dhibooks Chapter 196 Next to join the battle
Chapter 196 Next to join the battle
Chapter 196 Next to join the battle
The stomach of the Galactus was far more habitable than imagined. Joey had initially expected to be sucked in by some deadly acid capable of melting everything.
Or something like a diamond-hard stomach that can crush everything.
Unexpectedly, none of that was there; all that remained was an endless expanse of deep space.
Trillions of stars at different stages of life shine throughout the universe, and even Joey's Kryptonian eyesight would be unable to count them all in a short time.
Countless dwarf stars perished, and countless new stars were born. Clusters of nebulae swirled around Joey, radiating starlight that made him more powerful than ever before.
The universe is rapidly evolving, and the cosmic energy flowing out passes through Joey's fingers. Time and space seem to merge with him at this moment, giving Joey an indescribable sense of tranquility.
Having broken the speed of light and forged ahead through this endless galaxy for an unknown period of time, Joey felt only peace and tranquility in his heart.
At that moment, only one thought echoed in his mind: "Where are my teammates? Where are they? ***, help me!"
Damn it, no matter who it is outside, is there anyone who can open the mouth of this cosmic-level glutton and take himself out?
This universe is far larger than the real universe, leaving Joey's search for a way out in vain.
If it were truly infinite, even with the best of my Kryptonian vision and physical strength, I probably wouldn't be able to reach the edge of that possible existence.
Although there is no immediate danger, this is, after all, the stomach of a cosmic deity, and who knows whether this environment is real or not.
Perhaps he was already on the verge of death, and what he was seeing now was just a fantasy before his own consciousness was digested into cosmic energy.
"I hope the Earth is alright."
Joey, who was praying for Earth while he was away, found a relatively stable red dwarf star system and started basking in the sun.
The universe within the Devourer of Stars was evolving at a much faster rate than in the normal world. Having been irradiated by various newly formed stars along the way, he felt numbness and itching all over his body, almost like the symptoms of early-stage radiation sickness. Looking inside his body, Joey discovered that almost every cell was in an abnormally full state of energy. Without relying on the red star to cool him down, Joey couldn't predict what would happen next.
Joey, whose energy was being depleted by sunbathing, now had a new question.
Logically, if only one's own consciousness entered Galactus's stomach from Ultraman's body, why is it still in Kryptonian form?
There's no need to get to the bottom of Ultraman's stuff.
Of course, it's also possible that Galactus's cosmic energy is at play, since he is essentially a creator god rather than a destroyer god.
However, in the process of creation, if you want to give a world a new life, you always need to destroy a part of the old world.
If Galactus were to die, it would be like an ecosystem losing both the top predator and the bottom decomposer in the food chain, leading to absolute annihilation for the entire multiverse.
However, this is not something Joey should be concerned about. Galactus won't starve to death if he doesn't eat this meal, but if Joey stays here any longer, Earth in Tony's universe will definitely be completely destroyed.
Thinking of this, Joey took off again, heading towards what he considered the 'edge', but the boundless space around him left him disoriented and confused. Time ticked by, and all he felt was mounting anxiety, to the point that he began to mutter incoherently to himself:
"Ultraman isn't working either. What happened to the promised deus ex machina?"
If Wonder Woman Diana, who originated from the ancient Greek gods, were present, she would be very familiar with explaining what a so-called "deus ex machina" is.
This term originates from a performance style in ancient Greek drama, which, as the name suggests, means "gods from machines".
In general, the protagonist is trapped in a predicament, unable to escape, unable to defeat, and with no hope of survival. Then, at the last second, someone or some being suddenly intervenes and saves the protagonist from dire straits.
The sudden appearance of a being that resolves a predicament is generally like a "god" in a stage play, who descends from the sky using a mechanical device for take-off and landing.
In Joey's memory from long ago, the story framework of most Ultraman series could be summarized by the phrase "deus ex machina".
Ultraman often plays the role of a savior in stories where the protagonist is in dire straits, essentially acting as a "god" in the story.
When mortals are in danger, gods descend from the heavens and the danger vanishes with the wind.
Almost every episode follows this process.
Many people have criticized this type of narrative as being too crude and mindless, to the point that it destroys the internal logic of the entire story.
Joey generally doesn't like stories like this either, unless it's like now, where even Ultraman and Superman are no different from ordinary people when facing a powerful god like Galactus.
What happens when the "god" in the original story is in dire straits?
If someone could perform a "deus ex machina" rescue to save Joey and Shuihu from their predicament, they wouldn't complain about how bad the story was afterward.
When people are pushed to the limit, they tend to overthink things. It's like when Joey was taking an exam in his past life and encountered a question he couldn't answer, his mind would automatically play a song he had heard before.
As Joey flew into the endless void, he found another red dwarf star system far from the star cluster to rest. Although his knowledge of Kryptonian physiology did not cover the dangers of excessive yellow sunlight, he could still clearly sense that his body cells were overloaded by the omnipresent cosmic energy radiation.
Could this kind of irradiation be the way Galactus's internal digestive system kills itself?
While pondering ways to escape and taking a break, Joey observed the desolate red star system and found it to be truly 'desolate'.
Generally speaking, massive celestial bodies, due to their own gravity, will always have multiple planets and countless asteroids orbiting within their gravitational wells. However, this red giant only has a bare, rocky planet under Joey's feet.
