Under the threat of a hefty fine, Constantine had no choice but to stub out his cigarette, tucking the remaining half behind his ear.
"This phenomenon is very abnormal."
Constantine pulled the topic back, continuing on his own: "According to the rules, those bastard demons usually only possess humans or hide inside some cursed object to cause trouble, but recently there have been several cases of demons descending directly into the World."
In the DC Universe, Heaven and Hell are not legends; they are real.
Many years ago, God and Satan made a wager.
The board is the World, and the stake is human souls, to see which side can claim more souls.
However, neither side can directly interfere in worldly affairs; they can only exert indirect influence, leaving it to humans to choose between good and evil.
Those who do good ascend to Heaven after death, and those who do evil fall into Hell.
Therefore, to boost their KPIs, both Heaven and Hell are using their own methods to guide humans.
Demons tempt people to fall, and the church urges people to do good.
This battle for souls has been going on for countless years, always just minor skirmishes; rarely have Angels or demons truly set foot in the World.
But now, this balance maintained for years has been broken.
Demons descending directly into the World is undoubtedly a flagrant violation of the agreement between Heaven and Hell.
"Buddy, Hell is getting more and more restless lately. My gut tells me there's definitely a big conspiracy here."
Although Constantine said this, his face wore an undisguisable excitement.
Darian raised an eyebrow: "Are you hoping something happens?"
"Of course… not."
Constantine changed his tune halfway through, quickly switching to a worried expression: "I'm a kind-hearted person; I can't bear to see people suffer. I'm just worried that if disaster strikes, it will lead to immense suffering."
"Do you even believe what you're saying?"
Darian curled his lip, not buying Constantine's act at all.
Did he not know Constantine?
He was full of nonsense and, at his core, a selfish guy—at least for now.
Don't let it look like Constantine is busy exorcising demons all day; in reality, it's all for himself.
Constantine committed suicide once when he was young. According to Heaven's ironclad laws, those who commit suicide are barred from entering Heaven—it's the same logic as not being able to pass a civil service exam if you have tattoos.
So, there was only one path before Constantine: going to Hell after death.
But that suicide attempt gave him a brief experience of Hell's environment, and that place was simply not meant for humans.
Uh, that statement is actually technically correct.
In short, after witnessing the horrors of Hell, Constantine became obsessed with getting into Heaven.
So he became an exorcist, slaying demons everywhere just to accumulate merit in exchange for a ticket to Heaven.
For this, he was unscrupulous. Over the years, he had swindled countless demons; almost everyone in Hell was his enemy. Even Satan had taken a keen interest in him, stating that Hell was in dire need of such talent and that he would come to collect his soul personally when he died.
Now, Constantine was even more panicked.
For years, he had been working tirelessly for Heaven, just to squeeze through its gates.
Yet Heaven always kept him out. The Angels despised his stench of scum and wished they could hang a sign outside the gate that read: "Constantine and Demons Not Allowed."
To be so loathed by both gods and ghosts—he was probably the only one in the entire DC Universe.
"I do."
Constantine nodded decisively, saying righteously: "Protecting the World is the duty of us exorcists. How can we stand by and watch while demons wreak havoc on the World?"
Darian looked surprised: "I didn't expect that beneath your scummy exterior, you actually hid such great awareness."
Constantine: "…" Are you complimenting me or insulting me?
Constantine didn't dwell on it and continued: "So, I plan to investigate this matter thoroughly. Unfortunately, I'm short on manpower and need some like-minded helpers. Darian, are you willing to investigate with me?"
Darian nodded with a smile: "I am not."
Constantine: "…"
Constantine immediately became anxious: "Darian, you're a priest! Can you just watch as demons wreak havoc on the World?"
Darian frowned and said: "I truly cannot bear to watch."
"Then come with me…"
"So I choose to close my eyes."
Constantine's mouth twitched.
Is this guy really a priest? Why does he seem to have even less sense of responsibility than him? This church is probably doomed.
Looking at the impervious Darian, Constantine felt anxious. In fact, he didn't have much time left.
