Chapter 55: Sudden Attack

H'el floated in space after exiting the Stellar Probe's airlock. His body suspended weightlessly, and his black cape billowed behind him. The scene before him mirrored the projection in the command room.

A massive accumulation of ash and dust filled the remnants of Krypton. Within, chaotic and terrifying high-energy radiation caused occasional plasma reactions. A ghostly red glow shimmered at the edges of the dust cloud, barely penetrating the thick layer. It was the feeble light from the red sun, unable to pierce the dense dust and only casting a glow around the periphery.

Even someone as powerful as H'el dared not enter the radiation-laden dust cloud recklessly. The high-energy radiation, polarized non-thermal synchrotron radiation, high-energy electron radiation streams, secondary cosmic-ray particles, high-energy gamma radiation, and even residual gamma rays could all potentially cause catastrophic damage to biological cells.

The red sunlight began to slant through the dust radiation cloud, casting a red glow on H'el's fair face. It illuminated his rugged, resolute countenance.

His genetic alterations within his body automatically closed off, no longer absorbing radiation to strengthen himself. Instead, the genetic chains that regulated these absorption channels stopped operating for the most part.

Though his body still retained stored energy, it could no longer absorb or convert it from the outside.

"The red sun..." H'el's face was bathed in a red glow, and his eyes gleamed with contemplation.

The red sun's radiation halted Kryptonians' ability to absorb energy from their surroundings, allowing Krypton's atmosphere to degrade, thus preventing the absorption of energy.

This transformation persisted until Kryptonians became ordinary beings.

In the ancient days of Krypton, after their defeat in a cosmic war, they had found a way to leave behind a legacy on Krypton by shutting down their ability to absorb radiation in the faint light of a red dwarf star. This made their ancient enemies unable to find them in the vast cosmos.

Krypton's atmosphere neutralized the powers of Kryptonians, rendering them powerless and thwarting their ambitions to dominate the universe.

H'el, combining the legends and history of Krypton, immediately suspected the truth. This truth might be even more brutally harsh than he had imagined, which explained why only a small fraction of Kryptonians survived to form the current Krypton.

But in the end, everything had faded away.

H'el shook his head, suppressing the lingering sorrow that reminded him of what he had lost.

"Time to get to work!"

He turned his head and began scanning the surroundings with his vision, springing into action.

The explosion of Krypton had propelled far more materials into space than one could imagine.

Contrary to what people might have expected, the explosion, starting from the planet's core, didn't obliterate everything on the surface. Instead, it was the intense shockwave that had propelled matter out of the atmosphere, sending it hurtling into space, far away from the planet.

H'el was fortunate to stumble upon a battle reconnaissance ship known as the 'Scarab' that had been on Krypton's surface during the explosion. The ship appeared intact, with the remains of two ensigns inside.

Judging by the family emblem on their uniforms, the commanding officer was a colonel from the Zod family, accompanied by his assistant. They had boarded the Scarab as a last-ditch effort when Krypton was about to explode.

However, their actions had been desperate. The Scarab had not been stocked with enough supplies, and while drifting in space, something tragic had occurred.

Driven by extreme hunger, the colonel had resorted to killing his assistant and consuming his flesh.

Despite this, the colonel ultimately starved to death inside the Scarab, leaving behind a grotesque and harrowing scene.

It was truly a regrettable and grim story.

H'el controlled the ship's bio-magnetic field, towing the Scarab as he moved through the area, collecting resources.

Both the Scarab reconnaissance ship and the remains of the colonel and his skeletal assistant had practical value, which was quite rare.

Next, H'el stumbled upon half of an armory that still contained finely crafted assembly line machinery.

There were also five fully encapsulated emergency food storage units designed for use during times of crisis.

He used his bio-magnetic field to separate the steel and concrete, reaping a harvest of a hundred thousand tons of steel building materials.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find the storage units for the damaged central AI.

Among the resources, he collected over two hundred thousand tons of military-grade materials. These materials had been flung far into space by the explosion of Krypton's core and had hardly sustained any damage.

Towards the end of his scavenging, H'el even discovered more than a third of a large spacecraft and continued towing it as he scoured the area.

Behind him lay a chaotic jumble of resources that H'el casually bundled together, picking up the remnants left by an entire planet.

H'el had scoured over a million tons of materials, yet this was just the tip of the iceberg. There were at least trillions of tons of materials scattered in space.

Suddenly, a faint blue beam of light appeared from the front.

H'el, who was searching for materials without any guard, was directly hit by this beam on his chest, right on the 'S' symbol.

His black battle suit on the chest emitted a cushioning light that resisted the beam, dispersing its energy clearly.

It was a beam of bio-magnetic inhibiting light that could break the neural reactions of a living being, rendering them as helpless as a vegetable.

H'el's heart raced, his pupils narrowing.

"Who is it? Sending such a feeble attack."

He had genuinely had no reaction before getting hit.

Apart from the fact that the beam had no damaging power and posed no threat to him, it had appeared too abruptly, right in front of him, without any warning or signs. It just appeared and fired towards his chest.

H'el reacted quickly, immediately letting go of the materials he was towing, letting them scatter.

His bio-magnetic field expanded in all directions, instantly detecting an unusual response.

There were highly energetic particles reacting intensely nearby. This was highly abnormal.

H'el refined his bio-magnetic field for a more detailed scan.

Those were not high-energy particles.

They were miniaturized drones!

Molecular in size.

H'el erupted with a speed exceeding 800 Mach, intercepting one of the molecular drones flying without a trace. He extended his large hand towards it, and his five fingers began to grip it, aiming to hold it in his palm.

The molecular drone, as if sensing danger, suddenly enlarged during H'el's attempt to grip it into a fist.

H'el's eyes turned cold, and as it enlarged, he snorted coldly. His five fingers clenched tightly, forming a fist.

He was like a grim reaper with control over death, hovering in space, gripping death itself.

The molecular drone exploded while it was still enlarging, shattered into pieces, its components enlarged and scattered around him.

°°°

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