PFC Chapter 4051 MU Superbody Major Event (131)
Chapter 4051 MU Superbody Major Event (131)
Chapter 4051 MU: The Superbody Incident (131)
The command center erupted in chaos, with everyone cursing and swearing. Because based solely on the footage they had captured, they were able to roughly reconstruct the events as they had imagined.
This octopus named "Tolos" had illegally captured and imprisoned many of his own kind during the recently concluded war, bringing them aboard a starship belonging to the Interstellar Security Committee. Certain high-ranking officials with similar tastes arrived as planned, and a lavish banquet was held on the starship.
Perhaps to liven things up, or perhaps to have the ultimate thrill, they obtained some kind of hallucinogenic drug and got themselves completely drunk. Then, some idiot, drunk, piloted the starship and fired a main cannon shot at the surface, instantly disintegrating the planet.
Furthermore, Eddie subsequently gathered even more conclusive evidence: he found the incense used to burn psychedelics and extracted the substance from it. Although no analysis was performed, most aliens could recognize it as a potent hallucinogen, effective against most carbon-based life forms in the universe—somewhat like cosmic drugs. Moreover, the dosage burned was enough to knock out some large carbon-based life forms—which also fits the description of those high-ranking officials.
However, many questions remain. For example, the shot was incredibly accurate, hitting Spider-Man and his reinforcements precisely in the mine where they were. Even though the core of the high-energy impact was tens of kilometers thick and the blast radius could be hundreds of kilometers, this planet is quite large. How could it have hit that exact spot? These people were all under the influence of drugs; how could they have achieved such precision?
Everyone felt something was wrong, but they couldn't find any evidence. Stark pressed a button on his headset and said to Jarvis, "Have you checked the starship's internal systems? Are there any signs of intrusion?"
“Nothing has been found yet,” Jarvis said, “but we can’t completely rule out the possibility, after all, Batman is on the other side.”
Stark frowned, clearly deep in thought.
Based on the existing evidence, Thanos is the prime suspect. First, the starship that fired the cannon was part of the Interstellar Security Council; second, the planet was specifically sealed off before the cannon was fired; and finally, and most importantly, the Dark Quadrant has recently returned, its alliance with humanity is crumbling, and it has been making quite a few moves lately.
He has both the motive and the ability to take this opportunity to harm humanity and then pin the blame on Batman.
Because it's unclear whether he ordered the starship to be operated or whether Batman remotely hacked into it. Both possibilities are possible. However, since Batman is currently at war with them, they will naturally suspect him, while Thanos can portray himself as a victim and escape human retaliation.
While using the Interstellar Security Committee's standard equipment is a bit too risky, wouldn't there be a bunch of high-ranking officials to take the blame? They can then pin the blame on them, claiming they colluded with Tolos to sneak onto the ship for their own selfish gain, allowing Thanos to escape unscathed. This tactic, though risky, has a high chance of success.
However, it's impossible to say that Batman is completely without suspicion. After all, they were fighting on a planet at the time, and reinforcements were being held back by mutants. In order to escape and bring the Infinity Stones back to Apokolips, they were capable of doing something like that.
Batman doesn't really consider aliens human, especially since these aren't even from his universe. Besides, how many decent aliens can you find on the black market? So, there's no pressure when it comes to fighting.
But their problem now is that neither Thanos nor Batman has conclusive evidence. They can't find any intrusion records or evidence of any physical contact. Although they could retaliate without evidence, what if they made a mistake and attacked the wrong person? The other side would be laughing all the way to the bank.
If Batman is wrongly accused, Thanos can simply watch the two sides fight; if Thanos is wrongly accused, Batman can reap the benefits. It's a very difficult choice.
Just as everyone was analyzing the situation, they received a message—Thanos had left the Ring Sector and returned to his Dark Quadrant.
"There's no doubt about it, it's definitely this kid!" the crowd gritted their teeth. "If you weren't guilty, why would you run away?!"
The Batmobile sliced through the silent space and landed smoothly on a desolate dwarf planet. Schiller walked over, opened the door, and got in. He said, "Let's go, back to Apokolips first."
"Are you sure they'll go after Thanos? Logically speaking, we're quite suspicious too," Arkham Batman said as he started the car.
"Yes, at first we might have been the prime suspects. But once Thanos chose to return to the Dark Quadrant to lay low, he confirmed his suspicions. We, on the other hand, were able to escape unscathed."
Do you think he will definitely leave?
“Of course. Because he simply doesn’t have a proper understanding of this war.” Schiller smiled, recalling his conversation with Thanos.
Knock, knock, knock. There was a knock on the office door. A man in an Interstellar Security Committee uniform opened the door, and Schiller walked in behind him. When he saw the tall, purple-skinned man sitting behind the desk, he nodded slightly and said, "Hello, Lord Thanos."
Thanos was startled upon seeing Schiller's face, but quickly realized that this might be Schiller's counterpart from another universe. He stepped forward, shook Schiller's hand, and asked, "What brings you here?"
