Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 410 Loser, Used by Xia Zuo

Catwoman was furious.

Because Xia Zuo casually pinched out a fist-sized diamond, which was still warm and even had his fingerprints on its surface.

That nonchalant attitude, that indifference, that nonchalance, and that damn—eyes!

It completely ruined her love for diamonds.

When a cat girl gets angry, the consequence is—no consequence.

She snatched the diamond that Xia Zuo had made, put it into the box of gems, and then stormed off.

Now do you know what makes Catwoman so lovable?

She's really not annoying.

With the Kryptonians' protection, the mercenaries who came to kidnap Martha naturally failed, and unsurprisingly, they were trampled into mincemeat by the Kryptonians.

But Luther's men successfully kidnapped Louise.

The mercenary leader took Louise to the Lexcorp building and sent her to the rooftop, a popular spot for suicides.

Here, Lois didn't see Lex Luthor; she saw him on television, with Luthor smiling at her from the other end. Lois wasn't intimidated; she was just disappointed and said to Luthor, "Coward! Wimp!"

"Hahaha." Luther didn't seem to feel offended at all; he laughed heartily.

Louise continued, "I know all about your schemes. I've investigated everything thoroughly. You'll be going to court and paying the price."

Luther was thoroughly amused, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.

Strangely, Luther seemed to be laughing without catching his breath, and his body seemed to remain motionless, while his best friend's neck and above were moving.

After laughing enough, Luther finally spoke, "How naive, Lois! You think seeing me will make Superman come and grab me?"

"Sigh, to be honest, Superman is a bit of a disappointment to me. He's nowhere near as difficult to deal with as that guy in Gotham City."

"You think I'm hiding from Superman? No! No! No!!"

"I was hiding from that madman in Gotham. If I hadn't been careful to hide, he would have killed me long ago."

"There are Kryptonians watching my building all along. As soon as I show my face, they won't even talk to me; they'll just kill me."

"So, I'm not afraid of Superman at all, but I'm really, really scared of Mr. Shazo."

"Hehehehe, I can't let him see me."

At this point, Luther chuckled and shook his head, saying to the mercenary, "For the sake of the money, let our Miss Louise experience the price she deserves."

"Let her fly, for the secrets she shouldn't know!"

The mercenary leader, true to his professional ethics, grabbed Louise and pushed her off the building's balcony.

Louise screamed and kept falling—

Then Superman hugged him.

On TV, Luthor burst into laughter: "Hahaha, I knew it, I knew it, Superman is right here!"

Superman placed Lois on the ground, then quickly flew back to the rooftop, frowning as he watched Luthor on the television.

"coward!"

Hearing Superman's words, and knowing that he was there to argue with him, Luthor smiled smugly.

He remained completely calm: "Don't say that. I'm not afraid of you at all. I wouldn't be afraid even if you were right in front of me, let alone through a TV screen."

"Then come on!" Superman said angrily. "Don't worry, I promise I won't kill you!"

Luther shook his head: "Superman, a god among men! You should learn your lesson."

"It's only been a few days. Have you already forgotten about the bomb hidden in the wheelchair in the Capitol Building?"

"Lift your head up, look around, and see who else is nearby."

Superman squinted, took several heavy breaths, and finally looked up in all directions. Then his eyes widened.

He murmured, "Kryptonians—"

Lex Luthor breathed a sigh of relief: "Ah, my guess was right, they really are here."

"See, this isn't my fault!"

Now that they'd been discovered, the Kryptonians stopped hiding. They descended from the sky and jumped up from the ground floor, surrounding the rooftop terrace of the Luther Corporation building.

The mercenary leader felt a chill run down his spine from the stares and instinctively wanted to raise his gun in a show of force. However, by the time he raised his hand, the guns in his hand and on his body had already fallen into the hands of the Kryptonians around him.

Eight Kryptonians each took one piece of equipment from him, ranging from an AR rifle to a pistol, a spare pistol, a dagger, a bayonet, grenades, and stun grenades.

