Chapter 1 A Peaceful Planet

Slough Star, located in the Southern Silver River, has 1.9 times the gravity of Earth and a population of approximately 7 billion. Its size is slightly smaller than Earth, but the land area on the planet's surface is about 40% larger.

It is 170 million kilometers away from the nearest star (the distance between Earth and the Sun is about 150 million kilometers), and its climate is very similar to Earth's.

There are only fifteen countries on this planet, and they have been in a federation for many years, with excellent coordination among them. Therefore, the population distribution and resource allocation on this planet are very even.

In short, this is a peaceful and prosperous planet.

Of course, the absence of war and famine does not mean that there is no crime…

Slough Star people are a highly intelligent life form very similar to Earthlings; their physiological nature has determined their criminal motives, forms, and content.

The gap between the rich and the poor, the level of social status, and even the appearance of spouses can all become inducements to crime. Driven by the primal motive of "desire," it eventually evolves into criminal acts.

Where there is crime, there are police…

The police of Slough Star are extremely outstanding. Whether it is the number of personnel, quality, equipment, or efficiency… everything is top-notch. You will never see a Slough Star police officer sitting in a patrol car eating donuts, nor will you ever find any Slough Star police officer who is overweight or has a below-standard IQ.

Because there is no war on this planet, and the federal system is very stable, at least 99% of the people can live a life of basic sustenance. In such an environment… words like "arms race, financial confrontation, racial discrimination"... simply do not exist in the dictionary of Slough Star people.

"Crime rate" is the most important priority for the governments of the fifteen countries. "Public security" is the most concerning livelihood issue for every ordinary Slough Star resident.

Therefore, the police department has become the most powerful and vital institution in each country on this planet.

However… even on such a planet, "super criminals" emerge in endlessly.

It is not known whether it is a case of extremes meeting… with the general crime solving rate approaching 100%, high-end criminals have stood up, forcibly pulling up the crime rate and lowering the overall solving rate… and many of them do not even have a "motive."

Psychopathic killers, robbery addicts, kidnapping and murdering perpetrators who call themselves "judges," late-stage *chuunibyou* ("middle school syndrome") "revolutionary" organizations, and so on… a bunch of guys who are either too full or mentally ill, put on bizarre costumes and commit crimes everywhere. Among them are many highly intelligent talents with higher education, elite figures with professor titles, or wealthy tycoons who dominate the business world…

These oddballs, for various reasons and purposes, eventually embarked on the path of "super criminals," bringing tremendous pressure to the Slough Star police.

Thus, another group emerged, namely, "vigilantes."

To put it coolly, that is—superheroes.

Folk experts, *chuuni* police officers, quirky inventors, superpowered individuals, victims of chemical accidents, etc… all kinds of people with unique skills also put on bizarre costumes, took to the streets, and on the edge of the law… engaged in battles with those super criminals.

…………

On this day, Slough Star, Slough Lei Country, Eastern Fifteenth District.

A spaceship entered the "Slough Alliance" (the planet's superhero alliance) airport.

When the spaceship landed, five resident heroes of the Slough Alliance were already waiting beside it. They were [Backflip Man], [Police Man], [Dr. Biubiu], [Temptation Gal], and [Scarface Man].

There were two heroes who stepped out of the spaceship. They came from the Universal Superhero Alliance and had arrived after receiving a support request from the Slough Alliance.

One of these two was a planet-level hero, [Hardman]. He was a Mudball Star person (of the same race as Foilman), wearing a gray trench coat, with a slicked-back hairstyle, and a conspicuous X-shaped scar in the middle of his face. His main abilities were "thirty times the physical strength of an average person" and a "su~per tough style."

The other was a newly promoted city-level hero—[Poker Man].

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Hardman had met these five colleagues (the five city-level heroes of the Slough Alliance were all registered with the Universal Superhero Alliance, but they usually stayed on their own planet) a few times, but they were not very familiar.

"It's okay, you're here just in time." A man wearing a light blue police uniform (the real Slough Star police uniform is uniformly dark blue) and an eye patch replied, "We won't be launching our operation for another hour. You've arrived just in time to listen to Dr.'s deployment." As Police Man spoke, he raised his hand and gestured toward a person next to him wearing a white coat and a round metal helmet on his head.

Dr. Biubiu responded, "Yes… Hardman, long time no see." His muffled voice sounded from the helmet, sounding as if he had difficulty breathing, and there were no holes on his helmet (at least, not visibly), so it was unknown how he saw things. "By the way, I don't think I know who this is…" His metal head slowly turned a little, seemingly "looking" at Feng Bujue.

"Hello, I'm Poker Man…" Feng Bujue introduced himself neither humbly nor arrogantly, and after half a second, he added, "... city-level hero."

"Pleased to meet you."

"Hello."

The five members of the Slough Alliance also greeted Jue-Ge.