Since he was fifteen, he had developed the good habit of smoking at least thirty cigarettes a day. After smoking over two hundred thousand of them, he had successfully smoked himself into terminal lung cancer.
Constantine still remembered the day he received the diagnosis; he was terrified and lit a cigarette on the spot to calm his nerves.
Not long ago, he went to see a Doctor again. The Doctor didn't say much, just told him to eat what he wanted and play as he liked for these two months, and that he didn't need to quit smoking.
Constantine didn't feel happy at all; instead, his face turned ashen. The Doctor's words were undoubtedly a death sentence.
Now he only had two months left. He had to find a way to get into Heaven during this time, otherwise, he would have to go to Hell and face those old acquaintances who were eyeing him like tigers.
In Constantine's view, this incident might be an opportunity. If he could help Heaven deal with those demons, perhaps the Old Man God would look at him differently and grant him special approval to ascend.
But going it alone wasn't his style, and this incident was too big; he needed a powerful ally. And Darian was the best candidate he had his eye on.
But Darian wasn't moved at all. Constantine's deception wasn't even recognized by the game system, and no quest could be triggered, so why would he pay attention to this guy? He focused on his game.
At this moment, he was challenging the final boss of the last level. This game was a classic hardcore roguelike; the character only had one life, and if they died, it was back to the start.
Even with Darian's hand speed and neural reaction far exceeding that of an ordinary person, it had taken him a full hour to get here, so the difficulty was self-evident.
Of course, Darian's goal wasn't just to clear the level, but to set a World record for completion time. With his cheat-like operation, his game progress was already several minutes ahead of the World's number one, and he was just a little bit away from completely clearing it.
"A mere World record, it's easily within my grasp." Darian smiled contemptuously and started celebrating prematurely.
Pop!
Just as the game character was about to strike the final blow to kill the big boss, the lights in the Underground Room suddenly went out. The TV screen in front of him went dark as well.
Darian: (=o—) What the f***!!
Constantine asked suspiciously: "What's going on? Did a fuse blow?"
Static—suddenly, the TV screen lit up again. Black and white static filled the entire screen, looking very eerie. Combined with the dim environment, it was practically the standard opening of a horror movie.
Neither of the two present felt any panic. One was a fake priest, the other a Hellblazer; if any demons or monsters dared to show their heads, they would definitely let them know what it meant to trespass into the wrong home.
Unfortunately, the expected supernatural scene did not appear. No well appeared on the TV screen, nor did a disheveled woman in white crawl out to glare at them with those big, cartoonish eyes.
After the static flickered violently, a line of text appeared on the screen.
"You… are not… alone…"
"You are not… alone…"
"You…" These words appeared in different languages in turns, but over and over again, they all meant the same thing.
Paired with this was a blurry male voice repeating the same sentence in various languages, perfectly interpreting the nature of humanity.
Constantine frowned: "You are not alone? What does that mean?"
Darian pondered for two seconds: "Maybe it's swearing."
Constantine: "…"
The next moment, the repeated sentences on the screen stopped abruptly. A blurry human silhouette appeared on the screen, but the pixels were so poor that even the facial features were blurred into a mosaic, making it impossible to see any details.
The network quality of the other party in the current video call was extremely poor.
"I am General Zod. I come from a distant Planet, having crossed the sea of stars to reach Earth."
"For some time, your Planet has been hiding one of our people. I demand that you return him to us immediately."
"For certain reasons, he has chosen to conceal his identity from you. He has certainly tried hard to blend in among you. He will look like you, but he does not belong to you."
"To those who might know his current whereabouts, the fate of your Planet is now in your hands."
"Kal-El, listen well. Surrender within 24 hours, or this World will bear the consequences for you."
After saying the last sentence, the image froze on the blurry human silhouette, and then the screen went black.
After a brief silence, the fluorescent light tube overhead struggled and flickered twice before lighting up again, as if the scene just now was merely an illusion.
Constantine stood there stunned, his mouth slightly open, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.
He took the unlit half-cigarette from his ear and flipped it back and forth between his fingers before finally regaining the ability to speak.
"This couldn't be some new prank pulled by a bored hacker, could it?"
