"You… you succeeded…"
Although her internal filter shattered, Mera was still incredibly excited.
Kevin obtaining the trident meant he had the power to stop the war!
Atlantis was saved!
"Evidently."
Swinging the trident, Kevin responded with a smile.
At this moment, he was merely holding the trident; he hadn't changed into the Atlantean King's shimmering golden attire.
While the Atlantean King's battle armor looked decent, it was clothing from a dead man.
Kevin felt a slight resistance inside.
Perhaps this was a form of cleanliness in some sense.
Moreover, the battle armor didn't feel good on Kevin; even though he hadn't worn it, just by looking at its style, he knew it wasn't suitable for him.
So Kevin only came out with the trident, while the battle armor was stored away in the treasury, gathering dust.
Kevin had put one level into each of the three new skills after his class change.
Kevin really wanted to put all his skill points into the Lord's Martial Arts skill, leveling it up to three.
But unfortunately, he didn't have enough skill points.
Kevin simply distributed all the skill points evenly among all the skills.
And the level one King's Treasury didn't have much space; rather than a treasury, it was more like a 'storage box.' It seemed this treasury needed further upgrades to expand its space.
This was a common trope and didn't come as a surprise.
With the battle armor stored away and the trident in hand, Kevin appeared before Mera in this manner.
Because he had always worn attire similar to an adventurer, now, holding the trident, he looked less like the future new King of Atlantis and more like… well, a tomb raider who had just emerged from ruins.
However, Mera didn't pay attention to these details.
Her gaze was fixed intently on the trident in Kevin's hand, and after a while, she said:
"Since the trident is in hand, let's go back, go back and stop Arthur!"
"Hmm… we can go back, but before that, I want to ask you a question."
"What question?"
"I got the trident. You guys aren't going to crown me as the new King, are you?"
Kevin asked with a bitter expression.
Mera was first stunned, then answered without thinking:
"What foolishness are you talking about…?"
"…No?"
Just as Kevin thought he had misunderstood, Mera rolled her eyes and said:
"Of course we will! Finding the legendary trident proves that you have gained the Atlantean King's recognition, so of course you are the future King of Atlantis! This is the consensus of all Atlanteans!"
"No… I mean… isn't your method of choosing a King underwater a bit too simple? This outdated constitutional monarchy should be reformed…"
Kevin mumbled in protest.
He was a CEO in the The Boys world, a Sorcerer Supreme in the Marvel World, and now, after only a few days in the DC Universe, he was about to become the King of a nation.
Kevin clearly just wanted to be a lazy bum who didn't care about anything, so why did things always turn out this way?
The The Boys world was understandable; the CEO position was something Kevin actively pursued.
But the special positions in the Marvel World and DC Universe were truly not something Kevin actively sought!
"If you want to change this system, you'll have to do it after you become King."
Mera responded seriously to Kevin's little complaint.
Mera also understood that all past successors to the throne had undergone rigorous education.
Whether it was martial arts or political maneuvering, even if they weren't skilled at something or disliked doing certain things, they still had to master the relevant theoretical knowledge.
Even Arthur from the parallel world was trained by the royal minister Vulko from childhood, who taught him martial arts and how to govern a kingdom.
Although Arthur from the parallel world probably didn't listen to anything related to politics, at least he had undergone training.
Kevin hadn't gone through this kind of training; he was just a wild kid. Making such a person suddenly the King of Atlantis was indeed a bit difficult for him.
But there was no choice; rules were rules. Since Kevin obtained the trident, he was the future King. Even Mera couldn't change this.
Even if Arthur didn't acknowledge it, at least the Fisherman Kingdom, the Salty Kingdom, and even Mera's own Xebel Kingdom would acknowledge Kevin's identity.
Kevin's future was already unchangeable.
And if he wanted to change all of this, the only thing he could do was to become King himself and then change this 'backward' system in his eyes.
"Or…?" Feeling that the responsibility was unavoidable, Kevin tried to hand the trident to Mera: "…You try?"
"Kevin… this is not the time to joke."
Mera, who had originally been somewhat moved by the trident, now seemed to have lost interest in it and didn't even look at it.
The trident had already recognized Kevin's identity; even if it were given to Mera, she wouldn't be able to use it.
Mera thought this, and thus no longer fantasized about obtaining the trident and becoming King.
Moreover, she felt that she was indeed not suitable to be King.
She was more suited to be Queen.
Thinking this, Mera subtly glanced at Kevin with a somewhat ambiguous meaning.
"Ahem…"
Kevin, who had tried to shirk responsibility without success, cleared his throat, took back the trident, and sighed to Mera:
"…Alright then, let's go back first and stop Arthur."
…
The war between land and sea began with Atlantis's unilateral declaration of war.
And the bad news was that the land had no means to deal with the ocean kingdoms.
Fighter jets flying in the sky could not attack the oceanic armies deep beneath the sea.