The eighth Kryptonian searched his entire body but couldn't find any weapons, so he had no choice but to take his flashlight and walkie-talkie.

Looking at his empty hands and clean body, the mercenary leader wisely lay down on the ground and put his hands behind his head.

Luther resumed his manic laughter, accompanied by the ringing of a timer.

"Did you see this timer?"

"This is the safety time limit I set for you," Luther finally stopped laughing. He was extremely depressed, and his face began to turn a faint green.

He said dejectedly, "When I was a child, my dad almost beat me to death, and no god came to save me, so I don't believe in God."

"But when I grew up and no longer needed God's salvation, you appeared and became a god on earth, praised by everyone—"

"Why?!"

"You're not even a perfect person! What makes you think you can be a god?"

But Luthor's performances have become so overdone that they've become tiresome. Even Superman said, "If this is all you're going to do is spout tongue twisters, I'm leaving."

Luther quickly composed himself and said, "Alright, alright, let's get down to business. Look, what's this?"

"Yes, yes, right in front of the TV, those are the photos!"

"Don't miss it, you'll regret it!"

"Oh—oh? Oh! Don't go! This is a picture of your dear mother, Martha!"

Superman, who had already turned around and was preparing to take off, was suddenly shocked, as if struck by lightning. He instantly moved in front of the TV and picked up the photo in front of him.

Sure enough, the photos were all of Masa, and they showed Masa being kidnapped.

Superman was instantly enraged. He slammed his hand on the television, but dared not crush it. Instead, he slowly knelt down, breathing heavily.

After a long while, the enraged Superman finally calmed down and asked, "What do you want?"

Lex Luthor asked expectantly, "Can you kill Shazor of Gotham?"

boom!!

The eight Kryptonian warriors around him unleashed a powerful aura, their eyes glowing red as they stared unblinkingly at Superman.

It was obvious that if Superman uttered even half a "good," they would unleash a heat ray on this Kryptonian traitor.

Superman shook his head with a cold laugh: "I can't do it. If you want me dead, I'll just kill myself and show you."

Luther shook his head in disappointment: "Well, I was hoping for too much."

"You have one hour left. Go and kill Batman. Once Batman is dead, I'll release Martha."

"Otherwise, you can forget about finding Martha's body!"

Superman flew away, towards Gotham City, towards that fool who shone the Bat-Signal into the clouds for nights on end.

On the television screen, Luther burst into maniacal laughter: "Hahaha, God! Even God has succumbed to my will!"

"God doesn't exist! Superman isn't perfect; he can also do immoral things for his own selfish interests!"

"I was right!"

"Hmm, looks like you're about to die." Xia Zuo suddenly walked into the camera's view, and the eight Kryptonian warriors around him immediately bowed respectfully and knelt on one knee to show their respect.

The Kryptonian's appearance startled Luther, but what terrified Xia Zuo even more was that his pupils suddenly shrank, even through the screen, and he couldn't even utter a word.

Xia Zuo looked closely at Luther on the television and made a final confirmation: "Sigh, no wonder we couldn't find Zod's body. That bastard actually put his own head on General Zod's neck."

"What!?"

The Kryptonian warrior, filled with shock and rage, approached the screen and analyzed the reflected light from the surrounding environment to identify scenes outside the frame. He was so angry that his hair stood on end.

The soldiers roared, "We'll kill him!"

Snapped-

The roaring Kryptonian warriors were each slapped on the back of the head by Xia Zuo, silencing them all.

"Idiots, he's about to die, what are you trying to kill?!"

Xia Zuo took out a high-tech communicator, dialed Vale Tomé, and asked, "What would happen if human consciousness were grafted onto the strongest Kryptonian general?"

Valetome stared in disbelief, and after a long pause, replied, "I don't know, Mr. Shazo. The Kryptonian civilization has never conducted such an experiment—"

Xia Zuo said impatiently, "I don't need definitive scientific results, I just need you to guess."

Valletome stammered in reply, "Perhaps, maybe, I might become a monster."

"Corpses can be resurrected by the stimulation of the souls of humans on Earth, but what is resurrected are only monsters controlled by instinct, monsters that can preserve nothing but instinctive fighting and devouring."

