated and revived, he was about to die.
Die like this?
"Detected: Host is about to suffer lethal damage. Advancing host's work time. Randomly selecting a work universe for deployment."
"Work location selected: Marvel Universe, Earth 19999."
"Fixing host's basic spacetime coordinates. Beginning work deployment. Please begin work as soon as possible to contribute to the sustainable development of the multiverse."
"Deployment complete!"
In a split second, Heisenberg stepped out of pain and found himself in space.
And before him was that incomparably beautiful Earth…