A homeless man who'd been about to steal food from a burger joint ended up listening to the broadcast alongside the cashier. Several robbers in black masks carrying rifles sat down with the bank employees to hear the horrifying news.
A truck driver stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road. With the city sealed off, there was no longer any need to deliver cargo.
Small shops closed one after another—no one would be coming to buy anything today.
Teachers and students in schools, doctors and patients in hospitals all fell silent. Even a few lunatics shut up. Above the entire city, only Thea's voice remained.
Thea left a few seconds for everyone to digest the information before continuing.
"The evil aliens miscalculated! They underestimated the wisdom of us Earthlings. A group of scientists and I are working hard to crack the method to restore everyone and the city to their original state. As long as you give us a little time, everyone will return to normal!"
Thea's voice rose sharply from its previous somber tone. As expected, the city's residents were stirred by her words. Although many still half-believed and half-doubted, the earlier despair finally eased.
From the Daily Planet's live broadcast studio, faint cheers could even be heard from certain areas. Thea smiled in satisfaction.
She was smiling—but someone was furious beyond measure. Lex Luthor had never imagined he would see a day like this, being casually lumped into "a group of scientists." He—Lex Luthor, the smartest man on Earth—had fallen to such a position! It made him grind his teeth in rage; he almost wanted to slap that smug smile right off Thea's face.
But no matter how furious he was, scientific research couldn't be brute-forced. What you know, you know; what you don't, you don't. He wracked his brain studying, so anxious that he lost a considerable amount of hair, yet he had only just stepped through the door of atomization research. To catch up to Thea, who was backed by Ray Palmer's research, even the most optimistic estimate required at least a year.
Because although Ray Palmer was a goofball, he was also a high-IQ goofball. His intelligence was inferior to Luthor's, but the gap truly wasn't that large. Someone praised even by the 25th-century scientist Reverse-Flash—how could Luthor possibly catch up to more than a decade of accumulated research just by cramming at the last minute?
"Citizens, please remain calm. The law still exists. The military and police have already taken to the streets. I have obtained authorization from the council—anyone causing trouble will be shot on the spot. All you need to do is endure for two days and maintain the city's stability. I promise I will send everyone back to Earth!"
Thea was borrowing authority under false pretenses—where would she get council authorization? But at this moment, strict laws were indeed necessary to protect the safety of the majority, especially the powerful figures in the room. Without law and authority, they were nothing.
Old Man Lane had privately mobilized the military—something that, in peacetime, could get him executed on the spot. He had been uneasy about it. Now, seeing Thea drag the council out to take the blame, he immediately felt much more at ease.
After ending the television address, Thea returned to reality. She still had to lead "a group of scientists" in researching the anti-atomization problem.
With a single sentence, Thea pulled the deeply focused Luthor back to reality. "Mr. Luthor, how many spacesuits do you have on hand?"
Huh? Luthor's mind was full of formulas and theories—he had almost forgotten his own name. It took him quite a while to realize she was calling him.
He didn't understand why she suddenly brought up spacesuits, but he answered honestly. "More than three hundred."
Thea nodded, facing everyone's puzzled looks. "Queen Group has over a hundred as well. If we collect from various city departments, there may be several hundred more."
Everyone still didn't understand why she was saying this, but Luthor caught on instantly. "You mean the oxygen composition inside this spaceship is different from Earth's?"
He truly hadn't considered the oxygen issue. This wasn't because Luthor was stupid or Thea was smarter—it was because Luthor had always lived on Earth, and his habitual thinking hadn't shifted to space combat. Thea was different. She had fought her way to the Source Wall and back. She could survive in a vacuum, so naturally she thought of this.
"Exactly. Mr. Luthor is absolutely correct. We don't know where we are, and Superman won't be coming to save us." Thea glanced teasingly at the old man who had previously called for waiting for Superman's rescue.
"I estimate this spaceship isn't very large. We also don't know whether the oxygen inside is suitable for Earth humans. If everything goes smoothly, the number of people restored in the first batch can't be too large, and they must be combat personnel. Only then can we successfully seize this spaceship."
Only then did Luthor realize how much he had overlooked. He took out a device from his pocket and began calculating.
"No need to check. I already calculated it," Thea said calmly. "This glass dome uses some unknown spatial technology. It also captured the oxygen originally within the city. Since we've all been shrunk, our oxygen consumption has decreased proportionally. The oxygen inside the dome is enough for about ten days."
Damn it! After checking himself, Luthor found that it was exactly as Thea said. He was completely speechless. One step behind, and now he was playing catch-up. Originally, he hadn't taken Thea seriously. Now, her status in his mind was steadily rising—she was no longer some dispensable nouveau-riche heiress.
Ten days.
That heavy phrase echoed in everyone's heart.
"The tasks for all of you are to stabilize the city, search for scientists across various disciplines, and select combat personnel. I estimate the ray emitter will be completed within three days. At that point, we'll seize the spaceship first and discuss everything else afterward."
After assigning tasks to this group of largely useless high officials, Thea pulled Old Man Lane aside to speak privately.
Luthor tried to listen in, but was immediately blocked by two fierce-looking guards under the old man's command.
"What is it?" the old man asked, confused.
"Do you know who our enemy is?" Thea asked.
Old General Lane shook his head.
Thea didn't bother with suspense. "A highly evolved artificial intelligence. It has destroyed countless planets. Superman's planet was destroyed by it."
At first, the old man listened as if hearing a story. But at the final sentence, his expression changed drastically. He didn't understand alien space warfare, but the comparison of strength between enemy and ally wasn't hard to grasp—especially with Superman as a benchmark.
The old man didn't know about the yellow sun. Combining Superman's identical appearance to humans, he subconsciously imagined a planet with six billion people wearing blue tights and red capes—then all of them being wiped out by an enemy whose shadow couldn't even be clearly seen.
Holy shit! How powerful was this enemy?!
He had been skeptical before, but recalling how the opponent had silently taken away an entire city—methods only heard of in fairy tales—his legs went weak. He was too frightened to speak.
If Thea knew what the old man was imagining, she would definitely scoff. Six billion Supermen? Are you dreaming? With that kind of power, if six billion Supermen came charging in, even God would have to pack up and run.