"Obviously not."
Darian had already taken out his phone and casually opened a forum, which was full of discussions about the declaration from the person who just called himself General Zod.
Someone had already discovered that just at that moment, communication signals all over the World were hijacked simultaneously.
No matter how remote the place, as long as it was an electronic device capable of transmitting image information, one could see the scene just now.
Never mind a hacker; even looking at the entire Earth, no single country could achieve this.
Apparently, the General Zod from just now was truly an alien.
Constantine said in shock: "Is this f***ing reality? How are aliens popping up now!?"
Darian curled his lip: "What are you surprised about? This World has Angels and demons; what's an alien popping up compared to that?"
"Fair point."
Constantine thought it made sense and returned to his decadent appearance, frowning: "However, that alien looks very unfriendly. Threatening the entire World right off the bat—this kind of person is either a madman or truly has the strength to back it up."
Darian said casually: "No need to guess; it must be the latter, after all, they are Kryptonian."
The moment General Zod appeared, he knew the other party's identity. Kryptonian!
Not the kind of "pay-to-win" player like Tony and Bruce, but real Kryptonians, one of the most bugged races in the entire Universe.
Kryptonians are a highly developed civilization, and their technological level is far ahead in the Universe.
But what makes them truly powerful isn't their intelligence, but their physique.
As long as they absorb sunlight, Kryptonians can become infinitely stronger and evolve different abilities. The most representative character among them is undoubtedly Superman.
And the Kal-El that General Zod mentioned is none other than Superman's Kryptonian name.
Constantine asked in surprise: "What is a Kryptonian?"
Darian explained: "An alien race from Krypton. They possess bodies of steel, with durability that can ignore almost all human thermal weapons, and strength starting at at least a thousand tons. Besides that, they can fly, shoot heat vision from their eyes, blow freezing breath from their mouths, and so on. Basically, they are walking nuclear weapons."
Constantine opened his mouth wide: "Does it have to be that exaggerated?"
Darian added: "I'm describing them by the lowest standards; the reality might be several times, dozens of times, or even a hundred times stronger than what I described."
Hearing this, Constantine wasn't afraid; instead, his eyes lit up: "These Kryptonians sound like great people to be friends with."
Darian's mouth twitched. This guy really doesn't know when to quit; he even wants to scam a Kryptonian. Is he not afraid of being punched into the second dimension by a Kryptonian?
General Zod's global declaration fermented at the speed of light across the World. Within just half an hour, it topped the trending lists of all countries, its popularity directly crushing all previous entertainment news and international events.
After all, this wasn't some science fiction movie trailer, but a real alien threat. Governments around the World immediately activated the highest level of emergency response, and all departments entered a 24-hour combat readiness state.
All for one purpose: to find the Kal-El that General Zod mentioned. But General Zod only gave a name; there was too little information, and there was simply no way to start.
The internet also exploded. Netizens around the World transformed into Sherlock Holmes, starting to wildly guess the true identity of Kal-El.
Most people believed that aliens must be different from ordinary people, either having strange appearances or possessing abilities beyond ordinary people. Thus, all sorts of absurd nominations emerged one after another.
For example, the President of America, some NBA superstar, some scientist in a wheelchair…
But among all the nominations, the Gotham criminal circle had the most unified stance, very tacitly posting photos of Batman.
They had long felt that Batman was not human. What human would mimic a bat to haunt the night, fly around in the sky, beat Killer Croc to the ground with their bare hands, and pull out all sorts of unscientific high-tech gadgets…
The most absurd thing is, every time Batman falls, he just shouts "I'm Batman" and can stand back up; he's really not even pretending anymore.
The more they talked, the more they confirmed their conjecture, and they all demanded the Gotham government hurry up and hand over Batman to save the World.
Bruce Wayne: "…"
Regarding such a major event like General Zod, as Batman, he naturally started paying attention to it immediately.
He originally just wanted to find some clues, but unexpectedly saw the Gotham criminal circle collectively handing him over, and his face turned black.
Bruce silently noted down these people's IPs, and after this event was over, he would deal with them one by one in person.
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