Seconds later, Hardman said to them, "Although the support request you submitted this time is to deal with a C-level crisis (a crisis sufficient to destroy a planet, usually, the Alliance would dispatch at least one planet-level or higher hero to lead the team), but considering that the 'Slough Alliance' itself also has relatively strong combat power, the Alliance only sent the two of us here. I hope you don't mind."

"It's okay, we submitted the request just to be on the safe side." A guy with a hoarse voice, covered in bandages from head to toe, looking like a mummy (yes, he was Scarface Man) immediately replied, "Dr.'s plan is already a sure thing. Applying for a planet-level hero to sit here is mainly for contingency."

Hearing this, Feng Bujue couldn't help but think, "Tch… so I'm redundant… Oh well, I can collect the credit by just being a bystander, why shouldn't I?"

"That's good." Hardman replied, "Then… Dr., shall we go somewhere else to talk about the plan?"

"Yes…" Dr. Biubiu responded, raising his arm, "Gentlemen, this way please…"

Just like that, after a brief exchange and greeting, Feng Bujue followed the other heroes to the Slough Alliance's command center.

…………

At the same moment, Eastern Twentieth District, in a certain underground base.

A tall figure was standing with his hands behind his back, observing the operation of the base in various places on a large screen.

He was the creator of this Slough Star C-level crisis—[General Quick].

Quick had a physique that was noticeably different from other Slough Star people (Slough Star people have a physique similar to humans, with light purple skin, and facial features that are more open and protruding than humans). His height was more than twice that of the average person, his body was wide and thick, his weight was astonishing, and his physical strength was difficult to estimate. Moreover… he also had superpowers.

Quick could be said to be one of the most powerful super criminals on this planet.

"General, sensors show that a spaceship from the Universal Superhero Alliance has just landed at the Slough Alliance's base." At this moment, such a sentence sounded from the intercom on the console.

"Hmph… so they really came…" Quick snorted coldly, and replied in passing, "Pass down the order to bring 'that guy's' confinement device to the surface, and prepare the 'awakening program'."

"Yes." His subordinate replied loudly, and ended the communication.

After a moment of silence, Quick laughed coldly, "Heh… those guys in the Alliance think that they can stop me by finding support from the Universal Superhero Alliance…" His gaze moved slightly, looking at a corner of the screen in front of him, "How would you know that I still have this trump card…"

…………

Fifteen minutes later, the Slough Alliance command center.

"The above is the general situation of this crisis." Dr. Biubiu had already explained the main content of the crisis to Jue-Ge and the others.

Feng Bujue stared at the group of people in front of him with a pained expression, and said in a deep voice, "Um… let me sort out the whole thing…" He subconsciously pressed his right index finger against his temple to relieve the pain of his logic being violated, "That guy who calls himself 'General Quick,' comes from a rich family, is handsome, has received higher education, married a movie star, has two healthy children, and lives a happy life.

As a result, one day, he didn't know whether he was too full or too full or too full… suddenly felt that 'this kind of life is meaningless,' so he abandoned his wife and children, scattered his family wealth, ran to the universe to wander alone, and happened to find a mysterious lost spaceship—'The Dark'. And on that spaceship, he encountered some kind of strange ideological 'preaching' and physical modification.

Then, he returned to Slough Star, formed the 'Quick Army,' and attempted to conquer the entire planet and enslave the people here."

Feng Bujue said all this in one breath, looking at Dr. Biubiu and saying, "So far, my summary is all correct, right?"

"Uh… apart from some strange ambiguities in the wording, it's all correct." Dr. Biubiu replied.

"Okay…" Jue-Ge continued, "Let's not talk about how Quick, after returning to his hometown, managed to re-accumulate the huge amount of funds needed for terrorist activities, nor why so many well-fed people are willing to follow him to do those desperate things… let's just talk about this C-level crisis…" He paused, then said, "This guy directly threatened the federal government, claiming that he 'has mastered the force sufficient to destroy the entire planet,' and demanded that they recognize the 'Quick Army' as the only legitimate government of Slough Star within forty-eight cosmic weeks, otherwise he would use that force to destroy each country one by one…" He roughly repeated what he had heard, and then asked, "Don't you think… there is something… wrong with this matter?"

Hearing this, everyone looked at each other, and no one responded. Although they were mostly wearing masks (except for "Hardman" and "Temptation Gal," the other four were masked), Feng Bujue could still see… that these few were all showing expressions of doubt.

"Sigh… let me ask it this way…" Feng Bujue sighed and continued, "Does Quick know of the existence of the Slough Alliance?"

"Yes." Dr. Biubiu replied.

"Does he know where your base is?" Jue-Ge asked again.

"Although it's not public to the civilians…" Police Man replied, "The governments of all the federal countries know the location of the base, after all, we need the government to grant us outer space negotiation rights."

