Alien invasion? Luckily, I'm Superman.

When Su Mo heard the word "grandmother," his body stiffened slightly. His first reaction was anger. A surge of fire rose from his chest, making his throat tight. But the next second, reason prevailed over emotion.

He could understand. When an ordinary person suddenly gains devastating power, any responsible organization would conduct a background check on him, just like the background checks required for civil service exams. Perhaps it's to verify if he has the genes for evil, or perhaps he wants to replicate his experience of gaining superpowers.

These were all reasonable. He could understand. But Su Mo's expression still darkened. He pursed his lips, took the document, and carefully pinched the edge of the paper with his fingers, not wanting to crush it.

His superhuman intelligence allows him to read at an astonishing speed. Lines of text, sets of data, and photographs are captured, processed, and understood by his brain in fractions of a second.

"What?!" He was so shocked that he couldn't control his voice. "I'm not human?!"

Exclamations echoed in the command room. Several staff officers were startled by his sudden increase in volume, their shoulders involuntarily shrugging. Commander Zhao remained still, simply watching him quietly.

Su Mo lowered her head and continued reading the document, her grandmother's will. The will revealed a secret buried for twenty-five years, telling Su Mo about her origins.

-

One night twenty-five years ago, Su Zhilan was in her yard watching a small spaceship descend from the sky. It landed quietly on the grass three meters in front of her. When the spaceship opened, there was a baby inside. A very small baby.

Su Zhilan's children were prevented from broadcasting the show exclusively during that period, and eventually severed ties with her and ran away. Just when the old lady was heartbroken, this baby appeared in front of her as if it had fallen from the sky.

She picked him up. She treated the baby as her own grandson, named him Su Mo, and raised him single-handedly. To protect Su Mo, she never told him the truth. After his grandmother passed away, Su Mo didn't want to return to the house that would evoke painful memories. Perhaps only after Su Mo had succeeded or failed in his struggles in the big city would he return home and discover the truth.

Just then, the door to the command room was pushed open. A squad of fully armed soldiers walked in, the two soldiers at the front carrying a wooden box with great care.

The box wasn't big, about the size of a shoebox. The soldiers walked to the long table, gently placed the box on it, then stepped back two paces and stood at attention. Commander Zhao stood up and walked to the box.

"Comrade Su Mo," he turned around to face Su Mo, his voice more solemn than ever before, "this is a bracelet that was transformed from the spaceship that brought you to Earth. We don't know the principle behind it either."

He opened the box. Inside lay a bracelet, its dark gray metal and simple design—just a circular ring, roughly the thickness of an adult's wrist.

"Our experts couldn't find anything. Perhaps it has some kind of binding power? We think this might be helpful to you. If things don't work out, we hope you can pilot the spaceship to take some of humanity away from Earth and leave a spark for humankind."

He paused for a moment, then looked up at Su Mo.

"That……"

Then Commander Zhao's voice continued, but unlike the solemnity before, his voice could no longer suppress deep regret and helplessness.

The general, in his fifties, the commander who had remained calm throughout the war, now had slightly reddened eyes. His lips moved, as if he were using all his strength, to utter the next few words:

"Earth... I'm counting on you."

Su Mo looked at him and remained silent for two seconds. Then he nodded.

"Um."

He reached into the box and took the bracelet out. It was heavier than he'd expected, and the metal felt cool to the touch. He held it up to his eyes and examined it; its exterior was simple and straightforward, but its internal structure was surprisingly complex.

Su Mo took a deep breath and securely put the bracelet on his left wrist. The moment the bracelet touched his skin, he felt a faint warmth. The inside of the bracelet slightly contracted, fitting perfectly into the curve of his wrist.

Then a flood of information rushed into his brain. Su Mo's pupils contracted slightly, and his body stiffened for a moment.

He understood. He understood why he could awaken his abilities even without the bracelet.

It was death. When that alien laser pierced his chest, he was already on the verge of death. That level of trauma triggered his physical instincts; the near-death experience broke the limiters built into his genes, forcibly awakening dormant abilities. That's why he found himself powerful when he awoke in the ruins.

But this method is dangerous and incomplete. And now, Su Mo felt it. He lacked nothing. (The movie *New Superman* features a scene where Superman travels to the Kryptonian spaceship in the Arctic to repair his body; in the comics, the Kryptonian spaceship possesses the Kryptonian Codex, which allows Kryptonians to overcome genetic limitations.)

Although he could feel his power increasing, he always had a vague feeling that something was wrong, as if something crucial was missing. It was a hard feeling to describe, like a precision instrument missing a gear; it could still function, but there was always an underlying problem.

Now, having obtained the spaceship bracelet and undergone modifications by the Kryptonian Codex, his abilities were complete, and Su Mo felt a surge of relief. He knew from the Superman comics that, apart from Superman, Kryptonians were completely unable to escape the influence of their genes, were warlike, had fixed destinies, and suffered from various flaws.

If this hidden danger persists, one day her powers might go berserk, or she might suddenly die. (In the comics, there's a Supergirl or a Kryptonian survivor who goes berserk while sunbathing.)

Su Mo flexed his fingers, feeling the bracelet on his wrist. He could sense that the bracelet not only enhanced his abilities but also had some additional functions, such as opening a portal.

The message mentioned this function, but didn't specify where the portal led. Su Mo was curious about who made the bracelet; it definitely wasn't made by Kryptonians. However, this was a time of crisis, and such an unpredictable attempt to enter the portal should wait until Earth was safe.

"Alright," Su Mo finished thinking, looked up at Commander Zhao who had been watching him, and said, "I'll give it a try."

His voice was calm, exuding confidence. Commander Zhao nodded and saluted Su Mo. Su Mo nodded, then turned and walked towards the door.

As he reached the door, Commander Zhao's voice came from behind him: "Comrade Su Mo."

Su Mo stopped and turned her head.

"Come back alive!"

After listening, Su Mo nodded, pushed open the door, and walked out. It was almost dusk when he left the command post. The last vestiges of orange-red on the horizon were being swallowed by the gray-black. In the sky, the battle continued; the few remaining human fighter jets were locked in combat with the alien carrier-based aircraft, the contrails of lasers and missiles drawing bright arcs in the twilight.

Su Mo stood on the ruins, looking up at the sky. He took a deep breath, bent his knees slightly, and then soared into the air. Drawing an arc in the twilight, he shot straight into the sky like a missile.

The wind whistled past his ears, the ground shrank rapidly in his field of vision, and the ruins of the entire city turned into a broken model in seconds. He quickly approached a carrier-based aircraft that was toying with human fighter jets.

The carrier-based aircraft, like a falcon, relentlessly pursued and toyed with the tail of a J-10. Su Mo accelerated forward, his eyes glowing. A surge of energy coursed into his eyes, and two beams of heat shot from his pupils, drawing two bright red streaks in the air. (His genes have just been completed; he can now use thermal vision.)

The heat rays struck the back of the carrier-based aircraft. The aircraft's surface was covered with a layer of ceramic-gold armor, and the heat rays sparked intensely on the armor surface, but the armor was not penetrated.

Su Mo frowned slightly, then increased the energy output. The color of the heat rays deepened, the temperature soared instantly, and the carrier-based aircraft's armor began to turn red, soften, and melt.

Like a hot knife through butter. The heat rays penetrated the armor and sliced ​​through the internal structure. The entire carrier-based aircraft broke in two in front of Su Mo, tumbling and plummeting downwards.