Alien invasion? Luckily, I'm Superman.

The commander opened his eyes. Fear was still there, anger was still there, but those emotions were suppressed, buried deep within his consciousness.

Instead, there is a cold, calculating calmness that soldiers only display in dire situations.

The most important thing is to retreat.

The Empire's Second Fleet cannot be lost here.

He straightened up and rapidly tapped his fingers on the control panel, bringing up the fleet's status graph.

On the screen, the dots representing the warships were going out one by one. More than a third of the frigates had been lost, and a few battleships remained, each bearing varying degrees of damage. The transport fleet was completely wiped out.

"All ships," the commander pressed the full-band communication button, his voice returning to calm, "execute emergency retreat. Converge to the flagship and prepare for jump."

His order triggered a chain reaction throughout the fleet. The remaining warships began adjusting their attitude, engines running at full power, and converging towards the flagship.

Those turrets that were still firing continued to fire, continuing to create a stalemate.

The commander turned around and looked at a separate control console on the side of the bridge. That console was normally locked and required his biometric access to open.

He walked over and placed his palm on the recognition panel. The panel scanned his palm print, body temperature, and genetic sequence, emitting a low confirmation sound.

The console is open.

Below is a glass dome, inside which lies a torpedo quietly.

It wasn't large, only about two meters long, and its surface was dark black without any markings. Its design was completely different from standard Imperial weapons; it wasn't manufactured by the Empire.

It was unearthed from the ruins of a lost empire. Fragments of ancient technology, restored to a firing state by the empire's research team. It has always been kept in the flagship's armory as a last resort.

The commander's finger paused for a second.

Then he pressed the release button.

The torpedoes were launched covertly from the side guns of the cruiser, moving silently toward Earth.

The commander who had launched the torpedoes continued to give orders.

At the bottom of the flagship, the hatch slowly opened. A research vessel, specially modified and piloted by assassins and artificial intelligence, rapidly descended through the hatch.

A device was mounted on its bottom; this device was no longer the previous trap net, but one purchased from the Lost Empire.

Gravity trap.

The commander looked at the research ship launching on the screen and couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. He had secretly purchased this trap from a "friend" in the Lost Empire after doing someone a huge favor.

The Lost Empire—that lofty and near-invincible entity—is extremely difficult to extract anything from its navy; they simply refuse any trade.

This trap was originally intended to capture some kind of ethereal dragon. Such rare space creatures, existing even before the Big Bang, are invaluable in every respect.

But now, he's using it on this Earthling!

"Launch complete," the operator reported. "Gravity trap is activating."

The device at the bottom of the research vessel began to operate.

There was no light, no sound, only an invisible wave emanating from the device, spreading outwards at the speed of light through space. That wave was a force field capable of distorting space itself.

Su Mo was pursuing a retreating battleship. His right fist was already raised, his muscles bulging, and power concentrated on his fist. This punch would be enough to pierce a large hole in the battleship's armor.

Then he felt it.

Something grabbed him.

His body began to be pulled in one direction—the direction of the research vessel. The gravity was much stronger than what he had felt inside the sun.

Su Mo raised an eyebrow.

His figure began to move towards that point, and the speed increased.

He didn't know what it was. His superhuman intelligence attempted to analyze the nature of that force, but its principles were beyond his current knowledge. He only knew that he sensed a...

A sense of crisis.

He vaguely sensed that this thing was a bit troublesome.

Su Mo's body shifted within the gravitational field, no longer trying to break free, but instead accelerating in the direction of gravity. His right fist regained its power, and he transformed into a streak of light, rushing towards the research vessel.

The battleship sailed away behind him; that thing could wait until later, but this device that emitted fluctuations had to be dealt with first.

Su Mo passed the retreating battleship, instantly reaching his maximum speed. He thrust his right fist forward, the friction between his fist and the particles in space generating a layer of white-hot plasma, and then his fist struck the research ship.

A powerful shockwave erupted.

The instant Su Mo's fist struck the hull of the research vessel, kinetic energy propagated through the hull in the form of waves. The hull caved inward, and the internal structure underwent the entire process of going from intact to collapsing within fractions of a second.

Metal tore apart, pipes snapped, and the operating gravity trap was ripped from its mounting point by the shockwave, tumbling twice in the air before—

The research vessel has disintegrated.

Debris of all sizes flew in all directions, some still carrying lingering sparks of electricity, others twisted beyond recognition by the shockwave. The gravity trap device, during its disintegration, was struck by a flying piece of armor plating, damaging its internal precision components and halting its operation.

The gravitational field disappeared.

Su Mo floated among the wreckage and breathed a sigh of relief.

wrong.

The sense of crisis has not lessened.

Su Mo's brows furrowed even more. His super vision swept across the surrounding space. No new ships approached, no weapons were charging, and there was no apparent threat.

But the feeling of being watched by something, like a thorn stuck deep in his consciousness, became clearer and clearer.

Then he felt it.

A powerful gravitational force was exerting on his body simultaneously from behind, from his sides, and from all directions.

He lowered his head.

His body was being pulled toward a point, an empty spatial coordinate without any objects.

The residual effect of the trap? No. This isn't a residual effect; this is the real gravity trap. The previous gravity was merely a prelude to its activation.

Su Mo's figure began to move steadily towards that point.

In the alien commander's bridge, the main screen clearly displayed the image of Su Mo being captured by the gravitational field. His body moved slowly in space, faster and faster, approaching the preset coordinates.

The commander's vertical pupils widened slightly.

excited.

Is it really okay to just imprison this native like this?

His finger hovered over the communication button, hesitating for a second. Then he made a cautious decision.

He did not allow the flagship to get close.

"Send a battleship over there," the commander ordered, his voice regaining its composure. "Assess his condition. Don't get too close; scan him with long-range sensors."