"So… with Quick's intelligence capabilities, presumably he also knows it." Dr. Biubiu continued.

"Isn't that the end of it?" Feng Bujue said.

"What's the end of it?" Hardman looked at Feng Bujue in confusion, "What exactly are you trying to say? Poker Man."

"If I were Quick…" Feng Bujue stood up and pointed to the electronic map on the conference table, "I would pick a sunny afternoon, or a dark and windy night, or a morning after drinking and eating my fill, or any time that I f*cking find convenient… and directly use my 'force sufficient to destroy the entire planet' to destroy your base. I would kill as many of the heroes in the base as I could, and if I couldn't kill them all, I wouldn't lose anything."

When Jue-Ge said this, the heroes at the table were all stunned, it seemed… they really hadn't thought of this.

"After taking care of these, I would then~" Feng Bujue deliberately lengthened the sound of the word "then," "~go and threaten the governments of various countries, and say, 'You've all seen what happened to the heroes, learn from their mistakes, you'd better be smart'… and so on, blablabla… wouldn't that be more effective?"

"Now that you mention it…" At this time, Scarface Man opened his mouth and continued, "That's really the case…"

"Yes…" Dr. Biubiu also continued in a tone that revealed lingering fear, "Fortunately, Quick didn't think of this."

"Yeah, yeah." Backflip Man and other heroes also echoed.

"Holy sh*t…" Feng Bujue thought to himself, "Is there really something wrong with the IQ of these guys?"

Obviously, the "problem" that Jue-Ge was talking about was not what they understood it to be. Jue-Ge's point was that Quick probably didn't have the kind of force he claimed at all, otherwise he would have done it already. How could the other party not have thought of such an obvious thing?

Unfortunately… this time, Feng Bujue was indeed overthinking it, because Quick really hadn't thought of it.

In this multiverse of superheroes, there are many alien races that are "not good at planning and have very shallow schemes." It's not that there's something wrong with their IQ. On the contrary, many aliens have a larger relative brain capacity than Earthlings and stronger brainpower than humans, but… when it comes to the ability to scheme and plot, Earthlings are just too strong.

"Scheming" is not related to the level of technological civilization. Those ancient strategists may not have as much knowledge of physics, chemistry, and mathematics as modern middle school students, but the strategies they came up with at the time and place, middle school students (the vast majority) would definitely not be able to think of. Similarly, strategies that seem very simple to us Earthlings, Slough Star people may not be able to figure out even if they rack their brains.

"Poker Man's reminder is very apt. In that case… we have to act quickly." After a moment, Dr. Biubiu said again, "In case Quick thinks of this and launches a surprise attack on us, the consequences would be unimaginable."

"Dr." Hardman continued, "Tell us about your attack plan."

"Okay." Dr. Biubiu also stood up, manipulating the electronic map on the table, pointing out several coordinates on it, and unfolding a three-dimensional image, "Everyone, please look, here… is Quick's base."

"What?" Feng Bujue was shocked, "So you guys also know where Quick's base is?"

Jue-Ge's subtext was—can you explain why the other party's base hasn't been turned to ashes yet?

"We only detected the location of that base four hours ago." Biubiu replied.

"Oh…" Jue-Ge nodded, thinking, "Okay, that's still acceptable."

He didn't quite understand what the Slough Star people's style was, anyway… in Quick's case, if it were on Earth, as soon as his location was exposed, it would be carpet-bombed by missiles from dozens of countries in a matter of minutes, let alone four hours… whether he could survive for four minutes would be a question.

"Under our Slough Alliance, there are a total of sixty-five vigilantes from all over the world (Slough Star), but only the five of us here have obtained Universal Superhero Alliance registration qualifications." Dr. Biubiu continued from his previous words, "Considering that… those sixty people are scattered in various cities, and most of them don't have superpowers, so for this operation, I only gathered the strongest five people in the Alliance." He looked at Hardman and said, "To be on the safe side, we also applied for support from the Universal Superhero Alliance."

"Simply put, it's a 'elite squad assault' strategy." Police Man added, "Of course… from a practical point of view, this is also the only feasible plan we have. Because after Quick's 'announcement,' there has been a surge in crime rates all over the world, and the heroes and police everywhere are now extremely busy. Gathering them here… would have limited effect, but the negative impact could be greater."

"I say…" Feng Bujue couldn't help but interrupt again, "Is this really the only strategy…" He leaned back in his chair, staring with dead fish eyes and said, "Think about it again… really… think about it again…"

His tone was as if a tutor had encountered an ultimate underachiever, with a feeling of "seeing that you really can't answer, wanting to give you the answer, but not being able to give it."

"Poker Man." At this time, Hardman, who was sitting next to Jue-Ge, turned his head and said, "Time is limited, just say what you have to say."

"Sigh… okay." Feng Bujue continued, "My plan is like this…"