Whoosh—
Humans weren't alone. Many aliens already knew about Earth, but Liu A'dou never imagined they wouldn't even be alone on the moon.
Reflected on everyone's glass visors were three floating figures hovering above them like gods, looking down on Liu A'dou and the others.
Liu A'dou's heart pounded wildly. The three were clad in dark, glossy one-piece armor suits with fully transparent angular helmets. If those weren't Kryptonian suits, what else could they be?
That meant the three flying figures were Kryptonians. He couldn't believe they were on the moon. What Liu A'dou didn't know was that the Kryptonians' ship had arrived in the solar system long ago. But once they entered, their bodies experienced strange reactions, so they settled on the far side of the moon. Later, they discovered that the sun in the solar system gave them unimaginable power. They'd been on the moon for a month, training and mastering their new superpowers.
For that entire month, they had gained Superman-like abilities. They never expected to meet humans on the moon before launching their plan to conquer Earth.
Liu A'dou and the others were equally shocked, standing frozen on the lunar surface, unsure what to do. Liu A'dou stood at the front, looking up, his mind racing.
"Who are you?" a voice suddenly crackled in his earpiece. Liu A'dou realized Kryptonian tech was no joke—they'd already hacked into their communications. Everyone else heard it too, but only Liu A'dou dared to answer: "We're Chinese, from Earth."
The leader of the three was none other than General Zod. He had a square face, a neatly trimmed beard on his chin, eyebrows sharp as blades, and eyes that flashed like lightning. Long ago, Krypton had practiced genetic engineering, assigning every Kryptonian a fixed life path from birth—engineered workers became workers, those bred as generals became generals, those designed as scientists became scientists. This rigid system sapped Kryptonians of ambition, killed their drive to explore the stars, and ultimately led to Krypton's tragic destruction.
Before Krypton's end, General Zod led a rebellion against the Council that enforced genetic control, trying to save Krypton. But he failed and was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. After Krypton exploded, the Phantom Zone's seal was torn open, and Zod and his followers escaped.
Crossing millions of light-years from Krypton to Earth, Zod gathered old forward bases left by ancient Kryptonian explorers while slowly homing in on the Earth coordinates his friend Jor-El had left.
Their plan was to make Earth the new Krypton. To them, humans were insignificant ants. They barely gave humans a thought—if not for needing time to adapt to the sun's radiation, they'd have already attacked. But as soldiers, they studied Earth carefully during their adjustment period.
"You're Chinese?" Zod repeated.
Chinese? They'd just spoken English, but now the aliens were speaking perfect Mandarin?
For Kryptonians, whose brains far surpassed humans, Earth's languages were child's play. They could master several languages in just one day. "Don't be surprised," Zod continued, his tone cold. "Our species is far more evolved than you humans, with a history longer than yours could imagine. Your languages are trivial to us. You're the first humans we've encountered, and I have a message for you to deliver to your United Nations." His eyes flashed as he spoke with commanding authority. "Earth will become our new home. You have one month. Within that month, all humans must relocate to Australia. No one is allowed to remain on any other continent."
They were actually kinder than the Zod in the movies—at least they were offering to leave Australia for Earth's 7 billion people to live on. But it was nothing more than herding livestock! Liu A'dou didn't even know where to start complaining. Just looking at the way they floated above the ground, you could tell they had Superman's powers. How many of them were there? If there were a dozen Supermen, Earth was finished.
"How many of you are there to think you can take nine-tenths of Earth?" Liu A'dou asked.
"Good, you're brave," Zod said approvingly, clearly satisfied with Liu A'dou's boldness. "We Kryptonians are all that's left of our world. There are only 21 of us." Originally, there were 24 rebels locked in the Phantom Zone. But three had died in accidents while exploring dead star systems. Before reaching the solar system, they were just ordinary Kryptonians.
That's it, Liu A'dou thought in despair. 21 Supermen—how could they possibly fight that?
The others thought Krypton sounded familiar but couldn't immediately connect it as Superman's homeworld. They were just furious at Zod's arrogant tone, but with the situation still uncertain, they gripped their tools and stayed tense.
"Earth has 7 billion people. How could they all live in Australia alone?" Liu A'dou pressed.
"That's not our problem," Zod replied coldly.
"Damn it, who do you think you are—" someone behind Liu A'dou shouted, ready to rush forward in anger, but Liu A'dou quickly stopped them.
Zod then nodded to the female Kryptonian beside him. Faora understood instantly and vanished from sight.
So fast. But Liu A'dou knew she'd gone above the camp. Faora, small only compared to Kryptonian men, was still about 1.78 meters tall, and with her high heels definitely over 1.8 meters. Why did alien women wear stilettos—was that universal standard gear? Now, floating in the air, Faora raised her right fist, glaring down with every intent of destroying the camp they'd spent days building, a clear show of force.
The plastic-reinforced camp would crumble completely from just one punch. Liu A'dou couldn't let their days of hard work be destroyed. Faora was fast, but so was he.
The moment Faora's punch fell, Liu A'dou appeared beneath her. "You've gone too far!"
Boom—
Faora's smile froze. Her devastating punch had been caught by a human.
Impossible! Zod's eyes narrowed. He immediately realized Earth had many strange beings, and these freaks could become their biggest obstacles in conquering the planet.
Faora refused to accept defeat and swung her left fist, but Liu A'dou wouldn't let her keep attacking. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled Faora back toward Zod.
Everyone was stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened—how had Liu A'dou flown up and fought the alien woman? How did he do it?
"You must be one of Earth's mutants, aren't you?" Zod said with intrigued curiosity.
Hearing that, the others suddenly felt relieved, accepting Liu A'dou's incredible abilities as a mutant power. That made sense.
Liu A'dou slowly floated back down. "Don't be in such a hurry to destroy our stuff. Whether you can conquer Earth is still undecided. It's a pain to rebuild if you smash everything now. If you really manage to defeat every country and army on Earth, then knock it down later."
Faora looked ready to fight again, but Zod held out a hand to stop her. "I see humans do have spirit. It seems you won't just surrender. War is inevitable. When your so-called proud powers are crushed, we will tear down everything you've built and remake it in our image. We'll see you soon."
In a blink, the three Kryptonians shot into the sky and vanished, leaving everyone below in stunned silence. Liu A'dou knew this wasn't over—not by a long shot. But at least it wasn't them who picked the fight first this time. He just hoped the Kryptonians wouldn't start their battle right on the continents.