In the past, Joey might have pondered this anomaly for a long time, but now there's no need for that.
After sensing that his body's energy level had dropped to a reasonable level, Joey tapped his heels on the ground and prepared to leave this desolate star system.
Boom!
With both feet off the ground, Joey realized that the planet beneath his feet had suddenly exploded.
Joey initially thought that his external forces had once again gone out of control, which caused the reaction force during takeoff to cause the entire planet's structure to collapse.
That's the nature of Kryptonians; their mere existence can easily cause devastating destruction to the world.
"I didn't use much force, how did it break—"
This habitual view persisted until the next second, when Joey observed planetary debris scattering in all directions, and at the same time, a hundred-meter-long worm emerged from the star's core, its gaping maw snapping open as it lunged at him at faster-than-light speed:
"Roar!"
Startled by the sudden appearance of the long worm, Joey practically scrambled with his hands and feet to barely manage to stop it from being swallowed whole.
The giant worm is covered with a colorful shell, resembling a solidified nebula storm, which occasionally reflects the indigo glow of cosmic energy.
Seemingly not expecting that Joey, its food source, would resist, the giant worm let out an angry hiss.
Its mouthparts, resembling those of a lamprey with approximately 7863 overlapping teeth, transferred immense pressure to Joey.
They were determined to devour this delicious food that had been delivered to their doorstep.
This intense confrontation caused Joey's energy reserves to be rapidly depleted, especially under the bright red sunlight, which made him sweat profusely.
Joey, enduring the constantly shrinking mouthparts, knew that continuing like this would surely lead to his death, so he began to examine the other party's terrifyingly large mouth.
Try to find a weak point and remove hundreds of its teeth first using thermal imaging.
However, before he could put this idea into action, a long tongue emerged from the serpent's gaping maw, which resembled an abyss.
It wrapped itself around Joey's waist as he struggled to resist the bite of his teeth.
Like a pangolin devouring an ant, Joey, who was rolled into the belly of a giant insect by a tongue, had only one sentence to say before he died:
"Holy crap, Buhou!"
"Holy crap, Buhou!"
Far outside the miniature universe inside Galactus's belly, Iron Man and his Spider-Man crew also let out the same exclamation.
"There's not enough time!"
"I know!"
The good news is that the weapon is almost finished; the bad news is that Galactus will probably start eating before the weapon is even finished.
The efficiency of the smart converter caught everyone off guard. Even with a bunch of smart guys like Iron Man and Spider-Man working at full speed, they simply don't have enough time to debug the equipment.
"Someone needs to hold Galactus off!"
"It will take another thirty minutes!"
Tony and several Spider-Men from other worlds are busy running around, and it has to be admitted that almost all of them can be called "geniuses". They can quickly and seamlessly connect with a brain like Tony's with almost no communication costs.
The Spider-Men present looked at each other and couldn't help but sigh: "Even Thor and SilverAsh failed. Can we really stall for time long enough?"
Even though most Spider-Men had never seen Galactus before and had no concrete idea of how powerful the Devourer of Planet was,
But most people know what kind of power Thor is.
Right now, the other side has slapped Thor and SilverAsh away with a single blow each, and even if our side had hundreds of Spider-Men who were fearless, we probably wouldn't be able to delay them for more than a minute.
"Alright, we'll give you thirty minutes—we certainly can't defeat a god in this world, but at least we can teach him what pain is."
The voice came from above. The Spider-Men present looked up and saw that it was Spider-Man 2099 who was climbing down from the top floor.
"Spider Army, are you ready to fight for New York once again?"
Not all Spider-Men share his optimism:
"To be honest, we were really unprepared."
"I bet that big guy is no more difficult for us than an ordinary person is for dealing with a spider."
"He might have also prepared insecticides or something."
However, no one would back down in such a situation:
"However, spiders always have this one advantage—"
No matter how deadly the threat—
"They'll eventually get away with it."
"No."
Spider-Man 2099 knew that sporadic interference wouldn't hinder Galactus in the slightest; they needed a more direct confrontation.
"We're going to confront Galactus head-on."
Of course, there are prerequisites for a head-on confrontation; he is by no means the kind of ignorant person who would gather a bunch of people to die in vain.
While Tony Stark was busy building the super cannon that was supposedly capable of driving away Galactus, he wasn't idle either.
The main framework of the Gastac Tower emitted a relieved metallic scraping sound, as the heavy objects that had been pressing down on the top floor now regained enough power to soar.
Spider-Man 2099 has finished his job, repairing the big guy in their army, Leopardton, with nanomachines from the future.
More and more Spider-Men clung to the shoulders and cockpit of the giant robot Leopardton, which was taking off again.
In the pilot's seat of the giant robot Leopardton, Toei's Spider-Man, Takuya Yamashiro, crossed his arms, ready to risk his life in the battle.
There was no time to mourn the death of their comrade Superman. Next to join the battle was Leo Patton, wielding the War Soul Divine Sword, creating a gaseous wake as this colossal steel warrior from the distant universe resolutely unleashed its strongest strike towards the planet-devourer thousands of miles away:
"A man who saw hope in the courage of his comrades and fellow soldiers, the four hundred aunties!"