Warships floating on the surface were overturned by waves stirred up by the underwater kingdoms, their lower hulls breached, sinking the warships.
Submarines submerged in the water were almost unable to approach the oceanic armies.
They could shatter submarines from a great distance, making torpedoes and various thermal weapons almost useless.
Humans on land seemed only able to use their most powerful destructive weapon they had developed.
Nuclear bombs.
But nuclear bombs' power would be reduced in water, and the ocean was too vast. The underwater kingdoms' armies seemed able to emerge anywhere, and they couldn't find a target to strike.
If they couldn't effectively destroy the enemy's command system with nuclear bombs, launching them would only enrage the Atlanteans.
And… pollute the ocean.
"Polluting the ocean might also be a way to deal with them!"
"But then humanity would be completely finished!"
"We can use methods with less severe pollution…"
"If the pollution level is low, with the underwater civilization's technology, they might have a way to solve it themselves, and if the pollution level is high, it will destroy the Earth's ecosystem!"
"But no matter what, we absolutely cannot pollute the ocean! Otherwise, we won't need the underwater kingdoms to wipe out humanity; humanity will destroy itself!"
Facing the declaration of war from the underwater world, representatives from various major countries at the United Nations began to argue.
Some advocated 'poisoning' the ocean, aiming to eliminate the Atlanteans by destroying the marine ecosystem.
But others strongly opposed, believing that such an action would lead to mutual destruction.
It could even unilaterally destroy the human world.
After all, they were now facing a species with unknown technological capabilities.
They possessed technology to unleash tsunamis in the sea, and special weapons capable of firing energy waves from the trident.
In terms of cutting-edge technology at the lower and middle levels, they far surpassed humanity's current technology.
And humanity's only high-power weapon, the nuclear bomb, had minimal effect on the Atlanteans.
So who could guarantee that the Atlanteans didn't have the technology to deal with ocean pollution?
Rather, they certainly would!
After all, they had existed in the sea for who knows how long, possibly thousands, or even tens of thousands of years!
God knows what level of technology they had developed!
Perhaps, aside from being unable to leave space, they could do almost everything humanity could and couldn't imagine!
Humans shouldn't treat them as enemies from the same planet; they should be treated as aliens!
"Then build spaceships and escape…"
A coward proposed an idea.
"Are you trying to be deserters?!"
And was harshly rebuked by someone.
"Enough!!!"
As everyone was arguing incessantly, someone suddenly slammed the table heavily, shouting to stop, causing everyone to cease their arguments.
Everyone's gaze turned to the speaker, who they saw was pale and spoke with difficulty:
"…I just received… a tsunami warning from below. While we were arguing, the Atlanteans have officially launched their first wave of attack! We have no time, everyone!"
…
Atlantis's offensive was somewhat beyond the common knowledge of land dwellers.
Although the coastal area of San Francisco had been hit by a tsunami before, everyone had some preparation for their ability to control tsunamis.
But previously, a tsunami was only launched in one city.
But now, important coastal cities around the world have issued tsunami evacuation warnings!
The Atlanteans wanted to use tsunamis to destroy the coastal forces.
And what was even more despairing was that humanity couldn't find a way to stop it.
After all, it was a tsunami!
Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions—these were all disasters that humanity could not prevent. When disaster struck, they could only do their best to evade and then carry out disaster relief afterward.
Other than that, they could do nothing.
The same was true now.
"Has that guy not succeeded yet?"
Flying a fighter jet in the sky, Batman, who had obtained intelligence from the United Nations through a hacking system, watched the 'mountain' of seawater approaching from the distance.
Waves hundreds of meters high advanced towards the land in successive surges from afar. At this speed, in less than an hour, the coastal area Batman was observing would be engulfed by the tsunami.
The good news was that the tsunami Batman observed was the most violent and fastest to reach the coastline among all tsunamis, meaning that people in other nearby coastal cities would at least have time to escape.
But the bad news was…
Their escape time… might be a bit too short.
Batman was powerless to do anything about it.
Without Superman, without Wonder Woman, without Cyborg, without so many heroes who could stop all this, Batman alone was ultimately unable to reverse the defeat.
No matter how smart Batman was, he was still just a mortal; he had no special abilities.
Especially since all of this came too suddenly, leaving him completely unprepared.
He also didn't know how to stop this disaster, and could only pin his hopes on Kevin.
However… almost a day had passed so far, and there was still no news from Kevin.
And even if he got the trident, how would he stop this 'natural disaster' heading towards the land?
"Quick… look—!"
As Batman worried, a reporter's cry suddenly came from the television news broadcast in the fighter jet.
"…On that wave… there seems to be someone on the wave!! Is that… is that an Atlantean!?"
The reporter's exclamation caught Batman's attention, and he immediately looked down at the towering waves below.
He saw a man holding a golden trident riding the giant wave.
After using the fighter jet's equipment to Magnify on the man's face, Batman finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It was that Atlantean named Kevin.
He arrived just in time.