"To be honest, Your Excellency, I have some missions to undertake, but I need a legitimate and convenient identity. I've heard that the Interstellar Security Committee is a good organization, so I came to take a look."
"...You want to join the Interstellar Security Committee?"
"It could also be an unofficial addition. I have extensive experience as a secret agent, you know."
"We're not short-staffed lately."
"But I imagine you're lacking in certain intelligence regarding the war, aren't you?"
Thanos narrowed his eyes and asked, "Which war?"
“I don’t have time for beating around the bush, sir. You must be very curious about the origins of that giant planet, why there are suddenly so many human superheroes in the universe, and why they are fighting each other. I can tell you all of that; all I want is an agent identity.”
After a moment's thought, Thanos said, "I can investigate these things myself. After all, I have so many agents under my command. What can't I find out?"
"Of course you can't find out anything about the multiverse. They won't let you know either, especially after you take back the Dark Quadrant. Even Batman, who's temporarily working with you, would never reveal this information to you. You should understand that, right?"
Thanos looked at him and said, "Then how did you come to tell me?"
"Because what I need to do now is more important than information about the multiverse. So naturally I will offer it to you in exchange. This is a one-time offer, and will not be available again after this period."
Thanos took a sip of water, adjusted his glasses, and said, "I can give you official employee status and provide you with the equipment that official employees are entitled to. But you must promise me that you won't do anything against the rules, and you won't make things too difficult for me."
"for example?"
“Genocide and massacres, and the like.”
“No problem,” Schiller readily agreed.
"Alright, then tell me, what exactly are humans doing?"
"This story begins with an electronic life form in our main universe going out of control..." Schiller recounted the whole story of Ultron going out of control, invading the neighboring world, and so on.
"So you mean this is another world taking revenge on us, and Batman is here for revenge?"
"I suppose so. After all, Ultron caused quite a bit of trouble there, and the Avengers in the main universe refused to admit their mistake and even challenged them to a fight. Batman isn't one to swallow his pride."
"Then why are they going to the main universe? What are they doing here?"
“We’re closer to them from here,” Schiller paused before saying, “but you have to understand that this kind of inter-universe warfare comes at a price. If everyone could travel freely through the multiverse, or even across worlds, there would be chaos long ago.”
Schiller deliberately spoke vaguely, leaving room for Thanos to fill in the blanks. Thanos could also tell that Schiller wasn't lying, and thus, he was successfully misled by Schiller.
Schiller's account of the cause of everything was true, but that was only the surface reason. He didn't reveal the fact that the leaders of both sides wanted to use this opportunity to train their troops, and he also concealed the most crucial "Battle Realm" resurrection system.
Thanos cannot enter the Battle Realm. Even if he knew of its existence, he only knew the existence of the Battle Realm but not the reasons behind it, nor did he know who created it or how far it could go.
Therefore, he could not imagine that a brutal war was nothing more than adjusting some data for the founder of the Battle Realm; he could not understand how people who actually died in the universe could be perfectly resurrected in the Battle Realm, as if they had never died, and without any cost.
This misconception led him to make the wrong choice.
When he learned of the incident on Market Planet, he knew he was largely to blame. Fortunately, some high-ranking officials took the fall, so he wasn't dismissed, but he was certainly going to face consequences.
However, when he learned that dozens of humans had also died on the planet, he realized he might have been manipulated by Batman. But more important than finding evidence to prove his innocence was saving his own life.
Thanos knew all too well how insane and powerful humans were. In his view, having killed so many humans, their revenge would come swiftly, perhaps in the next minute, perhaps in the next second, and he simply couldn't defeat them.
Misled by Schiller, Thanos was unaware that this was a training exercise or that humans would be resurrected. He overestimated the seriousness of the matter by judging its severity based on the actual deaths of these few dozen people, which made Thanos fearful.
The three great empires couldn't really do anything to Earth, yet Earth managed to win a game of billiards and wipe out their entire main force. Their own spaceship had just killed dozens of superheroes; if they didn't run, how could they possibly survive?
Moreover, Thanos was indeed feeling guilty. He had been making quite a few moves lately, because he knew that after the Dark Quadrant returned, his greatest enemy would be humanity, so he had been plotting how to deal with them, and he knew that humanity might have noticed something.
This had to happen at this crucial moment; no one would believe he didn't do it. Humanity suffered such a huge loss; even risking a complete falling out with the Interstellar Alliance, they would surely take his life. Therefore, staying in the office in the Ring Sector was simply unsafe; he had to go back to his home planet.
And so, Thanos escaped. But by escaping, he solidified his suspicions.
Although the command center suspects that Batman and Thanos colluded, and that Batman ordered Thanos to fire in order to save Batman and Schiller's group who were trapped in Arkham, the betrayal of former allies from the same universe is indeed more unacceptable.
Less than an hour after Thanos returned to the Dark Quadrant, the Dark Quadrant was surrounded by mutants.