Xia Zuo asked again, "And what about this human?"

Valletome shrugged: "I'm absolutely certain of that, he's dead."

"No trace of human consciousness will remain, nor will any mark be left on his head; everything will be completely absorbed and digested by the monster."

"Okay, I got it." Xia Zuo revealed a wicked smile: "So, Luther, you know too?"

Luther's face turned even greener, a deathly grayish green.

Upon hearing Xia Zuo's words, his fear could no longer be suppressed, and he trembled as tears streamed down his face.

However, there was no regret in Lex Luthor's eyes; he even forced a laugh: "Hahaha, I am indeed afraid of death, but I absolutely do not regret it!"

"I just feel regretful that I overestimated my will and underestimated the Kryptonians' technology. I lost my gamble."

"Haha, so what if we lost? But you won't get away with it!"

"The monsters I've provoked to resurrect will surely wipe you all out. The whole world will be buried with me. I have no regrets, none at all!"

With tears streaming down his face, Lex Luthor screamed his final, insane curse, then his voice quickly became hoarse, and his entire head rapidly shrank until he could no longer speak.

Even as he was dying, Luther's mind was unusually clear. He realized that he had failed to kidnap Martha, and the only one who could stop him was the Kryptonian who had been monitoring and tracking his movements, and the Kryptonian was obeying Shazor's orders.

His eyes bulged as he strained to look at Xia Zuo on the other side of the screen, and asked hoarsely, "Is he... a Kryptonian...?"

"—You stopped me? I kidnapped Martha?"

Xia Zuo nodded: "Yes, it was also me who told them to keep quiet and let you deceive Superman and go to Gotham."

Luther's face was gaunt, and his throat, as thin as sandpaper, forced out a weak voice: "Why?"

Xia Zuo replied with a cold laugh, "There's no reason. I just need to teach Superman and Batman a lesson. Since you're playing the villain, I'll naturally lend you a hand."

Luther's eyes rolled upwards uncontrollably and then rapidly shrank.

His last words were: "The devil—"

Xia Zuo casually destroyed the television and turned to look in the direction of Gotham.

He said into the communicator, "Prepare for battle."

"Remember, this monster was created from General Zod's corpse. It is not General Zod, and it will show no mercy to you."

The eight Kryptonian warriors beside Xia Zuo pounded their chests with their right hands and said in unison, "Yes!"

Fiora responded via communicator: "Received!"

Apollo hesitated for a moment before saying, "I understand."

Xia Zuo turned off the communicator and sneered, "I almost forgot, there's still one guy who needs to be taught a lesson."

After saying that, he transformed into a golden light and flew towards Gotham, with eight Kryptonian warriors closely following behind, forming an imposing "V"-shaped flight formation.

The high-speed flight streaked across the night sky, creating a rolling wave of sound, like Thor patrolling the heavens.

Fiora and Apollo each held a spear in their hands and carried a spare spear on their backs; the spearheads of the four spears were sheathed in black sheaths.

Behind the two of them stood a full twelve Kryptonian warriors, hovering above the "Vantastyk" forest, watching the distant battlefield.

It was a cleared but not yet rebuilt open space where the battle between Superman and Batman was raging.

Superman, feeling guilty, repeatedly went easy on Batman, resulting in him being continuously attacked by Kryptonite powder grenades and bullets, weakening him to the limit.

Batman designed and built an extremely thick and powerful suit of armor to counter Superman's abilities, and loaded it with a combat program based on the analysis of hundreds of Superman's combat footage, pushing himself to the limit.

Thus, the two finally engaged in a battle of equal strength.

However, in the eyes of the Kryptonians, such a battle was simply too terrible.

It could be said that Batman used a bad trick to drag Kal-El into a low-level, tedious battle, relying on his rich hand-to-hand combat experience to suppress Superman.

Although Batman had the upper hand and suppressed Kal-El's attacks, he was destined to fail.

Because he couldn't damage Karel, he couldn't even inflict minor damage.

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